Global Warming Control to Mitigate Climate Change - Essay Example

Teacher Summary of Global Warming Control to Mitigate Climate Change Global Warming is the phenomena arising from the heating up of the temperature of the earth. This happens when greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor traps the heat from the sun into the earth’s atmosphere (252). The heating up of the earth’s atmosphere will cause the sea level to rise as glaciers, permafrost and sea ice as begins to thaw and this phenomena called climate change is a result of global warming. Global warming or climate change has been attributed to be one of the causes of shifting extreme weather pattern that cause heat waves, droughts, excessive rainfall and changes in crop harvests. And as the temperature in our waters heats-up, it harms and kills the algae which serve as food to other living organism in the ocean. When that happens, it inadvertently destroys the ecosystem and balance in the ocean (252-253). There have been several causes of global warming. The most obvious is the carbon dioxide emission from our use of fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal has been the primary culprit of global warming as it traps heat to remain in our atmosphere that makes it warmer. Much of carbon dioxide emission comes from our energy use ranging from the electricity that lights our houses to the to the carbon emission of our cars and industrial plants. Another is population explosion as people now have higher life expectancy resulting to an increased in population that burdens the planet as too many people emits carbon dioxide that is beyond her regenerative capacity. Everybody agrees that the environment has to be protected and that the continuous warming of our atmosphere will have a serious consequence on the environment; weather pattern changes, agricultural yields become unpredictable and disrupt the ecosystem of our waters. Yet, this has to be balanced with the energy needs of both developed and developing countries. For any serious effort to reduce greenhouse emission requires the cooperation and commitment of everybody to make it workable. Sustaining the climatic conditions which are necessary to sustain life on the planet and the mitigation of the global warming caused by greenhouse gases build-up in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans must be done to enable the survivability of all forms of life and its environment. Thus, Massawe conducted a research to formulate a theoretical basis for the “development of empirical model of global warming fit on the main global determinants of human activities caused greenhouse gases build-up in the atmosphere to enable the identification of global regulations which could be administered to control global warming and the resultant climate change” (254). It was aimed that with such global warming control, it would be able to mitigate climate change that would achieve “greenhouse gases emission and build-up in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans based on the generation and deployment of global solutions” (254). Massawe identified the determinants of global warming as the population estimate, birth rate, death rate, hydropower consumption, geothermal power consumption, nuclear power consumption, solar power consumption, wind power consumption, bio-fuel consumption, coal consumption, oil consumption, gas consumption, defense spending, GDP, greenhouse gases emission estimate and forest coverage estimate. He concluded that the solution to the mitigation of global warming is possible by replacing the determinants in individual countries with the global determinants. In effect, the research suggested that global warming and climate change cannot be solved by individual countries and that it can only be addressed by international cooperation with all countries, both developed and developing are in cooperation to address the determinants of global warming. How the article increased my knowledge or changed my point of view on the topic. The study was an eye opener for me and in a way, enhanced my understanding about ecology particularly the phenomena of global warming and climate change. Prior to the reading of the article, I already know that global warming and climate change is bad. How could I escape that information when it is being blamed in all media as the culprit of the destructive typhoons and killer hurricanes that destroys lives and properties? But reading the article made me understand the why of global warming and climate change and what do we have to do to mitigate to the regenerative level of the planet where it can heal itself and continue to sustain life and comfort to all living things. I understood that when the atmosphere heats up, it melts the glaciers which cause the ocean level to rise. But beyond that, it is the unbalanced heat in our oceans that creates fierce storms and hurricanes that kills and destroys lives and properties. I thought then that global warming causes climate change and that climate change creates the destructive forces of nature. Through the article, I also learned that our sheer number or our overpopulation is actually one of the main culprits of global warming and climate change. This makes sense because there are just too many of us consuming food, burning fuels, purchase implements of comfort which in turn, burdens the environment. I thought then that the sheer idea of progress is good. The article made me realize that unbalanced and unchecked growth and wealth creation also strains the environment. It is because during the process of wealth creation, we inadvertently use more resources to feed our factories, plants, laboratories and markets. This also creates a sinister cycle because with wealth comes increased purchasing power which is not entirely good. It is because with more purchasing power, we tend to buy more things that we do not need which in effect exact resources from the environment. Finally, I also realized that military spending also results to increased emission of greenhouses. The solution was obvious. As it is in other problems, cooperation is needed to mitigate global warming and its resultant change. The challenge was the determination of the factors that contribute to global warming because not all factors are obvious. Who would have thought that wealth generation also contributes to global warming and so is increased military expenditure? But as usual, the challenge is how to get our acts together to cooperate and address global warming on international level. We know the solution but until now, we seem not to be doing anything because we still pollute, emit carbon and continue with our suicidal ways which Massawe aptly called with how we treat our environment. Work Cited Massawe, Antipas T. S. "Global Warming Control To Mitigate Climate Change." Engineering 4.5 (2012): 252-255. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. Read More