The Impending Threat of Global Warming - Essay Example

Global Warming Introduction Global warming refers to the condition of increase in the temperature. This rise in temperature affected both earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This increase can be seen continuously in last few decades. As stated by scientists that in the last 100 years on the earth, earth's average surface temperature increased by about 0.8 C. This 0.8 C includes the two third portion of last three decades. These unequal changes in the climate affect almost all living things including human, plants, animals. Many of the living creatures cannot bear this change and the result is open in the form of dead. According to the scientists, main causes of the global warming are the greenhouse gases those are produced by deforestation and burning the fossil fuel. History of global warming Scientific research on global warming itself was the result of many influences, and the interesting thing is that these influences include misconceptions to government pressure and findings. In 1896 a scientist from Sweden presented a new idea the burned fossil fuels such as coal, which is the reason to increase the carbon dioxide gas on atmosphere. And the increase in the level of Carbon dioxide increases the average temperature on the earth. In the 1930s, people of United States and North Atlantic region realized that these regions have much warmed during the previous half century. At that time many of the scientists argued that the change in the climate is just a phase of some moderate natural cycle. The cause of this change was not described by anyone at that time and referred that condition to “unknown causes”. At that time one unique argument was made by Guy Stewart Callendar who was an engineer. He insisted that the greenhouses are the main cause of global warming. At the start of 1950s, few scientists worked on the Guy Stewart Callendar’s claims with the help of new improved methods and calculations. After that some new studies in 1961 also proved that the level of carbon dioxide is rising day by day. Over the next few decades scientists used simple models and specific calculation to measure the climate change. At that time General predictions with the help of calculations and computer models made. In 1967 more calculations by scientists suggested that the rise in the level of temperature might be little degree in next century so there is no need for any policy for this purpose. But at that time some scientists forced for official attention and government funds for more research purposes. In the early 1970s, it was noted that there is a rise in the climatic changes. This term referred to “environmentalism”. The rise in environmentalism raised public doubts about the global warming. At that time some scientists raised the point that human activities was the main reason for increasing the smoke and dust elements into the atmosphere and these elements block sunlight. Factors that brings rise to global warming At earlier times scientists had used a certain methods and calculations to measure the change in climate, but in 1970s they were using many techniques about the factors that can cause influences in the change of climate. Improved computer models with improved calculations were used to measure the jumps in climate level. With the help of these models scientists take information that how these jumps could happen. Researchers had to know that the one other factor that can causes the global warming was unexpected discovery, the result of this discovery stated that the level of gases was rising, which would add seriously to global warming. At the end of 1970s global temperature has evidently began to rise. The scientist those were researching on that began to warn the world that these changes could be dangerous if proper security measures are not taken. At the main time Corporations and individuals who opposed these thoughts spent large amounts to convince people that there was no problem at all. After these issues the world governments decided to create an international panel in 2001 to know the reasons behind this climate change. This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate published a report in which they stated that due to much complexity in climate system scientists would never reach on a proper conclusion about the reason on these climate changes, but they stated that it is much possible that we faced severe global warming due to our civilization. In 2001, greatly improved computer models and advanced calculations of data of many kinds suggest the conclusions that human are very likely to cause global warming. Recent Researches Most Researchers stated that the final decade of the twentieth century was the warmest one in the past millennium (Albritton et al. 2001). Recently, it have been suggested that the year 2005 may have been the warmest year on history record. Some other recent researches have also proved that the earth’s energy budget is out of balance. This makes global warming un avoidable. Is global warming is an natural process Most of the people think that global warming is not a threat and did not cause by human. It is only a natural process. Some people argue the global warming is not happening overall. There is a list of scientists who says that global warming is natural process. Some of their arguments and reasons are described below: High level of solar radiations: Some of the researcher says that the main reason of global warming is unusually high level of solar radiation. They stated that "Greenhouse gases are not the reason of global warming. It is due to unusual high level of solar radiation and a lengthy growth in its intensity. And this growth can be seen throughout the last century. Climate is always changing: Many of the researchers who argued on the validity of global warming state the Climate is always changing. Climate is always changing its behavior. Sometimes it turned in hotter period. Sometimes it turned into a warm period. And recently, we are facing a warm period and the little ice age. Global Warming is cooling: Henrik Svensmark wrote in his article that “global warming has stopped and a cooling is beginning. No climate model has predicted a cooling of the Earth, quite the contrary. And this shows that the projections of future climate changes are unreliable” Change in the energy of sun: Many of the people think that the changes in the sun's energy are main reason of global warming. Temperature records on earth have proven that sun has driven a major portion of the 20th century temperature change. So the recent warming trend in the temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of greenhouse gases. Natural variability theories of warming: There are evidences about global warming but it is not confirmed that global warming is caused by CO2. Climate is changing rapidly and it is not proven that this change in climate is due to carbon dioxide or due to some natural process. Contribution of greenhouses: David Douglass who is the physicist stated that the current pattern of warming, and trends of changing the temperature do not show that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases. Human made greenhouses’ contribution is the negligible portion of this increase. So it is not appropriate to say that global warming is only caused by humans. Natural cycles: some of the people think that global warming is the result of natural processes. Nicola Scafetta who is the research scientist in the physics department at Duke University, stated that most of the portion of global warming observed in 1970s. And at that time there was also the presence of natural cycles in solar system. These natural solar cycles may be a reason of global warming. Scientist who argued that the cause of global warming is unknown Some of the scientists argued that the causes of global warming are unknown. Some of the reasons behind these thoughts are described below: Errors in the report of International Panel of Climate Change: Syun-Ichi Akasofu who is the founding Director of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska, stated that the method of study followed by the International Panel of Climate Change is based errors, and due to these errors a baseless conclusion had been made. According to him most of the changes that increased the average temperature in 20th century was due to the increase natural geographical changes. And except this statement that greenhouses are the main cause of warming, there is no evidence current global warming is due to the greenhouse effect. He also stated that International Panel of Climate Change had ignored all these natural changes, and due to this their conclusion should be biased. Another Scientist, David Deming, geology professor at the University of Oklahoma refers this situation to a foolish establishment. According to him all the results are based on misinformation and irrelevant data. The amount of data of climate change has been poorly constrained; due to this the cause of global warming is unknown. He stated further that there is no accurate system to measure the future climate change. Global Warming is a Threat and caused by humans On the other side of coin there are also much people who think that global warming is a threat and human are the main cause of threat. According to researchers there is more than 90 percent certain that global warming is caused by humans. To know that how the global warming is a threat and caused by human there are some key points are described below: There are many natural causes of global warming but these causes are not only the reasons for the excessive warming that we are facing currently. The current warming is self-created and created by humans. Most of the observers state that the increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-20th century is due to greenhouse gas concentrations. Humans are contributing in global warming in these certain forms Carbon Dioxide Methane from Nitrogen Oxides Other gases Carbon dioxide is the most significant human cause of global warming. This can be in the form of Fossil Fuel, Deforesting, and Failing Sinks. Carbon Dioxide is released form the every burn, the main form is fossil fuel. Fossil fuel is consumed in cars, airplane or any other source. Deforestation is also the huge factor that contributes in global warming. Carbon dioxide is released from the human activities; these activities include changing of forests grasslands into farms and cities. The phycology behind this is plans store the carbon dioxide. When those plants die and carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Due to this reasons all the stored carbon enter in the atmosphere. Due to increase in global warming all the oceans are no longer able to store carbon dioxide comparing with last past decades. These changes can directly a reason of increase in global warming because oceans can store 50 times more carbon then atmosphere. Due to high increase in global warming the tiny plants of water are losing their capacity to store carbon dioxide which directly means that more global warming is in the way. Due to the increase in global warming world’s ice is melting day by day. Ice contains the methane gas in it. And melting the ice simply refers to the condition on increase the methane gas in atmosphere. Now day’s humans are using chemical based fertilizers in agriculture. The main purpose of using these fertilizers is to increase the production level. In current modern environment Nitrogen is used as the main component of these fertilizers. Nitrogen oxides are 300 times more powerful and act as the heat stabilizer. This directly means the humans are participating much in increasing the level of global warming in current modern environment. Conclusion Top scientists have consistent conclusions for over twenty years about global warming. Some elements like Fossil Fuel companies have often denied this science. But there is need to think about the things that are we are doing in these days. As in the modern lifestyle we require everything in processed form. Processing of everything creates unwanted emissions. This cab be in any form e.g. pollution or something else. Those were the old days when all things were simple. Simply no processing required. As due to increase in the human population, the requirement for processed things will be necessary. And more processing simply refers to the condition that there will be more pollution. The one major example of this is that the use of nitrogen oxide in fertilizer increases the level of production of food for human. This means this phenomena is beneficial for humans. In short if anyone doesn’t agree with global warming and state this as an natural process than he is also right that it is a natural process but on the other side humans are the main reasons of these natural process. Humans are making modern things for their use and easy life style, but this change for easy life style is increasing the level of global warming. According to me this general view proves that the phenomenon of global warming is real and human are the main reason for this phenomenon. Human made devices, greenhouses, and other modern equipment are the main source of emissions of above mentioned gases and elements like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. If anyone still thinks that global warming is unreal and not caused by humans then, he is ignoring the facts. Refrences Simon, Seymour. Global Warming. New York: Collins, 2010. Print. Bily, Cynthia A. Global Warming. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print. Haugen, David M, Susan Musser, and Kacy Lovelace. Global Warming. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Print. Nardo, Don. Climate Crisis: The Science of Global Warming. Minneapolis, Minn: Compass Point Books, 2008. Print. NRC (2008). "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change". Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, US National Academy of Sciences. p. 2. Retrieved 2010-11-09. Ruddiman, W F. Earth's Climate: Past and Future. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2001. Print. Philander, S G. Is the Temperature Rising?: The Uncertain Science of Global Warming. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1998. Print. Read More