Science in the News 2014- Global Warming and its Effects.

Themistoklis Daniilidis
Mr. Patrick Youell
Science in the News
3/27/2015

Global Warming and its Effects

Every year many important events take place. There are those years where so many new discoveries, inventions, new ideas, or just simple events take place our perspective/ knowledge on the world, on its people, and on their ideas totally changes; One of those years was 2014. Multiple events on different levels made this year special. The world we live in is not only the events that take place as in politics, wars and other great topics, but first of all the world itself; Its nature, its habitat and its living organisms. If the nature is destroyed, its living organisms are slowly decreasing and aren't able to exist anymore, we won't exist either. For this simple but actually really complex reason I decided to choose news that are hidden. News that don't show up since for most people they don't matter. News that don't occur now, but in the future they could possibly be the reason that we won't be able to have a life like we do today or even worse not have a life at all.

 

Scientists have been really worried these past years about the humidity and global warming continuously arising. 2014 had had the highest temperature ever recorded in our planet (Figure 1) as the BBC environment reporter informs us, Mark Kinver informs us: "2014 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures 0.68C (1.24F) above the long term average, US government scientists have said".

Figure 1: Here is a graph of the global average temperature anomaly. You can clearly see the continuous growth of temperature throughout the years, reaching its maximum in 2014.

What are the reasons of these extreme weather conditions? The main reason is humidity. Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. Humidity is really important since it does not only affect the weather, but also the climate and its global changes. It occurs when air becomes saturated (when no more solute can dissolve), which means when it is not possible to hold more water vapor. But of course humidity is not magically created by itself, Humidity is created by humans. The main two simple reasons for that is the non-stopped growth of population, in addition to the fact that each  average individual in today's societies uses the most possible energy than ever before. This energy though is not renewable, as a result there is an extreme carbon output.

What are the present and future effects of global warming (Figure 2)? First of all, the beautifulness of the environment is getting destroyed since more and more plants, trees but also species tend to unfortunately disappear, not being able to handle new, unknown weather conditions. Also, many other animals start travelling to other places in order to find better conditions to live in, like butterflies and foxes as National Geographic mentions. Icebergs are continuously melting, not letting animals like seals and penguins live. Even though the weather gets warmer and warmer as mentioned earlier, rain and snowfall increase. Ecosystems will keep on changing, species will move to find better places to live in. Many others will completely disappear. Diseases will also be spread since the warm weather does not kill the bacteria. All these are mostly  future results of global warming. 

Figure 2: A scary, not realistic picture of what global warming causes. Even though not realistic as a picture, the meaning it gives is important: This planet will be "burnt" and will collapse if humans continue causing global warming in such high rates. 

 That does not mean that global warming does not affect people around the world right now. Except the unexpected and crazy weather which changes our daily plans, except the really hot, or extremely cold weather, the rain and the snow, global warming affects a key part of economy, politics but also a big part of everyday life for many people: Agriculture. Heavy rain does not let the soil and the plants to be healthy and grow (Figure 3). It makes them rot. In addition, really cold or really hot temperature does not let many trees and plants to grow. 

Figure 3: Effects of global warming on agriculture.

 As a result, the food supplies will become less and less while the population (as mentioned earlier) will increase a lot each year. This means that in about a century or even less from now, it is extremely possible that we don't have enough food to feed all the people around the world. 

Except those mostly future effects of global warming which many people are not aware of, we have gotten some "signals" that something is going wrong with the weather lately, but even more during 2014. According to the Climate Central Organization, a significant signal is how crazy had been the weather during the entire year in Alaska. During 2014 Alaska faced really unusual warmth. In Barrow, a place where icea used to fully cover the ocean for a really long part of the year, this year the ice can only be seen from hundreds of miles away from the shore. This shows that the weather has become balmy unlike the past. This is a huge climate change for Alaska, one of the coldest places in the world. 

The most important part of this enormous and threatening problem is the need for people to really understand the situation we are in and how it can affect our future. The second step will be understanding what is needed to happen in order to prevent worst effects of this problems but instead have a healthier, more productive and beautiful environment for us and the future generations. People from now on no matter their social class should do a few simple steps to save our world. We should all use cars much less, only in special occasions, but instead use bicycles and public transportation (Buses, metro) (Figure 4)since they save much more energy and do not create lots of carbon dioxide in the air. Buying food products that are in season can help a lot the environment since there is no need for transportation of those products, growing your own fruits and vegetables can also be helpful. If you are able to, designing a house with maximum energy efficiency could be critical for saving energy. Also, governments not letting old factories work but create new ones with high energy efficiency. All these daily life steps could transform our world to a much healthier and pleasing place to live in. Let's save our planet! Don't think about the present, but also the future! 

Figure 4: Public transportation is a key step to saving energy and producing less carbon dioxide. 

 Bibliography: 

-"Global Warming Effects Information, Global Warming Effects Facts, Climate Change Effects - National Geographic." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/

-How Do Humans Cause Global Warming?" PlanetSave. N.p., 02 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://planetsave.com/2009/02/02/how-humans-cause-global-warming/
-"Humans Cause Global Warming: 10 Indicators." PlanetSave. N.p., 18 Aug. 2010. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://planetsave.com/2010/08/18/humans-cause-global-warming-10-indicators/
-"5 Ways to Prevent Global Warming That Big Media Won't Tell You."PlanetSave. N.p., 28 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://planetsave.com/2008/11/28/five-ways-to-prevent-global-warming-that-big-media-wont-tell-you/
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/20/theres-growing-evidence-that-global-warming-is-driving-crazy-winters/
-"2014: A Weird Weather Year in Alaska So Far | Climate Central." 2014: A Weird Weather Year in Alaska So Far | Climate Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2014-weird-weather-year-alaska-17651
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http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30852588
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