Global Warming Essay -- Climate Change, Greenhouse Gases

Global Warming    Even before Homo erectus first stood up on his hind legs, humans have had an enormous influence over the environment and atmosphere. They have used land, oceans, and other natural resources to help further their expansion and growth. Unfortunately, while the human race flourished, the atmosphere and environment did not. Humans released toxins into the air with their large-scale fires and killed many species to extinction. However, global warming is one of the largest and most current dilemmas the Earth is facing. Over the past century, the temperature of the Earth’s surface has risen 1 ° C and in the past fifty years, humans have been the primary cause of the warming of our planet. One of the major confusions in environmental issues today is the concept of the â€Å"greenhouse effect†. People identify this term in a very negative fashion when in fact the greenhouse effect is what keeps Earth’s temperature livable for organisms such as humans. Energy from the sun heats up Earth’s surface and in turn the Earth radiates some of that heat back into space. The purpose of the atmosphere is to trap some of the â€Å"greenhouse gases† and energy in order to keep temperatures similar to what they are today as well as protect from extreme temperatures. However, complications arise when the concentration of the greenhouse gases increase. Before the Industrial revolution, human activities did not have such a drastic effect on the atmosphere. Yet, as the population of humans on Earth grew, more gases began to be emitted into the atmosphere where they accumulated and remained. One of the most detrimental gases to the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, is accumulating at an alarmingly fast rate. Currently, about half of the carbon dioxi... ...her living creatures. Educating the public about the causes and effects of global warming is a step that many countries, states, and cities have taken. One local example is the â€Å"Walk! Philadelphia† campaign which encourages people to walk or use public transportation to reduce the use of cars. Currently, international and government agencies are thinking of ways to monitor and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air. I am optimistic that our government and governments from all over the world are working hard to overcome the causes and effects of global warming. While any large-scale change will be gradual, there is no doubt in my mind that we will fix the atmospheric problems to the best of our ability. Source Cited Environmental Protection Agency’s Global Warming website at: http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html