Environmental Science: Global Warming - Essay Example

Global warming is also linked to air pollution. Like many environmental problems, air pollution can be linked to a chain of disruptive events including soil damage, damage to forests and lakes, and disruption of the global ecosystem. The industrial revolutions in capitalist and communist countries affected the environment adversely in equally devastating ways. Many scientists consider pollution to be an input of nutrients exceeding the capacity of the ecosystem to process them. Major air pollutants include particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, heavy metals, ozone, radon, and industrial smog (sulfurous and nitrous compounds mixed with water vapor and soot) (Global, 2003).

Many of these pollutants are released into the atmosphere from areas of heavy industry and high traffic areas. Air pollution existed long before this, though, in the form of volcanic activity, fires, and dust-storms. This natural sort of pollution was generally able to be removed or assimilated by the functions of the biosphere. During these times, the earth was in a system that basically had minimal impact from humans. New chemicals and excess pollution since the industrial revolution, however, have taxed the threshold level of the biosphere.

Acid deposition, global warming, and stratospheric ozone depletion represent unsustainable impacts on the environment. Many atmospheric scientists agree that air pollution from human sources has significantly altered the entire biosphere. Working globally is concerned international communities are seen to be key to solving the problem and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But steps must be taken to reduce the threat of global climate change at the individual, local, state, and national, as well as the international, level.

Steps could be as complicated as urban design and waste management research, or as simple as planting a tree. Many cities have voluntarily taken the initiative to improve the environment by implementing greenhouse gas reduction strategies. These strategies can help communities save money as they lower the risks to human health caused by global warming. As too carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere from traditional energy sources, and as the media pays a lot of attention, more and more people have been exploring energy alternatives in the form of wind and solar energy, as well as exploring more environmentally friendly options in their choice of building materials.

Global warming has been a concern of science for more than a century, perhaps beginning with the description of the “hothouse effect,” in which early scientists predicted that the Earth’s atmosphere raised the temperature of the Earth’s surface. REFERENCEWright, Richard T., and J. Nebel Bernard. Environmental Science, 8th ed. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002.