2. INTRODUCTION
Global warming is defined as an
increase in the average temperature of the Earth's
atmosphere, especially a sustained increase great
enough to cause changes in the global climate. The term
global warming is synonymous with Enhanced green
house effect, implying an increase in the amount of
green house gases in the earth’s atmosphere, leading to
entrapment of more and more solar radiations, and thus
increasing the overall temperature of the earth.
Causes of Global Warming
Global warming is affecting many parts of the world.
Due to global warming, the glaciers are melting which
are causing the rise in the sea level. When the level of
the sea rises, it causes danger to the people living in the
low lying areas. So, this cause a big problem for the
people, plants and animals living on the earth.When the
level of the sea rises, it covers the plants and causes
some of them to die. When they die, animals lose their
main source of food. We, human beings lose our two
sources of food, plants and animals. It may also force
3. people to lose their homes. In other words, the whole
chain will get affected if nothing is done on time to stop
global warming from spreading its wings. Few of the
main causes that are contributing their best
towards global warming are,
Pollution :
Pollution whether it is vehicular, electrical or industrial
is the main contributor to the global warming. Everyday
billions of vehicles release various gases into the
atmosphere. This causes earth to warm up and increase
its average temperature. Electricity causes pollution in
many ways.
Fossil fuels are burnt for example coal is burnt to
produce electricity. Coal is the major fuel that is burnt
in these power plants. Coal produces around 1.7 times
as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy when flamed
as does natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil. Over
75% of the electricity worldwide is produced by
burning fossil fuels. Many gases are sent into the air
when fossil fuels are burnt of which main is the carbon
dioxide gas.
Industries on the other hand release various gases into
the water and air. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
oxides are the major greenhouse gases. Different gases
have different heat trapping capabilities. Some of them
trap more heat than carbon dioxide. Methane is much
more effective then carbon dioxide in entrapping heat in
4. the atmosphere. By driving cars, using electricity from
coal fired plants and heating up our homes from natural
gases, we release carbon dioxide and other heat
trapping gases in the atmosphere.
Deforestation :
Deforestation is the cutting down of trees and plants to
make way for any development activity. Carbon dioxide
is the air that our body lets out when we breathe. Trees
take in this carbon dioxide and release oxygen that we
breathe in. With the cutting down of more and more
trees is leading to greater concentration of carbon
dioxide in the air. This means that it is very important to
protect our trees to stop the greenhouse effect, and also
so we can breathe and live. Deforestation is blamed for
rise in the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere
by cutting or burning them. New development projects,
requirement of land for homes and factories,
requirement for wood and also soil erosion are the
major factors that are causing deforestation, which in
turn leading to global warming.
Landfills :
When we throw garbage out of our house it goes to
landfills. Landfills are those big chunks of garbage that
you must have seen on some expressway, when you go
out of your city that stink. The garbage is is then used
by big recycling companies to make some useful
products out from that garbage.
5. Most of the time that garbage is burnt which then
release some toxic gases into the atmosphere. These
enormous amounts of toxic greenhouse gases when go
into the atmosphere makes global warming worse.
Population :
Another cause of global warming is population. Since
Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming, the
increase in population makes the problem worse
because we breathe out carbon dioxide. More people
means more demand for food, more carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere, more demand for cars, more demand
for homes and they all in somehow or other lead to
global warming.
More demand for food will lead to
more transportation since movement of goods and
services is done by transportation sector. More demand
for cars means more pollution in the air and more traffic
on the roads which means longer waiting time on the
traffic lights and will result more burning of fuel. More
demand for homes means cutting down of trees to make
way for homes, schools and colleges.
6. Fig: causes and effects of global warming
Effects of Global Warming
Global warming is a phenomenon wherein there occurs
a rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s
atmosphere and water bodies since the late 19th century
and is still an on-going process. Since the early 1900’s,
Earth’s average surface temperature has rose by
about 0.8 °C(1.4 °F), with almost two-thirds of this hike
occurring since 1980. Proposed policy responses to this
crisis include mitigation through emissions
7. reduction, adaptation to its effects etc. Most of the
countries in the world are members of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change(UNFCCC) whose sole objective is to prevent
dangerous anthropocentric i.e., human-induced climate
change. All of the party members have taken an oath to
adopt a range of policies that work around reducing
greenhouse gas emissions that are the sole reason for an
increase in global. Currently efforts as of the early 21st
century that are mainly directed towards reducing
emissions seem to be quite inadequate to cope up with
the UNFCCC’s 2 °C target. Here are some of the
causes for Global Warming,
Increase in temperature
The intense heat waves and rising temperatures are
becoming more common as greenhouse gases are
trapped in the atmosphere. Experts state that this will
become 100 times more likely to occur over the next 4
decades. The energy from the sun which is responsible
for the earth’s weather and climate is radiated back into
space. While this happens the greenhouse gases (water
vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases) trap some of the
outgoing energy and retaining the heat. This process is
similar to the mechanism of a glass paneled greenhouse.
The greenhouse effect thus leads to a rise in
temperature on, and as it becomes stronger, more heat is
trapped within the planet. Majority of these greenhouse
gases come from the process of burning fossil fuels in
8. order to produce energy, deforestation, industrial
processes etc.
Rising sea levels
Warm surface temperatures cause glaciers, polar ice shelves
and other ice bodies to completely destabilize and melt. This
in turn increases the amount of water in the world’s oceans
thus contributing to a rise in sea levels. This rise especially
threatens populations located in low-lying coastal areas
because of their higher vulnerability to flooding. Scientists
speculate that the melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica
is capable of rising the sea level to more than 20 feet by
2100.This is a dangerous situation especially because most of
the people live in coastal areas there. At the same time,
nations such as Maldives, is already considering relocation
and rehabilitation.
Extinction
Warming temperature of water bodies, desertification
and deforestation can all contribute to the irreversible
impact on natural habitat and thus threaten
endangerment and even extinction of plant and animal.
Eg: the polar bear is considered to be an endangered
species whose numbers are falling because of their
inability to adapt to the volatile temperature changes in
the Polar Regions. Biodiversity is a crucial phenomenon
for the existence of human beings and a loss of species
of flora and fauna would threaten the entire planet.
Around 30 % of plant and animal species alive today
risk a chance of getting extinct by 2050 if the average
temperature rises more than 2 – 11 degrees F.
9. Effect on plants and animals
All plants and animals live in regions with extremely specific
climate and geological conditions, such as temperature and
rainfall patterns, that enable them to survive and reproduce.
Any change in the climate of the specific habitat can affect the
plants and animals that exist there, as well as the overall
makeup of the environment. Some species respond to warmer
climatic conditions by migrating to cooler locations. Eg:
Some North American animals and plants have moved to the
farther north of the region or to higher elevations to meet their
requirements. Climate change is also capable of altering the
life cycles of plants and animals. For Eg: warmer
temperatures would imply plants would possibly grow and
bloom earlier in the spring and survive longer into the fall.
Effects on human health
Research states that more than 1, 50,000 people die from
climate change-related diseases on a yearly basis. Changes in
weather conditions can lead to health conditions ranging from
heat-related heart and respiratory problems to malaria
.Droughts, floods and warmer temperatures combine in order
to create an apt habitat for insects and creatures such as
mosquitoes and other disease-carrying agents. Diseases like
West Nile virus, cholera, Lyme disease and dengue fever
which were earlier considered to be confined to tropical areas
are now spreading worldwide due to the globally rising
temperatures. The ability of mankind to react or adapt to the
new conditions is completely dependent upon the magnitude
and speed of it. The outcome of the scenario will also depend
on our ability to recognize such epidemics early, restrict their
spread, and effectively provide appropriate treatment so as to
effectively cure them and to commit adequate resources, time
10. and energy to prevention and research of other arising and
upcoming diseases.
Storms
The phenomenon of Global warming is bound to
increase the degree of severity in terms of storms.
Warmer temperatures and warmer ocean waters would
fuel the intensity of these storms thus leading to a high
number of devastating hurricanes. On observing the
pattern of storms in the past decade it can be noted that
the frequency has literally doubled. Along with floods
comes loss of lives, damage to property, resources etc.
Droughts
A warmer climate owing to global warming will
eventually lead to diminishing water supplies and
pathetic agricultural conditions in turn resulting in crop
failures If these water shortages are persistent it will
cause a lot of disruptions in global food production by
affecting agriculture and is thus paving a way for
situations such as starvation . Research states that the
drought conditions are said to increase by at least a
minimum of 66% by 2020. Almost more than 60% of
Africa by this time will have to live in a country where
the continent’s agricultural output is going to drastically
decrease by 50 %
Economic collapse
The results of climate change have a direct relationship
with a nation’s economy. Natural disasters such as
11. hurricanes and floods as an effect of the global warming
process end up becoming a costly affair for the
government in terms of clean-up costs, property damage
and rehabilitation costs. Crisis like this in turn result in
a hike when it comes to food and energy costs. Looking
at the pace of things, it has been predicted that global
warming crises could be labelled with a $20 trillion
price tag by 2100. Many countries run a huge risk on a
daily basis because the national income is dependent on
one particular area such as oil, tourism, plantation, etc.
and can lose everything with the loss of that single
particular sector. The presence of globalization can thus
create a domino effect which means that if a country is
affected , several other countries are bound to get
affected too even if they might be on the other end of
the globe.
Ecosystem Failure
An Increase in greenhouse gases can cause drastic and
irreversible changes both in the upper atmosphere and
within the planet thus affecting it’s every component
including land, water, air etc. and the processes that
occur at all these levels. If not becoming extinct ,
animals and plants move away to non-native habitats
when the very ecosystems that they were adapted to for
survival lose its quality or probably even disappear.
Similarly , humans will also migrate due to changing
weather conditions thus leading to a high demand for
limited resources in a particular place. The effects of a
climate change on physical and biological systems are
12. already reflecting through cases like depletion of coral
reefs, migration of vulnerable plants and animals,
melting glaciers, formation of acidic water etc.
War
Hostilities and conflicts amongst countries are
constantly on the rise as nations are competent and
ruthless when it comes to acquiring resources. An
important example of this is the genocide in the Darfur
region situated in Sudan or the Somalian war with roots
in the reduction of its natural resources due to the sole
reasons of climate change. It is clearly evident that the
increasing number of wars that commence on the
foundation of food and water scarcities may lead to
uncontrollable levels of aggression, security trouble,
regional instability, panic etc. We should realize that
there is a direct relationship between a geological
condition such as global warming and civil unrest.
Production of weapons, the oil industry etc. Is often
considered to be the most common reasons for global
politics.
13. Global Warming Prevention Measures
While humankind has the ability to destroy the planet,
we can also help protect and sustain it. Global warming
is too massive a problem for one person to solve, but
you can create positive change by making
environmentally-conscious personal choices and
inspiring others to take collective action.
Change a light :
Replace regular bulbs with compact fluorescent light
(CFL) bulbs. They consume less power then ordinary
bulbs and have longer lifetime. Some countries have
completely banned the usage of ordinary bulbs and
force the common public to use CFL bulbs.
Drive less :
By driving less you are not only saving fuel but also
helping in reducing global warming. Also, look out for
other possibilities, for eg: car pooling. If you have
colleagues who live in the same area then you can
combine trips. If you need to go to a local market then
either walk or go by cycle. Both of them are great form
of exercise.
Recycle more :
Try to use the disposable products into some other
form. Just don’t throw them away. You can recycle
almost anything for e.g.: paper, aluminum foils, cans,
14. newspapers. By recycling you can help in reducing
landfills.
Check your tyres :
When you drive make sure your tyres are inflated
properly. If not, then obviously they will consume more
fuel. Keep your engine properly tuned and drive less
aggressively. Aggressive driving and frequent applying
of brakes hampers the engine and can lower the mileage
of your car.
Use less hot water :
Buy energy saving geysers and dishwasher for your
home. Avoid washing clothes in hot water. Just wash
them in cold or warm water. Avoid taking frequent
showers and use less hot water. It will help in saving
energy require to produce that energy.
Avoid products with lot of packaging :
Just don’t buy products with lot of packaging. When
you buy such products you will end up in throwing the
waste material in the garbage, which then will help in
filling landfill sites and pollute the environment. Also,
discourage others from buying such products.
Adjust your thermostat :
Geysers consume lot of electricity. Use the thermostat
to lower down the temperature. The easiest and most
15. cost effective advice is simply adjusting your
thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter.
Turn off electronic devices :
Turn off electronic devices when you are moving out
for a couple of days or more. Unnecessary usage of
electronic appliances will not only save fuel i.e. coal by
which we get electricity but also increase the lifetime of
your gadgets.
Plant a tree :
Planting trees can help much in reducing global
warming then any other method. They not only give
oxygen but also take in carbon dioxide, during the
process of photosynthesis, which is the main source of
global warming.
Spread the awareness :
Always try your best to educate people about global
warming and it’s causes and after affects. Tell them
how they can contribute their part by saving energy that
will be good for the environment. Gather opportunities
and establish programs that will help you to share
information with friends, relatives and neighbours
16. Conclusion
Global warming is the slow rise of the temperature of
Earth. The conclusion is that global warming has been
happening. Global warming has an effect on the
weather with increased droughts, tropical cyclone
activities and earthquakes. It is the major challenge for
our global society. If we make small changes now in
the way we live, we can avoid huge changes in the
future. Scientists, governments and individuals must
work together to overcome this threat.
References
Climate Change: Observed impacts on Planet Earth by
Trevor Lecher
The Future of Everything: The Science of Prediction by
David Orrell
Internet (google,Wikipedia)
