The Threat, Responsibility, and Solutions to Climate Change and Global Warming
“If the Maldives cannot be saved today we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world.” - said Former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, while sitting underwater signing a document calling for global reduction in carbon emissions. He is right, if we do not start improving the climate right now, our world will soon be under water like the lowest nation, the Maldives which is predicted to be submerged by 2085. This paper will focus on four questions: Why climate change, or global warming, is real? Why do human beings take major responsibility for it? Why is it a top-priority of every nation? And why can we believe that together you and I are able to tackle it?
Despite numerous irrefutable evidence, many people including scientists, experts, and politicians still deny the existence and urgency of climate change as well as human responsibility for the problem. In their opinions, climate change is no more than a hoax of scientists and climatologists. In a 2014 survey, a senior writer at The Huffington Post, Carolyn Gregoire concluded 23 percent of Americans said they did not believe in global warming, and 53 percent said it was not human-caused. President- elect Donald Trump who is among the global-warming denials, wrote on his Twitter “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” He also said
It is well known that politics and religion are two topics to never to be discussed with someone one does not know well. In today’s society, it feels as if this list of topics that are socially deemed inappropriate to discuss seems to be growing, with climate change now being a conservation to avoid. This aversion to discussing climate change appears to stem from the fact that the issue tends to polarize opinions, in which people fall into one of two groups: climate change skeptics and climate change believers. This paper seeks to address and analyze the ways in which climate skeptics speak about and understand climate change as well as how climate scientists understand climate change phenomena. More specifically, this paper focuses on how climate skeptics comprehend the relationships between grasslands, livestock, methane and nutrient cycling and how these interconnected concepts do not lead to the type of climate change that “green urbanities /green politicians/green activists/green elite” predict. The paper will conclude with an evaluation of the two differing positions between climate skeptics and climate scientists, in which I will determine which argument I find to be the most accurate.
The world has many years existing in this galaxy and every day we see that is changing more and more but not in a very good way that it can end in the extinction of the planet earth. “Earth Hasn’t Heated Up This Fast Since the Dinosaurs’ End” (Lavelle). Carbon is growing so fast in the atmosphere faster than in the past 66 million years since the dinosaurs went extinct (Lavelle). All the presidents hold a position of power that could change this big problem that the planet is having, behind this problem there is other problems that are causing a much bigger problem in all the country. “By year 2100, the average temperature will rise by 5.8 degrees as a result of global warming. The Arctic ice is melting rapidly. By 2040 the region is expected to have a completely ice-free summer, or even earlier. Since 1880, the average temperature has risen by 1.4-Fahrenheit degrees” (Rinkesh). Humans are the one in power of this planet, they are often making some decisions, but they do not know if that is going to hurt the planet. Also, is because humans are selfish. These decisions often include manipulating the system of other country, how they work, what products they can make, how to get benefit from that country, and etc. Also, taking control and/ or credit over other countries work. Some countries are taking very serious the Global Warming problem, so the other countries want a prove of how are they helping to fix this problem. Many countries have agreements with other countries that
As Earths average temperature increases every year, the discussion of climate change has become a significant topic in the scientific community. Human activities such as powering factories, running automobiles or something as simple as burning wood for heat, emit dangerous greenhouse gases. What makes these greenhouse gases so detrimental is that they absorb the heat radiating off of Earth and keep it in the lower atmosphere creating a “blanket” of warmth around the Earth’s surface. This causes a drastic increase in the Earths average temperature. Due to the rise in temperature, the polar caps have been melting faster than ever, this is dangerous not only because of the risk of floods and sea level increase but ocean water will become less saline and ecosystems will be destroyed, impacting humans just as much as marine life. In the article, Understand faulty thinking to tackle climate change by George Marshall, Marshall states that most people in our world today do not care about climate change because it will not affect them, “Which points to the real problem: climate change is exceptionally amorphous, … no deadlines, no geographic location, no single cause or solution.” (Marshall 2014). Because the author makes it clear that climate change is indeed a great plight, and fails to be acknowledged by people, it is a significant matter that should be discussed
Have you heard what is happening to the environment? Like how Greenland loses is 286 Gigatonnes of ice per year! And as of January 22, 2017, it has lost 3778.7 Gigatonnes since 2002! Why you ask? It’s due to Climate change. Climate change is a serious problem in our world, It can either end it or make it prosper that is why I chose to research it. Climate change won’t just effect on a country or continent, it will affect the whole world, and we are a part of that world. So, I decided to research it to see what we as humanity can do about climate change. To help I asked myself more questions such as “What will happen if we don’t intervene?”, “What is the source of the problem?”, “What are our choices as humanity?” After my research, I believe that there is a way to stop climate change and to do that we as humanity need to work together.
Climate is inherently variable. Climate changes from place to place and it varies with time. The world now faces one of the complex and important issue it has ever had to deal with: climate change. Climate change today is one of the biggest concerns of human beings on the planet and the effects of climate change are undeniable and it may cause environmental, social, and economic threats to the planet. We already know and easily can highlight several signs of climate change. They are: rising global sea level, widespread melting of snow and ice, rapidly changing ocean and global temperatures, and other signs. So, what are the causes of climate change? Is it natural or do human beings cause it? Well, in both cases we would be right. The climate change can be affected by natural factors, such as solar output, volcanic eruptions, and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Also, climate change can be affected by human activities such as, deforestation, burning fossil fuels, causing ozone hole, and building mass destructive weapons and using them on earth that causes a huge radioactivity on earth. Currently, the threat of global climate change does not threaten some nations to the extent of others. Compare the United States with the rest of African countries. We live in prosperity and in much easier time than the rest African countries. Most African countries cannot grow anything on their lands because of climate change. At the end, climate change might affect everyone on
Some people believe that global warming is a myth or hoax. They believe that global warming is being used to generate fear and panic and that those behind this movement are using it to control people 's lives and for financial gain. “Within the community of scientists and others concerned about anthropogenic climate change, those who are skeptics are more commonly termed
Climate change is not a new concept; in fact there is evidence of major climate changes throughout the earth's history. However since the industrial revolution and especially since world war two, there has been an unprecedented change in the earth's atmosphere (Gates 4). As of March 1999, scientists reported the construction of a thousand-year record of the average temperature on earth. The results of their study concluded that a nine hundred-year cooling trend has been decisively reversed within the last fifty years (Bell and Strieber 9-10). The effects of these rapid atmospheric changes are seen in increased storm intensity, rising seas, drier cropland, dying forests and coral reefs, proliferating
Solutions to Global Warming There are many solutions to reduce the amount of green house gases in the atmosphere, which causes Global Warming. A main culprit for global warming is the use of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons). If the use of CFC's was reduced, the number of greenhouse gases will be reduced by a great deal (however there are many other thing that cause dramatic amounts of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide).
Individuals that believe human beings are directly accountable for the issue of global climate change due to the anthropocentric mind-set (human dominance over nature), evident by the climate change science, believe we must change our mind-set in order to save the plant from further harm. Greenhouse gases are ensnared in the air and are rapidly increasing the temperature of the planet, since the gases basically absorb the warmth from the sunlight. Human beings are responsible for releasing the gases in massive quantities, gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Human beings have been burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide, in such massive amounts that there is simply too much of it in the atmosphere.
Global warming has become a world wide issue and an issue that is causing great controversy. It is an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution (Dictionary). Global warming is a natural process, but because of increase in certain activities this process is taking a faster and more dangerous route creating global problems. Global warming was first theorized in 1894 by Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier a French mathematician, who noticed the earth was gradually increasing in temperature. He came to the conclusion that the earth’s atmosphere was trapping solar radiation caused by the sun and reflecting this radiation back to
It is no secret that the magnificent glaciers that cover this earth are facing negative repercussions due to climate change. Pratima Pandey verifies this statement in her article by stating that “it is the climate that is the driving force controlling the mass balance of a glacier in space and time, resulting in the recession and advancement of a glacier,” (Pandey, par. 1). The earth is getting warmer, and this means that soon, glaciers will start to disappear. While the earth naturally produces its own heat, the contribution from humans is also making the earth warmer than usual. James Balog and Extreme Ice Survey team explain that “since the Industrial Revolution, burning of fossil fuels has ratcheted up the burning of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere (Global Warming). Greenhouse gases then go to raise the already increasing temperatures, which are causing glaciers to melt. This is a sad reality for the glaciers of the earth. The melting of glaciers can cause ocean and sea levels to rise, which in turn can flood different animal habitats and displace millions of people. Also, the melting can lead to the loss of freshwater sources to those who use reservoirs as a source of drinking water, such as those around Asia near the Himalayan glaciers. Lastly, if the climate continues to melt the glaciers, various different tourist attractions, such as Glacier National Park will no longer draw in visitors to view the magnificent beauty.
Climate change could be described as any process that causes adjustment to climate system be it a volcanic eruption to a change in the solar activity. Today, however, the phrase is most often used as climate change caused by humans. Climate change is also used commonly with another phrase – "global warming" – reflecting scientific observations of strong warming trends over the past century or so. Indicators like rising sea levels, retreating snow cover and glaciers, longer growing seasons and shifting wildlife has alarmed scientific community unanimously agreeing that the earth has warmed in the last century. Experts however are of the opinion that climate change is a more accurate phrase than global warming as the latter is just one component affecting the larger climate systems of the earth.
Imagine you are placed into the future. The year is 2100. You begin to live in this
“When taking the heating of the entire climate system into account, our planet has warmed at a rate equivalent to 4 Hiroshima atomic bomb detonations per second over the past 15 years” (Cook). Our planet is becoming warmer. When scientists add up all the heat warming the land, oceans, atmosphere, ice melting, earth is accumulating heat equivalent to four Hiroshima bombs worth of heat per second. Global warming is a serious issue faced by our world as there has been a significant increase in temperature over the years. But the article published by Dr. Mark Sircus on “Global Warming -largest science scandal in the history” refutes the theory of global warming. Dr. Sircus states that there is no linkage between carbon dioxide and temperature leading to global warming, the sea level is not rising, arctic sea ice extent is now higher and climate change is due to solar activity. Dr. Sircus also points out that that the recent weather changes are not in line with global warming and “we are in the beginning of a deep freeze” (Global Warming - Largest Science Scandal in US History). NASA and the scientific community states that global warming is not a hoax and there is a rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature due to greenhouse gases released as people burn fossils. NASA states that the “key indicators of global warming are based on surface, satellite, and ocean temperature measurements, satellite measurements of energy imbalance and of receding glaciers, sea ice, and
Global warming has been a controversial issue since the first publication of global warming, “Worlds in the Making,” by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. This topic is discussed in multiple areas of life, including politics, at the dinner table, and among scientists in a laboratory. The various viewpoints of individuals usually lead to a heated discussion on global warming, and sometimes ignites an intense argument. Through research and discussions with various people, I have come to the belief that global warming is a real threat and needs to dealt with accordingly. Through act of emitting extra carbon into the atmosphere, whether through burning fossil fuels or deforestation, humans have inadvertently raised the average climate temperature over the last 200 years.