Environmental Issues

Over the years global warming has been a fundamental challenge to the world as a whole. Various factors have contributed to this. Greenhouse gas emission has emerged as one of the major contributors to global warming. Gases that are released to the atmosphere as a result of human and non-human activities absorb the infrared radiations that are emitted by the earth. This is turn prevents the radiations from escaping into space and consequently global warming. The effects of the resultant global warming are enormous and negatively affect the world climate. This translates to epidemics, hunger but the most fundamental area affected is usually the agricultural sector which is a pillar to world life survival. This has called for the need to develop strategies that could help mitigate and solve the problems arising from this menace. This paper will therefore develop a mitigation plan for greenhouse gas emission.

The earths life is highly dependant on energy from the sun. About one third of the suns light is usually deflected before reaching the earths atmosphere. The rest however, makes contact with the earths surface and is reflected back in form of infrared radiations which are generally slow moving energy packets. While in the absence of green house gases these heat contained from the reflections would reach the outer sphere, these gases absorb them thus trapping their heat in the form of warm air blankets that eventually cover the earth (Raupach, 2007). This is basically what scientists have come to refer to as greenhouse emission. These greenhouse gases are however also vital as scientists believe that without them, the earths temperature would probably fall to as low as 30C which is far below the recommended temperature to sustain life (David, 2007). Despite the fact that they play such an important role, when such gases are released into the atmosphere in excessive quantities the raise the global temperature to levels that ultimately have negative impact on the earths atmosphere. It is therefore important that production of such gases is limited to levels that are friendly to human survival.

It is the resultant increase in temperature that has become of great concern. Over the years, there has been a steady rise in temperature as a result of greenhouse gases. The accelerating global warming has spelled the awaiting disasters ahead. It has been estimated that over the twentieth century, temperatures increased by approximately 0.6C. It is further estimated that by the end 21st century, the temperatures will have risen by 1.4C to 5.8C (David, 2007). This is critical and steps have to be taken to alleviate this devastating increase in temperature. This can be achieved if and only if the major activities both non-living and living that contribute to these emissions are identified and relevant mechanisms to control them are likewise identified. The major greenhouse gases emitted include carbon dioxide (CO2), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and other industrial gases (David, 2007).

Most greenhouse gases result from human activities. Whenever the question of source of these gases is raised, a similar question as to the role of humans must also be asked. Human activities have been generally known to distort and accelerate the production of green houses which other than their role of warming the planet to the ideally preferred temperature goes further to raise it to higher temperatures that create an imbalance in climate.

Burning of natural gases, coal and oils is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emission. The burning of these substances both in industries, automobile engines among other areas releases excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (Lerner, 2006). Factories other than through burning of fuels produce a chain of gases that have been known to enhance greenhouse effect. These gases include Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and Water vapor (H2O) (Lerner, 2006). These gases do not naturally occur and their release into the atmosphere has been proved to have immense increase in global temperature hence climate variation. In general, burning of fossil fuels to meet various human needs contributes a lot to increased green house gas emission.

Farming activities have also been known to raise green house gases in the atmosphere. Up to 18 of the global green house gases are believed to originate from livestock (Lerner, 2006). Animals belching produce of methane while CO2 is produced as a result of organic substances decomposition during land use. Nitrous oxide on the other hand is produced as a result of manure and slurry spreading across agricultural lands (Lerner, 2006).

Deforestation though not a contributor of greenhouse gases, leads to increased accumulation of greenhouse gases. Trees have been known to utilize carbon dioxide in its processes hence reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With increased human activity, logging has been on the rise. This in turn leads to accumulation of more CO2 in the atmosphere resulting to increase in global warming. Deforestation and greenhouse gas emission can therefore not be delinked from each other.

Population increase is also a major contributor to increased green house emission. Increased population calls for increased use of fossil fuel for heating, manufacturing of goods, more farming activities, and increased deforestation due to more land requirements. This has led to emission of more greenhouses which are unfriendly to the climatic balance.

Waste breakdown and decomposition lead to production of methane and carbon dioxide. These gases are generally produced during food, vegetation and other wastes decay. Animal wastes decay ahs also been known to produce greenhouse gases e.g. during decomposition of cow dung, methane is produced as one of the bi-products (George, 2007).

The world has however woken up to the reality of the challenges that might come with increased greenhouse gas emissions. Based on this, various strategies have been put in place to minimize the effect of greenhouse to the climatic conditions of the world. These include Energy Conservation and Efficiency, renewable energy technologies, use of green power, maximization of space utilization thus limiting construction areas, development of sustainable transport systems, use of recyclable materials and designing of green friendly buildings (Diesendorf, 2007). These strategies are currently being employed with the aim of ensuring that greenhouse gases are restricted to levels that are environmental friendly.

However, these strategies have faced failures not because of their inefficiency bur because of poor implementation criteria. While one may argue that it is the responsibility of the government to manage greenhouse gases, it is quite a skeptical idea that government alone can yield the desired results. The shortcomings of these strategies therefore come from their implementation rather than their ability. They have failed to address the problem from the grassroots and instead focused on treating the effects at national level.  While proper strategies for alleviating this growing menace have been properly researched on, there has been some kind of reluctance when it comes to implementation.

Action Plan Mitigation Strategies and Solutions
Strategy Action stepsExpected outputoutcome Proposed durationReview of journals, written literature, web resources and other available sources in order to establish best green friendly strategies
Identification of the relevant stakeholders.Review of journals and other documentations on green house emissions.

Identifying the key stakeholders to be involved in the plan implementation.
Identification of the cost implications of the plan.Clear cut choices of the best practices for adoption and subsequent implementation.3 weeksCreate of an enabling environment for implementation of green friendly strategies across the country through awareness campaigns, policy building and strategic planning.
Conduction of a series of awareness campaigns both and the national and grassroots levels.
Proposing of clear policies and measures to the relevant organs.

Developing of easy and affordable strategies for use based on findings of the previous step.
Guidelines for Initiating, designing, maintaining, and sustaining green house reduction strategies.
Appropriate documentation of failures and areas that need to be corrected.

Documentation of success indicators throughout the implementation of implementation of the plan.
Building up of a data base of appropriate technologies that will help achieve the set goals.

Databases of technologies for green construction
Courses on green construction and establishment of an environment importance aware society.2 months Stimulate the development and use of appropriate codes and standards for sustainable environment management.Relevant organs to enact the proposed policies.

Identification of tools necessary for the implementation of the next stage.Formulation of policies, standards and codes that will steer the plan through.

Outsourcing of the Inventory of tools for environmental conservation and green friendly strategies. 1 monthImplementation of the laid down codes and standards.Greenhouse reduction strategies implementation.
Applying necessary strategies to ensure the strategies in place are maintained Application of the green friendly strategies.

Maintaining of the already developed strategies.
Review of strategies under implementation from time to time.___Challenges to the plan
Among the key challenges that implementation of this plan will face will basically revolve around the key stakeholders and financiers of plan. Various stakeholders, especially industrial players have been known to resist any suggestions that might have them spending more. Most industries are bent on making profit rather than engaging in green friendly activities. Additionally, some of the policies will require assistance from various government agencies which might in the end fail to come forth. However, the most challenging bit will be getting all the necessary stakeholders to play along. Finance will also present a major challenge as probably each stage will require a large pool of cash in ensuring its success.

The plan will, require support from the various stakeholders through various ways. This will include the government, the society, and the global support. For the proposed policies to be successfully implemented, government must play a critical role in formulation, enactment and implementation of the necessary legislation. Given the fact that various stakeholders have always shown reluctance in implementing green friendly activities, it will be fundamental that legally binding policies are formulated where such are involved. The government is also probably the most important organ that can be able to easily penetrate the grassroots with little difficulty. This will make it an important organ in awareness creation and funding of the exercise. The society will also need to play their assigned role effectively. This can be achieved once adequate awareness campaigns have been successfully initiated and the society in general have gotten the understanding that this is a problem that needs everyones participation as it is the little individual emissions that result into greater emissions. The world as a whole must also be ready to act in order to create a risk free globe. Success of a single country can never be considered a success as atmospheric gases knows no boundaries.

In conclusion, it will be important to note that the success of this plan will ultimately depend on the goodwill of the government(s) involved as well as the other key stakeholders who in one way or another affect the emission or are affected by emission of these gases.