Is the Threat of Global Warming Real?
Introduction
Global warming is the continuous rise of temperature as a result of greenhouse effect. The extreme rise in temperature has been caused by human activities. Even though global warming has been in existence since the earlier periods, its effects are more felt after the industrialization era. The observed human influences which mostly contribute to global warming include the release of greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. Global warming is closely related to climate change in that they are both influenced by human activities and one of the effects of global warming is climate change. The greenhouse effect happens when air pollutants and other greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere, they prevent escape of radiation into the space and instead absorb the heat that bounces back onto the earth’s surface. The pollutants are capable of staying for centuries in the atmosphere causing the earth to get warmer with each year. Despite the initiatives taken to prevent global warming such as advocacy for clean energy use and clean power plan, the threat of global warming is real as it causes extreme weather conditions, health effects, climate change, melting glaciers, wildlife extinction, higher sea levels, and dirtier air.
The Threat of Global Warming
According to most climatic scientists, global warming is the major threat towards human health and increased death rates in the 21st century. The threat affects everyone especially children, the elderly, low-incomers, and the minorities either directly or indirectly. The low-incomers are faced with more hot days than usual whilst they cannot afford air-conditioning. The young ones and the elderly are at the risk of developing skin diseases because of their fragile skin. For instance, skin cancer is a threat to everyone, whether young or old (Egan & Mullin, (2012). The United States has recorded a huge number of deaths related to extreme temperatures each year. Some of the major life-threatening illnesses as a result of global warming include cardiovascular, heatstroke, kidney diseases, and even heat exhaustion. When compared to earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, heat effects tend to cause more deaths. Allergies and other infectious diseases are emerging rapidly due to higher levels of pollution and the increased growth of “pollen-producing ragweeds”. The spread of conditions favorable to mosquitoes is also a contributing factor to diseases such as malaria that causes the high number of death rates.
Climate change results in changing seasons; drought is being experienced at a higher rate when compared to the rainy seasons. For instance, historically there are specific months which were consistently rainy months followed by warm months. Winter, summer, spring, and autumn have also been disrupted causing people to have disrupted working schedules. The earth is hotter instead of being warmer for favorable agricultural activities. When agriculture is affected, human survival is also affected in terms of lack of enough food for future use. This also explains why people are turning into chemically-manufactured foods and a lot of junk food. Chemical foods are also causing side effects on humans such as obesity and other related diseases such as high blood pressure (Fisher, et a,l 2015).
Increased temperatures are causing higher sea levels as a result of the melting ice. The regions which are vulnerable to the heating atmosphere are mostly the Polar Regions and the arctic areas. In these regions, temperatures are raising twice as much as compared on other parts of the earth causing the ice sheets to melt extremely fast. Rising sea levels causes great consequences for the people, plants, and the animals. According to the scientists and researchers of global warming effects, it is expected that the oceans might have risen by one to four feet come 2100. The effect presents major effects not only for the coastal regions but also for the low-lying regions. The entire island nations, the largest cities such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Mumbai are all in danger of rising sea levels. Pumping polluted air into the atmosphere has resulted into such a frightening future and it might be too late to turn back. In addition to fluctuating sea levels, the oceans are becoming more acidic due to absorption of the excess emissions. Acidification is also a threat the sea animals especially creatures with shells, skeletons, crabs and corals as well. For example, the 2015 acidification of the oceans is believed to have cost the Pacific Northwest Oyster industry approximately $100 million. Coastal communities also claim that the harvest of clams, oysters and other sea food animals are facing some serious economic risks.
Plant and wildlife extinction rate has increased as a result of the extreme temperatures. As the land and the sea are experiencing increased levels of heat, the humans and the animals that inhabit the areas are disappearing completely as they cannot adapt quickly to the rapid changes. Some of the animals are surviving like the humans but the sea animals and some other land animals are dying due to climatic change. Climatic change has led to disruption of habitats such as Alpine meadows, coral reefs, an effect that could lead to plant and animal extinction. Some of the animals have tried to shift their geographic locations into cooler areas in an attempt to escape extreme heat. The animals have also been forced to change their seasonal behaviors and earlier migration patterns as surviving strategies. Despite the effort to try to adapt to the changing climate, most animals are still facing extinction. For example a lot of birds are nesting, breeding, and forced to migrate even before the spring seasons. Some animals such as the American Pika, Polar bear, Snow leopard, and Musk ox have all gone extinct and we do not hear of them anymore (Munday, McCormick & Nilsson, (2012). It is so sad that these animals that serve as tourist attractions and are part of the nature’s beauty are gone for good because of something that can be controlled. If humans could only adapt to better sources of energy and avoid emission of greenhouse gases, these extreme effects could be avoidable.
Extreme temperatures are worsening air pollution through increased ground level ozone which appears as a result of pollution from cars, manufacturing industries, and factories reacting with heat and sunlight. The ground-level zone is also the major cause of smog which happens the hotter it gets. The air therefore gets dirt as a result of pollution from gas emissions and also hospital admission rates. When people breathe the dirty air, they are likely to have serious health effects which might even lead to death. For example asthma is one of the major diseases caused through air pollution and results increased rates of hospital admissions, transmission to other people, and higher mortality rates.
The extreme temperatures have increased the rate of melting glaciers and its effects are severe droughts. When the snow melts, not only does it increase the sea levels but it causes dryness on the land that it may land on due to the extreme coldness of the ice. A while ago, when ice-melting used to happen as a result of normal temperature changes, it was seen as a normal process as it could even provide water to the surrounding people (Obbard, et al, 2014). However, after global warming, melting of the glacier is very abnormal and happens at an exaggerated rate. It is clear that ice or extreme coldness does not support crop-growing and makes the land very dry to support any agricultural activity. Melting of the glacier also poses the threat of dramatic water shortages in the future.
The extreme temperatures are resulting in severe weather in terms of worsening storms, waves, droughts, floods, and the normal heat. The heat has resulted into an atmosphere that can gather, retain, and release more water hence changing weather patterns in a manner that dry regions become drier and wet areas become wetter. The weather changes are causing major financial constraints as countries spend a lot trying to curb the effects. For instance, the United States spends approximately $1 billion each year to reduce the effects of climatic disasters. In the year 2015, there were approximately 10 weather disaster events which had to be addressed. The rate of increasing storms and floods poses dangers for human health and safety.
Conclusion
Global warming is one of the major effects of greenhouse gas emission and poses more threats to the world than any other world calamity. The major threats that are causing countries to spend billions of dollars each year are the health effects, plant and animal extinction, drought, severe weather conditions, melting of the glacier, and raised sea levels. Extreme weather conditions affect human health and safety. Some of the major health conditions as a result of global warming include skin cancer, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases. Everyone needs to work together with other climatic-concerned organizations to reduce the effect of global warming because it is expected to become more severe in future if measures will not be taken.