There are four major causes of thermal pollution: The use of water as a cooling agent, deforestation of shorelines, soil erosion, and the burning of fossil fuels.. The foremost cause being the use of water as a cooling agent in nuclear power plants and other industrial facilities. After the water has absorbed the excess heat of nuclear rods or other machinery it is returned to the environment (usually a river or lake) at 9 to 20 degrees warmer a temperature. More stringent regulations are imposed in the U.S., but this doesn't help much because most of the world's nuclear power plants are located in France and other European nations. Less obvious is how shoreline deforestation and soil erosion con

tribute to the problem. The soil erosion makes the water muddy, which in turn increases the light absorbed. Thus, the water temperature is raised. Deforestation of shorelines further contributes to the problem in two ways. First, it increases soil erosion. Secondly, it increases the amount of light that strikes the water. Both of which increase the water's temperature. Finally, the single human activity that is most likely to have a large impact on the climate is the burning of "fossil fuels" such as coal, oil and gas. These fuels contain carbon. Burning them makes carbon dioxide gas. Since the early 1800s, when people began burning large amounts of coal and oil, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has increased by nearly 30%, and average global temperature appears to have risen between 1° and 2°F. Most of the rise in sea level would occur because water expands when it is heated. An increase in the earth's average temperature of about 3.5°F, which is probably too little to melt most polar ice, would result in an increase in sea level of between 8 and 30 inches. This is too little to flood most coastal cities, but could damage some coastal plants and animals, beaches, and water supplies.

Thermal pollution truly is a global problem. It's ignorant to assume that the warming of a river is a local problem, that the oceans are so vast we can't alter their temperature, that we can continue abusing our environment as we have in the past. The rivers flow into the interconnected seas. The atmosphere's temperature has been changed by humans, and if we continue in our denial of the destructiveness of our actions, we will kill not only ourselves, but every species on the planet and destroy all chances for regrowth.

Some solutions to the thermal pollution probl

Some common words found in the essay are:
France European, Energy Ciptm, Carbon Dioxide, Droughts Africa, America Global, Europe Japan, South America, Global Recently, Canada Russia, thermal pollution, soil erosion, nuclear power, excess heat, Erosion Quantadyne, sea level, climate changes, carbon dioxide, dead plants, economically developed societies, north america, water cooling, burning fossil fuels, nuclear power plants, water cooling agent,
Approximate Word count = 1200
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)