Global warming has long been an issue since the start of industrial revolution. It is defined as the physical increase of the temperature of the earth itself due to the thinning of the ozone layer coupled with the greenhouse effect produced by smog from industrial centers. It has been observed by environmental organizations that study the polar caps that the ice in the caps has thinned over the years since 1700’s. Following from theories of how the Ice Age came to an end, this matter of polar ice thinning is a grave issue. If the polar caps were to completely melt, it would cause a drastic increase in water level that could bring about a disruption of the water cycle and could result to catastrophic storms and rainfall flooding cities and sinking low elevation places such as the Netherlands.
The thinning of the polar caps are attributed to increase of solar radiation that falls on it. This is because of the thinning of the ozone layer. Basically, ozone layer is a protective shell that blocks most of the actual sunlight that enters the earth. However, CFC’s and carbon dioxide molecules that are mixed into the earth’s atmosphere react with ozone molecules with the energy from the sunlight as activation energy to create neutral components that cannot block out sunlight, thus effectively decreasing the thickness of the layer. Greenhouse effect on the other hand is a phenomenon where the clouds or the atmosphere itself acts like a trap to sunlight. Sunlight has wave properties and thus some that hit the surface are reflected back into space. However, the presence or thickness of smog actually acts like a surface through which the sunlight reflect back to the earth. This in turn causes temperature to increase since energy is being trapped.
Posted 2011-01-29 and updated on Jun 08, 2011 9:01am by crisd