Global Warming Research Paper #3 (Research Paper Sample)

Human activities lead to global warming
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Human activities lead to global warming
Introduction
Global warming is happening, and it has seized to be a prediction. It is clear that the temperatures on the Earth’s surface have augmented over the past years by around 0.6Oc (1oF), with both the oceans and the air warming. This conclusion is not based mainly on theoretical models though these models do thrive in duplicating the prevailing database with increasing success. As an alternative, global warming is a fact long-established by vast bodies of observations from diverse sources. Global warming has been witnessed to contribute to rising sea levels, more extreme and longer droughts, stronger storms, wildfires, melting glaciers, more recurrent heat waves, poor air quality, and further threats to human health. Though the exact amount of harm that global warming is causing on the environment is hard to predict at the moment, it can be alleged with confidence that global warming’s harmful effects on the environment are significantly greater than the likely benefits.
Presently, we are faced with the likelihood that the environment all over the world might be destroyed, and no one will be held responsible. The possibility is very high that greenhouse gases generated by humans, with carbon dioxide (CO2) being the main offender, are the main caused of climate change and global warming today. There is no part of the globe that is safe and unless we establish new conceptions and values of responsibility, we will carry on having massive difficulty in encouraging individuals to respond to the global warming issue. Several human activities discharge greenhouse gases into the air; this results in the increase of these gases in the air at a quicker rate than at any period in hundreds of thousands of years. If this trend continues then, the globe will not be able to sustain life in the coming years. This paper will talk about the global warming effects on the environment and climate change. Also, it will talk about the possible solutions to global warming. Finally, it will stress on the ethical imperative for action and how human beings should take this as a moral issue since it will bring them into a realm of participation, discussion and dialogue.
The impacts of global warming on the environment
The environment has always been an important aspect to look after so that other generations may enjoy it. However, in the present day, it seems this aspect has been forgotten, and the global environment is at risk. The small quantities of pollution that each and every one of us is accountable for are affecting the environment that we live in. For example, very minimal amounts of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released into the air from leaking refrigerators or certain industrial processes have led to the degradation of the ozone layer. Of greater significance is CO2 (carbon dioxide) that goes into the air from burning coal, fossil fuels, gas, and oil, which is causing damage to climate change. If no action is taken to reduce these emissions, the concentration of carbon dioxide will increase by three times in the course of the 21st century. Burdens from swiftly growing world population and the overuse of resources on the earth are making such issues much more severe and intensifying the damage both to the human communities and the natural world. Global pollution needs global solutions and to achieve these solutions it is important to address human assertiveness very widely (Nanda, 2011).
The record of average worldwide temperatures from the 19th century indicates a lot of variation from decade to decade and year to year because of natural variability in the climate system. Furthermore, there are also alterations which can be accredited to other causes like differences in the radiation amount from the sun or the effects of volcanic eruptions that produce large amounts of dust and other atoms into the stratosphere where they stay for a few years and they tend to cool the climate. These particles or atoms reflect sunlight, therefore cooling the surface and masking certain warming effects of the greenhouse gases. Nevertheless, the considerable increase in global average temperature in the course of the past 50 years is outside the array of recognized natural erraticism and cannot be accredited to any of these natural causes (Yu, 2008). Vast analysis indicates that the majority of this increase is due to the increasing discharges of greenhouse gases majorly carbon dioxide into the air. Additional evidence of this is shown by the warming of the oceans. In the course of the 21st century, temperatures have been estimated to increase by between 3.5 to 11oF (2 to 60C). Even gradual warming might have melodramatic effects on ecosystems. By intersecting systems like when thawing or freezing occur, small shifts in the climate might transform the way landforms, animals, and plants interact. The mountainous and polar regions of the globe are mainly susceptible to climate change. The large amounts of ice and snow in the cold regions serve as natural air conditioners, not simply because they are frozen, but since their light-colored surfaces cover vast areas, therefore reflecting considerable amount of the sunlight that strikes them. Numerous animals and plants survive in a narrow range of very precise climatic conditions. However, some may become extinct since they cannot survive in those conditions.
Impacts of climate change on the environment
The likely alterations in temperature and greenhouse gases would considerably alter the functioning of the planet in numerous ways. Some of the most common impacts will be because of the rise in sea level that happens largely since ocean water inflates as it is heated. Additionally, melting of ice on polar ice caps and glaciers adds to the increase. The estimated total rise is projected to be up by one meter in this century, and this is likely to continue for numerous centuries. This will lead to enormous difficulties for the human communities existing in the low-lying regions. Sea defenses in numerous places, for example in the eastern counties of England, will require to be enhanced at a substantial cost. Nevertheless, numerous areas, like in Bangladesh, islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans, southern China, and the same places somewhere else in the world will be unbearable to protect and millions of people will be displaced.
Water is turning out to be a progressively significant resource. A warmer globe will cause more evaporation of water from the earth’s surface, resulting in more water vapor in the air and more rainfall on average. However, of more significance is the idea that more condensation of water vapor in the formation of clouds results to an augmented latent heat of condensation being produced. As this latent heat discharge is the biggest source of energy driving the circulation of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle will turn out to be more intense. This means a trend to less precipitation in certain semi-arid regions and also more intense precipitation events. On average droughts and floods are the most harmful among the world’s disasters. Between the year 1975 and 2002, above 200,000 were lost due to floods from precipitation and 2.2 billion lives were affected. Besides, 1.3 million lives were affected, and more than 500,000 individuals lost due to droughts (Hardy, 2003). Their greater intensity and frequency is not good news for numerous human communities and particularly for those regions like sub-Saharan and South East Asia where such events at present happen frequently. An increase in risk by a factor of 5 to floods is expected by the year 2050, and 10% of the world’s land will be affected by drought from the 2% that is currently affected.
Furthermore, severe droughts will have a tendency of taking longer, measured in years instead of years, again leading to the displacement of millions of people. Additional impacts of climate change include: greater soil erosion will happen because of the increases in heavy convective summer precipitation; increases in fire frequencies and longer fire seasons; acidification of the global ocean; and fundamental alterations in the biodiversity, functioning, and composition of numerous marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Whereas the global warming problems and the related climate change are expected to be with us for quite some time, the idea that human activities are the main cause of the present rapid changes show that we are not helpless to mitigate the impacts. Numerous encouraging technologies, some available and well developed exist to assist us to manage better our energy resources whereas upholding a healthier environment. These comprise of nuclear power, fuel-efficient automobiles, more energy-efficient homes and buildings, solar power, enhanced regulation of present coal-burning power plants, and wind power (Goldman, Kumagai & Robarts, 2013).
Moreover, food production and agriculture is impacted by climate change because of the impacts of elevated carbon dioxide in the air, transpiration regimes and altered rainfall, augmented frequency of severe events, and modifies, pathogen, pest, and weed pressure. Generally, at higher risk are the low-altitude regions that are at a higher risk of having reduced crop yields. The impacts of regional climate change as of 2007 on agriculture has been minimal. Alterations in crop phenology that is the study of natural phenomena that happen again occasionally, and how they relate to seasonal and climate change offer significant evidence of the response to current ...