A Wetpaint Site | TV Fandex 100

Global Warming

Environment Pages: Global Warming | Green Tips | Green Talk

This page has been locked due to widespread disbelief about the subject of global warming.

Introduction

Imagine that you have been tied up by your parents and you are told that in order to get untied you have to pull a lever from the left position all the way to the right position. You think this will be simple. The lever’s path from left to right involves going up high at a slant very steeply, zigzags at the highest position, and gradually goes down. You still think it’s simple, and then a strange man tells you that you have thirty seconds to complete the movement of the lever or else you will be lit on fire. You don’t want to believe him at first. You begin to pull the lever up and you find it to be rather easy, but as you move the lever further you feel like you are warming up and you begin to consider the man’s warning. You get to the zigzags and the lever resists movement forward, you also feel confused as if you are both parts of an argument. One part of you feels calm and the other part of you fears what the man said about bursting into flames. You panic and try to move faster. As you force the lever further through the zigzag part of the path, movement forward becomes slowly easier but is still difficult to achieve. You feel less confused as you go along as well, but more fearful of the fire. When you come to the decline with the lever, it is hard at first but quickly becomes easy, and as you progress with the lever you are less and less fearful of the fire. When you make it to the end you feel complete relief and the fear of the fire vanishes entirely. Your mom seems joyful while your father looks displeased. Soon, though, his displeasure wears away and he looks grateful you did it. You hug and rejoice as the neglected stranger looks on and rejoices from the distance.
In this short story, the movement of the lever represents the rise and hopeful decline of the carbon dioxide content in our atmosphere. The hero in the story represents earth. If we deal with the problem of global warming too slowly we will begin to face consequences. Hopefully the consequences will be enough to get skeptics to help us in this issue. People may be disappointed they can’t do things the way they want to, but they will eventually, over time, like the father, like being green and having solved the issue of global warming.

How Global Warming Works

The earth is kept warm because the sun releases infrared beams that travel down and hit earth. The earth absorbs the infrared beams and therefore the earth heats up a little. After a bit, the infrared beams start to escape earth as radiation. The infrared radiation is caught by carbon dioxide and sent back to earth. This radiation “bounces” back and forth between earth and the atmosphere, but will eventually escape. This process is called the Greenhouse Effect. This is the process that makes life on earth sustainable.(1) Until now, that is.
Today we have cars that get us to places faster than walking does. We also have electricity surging through our house wires to power our washing machines which use many gallons of water to clean our clothes. Has anyone ever stopped to think where our modern conveniences come from or what they do? “Well, of course!” you say, “We get washing machines from Sears, cars from Ford, and electricity from the power company.” This is not what I am asking. What I am asking is, “Do you know from where the material required to make and use these things came?” To which you would answer, “A factory?” True. The factories that build things, like washing machines and cars, manufacture in such a way that gases such as carbon dioxide are emitted. Most electricity is made with fossil fuel burning power plants. When coal is burned, gases such as carbon dioxide are released. When you drive your car, you are burning fossil fuel. Burning fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide. So let’s organize what we know into nice bullets.

The manufacturing process releases carbon dioxide.(2)
Many items use electricity which comes from fossil fuel burning power plants.
Fossil fuel burning power plants release carbon dioxide.(3)
Burning fossil fuel uses oxygen.(3)

Can you see anything wrong with this? As previously discussed, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reflects some radiation from the earth back to earth, thus keeping earth at a steady average temperature of 15° C(4). With more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we have more trapped heat.(1) This presents a problem. This problem is called global warming.(1) As stated in the Columbia Encyclopedia, “Global Warming [is]the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since theIndustrial Revolution.”(5)

Effects of Global Warming

There are hundreds of speculated effects of global warming. Many of them are accepted as truth but have not been tested. Others seem logical based on observation. Many more are far from the truth. Some real effects include an increase in flooding and drought, changing weather patterns, and changing animal habitats. One fact is that the polar icecaps are melting.

Polar Icecaps

The melting of the icecaps is one of the most tragic events occurring right now in the world. Heated conditions are causing the glaciers to melt at an ever-increasing rate. The rise in the rate of glacier melt is due not only to increased activities that result in carbon dioxide emissions, but also because of a unique circumstance in which global warming causes further global warming.(1)
The glaciers are melting because of global warming and this results in lakes of melt water collecting on the surface of the glacier. These lakes act as a magnifying glass for the bottom of the lake. This means the sun beams down on the lake and the rays get intensified when they hit the water. The beams travel down to the bottom of the lake and melt the ice there. Eventually the glacier cracks and a hole opens up because the weight of the water is too great. A giant hole beneath the surface of the lake means the water is going to drain down into the hole. An entire lake could be drained in a short amount of time. The water from the lake travels down until it hits dirt. The water then carves a downhill tunnel called a moulin. The moulin forms a layer of water between the glacier and the earth. The moulin acts as a lubricant for the glacier to slide faster toward the ocean.
Moulins can also form when melt water from the surface of the glacier forms streams that diverge into large flows of water. At the same time, movements of the glacier can cause large cracks called crevasses to open. These crevasses are giant holes in the surface of the ice. They can be deep enough to reach the earth below the glacier. The big flows of water “look for the quickest way down” and can end up flowing into the crevasses. The water travels to the bottom and forms moulins. People who have seen these moulin beginnings have often been in awe when they see the massive amounts of water just disappearing into a giant, dark hole.
In both of these moulin cases, the moulin carries the glacier to the ocean much faster than it would travel without a moulin. The problem is that when the glaciers get to the ocean chunks fall off as icebergs and melt. With less ice it means warmer temperatures. With warmer temperatures we also have more melting. More melting means more moulins. This is a unique case in which global warming causes global warming.(1)(6)

Extreme Weather

Recently storms like hurricanes and typhoons have been getting stronger. Global warming is causing the oceans to heat up. As the water temperature increases, the wind velocity and moisture in storm clouds increase as well. Moisture evaporates from the ground faster because of increased temperature, and this contributes to stronger storms as well. Warmer oceans make the ocean water evaporate quicker, and it makes the wind harder and faster. This all comes together in a large, fierce storm. As we see an increase in storm ferocity we see the same amount of previous precipitation occurring in less frequent occurances. We are having more precipitation in big, one-time events and less frequently. If we continue to contribute to global warming, the oceans will heat up more and cause larger storms.(1)

Skeptics

There is widespread skepticism of global warming. This skepticism is caused by ignorance of the true facts of global warming. The arguments put forth seem ridiculous to the people who know how global warming works. If only people would educate themselves on the subject, maybe they would less skeptical. The top ten arguments skeptics give against global warming are:

The temperature of the sun is increasing and causing global warming.
Climate has changed before.
There is no proof.
The earth is not warming, it is cooling.
Models developed to prove or disprove global warming are unreliable.
Surface temperature changes.
An ice age was predicted in the 1970’s.
We are heading into an ice age.
Al Gore is wrong.
It hasn’t warmed up since 1998.(7)

Despite what the skeptics say, there is evidence of global warming. For example, a later start of winter and an earlier spring results in shorter winter. It is also known that changing patterns of warm and cold oceanic currents are due to global warming. Changing inland weather patterns due to global warming are creating drought, flooding, and other problematic changes. This results in problems with our natural resources, our food supply, and interferes with the habitats of regional animal populations. Skeptics need to make the connection between these results and global warming.
As said by Al Gore, “Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.”(8) In other words, we can’t ignore global warming and deny its existence because we don’t want to change life styles. Global warming is too destructive to ignore. Millions of people will probably die from extreme weather consequences before skeptics actually start to see that global warming is real. It takes a sudden jolt for people to recognize and do something about a problem like this.

Ways to Become Green

People can help stop global warming by doing simple things that are really common sense. Most things that can help save the environment are also money-savers! Web sites such as The Big Cool Down[1] are helping people become green by giving tips. To quote The Big Cool Down, “You can help stop pollution by doing simple things like these:

When you wash your car, use biodegradable car wash that dissolves in the water.
When you see trash, pick it up and put it in the trash can. Better yet, if possible, recycle it!
Don't dump!
Recycle all recyclables.
Don't burn your garbage, it releases bad fumes.
Use a reusable water bottle. It saves plastic!
Print on both sides of paper.
Use one less paper napkin a day then you usually would.
Reuse wrapping paper and greeting cards.
Before you throw something away, consider if someone else you know would use it.
Use paper bags instead of plastic. Even better, bring your own cloth bags!
Use rechargeable batteries.
Maintain your car so its exhaust contains fewer pollutants.
Use energy efficient electronic appliances. They require less electricity, which is commonly generated by coal burning power plants!”(9)

These are only a few things you can do to be green. There are many more ways to help the earth. Websites such as The Big Cool Down and stopglobalwarming.org[2] are trying to inform people of the causes of global warming to stimulate change in their behavior.

Conclusion

Global warming is a destructive force that has many causes and results. If we continue to harm the earth by contributing to global warming we are destroying our home. Earth is our only home. What will we do if we don’t have Earth? We cannot currently dwell on other planets. We need to keep our home in good shape. We need to keep earth clean. We need to stop polluting our atmosphere with greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Essentially global warming is the human race causing its own demise. We are putting the gases up in the atmosphere that are causing us to suffer. People can’t ignore the facts and claim that global warming is a hoax any longer. “The Era of Procrastination, of Half-Measures, of Soothing and Baffling Expedients, of Delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a Period of Consequences,” said Winston Churchill.(1)
As citizens of the world, we need to keep our earth clean and not litter. The litter never “goes away”. It will always be somewhere, so if trash has to be somewhere, it would be better to reuse it. We must recycle to cut down on our waste production.
As Americans, we consume 26% of the world’s energy.(3) “We’re going to have to be more efficient in the way we use this energy,” Energy states.(3) If we don’t become more efficient with our use of energy, we will enter a “Period of Consequences” in which we, as humans, will suffer greatly. We started this mess and we can end it, too.
Ending global warming begins with the individual. If we all do our part to be green and keep the earth clean, we can start to reverse the damage done to our beautiful planet. Everybody should start to be green by following the tips listed in the Ways to Become Green section. This will be difficult but the results will be worth our efforts. Are you up to the challenge?

[1] http://thebigcooldown.wetpaint.com

[2] http://www.stopglobalwarming.org

Bibliography

1. Guggenheim, Davis. An Inconvenient Truth. Paramount, 2006.
2. Human-Related Sources and Sinks of Carbon Dioxide. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [Online] [Cited: December 7, 2008.] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/co2_human.html#industrial.
3. Clift, Jon and Cuthbert, Amanda. Energy. White River Junction: Chelsea Green, 2007. 978-1-933392-72-1.
4. Elert, Glenn. Temperature on Earth. Hypertextbook. [Online] [Cited: December 7, 2008.] http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/JudyTang.shtml.
5. Global Warming. Columbia Encyclopedia. 2004.
6. Discovery Project Earth. s.l.: Discovery Channel, August 24, 2008.
7. Arguments. Skeptical Science. [Online] [Cited: November 20, 2008.] http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php.
8. Gore, Al. Speech At National Sierra Club Conventions. September 9, 2005.
9. Pollution and Contamination. The Big Cool Down. [Online] [Cited: December 10, 2008.] http://thebigcooldown.wetpaint.com/page/Pollution+and+Contamination.

See how flooding, caused by global warming, will affect the United States.

rubikubism	Latest page update: made by rubikubism , Aug 3 2009, 11:53 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by rubikubism view changes - complete history)
	Keyword tags: carbon CO2 dioxide environment Global green pollution Warming More Info: links to this page