GLOBAL WARMING

“As human-caused biodiversity loss and climate disruption gain ground, we

need to keep our sights clear and understand that the measure of a threat is
not a matter of whether it is made on purpose, but of how much loss it may
cause. It's an ancient habit to go after those we perceive to be evil because
they intended to do harm. It's harder, but more effective, to "go after,"
meaning to more effectively educate and socialize, those vastly larger
numbers of our fellow humans who are not evil, but whose behavior may in
fact be far more destructive in the long run." (Ed Ayres, editor of World watch
magazine, Nov/Dec 2001)

CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING

Carbon Dioxide from Power Plants

In 2002 about 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions stem from the burning of
fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. Coal accounts for 93
percent of the emissions from the electric utility industry. US Emissions
Inventory 2004 Executive Summary p. 10

Coal emits around 1.7 times as much carbon per unit of energy when burned
as does natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil. Natural gas gives off 50%
of the carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, released by coal and
25% less carbon dioxide than oil, for the same amount of energy produced.
Coal contains about 80 percent more carbon per unit of energy than gas
does, and oil contains about 40 percent more. For the typical U.S. household,
a metric ton of carbon equals about 10,000 miles of driving at 25 miles per
gallon of gasoline or about one year of home heating using a natural gas-
fired furnace or about four months of electricity from coal-fired generation.

Carbon Dioxide Emitted from Cars

About 33% of U.S carbon dioxide emissions comes from the burning of
gasoline in internal-combustion engines of cars and light trucks (minivans,
sport utility vehicles, pick-up trucks, and jeeps).US Emissions Inventory 2006
page 8 Vehicles with poor gas mileage contribute the most to global
warming. For example, according to the E.P.A's 2000 Fuel Economy Guide, a
new Dodge Durango sports utility vehicle (with a 5.9 liter engine) that gets
12 miles per gallon in the city will emit an estimated 800 pounds of carbon
dioxide over a distance of 500 city miles. In other words for each gallon of
gas a vehicle consumes, 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted into the
air. [21] A new Honda Insight that gets 61 miles to the gallon will only emit
about 161 pounds of carbon dioxide over the same distance of 500 city
miles. Sports utility vehicles were built for rough terrain, off road driving in
mountains and deserts. When they are used for city driving, they are so
much overkill to the environment. If one has to have a large vehicle for their
family, station wagons are an intelligent choice for city driving, especially
since their price is about half that of a sports utility. Inasmuch as SUV's have
a narrow wheel base in respect to their higher silhouette, they are four times
as likely as cars to rollover in an accident. [33]

Carbon Dioxide from Airplanes

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that aviation

causes 3.5 percent of global warming, and that the figure could rise to 15
percent by 2050.

Nitrous oxide

Another greenhouse gas is Nitrous oxide (N2O), a colourless, non-flammable

gas with a sweetish odour, commonly known as "laughing gas", and
sometimes used as an anaesthetic. Nitrous oxide is naturally produced by
oceans and rainforests. Man-made sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and
nitric acid production, the use of fertilisers in agriculture, cars with catalytic
converters and the burning of organic matter. Nitrous oxide is broken down in
the atmosphere by chemical reactions that involve sunlight.

Deforestation

After carbon emissions caused by humans, deforestation is the second

principle cause of atmospheric carbn dioxide. (NASA Web Site) Deforestation
is responsible for 20-25% of all carbon emissions entering the atmosphere,
by the burning and cutting of about 34 million acres of trees each year. We
are losing millions of acres of rainforests each year, the equivalent in area to
the size of Italy. [22] The destroying of tropical forests alone is throwing
hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
We are also losing temperate forests. The temperate forests of the world
account for an absorption rate of 2 billion tons of carbon annually. [3] In the
temperate forests of Siberia alone, the earth is losing 10 million acres per
year.

City Gridlock

In 1996 according to an annual study by traffic engineers [as reported in the

San Francisco Chronicle December 10, 1996] from Texas A and M University,
it was found that drivers in Los Angeles and New York City alone wasted 600
million gallons of gas annually while just sitting in traffic. The 600 million
gallons of gas translates to about 7.5 million tons of carbon dioxide in just
those two cities.

Carbon in Atmosphere and Ocean

The atmosphere contains about 750 billion tons of carbon, while 1020 billion
tons are dissolved in the surface layers of the world's ocean.