Global Warming. 5 pages. Causes, effects, and possible solutions, such as: the kyoto treaty, "sinks", and hemp.

Essay by damseal85Junior High, 9th gradeA+, May 2002

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For the past several decades people have continued to pump dangerous emissions into the atmosphere and rapidly remove vital resources from the earth, and as a result it is slowly depleting. Some people have begun taking responsibility for their actions, but the world is still not doing enough. Although many people may not agree that this problem exists, the world population needs to act now against global warming or the earth will continue to suffer from harsh environmental changes. So how do the people plan to stop it?

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution greenhouse gases have greatly increased and are continuing to increase at a considerable rate. People have burned large amounts of fossil fuels, sprayed harmful chemicals, and torn down forests; this has all contributed to the global warming problem. The fuels burned to heat homes and businesses, run cars, and power factories are responsible for 98% of carbon dioxide, 24% of methane, and 18% of nitrous oxide.

That shows how much of the greenhouse gases are completely unnecessary. Global warming has occurred because the atmosphere traps outgoing energy to heat the earth, but because people have pumped unnatural gases into the air they are being trapped in the atmosphere making it very difficult for heat to escape and causing the global temperature to slowly increase. The 20th century's ten warmest years have all occurred within the past fifteen years. With this increase in temperature will come many environmental problems. Holes in the ozone layer are slowly spreading. In the southern and northern hemispheres the homes to many animals are rapidly melting. As a result the sea level will rise four to eight inches, species will die off, and eco-systems will be ruined. Also because of high temperatures evaporation has increased, leading to drought in some places...