Global Warming : Real, Risky, Relevant

My story prior to CSP has so many events and memories involved with it. I went to Delano High School, which is a small town around the Plymouth area. I was a student athlete that loved to be involved in activities. I was a three sport athlete through my Sophomore year and then dropped Volleyball so I could take a heavier class load. I took College in the Schools classes to get credits for college starting my Junior year. The teachers that taught our CIS classes were the best ones and helped all of us learn how to study which will help me here at CSP. Some of my friends were there to support with everything I had going on and we formed really good study groups. My friends were also their to keep my head up and push through things that I couldn’t do without their support. My parents have been my best role models and I still continue to look up to them and listen to what they have to say. They were always very supportive with whatever I wanted to do and gave me advice when I needed it.

Olson explains the groundwork for her essay will come from the documentaries concern of Global warming and how we can amend the effects across the globe through factual evidence. For example, research on carbon dioxide effecting melting glaciers and claiming homes of penguins and polar bears. People are also effected by flash floods, hurricanes and droughts.

“Preventing global warming from becoming a planetary catastrophe may take something even more drastic than renewable energy, superefficient urban design, and global carbon taxes” (Jamais Cascio, TED Talk). Global warming has been a highly controversial issue. Global warming is the everlasting rise in the standard temperature of earth due to widespread accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which ultimately forms a layer that traps heat and warms the planet. With the temperature rising, this causes the melting of the polar ice caps. Ultimately, this causes the sea levels to rise, which can threaten lives and the environment. According to Olutoyin Fashae and Olumide Onafeso, “global sea levels have been estimated to rise significantly.” The effect of sea level rising and ocean surge is causing major impacts of climate change to the urban Lagos in Nigeria.

Climate Change “refers to changes in the Earth’s climate caused by increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other pollutants produced by human activity.” Global warming is the increase of the average surface temperature on Earth caused by the excess release of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases occur naturally, but in excess it could be harmful to the Earth. Composition of greenhouse gases traps heat from the sun, and this is what helps the Earth stay warm enough to sustain life. The more heat they trap, the warmer the earth gets, and as the planet gets warmer it creates climate changes. The greenhouse gases that are making the earth warmer are generated by human activity. One of the main greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, which is being mostly released by the burning of fossil fuels. Other gases are Methane, which is released through industrial and agricultural processes and Nitrogen Dioxide which is a product of some industrial processes.

The earth is a beautiful and extraordinary planet, but are we treating it right? For the past 20 decades, temperatures have been rising along with hundreds of factors contributing to it. Climate change concerns the public as they wonder if its occurring, how much has occurred in the modern era, what has caused it, what the effects will be if we don’t do anything about it and much more. Many people and scientist agree that mankind is the number one cause of climate change. Humans have influenced this by greenhouse gases, methane nitrous oxide.

Global warming has been a hot topic worldwide for over a decade. While many believe it is a problem that needs to be tended to immediately, others believe or claim for political reasons that it is just propaganda. Global warming is described by Bodnar as “The increase in temperature around the world caused by gases in the atmosphere.” (Bodnar 7) Many scientists believe that carbon dioxide gases are the main cause of Global Warming. Things such as old factories and cars emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere when they are put to use. This generally comes from old cars and old factories made before the nineteen nineties, because in recent years technology has been manufacturing more eco-friendly cars and factories that produce less waste. Since the discovery of global warming there have been many technological advances made in an attempt to try put a stop to global warming such as the use of wind power, solar power, and hybrids.

The topic of global warming is highly debated, due to so many unanswered questions. Petitions and other people thought it was absurd o believe that humans are the reason for the increase in temperature and the rising Carbon dioxide levels (co2). Even people who have been part of research teams or have seen the data are still unsure or sceptical, Pal Brekke : “Anyone who claims that the debate is over and the conclusions are firm has a fundamentally unscientific approach to one of the most momentous issues of our time.”

National Geographic’s “Signs From Earth: No Room to Run” has wider scope for the reader to draw from than NASA’s “How Will Global Warming Change Earth?”;

Thesis Statement: Global warming is a growing concern of scientists and researchers who believe that it is a serious problem for our planet. The concerns and research have also been questioned and have even been called myths. Millions of people find themselves affected by these weather pattern changes and are concerned for their futures. Activists on both sides of the argument are very passionate and not afraid to attack each other in every way they can. There are many questions that are still not answered, however, we continue to see drastic weather changes to Earth. We must go beyond the arguments and learn as much as we can to stop what could possibly lead to the destruction of our planet, our way of life and our future.

Stuck in traffic, having moved only a couple of feets in the last five minutes, you ask yourself, are there too many people on this planet? Human population has been growing exponentially ever since the Industrial Revolution, and there seems to be no end to this catastrophe. More humans make more pollution, more erosion, more destruction of forests, more extinction of wildlife, more depletion of natural resources, and so on. United States’ funding for family planning to cut down the population has flatlined for several years, although it would take relatively little money to make a big difference. If all the unintended pregnancies came to a halt, there would not be a significant growth in the number of people as birth rates and death rates

Before we get into the meat of these questions we really have to get to understand what global warming is. Earth has something called a natural greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth warm. When humanity started burning fossil fuels and letting CO2 into the atmosphere it started to heat the Earth, which is explained well by NASA, “Earth’s temperature begins with the Sun. Roughly 30 percent of incoming sunlight is reflected back into space by bright surfaces like clouds and ice. Of the remaining 70 percent, most is absorbed by the land and ocean, and the rest is absorbed by the atmosphere. The absorbed solar energy heats our planet.”

Global warming is an issue that has caused a great deal of situations and problems. This global phenomenon may have been induced by humans and their activities. However, climate change has a significant impact on humans. According to Dr. H. Steven Moffic from the Medical College of Wisconsin “people have heard about global warming for years, However, they don’t always think the issues are already here.” (Casper, 2010, p.92).

In 2006, former senator Al Gore created an academy award winning documentary on global warming entitled “An Inconvenient Truth” . The movie earned several awards including an academy award for best documentary and gore later received a noble peace prize. The movie discussed several different topics of great concern to global warming; such as permafrost, climbs in temperature, extinction of species, drought, and fatigue to name a few. Four writers in five different articles discussed the three topics of greenhouse gases, climate change, and causes of global warming. These writers are writer and scholar Bill McKibben in “Think Again: Climate Change” and “How Close to catastrophe”; William J. Broad, writer for the New York Times in “From a Rapt audience, a call to cool the hype”; writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kevin O’Brien, in “Global Warming? I won’t be losing any sleep over it”; and Alan Zarembo, staff writer for the the Los Angeles Times, in “Game over on global warming?” All though the articles explain some different topics from one another, only one of them disagree with gore on the causes for global warming being humans, they all agree that there will be impacts to the environment, and all of them believe that greenhouse gases are one of the primary causes for global warming.

The likelihoods surrounding the controversial issue of global warming have caught the attention of the world; however, a new concern about what steps we are doing to deal with it is being reviewed and sensibly evaluated. This has generated the idea that a variety of simple more practical ideas should be considered. After conducting my own survey, I found that the approximately 53% are not only worried about global warming, they are also generally uninformed and claim to be unsure about what they believe concerning this crisis. Global warming and the effects it may be having on earth such as, the daily release of greenhouse gasses, drastic changes in the weather and the grave impact the harsh conditions are having on the animal and insect populations. Originally, when the earth was being formed we couldn’t have lived here, there was too much methane, but as the planet evolved there came a time during which the atmosphere was friendly to oxygen breathing animals. The increase of oxygen producing items such as trees produced an adequate supply of oxygen; therefore, allowing plenty of opportunity for the world to evolve successfully.(McLamb) With this concept in mind, we must continue to depend on nature; therefore, rather than the world focusing on global warming and whether or not it exists, we must begin applying a more practical approach. Although we have plenty to be concerns about global warming, our primary focus of this crisis must be transferred to far more practical

With global warming concerns on the rise and growing pollution levels, we as a planet need to step back and take a look at what we can do for us and future generations. For too long now, we have been ignoring the fact that global warming is not only a national concern, but a concern for us as human beings on this planet.