Global warming is the most important issue facing us today. If not addressed and contained, it will result in an unlivable environment for our children and grandchildren.
Global warming is a man-made condition due to our creation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that results in a shield that traps warm air around the earth. The major source of greenhouse gases
is carbon dioxide created from our use of fossil fuels in coal fired energy plants and exhausts from vehicles that burn gas. This web page is intended to show what we as individuals can do to help prevent global warming.
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Global warming results
The effect of global warming is resulting in extreme weather patterns. As the eartha€?s atmosphere heats up, it collects, retains, and drops more water, changing weather patterns and making wet areas wetter and dry areas drier.
Higher temperatures worsen and increase the frequency of many types of disasters, including storms, floods, heat waves, and droughts. This will create:
- Crop failure due to droughts or extreme weather that will lead to starvation in some areas
- Flooding of our coastal cities as sea levels will rise from the melting of the artic glaciers
- Changing weather patterns will disrupt animal life and cause the extinction of many animal species
- Displacement of populations fleeing drought covered areas
- Warming of the seas that will create an acidic condition that will kill off many sea creatures as well as destroy the coral reefs
- Increased air pollution due to warmer temperatures
- Increase in infectious diseases due to warmer and more moist weather
- Increase in heat related deaths
Global warming solutions
The solution to combatting global warming requires us to change our behavior,
Best Replica Watches especially since our government is still denying there is global warming and is doing little
to mitigate its effects. However, state and local governments and private industry recognize the seriousness of global warming and are starting to take action to combat it.
Below are what we can do as individuals to combat global warming by using less energy.
- Solar heating: Solar heating may not be feasible or economical in some instances but for those who plan to build a new home, installing solar heat panels
instead of using oil or gas for heating your home will reduce the use of fossil fuels which create carbon dioxide when burned. Many states provide subsidies for installing
solar panels which will make them even more economical.
- LED Lights: Use LED light bulbs instead of incadescent bulbs as they use much less energy.
- Electric Cars: Electric cars are becoming more practical with improved batteries and lower cost. All the major auto companies are planning on electric cars
becoming the major car of the future. If the public starts buying more electric cars, the price will come down and they will be even more practical. Since auto exhaust
is a major source of green house gases, it is imperative that we embrace electric cars as the transportation mode of the future.
- Public transportation: While it is easier to use public transportation in the city, even those in rural areas can use public transporation by deciding to take the
train to Chicago instead of driving. It will be less hectic and cheaper by not having to buy gas or pay for parking.
- Eat less meat: This is one habit that will be hard to change, esecially for older people. However, the energy used to raise cattle is very high when you take
into consideration how much energy is needed to raise the corn to feed cattle. In addition, cattle flactuence is a big source of methane gas which is another greenhouse gas
that adds to global warming. The other reason for cutting down on our meat consumption is that it is healthier to eat chicken or fish and this food source is less energy intensive.
- Turn off Electrical Items: Energy can be saved by turning off our computers when not in use over night and turning off lights when not needed.
- Plant a tree:The Amazon forest is called the "Lungs of the Earth" because its many trees absorb the carbon dioxide in the air and sequester it in the ground. By planting
trees in our yard or by the city having a tree program, we are helping to reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The best way to address this solution is to have farmers
plant trees on the borders of their fields. This will not only sequester the carbon dioxide it will also help prevent wind erosion, provide wildlife cover and add beauty to the countryside.
- Use more efficent transportation: This can cover a large area. Already, many people in Minonk are using electric carts or ATV's to get around town instead of
driving a gas guzzling car. This mode of transportation should be encouraged. We also can copy the behavior of many European countries by using bicycles to get around town.
This is not only energy efficient, it is healthy exercise. The late Melvin Matter at the age of 95 got around town on a bicycle. Instead of driving your children to school in a car, have them take
a bicycle instead.
- Stay at home: A study showed that toursim accounts for 8% of our greenhouse gas emissions due to our use of airlines which are an enormous use of energy.
On your next vacation, take a train
or just stay home and catch up on projects or hobbies or just enjoy doing nothing with your friends and family.
- Elect responsible government: This is probably the biggest thing we can do to combat global warming. Elect officials who realize the importance of combatting global warming
and eliminate politicians who are beholden to the oil and coal industry. Also, support politicans who will help protect the environment to keep our air and water clean.
While it is not easy to change one's behavior by adopting all of the above suggestions, it is worthwhile to at least try some of these suggestions. These suggestions are more important for
the younger generation for they are not ingrained in their habits as the older generation and they will be living longer and, therefore, their actions will have more impact than that of the
older generation.
What the Government Can Do
While our collective action will go along way to combat global warming, the process can be expedited by a government that is also concerned about global warming and is willing
to put appropriate policies into place.
- Participate in the Paris Climate Agreement:The Paris Agreement is an agreement that deals with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, and was signed in 2016 by almost all nations, including the United States.
- Support Clean Energy: Our government needs to promote clean energy by supporting the solar panel industry and the windfarm industry with subsidies and tax breaks that will
enable these industries to grow large enough to achieve economies of scale that will make them economically viable on their own.
- Enforce better gas mileage: Our government should set higher gas mileage requirements for automotive manufacturers.
- Stop promoting coal: Even though most coal plants are being replaced by more energy efficient gas fired
power plants, coal still provides most of our energy. The government must encourage the replacement of coal plants.
- Help unemployed coal miners:
Because it is necessary to phase out coal fired energy plants in order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, it also necessary to
provide training and economic assistance to coal miners who will become unemployed in the process. There will be winners and losers in the fight to reduce global warming
and the losers must be not be abandoned - they must be helped to get back on their feet and become productive members of our economy.
- Stop the pipelines:
Efforts to build pipelines to transfer oil from Canda down to the Gulf Coast for exporting to other countries should be stopped. The pipeines
will destroy habitat and create pollution in its path and will provide economic benefits to the oil industry but to nobody else.
Conclusion
The global warming crisis is the most important situation that we will encounter in our lifetime. Humans are responsible for the global warming crisis and humans
are the only ones who can save themselves from the consequences of unimpeded global warming. We owe it to our grandchildren and their children to save them from an uninhabitable world by
changing our behavior now.
We have taken a complacent attitude to this problem because most of us have not experienced or cannot envision the dramatic effects global warming can wrought.
n addition, most people treat it as a future problem, not a current one. However, we have witnessed what is going to continue happening with the wildfires in Australia and California, a 40 inch rainfall in Houston and droughts in Africa that are forcing people to resettle elsewhere.
The earth has undergone radical changes since its beginning and many species have come and gone. However, the changes in the past were gradual and natural and not man made. If we don't undo what
we as humans have done in just 200 years, we will be the next species to go extinct.