Global Warming

I. WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? Global warming is the gradual increase of the Earth’s average measured temperature overtime. This measured average temperature is derived from both the near-surface air as well as ocean waters. Scientists began measuring this temperature beginning in the mid-20th century and have continued to monitor fluctuations and deviations in measurements ever since. The average global temperature increased approximately 1.33°F over the past 100 years ending in 2005. This led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to investigate the causes of this gradual increase in the Earth’s average temperature. The panel attributed most of the increase in temperature to “anthropogenic,” or man-made, influences. These influences include greenhouse gas concentrations that directly manipulate the greenhouse effect. This conclusion, although basic, has been supported by over 30 scientific societies and scientific academies. Although there have been increased debate into the causes and existence of global warming, there still remains an overwhelming scientific consensus who believes that what the IPCC found is valid. Global warming has been vaulted onto center stage during the past decade. With movies such as An Inconvenient Truth, the work of political figures such as Al Gore, and the increased debate over polar ice caps, rising sea levels, pollution, becoming “Greener,” oil and gas prices, and carbon dioxide, global warming is something that most of the world’s population is aware of and concerned with. With an investigation into what global warming is, we can begin to understand how we, as people, are affecting our planet, and what it could do to not only us, but to our children, and our children’s children. It is important to recognize that global warming is a topic that has been heavily researched and publicized. What is unfortunate though is that most people have still failed to recognize or believe what scientists have released. Since the climate change has been gradual, people do not recognize the slight changes in temperature and therefore, fail to realize their impact on the environment. It seems nowadays, that it takes a catastrophic event to cause people to change and understand the impacts of their decisions. The bottom line is that global warming is not going away. This paper will seek to first understand what global warming is, the causes of global warming, what global warming is doing to us, as a society, in the present day, what global warming is going to do to us in the future if we don’t make necessary changes, what we can do, as individuals, about global warming, and what industry can do about global warming to possibly reverse its effect on the environment and society. Hopefully, this paper will allow the reader to fully understand how global warming can damage not only the health of the people throughout today’s society, but how it can also directly impact future societies and the way they live. Global warming is something that can not be overlooked and it must continuously be measured, understood and investigated to determine if the ways of our society are either correcting or increasing the effects of global warming. Without scientific backing, the global warming debate is virtually irrelevant and we, as a society, are left with numbers without explanations, left to determine our own interpretations of what the media is feeding us, and are undoubtedly led to believe that either our changes are working, or they have done little to effect global warming, climate change and global temperature fluctuations. Overall, this paper will be a basis for future study in global warming that others can use to enhance their understanding of global warming and hopefully determine better, more efficient, ways of attacking it.
II. WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING? There are many causes of global warming which include carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, carbon dioxide emissions from cars, carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes and buildings, as well as methane, water vapor in the atmosphere increasing, nitrous oxide, deforestation, city gridlock, carbon in the atmosphere and oceans, permafrost and tundra. With regard to carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, in 2002, 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions stemmed from the burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. Since about 93% of the emissions from the electricity industry comes from coal, we will focus our efforts on this product and how it is effecting our environment. Coal emits 1.7 times as much carbon per unit energy than natural gas and 1.25 more than oil. This carbon dioxide attacks the ozone layer, increasing the size of holes within the ozone layer, which is used to reflect and absorb harmful radiation from the sun that heats up the Earth in certain locations. With regard to carbon dioxide emissions from cars, about 33% of carbon dioxide emissions stems from the burning of gasoline in internal combustion engines in cars, light trucks and other man-driven vehicles. Vehicles with poor gas mileage contribute the most to global warming. Just for comparison, a vehicle that gets 12 miles per gallon in the city, contributes about 800 pounds of carbon over a distance of 500 city miles, while a vehicle that gets 61 miles per gallon in the city, only contributes about 161 pounds of carbon over a distance of 500 city miles. Not only does this apply to global warming, but this also applies to oil consumption and usage as well. If we increased the average miles per gallon on vehicles by 3 miles per gallon, we would lower oil consumption by over 1 million barrels per day and US drivers would save $25 billion in fuel costs annually. With regard to carbon dioxide from aviation and buildings, aviation accounts for 3.5% of global warming, and that figure could rise to 15% by 2050. While building structures account for about 12% of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas, while methane is the second most important greenhouse gas. According to the IPCC, methane holds up to 20 times more heat n the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Levels of atmospheric methane have risen 145% in the last 100 years. Methane comes from rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel production. With regard to water vapor, it is the most prevalent and important greenhouse gas known to man. Its increasing presence comes as a result of increased production of other greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Water vapor holds onto two-thirds of all the heat that is trapped by greenhouse gases. As the Earth heats up, the relative humidity increases, allowing the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, and therefore more warming of the surface through a positive feedback scenario. Another greenhouse gas in nitrous oxide, which is naturally produced by oceans and forests. Man-made sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, the use of fertilizers in agriculture, cars with catalytic converters and the burning of organic matter. Nitrous oxide is broken down in the atmosphere through a process that involves natural sunlight. Other than carbon emissions caused by humans, the next cause of atmospheric carbon dioxide is deforestation. Deforestation is responsible for 20-25% of all carbon emissions in the atmosphere, by the burning and cutting of over 34 million acres of trees each year. Not only are we losing the trees that absorb carbon dioxide and filter the world’s pollution, we are also losing the temperate forests throughout the globe. These temperate forests account for an absorption rate of over 2 billion tons of carbon annually. Without the forests and the filtering of greenhouse gases, we are allowing more and more pollution to enter our ozone and attack our Earth. City gridlock also accounts for a significant percentage of atmospheric emissions as well. Scientists estimated that when travelers in New York City and Los Angeles sat in traffic they wasted over 600 million gallons of gas annually. That 600 million gallons of gas translates into 7.5 million tons of carbon dioxide released into the ozone in just these two cities. Permafrost, which is a solid layer of soil underneath the Earth’s surface which stores carbon deposits and has been stable at a temperature of 32F for at least 2 years, is now being damaged by different buildings and structures and is beginning to release its carbon deposits into the air and emitting more greenhouse gases, which only serves to accelerate the greenhouse process. The tundra is also a significant contributor to the carbon held within the atmosphere. The tundra, an arctic biome, held carbon deep within its frozen land, and now with the warming of temperatures and the melting of ice, the tundra is beginning to release most of its carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to the greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere, and accelerating the greenhouse process.
III. WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING DOING TO US IN THE PRESENT DAY? It is now necessary to determine what global warming is doing to us in the present day and how it is affecting the way we live. Currently, global warming is leading to more deaths due to climate change, it is increasing storms and flooding, causing weather-related natural disasters, leading to killer heat waves, declining population of Antarctic krill, and an increased threat to animals. A study at the World Health Organization (WHO) determined that over 154,000 people die every year from diseases and global warming effects. These diseases include malaria and malnutrition, while children in third-world countries, or developing nations tend to be the most vulnerable. According to scientists, this number could almost double by 2020. Increasing storms and floods is also a major issue that scientists are researching to determine global warming’s effect on these precipitation events. Recent decades have seen a 20% increase in severe blizzards and heavy rain-storms in the US. In 1999, the Britain Meteorological Office warned that flooding in Asia and Southeast Asia could increase by ninefold over the next decade. The year 1998, in fact, was the worst year on record for floods, with 96 floods in 55 countries. Scientists are also beginning to understand global warming’s effect on early snowmelts. In December 1996 and January 1997, early snowmelts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Montana led to extreme flooding throughout parts of these states. As well as displacing over 500,000 people due to the extreme danger that these floods presented. With regard to natural disasters, global warming has led to an increase in money spent on damages, and repairs needed in disaster ridden areas. For example, for the decade of 1990s, damages due to natural disasters totaled in upwards of $340 billion, which is a 300% increase from the previous decade, which damages totaled only $83 billion. This shows global warming’s effect on the environment and weather as well. Killer heat waves are also a direct result of global warming. In June 2003, over 1700 people died during a killer heat wave that struck India, while over 35,000 Europeans died in a heat wave the following August. In July 1999, 250 people died from extreme heat and temperatures across the eastern US, where temperatures 110F across the Midwest with Chicago reaching 119F. In July 1995, over 700 people died in Chicago, while 85 died in Milwaukee due to an unrelenting heat wave that ripped through the Midwest in only a month. Due to the shrinking amount of surface ice located in the Antarctic region, the algae that grows underneath this surface ice is being destroyed and its population is being severely diminished. This algae is the number one food source for Antarctic krill. If this algae is destroyed, the krill will continue to die off, which also lead to the decline in whale population due to krill being one of their number one food sources as well. There is also a significant threat to the animals who populate this Earth. Due to more moisture in the atmosphere leading to more snow and warmer temperatures, the caribou population is declining severely. The population of caribou has dropped from 24,000 to 3,000. Also, 100 moose could not find food in their normal eating habitat due to extreme snowfalls. No one is sure about what happened to the 100 moose, they are more than likely dead. With ice melting in the polar ice caps, this also means a decreased surface area of the polar bear’s habitat leading to a declining population as well. These habitats are being destroyed and we must make every effort to build them back up to restore populations and habitat in general.
IV. WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING GOING TO DO TO US IN THE FUTURE? The future holds many depressing facts about what could happen to us as a society, and as a planet. If we are unable to reverse our current path, we will end up regretting the decisions we have made and wondering what we can do to change them. But it will be too late. There are species threatened by climate change, threat of mass extinction and harmful damage to a large population of animal life, the threat of larger, more powerful hurricanes, and sea level rising. There are over one million species threatened by global warming and climate change. Each of these species is also threatened with extinction due to the effects of global warming. Scientists determined that 15-37% of the animals studied could be driven to extinction between now and 2050. Due to the current path, we could see at least one-fourth of all plant and animal species extinct by 2100. With regard to animal life, the polar bear will now be listed as a vulnerable species due to its projected decline of 30% over the next 30 to 50 years. The decreasing arctic ice has pushed their food sources farther away from their habitat and it is killing them off. With the whitebark pines, and the whitebark pine beetles threatened with extinction, we could also lose the only 1000 grizzly bears remaining in the wild. Walruses are at risk due to not being able to rest on floating ice in the Bering Sea anymore. With the Bering Sea’s average temperature rising 6F over the past decade, the walruses are forced to travel longer and farther distances away from their babies and they eventually are separated from their babies, who are left to fend for themselves. Alligators, who are being affected by saltwater encroachment into their natural habitats have been forced to move inland and look for freshwater areas to create habitats. This is leading to more and more run-ins between humans and alligators as they look for freshwater in urban areas with a large population of people. With the continuous threat of global warming, we will also see the continuous threat of larger, more powerful hurricanes. As evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, hurricanes, which are influenced by warmer weather and warmer waters, have used this warmth to fuel their winds and do increasing damage to regions throughout the world. The warmer this planet gets, the warmer the Atlantic Ocean gets, bringing warmer and moist ocean air, which is the fuel for hurricanes. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes have doubled, while there has also been an increase in the number of hurricanes in general from about 10 to an average of 18 per year. In the past IPCC report, they projected a sea level rise of 6 to 37 inches by the year 2100. Other researchers have determined that due to the continues arctic melt and the destruction of the polar ice caps, we will continue to see a sea level rise of up to 3 feet by the year 2100. The researchers determined that the projected Arctic temperature rise of 4F by 2100, will be at least as warm as it was 130,000 years ago when the sea level was approximately 20 feet higher. We must recognize and understand these future dangers. Hopefully they will wake us up and allow us to understand the ramifications of our actions on our planet. Without the work of scientists and meteorologists, we will continue to see overwhelming effects on our planet and our society. Our children’s children will be the bearer of the brunt of our actions in the future. Let’s make life for them easier.
V. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING? Although many think that just one person can’t make a difference, it is all the little things that we do that can really save this world. Each person has an individual responsibility to leave the earth a better place than when it started, and in the face of this predicament, there are plenty of ways to do that. One way to impact the problem is to stay politically aware. Listen to the discussions and speeches of the candidates, know how they are voting and see if they have a plan to attack the global warming problems. One of the more widely accepted ways to fight against this problem is by doing small things everyday to reduce the energy use of every person. There are countless tips on this, such as: using compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs, carpooling to work and activities to reduce fuel usage and carbon emissions, replacing old appliances with energy efficiency models, bringing your personal cloth bags to use for groceries instead of plastic bags, and even something as simples as turning the lights and electronics off when you aren’t using them. The way we eat and dress can also effect the climate change. Choosing organic foods doesn’t just mean it’s healthier for our bodies, but it is also healthier for the environment. By not using pesticides on crops, the harmful toxins don’t get released into the air either. More green choices can be seen in the fashion world too. There are many more fabrics offered that use only renewable and sustainable resources such as bamboo and coconut. These resources are much easier to reproduce and harvest than cotton. Not only has the individual citizen been convinced to change their lifestyles, corporations have also experienced a call to action. As the climates continue to change, companies around the globe have hopped on the global warming bandwagon to help make a smaller footprint on the issue. Now that companies are required to report their annual emissions along with their financials each year, the government and other agencies are able to keep a close eye on their impact. One solution includes the mandatory federal emissions cap. This is a regulation that sets our how much carbon emissions each company is allowed to emit. They are also required to make sure that any new projects undertaken leave less of a carbon imprint that would have been their originally. Another way the government is able keep companies in check on their emissions is to hit them where it really hurts by charging them taxes based on how much green house gasses were emitted each fiscal year. That would be motivation enough for some companies to reduce their impact. Many companies are even using this global demand for change as an opportunity rather than a burden. The new green economy has led to invention, innovation, and imagination comparative to the scale of the Industrial Revolution. New sources of energy have been created, such as the wind turbine, which turns wind energy into mechanical energy. Other companies have resorted to hydroelectric power, which uses the flow of water to create mechanical energy. One of the most notable inventions comes from the car companies. The introduction of hybrid vehicles has changed the face of the automobile industry and has been one of the most impactful responses to the global warming epidemic of any industry.
VI. CONCLUSION In conclusion, it is difficult to truly understand the ramifications of our actions until we look inside ourselves and determine what we have done to the Earth we live on. Sometimes, as humans, we tend to make life harder for ourselves than it truly needs to be. Global warming is a huge issue, and if we take a look at the evidence that has been presented in this paper we are able to recognize and determine that we need to take the necessary steps and actions to reverse the current path that we’re on. If we are unable to reverse the path we will continue to experience severe weather, extinction and harmful dangers to the people of our planet. Without this knowledge, we will blindly move forward into the future and continue to destroy the planet that we live on. What will it take to truly force a complete turnaround of our society? Extinction of some of the most important animals on Earth? Droughts that last for decades or centuries? Floods that wipe out entire states or countries? Islands inundated by water and eventually engulfed by the tides? Thousands or even millions of lives lost due to climate change? Continents lost? What is truly important to recognize is that although we don’t know what will come next for our society, we will continue to see the effects of global warming. We must ask ourselves how we want our children and our children’s children to live. Our lives will be continuously threatened and their lives may be lost due to the decisions we make today. Precautions and steps must be taken not only by the people of this country, but also by the policy makers who create the laws, as well as the men and women of our armed forces. Let’s make life easier for our future and not harder.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

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