Geography Essay

The Earth has a fever and the fever is rising…We are what is wrong, and we must make it right. In the context of global warming, discuss the extent to which you agree with this statement.

For the last 2.5 million years, global temperature has shifted between glacial periods and warmed interglacial period. Around 15,000 years ago the Earth started warming up, with a few minor fluctuations. Recently we have been experiencing a sharp rise in average temperature of about 0.7c between 1900 and 2000. To this day this is knows as global warming. With the climate changing this could lead to massive global effects. with the temperature rising ever so slightly this will lead to sea levels to rise, and the amount and pattern of precipitation will change and subtropical deserts will likely expand. Warming and extreme weather events will vary from region to region around the globe, with projections being more robust in some areas then others. Overall, the ecosystems upon which human livelihood depends on will not be preserved, as a result from all these changes.

The above statement states “we are the cause”. The cause of global warming is a topic that is subject to much debate. The debate is around whether this is an issue caused by humans or indeed whether it is a natural occurrence. The possible causes that can be linked to humans do hold a huge overall impact. For example, the burning of fossil fuels. Co2 is release into the atmosphere when fossil fuels like coal, gas and petrol are burnt. 45% of US Co2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal account for 93% of emissions om the electric utility industry. Another human factor that can make us liable to be the cause is deforestation. Plants remove co2 from the atmosphere and convert it into organise matter using photosynthesis, it is also stored into soil. In today’s society trees are used for many different things and we are highly dependent on them; the less trees around reduces the amount of co2 that can be absorbed, meaning there is more in the air allowing this fever to increase.

Although there are many factors that show how the statement is correct and that we are causing this rise in temperature to occur, but there is also evidence to suggest that in fact there are also natural causes. Gasses trapped in the frozen ice sheets and glaciers, such as in Greenland and Antarctica, are being release it to the natural summer shrinkage of the sheets. These harmful gasses are released into the atmosphere, having been stored in the ice for thousands of years. As this is happening in such a large area and there is no way to control the leakage it can have a massive effect on the temperature and can relate to the quote of the Earth having a fever. Another min factor to add on which can maybe relate to how “we” as in humans may not be the cause for the increase in the temperature of the Earth.

Albedo is a measure of the reflectivity of a surface. The albedo effect when applied to the Earth is a measure of how much of the Sun's energy is reflected back into space. Overall, the Earth's albedo has a cooling effect. Using satellite measurements accumulated since the late 1970s, scientists estimate Earth's average albedo is about 0.30. However, in a few years, there has been a significant projected impact on albedo is through future global warming. Nearly all the ice on the planet is melting, with an estimated over ninety 95% of glaciers entering an annual retreat now. As the white surfaces decrease in area, less energy is reflected into space, and the Earth will warm up even more. There will be less reflective surfaces and larger water masses. Ice for example reflects the sun’s rays while water and the oceans absorb them which contribute to global warming. As the ocean surface is exposed to sunlight, the water warms up. This melts the ice from underneath, while man-made CO2 in the atmosphere warms the surface.