While the problem of global warming seems to be an intractable dilemma of the modern world and the subject of numerous research articles and books, our society keeps being rather passive about the deadly human causes of the unprecedented increase in the temperatures on the planet Earth. One of the major reasons is that huge transnational corporations, reaping enormous profits of undeniably ecologically disruptive capitalist overproduction, spend literally millions of dollars to make people believes that the human activity is not that bad for the climate and that that the upcoming climate change is rather a distant future. Yet, more and more people start asking themselves what the real causes of the global warming are and how to halt them. THESIS STATEMENT: Global warming is a result of humans’ faults. It developed through human pollution of the atmosphere by carbon dioxide and clearing forests. It can only be halted if humans refuse from the fossil fuels, find alternative ways of energy, develop consistent anti-pollution policies, and commit themselves to planting vast areas of forests, which will soak up CO2.
Global warming is a direct result of humans’ faults. Researchers agree that human activity drove most warming that was fixed in the past century. These findings were confirmed by a landmark 2001 report delivered at the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Appenzeller & Dimick, 2004, par 8). Specifically, it was declared that neither of the natural forces, such as slow sun flickers or occasional volcanic eruptions, may well explain the fact that temperatures are shooting up and all this warming is taking place. Moreover, human activity that results in the rising levels of carbon dioxide and mercury is believed to “fiddle with the global thermostat” (Appenzeller & Dimick, 2004, par 9).
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They key contributors to global warming are human pollution of the atmosphere by carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, and clearing of forests. Battersby (2012, par 2) relates the fact that the climate change “is already upon us” to emissions of carbon dioxide on the global level. He also notes that other greenhouse gases contribute to CO2 increase in the atmosphere, “promising far worse to come”. The impact of global greenhouse emissions is so heavy that the temperatures on our planet would still be rising for the following decades even if the humanity stopped all these emissions now. Needless to say, consequences are going to be catastrophic. They will range from drought-caused famines to floods due to rapid rises in the sea level because of melting ice (Battersby, 2012, par 18). Besides, forest clearing has contributed to the global warming greatly. According to Appenzeller & Dimick (2004, par 7), “For centuries we’ve been clearing forests and burning coal, oil, and gas, pouring carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere faster than plants and oceans can soak them up.”
Considering what has been said above, humans need to stop the process of global warming by “curbing their appetite for the fossil fuels”, find alternative ways of energy, develop consistent anti-pollution policies, and commit themselves to planting vast areas of forests, which will soak up CO2 (Appenzeller & Dimick, 2004, par 1). For a start, humans should stop using fossil fuels which pollute the atmosphere and make heatwaves very intense (Battersby, 2012, par 2). In order to make it realistic, alternative sources of energy should be sought. Alaina Levine (2013, par 1) in her article “An Astronomer’s Solution to Global Warming” examines the efforts of the modern U.S. astronomer Roger Angel to utilize the power of the sun by capturing it through the use of an innovative technology initially designated for telescopes. The Laureate of Kavli Prize for Astrophysics has devoted much time to exploring how his famous telescope mirrors can be used in order to harness the sun’s power and produce energy that will be clean. Professor Angel’s efforts to use the energy of the sun go along with the on-going research into the use of photovoltaic cells, which capture the rays of the sun and convert the solar energy into electricity. However, Angel has developed the technology which is far more innovative due to its minimal use of iron and steel, and a cooling system that is built following the principles of the ones used to cool automobile engines and computer chips. While Angel’s and other systems are yet to be improved until they can be effectively used on a large scale, these developments will expectedly cause an overturn of traditional fossil fuels energy sources, which may be an effective way to halt the global warming.
Another way to halt and possibly reverse the global warming is to designate effective policies on the national level for every country, especially for highly industrialized countries of the West and some Asian countries like China and India, etc. For example, before 2008 a policy related to global warming was developed that was supposed to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations found within the atmosphere. The policy required that advanced nations reduce their greenhouse emissions by as little as 5% within the period from 2008 to 2010. Yet, the developed countries did not comply and the policy failed (International Environmental Agreements and Associations, 2013, p.218). Similarly, current Obama’s stealth war is a mark of failure of the American government to respond to the urgent problem of global warming. Actually, “having folks at federal agencies that can make things happen” is not the way to reverse the imminent global disaster (Davenport, 2013, par 3).
Finally, planting extensive areas of forestry is an effective way to increase the level of soaked CO2. Having reviewed a number of unrealistic geo-engineering strategies, Battersby (2012, par 12) concluded that “Simply planting forests remains a good thing”.
Overall, global warming has been unanimously recognized a humans’ fault in the scientific world. Yet, it is not that easy to reverse the dramatic consequences of humans’ polluting activity. A few necessary measures are the development of effective national policies that will greatly reduce the greenhouse gases emissions, investment in alternative sources of energy, refusal from the use of fossil fuels, and planting of numerous trees worldwide.
- Appenzeller, T. & Dimick, D. (2004 September). Signs From Earth. National Geographic Magazine. Retrieved from
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0409/feature1/index.html. - Battersby, S. (2012). COOL IT. (Cover story). New Scientist, 215(2883), 30-35. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.
- Davenport, C. (2013 August 29). Obama’s Stealth War on Global Warming. National Journal Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/obama-s-stealth-war-on-global-warming-20130829.
- Levine, A. (2012 February 03). An Astronomers Solution to Global Warming. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/An-Astronomers-Solution-to-Global-Warming.html#ixzz2iY8x5maw.
- International Environmental Agreements and Associations. (2013). Niger Country Review, 218-232. Retrieved from MasterFILE
