Figure 2. The Greenhouse Effect (NSDE, 2009)
As the United States increases in population (United States Census Bureau, 2014), humans must expect complications in the atmosphere of the planet. One major factor of complications in the planet's atmosphere is the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. Since the industrial revolution the United States has been burning fossil fuels. The increasing amount in which fossil fuels are burned are causing many issues in the world. These issues include increasing surface and ocean temperatures, changes in global ecosystems, sea level increase, and the increase of vector borne diseases in both developing and developed nations. Alternatives to fossil fuels have been found and are being used, but not at the amount necessary to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases we produce.
Greenhouse gases are found throughout the atmosphere of Earth. Greenhouse gases create the greenhouse gas effect where solar radiation is introduced to the Earth. Afterwards the Earth releases energy back as infrared radiation, but because of greenhouse gases the radiated energy becomes trapped within the atmosphere (Figure 2). The common misconception is that the sun's energy is being trapped within the atmosphere of the Earth instead of the Earth reradiating energy back towards the sun. The greenhouse gases are CO2, CH4, N2O, O3, H2O (in a water vapor form) and CFCs.
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Figure 2. The Greenhouse Effect (NSDE, 2009) |
World temperature is increasing every year and it is not a seasonal change (NCDC, 2014a). The global temperature has risen over 0.83oC, Figure 3, in the past 40 years. The increase in temperature is causing a lot of issues in developing nations related to food and water insecurity. Increases in temperature will only make food and water insecurity worse in the future. Greenhouse gases are released from the burning of fossil fuels, as well as naturally occurring sources around the world and this causes global warming.
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Figure 3. Global Temperature from 1901 to 2012 (IPCC, 2014) |
The climate will continue to change if the human race does not utilize alternative energy sources to produce power, and decrease the use of methane (CH4), which is a the primary fossil fuel being burned. Solomon et al. (2010) states that in the year 2050 concentrations of CO2, CH4, and N2O would increase to a level that is so extremely high that these gases would no longer be able to be removed from the atmosphere. This would increase water temperatures (which would change fish habitat and ecosystem), melt polar ice caps (which would raise the sea level), increase the chance of wildfires in already dry areas, increase the strength of hurricanes and other major storms, and change the weather patterns.
Increases in the concentrations of greenhouse gases will affect more organisms over the next 50 years, USEPA (2013) . This increase in greenhouse gases will affect the way that ecosystems work as a whole. Humans should ration the amount of fossil fuels being used because according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA 2007) (Figure 4) 57% of the total amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is from fossil fuel burning by humans. The amount of CO2 produced is through the creation of energy primarily burning of fossil fuels.
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Figure 4. Global Greenhouse Gas Emission and Sources. (USEPA, 2007) |
Seinfeld et al. (2012) detailed that the increase of global temperatures will lead to a doubling of CO2 which will warm the globe more than it currently is. Also according to NCDC (2014b) CO2 levels increased to the highest recorded amount in April of 2014, which was 400 parts per million (ppm). Solomon et al. (IPCC 2008a) created models that predict the increase of CO2 over the next 80 years. The overall total will increase in the next 80 years to 500 parts per million. This increase in CO2 will cause an increase in surface temperatures between 1o to 3.5o C by the year 2100. The IPCC sent out their fifth installment (IPCC 2014) which showed that the levels of CO2 were 54% higher in 2011 when compared to 1990.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA 2014) reported that the major factor of greenhouse gas that will affect the Earth's climate is the length of time that the gas remains in the atmosphere. Also how each gas has an unique ability to absorb energy. This shows that as the concentration of these gases are increasing each gas stays longer in the atmosphere and further increases the warming of the globe faster each year.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) predicted a rise in the surface temperature across the globe. This shows that the world is changing in temperature on an overall scale. Just because one day or one year may have been cooler than the average temperatures it does not mean that global climate change does not exist. This panel of climate change experts also compiled data from past years through present. It was determined the change in temperature for both the land and the ocean increased. The data showed that since 1850 the planet there has been in a warming period. This is represented by Figure 5 showing that the average temperature has constantly increased. IPCC experts complied the data into a decadal graph to show that the year by year perspective on temperature and that it is not the trend. This shows that although the annual average temperature may be below the previous year it does not mean the climate is cooling.
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Figure 5. Global Average Temperature Sea and Land (IPCC, 2014) |
In figure 5, the gray areas are to indicate the maximum and the minimums for each decade, also to represent that each black line is the average for both the annual and the decadal graph. The different colors represent three different datasets from 1850 to 2013. The data concludes that within the three datasets the information received was similar. This shows that although the datasets were in a different timespan that the trend was similar.
Glaciers are a major component to the increase in sea levels. If both the Greenland ice sheet and the Western Antarctic ice sheet were to melt then they would increase the sea level by 10 meters (Williams et al. 2014). This increase of 10 meters would flood 25% of the U.S. population. The locations that would be impacted the greatest would be the gulf states such as Louisiana and Florida and the eastern coastal states such as Maine and South and North Carolina. The IPCC looked at the oceans levels to see the changes over the past 100 years. They found from three different datasets that the level of the oceans were rising around the globe. It was found that this is due to the increase of glacial melt and global ocean surface temperatures, which cause thermal expansion. They also found that this increase in sea level rise is predicted to be a 6.6 foot rise be the end of 2100. If humans do decide to do something the rise will be approximately 8 inches (NOAA 2012). This demonstrates that humans can influence the outcome of this prediction. Sea level rise reflects negatively for humans because that 8 inches of sea level rise is the lowest possible outcome of what could happen. The data is leaning towards the 3.9 to 6.6 foot rise depending on what steps we as humans take to fix this issue. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2014) reported that the change in sea level, Figure 6, from 1993 to 2010 was 3.2 mm per year.
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Figure 6. Global Sea Level Change (IPCC 2014) |
The panel reported that the annual sea ice decrease between 1979 to 2012 was between 3.5% and 4.1% per decade. This decrease in sea ice is to increase to between 9.4% and 13.6% per decade which will lead to an increase in sea level that is higher than historically seen globally (IPCC 2014). The IPCC experts also noted that the rate of decline of sea ice increased from 34 gigatonnes per year from 1992 to 2001 to the now known rate of 215 gigatonnes of carbon per year from 2002 to 2011.
The World Health Organization has acknowledged that the change in climate is leading to a negative change in human health from the increase of disease vectors, decrease in water quality and air quality, and the decrease in food availability and quality (WHO 2014). The WHO also stated that diseases not commonly found in non-tropical areas are now being found in non-tropical areas.. These cases are because of temperature. Increase in temperatures is allowing tropical insects to enter areas that did not have the climate to support their life but will because of the change.
The World Health Organization reported that Malaria is an increasing threat to human life as temperatures rise. In 2012 627,000 people died in developing countries due to Malaria 91% of the regions primarily by Malaria are in Africa. (WHO 2014). This disease is increasing in all nations because mosquitoes, the carrier of Malaria, thrive in warm climates.
Bessou et al. (2011) discussed how an alternative to burning fossil fuels could be biofuel combustion. Biofuel combustion has the potential to cut the amount of greenhouse gases produced in half. This is important because when the amount of greenhouse gases produced is cut in half, the overall CO2 level would be lowered. This would lead to a decrease in the rate at which polar ice caps melting. Decreasing the rate at which the polar ice caps are melting will decrease sea level rising rates.
Carbon neutral alternatives to fossil fuels are a major way in which we the people can lower the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon neutral sources are solar power, wind power, and nuclear power.
Solar power is an alternative to fossil fuels that has been in development since the 1880s. It was first developed by a scientist named Charles Fritts (US Department of Energy 2014a). Currently in the solar power department the development of technology for better energy storage unit because without a storage unit solar energy can not be used for the entire day. The majority of places that have implemented solar power are the western portion of the United States.
Wind power is an alternative to fossil fuel that is a renewable, plentiful, and uses little land. Unlike solar energy the storage capacity for wind power is large. The large amount of storage means that the power can be imported and exported to the neighboring areas (US Department of Energy 2014b). Turbines can generate 1.2 megawatts of energy in just 3 years. Currently Germany holds the most wind power generation with 2.5%.
Nuclear power is a low carbon emission method of producing electricity. Since the 1970's nuclear power has prevented approximately 64 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere (World Nuclear Association 2014). France specifically has derived over 75% of their total energy from nuclear power. The country of France has also seen the fewest number of meltdowns when compared to other countries.
Changes in the environment are important because the increase of temperature and greenhouse gases can lead to the downfall of all coastal cities and countries due to rising sea levels. Changes in the environment due to climate change will also the increase number of diseases in both developing and developed nations. Overall the world needs to reduce its fossil fuel consumption because the environmental affects will not go away even if you put a blanket over the top of them. They will not become non-existent. Global climate change is happening all around us there is evidence for every issue. We the people control climate change and we are the only ones who can make sure that it does not devastate our planet.
When sea levels rise many people that live in the coastal areas will be displaced and have to find a new place to live. The displacement of coastal immigrates to new cities and towns will lead to increase of air borne pathogens because of the population increase.
In December 2009, President Obama with other nations leaders came together to
negotiate the Copenhagen Accord, for the first
time, all major developed and developing countries agreed
to limit their greenhouse gas emissions and to do so in an international manner.
In 2010, the Cancun Agreement further extended the core elements of the
Copenhagen Accord in the areas of finance, technology and communication as an
instrument that all parties enthusiastically supported.
In December 2011
at Durban, the United States and other nations leaders took steps to make the key elements from the Cancun agreement
as well as established a Green Climate Fund.
In addition, a process was launched to negotiate a new legal instrument to take
effect from 2020, and U.S. leadership was crucial to ensuring that the
instrument will be applicable to all parties and include all of the major
economies within a common legal system (President Obama,
2014).
Click Here to send a letter to the United States Environmental Protection Agency
to increase awareness of global climate change in regions around the world.
Click Here to send a letter to the United States Government
to increase the green movement happening in the United States.
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