Tuesday 12 May 2009

Problems & Solutions Report

Measurements of temperature taken by instruments all over the world, on land and at sea have revealed that during the 20th century the Earth’s surface and lowest part of the atmosphere warmed up on average by about 0.6°C.

Global warming is broadly seen today, worldwide, as a main problem facing humans. Basically defined, it is the heating up of the earth's atmosphere because of higher greenhouse gas emissions. The dread is that increasing temperatures will lead to melting polar ice-caps and rising sea levels, which could cause flooding affecting millions in densely-populated low-lying areas of the world, and an increase in the rate of natural disasters such as Tsunami.

Let us examine the subject in more detail. There are some problems of global warming such as increases in temperature of the air and sea, stronger storms, melting of sea ice, longer droughts, and extreme heat waves.

Turning to the solutions of global warming. One of them is, planting trees to help absorb excess CO2 and to provide shade and windbreaks. Another way is to recycle items and help unplug fridges that are not in use much.

The movie, An Inconvenient Truth is directed by Davis Guggenheim, 2006, presented by Al Gore, severely highlights the dangers concerned. We watched the movie and read reviews of it, typically positive, for example, Brandon Fibbs, however some critical, e.g. Scott & Eric. The film was very well presented, with lots of arithmetical information, graphs and charts as well as some very impressive photographic proof. Moreover, we calculated our carbon footprints & mine was 3.22 .The class averages for CRC was 3.86.

We have answered some questions to get our footprint. It is purely scientific information; however I have some doubts.
In addition, how can we find a solution if not everyone agrees about the range of the problem? Nicholas Stern, in A Blueprint for a Safer Planet, has recommended that controlling global C02 emissions is attractive, doable & inexpensive, but Nigel Lawson, in A Load of Hot Air, has refuted this:
The Stern Review sought to dispute that atmospheric greenhouse gas (chiefly carbon dioxide) concentrations could be stabilized at somewhat low global price, and the resulting advantage from preventing much further warming would far outweigh that charge.

I think global warming is actually bad for our atmosphere. What it does is increase the temperature in our atmosphere and makes our average temperature on the earth is surface higher than normal. This can be bad for us because the increase in temperature could possibly melt the polar ice caps and create flooding or it could just simply cause a drought.

It is easy to put suggestions and solutions to solve any problem. But the hard part is to activate these suggestions and take actions to achieve the goal we want.
Bibliography:
An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore. DVD. Paramount Classics, 2006.
Lawson, Nigel. "A Load of Hot Air." Rev. of A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How to Manage Climate Change & Create a new Era of Progress & Prosperity, by Nicholas Stern, Bodley Head, 2009. The Spectator 29 Apr. 2009.
Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)