Free «Effects of Global Warming» Essay Sample

Global warming is a well-known scientific definition used to describe both a gradual increase in the Earth atmosphere temperature, and changes in the whole planet’s surface caused by climate change. Some scholars discuss whether global warming poses any danger to the human civilization or brings some benefits to it. The aim of the paper is to prove that global warming, which emerged as a result of human activities, poses a real danger to the human civilization and the whole planet in the future. The emergence of the greenhouse effect is linked with human activities in industry, agriculture, and transportation. In addition, deforestation, bad planned irrigation, biomass burning, increased use of oil products for generation of electricity and transportation. Moreover, development of chemical and heavy industries increases carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere, which leads to the greenhouse effect and global warming. It changes the climate and causes natural disasters like floods, forest fires, sea level rise, rock falls, soil slides, and others. All those changes impact human health. Thus, lethal cases related to such illnesses as diarrhea, dengue fever, and malaria increased by three percent in 2009 according to the report of the World Health Organization.

Some people believe that global warming benefits human civilization. They support their arguments stating that the increase in the Earth atmosphere temperature will lead to the reduction of fuel consumption, since there will be less or no need to heat industrial buildings and dwellings. They state that it will reduce environmental pollution and some tropical evergreen broad-leaved plants like bananas and palm trees will emerge in Europe and North America. People will reduce their expenses on heating, electrical energy, clothing, and other expenses associated with cold weather. With the course of time, new broad-leaved plants will decrease the planet’s atmosphere temperature, and the greenhouse effects will disappear. In addition, major construction work and road constructions will be much cheaper, and buildings, roads and other objects will have longer service lives because of the absence of cold weather and severe winters, which damage and destroy them. Concerning human health, some people believe that acute respiratory diseases, flu, quinsy, pneumonia, and other dangerous diseases associated with cold weather will disappear because of global warming. Therefore, expenses relate to healthcare will be reduced, and it will improve living standards in all regions of the world because infantine mortality will reduce, children will not suffer any more from vitamin deficiency, and consumption of fresh fruits will boost their immune system all year around. Tropical climate in the whole Europe and North America will provide opportunities for establishment of resort zones aimed at improving health of millions of people.

Unfortunately, the abovementioned statements are far from the real states of affairs concerning global warming and problems related to it. According to famous researchers of global warming effects Tingjun Zhang, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Colorado and Frederick Nelson, Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware, the aftermaths of global warming pose a certain danger to the human civilization and the planet. For several years, the researchers have studied environmental situations in the permafrost areas of Earth in the Arctic and China and came to an unfavorable conclusion regarding the future development of the global warming process. Thus, they state that the frozen area reduced by about twenty percent, and the average temperature of the permafrost area increased in by one degree at depth of sixteen feet. It caused thawing of the surface of land on which some constructions and roads were built. It leads to deformation and destruction of buildings and railroads there. Moreover, the researchers discovered that glaciers had become thinner on tops of mountains and it had caused rock falls and soil slides, and huge streams of water, mud, ice, and stones rushed from the tops of mountains destroying everything on their way. Some glaciers contained salts of hazardous substances, causing deaths of many people and ecological catastrophe. In addition, some glaciers can uncover sources of water containing hazardous elements, brought from the mountains into rivers and lakes. In the result, fish and other biological organisms will perish.

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As Casper states, “if the temperatures rise…, less freshwater will be available – and already one-third of the world’s population (about 2 billion people) suffer from a shortage of water” (Casper, ix). According to the researchers, temperature is expected to increase to 11.7 degrees Fahrenheit, which can lead to the reduction of fields and crops, destruction of ecosystems in freshwater lakes and rivers, emergence of floods, which can destroy some countries, which are situated below the sea level, for example, the Netherlands. Moreover, millions of people can be killed by heat waves. Nowadays, millions of Africans suffer from a shortage of freshwater, which is associated with global warming, and if this tendency continues in the future, African people along with the continent`s flora and fauna will be doomed to death, leading to the global catastrophe. Of course, nobody will gather two harvests a year because the most fertile lands will be either under water or exposed to drought.