Global Warming & Its Effect on Icy Habitats
When you visit a doctor, he records your temperature. And if it is higher than the normal body temperature of 98.6°F (degrees Fahrenheit) or 37°C (degrees Celsius) , it means that your are not well. Similarly, when the temperature of our planet increase, it means that our planet is ill too!
The rise in your body temperature is called fever; when the same happens to the Earth's atmosphere and oceans it is called global warming.
Thermometer with Fahrenheit units on the outer scale and Celsius units on the inner scale
Every day , when the sun's rays reach earth , a group of gases called greenhouse gases absorb heat from the sun's rays & make our planet warm enough for us to survive.
But if the levels of these gases in the atmosphere increases , they will absorb more heat , making Earth too hot for us to live ! Because of pollution , cutting down of trees & forests , burning fossil fuels like coal & petrol , the level of green house gases in the atmosphere is increasing , thus causing global warming.
When you visit a doctor, he records your temperature. And if it is higher than the normal body temperature of 98.6°F (degrees Fahrenheit) or 37°C (degrees Celsius) , it means that your are not well. Similarly, when the temperature of our planet increase, it means that our planet is ill too!
The rise in your body temperature is called fever; when the same happens to the Earth's atmosphere and oceans it is called global warming. Thermometer with Fahrenheit units on the outer scale and Celsius units on the inner scale
Every day , when the sun's rays reach earth , a group of gases called greenhouse gases absorb heat from the sun's rays & make our planet warm enough for us to survive.
But if the levels of these gases in the atmosphere increases , they will absorb more heat , making Earth too hot for us to live ! Because of pollution , cutting down of trees & forests , burning fossil fuels like coal & petrol , the level of green house gases in the atmosphere is increasing , thus causing global warming. Since 1880 the average temperature of our planet has risen by 1.4°F(0.8°C ). Though that doesn't sound like much , the results are alarming! The ice in polar regions has already started melting , resulting in floods , rising sea levels , submergence of low lying islands & coastal areas. Warmer temperature have also triggered climate changes & the extinction of animal & plant species.
Global warming is not having the same impact on all parts of the world. Some areas of our planet are warming faster than other. The polar regions are warming twice as fast as other parts of the world , thus making the wild life at the poles most vulnerable to rising temperatures. One such animal is the polar bear.
Polar bears depend completely on sea ice for hunting.But because of the rising temperatures , the sea is melting , thus making hunting extremely difficult for polar bears.Global warming has also resulted in a decline in the population of seals. Declining seal population means that polar bears are running out of food. it is a pity to see an animal so extraordinarily adapted to survive at below freezing temperature , perish because of the lack of the food.
TO Find Out What You Can Do To Help
* Using an air conditioner ( 2.5 ton ) for an hour generates 3 kg of CO2
If you decide to go without AC for an hour a day,
you can stop the release of 3 × 365 = 1095 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.
* Using a geyser for an hour generates = 3.3 kg of CO2
If you cut down on your use of the geyser by just one hour a day,
you can stop the release of 3.3 × 365 = 1204.5 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.
* One dripping tap in a house = wastage of 13 litres of water in a single day
Wastage in a year = 13 litres × 365 = 4745 litres of water
* On an average , each person who runs the tap while brushing
waste about 2 × 3.5 = 7 litres of water
If 1.13 billion Indians ( estimated population as on March 2008 )
simply change the way they brush their teeth , we could save
1.13 billion × 7 litres = 7.91 billion litres of water - in just a day!!
* The estimated population of India on March 2008 was 1.13 billion .
A single tree absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) during its lifetime.
Even if each of us plant just one tree in our lifetime ,
we can eliminate 1.13 billion ton of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The Difference We All Can Make
* Simply switching off DVD player , stereo & computer when you are not using them will stop the release of thousand of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
* Do you know , if the temperature of our Earth ,almost 7 million in India people will have to move their homes , because the sea will rise & cover some parts of Chennai & Mumbai ?
* Making cans from recycled aluminium uses 90% less energy than making cans from scratch. We can watch T.V. for 3 hours from the energy saved from recycling one can!
* Take shorter hot water showers. Heating water uses energy.
* The glacial lake in Southern Chile was sighted in March ,but two months laters it had completely disappeared!
The culprit : global warming
* It is true - the oceans are turning to acid! Ocean absorb CO2 which , when mixed with sea water , turns to a weak carbonic acid.
* Louisiana , a state in USA about size of Orissa ,is losing an acre of its land , to the rising sea levels , every 24 minutes!
* Between 1961 & 1997 , the world's glaciers lost 890 cubic miles of ice.
* Warmer temperatures are killing eucalyptus trees , the main food source for koalas. It is that because of this koalas could become extinct in the next few decades!
* Global warming means bad news for baseball lovers! Ash tree from which all baseball bats are made , is in the danger of disappearing because of warmer temperatures.
* As rising ocean temperatues are killing off their food supply , more number of gray whales are being washed up on beaches after starving to death.
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