Human and Environment: The Issue of Global Warming - Essay Example

Teacher’s Human and Environment In my early childhood, once I saw on TV how poor people were suffering from a deva d flood that took place in India and Bangladesh. I felt bad for them. I asked my father why God sent so much suffering to these poor people. My father answered, “It is not God my son; it is us.” My father realized that I failed to understand; he added, ”People are uprooting trees on the downhill of Himalayan mountain.” I still failed to understand; however, after several years I realized, my father implied that there were not enough trees to resist the flood when ice melted on the Himalayan Mountain. I know now; we cause disaster by abusing environment of our planet. Uprooting of trees of the Himalayan downhill caused flood in three countries; however, indiscriminate burning of fossil fuel has started causing problems all over the world. The name of the problem is Global Warming.
To my surprise, I further found out that there are groups of people who believe that global warming is a myth and any actions taken in response to it will cause damage to the global economy. According to them, this a setup for political purposes (“The Great Global Warming”). . John Coleman, the founder of Weather Channel by claiming himself as a scientist affirmed that global warming did not exist at all. He defined the issue of global warming as a “frenzy and myth.” He contributed earth’s temperature rise to the natural climate change due to sun’s cycle change plus change in oceans currents.
The proponents explain global warming from the viewpoint of the effect of greenhouse gasses. The major part of greenhouse gasses consists of carbon dioxide (CO2). Greenhouse gasses trap heat; if CO2 concentration goes up it increases the concentration of greenhouse gasses. As a result, more heat will be trapped inside the earth’s atmosphere, which will increase earth’s temperature. It is the scientific explanation of the proponents. They claim that burning of fossil fuel is causing increase in concentration of CO2. This is why; human generated CO2 is responsible for global warming that causes a dramatic rise of sea levels, and creates numerous cyclones all over the world
The opponents cannot oppose the fact that CO2 concentration is truly increasing; neither can oppose increase in earth’s temperature. However, they explain that increase of concentration of CO2 has nothing to do with the increase in temperature. Professor Ian Clark of the department of Earth Science of the University of Ottawa explains ”if we look the climate from the geological time frame we never suspect CO2 is a major climate driver (“The Great Global Warming”)”. Professor Tim Ball of the Department of Climatology of the University of Winnipeg states that he believes in global warming, but he does not believe that manmade CO2 is causing that warming (“The Great Global Warming”).
Human civilization cannot survive without energy. It means opponents want to keep fossil fuel as the source of energy while the proponents search for alternative energies. In both cases, the entire debate turns into fight for billions of dollars. Nevertheless, I agree that manmade CO2 is causing the global warming. It is a proven fact that earth atmosphere traps heat. Earth’s atmosphere not only traps heat, but it moves along with ocean currents and changes climate. Scientist Dr. Peter Tans, Dr. Tom Conway (1-156), and others from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through observations and experiments during determined that CO2 was increasing due to fossil burning fuel, and they established relationship between the temperature changes and CO2 concentration (“Atmosphere: Introduction”) level. The earth’s natural carbon cycle, without the manmade input of CO2, was fully balanced. The burning of fossil fuel creates additional CO2 much faster than natural echo system can respond (“Major Greenhouse Gasses”) to it. Thus, earth’s carbon cycle is not balanced, which gives birth to a natural phenomenon – the rise of earth’s temperature.
Works Cited
"Atmosphere: Introduction." . Annenberg Learner, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. .
Conway, Thomas, and Peter Tans. "Atmospheric Carbon dioxide Mixing Ratios." . NOAA, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. .
"Major Greenhouse Gasses." . Annenberg Learner, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. .
"The Great Global Warming." . Kaza0423, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. . Read More