Global Warming and Its Impact on the Earth

According to Shaftel, “Global warming refers to the upward temperature trend across the entire Earth since the early 20th century, and most notably since the late 1970s, due to the increase in fossil fuel emissions since the industrial revolution. Worldwide since 1880, the average surface temperature has gone up by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), relative to the mid-20th-century baseline (of 1951-1980)”. One of the majorly debated topics about the earth and on earth is climate change issue. Some of the significant results of the changing nature of climate are melting glaciers, high rise of sea levels, deaths of cloud forest and scrambling of wildlife to keep pace. It is not a sceptic but assured that the humans have apparently caused the warming by various methods.  Scientist term the phenomena of climate change as Global warming. The widespread increase in temperature of the earth’s surface in land, water and atmosphere is perceived as global warming. Earth’s average temperature has raised by 0.75°C over the last 100 years (Moore). Earlier the causes for the rise in the temperature were the natural causes, However, today the sole cause of global warming and the changed climate condition is the addition of toxic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produced by the human. The purpose of this essay is to focus on the issue of Global warming as well as the way it impacts on earth along with recommendations that would contribute to reducing global warming.

Desertification: The process by which human and natural causes deduct the biological productivity of dryland is called the desertification. Due to several human actions such as climate change, deforestation, unsustainable irrigation practices, overgrazing and many more, there is a decline in the productivity of trees (Dai). However, the concept of desertification does not refer to the physical expansion of the deserts existing from before. Moreover, the different processes that are counted as threats for all the dryland ecosystems including deserts, grasslands and scrublands. Research has found that desertification has affected 36 million square km of land and at present, it is a primary international concern. Also, there are 100 to 200 million people on earth who have been affected by the desertification, and about 50 million people were affected by 2017 (Jeppesen et al). The most affected area by desertification is the continent Africa and the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Desertification is one of the severe environmental challenges that have a long-term impact such as drought and arid deserts. The extended drought can result in a rapid reduction of biological productivity of ecosystem, and the change can last for many years (Berg, et al). The solution for fighting against the desertification is the primary concern of the environmental scientists. To solve the problem of deforestation, only long-term goals would be necessary since the issue has extended to the point where the concern is enormous. There would be an absolute necessity of efficient economic policies and technical measures that for diminishing the production of green gases.  At the micro level, the soil conservation should be the priority to maintain the biological productivity of the land. Few techniques that would be helpful to make the soil better are grazing land, rain-fed croplands and irrigated croplands.

Desertification and Its Impact on the Environment

Melting of glaciers: The glaciers that are standing tall have taken million of days to form and they keep melting that forms rivers, lakes and other necessary for human survival across the globe. The melting ice is again substituted by fresh snow that builds ice over the time and converts as glaciers (O’Hare, Sweeney & Wilby 122). Ice glaciers either melt or break into the smaller iceberg that goes to the sea or become rivers and seawater is evaporated continuously replacing the melting ices (Zhang et al.). Since the primary source of water in the rivers and lakes is the glaciers, it is a perfectly normal phenomenon. It is an inevitable natural process; however, the process is dangerous when the melting of snow is more than the snow that is formed. The excess melting water are not able to evaporate is resulting as excess water body on earth. The snow replenishing is less in the circle of melting and forming glacier is the matter of concern and precisely this is another main cause of global warming. The melting glaciers are of major significance in the environment, they provide water, and they maintain the climate and humidity level. With all the heat rising in the atmosphere is resulting in melting of glaciers around the world. The glaciers are reducing in their size failing to form the ice in the same speed of melting the same ice and raising the sea levels. Due to the global warming, the frosts of the glaciers are melting faster than required which is resulting in a rise in temperature across the globe helping in the rise of sea water temperature. It is also to be noted that only 2 percent of the total water is fresh water that is used by human for primary use (Hansen et al.). The decreasing glacier mass will lead to severe shortage of freshwater. During the dry season there is an expectation of shortage of water for agriculture since the rainfall is highly affected by the melting glaciers. Other expected outcome of the melting glacier is excessive flooding, shortage of electricity, vanish of coral reef and animal habitat loss. Electricity is formed in the flow of running water, once the flow of water is lessened the production of electricity will also stop unless there are no new method of producing electricity (“Biodiversity Of The Great Barrier Reef”). All the underwater coral reefs that require sunlight for photosynthesis to not be able to survive as the rise in sea level will make it hard for sunlight to penetrate enough. In the similar way many organisms that depend solely on glaciers for survival will reduce in number.

Stronger hurricanes and cyclones: The myth that hurricanes are not linked to global warming has been explored by the researchers and the results manifest that there has been a connection with the climate change and the natural calamities. The natural calamities that take place are initiated by unnatural circumstances in nature. The advance development in technology, infrastructure and industry is producing immeasurable amount of pollution. Global warming is not only the heat but it has also been adding more and more moisture to the atmosphere that is providing fuel for hurricanes and big storms (Haarsma et al.). The Hurricanes are one of the disastrous weather disasters that cause loss of human life, animal habitats, human-made properties and natural properties. The hurricanes are capable of changing economic, social and demographic conditions in few minutes. The tropical cyclone movement has found out a noticeable uprising trend since the 70s, and the uprising trend happened to match with the rising ocean temperature. It has been observed that each increasing degree in the sea surface temperature results in the recurrence of category 4 and 5 storms by 31 per cent (Rahmstorf et al.). The rising sea level along with the moisture produced is adding in the atmosphere and it has been contributing to nature for stronger hurricanes and cyclones. The another main reason why global warming is a serious issue and need acute concern of the population is the global warming is fueling the hurricanes and building stronger storms for future.

The major reason for global warming is deforestation which is majorly performed by the human being.  Deforestation is the destruction of forests by humans for converting the land to non-forest use (“Deforestation: The Human Costs”). This process is adopted by humans massively and they are clearing stands of trees for the commercial or housing purpose (Fyfe, Gillett and Zwiers). Deforestation is commonly done by cutting trees or burning trees where the land is left entirely barren. This process makes a significant number of impacts on when the emission of greenhouse gas is concerned. The forest areas are getting reduced drastically every year since people for centuries are cutting down trees or burning forests for using lands in their own beneficial way. The impact of deforestation is on the atmosphere in significant ways. The major impact of deforestation is emitting massive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and deducting huge number of trees from nature that helps in reducing carbon dioxide followed by the wildlife damages. Since the causes of drastic climate change in nature are human, it is the human who should be taking the responsibility of making the amendments. The situation is settled at extreme and therefore, there are more than sufficient reason why humans should try changing the situation.

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Berg, Alexis, et al. “Land–atmosphere feedbacks amplify aridity increase over land under global warming.” Nature Climate Change 6.9 (2016): 869.

Dai, Aiguo. “Increasing drought under global warming in observations and models.” Nature Climate Change 3.1 (2013): 52.

Fyfe, John C., Nathan P. Gillett, and Francis W. Zwiers. “Overestimated global warming over the past 20 years.” Nature Climate Change 3.9 (2013): 767.

Haarsma, Reindert J., et al. “More hurricanes to hit western Europe due to global warming.” Geophysical Research Letters40.9 (2013): 1783-1788.

Hansen, James, et al. “Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2° C global warming is highly dangerous.” Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics Discussions 15.14 (2015).

Jeppesen, Erik, et al. “Ecological impacts of global warming and water abstraction on lakes and reservoirs due to changes in water level and related changes in salinity.” Hydrobiologia750.1 (2015): 201-227.

Moore, Lisa. “Global Warming Test: The Real Answers”. Environmental defense fund, 2018, https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2008/04/18/global_warming_test/. Accessed 9 Aug 2018.

O’Hare, Greg, John Sweeney, and Rob Wilby. Weather, climate and climate change: human perspectives. Routledge, 2014. pp. 120-139

Rahmstorf, Stefan et al. “Does Global Warming Make Tropical Cyclones Stronger?”. Realclimate, 2018, https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/. Accessed 9 Aug 2018.

Shaftel, Holly. “What’S In A Name? Weather, Global Warming And Climate Change”. Global Climate Change: Vital Signs Of The Planet, 2018, https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming/. Accessed 9 Aug 2018.

Zhang, Guoqing, et al. “An inventory of glacial lakes in the Third Pole region and their changes in response to global warming.” Global and Planetary Change 131 (2015): 148-157.