What is Global warming? Effects, causes and prevention

Across the globe, we can feel the impacts of global warming. According to global warming report, the average temperature of the planet has increased by 0.8º Celsius (1.44° Fahrenheit) compared to the end of the 19th century. Each of the last three decades has been warmer than all previous decades. The global climate is the connected system of sun, earth and oceans, wind, rain and snow, forests, deserts and savannas and everything people do too. So, what is global warming? And what are its causes, effects and ways for its prevention?

What is global warming?

Global warming is the slow increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere because an increased amount of energy (heat) striking the earth from the sun is being caught in the climate and not transmitted out into space. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace.  It has turned out to be clear that people have caused the greater part of the previous century’s warming by discharging heat trapping gases as we power our modern lives.

The earth’s atmosphere has always acted like a greenhouse catch the sun’s heat. ensuring that the earth has enjoyed temperatures that allowed the development of life  forms as we know them, including humans. Without our atmospheric greenhouse the earth would be freezing.

Greenhouse effect

The most common greenhouse gases is CO2 or carbon dioxide. Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation.

 “The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon. However, the increase in greenhouse gases is linked to human activities.”

The burning of fossil fuels to make electricity is the largest source of heat-trapping pollution, creating around two billion tons of CO2 consistently. The country’s second-largest source of carbon pollution is the transportation sector.

Climate change

The climate of a place can be described as its rainfall, changing temperatures during the year and so on. Heat is energy and when you add energy to any system changes occur. Because all systems in the global climate system are associated, including heat energy causes the global climate as a whole to change. A significant part of the world is covered with oceans which warms up. At the point when the sea warms up, more water evaporates into clouds.

 A warmer atmosphere makes glaciers and mountain snow packs, the Polar ice cap, and the incredible ice shield extending off of Antarctica melt raising ocean levels. Changes in temperature change the great patterns of wind that bring the monsoons in Asia and rain and snow around the world.

Effects of global warming

Here are a few effects, that are documented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming, which are given below:

• The increase of temperatures and the climate upheavals disturb the ecosystems, modify the conditions and cycles of plant reproduction. 
• Forests, farms and cities will face troublesome new pests, heat waves, heavy downpours and increased flooding. All those factors will damage or destroy agriculture and fisheries.
• Rising sea levels and floods are causing population migration.
• Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages and increase the risk of wildfires in the American West.
• Global warming impacts biodiversity.

• Rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern Seaboard, especially in Florida and in other areas such as the Gulf of Mexico.
• The large amount of CO2 captured by the oceans makes them more acidic.
• Allergies, asthma and infectious disease outbreaks will become more common due to increased growth of pollen-producing ragweed and higher levels of air pollution.

Causes of global warming

Researchers accept that human exercises are in all respects likely the main cause of global warming since the mid-twentieth century. The main causes are as:

• Deforestation: Trees help manage the atmosphere by retaining CO2 from the environment. When they are chopped down, this beneficial outcome is lost.
• Waste disposal emit greenhouse and toxic gases – including methane – that are released into the atmosphere.

• The main cause of greenhouse effect is mining. Modern life is highly dependent on the mining and metallurgical industry.
• The massive use of fossil fuels,  as burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide – the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
• Another cause of global warming is intensive farming, cattle and sheep produce large amounts of methane when digesting their food, while fertilisers produce nitrous oxide emissions.
• Overconsumption also plays a major role in climate change.
• Overpopulation is also responsible for global warming.

Prevention of global warming

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to do a lot more together with other countries. there are ways to reduce global warming. But how can climate change be reversed? Solutions which may helpful, are given below:

• In order to reduce the CO² emissions from buildings – caused by heating, air conditioning, hot water or lighting – it is necessary both to build new low energy buildings,
• The first way to prevent climate change is to move away from fossil fuels. Renewable energies like solar, wind, biomass and geothermal.
• Promoting public transportation, can definitely help decrease CO2 emissions and  in this manner fight global warming.
• Encouraging better use of natural resources, stopping massive deforestation
• Producing clean energy is essential, but reducing our consumption of energy and water by using more efficient devices 
• recycling is an absolute necessity for dealing with waste.
• Building greenfield industrial economies
• Developing countries have the opportunity to build entirely new, distributed generation power systems that require no grids and use non-polluting technologies.

Conclusion

Fortunately we’ve begun a turnaround: CO2 emissions in the United States decreased from 2005 to 2014, energy proficient innovation and the utilisation of cleaner fuels. What’s more, researchers keep on growing better approaches to modernize power plants, produce cleaner power, and consume less fuel while we drive. The challenge is to be sure these solutions are put to utilize and broadly adopted. Last but not least, reusing is a flat out need for managing waste.

Here are some good reads as usual on global warming.

• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
• The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change (The Politically Incorrect Guides)
• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
• Global Warming-Alarmists, Skeptics and Deniers: A Geoscientist Looks at the Science of Climate Change