The Origin of the Global Warming - Research Paper Example

Global Warming Global Warming of the of the College of the Global warming is being an extremely scientific issue, has in the past, and has become a debatable and political issue. Global warming affects the biology and hydrology of the planet, and it includes rains, winds, temperatures, glaciers and so on. For instance, today, mountain glaciers are smaller in size than what were they about thousands of years ago. Due to increased presence of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere, a lot of climate changes has been occurring in the recent days, and this includes extreme hot summer ,unprecedented rainfall leading to flooding , extinction of species and plants due to global warming , melting of glaziers which may result in the increase of sea levels and so. This research essay will discuss about the origin of the global warming, how it has impacted, how to control it through a detailed analysis. Introduction Due to human activities, the atmospheric levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have soared rapidly. Over the past century, the global average temperature soared about 10C in average, which is about 1.80 F and the sea levels have increased more than 15 cms (6 inches). Worldwide, glaciers are melting out and the huge ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are frazzling at their peripheries. While summer heat waves have now become unbearable and rainstorms are escalating in many provinces while winters are less severe. At the same juncture, provinces of drought are turning to be more widespread, which resulted in the sharp increase in food prices. Species are witnessing risk of extinction due to the hostile atmosphere. Climate science comprises of study of the workings of the environment and ocean and of the interface between atmosphere and ocean and the other constituents of the mother Earth, namely fauna and flora. It also deals with the study of past climate namely paleoclimatology. Further, climate change is closely associated with the energy as future climate rests upon directly on our capability to maneuver emissions from fossil-fuel and to use eco-friendly renewable-energy sources (Mathez, 2013, p.xv). Global Warming – An Analysis The origin of the global warming can be mainly attributed to human activities, particularly, the burning of coal, fossil fuels, oil & gas, adding together with large -scale deforestation and due to this , the gas CO2 emitted into the environment in higher quantities over the past two centuries and more significantly over the past five decades. Each year, there will be emission of CO2 into the atmosphere which will add to the CO2 which is already present in the atmosphere. Thus, a further 8000 million tones which is probable to stay in the atmosphere for another one century or more. As CO2 is a good absorber of heat radiator emanating from Earth’s exterior. The increased presence of CO2 is acting like a blanket over the surface, thereby maintaining the Earth as warmer than it would otherwise be. Thus, with enhanced heat, the quantum of water vapor in the atmosphere also enhances, offering more blanketing and making it to be further warmer. Due to different human activities, the gas methane also has its increased presence, mainly due to agriculture and mining activities and due to this, methane gas presence also adds fuel to the fire of global warming. The gases’ oxygen and nitrogen that make up the preponderance of our atmosphere will neither emit nor absorb thermal radiation. However, it is the water vapor, CO2, and some other negligible gases found in the atmosphere that absorb some of the thermal radiation emanating from the earth’s surface, functioning like a blanket for this radiation and making the variations in temperature from 20 to 30oC between actual average surface temperature on the Earth of about 15o C and the temperature that would be applicable if greenhouse gases were not present. This blanketing process is called as greenhouse gases. It is known as natural since all the atmospheric gases were there long before the human being evolution (other than the chlorofluorocarbons-CFCs). Hurricanes and windstorms are by no means the only climate and weather extremes that create disasters. Unusual, heavy floods or prolonged droughts or continuous rainfall or not adequate rainfall can be even more devastating to property damages and human lives. In subtropics and tropics, these events are frequently happening in many regions of the world and there have been notable examples in the last two decades. Bangladesh witnessed the highest ever floods in 1988 and about four- fifths of Bangladesh was engulfed with flood waters. In the year 1991, 1994-95, and in 1998, China witnessed devastating floods thereby impacting millions of peoples. In USA, the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers witnessed unprecedented floods in 1993. The April to October 1993 flood in USA was among the most devastating and costliest flooding that have ever occurred in the annals of USA with about US$15 billion in damages and with a flooded area of about 30000 sq. miles . About 30,000 peoples were dead due to unprecedented floods and landslides in Venezuela in 1999. Over half-a-million people were rendered homeless due to unprecedented floods in Mozambique in the year 2000-2001 (Houghton, 2009, p.9). Europe witnessed worst floods in summer 2002. Both North and South Africa witnessed unparalleled droughts during these years. Africa witnessed unparalleled droughts in the year 1980s as contrasted to all other disasters grouped together. In summer 2003, the central Europe witnessed an extraordinary heat wave which resulted in the premature death of about 20,000 people. Western Europe witnessed unusual strong winds. London area and Southeast England witnessed unusual hurricane in the early hours of 16 October 1987 as over 15 million trees were uprooted. The hurricane also hit Belgium, northern France, and the Netherlands with vicious intensity, and it happened to be the worst storm witnessed in the province since 1703. Four times in 1990 and three times in December 1999, storm-force winds of analogues or even higher intensity but covering a greater province of Western Europe struck the Europe (Houghton, 2009, p.9). The interagency group working for the US government, in the year 2013 found that a ton of CO2 discharged now will cause future injury worth of USD 37 in today’s dollars. Further, as an exercise of monitoring CO2 emissions, in 2013, U.S. government introduced harsher fuel-economy requirements for newer cars. Further, US government is planning to impose greenhouse –gas emission restrictions on coal-fired power plants in USA. It has been observed that climate -change results in major economic harm thereby rationalizing immediate action to minimize emissions. As per Schlenker & Roberts (2009), the effects of historical climate changes indicate that economies and societies may be more susceptible than what the present models estimate and that weather change is more significant than average weather in deciding impacts, especially for food security and crop growth. For instance, the outputs of some crops may fall sharply above some temperatures. (“Revesz et al., 2014, p.175”). As per Barker et al (2008), coral bleaching has happened in almost in all tropical coral-growing provinces and is unequivocally associated to enhanced temperatures. As per Hughes et al (1996), the natural distribution of major species is limited to narrow temperature zones. As per Parmesan and Yohe (2003), climate change makes these species’ present habitats climatically not suitable for many species. As per Thomas et al (2004), climate change poses not only massive but also serious extinction risks. The rate of global warming will powerfully influence whether species can migrate to new suitable environments or whether they will be pushed to extermination in their old environments. Vermeer and Rahmstorf (2009) highlighted dangers due to sea-level rise as it is associated to both the magnitude of warming and period of time over which glaciers and oceans are susceptible to enhanced temperatures. As per Thomas et al (2004) , there are chances of extinction of species under climate change and estimated that by 2050, about 18% of the species would be “ committed to extinction” under “ low-emission situation, which is approximately doubled to 35% increase under a high-emission background ( Kirschbaum 2014). The British Antarctic Survey actually discovered in 1985 about the depletion of ozone over Antarctica, which corroborated the global linkage of our atmosphere. The use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFS) is said to be responsible for the ozone “hole” which paved the way for the whole new area of politics in the global management of the environment. The discovery of the ozone zone holes woke up the international community about the impounding dangers of global warming. This was followed by signing of major international agreements for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere: S No “Name of the Agreement “ “Date of Signing “ 1 “Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer” 1985 2 “The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer “ 1987 3 “The London Adjustments and Amendments to the Protocol” 1990 4 The Copenhagen Adjustments and Amendments to the Protocol 1992 The above agreements have been held up as illustrations of successful environment diplomacy (Maslin 2008). “Global warming and rise of sea levels “ As per Scientific American, scientists are able to evaluate that water from Greenland’s ice cap has direct impacts on floods’ levels in the rivers of USA. For instance, due to ice melt, the flow of the Colorado River increased six-fold. As per scientist, if ice shelves from Antarctica and Greenland melts in this range, there could be an abnormal increase in the seal level which could be more than 20 feet or 6 meters in 2100 than that of today, and such an increase could submerge many low-lying areas in USA like New York City’s Lower Manhattan and Miami and many Indonesia’s tropical islands and Bangladesh (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Shrinking Glaciers” Due to increase in the surface temperatures, Tundra glacier which was once covered with thick permafrost is now going on melting, and these regions are having now coated with plant life instead of ice sheets. As per New York Times, within a century period, glaciers in Montana’s Glacier have dwindled from one-hundred fifty to just thirty-five. As per the Washington Post, the Himalayan glaciers in India which is feeding about 150 million people with drinking and irrigation water are said to be dwindling by 37 meters per annum (Trimarchi 2014). “Global warming and Deadly Heat Waves “ In 2003, the Europe witnessed the deadliest heat wave, and about 35,000 people could be the omen of the intense heat waves that scientist started to track in the early 1900s. As per Global Development and Environment Institute of Tuffs University, extreme heat waves are occurring 2 to 4 times more often now, and are estimated to be 100 times more likely over the next decade. According to expert, prolonged heat waves may connote increase in heat-associated illness, wildfires and a general increase in the planets’ mean temperature (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Storms and Floods” Scientist employs climate models to estimate the effect of rising global temperatures that will have on precipitation. In the last 3 three decades, the happenings of mighty storms and hurricanes with categories of 4 and 5 which have been almost doubled in the recent years. Hurricanes get their strength from the warm waters, and scientist are making correlation with an increase in atmospheric temperature with that of a corresponding increase in ocean temperature to the number of violent storms. In the recent years, both UK and USA have witnessed extreme flooding and violent storms, there by costing many precious lives and damages amounting to billions of dollars. The frequency of storms and hurricanes have been on a steady rise. In 2007, UK witnessed worst flooding after sixty years (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Droughts “ Due to global warming, sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and India already witnessing droughts and experts are of the opinion that precipitation could prolong to fall down in the ensuing decades. As per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2020, about 75 to 250 million Africans may witness drinking water shortages, and the Africa’s agricultural produce output may decline by fifty percent (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Diseases” As per WHO , the outbreak of resurgent or new diseases are on the increase, and tropical illnesses is spreading fast in nations like Canada where West Nile virus is being infected by mosquitoes on Canadians (Trimarchi 2014). As per Washington Post, In excess of 150, 000 individual may die due to global warming-related diseases per annum, which may pertain to heat-associated respiratory and heart issues and incidences of malaria are on the swell. Due to rise in temperature, diseases like asthma and allergies are also on the increase. Global warming nurtures enhanced pollution, which is associated to increasing instances of asthma attacks, and also nurtures growth of weed, a misery for allergy sufferers (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Economic Impacts “ As per Global Development and Environment Institute of Tufts University, acute storms, and unprecedented floods mingled with agricultural produce devastation caused damages worth of billion dollars. Extreme temperature or extreme rainfall may create huge financial losses. For instance, in the year 2005, Louisiana witnessed a decline of 15% in revenues during the months immediately after the storms, and the colossal damage to the property was projected to be around $ 135 billion. Due to Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana and New Orleans witnessed economic losses of worth of billion dollars as damages. As per recent study carried over study carried over Tufts university indicates that if there is no action by international communities in the face of global warming issues may result in a $ 20 trillion price tag by 2100 (Trimarchi 2014). “Global Warming and Bio-Diversity” As per EPA, Scientific America, about 30% of the animal species and plants that are alive today may witness risk of extinction by 2050 if there is an increase in the average temperature to 11.5 degrees F from 2. Such annihilation may be due to loss of habitat, mainly through deforestation, desertification and ocean extinctions and incapacity to fine-tune to global warming. There is a change of habitat for some of the animals as in the case of red fox, which is normally used to the inhabitant of North America is now changed their habitat to Arctic (Trimarchi 2014). Conclusion The origin of the global warming can be mainly attributed to human activities, particularly, the burning of coal, fossil fuels, oil & gas, adding together with large -scale deforestation and due to this , the gas CO2 emitted into the environment in higher quantities over the past two centuries and more significantly over the past five decades. The increased presence of CO2 is acting like a blanket over the surface, thereby maintaining the Earth as warmer than it would otherwise be. As per recent study carried over study carried over Tufts university indicates that if there is no action by international communities in the face of global warming issues may result in a $ 20 trillion price tag by 2100. Thus, climate change is closely associated with the energy as future climate rests upon directly on our capability to maneuver emissions from fossil-fuel and to use eco-friendly renewable-energy sources. Scientists have forecasted famine, flooding, war and death, which paint a terrible picture of impact of global warming on our mother Earth. If we understand and comprehend the issues relating to global warming and initiate appropriate actions through adaptation, the employment of more sustainable, renewable resources and more energy-efficient resources, the espousal of green ways of living, one may make some remarkable effect on the climate-change process. References Houghton, J. (2009). Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kirschbaum, M. U. (2014). Climate-change impact potentials as an alternative to global warming potentials. Environmental Research Letters, 9(3), 034014. Maslin, M. (2008). Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mathez, E. (2013). Climate Change: The Science of Global Warming and our Energy Future. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Revesz, R. L., Howard, P. H., Arrow, K., Goulder, L. H., Kopp, R. E., Livermore , M. A., & Sterner, T. (2014). Global warming: Improve economic models of climate change. Nature, 508(7495), 173-175. Trimarchi, M. (2014). Top Ten Worst Effects of Global Warming. Retrieved June 14, 2014, from http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/worst-effects-global-warming.htm Read More