The global mean temperature increased by 0.5 o F to 1.1 o F in the past century and predict that the global mean temperatures will rise by 2 o F to 6.5 o F in the next decade (Houser & Libecap, 2017). The truth is that the steady increase in atmospheric temperature bears dire consequences that threaten human survival. It is undeniable that different geographical regions of earth notice increased extreme weather conditions such as hotter heat waves, drier droughts, more significant snowfall, and bigger storms. The most recent surge in typhoons and hurricanes that occur due to rising sea levels indicate the world is just beginning to witness the adverse effects of global warming (Li, 2019). Therefore, highlighting the climatic impacts of global warming increases understanding of how the heating of the earth is relatively dangerous to biodiversity. Besides, scientific evidence suggests that global warming leads to food and water scarcity due to long draughts, deterioration of health caused by exposure to heatwaves, displacement of livelihoods due to rising seas levels, and energy shortages (Shapovalova, 2016). While opponents claim that there is no correlation between increased atmospheric temperature and gaseous emission, the reality is that global warming leads to climate change, significantly reduces economic and environmental productivity, and causes harsh life survival conditions for biodiversity.
Scientists began observing the contribution of human activities on the greenhouse effect in the mid-20th century. Admittedly, they uncovered the long-term heating of the earth's surface temperature, which became known as global warming (Lehmann, Berger, & Finkbeiner, 2018). In support of scientific claims, Lehmann, Berger, and Finkbeiner (2018) further explain that human activities play a significant role in increasing global warming. For example, rapid deforestation, gaseous emissions, and fossil burning directly increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (Lehmann, Berger, & Finkbeiner, 2018). Particularly, greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use changes: methane from decomposition of agricultural waste and manure management; nitrous oxide from the use of fertilizers, biomass burning, and fossil fuel combustion; and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from the manufacture of synthetic products. Consequently, the earth's temperature rises when greenhouse gases to absorb solar radiation (Lehmann, Berger, & Finkbeiner, 2018). These gases block the solar heat from escaping hence retaining heat in the atmosphere to cause global warming. Understanding the negative impacts of global warming will strengthen global warming regulation responses against the threat to sustainable development, climate change, and interventions against poverty.
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Global warming is indeed the leading cause of climatic change, as indicated by heavy precipitation and melting glaciers that cause frequent droughts and heavier rainstorms. When it comes to heavy precipitation, global warming leads to extreme evaporation that dries the surface, potentially contributing to frequent droughts experienced in various parts of the globe (Li, 2019). Consequently, the accumulation of water vapor in the atmosphere causes the shortening of winters, more torrential rain, and the rapid melting of snow. For example, regions such as Eastern North and South America, Northern Europe, and Northern and Central Asia record heavy precipitation while observing more substantial rainfall (Li, 2019). Together with the periods between massive rainstorms, these regions experience drier draughts that last longer than in the past. As part of the climatic impact, global warming also causes the phenomenon of melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. As a result, melting glaciers set off earthquakes, floods, mudflows, and avalanches. When glaciers melt, they cause rising sea levels, which elevates coastal storms such as typhoons and hurricanes (Shapovalova, 2016). Likewise, the disappearing ice sheets threaten to cause underwater landslides that threaten to cause tsunamis that strike seas near Britain. In short, global warming negatively affects climate change by shifting weather patterns.
Secondly, global warming significantly reduces economic productivity. In particular, economists and scientists face the challenge of dealing with global warming's economic and environmental costs (Houser & Libecap, 2017). The climatic changes mentioned earlier, such as floods, droughts, tsunamis, and sea-level rise damage infrastructure and property. Granted that people living in the coastal regions report that the sea level is steadily rising and eating away into the land. As a result, the residents lose productivity in school or work life, especially if they engage in trades such as agriculture, tourism, fisheries, transportation, energy, or production (Olovsson, 2020). To elaborate, farmers suffer irreversible damage to their crops and livestock during heavy rainstorms. Similarly, in tourism, hotel workers may be forced to stay off work as the premises get flooded due to melting glaciers that raise the seas level. In transportation, landslides destroy roads and make it unsafe to transport goods from supplier to consumer. Energy shortages also affect the demand and supply, where suppliers have insufficient stock to cater to all consumers (Olovsson, 2020). Their displaced living leads to mass migration and civil unrest by climate refugees that escape due to global warming. These unintended consequences require coping costs, where the government intervenes to cushion the people affected by global warming (Houser & Libecap, 2017). Therefore, global warming negatively disrupts economic activities, which lowers the productivity level of humans.
Thirdly, global warming reduces environmental productivity. As indicated when discussing climatic effects, global warming causes rising sea levels that destroy coastal wetlands, salt marshes, and mangrove swamps (Li, 2019). Therefore, environmental disasters destroy fragile habitats for specialist species that cannot survive in different environments. Notably, global warming increases the risk of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching makes the yellow-green algae lose their pigments and symbiotic relationship with the corals, which causes the algae to abandon their coral polyps (Zhong, 2016). This process weakens the coral, raising the likelihood of a destructive tropical cyclone that causes increased destruction of the environment. Besides, the substantial effect on water resources further degrades the environment. For example, areas with higher latitudes such as African Sahel, southern Africa, western Africa, and the Middle East increasingly experience water availability due to global warming (Olovsson, 2020). Indeed, the increased spring runoffs reduce freshwater availability while negatively impacting the biological activity in rivers and lakes.
Fourthly, global warming causes harsh life survival conditions for biodiversity. Specifically, the ecosystem changes its functioning when exposed to rising temperatures (Radchuk, Reed, Teplitsky, Van De Pol, Charmantier, Hassall, & Avilés, 2019). Undeniably, the current biodiversity of animals, plants, and other forms of life is a result of adaptation to seasonal climatic patterns. However, global warming shortens these climatic patterns, thereby challenging the natural capacity of these plants and animals' adaptive capacities (Radchuk et al., 2019). Consequently, global warming poses an extinction risk to a large percentage of biodiversity because increased atmospheric temperature poses sudden climatic changes. For example, the glacial melt in Greenland and Antarctica frequently changes the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean, which led to the collapse of fisheries at the Gulf of Maine (Shapovalova, 2016). Another example is the extinction of amphibians limited to tropical cloud forests but now experience warmer temperatures that reduce the persistent condensation of atmospheric moisture (Radchuk et al., 2019). Accordingly, global warming threatens biodiversity's survival because it leads to sudden climatic changes that have a destructive impact on the ecosystem function, leading to the probable extinction of species that fail to adapt quickly.
While there is little doubt that global warming has significant adverse effects on climate change and quality of life, opponents argue against the global warming concept. Conversely, they claim that there is no correlation between increased global temperature and the rising carbon monoxide levels. Nevertheless, there's some truth to the argument that global warming is a result of natural phenomena. For example, during volcanic eruptions, the activity releases large amounts of ash and volcanic dust, consisting of carbon dioxide that is the primary greenhouse gas causing global warming (Zhong, 2016). To some extent, global warming conspiracy theorists make false claims when they suggest that the concept bases on manipulated data by scientists to suppress dissent. There is some truth to the argument that natural causes indeed link to global warming. Nevertheless, one might object here that it is essential to acknowledge that human practices degrade the natural environment by negatively affecting the ecosystem while posing a danger to the survival of living organisms (Radchuk et al., 2019). Climate change denial legitimizes public and political controversy to claim that human activities have an insignificant effect on global warming and say that it is just a natural phenomenon. In summary, global warming is an undeniable reality that needs objective deliberation to reduce the significant adverse effects it has had on human life, the climate, and the ecosystem.
Human activities leading to increased gaseous emissions cause global warming, which negatively influences climate change, and notably reduces economic productivity and environmental productivity, exposing the biodiversity to harsh survival conditions. Today's climatic change is evident in how air temperatures seem warmer, sea levels are rising, and glaciers are melting. The climatic change indicates high-level carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere due to unregulated human activity. Adopting an environmentally sustainable way of living improves the environment's adaptability and improves the quality of life of a person. As correlated with climatic change, the significant reduction of economic and environmental productivity reduces life quality. Rising sea levels eat away into residential areas, and prolonged droughts deprive people of the food and energy needed to use and develop their immediate resources. The objective inquiry into the harmful effects of global warming elaborates on simple lifestyle changes that improve the quality of human life. Similarly, harsh survival conditions caused by hurricanes and typhoons, disrupt the survival of biodiversity. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge the existence of global warming and its effects to influence decisions such as reducing energy consumption, discarding wasteful practices to enhance climatic conditions for humans, and restore human dignity. If people continue to ignore the causes and negative impacts of global warming, reckless human practices shall eventually make the earth an uninhabitable place.
References
Houser, D., & Libecap, G. D. (2017). Public choice issues in international collective action: Global warming regulation. In Explorations in Public Sector Economics (pp. 13-34). Springer, Cham.
Lehmann, A., Berger, M., & Finkbeiner, M. (2018). Life cycle-based CO2 emission credits: Options for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of current tailpipe emissions regulation in the automotive industry. Journal of Industrial Ecology , 22(5), 1066-1079.
Li, Z. (2019). Global warming: Causes and effects." Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research . Retrieved from https://www.sccur.org/sccur/fall_2019_conference/poster_session_4/131/
Olovsson, C. (2020). Global warming from an economic perspective. Economic Review , 1.
Radchuk, V., Reed, T., Teplitsky, C., Van De Pol, M., Charmantier, A., Hassall, C., ... & Avilés, J. M. (2019). Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient . Nature communications , 10(1), 1-14.
Shapovalova, D. (2016). The effectiveness of the regulatory regime for black carbon mitigation in the Arctic . Arctic Review on Law and Politics , 7(2), 136-151.
Zhong, C. (2016). Causes of global climate change. International Journal of Global Warming 10.4: 482-495.
B. Reflection Questions
How much time did you spend revising your draft? What revision strategies did you use and which worked best for you?
I spent a total of three hours revising my draft. The revision strategies that I used included keenly reading through the instructor’s comments, taking some time off the paper to consider how I can improve my arguments using the guidelines provided, and reading my paper out loud after revision to see if my arguments are clear and concise. Applying the instructor’s guidelines was the most useful revision strategy because applying the requirements enabled me to accurately restructure my research paper to communicate a logical flow.
List three concrete revisions that you made and explain how you made them. What problem did you fix with each of these revisions? Issues may be unity, cohesion, rhetorical appeals, content, or any other areas on which you received constructive feedback.
The first concrete revision that I made was the organization of my argumentative research paper by breaking down my thesis into topic sentences within the paper to create a logical flow. The second revision included the use of transitional words and sentences to ensure that my arguments coherently related to each other. I also enhanced my writing presentation by fixing grammatical errors.
What did you learn about your writing process or yourself as a writer? How has your understanding of the research process changed as a result of taking this course?
I understood that I often use a subjective point of view which guides my writing style. However, this course has enabled me to grow an objective mind of approaching debatable topics by respecting and considering the other persons point of view to enrich my argument while arriving at a consensus with an opponent. I have learnt the importance of organization in enhancing readership of my work.
