global warming

WORLD ON THE BRINK

Reduce Global Warming before its too late.

§ By Nidhi Anand

Global warming is one of the most serious challenges facing us today. Carbon dioxide and other air pollution collect in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, and traps the suns heat causing the planet to warm up.

Global warming mainly takes place due to emission of harmful gases like carbon dioxide from power plants and automobiles, this traps heat in the atmosphere and causes depletion of the ozone layer. In short, it is a man made problem, which is affecting all the countries around the globe. And more importantly the issue is of great magnitude because instead of finding a solution to the problem the rate of global warming is increasing at a faster pace.

Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more than 20,000 deaths in Europe and more than 1,500 deaths in India. And in what scientists regard as an alarming sign of events to come, the area of the Arctic's perennial polar ice cap is declining at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages all around the world.

The events that foreshadow the types of impacts are likely to become more frequent and widespread with continued global warming. The various effects that are going to haunt the world in the near future are as follows

§ Spreading diseases

§ Earlier spring arrival

§ Plant and animal range shifts and population changes

§ Coral reef bleaching

§ Downpours, heavy snowfalls, and flooding

§ Droughts and fires

We all have to realize that to protect the health and economic well being of our current and future generations, we have to bring about an awareness among people and make them realize how important it is for us to reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases and this is possible only with the help technology, know-how, and practical solutions which are already at our disposal.

They say acknowledging a problem is the first step toward solving it. In case of global warming we know we have a problem and the fact is we also know how to solve it but it

is only the lack of initiative, which keeps people aback from functioning with an ecological perspective.

There are many steps one can take right now to cut global warming pollution. First and foremost we should make conservation of energy a part of our daily routine. Each time you choose a compact fluorescent light bulb over an incandescent bulb, you'll lower your energy bill and keep nearly 700 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air over the bulb's lifetime. By opting for a refrigerator with the Energy Star label -- indicating it uses at least 15 percent less energy than the federal requirement -- over a less energy-efficient model, you can reduce carbon dioxide pollution by nearly a ton in total. Also we should reduce pollution by vehicles and power plants.

We should put our existing technologies for building cleaner cars and more modern electricity generators into widespread use. We should also try and increase our reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and geothermal. We should indulge in manufacturing more efficient appliances and also help conserve energy to its utmost.