Global warming and climate change impacts

Global warming - Fact or Fiction?

Alongside with globalization, global warming has been the most popular concept discussed in news broadcasts, specialized and unspecialized articles as well as special international conferences. There are those who strongly believe that global warming has negatively impacted the earth and if the human actions continue as they are now, the planet will be lost for good. The primary arguments of these individuals are the climacteric changes and the noxiousness of the human activities upon the natural habitats. There are also others who state that global warming is merely a concept introduced to create mass hysteria and that all changes are explainable through other data. In other words, there is an ongoing battle to identify and sustain whether global warming is a real fact or an invented fiction. The purpose of this paper is to prove that global warming is indeed a clear fact.

Causes and Effects of Global Warming study conducted in 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that global warming was as real as it gets and that the humans were a possible cause of it. The study conducted by the same organization in 2007 "declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years" (Banerjee, 2007).

Other facts about global warming could be organized under the following:

through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen; since the amount of plants across the globe is reducing on daily basis, the amounts of carbon dioxide turned into oxygen are also decreasing considerably humans and animals consume energy and produce waste, which is released into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases;

the industrial revolution, commenced more than 250 years ago, generated increased numbers of machineries, which consumed energy and produced noxious gases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased from 190 ppm 20 millennia ago to 378 ppm in 2004 and increases by 1:8 PM per year;

75% of the increasing concentration is due to the burning of fossil oils and the remaining 25% is due to changes in land use, including deforestation, salinization, overgrazing, overcultivation or desertification the current global population is of 6,671 million, double as compared to the year 1959 and continues to increase by 80 million individuals per year the motors fleet is of 830 million, growing by 16 million per year (Ponce)

And the most convincing fact about the existence of global warming is given by the perceptible change in temperature. More precisely, the weather is becoming warmer with every year. "The year 1998 was the warmest of record. The year 2002 was the second warmest (to that date). The year 2003 was the third warmest (to that date). The year 2004 was the fourth warmest (to that date). The year 2005 equalled 1998 as the warmest of record. The year 2007 equalled 1998 as the second warmest of record." (Ponce).

It is undoubted that the primary cause of global warming is humankind, though a series of combined actions. However, there are also natural causes. The most common causes of global warming are presented below:

the first natural cause materializes in the release of methane gas from the arctic tundra and the wetlands (the methane is a greenhouse gas with tremendous implications upon the environment);

the second natural cause is that the "earth goes through a cycle of climate change" (Causes of Global Warming) the main cause is the emission of greenhouse gases; "almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone. Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide" (Time for Change, 2007)

The effects of global warming are yet another strong proof that the phenomenon is real and they basically revolve around the following:

an overall increase in temperatures across the globe, culminating with the melting of the glaciers and the reduction of the snowy regions water temperatures in seas and oceans increase and result in coastal floods

These two effects, however limited in numbers, are disastrous upon the natural habitats and have been clearly observed and verified by the IPCC. The plants and animals have already perceived them and are showing unusual behavior, such as laying their eggs earlier or breaking hibernation sooner (Causes of Global Warming).

Humans' Contributions to Global Warming

As revealed before, the main cause of global warming is given by the repercussion of the irresponsible actions undergone by mankind. In this order of ideas, mankind changed the basic usage of land and turned forests into construction sites or other facilities. The land collapsed as it was no longer supported by the roots of old trees; the concentration of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased as the number of plants able to transform it into oxygen also decreased.

Then, aside from changes in land usage, the populations consume now more than ever. The American population for instance consumes per year 30% of the allocated global resources. If everybody consumed at this rate, we would need the resources of five planets or the earth would vanish entirely within the next five decades (Leonard, 2008).

The main man-made contributions to global warming could be succinctly presented as follows:

increase in population, more than the natural resources could bear increase in consumerism and the generation of large amounts of waste, both domestic as well as industrial power plants - in 2004, the companies generating electricity and burning fossil fuels accounted for 40% of the eliminated carbon dioxide the increase in population, combined with the industrial revolution and greater access to commodities have increased the numbers of automobiles; they eliminate large amounts of carbon dioxide (about 33% of the entire annual emissions) the activities undergone in construction sites are responsible for 12% of the carbon dioxide emissions changes in land use, mentioned above Future Predictions

Other than the warming of the temperatures, significant effects of global warming are barely perceptible and that is generally why so little is being done about it. In time however, the effects will become so drastic, that even if something were to be done, it would matter too little. "Although the global weather system is extremely complex and not wholly understood, experts say that such a rapid change in temperature is bound to have severe implications for future weather and climate patterns. Climate researchers are predicting that the Earth's average temperature will continue to increase in the next 100 years. If greenhouse gas emissions drop slightly, the average world temperature in 2100 could be 1 degree C. warmer than in 1990. But if they increase a lot and the climate proves very sensitive, the rise could be 3.5 degrees C" (BBC News, 1998)