¶ … Stop Global Warming What can be done to combat global warming?

Global warming is a very serious threat that should be taken seriously by people everywhere. It is happening all around the world: ice caps are melting, environments are changing, and regions are suffering because of this atmosphere change, as Al Gore (2006) says. What is happening to the world because of carbon monoxide and because of air pollutions from factories is bad for the health of the planet and it is also bad for the health of people. This has been proven by research and the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO states that outdoor air pollution is not safe to breathe because it is "carcinogenic to humans" (p. 1). So if it is bad for people and bad for the planet, why does it continue to happen? That answer has received some attention on a global scale at the recent meeting of international leaders to discuss global warming. Global warming poses a grave threat to the planet and to biological life. However there are some things that people can do to stop it.

Nordhaus (2014) says that "there is at present no obvious answer" on how to stop global warming (p. 2). The fact is that there are many things that nations can do but that doing them would cut into profits of big corporations. Big corporations profit from factories that put carcinogens into the air that poison the atmosphere and all life on the planet. But these same factories produce goods that people want to buy and sell, so there is the trade-off. Some want to make money at the expense of the health of the planet and others want to save the planet at the expense of production. This is not a good solution for some people.

Al Gore presented the idea of starting carbon controls so that factories would only be allowed to put so much toxic smoke into the atmosphere. The idea with carbon controls is that this would help to slow the pace of global warming. But people like Matt Taibbi (2010) view Gore's plan with suspicion and see it as a way to profit off of one more law that won't do anything to save the planet but that will help people who can trade, swap and sell carbon controls to get rich. This means that the carbon credit scheme is just a way for elite people to get rich off of a real crisis. Will carbon credits help to control the output of toxic emissions?

No one can say for sure but with more people moving to support Donald Trump in this election it shows that there is not much trust for establishment politics in the U.S. What can be said for other governments around the world? With Europe being flooded by immigrants from the Middle East as a result of wars, it is not likely that anybody is very happy with governments around the world. So with governments facing difficulties with wars and economies that are falling down, what can be done?

One way to combat global warming may be to do it on an individual basis. For example instead of burning fossil fuels when we drive cars, we could car pool or ride bikes or go in electric cars. Cutting down on the oil and gas that we burn on a daily basis can help to slow down global warming and if everyone does this together it can also have an impact on those industries that expect people to use gas and oil. So if everyone were to cut out this consumption from their lives, the gas and oil companies and factories would have to change the way they go about making products. If people stop putting out a demand the companies will stop making the supply. Instead of expecting government to stop global warming, we can stop it ourselves by taking action in the way we live our lives. Our daily habits have to change, so that is the first step that can be taken to eliminate global warming.

Another way to fight global warming is to educate the

People cannot be expected to change their habits until they understand the issues of what is happening. The report by the World Health Organization (2013) is one good place to start. That report shows that there many toxic pollutions in the air that make it unhealthy to breathe. If more people realized this and understood how bad the air was not only for themselves but for the planet too they would stop doing all the things like burning fuels that kill the planet. Al Gore's work An Inconveniet Truth could be a good place to start for education.
But the issue of what to do for energy also has to be addressed because of coal burning plants that add lots of toxins to the atmosphere and cause global warming to happen more. So people should consider alternate ways to produce energy. One way might be to harness wind power.

As Herbert et al. (2007) observe, wind power is the "indirect form of solar energy and is always being replenished by the sun" (p. 1117). Therefore, unlike a fossil fuel, it is never in scarce supply. This may be one reason that energy companies don't like it because there is less likelihood of them controlling the price based on scarcity. But it is important to know that wind energy is plentiful and renewable and it is also clean. That means it does not add toxins to the atmosphere that cause global warming. So this source of energy actually helps fight global warming. If more people use wind power then the world would be safer. But how does it work? Wind is created by the sun's rays, which heat the earth differentially. As the earth heats and cools, it releases energy in the form of wind, which has been estimated to contain "10 million MW of energy" at any one given time (Herbert et al., 2007, p. 1117) -- however, maximum energy power depends upon the site and the wind speed that is there, and this changes from place to place and time to time (Shepherd, Zhang, 2011, p. 68).

Some people do not like the idea of wind power because they do not like to see wind mills everywhere or because they think it is impractical. But drilling for oil off-shore is also impractical and fracking for shale is also impractical so that is not a good argument. Plus people should consider sacrificing because it is the health of the planet that is at stake.

So that means people should understand that wind power is an effective way to produce energy. It is also cost efficient and it is even more common today than it has been befoe, so that means that more people are starting to use it (Shepherd, Zhang, 2011). If the planet is going to be saved it is going to have to take steps like these to make it a safer place. Wind power should be used more because it is a good way for people to be environmentally aware of what is happening to the planet. It is a clean energy source, sustainable and renewable, because it is not a fossil fuel that must be burned and it is always being created because of the sun's rays and they are not going away anytime soon. So while there may be some slight disadvantages to using wind energy (because of many wind mills people are unhappy with the scenery, because it makes it aesthetically displeasing to some, and the fact that sources of high speed winds are not available everywhere) they do not outweigh the advantages, which are that wind power is affordable, constant, clean, and healthy for the planet.

So those are ways to fight against global warming too. Are there any others? Actually, there are. People can start to organize on a local level because there is no point in expecting governments around the world to do everything. Movements have to start small and grow into big changes that make an impact. So the best way to save the planet from global warming is to be in the community knocking on doors and spreading out literature on this important subject. This will help people to be aware of what is going and why it is important. Matt Taibbi (2010) shows that being part of a community can be where real change starts to take place. And Al Gore's message about global warming can be heard if people spread the word around to friends and family and neighbors and everybody they meet.

The World Health Organization has done its part in gathering the information so that people can see the effect of all this burning of coal and fossil fuels. Now people need to organize and change their daily habits and promote things like not riding in cars all the time or using electric cars or bikes or car pooling. Then this…