Example research essay topic: Climate Change And Global Warming Part 1 - 1,817 words

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Climate Change and Global Warming (1) The problem of Global warming is considered to be one of the most troubling issues of the contemporary era. It has been noticed that the average air temperature in different parts of the world is being on the constant rise, ever since the humanity's existence began to depend more and more on exploitation of fossil fuels. While in 1870 the carbon fuel emissions in the air were almost non-existent, in 2000 their amount has reached 6 billion tons. Many scientists agree that it is this emission that is directly linked to Global warming, although there is no universal conformity, in regards to this matter.

While burning, fossil fuels release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This causes a so-called greenhouse effect, when suns energy does not get reflected back into the space, but gets trapped by underneath the layer of greenhouse gases. This leads to Earth atmosphere being excessively heated up. In its turn, this will eventually affect the lives of people. My personal standing, in regards to this issue, is that the causes and effects of Global warming are still need to be studied, in order to be able to figure out what would be the most effective solution. Still, it appears to be doubtful that such solution can be found, under the set of present socio-political circumstances in the world.

Exploitation of fossil fuels comes as the result of humanity's increased demand in energy. According to the laws of Physics, energy never disappears but changes its form. After having produced some work, energy transforms into the heat. This is nothing but the form of entropy. In its turn, entropy is the absence of order; therefore entropy can only affect us negatively. Global warming is one of the effects of an increased amount of entropy in our world.

This is why we cannot talk about this problem out of sociological context. It does not take a scientist to understand that the problem of Global warming is closely related to the problem of overpopulation. More and more people require energy to sustain their existence, while producing ever larger amounts of entropy. Paul Thompson in his article The Effects of Global Warming points out to the link between Global warming and overpopulation: The industrial revolution caused a rapid increase in the Population growth, as oil and gas fuels were exploited for our use. There is a clear link between the problems of global warming and overpopulation, as increases in CO 2 levels follows growth in population.

Presently, we have too many people on Earth, who are using technologies that are destructive for the Earth. We cannot continue to grow, and make use of limited natural resources (Thompson). Therefore, it appears that our attempts to decrease the amounts of carbon dioxide that is being thrown into the atmosphere can never be truly effective, unless we find a way to effectively deal with the problem of overpopulation. We talk about Global warming as the potential threat to very existence of human civilization. However, if we adopt a logical approach, while discussing this issue, it will appear that the solution to how decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the air might very well be the Global warming itself. This is because it might trigger the ecological catastrophe, which is going to help solving the problem of overpopulation.

Every time, when population of rabbits in tundra grows too large, it results in boosting up birth rate among foxes. This is because the nature is based on the principle of maintaining ecological balance. We think of the value of human life as something un disputable, while nature might have a different opinion about it. Therefore, Global warming can be viewed as natures response to peoples threat to the environment. This point of view should not be confused with Bible thumper's thesis that Global warming is nothing but Gods punishment for wicked humanity. Nevertheless, some of them do make a good point, while criticizing environmental initiatives.

One of such people is John Dunn, who in his article A Necessary Apocalypse made some good observations about the true motivations of environmentalists to raise public awareness about the problem of Global warming: The environmentalist movement has staked everything on this program (Prevention of Global Warming). Not for the sake of science; most of the science is wrong or fabricated. Not for humanity; they have never cared for humanity. Not to alter the climate itself; no such program has been suggested, and in any case the earth's climate, an unstable planet-wide chaotic system, will go its own way no matter what we do. But for one reason: to make environmentalism a basic element of millennial society (Dunn). The main fallacy of environmentalists is that they really do believe that it is possible for the people of every nation to unite their efforts, in order to fight Global warming.

They fail to understand that the majority of people will never be able share their global concerns, because there are no Starbucks coffee shops in the countries of Third World, where Global warming can be discussed, while drinking organic coffee. Environmentalists do not know what it means to only make 1 - 2 dollars a day, while having to support as many as 7 - 10 children. According to Kyoto Protocol, many developing countries that have ratified it, are going to receive a financial compensation from the developed countries, because their part in producing carbon dioxide is negligent. This was only the reason why leaders of countries like Somalia or Ethiopia signed the Kyoto Protocol, in the first place. We cannot talk about humanity as whole, because people are deeply divided along racial, religious and cultural lines. The revolutionary climatic changes usually accompany evolutionary breakthroughs.

For example, the end of the Ice Age coincided with emergence of modern man. Most of biologists agree that humans had descended from apes. Is this is the true; than we can suggest that the modern man is not the final product of evolution. It might very well be that we are only the intermediate link between man and super-man.

Therefore, Global warming might not necessarily be the result of humans industrial activity, but rather a necessary precondition for the emergence of new specie. (2) The problem of Global warming is too vague and complicated for the opinions of one person to have any practical applications. As it has been mentioned earlier, this issue is not being thoroughly studied yet. Basically, we are simply observing a trend in Earth climate to get warmer, as time passes by. However, it has not been hundred percent proven that this comes as the result of human activity, although that such explanation is the most likely one. Still, it goes without saying that our consumption of fossil fuels must be decreased, because of even more banal reason. According to various estimates, the Earth discovered reserves of oil will only last for 50 - 60 years, if consumption level remains the same.

Therefore, we will need to find an alternative fuel. It would kill two rabbits at the same time. Using alternative fuel would drastically reduce the amount of CO 2 emission into the atmosphere and would also enable people to maintain their present standards of living. Nevertheless, it is much easier said than done. And it is not the scientists that are unable to discover the formula for such fuel, but large oil corporations that do not want to have their energy monopoly to be challenged. Russell Hasan in his article The Price of Oil: $ 500 /bbl in 2030?

says: Big Oil is the main force that opposes these alternatives. It has been shown that lobbying by special interest groups funded by oil, coal, and nuclear are attacking the wind power industry, and many suspect that the fossil fuels lobby is also responsible for much of the opposition to alternative fuels. The oil industry posts billion dollar profits every year, they would like to prevent alternative fuels from competing with their main product, gasoline, and they have the money and the lobbyists to exert political influence against renewable fuels (Hasan). Another hypothetical application of my opinion, in regard to the issue of Global warming, would be applying pressure on governments of different countries to assign an additional funds for studying this problem.

U. N. spends millions of dollars every year on various non-essential programs, such as increasing the literacy level among people of Africa or combating the world hunger. As result, the problem of world hunger becomes even more acute, while literacy level among Africans continues to sink. It is important to understand that various humanitarian initiatives cannot have any real effect, because they are based on outdated code of ethic. In this world there is simply not enough room under the sun for all, therefore, only maintaining humanity's intellectual and technological potential should be considered as priority.

Instead of fighting world hunger the governments of developed countries need to be more concerned about keeping the staggering birth rate in Africa and Asia under control. As we have said earlier, Global warming is most likely to be the result of humanity's increased consumption of energy, which is directly related to the fact that population of Earth has doubled in the last hundred years. This is why, legalization of abortions and promotion of birth control might prove to be more effective, as the mean of keeping Global warming under control, than reduction of carbon dioxide emission into the air by 5 % during the course of next 10 years, as suggested by Kyoto Protocol. It is no surprise that United States and Australia are not in big rush to ratify this protocol, because there is simply too much uncertainty about it. They rightly consider environmental initiatives, on the part of countries of E. U. , as being politically motivated.

European countries are simply trying to undermine American domination in worlds economy. United States is the largest producer of CO 2, therefore, without this country ratifying Kyoto Protocol; it will not have any considerable effect. In fact, it is the large transnational corporations that are responsible for the bulk of carbon dioxide emission. Their influence on politics is far greater than the governments of different nations could ever dream to exercise.

Yet, these corporations cannot be officially invited to sign Kyoto Protocol, because people in many countries will realize that their own governments do not control national economy. John Vidal illustrates this fact in his article CO 2 Output from Shipping Twice as Much as Airlines: The figures from the oil giant BP, which owns 50 tankers, and researchers at the Institute for Physics and Atmosphere in Wrestling, Germany reveal that annual emissions from commercial shipping range between 600 and 800 m tonnes of carbon dioxide, or up to 5 % of the global total. This is nearly double...

Research essay sample on Climate Change And Global Warming Part 1