Contemporary Issues in Business (Individual Report) Essay

Contemporary Issues in Business (Individual Report) - Essay Example Over long periods of geological time, the earth’s climate has been constantly changing in response to the tilt and shape of the earth’s orbit as it moves around the sun, the strength and intensity of the sun coupled with the composition of the earth’s atmosphere, the basic shape and position of the continents. There has been strong evidence that some human activities such as the use of fossil fuels are responsible for the constant emission of harmful greenhouse gases that are now causing an increase in the earths temperate in addition to other changes in climate (Richter 2010). Greenhouse emissions are currently projected to increase significantly within the next few decades which will cause an increase in global temperatures and subsequently put to great risk the human society and natural environment worldwide (Pedersen and Nordic Council of Ministers 2000). Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect The temperature on the surface of the earth is largely determine d by the balance between the energy that is constantly re-radiated to space from the earth mostly in the form of infra-red radiation and the energy that comes from the sun which is seen to be in the form of visible radiation (sunlight). When the sunlight passes through the earth’s atmosphere, it has relatively very little warming effect but when it finally manages to come into contact with the earth’s surface, it warms it and the earth in turn warms the atmosphere by both convection and via emission of infra-red radiation which are absorbed by the greenhouse gases (R.I.C. Publications 2007). The greenhouse gases eventually return some of the infra-red radiation back to the earth’s surface which ends up further warming the earth’s surface. An analogy of this chain of events is often made with reference to greenhouses which generally allow sunshine to pass through their clear plastic or glass which in turns stop the heat that is inside the green house from escaping into the atmosphere and hence the use of the term â€Å"greenhouse effect† (R.I.C. Publications 2007). Fossil Fuels and the change in Climate System Fossil fuels are formed when the bodies of living organisms die and remain compressed and heated over extremely long periods of time to form natural gases, oil and coal. When burned, fossil fuels are seen to produce significant amounts of energy a factor which causes them to be considered as an extremely valuable energy source. However, the burning of these fossil fuels produces the emission of carbon dioxide, resulting in the introduction into the carbon cycle of carbon that would have otherwise still remained trapped in the earth’s geosphere (Downie, Brash and Vaughan 2009). It is currently estimated that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for adding to the atmosphere an estimated 3.2 billion metric tons of carbon. Because the earth’s carbon cycle is unable to absorb all of this excess carbon bein g released into the atmospher