Causes of Global Warming

Of all the sunlight that earth receive each day, only 70 percent of it is absorbed by land and atmosphere while other 30 is reflected back to the space. However, most of the heat that try to escape from the earth’s atmosphere is trapped due to the existent of “Greenhouse Gases” that reflect those heats back to earth’s surface. Normally, when heat enters the atmosphere, it is through short-wave radiation; a type of radiation that passes smoothly through our atmosphere. As this radiation heats the earth's surface, it escapes the earth in the form of long-wave radiation; a type of radiation that is much more difficult to pass through the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere cause this long-wave radiation to increase. Thus, heat is trapped inside of our planet and creates a general warming effect. In fact, thanks to those gases that earth’s temperature has been warm and suitable for supporting life. What concern is that greenhouse gases are the main culprit of global warming. Those gases included Carbon Dioxide (CO₂), Methane (CH₄), Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Over the last 250 years, the amount of those gases increased mainly because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels, forest fires, deforestation, producing and using those gases in everyday life. In 2008, 30,000 million metric tons of CO₂ was pumped into atmosphere around the globe (World Resources Institute, 2012). Some of CO₂ is naturally released by volcanic eruption but most of it is byproduct of fossil fuel burning inside millions of cars every day and from the exhaust of industry especially heavy industry. The burning of fossil fuels (i.e., non-renewable resources such as oil, coal, and natural gas) has a significant effect on the warming of the atmosphere. The heavy use of power plants, cars, airplanes, buildings, and other man-made structures release CO2 into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. While methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, there is over 200 times more CO2 in the atmosphere. Hence the amount of warming methane contributes is 28% of the warming CO2 contributes. The gradually increasing concentration of Methane in atmosphere since 1950, from 310ppm to almost 400ppm in 2010, is due to waste from people, factories and agriculture. Ranking third behind CO₂ and Methane, Nitrous Oxide is 310 times more powerful than CO2 in term of trapping heat (EPA). This gas is naturally released by large tropical forest and permafrosted while human activities such as producing fertilizers, acid and burning biomass are also play a big role in this gas’s accumulation in atmosphere. On the other hand, CFCs used to be included in a lot of produces; however due to its ability to destroy ozone layer, its production has been regulated.