Amani Shami

English 112 204 Issue Report

3/12/2019

The Risks of Climate Change and Global Warming Essay

“Trees can no longer save us”…..This popular phrase explains the serious nature of global

warming and climate change . The meaning of this saying warns citizens about the dangers of climate

change and global warming. The issue has become so serious that it does not matter how much time

that is put into planting trees or how many trees are planted in this world, earth is doomed for disaster.

Too much damage has been done, and humanity is unable to repair earth by simply going green and

planting trees. But there’s always two sides of a story. What a lot of people don’t know is that global

warming has helped certain countries because it has allowed certain areas to warm up and is good for

the people in that specific area. Another side of the story is that adolescents and people are not

educated enough in global warming and what it is and what it does. So, it cannot be said that humanity

is 100% doomed for disaster when a large amount of people are not 100% educated on the subject and

what it means scientifically and what it is really and factually doing to the planet.

Global warming has been an issue of concern since the early 2000s. Global warming occurs

when Carbon Dioxide and other harmful chemicals reach the Earth’s atmosphere and ozone layer and

causes Earth to physically warm up (Johnson). Many of people are uneducated with the issue of Global

Warming. What a lot people do not understand about the world that we live in is that everything in the

Earth is a chain reaction of something else. Everything lives and continues to live in a strict way and if

that is messed up, it will throw off thousands of species like a ripple effect.
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One thing a lot of people correlate global warming with the melting of the glaciers, and the

polar bears. Since the Earth has warmed up even just a few degrees, it has caused the ice glaciers to

melt, which causes bacteria that was kept away for millions and billions of years to spread into our air.

This record-breaking melting has never taken place in history before.

In February-March 2002, the Larsen B ice shelf - over 3000 square km (the size of Rhode

Island) and 220 m (700 feet) thick- broke up in just a few months, a story typical of nearly all

the ice shelves in Antarctica. The Larsen B shelf had survived all the previous ice ages and

interglacial warming episodes over the past 3 million years, and even the warmest periods of

the last 10,000 years- yet it and nearly all the other thick ice sheets on the Arctic, Greenland,

and Antarctic are vanishing at a rate never before seen in geologic history (Krosnik)

It has caused fishes to die which is killing polar bears because they have no food. Over time polar bears

have evolved to live and deal with ice and harsh cold conditions, and the species is now dying off

because of global warming (Krosnik).

In 2016, there was a record-breaking heat wave that caused species on the great barrier reefs to

die instantly (Cook). The ocean’s water was heating up approximately 3 or 4 degrees each week. This

may not seem like a lot, but to ocean life, it’s the difference between life and death. Corals that were

affected the most are the staghorn and tabular corals (Cook)

The increasing prevalence of post-bleaching mass mortality of corals represents a radical shift in

the disturbance regimes of tropical reefs, both adding to and far exceeding the influence

of recurrent cyclones and other local pulse events, presenting a fundamental challenge to

the long- term future of these iconic ecosystems (Cook).

Not only is the warming of the ocean making species die off, but the death of coral reefs also causes

natural disasters.
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The amount of rainfall and temperatures since the 1990s, even to the early 21st century

has increased rapidly due to climate change and global warming (Investigators at University of Potsdam,

page 73). Rainfall is great for the Earth, but too much can cause humans to be in a pickle. Increase of

rainfall has caused agricultural loss, and even flooding (Investigators at University of Potsdam, page 73).

It is well known that greenhouse gases have a contribution in this. A greenhouse gas is “a gas that

contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, carbon dioxide, and

chlorofluorocarbons” (Wikipedia Contributors). This increase has happened in the last three years

(Investigators at University of Potsdam, page 73). The bad thing about greenhouse gases is that it

literally warms up the Earth’s atmosphere. “This increase in record-breaking rainfall is explained by a

statistical model which accounts for the warming of air and associated increasing water holding capacity

only” (Investigators at University of Potsdam, page 73).

Ironically, the fact that the Earth is warming is actually an advantage to some parts of the world.

“A planetary emergency that affected everyone equally would be much easier to tackle. However,

climate change that hurts some places but helps others opens the way for dangerous new conflicts”

(Gideon, pg 386-387). Yes, global warming does cause diseases and floods, and that Asia and some parts

of Africa would be more affected than others but is a positive thing for Russia and Siberia (Gideon, pg

386-387). For Russia, it makes winters more bearable. And or Siberia, more minerals are available, and

areas are becoming available for housing and settlement (Gideon, pg 386-387)

National surveys were conducted and revealed that Global Warming is actually on the lower

side of the list of things that America is worried about (Stevenson, pg 293-304). Public perceptions of

global warming is was molds the citizens on how they think of the issue. “The ACE model posits that

attitudes toward global warming are a function of people’s evaluations of its perceived consequences
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(Anderson; Fishbein and Ajzen). The most negative attitudes toward global warming are likely to be held

by people who believe that it will have a large number of very damaging consequences. Represented

more formally, attitudes toward global warming are thought to be derived from beliefs” (Stevenson, pg

293-304).

Over the past several years, the Earth’s atmosphere has been warming up and it has caused

catastrophes, species to die off, and the melting of the Earth’s ice caps and glaciers. Even though global

warming is horrible, there are some parts of the world that have benefited from global warming, and

many of people are not educated on what global warming really is and what it really does and will do.
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Works Cited

"Global Warming and Climate Change; James Cook University Details Findings in Global Warming and Climate

Change (Global Warming Transforms Coral Reef Assemblages)." Global Warming Focus, May 14,

2018, pp. 336. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/203691

2920?accountid=10163.

"Global Warming and Climate Change; Investigators at University of Potsdam Describe Findings in Global

Warming and Climate Change (Increased Record-Breaking Precipitation Events Under Global

Warming)." Global Warming Focus, Oct 19, 2015, pp. 73. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1722244118?accounti

d=10163 .

Krosnick, Jon A., et al. "The Origins and Consequences of Democratic Citizens' Policy Agendas: A Study of Popular

Concern about Global Warming." Climatic Change, vol. 77, no. 1-2, 2006, pp. 7-43. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/198511284?accountid

=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9068-8.

Prothero, Donald R. "How we Know Global Warming is Real and Human Caused."Skeptic, vol. 17, no. 2, 2012,

pp. 14-22,64. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/101873

9677?accountid=10163.

Rachman, Gideon. "There may be Winners as Well as Losers." Current History, vol. 106, no. 703, 11, 2007,

pp. 386-387. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/200718

228?accountid=10163.
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Stevenson, Kathryn T., et al. "Overcoming Skepticism with Education: Interacting Influences of Worldview and

Climate Change Knowledge on Perceived Climate Change Risk among Adolescents." Climatic Change, vol.

126, no. 3-4, 2014, pp. 293-304. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/156409

1497?accountid=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1228-7.

Johnson, Jane M. -., et al. "Do Mitigation Strategies Reduce Global Warming Potential in the Northern U.S. Corn

Belt?" Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 40, no. 5, 2011, pp. 1551-9. ProQuest,

https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/887254686?accountid

=10163.

Wikipedia contributors. "Greenhouse gas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26

Mar. 2019. Web. 2 Apr. 2019