Earth In Danger

The Earth’s six billion people are all using the planet’s resources of materials and energy. As we use up these resources, we produce vast quantities of waste. These actions can disrupt the natural patterns of the biosphere, and upset the fine balances in the natural world. For example, changes to the cycles of gases in the biosphere can have far-reaching effects that people sometimes do not notice until it is too late. Scientists argue about the importance of these effects, some saying that they are terrible and others that they are really quite unimportant. But most scientists agree that humans are pumping too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by running cars and by polluting with factories and heavy industry. The extra carbon dioxide seems to be causing a rise of temperatures all around the world known as the enhanced greenhouse effect. This, in turn, seems to be causing sea levels to rise as the polar ice caps melt, affecting the World’s climate and weather patterns.

Greenhouse Effect

Burning fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas, because it collects high in the atmosphere and traps some of the Sun’s energy underneath it, like a greenhouse. This ‘greenhouse effect’ is natural, and controls the Earth’s temperature. But too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could lead to the Earth warming up too much. This could cause the polar ice caps to melt. Sea levels would then rise, flooding many cities. Wee need to use less electricity and to share public transport to reduce the discharge of polluting gases

Eco Facts

The population of the world has doubled, from three billion to six billion, in the last 30 years.

An apple core normally takes about a week to decay, while a plastic bag may take hundreds of years

Ozone – a naturally occurring gas in the atmosphere – protects life on Earth from the harmful effect of ultraviolet radiation. Some gases produce in factories reduce or ‘deplete’ the amount of ozone in the atmosphere.