Global Warming

Introduction:

Global Warming, aside from pollution is one of the biggest scientist's

concerns. Global Warming is the term used to describe increase in the
temperature of the Earth. It is the process which is continuously warming
the earth. The Earth's surface temperature has risen by about one
degree Fahrenheit in the past century, with accelerated warming during
the past three decades. There is stronger evidence and proof that most
of the warming over the last fifty years is attributable to activities of
human. Human activities have changed the chemical composition of the
atmosphere and environment through the buildup of greenhouse gases,
which are main cause of Global Warming.

There are four steps in the Greenhouse effect, which are, Ultraviolet rays
from the sun, through space, to earth's atmosphere. The sunlight enters
the atmosphere and hits Earth. Some of sunlight turns into heat energy
in the form of infrared light. The heat gets impregnated by enclosing air
and land, which in turn makes it hot. Infrared rays that are remitted into
the atmosphere are captured by greenhouse gases. The gas then
absorbs the light and is sent back to the surface of Earth and warms it
even more.

"According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Earth's surface

temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century,
with accelerated warming during the past two decades. There is new
and stronger evidence that most of the warming over the last 50 years is
attributable to human activities. Human activities have altered the
chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of
greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous
oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed although
uncertainties exist about exactly how earth's climate responds to them."
Methane and carbon dioxide are some of the naturally occurring
greenhouse gases. This is the manner in which the Earth keeps itself
temperate enough for humans to live on it. The only concern with this is
that humans are enhancing the process even further and it will result in
Global Warming.
Over the past many years the emissions of greenhouse gases have
been multiplying due to the rapid growth in technology that humans have
perfected like, factories which are emitting such dangerous gases which
includes methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and ozone depleting
substances such as CFCs, also known as Hydro-fluorocarbons,
Chlorofluorocarbons, and Per-fluorocarbons.

Basically global warming is the ascent of the earth's surface temperature

due to chemicals in the atmosphere. The threats that global warming
brings along with it includes: affecting the climate of the Earth and even
the health of the people. This also includes altering of crop seasons.
Global warming also affects the way organisms survive on the planet.

Signs and Effects:

A large amount of the United States is probable to warm, even though

sulfates possibly will limit warming in a few areas. Scientists at present
are not capable to decide which pieces of the United States will turn out
to be wetter or drier, but there is probability to be a general tendency in
the direction of augmented rainfall and evaporation, added powerful
thunderstorms, and drier top soils.

Regrettably, several of the potentially most significant influences depend

upon whether rainfall augments or reduces, which cannot be dependably
probable for exact regions.

Global warming also causes many of the glaciers that are floating in the
Greenland and Arctic to melt. This in turn causes the sea levels to rise
throughout the world. In the last hundred years alone the seas around
the world have risen from four to ten inches, which is a great change.

Health:
All the way through the world, the occurrence of meticulous illnesses and
additional pressures to human health depend mainly on local weather.
Tremendous warmth can directly source the loss of life. Furthermore,
quite a few grave diseases merely come into view in warm areas. Lastly,
warm temperatures can augment air and water pollution, which in turn
harm human health.

The largest part of direct effect of climate change would be the influence
of hotter temperatures themselves. Tremendously hot temperatures
augment the figure of people who die on a specified day for a lot of
motives: People with heart problems are helpless for the reason that
one's cardiovascular system ought to work harder to be the body cool all
through hot weather. Heat tiredness and a few respiratory troubles
amplify.

Higher air temperatures in addition augment the attentiveness of ozone

at ground level. The ordinary layer of ozone in the higher atmosphere
blocks damaging ultraviolet emission from reaching the earth's surface,
but in the lower atmosphere, ozone is a harmful pollutant. Ozone
damages lung tissue and sources exacting troubles for people with
asthma and other lung diseases. Even modest experience to ozone can
source healthy persons to experience chest pains, nausea, and
pulmonary congestion. In to a large extent of the nation, a warming of
four degrees (F) possibly will augment ozone attention by about 5
percent.

Statistics on humanity and hospital admissions demonstrate that death

rates augment at some stage in extremely hot days, mainly between
very old and very young people existing in cities. In July 1995, a heat
wave killed more than 700 people in the Chicago area alone. Studies
based on these types of statistics guess that in Atlanta, for instance,
even a warming of about two degrees (F) would augment heat-related
deaths from 78 today to wherever from 96 to 247 people per year. If
people are able to put in air conditioning and otherwise become
accustomed themselves to the hotter temperatures, the lower estimation
is more probable.
Warmer temperatures might reduce the number of people who die each
year from cold weather. On the other hand, in the United States, only
1000 people die from the cold every year, at the same time as twice that
many die as of the heat.

Nasty Surprises:

Some of the ways that Earth may respond to global warming could be
gradual; others could be rapid. By continuing to add greenhouse gases
to the air, we may be surprised by some nasty changes.

Escaping Methane:

As the Arctic warms, massive quantities of methane at the present iced

up under the ocean and land possibly will flee into the air. For the reason
that methane is a greenhouse gas that catches heat in the atmosphere,
these added emissions could cause the Earth to temperate even faster
than at present anticipated.

Water Resources:

Varying climate is predictable to augment both evaporation and rainfall in

the main regions of the United States. In those regions where
evaporation augments more than rainfall, soil will turn out to be drier,
lake levels will drop, and rivers will bear less water.

Inferior River flows and lower lake levels possibly will damage map-
reading, hydroelectric power generation, and water quality, and
decrease the provisions of water accessible for agricultural, residential,
and industrial uses. A number of regions possibly will experience equally
augmented flooding all through winter and spring, as well as lower
supplies all through summer. In California's Central Valley, for instance,
melting snow provides much of the summer water supply; warmer
temperatures would source the snow to melt earlier and consequently
decrease summer materials even if rainfall amplified throughout the
spring. More normally, the inclination for rainfall (see climate trends) to
be more concerted in large storms as temperatures increase would be
inclined to augment river flooding, devoid of rising the quantity of water
accessible.

Food and Water:

A number of regions might profit. Warming might increase in length the

increasing season and budge agricultural zones northward. Crop
production would augment in northern Europe and Canada.

Soils in the center regions of continents might turn out to be drier in

summer. These drier circumstances coupled with global warming might
show the way to lower crop yields. Corn production in the U.S. possibly
will drop for the reason of this inclination.

Warming possibly will source earlier mountain snow melt, which would
change the timing of water storage in reservoirs, augment the jeopardy
of spring flooding and diminish water supplies in summer.

Shifts in climate zones might carry new crop pests to some areas. More
livestock might develop into defenseless to ailment.

Changes in Global Harvest:

Climate alteration might to the highest degree have an effect on global

food supply and demand for the reason that heat, light and water are the
major drivers of agricultural production. Hot, dry regions already hard put
to grow sufficient food nowadays might be specially damaging.

To calculate approximately the contact of global warming on future

harvests, scientists build computer simulations, or models, of climate,
crops and market situations. The models are first tested with present-day
environment, and then utilized to foresee probable future alterations.
Present models, although imperfect, forecast that alterations in rainwater
and temperature would differ from region to region. Such changes would
be probable to change food production and international trade.

Future Effects and Spread:

Global warming possibly will moreover augment the danger of a number
of contagious diseases, predominantly those diseases that simply come
into view in temperate areas. Diseases that are spread by mosquitoes
and added insects possibly will develop into more common if warmer
temperatures allowed those insects to develop into recognized beyond
north; such "vector-borne" diseases comprise malaria, dengue fever,
yellow fever, and encephalitis.

"The US Environmental Protection Agency has recently released the

Climate Action Report 2002. The report considers in depth the effects,
which Global Warming will have on the US, and it's being called a
significant reversal of administration policy. For the first time, through
this report, the Bush Administration is acknowledging that human
actions, specifically the emission of greenhouse gases, are responsible
for the effects of Global Warming which are currently being felt across
the US, and around the world.
The report contends that the environment in the US will be substantially
changed over the next few decades, with high likelihood for disruption of
snow-fed water supplies, more heat waves, and the permanent
disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes.
However, there are no new plans for dealing with these problems. In
fact, the report recommends adapting to these inevitable changes."

A number of scientists consider that algal blooms possibly will take place
more regularly as temperatures warm - chiefly in areas with
contaminated waters - in which case diseases such as cholera that lean
to accompany algal blooms possibly will turn out to be more common.

Global warming will also cause some of the glaciers that are floating in
the Greenland and Arctic to melt. This in turn will cause the sea levels to
rise throughout the world. Part of the West Antarctic ice sheet rests
unsteadily on the sea floor. As the sea warms, the ice might turn out to
be weakened, break up and melt. As a consequence, over the next 300
years sea level would rise more rapidly than at present forecasted.

Salmon and cold-water fish such as trout are expected to suffer

substantially and may also disappear from large areas of their current
geographic range. Several species trying to flee hot water by migrating
to north or to higher elevations may become extinct due to man-made or
natural barriers blocking their routes.

Warmer water temperatures might direct to alterations in the course of

major ocean currents. Their paths establish the sharing of ocean
temperatures and nutrients that maintain marine life. If the currents were
to alter their route, the complete marine environment can be disturbed.
Atmospheric upheaval and commotion brought on by the added warming
will yield more intense and extreme storms and larger death tolls. Some
areas, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, will dry out and a greater
occurrence of thunderbolt strikes will set enormous forest fires.

The burning of the Earth by natural and man-made forest fires will heap
extra quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Alteration in
temperature and rainfall brought on by global warming will in turn modify
the composition of the forests. At the current rate of ruin and desolation,
most of the rain forests will be gone by the middle of the next century.

Conclusion:

Global warming could stimulate and influence large, sudden and

uninvited climatic changes that could seriously affect ecosystems and
human society in a very serious way.

Some nations will probably experience more unpleasant effects than

others, while other nations might profit more than others. Poorer nations
are usually more defenseless to the consequences of global warming.
These nations tend to be extra reliant on climate-sensitive sectors, such
as continuation agriculture, and deficient in the capital to shield
themselves against the changes that global warming might bring. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognized
Africa as "the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of projected
changes because widespread poverty limits adaptation capabilities".

Global warming could stimulate and influence large, sudden and

uninvited climatic changes that could seriously affect ecosystems and
human society in a very serious way.
Not long ago, most debate and argument of global warming has
presumed that change would occur progressively, with average
temperatures tediously increasing over the next century.

In order to control and avoid the effects of global warming we must first
agree with a fact that it is occurring, and take some measures to end or
even reduce it. We must stop burning the trees and we must also stop
polluting the air.

There is only one way to end global warming before it becomes a real
threat to human life. That is to stop emitting the greenhouse gases that
are main cause of global warming.