Global Warming Cause and Effect
Global warming has been of the major concerns that are continuously discussed by the environmentalists and geologists. Although temperature shifts is a part of the natural cycles, caused by both solar activity and geothermal activity processes of the Earth, the pace of the current warming are somewhat threatening. While one may falsely perceive global warming as a positive process that will bring sub-tropics climate across the globe, in reality global warming can potentially result in dramatic climate changes on the continents and trigger start of a new ice age.
Causes of the global warming
Carbon dioxide is perceived as one of the major causes of the greenhouse effect and, subsequently, the global warming. There is a number of factors that cause the increase of the carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere. During the several past decades the world has been observing a dramatic boost in the economic development, industrial growth, and continuous increase in the number of human population, with such giants as China and India being some of the main contributors. The process of economy intensification has resulted in the increased carbon dioxide emissions from the plants that use fossil fuels, and growing use of transportation vehicles that work on gasoline (Weaver, 14).
In order to feed and satisfy the basic needs of the growing population, huge territories of forests were cut out for timber and for agricultural needs, such as farmlands and cattle grasslands. As plants are known to consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen as part of the natural photosynthesis, the deforestation inevitably causes the increase of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The increased amount of cattle leads to the intensified methane emissions into the atmosphere (Weaver, 15). Some natural processes, such as solar activity cycles and volcano activity on the Earth lead to fluctuations of the carbon dioxide level. However, according to the scientific data, human activities emit 100 to 200 more carbon dioxide than the volcanoes (Weaver). The solar radiation that the Earth’s surface receives from the space is reemitted back to the space in the form if the long-wav infrared radiation. Whenever the carbon dioxide gasses rise to the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, they form a pillow that absorbs and does not let go energy, including infra-red radiation. These factors lead to phenomena known as a greenhouse effect, or global warming, that, in its turn, has its further consequences (Weaver, 15).
Effects of the global warming
As a result of the greenhouse effect, the rise of global temperatures leads to melting down of the Arctic fresh water glaciers. The average temperature of the Earth has been increasing by 0.6C per year over the past 130 years, and the pace has doubled during the past decades. At the same time, the temperature of the Arctic region is expected to increasing up to 4.5 faster than the rest of the planet (Weaver, 11-12). The increasing volumes of the fresh water in the global oceans circulation, especially the North Atlantic Ocean, can potentially …
