English 1213 - Global Warming; Can It Be Helped?

Bobby Brooks

Dr. Birdsong

English 1213

18 Apr. 2011

Global Warming; Can It Be Helped?

Global warming is a big threat to mankind. Can it be stopped or will it impact the world like that of the great depression or the last world war? Human actions play a big role in global warming. It might be too late, but if we change things in everyday life we can slow global warming down. There has been much debate on global warming whether it is man-made or natural; however, as stated, “Humans emit about one hundred times more carbon than volcanoes. It tells you that, buried beneath the nonsense, there’s a powerful structure of argument, one that needs to be taken seriously” (Mckibben and Cambell 18). It has been reported that Earth’s average temperature is getting warmer and that the earth’s average tempeture has increased over the last 100 years (Zhao, Ming, and Isaac Held 28). With all arguments set aside there is much proof that global warming is man-made but scientist have theorys of natural global warming. Deserts have been more extensive, summers were short, and winters are brutal. Forests on the planet were obliterated by the great ice sheets. Over a half of the continent of North America was a desolate wasteland of ice. One can agree that human actions have devastating effects, but with all facts set aside there are causes, effects but many solutions that can help global warming.

There are many causes for global warming but one major cause is the greenhouse effect. When sunlight reaches earth's surface, some is absorbed and warms the earth and most, of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light. Some of these longer wavelengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the earth some of the heat energy that would otherwise be lost to space. The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the greenhouse effect (Purkey, Sarah, and Gregory Johnson 344). Greenhouse effect is caused by emisson of carbon into the atmosphere. Fuel is needed to drive, and fossil fuel companies produce this fuel but in the making of fuel emission are released which causes the greenhouse effect, but If we were to shut down the fossil fuel companys that would slow money income of the world, Bill Mckibben and Harry Cambell explain, “The fossil fuel industy has deep wells of money- no business in history has been as profitable as finding, refining, and combusting coal, oil and gas. Six of the ten largest companies on earth are in the fossil-fuel business” (18). In the past, before the companies and the population increase,