Lesson The Global Warming Trend example essay topic

"Man did not weave the web of life- he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself". Chief Seattle, 1854 Since the mid-1800's, human activities- chiefly the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gases) and the clearing of land- have increased the amounts of heat trapping atmospheric gases. Most of the burning takes place in automobiles, electric power plants and industrial facilities.

The clearing of land reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that trees and other plants remove from the atmosphere. Although researchers have not yet fully proved that the increase in greenhouse gases has raised the surface temperature, many scientist consider such a relationship likely. A smaller number of scientist argue that the increase in greenhouse gases has not made a measurable difference in the climate. These scientists say that the warming trend is a normal change in the climate system. The global cooling trend that began in the 1940's was reversed in the last quarter of the 20th century.

By the year 2000, mean northern hemisphere temperature had risen by approximately 0.4 degrees Celsius, compared to the early 1970's. Climatologist explained that this increase in temperatures was due principally to the warming effects of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which predominated over a slow, natural cooling effect (Jackson 2). Scientist must understand and address the public's perception of the global warming problem. The public perceive global warming as a long term problem, whose effects are uncertain and won't really be felt in our own lifetimes. We are uncertain of the consequences and percieve its impacts as being far off in the future. The unusually hot summers of the past few years have helped to make people take global warning seriously; even though scientist are far from agreeing as to whether that was really a consequence of global warming.

We also assume that we can take care of problems by controlling nature. If nature ravages the shore, we build a bigger breakwater to protect the shore. If there is a drought, we will seed the clouds to cause rain. But we cannot control global warming in that way after the fact. Global warming shows us that our behavior affects nature, but that we do not control nature (Jackson 1). We must not put our main focus on adapting to the changes we have set into motion.

Instead, we must adopt control measures now to lesson the global warming trend. This means we must find technical ways to lesson harmful discharges, i.e. electric cars, more efficient buildings that require less heating and less air conditioning, more efficient appliances (Jackson 2). Fundamental lifestyle changes are also essential. It means lessening our dependence on automobiles by improving mass transit and redesigning cities to decrease the need for transportation. It means preserving our forest to avoid releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere.

It means stopping our reliance on incineration as a primary way to dispose of our waste (Lyman 2). Scientist have a critical role in making sure that we don't sit back as passive by standers and watch global warming occur and feel its effects. Scientist must make us aware that we are creators of the problem and push us to take the actions necessary to keep the situation from worsening. Jackson, John. "Global Warming: The Public Point of View".

Climate Change. Ed. G. Wall and M. Sanderson. Dept. of Geography: University of Waterloo, 1990.161-63 Lyman, Francesca. The Greenhouse Trap.

Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 1990.