Carlos Weiler

ENGR 102B GC DELI

Greenhouse effect and Climate change
The greenhouse effect is caused when sunlight passes through the atmosphere to hit the
surface of the earth. That light is reflected back out and some of that light is absorbed by water
vapor, CO2, methane, and NO2 and reflected back to the surface heating the surface on earth
again with the same light way. Since the industrial revolution, mainly CO2 particles, have been
pumped into the atmosphere. With the increase of CO2 particles more light has been reflected
back to the Earth causing the temperature to rise. Polar ice caps have been melting at a quicker
rate, hurricanes are becoming more frequent due to rising ocean temperatures, and it is getting
warmer almost every year. The consensus in the scientific community is that the main cause of
the current global warming trend is human expansion of the greenhouse effect." The Earth
naturally for thousands have gone through cooling and warming cycles and currently the Earth is
one of the warm periods. Even with this warm period the rate at which temperatures are rising
are abnormal to past conditions. The UN has concluded there's a more than 90 percent
probability that human activities over the past 250 years have warmed our planet and there's a
better than 90 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases..have caused much
of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years. So in todays society it
is more important than ever to change the way we get our energy and consume it.

Will I go Solar?
If I was 25 years old, had a good paying job, and owned a home, I would like to have
solar panels installed or the more economical approach would be for me to buy blocks from
TEP. In the perfect world everyone would have solar panels and everybody would be creating
clean energy to power their homes but when reality sets in, solar panels are a huge investment
that simply cannot be met by many Americans and possibly me in a few years. Reducing my
carbon footprint is becoming more important to me as I continue to work on this GC DELI and I
am willing to put forth the effort to do so. If I had a well-paying job, I would be more than
willing to pay a three dollar premium on a block of power. I would like to pay for all of my
power using blocks to further reduce my footprint and hopefully with my engineering job create
a cheaper and more efficient solar panel for any consumer to buy. On the TEP website that the
price of electricity will more than likely increase in the coming years and by buying blocks
that price is locked in for 20 years so I will be saving money if the price goes up. Solar energy is
a growing field and it will play a greater role in energy in the future.

References:
Oreskes, Naomi. "The scientific consensus on climate change." Science 306.5702 (2004):
1686-1686.

"Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth." Climate Change: Vital Signs of
the Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.