The Perennial Global Scourge (Research Paper Sample)

The Perennial Global Scourge
By
The Chicago Tribune 6/15/2050: Chicago locals complain of the shrinking size of Lake Michigan. The Chicago locals are worried about the state of one of the features that they so much identify with. Scientists claim that the intense shrinking of Lake Michigan could be closely associated to some of the Geographical changes that the area has experienced over time. So what exactly could the cause of the shrinking of Lake Michigan?
Such a question would continue to puzzle even the elderly who probably will have never witnessed such a feat. Some homeless men would be quick to write placards claiming that the world is ending but this would not be the case. There must be some sort of explanation to such a feat and in this essay, we seek to determine the possible root causes of such a phenomenon that would instills fear and wonder alike.
Climate change is the change of the world’s climate. It is especially identified with a distinct long-term shift in parameters such as rainfall, temperature, wind patterns, humidity levels among other features (Pittock, 2009). This shift is greatly influenced by human activities that are not in tandem with the workings of nature. Such activities do a great deal in interfering with the natural order that nature had established in the environment and particularly in reference to the balance of elements in the ecosystem.
Climate change is acknowledged to be a cyclic process and the exact time at which it started cannot be pointed out. However, it is universally accepted that it began more than one thousand years ago. This can be mainly attributed to the rise in human activities that are rich in pollution. The growth of the manufacturing industry is particularly a great contributor to the rise of climate change as it is through most of these manufacturing industries that our environment and the entire ecosystem are polluted leading to climate change.
Insofar as climate change is concerned, there are varieties of key points that sit at the very kernel of this global scourge. Primarily, the greenhouse gases continue to pose a threat, and a great one at that, to the environment (Letcher, 2009). The increased emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere at a rate faster than the environment can handle are the main cause of the global warm up that we face today. The perennial build up of these gases in the atmosphere only helps worsen the terrible situation already at hand.
Secondly, the oceans also play a vital role in climate change, as we know it. The changes in seawater chemistry, sea level and ocean temperature are also great contributors of climate change. These changes, no matter how big or small, have a significant impact on the lives of the ocean communities. This is only made worse by the fact that up to date, not even half of the biodiversity in oceans has been discovered, meaning these changes could have an unimaginable effect on the ecosystem. Such changes are extremely detrimental especially to the productivity of ocean ecosystems.
Third on the list of key points is weather and climate. The variations that we continue to witness everyday in precipitation, temperature and other parameters affect many aspects of our lives both directly and indirectly. This is specifically dangerous as such; changes alter every aspect of our lives. When these variations build up over time, they are responsible for natural disasters like floods, drought and tropical cyclones that all continue to be a common aspect of our lives.
The last key point of climate change is the effect of climate change on our society and the ecosystems, as we know it. The change in climate could cause changes in leaf and bloom dates, the length of the growing season as well as stream flow and bird wintering ranges. Such changes influence directly on our lives and will require rapid adaptation, which puts immense pressure on the ecosystem, the economy and the general well being of the human race.
The struggle with climate change poses a great debate to the human race. It is obvious that no one wants to witness the full effects of climate change but how to prevent it has been a constant source of heated debates that usually involves environmentalists and businesspeople locking horns.
The problems raised by climate change include increased natural calamities like El Niño, tropical cyclones and droughts all capable of high death tolls, food insecurity due to irregular growth seasons for plants and decreased productivity of the earth’s soils in general due to the toxic poisoning by acid rain (Downey, et al. 2009). One might argue that such changes were bound to occur over time especially due to the increase in global population but in the end, most of the causes are real and are caused by the human population itself. Unfortunately, climate change is a problem at hand and in order to solve it, we have to take the bull by the horns and come up with solutions to solve this time bomb that is just waiting to explode.
There are a number of solutions that many environmentalists have suggested. Among them are banning the production of CFC (Chlorofluorocarbon) gases, offering civic education, reducing and possibly stopping the use of fossil fuels, using renewable energy, upgr...