Keri M.

Global Warming Essay

Everyone at one point or another has heard about global warming, and understands that it is a “bad thing”, but do people really understand what it is and what they can do about it? In order to take an active role in combating the effects of global warming, you first need to understand what you are up against. So the first thing you should do when combating the enemy is research and understand. Global warming is a term used to describe the gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans; a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate forever. Global surface temperatures have increased worldwide about 33 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that most of the increase since the 1950’s is likely due to the increase in greenhouse gases. Natural phenomena such as solar variations combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to about 1950, but it is greenhouse gases that have sky-rocketed the global warming effect since. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

Climate model projections summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further another 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the twenty-first century. Although most studies focus on the period up to the year 2100, global warming and rising sea levels are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. Increasing global temperatures are expected to not only cause sea levels to rise by as much as forty feet, but to increase the intensity of extreme weather events like hurricanes and tornados, and cause significant changes to the amounts and patterns of precipitation which will likely cause an expansion of desert regions. Other expected effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, glacier retreat, modifications of trade routes, increases in the ranges of disease vectors, and mass species extinctions.

The scientific agreement is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era in the 18th century, and the observed warming cannot be satisfactorily explained by natural causes alone. There have also been recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide; monthly carbon dioxide measurements show small seasonal alternations, but there is an overall yearly uptrend. Human activity since the time of the industrial revolution has increased the concentration of various greenhouse gases, leading to increased carbon dioxide, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane have increased by about 31% and about 149% respectively since the beginning of the industrial revolution. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years. Fossil fuel burning has produced approximately three-quarters of the increase in carbon dioxide from human activity over the past 20 years; most of the rest is due to land-use change. Carbon dioxide concentrations are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, technological, sociological, and natural developments.

Social and economic effects of global warming may be worsening because of growing population densities worldwide. Temperate regions are projected to experience some benefits, such as fewer deaths due to cold exposure. However, with the increase of intense hurricanes and extreme weather events, there has been a raising of ocean pH balances and the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. There is even one study that predicts about 18% to 35% of a sample of 1,103 animals and plant species would be extinct by 2050, based on future climate projections. Another issue related to global warming and extinction is ocean acidification. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide increases the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans. Carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean reacts with water to form carbonic acid, resulting in acidification. Since organisms and ecosystems are adapted to a narrow range of pH, this raises extinction concerns directly driven by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. This pH rise could disrupt food webs and impact human societies that depend on marine ecosystem services.

There are still a lot of scientific uncertainties about the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most of the national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is still ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences. So what can we do to reverse the effects of global warming?

Energy efficiency is the easiest, quickest and least expensive path toward the lowering of carbon emissions. Numerous studies tell us that retrofitting older buildings and establishing strong efficiency standards for new construction can cut fuel and energy consumption by at least 40 percent. New technologies such as LED light bulbs consume as little as 10 percent of the electricity that incandescent bulbs do and last twenty years. Transportation must also be addressed in a serious manner; it is insane that there are cars today that get the same twenty-five miles per gallon that cars did twenty years ago. Europe and Japan have engineered their vehicles to average more than forty-four miles per gallon. Raising fuel-efficiency standards to forty miles per gallon would save roughly the same amount of oil as the US imports from Saudi Arabia and would dramatically lower carbon emissions. Rebuilding and expanding decaying rail and subway systems and providing energy-efficient buses in rural areas so that travelers have an alternative to the automobile are also great ways lower carbon emissions. Sustainable energies such as wind, solar and geothermal have tremendous potential and often cost no more than fossil fuels. The situation is by no means hopeless, but we need to do it together as a community, a nation, and a world.