The Challenge of Global Warming

"The Challenge of Global Warming"

As we go about our daily lives we seldom think how the way that we live affects the environment around us. Every year, almost 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere by human activity. This figure is the main cause of global warming, and has been increasing for the last 50 years. Global warming is caused by the increase of greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane primarily, in the earth's upper atmosphere directly caused by human burning of fossil fuels, industrial, farming, and deforestation activities. Greenhouse gases can trap heat near the earth's surface. As they increase in the atmosphere, the extra heat they trap leads to global warming. This warming in turn places pressure on the earth's climate system and can lead to climate change.

The global warming hypothesis originated in 1896 when Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, developed the theory that carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels would cause global temperatures to rise by trapping excess heat in the earth's atmosphere. He predicted the decrease in CO2 was the cause of the past ice ages. He wasn't far off, and it is not a large decrease. This helped confirm the 1859 prediction that human-produced increases in CO2 would cause just the reverse: global warming. (book)

Human existence is in danger of disorder and destruction. Global warming and climate change is threatening our existence. Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere so fast, faster than plants and oceans can absorb it. Scientists have predicted that the daily addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, combined with daily removal of large portions of the world's forests, will raise the earth's average temperature by several degrees in the next century. This in turn will raise the level of the sea and potentially create significant changes in weather patterns on a global scale. According to global warming statistics already the eleven warmest years in history have occurred since 1980. Debatable causes and solutions of this theory of global warming include the natural climatic change, the grounds of human causes, and the solutions we can take to halt global warming. As humans, we all have our own opinions, but the problem of global warming should not be debated; it should be solved.

One of the main effects global warming is the melting of the north and south polar ice. In a National Geographic magazine, scientists concluded that the earth's polar ice caps and glaciers all around the globe are already melting at an unstoppable rate from global warming. Snow and ice usually form a protective, cooling layer over the Arctic. When that covering melts, the earth absorbs more sunlight and gets hotter. Melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets are contributing to the rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas around the globe with beach erosion, coastal flooding, and contamination of freshwater supplies. Other effects include, killer heat waves, outbreaks of tropical diseases, altered weather patterns, increased numbers of floods and hurricanes, and affected agricultural harvests.

Another major issue global warming has created is that our oceans are becoming more acidic. The ocean absorbs excess heat and CO2 from the atmosphere. The top few meters of the ocean stores as much heat as the Earth's entire atmosphere. So, as the planet warms, the ocean gets most of the extra energy. But if the ocean gets too warm, then the plants and animals that live in it must adapt or die. As the ocean absorbs more and more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it becomes more acidic. Ocean acidification, occurs when CO2 in the atmosphere reacts with water to create carbonic acid. Most marine organisms are very vulnerable and cannot handle even the smallest change in the waters ph level. In most cases these organisms will not survive and this is affecting the marine ecosystems. The ocean absorbs about one-quarter of the CO2 that we humans create when we burn fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas.) If not for the ocean, we'd be in even worse trouble with too much CO2. However, the ocean and everything in it is paying the price.

As individuals, each of us can take steps to save energy and fight global warming. According to the global warming statistics the USA contributes 25% of emissions into the atmosphere even though the U.S. only makes up 5% of the world's population. We need to decrease that percent. What is that saying about our country? Technologies exist today to make cars that run cleaner and burn less gas, we can car pool and drive less, generate