Global Warming and You
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Global Warming and You

Climate change is happening

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Global Warming and You
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Did you know that the current carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are the highest they’ve every been in the last eight hundred thousand year’s? That’s four hundred parts of CO2 per one million air molecules according to Live Science a website based out of New York, New York. What is CO2 you might be asking? CO2 stands for carbon dioxide which is a very important life sustaining chemical compound found naturally in small amounts on earth which keeps our planet habatible for all life. The CO2 that needs your attention is the extremely large amount humans are making every second causing our planet to warm up at unimaginable rates and also causing horrible effects all over the earth.

Global warming and climate change is an ever-growing issue that is affecting everyone and everything no matter where you are located. British Broadcast Channel (BBC) states that global warming was first brought into focus by a Swedish chemist named Svante Arrhenius in 1896. He suggested that the burning of coal would in fact enhance the natural greenhouse effect causing the warming of the planet. Around 1938 a British engineer named Guy Callendar gathered weather records from 147 countries around the world and studied them to conclude that the average temperature had risen over the previous century’s. Callendar also showed that the CO2 concentrations had increased over the same timeframe. With these two early accounts of global warming and climate change provided by BBC we fast forward to current data and technology showing that the main cause of climate change is due to humans and our use of damaging technology such as fossil fuels. The top three contributors to the “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions” are electrical and heat production, agricultural land use, and industry.

Research presented by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate change will cause the largest negative effects for our planet. The average increased temperature rise “will have additional, far-reaching effects on the planet. Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies coastal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some regions, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of some infectious diseases. Some of these changes are already occurring.” The most noticeable changes in my opinion to our weather are seen in our landscape, because the effects can be seen easiest with longer and more frequent storms, floods, and droughts. Rising sea levels is another major concern that needs more attention than most because in a century or two the sea level could rise up to three meters. According to Climate Central, if the oceans raised up ten feet the continental United States would lose 28,800 square miles where a staggering 12.3 million people live today. Of these 28,800 square miles, 32,00 miles of roads will be lost and an unbelievable $950 billion dollars of property sit on the affected land in the state of Florida alone. The most affected U.S. city to this rise of sea water will be New York City. Around 700,000 residents who live near the coast in New York City will be affected. In other areas of the United States they are seeing a very intense long lasting drought and other extreme storms. “At the peak of the 2012 drought, an astounding 81 percent of the contiguous United States was under at least abnormally dry conditions, resulting in an estimated $30 billion in damages”. Data retrieved by the EPA suggests that from 1980 to 2012 the United States has been affected by approximately 790 weather and climate disasters costing at least one billion dollars in damages. Hopefully the information gathered from the above sources has opened your eyes and informed you on the terrible effects of global warming on our planet.

Now you might be asking yourself with all the information out there showing the negative effects caused by global warming why are the masses not up in arms to do something about it? According to Gallop, a news and research company, when asking Americans if they worried a great deal about global warming the response was that only forty five percent of participants were worried and sixteen percent had no worries at all about global warming. So all this study shows us is that Americans are not concerned enough to believe this will affect them, or are ready to make changes in their daily lives to fix the issue. According to a new report presented by National Geographic by the year 2060 many countries on the earth will be subject to a crippling heat that will be lethal to the young, old, and sick. Even with this information presented by National Geographic and many others a total of 36% of polled people in the U.S. either don’t believe global warming is an issue or believe the threat of global warming will not affect them in their lifetime. The only way to change the opinions of the masses is to ensure that our current generations are informed and that future generations are educated at a younger age and are continuing to receive new information on what is currently happening to our planet so that they may make a conscious effort to change. We must find a way to present this information about global warming and the things every individual can do to improve our situation. Such as incorporate data found by reputable resources to be presented in the media, online, radio, and even possible producing short videos in place of commercials during important or popular shows.

Did you know one of the easiest ways for a family or individual to reduce their carbon footprint is to recycle, reuse, and reduce the things they toss in the garbage? According to Recycling Revolution, “the average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail”. If you think about how much paper each individual could save if only he or she would recycle we could save millions even billions of trees every year from being cut down to create new paper and other wood based products. If everyone started and continued to recycle and made it a daily routine less new material would be made causing our current levels of carbon dioxide to be consumed by those trees left standing helping our global warming issue.

A few other simple examples we can do to lighten our carbon footprint is to take a city bus, subway, car pool, or even invest in solar panels for your house. On average, according to Smarter Living if you and one other person drove to work together every day for a week you would save 1.9 tons of CO2 per year. Now if you were to ride the city bus for your transit to and from work you would save a total of 2.9 tons of CO2 per year. Solar panels are also a great way to reduce your homes energy use. Installing a 5-kilowatt solar panel system on your roof would reduce your carbon emissions by 4.9 metric tons a year.

The damage that has been done to the earth is irreversible. Based on the nature of carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels (gas, oil) it accumulates in the atmosphere and traps heat resulting in the rise of global temperature. It takes millions of years for carbon dioxide to be used up and formed into limestone. At the rate that humanity is using energy this amount will never decrease. It will either remain constant or increase if we do not make a change in how we use our resources to slow the rate of global warming. So now I ask you, will you do your part or will you do nothing and watch our planet perish into oblivion?
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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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