Facts About Global Warming - Global Warming Causes - Global Warming Effects

Global Warming is the buzzword in environment circles these days.Th e earth temperatures is rising, polar ice and glaciers are on the brinks of melting down and the threat of the world climate going haywire looms large on the earth. And the culprit behind all this upheaval is the burning of fossil fuels and the consequent pollution.

Human civilization today cannot do without energy and we cannot return to the stone age. So, what should we use? Well, nations led by the United State and Australia have shown the way to combat the global warming by promoting cleaner energy technologies.

As temperature increase, while some areas may benefits in the short term, the world’s poorest people will be worst hit by the spread of diseases and malnutrition, For every degree centigrade that rises, water supply will decrease in the mid latitudes and dry tropics resulting in drought, decline of water stored in glaciers and reduction of water supply due to the loss of snow cover, in regions where one sixth of world population lives.

There will also be decrease in cereal productivity, more people at risk of hunger, increased risk of extinction of plants and animal species’, widespread coral mortality increased incidence of floods and around 30% of coastal wetlands will be lost. It is clear, that an increase of global temperature by 0°C to 5°C will affect every aspect of our lives.

Since the burning of coal in industrial furnaces and thermal power plants is major pollutant of the atmosphere, scientists have suggested turning coal into sulphur- free liquid fuel by crushing and heating. Biofuels including biodiesels and ethanol, wood and manure can substitute’s fossil fuels. Harmful carbon emissions from coal and gas- fired power plants can be pumped back into the underground layers of the earth.

Geothermal, hydropower, wind and solar energies are all proven cleaner energies but costlier than fuels. Scientists are also busy developing a hydrogen fuel and water as its bioproducts. A virtually emission free energy option is nuclear energy. But the problems of nuclear waste management remain. These can be tackled with next generation reactors and fusion energy.

Thus the future of energy is at this moment both bleak and bright- bleak because fossil fuels are fast depleting as well as giving rise to a lot of pollution; bright future, cleaner energy options will be available in time to save the earth from any mammoth environment disaster