GLOBAL WARMING AND MAN'S ENVIRONMENT!

Every living thing needs an environment to thrive. Example, fishes thrive well in water. Man lives in an environment and man's survival to a large extent depends on his environment, this is because all man's activities are carried out in an environment.

The existence or sustenance of man's environment depends on lots of environmental changes like global warming, hurricane, flood, windstorm, pollution, rising sea levels etc.

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What is global warming?

Scientist have generally agreed that the earth is actually getting warmer and man's activities in his environment is a major influence.

Global warming is therefore the observed increase in the earth's surface temperature over a period of time (usually a century).

Causes of global warming.

The primary cause of global warming is the increase in the concentration of Carbondioxide and other green house gasses which are released into the atmosphere by burning of fossil fuel, from animal by-products, from industrial waste,carbon monoxide from car exhaust pipes, agricultural practises like bush burning and deforestation.

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The major green house gasses include Carbondioxide, methane, water vapour, ozone and Nitrous oxide and the process of warming of the lowest layer of the earth's atmosphere by the release of this gases into the earth is known as green house effect

Climate model projections has shown that the earth's temperature may go up from 0.3 to 1.7°c in the case of lowest release of these green house gasses and may go up from 2.6 to 4.8°c in the case of high release of this green house gasses into the earth's atmosphere during this 21st century.

Effects of global warming.

For every cause there is an effect and for every action there is a reaction. For global warming, the effects are;

1)Rising sea levels: This is simply an increase in the volume of water in the sea by thermal expansion of water, melting of ice sheets and glaciers on land as a result of global warming/climate change.

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For any increase in global warming by 2°c, the sea level increase by 1 to 4m as a result of the melting of the glaciers and ice sheet also caused by global warming.

Rising sea level however have many negative effects like flooding which will lead to erosion, potential loss of lives and properties, disruption of aquaculture ecosystem due to a decrease in the quality of water.

2)Destruction of species and their ecosystem: Global warming destroys the ecosystem of species, research has projected that an increase in the concentration of Carbondioxide in the atmosphere will lead to the extinction of some species and a decrease in the different kind of species in an ecosystem.

Increase in the concentration of atmospheric Carbondioxide has lead to increase in ocean acidity,increase in ocean acidity destroys the normal PH of the ocean which therefore poses a treat to the natural ecosystem of fishes.

3)Destruction of human ecosystem: Global warming destroys the human ecosystem by posing a threat on food security ie.global warming affects crop production,this is because rising sea levels which leads to flooding affects crop production, flooding causes erosion and flooded soils are usually oxygen depleted and crops need oxygen to survive.

Global warming also poses a threat on human health because food insecurity caused by failure in crop production can lead to malnutrition which is not good for the health.

4)Extreme weather conditions: Global warming leads to a rapid increase in atmospheric temperature known as heat waves or a rapid fall in atmospheric temperature known as cold waves.

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Apart from cold waves and heat waves, other extreme weather conditions caused by global warming includes flood, drought, hurricane, thunder storms etc. All extreme weather condition has the capacity to destroy both crop, livestocks, properties and lives, infrastructures like schools, houses,roads,electricity.

Possible solutions to global warming.

The first step to providing solution to a problem is knowing the cause of the problem. Having known that the major cause of global warming is increase in the concentration of Carbondioxide and other green house gasses in the atmosphere by human activities. Then the best possible solution will be the use of activities that reduces the release of Carbondioxide and other green house gasses into the atmosphere.

Activities like energy conservation such as conserving the use of water because so much energy is expended when water is pumped and treated, therefore conserving water reduces how many times water is pumped and treated,use of low carbon technology like renewable energy in the form of solar energy to power our homes, activities that increases carbon capture rather than releasing carbon,like reforestation(planting of trees)instead of deforestation(cutting down of trees). Agricultural activities like bush burning should also be stopped.

With continuous decrease in man's activities that leads to concentration of Carbondioxide in the atmosphere,we can be sure to mitigate global warming which poses a threat to man's environment and man will be sure of a safe and healthy environment.

Thanks for reading!

REFRENCES!

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