Global Warming Implications Essay

Climate change can no longer be denied... And action can no longer be delayed. – U.S> President Barack Obama, 2015

As reflected in the epigraph above, there is a growing consensus among climatologists that anthropogenic activities have caused the entire world to become hotter and some experts even caution that the balance scale may have already been tipped and global warming will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. Some scientists, however, maintain that the current trends in global warming are a natural part of the cycles the earth goes through over the millennia and suggest that the warning calls concerning global warming are vastly overstated. To determine the facts concerning this vitally important issue that affects all humankind, this paper reviews the relevant literature about global warming and its implications for the future. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings about global warming are presented in the conclusion.

A growing body of evidence indicates that anthropogenic activities since the Industrial Revolution and more recently since the end of World War II have poured millions and millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere, thereby trapping more radiant heat and causing the earth to become hotter (Li, 2016). According to one climatologist, “As scientific evidence shows, the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is attributable to human activities since WWII, leading to global warming, rising sea levels, and more frequent occurrences of extreme weather” (Li, 2016, p. 46).  The scientific community has emphasized the urgency of the situation and has sounded clarion calls action to avoid the devastating effects of global warming for humanity (Li, 2016). 

Despite the growing alarms being sounded by some members of the scientific community, not all experts agree that global warming represents a legitimate threat. For instance, according to Kennel (2015), “The global average temperature seems not to have changed as much since 1998 as before, although about 28% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) added to the atmosphere by human activities, largely fossil fuel burning, has been added since 1998” (p. 367). The less rapid pace of global warming which has been termed a “hiatus” has been cited as a reason for continuing to use fossil fuels unless and until viable alternatives are developed (Kennel, 2015). Yet other authorities charge that current efforts to address global warming are being fueled by political rhetoric rather than being based on actual scientific evidence. For instance, Terrell (2015) advises that, “There is so much unfair reporting that comes from the mainstream media, and climate change is being influenced more by politics than actual climate science” (p. 30).

Other authorities, though, counter that there has not been any substantive slowdown in global warming trends and assertions to the contrary have been based on incomplete or inaccurate data. In this regard, Sumner (2015) reports that, “Following decades of warming and a hot 1998, Earth's average surface temperature seemingly plateaued. This warming hiatus, as it came to be known, had climate researchers scrambling for an explanation” (p. 6). More recent studies conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicate that the global warming hiatus was an “artifact of incomplete and biased data” (Sumner, 2015, p. 6). Likewise, Botkin-Kowacki (2015) suggests that the reports concerning a hiatus in global warming were misguided and have only served to divert attention from what could become a global catastrophe. For instance, Botkin-Kowacki (2015) notes that, “Many climate scientists have observed that, since 1998 or so, the rise of global temperatures had stopped, or at least slowed down, in what has been variously called climate change's ‘pause’ or ‘hiatus.’ But, there was no global warming ‘hiatus’” (p. 37).

The more recent studies conducted by NOAA paint a very different picture from a hiatus, and the new data indicates that the rate of global warming during the period from 1998 to 2012 increased from 0.039 to 0.086 degrees per decade, a rate that is comparable to the last 50 years of the 20th century (Sumner, 2015). Moreover, there is also other clear evidence that the world is becoming hotter. In this regard, Smallman and Brown (2015) caution that, “There is now mounting evidence for global warming from multiple measures, including the northward shift of species ranges, the rising elevations at which species are typically found, the bleaching of coral reefs, the pattern of record warm years, the thawing of permafrost, and the retreat of glaciers” (p. 325). There is also clear evidence that global warming has continued to increase since records were first maintained as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. NASA Global Warming Report:  1880-2005
Source: http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/01/nasa-global-warming-report.jpg

As can readily be discerned from the trends shown in Figure 1 above, the evidence in support of global warming is clear despite naysayers who argue to the contrary. Indeed, Dion (2015) states that, “The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January to October 2014 period was the warmest such period on record” (p. 50). Furthermore, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are also rapidly increasing and experienced their fastest rate of increase for the past 3 decades (Dion, 2015).

The implications of these trends are especially troubling given the enormity of the potential consequences of unrelenting global warming. For example, Smallman and Brown (2015) emphasize that, “With global warming comes particularly dramatic possibilities. Ocean levels will rise, in part because of the melting of glaciers (particularly in Antarctica) as well as the Greenland ice cap” (p. 325). Likewise, scientists have determined that the ice sheet covering parts of Greenland is melting much faster than expected and despite the purported hiatus, new studies indicate that the pace of acceleration has actually increased in recent years. According to Smallman and Brown, “It is the acceleration that stuns scientists. Greenland’s glaciers are adding up to 58 trillion gallons of water a year to the oceans, more than twice as much as a decade ago and enough to supply more than 250 cities the size of Los Angeles” (p. 325). 

Unfortunately, the debate over what should be done today to reverse the global warming trends have been fueled by a diversity of opinion concerning the best course of action to take even as the world continues to grow hotter. According to one analyst, complex problems such as global warming demand complex solutions, but one of the major steps that can be taken in the immediate future is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that are suspected of being the primary cause (Sumner, 2015). 

Despite a veritable Manhattan Project-level effort by the federal government to address global warming, the trends continue and the day may come when the earth’s polar caps have melted and coastal areas are inundated. At present, the federal government invests approximately $22 billion annually for global warming research, an amount that equates to $41,856 a minute and most experts agree that these costs will continue to accelerate along with global warming (Stop global warming hysteria, 2015). For instance, according to a recent editorial in The Gazette (Colorado Springs), “Accounting for the costs global warming regulations impose on businesses, the annual cost of global warming policies are $1.754 trillion each year -- three times the size of the federal budget deficit” (Stop global warming hysteria, 2015, p. 3). What is becoming increasingly apparent, though, is that even this massive investment in research is failing to turn the global warming tide and time is running out for the human race.