08-16-2017, 09:21 PM
GLOBAL WARMING AND ISSUES
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Global Warming will be the greatest environmental challenge in the 21st century
Global warming - effect on the climate of human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels (coals, oil and gases) and large-scale deforestation, which causes the emission of green house gases e.g. carbon di oxide, emission to the atmosphere.
The global temperature of earth s atmosphere is raised due to increased inputs of carbon dioxide and other green house gases.
GREEN HOUSE GASES
Green house gases plays an important role in the regulation of the earth s energy balance.
Natural green house gases include water vapor or moisture, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and even ozone.
RISING SEA LEVELS
Rising of sea levels is the most common concern which takes place with a thermal expansion of the oceans.
Because all bodies of water have varying shapes and ocean water tends to "swell" differently depending on its starting temperature, the change in sea level is not uniform over the surface of the Earth.
In the 20th century alone, sea levels rose 0.17 meters while the predictions for the next century range from 0.18 to 0.59 meters.
Contribution of Civil Engineers
The production of cement has crossed over 100 million tones and due to the production of cement, about 7% of green house gas is emitted into the atmosphere. It is reduced by replacing cement by using supplementary cementitious materials like fly ash, silica fume in concrete and also by using alternative binding materials like Geopolymer concrete.
We can reduce the effect of CO2 gas in atmosphere by using Green building concept. With the use of green building concept, sustainable development can be achieved, with the minimum use of energy and resources to achieve maximum comfort, thus living in harmony with nature. A green building, also known as a sustainable building, is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner.