Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Greenhouse Gases’ for class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Greenhouse Gases’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Greenhouse Gases
- Essay on Carbon Dioxide
- Essay on Methane
- Essay on Nitrous Oxide
- Essay on Fluorocarbons
- Essay on Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Essay on Nitrogen Monoxide (NO) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
- Essay on Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
- Essay on the Facts about Greenhouse Gases
- Essay on Trading in Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 1. Introduction to Greenhouse Gases:
Greenhouse gases naturally blanket the Earth and keep it about 33°C warmer than it would be without these gases in the atmosphere. This is called the “Greenhouse Effect.” Over the past century, the Earth has increased in temperature by about 0.5°C and many scientists believe this is because of an increase in concentration of the main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorocarbons.
People are now calling this climate change over the past century the beginning of “Global Warming.” Fears are that if people keep producing such gases at increasing rates, the results will be negative in nature, such as more severe floods and droughts, increasing prevalence of insects and disease causing pathogens, sea levels rising, and Earth’s precipitation may be redistributed. These changes to the environment will most likely cause negative effects on society, such as lower health and decreasing economic development.
However, some scientists argue that the global warming we are experiencing now is a natural phenomenon, and is part of Earth’s natural cycle. Presently, nobody can prove if either theory is correct, but one thing is certain; the world has been emitting greenhouse gases at extremely high rates and has shown only small signs of reducing emissions until the past few years. After the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the world has finally taken the first step in reducing emissions.
The “greenhouse effect” is the heating of the Earth due to the presence of greenhouse gases. It is named this way because of a similar effect produced by the glass panes of a greenhouse. Shorter-wavelength solar radiation from the sun passes through Earth’s atmosphere, and then is absorbed by the surface of the Earth, causing it to warm. Part of the absorbed energy is then re-radiated back to the atmosphere as long wave infrared radiation.
Little of this long wave radiation escapes back into space; the radiation cannot pass through the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases selectively transmit the infrared waves, trapping some and allowing some to pass through into space. The greenhouse gases absorb these waves and re-emit the waves downward, causing the lower atmosphere to warm.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 2. Carbon Dioxide:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a colorless, odorless, non-flammable gas and is believed to be the most prominent Greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere. It is recycled through the atmosphere by the process photosynthesis, which makes human life possible. Photosynthesis is the process of green plants and other organisms transforming light energy into chemical energy.
Light Energy is trapped and used to convert carbon dioxide, water, and other minerals into oxygen and energy rich organic compounds. Carbon Dioxide is emitted into the air as humans exhale, burn fossil fuels for energy, and deforests the planet, livery year humans add over 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by these processes, and it is up thirty percent since 1750.
An isolated test at Mauna Loa in Hawaii revealed more than a 12% increase in mean annual concentration of carbon dioxide. Mauna Loa, located in Hawaii, is the world’s largest volcano at 40,000 cubic km and 4,170 meters above sea level. Ice core samples have also shown a dramatic increase in carbon dioxide levels.
Drilling deep into glaciers and polar ice caps and taking out samples of ice, then melting the ice and capturing the gas has shown an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 100 years. Ice core samples are essentially “drilling through time,” because the deeper the ice is, the older the ice is.
Fossil Fuels were created chiefly by the decay of plants from millions of years ago. We use coal, oil and natural gas to generate electricity, heat our homes, power our factories and run our cars. These fossil fuels contain carbon, and when they are burned, they combine with oxygen, forming carbon dioxide. The two atoms of oxygen add to the total weight.
Deforestation is another main producer of carbon dioxide. The causes of deforestation are logging for lumber, pulpwood, and fuel wood. Also contributing to deforestation is clearing new land for farming and pastures used for animals such as cows. Forests and wooded areas are natural carbon sinks. This means that as trees absorb carbon dioxide, and release oxygen, carbon is being put into trees.
This process occurs naturally by photosynthesis, which occurs less and less as we cut and burn down trees. As the abundance of trees declines, less carbon dioxide can be recycled. As we burn them down, carbon is released into the air and the carbon bonds with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, adding to the greenhouse effect. About 860 acres of forest land, is destroyed every 15 minutes in the tropics.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 3. Methane:
Methane is a colorless, odorless, flammable gas. It is formed when plants decay and where there is very little air. It is often called swamp gas because it is abundant around water and swamps. Bacteria that breakdown organic matter in wetlands and bacteria that are found in cows, sheep, goats, buffalo, termites, and camels produce methane naturally.
Since 1750, methane has doubled, and could double again by 2050. Each year we add 350-500 million tonnes of methane to the air by raising livestock, coal mining, drilling for oil and natural gas, rice cultivation, and garbage sitting in landfills. It stays in the atmosphere for only 10 years, but traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
Rice cultivation has developed into a large business; farmland has doubled in the past 45 years. It feeds one-third of the World’s population. It grows mostly in flooded fields, where bacteria in waterlogged soil release methane.
Livestock such as cows, sheep, goats, camels, buffaloes, and termites release methane as well. Bacteria in the gut of the animal break down food and convert some of it to methane. When these animals belch, methane is released. In one day, a cow can emit 0.5 pound of methane into the air.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 4. Nitrous Oxide:
Nitrous oxide is another colorless greenhouse gas; however, it has a sweet odor. It is primarily used as an anesthetic because it deadens pain and for this characteristic is called “laughing gas.” This gas is released naturally from oceans and by bacteria in soils. Nitrous oxide gas has been raised by more than 15% since 1750.
Each year we add 7-13 million tonnes into the atmosphere by using nitrogen based fertilizers, disposing of human and animal waste in sewage treatment plants, automobile exhaust, and other sources not yet identified. It is important to reduce emissions because the nitrous oxide we release today will still be trapped in the atmosphere 100 years from now.
Nitrogen based fertilizer use has doubled in the past 20 years. These fertilizers provide nutrients for crops; however, when they breakdown in the soil, nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere. In automobiles, nitrous oxide is released at a much lower rate than carbon dioxide, because there is more carbon in gasoline than nitrogen.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 5. Fluorocarbons:
Fluorocarbons are a general term for any group of synthetic organic compounds that contain fluorine and carbon. Many of these compounds, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), can be easily converted from gas to liquid or liquid to gas. Because of these properties, CFC’s can be used in aerosol cans, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
Studies in the 1970’s showed that when CFC’s are emitted into the atmosphere, they break down molecules in the Earth’s ozone layer. Since then, the use of CFC’s has significantly decreased and they are banned from production in the United States, Europe and many other countries.
The substitute for CFC’s is hydro fluorocarbons (HFC’s). HFC’s do not harm or breakdown the ozone molecule, but they do trap heat in the atmosphere, making it a greenhouse gas, aiding in global warming. HFC’s are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The way to reduce emissions of this gas is to be sure that in both devices the coolant is recycled and all leaks are properly fixed. Also, before throwing the appliances away, are sure to recover the coolant in each.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 6. Carbon Monoxide (CO):
CO is not a significant greenhouse gas, but brings about changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases by interacting with hydroxyl radicals (OH). Concentrations of CO have increased in northern high latitudes since 1850, but did not change significantly over Antarctica during the last two millennia. The annual average concentration was about 90 ppb in 1996. The annual mean concentration is high in the Northern Hemisphere and low in the Southern Hemisphere, suggesting anthropogenic emissions in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the past, the level of CO was increasing but this trend appears to have been reversed in the late 1980s. The average global growth rate was -0.2 ppb/year for 1993 to 1996. Growth rates were negative in 1992 in all latitudes, in 1995 in northern latitudes, and in 1996 in southern latitudes, while the rates were positive from 1993 to 1994 in northern latitudes. During the anomalously strong El Nino event in 1997/1998, CO increased significantly at Ryori in Japan. Impacts of the El Nino event in 1997/1998 upon the growth rate for the CO concentration should be further examined by analyzing more data for this period.
Monthly mean concentrations show a seasonal variation with large amplitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and small ones in the Southern Hemisphere. This seasonal cycle is driven by variations in OH concentration as a sink, emission by industries and biomass burning, and transport on a large scale.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 7. Nitrogen Monoxide (NO) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2):
Nitrogen oxides (NOx, i.e., NO and NO,) are not greenhouse gases, but bring about changes in concentrations of other important greenhouse gases by interacting with hydroxyl radicals (OH). In the presence of NOx, CO and hydrocarbons are oxidized to produce ozone (O3) in the troposphere, affecting, as a greenhouse gas, the Earth’s radiative balance and, by reproducing OH, the oxidization capacity of the atmosphere.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 8. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2):
SO2 is not a greenhouse gas but a precursor of atmospheric sulfuric acid (H2SO4) aerosol. Sulfuric acid aerosol is produced by SO2 oxidation through photochemical gas-to-particle conversion. SO2 has been a major source of acid rain and deposition throughout industrial times.
Thirty-one stations located in Europe have reported SO2 data to the WDCGG. Generally, in Europe SO2 concentrations are higher in southern regions than in northern regions. The annual mean SO2 concentrations in the central and eastern part of Europe were lower in 1997 than in the early 1990s.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 9. Facts about Greenhouse Gases:
i. Greenhouse gases (GHGS) control energy flows in the atmosphere by absorbing infra-red radiation:
These trace gases comprise less than 1% of the atmosphere. Their levels are determined by a balance between “sources” and “sinks.” Sources are processes that generate greenhouse gases; sinks are processes that destroy or remove them. Humans affect greenhouse gas levels by introducing new sources or by interfering with natural sinks.
ii. The largest contributor to the natural greenhouse effect is water vapour:
Its presence in the atmosphere is not directly affected by human activity. Nevertheless, water vapour matters for climate change because of an important “positive feedback”. Warmer air can hold more moisture, and models predict that a small global warming would lead to a rise in global water vapour levels, further adding to the enhanced greenhouse effect.
On the other hand, it is possible that some regions may become drier. Because modelling climate processes involving clouds and rainfall is particularly difficult, the exact size of this crucial feedback remains unknown.
iii. Carbon dioxide is currently responsible for over 60% of the “Enhanced” greenhouse effect, which is responsible for climate change:
This gas occurs naturally in the atmosphere, but burning coal, oil, and natural gas is releasing the carbon stored in these “fossil fuels” at an unprecedented rate. Likewise, deforestation releases carbon stored in trees. Current annual emissions amount to over 7 billion tonnes of carbon, or almost 1% of the total mass of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
iv. Carbon dioxide produced by human activity enters the natural carbon cycle:
Many billions of tonnes of carbon are exchanged naturally each year between the atmosphere, the oceans, and land vegetation. The exchanges in this massive and complex natural system are precisely balanced; carbon dioxide levels appear to have varied by less than 10% during the 10,000 years before industrialization.
In the 200 years since 1800, however, levels have risen by almost 30%. Even with half of humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions being absorbed by the oceans and land vegetation, atmospheric levels continue to rise by over 10% every 20 years.
v. A second important human influence on climate is aerosols:
These clouds of microscopic particles are not a greenhouse gas. In addition to various natural sources, they are produced from sulphur dioxide emitted mainly by power stations, and by the smoke from deforestation and the burning of crop wastes. Aerosols settle out of the air after only a few days, but they are emitted in such massive quantities that they have a substantial impact on climate.
vi. Aerosols cool the climate locally by scattering sunlight back into space:
Aerosol particles block sunlight directly and also provide “seeds” for clouds to form, and often these clouds also have a cooling effect. Over heavily industrialized regions, aerosol cooling may counteract nearly all of the warming effect of greenhouse gas increases to date.
vii. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas whose levels have already doubled:
The main “new” sources of methane are agricultural, notably flooded rice paddies and expanding herds of cattle. Emissions from waste dumps and leaks from coal mining and natural gas production also contribute. The main sink for methane is chemical reactions in the atmosphere, which are very difficult to model and predict.
viii. Methane from past emissions currently contributes 15-20% of the enhanced greenhouse effect:
The rapid rise in methane started more recently than the rise in carbon dioxide, but methane’s contribution has been catching up fast. However, methane has an effective atmospheric lifetime of only 12 years, whereas carbon dioxide survives much longer.
This means that the relative importance of methane versus carbon dioxide emissions depends on the “time horizon.” For example, methane emitted during the 1980s is expected to have about 80% of the impact of that decade’s carbon dioxide emissions over the 20-year period 1990-2010, but only 30% over the 100-year period 1990-2090.
ix. Nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and ozone contribute the remaining 20% of the enhanced greenhouse effect:
Nitrous oxide levels have risen by 15%, mainly due to more intensive agriculture. CFCs increased rapidly until the early 1990s, but levels of key CFCs have since stabilised due to tough emission controls introduced under the Montreal Protocol to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. Ozone is another naturally-occurring greenhouse gas whose levels are rising in some regions in the lower atmosphere due to air pollution, even as they decline in the stratosphere.
x. Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions have already disturbed the global energy budget by about 2.5 watts per square metre:
This equals about one percent of the net incoming solar energy that drives the climate system. One percent may not sound like much, but added up over the earth’s entire surface, it amounts to the energy content of 1.8 million tonnes of oil every minute, or over 100 times the world’s current rate of commercial energy consumption.
Since greenhouse gases are only a byproduct of energy consumption, it is ironic that the amount of energy humanity actually a use is tiny compared to the impact of greenhouse gases on natural energy flows in the climate system.
Essay on Greenhouse Gases # 10. Trading in Carbon Dioxide Emissions:
According to a recent World Bank study, worldwide trading of greenhouse gas emissions more than doubled over the last year. Trading carbon credits is a new mechanism designed to allow firms that fail to meet emission standards set by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, to buy credits from other firms that meet their targets. The Kyoto Protocol envisages carbon credit trade between countries with carbon sinks and others that produce higher levels of pollution.
Trading in carbon dioxide emissions totaled 29 million tonnes last year and rose to 71 million tonnes in 2003. The study prepared by Nat source LLC for the bank, said power sector projects including hydropower, biomass and wind energy created half the emission reductions that were traded in 2003. Emission reductions created by renewable sources represented about 37 percent of traded volume. The prices paid in emission trading rose to a range of $4 to $6 per tonne in 2003, the report said.
One of the most important Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs) that are emerging in the system of carbon trading, which allows the development of a market wherein carbon dioxide as well as carbon equivalents, can be traded between the participants.
The participants could be countries or companies. How does the system work? Once the Kyoto Protocol enters into force, countries (developed countries) are required to reduce their average Greenhouse gas emissions by 5% by 2008-2012.
A country or company wishing to reduce or meet their emission targets can do so by investing in clean projects, which would contribute towards offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions, but would also earn the investor some “credits” which would go towards a net carbon reduction.
A typical CDM project would be substituting fossil fuel-based power generation with renewable energy or a project that would improve existing energy efficiency levels. Or, as in India, by investing in forestation or community tree planting projects, called “carbon sinks.”
Carbon trading would likely soar should the Kyoto treaty go into effect because many countries would have to buy credits to bring their pollution levels into compliance. The United States, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon has refused to participate in the treaty. Another major emitter of greenhouse gases, Australia has also backed out from Kyoto treaty.
The pact cannot take effect unless Russia agrees to sign it, allowing the treaty to represent 55 percent of industrial nation’s emissions. The Kyoto treaty aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012 as the first step to limit rising temperatures blamed for more frequent floods, droughts, heat waves and storms.
The Kyoto treaty has triplet market mechanisms—Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and International Emission Trading (IET). Under the CDM, firms in developed countries will invest in projects in developing countries that reduce or avoid net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For example, a firm invests in a wind farm in India.
The Indian companies decrease its reliance on fossil fuel use as a result of the wind farm, ultimately decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions. Under the CDM, the country’s firm receives CER credits in proportions to the GHG’s reduced by this investment and these credits can be used towards meeting countries Kyoto target. The CDM is overseen by an international body, the CDM executive board.
One tonne of carbon dioxide reduced through a CDM project, when certified by an independent officially accredited certifier, is known as a Certified Emission Reduction (CER), which can be traded. Typical CDM project categories are Renewable energy, fuel switching, solid waste management, advanced coal-based power generation technologies, renovation and modernization, demand-side management and industrial energy efficiency projects.
JI projects are the means by which firms in developed countries can invest in other developed countries, including those with transitional economies, in ways that reduce or avoid GHG emissions. Creditors will earn in the form of “Emissions Reduction Units.” The Kyoto treaty permits the trading of emission credits among countries. It provides for countries with emission reduction commitments to buy or sell part of their assigned amount of carbon dioxide emissions among themselves.
India and Latin America have taken greatest advantage of carbon trading market. Many African nations and China have stayed on the sidelines. China still has less carbon credit deals than much smaller Costa Rica. The biggest buyers of the credits are European governments. According to a World Bank report, “there is a great opportunity awaiting India in carbon credit trading which is estimated to go up to $ 100 billion by 2010.”
The country’s dominance in carbon trading is expected to be driven, not so much by the domestic industry, but more by its huge tracts of plantation land, estimated to be over 15 million hectares. The many projects initiated by the domestic companies after January 2000 in diverse areas such as energy efficiency, co-generation, natural gas alternative fuels and hydro power will also add to the country’s dominance as a larger seller in the carbon market.
During a study, it was revealed that in the Handia Forest range of Madhya Pradesh, India, 95 very poor rural villages would jointly earn at least US$300,000 every year from carbon payments by restoring 10,000 hectares of degraded community forests, if their project succeeds. Rehabilitating dry forests in India could double sequestration from 27 to 55 tonnes of carbon yearly for every hectare of dry forest improved. Healthy forests bring all kinds of other benefits too.
Carbon dioxide which is generated by industrial emissions and effects climate change is absorbed by trees from the air. They use this to make sugar, starch and complex molecules such as cellulose and lignin, forming wood, branches, roots, leaves and bark. About 50 percent of a tree’s dry weight is carbon. Planting 100,000 hectares of new forest can remove a million tonne carbon annually from the atmosphere.
The Government of India has been an active participant in the climate change negotiations since the inception of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. India is a party to the UNFCCC and was the 38th country to ratify it on November 1, 1993. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal ministry for all environment related activities in the country and is the nodal ministry for co-ordination the climate change policy as well.
The working group on the FCCC was constituted for the implementation of obligations under the FCCC and to act as a consultative mechanism in the Government for impacts to policy formulations on climate change. To enlarge the feedback mechanism the Government of India has constituted an Advisory Group on the Government of India has constituted an Advisory Group on Climate Change under the chairmanship of the Minister of Environment & Forests.
The policy of the Government of India on reduction of Greenhouse gas emissions is based on three broad principles:
i. That the primary responsibility of reducing greenhouse gas emission is that of developed countries, and hence should show a demonstrable sincerity in initiating actions to address climate change;
ii. That the development needs of developing countries are of prime importance; and,
iii. That the developed world should transfer resources and technologies at favourable terms to the developing world, thereby, facilitating developing countries to move towards a sustainable development path.
A Climate Technology Bazar was organized at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi, from 10th November to 13th November, 2003. This Bazar was organized by CII and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
Many countries including USA, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Germany participated with many national and international organizations and companies. Within these four days 15 conferences and 750 trade talks took place and this technology Bazar did a trade of approximately $320 million.
India could well emerge as one of the largest beneficiaries of carbon credit trading, an emerging global commodity market that analysts estimate could be worth up to $150 billion by 2012. It is anticipated that as years go by the price of carbon would go up, peaking at 2012. The carbon trading has to be conducted in the next ten years, since the developed countries have to meet their emission reduction commitments by 2012.