Mitigation Strategies and Solutions for Global warming:

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Detailed description of the problem:

Global warming is considered as one of the most significant environmental change that has been observed to occur throughout the world. The earth's atmosphere has turned out to become warmer than ever before due to increase in the level of greenhouse gases. Research has proved that human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels are the main reason for the problem of global warming. The impacts of environmental change which were predicted by scientists are already occurring in our environment in the form of increased droughts in some areas and flooding in others, rise in the ocean temperatures and sea levels, severe weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes, melting of glaciers and reducing icecaps, drying coral reefs, coastal erosion and loss of coastal ecosystems, indicating that global warming has set into the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its latest report in January 2001, states that "there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), in June 2001, concluded that "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures, are, in fact, rising." It added that "national policy decisions made now and in the longer-term future will influence the extent of any damage suffered by vulnerable human populations and ecosystems later in this century." These statements are more than sufficient for us to realize the seriousness with which the issue of global warming needs to be addressed in the present scenario in our society.

Nonliving and living factors that contribute to or are affected by the problem:

The cause for global warming in our society is mainly due to the addition of greenhouse gases especially carbon-di-oxide emissions at the rate of 86% to the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels, electricity generation, transportation, residential, commercial and industrial sources generate CO2 emissions. The other greenhouse gases that account for the remaining 14% of the emissions in include methane (from landfills, mining and agriculture), nitrous oxide (from combustion of fossil fuels, fertilizers). CO2 is mainly generated due to the generation of electricity by coal-fired power plants (Kopp, Raymond J, "Recent trends in U.S greenhouse gas emissions" Resources for the Future, 2006) and Electricity, energy information administration). Apartments and other residential buildings have a huge share (38%) in the consumption of electricity for various purposes followed by commercial establishments that consume 35% and the industrial sector, which consumes 28%. Transportation is also responsible for CO2 emissions in the form of passenger cars, light, medium and heavy-duty trucks. Here the maximum amount of emissions can be ...