- Earth is not cooling rapidly due to the greenhouse effect. When sun’s radiation is incident on the Earth’s surface, some of it is absorbed and some of it is radiated back to the atmosphere. However, some of the leaving radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapour, and methane, retaining the heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect which hence explains why the earth isnt cooling rapidly despite more energy leaving the earth’s surface as compared to energy striking the earth’s surface.
- The statement is incorrect. Global warming refers to the increased temperature of the earth’s surface due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases. While this results in the warming of the earth’s surface on average, certain regions may experience the physical symptoms of a warmer climate while others may not in the long run. For example,in 2006, the presence of an unfrozen and liquid form of Lake Erie due to the warmer temperature resulted in an increased in evaporation and precipitation. This eventually led to more snowfall in the long run. Thus, a hallmark of global warming is aberrant and extreme weather conditions(cold or hot), which is more extreme than what is observed on a historical basis. Hence even though some locations observe severe winter conditions, it does not disprove that global warming is indeed happening.
- A radar device works by emitting a radiation of a specific wavelength and receiving back the same radiation after it bounces off an object. Distance is tracked by the time taken for the emitted radiation to be received. However, since water molecules in the atmosphere absorb the microwave radiation, causing the rotation of water molecules, this occurrence results in an interference preventing the radiation to effectively reach the intended object and back to the receiver to display the result.
- In the short run, the more serious problem will be that of air quality. Noxious gas emitted by factories and coal-fired power plants can cause severe respiratory problems and health issues which are especially severe for people with existing respiratory problems. The haze issue in Indonesia caused by burning of forests, have already been believed to be the cause of 100,000 deaths. This is due to the particulate matters that accumulate in lungs and chokes up airways.In the long run, the more serious problem will be that of global warming. Global warming causes a myriad of problems ranging from increasing sea levels that will eventually inundate low-lying islands, more sever hurricanes due to warmer sea temperatures that hurricanes feed off their energy from, extreme weather conditions that threatens livelihoods such as agriculture and farming due to severe droughts or flooding.