Prevention of Global Warming and Climate Change

Prevention of Global Warming and Climate Change

Introduction

As of 2018, carbon dioxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere stood at four hundred and eighty parts per million; this was the highest in three million. Climate change is a global challenge that requires international cooperation of all countries on earth if it is to be eliminated. “Climate change is a long-term change in the earth’s average weather patterns that have come to define earth’s local, regional, and global climates.” From the early twentieth century, the effect of human activity increased has resulted in heat-trapping of the greenhouse within the earth’s atmosphere, thus increasing earth’s average temperatures (Cao and Gao 12) – the burning of fossil fuel is one such significant activity. These temperature rises are referred to as global warming. Therefore, is human activity the only cause of climate change?

Climate Change Causes

Global warming is the primary cause of climate change. Global warming has many negative impacts on biological, physical, and human body systems. The greenhouse effect is the natural process through which the sun retains some heat from the sun, enabling the earth to maintain life-sustaining conditions. Without the greenhouse effect, earth’s atmospheric temperatures would go to negative eighteen degrees Celsius. The greenhouse effect only becomes problematic when human activities maximize the greenhouse effect leading to an even higher increase in atmospheric temperatures (DaMatta et al. 172). Therefore, deforestation, destruction of the marine ecosystem, population increase, and the greenhouse effect leads to global warming.

Fossil Fuels

The United Nations estimates that in ten years, the world will be producing fifty present more coal, oil, and gas. As the world seeks to maintain global warming temperatures at 1.5 ⁰C, fossil fuel production continues to rise. A UNEP report states that most governments are doing the opposite that what they have promised to do – reduce their carbon emissions. Fossil fuels are responsible for seventy-six percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, gas and oil production is set to increase by thirty percent by 2030 (Uprety 43). Therefore, governments need to refocus their national plans on keeping up with climate agreements. Oil and gas production should be reduced or stopped to switch to cheap and renewable energy.

Deforestation

Forest exploitation has been a significant contributor to climate change. It is the second leading cause of climate change and produces twenty-four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This problem is elevated by deforestation in tropical rainforests such as Amazon, produce enough carbon dioxide than all trucks and cars on earth’s roads. In Indonesia and Brazil, deforestation is the main contributor to the national greenhouse effect. Trees aid in regulating climate through the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When these trees are cut down, the carbon dioxide stored in the trees is lost into the atmosphere.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, forests are the habitats to about eighty percent of the world’s biodiversity. Preventing deforestation will result in positive benefits such as reducing the amount of carbon dioxide added into the atmosphere and reducing social and environmental issues regarding climate change. Forests are home to about three hundred and fifty million people who rely on them for food and livelihood. Sixty million of these people are entirely dependent on the forest for their livelihoods.

Measures need to be put in place to stop deforestation as a mitigation approach and support forest conservation efforts. This will preserve biodiversity, including traditions and cultures. To assist in these conservation efforts, we should offer support to organizations that conserve and reforest.

Intensive Farming

Modern agriculture, food distribution, and production are a significant contributor to greenhouse gases. Agriculture contributes about fourteen percent of the total emission of greenhouse gases. Rural use of land also has an impact on climate change. According to a Professor of Soil Science from Ohio State University, discovered that in the last one hundred and fifty years, four hundred and seventy-six billion tones of carbon was emitted from farmland soil due to inappropriate farming methods and grazing practices.

Climate Change Effects

The global temperature increase has disastrous impacts on putting earth’s plants and animals, including most human beings, in grave danger. There already exists observable climate change effects on the environment – glaciers are shrinking, ranges of plants and animals have shifted, rivers and lake ice are breaking up earlier than expected, and trees are flowering sooner. Scientific predictions about climate change are now happening; there are more intense and prolonged heatwaves, accelerated sea-level rise, and sea ice loss.

According to scientific predictions, the earth’s temperature will continue to climb for many years to come due to human activities that lead to the production of greenhouse activities. A team of one thousand three hundred scientists from the United States and around the world predicts earth’s temperatures are set to rise by 2.5 ⁰C (36.5 ⁰F) to 10 ⁰C (50 ⁰F) within the next century (Gupta 38). These scientists are members of the (IPCC) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC says that the effect of climate change on a different region will depend on the ability of these regions, communities, and societies to adapt to the change. The overall damage climate change is set to be significant and will continue to increase over time.

In the United States, the long-term effects of climate change include the overall sustained temperature rise. Temperature rise in the country has never been smooth and will not be so or uniform for several years to come. Such climate change effects include extended growing season, and frost-free seasons, these have been on the increase since the 1980s. This has affected mostly the western parts of the United States, impacting agriculture, and the ecosystem. Frost’s free seasons are set to extend for more than eight weeks in the Western United States, particularly in the costal and elevated areas. There has been an average increase in precipitation in the United States, while other regions have experienced a rise, the opposite is happening in other areas.

In the next hundred years, more spring and winter precipitation is expected to increase in the northern United States and go down in the lower United States. There is expected more intense heatwave and less severe cold waves. From the 1980s, there has been a considerable increase in the duration, frequency, and intensity of North Atlantic Hurricanes, including categories four and five, the strongest hurricanes. By the year 2100, it is expected that the seal level would have risen by one to four feet as a result of melting arctic ice. These are sufficient enough reasons for the existence of climate change.

Climate change includes one of the most sophisticated problems facing earth today. Climate change traverses many fields such as science, politics, economics, and society, including ethical and moral issues. It is a global pandemic experienced on a local level and will continue to plague planet earth for hundreds of years to come. Carbon dioxide, a significant greenhouse gas, is blamed for the recent surge in global warming. It continues and will continue to stay in the earth’s atmospheres for centuries to come. Earth, particularly oceans, takes a long time before responding to the effects of global warming. The current climate change effects are, therefore, are as a result of years of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere.

Even if human beings decide to stop greenhouse gas emission today, climate change and global warming will continue to have considerable effects on future generations (DaMatta et al. 169). Because the earth is already committed to some level of climate change prevention initiatives, the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, the response will involve prolonged approaches such as mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation efforts include preventing human interference with the climate system and stabilization of the greenhouse gases to allow the ecosystem a period to naturally adapt to climate change, thus ensuring food production and economic development continue sustainably.

Adaptation involves adjustments to actual or expected effects of climate change such as food insecurity, intense and extreme weather events, or seal level encroachment. It also consists of taking advantage of the beneficial opportunities brought about by climate change, such as increased yields and longer growing seasons. Historically, people have adapted to climate change. The past twelve thousand years have seen the stability of the earth’s climate, which contributed to modern civilization.

States can take several measures to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to attain safe levels. Every human being should take the initiative to reduce their carbon footprint, among other lifestyle change measures.

Humans must forgo the use of fossil fuels. They must do away with burning oil, coal, and natural gas for energy generation. However, this approach might not be that easy considering oil lubricates the world economy (Uprety 45). Electricity supply from coal is set to increase in the United States, where currently, it already contributes to half of the United States and global electricity supply source. However, there is yet a sufficient alternative for fossil fuels. Biofuels may cause a hike in food prices moreover lead to forest destruction. Nuclear power may not emit greenhouse gases or lead to forest destruction, but it produces radioactive materials as a byproduct of nuclear power plants. Notwithstanding, an alternative should be utilized whenever possible.

There needs to be an infrastructure upgrade. Worl over, buildings contribute to a third of all global emission of greenhouse gases with the United States, providing forty-three percent of total output. Cement production, where cement is a significant material in construction, releases a lot of greenhouse gases. For instance, in 2005, over fifty million metric tones of carbon dioxide were released in the atmosphere; this included the production of copper, another construction material (Voosen, 222). Efforts should put in place to improve the cement making and copper production process, including the construction of energy-efficient buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Transport also contributes to greenhouse emission, wherein the United States, it takes the second position to fossil fuel burning. Burning a gallon of gasoline creates twenty pounds of carbon dioxide. Therefore, people should consider alternative measures of transport such as walking in short distances, using public transportation, carpooling, or cycling. Working from home can prevent many cars from getting on the roads, in case of communication, telecommunication may be used.

Conclusion

As much as a human activity contributes to climate change, there are natural causes attributed to climate change, such as volcanic eruptions, sun’s intensity, and naturally occurring greenhouse gas concentration. NASA says that these natural processes are still in action today, but they have very little or very slow influenced to be considered the cause for a rapidly changing climate.

Works Cited

Cao, Fuqiang, and Tao Gao. “Effect of climate change on the centennial drought over China using high-resolution NASA-NEX downscaled climate ensemble data.” Theoretical and Applied Climatology (2019): 1-14.

DaMatta, Fábio M., et al. “Why could the coffee crop endure climate change and global warming to a greater extent than previously estimated?.” Climatic change 152.1 (2019): 167-178.

Gupta, Aman. “Climate Change and Global Warming: A Critical Analysis.” National Journal of Environmental Law 1.2 (2019): 37-41.

Uprety, Dinesh Chandra, V. R. Reddy, and Jyostna Devi Mura. “Temperature Changes.” Climate Change and Agriculture. Springer, Singapore, 2019. 43-51.

Voosen, Paul. “New climate models forecast a warming surge.” (2019): 222-223.