Global warming means Earth is becoming warmer gradually. There is an increase in average global temperatures of air and oceans, accompanied by widespread melting of glaciers and rising sea level. The temperature of Earth is maintained by the balance between the heat energy, coming from the Sun, and heat energy returned back to space. Some atmospheric gases: Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are important for temperature balance. An increase in these gases causes a rise in Earth’s atmosphere and this ends up in global warming.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, humans have been rapidly changing the balance of gases in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change in its Synthesis Report on Climate Change, states that “There was clear evidence for a rise of 0.6°C rise in temperature globally and was alarming.“ At present, it has gone up to a 2°C rise in global temperature. Global warming is caused by a massive increase in greenhouse gases. Thus, it makes global warming a reality.
The evidences of rapid climate change include rise in global temperatures, intensification of natural disasters, and shrinkage of arctic ice sheets. Moreover, melting of glaciers, changes in the migration patterns of certain species, and increase dry spells are some of the other evidences of global warming. Besides this, rising food security, change in the weather patterns and diminishing biodiversity are also evidences that global warming is a reality.
A rise in global average temperature reveals that global warming is a reality. The planet’s average temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degree Celsius). Since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years. According to an ongoing temperature analysis conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8 degree Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit) since 1880. Thus, this indicates that global warming is real.
Global warming has intensified natural disasters. Natural disasters are becoming more and more intense, and more frequent with devastating consequences. Increasingly destructive hurricanes are putting a growing number of people and structures at risk. Heatwaves account for 47% of natural disasters. Forests are burning at an alarming rate and the planet is getting hotter. The rising temperature of Earth has increased the periods of droughts. The less moisture in the Earth catches fire easily which happens in Amazon Rainforest in 2019. According to CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), almost 906000 hectares (2,240,000 acres) of the Amazon Rainforest had been burned from January to October 2019. Thus, these increasing natural disasters show that global warming is a concrete reality.
The shrinking of Arctic ice sheets is also evidence that global warming is a reality. Arctic sea ice has thinned significantly over the past half-century, and its extent has declined by about 10 percent in the past 30 years. NASA’s repeated laser altimeter readings show the edges of Greenland’s ice-sheet shrinking. Spring freshwater ice breakup in the Northern Hemisphere now occurs nine days earlier than it did 150 years ago, and autumn freeze-up ten days later. From the Arctic to Peru, from Switzerland to the equatorial glaciers of Man Jaya in Indonesia, massive ice fields, monstrous glaciers, and sea ice are disappearing faster than ever. Thus, global warming threatens natural water resources.
The retreat of glaciers and eventual rise in sea level are also evidences of global warming. Glaciers are an essential source of water for many places around the world, where people on glacial melt water to replenish their aquifiers. Glaciers are retreating at an astonishing pace-three times the ice volume stored in the entirety of the European Alps is lost gradually every year. Besides this, Glacial National Park only has 25 glaciers remained out of 150 glaciers that existed there in 1800s. Over the last 25 years, Gangotri Glacier has retreated more than 85p meters (930 yards). Since the start of the 20th century, there is a serious rise in sea levels of 16-21cm between 1900 and 2016. According to proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA(PIVAS-USA) Scientific Journal, “Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades however is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year.“ Thus, these growing threats prove that global warming is a concrete reality.
Diminishing biodiversity and extinction of endangered species also evince the reality of global warming. World biodiversity has declined alarmingly in half a century: more than 25000 species, almost a third of those known, are in danger of disappearing. Elizabeth Kolbert in his book “The Sixth Extinction – An Unnatural History” wrote that “Human activity, the consumption of fossil fuels, the acidification of the oceans, pollution, deforestation, and forced migrations threaten life forms all of the kinds. “ It is estimated that one-third of corals, freshwater mollusks, sharks, and rays, one-fourth of all mammals, one-fifty of all reptiles, and one-sixth of all birds are heading towards extinction. According to World Wildlife Fund, “Humans are behind the current rate of species extinction, which is at least 100-1000 times higher than nature intended. We have seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of population of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years.” Almost one-third of all plant and animal species face the threat of extinction as early as 2070. Hence, global warming threatens the entire ecosystem of Earth.
Changes in the migration patterns of certain species also indicate that global warming is a reality. Climate change is doing widespread and consequential harm to animals and plants, which are struggling to adapt to new conditions. The report, from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), finds that many life forms are moving north or into deeper waters to survive as their habitats shift. The serious challenges are for those species that eat special food and only survive in certain places which might include species such as Koalas, which depend mainly on eucalyptus for survival, and the many animal and plant species that live only on isolated mountaintops. Coral, polar bears and frogs are also among the species hit hardest due to climate change. Likewise, more than 80% of Earth’s marine life is migrating to different places and changing their breeding and feeding patterns due to warming waters. Thus, global warming has questioned the survival of certain species.
Changes in weather cycles and irregular rainfall are outcomes of global warming. The rising global average temperature is associated with widespread changes in weather patterns. Global warming is shifting rainfall patterns making heavy rain more frequent in many areas of the world. According to Scientists, 69% of the 355 extreme weather events and trends included in the map were found to be made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. Likewise, the monsoon season in Pakistan is shifted from June-July to July-August. Thus, this shows that global warming is happening.
The increased dry spells and droughts worldwide are also evidence that global warming is a reality. A dry climate heavily impacts the local ecosystem and this changes the behaviour of plants and animals. The relationship between the bark beetles and wildfires in California is just one example of this happening. When trees are weakened by drought, they become more susceptible to attacks from beetles. They burrow inside the trees and kill them. In some areas of California, more than three-fourths of trees have been killed by the beetles, leaving millions of dried-up trees ready and waiting to catch fire. Thus, the dry spells and droughts are also evidence that global warming is a reality.
The rising food insecurity and water scarcity are the direct results of global warming. The world population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050. With 3.4 billion more mouths to feed and the growing desire of the middle class for meat and dairy in developing countries, global demand for food could increase by between 59 and 98 percent. This means that agriculture around the world needs to step up production and increase yields. But scientists say that global warming has threatened the quantity and jeopardized the quality of food supplies. A recent study of global vegetable and legume production concluded that if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trajectory, yields could fall by 35 percent by 2100 due to water scarcity and increased salinity and ozone. This shows that rising food insecurity and water scarcity are also evidence that global warming is a reality.
In order to assess the impacts and solutions of climate change, it is necessary to explain the causative factors behind it. The Earth’s average temperature today is about 15-degree celsius but has not always been so. There are natural fluctuations in the climate but scientists say temperatures are now rising faster than at many other times. The main causes include huge consumption of animal products, burning of fossil fuels, and deforestation coupled with excessive use of insecticides, lubricants
The huge consumption of animal products is one of the main causes of global warming. Only a few decades ago, meat was a luxury product but nowadays eating meat has become so trivial that many people do not consider something a proper meal if there is no animal involved. Humans keep a lot of animals for food. Currently, about 23 billion chickens, 1.5 billion cattle, and roughly 1 billion pigs and sheep feed human mouths. 83% of farmland is used for livestock. For example, pasture and farming fodder crops like corn and soy use 26% of Earth’s total land area and if we include the water used for these plants, meat, and dairy production, it accounts for 27% of global freshwater consumption. After using such a resource humans get only a fraction of nutrients from fodder crops that end up in the meat. Moreover, about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are created by the meat industry; as much as by all ships, planes, trucks, and cars combined. Thus, these emissions of greenhouse gases end up in global warming.
The burning of fossil fuels is a cause of global warming. Fossil fuels like coal and petroleum are huge reservoirs of carbon. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the use of fossil fuels has increased. This has caused huge environmental damage. Almost two-thirds of the oil used in the transportation industry is the main emitter of carbon dioxide. In the maritime sector, heavy fuel oil used by ships emits 3500 times more sulphur than diesel fuel causing air pollution which in turn results in global warming.
Deforestation and tree clearing are other factors of global warming. Plants and trees play an important role in regulating the climate because they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen back into it. When trees are cut down and burned, their stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as CO2. Approximately, one-fifth of global greenhouse gas pollution comes from deforestation and forest degradation. Thus, deforestation contributes to global warming.
Excessive use of insecticides, lubricants, and fertilizers contributes to greenhouse gases and causes global warming. Leftover nitrogen that has not been absorbed by plants reacts with the soil and produces greenhouse gases. Agriculture accounts for 80% of human-caused nitrous oxide emissions globally and for 8-14% of all greenhouse gases that cause serious threats of global warming.
The anthropogenic causes of climate change have tangible impacts on human beings. These consequences include loss of life and key infrastructure, reduced agricultural productivity, an overhang of unburnable carbon and mounts immense administrative challenges.
Rising sea levels, cyclones, and microbial diseases result in loss of life and key infrastructure. The ten largest risk cities for sea-level rise by population are mostly in South and Southeast Asia. Back home, The Senate’s Standing Committee on Science and Technology expressed fear in 2015 that Badin, Thatta, and Karachi could sink by 2060. Likewise, ocean-based storms are getting stronger. Super Typhoon Haiyan was the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded. It devastated portions of Southeast Asia particularly the Philippines, killing at least 6300 people in that country alone. Besides this, microbial diseases from the tropics are spreading to higher latitudes. Changing weather patterns have increased the number of areas where these microbial diseases can become endemic and changed the range of the vectors, like mosquitoes and ticks, that carry them. Researchers believe that global warming is already responsible for some 150,000 deaths each year around the world. This shows the extent to which climate change poses a threat to life and infrastructure.
Global warming has reduced agricultural productivity, especially in low-latitude countries. A 2008 study published in Science Journal suggested that, due to global warming, South Africa could lose more than 30% of its main crop, maize, by 2030. In South Asia losses of many regional staples, such as rice, millet and maize could be top 10%. In Pakistan, the impact of the shortening of the Growing Season Length (GSL), heat stress at critical reproductive stages, and increased water requirements of crops has caused a decrease in yield in arid and semi-arid areas by about 6-18% threatening the food security of the country.
An overhang of unburnable carbon is also among one the impacts of global warming. There is an overhang of available fossil fuels in the carbon reserves owned by fossil fuels companies which cannot be burnt. This amount is known as unburnable carbon. According to International Energy Agency, out of 28 trillion dollars, only 6 trillion dollars worth of reserves are burnable. The rest, 22 trillion dollars, are unburnable. Thus, the climate crisis is a monumental risk to the global economy.
The financial loss and geo-political instability caused by climate change mount immense administrative and political challenges. The climate-related calamities put a huge burden on administrative and governance apparatuses of states to deal with disaster-related emergencies. As human and economic toll goes up, the cost to manage these crises shoots up as well. These put a huge drain on the already stretched resources of the countries, particularly those in the developing world who also happen to be hardest hit by climate change. Climate-related disasters cause geo-political instability. The historic 2006 drought in Syria destroyed 60 percent of the farms in Syria, killed 80 percent of the Livestock, and drove 1.5 million climate refugees into the cities of Syria, where they collided with another 1.5 million refugees from the Iraq war. This, along with other factors, opened the gates of hell that people are trying to close now. Thus, the administrative, financial and geopolitical burden induced by global warming is enormous.
The threats mentioned above can be resolved by harnessing clean energy from renewable sources, developing electric cars, and recycling plastic. Besides this, reforestation through seed-firing drones, precision agriculture and vertical farming, and investment in grid parity coupled with greater governmental regulations and cooperation on national and international levels are some other measures to mitigate the global warming crisis.
The first and foremost solution is to harness clean energy through renewable sources. Many countries are now harnessing clean energy through renewable sources i.e. Solar, wind, and water. For instance, Germany’s 81 percent of all its energy now comes from renewable sources. Thus, the use of clean energy can mitigate the global warming crisis.
The production of electric cars will reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation. The production of electric cars such as those developed by Tesla is flooding the consumer market. Their number grew from 0.1 million in 2012 to 3.3 million in 2018. Thus, the production of electric cars can reduce pollution and eventually will help in curbing global warming.
Recycling plastic can also help in curbing global warming. Currently, plastic use is at its peak, and is thrown without recycling. This plastic releases powerful greenhouse gases when coming in contact with sunlight and heat and causes global warming. Recycling and reusing plastic can reduce this problem. Instead of creating new plastic, there is a need to reuse and recycle old plastic. For instance, in Jan 2020, Vietnam announced that it is creating its first zero-plastic waste city. Thus, using plastic and recycling it, instead of throwing it and polluting oceans and the atmosphere, can reduce the risks of global warming.
Reforestation through seed-firing drones can step up towards the mitigation of global warming. Seed-firing drone is a method to restore the world’s forests, planting thousands of trees in diverse and remote landscapes – at 150 times the speed of traditional methods. Flying at a height of 1 or 2 meters, the drones follow the planting pattern, and fire the biodegradable seed pods down to the ground. The pods break open upon impact, allowing the germinated seed a chance to take root. Every year we lose around 10 billion trees globally. Thus, reforestation through seed-firing drones can curb the deforestation issue.
The development of precision agriculture and vertical farming will ensure food security in cities. Precision agriculture is an approach to farm management that uses information technology (IT) to ensure that plants, animals, and the soil receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity whereas vertical farming is an ingenious method to produce food in environments where arable land is unavailable or rare at the most. Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Aquaponics, and lokal are some of the methods of vertical farming. Developing precision agriculture and vertical farming in cities will ensure food security without having to convert forests into agricultural land. Turkey and China are already leading the world in this sector. Thus, these farming methods can help to survive without agricultural land and will reduce transportation which is one of the leading causes of global warming.
Grid parity investment can increase the use of renewable energy sources. It is understood as that threshold, below which renewable electricity is cheaper than electricity from burning fossil fuels. It’s like the difference between zero and one celsius; the difference between ice and water. Economically, it’s the difference between markets that are frozen up, and liquid flows of capital into new opportunities for investment. Starting in 2010, investments globally in renewable electricity generation surpassed fossils. Due to this, the 5 trillion dollar oil and gas industry is facing a seismic shift. From 2008 to 2016, the biggest utility company E.ON has seen its share price fall by 75 percent. For renewables, on the other hand, the best projections in 2000 were that by 2010, the world would be able to install 30 gigawatts of wind capacity. That mark was beaten by 14 and a half times over. Thus, the exponential increase in investment in renewable sources shows that market-based solutions offer the great prospect to tackle climate change.
Greater governmental regulations and cooperation on both national and international levels are requested to accelerate the shift toward renewable sources of energy. China’s renewable power amounted to 40 percent of its total generating capacity, which is greater than the entire power capacity of Japan and India combined. However, one country alone cannot solve this global crisis. It is a transnational problem and requires a global political solution. China and the EU are already cooperating in developing a framework that would provide incentives for greening world trade, primarily through Carbon Tax. If other countries follow this, it can prove to be the death knell for unbridled carbon emissions.
In order to serve their economic goals, some countries consider global warming a myth. For this, they put forward the following argument Earth’s climate had always changed. Though, it is true that over the course, the climate of Earth has changed a lot. But the rapid warming Earth is experiencing now is after the industrial revolution. Before this, the kind of changes would normally happen over hundreds of thousands of years which are now happening in decades. This shows that climate change is purely anthropogenic and that global warming is a reality and not a myth.
In a nutshell, global warming is a reality and a threat to the collective survival of human beings. The rise in global temperature, intensification of natural disasters, and shrinking of Arctic ice sheets are evidence that global warming is the truth of the 21st century. Likewise, increased dry spells and the extinction of endangered species further put light on this grave catastrophe. The causes which give birth to global warming include the huge consumption of animal meat which results in methane polluting the atmosphere, the burning of fossil fuels, and deforestation. From massive flooding to rising sea levels, lower agricultural yields to unburnable carbon, and from mass migration to depletion of resources, global warming impacts all facets of life. In order to curb the crisis of global warming, there is a need to harness clean energy, recycle plastic, and reforestation through seed-firing drones. Global warming is a serious issue but due to their economic goal, some consider it a myth by giving weak arguments that the temperature of Earth has always changed but in reality, it is the industrial revolution that has increased its pace. Thus, global warming is the reality of the world and man is responsible for rapid climate change.
