Global Warming - Evaluation of Sustainability Strategies - Research Paper Example

Global Warming There is always a speculation that still exists on how our earth was created. Keeping that aside, the current situation demands have changed. What have we done to make earth a better place is the question that is constantly lingering in 8 out of every 10 people in the world. People, right from the day they started innovating things, they did everything and they are still doing everything only to facilitate themselves to live better. There can be no wrong found in innovating things for that kind of a notion, but what people lacked to understand is the side effects they had posed to the place they live in. Since everything was given to us for free, there is obvious curiosity for a person to neglect it. We have done that and now we are facing its consequences. There is earthquakes, there is tsunamis, and there is – Global Warming. Well, Global Warming is a destruction force to the atmosphere, thanks to the emission of gases from devices that we developed to make our life comfortable. The following analysis focuses on what Global Warming is, what exactly the causes are for it and what are the ramifications that needs to be done both from the user perspective and developer perspective of a human. Finally, the essay provides a plan that would help in reaching sustainability of the greener, natural environment for the never ending future that allures to become devastating. (Population Council 1997) Global Warming – the threat for the world What Global warming is all about? It is about the overall temperature of the earth being increased due to emission of gases that deprecate the Ozone layer. The Ozone layer is the one that acts as a shield protecting the earth from the heavy radiations of sun. But due to the emissions of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases an effect is produced on the Ozone layer called as the Greenhouse effect. What it does is it absorbs the catalysts that act as the shield against the sunlight, making the earth a more vulnerable place to the sun’s heat. And adding to the woes, with earth placed rather in a poignant position in the Solar system, in line with the Sun, the effect of depletion of Ozone layer has been fast increasing. This has led to an effect on earth called as the Global Warming. The inference of such an effect is melting of the ice bergs in Arctic and the Antarctic causing the sea levels to rise. To remind everyone’s knowledge, water makes up 70% of the earth. And hence an increase in its level would mean an increase in probability of lands submerging inside water thereby creating havoc among the humans leading to a war of survival. Having said that, people would find it hard to believe that all this could happen only because we used a refrigerator at home! Is there an irony there? Yes, we use of number of devices that emit these green house gases. Those include the cars we ride in, the refrigerators we use to store food etc. Everything, every kind of device is so mixed up in our life that it would be next to impossible for us to go back to the stone-age. So, a decision about the plausible actions can only be ascertained by finding the causes of the problem. (Karl &Knight 1998) Problems – Did we do that? The earth was a beautiful place and still it is. It was during the industrial revolution of the 1800’s, the man’s hunger to write a different for their future generations propelled them to discover more and more. It also led them to treat their own species different to them, rationalism set in, and many other problems. The output of the industrial revolution is unmatchable at both ends. It gave us the car to ride in but it also gave us the atom bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, how much does man contribute in rather say altering the world. It would be 95% accurate to say that humans are the cause of whatever happening all over the world. The consciousness of a thing called as global warming came to human’s notice only half a century back. By then, we had almost found all the ways to emit those deadly greenhouse gases in the form of bikes, cars and many more. Irrespective of the conscience, what makes it more interesting is the fact that it has been half a century since it was found and people are yet to find solutions for it. They continue to use the causes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed the same.(Breslin 2001) A man would do anything to have things under his possession. The world wars are perfect examples to justify that statement. It is this man’s desire that has led the even their own future generations to follow it. But what the present generation doesn’t know about is that there is no place to live for the future. So, it would be judicious enough to acknowledge the fact that we humans are the cause for global warming and to see in an alternate perspective, we are its solutions too. Human impacts To see the brighter side of the day, there is a constant awareness among the people of current generation to go greener in every activity and innovation they do hereafter, right from cars to many other simple activities. There are also positive signs that every nation has set an aim to reduce the pollution emission from their respective countries by a respective percentage. Further, national activists have also joined hands to fight this out by forming organization that work in propagating and creating awareness among the public about global warming and its consequences. Several websites and several non- profit organization are making march everyday to showcase what the world would become in future. These can be considered as really positive signs for a prospective future, but are they? For every positive single step taken, couple of steps we go backward due to one or other reasons. These are not because of the new roles played by humans as terrorists or by the common man. These are problems that are caused by what we have done in the past, stepping on the butterfly and what we are seeing are only its repercussions. To prove the negative impact of humans on the environment, a presentation of an appropriate example would be fair enough. The wetlands that exist in the almost unknown place of Mangrove are perfect example of having a damaged eco system due to human activities. It is a place which flourishes with marine beings and the system in itself thrives with the existence of these living organisms. Indulgence of the humans in constant fishing for food and money had lead to a major decomposition of the ecosystem leaving the entire wetlands in a state of disaster. So, it is clearly identifiable from this example the negative impact of the humans on the environment for his/her desire. And the impact of I in the humans is such that the temperatures are increasing every century by 6 degree Fahrenheit causing a raise in temperature every summer. What it has done is lead many deaths to occur. So it can be concluded, that the environment is taking revenge for whatever we have done to here in the past years. .(Breslin 2001) Evaluation of current sustainability strategies and solutions It is very heartening to see that the entire world is united to prevent the damages cause by Global Warming and the result of which is the formation of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They have been very instrumental in identifying strategies to save he earth from global warming. They have also followed the right path in going on search for causes then to prevent the depletions. It is only by that way the solution can be found, not by protecting each and every time. Automobile and other electronic manufacturing industries have gone into a mode of creating greener environment, something they should have thought about very early. There are also several other organization which perform many operations like the “Earth Hour” where the lights around the entire world are switched off for an hour. This shows a great solidarity among the people to fight against this global warming. The evaluation of these activities shows promising signs but not permanent solution. That is always going to be a worrying factor – whether the process is irreversible.(Berliner 2003) Plans to reach sustainability The efforts are praiseworthy, but to sustain the same forever requires some sort of plan to sustain it. I have created a plan that could possibly help in one way or the other to solve the problems of this world. I am planning to put forth my plan in a narrative way. My plan here is to enlighten the people about how even minute actions they do can alter how the earth looks right now. I want to showcase people how our day to day activities pollute the air, give them a presentation about it, probably a reality show example and teach them how they can avoid it at the same pleasure of how they were doing those activities previously. My plan of action and order of action includes Listing the normal things that we do Showing the clear and present danger in each one of them Giving a presentation of that, a real time example Keying down a list of things that could avoid such effects Help people practice those points The implementation of these steps requires support from the corporation of any small town or a group of people to whom these are going to be taught out. Hence a written application would get the concern from higher officials. After this, people from a single town would be divided into smaller groups so that all understand what this is about. Then presenting the list of things mentioned above one by one to them. The cycle repeats as long as people understand it and are agreeing to follow it too! The time line for such a program would vary from a month to 3 months. The presentation points would hardly take a week,. But a practical example would take couple of weeks time. Following that is the remedial measure which of course would take another week time. And this process once successful has no stop added to it. It has to go on and on. Benefits and challenges of your plan The major benefit is that each and every person would get educated about our earth and they will realize how he/she can save the earth on their own. The major challenges include the approval of higher authorities and to gather people in unison to understand their roles in this life. The toughest challenge would be to alter their way of action in their day to day life. Required government, societal, and global support The program has to be first implemented to a small group of people to find out its success rate. If it is indeed successful, then it is up to the government to support the cause with proper funding and to spread the program all over the world. Reference Berliner, M. L. (Nov, 2003). Uncertainty and Climate Change. Statistical Science. Vol. 18, No. 4, pp.430-435 Breslin, K. (April 2001). Hot New Report on Climate Change. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.109, No. 4. pp. A157 Karl, T.R., and Knight. R. W. (1998). Secular trend of precipitation amount, frequency, and intensity in the United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 79, pp231-242. Population Council. (Mar, 1997). Climate Change and Human Health. Population and Development Review. Vol.23, No.1, pp.205-208. Read More