Word: co2
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...flow of CO2 on earth was caused by only natural processes until less than 200 years ago. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, man suddenly threw a new factor into the climatic equation. Carbon dioxide is released in large quantities when wood and such fossil fuels as coal, oil and natural gas are burned. As society industrialized, coal- burning factories began releasing CO2 faster than plants and oceans, which absorb the gas, could handle it. In the early 1900s, people began burning oil and gas at prodigious rates. And increasing population led to the widespread...
...step toward doing that is to ban the production of CFCs, which are used to make plastic foam and as coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners. These gases account for an estimated 15% of the greenhouse effect. Another strategy is to burn as much methane as possible. That adds CO2 to the air, but getting rid of the methane is well worth it. Both gases trap heat, but as a greenhouse gas, methane traps 20 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, molecule for molecule...
Another step that could be taken to counteract global warming is to slow -- and ideally stop -- deforestation. But that is an enormously complex task, and so a simple companion strategy should be adopted at the same time: the planting of trees, and plenty of them, to absorb CO2 from the air. "It surely has to be one of the most benign things we can do," said Gus Speth of the World Resources Institute. Tree planting can be encouraged at all levels of society, from individuals putting an extra tree or two in their backyards to local communities and private organizations...
Admittedly, trees are just a stopgap. Unless a tree is used for lumber, it eventually dies and rots or is burned, releasing whatever CO2 it has absorbed. But since the rapid pace of change may be the greatest danger posed by global warming, stopgaps could be important. If nothing else, reforestation will buy time to put other preventive measures into place...
Tree planting will have negligible impact, however, if people continue to pump CO2 into the atmosphere at current rates. While wood and fossil-fuel burning will never be eliminated, they can be cut down significantly. An immediate way to do so is through conservation. When oil prices soared in the 1970s, industries responded by becoming much more energy efficient. But the plunge in the price of oil from $36 per bbl. in 1982 to less than $12 per bbl. this fall has cooled the enthusiasm for conservation. Governments must rekindle that interest and boost energy saving by setting or raising...