Global Warming

What is global warming? We hear this phrase on TV all the time. We see it in the headlines of newspapers and magazines. Well, global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface. Global warming is the result of the greenhouse effect. When greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and nitrous oxide, trap heat and light from the sun they cause the temperature on Earth to increase. Natural concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere help keep Earth warm enough to support life. But man’s increased use of fossil fuels, industrialization, pollution and deforestation have created much more greenhouse gases which in turn has caused the temperature on Earth to increase at a faster rate than ever before. The concentration of carbon dioxide increased from 290 ppm (parts per million) in 1900 to 316 ppm in 1959. This represented an average increase of 0.44 ppm per year. The concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from 316 ppm in 1959 to 387 ppm in 2009. This represented an average increase of 1.41 ppm per year. About 75% of the annual increase in carbon dioxide is caused by man’s use of fossil fuels. As the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases have increased, so has the Earth’s temperature. The 10 warmest years on record have occurred between the years 1997 to 2008. People may think, what’s the big deal? The earth is getting warmer. How can warmer temperatures hurt us? According to scientists, global warming is a worldwide issue that affects all of us. Glaciers around the world are melting causing sea levels to rise and causing water shortages to areas dependent on their melting ice as a source of water. Montana’s Glacier National Park has only 27 glaciers versus the 150 glaciers it had in 1910. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea levels could rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century. As sea levels rise, the water covers many plants of low lying islands causing them to die. Plants are a food source. As they die off, animals and humans loose an important source of food. As sea levels rise and cover low lying islands, animals as well as humans will loose their habitants. Approximately 100,000,000 people living in coastal cities may some day loose their homes to rising sea levels. The effects of global warming have also been attributed to the increased numbers of forest fires, droughts, heat waves, cold waves and tropical storms. All of these have had a negative impact on our societies.


In my opinion, global warming is having a significant impact on plants, animals and humans around the world. The temperatures on Earth are warming up. As temperatures on Earth increase, certain species of plants as well as animals will loose their food sources and habitats and unless they can adapt to their new environments they will eventually be driven to extinction. Humans are also being affects by the erratic changes in weather brought on by global warming. Global warming is a serious world-wide problem that everyone needs to confront and solve. We only have one Earth. We must begin taking care of it before the damages we have done to it become irreversible.



By:greendragon

References:

http://globalwarming.sdsu.edu/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming_2.html

The Tragedy of the Himalayas

Scientists are concerned about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. Reports show that the amount of precipitation (snowfall) in the Himalayas during the last twenty-five years has dropped as temperatures have risen. The glaciers store precipitation as land ice. As precipitation decreases, the sizes of the glaciers in the Himalayas decrease. The glaciers of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, which covers parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and China, are the water tower of Asia. Every spring, the thawing ice and snow from the glaciers provide water to the region’s rivers and in turn provides water to the billions of people who live in the region. The melting ice provides a regular and dependable source of water to the huge population that lives downstream from the Himalayas. Independent scientific studies indicate that the Himalayan glaciers are melting fast probably because of warming temperatures brought on by global warming. Since 1960, almost a fifth of the Indian Himalayas’ ice coverage has disappeared. The 2007 global-warming assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the glaciers in the Himalayas were “receding faster than at any other place in the world.” If global warming continues, the glaciers of the Himalayas will decrease in size and in their ability to provide water to the billions of people dependent on them. As the population increases and the amount of melting ice decreases, competition for water will grow.

In my opinion the studies done by these scientists will make people more aware of the effects of global warming on the Himalayas. When we think of the effects of global warming, we usually think about the Arctic only. Now these studies will show that global warming is not just having an effect of the Arctic, it’s also having an effect on the Himalayas and most likely other areas we have not heard about. These studies will hopefully convince people as well as the world governments to do something to prevent future global warming.

By:greendragon

Reference:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1945667,00.html