Over the years, the silt has been collecting in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, and it is predicted that over the next few hundred years this lake will fill up with silt. This could threaten the entire Colorado River reservoir system. Just in the past 10 years, Lake Mead’s water levels have dropped by more than 100 feet and the basin is only half full. Something needs to be done to stop the trends and even
Carbon dioxide is a heat trapping greenhouse gas. It gets “released through human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels, as well as natural processes such as respiration and volcanic eruptions” (Global Climate Change: Key Indicators, 2014). An increase in carbon dioxide means more heat is trapped thereby raising the Earth’s temperature. Global surface temperature needs to also be monitored. Not just one area but globally!
But if my opponents did any research, they would realize that there is plenty of evidence to show that global warming is a real threat to this earth. In his essay “Now Or Never”, Bill McKibben writes: Consider hydrology, for instance. Warm air holds more water vapor the cold air, so there is an increase in evaporation in dry areas, and hence more drought—something that has been documented on every continent. Once that water is in the atmosphere, it’s going to come down someone—and indeed we have seen the most dramatic flooding ever recorded in recent years. In 1998, 300 million humans, one in twenty of us, had to leave their homes for a week, and month, a year, forever because of rising waters.
One major threat is that coral reefs are under huge stress due to the impact that human activities are having and in fact already 1/5 of the world’s coral reefs are so damaged that they are beyond repair. The increase of average global temperatures is leading to an increased rate of ice cap melting. This is due to global warming, making a global threat to all ecosystems including the coral reef. The reason for this is that the melting of the ice caps releases more fresh water into the oceans, reducing salinity making sea level rise. Due to sea level rising coral reefs are getting destroyed, as they cannot survive in water above 25m.
Oceans play a vital role when it comes to climate regulation, but there has been an escalating change in the sea temperature over the last few decades which contributed to sea levels rising. Oceans act as carbon dioxide main stores and a proportion of the carbon uptakes are exported along the ocean carbon pumps. An increase in the sea’s temperature and ocean currents may lead to a decrease in the uptake of Carbon dioxide by oceans. The ocean chemistry has already been affected as we are facing ocean acidification- which impacts species such as corals and calcareous plankton, aquatic and land ecosystems and the biogeochemical cycles. 1.10) What is the effect of climate change on biodiversity in the oceans and on land?
Global warming has been a giant issue in our world today the rising of seas, melting of ice caps, experiencing some of the worst natural disasters in centuries. We have known of this since 1980 to be exact. I've just got done reading two really good articles on global warming. Two articles that I read were Greenland Ice Cores: Frozen in time and the other article is named the Rising Seas . These two articles really informed me on whats happening in the world due to global warming.
As a result of this, plants and animals are forced to adapt to significant changes that threaten their way of life. As explained by Suzuki in the article, every year at least twenty thousand species disappear forever and the rate of extinction is speeding up largely due to human activity. Many living things are now paying the price for all the man made pollution that has been created as a result of global warming. Furthermore we as a community do nothing to stop global warming and feel no sense of responsibility or duty to care for the overall well being of our world. Big businesses are releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere and oceans.
Global Warming and the Polar Bear Works Cited Missing It was realized that in 1988 that mankind was transforming the atmosphere of our planet (Pearce, 1). Global Warming is a big concern to scientists aside from pollution and is certainly under way. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, with accelerated warming during the past two decades. Global warming has risen within the last 50 years because of the result of humans activities. These activities have distorted the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (EPA, The Climate).
Humans do things that create carbon dioxide which is one of the greenhouse gases that cause the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is when gases like carbon dioxide become trapped in the atmosphere and trap incoming solar energy. That solar energy is then redirected in all directions thus, warming the entire planet and causing what we know as global warming. Global warming is a heating up all parts of the planet causing global climate changes. “A major international assessment of climate change…provides conclusive new scientific evidence that human activities are causing unprecedented changes in the Earth’s climate.” (IPCC Confirms, 2013).
These gases, with carbon dioxide being the main culprit, prevent solar heat from escaping the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a rise in temperature, or the greenhouse effect. Already scientists around the world are detecting the numerous and dangerous effects of global warming (Johnson 18). Through these different leaks and spills our Canadian environment is slowly being negatively effected. The impacts of global warming on the Canadian environment are immense. Some of these impacts include ice bridges melting, and will have to be replaced with traditional building materials.