Hunter Reid

Professor Barnes

English 2

30 October 2019

Global Warming/Climate Change

Everyday I wake up to find a new article on the internet talking about global warming.

Recently, I have seen articles, and post saying the human race has a limited number of days until

global warming takes over/ends the world. Prior to my research, this did not resonate with me

because I did not know about global warming, what it is, or the impact it is having on the earth.

Global warming is a serious issue because it already has and will continue to cause changes to

the Earth.

The issue of global warming has been around for quite some time, however it has become

more relevant over recent years, due to the alarming effects global warming has caused. All

across the globe temperatures have began to rise at a constant rate since the Industrial revolution.

Since 1880 the global temperature has only gone up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Robert

Levy, in his article “World of Change” “ A one-degree global change is significant because it

takes a vast amount of heat to warm all the oceans, atmosphere, and land by that much. In the

past, a one- to two-degree drop was all it took to plunge the Earth into the Little Ice Age. A five-

degree drop was enough to bury a large part of North America under a towering mass of ice

20,000 years ago.” To most people one degree would not mean much, daily local temperatures

fluctuate by more than one degree everyday, and nothing happens. However this one degree the

changes the temperature globally is extremely significant. That one degree triggered an entire Ice

Age. The Ice Age lasted 100,000 years. 100,000 years is a long time, almost half the time

humans have been alive. Although humans survived the Ice age many large mammals were

wiped out. Kim Zimmermann points out in “ Pleistocene Epoch: Facts About the Last Ice Age”
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that “ ...woolly mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and giant bears, died out.” Imagine if

the Earth’s temperature went up another degree, the vast amount of heat, could kill many animals

today, including the ones that we eat. While not much vegetation manage to survive during this

time some did. “...There were some scattered conifers, including pines, cypress and yews, along

with some broadleaf trees such as beeches and oaks. On the ground, there were prairie grasses as

well as members of the lily, orchid and rose families,”(Zimmermann). Not many plants with a

great source of nutrients flourished during the Ice Age. If another event similar to this occurred

today or in the near future, an abundance amount of crops would die, with that, and the lack of

meat around, the human race would likely starve. All of this damage done by a one degree

change in the temperature.

A spike in fossil fuels, following the years of World War II caused a major influx of

greenhouse gasses. The most prominent greenhouse gasses are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous

oxide and ozone. These gasses trap the Earth's heat in its atmosphere, which prevents the heat

from going into space. The trapped heat causes the Earth to warm. While aerosol was a main

factor contributing to global warming, it was slowed down by pollution controls. The hindrance

of aerosol, led to greenhouse gasses becoming the majority. Besides the debate over whether

global warming is real or not, the debate of the cause of global warming is even bigger. Some

say it is natural, while others believe humans caused it. Although the profuse amount of

information makes is clear, humans are the cause of global warming. The IPPC reports in their

AR5 Synthesis Report, “ Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent

anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes
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Professor Barnes

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30 October 2019

have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.” Greenhouse gasses come from

fossil fuels,fossil fuels are burned by humans. This means when humans burn fossil fuels they

are releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, trapping more and more heat. From burning

fossil fuels, humans produce 23.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. According to Vignesh

Gowrishankar, it is possible to cut this number down, “...the United States can help curb climate

change and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 with an ambitious,

but realistic, increase in clean energy. This reduction can be achieved almost entirely with tools

that we have at our fingertips today.” The NRDC ( Natural Resources Defense Council ) already

has a plan in the works to reduce the production of greenhouse gasses. This plan includes electric

powered cars, “We use this near-zero-carbon electricity to displace direct use of fossil

fuels,”(Gowrishankar) instead of powering cars using gas, they would be powered by electricity,

which would eliminate the carbon dioxide today’s cars produce. The plan also includes a mass

use of solar power, “ We dramatically expand renewable energy so that wind and solar power

represent at least 70 percent of our electricity mix by 2050—renewable energy, as a whole, will

account for at least 80 percent,”(Gowrishankar) if this plan stays on track most electrically

powered devices will be solar, or wind powered. So what does this mean? Instead of hooking an

Iphone into the wall, it might be sat by a window to charge. The NRDC proves that all of the

necessities needed to curb global warming, are already given.

Global warming is not just damaging, it is also expensive. It is predicted that with the

increase in temperatures, there will be many more natural disasters. These natural disasters

include floods, heat waves, and storms of all kinds. According to Melissa Denchak the reason
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global warming causes all these disasters is “ A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can

collect, retain, and drop more water, changing weather patterns in such a way that wet areas

become wetter and dry areas drier.” Areas next to water I already warmer than the average

temperature, and have frequent hurricanes, add global warming on top of that, and the collection

of water near those warmer areas like Florida, could be seeing severe hurricanes several times a

year. When such natural disasters occur, they have to be cleaned up, and the damage has to be

taken care of. This all cost money, lots of money. “in 2015 there were 10 weather and climate

disaster events in the United States—including severe storms, floods, drought, and wildfires—

that caused at least $1 billion in losses. For context, each year from 1980 to 2015 averaged $5.2

billion in disasters (adjusted for inflation). If you zero in on the years between 2011 and 2015,

you see an annual average cost of $10.8 billion.”(Denchak). If the amount of natural disasters

continue to go up, it will cost the US billions of dollars. More recently Hurricane Irma cost 50

billion USD, and Hurricane Maria cost 90 billion USD, making Hurricane Maria the 3rd costliest

natural disaster to happen in the United States. Both of these hurricanes happened within a few

years of each other. If multiple types of these disasters were to occur within the same year, our

economy might just collapse.

Global warming has led to a rise in sea levels. This occurrence is most notable in polar

areas like the North Pole, South Pole, Antarctica. Glaciers in these areas are melting from the

earth’s heat, thereby causing the nearby sea levels to rise. The sea levels in these areas are not

just rising a little bit, they are rising twice as fast than in any other areas. The consequences of
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this will affect the areas inhabitants both animal and plant. It is the next generation that will have

to deal with these consequences. According to Christina Nunez in “Sea Level Rise Explained”

“The most recent special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we

can expect the oceans to rise between 10 and 30 inches (26 to 77 centimeters) by 2100 with

temperatures warming 1.5 °C. That’s enough to seriously affect many of the cities along the U.S.

East Coast.” In the near future those living in coastal regions could potentially have to move.

This would affect the habitants of New York City, Los Angeles, and Southern Florida. Besides

the inhabitants being affected, all of the infrastructure would be destroyed. Which would also in

turn be extremely costly, all of the stadiums, homes, buildings, parks,etc would have to be rebuilt

somewhere else. Is there anything to prevent this doom? No, not exactly. Denchak quotes,

“"Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions tomorrow, we'd still see some effects," Haq

says. That, of course, is the bad news. But there's also good news. By aggressively reducing our

global emissions now, "we can avoid a lot of the severe consequences that climate change would

otherwise bring," says Haq.” Unfortunately there is no way to eliminate all the effects of global

warming, but there is a way to reduce the effects, and potential affects. With a great amount of

effort to reduce global warming, hopefully sea levels will not rise so high, that fractions of the

United States are underwater.

Sometime in the upcoming years global warming will begin to have an affect on human

health. The effect on human health comes from a range of water, and food quality, along with

disease. How a person becomes affected will be different due to varying exposure pathways.
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According to John Balbus there are a variety of factors that will affect one's health outcome.

“...health outcomes are strongly influenced by adaptive capacity factors, including those related

to the natural and built environments (for example, the state of infrastructure), governance and

management (health-protective surveillance programs, regulations and enforcement, or

community health programs), and institutions (organizations operating at all levels to form a

national public health system)” while other factors are mediated, “strong social capital, fully

functional governance/management, and institutions that maintain the Nation’s generally high

level of adaptive capacity.” With mediated factors the more wealth there is the less likely there

will be negative impacts on human health. Mediated factors go in hand with social factors. Social

factors that affect how global warming impacts human health are wealth and education. “

...poverty can leave people more exposed to climate and weather threats, increase sensitivity

because of associations with higher rates of illness and nutritional deficits, and limit people’s

adaptive capacity. As another example, people living in a city with degraded coastal ecosystems

and inadequate water and wastewater infrastructure may be at greater risk of health

consequences from severe storms.” Individuals who are wealthier will be able to afford better

water systems, and wastewater infrastructure because they live in wealthier neighbourhoods or

cities. It can seem like global warming is targeting the lower class. However the lower class is

just a victim.

As a result of global warming various species are being affected. For example the Adelie

penguins in Antartica have been drasitcally impacted. The habitat of these penguins are the
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glaciers in antrartica, due to them melting from global warming, the penguins are losing their

homes. According to the author of “Scientific Reports” Megan Cimino, ““Penguin colonies

near Palmer Station on the West Antarctic Peninsula have declined by at least 80 percent since

the 1970s,” Cimino said. “Within this region we saw the most novel climate years compared to

the rest of the continent. This means the most years with warmer than normal sea surface

temperature. These two things seem to be happening in the West Antarctic Peninsula at a higher

rate than in other areas during the same time period.” Studies have found a trend in the warmer

areas of antarctica are the most drastic declines of Adelie Penguins. Another animal that

potentially could have a similar outcome is polar bears. The issue with polar bears was not as

well known about until a video surfaced online of a barely alive polar bear, floating on an

iceberg, was uploaded by a non profit group called Sea Legacy. Instead of taking away the bear’s

homes, like the penguins, global warming is causing polar bears to starve. The polar bear’s food

source has become scarce since global warming has increased. “Because of melting sea ice, it is

likely that more polar bears will soon starve, warns a new study that discovered the large

carnivores need to eat 60 percent more than anyone had realized. Turns out they are high-energy

beasts, burning through 12,325 calories a day—despite sitting around most of the time…” states

Stephen Leahy in “Polar Bears Really Are Starving Because of Global Warming, Study Shows”.

A polar bears main source of food is seals. With there being less seals in the water the bears have

little to eat, and what they do consumer, their bodies have to try to hold onto for as long as

possible. This is not going to work long term because polar bears require an excessive amount of

calories, and they also burn lots of calories. “Polar bears rely almost exclusively on a calorie-
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loaded diet of seals. To minimize their energy consumption the bears still-hunt, waiting for hours

by seals’ cone-shaped breathing holes in the sea ice. When a seal surfaces to breathe the bear

stands on its hind legs and smacks it on the head with both of its front paws to stun it. Then the

bear bites it on the neck and drags it onto the ice.” (Leahy) It already requires and exasperant

amount of energy to hunt for a seal, when the polar bears have a full stomach, but when they

have not eaten in weeks, it becomes near impossible to successfully kill a seal. Out of the vast

number of polar bears on the earth, a great percentage of those are dwindling. “Best estimates

say there are 20,000 to 30,000 polar bears in 19 different groups or populations scattered across

the top of the U.S., Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. Four of these populations are

considered to be declining. Bears in the Beaufort Sea region are among the best studied and their

numbers have fallen 40 percent in the last ten years.”(Leahy) These are the stastics as of right

now.At this rate, global warming is only going to increase, meaning more and more groups of

polar bears are going to decline. Polar bears will become an endangered species, and if things do

not improve, polar bears will be an extinct species. While polar bears are not an endangered

species right now they are considered threatened. “Because of ongoing and potential loss of their

sea ice habitat resulting from climate change, polar bears were listed as a threatened species in

the US under the Endangered Species Act in May 2008,”( Elizabeth Kruger) . Just like all of the
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other things global warming has impacted, if society does not take action, immediately the earth

is going to continue to get worse.

By the year 2100 the vast majority of plant and animal species will have to fight for

survival. The habitats of species will

get smaller and cause them to invade

the habitats of others. “The model

projections paint a portrait of

increasing ecological change and stress

in Earth's biosphere, with many plant

and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant species

turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most of Earth's land that is not

covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover —

changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate” states Alan Buis in

“Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes”. With land that was previously not

covered in plants, be covered by plants, the species that were there, will struggle to survive in a

new environment. The scientist in this article also have the view that global warming is human

induced. “"For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced

climate change," said Jon Bergengren, a scientist who led the study while a postdoctoral scholar

at Caltech. "Our study introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological

implications of a few degrees of global warming. While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea

levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it's the
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ecological consequences that matter most."” claims Jon Bergengren. Along with several other

effects of global warming the effect on Earth’s ecosystem will be the most severe. A majority of

earth’s inhabitants will be forced to emigrate, or battle for a spot to live.

Global warming is talked about everyday. There is always a new event to spark the

conversation. However, the connotation around global warming is almost always a negative

one. It is important to know the what’s and why’s of global warming. Global warming is a serious

issue because it already has and will continue to cause changes to the Earth.

Works Cited

“AR5 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2014.” IPCC, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/.

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Balbus, et al. “Ch. 1: Introduction: Climate Change and Human Health.” The Impacts of

Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, 4 Apr.

2016, https://health2016.globalchange.gov/climate-change-and-human-health.

“CILab: Greenhouse Gases Effect on Global Warming.” NASA, NASA,

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20114.

“Climate Change May Shrink Adélie Penguin Range by End of Century – Climate Change:

Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 11 July 2016,

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2462/climate-change-may-shrink-adelie-penguin-range-by-

end-of-century/.

Denchak, Melissa. “Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts.” NRDC, 16 July 2019,

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuels-dirty-facts.

Denchak, Melissa. “Are the Effects of Global Warming Really That Bad?” NRDC, 6 Aug.

2019, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/are-effects-global-warming-really-bad.

Gowrishankar, Vignesh, et al. “America's Clean Energy Frontier: The Pathway to a Safer

Climate Future.” NRDC, 12 Oct. 2017, https://www.nrdc.org/resources/americas-clean-

energy-frontier-pathway-safer-climate-future.
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Nunez, Christina. “Sea Level Rise, Explained.” Sea Level Rise, Facts and Information, 27

Feb. 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-

rise/.

“Pleistocene Epoch: Facts About the Last Ice Age.” LiveScience, Purch,

https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html.