Scientists say that the global mean temperature increased by .5 to 1.1oF in the past century and predict that the global mean temperatures will rise by 2 to 6.5oF Scientists report on a steady increase on the earth's average temperature over the last century (Houser & Libecap, 2017). Global warming is an outcome of the greenhouse effect where the earth's atmospheric temperature gradually increases because of increased levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), carbon dioxide, and other pollutants. As a root cause of climate change, global warming triggers a probe into the effectiveness of mitigation measures to reduce its negative impact. 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). Exploring the general understanding of the concept of global warming, the effects, and the current measures shall help policymakers arrive at a comprehensive global solution. While opponents hold that no correlation exists between global temperature and Co2, studies indicate that global warming causes climate change, significantly reduces economic and environmental productivity and causes harsh life survival conditions for biodiversity.
The debate on global warming predominantly features human activities as the main factor to blame. However, there are some natural causes of global warming, such as volcanic eruptions, solar energy, wind tides, water density, topography, the shape of ocean basins, and earth's rotation, which affect the water current circulation and increase atmospheric temperature. The ocean currents move water horizontally and vertically on global scales forming the ocean's global circulation. The circulation regulates the climate by distributing heat energy and cycling vital gases and nutrients. Earth's orbital changes affect glacial stages, internal variability, and solar variations. With volcanic eruptions as a natural cause of global warming, they release carbon monoxide as a harmful gas that has adverse effects on the ozone layer. According to Zhong (2016), volcanic eruptions are a significant cause of climate change that also shifts changes the earth's speed variation and orbiting speed, which is a cause of global warming. Scholars assert that global warming caused by volcanic eruptions shall lead to the earth entering an interglacial or glacial period (Zhong, 2016).
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The leading causes of global warming as human activities include deforestation, gaseous emissions, greenhouse gases, and burning fuels (Zhong, 2016). These gaseous emissions increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when people cut down trees through deforestation. The surplus carbon usually stored in plants remains released to the air as carbon dioxide through burning or rotting. The carbon dioxide collects with air pollutants and greenhouse gases to absorb solar radiation that bounces off the earth's surface and increase the atmospheric temperature (Lehmann, Berger, & Finkbeiner, 2018). When fossil fuels go through combustion, they also emit carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that make them primary contributors to global warming. Gaseous emissions also have adverse environmental effects when they react with water and other pollutants to produce acid rain, photochemical smog, and reduced atmospheric visibility. These greenhouse gases continually absorb infrared radiation and hold heat in the atmosphere, increasing the temperature level.
The effects of global warming include climate change, which reduces the reduction in economic and environmental productivity of the globe. Climate change includes a change in weather patterns where there is overheating of the earth. The manifestation of abnormal weather patterns such as increased rainfall causing flooding shows climate change. In other cases, prolonged droughts have persisted. Climatic changes reduce agricultural production reduced farm produces due to a change in weather patterns. Farmers cannot rely on unpredictable rains and prolonged dry seasons, which leads to food scarcity for human and animal consumption. The effects can escalate to desertification and the sinking of islands. These effects make the earth an unbearable place to service due to interference with human settlement. With scarcity in food production and minimal spaces of habitation, global warming leads to the exhaustion of resources. Natural resources such as plants may dry up due to hot and dry climate. Also, water bodies' drastic fluctuations lead to long periods of drought and famine because water plays the role of sustenance in every living organism.
So what regulatory measures exist to mitigate the harmful effects of global warming? Scientists claim that as global warming effects advance and continue impacting human activities, measures global leaders have come together to control, mitigate, and cope with global warming. Jurisdictions need to control human activities associated with an increase in toxic gas emissions. According to Houser and Libecap (2017), leaders must inform the public about the dangers of global warming to reduce the uncertainty concerning the cost and benefits of global warming regulations. Information sharing ensures that people have the power to deal with the adverse effects of climate change. Hence the proposed measures should consider distribution, the extent of compliance, and the effectiveness of global warming regulations. By applying an international-active-problem framework, leaders find common ground to develop global collective action to establish an open-access source on information about the benefits and costs of regulations.
The first measure is the changes in lifestyle. Global warming policies need to enforce regulations to reduce deforestation and greenhouse farming activities hence decreasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Shapovalova, 2016). People need to change how they handle the environment without thinking of the sustainability aspect of their actions. Hence, policymakers need to develop policies that encourage people to reduce the effects of global warming. According to Lehmann, Berger, and Finkbeiner (2018), voluntary policy options in global warming regulations find an amicable way of reducing the negative impact of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions (Lehmann, Berger, & Finkbeiner, 2018). Hence, countries can give licensure to companies using the life cycle perspective to regulate carbon monoxide emissions into the atmosphere, which shall lead to reduce prolonged droughts, food scarcity, desertification, and fluctuation of water bodies. When formulating these regulations, the creators need to work together with industries, communities, and governments to own the process and act in the recommended way without being pressured.
Secondly, governments need to find alternative production methods that significantly reduce industrial emissions. Global warming regulations can focus on giving incentives to companies that creatively apply green technologies (Shapovalova, 2016). Hence, when it comes to agricultural products, producers need to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers, minimize energy use, rice cultivation, and rice cultivation, which leads to gaseous emissions. People also need to reuse, reduce, and recycle. Countries can encourage minimal packaging on products, recycle household waste through initiatives, and promote reusable products that minimize the carbon imprint. Reducing the use of energy includes using lee air conditioning and using less heat by moderating the temperature by installing weather stripping around doors and windows. Saving energy also includes replacing lightbulbs with fluorescent light, which is cost-efficient and gives off less heat. When it comes to automobile carbon emissions, countries need to encourage biking or walking by developing the right infrastructure to promote both. Approving energy-efficient products ensures that global warming regulations become a norm in typical lives. Promoting tree-planting events as regularly as possible ensures that plants absorb surplus carbon dioxide to reduce the heat associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Countries should create a culture of conservation by making environmentally sustainable days as frequently throughout the year.
Third, people need to develop coping strategies in areas where the adverse effects of global warming are observable. For example, residents of descending islands can move to the mainland to avoid posing a danger to their lives and adapt to a new way of life. Farmers that experience long periods of drought and farming can adopt alternative ways of earning a living rather than relying on plants and animals as the primary source of income. Federal and non-governmental organizations should also offer incentives to persons affected by climate change to enable successful adaptation to new weather patterns is one way where alternative survival than farming can be used.
Fourthly, governments should fight for the economic stability of the country while reinforcing global warming regulations. The majority of governments partner with non-governmental organizations. The main aim is to deal with climate, ecosystems, and food production to curb global warming, but the same governments advocate for industrialization. Many countries fail to take up global warming policy regulations because they shy away from the cost repercussions (Olovsson, 2020). Hence, global warming will continue to be an issue because the debate generates limited internal political support for international collective action in reducing carbon emissions, the depletion of the ozone layer, and deforestation. Therefore, countries need to develop the costs and benefits analysis of global warming regulations and propose reducing the extent of human activities.
Governments can support international initiatives to reach a standard solution by supporting movements that create awareness about global warming, such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through funding or allowing public airtime. Such support goes to strengthen initiatives that champion for the environment by protecting the biodiversity through sustainable development (Radchuk et al., 2019). Protecting biodiversity means banishing maladaptive practices that make living organisms lose the ability to match their phenotypes to the environment. Countries need regulations that keep track of the accelerated climate change resulting from global warming, which poses a danger to our survival as part of the ecosystem. Joining efforts with agencies such as UNEP means punishing violations according to set guidelines with severe punishment. This way, gas emissions can reduce especially from greenhouses and industries.
Opponents against global warming regulations claim that there is no correlation between global temperature and Co2. Natural causes indeed link to global warming. However, 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. Proponents of global warming regulations can reach a consensus with opponents by developing non-binding global warming regulations to effectively mitigate carbon emission. Norm- creating attempts infringes on the rights of sovereign states on a global scale. Therefore, the successful regulation of carbon emissions, harmful practices, and coping mechanisms can effectively be handled to increase conformity to global warming regulations (Shapovalova, 2016). Scientists need to merge diverse solutions to use evidence-based findings to enable countries to make informed decisions. Policymakers need to inform the public on the costs and benefits of mitigation measures against global warming to limit its impact of threatening natural balance and natural environment
Today's climatic change is evident in how air temperatures seem warmer, sea levels are rising, and glaciers are melting. This means that everyone needs to act fast to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Adopting an environmentally sustainable way of living improves the adaptability of the environment and improves the quality of life of a person. Creating awareness of its effect on adverse climatic conditions sheds light on how crucial it is to reduce energy consumption, discard wasteful practices, and restore human dignity. However, the statistics on the increase in atmospheric temperature is unclear. More research needs to be conducted on the degree of temperature level through a merged effort to develop a consensus on the extent of the adverse effects of global warming. In the meantime, countries need to come together to use informed perspectives of addressing the challenge of global warming because the adverse impact of global warming on earth negatively affects everyone.
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, Cui-Xiang. "Causes of global climate change." International Journal of Global Warming 10.4 (2016): 482-495.
Reflection questions
Provide one example of a place where you have used rhetorical appeals or source material to support your argument. How does this enhance your essay?
I used pathos to appeal to the empathetic emotions of the audience. For example, I used the advantage of restoring human dignity as an impact of global warming regulations. Here, I found common ground with the readers underlying values of living an enriched life. I can persuade them through pathos to understand my point on why global warming regulations are essential.
Touchstone 4 is a revision of this draft. What kind of feedback would be helpful for you as you revise? Are there parts of your draft that you're uncertain of?
I would find it helpful if I got a neutral stance on the topic of global warming. I found that the opposing view made very compelling points about the insignificant impact of human activities on global warming. This is in the context of the significant impacts that I found on the natural causes of global warming.
