The Global Warming Crisis Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Global Warming Crisis - Thesis Example Trees absorb CO2 and when they die, CO2 is restored to the atmosphere.   The clearing of forests by mass burning, which is happening at a phenomenal rate in the tropical rain forests, is decreasing the amount of CO2 that is absorbed and increasing the amount that is added to the atmosphere.   CO2 supplies about half of the total gases that create the greenhouse effect (Breuer, 1980).   Although deforestation is contributing heavily to the excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, a larger portion is caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal.   Fossil fuels are burned by factories, vehicles and electricity-producing power plants to name a few sources.   Other greenhouse gases include methane, which is released when vegetation is burned during land clearing, during oil exploration activities and the coal-mining process; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which is the substance that cools refrigerators and provides the propulsion in aerosol cans and nitrous oxide (N2O) which is the lesser cause of CO2.   It is generated from both man-made and natural processes.   It is estimated that man-made influences represent about half of the CO2 output. As the balance between the CO2 levels in the ocean and atmosphere is disturbed by interjecting increasing amounts of CO2, the oceans will continually absorb higher concentrations than it does naturally.   The subsequent warming ocean waters are less effective in their ability to absorb CO2.   When the oceans can no longer keep pace with the intrusion of this naturally equalized cycle then more CO2 will remain in the atmosphere.