Research Final Draft: Battling Global Warming…Winner Takes the World.

Battling Global Warming…Winner Takes the World.

Homes may be torn apart, lives may be lost, and the world may end. One question weighs heavily out in the open, will the sun really shine tomorrow? Global warming, although a slowly progressing process, still poses a threat to the environment in the form of temperature changes.  Even a single degree in temperature change can lead to worldly destruction.  It is extremely important that people across the globe learn the real toll global warming takes on our planet, and how the devastating effects will last for many decades to pass until finally Earth becomes unable to provide for the needs of it’s inhabitors.  Something as serious as global warming has been proven over and over again to potentially cause numerous devastating events. Simply put, global warming can no longer be ignored; the human race depends on it.  Although global warming is not an immediate threat, extreme temperature changes cause the environment to become less able to sustain certain species of life because of the spread of climate-sensitive diseases, a decrease in natural habitat,  and an increasing number of weather-related catastrophes.

Increasing temperatures pose an immense problem when it comes to the topic of climate-sensitive diseases. To begin with, climate-sensitive diseases are diseases in which the temperature effects different variables of the disease such as the spread of the disease, whether or not it is reoccurring, and how long the disease will last.  A typical example of the effect of global warming on a climate-sensitive disease can be demonstrated with influenza.  The flu is generally a winter-existing disease in North America however, in a tropical climate influenza is present all year round.  With minor temperature increases, many areas in North America will have environmental changes quite similar to those of the tropics and thus, influenza all year round!  As for the unfortunate souls living in flooded areas, evacuation methods force families into overly crowded and unsanitary conditions prone to mold and disease carrying insects (Manning, 2007).  The more flooding that occurs, the higher the risk of malaria carried by mosquitos.  In the other corner of the court, drought brings with it many respitory diseases such as asthma due to increasing winds formed over warm bodies of water that transport sand particles caused by the drought as well as large amounts of pollen collected from the augmented plant life (NWF, 2011). An increase in temperature will also make consumable foods more susceptibile to diseases as well as increasingly difficult to remove from food products. Not only will humans be affected by the spread of diseases through food, but rodents will be amongst the first hosts to pick up the diseases and spread them at a very quick pace (Ebi, Grambsch, Mills, & Smith, 2006).

As if health problems weren’t a big enough problem, global warming is also placing an attack on the environment!  Warming temperatures are melting ice caps which serves as the natural habitat that many species of life thrive in.  Polar bears and penguins are feeling the extreme effects of the melting habitat first hand, but the second hand reprocussions are just as serious.  Melting ice caps are causing the sea level to rise which is putting large amounts of land habitat literally under water (Climate Institute, 2010).  Global warming is taking the Earth from one extreme to the other. Drought is causing animal species to migrate to water, while flooding is causing many species to migrate to dry land.  Also, warmer waters are the cause for coral bleaching, which kills the corals.  Coral reefs are a huge part of marine biology, and a habitat to numerous species of fish and other marine life.  Without the coral reefs, even the smallest of marine species such as mollusks and reef fish would die, thinking about it from a local perspective, mollusks feed anywhere between thirty and forty million people every single year.  Fishing for these marine habitants is a lifestyle for many people around the world, this is just one example of how quickly the negative chain effect of global warming can quickly devastate many different enviroments in a very wide range.    Droughts caused by global warming may dry upwards of ninety percent of the Earth’s wetlands which serve as breeding grounds for migrating animals (NWF, 2011).

After numerous testing has been performed on different regions of the planet, it is proven that geographical features may play a distinct role in the vulnerability of a specific environment (Hattermann, Levermann, 2010).  Tropical regions are of some of the worst environments that are likely to be affected by global warming (Laurance, Carolina, Useche, Shoo, Herzog, Kessler, Escobar, Del Coro Arizmendi, 2011). To begin with, tropical species are adapt to limited variation in their temperatures as well as geographic seasons. Also, species that live in the tropical habitats are often limited on their “cool refuges,” therefore an average rise in temperature at the rate in which its happening, may pose a deadly threat (Muller-Landau, Schipper,  & Wright, 2009). In addition, tropical environments provide roughly fifty percent of the streams, rivers and other bodies of water that are present on land which empty into the ocean (Schmidt, 2010).  These on-land water sources not only support hundreds of different species of vegetation and animals on land, but they also support all the underwater marine life as well. Realizing that those environments are the ones most vulnerable to global warming, and what the destruction of such a crucial part of the globe would cause, is reason enough to think twice before carelessly emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Shepardson, Niyogi, Soyoung, Charusombat, 2011).  All it would take is one catastrophic attack of global warming upon the tropics to set an imbalance all over the world.  But surely, not just the tropical environments are being effected.

With numbers of people ranging in the tens of thousands now being effected by tropical cyclones, global warming threatens lives all across the globe. With both an increase the the rise of sea level as well as the intensifying hurricanes errupting all over the world, the real issue of weather-related catastrophes has now arrived with a bang (Mousavi, Irish, Frey, Olivera, & Edge, 2011).  True, weather-related catastrophes has caused destruction since the beginning of time, but in this day and age with the resources readily availiable for extensive testing and research, it is apparent that the disasters are getting increasingly worse as time goes on. Researchers have linked global warming to thousands of disasters all showing a similar trend that thinks them all together, this trend is called global warming!  Storms are gaining strength and the wrath of the ocean is a real force to be reckoned with. Suffering and panic are evident, and one can only hope that the real life examples of the power of mother nature can serve as an eye opener showing the need for change.

Drought in Russia sheds a small amount of light on how serious major natural disasters can truely be.  The heat wave that is currently taking over the Russian climate has cost their citizens at least fifteen-thousand lives and fifteen billion dollars due to the lack of water and the extensive fire damage (Foxx, 2010).  The small country of Pakistan has also dealt with serious consequences caused by flooding in the region.  With fifteen hundred lives lost and 3.5 million children facing disease caused by the unsanitary environmental conditions that exist after a flood, people in Pakistan have also paid the ultimate price.  China has also spent billions recovering from the flood conditions as well as successfully evacuating their people to safety while  in Guatemala, a sinkhole caused by increased precipitation undoubtedly sank a whole entire building in one gulp from the infamous sinkholes littered around numerous continents by the storms (Romm, 2011).

Across the globe, many view global warming as an illegitimate threat created to be a proposterous thought used to persuade people into buying expensive environmentally safe products, but in all reality, if research is performed, statistics will prove quite the opposite. From hurricane Katrina to the melting arctic, this planet is slowly being destroyed. The common factor in these disasters as well as countless others…global warming. Scientists have dedicated their lives to showing humans the destruction that has been caused by the careless actions which have begun obliterate the planet, and their work has not gone in vain (Westmoreland, 2010). Articles and books galore document the links between global warming and its negative effects on the planet, and for anyone that is willing to take a look, the resources are indefinitely availiable.

So what can be done to help fix the tremendously important problem of global warming? If everyone was to research on the topic and come to an understanding on how their everyday products affect the environment, then each individual would be able to proactively do their part to save it. Everyday tools ranging from household cleaners all the way to the automobiles used for transportation, modern research is coming out with resources that are both more effecient as well as better for the environment. Simply choosing to walk the mile and a half to the grocery store and using paper bags instead of plastic is a good way to reduce the poisenous greenhouse gas emissions that pollute society and create holes in the ozone layer. Another environmentally friendly tactic is to plant trees. As a general rule, everybody uses products that are in some way made from trees, planting a tree to replace those that have been destroyed by the effects of global warming is a good way to increase natural habitat needed for all aspects of life (Amram & Kulatilaka, 2009).  Another way that the public can actively get involved is to make it increasingly difficult for large production companies to create adverse amounts of greenhouse gas emissions by tightening the regulation allowing only certain amounts  of emissions to be produced (Air Pollution Consultant, 2011).   Whatever the chosen method, go the extra mile, take that one last step! Every little bit helps when it comes to fighting this deadly force!

Research has proven itself worthy of concern, global warming is real and its happening at this very moment! Earth has served mankind well since the beginning of existance, but now it is time for humans to join in the fight and do what is necessary to ensure the planet remains sustainable. Nature is no longer able to compete with the destructive actions of humans and its time to make a stand. The world is succumbing to the ever changing negative affects that global warming is responsible for.  Until actions are taken to resolve the cause of global warming, the temperature will continue to rise.  A single degree in temperature has the ability to destroy billions of lives.  Global warming may be a slow process, but evolution is an even slower process.  With the Earth unable to sustain life, climate-sensitive diseases, the lack of natural habitat, and the increase in weather-related catastrophes will ultimately lead to the desecration of life as we know it.

References

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Amram, Martha, & Kulatilaka. (2009). The Invisible Green Hand: How Individual Decisions and Markets Can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. California Management Review,Vol. 51 Issue 2, p194-218

Climate Institute. Human Health. (2010). http://www.climate.org/topics/health.html.

Ebi, Kristie, Grambsch, Anne, Mills, David, & Smith Joel. (2006). Environmental Health Perspectives. Climate Change and Human Health Impacts in the United States: An Update on the Results of the U.S. National Assessment. Vol. 114 Issue 9, p1318-1324, 7p

Foxx, Michael. (2011). Weather Catastrophes Linked to Global Warming. http://www.guilfordian.com/world-nation/weather-catastrophes-linked-to-global-warming-1.1658838.

Hattermann, T., & Levermann, A. (2010). Response of Southern Ocean Circulation to Global Warming May Enhance Basal Ice Shelf Melting Around Antarctica. Climate Dynamics, 35(5), 741-756. doi:10.1007/s00382-009-0643-3

Laurance, W. F., Carolina Useche, D. D., Shoo, L. P., Herzog, S. K., Kessler, M., Escobar, F., & … del Coro Arizmendi, M. M. (2011). Global Warming, Elevational Ranges and the Vulnerability of Tropical Biota. Biological Conservation, 144(1), 548-557. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.10.010

Manning, Anita. (2011). USA Today.  http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2007-05-22-climate-change_N.htm.

Mousavi, M., Irish, J. L., Frey, A. E., Olivera, F., & Edge, B. L. (2011). Global warming and hurricanes: the potential impact of hurricane intensification and sea level rise on coastal flooding. Climatic Change, 104(3/4), 575-597. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9790-0

Muller-Landau, Helene C., Schipper, Jan, & Wright, Joseph. (2009). Conservation Biology. The Future of Tropical Species on a Warmer

Planet. Vol. 23 Issue 6, p1418-1426.

National Wildlife Federation. (2011). Effects on Wildlife and Habitat.  http://www.nwf.org/Global-Warming/Effects-on-Wildlife-and-Habitat.aspx.

Romm, Joe. (2011).  Climate Progress.  http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/04/munich-re-pielke-extreme-weather-damages-climate-change/.

Schmidt, C. W. (2010). A Closer Look at Climate Change Skepticism. Environmental Health Perspectives, 118(12), A536-A540. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Shepardson, D. P., Niyogi, D., Soyoung, C., & Charusombat, U. (2011). Students’ conceptions about the greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change. Climatic Change, 104(3/4), 481-507. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9786-9

Westmoreland, Joshua. (2010). Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review. Global Warming and Originalism: The Role of the EPA in the Obama Administration.  Vol. 37 Issue 1, p225-256, 32p

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