According to Lineman et al. (2015, p. 3), global warming depicts the long-term trend characterized by rising average temperatures around the globe. Statistics indicate that the last half-century has been characterized by a significantly high rate of temperature rise. In this paper, the primary causes of global warming and its effects will be evaluated.
Causes of global warming
Carbon dioxide emission following the combustion of fossil fuels has been identified as one of the causes of global warming since it contributes 81% of the total greenhouse gases (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2017, n.p).
For instance, the use of coal in industrial production, as well as automobile fuel combustion, emanates carbon monoxide that forms a layer on the atmosphere thereby trapping radiations from the sun resulting in global warming.
Notably, the production of methane gas especially from animals, agricultural processes as well as Arctic seabeds and landfill result in global warming.
In addition, deforestation has been identified as a key cause of global warming since it results in alters surface energy balance and results in elevated carbon IV oxide (Longobardi et al. 2016, p. 1). There, variation in surface energy and gases content in the atmospheres attributed to deforestation leads to global warming.
Moreover, Celikkol and Solakoglu (2017, p. 1) argue that elevated utilization of chemical fertilizers in farming promotes global warming. Per se, the use of farming chemicals and fertilizers results in the production of greenhouse gases especially emission of nitrous oxide and carbon IV oxide gases. The hazardous effects of greenhouse gases are experienced following the trapping of heat energy from the sun thereby causing a greenhouse effect.
Effects of global warming
The rise in sea level is a significant effect of global warming. Khan (2018, p. 1) highlights that global warming makes the high atmospheric temperatures expand the ocean water as well as melt ice thereby resulting in elevated sea level.
Similarly, changes in climate owing to global warming have been identified to cause extreme weather events. Some of these extreme weather events include hurricanes and earthquakes that are linked to the rise in sea level.
It is also essential to recognize that crop failure is also a notable effect of global warming. For instance, most crops require optimal climatic conditions to be able to thrive well. Nevertheless, when drastic climatic changes take place, the optimal conditions for crop growth are altered thereby resulting in crop failure.
Mass extinction has been highlighted as another key effect of global warming. Variations in the manner different species interact owing to climatic changes are depicted as one way in which global warming leads to mass extinction (Cahill et al. 2018, p. 1). Similarly, global warming has also altered the growth of certain crops that act as food for most animals. Due to the extinction of these foods, varied species of organisms die and become extinct. Subsequently, variations in climatic conditions have negatively affected the adaptive ability of most organisms resulting in their death thereby becoming extinct. Conclusively, global warming depicts the global trend of rising average atmospheric temperature. Some of the causes include Carbon IV oxide emission, deforestation, methane emission, and elevated chemical fertilizers utility. Notably, effects of global warming include crop failure, species mass extinction, extreme weather events, as well as sea level rise.
References
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Celikkol Erbas, B. and Guven Solakoglu, E., 2017. In the Presence of Climate Change, the Use of Fertilizers and the Effect of Income on Agricultural Emissions. Sustainability, 9(11), p.1989.
Khan, A.A., 2018. Why would sea-level rise for global warming and polar ice-melt?. Geoscience Frontiers.
Lineman, M., Do, Y., Kim, J.Y. and Joo, G.J., 2015. Talking about climate change and global warming. PloS one, 10(9), p.e0138996.
Longobardi, P., Montenegro, A., Beltrami, H. and Eby, M., 2016. Deforestation induced climate change: effects of spatial scale. PloS one, 11(4), p.e0153357.
United States Environmental Protection Agency., 2017. Overview of Greenhouse Gases | US EPA. [online] US EPA. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases [Accessed 4 May 2018].
