This effect may also diminish as carbon dioxide increases to levels that become saturating for photosynthesis. Likewise, boycotting products that are manufactured in ways that contribute to global warming can also help create a consumer-driven revolution. The predicted rate of global warming definition essay for the next century is at least 20 times faster. Whole ecosystems will change because of global warming, causing some animals and plants to move to new territories, global warming definition essay, altering the food chains and also changing the relationships between humans and nature. Global Warming Throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. Modeled Impact of Anthropogenic Warming on the Frequency of Intense Atlantic Hurricanes. This vertical pattern is consistent with global warming due to increasing greenhouse gases, but inconsistent with warming from natural causes.
Global Warming
Throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. NASA astronaut photograph ISSE Earth has experienced climate change in the past without help from humanity. But the current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events. These natural causes are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur global warming definition essay slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades. Based on plausible emission scenarios, average surface temperatures could rise between 2°C and 6°C by the end of the 21st century. Some of this warming will occur even if future greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, because the Earth system has not yet fully adjusted to environmental changes we have already made.
The impact of global warming is far greater than just increasing temperatures. Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies coastal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some regions, global warming definition essay, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of some infectious diseases. Some of these changes are already occurring. How can we be certain that human-released greenhouse gases are causing the warming? How much more will the Earth warm? How will Earth respond? Answering these questions is perhaps the most significant scientific challenge of our time.
The global average surface temperature rose 0, global warming definition essay. Temperatures are certain to go up further. Despite ups and downs from year to year, global warming definition essay, global average surface temperature is rising. NASA figure adapted from Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis. Roughly 30 percent of incoming sunlight is reflected back into space by bright surfaces like clouds and ice. Of the remaining 70 percent, most is absorbed by the land and ocean, global warming definition essay, and the rest is absorbed by the atmosphere, global warming definition essay.
The absorbed solar energy heats our planet. From the surface, this energy travels into the atmosphere where much of it is absorbed by water vapor and long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. They radiate in all directions. Global warming definition essay energy that radiates back toward Earth heats both the lower atmosphere and the surface, enhancing the heating they get from direct sunlight. This absorption and radiation of heat by the atmosphere—the natural greenhouse effect—is beneficial for life on Earth. What has scientists concerned now is that over the past years, humans have been artificially raising the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at an ever-increasing rate, mostly by burning fossil fuels, but also from cutting down carbon-absorbing forests.
Since the Industrial Revolution began in aboutcarbon dioxide levels have increased nearly 38 percent as of and methane levels have increased percent. Increases in concentrations of carbon dioxide top and methane bottom coincided with the start of the Industrial Revolution in about Measurements from Antarctic ice cores green lines combined with direct atmospheric measurements blue lines show the increase of both gases over time. NASA graphs by Robert Simmon, based on data from the NOAA Paleoclimatology and Earth System Research Laboratory. The atmosphere today contains more greenhouse gas molecules, global warming definition essay, so more of the infrared energy emitted by the surface ends up being absorbed by the atmosphere.
We know about past climates because of evidence left in tree rings, layers of ice in glaciers, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. The chemical make-up of the ice provides clues to the average global temperature. Earth has cycled between ice ages low points, large negative anomalies and warm interglacials peaks. NASA graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Jouzel et al. But the paleoclimate record also reveals that the current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events. As the Earth moved out of ice ages over the past million years, the global temperature rose a total of 4 to 7 degrees Celsius over about 5, years.
In the past century alone, the temperature has climbed 0. Temperature histories from paleoclimate data green line compared to the history based on modern instruments blue line suggest that global temperature is warmer now than it has been in the past 1, years, and possibly longer. Global warming definition essay adapted from Mann et al. Models predict that Earth will warm between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius in the next century. When global warming has happened at various times in the past two million years, it has taken the planet about 5, global warming definition essay, years to warm 5 degrees.
The predicted rate of warming for the next century is at least 20 times faster. This rate of change is extremely unusual. Most often, global climate has changed because of variations in sunlight. Variations in the Sun itself have alternately increased and decreased the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. Volcanic eruptions have generated particles that reflect sunlight, brightening the planet and cooling the climate. Volcanic activity has also, in the deep past, increased greenhouse gases over millions of years, global warming definition essay, contributing to episodes of global warming. We know this because scientists closely monitor the natural and human activities that influence climate with a fleet of satellites and surface instruments.
Remote meteorological stations left and orbiting satellites right help scientists monitor the causes and effects of global warming. On the ground, many agencies and nations support networks of weather and climate-monitoring stations that maintain temperature, rainfall, and snow depth records, and buoys that measure surface water and deep ocean temperatures. Taken together, these measurements provide an ever-improving record of both natural events and human activity for the past years. Scientists integrate these measurements into climate models to recreate temperatures recorded over the past years.
Climate model simulations that consider only natural solar variability and volcanic aerosols since —omitting observed increases in greenhouse gases—are able to fit the observations of global temperatures only up until about After that point, the decadal trend in global surface warming cannot be explained without including the contribution of the greenhouse gases added by humans, global warming definition essay. For example, two major volcanic eruptions, El Chichon in and Pinatubo inpumped sulfur dioxide gas high into the atmosphere. Temperatures across the globe dipped for two to three years. Natural influences global warming definition essay temperature—El Niño, solar variability, and volcanic aerosols—have varied approximately plus and minus 0. Graphs adapted from Lean et al.
Although volcanoes are active around the world, and continue to emit carbon dioxide as they did global warming definition essay the past, the amount of carbon dioxide they release is extremely small compared to human emissions. On average, volcanoes emit between and million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. By burning fossil fuels, people release in excess of times more, about 26 billion global warming definition essay of carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere every year as of As a result, human activity overshadows any contribution volcanoes may have made to recent global warming.
Changes in the brightness of the Sun can influence the climate from decade to decade, but an increase global warming definition essay solar output falls short as an explanation for recent warming. The total energy the Sun radiates varies over an year cycle. During solar maxima, solar energy is global warming definition essay 0. The transparent halo known as the solar corona changes between solar maximum left and solar minimum right. NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope images from the SOHO Data Archive. Each cycle exhibits subtle differences in intensity and duration. As of earlythe solar brightness since has been slightly lower, not higher, than it was during the previous year minimum in solar activity, which occurred in the late s.
Satellite measurements of daily light line and monthly average dark line total solar irradiance since have not detected a clear long-term trend, global warming definition essay. NASA graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from the ACRIM Science Team. Scientists theorize that there may be a multi-decadal trend in solar output, though if one exists, it has not been observed as yet. Even if the Sun were getting brighter, however, the pattern of warming observed on Earth since does not match the type of warming the Sun global warming definition essay would cause. Satellite measurements show warming in the troposphere lower atmosphere, green line but cooling in the stratosphere upper atmosphere, red line.
This vertical pattern is consistent with global warming due to increasing greenhouse gases, global warming definition essay, but inconsistent with warming from natural causes. Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Remote Sensing Systems, sponsored by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. The stratosphere gets warmer during solar maxima because the ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet light; more ultraviolet light during solar maxima means warmer temperatures. Increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the troposphere and stratosphere together contribute to cooling in the stratosphere. To further explore the causes and effects of global warming and to predict future warming, scientists build climate models—computer simulations of the climate system. Climate models are designed to simulate the responses and interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, and to account for changes to the land surface, both natural and human-induced.
Though the models are complicated, rigorous tests with real-world data hone them into powerful tools that allow scientists to explore our understanding of climate in ways not otherwise possible. Based on a range of plausible emission scenarios, average surface temperatures could rise between 2°C and 6°C by the end of the 21st century. Model simulations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that Earth will warm between two and six degrees Celsius over the next century, depending on how fast carbon dioxide emissions global warming definition essay. Scenarios that assume that people will burn more and more fossil fuel provide the estimates in the top end of the temperature range, while scenarios that assume that greenhouse gas emissions will grow slowly give lower temperature predictions.
The orange line provides an estimate of global temperatures if greenhouse gases stayed at year levels. Greenhouse gases are only global warming definition essay of the story when it comes to global warming. Changes to one part of the climate system can cause additional changes to the way the planet absorbs or reflects energy. These secondary changes are called climate feedbacks, global warming definition essay, and they could more than double the amount of warming caused by carbon dioxide alone. The primary feedbacks are due to snow and ice, water vapor, global warming definition essay, clouds, and the carbon cycle. Perhaps the most well known feedback comes from melting snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere. Warming temperatures are already melting a growing percentage of Arctic sea ice, exposing dark ocean water during the perpetual sunlight of summer.
Snow cover on land is also dwindling in many areas. In the absence of snow and ice, these areas go from having bright, sunlight-reflecting surfaces that cool the planet to having dark, sunlight-absorbing surfaces that bring more energy into the Earth system and cause more warming. In the past years, the glacier has lost half its volume and has retreated more than 1. As glaciers retreat, sea ice disappears, and snow melts earlier in the spring, the Earth absorbs more sunlight than it would if the reflective global warming definition essay and ice remained. Photograph © Hugh Saxby. The global warming definition essay feedback is water vapor, global warming definition essay.
Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas.
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But the paleoclimate record also reveals that the current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events. As the Earth moved out of ice ages over the past million years, the global temperature rose a total of 4 to 7 degrees Celsius over about 5, years. In the past century alone, the temperature has climbed 0. Temperature histories from paleoclimate data green line compared to the history based on modern instruments blue line suggest that global temperature is warmer now than it has been in the past 1, years, and possibly longer. Graph adapted from Mann et al. Models predict that Earth will warm between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius in the next century. When global warming has happened at various times in the past two million years, it has taken the planet about 5, years to warm 5 degrees.
The predicted rate of warming for the next century is at least 20 times faster. This rate of change is extremely unusual. Most often, global climate has changed because of variations in sunlight. Variations in the Sun itself have alternately increased and decreased the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. Volcanic eruptions have generated particles that reflect sunlight, brightening the planet and cooling the climate. Volcanic activity has also, in the deep past, increased greenhouse gases over millions of years, contributing to episodes of global warming. We know this because scientists closely monitor the natural and human activities that influence climate with a fleet of satellites and surface instruments. Remote meteorological stations left and orbiting satellites right help scientists monitor the causes and effects of global warming.
On the ground, many agencies and nations support networks of weather and climate-monitoring stations that maintain temperature, rainfall, and snow depth records, and buoys that measure surface water and deep ocean temperatures. Taken together, these measurements provide an ever-improving record of both natural events and human activity for the past years. Scientists integrate these measurements into climate models to recreate temperatures recorded over the past years. Climate model simulations that consider only natural solar variability and volcanic aerosols since —omitting observed increases in greenhouse gases—are able to fit the observations of global temperatures only up until about After that point, the decadal trend in global surface warming cannot be explained without including the contribution of the greenhouse gases added by humans.
For example, two major volcanic eruptions, El Chichon in and Pinatubo in , pumped sulfur dioxide gas high into the atmosphere. Temperatures across the globe dipped for two to three years. Natural influences on temperature—El Niño, solar variability, and volcanic aerosols—have varied approximately plus and minus 0. Graphs adapted from Lean et al. Although volcanoes are active around the world, and continue to emit carbon dioxide as they did in the past, the amount of carbon dioxide they release is extremely small compared to human emissions. On average, volcanoes emit between and million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. By burning fossil fuels, people release in excess of times more, about 26 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere every year as of As a result, human activity overshadows any contribution volcanoes may have made to recent global warming.
Changes in the brightness of the Sun can influence the climate from decade to decade, but an increase in solar output falls short as an explanation for recent warming. The total energy the Sun radiates varies over an year cycle. During solar maxima, solar energy is approximately 0. The transparent halo known as the solar corona changes between solar maximum left and solar minimum right. NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope images from the SOHO Data Archive. Each cycle exhibits subtle differences in intensity and duration. As of early , the solar brightness since has been slightly lower, not higher, than it was during the previous year minimum in solar activity, which occurred in the late s.
Satellite measurements of daily light line and monthly average dark line total solar irradiance since have not detected a clear long-term trend. NASA graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from the ACRIM Science Team. Scientists theorize that there may be a multi-decadal trend in solar output, though if one exists, it has not been observed as yet. Even if the Sun were getting brighter, however, the pattern of warming observed on Earth since does not match the type of warming the Sun alone would cause. Satellite measurements show warming in the troposphere lower atmosphere, green line but cooling in the stratosphere upper atmosphere, red line. This vertical pattern is consistent with global warming due to increasing greenhouse gases, but inconsistent with warming from natural causes.
Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Remote Sensing Systems, sponsored by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. The stratosphere gets warmer during solar maxima because the ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet light; more ultraviolet light during solar maxima means warmer temperatures. Increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the troposphere and stratosphere together contribute to cooling in the stratosphere. To further explore the causes and effects of global warming and to predict future warming, scientists build climate models—computer simulations of the climate system. Climate models are designed to simulate the responses and interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, and to account for changes to the land surface, both natural and human-induced.
Though the models are complicated, rigorous tests with real-world data hone them into powerful tools that allow scientists to explore our understanding of climate in ways not otherwise possible. Based on a range of plausible emission scenarios, average surface temperatures could rise between 2°C and 6°C by the end of the 21st century. Model simulations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that Earth will warm between two and six degrees Celsius over the next century, depending on how fast carbon dioxide emissions grow. Scenarios that assume that people will burn more and more fossil fuel provide the estimates in the top end of the temperature range, while scenarios that assume that greenhouse gas emissions will grow slowly give lower temperature predictions.
The orange line provides an estimate of global temperatures if greenhouse gases stayed at year levels. Greenhouse gases are only part of the story when it comes to global warming. Changes to one part of the climate system can cause additional changes to the way the planet absorbs or reflects energy. These secondary changes are called climate feedbacks, and they could more than double the amount of warming caused by carbon dioxide alone. The primary feedbacks are due to snow and ice, water vapor, clouds, and the carbon cycle. Perhaps the most well known feedback comes from melting snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere. Warming temperatures are already melting a growing percentage of Arctic sea ice, exposing dark ocean water during the perpetual sunlight of summer.
Snow cover on land is also dwindling in many areas. In the absence of snow and ice, these areas go from having bright, sunlight-reflecting surfaces that cool the planet to having dark, sunlight-absorbing surfaces that bring more energy into the Earth system and cause more warming. In the past years, the glacier has lost half its volume and has retreated more than 1. As glaciers retreat, sea ice disappears, and snow melts earlier in the spring, the Earth absorbs more sunlight than it would if the reflective snow and ice remained. Photograph © Hugh Saxby. The largest feedback is water vapor. Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas. In fact, because of its abundance in the atmosphere, water vapor causes about two-thirds of greenhouse warming, a key factor in keeping temperatures in the habitable range on Earth.
But as temperatures warm, more water vapor evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, where it can cause temperatures to climb further. The question that scientists ask is, how much water vapor will be in the atmosphere in a warming world? The atmosphere currently has an average equilibrium or balance between water vapor concentration and temperature. As temperatures warm, the atmosphere becomes capable of containing more water vapor, and so water vapor concentrations go up to regain equilibrium. Will that trend hold as temperatures continue to warm? The amount of water vapor that enters the atmosphere ultimately determines how much additional warming will occur due to the water vapor feedback. The atmosphere responds quickly to the water vapor feedback. So far, most of the atmosphere has maintained a near constant balance between temperature and water vapor concentration as temperatures have gone up in recent decades.
If this trend continues, and many models say that it will, water vapor has the capacity to double the warming caused by carbon dioxide alone. Closely related to the water vapor feedback is the cloud feedback. Clouds cause cooling by reflecting solar energy, but they also cause warming by absorbing infrared energy like greenhouse gases from the surface when they are over areas that are warmer than they are. In our current climate, clouds have a cooling effect overall, but that could change in a warmer environment. Clouds can both cool the planet by reflecting visible light from the sun and warm the planet by absorbing heat radiation emitted by the surface.
On balance, clouds slightly cool the Earth. NASA Astronaut Photograph STSE courtesy Johnson space Center Earth Observations Lab. Clouds can become brighter if more moisture converges in a particular region or if more fine particles aerosols enter the air. If fewer bright clouds form, it will contribute to warming from the cloud feedback. See Ship Tracks South of Alaska to learn how aerosols can make clouds brighter. Clouds, like greenhouse gases, also absorb and re-emit infrared energy. Low, warm clouds emit more energy than high, cold clouds. However, in many parts of the world, energy emitted by low clouds can be absorbed by the abundant water vapor above them.
In a world without low clouds, the amount of emitted infrared energy escaping to space would not be too different from a world with low clouds. Clouds emit thermal infrared heat radiation in proportion to their temperature, which is related to altitude. This image shows the Western Hemisphere in the thermal infrared. Warm ocean and land surface areas are white and light gray; cool, low-level clouds are medium gray; and cold, high-altitude clouds are dark gray and black. NASA image courtesy GOES Project Science. High cold clouds, however, form in a part of the atmosphere where energy-absorbing water vapor is scarce.
These clouds trap absorb energy coming from the lower atmosphere, and emit little energy to space because of their frigid temperatures. In a world with high clouds, a significant amount of energy that would otherwise escape to space is captured in the atmosphere. As a result, global temperatures are higher than in a world without high clouds. If warmer temperatures result in a greater amount of high clouds, then less infrared energy will be emitted to space. See Clouds and Radiation for a more complete description. A recent observational study found that fewer low, dense clouds formed over a region in the Pacific Ocean when temperatures warmed, suggesting a positive cloud feedback in this region as the models predicted.
Such direct observational evidence is limited, however, and clouds remain the biggest source of uncertainty--apart from human choices to control greenhouse gases—in predicting how much the climate will change. For now, primarily ocean water, and to some extent ecosystems on land, are taking up about half of our fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions. This behavior slows global warming by decreasing the rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase, but that trend may not continue. Warmer ocean waters will hold less dissolved carbon, leaving more in the atmosphere. About half the carbon dioxide emitted into the air from burning fossil fuels dissolves in the ocean. This map shows the total amount of human-made carbon dioxide in ocean water from the surface to the sea floor.
Blue areas have low amounts, while yellow regions are rich in anthropogenic carbon dioxide. High amounts occur where currents carry the carbon-dioxide-rich surface water into the ocean depths. Map adapted from Sabine et al. On land, changes in the carbon cycle are more complicated. Under a warmer climate, soils, especially thawing Arctic tundra, could release trapped carbon dioxide or methane to the atmosphere. Increased fire frequency and insect infestations also release more carbon as trees burn or die and decay. On the other hand, extra carbon dioxide can stimulate plant growth in some ecosystems, allowing these plants to take additional carbon out of the atmosphere.
However, this effect may be reduced when plant growth is limited by water, nitrogen, and temperature. This effect may also diminish as carbon dioxide increases to levels that become saturating for photosynthesis. Because of these complications, it is not clear how much additional carbon dioxide plants can take out of the atmosphere and how long they could continue to do so. The impact of climate change on the land carbon cycle is extremely complex, but on balance, land carbon sinks will become less efficient as plants reach saturation, where they can no longer take up additional carbon dioxide, and other limitations on growth occur, and as land starts to add more carbon to the atmosphere from warming soil, fires, and insect infestations.
This will result in a faster increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and more rapid global warming. In some climate models, carbon cycle feedbacks from both land and ocean add more than a degree Celsius to global temperatures by Scientists predict the range of likely temperature increase by running many possible future scenarios through climate models. It takes decades to centuries for Earth to fully react to increases in greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, among other greenhouse gases, will remain in the atmosphere long after emissions are reduced, contributing to continuing warming.
In addition, as Earth has warmed, much of the excess energy has gone into heating the upper layers of the ocean. Like a hot water bottle on a cold night, the heated ocean will continue warming the lower atmosphere well after greenhouse gases have stopped increasing. Even if greenhouse gas concentrations stabilized today, the planet would continue to warm by about 0. to learn more about the ocean heat and global warming. The impact of increased surface temperatures is significant in itself. But global warming will have additional, far-reaching effects on the planet.
Global warming will shift major climate patterns, possibly prolonging and intensifying the current drought in the U. The white ring of bleached rock on the once-red cliffs that hold Lake Powell indicate the drop in water level over the past decade—the result of repeated winters with low snowfall. Photograph © Tigresblanco. For most places, global warming will result in more frequent hot days and fewer cool days, with the greatest warming occurring over land. Longer, more intense heat waves will become more common. Storms, floods, and droughts will generally be more severe as precipitation patterns change. Hurricanes may increase in intensity due to warmer ocean surface temperatures. Apart from driving temperatures up, global warming is likely to cause bigger, more destructive storms, leading to an overall increase in precipitation.
With some exceptions, the tropics will likely receive less rain orange as the planet warms, while the polar regions will receive more precipitation green. White areas indicate that fewer than two-thirds of the climate models agreed on how precipitation will change. Stippled areas reveal where more than 90 percent of the models agreed. It is impossible to pin any single unusual weather event on global warming, but emerging evidence suggests that global warming is already influencing the weather. Heat waves, droughts, and intense rain events have increased in frequency during the last 50 years, and human-induced global warming more likely than not contributed to the trend.
Some island nations will disappear. Between and , the sea level increased by 1. And the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Since , NASA satellites have shown that sea levels are rising more quickly, about 3 millimeters per year, for a total sea level rise of 48 millimeters 0. Sea levels crept up about 20 centimeters 7. Sea levels are predicted to go up between 18 and 59 cm 7. Higher sea levels will erode coastlines and cause more frequent flooding. Graph © Robert Rohde. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC estimates that sea levels will rise between 0.
As temperatures rise, ice will melt more quickly. Satellite measurements reveal that the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are shedding about billion tons of ice per year—enough to raise sea levels by 0. If the melting accelerates, the increase in sea level could be significantly higher. More importantly, perhaps, global warming is already putting pressure on ecosystems, the plants and animals that co-exist in a particular climate zone, both on land and in the ocean. Warmer temperatures have already shifted the growing season in many parts of the globe.
The growing season in parts of the Northern Hemisphere became two weeks longer in the second half of the 20th century. Spring is coming earlier in both hemispheres. This change in the growing season affects the broader ecosystem. Migrating animals have to start seeking food sources earlier. The shift in seasons may already be causing the lifecycles of pollinators, like bees, to be out of synch with flowering plants and trees. This mismatch can limit the ability of both pollinators and plants to survive and reproduce, which would reduce food availability throughout the food chain. See Buzzing About Climate Change to read more about how the lifecycle of bees is synched with flowering plants.
Warmer temperatures also extend the growing season. This means that plants need more water to keep growing throughout the season or they will dry out, increasing the risk of failed crops and wildfires. Once the growing season ends, shorter, milder winters fail to kill dormant insects, increasing the risk of large, damaging infestations in subsequent seasons. In some ecosystems, maximum daily temperatures might climb beyond the tolerance of indigenous plant or animal. To survive the extreme temperatures, both marine and land-based plants and animals have started to migrate towards the poles. Those species, and in some cases, entire ecosystems, that cannot quickly migrate or adapt, face extinction.
The IPCC estimates that percent of plant and animal species will be at risk of extinction if temperatures climb more than 1. The changes to weather and ecosystems will also affect people more directly. Hardest hit will be those living in low-lying coastal areas, and residents of poorer countries who do not have the resources to adapt to changes in temperature extremes and water resources. As tropical temperature zones expand, the reach of some infectious diseases, such as malaria, will change. More intense rains and hurricanes and rising sea levels will lead to more severe flooding and potential loss of property and life.
One inevitable consequence of global warming is sea-level rise. Photograph © metimbers Basically, climate change caused by the greenhouse effect, which means exactly what it says: the earth is like a giant greenhouse in which the heat can get trapped beneath the atmosphere. The atmosphere traps heat that emits from the surface of the planet. When you have been asked to write about global warming , you may be overwhelmed. There are many approaches to this complex subject. You could write about it for a science class, or for a political science class.
You could talk about the causes or global warming, or the effects of global warming, or both. In fact, you could even write only about your suggestions for how to deal with the effects of global warming. Looking for a creative or unique approach to global warming that will impress your readers? Want to write about global warming in a way that will interest you? This article will help you understand how to write an essay about global warming from many different perspectives. Before you begin your essay, consider things like how long it has to be and what class you are writing for. Then, narrow down your topic using one of the suggested subjects above or one of your own ideas.
The next step would be to create a subject outline to help you structure your essay. With a subject like global warming, you are generally going to talk about causes, effects, and possible solutions to the problem. One degree in temperature change may not seem like a lot, but that amount of global warming can cause major crises, displacing millions of people and causing billions of dollars in damage. It is a known fact that fossil fuel burning, particularly coal, is the biggest culprit of global warming MacMillan, Knowing what causes global warming makes it possible to take action, to minimize the deleterious effects of global warming. Thesis Statement: A comprehensive solution to global warming would be to curtail carbon emissions further through innovations in alternative energy, combined with a plan to minimize humanitarian and financial damages.
Body Section One: Causes of Global Warming. Topic sentence: Global warming is anthropogenic, meaning that it is caused by human beings. Human industrial activity results in the emission of greenhouse gases, with China and the United States the biggest culprits MacMillan, Knowing the causes of global warming, it becomes easier to come up with targeted and reasonable solutions to the problem. Body Section Two: Effects of Global Warming. Topic sentence: Global warming is a problem because it can lead to extreme weather conditions, flooding due to rising sea levels, and resulting deaths, destruction, and displacement. However, global warming has the potential to radically alter the climate conditions around the world.
Effects on population displacement and financial damages due to natural disasters. Humanitarian and political effects due to displacement, which could even lead to the outbreak of wars. Because of how devastating the effects of global warming will be, taking action now is an ethical responsibility. Body Section Three: How to Prevent Global Warming. Topic Sentence: Taking action on global warming now requires a concerted coalition between the private and public sectors around the world. Governments need to work together better to create stimulus packages for investment into alternative energy. The private sector needs to become more environmentally responsible, requiring new anti-pollution laws if necessary. Governments and the private sector also need to work together to build resilience and have strategies in place for mitigating disasters.
Doing something about global warming requires being proactive, both in terms of changing the way industry operates, and also building resilience to minimize harm. Innovation in new technologies will be essential to prevent global warming and stimulate the global economy. Investment into infrastructure improvement will also help to minimize damages due to climate change. Legislation and public policy, in addition to ethical behavior from the private sector, will help reduce climate change and create a safer tomorrow. A comprehensive solution to global warming would be to curtail carbon emissions further through innovations in alternative energy, combined with a plan to minimize humanitarian and financial damages.
One degree. That is all it takes to create massive changes on planet earth. Just one degree in temperature change may not seem like a lot, but that amount of global warming can cause major crises, displacing millions of people and causing billions of dollars in damage NASA, Global warming is not a political issue, but a simple fact. However, what to do about global warming is a political issue. Global warming is anthropogenic, meaning that its primary cause is human beings. In particular, human industrial activity results in the emission of greenhouse gases, with China and the United States the biggest culprits MacMillan, The population of the planet has also exploded rapidly over the past century, which results in increased industry, increased use of land for agriculture, and increased human activities that contribute to global warming.
According to NASA , the primary greenhouse gases responsible for global warming include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. Deforestation leads to an overabundance of carbon dioxide, and agriculture leads to an overabundance of methane NASA, Therefore, unsustainable agricultural practices and related issues like land use are one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gas buildup. Unsustainable agriculture is a major cause of global warming. There are several reasons why agriculture is a problem. One reason is linked to land use. When rainforests and other vegetation-dense areas are cut down to make room for agriculture, the result is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions MacMillan, Many crops and farm animals are especially bad for the environment.
For example, animals like cattle emit methane, a greenhouse gas, and certain fertilizers used extensively in mono-crop agriculture also lead to greenhouse gas emissions NASA, Yet the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil for electricity production and transportation also cause global warming. Global warming is a problem because it can lead to extreme weather conditions, flooding due to rising sea levels, and resulting deaths, destruction, and displacement. The main effects of global warming will be on agricultural production and food security, on water security, on population displacement, financial damages due to natural disasters, and the humanitarian and possibly military effects of global warming.
Global warming will lead to changes to weather patterns, causing some areas to experience flooding and other areas to experience drought conditions NASA, The result is that food production will be less reliable, and there could be major crop failures. Crop failures and unpredictable food supplies will drive up prices of food, leading to humanitarian crises, and possibly even cause famine in some of the most affected areas. In addition to alterations in food production, global warming will also lead to increased extreme weather events including major storms like hurricanes, and wildfires Union of Concerned Scientists, These extreme weather patterns can destroy whole communities, leading to humanitarian crises.
The initial extreme weather may cause deaths, while the long-term effects include population displacement and refugee crises. Because of what it could mean for displacement and refugee crises, global warming could cause wars in the future. Rising temperatures cause ice packs to melt in the arctic and other glacial regions. The melting of ice is the primary contributor of sea level rises. Some ice packs will melt directly into the sea, altering the salinity of the sea water too, thereby having an impact on all underwater life. When inland glaciers melt, the additional water fills rivers, which could lead to disastrous flooding. Rising sea levels could inundate coastal regions and cause whole islands to disappear.
Flooding due to global warming could displace countless people all around the world, creating humanitarian crises. As MacMillan also points out, flooding also increases the rates at which communicable diseases spread. Therefore, global warming could indirectly lead to disease proliferation. It is also important to address the effects of global warming on the non-human populations of planet earth. Global warming has the potential to wipe out whole species. Whole ecosystems will change because of global warming, causing some animals and plants to move to new territories, altering the food chains and also changing the relationships between humans and nature. Another important effect of global warming is related to national security.
As the Union of Concerned Scientists points out, global warming may directly impact American military bases, particularly those located in coastal areas. In addition to the impact on military bases that are at risk for flooding, global warming could also create national security issues such as diverting military resources to helping the victims of climate change. If the United States experiences water shortages or crop failures due to global warming, it would also become more vulnerable and dependent on other nations, creating national security crises or alternatively, causing a bellicose president to invade another country for its resources.
How to Prevent Global Warming and Minimize Damage. Taking action on global warming now requires a concerted coalition between the private and public sectors around the world. Likewise, the private sector needs to become more environmentally responsible, requiring new anti-pollution laws if necessary.
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