GREENHOUSE EFFECT

The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet's

atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be
without its atmosphere
If a planet's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases (i.e., greenhouse gases)
the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions. Part of this radiation is directed
towards the surface, warming it. The downward component of this radiation that
is, the strength of the greenhouse effect will depend on the atmosphere's
temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains.
CAUSES
1. Burning of Fossil Fuels: Fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas have become
an integral part of our life. They are used on large basis to produce electricity and
for transportation. When they are burnt, the carbon stored inside them is released
which combines with oxygen in the air to create carbon dioxide. With the increase in
the population, the number of vehicles have also increased and this has resulted in
increase in the pollution in the atmosphere. When these vehicles run, they release
carbon dioxide, which is one the main gas responsible for increase in greenhouse
effect.
Apart from that, electricity-related emissions are high because we are still
dependent on coal for electricity generation which releases large amount of CO2
into the atmosphere and is still the primary source of fuel for generating electricity.
Although, renewable sources are catching up, but it may take a while before we can
reduce our dependance on coal for electricity generation.
2. Deforestation: Forests hold a major green area on the planet Earth. Plants and
trees intake carbon dioxide and release oxygen, through the process of
photosynthesis, which is required by humans and animals to survive. Large scale
development has resulted in cutting down of trees and forests which has forced
people to look for alternate places for living. When the wood is burnt, the stored
carbon in converted back into carbon dioxide.
3. Increase in Population: Over the last few decades, there have been
huge increase in the population. Now, this has resulted in increased demand for
food, cloth and shelter. New manufacturing hubs have come up cities and towns
that release some harmful gases into the atmosphere which increases the
greenhouse effect. Also, more people means more usage of fossil fuels which in turn
has aggravated the problem.
4. Farming: Nitrous oxide is one the greenhouse gas that is used in fertilizer and
contributes to greenhouse effect which in turn leads to global warming.

5. Industrial Waste and Landfills: Industries which are involved in cement

production, fertilizers, coal mining activities, oil extraction produce harmful
greenhouse gases. Also, landfills filled with garbage produce carbon dioxide and
methane gas contributing significantly to greenhouse effect.
EFFECTS
Increased greenhouse gases directly increase the heat on the planets surface and
lower atmosphere. This has a rippling effect as it can thin and even create holes in
the ozone layer. This means that other radiation like ultra violet (UV) rays can seep
in from the Sun.
What this eventually means for life on Earth is that it will have to adapt to
increasing temperatures. We already know that life is very adaptive, but we dont
know for how long the ozone will continue to be depleted or at what rate. More heat
means more fossil fuels will be burnt to cool down the heat. The burning of these
fossil fuels will again produce more greenhouse gases and affect the environment
adversely.
Many scientists believe that global warming and increased greenhouse effect are
simply part of a global cycle. It seems like Earth goes through these cycles every so
often of warming and then cooling. It is very difficult to determine what effect manmade gases have on the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect when so much of
naturally occurring systems cause numerous effects themselves.
If the Earth does not go into a cooling cycle within the next few hundred years, it is
possible that life on Earth might be very difficult for the generations to come.
Increase in heat and radiation may make going outside difficult or dangerous during
the daytime. These increased energies could also affect entire ecosystem. If plants
and animals cannot adapt quickly enough, we might see entire species becoming
extinct from thermal changes alone.
All of this is a long way off, but it is still worth thinking about the legacy we may be
leaving to the generations that follow us.
SOLUTION
Some solutions to the greenhouse effect are reducing pollution and carbon
emissions. Another way is to go green with our technologies, like with power plants
and transportation.
We have to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. (This means cutting
down on burning fossil fuels. Finding new ways of producing electricity. Reducing our
use of electricity till we do.)
And we have to plant more trees, millions and millions more.
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OZONE LAYER
The ozone layer or ozone shield refers to a region of Earth's stratosphere that
absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It contains high concentrations
of ozone (O3) relative to other parts of the atmosphere, although still very small
relative to other gases in the stratosphere.
ACID RAIN
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic,
meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have
harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure.
OZONE LAYER DEPLETION
Ozone layer depletion, is simply the wearing out (reduction) of the amount of ozone
in the stratosphere. Unlike pollution, which has many types and causes, Ozone
depletion has been pinned down to one major human activity.
Industries that manufacture things like insulating foams, solvents, soaps, cooling
things like Air Conditioners, Refrigerators and Take-Away containers use something
called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These substances are heavier than air, but over
time, (2-5years) they are carried high into the stratosphere by wind action.
Depletion begins when CFCs get into the stratosphere. Ultra violet radiation from
the sun breaks up these CFCs. The breaking up action releases Chlorine atoms.
Chlorine atoms react with Ozone, starting a chemical cycle that destroys the good
ozone in that area. One chlorine atom can break apart more than 100,000 ozone
molecules.
The Causes of Ozone Depletion
Scientific evidence indicates that stratospheric ozone is being destroyed by a group
of manufactured chemicals, containing chlorine and/or bromine. These chemicals
are called "ozone-depleting substances" (ODS).
ODS are very stable, nontoxic and environmentally safe in the lower atmosphere,
which is why they became so popular in the first place. However, their very stability
allows them to float up, intact, to the stratosphere. Once there, they are broken
apart by the intense ultraviolet light, releasing chlorine and bromine. Chlorine and
bromine demolish ozone at an alarming rate, by stripping an atom from the ozone
molecule. A single molecule of chlorine can break apart thousands of molecules of
ozone.
What's more, ODS have a long lifetime in our atmosphere up to several centuries.
This means most of the ODS we've released over the last 80 years are still making
their way to the stratosphere, where they will add to the ozone destruction.
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The main ODS are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorcarbons (HCFCs),

carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform. Halons (brominated fluorocarbons) also
play a large role. Their application is quite limited: they're used in specialized fire
extinguishers. But the problem with halons is they can destroy up to 10 times as
much ozone as CFCs can. For this reason, halons are the most serious ozonedepleting group of chemicals emitted in British Columbia.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are being developed to replace CFCs and HCFCs, for
uses such as vehicle air conditioning. HFCs do not deplete ozone, but they are
strong greenhouse gases. CFCs are even more powerful contributors to global
climate change, though, so HFCs are still the better option until even safer
substitutes are discovered.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average
temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to
be permanently changing the Earth's climate.
CAUSES
1. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants
2. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning gasoline for transportation
3. Methane emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies,
and from Arctic seabeds
4. Deforestation, especially tropical forests for wood, pulp, and
farmland
5. Increase in usage of chemical fertilizers on croplands
EFFECTS
1.
2.
3.
4.

Rise in sea levels worldwide

More killer storms
Massive crop failures
Widespread extinction of species

5. Disappearance of coral reefs

ORIGIN OF GLOBAL WARMING AND GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) was a Swedish scientist that was the first to claim in
1896 that fossil fuel combustion may eventually result in enhanced global
warming. He proposed a relation between atmospheric carbon
dioxide concentrations and temperature. He found that the average surface
temperature of the earth is about 15oC because of the infrared absorption capacity
of water vapor and carbon dioxide. This is called the natural greenhouse effect.
Arrhenius suggested a doubling of the CO 2 concentration would lead to a 5oC
temperature rise. He and Thomas Chamberlin calculated that human activities
could warm the earth by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This research
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was a by-product of research of whether carbon dioxide would explain the causes
of the great Ice Ages. This was not actually verified until 1987.
After the discoveries of Arrhenius and Chamberlin the topic was forgotten for a
very long time. At that time it was thought than human influences were
insignificant compared to natural forces, such as solar activity and ocean
circulation. It was also believed that the oceans were such great carbon sinks that
they would automatically cancel out our pollution. Water vapor was seen as a
much more influential greenhouse gas.
In the 1940's there were developments in infrared spectroscopy for measuring
long-wave radiation. At that time it was proven that increasing the amount of
atmospheric carbon dioxide resulted in more absorption of infrared radiation. It
was also discovered that water vapor absorbed totally different types of radiation
than carbon dioxide. Gilbert Plass summarized these results in 1955. He concluded
that adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere would intercept infrared
radiation that is otherwise lost to space, warming the earth.
The argument that the oceans would absorb most carbon dioxide was still intact.
However, in the 1950's evidence was found that carbon dioxide has an
atmospheric lifetime of approximately 10 years. Moreover, it was not yet known
what would happen to a carbon dioxide molecule after it would eventually dissolve
in the ocean. Perhaps the carbon dioxide holding capacity of oceans was limited,
or carbon dioxide could be transferred back to the atmosphere after some time.
Research showed that the ocean could never be the complete sink for all
atmospheric CO2. It is thought that only nearly a third of anthropogenic CO 2 is
absorbed by oceans.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's Charles Keeling used the most modern
technologies available to produce concentration curves for atmospheric CO 2 in
Antarctica and Mauna Loa. These curves have become one of the major icons of
global warming. The curves showed a downward trend of global annual
temperature from the 1940's to the 1970's. At the same time ocean sediment
research showed that there had been no less than 32 cold-warm cycles in the last
2,5 million years, rather than only 4. Therefore, fear began to develop that a new
ice age might be near. The media and many scientists ignored scientific data of
the 1950's and 1960's in favor of global cooling.
In the 1980's, finally, the global annual mean temperature curve started to rise.
People began to question the theory of an upcoming new ice age. In the late
1980's the curve began to increase so steeply that the global warming theory
began to win terrain fast. Environmental NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations)
started to advocate global environmental protection to prevent further global
warming. The press also gained an interest in global warming. It soon became a
hot news topic that was repeated on a global scale. Pictures of smoke stags were
put next to pictures of melting ice caps and flood events. A complete media circus
evolved that convinced many people we are on the edge of a significant climate
change that has manynegative impacts on our world today. Stephen Schneider
had first predicted global warming in 1976. This made him one of the world's
leading global warming experts.
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In 1988 it was finally acknowledged that climate was warmer than any period
since 1880. The greenhouse effect theory was named and Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded by the United Nations Environmental
Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. This organization tries to
predict the impact of the greenhouse effect according to existing climate models
and literature information. The Panel consists of more than 2500 scientific and
technical experts from more than 60 countries all over the world. The scientists
are from widely divergent research fields including climatology, ecology,
economics, medicine, and oceanography. The IPCC is referred to as the largest
peer-reviewed scientific cooperation project in history. The IPCC released climate
change reports in 1992 and 1996, and the latest revised version in 2001.
In the 1990's scientists started to question the greenhouse effect theory, because
of major uncertainties in the data sets and model outcomes. They protested the
basis of the theory, which was data of global annual mean temperatures. They
believed that the measurements were not carried out correctly and that data from
oceans was missing. Cooling trends were not explained by the global warming
data and satellites showed completely different temperature records from the
initial ones. The idea began to grow that global warming models had
overestimated the warming trend of the past 100 years. This caused the IPCC to
review their initial data on global warming, but this did not make them reconsider
whether the trend actually exists. We now know that 1998 was globally the
warmest year on record, followed by 2002, 2003, 2001 and 1997. The 10 warmest
years on record have all occurred since 1990.
The climate records of the IPCC are still contested by many other scientists,
causing new research and frequent responses to skeptics by the IPCC. This global
warming discussion is still continuing today and data is constantly checked and
renewed. Models are also updated and adjusted to new discoveries and new
theory.
So far not many measures have been taken to do something about climate
change. This is largely caused by the major uncertainties still surrounding the
theory. But climate change is also a global problem that is hard to solve by single
countries. Therefore in 1998 the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. It
requires participating countries to reduce their anthropogenic greenhouse gas
emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6) by at least 5% below 1990 levels in
the commitment period 2008 to 2012. The Kyoto Protocol was eventually signed in
Bonn in 2001 by 186 countries. Several countries such as the United States and
Australia have retreated.
From 1998 onwards the terminology on the greenhouse effect started to change as
a result of media influences. The greenhouse effect as a term was used fewer and
fewer and people started to refer to the theory as either global warming or climate
change.
HOW DOES OZONE LAYER DEPLETION AFFECT GLOBAL WARMING
The hole in the ozone layer in the earths upper atmosphere (stratosphere) reduces the greenhouse effect
because ozone is a greenhouse gas. However, ozone is needed in the stratosphere where it occurs naturally to
filter out harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is created by chemical reactions between pollutants and sunlight.
Ozone in the troposphere is dangerous to human health because it can cause lung damage and other
cardiopulmonary problems when breathed.

TYPHOON SIGNAL WARNINGS

Public Storm Warning Signal No. 1

Meteorological Conditions
- A tropical cyclone will affect the locality.
- Winds of 30 - 60 kilometers per hour (kph) may be expected in at
least 36
hours or intermittent rains may be expected within 36 hours. (When the
tropical cyclone develops very close to the locality - a shorter lead time of
the
occurrence of the winds will be specified in the warning bulletin)

Impact of the Winds

- Twigs and branches of small trees may be broken.
- Some banana plants may be tilted or downed.
- Some houses of very light materials (nipa and cogon) may be partially
unroofed.
- Unless this warning signal is upgraded during the entire existence of the
tropical
cyclone, only very light or no damage at all may be sustained by the
exposed
communities.
- Rice crop, however, may suffer significant damage when it is in its
flowering
stage.
Precautionary Measures
- When the tropical cyclone is strong or is intensifying and is moving closer,
this
signal may be upgraded to the next higher level.
- The waves on coastal waters may gradually develop and become bigger
and
higher.

- The people are advised to listen to the latest severe weather

bulletin issued by
PAGASA every six (6) hours. In the meantime, business may be carried
out as
usual except when floods occur.
- Disaster preparedness is activated to alert status.

Public Storm Warning Signal No. 2

Meteorological Conditions
- A tropical cyclone will affect the locality.
- Winds of greater than 60 kph and up to 100 kph may be expected in at
least
24 hours.
Impact of the Winds
- Some coconut trees may be tilted with few others broken.
- Few big trees may be uprooted.
- Many banana plants may be downed.
- Rice and corn may be adversely affected.
- Large number of nipa and cogon houses may be partially or totally
unroofed.
- Some old galvanized iron roofings may be peeled off.
- In general, the winds may bring light to moderate damage to the
exposed
communities.
Precautionary Measures
- The sea and coastal waters are dangerous to small seacrafts.
- Special attention should be given to the latest position, the direction and
speed of movement and the intensity of the storm as it may intensify and
move towards the locality.
- The general public especially people traveling by sea and air are
cautioned
to avoid unnecessary risks.
- Outdoor activities of children should be postponed.
- Secure properties before the signal is upgraded.
- Disaster preparedness agencies/organization are in action to alert their
communities.
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Public Storm Warning Signal No. 3

Meteorological Conditions
- A tropical cyclone will affect the locality.
- Winds greater than 100 kph up to 185 kph may be expected in at least
18 hours.
Impact of the Winds
- Many coconut trees may be broken or destroyed.
- Almost all banana plants may be downed and a large number of trees
may be
uprooted.
- Rice and corn crops may suffer heavy losses.
- Majority of all nipa and cogon houses may be unroofed or destroyed and
there
may be considerable damage to structures of light to medium
construction.
- There may be widespread disruption of electrical power and
communication
services (including the Internet).
- In general, moderate to heavy damage may be expected, practically in
the
agricultural and industrial sectors.
Precautionary Measures
- The disturbance is dangerous to the communities threatened / affected.
- The sea and coastal waters will be very dangerous to all types of
seacrafts.
- Travel is very risky especially by sea and air.
- People are advised to seek shelter in strong buildings, evacuate low-lying
areas
and to stay away from the coasts and river banks.
- Watch out for the passage of the "eye" of the typhoon indicated by a
sudden
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occurrence of fair weather immediately after very bad weather with very
strong
winds coming generally from the north.
- When the "eye" of the typhoon hit the community, do not venture
away from the
safe shelter because after one(1) to two(2) hours - the worst weather will
resume
with the very strong winds coming from the south.
- Classes in all levels should be suspended and children should stay in the
safety
of strong buildings and evacuation centers.
- Disaster preparedness and response agencies / organizations are in action
with
appropriate response to actual emergency.

Public Storm Warning Signal No. 4

Meteorological Condition
- A very intense typhoon will affect the locality.
- Very strong winds of more than 185 kph may be expected in at least 12
hours.
Impact of the Winds
- Coconut plantation may suffer extensive damage.
- Many large trees may be uprooted.
- Rice and corn plantation may suffer severe losses.
- Most residential and institutional buildings of mixed construction may be
severely damaged.
- Electrical power distribution and communication services
(including Internet)
may be severely disrupted.
- In the overall, damage to affected communities can be very heavy.
Precautionary Measures
- The situation is potentially very destructive to the community.
- All travels and outdoor activities should be canceled.
- Evacuation to much safer shelters should have been completed since it
may
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be too late under this situation.

- With PSWS No. 4, the locality is very likely to be hit directly by the "eye"
of
the typhoon. As the "eye" of the typhoon approaches, the weather will
continuously worsen with the winds increasing to its strongest coming
generally
from the north. Then a sudden improvement of the weather with light
winds
(a lull) will be experienced. This means that the "eye" of the typhoon is
over the
locality. This improved weather may last for one(1) to two(2) hours depending
on the diameter of the "eye" and the speed of movement. As the "eye"
moves
out of the locality, the worst weather experienced before the lull will
suddenly
commence. This time the very strong winds will come generally from
the south.
- The Disaster Coordinating Councils concerned and other disaster
response
organizations are now fully responding to emergencies and in full
readiness
to immediately response to possible calamity

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