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Abstract
The environment is supposed to be conserved if all living organisms were to live comfortably on earth. This means that any damage done to the environment will have a negative implication to life of most of the living organisms on the globe. This paper discusses in detail the effects of global warming on human health and wellbeing. The paper outlines some of the causes of global warming, and the possible impacts it has on human beings and other creatures. There is also an evaluation of the current strategies applied in the realization of environmental sustainability. On finding out that these strategies are quite ineffective, the paper proposes a necessary plan and approach for a sustainable environment and solving the problem of global warming.
Introduction
A number of problems have been affecting men in the world today. Most of these problems can be addressed if all people took responsibility in addressing all the issues affecting our environment. The environment is very important because it is what guarantees human existence, and posterity (Schneider, 2000). There are a number of atmospheric issues that have been in the limelight for the past few years. If we would keenly ensure that man is guaranteed of a better future, it is our rightful obligation that we begin from the environment since it is what supports human life, and the lives of all other creatures. Atmospheric issues have been causing a lot of worries to the entire human population. In this paper, we focus on these atmospheric issues and how they have impacted on overall mankind and entire creation, and as we come up with an evaluative analysis of the sustainable solutions and strategies that have been put in place, after formulation of this solutions we shall come up with appropriate plan of action for having a long-lasting sustainable solution to the problem (Maslin, 2007). Basically, we will address the issue with reference to global warming as the major atmospheric problem and concern today.
Description of Global Warming as a Major Atmospheric Issue
With global warming taking center stage, there has been a drastic increase of atmospheric temperatures and change of weather patterns. This dynamism of the temperature has caused a lot of problems to both humans and other living organisms. Once there is an increase of global temperatures, it will happen that there will be increased melting of ice in the Polar Regions and the top of tall mountains. Once this happens, the next thing is that there will be increased rises in sea levels hence distorting the ecosystems, loss of beaches, and most areas near oceans and big seas stand high chances of having typhoons and tsunamis which can be quite devastating. What will cause global warming? Over the past years, the carbon levels in our atmospheres have been on the rise. This has been as a result of pollution through which a number of materials have been exposed into the atmosphere from mines and burning of coal and other mined materials in production of energy (Maslin, 2007). Once these materials have been released into the atmosphere, what happens is that they result in depletion of the ozone layer, therefore reducing the filtration of the light and rays entering into the global atmosphere. Because of this scenario, the global temperatures on average have been on the increase. Carbon dioxide, which is referred as the ‘greenhouse gas’, has been responsible for around 60 to 70 percent of total global warming rates.
In total, about six nations in the entire world have been responsible for the emission of greenhouse gas. These countries include the United States, Brazil, India, Britain, Russia and China, and have been emitting around 56 percent of global atmospheric emissions (Schneider, 2000). The emitted compounds usually rise up and move to the ozone layer which filters some of the dangerous radiation entering into the earth’s surface and maintaining them below the tolerable levels which would enable human existence and the lives of other creatures on earth. The protective ozone layer has continued to be harmed by ozone depleting chemicals such as the chloro-fluoro carbons which are being produced from man made activities. Atmospheric issues like air pollution will not at all respect boundaries that have been created by man, and that being the fact, it goes ahead to affect all the ecosystems and agricultural practices in all parts of the world.
Again, over 600 million individuals today live in the urban areas, and these areas have been filled with sulfur dioxide compounds which are above the minimum requirements as stated by the WHO, World Health Organization. Over 125 million people live in urban areas and cities that have unacceptable high levels of particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere. In a number of the global mega-cities, these particulate compounds can be the major threatening source for air pollution. Particularly, increased levels of sulfur dioxide and the suspended compounds has been detected in occur in a number of these mega-cities like Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Shanghai and Seoul (Dovers, 2004). From the latest findings, Mexico City has been experiencing the greatest air pollution levels. Once these compounds and gases have been exposed into the atmosphere from the manufacturing industries, they will as a result fall back to us as what scientists call acidic rain. As we had mentioned earlier, the impacts, as a result of the pollution, will not affect the emitting societies, but the entire globe. Europe has been losing over twenty percent of all its forest cover due to the acidic rains and this is an equivalent of 214,000,000 hectares of forestry. The United Kingdom’s damage caused by acidic rain can be projected to over 2.4 million hectares of forest land which is over 56 percent of the country’s forestry cover. Without sustainable industrialization which has been spreading each and every day in the world, the phenomenon continues to express itself more fiercely.
Impacts of Global Warming
Having noted some of the leading factors of global warming as one of the most pronounced environmental problems, it would be necessary that we look at some of the impacts of global warming on human beings and all other creatures as well. It would be better to mention beforehand that we may not have any positive impacts of global warming. First, greenhouse gases have been known to remain in the atmosphere for over a hundred years, and sometimes over a thousand. This means that it may not be possible to have proper measures of mitigating these problems (Dovers, 2004). Therefore, despite all the measures taken by man, global warming will still continue having damaging impacts on man and all other living organisms. These major impacts of global warming can be summarized as follows in the following paragraphs.
There has been an increased spread of vital diseases which can affect man in a great way. As the northern countries continue to become warmer, some major disease-carrying organisms and insects have been migrating to the north, and thus bringing a lot of plague or diseases with them. This has been the major reason why current scientists have been unable to eradicate malaria in the world today (Maslin, 2007). The other issue is the occurrence of typhoons, hurricanes and warm waters. With increasing sea temperatures, the ocean levels will rise and this will increase the chances in which stronger hurricanes will be experienced. This has been seen happened in a number of places in the past few years. We have also been having increased occurrences of heat waves droughts in many parts of the globe. Although the majority of the global area have been becoming wetter as a result of this issue of global warming, some other areas have been witnessing severe temperatures and droughts like in Africa and Europe (Moan & Smith, 2007). Water has been scarce in a number of these areas and hence resulting in absolute poverty.
It will not be sufficient to talk of the impacts of global warming without mentioning the consequences on the economy that come as a result. It is a commonsense idea that most of the possible effects arising from the current anthropogenic temperatures increase will not do any good to man and all other living creatures (Maslin, 2007). What this means that the affected nations will have to go through hard economic situations and struggles in the provision of basic needs and food to the people of the countries. This may end up seeing more and more people wallowing in big troubles, and some may end up dying. This will also affect all the production processes in the fields of fishing and agricultures which support the economy in most of these countries. With the occurrence of hurricanes, the nation will lose billions of cash due to damage of property, diseases outbreaks, and especially in the mitigation of the effects and resettling of the affected people.
The other major impact will result from the melting of ice in mountains and Polar Regions. As experts say, the melting of ice will pose four main dangers that are prolonged in their own way. One, sea levels will definitely rise up due to the increased inflow of melted ice; two, the melting of the ice caps tends to distort the global ecosystem balances through making ocean water salty and saline. Another issue occurs when landscapes are changed as more and more ice caps continue to melt, and only those creatures that are able to adapt into the new environment will be able to survive (Moan & Smith, 2007). The other thing is that ice is white in color and it will tend to reflect a lot of sunlight hence making the earth cool. Should the ice melt, more light will be directed on the earth’s and thereby making it warmer and warmer.
Evaluation of Current Sustainability Strategies and Solutions
There are a number of sustainability strategies and solutions that have been put in place in ensuring that the increased global warming is no longer experienced. The major strategy has been for the six major emitters of carbon to reduce their emissions, and this did not reach an agreement during last year’s Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change. This saw a number of nations disagreeing and causing a lot of pain on the developing nations who have been on the receiving end of major impacts of global warming. Also, there has been the need for all nations to increase their green cover, although this has not been addressed fully. The Kyoto Protocol has as well not been honored in reducing carbon emissions. What this means is that the current sustainability strategies have not been effectively adopted and the reason more and more problems to do with global warming are being experienced (Schneider, 2000). What has been the main cause of these failures is because the current strategies have only been focused on the mitigation of the experienced symptoms and not dealing with the issue from its source or point of occurrence. In summary, we can agree that we cannot realize a method of mitigating major atmospheric issues like global warming without having an appropriate plan that can be applied to reach sustainability.
Proposed Sustainability Plan
The newly proposed plan will be Green Economic Strategic Movement, GESM. This is my proposed plan which will be aimed in tackling atmospheric issues from their root cause within the environment. This will be a very neutral approach through which there should be a number of changes in the economic structures in the creation of a green environment for economic sustenance. This will incorporate the use of green services and goods which harm not the environment. The proposed strategy will result in massive powers in the markets and in making the market work in alleviating the problems posed to the environment and not having the environment work for the market.
It would as well be possible to propose for an increase in fossil and gasoline prices so that people can be less willing to rely on these products hence reducing green gas emissions. The GESM will also push for an increase in the prices of some toxic compounds used in modern industries. The eventual outcome is that all the goods provided to the consumer are green, and all the manufacturing and industrial processes become green as well. This approach will also be aimed in improving the production of renewable substances and increase conservation strategies. There will be the encouragement for producing energy through the renewable resources like wind, water and ocean waves other than from burning of coal. This approach will also address some issues to do with packaging, use of hydrogen, and production of electrically powered vehicles. The management strategies for renewable resources will also be encouraged, promotion of agriculture, and enhancing planting of trees (Maslin, 2007).
Conclusion
Through the use of this plan, it will be realized that what the majority of the environmentalists have been unable to accomplish for the past decades will be able to achieve in a very short time period. The major benefit will be in addressing not only global warming but all the other atmospheric issues faced by man today. However, a number of legislations and policies may affect the plan; for instance, some economies have banned the use of electric powered cars. Some people will also continue using gasoline and fuel despite increased prices with sometimes the government intervening in the price measures and limits (Dovers, 2004). It may also be hard to realize these goals since a number of nations may lack the necessary funds and the reason should be the goals of the United Nations to ensure that a similar approach is applied to address climatic change and global warming. Finally, it would require the governments to provide the necessary financial support and amend laws which ensure that this approach and plan is applied successfully. The United Nations will also have similar obligations in pushing all its member states to adopt the approach, and as well encourage all human societies to work hard towards the approach. This will ensure that the problem of global warming is addressed for once and for all.
References
Dovers, S. (2004). Institutional Change for sustainable development. Global Environment Journal, 33(37), 63.
Maslin, M. (2007). Global Warming: Causes, Effects, and the Future. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Moan, J. & Smith, A. (2007). Energy use worldwide: a reference handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schneider, S. (2000). Global warming: are we entering the greenhouse century. Science Journal, 25(54), 98-109.
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