Global Warming

Technology has changed the world in so many positive ways. We can pick up the phone and call anywhere, anytime. We can travel on land, in air, and even into space. We can identify someone using a simple drop of blood using DNA. How can something with such positive effects also have such profound negative ones? If each generation continues to destroy our environment, what happens when we get to the point of not having one? How are future generations suppose to breathe without air and trees? With the ever-growing need for natural resources, will we ever catch up? Technology has moved us into a time where we need to look at the bigger picture, Mother Earth. Without a healthy planet technology might as well be obsolete. Can we ever reverse what has already been done?

Mother Earth as we know it is failing to keep up with the damage we have done. Acid rain is becoming more frequent, our air quality is deteriorating, we are losing forests by the acre each hour, our polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate, and what little we have done to reverse these problems seems to be only a drop in the bucket to what we have done to cause these issues.

The most damaging problem facing us today is global warming. Global warming is a huge environmental and economic challenge that we are facing in the 21st century. Global warming is also commonly referred to as the greenhouse effect. Global warming can affect entire ecosystems and climates, which in turn affect the way in which people live. We, in our lifetimes, will not be around to see the major outcome of global warming; however, it is still a major concern. It has come to be known that the major increase in temperature over the last century is a result of the Industrial Revolution. During the Industrial Revolution, when new machines were being used, there were major increases in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which is one of the main reasons that scientists believe the temperature increase in the effect of humans rather than a climate change. Over the course of the past century, the Earth’s global temperature has risen by about one degree Fahrenheit. This may not seem like a large increase, but given the time period in which this increase occurred, the change is quite amazing. Some scientists argue that this one-degree increase is just the Earth’s natural changing climate, but others believe that it is due to global warming. More and More scientists are becoming convinced of global warming and its dangers. Global Warming is a phenomenon that occurs when fossil fuels are burned and greenhouse gases are ejected into the atmosphere and burn ozone. The ozone is “the layer that absorbs 93-88% of the suns high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging life on earth.” (Wikipedia, 2008) Global warming doesn’t just affect the temperature; it also affects all aspects of climate and weather. The most common belief of global warming is that the temperature increase is in direct variation with the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The affects of global warming will develop slowly over a long period of time. The Earth itself warms as well as its temperature. As the temperature increases, the sea level rises, and precipitation changes along with other climate conditions. As the climate changes, regions forests, crops, and water supplies can be altered. Global warming can eventually threaten human health, birds, fish, and other ecosystems. Deserts may expand and characteristics of National Parks may be permanently altered. Most of the United States is expected to warm, although sulfates are expected to keep certain areas cool. Scientists cannot determine which parts of the United States will be affected, but they have concluded that certain areas will become wetter or drier than before, rainstorms will become more intense, and patches of soil will dry up. Unfortunately, most of the great impacts depend on rainfall, which cannot be determined in certain areas. Scientists have been trying to calculate the results of global warming by doubling and even tripling the Earth’s global temperature. The only way they can gain these results is by the use of large computers, which take into account all environmental aspects of climate. Many of these computers have come up with results that vary greatly between one another. The computers are unable to determine a consensus on what will occur in the future; however, they have all determined that the Earth’s global temperature will rise. Scientists say there is not much for us to be worried about, and that the affects of global warming occur so gradually, that we will have enough time to remedy the situation before any disasters take place. This may be so, but there are real dangers that we face in the very near future due to global warming. We are rapidly destroying the natural plants we use for pharmaceutical medicine. Not only are we killing or purposely destroying precious forest ranges that give us life saving medicine we are also killing off the source of our fresh air. “Clearing rain forests and other forested areas exacerbate the problems by removing an important natural recycling mechanism вЂ" trees and other plant life take carbon dioxide in and release oxygen as part of the photosynthesis process.” (Viotti & Kauppi, p375) With this destruction of our clean air come increases in climate change. Warm temperatures are melting the polar icecaps at an alarming rate. This melting of the ice caps is causing sea levels to rise. Rising sea levels, an estimated six feet over the next fifty years or sooner, will cause massive economic devastation to population centers worldwide such as New York, Maryland, and California. Flooding, as a result of costal storm surges, will affect the lives of more than two hundred million people. Farming problems is another very real effect of global warming that we are seeing today. The changes in weather conditions (temperature, radiation, and water) are having a dramatic effect on agriculture. We are experiencing drought conditions that are causing crops to yield fewer products and in turn raising prices of what we purchase. If we keep going at this rate we will not have enough food and resources for our ever-growing population. Hurricanes have been increasing in numbers and strength within the last ten years. Human activities are adding an alarming amount of pollution to the earth’s atmosphere causing catastrophic shifts in weather patterns. These shifts are causing severe heat waves, floods and worse. As water levels rise we are then faced with a new problem, contamination of our costal waters. “It is estimated that some 37 percent of the world’s population lives within 60 kilometers of the coast.” (Viotti & Kauppi,