There are many side effects of global warming; with a small increase of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit to the earth’s temperature it has caused the ice-caps to start to melting, this in turn will cause the sea levels rise, it is estimated that the sea levels could rise between 9 and 88cms. When the sea levels do rise, it will encroach on the land that humans, animals and plants live on. Without land we are not able to exist, we need plants and animals to survive. Then this leads to the end of human life, animal life and plant life. This is the drastic end that some scientists are predicating.
There are also some scientists that believe global warming is a myth, that scientists have made wrong predications before and the science of global warming is still not a proven science and that the effects that we are witnessing are caused by the oceanic cycles and man has not caused the situation.
‘...The world has entered a 'cold mode' which is likely to bring a global dip in temperatures which will last for 20 to 30 years…’ stated in the daily mail on 10th January 2010. This is another theory, that the earth is actually experiencing ‘global cooling’, other scientists believe that this is caused by the oceanic cycle and has nothing to do with man, the cycles take between 20 and 30 years to run, the earth experiences ‘warm modes’ for a period of years and then cooling modes, as seen by the data collected over the last 100 years.
Bearing all this in mind, are the carbon emissions causing any real damage to the earth’s atmosphere? Let me first explain what carbon emissions are, it is the total about of carbon that we as individuals emit when using burning fossil fuels, we need to burn fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal to survive and live the life we have, without them we wouldn’t be able to go on planes, turn the gas oven on to cook and we wouldn’t be able to have cold drink from the fridge.
If it is the emissions that are causing the greenhouse gases, it is an international agreement needed to help stop this. On Tuesday, 19th June 2007 it was reported in The Guardian that ‘China overtakes US as world’s biggest CO2 emitter…’ The report only commented on the amount of emissions from carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. It reported ‘that china is now emitting 6200 million tonnes of carbon emissions into the earth’s atmosphere compared with the UK emitting 577.17 million tonnes.’
What would be the future impacts to earth if global warming is real? With the human population increasing rapidly, since 1968 the human population has double to 6894.498.162 according to the US Census Bureau. The amount of carbon emission being released will only increase, causing more greenhouse gases to be released into the earth’s atmosphere, although if the world starts decreasing the amount of carbon emissions released, it is believed that the damage already caused cannot be rectified.
The permanent damage would continue to see an increase in the extreme weather conditions that some countries have already experienced, with these conditions getting more extreme as time goes on, increased heat waves, thunder storms or extreme flooding as witnessed in Australia during January 2011, this will have a long lasting effect on the human race, there is a domino effect from extreme weather conditions, heat waves will affect our ability to grow crops and animals becoming extinct. If there are flood, this will degrade the quality of water we drink, causing illnesses across the world, which can lead to death and droughts, when we get no water, again this affects the quality of water, our ability to grow crops and the animals surviving.
The same applies if the case is in fact global cooling, if the worlds weather turns in to a modern day ice-age, this can causes freezing of the water, making water not readily available to everyone, animals becoming extinct and plants and crops dying from the freezing temperature.
For man-kind to continue living through either global warming or global cooling, he needs to be able to find a way to live and adapt with these natural or man-made disasters.
Is there an answer to the question of ‘Is global warming real?’ Yes there is an answer, and that is there is global warming taking place on our planet but the real questions is ‘who is to blame for global warming’ Man or Nature? It is true the earth is getting warming according to some scientist, but it has done so before and the world survived state other scientist. In truth, this question cannot yet be answered.
It is a fact that we as humans are causing damage to earth, deforestation to the rain forest, making way for more houses for the increasing population. More greenhouse gases are being emitted by power stations supplying more gas, electricity to our homes, building more transportation for us to drive and travel around the world. All this activity must have an impact on the earth and the atmosphere.
We as a human race need to stop and take a look at what has happened to the earth we live on, and take time to look after it for the future generations. There are many new ideas of how to live life ‘green’ and lower your carbon footprint, changing your light bulb to an energy saving light bulb lowers your carbon footprint, walking to the shops not driving your own car and companies are designing and building cars run on electric or gases, but as a race humans need to be shown the way, a plan put in place for all to follow and all to work towards. If global warming is caused by man-kind surely it is only man-kind that can fix it.
References
J Hansen, R Ruedy, M Sato and K Lo. (2010). Global Temperature and Europe's Frigid Air. Available: . Last accessed 20th Jan 2011.
John Vidal and David Adam. (2007). China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter.
Available:. Last accessed 20th Jan 2011.
Daily Mail Reporter. (2010). Could we be in for 30 years of global cooling?
Available: . Last accessed 20th Jan 2011.
(2011). US & World Population Clocks. Available: . Last accessed 20th Jan 2011.
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