Hydrogen Energy and the Greenhouse Effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hydrogen Energy and the Greenhouse Effect - Essay Example The measurements showed that in the past half century, CO2 levels have been steadily rising at an exponential rate (Weart). This is due to growing population and the quickly-developing technologies that inevitably demand more energy, and, in the present, humanity's main source of energy is fossil fuels. As such, finding alternative energy sources has become a very important quest in the present. Among these alternative sources of energy is Hydrogen. Hydrogen is often presented as one of the most promising alternatives for carbon-based fuels because it is the clean energy source that burns into water vapor. It is also often pointed out that Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and is very abundant on earth itself in the form of water. However, switching to a Hydrogen powered economy isn't really as simple as it sounds. Although water is very abundant on Earth, it takes up a lot of energy to break it down into its hydrogen and oxygen components and package it (Zyga). There is also the risk of hydrogen leaking out from the fuel cells which contain it (Warwick et. al.). Hydrogen energy would then basically cost more and be less economical than the current energy sources. However, if switching to Hydrogen as a major energy source would have good environmental impacts, t hen maybe it would be worth the cost. The product of Hydrogen combustion as opposed to, say, gasoline combustion would only be water vapor whereas for gasoline combustion, the products would include carbon dioxide which is considered to be the major cause of global warming. However, there are some who argue that water vapor, in fact, is the major greenhouse gas and is responsible for a larger portion of the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide is. So, to find out whether hydrogen would really be a better energy source than carbon-based fuels, let us first look into the reactions involved in their combustion. For the carbon-based fuels, we'll just take octane, which is an important component of gasoline, as an example. The combustion reactions are as follows: 2 H2 + O2 2 H2O + 572 kJ (1) 2 C8H18 + 25 O2 18 H2O + 16 CO2 + 11017.8 kJ (2) If we multiply equation (1) by 20, we get roughly the same amount of energy generated for the two reactions: 40 H2 + 20 O2 40 H2O + 11440 kJ (3) So, to produce the same amount of energy, 16 CO2 molecules and 18 H2O molecules would be produced for the octane combustion while 40 H2O molecules would be produced for the hydrogen combustion. If water vapor is a greenhouse gas just as CO2, then it my be that switching to hydrogen as an energy source would bring about an even worse greenhouse effect than the CO2 produced by burning octane. However, there are a lot of things to be considered. Even though water vapor makes up 80% of all greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by mass, it is responsible only for 36% - 66% of the long wave absorption done by all the greenhouse gases (Schmidt). By contrast, CO2 comprises only 1.44% of all the greenhouse gases by mass, yet it absorbs 9% - 26% of the total long wave absorpt

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Summary - Essay Example It took a whole 50 years before youth were first taken seriously as potential consumers. The three major ideals that changed it were deregulation, character licensing, and a new approach to market segmentation.1 The 1980s was a decade of great change in so many different ways. The debate over the regulation of the media industry during the previous decade helped open up the possibility of children to become consumers. Opponents claimed that children’s advertising was deceptive since kids could not possibly understand the hidden meanings of what was being marketed to them.2 Others argued that the government had no right to impose restrictions on what was acceptable in the marketplace. What eventuated was self-regulation, which broadcasters slowly let diminish over the years. Once this process had taken place in the United States, it was only inevitable that it would prevail in Canada too. Before the start of the commercialization of youth, young people were all lumped together in one giant market segment. Once youth advertising had begun to take place, audiences were segmented into separate niches.3 This was partly achieved through the creation of television networks specifically for children such as Nickelodeon and Music Television (MTV).4 These distinct networks were able to focus on a small set of viewers by involving their needs and wants in the makeup of programming.