Articles Ms Dyer gave us to read

Hi All,

I'm going to post about the articles Ms Dyer gave us to read on, about my feelings, thoughts, and general outlines for those who have not read the articles. Below are my thought processes and what I think might happen in future.

Currently, nitrogen plays a very important role in the future of Earth's 'health condition'. Its effects came in when farmers use artificial, chemical nitrogen fertilizers for their crops, as most of the time, they use an excess amount of fertilizers, which results in the release of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. This release of excess nitrogen, alongside with the heavy emission of carbon into our atmosphere, causes global warming to take place, and global warming is the warming of the whole globe. This greenhouse gas in the atmosphere traps heat from the Sun inside the Earth, and causes an overall increase in Earth's temperature. Another example which claims to be a 'missing greenhouse gas', is nitrogen trifluoride, is 17000 times more potent than CO2. When plants and animals die, nitrogen is passed into the soil and the nitrogen in the soil nourishes plants on land and seas into bodies of water. Examples of these bodies of waters include the tundra's permafrost. When the arctic warms, the tundra's permafrost will thaw, and the soil releases carbon and nitrogen into the atmosphere. With too much nitrogen, eutrophication might occur, and this allows foul-smelling algae to bloom and cause toxic 'dead zones'. To counter all these problems, a Copenhagen agreement has been agreed by the EU. If the agreement is not executed well, global warming will continue to worsen. One such example is that of animals not being able to adapt to the hot environment and will die of the heat. Another example is that of the ice caps melting and causing overall water levels to rise globally, which might cause low-lying countries to be submerged underwater. We should all try to do our best to maintain current living conditions and the Earth will not be 'sick' as a result of our actions. Small actions like conserving energy by simply switching off lights and fans when they are not in use, or bigger scale actions like using a right amount of fertilizers for farmers so that excess nitrogen is not given out t the atmosphere. If everyone does their fair share, our Earth will be more alive than ever!

Benjamin