Global Warming

Scientifically speaking, global warming is literally warming of the planet Earth. How does this happen? Well, up in the atmosphere of our planet, there is a layer of gases called greenhouse gases that keep heat from leaving our planet. There are many types of greenhouse gases in this layer, but the most commonly known is Carbon Dioxide. What happens is heat from the sun travels to the surface of Earth, and is either absorbed or reflected. If it is reflected, it is sent back up into the atmosphere. Here's the key part; the greenhouse gases act like a barrier and prevents heat from escaping, thus, keeping our planet warm and safe for us to live in. This is not global warming. Global warming is when there is more than enough heat on Earth. This may sound good, but it is actually not, for it's effects are drastic!

What Caused Global Warming?

As explained above, global warming is actually a bad thing. If we were to look back into our world history, we would find that the Industrial Revolution changed the face of our planet. Newer technologies arose, and industries were created. This sparked the technology advancement in our planet that has been going on for the past hundreds of years. Factories started using coal, and water-powered machines to run the industries. The only problem is, as the years went on, we have discovered that there have been many Carbon Dioxide emissions due to the Industrial Revolution. Carbon Dioxide emissions are released into our atmosphere, thus adding more Carbon Dioxide to the layer of greenhouse gases. The more greenhouse gases in the air, the more heat will be trapped, thus resulting with an increase in global temperature.

Another major problem is the use of Chlorofluorocarbons, CFC's, in refrigerators, air conditioners, and spray cans. Looking back in history, the first successful type of refrigeration was used on a ship transferring meat. This was successful due to a chemical compound called a refrigerant. The only problem was that the first used refrigerants were highly flammable and toxic. To bypass this situation, chemists made CFC's, a chemical that is not flammable, not toxic, safe for refrigeration, and odorless.

It was not until the 1900's when the dangers of CFC's were realized. Another layer of gas in the atmosphere prevents the sun's dangerous UV Rays from entering our atmosphere. This is called the ozone layer. Ozone is a compound of 3 Oxygen atoms. What happens is when CFC's escape into the atmosphere, they react with ozone and destroy the ozone. It is a continuous process, and will keep destroying ozone.

What Issues are we Discussing Today?

So what happens when all this heat is stored in our planet? There are many things that happen. First, we should look at the melting of the polar ice caps in the Arctic lands. Because heat is settling, the polar ice caps are melting, and releasing a higher concentration of FRESH water into the ocean's SALT water. For the northern hemisphere, this is bad because we depend on the Atlantic Current to transfer warmth from the equator. But since there is a lot of FRESH water in the ocean, this disturbs the transfer of heat, thus making our climate in the northern hemisphere even colder, even though there is a rise in temperature. Because of the CFC's and other bad compounds released into the atmosphere, the ozone has been harmed in many ways. The biggest issue that happened is the hole in the ozone. The hole in the ozone was literally when the ozone was destroyed over Antarctica, being exposed to UV Rays. The hole has been recovering a little, but not a lot either. So even though global warming is causing a temperature rise on Earth, there is still many consequences that happen because of this.