Global Warming

-----------------------Jen

Climate scientists spent many decades to find out what reason for global warming. Most scientists agree that the biggest problem is the “greenhouse effect.”The greenhouse effect is a process in which sunlight reaches Earth’s surface, some of which is absorbed by Earth, but most of which is reflexed back to the atmosphere. In addition to sunlight, greenhouse gasses also reflex heat energy back to the Earth. If the greenhouse gases increase, the temperature of the Earth will keep increasing. There are some causes for global warming such as carbon dioxide, methane and deforestation. There are many effects for global warming; for example, rising sea level and killer storms.

The primary cause of the increasing of the Earth’s temperature is carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is rising in the atmosphere and trapping more warmth because of human activities. As the population rate grows rapidly, we demand more cars. It means that we need to burn more and more fossil fuel for transportation and manufacturing. On the other hand, burning fossil fuel at power plants generates electricity, which also leads to large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Methane (CH₄) is one of the greenhouse gases, emitted from animals, agriculture, and Arctic seabeds, causing global warming. When bacteria decompose organic material, it will produced methane. This process also happens in the body of animal. When the amount of animals increased, the content of methane released into the atmosphere increased. Moreover, according to Andrew Williams, global warming will accelerate the rate of methane escapes from Arctic seabed, and it will cause the phenomenon of greenhouse effect become more obviously.

In addition to carbon dioxide and methane, deforestation also results in global warming. Using wood as a material for fuel is one reason for deforestation. Another reason is our demand for wood and paper products. When the trees in the forest photosynthesize, it can remove and store carbon dioxide. Deforestation releases more carbon(C) and reduces a large amount of carbon capture on the Earth.

On the other hand, as the global warming becoming more serious, there are some impacts on the Earth. Global warming will cause many serious impacts on the Earth. First, according to Dana Nuccitelli, there is a research published in Science Magazine which states that due to ice sheets melting in Greenland and Antarctica, sea level rise estimated amount should be increased at 0.8~2.0 meters, about 3.5 times of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prediction. People who live in island need to displace, and sea level rising will affect millions of people on the world. For instance, people who live in Maldives mush find a new place because of rising sea level.

There is another consequence of global warming; we will have more killer storms. An inconvenient truth, starring former U.S. Vice President Al Gore claims that the number of Category 4 and Category 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in 2005. Also a study published in the journal Nature says that global warming will markedly increase the strength of the storms such as hurricanes and cyclones in the world.

In summary, greenhouse effect is the biggest problem to cause global warming. If we produce more greenhouse gases, it will accelerate global warming. We should do our best to reduce the speed of global warming. It is everyone's responsibility to protect the earth, for there is only one earth.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2008/09/04-01.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080903/full/news.2008.1079.html