Solar energy
Global Warming
•In 2004, the Earth’s average temperature was 14.6 degrees, one of the highest ever recorded, you might think of it as peanuts, but if you do not add the north and south poles temperature, the figure would rise significantly. The main causes of global warming, the rise in Earth's temperature, can be split into two groups, mainly man-made causes and natural causes, which will be explained in the next few slides.
Natural causes of global warming
•Natural causes are causes created by nature. One natural cause is a release of methane gas from wetlands. Methane is a greenhouse gas. A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. Another natural cause is that the earth goes through a cycle of climate change. This climate change usually lasts about 40,000 years. This type of natural global warming does the lesser damage to the Earth between the two main causes.
Man-made causes of global warming
•Man-made causes probably do the most damage. There are many man-made causes. Pollution is one of the biggest man-made problems. Pollution comes in many shapes and sizes. Burning fossil fuels is one thing that causes pollution. Fossil fuels are fuels made of organic matter such as coal, or oil. When fossil fuels are burned they give off a green house gas called Carbon dioxide. Also mining coal and oil allows methane to escape. How does it escape? Methane is naturally in the ground. When coal or oil is mined you have to dig up the earth a little. When you dig up the fossil fuels you dig up the methane as well.
Man-made causes of global warming (Continued)
•Another major man-made cause of Global Warming is population. More people means more food, and more methods of transportation, right? That means more methane because there will be more burning of fossil fuels, and more agriculture. Now your probably thinking, “Wait a minute, how can agriculture contribute to global warming?" Well, have you ever been in a barn filled with animals and you smell something terrible? You're smelling methane. Another source of methane is manure. Because more food is needed we have to raise food. Animals like cows are a source of food which means more manure and methane.
•Another major man-made cause of Global Warming is population. More people means more food, and more methods of transportation, right? That means more methane because there will be more burning of fossil fuels, and more agriculture. Now your probably thinking, “Wait a minute, how can agriculture contribute to global warming?" Well, have you ever been in a barn filled with animals and you smell something terrible? You're smelling methane. Another source of methane is manure. Because more food is needed we have to raise food. Animals like cows are a source of food which means more manure and methane.
What we can do to stop global Warming
•There is no way we can stop global warming completely, even if we reduce the amount of global warming we are producing now by 2000 levels, it still would not stop it completely, but global warming can be stalled. One of the big issues in global warming is pollution, but it is impossible to ask all the factories to stop work, it would kill our current lifestyle, stop we must tackle the more vulnerable issues type of energy used. There are two main categories of energy, reusable and non-reusable energy. Reusable energy is made up of things like coal and other fossil fuel. They are called non-reusable because they take millions of years to regenerate.
•The other category of energy, renewable energy. It is so named as it is made up of energy like geothermal energy (steam energy), solar energy (energy from sunlight), and many others. These energy sources have not limits to their supply and what’s more, they do not release toxic gases into the atmosphere that will cause global warming.
The most efficient reusable Energy source
•By far, the most efficient renewable energy source is solar energy. Unlike geothermal energy which needs to tunnel underground to get energy, and other reusable energy sources that need large man-made structures to be built to harness their power, solar energy just needs one thing to get energy, a solar panel! Yes, it is dead simple, just have a solar panel and you can harness solar energy.
Solar energy
•As the name suggests, solar energy uses energy from light, or more specifically, light from the sun itself, this does not mean you have to go up close to the Sun and get scorched by it to produce energy. On Earth, enough solar energy enters our atmosphere for us to harness it, although there is one short coming of this energy source, you cannot get energy at night! To solve this, you have to add one more object to your solar panel, a battery! Think about it, if you can charge your batteries through solar energy in the day, you can get energy at night! Simple solution isn’t it.
•Do you know how energy goes into our homes? Factories burn coal and other fossil fuels to harness the power and send it our homes, but if you have solar panels in those factories, all the workers don’t need to do all that work and can do other stuff and all the toxic gases that were released when they burn fossil fuels won’t be released if you use solar energy. Pollution, one of the largest contributors to solar energy will also get cut because no toxic gases will be released into the atmosphere.
•If you fit solar panels on cars, they would not need to refuel once every now and then and you won’t spend so much money on petrol and waste time refueling your car (or for children, this refers to your parents). Cars also won’t release the toxic gas carbon monoxide in to the atmosphere, therefore causing global warming to slow down, it is impossible to stop global warming until further advances in technology.
Conclusion
•Solar and other forms of renewable energy will definitely come into our lives no matter how far into the future it may be, but time come we all have to use renewable sources of energy.
posted @ 9:28 PM |