Global warming; an undeniable fact but from diverse sources with different economic impacts

Abstract

The reality of global warming has come under constant scrutiny by the lay public and news reporters in the last few months - largely because of some unfortunate and illegal access to private emails sent between scientists foremost in this field and some errors of fact published by the IPCC in their latest reports. The most quoted reference is to the statement that all Himalayan glaciers may have melted by 2030 based on a guess by one Indian scientist who probably was over anxious about that possibility because of its implications for the livelihoods of the 600 million people that would be affected on the Gangetic plain. Yet undoubtedly the glacier are melting and the rivers they feed are so over utilized for irrigation and other uses that many now fail to reach their destination (sea or lake) during part of the year. Nevertheless, the degree and extent of the criticism has done much to make people more complacent about the dangers of global warming and resource depletion. In general, global warming is attributed to anthropogenic releases of carbon dioxide, methane and oxides of nitrogen and their accumulation in the atmosphere. This results in increased absorption in the planet's atmosphere of infra red radiations emitted from the earth's surface which in turn had been received from solar radiation. The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been gradually increasing; driven by the burning of fossil fuels to meet the energy needs of an increasing population and greater wealth. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, energy demand has continuously increased (almost exponentially) and this has been largely supplied by the combustion of the hydrocarbons, coal, natural gas and oil, that had been sequestered in various parts of the world's crust over millions of years. These reserves are finite and non-renewable.