We must solve the Global Warming crisis

Through the last century, industrialization has revolutionized the world, in all aspects of life. While this has had its benefits, it has also created a world that is almost entirely dependent on fossil fuel. It caused one of the biggest problem on earth known as global warming. The effects have been seen all over the world, and quickly became a major topic of concern. This issue has been fueling controversy all over the news and in the current presidential debate.

Global warming is the rise of the earth’s temperature on the earth’s surface. It is caused by the release of a gas known as carbon dioxide. It is released by the use of man-made fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and naturals gasses. Carbon dioxide traps heat inside the earth’s atmosphere that would usually be in outer space. As the earth’s surface heats it becomes too warm to live in and many people, animals and plants will suffer. (EPA) The earth’s temperature naturally changes over the years, but over the last half of century, the record high temperatures drastically increased. Scientists have even warned us that in the last ten years we have had record high temperatures, which means the average temperatures in the United States could increase up to nine degrees. (NDRC) 

Major consequences of global warming that scientists have noticed are the hurricanes, tropical storms, drought, and floods. Every year, the US and countries around the globe get hit by hurricanes and tropical storms, but during the last five years their damages have really increased. Global warming makes the ocean water warmer, which makes the storms much more powerful. Another frightening effect of global warming is the rising of the sea level. Scientists have discovered that this could eventually lead to coastal flooding. Areas in the United States that could be heavily affected are all of the eastern sea board, areas of Gulf of Mexico, and almost all of Florida. A beautiful place like the Florida Keys could soon be underground if we do not put a stop to this. (NRDC) Couples islands will disappear in the next 50 years. Population living on the coast in Bengladesh have been forced to relocate due to the sea level rise. The rapid melting of ice is also a consequence of global warming. When the ice is melting and flouting, it affects animals’ survival. Polar bear researchers predict that the number of bears will decline almost by 30 percent in the following 35 to 50 years. (Harden) Nature has means of restoring and repairing itself, much like a wound that the body heals. But too much is too much.

Science is making great leaps and advances towards predicting future correlations between nature and human events. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere once again exceeded 400 parts per million Monday November 9, 2015, but this time they may never fall back down, according to scientists…While not a tipping point that signals climate catastrophe, the 400 ppm mark is an important symbolic threshold in the fight against climate change. It represents a 43 percent jump in greenhouse gases since pre-industrial times and underscores governments' inaction and worsening global warming impacts. (Bagley) At this level, we will assist to the worst case scenario of catastrophes on the planet. This should be a serious matter for all candidates to the next presidential election. We unfortunately observe very indelicate ones refuting this evidence. They are trying to elaborate schemes that climate change is a scam in order to secure electoral financing by powerful lobbies. We cannot cheat with the nature. Man-made disruptions on nature have finally taken its toll and are coming back to haunt us. We must accept the truth and do something now. Sacrifices we need to make range from giving up or reducing their use of various carbon dioxide products, to paying new taxes such as carbon taxes.

Our world is changing whether or not we want to admit it is our fault or not. It is evident that global warming has a profound impact on the earth we live on and each of our daily lives. The temperatures are increasing and so are our energy bills. We need to ease our earth’s pain of the threatening oil dependence. We must commit ourselves to constantly researching energy and environmental impacts of energy to come up with innovative information. Policies need to be thought of, created, passed, and put into action properly. It will be necessary to create a sustainable environment and economy for the US. We owe something to future generations in terms of conducting energy and environmental research and coming up with various energy policies that are forward thinking. To people already disproportionally affected by global warming, we owe constant research and effort to show that we will be helping them and helping to mitigate global warming impacts in the future. "For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods—all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that super storm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science and act before it’s too late." (President Barack Obama)

Works Cited

Bagley, Katherine. "As CO2 Passes 400 PPM, What Goes Up Might Not Come Down." As CO2 Passes 400 PPM, What Goes Up Might Not Come Down. Insideclimate News, 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.

EPA. "Greenhouse Effect, Climate Change." Global Warming: what it is. 23 Oct. 2006. 4 Oct. 2008.

Harden, Blaine. "Global warming threatens polar bears." Global warming threatens polar bears. 5 July 2005. 3 Oct. 2008.

NRDC. "Issues: Global Warming." Global Warming Basics. 2 July 2007. 4 Oct. 2008.

USA. White House. Briefing Room. Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address. By Barack Obama. Briefing Room, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.