Challenges of Global Warming in Modern Society - Essay Example

Global warming Global warming involves a change in the global climate. The concept is synonymous with climatic change (kim etal) or enhanced green house effects (Art, 2003, p 33).Global warming involves sustained and substantial increase in global temperatures that usually lasts for unlimited period of time (Levy,2008,p139 and Kim etal) Kim et al on their article “global warming”, they note that there are different causes of global warming, however, the most significant cause is human interference, particularly the release of excess green house gases in the earths atmosphere. These gases emanate fro human activities such as deforestation and emissions from industries and automobiles. The green houses gases absorb and prevent much of the solar energy reflected back in the atmosphere from escaping into the space by retaining it and thus can be said to work like a blanket. This causes the temperatures in the lower part of the earths atmosphere to increase. As green house gases increases in concentration in the atmosphere, so is more energy retained in the atmosphere and this increases the chances of global warming to increase. Some of the gases which constitutes green house gases include; carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour and fluorine gases. (Kim et al, 2010) These different green house gases have different capabilities in heat trapping. (environment.nationalgeographic.com, 2011) According to levy, global warming is evaluated by looking at the annual average temperatures as a function of time .The average temperatures are estimated from temperature recordings obtained from both the land and the sea. Land temperatures are obtained from weather stations while sea temperatures are estimated by assessing temperatures of the sea from a ship. The data obtained is first averaged over squares of one degree in latitude by one degree in longitude. Then, the averaged temperatures within the squares are summed to derive at the global average temperatures. In attempting to compute global average temperatures, both the averaged temperature of the earth surface, sea and the combined temperature and averaged temperatures within lower earth surfaces also known as troposphere are employed. The information about the troposphere is gathered by use of weather balloons or micro wave sounding units mounted on atmosphere navigating satellites that have advantage of providing direct data. (Levy, 1999, p 370) Challenges of Global warming in Modern Society According to wbcsd.org, the changes in the earths climate system has catastrophic effects in the society and corporate world operates .The effects can have either physical, social or social impacts The impact s on the business world and in societies are very much uncertain in frequency and magnitude. The effect of global warming affects the business society in various ways. To begin with, high temperatures will affect the location, design effiency and operation and marketing of business products and services and its infrastructure. Water scarcity which is mainly caused by drying of water bodies due to excessive overheating does affect business operations particularly those of industries which rely on water to carry out its activities, for instance the soft drinks manufacturing industries. The rising sea levels which is caused by melting of major ice caps and sheets in the world does affect the location of the business and at times cause the submergence of industrial or business sites or even making the access to raw materials, natural or human resources difficult The constant and repeatedly increase in the frequency of extreme weather events such as the hurricanes, usually damages business infrastructure, affect the possibility of business continuation and costs. Also the changes in the distribution of vector borne diseases such as malaria, the increased migration of people has a great impact on business in terms of lack of adequate supply of human workforce and a readily available market for business products and services. Wbcssd.org also notes that climate change affect the business through its impact on stakeholders in various ways. To begin, the customers who have been affected by climate change related stress, losses, costs and damages usually have reduced disposable income to spend on the buying of goods and services. There is also a great likelihood of investors failing to invest in business which are perceived to be at a high risk of collapsing as a result of climate change related issues or those that are considered to be actively engaged in activities that do reinforce or contribute to global warming Investment analysts also pressurize businesses to comprehensively disclose of the risks associated with climate change to their business and perfectly demonstrate how they can derive at effective risk management skills and strategies in order to deal efficiently with the anticipated negative effects of global warming. Climate change will also negatively affect businesses as it makes business regulators to come up with new control measures which will have to be implemented in order to minimize emissions of green house gases into the environment. The implementation of these preventive measures by business will mean that businesses have to incur extra costs which affect annual profits. (wbcsd.org, 2007) The impact of climate change in society varies differently from one sector to another sector. While climate change presents threats to society, some of the individual sectors and companies, some face few challenges and some even benefit more. The possible threats of global warming on the various sections will be highlighted below. The impacts can presents them as risk or opportunities but the focus will be on the risks. Agriculture, fishing and forestry The increase in temperature usually by a significant margin example, Say 2 degrees coupled with subsequent extension of growing season in midlatitude and northern regions can increase agricultural output, however, extreme weather conditions can affect agricultural activities thus reducing or resulting into no out put at all. The changes in the distribution of pests of pest and predators resulting from weather and climatic conditions change definitely will negatively affect crop and animal farming. Also the resultant temperature range in the different parts of the world posses a great threat to fishery and tourism industry since this puts certain fish, plants and wild life species within certain temperature range at a high risk of extinction. According to wbcsd.org, the sectors on agriculture, fishing , forestry and tourism industry of economies of the world ;Central America, northern Asia, western Sahel, coastal tropics of regions of South America and some other island states do suffer from adverse effects of climatic change. Of the above sector discussed, agriculture is the only one that is highly adaptable because there exists many opportunities for maintaining and increasing yields mainly through proper management of crops calendars to avoid extreme weather conditions and also by coming up with new varieties of crops and animals that can tolerate a wide rage of weather conditions and by good soil management practices to overcome water scarcity. Energy sector This sector role in society is to supply and regulate the uses of various power soures in society. The impacts of climate change on the sector are; the changes in temperature often interfere with the smooth operation of equipments, the rise in sea levels threatens electric generation as well as the refineries and facilities located along the coast, riparian and estuarine locations The current water shortage is resulting into potential conflicts between the resource beneficiaries which may degenerate into war. Among the resource beneficiaries include power generating companies, water supplying companies and even local communities. Health care sector Wbcsd.org notes that rainfall, temperature and humidity have a major influence on the distribution of diseases, pathogens and pests .The possible impacts of climatic change include: there has been a decline in the number of deaths in society particularly due to cold related conditions in some regions, however, the rise in temperature in the developing could result into high mortality as people die from excessive overheating. The potential increase in diseases and premature deaths associated within certain regions in the world will increase. This is because the vectors responsible for various infection will be distributed evenly in many parts of the world and the distribution patterns of certain diseases for instance malaria in Africa in terms of transmission rate will decrease as a result of reduction in rainfall while in other areas previously not affected will become vulnerable. Tourism sector The impacts of climate change on this sector will include; the reduction inaccessibility of previous tourist attraction sites and scenery, extreme weather conditions will destroy tourist infrastructures such as accommodation facilities and attraction site such as the coral reefs along ocean and sea coastlines and the overall economic implication will be a decrease from tourist earnings, loss of jobs or even collapse of the sector if tourists keep off affected regions. Water and sanitation sector The impacts of climate change on sector specializing in the supply of water and sanitation companies includes: the greater demand for water caused by increased temperatures and changes in water supply results into water scarcity, the variations in river flows due to changes in temperature and precipitation has a potential of damaging water supply infrastructure during heavy rains, underground water quality is lowered as aquifers are penetrated by rising water that is saline in nature, lastly the increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods that are long lasting affect the performance and capacity of water and waste systems. Transport and Distribution sector The impacts of global warming to this sectors includes; the disruption of ground and marine transportation systems as a result of severe weather such as sea storms that interferes with shipping .The local droughts makes inland water ways impassible and lastly the frequent rise in sea level causes damage to transport infrastructures thus making the mobility of people and goods difficult (wbcsd.org, 2007) Reference list: Art, Robert J. (2003). A grand strategy for America: Cornell Century Foundation Bks.Edition illustrated. Cornell University Press,pp.33,34 Environment.nationalgeographic.com. (2011). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved 5TH May 2011 http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw- causes Kim, Y. etal. (2010). Global Warming: Definition. Retrieved 5TH May 2011 http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2010/finalwebsite/background/globalwarming/ definition.html Levy, Salomon.(1999).Two-phase flow in complex systems. Edition Illustrated. Wiley- IEEE, p.370 wbcsd.org. (2007). Business and Adaptation. Retrieved 5TH May 2011 http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ksMAB- lflMAJ:www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/iMn5EtG4bkjxQNLfU9UZ/Adaptation.pdf+htt p://wbcsd.org/+business+risk&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESilc644o1D nzOZXscDn1z2mtldwMb0-tDuQXMt5Qd- adv3zzsyrhVBMU9gugWI6QTMYepX3fy7vVPZiTkFB8GyhIL2ylee3T82g3Jwf ZmlMpfTNGpFWC9qLSFLUMMOKLnKxAK6v&sig=AHIEtbQonDMQuzrt27j lfrr69ZhzvizMoQ Read More