Global Warming

Read through this lesson to know about global warming.

 
All living beings on earth, including humans, other animals and plants need heat or warm to live.

So, how do they get this heat or warmth? Yes, through sunlight.

Sunlight warms land, water, and air. The warmed-up land, water, and air give off heat. This warm air can rise high up to the sky. Gases in the Earth’s atmosphere capture some of that heat and prevent it from escaping into space. his heat traps and  keeps the ground, oceans and air at fairly safe, temperatures that thousands of plants and animals can bear it up. This process is called the greenhouse effect.

But, if these temperatures rise above from the average, then it will cause greenhouse effect which leads to global warming.

Read the lesson Greenhouse Effect to learn more about how global warming occurs through greenhouse effect.

What might occur, if Earth gets hotter?

• Sea levels around the world would rise as oceans absorb more heat than the land and this causes water to expand as it is heated more and more. As a result coastal areas would flood.
• There will be more hotter and drier places and earth might not receive frequent rainfalls and snowfalls.
• Inland lakes and rivers would dry out.
• Frequent forest fires could occur.
• Long periods of drought would occur.
• Less water for all living beings on earth would make it hard to carry on with day to day activities.
• Many plants and animals may go extinct as they are unable to take the heat.
• Storms like hurricanes and tornadoes would be more frequent and powerful due to immense amounts of water evaporation.

How can we help to slow global warming?

• Don’t use the car all the time. You can walk short distances or ride your bicycle or use public transportation like the bus or the train for long distances. These alternatives would be good exercises for you to maintain a healthy life too.
• Don’t waste electricity. Turning off the lights, the TV and the computer when you’re not using them is NOT A BIG thing.
• Always work according to the 3Rs. Reduce, reuse and recycle whatever the items you have.
• Grow more trees. You know trees absorb excess Carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas. So you can help keeping the amount of CO2 level down by growing trees.
• Also trees provide shade and keep the environment cool all day long. So, there will be less need of air-conditioning.

Also read the lessons Air pollution and Acid Rains.