How Green Is Our Valley?

Green is many things to many people. - In fashion it may be the colour d’jour. - In energy it will be the color of the century.- In “Sesame Street” green is Kermit’s favorite color, or not, as he has said in the song, “It’s not easy being green.”

And it won’t be easy to convert all our energy use to green power to stop polluting the air – and primarily to cease creating those additions to the “Greenhouse Gases” that have been unduly increasing the temperature of our planet.

We’ve all seen the picture of the earth as a huge greenhouse. The atmosphere that surrounds it is the “glass” that keeps some heat from escaping. Green House Gases (GHG) are essential in determining the temperature of the Earth. Without them the world to be too cold for human habitation.

The most abundant greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere? In order,

Water vapor 36-70% (include cloud contributions)
Carbon dioxide 9-26%
Methane 4-9%
Ozone 3-7%

And there are many other contributors that provide smaller amounts.

So the current problem is not with basic greenhouse gases but with the impact that human activity has had in the last 200 years that is leading to what is called anthropogenic warming. It is this human contribution that has had a measureable effect on several climate factors including excess carbon dioxide and freshwater industries and food supply and health conditions.

The impact of human behavior comes from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, both leading to higher carbon dioxide; livestock and manure management; paddy rice farming, land use and wetland changes; use of chlorofluorocarbons in refrigeration systems and manufacturing; agricultural activities that lead to higher concentration of nitrous oxide.

There are seven sources of C02 from fossil fuel usage by humans:
Coal and other solid fuels 35%
Gasoline, oil and other liquid fuels 36%
Natural gas and similar fuels 20%
Cement production 3%
International “bunkers” of shipping and air transport 4%
Others with minor impact 2%

In coming days we will discuss the 91% of human fossil fuel damage and how much of that ecological peril is American-born. And how water can clean up the mess.