The Swedish Climate Scientist - Svante Arrhenius Essay

The Swedish Climate Scientist - Svante Arrhenius - Essay Example Global warming is considered to depend upon two major factors: excessive emissions of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gases and fluctuations in temperature trends.  During the last decades of the 20th century, global warming was predominantly viewed as one of the numerous side effects of human activity. 99.9% of the overall atmospheric volume belongs to only three gases: nitrogen (78.09%), oxygen (20.95%), and argon (0.93%). However, the climate depends on these three major gases much less than it depends upon the remaining groups of gases that constitute only 0.01% of the Earth's atmosphere. These gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and ozone (O3) and they are known as "greenhouse gases or radiatively important trace species (RITS). They are radiatively important because they influence the radiation balance or net heat balance of the Earth" (Hardy, 2003: 3).  For nearly three centuries the mankind has been raising the concentration of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gases in the atmosphere. Numerous factories, fossil fuel power plants, and vehicles produce astonishing volumes of carbon dioxide; millions of tons of decomposing garbage coupled with a highly increased population of methane-belching cattle result in the release of excessive volumes of methane; nitrogen-containing fertilizers - the cornerstone of contemporary agriculture - raise the concentration of nitrogen oxide.  In figures, the rise seems rather impressive: while the preindustrial concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere did not exceed 280 ppm, these days the concentration of this gas is approximately 370 ppm which corresponds to more than 30 percent increase. The same tendency is observed in the concentration of other greenhouse gases.