The oxford dictionary defines global warming as the increase in
temperature of the earth's atmosphere that is caused by the increase of
particular gases, especially carbon dioxide.
So
how does it work? How nature intends for the sun to heat the earth is
for the sun to shine UV rays down on the earth. These rays should then
bounce off the earth and back out into space. To keep the Earth's
temperature in balance some of these rays are blocked by the atmosphere
from making it to outer space. The heat from these rays are then used to
keep the earth at the temperature nature intended. However we are
messing with nature's intentions. What is happening now is a severe
increase in the amount of greenhouse gases being sent into our
atmosphere due to advancements in technology and our huge dependence on
heavy industry and fossil fuels. These gases act as a shield so that
when UV rays bounce off the earth now the majority of them are trapped
by these gases instead of continuing into space. The result of this is
that these trapped rays end up heating the earth beyond the desired
temperature.
Since the early 20th century the earth's temperature
has increased by 1.4 degrees. The majority of this increase has occurred
since the 1980s. 1.4 degrees that's not so bad, right? Wrong. The
majority of the environmental disasters you hear about on the news every
evening, scientists are attributing to this increase in temperature.
Critics
will argue 'that's rubbish there have always been natural disasters,
before we ever even heard about global warming'. OK so, I guess their
right, the increase in weather related natural disasters from 120 per
year during the 1980s to roughly 500 per year now is just a coincidence
(insert sarcasm here). That is an increase of around 400% since the
1980s. If you look closer you will notice the number of natural
disasters started to increase right about the same time the earth's
temperature started to increase but that's probably just another
coincidence as well. Remember this is the result of 1.4 degree increase
in the Earth's temperature. This figure is set to reach 8 degrees in the
next hundred years if current trends continue you can do the math on
that one.
Scientists have also noted a rapid melting of the polar
ice caps due to global warming. When an ice cube melts in a glass it
turns to water and will increase the volume of water in the glass.
Imagine this on a scale so large that the ice cube is a continent and
the glass is the world's oceans and then guess what happens. That's
right our ocean's levels rise and swallow up coastal areas all over the
world. At the moment, we can see evidence of it happening in Thailand
and this is one of many examples where hundreds have died and millions
displaced because of severe flooding. In the future, low lying
countries, such as The Netherlands, could be completely submerged and
cease to exist if this trend is left to continue.
The whole point
of this article was not to leave you with nightmares but to educate you
into action. There are so many steps we can take on our own and as a
society to help reduce our carbon footprint and leave a safe environment
for our future generations.
'In life, lots of people know what to
do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough!
You must take action', Tony Robbins
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