Mitigation Strategies and Solutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Mitigation Strategies and Solutions - Essay Example Today’s research proves that the Earths average surface temperature has risen by about 1Â °F in 20th century. Meteorologists have firm logics and facts that the Earth’s warming is highly associated to human activities as it has been increasing since the onset of industrial revolution in 1950. Human beings have changed the chemical composition of the atmosphere by producing greenhouse gases mainly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These are heat-trapping gases. In the Earth’s atmosphere, greenhouse gases are those that first absorb solar radiation and then release it to the atmosphere within the thermal infrared range. This process is called the green house effect which is the fundamental cause of global warming. The well known greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere that play a major role in global warming are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, water vapor, and ozone. Hydro-fluorocarbons, per-fluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride are som e other very dominant greenhouse gases that are the results of variety of industrialized processes. Major human actions such as use of fossil petroleum, automobiles, emerging industrial and urban areas, electric power plants and clearing of land are primarily responsible for the increased concentration of carbon dioxide whereas deforestation is the basic cause of enhanced concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The perspective of cooling influences and facts about global warming have proved a very high confidence level of 90% that the globally net effect of warming is due to human activities since 1750 (IPCC, Third Assessment Report, 2007). The contribution of these gases to the greenhouse effect is given in the following table. Some of scientists which are not in majority disagree about the association of increased greenhouse gases to the human activities. They claim that the global warming is the result of natural