As a nation, there are
some issues in the 21st Century that should be of concern to everyone. Global warming
is an issue that has raised a lot of attention in the last century. This
concept is associated with climatic increase due to human activities.
If this problem persists,
serious problems affecting our daily lives will occur!
Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.
- Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s
poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West
Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
- Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the
Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000
breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
- Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
- Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved
farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
- Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across
the globe, on average.
- Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20
years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of
spruce trees.
Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.
- Sea levels are expected to rise
between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century,
and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to
20 centimeters).
- Hurricanes and other storms are
likely to become stronger.
- Species that depend on one
another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier
than their pollinating insects become active.
- Floods and droughts will become
more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common,
could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
- Less fresh water will be
available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its
current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who
rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
- Some diseases will spread, such
as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
- Ecosystems will change—some
species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be
able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn
Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live
and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier.
Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson
Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as
well.
Source for climate
information: IPCC, 2007
THE GOOD NEWS is change can be done with
our conscious efforts. Increasing the importance of environmental education is
essential. Also, environmental sustainability is necessary which is the implementation of
policies to enhance the quality of the environment for the future generations.
Going "green" is another popular approach to environmental management
that has become popular in the last century. Reducing the amount of carbon released
into the environment and promoting the use of renewable resources is a key
factor in the progress in a "green" environment. In addition to
reducing the gases we emit to the atmosphere, we can also increase the amount
of gases we take out of the atmosphere. Plants and trees absorb CO2 as
they grow, "sequestering" carbon naturally. Increasing
forestlands and making changes to the way we farm could increase the amount of
carbon we're storing.
To learn more about what we can do to prevent global warning, visit:
