INTI Orion.com

By CHARISSA CHAN
Global warming is a hot topic (no pun intended) among environmentalists these days. Many scientists believe that the earth is warming up due to the greenhouse effect. The Earth’s surface and atmosphere stay warm when gases in the air trap heat from the sun. The gases act like a greenhouse’s glass walls – they keep heat from escaping into space, and the earth stays warm.

The Green House Gasses
The main gases that cause the greenhouse effect are:
• Water vapour
• Carbon Dioxide, or CO2
• Methane
• Nitrous Oxide
Some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. But scientists measuring the gases say the amount of gases in the atmosphere has increased in the past few decades. For instance, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is 30% greater than what it was 150 years ago. Scientists believe CO2 levels will rise another 30% during the next 50 years.
The increase in greenhouse gases is expected to raise the average global temperature of the planet by 2 to 9 degrees Celcius over the next 50 to 100 years.

Most of the increase is due to human activities, like:
• burning gasoline to drive cars and trucks
• burning oil, coal or wood to produce electricity
• for heating, cooling, and other purposes burning forests to clear land
All these activities, and many others, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. With greater amounts of greenhouse gases in the air, more heat will be trapped, and the Earth will get warmer…and warmer…and warmer.

What Might Happen if The Earth Heats Up?
If Earth gets hotter, some of the following things might occur:
• New coastlines would have to be drawn on maps! Because water expands as it is heated, and because oceans absorb more heat than land, ice capes would melt, and sea levels around the world would rise. Cities on coasts (like Singapore) may be completely flooded over (like the Atlantis) and disappear from maps!
• Temperate places that now receive frequent rain and snowfall (like Wisconsin) might become hotter and drier. Inland lakes and rivers would shrink. Forest fires could occur more often. Frequent periods of drought would make it hard to raise crops for food. There would be less water available for drinking, showers, irrigation, even swimming pools!!
• Plants and animals unable to take the heat may go extinct, and be replaced by heat-tolerant species (cockroaches everywhere, eek!).
• Hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms caused by changes in heat and water evaporation might occur more frequently and be more intense.

YOU can help Slow Global Warming!
Just because we’re facing exams and looming deadlines in college doesn’t mean that we can’t help slow the effects of global warming! We could make little changes in our daily activities that may bring a big change to the world.
Here’s what you can do to help:
• Walking, riding your bicycle, or taking the bus and train to move around instead of always going by car. If you have to use a car, car pool with some friends to reduce CO2 emissions.
• Turn off the lights, fan, air conditioner and the computer when you’re not using them or going to class. That way, less electricity is consumed and energy is conserved.
• Reducing, reusing or recycling all kinds of items, from cola cans to clothes to last semester’s research paper, to save energy and raw materials.
• Plant trees to help absorb excess CO2, and to provide shade and windbreaks to keep buildings at more even temperatures so they will require less energy for heating or cooling.

So start doing your part now and make the world a cooler place for us to live in!