Global Warming

In 1859, John Tyndall researched what cause's the earth to become too warm. The result of his study was the emission of gasses such as: methane, carbon dioxide, ethane, propane, and butane are absorbed and trap heat into earth's atmosphere. A few years later August Arrhenius labeled Tyndall's discovery; the "greenhouse effect". He then stated the burning of fossil fuels will contribute to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in years to come. Arrhenius theory was proven to be correct in 1938 by Guy Callendar. Callendar looked at previous weather records and noticed a constant increase in earth's temperature over years. Human contribution to greenhouse gases was not discovered till later years. The first discovery was the destruction of forests, biologist G. E. Hutchinson discovered tree's use carbon dioxide to make food; when deforestation occurs tree's are cut down releasing carbon dioxide into the air which rises into the atmosphere. During the beginning of the 70’s era, people started to utilize weeds, crop wastes, and solid waste to convert into methane gas. The methane gas was then converted into energy. At the time the main focus was to control pollution and create energy, the problem was thought to be solved but created a much larger problem for the future. It was not until 1975 scientists and researches came to the realization; some human made products such as hairspray, plastic bags, plastic bottles, house hold cleaning products, and much more pose a threat to the ozone layer.

Recent studies prove the earth's temperature continues to rise, "the planet has reportedly warmed 0.3 degree Celsius to 0.6 degree Celsius over the last century" (Unknown author, 2010. P.462). Human's in the United States are contributing to global warming without realizing. One of the biggest contributors to gas emissions come from common household operations such as; heating, lighting, and appliances. According to Joshua Westmoreland; "Human-induced-global warming is mostly attributable to the utilization of combustion-powered machines" (Westmoreland, 2010. P.229). The United States stands at the top of the ranking for contributing carbon emissions. In Report 5: How Do We Individually Contribute To Global Warming, a graph is shown comparing the amount of carbon emissions by countries. The United States is said to emit 20 tons while China is further down in line emitting 2.7 tons. This may not seem like a massive difference to some but compare the U.S. population to China. The current population of the United States is said to be around 290 million while China is at 1.3 billion; the average American emits around seven times more than an average Chinese. With that in mind, what is the United States plans to lower the amount of gas emissions?

In article II, Section I of the United States constitution there is a Vesting Clause. The clause gives the president complete power to execute a law and control actions of executive agencies. Since the power lies in the president’s hands, he should be required to take action on working towards less gas emissions.

In 2001 Bush administration requested further studying to be done about global warming; the study affirmed global warming has been in affect the last 20 years. According to the same study the planet's temperature will rise anywhere from 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Current president, Barack Obama recently proposed a plan to deal with global warming. The plan would require transportation fuels to decrease the amount of carbon 5% every 5 years. Obama also is interested in creating a carbon credit system. The system would give a certain amount of carbon credits to fuel providers and allow them to sell any extra credits to anyone that needed more. If a provider needed more credits but could not find anywhere to purchase them they would be able to borrow more but would have to cut back in future months to make up for credits borrowed.

Many hope president Obama will follow the Clean Air Act (CAA) that was passed by Supreme Court in Massachusetts. If put into action in the United States, the Clean Air Act would initiate the process to control greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions. The CAA defines the Environmental Protection Agencies responsibilities for protecting and regulating gas emissions.






Bibliography:
1.) Spencer Weart, January 27, 2009. The Discovery of Global Warming, American Institute of Physics.
2.) Unknown Author, 2010. Global Environmental Concepts. P. 130-147. Chad Country Review.
3.) Ng, Kim Choon & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2010. Application of Absorption Technologies for Energy Efficientcy. Vol. 31 Issue 11, p907-909, Heat Transferring Engineering. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&jid=B7G&site=ehost-live
4.) Demirbas, Ayhan, July 2010. Methane hydrates as potential energy resource: Part 1 - Importance, resource and recovery facilities, Vol. 51 Issue 7, p1547-1561. Energy & Conservation Management. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&jid=JDT&site=ehost-live
5.) Bayliss (April 2008). Putting the Puzzle Together. Vol. 7 Issue 4, p. 14-15, 2p. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=prh&AN=31576582&site=ehost-live
6.) Joshua Westmoreland (2010). Global Warming and Orginalism: The Role of the Epa in the Obama Administration. Vol. 37 Issue 1, p. 225-256. Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48650843&site=ehost-live
7.) Chris Weisbrot (2004). Report 5: How Do We Contribute Individually To Global Warming? Retrieved May 7, 2010 from Hinkle Charitable Foundations website: http://www.thehcf.org/emaila5.html