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Friday, January 26, 2007

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Greenhouse gases are the very serious problem for earth now a days-----

Greenhouse Effect

What is Greenhouse effect: The effect produced as greenhouse gases allow incoming solar radiation to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, but prevent most of the outgoing infrared radiation from the surface and lower atmosphere from escaping into outer space. This process occurs naturally and has kept the Earth's temperature about 60 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would otherwise be. Current life on Earth could not be sustained without the natural greenhouse effect.


The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases.

The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.


Greenhouse Effect is need of atmosphere ?

The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.

Greenhouse Gases :
Any gas that absorbs infra-red radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), halogenated fluorocarbons (HCFCs) , ozone (O3), perfluorinated carbons (PFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

NOTE -
For better understanding of Global Warming and Greenhouse effect, a Animated diagram of the greenhouse effect for teachers and students availeble at :

http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/diagrams/greenhouse/
and also visit
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7h.html
http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Global Warming Prediction

Global warming prediction during 21st century



The geographic distribution of surface warming during the 21st century calculated by the HadCM3 climate model if a business as usual scenario is assumed for economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. In this figure, the globally averaged warming corresponds to 3.0 °C (5.4 °F).

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

What is Global Warming

Definitions of Global Warming:
Global warming is a Black truth of Human progress which is the dangerous for his existance and it is due to the excess (unlimited)use of natural resources and we can say this is also the black face of chemistry which made by human being from his selfish nature.
Lots of definitions for Global Warming inn defferent words:

* A gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere reportedly caused by the burning of fossil fuels and industrial pollutants.



* The progressive gradual rise of the earth's surface temperature thought to be caused by the greenhouse effect and responsible for changes in global climate patterns. An increase in the near surface temperature of the Earth. Global warming has occurred in the distant past as the result of natural influences, but the term is most often used to refer to the warming predicted to occur as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases.

* Global warming is the gradual increase in global temperatures caused by the emission of gases that trap the sun's heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Gases that contribute to global warming include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and halocarbons (the replacements for CFCs). The carbon dioxide emissions are primarily caused by the use of fossil fuels for energy.

* an increase of the earth's temperature by a few degrees resulting in an increase in the volume of water which contributes to sea-level rise

# Strictly speaking, global warming and global cooling refer to the natural warming and cooling trends that the earth has experienced all through its history. However, the term "global warming" has become a popular term encompassing all aspects of the global warming problem, including the potential climate changes that will be brought about by an increase in global temperatures.

# Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. Greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by trapping energy inside the atmosphere. ...

# An overall increase in world temperatures which may be caused by additional heat being trapped by greenhouse gases.

* The greenhouse effect acts to warm the plant and increase average global temperatures. This is seen as a major environmental hazard as average temperatures rise, leading to a possible change in weather patterns and agricultural output. This also may lead to melting of the polar ice-cap and a corresponding rise in sea level (Martin et al, 2000).
# an increase in the temperature of the Earth's surface caused by trapping infrared radiation in carbon dioxide, increased amounts of which are produced by burning fossil fuels.
* The gradual warming of the earth due to the "greenhouse effect".
# An increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere, especially a sustained increase sufficient to cause climatic change. Most scientists believe that a rise in carbon dioxide levels (caused by automobile, power plant, and other emissions) will lead to further global warming.

* the hypothesis that Earth's atmosphere is warming because of the release of "greenhouse gases," such as carbon dioxide. These gases are released into the air from burning gas, oil, coal, wood and other resources which then holds heat in an action similar to the walls of a greenhouse.

# Also called climate change. The slow increase of the Earth's surface temperature. It has resulted from both natural causes such as warming during an interglacial period and from the increased release of human-made greenhouse gases into the air through the burning of fossil fuels. Extreme or abrupt changes in climate may also occur, rather than just gradual warming.

* An increase in the Earth's temperature caused by human activities, such as burning coal, oil and natural gas. This releases carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases form a blanket around the Earth, trapping heat and raising temperatures on the ground. This is steadily changing our climate. See Also Greenhouse Gas,

# Is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases. Sustained increases in atmospheric temperature may result in climatic change.

* The steady, documented rise in the Earth’s average surface temperature over the last century. The trend is largely attributable to the increased accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change believed to be linked to global warming (eg, more frequent droughts, new hurricane patterns, melting of glaciers) is already occurring in some regions of the globe.

# Increased levels of gases such as carbon dioxide that trap heat in the earth's lower atmosphere potentially causing global warming

* The earth has warmed up by about 0.6ºC in the last 100 years. During this period, human emissions of greenhouse gases have increased, largely as a result of the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Scientists now think that these increased emissions, leading to the enhanced greenhouse effect, are the cause of global warming.

# Heating that occurs when carbon dioxide traps the Sun’s heat near Earth’s surface, causing Earth’s temperature to rise.

* As a result of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations the global average surface temperature is rising. Weather patterns are changing as temperatures rise with more frequent incidencies of floods and drought.

# The view that the earth's temperature is being increased, in part, due to emissions of greenhouse gases associated with human activities such as burning fossil fuels, biomass burning, cow and sheep rearing, deforestation and other land use changes. (see climate change, Kyoto Protocol and UNFCCC).

* The expected consequence of an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases by human activity (see greenhouse gases).

# The theoretical increase of global temperatures caused by the greenhouse effect.

* Changes in the surface-air temperature, referred to as the global temperature, brought about by the greenhouse effect which is induced by emission of greenhouse gases into the air.

# an increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere (especially a sustained increase that causes climatic changes)

* Global warming is a term used to describe an increase over time of the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Global warming theories attempt to account for the rise in average global temperatures since the late 19th century (0.6 ± 0.2°C) and assess the extent to which the effects are due to human causes. ...


For more detail some web may wisit:
-www.dairynet.com/kids/gloss.html
-weather.ncbuy.com/glossary.html
-www.airdfw.com/heating-glossary.htm
-www.climatechangecentral.com/default.asp
-www.ecohealth101.org/glossary.html
-www.ac.wwu.edu/~gisele/glossary.html
-www.dantes.info/Projectinformation/Glossary/Glossary.html
-wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

Killer Lakes

When Mount Nyiragongo erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2002 it seemed like a disaster. Molten lava plunged down the hillside and poured into nearby Lake Kivu. Many died, and much of the city of Goma was destroyed. In fact, the local people were lucky. Had the eruption spread to one of the many volcanic faults under Lake Kivu, it could have unleashed one of the most terrifying of all natural phenomena - lake overturn.


Death by suffocation

The phenomenon of lake overturn first struck in 1984 at Lake Monoun, in Cameroon. 37 people mysteriously died, suddenly and silently. A bizarre array of theories sprang up - secret testing of chemical weapons, a massacre by unknown terrorists; none really made sense. The scientists who looked into the disaster believed it had to be something to do with the lake itself, but they could not be absolutely sure.

In 1986, before research into the Monoun disaster was made public, it all happened again. The tragedy of Lake Nyos, also in Cameroon, made headlines around the world when almost 1,800 people sleeping in houses around the lake suffocated in their sleep. The team of scientists that went to investigate concluded that carbon dioxide, trapped at the bottom of the lake, had suddenly risen to the surface, killing everything within 25km. They called their theory lake overturn.
Releasing the pressure

Eventually the scientists came to realise that carbon dioxide(CO2) springs underground were pumping carbon dioxide into the lake and that the whole tragedy would be repeated if nothing was done. They installed an extraordinary fountain in the middle of the lake to help the gas disperse. Even so, the level of carbon dioxide in the waters remains a concern.

The Nyos disaster promoted a survey of deep lakes in Africa and Indonesia to see where else lake overturn could happen. All seem to be safe, except one - Lake Kivu, in Rwanda. Lake Kivu is one of the largest and deepest lakes in Africa and two million people live around its shore. It is also filling up with carbon dioxide, although it's not yet saturated with the deadly gas. The only thing that could trigger a gas release would be a massive geological event. Worryingly, Lake Kivu is sitting in an earthquake zone and surrounded by active volcanoes, including Mount Nyiragongo. If an eruption or an earthquake was to happen under the lake, then the effect could release millions of tons of asphyxiating gas into the surrounding areas. Until a solution is found, millions of lives could be at risk.

1985: Gas blast kills eight in Putney


10 January 1985 Eight people have been killed in an explosion in a prestigious block of flats in Putney, south-west London.
Dozens were also injured when the blast demolished Newnham House, a three-storey block of six flats on Manor Fields Estate in Putney Hill.

The blast has been compared to a 50lb bomb going off and has caused an estimated £250m worth of damage.

It is believed that the accident, which happened at 0715 GMT, was caused by a fractured cast iron main pipe below ground.

A number of residents smelt gas in their flats in the morning and contacted South East Gas Board.

In Context
Flats on the exclusive Manor Field estate were worth around £100,000 before the accident. Hours after the blast, police had to chase away looters who were trying to pick spoils from the ruins.
Police found a collection of plastic bags stuffed with £20 notes totalling thousands of pounds, among the debris.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, some residents claimed that it was linked to problems with a central heating system installed three years earlier. They complained that they had contacted the gas board on several occasions about possible gas leaks.

A government report concluded that the explosion was caused by gas leaking into the building from a crack in a cast-iron gas main.

An earlier government report had recommended that all cast iron pipes be replaced with PVC pipes. Before the blast, more than half of Britain's mains pipes, including those at Newnham, were still in cast iron.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Scotland Disaster



1988: Piper Alpha oil rig ablaze
A fire on a North Sea oil rig is feared to have claimed the lives of most of those on board.

The fire is believed to have started after explosions at about 2230 BST (2130 GMT) on the Piper Alpha drilling platform, 120 miles (193km) off the north-east coast of Scotland.

Helicopters and boats were immediately sent out to rescue the oil workers in an operation co-ordinated by the Aberdeen coastguard.

Pilots reported seeing an "inferno" up to 350ft (107m) high and a platform wrenched apart.

It is thought approximately 225 men were working on the rig owned by Occidental Oil.

Tragidy
A total of 167 people died in the Piper Alpha fire making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster.

Ukrainian mine disaster

Eighty die in Ukrainian mine disaster
Sunday, 12 March, 2000
In a coalmine in eastern Ukraine where eighty miners died in a methane gas(CH4) explosion.
It was the worst in a series of mine disasters in Ukraine since the country became independent when the Soviet Union broke up.

Belgium gas blast




Fifteen die in Belgium gas blast
A huge gas explosion in Belgium has killed 18 people and injured 120, many of them with serious burns.
The blast, at an industrial park about 30km (20 miles) south-west of Brussels, sent flames shooting into the air, and was felt over a wide area.
fire service spokesman at the scene near the town of Ath said the site of the explosion looked like a war zone.

Emergency services treated the blast as a major incident and troops helped with the disaster response.

A nearby motorway was closed and local residents were advised to stay indoors with their windows closed.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Fire at Australian gas plant


A series of explosions has severely damaged a gas processing plant in the Australian state of Victoria.
Two people were dead, and eight others were injured, one of them critically, according to officials.

About five blasts at the Esso plant at Sale, about 180km (110 miles) east of Melbourne, were followed by a large fire.

The plant, which supplies all gas and crude oil for Victoria, has been shut down.

"The air was filled completely with dense black smoke and flames,"
said Elizabeth McGuinness, who runs a glass and security door store a few kilometres away from the site.

Gas Disaster in China



A burst gas well spewed toxic fumes killing nearly 230 people : In China one more disaster occure due to chemical gas. A burst gas well spewed toxic fumes killing 230 people, Nearly 10,000 people were taken to hospitals suffering from poisoning and burns following Tuesday's blast.
'Zone of death'
It was China's worst industrial accident - described by Chinese media as a "zone of death".

Engineers on Saturday pumped 480 cubic metres of concrete into the well to seal it. But they need to wait for the concrete to dry until they can be sure there are no more leaks.


The BBC's Francis Markus in Shanghai says the region's climate is very foggy and it could take some time for the sulphurous gas to dissipate.

The work to seal the well had been delayed on Friday as the rescue operation continued and because of safety concerns.

Emergency teams had set the well alight to burn off the poison gas as a stopgap measure.
"Go all out to rescue victims, prevent poisonous gas from spreading further and reduce casualties"
-President Hu Jintao

Many of the confirmed dead are children or elderly people who were unable to flee after the explosion.

A local newspaper in Chongqing described peasants racing to get away after catching "a whiff of the smell of stinky duck eggs" - deadly sulphurated hydrogen.

Those who did not escape in time - including farm animals and fish - suffered burns to their skin and lungs from the gas.

China is notorious for dangerous working conditions at industrial plants.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Atomic Disaster in Japan






it was a not forgetable tragidy

THE ATTACK ON HIROSHIMA


0812 local time, 6 August 1945:
1. American B-29 bomber 'Enola Gay' approaches Hiroshima at an altitude of about 9,357 metres, and begins its bombing run
2. At 0815 it releases the atomic bomb 'Little Boy'
3. The aircraft then performs a sharp, 155 degree right turn and dives an estimated 518 metres
4. The bomb explodes with a force of 13 kilotons at a height of approximately 576 metres above the city
5. About a minute later the first shock wave, travelling at about 335 metres per second, hits the aircraft

Tragedies Due to Chemicals

Lots of tragedies come due to chemical industries and other facts, here i m trying to highlight these tragedy one bye one.

1. Bhopal gas tragedy :a very famous and sadness tragedy which occure in Bhopal (India).
Introduction Around 1 a.m. on Monday, the 3rd of December, 1984, in a densely populated region in the city of Bhopal, Central India, a poisonous vapor burst from the tall stacks of the Union Carbide pesticide plant. This vapor was a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate[Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is an organic compound with the molecular formula C2H3NO, arranged as H3C-N=C=O.]. Of the 800,000 people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 died immediately, and as many as 300,000 were injured. In addition, about 7,000 animals were injured, of which about one thousand were killed. “A series of studies made five years later showed that many of the survivors were still suffering from one or several of the following ailments: partial or complete blindness, gastrointestinal disorders, impaired immune systems, post traumatic stress disorders, and menstrual problems in women. A rise in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and offspring with genetic defects was also noted.” (The Bhopal Disaster) This incident we now refer to as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which has also been called “Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry” one of the worst commercial industrial disasters in history.(Cohen)