What happens when too much carbon dioxide gets omitted into the Earth’s
atmosphere? The condition known as Global Warming occurs. Global Warming is the
rising of the Earth’s surface temperature due to chemicals in the atmosphere.
Global Warming has many threats on the climate and even the health of the people
on this planet. Some of these threats include the altering of crop seasons and
even effect the way organisms survive on the planet. The first thing I think I
should discuss when talking about global warming is what causes it to occur.
Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are known as
greenhouse gases, all build up in the atmosphere of the earth. All these gases
make it so that it becomes harder for the radiation that the sun shines into the
atmosphere to escape. The heat continues to build up and this is what causes the
temperatures to increase. I know this seems like the temperatures increase
massively but in the last hundred years the average temperature of the Earth has
gone up between 0.8 and 1.0 degrees farenheight. Also in the last fifteen years,
we have had the ten warmest years in record. Global Warming also helps the Earth
and it has been for many years. Without global warming, the Earth’s
temperature would be a lot lower than the 60-degree average. Unfortunately due
to there being many more harmful “greenhouse gases” being placed into the
atmosphere, instead of the temperature staying at a constant, its rising. What
are many of the dangers of the Earth’s temperature rising? First of all it
cause many of the glaciers that are floating in the Arctic and Greenland to
melt. This in turn causes the sea levels to rise around the world. In the last
hundred years alone the seas around the planet have risen anywhere from four to
ten inches. I know it does not sound like a massive change but being able to
raise all the seas in the world a whole ten inches is a huge problem. Sea levels
also continue to rise is because the hotter temperature cause the ocean water to
expand. An example of the sea level causing problems could happen on a little
Native Island in the middle of an Ocean. On these islands usually where native
tribes live, if the sea level rises three fourths of a meter then half of the
island will sink. This could happen in many different islands around the world
and if the water keeps on rising as it is, then farming land near the seashores
will be flooded and the crops will be destroyed and many farmers will be left
without much to live off of. The melting of the glaciers are also causing some
problems in the Himalayas. Many of the tips of the mountain’s in that area.
Massive flooding and rivers that are well above their normal levels are
threatening the crops and homes in the area. Many of the locals that live in the
area and many of the scientists that are surveying the area are saying that the
glaciers are melting at a phenomenal rate. Another danger that comes with the
changing of the climate is that the increased heat causes more evaporation to
occur in the hotter climates. This causes there to be more precipitation in many
other climates that are not used to handling massive rainfalls. The increased
rainfall also leads to speeding up the process of the sea levels rising. Health
is also something that becomes threatened because of global warming. Heat
becomes a huge factor in the health of humans, especially the elderly. Incidents
such as heat stroke head exhaustion and diseases increase drastically. The heat
makes it possible for mosquitoes and other insects to transmit diseases. This is
something that happened in New York during this summer. A very rare disease
called St. Louis Emphyitis (spelling?) that would spread in puddles of water
that mosquitoes would drink out of due to the heat. These mosquitoes would then
bite humans and infect them with this disease. I don’t recall how many people,
if any died due to this, but it did cause a bit of a panic in the New York
Metropolitan area. Heat is not the only weather problem. Global Warming doesn't
only increase temperatures in hot areas. It also decreases temperatures in cold
areas. An example of this has been the cold spell that struck the Midwest. In
Montana, temperatures plummeted to 30 degrees below and stayed there. The
coldest weather ever recorded plagued our country's heart for over three weeks
and still hasn't returned too normal. A related incident has been the blizzards
of the East Coast. Some places in New York State got over twenty feet of snow.
So what is in store for Earth in the future? Possible nothing. There are many
people that believe global warming is nothing more than the normal rise of
temperature around the world. So if this is the case, we have nothing to really
worry about. Unfortunately, this scenario of normal raise in temperature might
not be the case. If it isn’t, Scientists estimate that the global temperature
will rise between five and nine degrees by the middle of the 21st century
accompanied by a sea-level rise of one to four feet. Once the temperature
reaches a certain threshold, the polar ice caps will began to melt. While those
living in the Arctic may find that a nice surprise, the implications for the
rest of the world are serious. Even a partial melting of the polar ice caps will
cause sea levels to rise so much as to completely wipe out most coastal cities.
This includes such big cities such as San Francisco and New York. Those cities
that are not totally wiped out by the water will eventually be hit with
hurricanes much more severe than any other one in history. Of course, inland
cities are not safe either. Rather than surging seawaters and hurricanes, they
will face drought. So what can be done in order to keep from all of that from
happening? We need to stop putting so much pollution in to the air. No matter
what there will always be a little bit of Carbon Dioxide omitted into the
atmosphere. If we could just limit all the coal and fossil fuels that we burn,
there will not be so much “greenhouse gases” and it would keep all of that
from happening so quickly. There have also been many attempts by the United
States Presidents Administrations in order to help slow down the effect. In my
lifetime I know that I won’t see anything too drastic happen due to global
warming, but there is a chance that my children and grandchildren will.