Global Warming, Global Problem

Spring has arrived and the temperature is on the rise everywhere. Many people across the nation think nothing of the recent change in climate over the past few decades, but this problem should be something everyone should be worried about. The cause and effects of global warming are nothing to take lightly. This issue started out as a political debate but has snowballed into a moral problem. The future of our planet is at stake and depends on us limiting the use of potentially harmful items to assure this problem remain controlled. We rely on energy to sustain life and to grow our economies, but it seems as though that energy consumption is also our downfall.

The layers of the atmosphere are directly effect by one specific gas given off by many of today's automobiles, greenhouse gases. One specific element given off by greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide. As Richard E.J. Kelly and Olav Slaymaker have discussed in the book “The cyrosphere and Global Enviromental Change,” carbon dioxide enters the lowest level of the atmosphere, called the troposphere; it absorbs radiation from the earth and then gives it up as heat. As the carbon dioxide rises it gradually raises the temperature of the troposphere which causes the surface temperature of the earth to rise as well (Slaymaker and Kelly 178). It should be to no one's surprise that the carbon level in our atmosphere is at an all time high and is still on the rise. The unusual variations in seasons, constantly rising sea levels, and more recently, the harsh weather such as hurricane Katrina prove this to be right. A majority of our earth's energy comes from burning fossil fuels. This alone has been proven to cause more climate destruction than any other activity.

The world's growing population has had a negative affect on the earth. The relationship between humanity and our planet has been altered. “We have quadrupled the earth's population in less than one century” (Guggenheim n.p.). The population in the United States alone during the 1900s was about eighty million, but has now climbed to nearly three hundred million. This increase is bad because as the population on earth increases, the chances of bad environmental decisions also increase. Our irresponsible human activities have altered the earth's ecosystem for the worst. Along with job decrease comes job increase; this affects our planets dilemma of global warming in a way that is quite obvious. An increase in employment is almost directly related to an increase in pollutants. The hiring of more employees means that more people will be needing transportation to their jobs causing more fuel emissions and pollutants to be released into the atmosphere. Fred S. Singer and Dennis T. Avery commented on the fact that “some pollutants augment the earth's natural greenhouse effect…” (66), the increase in the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, causing a rise in global atmospheric temperatures. Although the birth and death rates are stabilizing, our rapid growth within the last century has already caused enough damage.

Global warming has caused more worldwide disasters in the past decade than recorded previously. One cannot blame the severity of Hurricane Katrina solely on global warming, but there is significant evidence supporting the idea that Katrina would not have been nearly as strong if the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were not so high. “Studies have shown that hurricanes may become more destructive as sea surface levels warm due to the influence of humankind on the natural world” (Avery and Singer 112). Hurricane Katrina is only one of many natural disasters that have been blamed on global warming. People living in the west can vouch for the devastating fires raging across the nation. The warming temperatures will be cause for both severe droughts and increase heavy rainfall events in the near future. The movie “Inconvenient Truth” by director Davis Guggenheim summarizes that the severe droughts will provide more dead and dry vegetation to build up in the west, leaving more fuel for potentially devastating wildfires. The natural disasters around the world cannot all be blamed on global warming, but it is clear that the rising temperatures have had a huge impact on our planets environmental changes.

In addition to the severe natural events happening all over the world, human health is strongly affected by the phenomenon of global warming. “Climate change can cause an increase of infectious diseases such as limes disease, which thrives in moist warm environments” (Avery and Singer 189). Due to the increase in temperature, not only is the risk of infectious disease increased but also the likelihood of getting a respiratory disorder. The air quality over the past decade has plummeted. Singer and Avery inform their readers that warming temperatures induce smog or ground level ozone and air pollution (191). Ground level ozone is also known as smog. It is a secondary pollutant caused by sun light reacting with vehicle and industrial emissions (Avery and Singer 191). Ground level ozone can permanently damage lung tissue and is especially dangerous to individuals that have asthma or other chronic respiratory diseases. Particle pollution also affects our health. Particle pollution is a mix of liquid droplets and small pollutants, which, when breathed in can cause a variety of significant health problems. In addition to lung damage, particle pollutants have also been known to cause visibility impairment in many of our nation's bigger cities and national parks. Given the complexity of the factors that influence human health, measuring health impacts related to climate change poses a difficult challenge and is something that everyone should be aware of.