Science Lab: Greenhouse Gas
1.
From 2012 to 2050 (in thirty eight years) the temperature rise was faster from greenhouse gas then the rise in temperature from 1750 to 2012 (in two hundred sixty two years). In 1750 the sources of greenhouse gases were methane from the cows’ manure and other natural sources, very few greenhouse gas molecules were trapped. Then the Industrial Revolution started a big change. The coal burning factories emitted air pollution containing greenhouse gases straight into the atmosphere. More and more factories were burning fossil fuels without trapping the GHGs before they left the smokestacks. Pollution enters the atmosphere directly from smokestacks of industries. Bigger tractors are used on the farms. More transportation and better highways mean more GHGs from exhaust fumes. People started moving into cities and then spreading out into the countryside in urban sprawl.
The computer simulation demonstrated how in 1750 the temperature of 57° F was stable because the GHGs trapped near the earth’s surface were very, very few. Then in contemporary times the expansion of industry, petroleum fields, the use of gas for more cars and better roads for transportation meant more GHGs were emitted from human activities and trapped near the surface. In the simulation about 4 times the number of red photons were trapped in the ‘today’ scenario than were trapped in the 1750 scenario. The future scenario, 2050 showed a higher rate in the rise in temperature and the amount of GHGs trapped near the earth’s service was the highest of the three scenarios. The land use activities depicted included more industry, bigger cities, deforestation, more transportation sources of pollution and larger petroleum fields.
2.
The computer model demonstrated that methane gases make the highest contribution to climate change because methane can trap more molecules near the earth’s surface Methane gas has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 21 because it is 21 times more effective at trapping infrared rays (the red photons in the simulation) near the earth’s surface.
3.
From the 1750 scenario to the contemporary scenario the heat trapping blanket became thicker perhaps more than twice as thick. From the contemporary scenario to the 2050 scenario the thickness at least doubled. So the 1750 thickness of the heat trapping blanket seemed to increase by approximately three times by 2050.
The computer simulation demonstrated a 2° F rise in temperature from 1750 until today. The rise in temperature from today until 2050 was twice that much, 4° F. That indicates positive feedbacks because the rate of temperature rise is increasing. The enhanced greenhouse effect is an example of a positive feedback. Turk and Bensel (2011) explained that “NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found more energy from the sun is being absorbed than is being emitted back to space” (p. 225).
The 2008 Report from the National Academies explained with a figure how positive feedbacks work using water vapor as an example. Because the warming by greenhouse gases leads to additional evaporation of water from the oceans into the atmosphere, more water vapor evaporates into the atmosphere; since water vapor is a greenhouse gas this process adds to the green house effect causing even more warming (p. 8).
4.
Climate change has a terrible impact on ecosystems, biodiversity and biodiversity richness causing extinction, loss of biological richness and destruction of ecosystems. Turk and Bensel (2011) stated that by 2050 between 15 and 37 percent of 1,100 animal plant species studied in a recent survey will be lost if the rate of climate change continues (p. 27). Turk and Bensel (2011) explain that “when ecosystems lose biological richness they lose resilience and more susceptible to climate change “stresses (p. 28). With deforestation ecosystems are devastated. An example from Lester Brown is the unfortunate number of plants that are on the critical list for extinction, of 12, 914 plant species have a “total share threatened” of 67.6%. (Brown, 2010, p. 3 of pdf)
5.
Turk and Bensel (2011) give many examples of the impacts of climate change to people. More extreme weather events mean more hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones which makes places like Tornado Ally a dangerous place to live. The availability of enough and high quality water will be more difficult to find; people cannot live without water and polluted water causes terrible health problems. The amount of money that will have to be spent because of flood damage will be high. (pp. 225-81)
References
Brown, L. R. (2011). World on the Edge. How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse. Washington, DC: Earth Policy Institute.Data from the book accessed from
Global Warming. (2011). Greenhouse gasses. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Accessed from
Turk, J. & Bensel, T. (2011). Contemporary Environmental Issues. San Diego, CA: Bridgeport Education, Inc. Chapters 4, 6 and 7.
Staudt, A., Huddleston, N. & Kraucunas, I.(2008). Climate Change Highlights of National Academies Reports.. The National Academies. Retrieved from
IPCC Fourth Assessment. (2009). Climate change and the transformation of energy technologies for a low carbon future. G8 +5 Academies’ joint statement. Accessed from
