First, I will go through what evidence there is that the Earth's atmosphere is warming. Well, what evidence is there? This graph here shows very clearly that over that past 45 years the average temperature has risen, especially since the year 2000. You may wonder why it goes up and down every year. This is due to the plants breathing in and out the carbon dioxide every year. But as you can see, the general trend is upwards. This is because of what is called the “Greenhouse Effect”. It is actually vital for our existence! What happens is that CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the surface. However the problem is that too much greenhouse gas is being sent up into the atmosphere and the layer of gases is growing. Leading to more heat being kept in and therefore letting less out and warming the planet more. This is a general fact and it is definitely happening.
What are the causes of this, you may ask? As I said earlier, the “Greenhouse Effect” is a natural cause which happens everyday. The trouble is that we have added to it by burning fossil fuels in industry generating CO2 and every day life. Of course as the problem grows it won't stop. If it gets hotter and hotter and we do nothing to try and stop the planet from overheating now, we'll just turn our fans and air conditioning on, which uses power, which mostly comes from fossil fuels, which give off greenhouse gases. This contributes more the atmosphere making it even hotter.
The effects, well these could be tremendous if nothing is done to cancel out the inconvenient truth. The first thing we would probably notice here in Britain is that we will get a lot more extreme weather. Severe heat in the summers and very very cold winters. We could also start to see more massive floods like the ones we saw earlier in the year (2007). The hurricanes may even migrate northwards and we may get almost as a harsher hurricane season as the south of the USA sees and may see more of the sort of hurricanes like the one we had that night in 1987.
The next major effect could be seen as a great success for Britain. Although we could get more extremes of weather the overall weather conditions would be better. This would bring about more tourism causing the British economy to grow. This would also reduce the CO2 emissions from Britain because instead of all of us going to Spain, we could just nip down to Bristol for the week-end and experience exactly the same living conditions.
Needless to say however that if we're going to get Mediterranean climate the Mediterranean could be uninhabitable. This would lead to people moving to Britain and the population would rise causing over crowding and what is known as a “Water War”.
Water wars, although they would few and far between in the UK, could be all too often in places like Africa where clean water is hard to get your hands on these days. The only realistic points are the Rivers Nile, Niger, Volta and Zambezi. The only 4 major rivers spread put across the whole continent. This is something which could realistically happen if Global Warming does exist.
Sea level rising is something we hear about every day. The picture here shows London under just a 10m sea level rise. Which could have a real impact on the habitable land if the ice-caps meting rate increases. The blue indicates what would be under sea-level and the black line represents where the River Thames is now. Also, Al Gore said that in Manhattan, if there was just a 20ft sea level rise, the World Trade Centre Memorial would be under water which is about a mile from the coast!
There are many possible solutions that could be undertaken to solve this problem. Little things that each and every one of us could do each day, such as turning of the light when it is not in use, using energy-saving light bulbs. A good way to help is walking to work, or using public transport. Not only does it reduce your carbon foot-print (your impact on global warming) it also helps get you fit which may help cut the so-called “obesity crisis” and reduces congestion for the ones who need to use the roads. But it's not just every person doing a tiny part. The whole world needs to work together to try and reduce climate change. I, for example would be willing to pay just a little bit more if my power came from a wind farm. If wind, water and sun power was promoted a great deal more, it would cut the burning of fuel, eventually make it cheaper and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.
Reviewing the evidence suggesting that indeed, climate change is at our door and changing our weather, I think I do believe it is changing our weather. Although many people deem the evidence as wrong and believe that it has happened before and is happening again, just an up in the system, I consider the evidence I have put forward to be conclusive. Global Warming is coming to get us!
