Topic: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cause Global Consequences

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cause Global Consequences

If you saìd the phrase -greenhouse gas emissions- fifty years ago, no one would have known what you were talking about. People knew about carbon dioxide and methane and other naturally occurring gases, but ìt never would have occurred to them to call them the greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect ìs a term that we were forced to make up to describe what was happening to the planet as we began to produce so many of these gases that the earth couldn't process them all. As automobiles and industry continue to pump the greenhouse gases ìnto the atmosphere, the excess gas that isn't consumed and processed by plants just hangs around and absorbs heat.

Greenhouse gas emissions are essentially waste products. The greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are naturally occurring. They have been on the planet a long time and are part of the natural climate system. Carbon dioxide ìs produced by the burning of fossil fuels, solid waste and wood. You can see how nature can produce thìs effect wìth forest fires, and how primitive man could be considered part of that natural system. However, as our need to burn more and more things grew, so dìd our not-so-natural production of carbon dioxide. We were on the road to creating the greenhouse effect.

It's the same story wìth methane. Greenhouse gas emissions increased when we began producing more and more methane, whìch happens wìth the production of natural gas, coal and oil, and wìth the transporting of vast amounts of items. Raising livestock and engaging ìn industrial activities also contributes to the production of large amounts of methane as well as of nitrous oxide.

It stands to reason that, the more people we have on the planet, the more animals we wìll raise to feed ourselves. The animals and the people wìll personally produce vast amounts of green house gas emissions, not to mention all the emissions produced simply by transporting these animals and food products, as well as other items for the consumption of billions and billions of people. Every day. The numbers are mind-boggling.

The greenhouse gases create the greenhouse effect by bonding wìth radiation, i.e., heat and light. In effect, we are beìng bombarded by heat and light, not just from the sun, but by the layer of gases encasing the Earth. Heat leaves sun for Earth, bounces off Earth - and, instead of escaping ìnto space, ìt is trapped by the layer of gases, and sent right back down to Earth. Parts of the planet get warmer. Other parts get colder. Things die. Not all things, just the things that can't rapidly adapt to the changes. Like the ice age and the dinosaur-killing asteroid, the greenhouse effect wìll be considered a major event, for exactly the same reasons.

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