Term Paper on "Reasonable Solution to the Problem. Global Warming"

Term Paper 5 pages (1685 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

reasonable solution to the problem. Global warming is the gradual warming of the earth's climate, leading to changes in a wide variety of the earth's ecosystems. To solve global warming, we must reduce our dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

Global warming (often referred to as climate change) is one of the most serious environmental problems facing us today. The EPA defines climate change as "any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer)" (Editors). As the earth's surface gradually warms, it is affecting everything from sea levels to the weather and ecosystems around the globe. Global warming is not a new phenomenon, in fact, it has been going on in cycles throughout the earth's history, as the ice ages, and then warming periods clearly indicate. However, it is occurring faster now than ever before, and because of this, it is far more dangerous than ever before. One researcher notes, "Evidence has been accumulating that sustained, human-induced warming of the Earth's lower troposphere has been in progress since about 1980, accelerating during the 1990s. During 1997 and 1998, the global temperature set records for 15 consecutive months" (Johansen 1). Scientists have been able to measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the 1880s, and they have been steadily increasing since then. As our society becomes even more dependent upon technology, we use more fuels, and produce more greenhouse gases, leading to global warming and climate change.

The science of global warming is relatively simple. The fossil fuels we burn for just about everything from electricity to automobile power give off carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Researcher Johansen continues, "Carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse gases,' such as methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), retain heat in the atmosphere. The proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280 parts per million (p.p.m.) to roughly 365 p.p.m. As the new millennium dawned on the Christian calendar" (Johansen xiii). This increase is much higher than any time previously, even though greenhouse gases have been present in the atmosphere throughout time.

Global warming is extremely important because it can affect every person on earth if it is not solved, and solved quickly. As the earth warms, the ice sheets at the North and South Poles begin to melt. This is already occurring, and if the ice sheets are lost, the sea levels around the world could rise as much as 20 to 30 feet if the entire ice shelf in one of the poles collapsed (Johansen 123). This would inundate all coastal areas around the world, changing the shorelines forever, and it would kill or displace millions of people who live in those low-lying areas. It would also wreak havoc with agriculture, since many of those low-lying coastal areas are rich in agriculture and aquaculture.

The weather is already being affected by global warming. In many areas, winters are warming up, summers produce more catastrophic weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes, and the climate is generally dryer. In other areas of the world, such as the Amazon rain forest in South America, the problem is a little less pronounced than at the poles, which heat up more quickly, but the forests could dry out, leading to the eventual extinction of millions of different life forms, and the eventual collapse of the entire ecosystem. This would be true around the world, in varying degrees.

Writer Johansen quotes another expert on other aspects of global warming. He writes, "Quammen expects that the flora and fauna of the Earth eventually will include food crops, animals raised to be eaten or petted, and a few stubborn weed species which will benefit from a harsher, hotter world" (Johansen 183). Thus, most native species could eventually be extinct, and as the world grows hotter, much of the natural world will disappear, leading to even more increased levels of greenhouse gases, because the forests and plants of the world take in carbon dioxide and create oxygen, and removing those oxygen-giving resources will only make the problem grow worse. The problems just increase the more one studies the issue, and again, this is not an issue facing one country, it faces the world, and so the world must come up with a solution.

Amazingly, the biggest debate about global warming is not how to solve it, but whether it even exists or not. One writer states, "According to most media reports, a substantial consensus exists among scientists that global warming is real, that it is of human origin, and that it poses an unprecedented threat" (Behreandt). However, many scientists and others do not agree global warming is human-caused, and they do not believe it is occurring at a rate that is dangerously high. They believe the earth naturally goes through heating and cooling periods, and that the earth will adjust to this one, just as it has to other previous ice ages and warming periods. For example, scientists believe another warming period in the earth's history, the Medieval Warm Period, that began about 800 AD and lasted until about 1300 AD actually may have been warmer than the warm period we are experiencing today (Behreandt). After the Medieval Warm Period, the earth cooled down a bit, so many scientists believe that what we are now seeing is simply a normal heating trend that will reverse itself just as other heating trends have done in the past. They may be right, and many people are taking a "wait and see" approach to the problem. However, if the scientists who believe the problem is not human-caused, and it will reverse itself are wrong, and the world does nothing, then there will be little anyone can do to stop the onslaught of climate change and destruction of ecosystems.

The question is not whether we will solve global warming or not, it is how soon we will begin to address and solve the problem. There are so man people that still do not recognize it as a problem that this attitude must be overcome first. Unfortunately, many people do not believe in things they cannot see, and no one can "see" global warming unless something drastic happens to the planet. Researcher Johansen notes, "It has been said (not for attribution) that the best thing which could happen to raise worldwide concern about global warming would be a quick collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which would raise worldwide sea level a notable number of feet over a very short time" (Johansen 251). This might seem dramatic, but it would gain the world's attention, and that could only help the cause of global warming, and help send more people along the path to a solution.

No one nation can solve the crisis, either. The world will have to join together to help solve this problem, because it is a global issue with many different contributors (even though the U.S. is the highest contributor to the problem). Perhaps the quickest way to solve the problem is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels in all areas, from power generation to transportation and even home and business electricity and heating oil usage. Johansen sates, "The main routes to surviving the greenhouse threat are energy efficiency, renewable forms of energy production...less greenhouse-gas-intensive agriculture, stopping deforestation, and reforestation" (Johansen 253). We have to develop more energy efficiency in everything from how we heat and cool our homes and businesses to the cars we drive, the electricity we use, and the way we generate electricity. There are alternatives to non-renewable fossil fuels, such as solar energy, wind power, and hydrothermal power. All of these alternatives are expensive, however, and there are not enough incentives to use… READ MORE

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