Global Warming or the Next Ice Age? Essay

It would be safe to assume that climate change is going to be around for a long time and have an enormous impact on the lives of many people. Humans have had a huge impact on the environment for many years and can be linked to one the main factors of global warming. Global warming is a topic that has received much attention in recent years; yet our climate change is not a recent problem. If the U.S. Continues to ignore climate change then the effect on the environment will affect humans. Despite what many might think, climate change is well known across hundreds of nations all over the world. My thesis is the Greenland ice cap is both shrinking and expanding, and climate change can be linked to both trends. The effect humans have had on the environment can be linked to the shrinking and expanding of the Greenland ice cap. In the book â€Å"The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change† it is discussed how greenhouse gasses have been increasing in the atmosphere for the last two centuries or so, primarily as a result of human activity. (Dessler and Parson 88). In addition, climate change will most likely affect populations through impacts on the necessities and comforts of life such as water, energy, housing, transportation, food, natural ecosystems, and health systems. Rural communities tend to be more dependent on climate-sensitive livelihood activities and have fewer resources and social support systems compared to urban populations (Alig 73). The growth of our population has increased our use of fuel, land, and manufacturing. All of these are increasing emissions into our atmosphere that increases global warming. The concern about climate change has been an issue for decades. There’s no specific date as such. The climate-change debate, like all policy debates, is fundamentally an argument over action. An action needs to be taken soon on how to respond to climate change. Listen to the debate and you will hear many different kinds of arguments – about whether and how the climate is changing, whether human activities are responsible, how much of the change occurring might be natural, how the climate might change in the future, what the effects of the changes will be and whether they matter, and the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of various responses. Although these arguments are distinct, when advanced in policy debate they all serve to make a case for what we should or should not do (Dessler and Parson 31). Scientists had long been aware of the consequences of global warming and had been urging governments to take action for many years. As far back as the 1950’s there was pressure being put on governments to take action but very little was done. The one event that put the issue of global warming firmly on the political agenda was the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, this was attended by presidents, prime-ministers and heads of state from around the world. It wasn’t the first Earth Summit but it was the one where global warming was addressed and led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Following inception the UNFCCC has met regularly in what is known as the Conference of Parties (COP) and it was at the 3rd COP that the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. If the U.S continues to ignore climate change the Greenland ice cap will continue to shrink and expand . In the opening decades of the 20th century, real estate hucksters, railroad tycoons and even government agencies persuaded thousands of dirt-poor farmers to come to the dry and windy center of the Great Plains, plow up millions of acres of ancient grasslands and plant wheat. There were several reasons this was a bad idea, but for a couple of unusually wet decades, bumper crops were the norm. Then, in the 1930s, inevitable drought returned. The land dried up and, quite literally, blew away in enormous black clouds that killed crops, livestock, children, old people and dreams which is also known as the Dust Bowl. It was the worst man-made environmental disaster in American history. Now, as we grow more aware that we face the worst man-made environmental disaster in the history of the world, we are proving to be no more wise than the imprudent farmers who tore up the buffalo grass (Landon-Lane 11). The United States is a case in point. Some of the best climate scientists in the world are Americans. So are some of the most eloquent and influential advocates for a global compact. Moreover, global compacts are an American specialty. At pivotal moments in the twentieth century, U.S. presidents were the chief architects, master-builders, and principal funders of international institutions— notably, the UN itself— that constitute a rule-based world order and have promoted the prosperity and security now threatened by climate change. Yet in the face of that threat, all four of America’s most recent presidents—including, up until now, its current one— have, for one reason or another, been unable to rise fully to the challenge (Antholis and Talbott 24) Global warming is a very difficult problem to fix. People are having a hard time agreeing on what to do about it. For example, everyone agrees that wasting energy is a bad thing to do. But some people think that the federal government should make laws about it, while other people think it should be up to each person or business to decide what to do. In conclusion, the process may not stop entirely, but we can try to keep the climate from reaching a point that we can’t stop it. If everyone in the world stop polluting and begin keeping their environment clean it would help. Global warming may not be stopped but it can be reduced.