The Issue of Global Warming - Essay Example

?The Issue of Global Warming Introduction The problem of global warming has been a growing and prevalent environmental issue that people around the world can no longer ignore. Ever since the 21st century, pollution rates have risen due to human activities. It is because of the various things that humanity has done for the sake of progress, such as building up more factories, the massive use of fossil fuels by different kinds of transportation, and the increased deforestation, that global warming has gotten worse and is still not getting any better. Regardless of this predicament, humanity can still undo the damage that has been done due to global warming. The solution is through the concerted efforts of various nations to help each other deal with this environmental trouble in one accord. There are international treaties or agreements that have been made by various nations to help lessen and remedy the damage done by global warming to the environment. Two international and multilateral agreements, the Montreal Protocol of 1987 and Kyoto Protocol of 1998, pay much attention to the damaging effect the current state of world activities has done to the atmosphere. As cited by Morissette (1989): Its formulation was a response to a growing international consensus on the need to protect stratospheric ozone from depletion by CFCs. The Montreal Protocol is a landmark agreement in that it is the first international treaty for mitigating a global atmospheric problem before serious environmental impacts have been conclusively detected. Upon the agreement of the various countries that participated in the formation and agreement to this environmentally concerned treaty, the battle against global warming further developed as time went by and with new concerns. This eventually led to a new agreement known as the Kyoto Protocol.  The Kyoto Protocol of 1998 is an international treaty deliberated to communicate nations collectively to decrease global warming and to deal with the effects of temperature increases that are inevitable after more than a century of heavy industrialization. Manne and Richels (1998) exposited that this was “to reduce their aggregate anthropogenic carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012” (p.2). Nations that approved the Kyoto Protocol concur to decrease emissions of six greenhouse gases that increase the problems of global warming. These nations are also permitted to utilize emissions trading to reach their obligations if they maintain or increase their greenhouse gas emissions. All of these activities around the world are then observed and maintained by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the IPCC, as well as other environmental protocol treaties. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research or UCAR (2011) cited that “the IPCC coordinates the efforts of more than 2,000 scientists from 154 countries. Together, they represent a vast array of climate specialties, from physics, to chemistry, to interactions with Earth's surface, to the role of human behavior.” The IPCC also has a policy-making body that helps extensively review the findings from scientists or field-related researchers so that their formation in creating policies is well founded and guided. The question that should now be asked is whether or not such measures are good or bad for the environment. Could it be certain that the measures taken by these various human actions and endeavors help the world against the effects of global warming? These inquiries shall be explored further through the next discussions of this paper. The Affirmative Side It has come to the attention of various environmental organizations and some societies of various nations that the negative effects of global warming could no longer be taken for granted and ignored. This matter has made environmental groups and organizations rise in their activities through the years, and many have made successful advances with their agendas in government, business, and society. The results and outcomes from these environmental groups have produced an increased confidence that environmental protection was sufficient to make it at a policy level. This sort of attitude also has its influence to the people in society which pay close attention to these environmental organizations. If human action is the cause of global warming, that means human actions can also be capable in fixing such damage. Aside from that fact, humans are more than capable in dealing with problems in which so much is at stake for them. Global warming does more than just harm and endanger the environment; it also puts too many human lives at such risk to many hazards. For example, the effects of global warming on agricultural areas will contrast greatly from different places with different climates. There will be unusual changes in regional temperatures, climates, and weather that will change the agricultural nature in various areas. Human health and welfare will also encounter such problems. Changes in the weather and climate would result to heat waves and cold snaps, famines and deluges to areas where such ecological problems never really occurred. There will be other effects that will result to changes in ecological and social systems, which include changes in the spread of communicable diseases, and the decreased supplies of freshwater and local food growth. These are just a few of the problems that human actions will have to tackle to overcome global warming. Solutions that counter global warming should be found. Combining policies that deal with the local air pollution and the issue of global climate change would result to beneficial changes for climate alleviation. Medium to long term plans and actions to lessen air pollution will lead to more benefits in combating global warming. For example, the development of green intelligence policies has been growing in different businesses and societies. This was observed by the BusinessWeek Research Services (2009) who posited out, “amid the current climate of greater demand for both environmental awareness and corporate accountability, organizations are finding that success is increasingly being measured not only by financial performance, but also by ecological and social accomplishments as well” (p.3). If various major governments and much of the private sector adopt the green intelligence as a core goal and as part of their methods and practice, then it could make up for all the environmental damage that has been done for the past century. Different methods of proper waste disposal and management can also help combat and deal with the increasing problem of global warming. Proper segregation and recycling of garbage or trash can prevent the creation of massive waste landfills that release a lot of gases that are harmful to the atmosphere, the ecological systems, and human health. Recycled material can also be used for the consumption and use by society and even help promote a new type or brand of goods to be used for commerce and trade. If this trend of recycling is placed in tandem perspective of green intelligence policy-making, this would result in a highly beneficial situation wherein society can still gain economic progress and development while keeping or sustaining the environment’s state. The Negative Side Human action has caused far too grave a damage to the environment that it can no longer bring back what has already been destroyed. For example, many of the once pristine natural habitats in different continents have been erased due to human population expansion. Wild plains, rainforests and tropical forests have been swathed of land areas to make way for growing cities or towns, and also massive industrial and manufacturing complex zones. Some wildlife no longer exists due to human activities, and there are also some right now that are at the brink of disappearing from existence. It could be said that accountability for such irresponsibility would be from the various governments, and also from the private sectors for not taking immediate or any serious approach to adopting a more ecologically friendly approach. The reason behind this is economics. Most of the major drivers of many economies, such as oil and petroleum, energy, logistics, trade and needs for social comforts, are the factors that produce gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur to be released into the atmosphere, and subsequently damaging the ozone layer. The oil and petroleum has been the foremost cause for global warming. Almost every mode of transportation needs oil or petroleum to function. Cars, trucks, aircrafts and maritime vessels use these fossil fuels to move around to their destinations. At the same time, use of these fuels result to the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Since the most of the world’s population uses automobiles to travel around, and world travel by aircraft has been more numerous, the amount of carbon released to the atmosphere ever since the end of the 20th century has been so great that the damage done by it can no longer be reversed, as holes on the ozone layer, such as the largest one being in one of the polar ice caps, have caused dramatic changes in the climate. While not apparent, there is also responsibility in which environmental groups and organizations are to be held accountable for. Environmental organizations truly have noble causes and goals, but it seems that the methods that are being used for such goals are not working as good as expected. It seems that environmental organizations’ fundamental concepts, methodologies for creating legal proposals and legislations, are not effective since environmentalism is seen today as just another mere special interest. A study made by Shellenberger and Nordhaus (2004) observed: By failing to question their most basic assumptions about the problem and the solution, environmental leaders are like generals fighting the last war – in particular the war they fought and won for basic environmental protections more than 30 years ago. It was then that the community’s political strategy became defined around using science to define the problem as “environmental” and crafting technical policy proposals as solutions. (p.7) It could be understood now that the seemingly unbridled confidence and enthusiasm of environmental organizations has also turned into arrogance on their part due to their strong belief in their noble causes. It should also be noted that this problem is somehow not being dealt with decisively as well. Shellenberger and Nordhaus (2004) said, “the arrogance here is that environmentalists ask not what we can do for non-environmental constituencies but what non-environmental constituencies can do for environmentalists” (p.9). The effect of this is made by many environmental organizations that lack the needed support from different public sectors of society. Conclusion Human actions have been the bane of the environment, and are more than just responsible for causing damage to the environment. It led to the many problems of global warming, especially the release of gases that result to the global greenhouse effect. It would then be the case that the worldwide issue on climate change is focused on the problem of cutting down the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This measure is sensible since any act of reducing emissions as soon as possible would result to lessen the concentrated amounts of greenhouse gases that are still continuing to increase. The biggest issue that really needs attention as of this moment is the numerous uncertainties on how global warming impacts the environment and human beings, and also the options for adapting to the ever-occurring climate change. There are so many factors to that need to be observed and taken into consideration, like the increase in population growth, the constant economic progress, or technological developments for various human activities that will change as time goes by, and as humanity continues to move forward for the sake of progress. The key to this can be through adaptation of human beings towards a more ecological environment. Adapting to the changes in the climate can be seen as both natural and perhaps artificial, yet the will to adapt is a matter that is more spontaneous in a certain way. When certain natural predicaments occur, it is natural for humanity to adapt in a way that it would not just find ways to survive, but it would also keep in mind the errors to avoid repetition. However, such measures for adaptation will not be adequate for certain groups in different regions, and even planned measures in doing so will not be able to accomplish something in dealing with many of the impacts. It should also be brought to the attention of various sectors of society to concentrate on the mounting apprehension over the amount of freshwater supply that is both limited and dwindling. Moreover, these sectors should give more attention on how the damaging impacts of global warming affect, and also measures for adapting to this problem, can deal with various ecological problems. Such problems like the further damaging of the ozone layer, fragmentation of biodiversities, destruction of many ecological systems, drastic changes in climate terrain and landscape, and other harmful developments to the environment are some of the pressing matters that must be addressed. This “big picture” strategy could give governmental and private sector decision-makers sensible and necessary facts on how to become accustomed towards the inevitable changes in the climate, and attain a more balanced development that promotes human progress while keeping the environment in a healthy state. References BusinessWeek Research Services (2009). Emerging green intelligence: business analytics and corporate sustainability. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. and SAS Institute Inc. Manne, A.S. & Richels, R.G. (1998). The kyoto protocol: a cost-effective strategy for meeting environmental objectives? Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/53/1923159.pdf Morris, P.M. (1989). The evolution of policy responses to stratospheric ozone depletion. Retrieved from http://www.ciesin.org/docs/003-006/003-006.html Shellenberger, M. & Nordhaus, T. (2005). The death of environmentalism: global warming politics in a post-environmental world. Retrieved from http://thebreakthrough.org/PDF/Death_of_Environmentalism.pdf University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. (2011). Global warming & climate change - frequently asked questions. Retrieved from http://www2.ucar.edu/climate/faq#faq-expand-all-link Read More