The way land is used can have an affect on global warming. The kinds of plants, animals, or minerals set upon a plot of land render it different from other plots of land. It is these differences that can be explored to help you gain an understanding of global warming.
Forests are an important use of land in most countries. This is true for many reasons, but when it comes to global warming, it is particularly true. Plant life can scrub carbon dioxide from the air. Much of the very carbon dioxide that is one of the causes of global warming can be eliminated just by being in the vicinity of certain plants.
Trees are the best carbon dioxide scrubbers there are in nature. Old growth trees are especially good at removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it within their cells. For this reason, old growth trees need to be protected from the lumber jack's blade.
While the lumber trade argues that the old growth trees can be easily replaced by new trees, this is simply not the case. New trees do not possess the abilities that old trees have of preventing global warming by trapping carbon dioxide.
Some proponents of cutting suggest that certain new trees are capable of trapping more greenhouse gases than the old trees. The truth is that, even if this is true, it is not true when you compare the new special trees to any trees that have many decades of growth. To prevent global warming, you need trees with some substance to them.
One law was proposed to stop logging and road building in the forest to prevent global warming. This particular law was to protect a large amount of forest-approximately 13 million acres on ancient forest. Most of this forest was so unspoiled that it did not even have any roads at all. This law would also ban clear-cutting, a practice that totally destroys acres upon acres of old growth trees.
Several studies have been done to estimate the amount potential global warming caused by the deforestation of tropical rainforests. Loggers do not just take out mature trees for lumber. People who want to clear a place to live, work, or farm in the jungle clear the forest by cutting and burning large portions of the rainforest.
As if this was not enough, other greenhouse gases are increased by deforestation. These include methane and nitrous oxide. Global warming is foreseeable when people greedily take the rainforest and other forests for their own purposes.
It seems that, by the figures in these studies, global warming prevention should focus on the green house emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels first. However, the deforestation comes in a close second in causes for global warming.
People can stop this dependence on old growth trees for lumber. There are many different building materials available to be used. It does not upset the balance of nature when you build with stone, for example. Also, furniture can be made from other materials. When people learn that forests are important in stopping global warming, they can help the situation by refusing to use lumber that comes from old growth forests and the rainforest.
Global Warming Related Articles
It seems that people are coming from all directions to make movies about global warming. Many people are moved to educate people about the subject and want to reach the widest possible audience. Books do not hold the appeal they once did. Now, people want to sit down and watch a movie to understand subjects like global warming.
Although Al Gore has a book by the same name, most people know An Inconvenient Truth as a feature length documentary movie. The movie boils down to a power-point presentation that Gore has given many times on the subject of global warming. Al Gore simply presents facts in a low-key, personable way. The film includes some biographical information about Al Gore, too.
The 60 Minutes documentary, The Age of Warming, which aired April 1, 2007, is a must-see for those interested in global warming. In it, correspondent Scott Pelley explores Antarctica to find evidence of global warming. There, Pelley finds that the Adelie and Chinstrap penguins are being endangered by loss of habitat. He also finds glaciers that are in the process of rapid melting into lakes. It is an eye opener.
Some fictional movies have been made with the theme of global warming. One is The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. While the science may not be precisely or even nearly right, the special effects are fantastic. It is a good old-fashioned disaster flick with all kinds of natural disasters. Bring out the popcorn, but do not expect to be educated.
An Earth Story, starring Ross Gelbspan and John Hutchison is another of those documentary-type movies. It tells the story about all those scary predictions of climate change due to global warming. The sub-title is An Alternative to Extinction. That alone should explain how dramatic this movie is. The solutions to global warming are equally dramatic.
Not exactly a traditional movie, Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris' Crisis as Opportunity: Living Better on a Hotter Planet is unique. Instead of being distraught and woeful, Sahtouris views global warming as a natural evolutionary process. She sees it as a beneficial challenge that will help people learn to live together as they never have before.
Energy Crossroads: A burning need to change course, is a documentary movie about the energy crisis. It deals with the amount of oil that will be left in the future and the different ways to overcome that crisis. However, a good part of this movie is devoted to a study of how energy issues are tied to global warming. It points to global warming as one of the reasons humans need to make changes.
There is a set of movies called the Secrets of the Millennium. Probably the best of this series is the one with information on global warming. It is titled Secrets of the Millennium: Man vs. Nature: Who Will Win? It dramatically exposes humans' desires to control earth, while letting things get out of hand environmentally at the same time.
Many celebrities have made their own movies on global warming. Some of them are not available for viewing yet, and some of them can be seen on the internet. One example is global warming films by Leonardo DiCaprio that can be viewed on his website. As the reality of global warming sets in, more movies will certainly deal with the subject.
Global Warming Related Articles
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