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ECO NEWSLETTER GLOBAL WARMING by M artha T. Pelensky, PE, Chairperson - Ecology/Environment Dear Friends, On the cover of the April 9, 2001 issue of Time Magazine is a frying pan with an egg, sunny side up, being fried. A closer look reveals that the yolk is our planet earth. The front-page title is GLOBAL WARMING. Time begins its Special Report with the following statement: “ Except for nuclear war or a col lision with an asteroid, no force has more potential to damage our planet’s web o f life than global warming .” [N.B. italics are the author’s]. O Time’s special report was written in the con text of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty’s mission to combat climate change and focuses on the premise that the present U.S. administration has abandoned the treaty as flawed, because it favors or exempts developing nations and discriminates against the developed indus trial world. The U.S. position on the treaty created a furor in Western Europe and in Japan, and the contro versy has not yet died down. Sources/Causes The main, but not sole, contributor to global warming is a gas called carbon dioxide, CO 2 . It is a colorless, odorless, slightly acid-tasting substance. It is about 1.5 times as dense as air and is soluble in wa ter. CO 2 is used in the manufacture of such products as washing soda, baking soda, white lead. It is the effervescence agent in carbonated beverages. It is used as fire extinguishing material and as “dry ice” refrigerant. Because it retards bacterial growth, C 0 2 is also used as inert atmosphere in laboratories. Carbon dioxide is produced by fermentation of sugars, by decomposition of carbonates under influ ence of heat or acids, and from the reaction of steam with natural gas. It is an exchange product in the pro cess of photosynthesis. In our industrial and post-industrial society C 0 2 is the by-product of energy generation that drives the entire social system. This energy is generated pri marily by the combustion of fuels such as coal, wood and petroleum products that contain carbon. This gen erated energy that is our lifeblood can be grouped into two categories: stationary and mobile. The main production of stationary energy is generation of electricity: fuel is burned to generate steam, steam drives turbines, and turbines drive elec- tro-magnetic generators that produce electrical current. Electricity drives our entire life. Stationary energy production also directly drives machinery in industrial applications and it is also a source of heat, both institu tional and domestic. The mobile category covers all modes of transportation that includes, but is not limited to, per sonal cars, trucks, rail, aircraft, and marine propulsion. Mobile power is generated by some type of internal combustion engine which bums fuel directly. Whether it is stationery or mobile, the final by-product of all of these systems is CO 2 . The following have also been classified as greenhouse gases: water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The last three groups are man-made substances. While their quantities in the atmosphere are not as great as that of C 0 2, scientists have proved that methane is 21 times as powerful as C 0 2 while nitrous oxide is 270 as strong. Greenhouse Effect Our planet earth receives its energy from the sun mostly in the form of short-wave radiation. The earth is surrounded with a protective blanket, the at mosphere, through which part of the sun’s radiation penetrates. The radiation that reaches the earth changes from light to heat and thus warms the earth. Much of the heat absorbed during the day is re radiated back during the night in the form of infra-red radiation. Gases in the atmosphere such as water va por, carbon dioxide, and methane and others absorb this reflected radiation and trap it in the earth’s sur roundings. This process has been going on ever since the beginning of time and without it life on earth would not be possible. The imbalance occurs when ever increasing quantities of heat trapping gases are released into the atmosphere and disturb this natural energy balance.11 Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolu tion in the mid-eighteenth century, the energy supplied by the muscle of humans and animals has been re placed by mechanized power fueled by combustion energy. As stated above, the by-product of combus tion energy is carbon dioxide. With ever increasing industrialization and development, ever increasing amounts of C 0 2 are spewed into the atmosphere. The Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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