Global Warming (Essay Sample)

Name: Professor Course Date Global Warming Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges that humanity is facing today. The continuous food shortage, habitual destruction, flooding, storms and dry periods are known to be signs of global warming. Scientists warn that unlike other humanity problems such as war or poverty, global warming is the world’s major prospective threat and one that should in principle be met with defensive actions. Scientists add that the failure of coming up with solutions will increase climatic danger in the coming years. Patterns of rainfall, sunshine and storms are likely to change affecting how plants grow and the world’s food supply, while the sea is believed to rise, leading to more flooding in the low-lying coasts. Therefore, climatic changes are likely to increase natural disasters in form of drought, floods, landslides, and tsunami. Since the 20th century, weather records have showed that the earth’s temperatures began to rise slowly in various areas in the globe. The rise of earth’s temperature has continued due to the global warming process. This process is simply defined as the continuing increase in earth’s overall temperature, whereby the surface temperature is said to increase by approximately 1.4 degree Fahrenheit (0.7°) in the last 150 years (Farrar, p.7). It has been observed that the increasing temperature since the 20th century is caused by the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which result from human activities such as deforestation, and fossil fuel burning such as oil and coal among others. Scientists’ reports indicate that global warming is expected to continue because of the long life time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the large heat capacity of the oceans. Cause and effects The steady increase of global warming is associated with the increasing concentration of atmospheric gas, which results from human activities. These human activities include population growth, industrial expansion, deforestation, and burning fossil fuels among others. Strong evidence has been presented to support the view that the emission of gas in the atmosphere contribute to a global climatic change, which encompasses a change in most climatic variables. According to Staden and Musco (p.421), the major green house gases responsible for global warming include Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Nitrous Oxides (N2O). Carbon dioxide is the greatest contributors, whose major sources include: burning fossil fuels, forest degradation, aerosols, and land use changes. In land use changes, emissions of carbon dioxide come primarily from cutting down forests with the aim of urbanization, agriculture or construction of roads. Cutting down large rainforest areas reduces the capacity for storing carbon dioxide, as it leads to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Historically, developed countries were known to emit the most green house gases, because of their existence from the industrial revolution period in the mid 18th century. This period saw the invention of steam engine, leading to activities such as mining, manufacture, transportation and agriculture. More so, industrialized countries have also been the major contributors of carbon dioxide emission. On the other hand, rapid urbanization and industrialization has continued to impact developing countries resulting to environmental degradation. In fact, urbanization and industrialization causes adverse implications on global warming as they compound adverse pressure on natural resources increasing the threat of reduced rainfall and plants. In addition, they may result to plant and animal extinction due to cultivation and reduced rainfall and vegetation. The combustion of fossil fuel is the primary cause of air pollution affecting the global climate. This form of pollution is common in large towns and cities because of the increased number of industries and many vehicles. Fossil fuels have been currently used as a source of energy in industries, personal, and domestic use. However, burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, which scientists claim that it adds to global warming. In fact, when carbon dioxide mixes with the water vapor in the clouds, moisture falls in form of acid rain. Acid rain is destructive to all living thing things including aquatic animals such as fish. In most cases, the acid rain destroys aquatic creatures, damages plants and trees, damages buildings and tombstones, and an entire forest can be easily sickened by the acid rain. Lastly, solar radiation and aerosols are important factors that influence climate change as they alter the energy balance of the earth’s climate system. Webersik (p.3) points out that solar radiation enters into the plant, but the greenhouse gases trap the heat by absorbing some of the reflected and outgoing radiation, therefore, generating a greenhouse effect. Aerosols and green house gases reduce direct solar radiation, and as a consequence surface temperatures tend to be higher than they would otherwise be. The warming of the atmosphere as well as the earth surface has come to be known as the greenhouse effect. Solutions It would be essential to unambiguously understand the impacts of climate change, in order for governments and societies to come up with effective solution for global warming. Although scientists maintain that global warming cannot now be prevented, it is widely held that it can be slowed and its effects mitigated. This means that is possible to combat or take action against global warming and prevent adverse effects of climate change. These include implementing measures that will promote the use renewable energy, phase out the use of fossil fuel, manage forests, and exploring nuclear power among others. Eliminating the use of fossil fuel will help to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This can be achieved by implementing economic incentives such as subsidies, taxes, or marketable permits for the use and production of fossil fuels. The implementation of economic incentives is a beneficial way of regulating use of fossil fuel, as it will induce changes in consumption and use, causing the emission of carbon dioxide to fall. Consumers tend to shift away from products that have risen in price since large amounts of energy are used in their production. In addition, coal prices should be raised the most because coal has the highest carbon content per unit of energy. Increasing carbon prices should be a well adopted measure in reducing and combating carbon emissions from fossil energy combustion. The use of renewable technologies has been an acceptable strategy towards reducing the rate of global warming. According to Schneider, John, and Armin (p.436), the United States Federal policies encourage the use of renewable energy through incentives, tax credits and through de...