Essay on The Problem of Global Warming

Scientists reported that burning all of the Earth’s fossil fuels would initiate enough warming to melt the Antarctic ice shelf submerging coastal regions worldwide. New York City and Washington DC would be of the first to go under as sea levels rise.

The globe is being rocked by extreme weather and the hottest temperatures on record. As the average global temperature soars, there are floods, droughts, unusually cold winters, forest fires, and huge storms. Are all of these horrors being caused by human-induced global warming?

In August of 2005, a devastating disaster originally formed near the Bahamas, made its way to the southern parts of the U.S. It killed almost 2000 citizens which happened to be the third most deadliest in history, and wiping out many houses and establishments throughout 93,000 square miles. The biggest effect made was in New Orleans, Louisiana mostly because of the city being 6 feet under sea level on average. Damages resulted in it being the costliest disaster in U.S history currently tied with 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. The states of Louisiana and Mississippi both called a state of emergency and did an early evacuation preparing for the high winds and catastrophic flooding.

October 2012’s Hurricane Sandy shock America by submerging cities underwater, leaving about 149 people dead, over thousands of people homeless, and millions of people without power.(Lignier & Moore, 2015; Sharp & Reference, 2012). Storms like these are predicted to occur every 700 years according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).(Lignier & Moore, 2015)

Most climate scientists agree with the idea that the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect", warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Over the last century, the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2. To a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased concentrations of greenhouse

Every year we hear of floods and cities got drowned due to hurricanes or storms in

Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases, and is one of the most common gases found in the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere in mass amounts by human activities and then absorbed by our oceans. The main way that carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere is by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Increased energy composition and with the industrialization age, beginning in the 18th century, has led to a drastic spike in the burning of fossil fuels and therefore the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The main emitters of carbon dioxide are cars, airplanes, and factories

Imagine Miami being underwater. This is something that might happen, if we continue to destroy our only planet. Although some people believe climate change is nothing but a hoax, research has shown climate change has impacted the Earth, and hard.

When the sun’s radiation reaches our atmosphere, some is reflected back into space and some passes through and is absorbed by the Earth. This causes the surface of the Earth to warm up. Heat released from the Earth is radiated outward and absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This process prevents heat from disappearing into space and keeps Earth warm enough to sustain life. Some human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, intensify the warming effect by releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide is considered a relatively weak gas; however, so much of it is released that it has the largest impact on the enhanced greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is primarily produced by the burning of fossil fuels in cars, power plants, and factories. About three-fourths of the carbon dioxide added to the air comes from burning fossil

Humans are burning fossil fuels to power their cars, their housed, etc. which emits carbon dioxide

Some think that a rise in sea levels would not be bad however; the most important major cities in the United States are located in areas directly beside the sea. There are also cities that are under water, however, due to a more elevated land masses protecting it, these cities are do not feel an impact currently.

What has changed in the last few hundred years is the additional release of carbon dioxide by human activities. Fossil fuels burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories are responsible for about 98% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, 24% of methane emissions, and 18% of nitrous oxide emissions. Increased agriculture, deforestation, landfills, industrial production, and mining also contribute a significant share of emissions. In 1997, the United States emitted about one-fifth of total global greenhouse gases.

CFCs emitted from aerosols, air conditioners, refrigerators and foam packagings are the most detrimental of greenhouse gases. Methane is released decomposing organic matter such as animal dung, swamps and waste dumps. Nitric oxide is released from car exhausts, agricultural fertilisers and power stations. The US is known to have produced up to about a fifth of all greenhouse gases. Future predictions are that there could be violent storms and sea levels will be raised.

good swimmers, so 40 percent of Alaska and Canada polar bears estimated by the National Geographic drowned or starved as their hunting area shrunk dramatically. I am not sure whether polar bears attain a mutation making them become “Olympic athletics” and successfully transfer this gene to next generations before they have the same fate with 50 percent of all the living species on earth which are on the edge of extinction. Coral reefs are also “victims” of global warming. Recent research indicates the rise of both ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide and water temperature are threatening 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs since the changes of water’s features make they unable to absorb calcium carbonate which makes up their shells.

Automobiles are a major producer of greenhouse gas. One gallon of fuel burned puts five pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Let’s say that an average car gets 25 miles to the gallon, and that car has a ten gallon tank. Every time a car gets filled up with gas, another fifty pounds of carbon dioxide have been put back into the atmosphere, and that is just one car. The automobile industry is very important to the world economy, so I am not saying that we should stop making cars, but there are other solutions. The recent trend of hybrid electric cars that get up to fifty miles to the gallon are becoming more popular. Also public transportation is very important. City dwellers that live downtown, do not need to drive their cars to work. Every major city has a form of public transportation that can get anyone around the city, and for that gallon of gas a bus burns the same five pounds reaches the atmosphere, but instead of one