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Global warming is the hurry that the Earth is constantly heating up above normal levels due to elevated amounts of CO (Carbon Dioxide) in the atmosphere, which deteriorates the ozone and corrupts the greenhouse effect which maintains normal conditions of life (Courtney). Worldwide, global warming is happening, and most of the reason this is happening is because of manmade activities that cause pollution to our environment. Most often, the finger is being pointed at governments and industries, but there is sometimes where the finger needs to be pointed at the individual consumers.
First, it is well known that transportation is one of the leading causes of lobar warming pollution. A large amount of automobiles burn some type of fossil fuel usually gasoline or diesel. Automobiles release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, out of the muffler. Small cars and sport utility vehicles (Subs) supply an enormous amount of global warming pollution. Subs are targeted more for being a major supplier of carbon dioxide.
McKinney states, ” If you switched today from the average American car to a big SIBS, and drove it for just one year, the difference in carbon dioxide that you produced would be equivalent of opening your refrigerator or and the forgetting to close it for six years” (McKinney 748). Subs are well-known for their poor fuel efficiencies and carbon discharge from the vehicle. The purpose of Subs is not being used as they once were, by hauling a large number of individuals and goods from place to place. Today, Subs are used by individuals who work daily to get from home to work or just to even take a ride in.
The planet earth’s atmosphere is much like a greenhouse. Heat finds its way in and cannot always find its way out. The gases that are emitted from vehicles are layering the earth’s atmosphere causing it to trap and lock the eat in. Greenhouse gases are also deteriorating the ozone which is about thirty miles above earth. The ozone is like a greenhouse gas that traps the heat in the stratosphere. Global warming is a serious issue that needs to be taken control of, not only by individuals of communities, but government officials as well. Individuals often complain that we as a nation are not doing enough to promote an echo- friendly environment.
However, there are individuals out there that are really committed to changing energy use and becoming more echo-friendly. McKinney states, “Even if you got 1 0 percent of Americans really committed o changing their energy use, their solar homes wouldn’t make much of a difference in our national totals” (McKinney 749). The 10 percent of individuals that want to make a change would not be enough to persuade other individuals and government officials to do the same for a better environment. This issue needs to be turned into a political issue, but the only way to do this is if it “becomes a personal issue first” (McKinney 749).
Individuals usually do not make a change for the better, such as becoming echo-friendly, until the individual has experienced the issue their self. When campaigning, representatives sometimes use global warming as a care tool to get individuals to vote for them. Representatives say individuals should become more echo-friendly, such as recycling and saving energy by simply turning off a light, or if we do not do something about a situation such as global warming, something bad will happen to us. However, some government officials often do not take global warming seriously.
During this past election, neither President Obama nor Mitt Rooney talked much about how the climate is changing. Why would someone that could possibly run our nation for four years not believe that our environments are not being effected by the human activities that are going on? Often government officials do not try to do anything about this issue simply, because it could be too expensive and affect their budgets and would not change anything about the climate. Some scientists agree that global warming has more of negative effects rather than positive ones.
Global warming could make the weather become unpredictable and more damaging. It could possibly produce rainfall that would increase flooding or bring drought to some regions. Hurricanes and other tropical storms could become more powerful and occur more frequently. Extreme cases of flooding and drought could weaken food reduction that could lead to extreme scarce of food in many regions of the world. The most dangerous thing that global warming could do is melt the ice in many of the ice regions in the world, such as Alaska and Antarctica.
Melting of the ice could cause the sea level to rise. Rising of the sea level could cause flooding and even erosion causing the fresh water to mix with sea water. The water temperature is likely to rise and cause extinction of animals in the artic regions because the animals would lose the ice masses that they live on. McKinney explains, “In the Artic, polar bears are 20 percent scrawnier than hey were a decade ago: As packs of ice melts, so does the opportunity for hunting seals” (McKinney 748). However, individuals seem to look over the facts of extinction.
Rick Bass, author of “Why I Hunt” states, ” Some landscapes these days have been reduced to nothing but dandelions and fire ants, napped and thistle where the only remaining wildlife are sparrows, squirrels, and starlings” (Bass 743). The habitats are being destroyed which is also killing animals that live in those habitats. Because of habitats being destroyed more animals are becoming extinct. Even though this information seems logical, individuals, mainly scientists, re in denial that human activities do not cause global warming.
At the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, more than 1 7,000 scientists signed a petition that said, “there is no scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases that is causing, or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate” (The Great Global Warm up: Arguments Against Global Warming). However, on a daily basis, human activities do cause global warming. Individuals drive vehicles that produce large amounts f carbon dioxide rather than drive cars, such as a Hybrid that uses a battery instead of gas.
Carbon dioxide cannot be blamed for being in the environments, but the individuals can blamed for causing carbon dioxide to be in the air. The issue of global warming needs to be focused in a more serious manner rather than not being looked at. Since cars play an important role in much of today’s society, individuals should be more educated when they choose a car or even if they are a car owner, educate them on how they can reduce emissions. Hybrid cars could be the best choice; however not everyone will agree on this.
If we all did our part in trying to reduce the about of carbon dioxide emission by switching to cars that used less gas and found ways not to drive as much, we could dramatically decrease the pollution around the world. Global warming is a major issue in the United States and other countries. Studies reveal that America is one of the world’s leading producers of carbon dioxide that cause global warming. Rachel Carson, author of “The Obligation to Endure”, quotes “The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contaminations of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials.
This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable” (Carson 751). If we do not take this issue more seriously and our environment becomes worse, there may be no way that we can undo the damage that could occur through the release of carbon dioxide. There are multiple questions that an individual could form about our environment and what it could possibly become. Barry Lopez, author of “Children in the Woods”, asks the question “What will there be for this person when he is my age? ‘(Lopez 736). The way that humans are polluting the environment is affecting the climate and causing global warming.