The Emission of Carbon Dioxide into the Atmosphere - Essay Example

The 2010 average annual concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is 389.78ppm. The 2009 average was 387.35ppm registering an increase of 2.43ppm per year. On the effect of global warming, May 2011 is the 10th warmest May on record since 1880. The impact of climate changes and global warming because of the rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere hurts weather food supply, food security, rise in sea level global economy, and human health.

    The amount of CO2 level in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate changes, The CO2 emissions have grown sharply since 2000. Climate disasters are on the rise. Around 70 percent of disasters are now climate-related- from around 50 percent from two decades ago. In the last decade, 2.4 billion people were affected by climate-related disasters, compared to 1.7 billion in the previous decade. More extreme weather is already occurring in our world and the number of people affected and the damages inflicted by extreme weather have been unprecedented.

   The incidence of cyclones and rainfall associated with such weather has increased by 7percent. Destructive sudden heavy rains, intense tropical storms, cyclones repented flooding and droughts are likely to increase as well be the vulnerability of local communities. Hurricane Katrina Cyclone Nargis and Tsunami which occurred during 2004 are likely to happen next twenty years.

     Consequent to global warming, higher evaporation, and the high surface temperature will cause more rainfall causing soil erosion and desertification of areas. Higher surface temperature decreases the length of rivers. The drying of rivers and streams and droughts will severely reduce the availability of rainwater.

    The African countries and parts of South Asia are already devastated by floods and drought. Drought-hit areas will face famine and falling food production. Many people in the region of African and South Asia are already experiencing a food crisis. The available cropland per capita is radically diminishing and food production is also coming down.

     Global warming has accelerated the ice loss in the polar region and will soon cause a rise in sea level.  Scientists are calculating that polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise the levels. Overall sea levels in the world are rising 3mm per year. If the increases in ice – or melting of ice persists water from two polar ice sheets could have added 15cm to the average global sea level will by 2050. If this continues, the level rise will have catastrophic effects on island nations and countries with long and low coastal lines.

     Human health will suffer as a result of climate change. The 2003 European heatwave killed 30,000 people, some infectious vector-borne diseases will spread malaria and other epidemic diseases. Loss of forest cover in the developed countries will have a tell-tale effect on biodiversity and deforestation speeds up the concentration of CO2 in this already higher level in the atmosphere.

Global warming and rising CO2 concentration could promote many agricultural weeds lowering crop yields and demanding more pesticides. In a particular year with usually high rainfall, the weed cheatgrass spread reducing the diversity of plant species that modified the food chain and increasing the risk of wildfire.

   The elevated CO2 level can enhance the yields of crops such as wheat, rice, and soybeans. But simultaneous warming and in some location’s ozone pollution may well reduce the CO2 fertilization effect climate change will also alter interactions among crops, weeds pathogens, and insects with pests winning out. One example is soybean plants grow larger than normal but are more ravaged by Japanese beetles.

    Further CO2 concentration will affect plants in ways that could affect public health including greater production of pollen that triggers allergies and greater growth and toxicity of poison ivy and other invasive species.

Ocean acidification is another cause of the high level of CO2 in the atmosphere. The ocean at present takes up one-fourth of carbon CO2 emitted to the atmosphere from human activities. As this CO2 dissolves in the surface’s ocean, it reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid increasing the ocean acidity and shifting the partitioning of inorganic carbon species towards increased CO2 and dissolved inorganic carbon and decreased concentration of carbon ion.

While our understanding of the possible consequences of ocean acidification is still elementary, both the scientific community and society at large are increasingly concerned about the possible risks associated with ocean acidification for marine organisms and ecosystems.

The increase in CO2 levels in the current atmosphere and resultant anthropogenic climate change is the overriding environmental concern facing today. The recent trends in climate-sensitive indicators like global food security mortality and property loss due to storms and floods death due to infectious and parasitic diseases and biomass diversity show the impending doom unless we check the rise in the CO2 level. Climate change is a potentially serious problem of today. Therefore, we must emphasize eliminating anthropogenic climate change and implement the Kyoto protocol on emission reduction the economic sectors and environmental consequences of rising CO2 level also urgently requires the reduction in emission of CO2 level in the atmosphere.