The Issue

Global warming is a huge problem that has presented itself in the past 10 years more than ever. Soon it will be an irreversible problem if we don’t stop and take action now. It started in the early 1900’s and late 1800’s when all over the world, people started to industrialize allowing companies to produce more of their product at a much faster rate. In the years to come countries would cut down trees for paper, wood, and land. Deforestation has lead the world to have a shortage of trees to absorb the CO2 and make it into oxygen. This has resulted in the build up of green house gases.

Greenhouse gases create a natural greenhouse effect, without which, mean temperatures on Earth would be an estimated 30 °C (54 °F) lower, so that Earth would be uninhabitable. Thus scientists do not “believe in” or “oppose” the greenhouse effect as such; rather, the debate concerns the net effect of the addition of greenhouse gases, while allowing for associated positive and negative feedback mechanisms.

On Earth, the major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36–70% of the greenhouse effect; carbon dioxide (CO₂), which causes 9–26%; methane (CH₄), which causes 4–9%; and ozone, which causes 3–7%. The atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ and CH₄ have increased by 31% and 149% respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores. From less direct geological evidence it is believed that CO₂ values this high were last attained 20 million years ago. “About three-quarters of the anthropogenic [man-made] emissions of CO₂ to the atmosphere during the past 20 years are due to fossil fuel burning. The rest of the anthropogenic emissions are predominantly due to land-use change, especially deforestation.”

The present atmospheric concentration of CO₂ is about 383 parts per million (ppm) by volume. Future CO₂ levels are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, sociological, technological, natural developments, but may be ultimately limited by the availability of fossil fuels. The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios gives a wide range of future CO₂ scenarios, ranging from 541 to 970 ppm by the year 2100. Fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to reach this level and continue emissions past 2100, if coal, tar sands or methane clathrates are extensively used.

The burning of the earths natural resources like fossil fuels are effecting the balance of the natural levels of carbon dioxide and other gases in the earth’s natural warming process; the Green House effect. The last ice age stopped because the average temperature of the Earth as a whole rose 3 degrees. Within the past 10 years, it has already risen one.

The Earth is a highly sensitive and complex group of systems that have to work together. Throwing off one will cause a chain reaction amongst the Earth’s ecosystems. Rising temperatures setting off one system are what caused events like Hurricane Katrina, the largest hurricane ever recorded in history.

The large fluctuations in temperature, the extreme weather conditions, and other environmental issues have been attributed to global warming. The rise in carbon dioxide is directly related to the heat raise in the world. The glaciers in Alaska and all over the world are melting twice as fast as they normally would every season. There is a glacier in North America the size of Texas that has melted away from the Arctic within the past two decades. Just as there is a huge glacier in Italy that will be completely gone by 2010. All the water is flowing into the ocean causing the ocean to rise. By the year 2100, not only will Global Warming be a problem that is unstoppable, but most of Florida, California, and cities all over the world will be under water. Islands all over the South Pacific are already seeing that problem occur.

As Americans living in the strongest superpower of the world, we are morally obligated to do more than any other country in the world. We are responsible for about 25% of all the CO2 in the air. One out of every four barrels of oil drilled will get shipped to the US. We are the most powerful country in the world and can afford to help out hundreds of countries annually but we wont help the need for all life on earth to exist in the future.