2008 Woodie Awards
Global Warming: the damaging effects it presents
Scott Wagner
Issue date: 2/23/06 Section: Features
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Dr. Alexander Fekete, a chemistry professor at SHU with 30 plus years of experience teaching, said, "2005 had the highest annual average surface temperatures since such recordings began being taken in the late 1800's."
Global Warming is a result of the natural phenomenon that is known as the Greenhouse Effect. In this process, certain gases in the atmosphere such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, trap solar energy. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth's average temperature would be about 60 degrees colder. The Green House effect makes the Earth habitable for human beings and the rest of life as we know it.
Periodic increases in energy output from the sun is one reason why the planet is getting warmer, but many climatologists believe, and have proved, that human activities carry a majority of the blame. Technologies have caused concentration of gases to rise, which means more solar energy is being trapped in the atmosphere than usual.
The increase in the concentration of Greenhouse gases, primarily Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide, scientists believe, stems from an increase in the burning of fossil fuels. This means that our biggest energy producers, as well as automobiles and electrical generating plant, are causing our biggest environmental problems.
"The hasty deforestation of the world's rainforests also plays a huge role because photosynthesis is the most important and environmentally beneficial way to recycle CO2 in the air," said Dr. Fekete.
The world's oceans absorb a lot of the atmosphere's carbon dioxide, and over time, it can be used to produce limestone, but photosynthesis is a process that virtually pays off immediately. Animals breath out CO2, then plants take it in and give off oxygen, which is quite necessary to sustain life. However, by destroying the forests, industrialists risk slowing down and potentially ending the only natural means of recycling carbon dioxide.