Global Warming
Introduction
In this week’s assignment, we will discuss the composition of the earth’s atmosphere and possible effects on climate change/global warming by answering the following questions. First what are the current global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations? Then we will compare current CO2 numbers and see if this is higher or lower than the past 450,000 years? Next what are the three main ways that humans add CO2 to the atmosphere? What 'sinks ' take CO2out of the atmosphere? Then what are two ways in which deforestation contributes to the global warming process? Finally we will discuss if humans are possibly contributing to global warming, or is the climate change just a natural part of the cycle?
Current CO2 Concentrations Before we look at what the current global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are what exactly is CO2? Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless, non-flammable and slightly acidic liquefied gas that is heavier than air (Air Products, …show more content…
To start to answer this question it must be known that humans have been clearing the land of forests via slash & burn and other methods for agriculture purposes for centuries (SEED Link, 2014). The deforestation of the planet contributes in two major ways to the global warming process. The first is when the forests are burned to clear the land this releases CO2 in to the atmosphere, this is responsible for almost 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions more than all the car, trains, and planes in the world combined annually (Greenpeace, 2014). The second way that deforestation contributes to global warming is that trees and plants absorb CO2 out of the atmosphere during the photosynthesis process they are natural CO2 as discussed about previously in this paper (SEED Link, 2014). With less trees and plants to absorb CO2 it builds up and has an negative impact on the global climate (SEED Link,
Introduction
In this week’s assignment, we will discuss the composition of the earth’s atmosphere and possible effects on climate change/global warming by answering the following questions. First what are the current global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations? Then we will compare current CO2 numbers and see if this is higher or lower than the past 450,000 years? Next what are the three main ways that humans add CO2 to the atmosphere? What 'sinks ' take CO2out of the atmosphere? Then what are two ways in which deforestation contributes to the global warming process? Finally we will discuss if humans are possibly contributing to global warming, or is the climate change just a natural part of the cycle?
Current CO2 Concentrations Before we look at what the current global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are what exactly is CO2? Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless, non-flammable and slightly acidic liquefied gas that is heavier than air (Air Products, …show more content…
To start to answer this question it must be known that humans have been clearing the land of forests via slash & burn and other methods for agriculture purposes for centuries (SEED Link, 2014). The deforestation of the planet contributes in two major ways to the global warming process. The first is when the forests are burned to clear the land this releases CO2 in to the atmosphere, this is responsible for almost 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions more than all the car, trains, and planes in the world combined annually (Greenpeace, 2014). The second way that deforestation contributes to global warming is that trees and plants absorb CO2 out of the atmosphere during the photosynthesis process they are natural CO2 as discussed about previously in this paper (SEED Link, 2014). With less trees and plants to absorb CO2 it builds up and has an negative impact on the global climate (SEED Link,