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Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 10 months ago

Joe Knittel

Kem Crimmins

03/20/2006

 


Global Warming Causes Increased Severe Weather

Each year, tens of thousands of people lose their lives to severe weather. In an attempt to lower the amount of weather-related casualties, many scientists have spent countless hours investigating the causes of such severe weather. Through scrupulous experiments, scientists have discovered a link between some of the most brutal storms encountered on Earth. Across the continents and oceans, heat and an unstable atmosphere play a role in some of the most devastating weather experienced on Earth. Over the past century, the planet’s mean temperature has increased through a process called global warming. This process has, in turn, produced an increase in international severe weather. If we can slow the planet’s temperature increase, we will most likely be able to decrease severe weather. However, if global warming is unable to be stopped, all of Earth’s inhabitants may soon live in a very volatile environment.

 

“Global warming is an observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans” (Wikipedia 1). Some of the increase may be due to natural processes; however, human-induced intensification of the greenhouse effect plays a huge part in heating the Earth. A natural greenhouse effect involving water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, and various other gases, keeps the Earth’s surface several degrees higher than what it would be if it were lacking these greenhouse gases. Each year, roughly 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants, automotive exhausts, and smokestacks. This carbon dioxide, in addition to methane and other greenhouse gases, further adds to the heating of Earth’s surface. Many other theories describing what causes global warming exist; however, very few of them are supported by many scientists. Nonetheless, one alternative theory has garnered support from professionals across the globe. The solar variation theory predicts that a slight increase in the amount of solar radiation received by the outer surface of the Earth has the ability to increase the temperature of Earth’s surface over time. Based on studies done in 1997, “the Sun can explain at best just 0.07 °C (18%) of the observed 0.4 °C rise in global temperatures since 1970” (Saunders 3465). Due to a lack of scientific support relating to many theories, the burning of fossil fuels is the most widely accepted cause of global warming. The combustion of fossil fuels can have far more crippling effects than simply heating the world, this process also increases the amount of severe weather on Earth.

 

The effects of global warming on Earth’s weather can be catastrophic. Over the past several years, there has been an overwhelming amount of severe weather reports. Just last year, the recorded mean temperature of Earth was greater than it has ever been recorded. Additionally, “The last 10 years with the exception of 1996, were the warmest ever recorded” (National Environmental Trust 1). The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season consisted of some of the most horrific hurricanes ever, breaking the 1933 record of 21 named storms with a staggering 26, including three Category 5 storms (Tanneeru 1). Hurricanes are some of the most destructive storms on the planet, but is there a connection between global warming and the amount and intensity of hurricanes spawned in Earth’s oceans? “Warm water, and the instability in the lower atmosphere that is created by it, is the energy source of hurricanes” (Rahmstorf et al 1). Therefore, if global warming provides warmer oceanic temperatures and greater instability in the atmosphere, then a more potent energy source for hurricanes exists, thus more powerful and frequent hurricanes are generated. Some of the most deadly heat waves ever have occurred in just the past decade. Hundreds died in the 1995 Chicago heat wave and roughly 45,000 died in the 2003 European heat wave (National Environmental Trust 1). Currently, the central plains are experiencing a severe drought. Conditions are so bad that the drought is already being compared to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s that forced thousands of people to the west for jobs and nourishment. “The percentage of Earth's land area stricken by serious drought more than doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s, and nearly half that change was due to rising temperatures, according to an analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research” (National Environmental Trust 1).

 

Although storms exist today with ferocity never before recorded, the worst may be yet to come. As the world’s population continues to grow, the amount of carbon dioxide and methane entering into the atmosphere will also grow. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, predicts “temperatures may increase by 1.4 to 5.8 °C” in the next one-hundred years due to this increase in greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Such an increase may cause disasters far greater than those of the past century. The combustion of fossil fuels most likely will cause an increase in precipitation which will consequently bring about a rise in sea level. By 2075, the sea level will have accelerated producing an increase of up to seven feet, depending on the amount of global warming. In the United States, the rise in sea level may cause catastrophic flooding and inundated low-lying coastal plains (Wirth 10). By the 2050s, severe droughts comparable to the Dust Bowl will no longer be uncommon. Severe droughts, which only occur 5% of the time in the current climate, will occur about 50% of the time (Rosenzweig 1270). “In some places, the number of deaths related to heat waves is expected to double by 2020” (Epstein 50). If there is no reduction of the combustion of fossil fuels internationally, the aforementioned severe weather hazards are all but bound to occur.

 

Through a chain of linked causes, the burning of fossil fuels causes global warming which consequently increases the amount of severe weather internationally. Throughout the last century and currently, one can already notice the affect effect that global warming has had on Earth’s severe weather. Global warming, although not entirely caused by humans, can be controlled. A limit on the output of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has the possibility to slow the rate at which the planet is being heated and thus stabilize the intensity of Earth’s weather. Severe weather occurs internationally and global warming is a direct result of the whole world producing excess greenhouse gases. Therefore, without a joint effort between the nations of the world, Earth’s weather will continue to become more and more severe and thousands of lives will continue to be lost to such weather each year.


Works Cited

Epstein, Paul R. "Is Global Warming Harmful to Health?" __Scientific American, Inc__.

(2000): 50-57. __JSTOR__. 2 Mar. 2006.

 

"Global Warming." __National Environmental Trust__. 2005. 2 Mar. 2006

<http://www.net.org/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=29057>.

 

"Global Warming." __Wikipedia__. 2 Mar. 2006

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming>.

 

Rahmstorf, Stefan, Michael Mann, Rasmus Benestad, Gavin Schmidt, and William

Connolley. "Hurricanes and Global Warming - Is There a Connection?"

__Realclimate__. 2 Sept. 2005. 2 Mar. 2006

<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=181>.

 

Rosenzweig, Cynthia. "Global Climate Change: Predictions and Observations."

American Journal of Agricultural Economics (1989): 1265-1271. __JSTOR__. 2 Mar.

2006.

 

Saunders, Mark A. "Earth's Future Climate." The Royal Society (1999): 3459-3480.

__JSTOR__. 2 Mar. 2006.

 

Tanneeru, Manav. "It's Official: 2005 Hurricanes Blew Records Away." __CNN__. 30 Dec.

2005. 2 Mar. 2006

<http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/12/19/hurricane.season.ender/index.htm>.

 

Wirth, David A. "Climate Chaos." Foreign Policy (1989): 3-22. __JSTOR__. 2 Mar. 2006.

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