The Greenhouse Effects: An Overview

Energy appears in two forms, disordered and ordered energy. The disordered form, of which, heat is a prime example. While ordered form of energy, mechanical and electrical energy are prime examples. Both forms derived from a particular energy source.

The search for more sources of energy and its wise utilization has been one of the major concerns of the world’s industrial powerhouses.

Both developed and developing countries had formed major alliances and political realignments in quest for more stable and sufficient sources of energy, such as fossil fuel, coal and gas. United States of America, for example, had recently waged two tactical wars against Iraq and Afghanistan due to its interest over oil pipelines in the Middle East. China, on the other hand, had strengthened her political ties with the Baltic States to help fuel her growing economy as well. Evidently, industrialized countries have entered into a global race in search for more energy resources, primarily oil.

The heavy reliance to fossil fuels led to a global concern of carbon emission and its Greenhouse effects to a destructive degree.

On 1896, Svante Arrhenius, posited that the radiative balance of the earth was primarily influenced by a protective sphere of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide trapped infrared radiation on the atmosphere causing a constant increase in temperature of the earth at around 31 degrees warmer than it would have been.

Scientific studies show a very alarming trend of the continued increase of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere to a very alarming condition, dramatically threatening the entire life of all living organisms on this planet.

The over reliance on the use of coal, oil and gas, as chief sources of energy, has exerted serious influence to our degenerating lifestyles.

According to studies, the world consumes 8 billion tones of oil-equivalent fossil fuels each year and that the figure is set to increase to 14 billion tones by 2020. This increasing combustion of fossil fuel led also to an increased concentration of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere.

Now and then, we hear of unprecedented mass floods and environmental destruction happening in different parts of the world; e.g., floods in the Philippines, earthquake in Indonesia and tsunami in Thailand. These were just some of the destructive scenarios that brought havoc to human living. Climatic change has become very evident in the 21st century.

On May 1992, 154 countries in different parts of the world, including the European Union and the United States signed the United Nation’s framework on climatic change. This gathering of nations, led to a conference in 1997, known as KYOTO Protocol, of which the world’s carbon dioxide emission was tackled.

It was agreed that industrial countries were to reduce their carbon dioxide emission by an average of 5.2 percent, proportionate to 1990 levels. However, to stabilize carbon dioxide emission major economic adjustments and long term legislation have to be undertaken.

The problem is that major industrial players have almost reached the zenith of their economic production and drastic economic slowdown would mean serious displacement if not inevitable economic collapse. Hence, programs such as clean-air act, waste segregation, promotion of natural renewable energy and the like came into existence.

Who is to initiate the first move to achieve significant carbon dioxide reduction in the air? The world’s major pollutants are expected to take the serious move on this matter. While there is a growing concern on the ballooning greenhouse issue, industries and factories, on the other hand, remained uncaring of the waste materials they scatter everywhere. I hope, in the end, we will be equitably adjudged base on the volume of waste we squandered here on earth. 

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