Hotter Earth Means Endangered Future. Global warming is the greatest challenge in the coming century. Mother
earth is our planet which is supporting the life of innumerable species since millions of years by giving food, water and air. Gradually, civilization was evolved and progressed. Then there was Industrial Revolution. Rural population shifted to urban areas for employment, more comfort and luxury. Imbalance came between rural population and urbanization. For developed countries quality of life imbalance vanished over the years. But developing and under developing nations are still struggling to improve the standard of living
We are getting more and more industrialized and raising our living condition.
A demon is emerging, called pollution-air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution which are responsible for many diseases. Apart from this another ecology is added i.e.
Global Warming. This is the greatest challenge human being has to face. Pollution, Global Warming, Climatic change are synonymous as a layman’s language.
The article reviewed all these phenomena keeping global warming as a central theme. By Global Warming it is meant that earth’s near surface air and oceans’ average temperature is increasing. But what is happening actually . In Earth’s atmosphere, there are gasses. Almost 98% are nitrogen and oxygen and the other gases like argon, water vapor, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, hydrogen etc. constitute nearly 2%. Except hydrogen and argon, other gases constitute the Green House Gasses (GHG). Though it is nearly 2% in the atmosphere but it is like few drops of poison in our food. GHG is responsible for global warming in which prominent role is played by Carbon dioxide due to industrial waste and pollution.
Before industrial revolution, the average earth’s surface temperature was steady and the rise was only 0.74 deg.C during the past century.. It is expected that between 1990 and 2010, the increase will be between 1.1deg.C to 6.4 deg.C and this contribution is largely due to GHG effect. The net effect will be changes in sea level, rainfall, extreme weather events like draught, hurricane etc.
How GHG is effective in Global warming. The concentration of Green House Gases, due to pollution caused by industry as well as by burning coal, oil and natural gas and also vehicle emission, takes place in atmosphere. Most of the energy from sun is reflected by upper atmosphere and a fraction of it reaches earth which in turn radiates back. But this radiation from the earth’s surface gets trapped in densely GHG and they reflect back to earth causing warmer earth’s surface.
Prediction of booming economies in the years to come in Asian countries, the total emission will be a big factor. From different statistics, it is found that the concentration of carbon dioxide was 280ppm in the atmosphere of mother earth prior to industrial revolution and today, it is 380ppm and is increasing by 2ppm every year. Further due to mindless
deforestation, natural ecological balance is getting disturbed. This is also adding to global warming. . Even potential dangers are coming from less populated areas. They are like 1)melting glaciers and early snow melt lead to water crisis, 2) rising sea level due to melting of glaciers 3) warmer sea temperature may cause hurricanes 4) likely hood of new pests in forest farms and urban areas may lead to serious diseases 5) may drive to extinction of many useful animal species.
In a nut shell the global warming may cause greater catastrophe. We all need a solution for this catastrophe. We are in the midst of technology development and a comprehensive knowledge of global warming is available. Some solutions are given by technology experts like generation of cleanenergy minimizing GHG emissions. Cleaner automobiles using better fuels or switching over to alternate fuels like bio-fuels, fuel cells and fitting hybrid engine. It is also suggested that the use of private vehicle is to be minimized and use of energy efficient domestic appliances to be increased.. From utility’s side, it is necessary to go for renewable energy sources like solar energy, tidal energy, wind energy, hydropower and geothermal and so on instead of more and more fossil-fired power generation. Nuclear energy sources are clean source of energy generation but its waste management is a problem and capital intensive though running cost is less,. 66% of energy comes from fossil fuels. If nuclear energy is made viable economically, some of the concerns of global warming will be lessoned. Even coal can be converted to clean energy by grounding carbon dioxide deep into the ground. This may help to reduce GHG dramatically. It can be further improved by better crop management and making sincere efforts by all for reforestation and banning deforestation.
Everyone has to wake up and spread the consciousness among the society of grave danger owing to global warming. We have to give stress on eco-friendly activities and this should be part of one’s entire life. It should be our duty to give a well balanced ecosystem.
To protect our beautiful Mother earth from catastrophe, every one has to contribute for lowering global warming by being conscious of energy conservation, promoting more use of public transport and using energy efficient appliances. UN Agency has made Inter Government Panel on Climatic changes (IPCC) to make concrete planning and sustained implementation.