Term Paper on "Fate of the Earth"

Term Paper 5 pages (1414 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Moreover, the wildfires that hit Europe, Canada, California and Australia in 2003 were the result of many factors, such as land management, ignition sources and extreme local weather (Wallstrom pp). However, prevailing warm and dry conditions, most likely linked to climate change, amplified fire intensity and extent (Wallstrom pp).

Due to poor access to fresh water, more than two billion people now live under what experts call "sever water stress," and with population growth and economic expansion, this number is expected to double by 2025 (Wallstrom pp).

Biodiversity losses, currently driven by habitat destruction associated with land-cover change, will be further exacerbated by future climate change. Beyond 2050, rapid regional climate change, as would be caused by changes in ocean circulation

in the North Atlantic, and irreversible changes, such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the accompanying rise in sea levels of 6 meters, or 20 feet, could have huge economic and societal consequences (Wallstrom pp).

Past geological records indicate that never before has the Earth experience the current "suite" of simultaneous changes and many feel that humans are sailing into "planetary terra incognita" (Wallstrom pp).

According to a 1999 article from Cornell University, "because population growth can not continue indefinitely, society can either voluntarily control its numbers or let natural forces such as disease, malnutrition, and other disasters limit human numbers" (Pimentel pp). Human population, especially in urban areas, together with the increasing food, water, air, and soil pollution by pathogenic organisms and chemicals, are causing a rapid increase in the prevalence of disease and human deaths (Pimentel pp). Due to current food shortages, more than 3 billion people are malnourished worldwide, the largest number and proportion ever, and according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 40,000 children die each day due to malnutrition and other diseases (Pimentel pp). Humans are responsible for fifty-five percent of all available water run-off (Myers pp). Moreover, greater amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are mobilized by humans in the form of crop fertilizer than by natural processes, and humans harvest an amount of ocean fish that reflects fully one third of phytoplankton productivity in temperate continental shelves (Myers pp).

A NASA study released in April 2005, has revealed the heat exchange between the Earth and space is seriously out of balance, leading researchers to call it the "smoking gun" discovery that validates forecasts of global warming (Hanley pp). According to computer models of climate change, the global temperatures will rise 1 degree Fahrenheit this century, "even if greenhouse gases are capped tomorrow" (Hanley pp). And if carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions continue to grow, things could spin "out of our control" especially as ocean levels rise from melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (Hanley pp). James Hansen of NASA said the research shows that "for every square meter of surface area, the planet is absorbing almost one watt more of the sun's energy than it is radiating back to space as heat -- a historically large imbalance" (Hanley pp).

According to a Stanford University study release May 16, 2005, the first signs of spring are appearing earlier each year: robins are arriving several days earlier, woodpeckers are laying their eggs a week earlier, and Washington's cherry trees bloom a month earlier than they did fifty years ago (Borenstein pp).

The study says that man-made global warming is clearly to blame, and means that the global environment is changing so fast that the slow evolutionary process of species adaptation cannot keep up (Borenstein pp).

Work Cited

Borenstein, Seth. "Study blames global warming for early springs."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch; 5/17/2005; pp.

Hanley, Charles J. "Ocean Study Confirms Global Warming."

Wisconsin State Journal; 4/28/2005; pp.

Myers, Norman. "The Century Ahead.(the 21st century begins with earth's resources already strained by its human population)" UN Chronicle; 9/22/2000; pp.

Pimentel, David; Bailey, O.; Kim, P.; Mullaney, E.; Calabrese, J.; Walman, L.;

Nelson, F.; Yao, X. "Will Limits of the Earth's Resources Control Human Numbers?" College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Cornell University.

February 25, 1999; pp.

http://dieoff.org/page174.htm

Wallstrom, Margot; Bolin, Bert; Crutzen, Paul; Steffen, Will. "The Earth's life-support system is in peril A global crisis."

International Herald Tribune; 1/20/2004; pp.

Schell,… READ MORE

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