A ‘blue skies’ romance Courtney Tremere Ggs-12 (01) Mrs. Aliphat

Introduction Global warming is an increase in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. It is caused mainly by burning coal, oil, and gas. The world is trying to find substitutes for burning coal, oil, and gas. Some places have already started to use renewable resources for energy. (ie. Wind) We use oil, coal, and gas everyday.

Economic Development Our economy runs off oil, gas and coal. The prices of everything are affected when the price of oil goes up. When the price of oil goes up the price of gas will rise, and so will the price of furnace oil which is used to heat your home. Not only does the price of gas rise but so do all of your food prices and the prices of clothes, toys, etc. The prices of all these things are affected because it costs money to transport them. The transportation used runs on oil and gas; therefore when the price of gas and oil increases so does the price of all of these things.

Economic development in the future. Since our whole economy is based on oil, coal, and gas what would happen if we changed our resources? Most countries are looking for new resources, renewable resources, to use instead of the non- renewable ones which we are using now. In the future we will run out of oil, gas and coal, and at the rate in which we are using these resources now it won’t take very long.

If we switched our resources to wind power or solar power then our economy would change drastically. Transportation of supplies shouldn’t cost as much and therefore the supplies prices, such as food supplies, should decrease. It shouldn’t cost as much to heat our homes, to watch TV or to use electricity.

What about our Oil and Gas Industries? Irving oil, and other main gas/oil industries would be shut down because we wouldn’t be purchasing or using oil and/or gas anymore. Many people would be unemployed, which could increase our unemployment rate.

How does burning coal, oil, and gas effect the environment? Burning coal, oil, and gas affects our environment by emitting gases and chemicals into our atmosphere that pollute the water and air surrounding us. The chemicals that are emitted, when mixed with oxygen, trap the heat from our sun and keep it in our atmosphere. This causes the increase in our temperature.

Are there any effects happening today?  In the year 2003, Europe got extreme heat waves causing approximately 20,000 deaths, while India had about 1500 deaths.  The number of category 4 or 5 storms has greatly increased over the past 35 years.

Signs of today.  The ocean temperature has increased over the past several decades.  At the current rate of retreat the glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone by the year  The current pace of the sea level rising is three times the historical rate and is still accelerating.  With the level of greenhouse gases that are present today, the earth may warm up enough over the next 50 years or so to completely melt the sea ice located at the two poles.

On the chart that ranks our hottest years, out of the top 15, ten of them are our last ten years. The 20 Hottest Years on Record

How we contribute. We help cause global warming. Every time we use our automobiles. We are emitting chemicals into our air that help increase our atmosphere’s temperature. When we use oil to heat up our house we’re doing the same thing. When Industries make products for us they are emitting chemicals into our environment too.

Destruction of our forests create more heat. Trees help remove CO2 from the environment. They are able to store large amounts of it in their structure. One tree can absorb up to 13 lbs a year and one acre can absorb about 2.8 tons. When we cut down these trees they can’t absorb CO2 anymore and therefore more of it is emitted into our atmosphere. There is approximately 5500 acres of rainforest destroyed everyday and about 50 million acres destroyed every year. Trees help remove CO2 from the environment. They are able to store large amounts of it in their structure. One tree can absorb up to 13 lbs a year and one acre can absorb about 2.8 tons. When we cut down these trees they can’t absorb CO2 anymore and therefore more of it is emitted into our atmosphere. There is approximately 5500 acres of rainforest destroyed everyday and about 50 million acres destroyed every year.

Population growth contributing to global warming. Technology is partly responsible for explosive population growth and is responsible for the damage that is done to the Earth’s resources. The industrial revolution caused a quick increase in the population growth, when oil and gases were exploited to us. There are too many people living on our earth that are using technologies which are destructive to our earth.

Effects on People Global warming not only affects our environment and earth but it also affects us. The burning of fossil fuels creates pollution. Our air and water gets polluted with different chemicals and when we are exposed to them they can make us seriously ill. When fossil fuels are burned small particles go into our air and we breathe them in. When we breathe them in, they go into our lungs, and some particles are so small they can go directly into our blood stream. People who are exposed to these their whole life could get asthma and have fatal attacks, other people could get other serious lung conditions.

What I think about Global warming and how we use our resources. I think that we are not going to change our way of living, using all of our non-renewable resources, until we have to, which means that global warming will continue and worsen. Even though burning oil, coal, and gas is destroying our earth and environment it is still making a lot of money and it drives our economy. So why would we change? If we make a lot of money with these non-renewable resources, and money is what our world is about today, why change? We have all the technology we need and more to change what we use for resources, but we don’t. We could use wind or solar power instead of using what is left of the oil, coal, and gas. The only time we will change is when we have to. When we run out.

Where is does the oil come from? The Middle East are still has the largest producers of oil. They pump about 30% of the current production. Half of the oil left that is in the ground is found in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Work Cited mlwww.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter2.ht ml els.htmwww.umich.edu/%7Egs265/society/fossilfu els.htm ecordtemp2005.htmwww.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/r ecordtemp2005.htm bal.htmlwww.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1848/glo bal.html