Nature New Hampshire Wildflower Magazine | Page 45

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A response to this article about climate change

By: Hanna Greto

In this essay I am responding to an article published in the New York Times on September 19, 2017 written by Justin Gillis called “Climate Change is Complex. We’ve Got Answers to Your Questions.” This article reflects and provides information on global warming, an extremely controversial topic, as well as identifying the differences between climate change and global warming. What’s even more controversial is whether humans are the main cause - and they definitely are. Over time global warming has become one of those things that some people believe is utterly preposterous...like the Earth being flat. Those people are dumb. There are many tell tale signs that point to the Earth being in danger and the causes and effects of what is happening to this planet are detrimental.

The first part of the article informs us of “What is happening” as in what is going on here and now. Climate Change is basically the big picture, and includes all weather phenomenons, changes in temperature, and everything else going on with the Earth’s rising temperature and its effects; while Global Warming is just referring to the rise in temperature and the warming of the Earth itself. Since 1880 - almost a century and a half - Earth’s overall temperature has risen 2 degrees fahrenheit. This sounds like very little but if you look at the world and what has been taking place it is clear that a lot has taken place because of this change in temperature.

Thinking about this rise in the temperature, you start to wonder why it happened. Every action has a reaction, so, the change in temperature is due to what is known as the Greenhouse Effect. The Greenhouse Effect is essentially the overall cause of all Global Warming issues, and this phenomenon is taking place thanks to the actions of us humans. If you think about a greenhouse, you imagine a hot and humid glass house which is kept that way for the survival of the plants growing inside. The hot air rises but it is trapped in the glass area which causes the temperature to rise and rise. The Earth and its temperature rising compares to what takes place in a greenhouse - hence the name “Greenhouse Effect”. The Earth is protected by layers and layers of atmosphere, and obviously the Earth’s surface itself is closest to the bottom layers of this atmosphere. The radiation from the sun heats up the bottom layers of the atmosphere and all the gasses emitted through human actions become trapped beneath these layers which act as a blanket, causing an overall rising of the temperature. Greenhouse gasses are released through human actions - mainly deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gasoline. When these are burned they release carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases which become trapped and then cause the temperature of the Earth to rise rapidly.

Again, every action has a reaction. So what is the Greenhouse Effect a reaction to? That

would be humans. This article debates whether humans are the definite cause of this unnatural rise of Earth’s carbon dioxide levels - all signs point to yes. It also debates whether natural causes could be to blame, and I believe the answer is most definitely not. All the causes of rising carbon dioxide levels are due to our human actions. Technically if the sun's temperature were to rise at an extremely rapid rate it could cause major global warming, but scientists have already proven that the sun’s temperature has hardly risen at all in past decades and this

I agree with. Humans are the only source responsible for the release of greenhouse gases because in today's economy large companies are burning fossil fuels which are emitting gases which get trapped under the blanket-like atmosphere of the Earth.

A large number of people downright deny that Climate Change is even real, and try to convince everyone that it is all just a hoax. These types of people are not in the right mind. You just have to look around at everything happening, especially as of very recently, and you can see that there is something wrong. The planet is in grave danger as you can understand through this article, let alone just by opening your eyes. It has been going on for some time, and recently it is getting much worse. Hurricane Sandy, classified as a level 1 hurricane with winds of 80 MPH, hit parts of New York and New Jersey in 2012 leaving devastating effects. The entirety of the Jersey Shore was destroyed. This hurricane was responsible for 117 deaths and about 200,000 homes were lost or damaged badly. Repair costs were roughly fifty billion dollars, and this seconds Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in the United States. Just in the recent month or so there have been more horrendous natural events taking place such as Hurricane Harvey which hit Texas, Hurricane Irma which hit Florida, and Hurricane Maria which hit Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been left in shambles after this tragedy. My response to this is that we should definitely be worried, and action needs to be taken. I believe we can take steps to slowing down and eventually stopping this phenomenon. All of this catastrophe and natural disaster taking place as of late is all thanks to the effects of Global Warming, and there is no doubt about it.

The final part of the article is about what we can do to end, or at least slow down global warming. If you leave out a plate of food and decide it’s too much work to clean it, you are going to leave it there sitting out, and the plate of leftover food will continue to get moldier and moldier. Climate Change and Global Warming are a moldy plate of food. In the being Climate Change wasn’t even thought to be real for certain, and even if it was no one really cared, so they ignored it and now it is just becoming worse and worse. It has become one huge mess because at first no one cared and now it appears to many as just an overwhelming, huge issue that seems to be unfixable. The Earth has been treated so awfully by humans that now even when and if we make an effort to fix it, it is still going to be extremely difficult to get things back to normal. In fact, it is unlikely that things will ever become fully how they naturally were before, but they can still be turned around, although it is going to take a lot of work and happen at a slow rate.

There are many ways to take action and fix all of the natural disaster going on, but it needs to happen right away or the Earth is not going to survive. The drastic release of emissions of greenhouse gases has to be put to an end and replaced in more economic ways. Cars and power plants are too of the main sources of these emissions, both because of humans. The emissions from cars could be solved through electric cars, though that is pricey and inconvenient. Another solution to that issue could be using natural fuels that have an extremely low emission level. Power plants which burn coal emit a ridiculous amount of harmful gases, and if they burned natural gasses they would emit significantly less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams, and nuclear power stations are all plausible and economic solutions which give off low emissions. I think a huge effort should be made to make use of all of these more widely used everywhere because they will make a huge difference. It also solves unemployment issues by creating job opportunities. Finally, these also benefit the health effects of everyone because they will be breathing much cleaner air rather than dirty. Making all of these solutions come into effect is definitely worth it.Climate change is incredibly overwhelming because so many people don’t know how to deal with it, or if they as individuals can even help, but they can. I found this article extremely informative and helpful. I agree with all of the points made, and it touched on every single important aspect of such a worldwide issue.