The debate around global warming has raged for decades and continues to be a controversial topic that divides opinion amongst scientists, politicians and the wider public alike. Despite the recent awareness of the increased rate of global temperatures, it is important to state that the global warming itself is a fact and not a theory. The Earth system is changing more rapidly than it ever has before and this is causing significant disruption to the climate, ecosystems, and species that inhabit this planet.
Global warming is a phenomenon that has been documented and observed since the early 19th century. Temperature readings from weather stations, data from Antarctic ice cores and thermal observations from remote ocean areas have all contributed to the mounting evidence for the data. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has, for a number of years, tracked the average global temperatures and the associated causes of global warming and recently reported that the planet has warmed by approximately 1.1°C since the pre-industrial era. This, combined with an additional rate of warming at 0.2°C per decade, is indicative of an accelerated and exponential rate of global warming.
In order to combat this expansive and wide-reaching problem, it is important to begin to understand the causes of global warming. The main contributors to increasing global temperatures come from the burning of fossil fuels which produces the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is produced when these fuels are burned and it traps infrared radiation in the troposphere and thus raises the temperature of the atmosphere. Other contributing factors to the temperature increase include land use change, transportation and industrial output.
Global warming has a number of negative consequences both short and long term. Increasing temperatures in our atmosphere bring about more extreme weather events, such as flooding, droughts and wildfires, that can have long-persisting impacts on the wider environment and the people living within it. Resources become stretched in times of crisis and the costs to countries over these catastrophes can be talked in to the billions.
Not all of the implications of global warming are as bleak. Over the past two decades countries have invested more heavily in renewable energies with some estimates suggesting that in 2020, renewables made up over half of the new electricity generated and the addition of solar and wind power to the world’s energy mix has more than tripled. Other efforts to reduce the rate of global warming have included investment into carbon capture technology and projects to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere in the aim to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Ultimately, global warming is a phenomenon that is already here and it is essential that individuals, countries, and the world as a whole take action and act quickly. Strategies need to be developed and implemented in order to reduce the rate of global warming and ensure that the world has a sustainable and safe future. Education around global warming needs to be widely available and solutions need to be identified, advocated and implemented to protect our future and the future of the planet.
