Global Climate Change: Society Can Slow it Down

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Recommended: The role of humans in continuing climate change

The Earth is being poisoned. It is a well-known fact; however, a remedy has not yet been offered. Everyday, alarming amounts of toxins are released into the atmosphere, and more recently into the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum (BP)--one of the largest suppliers of oil in the world--has dispersed an insurmountable amount of oil into the gulf. As a result of this, marine and bird life in the area has been severely affected. Fishermen, whose livelihoods depend on the fishing season, are being told they cannot fish. As the world demands action, BP’s top executive complains to the media about how he wants his “life back.” Certainly, those birds covered from head to toe in crude want their old life back as well. It has been well-known for a while that the burning of fossil fuels and other natural gases is releasing alarming amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere. However now, not only are fossil fuels and natural gas polluting the atmosphere, they are polluting the ocean as well. This an

injustice that must not go overlooked. It is also another example of the world’s

dependence on fossil fuels, harming the planet. Which begs the question: Is man’s potentially catastrophic dependence on fossil fuels worth the planet’s well-being?

Over the past 100 years, the planet has experienced a considerable amount of warming. It is theorized to have several causes; however, two in particular stand out. One would be the possibility that it is human caused, mainly due to increasing levels of GHGs in the atmosphere. The other is the opinion that the planet is currently going through a naturally-occurring warming stage. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment on Climate Change in ...

... middle of paper ...

.... 18 June 2010. http://www.IPCC.ch.

Monbiot, George. "Monbiot's Royal Flush: Top Ten Climate Deniars." Guardian

Newspapers Limited (2009): 6 Mar. 2009. LexisNexis Academic Web. 13

June 2010

Schellnhuber, Hans. "Global Warming: Stop Worrying, Start Panicking."

www.pnas.org. PNAS 105.88 (2008): 1. Web. 28 Sept, 2008.

Stanford University. "Shifting The World To 100 Percent Clean, Renewable

Energy As Early As 2030: Here Are The Numbers." ScienceDaily.com.

Science Daily, 19 October 2009. Web. 23 June 2010

University of Leeds. "Hydrogen Technology Steams Ahead." ScienceDaily.com.

Science Daily, 17 July 2009. Web. 23 June 2010

Wiley-Blackwell. "Beyond Polar Bears? Experts Look for a New Vision of

Climate Change to Combat Skepticism." Web. ScienceDaily.com. Science

Daily, 27 May 2010. Web. 19 June 2010

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