Evan Stallard Stallard 1

Mrs. Carter
Eng. 1201-531
6 Dec. 2020

Global Warming

Catastrophic impacts from climate change across the globe might be irreversible by

2030--less than 10 years away. That is incredibly soon. Every day climate change is getting

worse. I knew global warming was bad and needed to stop soon, but had no idea how bad it was.

I wanted to learn more about global warming so I could answer a question: What all causes

global warming, how does it affect us, and how can we fix it? After reading many articles and

doing lots of research, extensive evidence shows exactly what is causing global warming, and

that global warming is manmade and harming people and the environment in many ways. Also,

the best ways to solve global warming are to reduce the need for livestock, stop deforestation,

use cleaner energy sources, and waste less food.

Global warming is a huge problem in our society. Some people insist Earth’s global

warming is natural and there isn’t much we can do to help stop it. However, Overwhelming

scientific evidence supports the statement that global warming is mostly caused by man, and

everything that can be done to stop it needs to be done. After diving deeper into the topic, the

research shows how bad global warming truly is.

Two points can be agreed upon by both sides. One of these points is global warming will

continue to go on, even if we try to prevent it. It is caused by particles in the air that absorb heat

from sunlight after it reflects off the Earth’s surface. This is known as the Greenhouse Effect.

One of the main particles that absorb heat and cause the Greenhouse effect is water vapor. Water

vapor absorbs heat, which ends up causing more rain, which eventually makes more water vapor.

This infinite cycle makes global warming hard to prevent, especially since it amplifies other

heating effects from compounds like Carbon.

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The second point that can be agreed upon by both sides is: ​Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

are a direct contributor to global warming. CFCs are a completely man-made compound mainly

used in the production of aerosol cans and refrigerants. Once let out into the environment, CFCs

float up into the stratosphere and are broken apart by radiation. The chlorine in CFCs then reacts

with the ozone layer and destroys it. The ozone layer blocks harmful ultraviolet light from the

sun which would heat our earth even more. Without the ozone layer, the DNA from both plants

and animals will be damaged. This will cause many plants to die.

Another key particle in the cause of global warming is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide

levels have gone up significantly in the last several hundred years and it is clearly caused by

human activity. In the past 650,000 years, before the Industrial Revolution the atmospheric CO2

levels never exceeded 300 ppm (parts per million). In 1958 the atmospheric level of CO2 was

317 ppm. Now, it is about 415 ppm. This evidence clearly shows that these CO2 levels would be

nearly impossible without human activity such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, and more.

(Pros and Cons of Climate Change)

On the other hand, some scientists believe that warming happens before changes in CO2

admissions. Their evidence is that over the last four climatic cycles, (240,000 years) global

warming has occurred before increases of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Another piece of

evidence used is that over 400 million years ago, carbon dioxide levels were five times higher

than what they are now and Earth was cooling down, not warming up. (Pros and Cons of Climate

Change)

Another big contributor to global warming is Nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is mainly used

in soil fertilizers and fossil fuel combustion. (NASA). Nitrous oxide is incredibly good at
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trapping heat, as it can trap 300 times more than Carbon Dioxide can. Because Nitrous oxide use

has only been used in recent times, this shows the humans are causing a lot of climate change.

The rebuttal to the information above is that the Earth is still in its normal range of up or

down 5 degrees Fahrenheit, so it doesn't impact the Earth that much. There was also a Harvard

study that concluded the 20th century is not the warmest century seen in the last millennia. This

claim is a bad rebuttal because it doesn’t argue anything back. It kind of just says that warming is

okay because it’s not super unusual.

The final main contributor to global warming is methane. Methane is also very good at

trapping heat, as it can trap 84 times the amount of heat Carbon Dioxide can. It is a greenhouse

gas that is produced both naturally and man-made. Methane is naturally made by ​the anaerobic

bacterial decomposition of vegetable matter underwater. Man-made methane emissions come

from rice cultivation, livestock manure, and fossil fuels. Since methane is emitted into the

atmosphere from fossil fuels, one can conclude that because of the increased use of fossil fuels,

the amount of methane in the atmosphere has gone up. Also, when permafrost melts, it releases

methane. Since methane causes global warming, this makes an infinite cycle of methane being

released into the atmosphere until there is no more permafrost.

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Global warming will cause a lot of problems if it is not rectified soon. One of these

problems is the harming of animals' habitats.

Global warming is destroying animal’s habitats. According to an article by David

Introcaso, if global warming increases by 1.5°C, the [IPCC] report found that out of about

100,000 species studied, four percent of vertebrates, six percent of insects and eight percent of

plants could lose half of their habitual space. He further mentions that if the global temperature

goes up another .5°C, those numbers will double to triple. He also mentions that at 1.5°C we lose

the majority of coral reefs and at 2°C, we lose 99% of them.

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Global warming will cause more severe natural disasters, like hurricanes, floods, and

tsunamis, etc. Research used in the Nature journal concluded that with global warming,

hurricanes will intensify rainfall by at least 10% and winds will be 25 miles per hour faster.

Also, sea levels will continue to rise and could cause entire cities to go underwater. If all

of Greenland’s ice sheets melt, the global sea levels will rise about 20 feet (Introcaso). If this

were to happen, which is possible within the next millennia, most of Florida becomes

underwater. Not to mention the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is currently melting quicker than

ever before. If that melts, it will add another 10 feet to rising sea levels. Ten percent of the

world’s population could be covered by water if only those two ice sheets melt.

Droughts and fires are also getting worse. In California, all of the wildfires are happening

because of the irregularly high temperatures over the past five years. They are also the most

dangerous wildfires California has had. Not only are these fires bad for the environment and

dangerous, but they release more greenhouse gases which are causing more global warming.

In addition, human health is also at risk from global warming. Because of global

warming, more people will die from stroke and heat exhaustion. Also, the heat will cause an

increase in heat-related illnesses such as cardiovascular or respiratory disease. (USGCRP,

Temperature-related death and illness.

Next, air quality is decreasing with rising levels of CO2. These rising CO2 levels will

promote plant growth that will increase the amount of aeroallergens in the atmosphere. The

aeroallergens will begin to seep into housing and public buildings which can damage the

respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It will also make for longer allergy seasons, so there will

be an increase in the amount of allergic reactions happening and respiratory problems (The

Impact of Climate Change: Air Quality Impacts)

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Furthermore, the amount of water-borne and vector-borne illnesses could increase. With

the increase in temperatures currently happening, this is allowing a bigger window for harmful

things in the water such as bacteria, protozoa, and viruses to stay alive in the water, affecting

more and more people. This could cause an increase in the amount of water-borne illnesses (The

Impact of Climate Change: Water-borne illnesses). It is hard to say what is happening with

vector-borne illnesses because of how many different factors go into making an increase or

decrease in the amount of infections, but an increase in vector-borne illnesses is possible. This is

because of the significance of climate change in these pathogens. Climate change will end up

making a longer window for vectors such as fleas and ticks to infect people, but there are a lot of

other factors involved like how the pathogens will evolve, ecosystems, availability of hosts, etc.

Climate change also affects the world’s food supply. According to a study mentioned in

(USGCRP: Food Safety, Nutrition, and Distribution),​ climate change could affect global food

supply by causing food to be unavailable in some places, making utilizing it harder. There are

also two agreed-upon consequences of increasing CO2 levels. The first consequence is an

increase in the spoilage of foods and a disruption in the distribution of foods. This is because

increasing temperatures cause a longer period of time for bacteria and other harmful organisms

to contaminate food. Rising CO2 levels also increase crop carbohydrate production which is

good, but they also lower the level of proteins and essential nutrients found in the crops which is

a stronger negative.

Another main effect of global warming is on the economy. ​According to an academic

article about climate change damage estimates, climate change could cause up to a 1.4% decline

in GDP worldwide by 2100 (Orlov, Abstract). That might not sound like a lot, but it can only get

worse from there.

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To add, a study mentioned by Renee Cho in her article “How Climate Change Affects

the economy, if the Earth’s temperature increases 4.5​°C, it will cost America $520 billion dollars

each year. If the temperature only goes up 2.5°C, it will cost us $224 billion dollars less each

year. The bottom line is that global warming is going to cost a lot of money, and it needs to be

limited to as little as possible. Hurricanes are a huge factor of economic damage. In 2017,

Hurricane Harvey cost Texas 125 billion dollars to recover from and in 2013, Hurricane Sandy

cost about $70 billion.

Hurricanes are not directly caused by climate change, but warmer oceans are responsible for

more intense hurricanes (Cho, 1).

The next biggest problem with global warming is Agriculture. In 2019, Nebraska lost

$440 million because of floods ruining crops and livestock. Iowa also lost $1.6 billion dollars in

losses (Cho, 2). Cho further states that farmers only planted 67% of their crops last year. This is

a significant decrease from the previous year’s 96% of crops planted. By 2050, it is expected that

in the Midwest alone, there will be a 25% reduction of corn and soybean yield.

Cho quotes that [because of rising sea levels] we could lose trillions of dollars due to

damage to housing, airports, roads, military bases, and more. This won’t just happen in America,

though. It will happen around the world.

To add, another big problem (with global warming) is the potential damage to the

nation’s communication systems. According to Cho, a 2018 study found that thousands of miles

of fiber optic cables and many data centers could be damaged from sea level rise. This could

mean that coastal cities could potentially go without any communication systems until they are

fixed.
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Referring back to human health, temperature related death and illness is projected to

cause billions of labor hours to be lost. (Cho, 4) This will result in an estimated $160 billion

dollars minimum in lost wages.

The tourism industry will be affected by global warming very severely. There will be less

ice, so places with colder tourism attractions will not make as much money because of longer,

warmer seasons. Also with the increase in temperature, water around the world will get more and

more contaminated which will cause a reduction in aquatic tourism attractions around the globe

(Cho, 5).

One positive thing with climate change is with the opportunity for business. Studies show

that about half of the biggest 500 companies in the world think there is about $2.1 trillion to be

made from new businesses trying to solve climate change. There will be more opportunities for

profit with things like clean energy sources, electric vehicles, and more (Cho, 7). This will also

create more jobs which usually helps the economy.

There will end up being a number of opportunities for companies to make profit. Some of

these opportunities include new shipping lines in Antarctica because of melting ice, oil and gas

drilling in the Antarctic, more air conditioning products, bioengineering crops that are resistant

to heat, drugs to combat vector-borne illnesses, and more (Cho 7).

Overall, a lot of problems come with climate change. A lot of these problems are very

serious and could be the cause of a mass amount of deaths and economic debt around the world.

To combat this, a lot of very good solutions are needed, and they are needed now. The best

solutions are

To start, refrigerant management needs to be better. Many refrigerators and air

conditioning units have stopped using CFCs and have been replaced by HFCs
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(Hydrofluorocarbons). These HFCs are not as bad for the ozone layer, but they can heat the Earth

anywhere from 1000 to 9,000 times more than CO2 which is incredibly bad for Earth. To fix

this, countries met in 2016 to start phasing out HFCs. This will start happening in higher income

countries first, and lower income countries later. It has already started happening in countries

like America and Canada.

Next, our energy sources need to be better. We use a lot of fossil fuels which is bad for

the environment. To fix this, the best solution is to use wind turbines and solar panels for a more

clean way of getting energy. There are more and more turbines and solar panels going up every

day. If we keep making more energy sources that do not put out carbon dioxide, that will

significantly reduce the amount of co2 in the atmosphere.

Then, we need to waste less food. Almost a third of all food is not used in factories or

from farms, which ends up contributing to around 8% of global warming. If we use more of our

food, it will lower CO2 emission rates from food, and will help combat global warming. One

way to use a third of the wasted food this food would be to put it towards solving world hunger,

which would be a win-win.

Another big solution is to cut down on the amount of meat we eat. While it does not

sound like something most people want to do, cutting down the amount of meat we eat can

reduce a huge amount of CO2 and methane emissions. If we have less livestock to eat, there will

be less methane emitted into the atmosphere, which is a direct contributor to global warming.

This also reduces co2 since less food will be wasted.

Lastly, another big solution is to stop deforestation. Forests get rid of carbon dioxide,

which is very good for stopping global warming. Since we have begun deforestation around the

world, the amount of carbon dioxide has gone up. If we stop cutting down trees and start to
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reforest places, it will help counter global warming very well and is probably one of the most

important things that can be done.

Overall, global warming is a huge problem. It is caused by particles in the atmosphere

giving off the Greenhouse effect. Global warming is mostly caused by human activity and comes

with many negative effects that will cause chaos around the world. There are a lot of solutions to

solving global warming, but there are four main solutions to combat it the most which are to use

less livestock, use cleaner energy sources, waste less food, and stop deforestation. Hopefully,

now you can see the reasons why global warming is manmade and bad for the environment, and

help prevent it to the best of your ability.

Works Cited

Brown, Patrick T, and Harry Saunders. “Approximate Calculations of the Net Economic
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Impact of Global Warming Mitigation Targets under Heightened Damage

Estimates.” ​Sinclair Library Collections​, 10 July 2020,

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239520

Cho, Renee. “How Climate Change Impacts the Economy.” ​State of the Planet | Earth

Institute,​ Columbia University, 20 June 2019,

blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/06/20/climate-change-economy-impacts/.

“Footnotes & Sources - Climate Change - ProCon.org.” ​Climate Change​, 4 Nov. 2020,

climatechange.procon.org/additional-resources/footnotes-sources/.

Hawken, Paul. “Top 10 Solutions to Fight Climate Change.” ​Green America​, 2017,

www.greenamerica.org/climate-change-100-reasons-hope/top-10-solutions-reverse-

climate-change.

Introcaso, David. “Climate Change Is the Greatest Threat to Human Health in History.”

Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Human Health In History | Health

Affairs,​ 19 Dec. 2018,

www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20181218.278288/full/.

Linden, Eugene. “How Scientists Got Climate Change So Wrong.” ​The New York Times​,

The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/opinion/sunday/science-climate-change.html.
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MacMillan, Amanda. “Global Warming 101.” ​NRDC​, 30 Sept. 2020,

www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101.

Patzert, Bill. “NASA | Ask a Climate Scientist.” ​Youtube,​ NASA, 8 Nov. 2013,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6XSsF4CCo&list=PL56E41EA9A09368F2&index

=311&ab_channel=NASAGoddard. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.

Shaftel, Holly. “Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” ​NASA,​ NASA, 16 Oct. 2020,

climate.nasa.gov/.

Crimmins, A. ​The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A

Scientific Assessment,​ GlobalChange, 4 Apr. 2016, health2016.globalchange.gov/.