Is the earth Getting Warmer?
For several years, we have been reading and hearing accounts that the earth is getting warmer. We do see statistics that indicate that the average earth temperature is somewhat higher now than it was in 1850, about the time of the beginning of the industrial revolution.
We also see and read about the rapid meltdown of the earth’s glaciers. Some of the glaciers in our west will completely disappear at their present rate of melting in a few years. All of us have probably seen on television enormous hunks of ice breaking off from the glaciers in Alaska and tumbling into the sea. More icebergs are encountered.
We also are made aware that a slight increase in temperature, with the warming of the oceans, causes great changes in weather patterns, in winds and ocean currents. Flooding in unusual places occurs. Deserts in some areas are increasing in size and new ones appear to be forming. Rainfall patterns seem to be altered. El Nino weather patterns may become commonplace.
About 12,000 years ago, glaciers covered most of Canada, extending down into the northern states, and covered most of Ohio except for the southeast corner. All indications point to cyclic patterns in earth temperature changes.
Questions remain. Are we in a natural cyclic change or have we hastened the warming trend by mankind’s activities, particularly since the industrial revolution? Many scientists, if not most, believe that we face critical conditions. Most of the earth’s freshwater is tied up in the great ice caps over the poles. The melting of this storage would result in an increased level of the ocean with the disappearance of huge amounts of land. What a change that would be for the shores of the United States. Venice is now threatened by the rising ocean and Holland has to face this problem.
To continue to present the arguments that mankind’s activities affect the earth’s climate, I must digress with some basic biology. Please forgive me for boring most of you with a few points that are related to the story.
A small amount of the light energy from the sun in the presence of green plants and with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) will be stored in the form of a simple sugar. Molecular carbon dioxide and water contain no usable energy. By a series of complicated steps which we call photosynthesis the hydrogens of the water become connected to the carbon atoms and the oxygen of the water is released as the oxygen we breathe. We may picture this process as if CO2 and H2O were at the bottom of the stairs and with the sun’s energy, they are pushed step by step to the top of the stairs resulting in the sugar (C6 H12 O6) with light energy now stored as chemical energy. That chemical energy now resides in the hydrogen-carbon bonding.
A process that we call respiration results in the release of that chemical energy from the sugar as it moves step by step down the staircase and at the bottom, the hydrogen combines with oxygen to become H2O and the carbon is released as CO2. We might picture this process as a series of small waterfalls, sometimes doing cellular work and at other levels, the energy is stored for later use like a battery is charged.
The carbon-hydrogen bonding of the sugar produced by photosynthesis provides the source of energy for all life and for all living processes. The oxygen we use is a by-product. The carbon, originally in the CO2 of the atmosphere, provides the skeletal framework for all of life – the organic world.
Millions of years ago, photosynthesis far exceeded respiration to the extent that organic compounds (stored chemical energy) were deposited in the form of coal, oil, natural gas, etc. For millions of years, the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere had remained at about 0.03% (3 parts in 10,000 parts of air).
With the coming of the industrial revolution, the fossil fuels were burned at an increasing rate. Great amounts of CO2 were added to the atmosphere.
Plants can use increased amounts. In an experimental closed greenhouse situation, plants can use amounts of CO2 much higher than the 0.03% However, with urbanization, and removal of tropical forests, increased desertation and the exploding population, great amounts of photosynthesizing plants were lost. The result is that the CO2 content of the atmosphere is increasing. The burning of coal, wood, and oil also adds other contaminants to the atmosphere.
The accumulation of increased amounts of CO2, the smog from coal and oil use and other industrial products cause a situation known as the Greenhouse Effect. It is so named because like in a greenhouse, the sun’s energy is able to pass through the smog, CO2, etc. as light energy to the earth, but it becomes trapped since the light energy is changed to heat energy which is prevented from escaping from the earth to space by the blanket of gases of which CO2 is a major part.
The United States has agreed to join other nations in the reduction of CO2 emissions to 7% below 1990 levels. A data base inventory established in 1996 was compiled for Ohio. This study also evaluated the ability of forestation to act as a sink for the removal of CO2 in the air.
With mathematical and computer modeling, Guy and Levine of the Department of Geology at Bowling Green State University in the Ohio Journal of Science 101 (3/4:34 – 41. 2001, stated that “practical and easily implemented increases in forestry could play a significant role in offsetting some of Ohio’s emissions. However making these simple increases in Ohio’s forest acreage will not meet the necessary reductions on its own.” They conclude that we have to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels.
Why not plant a tree today for yourselves, your children, and those children to come? Those trees will warm your heart, your house in winter by shielding it from the wind, and cool your house in summer. If you would like recommendations from me, please call 419 447-2896.
– Percy