What is global warming?
Global warming: On a variety of gases, including Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Ozone (O3), CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), Methane (CH4), and others. The confined atmosphere contains water vapor. The gases retain some of the heat that the sun’s rays transmit to the Earth. As a result, it guarantees that the Earth’s temperature will always be suitable for all living things.
The greenhouse effect is the name given to this attribute of the environment. Temperature increases due to excessive greenhouse gas creation and ozone deposition in the near troposphere, excessive fossil fuel usage, rapid population growth, quality of life improvements, and human activity. This condition is the starting point for a lot of potentially fatal issues.
A sequence of catastrophes known as “global warming” is brought on by the Earth’s temperature rising significantly, forest fires, desertification, glaciers melting, rising sea levels, excessive rainfall, development of ongoing floods, and excessive erosion. Causes The climate system has changed due to the natural disasters brought on by global warming.
Table of Contents
What is the History of Global Warming?
Significant climatic and environmental changes have occurred during history’s glacial and interglacial periods, causing some biomes’ disappearance and others’ emergence. The cycles and conditions of the natural system profoundly impact these events. The climate has stayed the same since the shift to a stable order in the late Mesolithic. However, this started to change around 30 years ago drastically. Data from paleoecological science demonstrate that the climate system is not stable. It is fully dependent on human actions and is not a natural process.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests’ research indicates that energy use, industry, deforestation and forest damage, agricultural activities, and global warming are all rising.
Some problems due to global warming?
1. The glaciers and basins are still melting. In the last 20 years, the sea level has increased by 20 cm.
2. The ozone layer blocks out UV light’ damaging effects. However, substances like CFCs harm the ozone layer.
3. Climate change brought on by an increase in global temperatures.
Floods, erosion, and landslides contribute to the rise in these natural disasters.
By warming oceans and seas and causing the release of dissolved carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, global warming helps to reduce biodiversity.
A result of not being able to fulfill the growing demand will decrease the reserve and capacity of the reservoirs and create environmental contamination. Environmental pollution will worsen, and essential tasks and necessities, including access to clean water, personal hygiene, and family sanitation, will suffer.
Deserts will expand widely from the land due to an extreme temperature increase.
A favorable environment will lead to increased forest fires and an unavoidable spread of infections.
The world’s biodiversity species contain both warm and cold living things. As a result of shifting climatic conditions, adaptive features will manifest, leading to an increase in chromosome diversity and a change in the hereditary structure of many species.
The arctic areas’ frozen soil masses will start to melt, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Over time, there will be a smaller temperature differential between day and night.
Disasters caused by the atmosphere (such as lightning, storms, tornadoes, etc.) and acid rain will worsen.
The human body will struggle to maintain homeostasis due to abrupt climate shifts, and disease rates will rise.
These things will cause a man to experience mental crises, and differences will spread throughout the planet.
Prevention of global warming?
Certain actions can be taken to stop or lessen global warming while reducing its growth. For instance
Planting:
Planting is the best approach to combat global warming. (i.e., planting new plants). Plants or trees cannot absorb carbon dioxide; hence its concentration in the atmosphere will fall.
Utilize energy that may be reused as frequently as possible and lessen the use of diverse energy sources contributing to global warming.
Reduce the use of heaters and air conditioners. Replace your heating bulbs with new energy-efficient models.
Awareness:
Raising societal or household awareness may not be enough to abolish global warming entirely. A crucial first step is to inform and motivate other people to act.
Use of renewable energy sources: The use of renewable energy sources can significantly mitigate global warming.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING?
Global warming is more than mere warmth, so “climate change” has become the preferred word among scientists and politicians. While the world is growing hotter on average, this warming can have unexpected consequences, such as more frequent and severe snowstorms. Climate change may and will significantly impact the world in various ways, including melting glaciers, drying out already-arid areas, producing weather extremes, and disturbing the delicate balance of the seas.
Melting ice
The melting of glaciers and sea ice is the most apparent result of global warming thus far. The ice sheets have been receding since the end of the last ice age 11,700 years ago, but warming during the last century has expedited their death. According to a 2016 study, there is a 99% possibility that global warming is to blame for the recent retreat of glaciers; these ice rivers receded 10 to 15 times the distance they would have if the climate had remained steady. In the late 1800s, Glacier National Park in Montana contained 150 glaciers.
There were 26 as of 2015 when the most recent thorough survey was conducted. When glacial dams holding back glacier lakes destabilize and rupture, or when avalanches triggered by unstable ice bury settlements, glacier loss can result in the loss of human life.
The North Pole is warming twice as fast as the middle latitudes, and the sea ice is feeling the pressure. Autumn and winter Arctic ice levels reached record lows in 2015 and 2016, implying that the ice cover did not cover as much of the open sea as previously seen. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), summer sea ice reached its second-lowest extent ever recorded in 2020.
NASA reports that the 13 lowest values for the maximum winter extent of Arctic sea ice have all been observed in the previous 13 years. In addition, ice develops later in the season and melts more quickly in the spring. According to the NSIDC, January sea ice has decreased by 3.15% every decade over the last 40 years. Some experts believe the Arctic Ocean will have ice-free summers over the next 20 to 30 years.
The impacts of global warming have been more varied in the Antarctic. According to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the Western Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than anywhere else, save some portions of the Arctic. The peninsula is where the Larsen C ice shelf recently disintegrated, resulting in an iceberg the size of Delaware.
Scientists now believe that a fifth of West Antarctica’s ice is at risk of collapsing and that the massive Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers are flowing five times faster than in 1992. According to a 2021 study, the Thwaites glacier is especially susceptible since it rests above a location where the Earth’s crust is very shallow, and geothermal heat can erode the ice from below.
East Antarctica has historically been more resistant to global warming’s impacts. However, recent research shows that even the southern continent’s last chilly stronghold may suffer the consequences of rising temperatures. East Antarctica’s glaciers are moving quicker, according to Yale’s Environment360. This means that more land-based ice is melting and melting into the ocean, a major contributor to rising sea levels.
Heating up
Global warming will also affect conditions between the poles. As the planet heats, many already-dry locations are predicted to become much drier. For example, the United States southwest and central plains are anticipated to face decades-long “megadroughts” beyond human history.
“The future of drought in western North America is likely to be worse than anybody has ever experienced in the history of the United States,” Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, published research projecting these droughts in 2015, told Live Science. “These droughts are so incredibly different from what we’re used to that it’s hard to fully understand just how severe they are.”
According to the study, a drought lasting at least 35 years was anticipated to occur in the region 85% of the time by 2100. The researchers discovered that the major cause is the rising evaporation of water from hotter and hotter soil. Much of the precipitation that does fall in these dry areas will be evaporated.
Meanwhile, a 2014 study revealed that many locations would likely get less rainfall as the climate warms. According to the report, subtropical regions such as the Mediterranean, Amazon, Central America, and Indonesia would be the most impacted. South Africa, Mexico, Western Australia, and California would also experience drought.
Droughts, in turn, can pave the way for catastrophic wildfires. Many variables influence how many acres are burnt each year and how much damage flames do. Still, according to National Interagency Fire Centre data, the scope of wildfires has steadily increased since the 1980s. Since 2005, the top ten years for acres burnt have all occurred.
Extreme weather
Extreme weather is another effect of global warming. As the Earth warms, hurricanes and typhoons are predicted to become more powerful. Hotter oceans evaporate more moisture, which is what fuels severe storms. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even if the world diversifies its energy sources and transitions to a less fossil-fuel-intensive economy (the A1B scenario), tropical cyclones will be up to 11% more severe on average. This implies that vulnerable beaches will suffer more wind and water damage.
Climate warming may increase the frequency of severe snowstorms. Extreme snowstorms in the eastern United States have become twice as common as in the early 1900s, according to the National Centres for Environmental Information. Again, this change is caused by rising ocean temperatures, which enhance moisture evaporation into the atmosphere. This moisture fuels storms that impact the continental United States.
Ocean disruption
Some of the most immediate consequences of global warming may be found beneath the waters. Oceans operate as carbon sinks, absorbing dissolved carbon dioxide. That’s not horrible for the environment, but it could be better for marine ecology. When carbon dioxide combines with seawater, its pH drops (it gets more acidic), a process known as ocean acidification. This increasing acidity erodes the calcium carbonate shells and skeletons many ocean species need for life. According to NOAA, these species include shellfish, pteropods, and corals.
Corals, in particular, are the canary in the coal mine for oceanic climate change. Marine experts have reported worrying amounts of coral bleaching, which occurs when coral ejects the symbiotic algae that nourish the coral and give it its vibrant colors. Corals bleach when they are stressed, and stressors might include high temperatures. Back-to-back bleaching outbreaks occurred on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017. Coral can withstand bleaching, but repeated bleaching events make survival increasingly unlikely.
read about Bermuda Triangle.
