The Environment: Global Warming - Coursework Example

The Environment – Global Warming Introduction Industrial development, technological advances and the thirst for human generation to exploit the natural resources without any vision has resulted in environment pollution which is considered as a major threat human kind is facing at present and in future also. Scientific discoveries like plastics and nuclear energies even though useful to us, the long term problems it can cause to environment is threatening us. Global warming is the major environment problem we are facing at present because of immature approaches towards technologies and its contributions. Unexpected natural calamities and atmospheric behaviours forced scientists to think in terms of global warming problems. Since most of the causes of natural calamities like increased atmospheric temperature, increased amount of flood, the sea level rise and the melting of huge ice blocks from the arctic and Antarctic pole regions forced the scientific world to formulate a theory for the cause of global warming. Global warming is one of the controversial topics in the current century because of the difference in opinions created among environmentalists. Most of the environmentalists believe that our injudicious activities and irrational utilization of natural resources are causing major problems to the global warming or the atmospheric temperature increase whereas some others argue that the atmospheric temperature rise is not due to manmade activities and global warming is a scam. This paper analyses the global warming topic not as a scam, but as a reality. Global warming - Facts As per the recent studies, the earth’s surface temperature has been increased around 0.750 C during the last century itself. Moreover, scientists believe that the atmospheric temperature may even go up by 6 degrees before the end of the current century (Eilperin) Studies also showed that warming and sea level rise may continue for more than 1000 years even if we manage to stabilize the greenhouse gas levels. Increased global temperature can create dangerous futures for the human being. The consequences of global warming are unimaginable. Sea level raise, increased extreme weather intensities, changes in agricultural yields, complete destruction of some living things etc are some of the immediate difficulties we can anticipate. Even though natural phenomenon like solar variations and volcanoes probably may have some effect, scientists unanimously agreed that the major reasons for global warming are manmade only. “Sea level has trended upward for the past 150 years at a rate of 7 inches per century” (Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide). As per another study, sea level might rise by as much as six feet by 2100 (Eilperin) “Greenhouse warming of the earth’s atmosphere would eventually increase the temperature of the ocean, and seawater, like most other substances, expands when heated. That thermal expansion of the ocean might be sufficient to raise sea level by about 30 centimeters or more in the next 100 years” (West, p.105). The overall rise of sea level by 30 centimeters will sink the cities which are below or around the sea level. Some studies showed that gulf countries like UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait etc and the Indian city Mumbai, are more volatile to such threat. Because of the increased warming the huge snow deposits on Arctic and Antarctic regions will be melted and this will cause the sea level raised. It is already proved by scientists that the height of Everest decreases and also the Snow Mountains disappearing slowly due to global warming. “Today the amount of carbon dumped globally into the atmosphere corresponds, on average, to one ton per person on the planet, each year. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas – it traps heat radiation that is attempting to escape from Earth” (GLOBAL WARMING: The Rise of CO2 & Warming). When a gas gets heated, it expands and try to escape from the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere actually tries to block the passage of these heat radiations and thereby the heat radiations accumulate in the atmosphere which resulted in temperature rise or global warming. The heat radiations generated from the earth. The uncontrolled carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is the major cause for atmospheric temperature increase. All the automobile vehicles which use petroleum fuels liberate carbon dioxide (CO2) whereas the major absorbers of CO2, trees are getting destroyed by the deforestation. As per the nature’s law whatever the CO2 come out from the living things has been neutralized by the absorption of CO2 by the trees and plants. Since plants were supposed to be the absorbers of carbon dioxide gas the destruction of plants for heavy industrialization has been selected as the main reason for increased amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Moreover the increased amount of automobile vehicles which liberates toxic gases also pointed out as another reason for increased Co2 content in the atmosphere. This equilibrium has been broken by the entry of fossil fuel. Its combustion liberates enormous amount of CO2 to the atmosphere which is not been countered by any other sources. Thus the CO2 percentage in atmosphere goes on increasing beyond our control which contributes heavily to the atmospheric temperature increase. Natural phenomena such as solar variations and volcanoes also contributed to the global warming. Though the activities inside the sun very difficult to study, scientists from their studies of sun spots believe that the fluctuations in solar activities cause global warming. This sun spots which are varying at different cycles, normally of 11 years time interval, can cause the atmospheric temperature fluctuations. (Than) Volcanoes also can contribute to global warming through the toxic gases and substances emitted through them along with the enormous amount of heat energy. It is been proved by scientists that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. As per the principles of degradation of entropy, some part of energy is converted to heat energy in every irreversible processes which is dissipated in the atmosphere and their by causes global warming. Thus natural effects also can be considered as the contributor to global warming. Global warming - Is it a scam? Some of the scientists have different opinions about the reasons of global warming. In their opinion, global warming is not manmade. “Only .117% of atmospheric carbon dioxide is directly attributable to human technology such as automobiles.” (The Global Warming Scam) Of course, this is a small percentage when we consider the overall amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. But these researchers have studied only the CO2 emitted by automobiles. But they failed to account for the increase in CO2 level atmosphere due to deforestation. Deforestation has resulted in reduced absorption of CO2 from atmosphere and thereby the total percentage of CO2 has increased a lot due to the combined effect of deforestation and the emission form the vehicles. Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures” (The Global Warming Scam) It is only an opinion put forward by Dr. Solanki. We don’t have any supporting evidences for the above claim and hence complete acceptance or denial of above claim may not be possible. Sun may have definite effect on atmospheric temperature rises, but all we should think that the variations in atmospheric temperature is more visible from the last century onwards when the industries and automobiles started to conquer the world. We should remember that human history has started millions of years before. Moreover, human or any other living things cannot live in extreme cold or hot conditions. If sun was increasing its intensity of radiations from the beginning itself, it was not possible for us to survive at present when we consider the rate of heat increase in the atmosphere at present is concerned. So we cannot fully accept the role of solar energy on global warming. Conclusions Global warming is not a scam, it is a reality. Even though many people argue it as a scam because of the suspected involvement of solar energy variations and volcano eruptions in atmospheric temperature increase, the main villain is human itself. Immature acceptance of technologies and contributions of science, without researching thoroughly about the consequences are contributing heavily to the atmospheric temperature rise. Deforestation, heavy industrialization and the heavy usage of automobile vehicles are the major reasons for global warming. To prevent global warming each and every human have an important role to play. Automobile usage should be reduced and the smoke checkups of the vehicles should be done at regular intervals of time. Air conditioners and Refrigerators which is making use of the Chloro Fluro Carbons (CFC) should be avoided from the daily life. More and more trees and plants should be planted rather than destroying it. Works Cited 1. “Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide”. 2008. 05 October 2009. 2. Eilperin, Juliet. 2009. “New UN climate study predicts nightmare 6.3F temperature rise by end of century”. 05 October 2009. 3. “GLOBAL WARMING: The Rise of CO2 & Warming”. 2002. 05 October 2009. 4. Than, Ker.2007. “Sun Blamed for Warming of Earth and Other Worlds”. 05 October 2009. 5. “The Global Warming Scam”. 05 October 2009. 6. West, Krista. 2007. “Critical Perspectives on The Oceans”. Scientific American. Publisher: The Roshan Publishing Group Inc. New York. 05 October 2009. 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