The Impact of Energy Usage on the Environment

The impact of energy usage on the environment could be friendly or unfriendly.

The friendly impact is the display of light to give beauty to cities, at night and other significance; while the unfriendly impact include the hazardous radiations from nuclear reactors, gases from industries, etc which could be detrimental to human health.

Global Warming

Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.Since the early 20th century, Earth’s mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980.

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain that it is primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases( like carbon (iv) oxide, methane, etc) produced by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

The Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by gases in the atmosphere warm a planet‘s lower atmosphere and surface. It was proposed by Joseph Fourier in 1824, discovered in 1860 by John Tyndall,was first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896,and was developed in the 1930s through 1960s by Guy Stewart Calendar.

Human activity since the Industrial Revolution has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to increased radiation from CO₂, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. According to work published in 2007, the concentrations of CO₂ and methane have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since 1750.

EVALUATION

1. What is green house effect?
2. The concept of green house effect was developed by who?
3. Mention any four countries of the world that has high GDP
4. Why do you think that the mentioned countries above have high GDP?