“People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”.This teen activist, Greta Hunberg, speaks out in what she believes in, as stated in the quote. Which introduces us into a very controversial topic that affects us now, but will impact our future generations, global warming. Global warming affects many things on a large scale, but slowly which is why the world does not pay much attention to it until it’s too late and the effects of global warming are irreversible. Global Warming affects our planet with rising levels of carbon dioxide gas, rising sea levels, and the overall warming of the earth.
Carbon dioxide emissions are at an all time high in this century. The rise in CO2 levels is caused naturally it is also a human made pollution and the rise of carbon dioxide in just this decade should be the rise of CO2 in 1000 years. Carbon dioxide is being released too fast for the planet to keep up through the burning of fossil fuels, cars, and deforestation. Deforestation is a huge cause of global warming because we are killing the “Earth’s lungs” which helps get rid of some of the carbon dioxide, but through killing them we are even creating a mass amount of more CO2 in the atmosphere.
The chart above shows just how much damage we are doing to our home, and we only have one home. The way we are treating earth or what we call our home, “our” home will only last for a few more generations if we keep this overall trend going. Many that say global warming is inevitable they are right because the earth as well produces these gases which create more heat for the earth, but what they do not understand is that we are increasing the velocity of global warming to very high rights. As you can tell by the chart in 1910-1945 the carbon dioxide emissions were fairly steady, but when you keep reading the chart 1950-2010 carbon dioxide emissions sky rocket and the trend is no longer steady but is shooting straight up and does not seem to be going down anytime soon unless we do something. The greenhouse effect, greenhouse gasses act as insulators to trap heat from the sun which is natural without them the temperature of the earth would be unsuitable for life. On the other hand we are creating too much of this insulation which keeps increasing the Earth's temperature. Modern climate change is caused by an excess of greenhouse gases. This, in turn, over-insulates the planet. As a result, temperatures rise.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes the earth warmer causing glaciers to melt and creating rising sea levels which has a very negative effect on the earth. These issues are especially faced by the animals who make those cold places their habitats. There habitats are literally being destroyed by us and the animals such as; polar bears, penguins, walrus, and along with many others can do nothing about it, but sit and watch what is happening to their homes.
Which leads to the final topic which is the actual warming of the earth and how much it has actually changed.Global warming is the increase in temperature in the surface of the earth which is directly connected with the greenhouse gasses. Global warming causes melting of glaciers, heat waves/droughts along with many other things. All these effects are detrimental to our existence because they threaten our livelihood.
Based on the graph the overall trend of the rise in sea levels is increasing and nowhere does it look like the sea levels are going to go down unless we stop creating so much greenhouse gasses which in turn will lower the surface temperature of the Earth. The rising sea levels affect everyone on earth because if this trend continues some land such as california can go into the water and we would have mass immigration to wherever they can get to. The sea level is now sneaking to a whole ten inches over the average sea level. When sea levels rise as rapidly as they have been, even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats farther inland, it can cause destructive erosion, wetland flooding, aquifer and agricultural soil contamination with salt, and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants. Higher sea levels are coinciding with more dangerous hurricanes and typhoons that move more slowly and drop more rain, contributing to more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path.
Now what is global warming we have been talking about it throughout this whole essay. Global warming is the overall temperature of the surface of the Earth this affects many things such as; arctic melting, drought/heat waves, and water storms will be much stronger due to the rise in sea levels. All these things are very dangerous to the life we know here on this earth because it endangers our very existence.
This increase is due to the things that have been discussed in the paper, but I have said we need to change this but have not given any actual way to change the direction we are obviously heading which is inevitable mass destruction of our planet. There are simple things that one can do in order to save our planet. Changing out light bulb into a fluorescent light bulb which saves 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year! This one may be a little harder, but this goes especially for the people who live in big cities which is drive less and if you can walk to your destination do that so you can save the planet. Heck even planting a tree will help the state of emergency we are in because it will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide because plants consume carbon dioxide. We need trees more than ever in these times because not to long ago the “Earth's lungs” were on fire and made a big dent in the way we get rid of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Many disagree with these beliefs and say that global warming is not a thing and are blinded by what is actually happening in live time during their lifetime. The people who think global warming is not a big deal argue with things like this plants and animals adapt, how can there be global warming when in some places it snows , and Some say it is the sun or the volcanoes. These along with many others are excuses we set up in order to not look the problem in the face. They are right plants and animals can adapt to their living situations, but it would take millions of years for that to happen and at the rate that global warming is happening they need to adapt in 5 years. Global warming also does not mean it has to stop snowing or stop being cold it just means that in places the snow has declined or the temperature has increased than what it used to be. If the trend of warming keeps up then that when we will actually see what it's like to not get cold anymore. Also i'm sure that volcanoes and the sun play a role in the warming of the earth, but what I stated in the process we are increasing the velocity or enhancing the process of global warming. I once heard a saying you cannot block the sun with just one finger. That is exactly what we are trying to do with this problem that slowly but surely will cause the destruction of many things we know on this Earth.once we learn how to face these problems properly we can stop global warming, but they need to be followed by the whole world united working together which I know it is hard but it is for the greater good for everyone.
In conclusion, global warming is a danger we may not face yet but we can definitely see the causes that we will eventually that we will get too if we continue to treat our planet like we do. This is just not for us but for the future generations, our future generations. These generations are the ones that will struggle with these problems that we started. In my opinion we started it so we at least have to do something to start to end it. Global warming is an inevitable situation, but we as a planet are not helping we are hurting our home.
