Global Warming and the Economy
Clearly, the economy will suffer if companies are penalised. Economic costs of climate change policies are defined as opportunity costs – this means what must be sacrificed or changed in order to stop emissions. Areas of economic costs include discouraged investment, slowed innovation, disrupted production, increased capital and production expenditures, monitoring and policing costs, legal and other transaction costs.
However, we have to be aware there are "positive costs", or benefits, including productivity improvements from a cleaner environment and innovation-stimulating effects of regulation. Other positive aspects of adapting to stop further pollution, like scarcer water resources, damages to human-built environment; coastal flooding due to sea-level rise, and human-health impacts.
The human race needs to survive and to do so they need to work. Factories and offices all use energy derived from fossil fuels. Industry and companies will not adopt new ways of preventing global warming if they are not to the companys financial advantgage.
Nature and the Greenhouse Effect on Earth
‘Earth’s main natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36–70% of the greenhouse effect; this does not include clouds; carbon dioxide (CO2), which causes 9–26%; methane (CH4), which causes 4–9%; and ozone, which causes 3–7%. Some other naturally occurring gases contribute minimal fractions of the greenhouse effect; one of these, nitrous oxide (N2O), is increasing in concentration owing to human activity such as farming. The atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 have increased by 31% and 149% respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores. From less direct geological evidence it is believed that CO2 values this high were last attained 20 million years ago. "About three-quarters of the anthropogenic [human generated] emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere during the past 20 years are due to fossil fuel burning. The rest of the anthropogenic emissions are predominantly due to land-use change, especially deforestation. The present atmospheric concentration of CO2 is about 383 parts per million (ppm) by volume. Future CO2 levels are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change’. www.nationalgeographic.com
The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, sociological, technological, natural developments, but may be ultimately limited by the availability of fossil fuels. The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios gives a wide range of future CO2 scenarios, ranging from 541 to 970 ppm by the year 2100. Fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to reach this level and continue emissions past 2100, if coal, tar sands or methane clathrates are extensively used.
The produces light with a distribution similar to what would be expected from a 5525 (5250 °) , which is approximately the sun's surface temperature. As light travels through the atmosphere, some is absorbed by gases with specific . Additional light is redistributed by , which is responsible for the atmosphere's blue color.
‘Scientists have been aware that the Sun is responsible for virtually all energy that reaches the Earth's surface. Direct overhead provides 1366 W/m2; however, geometric effects and reflective surfaces limit the light, which is absorbed at the typical location to an annual average of ~235 W/m2. If this were the total heat received at the surface, then, neglecting changes in , the Earth's surface would be expected to have an average of -18 °C (Lashof 1989)’;. Instead, the Earth's atmosphere recycles heat coming from the surface and delivers an additional 324 W/m2, which results in an average surface temperature of roughly +14 °C.
The surface heat captured by the atmosphere is more than 75% can be attributed to the action of that absorb emitted by the Earth's surface. The atmosphere in turn transfers the energy it receives both into space (38%) and back to the Earth's surface (62%), where the amount transferred in each direction depends on the thermal and density structure of the atmosphere.
‘This process by which energy is recycled in the atmosphere to warm the Earth's surface is known as the greenhouse effect and is an essential piece of Earth's . Under stable conditions, the total amount of energy entering the system from solar radiation will exactly balance the amount being radiated into space, thus allowing the Earth maintain a constant average temperature over time. However, recent measurements indicate that the Earth is presently absorbing 0.85 ± 0.15 W/m2 more than it emits into space (Hansen et al. 2005).
The Effects of Global Warming on the Earth
The Ecosystems in Europe are fragmented and disturbed at this point in time. This makes them vulnerable to climate change. Most increases of temperature in this century are larger than the global and precipitation generally increased in the north but decreased in the south. The warming in the atmosphere is noticeable in mountain areas by the melting of glaziers in the Alps. Animals and plant species are responding to this change by moving themselves northward and changing their breeding and activities to coincide with the earlier spring. The fragmented nature of the European landscape, however, may make it difficult for less adaptive species to respond to continued climatic warming. The Polar Bear is one species that will be extinct by simple means: Its main food source the Sea Lion used to be trapped on large chunks of ice, but now there is more water than ice, so it is easy for the prey to escape and so secure its own survival.
For Europe (and North America) we have many more hotspots than for some other regions of the world, although impact studies have been emerging in larger numbers in recent years from previously under-studied regions. This higher density of early warning signs in Europe is due in part to the fact that these regions have more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change, in part to the disproportionate warming that has been observed over the mid-to-high-latitude continents compared to other regions during the last century, and in part to emphasize the importance of the industrialized countries of Europe taking strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
What has become apparent in Central England is that cold days are declining and hot days are increasing. Records from 1772 to the present indicate this: 1995 brought 26 days above 680(200 C) versus an average of 4 days per year since 1772. This has a dramatic affect on the movements and behavior of all species. In the United Kingdom -- Toads, frogs, and newts are spawning early. Spawning was 9 to 10 days earlier over a 17-year period. Birds too are laying eggs earlier. From 1971 to 1995, 31 percent of 65 bird species studied in England showed significant trends towards earlier egg laying, moving up the date by an average of 8.8 days. All vegetation in Southern England is changing. The leafing of oak trees. The four earliest leafing dates occurred in the past decade, a response to increasing temperatures during January to March over the past 41 years. Migration of birds is a sure sign that the Earth is getting hotter. Birds indicate when the seasons begin and end. In United Kingdom, birds shift northward. Over a 20-year period, many birds have extended the northern margins of their ranges by an average of about 12 miles (19 km). The extent to which birds are changing their living patterns indicates that the food chain may not be available to other animals, and so this is global warming is way of purging life from the planet by confusion of weather and season patterns. British birds extend their ranges northward. A comparison of the breeding distributions of birds for two time periods, 1968-72 and 1988-91, showed that the northern margins for many species had moved northwards by an average of about 12 miles (19 km). The range shift occurred during a period when central England�s temperature warmed by about 0.90F (0.50C) over the last century, and the 10-year period 1988-1997 was the warmest such period on record. Exotic plants once would have perished in the cold climate of Britain, but now survive and thrive.
Global warming is the increase in the
average temperature of the Earth's
Near-surface air and oceans. Climate
change is a global problem that requires an
internationally co-ordinated solution.
189 countries are Party to the United
Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Kyoto Protocol (1997) to the UNFCCC was signed by over 170 countries requiring developed
countries to reduce their emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012.I would say co-ordination is the key to success, for the UN to succeed the they should put their priorities in order.
Arguments Against The Human Race Contributing to Global Warming:
Three quarters of the earth believe that global warming is a natural process or occurrence that is unavoidable, and not solely caused by car and factory pollution. This goes against the views of the vast majority of scientists who believe the rise in the earth's temperatures is due to pollution not been controlled or prevented from entering into the atmosphere. The online study which polled nearly 4000 votes found that a staggering 71 percent of people think that the rise in air temperature happens naturally.
CONCLUSION
Global warming exists and the human race does contribute to its growth. Global warming is needed for life forms to develop, but unfortunately, life forms will also die out. We are the organizers of our own demise and the victims of natures. We can try to limit what emissions we release into the atmosphere; this will only delay the inevitable by roughly two hundred years. Nature will have the last say and eventually we will either change genetically or die as a species. However, fear not, there will be other species left on the planet to lead the way, and may be they will not be so greedy and careless. It is obvious that the changes in weather patterns result from global warming: droughts, floods, diminishing food supplies, fuel shortages and leisure impacts such as delayed ski seasons are forcing people to become more environmentally conscious. The political, ethical, and socio-cultural aspects of climate change are now being noticed on a global scale and creating an eco-centric philosophy within many societies worldwide.
The only way to avoid global warming is to avoid burning natural resources, decrease the human and animal population, and avoid any kind of out put of pollutants. This will never happen, as world economics will not conform to old methods of survival; it’s just not to their financial advantage
www.mng.org.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/