Global Warming

Introduction

Global warming is the average rising of temperatures in the atmosphere on earth caused by several factors. It is interesting though to note that most of the factors are caused by human activities such as too much burning of fossil fuels, green house gases and their effect among other factors. Changing of atmospheric temperatures for the past millions of years has been present. However, in the past century the rate of change has been on the rise. Global warming has had devastating effects to the complete global climate, where many things are affected, including natural resources such as water, soil, and air, as well as animals and plants. Many institutions, people countries and scientists have sought a solution, but none has sufficed to eliminate the problem. As long as some activities such as fossil fuel burning continues, solutions such as regulating green house gasses, reducing fuel usage and seeking newer sources of energy will not solve the problem completely.

Problem recognition

Global warming has grown to become among the largest issues in the environment. Its ability to change the climatic condition of the whole planet as well as affect the vital natural resources and animals raises concerns across the whole globe.

Effects of global warming on land water and air

Higher temperatures on soil cause a change in its organic matter, where the biomass, soil hydrology is changed by factors such as changes in rainfall zones. Global warming further affects the forming of soil due to increased temperatures. Rock withering is increased, and other activities in soil are affected. Fertility of soil is determined by the organic matter, which retains the water and prevents soil erosion. Decomposition process takes place in the organic matter to provide plants with the required energy and water. Carbon II oxide is then released as a by-product to this process. Increase in temperatures speeds up the speed, which means there is increased rapid release of carbon II oxide into the atmosphere.

Global warming has a devastating effect on water resources, where it affects the sea level due to melting of ice and glaciers in the Polar Regions. This is known to increase the water level in the sea, where some of the land not covered by water would be covered. During hotter seasons, the high temperatures affect the rate of evaporation. This would lower the level of water level in some areas, while other areas might be at risk of torrential floods caused by increased downpour that would result from the increased evaporation. Further, due to increased carbon dioxide the sea is acidified. On the other hand, global warming would increase the level of carbon in the atmosphere, causing an increase in the temperature levels. The increased temperatures have an impact on the lives of animal, plants as well as human beings.

Effects on plants, animals and human activities

Global warming has a devastating effect on plants where due to speeding up of the organic processes within the soil. Some of the plants are not designed for high temperature, which means they will be affected and probably do poorly in areas they did well. Again, with an increase in temperatures, spread of diseases is easy, which means more plants would be affected. When plants are affected, natural habitats too are affected (Bily, 2006). This means many animal species could face danger of extinction considering all animals rely on plants directly or indirectly. Because of the unpredictable environmental conditions caused by global warming, animals that cannot bear the high temperatures are forced to move to higher altitudes where temperatures are cooler. Currently, there is evidence of animals migrating before seasons of migrations, while some in the polar areas are finding is hard to hibernate due to high temperatures. More so, food security is going down, with many animals having to search harder for any vegetation to sustain their requirements.

Human beings are affected just like other animals except that they have the capability of adapting to the changes using technological devices such as cooling systems. Animals would not use such, and have to adopt naturally. Human activities such as agriculture have been most affected, posing a threat to food security. On the other hand, other activities such as winter sports are affected by the climatic conditions. With the situations remaining as it is, there will be a devastating impact in the future, where many animals could go extinct. This will affect biodiversity that is necessary for the maintenance species. This will continue for, as long s a solution is not provided (Philander, 2008).

Humans are solely responsible for global warming given that they initiate efforts, which pollute the environment through the various aspects of industrialization and globalization. Governments, as well as the international community, have been involved in efforts to ensure that all the responsible stakeholders in terms of contributions to the pollution of the environment and the subsequent global warming.

Solutions currently implemented:

Various solutions and pacts have been proposed to ensure that global warming is mitigated and dealt with adequately. Industrialized nations, which are largely responsible for the pollution of the environment and the subsequent global warming, have been tasked by the international community with ensuring that they deal with aspects of pollution which are the main drivers of global warming. Global warming, because of carbon emissions from human operations and existence, could be dealt with by the use of reliable fuels (Bily, 2006). There is a need to move from the traditional fossil fuels. New forms of fuels such as renewable fuels could be used in transportation and industrial operations, which are the main contributors to global warming with their resultant high carbon emissions.

Adequate government intervention is needed in providing incentives to the corporations responsible the large-scale emissions of carbon and sulphur in their entities. This could also be provided to the public to encourage them to adopt new measures, which would prove substantially helpful in mitigation and curbing the effects and spread of global warming.

Some initiatives, which could curb global warming, can only be implemented by the government given the need for a large amount of resources to initiate such products. For example, the development of new power plants, which rely on thermal or solar power for generation of electricity, could be termed as expensive. Hence, it is difficult for individual corporations to engage in such activities without the funding and support from the governments and its agencies (Philander, 2008).

Recommendations:

On the other hand, other approaches such as the development of new fuels could provide corporations with cheaper fuel for operations of their various production processes as well as providing the public with new cheap and accessible forms of fuel for domestic and public applications. Essentially this would provide governments with the much-needed revenue accrued from taxes of the products. In addition, employees in new entities would also be tasked with the remittance of individual taxes based on incomes accrued. In the past, the aspect of global warming and environmental changes was not evident given that the pace and effects of industrialization were not pronounced in comparison to the present day. Main initiatives, which were used to reduce what, was termed as environmental pollution was the planting of trees to ensure that there was additional supply of oxygen in the air and the reduction of carbon by the trees and other plants.

Energy is the main driver of economies, industries, homes and the world in general. Hence, it is a widely consumed commodity. The demand for energy has been on the rise in recent years all of which is attributable to increased populations, as well as the aspect of globalization and industrialization. Solar energy is currently one of the best renewable sources of energy. This is because it mainly uses the sun’ rays which are then converted into electrical energy and supplied to the public for domestic and industrial purposes. The energy emitted form the rays of the sun could provide the world with the largest source of electrical energy for power transport means such as vehicles and locomotives (Archer, 2007).

Transport and industries are the largest polluters in the world. This is mainly due to the use of fossil fuels. Hence, new fuels or means of powering machines could be adopted such as biodegradable fuels made from waste matter or plants. Such products have been in use around the world even though on a small scale.

New polices could be adopted by governments on a national or international level to ensure the compliance with the measures for the development of new approaches to ensure the mitigation and curb of global warming and degradation of the environment. New policies could include renewable electricity standards. This would prompt entities involved in the production of electricity to source majority of their energy from renewable sources. Renewable energy generation would provide new employment to people as well as creating new avenues for revenue generation for the government as well as the entities involved.

In addition, governments could also ensure that there are incremental provisions in the fiscal budgets for the development of new programs and projects for clean energy production. Such investment even though greatly could only be provided by the government with the help of the private sector. It could provide an initiative in the provisions of renewable energy and provide the public with platforms for developing new ideas, which would prove beneficial to the world as well as in the fight to reduce global warming and environmental pollution(Archer, 2007)..

Governments in the institution of new policies could develop new approaches in building codes. Energy efficiency building is paramount in the modern society to ensure the development of new buildings based on the needs of the consumers. Efficient outlay of buildings would ensure minimal wastage of energy and the subsequent reduction in energy.

Incentives are aimed at encouraging new initiatives for adoption by the public as well as the private sectors. Cleaner fossil fuels could also be used to generate energy for institutions as well as localized communities. Single source fossil plants could be used to generate energy for the communities and provision of electricity to communities at cheaper prices in comparison to traditional sources of electricity (Bily, 2006).

It is essential for governments to establish programs, which would ensure the adoption of new lighting measures such as efficient lighting for public and domestic uses. This would result in the reduction of the energy consumed from other lighting means. In addition, the new forms of lighting would ensure the reduction in terms of the electricity consumed. Furthermore, this would also result in the reduction of the costs of production of electricity, as lower demand would translate to reduced production and the related costs of production of electricity (Philander, 2008).

New forms of energy production such as biodegradable fuels allow for extensive research into the development of better forms of fuels as well as innovative energy sources. Innovation is essential as it enables diversity in terms of the options, which would be availed for generation of electricity as well as fuels for transport and industrial operations. In addition, this could also result in the manufacture of new means of transport, which have low energy consumption rates as well as lower pricing making such products easily available to the public. Costs of purchase of energy efficient products are usually hindrances to ensuring large-scale consumption of such products and thus subsequent benefits to the environment and mitigation of global warming.

References

Archer, D. (2007). Global warming: Understanding the forecast. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

Bily, C. A. (2006). Global warming. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.

Philander, S. G. (2008). Encyclopedia of global warming and climate change. Los Angeles: SAGE.