Global Warming: Cause and Effect - Essay Example

The rise in the Earth's surface temperatures has caused unprecedented climate changes now only seen and a consequence of this warming is the predicted rise in sea levels. This paper discusses one very specific effect of global warming and that is the loss of potable water supplies. This is a side of the global warming phenomenon which is rarely discussed in policy discourse because a lot of attention was focused on the rise of sea levels which can lead to flooding of the low-lying areas of the world such as plains and coastal communities.

It is indeed ironic that the other side of the effect of global warming is the continued drying up of critical regions which once not long ago were generally considered to be wet areas which experienced considerable rainfall but now are very dry. The lack of rainfall, the fall in water tables and continued melting of glaciers or to be more specific, the loss of snowpack in the mountains have caused long dry spells. This paper examines the cause of global warming and its twin effects, the rise in sea levels but the drying up of other areas of the world which are actually two sides of the same coin, so to speak.

Introduction Climate experts and policy makers had focused mainly on only one side effect of global warming which is the rise in sea levels from melting glaciers. What is not adequately discussed is the loss of potable freshwater in many parts of the world because it is less dramatic but still it is a problem of major dimensions. This is the so-called underside of the problem which most of the people have not seen yet nor felt its effects but the consequences are severe indeed. Droughts occur not only in Africa but also within the United States of America, in particular in the regions of the West (more specifically, in the Southwest which had adversely affected seven states).

Loss of freshwater resources has limited the economic development of this dynamic region. Discussion This paper follows a cause-and-effect format about the issue of global warming that is now seen in many parts of the world but the paper focuses on its effects on the U. S. only. Causes of Global Warming – the Earth's temperature continues to rise because heat that is produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal is trapped and not reflected back to the outer space. The trapping of this heat is called as the Albedo Effect; it is heat caused by gases such as carbon dioxide and methane when fossil fuels are burned to produce energy used in other activities such as manufacturing, transportation and electricity generation.

The top three nations that produce the most pollution today are China, America and India. These countries use a lot of “dirty fuels” in their economic activities to support development. The world dumped 564 million tons more of carbon emissions in 2010 alone than it did in 2009 (Borenstein, 2011, p. 1). China and the United States account for more than half of the added carbon emissions last year; experts warned that even if all emissions are stopped completely, world temperatures will continue to rise for the next twenty-five years because the trapped heat does not dissipate very easily.

It will take a long time for heat to be reflected back to outer space but the lingering ill effects of the trapped heat will continue to wreak havoc on the Earth's glaciers which acted