Global_Warming

Global Warming’s Impact on the Earth The world’s most brilliant scientific minds agree that land and industrial activities are impacting our climate in negative ways. The burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, and oil create pollutants that act as the glass in a greenhouse, radiating heat back down to the earth which then warms our climate. If we do not take steps now to reduce the emissions of global warming pollution, we will suffer serious environmental, health, and economic repercussions. We owe our time and effort to reduce the global warming pollutants so future generations of the earth can have a healthy economy and environment too. The greenhouse effect is a term used to explain why our climate is warming using an analogy to describe the similarities between the earth’s atmosphere and a greenhouse. Every day the sun’s rays penetrate the atmosphere much like sunlight passes through the glass in a greenhouse. The earth’s surface, or the floor of the greenhouse in this analogy, is heated by absorbing the sun’s rays. However, a portion of the rays are not absorbed by the surface but reflected into the atmosphere where the pollutants, or glass in the greenhouse, prevent the rays escaping into space. The pollutants absorb the earth’s reflected heat and over time, radiate the heat back towards the earth where it warms our climate. (www.timeforchange.org & 363.7 GAY) Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the most devastating pollutant of global warming, is caused by two important factors; deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. Deforestation is responsible for twenty-five percent of carbon dioxide emissions while the burning of gasoline in automobiles is responsible for thirty three percent of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. When a fossil fuel such as gasoline is burnt, it releases pollutants into the atmosphere. These pollutants would normally be reduced by photosynthesis. However, with rainforests the size of Italy being burnt every year, the rate of deforestation has overcome the rate of photosynthesis, leading to elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Even though carbon only makes up .03 percent of the atmosphere’s dry weight it has the ability to act as a thermal blanket maintaining heat for incredible amounts of time. (www.ecobridge.org) Global warming could have devastating effects on the agriculture, health, and economies of the world. Global warming’s results will lead to new weeds for plants to adapt to, new and stronger current diseases, and rising sea levels. Those could have a drastic impact on the countries of the world. Although these results may not have a major impact our life time we owe it to the future generations of the world to preserve the earth for their use. Global warming will lead to increased amounts of weeds, parasites, and insects that will prevent plant growth and survival. More direct sunlight caused by global warming leads to an increased rate of evaporation which results in more rainfall. More sunlight and rainfall causes weeds to grow at alarmingly fast rates, robbing crops of nutrients and water they need to thrive and survive. With increased amounts of parasites and insects weeds will prove to be a farmer’s smallest worry. In 2002 a species of bark eating beetles plagued British Columbia, an area of 9 million acres, about three-fourths the size of Sweden. Officials attributed the spread of the insects to unusually warm winters. The massive California wild fires that devastated millions of acres of fruit and nut farm land in southern California were made more intense by an increase in the population of bark eating beetles that killed a large number of trees, turning them into tinder that fueled the fires. The increase of the beetles was again blamed on unusually warm winters. If something is not done about global warming the phrase unusually warm winters will be the scapegoat to atrocities caused by weeds, parasites, and insects. (363.73 GLO) The World Health Organization projects that millions of people will die from climate-related factors in the next few decades. Of all the creatures in nature, the most responsive to temperature change are insects. As temperatures are on the rise the rate at which insects breed and bite increase. Warming temperatures are also responsible for speeding the maturation of the pathogens they carry. Warmer climates allow insects to expand their range of travel to cooler regions where, in the past, their survival would have been threatened. (363.73 GLO) Global warming will lead to more cases of mosquito caused illnesses and deaths. Prior to recent temperature changes mosquitoes could survive at elevations no higher than 1,000 meters. Now mosquitoes are flourishing and spreading malaria, dengue, and yellow fever at elevations of 3,200 meters to communities that carry no immunity to these diseases. Presently malaria alone kills at least 1 million people and causes 300 illnesses annually. In Africa malaria is killing about 3,000 children each day. That is one child every thirty seconds. As a result of global warming, mosquitoes and other insects will breed and bite, often leading to more mosquito and insect related illness and death. (363.73 GLO) Rising sea levels, caused by melting polar ice caps, will yield devastating results to the countries of the world. An immediate result of melting glaciers will be a rise in sea levels about an inch or two. Even a modest rise in sea levels could cause flooding problems for low-lying coastal areas. However, if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt and or collapse into the sea, it would push sea levels up about ten meters, and many coastal areas would completely vanish beneath the ocean. (http://science.howstuffworks.com/global-warming.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/10/061023192524.htm, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02 /science/earth/02arct.html, 363.73 GLO) Coincidentally, thirteen of the twenty largest cities on earth are lie at sea level on the coast. As the sea level rises the major harbors of the world will disappear along with the large medical centers, and emergency response centers such as fire departments, police, and ambulances. The economical and medical centers of the world are located in our larger cities which are also frequently located at sea level. If something is not done to combat global warming the economies and people of the world will suffer major repercussions. (363.73 GLO) The greenhouse gas emissions produced by the first automobile that rolled of the assembly line in Detroit are still in the atmosphere. Each new ton of greenhouse gases emitted today will reside in the atmosphere for decades. Over time, if acts to prevent greenhouse gas emissions are not taken, the resulting warming will change the climate and environment for the future generations of the earth. (363.73 GLO) In 2001 the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement that would have required the leading industrial nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to levels below 1990 totals by 2012, was rejected by president George W. Bush. The failure of the Kyoto Protocol was inevitable because it required the impossible, an enormous reduction of greenhouse gases in eleven years. The protocol exempted developing nations from reducing their emissions even though their emissions would have swamped the reductions from developed nations. Those who framed the agreement treated global warming as an immediate fix for a century of carbon emissions. This view resulted in the forming of an agreement which contained drastic change in such a small period of time. (363.73 GLO) However the Kyoto Agreement did get something right; their slogan “Think globally, act locally.” There are many simple inexpensive tasks that can be done to reduce carbon emissions. Replacing an incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb prevents half a ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere while saving forty five dollars in electricity costs. When buying a house look for a dark colored home in a cooler climate while in a warmer climate look for a light colored house. This can save lots of money in electricity bills, and prevent 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere annually. If everyone in the United States performed these small tasks it would lower carbon dioxide emissions dramatically. (http://eartheasy.com) Although it may be decades before the sea levels raise to heights in which water will engulf the major cites of the world, or years before our agriculture will be threatened by massive amounts of insects, parasites, and weeds the results of global warming may be closer than expected and action needs to be taken. We owe it to the future generations of the earth to lower our global warming emissions and leave them a healthy environment and economy. We need to reduce or carbon emissions to prevent the potential catastrophic dangers presented by global warming. So “Think globally and act locally” to reduce the carbon emissions of the world. Works Cited Eartheasy. “Global Warming: What we can do about it.” Eartheasy 2005-2007. 10 April, 2008 http://eartheasy.com/article_global_warming.htm Gay, Kathlyn The Greenhouse Effect. New York: Franklin Watts, 1986. (363.7 GAY) Geological Society of America. “Global warming and Your Health.” Science Daily 29 October, 2006. 10 April, 2008 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061023192524.htm. Grabianowski, Ed, and Jonathan Strickland.  "How Global Warming Works."  21 April, 2005.  HowStuffWorks.com. 10 April, 2008. Mirabile, Joe. “Why We Must Accelerate Reductions in Carbon Emissions” 25 February, 2006. Ecobridge.org. 10 April 2008. Opposing viewpoints “Global Warming.” Global Warming. Ed. Helen Cothran. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006. (363.73 GLO) Revkin, Andrew C. “Artic Melt Unnerves the Experts.” 2 October, 2007. The New York Times Company. 10 April, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/earth/02arct.html.