Global Climate Change - Essay Example

Global Climate Change Although the was not part of the recent presidential debates, global climate change is the most important issue facing the U.S. and the world. Also refereed to as “global warming” the phenomenon is already taking its toll on the planet. However, we’ve only seen a glimpse of what’s to come in both the near and far future. It’s not a myth as deniers would have people believe or even a debate to be had. The earth’s climate is warming and man-made air pollutants are the main cause. Factories and automobiles are spewing hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere faster than it can be naturally absorbed. Air pollution is not only affecting people’s lungs but every aspect of the natural world as well. This warning has been sounded by climatologists for at least 30 years; the science has in, peer-reviewed and accepted by more than 98 percent of all scientists worldwide. The only question is do we have the political will to do anything about it. Carbon dioxide is the main “greenhouse gas” affecting the earth’s temperature. The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring event that provides a warm blanket of air for the earth. It had served the planet well for thousands of millennia but excess gasses are causing the effect to become unbalanced. In much the same way as a man-made greenhouse are designed to grow plants operate, the earth’s greenhouse allows in sunlight but just enough to keep the temperature steady. Gases, such as naturally occurring carbon dioxide and water vapor trap some energy but the rest is bounced back into space. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorbs additional heat allowing less back into space thus warming the earth at a faster rate than normal. Methane and nitrous oxide are two other types of gasses caused either directly or indirectly by man’s actions but carbon dioxide, the result of fossil fuel emissions are the main culprit. This pollutant accounts approximately 85 percent of the excess greenhouse gas. Oil and gasoline used by automobiles and coal burnt in electric generating power plants are by far the main source of carbon in the atmosphere. Methane results from cattle flatulence therefore the more beef people eat, the more methane is emitted into the atmosphere. In nature, animals, such as humans, breathe out carbon dioxide and growing plants “breathe” it in. This is not a contributor to climate change but coal and oil emissions are. (Walls-Thumma, 2012) Slight changes in the earth’s average temperature cause big changes in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as drought, rains, floods and tropical storms. With only modest temperature variations rare weather occurrences become more often and are more severe. Precipitation patterns are altered. Normally dry areas become drier and areas that usually experience moderate rains are deluged by heavy rains. Examining the way global climate change has altered the chances for a particular event occurring has been performed for extraordinary incidents such as the 2003 heat wave in Europe which left tens of thousands dead. The odds of this extreme heat wave occurring, based on records dating back 150 years, are about 1 in 10 million. (Shar, et al., 2004) When factoring in just a two degree temperature rise globally, the odds closed severely, more than quadrupling the chances. The intense weather occurrences that were expected to happen with greater frequency in a warming world are increasing. For example, just six decades ago record high temperatures were occurring at the same frequency as record low temperatures. Today, approximately two record highs are documented for each record low. That is phenomenal change and a clear indicator of a warming earth and the correlation of higher temperatures with extreme weather events. This increase in record high temperatures is occurring all over the globe. A comparable two to one proportion of record highs temperatures to record lows have recently been documented in Australia. “Over the past decade, 75 counties set all-time record highs but only 15 countries set all-time record lows. In 2010, 19 countries set new all-time record high temperatures, but not a single country set a new all-time record low (among those countries keeping these statistics).” (Master, et, al., 2010). The warmer the air, the more moisture it can retain; a reality that is already causing more intense and more frequent storms. This observable trend is causing great amounts of heavy rains across the Northern Hemisphere. Variables in weather are typically very costly. It has been estimated that variables in weather conditions can lower the overall U.S. economic output by an astounding $500 billion per year. In the thirty year period from1980 to 2010, the U.S. experienced 99 weather catastrophes with property damage costs exceeding $1 billion. Counting all costs associated with those weather events including crop damage, productivity loss, latent infrastructure expenses among many others, the total cost was near $725 billion. According to NOAA calculations, the price tag of all disastrous weather-related damages climbed to more than $35 billion in 2011. “As of August 30th, 2012 the U.S. has witnessed 10 weather disasters costing over $1 billion each. This breaks the previous record for the number of such U.S. weather disasters in an entire year.” (Overview, 2012). That data doesn’t take Hurricane Sandy into consideration. Extreme weather variations are a clear and present danger to the economy and to human health as well. People and societies throughout the ages have adapted successfully to severe weather conditions but more intense and longer lasting weather extremes have the capability to devastate existing human structures and systems, even those built to withstand excessive variations in climate conditions. More severe and frequent weather events are more apt to threaten ecosystems and cripple vital elements of human existence, such as water management, infrastructure and food production. Rampant disease, death, destitution, and displacement will result, as we witnessed just two weeks ago with the hurricane in addition to this year’s storms, folds and droughts. Although the noticeable effects of a warming planet are only in the initial phase, its impact is undeniable. Sea levels worldwide are rising due to the melting glaciers and ice caps, plants are flowering sooner than normal and drought are more severe and occur more often. Scientists who predicted these events several decades ago today are convinced that the planet’s temperature will continue to rise long into the future. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.” (IPCC, 2007) It is expected that the effects of climate change will actually be to the advantage of some regions of the world but overall, the circumstance will be dire and widespread. Coastlines will disappear causing massive relocation problems such as spreading disease and putting a strain of food and water supplies. Wars, large and small will rage. Major economic and tourist areas along with essential wetlands will cease to exist. Rivers will be inundated with salt water backing up far inland due to the rising seas. Water supplies for drinking and crop irrigation will be unusable. Tropical forests worldwide will die because of enduring droughts. Because forests “clean” the carbon dioxide from the air, more of the pollutant will enter the atmosphere and less oxygen will be available. Forests are also an essential source for many kinds of medicine. When enough ice melts from Greenland and the northern ice cap the resulting cold water will sink and stop the warm North Atlantic Current which acts to warm Northern Europe. This region of the world is at the same latitude as Canada and Siberia but is kept warmer because of this major ocean current. The economic and human effects will be calamitous. (IPCC, 2007) Global climate change is still not a priority in the U.S., the country that emits the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, even though the nation’s own climate scientists have been warning of the dire consequences for more than 30 years. With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the subject is finally being addressed but far too little and likely far too late. Other countries, notably Germany, Sweden and Norway, have taken great strides in implementing alternative energy from solar and wind sources. 80 percent of European nations have targets in place for the portion of their entire energy usage that will be non-polluting. By contrast Russia, India, China and the U.S., the nations that pollute the most, lag behind the rest of the world in the use of clean energy. Obviously the people who think man-induced climate change is a hoax are the majority due to misinformation propagated by oil and coal companies. Global climate change is happening, it’s not a hoax or a grand conspiracy designed to clean the air for no good reason. What if the scientists are wrong and the world’s temperature gauges are all off by two degrees? What if we reduced our dependence on foreign oil, stopped polluting the air and designed clean energy creating thousands of new jobs just for the heck of it? Works Cited IPCC. Summary for Policymakers, in Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p. 17. NASA. 2007. Web. November 26, 2012. http://climate.nasa.gov/effects/ Greg Masters, Peter Baker, Julie Flood. Climate Change and Agricultural Commodities. November, 2010. Web. November 26, 2012. http://www.cabi.org/uploads/file/Working%20papers/Climate%20change%20and%20agricultural%20commodities%20working%20paper.pdf Christoph Schar, Pier Luigi Vidale, Daniel Luthi, Christoph Frei, Christian Haberli, Mark A. Liniger & Christof Appenzeller. The role of increasing temperature variability in European summer heat waves. 2004. Web. November 26, 2012. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/abs/nature02300.html#a1 Walls-Thumma, Dawn. Description of the Greenhouse Effect. National Geographic. 2012. Web. November 26, 2012. http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/description-greenhouse-effect-2501.html Overview. Climate Communication Science and Outreach. 2012. Web. November 26, 2012. http://climatecommunication.org/new/articles/extreme-weather/overview/#footnote-5 Read More