Education And Science

Each year the United States spends over 20 million dollars buying fossil fuels. This country emits one fourth of the world’s greenhouse gases; the most prominent of these gases is carbon dioxide, which is released from the burning of fossil fuels. Global warming has been a global issue for many years now. Some countries and people claim to be only vaguely concerned with the cause because they were unaware or uninformed of the issue. Roger Revelle, an oceanographer, helped to call out the problem to the public. After not receiving much feedback towards his cause, he criticized different governments in a jocular manner. He called warming “the great geophysical experiment.” He said, “The experiment is to load the atmosphere with as much carbon dioxide as possible, add a few other harmful gases, and see what happens.” Recently, several countries have been passing laws to prevent the world’s overheated destiny. Even with the setting of new rules and regulations, the earth continues to warm each year. Minimal efforts made to reduce the release of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, increase the rate and intensity of global warming.

The most prominent effect of global warming exists in the climate change over the past years. Many people are unaware that global warming causes and changes all types of weather. The heating of the earth causes the magnitude and strength of weather conditions to increase. As the oceans get warmer, the intensity of hurricanes amplifies in power and devastation. In addition, many coastal cities and regions have recently been experiencing flooding, caused by the melting of the polar icecaps. The Arctic’s perennial icecaps decline in area by nine percent each year. In the past thirty years, over ten national records were set for the highest temperatures in the summer and winter. Droughts and forest fires have been occurring dramatically more often in the past century. All of these effects have been directly linked to the release of greenhouse gases.

Another area affected by global warming is the animal kingdom and nature. The number of animals per specie has been decreasing annually due to harsh environmental changes. As the polar icecaps melt, all creatures that live there are left without shelter. For example, as seal dens have been melting, the number of seals has dropped. Events that occur in the spring, such as mating, migrating, laying eggs, and returning from hibernation have been taking place approximately 5.1 days earlier than they were fifty years ago. The early occurrence of these events proves that the earth is getting warmer each year. More proof of warming is the evidence of many animals traveling farther from the equator as they migrate. Although this change has been occurring with various creatures, butterflies and mosquitoes are being found the farthest from their natural habitats. Even though butterflies do not cause any known problems with the environment, mosquitoes are carries of malaria. This deadly disease has dangerously spread to new regions across the globe. If the world continues to warm, this issue, along with many others, will continue to grow.

A third type of evidence of global warming can be found in plants. Vegetation in an area differs concurrently with the climate of that same area. Throughout many parts of the world, flowers bloom 7 days earlier and trees reproduce 10 days earlier, both since 1900. As the growing seasons vary from very wet to very dry, agricultural growth cannot adapt. In some recent years, regions’ crops have been both flooded and dried out. Due to the depletion of the ozone, many crops cannot survive. Another problem is the movement and increase of allergens. Carbon in the atmosphere allows plants to go through photosynthesis more rapidly, allowing allergens to grow in number. This evidence found throughout all of nature makes it very clear that global warming is a huge issue. Read the rest of this entry »