Imagine a future where a growing population experiences shortages of food and water as well as growing temperatures. These gradually increasing temperatures bring with them such dire environmental consequences that not only are many different species threatened with extinction, civilization finds itself threatened as well. Though this sounds like the setup for a science fiction movie, this is actually just one of the possibilities for the future due to the long term effects of global warming. Global warming is the detection of the “overall statistical increase in the average temperature of the Earth 's atmosphere and oceans over recent years” (Miller, 2006). Although it is highly debated as to whether the major causes of global warming are naturally occurring or anthropogenic, to believe that human activity has not at all effected the planet over the years would be myopic. Humans have made and continue to make quite an impact on this planet and to ignore the
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The question of whether global warming is natural over time due to changes in solar activity or if it is being accelerated by humans comes is a great one but it comes secondary to the question of how each of us can minimize and raise awareness to the negative impact we can have on the earth. Though scientists overwhelmingly agree that the Earth is warming because of human activity, in a 2012 poll, more than half of Americans were still unaware that scientists held this position (Rustad, 2013). Perhaps the importance of raising awareness is best stated by John Cook, the lead author of the Environmental Research Letters, when he says, “There is a gaping chasm between the actual consensus and the public perception which is staggering and significant, because when people understand that scientists agree on global warming, they’re more likely to support policies to take action on it.”(Rustad,
The question of whether global warming is natural over time due to changes in solar activity or if it is being accelerated by humans comes is a great one but it comes secondary to the question of how each of us can minimize and raise awareness to the negative impact we can have on the earth. Though scientists overwhelmingly agree that the Earth is warming because of human activity, in a 2012 poll, more than half of Americans were still unaware that scientists held this position (Rustad, 2013). Perhaps the importance of raising awareness is best stated by John Cook, the lead author of the Environmental Research Letters, when he says, “There is a gaping chasm between the actual consensus and the public perception which is staggering and significant, because when people understand that scientists agree on global warming, they’re more likely to support policies to take action on it.”(Rustad,