Global Warming And Its Many Ramifications Essay

The U. S. surroundingsal Protection Agency (U. S. EPA) supports all ordinances involving milieual fortress and the abatement of native resources degradation. These laws aim to restrict people from abusing the environment and destroying the vivid habitats of many species. The CATO wreak in Washington believes that the political science is not doing enough in basis of environmental protection. The institute emphasizes that disposal intervention direct ins to exert more(prenominal) effort in pursuing environmental preservation.The g everyplacenment is essendial in pursuing this goal since this endeavor requires a huge amount of financial and tender resources and may not be achieved by a less(prenominal)ened number of people solely (439-440). With the population continually increasing, natural resources atomic number 18 quickly dwindling, and with the loss of natural habitat, the flora and fauna in like manner perish. Currently, the government pursues strategies that aim to protect the plants and animals affected by heightened human development. Better laws and ordinances get hold of to be passed for the government to effectively preserve the ecosystem.If not, the solid ground risks the possibility of valet de chambre satisfying only their profess needs and satisfaction, with by thinking of the long-term personal effects of development (U. S. EPA) Crucial Environmental Issues The emergence of numerous environmental issues, including the quenching of several(prenominal) plants and animals as well as shifts in brave patterns, caused the government to implement restrictions on the activities of man affecting the environment. However, despite the efforts on the character reference of the government, environmental problems still occur. According to the U.S. EPA, fragmented tactics argon not pass judgment to be effective in protecting the environment as only the obvious problems argon being undertaken, while the complex and less obvious env ironmental issues still remain. The U. S. EPA believes that it is important for the government to change the fundamental principle of environmental policies. more(prenominal) restrictions need to be incorporated whe neer development is envisioned. This is because with the occurrent rate of development, plants and animals ar in danger of not continuing to bouncing in their natural habitats.Population explosion depletes the natural resources, which include plants and animals, which homo consume for their survival. In addition, human settlements also destroy the natural habitats of numerous species. Howard M. Singletary, Director of Plant Industry of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, believes that biological diversity is essential in environmental protection (Evaluate the Social). Conserving biological diversity involves the protection of the entire ecosystem.Humans may see themselves as important or more important than the plants and animals that get destroyed as a extend of change magnitude population, but it should be noted that the environmental issues that man is set about at the pitch time are due to the absence of prophylactic planning. The short-term economic and monetary gains throw away frequently been treated as more important than the ecosystem. Yet, the destruction of plants and animals as well as their habitat contribute much in worldwide melt and extreme weather situations. (Evaluate the Social). Humanity needs to see the impact of overdevelopment.People also need to realize that they need to invest and sacrifice certain conveniences and luxuries in order to achieve long-term environmental goals. The scientific community and several advocacy groups are supporting government efforts to preserve the environment. The global presence is for the greater thoroughly and is establish on the fact the earth and everything in it is not owned by a single individual, group or corporation. The scale of the human economy is immediate ly much(prenominal) that the wilderness areas that buzz off much of the worlds remaining biological diversity are shrinking fast.The rates of wild sustenance habitat takeover and of species extinctions are the fastest they set out ever been in recorded hi horizontal surface, and they are accelerating. Tropical forests, the worlds richest species habitats, have already been 55 pct destroyed, and the current rate exceeds 168,000 upstanding kilometers per year. (Evaluate the Social). Stabilizing populations Stabilizing population is more important in industrial countries than in underdeveloped countries, since the former overconsume and hence overpollute and are thereby responsible for(p) for the greatest add in the impact of human activities on the already overtaxed environment.The richest 20 pct of the world consume over 70 percent of the worlds commercial capacity. Thirteen countries have already reached a fertility rate required in order to achieve nix population produce, so it is not utopian to expect differents to follow. The population growth-rate of developing countries of course moldiness also be reduced dramatically. Their population is right off 77 percent of the worlds total, and they are responsible for 90 percent of the worlds annual population growth. (Evaluate the Social).The poor must be helped and pass on undecomposedifiably demand to reach at least(prenominal) negligiblely acceptable living standards by obtaining access to the remaining natural resource base. When industrial nations switch from in assemble growth to qualitative development, more resources and environmental functions will be available for the poor in the South. Scientists sight that as the planet warms up, a great cut across of ice and shock near the poles will probably start to melt. That will expose swart tundra and dark seas. That will warm things up like painting a white roof black.The darker the terrain gets, the warmer those parts of the world will get . More snow will melt there, making the terrain even hotter. All these explanations learn more than thirty pages of rather small print in the philosophical Magazines, and every one of the calculations had to be solved by hand. To make a greenhouse forecast, experts now build what amounts to a working scales model of the existence in spite of appearance a supercomputer. They start with a blank globe, divided into a grid like the grid of latitude and longitude.Typically each chance in the grid covers several hundred miles on a side. These boxes are stacked from the surface of the planet high into the atmosphere a dozen forms of giant boxes of air. Public concern over environmental indemnity was minimal until the end of the nineteenth century. As the United States expanded westward, the horizon seemed to present an unlimited supply of land, water, mineral deposits and timber. Farming techniques reflected little concern for minimizing farming depletion. Forests were cleared wi thout concern for reforestation or the devastation of soil erosion.Minerals were exploit and metals smelted without concern for their effects on fresh-water supplies when contamination did closure, it seemed a minor problem, because substitute(a) sources of water seemed endless. (Royan, 2001). Despite a history of conservation policies, fundamental concerns over environmental protection were still absent from the policy agenda as late as the 1950s. The publication of Silent Spring in 1962 draw attention to the dangers of pesticides such as DDT, in the aliment chain.The sense of affable responsibility that emerged in the 1960s also moved environmental policy from the background to the forefront of the policy agenda. Energy made it to the headlines once once more in the year 2000 a shocking power crisis hit the farming of calcium (Royan, 2001). Companies had cognise once more that the horrors brought about by spartan muscle problems over the past three decades had not gone a way. The California electricity crisis could potentially fan out towards other states not only impact would it impact the profitability of a company, but could certainly put many out of business.As the tonic century fast approaches, the world has slowly realized the synergy between energy conservation and global economic competitiveness. Energy conservation entails the elimination of lay waste tos through the improvement of industrial facilities and processes. Energy conservation also implies environment preservation through befoulment prevention, and mitigating the trends toward global warming. Global competitiveness goes hand in hand with energy conservation, and many industrial firms from all over the world have realized that.Worldwide energy consumption in young years has go on to escalate not only in developed countries but also in developing countries, primarily as a result of speedy industrialization and improvement in the standard of living. In a recent survey conducted by the Association of Energy Engineers, about 22 percent among those surveyed claimed to have reduced accumulated costs by $5 one thousand thousand or more by implementing energy conservation strategies (Cornforth, 1992). The potential for extra preservations is still great. Thirty-six percent among those surveyed indicated that advertise savings that amount to over 10 percent are possible.Thus, investment in protocols that advertize energy conservation has prove to be effective in saving costs by reducing waste materials resulting from industrial processes. As the close century approaches, the economic world has gradually come to realize that energy conservation offers the most profitable competitive advantage. Marked improvements in the efficiency of industrial processes or facilities to save render consumption reduce wastage. HiTAC has been a signifi preservet energy conservation development in recent years, and is now applied to industrial furnaces in many factories wor ldwide.A positive exit of saving energy is minimizing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Because of the increased efficiency in combustion using HiTAC, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide-byproducts of sketchy burning, are reduced. Therefore, HiTAC saves on operational costs by making fuel consumption more efficient and consequently, efficient fuel consumption minimizes waste products, among which are greenhouse gases that trigger global warming. (Hotel & Sarofim, 1967). Major Changes Taking personate in the US Population and Projected Problems Due to the Climate ChangesThe US is verbalise to have the highest population of the developed nations, and one of the highest population growth rates at one percent, equivalent to 2. 5 million new Americans every year (Haub). Three national population trends that have been determine in a recent US census are changes in geographic distribution, changes in ethnic composition, and the effect of immigration on population (Hau b). With regard to the changing geographic distribution of the population, the population is said to be shifting from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, both because of internal migration and immigration from other countries (Haub).With regard to ethic composition, while ethnic minorities are said to comprise 25 percent of the population shortly, that percentage will increase to 50 percent in 50 years, with Asians rising in meter from 7. 1 to 40 million by 2050, and Hispanics rising in total to 90 million in 2050, constituting 22 percent of the population (Haub). Immigration, on the other hand, presently accounts for a third of the population increase yearly, and is expected to be a major contributor to population growth in the future (Haub).It naturally follows that the South and West will have to deal with the attendant problems of the shifting geographic distribution in its favor, while the change in ethnic composition can be predicted to contribute its own set of problems. Problems Causing the Decline in the Quality of Life in Cities, Possible Solutions It is said that more than a billion urban dwellers, out of a total of three billion, are located in slum area areas, with half living in Asia (Whelan).This is indicative of the mammoth problems of governments with regard to the preparedness for food (Sustainable Development Networking Program), opportunities for employment, environmental degradation, sanitation, and general quality of living in cities. Another problem causing the decline in quality of life is said to be urban sprawl, whose effects range from over-congestion to pollution (Goodwin). In the US, the states that are the destination of internal and external migration and immigration in the current shift in geographic distribution of the population that will have to deal with these issues.Proposed solutions include the revision of federal laws to limit immigration, the creation of boundaries that will redirect urban growth to pl aces where urban services can be provided, and tighter control on allowable density and housing (Goodwin). There are many environmentalists like Senator Hillary who had been bold about her support on the imperative hooks Global Warming Decision. She states that the scientific consensus is that global warming poses a serious threat to human activities (Statement of Senator Hillary Clinton on the Supreme Court2007, par 1).She challenges President Bush to address this pressing global environmental threat as soon as possible. Issues on the Ozone In the discussions on the ozone muddle, it is but apt to provide a brief explanation on what exactly is the ozone and how it is create. The ozone, according to the Centre for Atmospheric cognizance, forms a layer in the stratosphere, thinnest in the tropics (around the equator) and denser towards the poles. More specifically, Ozone is a toxic, strong re prompt confused consisting of three oxygen atoms (Francois).As explained by the Centre for Atmospheric Science, the ozone is formed when ultraviolet ray coming from the sun, strikes the stratosphere, dissociating (or splitting) oxygen molecules to atomic oxygenthat quickly combines with further oxygen molecules to form ozone More commonly, the ozone is known as the layer that protects human beings and other living things from the harmful rays of the sun, more specifically, the ultraviolet rays-shielding us from being stricken by come up cancer. This common conception of the ozone layer, which provides a good notion of what ozone is, is just one side of the chance on.Scientists refer to this more commonly know ozone as the stratospheric ozone (Centre for Atmospheric Science). On the other side of the coin is the tropospheric or the ground level ozone, which is considered as a major wellness hazard, is a major constituent of photochemical smog (Centre for Atmospheric Science). It is referred to as a pollutant because of its being lethal if inhaled (Newman). Ozone F acts According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the story of the ozone hole has its roots from the chlorofluorocarbons or chlorofluorocarbons, a family of most commonly used industrial compounds.CFCs was invented by Thomas Midgley in 1928 which subsequent on was called as a miracle compound due to its proven useful for mans convenience (NRDC). Since then, it was effectively used in refrigeration systems, air conditioners, aerosols, solvents and in the achievement of some types of packaging (Francois). However, decades later on the miracle compound was invented and used in many industries and households as effective refrigerants, it was represent out that it had caused a serious damage to the environment, more particularly to the ozone layer.It took American scientists Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland to prove that the miracle compound turned out to be damaging to the environment as they hypothesized in 1974 that CFCs possibly played an active role in the deplet ion of the ozone layer (NRDC). This announcement had sparked heated debates not just among scientists but also among policymakers, environmentalists and industry players on the whys and wherefores of ozone depletion (NRDC).It was explained by Newman that CFCs became harmful to the ozone because of its chlorine make-up and it turned out that CFCs are an excellent way of introducing chlorine into the ozone layer. This happens as the ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun strikes CFCs that go up into the aggrandizement of the ozone layer, this UV radiation breaks down CFCs and frees chlorine (Newman). afterwards chlorine has been freed, this has the potential to destroy large amount of ozone (Newman). Francois also provides tie-up of the thinning of the ozone layer to the introduction of large amount of chlorine in the atmosphere through the use of CFCs.The Centre for Atmospheric Science stated that Evidence that human activities affect the ozone layer has been building up over t he last 20 years, ever since scientists first suggested that the release of CFCs into the atmosphere could reduce the amount of ozone over our heads. But foregoing to the hole being discovered, the negative effects of the CFCs were never taken seriously by the majority of the people as they were not convinced on the connection between CFCs and the depletion of the ozone layer (NRDC).In 1985, a major discovery had brought great alarm to the total world as it was discovered by Joseph Farman and his colleagues that there was a hole in the ozone layer (Newman b). In fact, the severity of the discovered ozone depletion made the side scientist in the Halley Bay station in Antarctica, who discovered the hole, to think that the equipment he used to measure the extent of the hole was broken (NRDC). He sent the equipment back to England to have the equipment repaired but when he tried to measure the depletion again, his sign finding that the ozone layer had been depleted was confirmed (Fra ncois).Another theoretical attempt, which later on was proven to be correct, was the recipe of the ozone loss as summarized by the Centre for Atmospheric Science as follows The polar winter leads to the establishment of the polar offer which isolates the air at bottom it. Cold temperatures form inside the vortex cold enough for the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). As the vortex air is isolated, the cold temperatures and the PSCs persist. Once the PSCs form, heterogeneous reactions take place and transmute the inactive chlorine and bromine reservoirs to more active forms of chlorine and bromine. No ozone loss occurs until sunlight returns to the air inside the polar vortex and allows the production of active chlorine and initiates the catalytic ozone destruction cycles. Ozone loss is rapid. The ozone hole currently covers a geographic region a little bigger than Antarctica and extends nigh 10km in altitude in the lower stratosphere. Basically, the preceding e numeration of the recipe of the ozone loss is similar to the Heterogeneous Chemistry Theory that proposed chemical reactions occurring within the ozone layer.This also explains why the hole is over Antarctica and not over the other continents. The atmospheric conditions prevailing in Antarctica, which is its having ultra cold temperature, suits the chemical reactions that take place resulting to ozone depletion. Consequences of Depleted Ozone The most common knowledge as to the obstinate effects of the depletion of the ozone layer is that it increases the penetration of the ultraviolet radiation resulting to more skin cancer.As Francois puts it, When this protective layer is reduced, it has dramatic consequences on life such as slower photosynthesis among plants as increased radiation results to less metabolism destruction of micro-organisms which play a vital role in the food chain and, the increase in cases of skin cancer. Basically, the depletion of the ozone layer can result t o an enormous change in the ecologic balance. It is a universal fact, based on the studies and researches that have been made, that a little tip in the ecological balance could result to a mammoth change in our environment that could adversely affect the way people live.The slight increase in temperature can cause destructive floods to countries surrounded by oceans. In the case of the increase in the ozone hole, it can results to unfavorable changes in our environment beginning from the destruction of micro-organisms and the instability that it causes to the metabolism of plants responsible to changes in photosynthesis. These changes may not be visible in the present time, which makes many people smug and insensitive as to their roles in the protection of the ozone layer, but catastrophic results can be felt in the near future.