Fossil Fuel Consumption, Co2 And Its Impact On Global Climate Essays

Fossil Fuel Consumption, CO2 and Its Impact on global ClimateBackground At the beginning of human history, we had to satisfy our energyneeds (for food, heat and movement) by using our own muscle power and gatheringor hunting naturally available plants, animals and wood. Each stage in theevolution of human society (the development of farming, domestication of animals,harnessing of wind and water power) change magnitude the average per capita energy use,but it was the Industrial Revolution and the exploitation of fossil fuels which attach the transformation of societies into the energy-intensive economies oftoday. Since the eighteenth century the industrialising countries have come torely on non-renewable energy resources, and at present about 80 per cent (Myers,1994) of the worlds commercial energy is derived from oil, coal and gas.Although it has been observed that the growth of energy consumption is closely correlative with the increases in gross national product thus our econom icdevelopment, the major sources of energy (that is fossil fuels) are stockresources. Fossil fuels are consumed by use and the flow consumptionpatterns are non-sustainable. It is recognised that energy conservation and thedevelopment of renewable energy sources will be needed to sustain economicgrowth. The quantity of in conclusion recoverable fossil fuels is limited bygeology and remains a matter of suspicion, but the view of the 1970s thatscarcity was imminent is still popular. It is the 1973 Oil Crisis marked thetransition from abundant, low-cost energy to an era of increasing prices andscarcity. Today concerns over scarcity have been overtaken by the question ofwhether human beings can afford to fitting the environmental costs of continuedfossil fuel consumption. One of the most widespread concern related to globalclimatic changes.Introduction Climate represents prevalent weather condition of an area over aperiod of many years. This is in contrast to weather which is the day to daychanges in the atmosphere. It is now effected that our global "climatic normals"had fluctuated in the past millions of years which was nowhere related to humanactivities. Nevertheless, with the increasing human population and our relianceon fossil fuels since the culture century, we have definitely participated in theclimatic changes which are taking place to a certain e... ...creasingover the last decade. More on that, it is a situation that the burning of fossilfuels do release infrared-absorbing carbon dioxide to our atmosphere. Therefore,it is just a logical conclusion that the greenhouse is here, as it always does.It appears that there is excessive heat within the greenhouse which isinduced by our increasing rate of fossil fuel consumption, and the problems thatlies behind global climatic change are far reaching . Perhaps, the real limit toour fossil fuel consumption will be the CO2 problem but not the size of theresource. A Chinese dictum says that "p revention is better than cure."Approaches to energy conservation could be the key.BibliographyBenarde, M. A., 1992, Global Warning Global Warming, John Wiley & amp Sons, Inc.,52-65.Goudie, A., 1994, The Human Impact on the Natural Environment, Cambridge TheMIT Press, 301-7.Kraushaar, J. J. & Ristinen, R. A., Energy and Problems of a Technical Society,John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 394-400.Myers, N., 1994, The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management, London Gaia Books Limited,96-113.Tolba, M. K., 1992, The World Environment 1972-1992, London Chapman & Hall, 61--71.