What Causes Global Warming?
There are a few causes to global warming but today's post will be focusing on the main causes and below are top 7 causes and effects towards global warming.
7 TOP CAUSES & EFFECT!
1) Greenhouse gases
- Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.
2) Humans
- Driving your car which requires the combustion of tremendous amounts of fossil fuels. These fuels have been storing carbon for thousands, possibly millions of years. When your car burns them, that carbon is instantly release as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
- Buying your suburban home whose lot was cleared of existing trees and plants that were actively storing carbon. When those plants were killed to build your home, they stopped storing carbon and released all the carbon they had accumulated over tens or even hundreds of years.
- Eating supermarket meat which requires both the clearing of land for growing animal feed and the use of enormous fossil fuel-powered machines in the production, processing and transportation of this feed (as well as the meat). If you eat beef, lamb or goat meat, those animals’ digestive tracts produce methane, a major greenhouse gas. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
3) Deforestation
- The use of forests for fuel (both wood and for charcoal) is one cause of deforestation, but in the first world, our appetite for wood and paper products, our consumption of livestock grazed on former forest land, and the use of tropical forest lands for commodities like palm oil plantations contributes to the mass deforestation of our world. Forests remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and this deforestation releases large amounts of carbon, as well as reducing the amount of carbon capture on the planet.
4) Increase in usage of chemical fertilizers on croplants
- In the last half of the 20th century, the use of chemical fertilizers has risen dramatically. The high rate of application of nitrogen-rich fertilizers has effects on the heat storage of cropland (nitrogen oxides have 300 times more heat-trapping capacity per unit of volume than carbon dioxide) and the run-off of excess fertilizers creates 'dead zones' in our oceans. In addition to these effects, high nitrate levels in groundwater due to over-fertilization are cause for concern for human health.
5) Rise in sea levels worldwide
- One nation, the Maldives and Venice is already looking for a new home, thanks to rising sea levels.
6) Massive crop failures
- According to recent research, there is a 90% chance that 3 billion people worldwide will have to choose between moving their families to milder climes and going hungry due to climate change within 100 years.
- “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts.” – Guardian: Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year
7) Widespread extinction of species
- According to research published in Nature, by 2050, rising temperatures could lead to the extinction of more than a million species . And because we can’t exist without a diverse population of species on Earth, this is scary news for humans.
- “Climate change now represents at least as great a threat to the number of species surviving on Earth as habitat-destruction and modification.” Chris Thomas, conservation biologist at the University of Leeds
Now that you have learned the causes towards global warming, it's time for YOU to take actions now!
"I can make the difference and I will!"
"You can be the change you wish to see. You can turn this dangerous trend into an amazing opportunity."
(credit: plantsave)
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