Monday, 29 September 2014

Is Global Warming A Real Threat to Our Biosphere?

Wouldn’t it be great if it was summer all year round? Imagine, you wouldn't have to pick up another snow shovel again. By simply continuing to carelessly burn fossil fuels and emit harmful toxins into the atmosphere, warm weather and melting Arctic ice could be right outside your doorstep! If you’re really lucky, those avid car drivers and coal-burning industries will even include severe weather conditions, flooding, drought, rising sea levels -- the whole bit. Who needs polar bears, biodiversity and everything else that sustains life on Earth anyways, right? Wrong.
  The world we live in today is experiencing changes in climate all over the globe at an uncontrollable rate. In recent years, studies have shown the overall global increase in temperature is a whole two degrees Celsius, and rising. That may not seem like much but it has a great impact. It results in a positive feedback loop which enhances the original albedo effect, seen in the image to the right. As harmful gases like methane, water vapor and carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, the temperature increases and so does the melting of ice sheets and permafrost. This then leads to a decrease in the amount of reflection that keeps the Earth cool, which continues to grow in a vicious cycle as long as we let it.

  According to the WWF, stated in the article titled “Impacts of Global Warming”, climate change takes a huge toll on our biosphere in numerous ways. Aside from the environmental impacts, temperature increase has caused much destruction in cities during heat waves by affecting the health of people, as well as raising electricity bills.









References
Journal of Cosmology; Threats to the Biosphere: Eight Interactive Global Crises, John Cairns, Jr. (June 2010) http://journalofcosmology.com/ClimateChange103.html
Effects of Global Warming, National geographic (2007) http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/
Global Climate Change, NASA (2007) http://climate.nasa.gov/effects/

An Introduction to Climate Change, Natural Resource Defense Council (November 2011) http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climatebasics.asp
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous29 September 2014 at 16:56

    I agree that climate change is happening, but when the harmful gases (methane, water vapour and carbon dioxide) are released into the atmosphere, it doesn't necessarily impact the biosphere negatively. The Earth has been both colder and warmer than it is today, and has somehow survived. If we exist without any obvious problems today, then our biosphere should be fine as long as we continue at this rate.

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    1. Anonymous30 September 2014 at 15:05

      I do understand your perspective, however we can't necessarily say that there aren't any obvious problems. It has been recorded that the population of polar bears has decreased drastically in recent years. That is a huge indication to us that temperatures are becoming too warm, where even mobile animals are not finding a way to adapt. Just because global warming is not physically taking a toll on the environment that surrounds you, does not mean it isn't impacting regions around the world.

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