Global Warming

Sagintayeva Assel; ID 20110648

Opinion Essay (Draft)

Global Warming

     Despite a continuing development in standard of living, many people believe that the improvements cause damage to our environment; especially they have resulted in global warming. Global warming is an issue which often generates a great trouble of the whole world’s people. Since the Industrial Revolution, the earth’s atmosphere has started to warm up rapidly. The air quality of the atmosphere has suffered drastic changes that caused from pollution, toxic wastes into ocean and harmful gases. Personally, I think that these causes of global warming are so dangerous in the world’s environment, for that reason, we, the people, should take more action towards the problem before it is too late.

     Firstly, global warming is referenced to an average increase of the Earth temperature, which in one’s turns leads to changes in climate globally. According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on Global Warming, this global average temperature is forecast to rise 4°C (7.2 °F) on the occasion of the end of the 21^st century. However, the total global temperature increase, for instance, from the 1850s to 2005 is 0.76°C (1.36°F)(http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/global-temperature.html). In addition, introduction of machines, from the time when the Industrial Revolution, have changed the way of life people lived. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activity just released very few gases into the atmosphere, but nowadays people are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning and deforestation.

     Next, it should also be considered that pollution is another cause of global warming. In particular cars and power plants produce harmful gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which will build up into the atmosphere, for instance, CO2 is being pumped into the atmosphere at an insane pace since 8 billion tons of CO2 entered into the air at the year 2010 (http://globalwarming.com/2009/03/causes-of-global-warming/). So, the built up gases in the atmosphere can also increase the temperature of the Earth that then could endanger plants, cause wild weather patterns or effect on land formations. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) research on power plants, power plants are one of the largest producers of pollution. For example, turning on the television, using the washer or even turning on a light can lead to more greenhouse gases since they use electricity, which originate from power plants (http://www.epa.gov/airquality/powerplanttoxics/). The vapours of power plants are formed from the burning of fossil fuels, which are released into the atmosphere. What is more that there are no inventions to make fossil fuel vapours to be more friendly to the environment. Furthermore, today, millions of cars driven each day, many harmful toxins are released from the cars exhaust. The huge amount of gases released from cars can cause harmful effects to the environment and to health, namely it can lead to breathing problems mainly for older people since their lungs are usually weaker. Like power plants, cars are only small versions of power plants, but with so many of them being driven, it could be worse than power plants.

     A further common cause of global warming is wastes. Usually non-environmental groups dump wastes into lakes and oceans, in a consequence they pollute an area and misbalance the ecosystem. This can cause a problem because wastes could release dangerous materials that could be radioactive or very harmful that can cause people to be sick. Moreover, the trash that we send to landfills produces a greenhouse gas called methane. Like power plants and cars, trash can be very harmful in the build up of the greenhouse effect. Since trash and wastes are getting overcrowded in landfills it could lead to trouble in the near future. In spite of storing the wastes, there are other ways of shortening the load of trash, namely by recycling. Recycling is the process of reusing waste to make a new material. However, recycling can also be dangerous. For example, recycling wastes to create fertilizer on plants can harm farmers and ruin agriculture. The new material in these wastes is very harmful because it could be contaminated with unnatural substances.

     Finally, destroying nature can also shorten the lifespan of the Earth. Deforestation is the process of cutting down trees, which could disturb the ecosystem or the environment. Since trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, cutting down the trees would only result in climate changes. Due to deforestation and global warming, the shift of climate change dries up the soil, which would be impossible to grow anything. This is how deserts are created. On the other hand by doing the opposite, planting trees would help the environment since it removes carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas. Regulating tree cutting companies would slow down the process of deforestation. However, it is still a problem because wood is very high in demand for housing and construction.

     Taking everything into consideration, I therefore conclude that global warming effects on destroying thousands of homes by floods and creates new diseases. Global warming effects do not just change the temperatures; they can lead to the change of weather patterns and the rise of sea levels. So, if we, the people do not help the environment now, our planet will not exist in the near future. It is important that the people should understand that harming the planet to a high degree can cause the extinction of the Earth. Rise of temperature, change in weather patterns, toxic wastes building up in the air are very dangerous. If we want to survive on this planet in the future, we must act now before it is too late. Steps need to be taken to cut back and slow down global warming until newer technology can alter and to help the longevity of our world.