Global Warming | Teen Ink

Global Warming

February 17, 2009
By Connor Weseman BRONZE, Omaha, Nebraska
Connor Weseman BRONZE, Omaha, Nebraska
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Most people think that global warming is some problem of the urban world that people have caused with air pollution. But 10,000 years ago the earth was covered in ice. Where did it all go? Personally I don't think the cavemen were driving buses and sports cars. Yes the earth may be looking like we are causing is to heat up abnormally. But what if there is an increased amount of activity on the sun? The sun has about 1,000,000 times the mass of the earth and it is about 10,000 degrees at its surface. So there just might be a solar storm of increased activity that is giving excess heat and energy off.


No I don't think that the cause of this rapid heating is completely being caused by some solar storm. We are partly to blame. But what is the majority of our vehicle needs? The transportation of goods and food. And what do we use most to transport our foods and goods? Semis. Depending on the truck and the load weight a semi may get between 4-9 mpg. So lets say a semi hauling a load of apples going from a farm in Sacramento, California to a grocery store Omaha, Nebraska travels 1340 miles it will use anywhere from 148 to 268 gallons of diesel.


But what absorbs all of this CO2? Plants, and what type of plant accounts for most of the CO2 absorbed? Trees, and what is in Africa? The largest rain forest in the world. Do you know what they are doing to this rain forest? Burning it down and bulldozing it away. At about a rate of 1 ' acres per second. That's 65,340 square feet per second. Or a whole football field with end zones and then some. Not only could these plants being taken away possibly save our planet from getting worse, but also when those trees take in that bad CO2 they produce good oxygen. Without oxygen we could not exist, and the rainforest that is being destroyed is our biggest source of oxygen.


Even though all this is bad enough it gets worse. The o zone layer is also being destroyed. In case you don't know what the o zone layer is, it is the layer of our sun that keeps out the harmful ultraviolet rays. No the o zone layer does not keep out 100% of the ultraviolet rays. Because they cause suntan, but suntan is actually a sign of damage to the skin and that is obvious when you get sunburn. Ultraviolet rays are the cause of skin cancer and they are why people tell you not to look directly at the sun because they could basically burn your eyes out of your head and that would be bad.


All of these things I have talked about are things being caused by global warming. So as you can see it is a very large problem, and if something is not done it could easily go out of control. This is why many people are changing their lifestyles and why other people are going crazy over the subject. I hope you have learned something from reading this essay.


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