Saving Planet Earth: How We Started and How to Stop Global Warming I chose to write my final paper on climate change because I find this topic tremendously important. This topic is important to me because we are seeing major changes with the place we call home, and if we don’t stand up and take responsibility and start to fix these problems, we will have some major issues for the coming generations. We need to come together as one and fix this problem. It won’t be easy, but if we all work together, anything is possible. In order to understand how to solve the problem, we first need to learn the basics. Earth is heated and cooled and we need to understand how this is before we can move on. The main source of heat for the earth is coming
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The first impact would be sea ice disappearance. The temperatures in the Artic are rising faster than anywhere else on the planet. Because of this, the sea ice is shrinking. Forecast for the Artic region has predicted that most, if not all, of the Artic sea ice, will be gone within 30 years (McGraw-Hill, 2014). This will not only result in a major loss of wildlife, but the significant decrease in ice would result in less reflection of the sun’s radiation and more absorbing – resulting in even more global warming. The next impact is sea-level rise. The rise in sea levels is because of the rise in global temperature. One explanation is that as temperature rises, water expands. The smaller effect would come from glacier runoff. Even with small increases in sea level, this can cause major changes. It can cause major erosion in coastal areas, and stronger storms such as hurricanes and cyclones (McGraw-Hill, 2014). Another impact would include more extreme weather. If the average global temperature of the increases, it could cause more extreme weather. This would include storms, floods, and droughts. In the Northern Hemisphere, scientists are predicting summers to be drier and winters to be wetter. This will in turn cause more wildfires, stronger hurricanes, and more dangerous floods (McGraw-Hill, 2014). Yet another impact is change in ocean chemistry. As more carbon dioxide is absorbed in the ocean, …show more content…
McGraw-Hill describes climate mitigation as, “is any action taken to permanently eliminate or reduce the long-term risk and hazards of climate change to human life, property, or the environment” (2014). As discussed in this book, the most obvious strategy for minimizing anthropogenic climate change is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere in the first place (McGraw-Hill, 2014). The most reasonable way to reduce global warming in the future is to decrease our energy consumption. In order to do this, we must increase our energy efficiency. Although starting at the individual consumer level to buy the right goods and do the right things is a good start, it will not be sufficient enough to hold carbon dioxide emissions below dangerous levels in the long run (McGraw-Hill, 2014). For a more realistic solution, there is a developing technology aimed at slowing the rate of carbon dioxide emissions in order to capture and isolate the gas after combustion. This technology is known as carbon capture and storage (CCS). It involves separating carbon dioxide from other
The first impact would be sea ice disappearance. The temperatures in the Artic are rising faster than anywhere else on the planet. Because of this, the sea ice is shrinking. Forecast for the Artic region has predicted that most, if not all, of the Artic sea ice, will be gone within 30 years (McGraw-Hill, 2014). This will not only result in a major loss of wildlife, but the significant decrease in ice would result in less reflection of the sun’s radiation and more absorbing – resulting in even more global warming. The next impact is sea-level rise. The rise in sea levels is because of the rise in global temperature. One explanation is that as temperature rises, water expands. The smaller effect would come from glacier runoff. Even with small increases in sea level, this can cause major changes. It can cause major erosion in coastal areas, and stronger storms such as hurricanes and cyclones (McGraw-Hill, 2014). Another impact would include more extreme weather. If the average global temperature of the increases, it could cause more extreme weather. This would include storms, floods, and droughts. In the Northern Hemisphere, scientists are predicting summers to be drier and winters to be wetter. This will in turn cause more wildfires, stronger hurricanes, and more dangerous floods (McGraw-Hill, 2014). Yet another impact is change in ocean chemistry. As more carbon dioxide is absorbed in the ocean, …show more content…
McGraw-Hill describes climate mitigation as, “is any action taken to permanently eliminate or reduce the long-term risk and hazards of climate change to human life, property, or the environment” (2014). As discussed in this book, the most obvious strategy for minimizing anthropogenic climate change is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere in the first place (McGraw-Hill, 2014). The most reasonable way to reduce global warming in the future is to decrease our energy consumption. In order to do this, we must increase our energy efficiency. Although starting at the individual consumer level to buy the right goods and do the right things is a good start, it will not be sufficient enough to hold carbon dioxide emissions below dangerous levels in the long run (McGraw-Hill, 2014). For a more realistic solution, there is a developing technology aimed at slowing the rate of carbon dioxide emissions in order to capture and isolate the gas after combustion. This technology is known as carbon capture and storage (CCS). It involves separating carbon dioxide from other