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Global Warming as an Environmental Issue

Mother Earth has been subjected to a number of issues. Currently, it is facing several environmental concerns. Among the key environmental problems are air pollution, waste disposal, ozone layer depletion, climate change, water pollution, acid rain, urban sprawl, global warming, among several others. In particular, global warming will be the point of focus as an impactful environmental problem to the community, state and the world at large. The essay paper assesses global warming as an environmental problem of concern, as well as deforestation, industrialization, and mining as the main human causes of the menace.

Global warming, commonly regarded as climate change, refers to the observed rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system. The global surface temperatures are highly probable to increase a further 0.3 to 1.7°C in the least emissions scenario, and 2.6 to 4.8°C in the highest emissions scenario (Cook et al., 2016). The aforementioned readings were confirmed by the “national science academies of the major industrialized nations”. Future patterns of climate change and effects will differ from an area to area. The most anticipated results include rising sea levels, expansion of deserts, increase in global temperatures as well as changing precipitation. Primarily, global warming is agreed to be caused by emissions of greenhouse gases like methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and carbon dioxide and other chemicals into the atmosphere.

As a natural effect, the greenhouse effect helps to limit the excessive loss of heat from the surface of the earth. Without the effect, however, the earth would be much colder and probably less habitable for plants, human beings, and animals. Over time, it has been postulated that accumulation of such gases in the atmosphere causes a heightened greenhouse effect, which causes global warming, and attendant anomalies in sea level, the speed of the wind, precipitation, local temperature, and soil moisture (Cook et al., 2016). Although global warming is also caused by some natural factors like a volcanic eruption, the sun’s rotation that affects the sunlight intensity making it move closer to the earth, and the effect of greenhouse gases, human activities play a major role. Global warming is a critical environmental issue that has been progressively propelled by human threatening activities of deforestation, the industrial revolution, as well as mining.

Studies indicate that the resulting increase in global temperatures is attributable to certain human activities, which have drastically changed the atmospheric chemical composition through a build-up of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuel burning is a dominant driving force behind the enhanced greenhouse effect, which causes a considerable rise in temperature. The situation has been on an increase since the growing population requires more energy. Later on in life, it will be noticed that global temperatures tend to coincide with the duration of rising in global carbon dioxide concentration. The transition to a machine-based economy brought a number of changes, following the massive production and growth of factories (Promduangsri & Crookall, 2018). Traditionally, it is known as the Industrial Revolution. It was first introduced in England and has thereafter brought considerable fundamental changes to human society. Accompanying the issue of the industrial revolution is a massive growth in energy consumption, largely enhanced through the burning of coal, a fossil fuel.

Industrial-scale carbon burning increases excess heat-trapping emissions in the earth’s atmosphere. These gases source from the extraction and burning of huge amounts of energy, coal or oil, which end up harming the tropical forests and environmental biodiversity at large. Industrial emissions increase the number of aerosols in the atmosphere which makes the greenhouse effect become much stronger. As a result, more heat gets trapped that it is actually needed, making the earth become less habitable. This aggravated emission of greenhouse gases is attributed to human efforts in industrialization. Blast furnace refining of iron ore as well as other base metals during smelting also increases the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere, ultimately increasing the menace.

Halocarbons are recognized to be very powerful greenhouse gases although they are not naturally occurring. In most cases, they are emitted during the melting and processing of polymers and polymer-based materials through a variety of industrial processes (Promduangsri & Crookall, 2018). Certain industrial procedures such as foam blowing and solvent use, cement production, refrigeration, as well as waste management systems cause the production and release of other greenhouse gases, which collectively accumulate in the atmosphere and propel an increased climate change.

Deforestation as a human activity is also attributed to the global warming menace. Clearing of forests and vegetation for urbanization and agricultural reasons creates a disturbance in the capacity of the earth to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Trees and vegetation remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis, and further store the gas in their stems, leaves, bark, branches and roots (Promduangsri & Crookall, 2018). Through deforestation actions, humans tend to add the ever-increasing amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When more carbon is released to the earth’s atmosphere than it is being naturally removed, it creates carbon sedimentation, which ultimately increase the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Whenever trees are cut down, all the stored carbon is directly released into the air as carbon dioxide. This is basically how forest degradation and deforestation can also contribute to global warming. Basing on the best current estimate, deforestation holds responsibility for approximately 10% of the total global warming emissions (Cook et al., 2016). This scenario implies that the more human beings focus on clearing trees and vegetation to pave room for urbanization and developments the more global warming levels escalate. Continuing progress will, therefore, require a more sustained commitment by businesses, government bodies, consumers as well as other non-governmental organizations to the goal of terminating tropical deforestation.

Mining, as human activities, has also made huge contributions to the increases in the concentrations of pollutants and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In specific, methane is emitted during coal mining, oil decomposition of organic waste especially in a municipal solid waste landfill as well as the transportation of the already mined and processed natural gas (Promduangsri & Crookall, 2018). According to past researches, methane gas has been proven to be twenty times more potent compared to carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide emissions happen during industrial and agricultural activities following the combustion of fossil fuels and solid wastes.

In conclusion, global warming is an environmental issue of concern that has been debated upon for a number of years. Though it is still uncertain how much of the warming can be attributed to greenhouse gases, it is still evident that human activities are widely causing an increased greenhouse effect and global warming rate. Unless such patterns are politicized and regulations put in place to regulate the practices, global warming will remain an environmental issue that continually grows out of control. Ultimately, human survival will definitely reach a hitch note.