The Greenhouse Effect
There's a little bit of confusion about the Greenhouse Effect. Let's try to clear it up.
Friend: The Earth relies on the Greenhouse Effect to maintain a temperature that allows life, as we know it, to survive. Gases in the Earth's atmosphere act like a blanket, trapping solar radiation and keeping the temperature about 30 degrees warmer than it would otherwise be. Without the Greenhouse Effect, our planet would be a very inhospitable place, and life would be very different to the one we currently know and enjoy.
Enemy: The enhanced Greenhouse Effect has been creeping up on us since the industrial revolution, and causes global warming through an increase in greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. There's still some debate about exactly how much of the additional greenhouse gases are due to human activity, but there is almost universal agreement that global warming is happening, and will cause significant changes to the Earth's climate.
How Do We Generate Greenhouse Gases?
- Burning fossil fuels - coal, oil or gas
- Clearing land
- Producing waste - garbage and sewage
- Aspects of farming - using fertilisers, raising cattle and sheep, using heavy machinery etc
Australia's Greenhouse Gases?
In 2006 the total emissions from Australian activities were 576,035,430 Tonnes of -e CO2 - that's a whopping 28 tonnes of CO2 per capita!
To put that in context for you, the sustainable level of greenhouse gas emissions is 2T -eCO2 per person, per annum. This figure is derived by recognising the Earth's ability to naturally assimilate CO2 each year, divided by the world's population.
Clearly we all have some work to do. Whilst on the surface we all clearly face a daunting task to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to a sustainable level, just remember that a small change made by many people adds up to make a big difference!
