What are some human activities that contribute to the worsening effect of global warming?

Answer 1

In our daily activities, whenever we contribute carbon dioxide or methane to the atmosphere we are adding to the greenhouse gas layer and making the world warmer. Carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere during the production and burning of coal, oil and natural gas (to produce electricity). So in every day we contribute to global warming by: * using electricity in any form (TV, computer, heating and cooling, lights)

* traveling, using vehicles * eating food (it had to be grown, harvested and transported to you, then cooked) * wearing clothes (the material had to be grown, etc... same as food) * washing and drying clothes (all that water and electricity)

* buying a new computer (all the material and the production and transport used energy) * throwing something away into garbage, then into landfill, and buying a new one.

As you can see, just about everything we do contributes to global warming. We can't cut out everything. But we certainly can cut down on a lot of things. Compare your lifestyle with a simple farmer living in a poor country and think how big your global footprint (the amount of energy you use) is compared with his.

If we all did a little more of some of these it would help slow global warming:

* Turn off the lights when you leave a room. * Turn off TVs etc at the wall instead of with the remote. * Hang your clothes out to dry. * Use public transport or bicycle. * Recycle all those cans and plastic bottles. * Buy local food and eat it all. * Wear warmer clothes instead of turning up the heating. * and many more...

Methane is produced when organic matter decomposes anaerobically (without air). This happens in the intestines of some animals, and in landfill (garbage dumps). There are millions of cattle, pigs and sheep all over the world being raised for us to eat. So every time we eat meat some farmer has to buy an extra animal just to make up for it. So, to cut down on the amount of methane being added to the atmosphere we should:

* Eat vegetarian meals more often * Eat white meat (chicken) instead of red (beef, pig, sheep)

* Put food scraps into a worm farm or a compost bin Two products of respiration -- carbon dioxide and water vapor -- are greenhouse gases, so breathing contributes to global warming. Also, methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide, so flatus, gas expelled from the digestive tract, known in the vernacular as farts, also contributes to global warming.

Answer 2

Five human activities that contribute to global warming

1. Deforestation (cutting down trees that previously removed Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere)
2. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). This releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
3. Using electricity generated from fossil fuels instead of using renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro etc.)
4. Driving cars and other transport that runs on fossil fuels, instead of renewable energy.
5. Raising cattle, eating red meat, owning a large meat-eating dog, never eating vegetarian meals.

Answer 3

The question presupposes significant anthropogenic global warming, which despite Al Gore's assertions to the contrary, is NOT universally accepted. (Bear in mind that his science education appears to have ended no later than his freshman year of college so he's more of an expert on the politics of global warming than the science of it). It also presupposes that any global warming is uniformly negative in its effect. Our understanding of the complexities of global climate and predicting its long term effects is still far more limited than is usually represented in the media - as any scientist worth his/her salt will freely admit.

With those caveats out of the way, human activities that are expected to contribute to global warming include:

• Release of H2O and CO2 into the atmosphere from our own respiration (note that water vapor accounts for over 95% of the greenhouse effects of the atmosphere)
• Release of H2O and CO2 into the atmosphere from the respiration of domesticated animals
• Release of methane from humans (yes - we all pass gas)
• Release of methane from domesticated animals (especially ruminants)
• Release of water vapor from human activities such as cooling towers that use water to cool air and industrial processes
• Release of carbon dioxide from combustion processes like power plants, cars, home fireplaces, cooking fires, etc.
• Release of methane from human waste dumps
• Deforestation that removes trees that would otherwise remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - this is somewhat counterbalanced by the increased albedo of the earth as the dark plants are removed exposing underlying soil and rocks that are lighter - and worsened if the removed trees decay and release more methane
• Toxins released into the water that kill off or inhibit the growth of aquatic plants that would remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• Toxins released into the air that inhibit plant growth generally and thus reduce the ability of plants to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• Industrial solvents and vapors from human activities - some of them are known "greenhouse gases"
• Heat released by human activities - the heat produced by factories, by keeping buildings warm - and actually by keeping them cool inside since the heat is pumped out of the buildings by the AC, by power plants, by cars, the extreme quantities of hot air coming out of politicians talking about global warming (ok - I admit, I just HAD to throw that one in there)

Answer 4

The burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and deforestation (cutting down trees which previously removed carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere).

Answer 5

Global warming hasn't even been conclusively proven yet.