There is No Debate, Climate Change is a Fact - Research Paper Example

There is no Debate, Climate Change is a Fact The greenhouse effect is a commonly used term which describes a rise of the average earth temperature and is typically linked with the terms climate change and global warming which has justly become a matter of much debate and tremendous global concern. While warnings concerning the human created reason for an accelerated greenhouse effect and the significant cataclysmic outcomes have been articulated for more than 100 years, global warming has only recently become an important political discussion, in the U.S. at least. Basically, the greenhouse effect operates by the following method. When sunlight penetrates the outer atmosphere and hits the earth’s surface, not all of solar power of the sun is absorbed. About one-third of this solar energy is bounced back into space. Atmospheric gases act by much the same method as the outer roof and wall of a typical garden greenhouse, therefore the terminology. These gases permit sunlight to enter then traps some of this solar energy. The energy that remains heats the earth (Gutierrez, 2008). This is a precarious balancing act. Because of these greenhouse gases being unnaturally augmented by man-made sources, more is constantly building up in the atmosphere consequently trapping more solar energy while reflecting less back to space. This preventable scenario is causing the earth to warm and the climate to change. The most prevalent of the greenhouse gases is Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Trees ‘breathe in’ CO2 then when trees die, CO2 it is returned to the atmosphere. Clearing land by the mass burning of trees, which is happening at an exceptional rate in the tropical rain forests, is lessening the quantity of CO2 that is absorbed consequently increasing the amount that is put into the atmosphere. CO2 contributes approximately 50 percent of the total gases that create the greenhouse effect. Although deforestation is contributing significantly to the surplus of CO2 dumped into the atmosphere, a greater portion is caused by individuals and companies using fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Fossil fuels are used by factories, vehicles and electricity-producing power plants to name just a few sources. “It is estimated that man-made causes represents half of the CO2 production.” (“Treaty,” 2001). The vast majority of fossil fuel consumption, its lethal pollutants and greenhouse-enhancing derivatives are in America, Russia and European countries. Four-fifths of the earth’s people live in nations that, combined, discharge just one-third of the total CO2 whereas just two nations, America and Russia combined, are to blame for discharging half. The escalating quantity of CO2 in the air is becoming more and more disconcerting. Motor vehicles are a considerable source of air pollution. “Vehicles produce high levels of carbon monoxides (CO) and a major source of hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), whereas, fuel combustion in stationary sources is the dominant source of sulfur dioxide (SO2)” (Socha, 2007). In addition, the burning of fuel oil to for home heating and to power companies along with the toxins emitted from smokestacks at coal-burning electric generating power plants contribute to create a dangerous imbalance of CO2 in the atmosphere. If the equilibrium between the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and ocean is upset by injecting escalating amounts of CO2, the oceans of the world will continue to absorb greater concentrations of the gas than it normally would. This phenomenon results in the warming of the ocean waters which are then increasingly less capable to absorb CO2. As the seas lose the ability to maintain the intrusion of this organically equalizing cycle, the ever increasing quantities of CO2 stays in the atmosphere. Ever-increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere cause the earth’s surface to warm further thus increasing the greenhouse effect. “Currently carbon dioxide is responsible for 57 percent of the global warming trend. Nitrogen oxides contribute most of the atmospheric contaminants” (Socha, 2007). The effects of pollutants in the atmosphere is extensive and cannot be evaded by staying indoors because air pollution, which enters dwellings through air ducts, can be harmful, caused by such factors as poor ventilation, microbes within air conditioning systems and mold. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that “toxic chemicals found in the air of almost every American home are three times more likely to cause some type of cancer than outdoor air pollutants” (Socha, 2007). While the people of the world waits the far-reaching and unavoidable effects associated with greenhouse gas emissions, people’s lungs are constantly being damaged while the plants they consume are being destroyed. Man-made pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide cause instant and permanent damage to the leaf pores of plants and trees. Continuous contact of leaves to air pollutants degrades their waxy coating which prevents excessive water loss and protects leaves from drought, frost, disease and pests. “In the Midwestern United States, crop losses of wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts from damage by ozone and acid deposition amount to about $5 billion a year” (Socha, 2007). All reliable members of the scientific community concur that the earth’s temperatures are increasing as a result of the burning fossil fuels. All peer-reviewed scientific data demonstrates that these toxins are changing the composition of the atmosphere’s protective Ozone layer and is acting to destroy it as well. Manmade pollutants are changing the earth’s climate. The effects are being experienced worldwide, not only in the U.S. where the greatest amounts of the CO2 emissions are produced. People are justifiably concerned regarding the significant crisis the effects of global climate change are causing not just to people, possessions and areas of land but to the financial wellbeing of the world’s countries. Large areas including millions of people will be forced to desert their homes and places of employment. This unfortunate course of action will be a protracted and agonizing one. Additionally, scientists are extremely distressed concerning the Gulf Stream, which keeps from European continent from having annual average temperatures closer to Siberia, Russia, and on the harmful effects a change in the earth’s temperature will have on Gulf Stream and other large ocean currents. “Ocean currents transport large amounts of heat around the world: climatologists call it thermohaline circulation (THC)” (Climate Crisis 2000). A BBC produced television documentary provided pictorial evidence that Greenland is melting at a disturbing rate by comparing recent aerial photographs to ones taken four decades years ago. If the Gulf Stream decelerates or modifies its path further south due to Greenland’s ice melting, all of Europe would probably have a climate similar to present-day Greenland which, regardless of its name is virtually all ice. Noticeable effects of global warming are fairly trivial today to most people but its effects are unquestionably increasing in degree. If all the nations of the world and the people of them were to immediately discontinue polluting the air with CO2emissions, climate changes would continue on long into the future. There are many scenarios that should be examined from numerous perspectives when taking the strategies for managing transformations in the earth’s climate into consideration. One feature of global warming is that although trees could appreciably benefit from a rise in CO2, the key means by which photosynthesis is processed; the effect to trees in the long term is not clear. In the short run, forests and assorted agricultural products will likely benefit from the “increased fertilization and water efficiency effects of higher CO2 concentrations” (Hanson et al, 2000). The distribution of agriculture will be modified requiring significant regional adaptations in the long term. Much research has been done; however, all it has shown so far is that “sufficient information is still not known regarding specifically how atmospheric changes may affect these innumerable components that play a role in a healthy eco-system” (Hanson et al, 2000). Trying to predict potential greenhouse gas amounts, especially concerning CO2 gasses, is hardly an exact science particularly when also attempting to predict future changes in the climate. Determining the precise greenhouse effect is complicated due to its link to associated energy cycle characteristics. Nevertheless, records have been kept for a sufficient amount of time so that comparative trends regarding the effects of global climate change can be crafted. “One of the problems regarding to measuring global warming is that the phenomenon is not occurring in an obviously uniform and steady manner. Many areas of the world, in fact most, experience a wide variation of temperature and climactic effects from year to year” (Wunderlich & Kohler, 2001). As a result, the outcomes from scientific tests are susceptible to questions made by a minority of politicians, pseudo-scientists and political pundits as well as other persons whose agenda compels them to rebuff the overwhelming proof that man-made gas emissions are affecting climate change. The results of the snow caps melting and the ensuing rise of sea level have been well documented. Other dismal effects have been acknowledged but are not as universally known. A lessening of snow cover in addition to lake and sea ice will have bleak consequences for areas at lower elevations and higher latitudes, particularly during spring and winter months. At higher world temperatures, atmospheric water vapor will result in proportionately higher levels of precipitation. “The greenhouse effect will magnify due to cloud composition transformation. As the Polar Regions warm greater amounts of precipitation will amplify this effect.” (Wunderlich & Kohler, 2001). Changing vegetation patterns will cause millions of people to move or, if not, be forced to adapt to an extent which is open to conjecture. The increased evaporation rate will hasten the drying out of the soil which will bring about arid, desert-like conditions in numerous regions. Areas that are currently undergoing intermittent drought conditions during warmer months will be influenced more so than others. As the water recycling rate increases heavier amounts of rain will result in addition to the number of heavy rainfall events. Increased rates of rainfall as well as the warmer temperatures produce more powerful tropical storms thus hurricanes will be more intense and frequent than presently predicted. As dire as this setting of the near-future is, land masses will undergo the most changes due to the greenhouse effect. “Temperatures are expected to increase more rapidly over land compared to oceans because of the ocean’s higher heat capacity and because it can transfer more of the trapped heat to the atmosphere by evaporation. Over land, the warming has been and is expected to continue to be larger during nighttime than during daytime” (Wunderlich & Kohler, 2001). From before the earliest beginnings of the earth, coastal areas have been continually exposed to erosion because of the tidal waves movements and with each sequence the eroded sediments are re-deposited. Shores change shape but do not vanish altogether. Inland areas, in much the same way, are susceptible to erosion too. The sediment is deposited elsewhere else but does not vanish. An ongoing sea level rise over the last century has moved the tide-line further inland, sinking coastal areas and causing continual erosion. The wetlands and tidal beaches progressively drift inland as an assortment of plant life develops on newly created beaches forming a new smaller shoreline. “The tide comes and goes like clockwork, but if we continue to watch and wait, our coastal regions will face more erosion damage than we can repair, and the sea’s gentle image might be changed in the eyes of those affected” (Spyres, 2001). The awful events of 2005 concerning southern sections of Louisiana and Mississippi when rising ocean levels destroy property and displaced thousands of families will happen again on a global scale if predictions of climate change and resulting sea-level rise are correct. “With Katrina’s devastating effects on the Gulf Coast fresh in our memories, we’ve seen the effects of 200,000 refugees. Imagine the effects of a hundred million” (Chutry Experiment, 2006). Scientists collectively estimate that the changing climate will cause massive glacier melting which will instantly cause a rise in sea-level rise which will quicken erosion which will result in an immense loss land. The change will create higher storm surges therefore increasing the total of area affected by flooding due to intense rains which initiate an even larger amount of coastal areas to erode and allow salty, undrinkable sea water to pour into rivers upstream of towns these rivers once served. The oceans are already rising today along the U.S. Atlantic coast by a tenth of an inch every year and by about half that pace on the Pacific coast. Scientists warn that the outcome will be devastating if the present trend continues and have calculated that a one-foot rise in sea level could eliminate up to 200 feet of the East coast shore. The West coast shoreline would lose 400 feet. Several miles of what is Louisiana today would be underwater. “A 20-inch rise in sea-level could eliminate about 40 percent of U.S. coastal wetlands. A rise of three feet would inundate an area the size of Massachusetts.” (Ackerman/Stanton, 2008) Unquestionably the rise of sea level will displace countless numbers of persons living along all coastal regions in all areas of the world. “Environmental degradation may produce vast numbers of ‘environmental refugees.” (Goffman, 2006). The shortages of housing and food in addition to ethnic, religious and political conflicts would oblige millions to relocate to other places causing indirect and negative effects to the new areas they occupy. Anguished masses of people pouring into another greatly populated area will rapidly diminish the resources of that area causing a catastrophic domino effect throughout the entire world. The enticement for those who challenge the science of climate change is obvious, greed. For some, energy corporations for example, their bottom-line would suffer if the nations of the world changed over to cleaner energy alternatives such as wind, geothermic and solar. Scientists, scholars and reasonable persons of all countries and cultures do not dispute the fact that if CO2 emissions are not reduced considerably and starting now, the resulting greenhouse effect will change the world’s climate and perhaps the sustainability of all living beings on it. Unfortunately, the nation that uses the most energy consequently causes the majority of greenhouse gas pollution has just recently started to deal with this important issue. The Obama administration has directed monies to green technologies but has been blocked at every turn by the opposing party, the party allied with big corporations and the wealthy. It is gravely imperative that earth’s citizens fully comprehend that a lethal planetary experiment has been put in motion which no one can easily reverse. Works Cited Ackerman, Frank and Stanton Elizabeth A. “What We’ll Pay if Global Warming Continues Unchecked” Global Development and Environment Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center, Tufts University (May, 2008) July 18, 2011 < http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/cost/cost.pdf> “Climate Crisis: All Change in the UK?” BBC News. (November 12, 2000). July 18, 2011 “Global Warming Treaty” The CQ Researcher pg. 46 (January 26, 2001) July 18, 2011 Gutierrez, Isabel “Global Warming/Greenhouse Effect” Model United Nations Far West (July 13, 2008). July 18, 2011 < http://www.munfw.org/archive/40th/unep4.htm> Hansen, J., M. Sato, R. Ruedy, A. Lacis, and V. Oinas. “Global Warming in the Twenty-first Century: An Alternative Scenario.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 97, pp. 9875-9880 (2000). Socha, Tom. “Air Pollution Causes and Effects” Recycle Life.net (September 11, 2007) July 18, 2011 Spyres, Julie. “The Rising Tide: Global Warming Accelerates Coastal Erosion.” Erosion Control. Santa Barbara, CA: Forester Communications. (2001). (The) Chutry Experiment. “An Inconvenient Truth.” (June 3, 2006). July 18, 2011 Wunderlich, Gooloo S.; Kohler, Peter O. Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care. The National Academies Press, p.18. (2001) Read More