The massive and rapid change to our climate that we are now seeing is like nothing humankind has seen before. But a strong consensus has now been reached; the scientific community agrees that climate change is real, it’s caused by human activity and it’s happening faster than anyone could have foreseen.
GHGs (green-house gases), the dirtiest of which is CO2, are emitted every time we burn fossil fuels like coal and petrol. These greenhouse gases, as the term suggests, act as a planetary blanket retaining too much of the sun’s heat, and cause global warming. This general warming of the earth’s atmosphere is causing increasingly severe weather, desertification, melting icecaps and sea level rise, as well as species extinction and the spread of disease.
We’re seeing the effects of global warming all around us – more intense heat waves that disproportionately affect the elderly and poor, more severe storms that wreak havoc on homes and communities, and all kinds of changing cycles in the natural world. And it is costing large amounts of money – the recent Cyclone Aila has already cost us a crippling Rs.200 crores. The longer we ignore the problem, the higher the cost.
Global warming is occurring because we have upset the delicate balance of gases that traps heat in our atmosphere and allows life to exist as we know it. Simply put, a combination of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour traps enough heat in our atmosphere to allow life to exist. But we have upset the balance. We have introduced massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like coal, building energy-inefficient buildings, and driving cars that use too much petrol to get us from one place to another.
Now there is too much CO2. The Earth’s atmosphere now contains 32% more CO2 than it did in the mid 1800s. That means we are fundamentally changing our planet’s climate. The northern hemisphere is now warmer than any point in the last 1,000 years.
November 4th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Dear friends,
Allways talking for co2 level????? Why don’t you publish the solar energy
power & usage. Atleast available subsidy & location. Give some idea for commen Guys??? Always discus the atmosphere changing or climate. please publish the details through GREEN News letters
Thank You,
Joy
December 15th, 2009 at 10:23 am
hello,
why is biomass not given much of an interest as a renewable energy?it has many advantages over conventional fuel,which includes production of oxygen by growing biomass plants and capturing carbon dioxide by growing plants and geographical flexibility.
we can really focus on biomass as renewable energy.
what do you say????????
December 15th, 2009 at 10:25 am
hello!!!
why is biomass not given much of an interest as a renewable energy?it has many advantages over conventional fuel,which includes production of oxygen by growing biomass plants and capturing carbon dioxide by growing plants and geographical flexibility.
we can really focus on biomass as renewable energy.
what do you say????????
December 17th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Dear
Biomass is not the real solution,One reason is economical/efficient/feasibility. But If we ignore all the above reason still the main problem which we can’t overlook is NxOy family gases which these plants emit and which is 300 times more harmful than CO2 for green house gases.
one reason for this may be because we are using fertilizers for our agriculture. So it need lot of bio engineering to change the way these plants emit NxOy family gases.
Economically I am saying because as population is growing we need more and more food. so we can’t cultivate zetrofa(bio diesel seed) instead of Grain/rice. as we don’t have enough food.
yes renewable energy sources are good like solar/wind/hydro/geothermal.
we should focus on this. and also we should save the energy too. switch off light/ turn off computers/car pooling/using public vehicle. Design of home should be like in day hour we should not need electricity for light. building should be such with full air ventilation so that most of the time we should not need A/c and rooms should be such as they should not heat/cold too much as outside temperature very.
Another good thing for this is instead of A/c ie we make tunnel inside a ground 10 mt below ground level that tunnel temperature is most of the time 25degree. so if we suck the air from that tunnel. our room temperature will be 25 degree and it will be more efficient than A/c.
similar setup is working fine in IIT Kanpur Bio science building.
Making fountain/pond near building will also control the temperature and looks beautiful and mind relief er.
Thanks
Alok