The Causes and Results of Global Warming
Sharry Li
Our earth has been growing warmer during the last 100 years, and many problems have emerged. As a result, many institutes are conducting research on global warming.
Many Many research reports agree that there are three main causes of global warming. The first cause is transportation. Today, more and more modern vehicles are used, like cars and airplanes. They use oil and give out a lot of carbon dioxide because of burning fossil fuels. In addition, city gridlock is more serious than before with the population growing. People often still make their cars work during gridlock, so cars burn more oil and release carbon dioxide. The increasing carbon dioxide accummulates in the atmosphere and traps heat that normally would exit into outer space. As a result, the temperature of the global is rising. Secondly, deforestation is another cause of global warming. People cut down trees to make more furniture, build more houses and many more products. Moreover, forest burning often happens because of people’s activities and climate change. For example, some people boil food in the forest and leave before the fire is out, which can often result in fire. All of these issues can destroy forests and decrease the number of trees. The result is increasing carbon dioxide because less carbon dioxide can convert to oxygen. The last major cause is industrial development. More power plants are built to support the increasing use of technology and demands for better service. Power plants are the single largest carbon dioxide emitting sector in the U.S. economy. They account for 40% of U.S. emissions. They use more fossil fuels and send out more carbon dioxide, so the temperature is higher. Meanwhile, more electrical utilities are created and used because of technological development. For example, more buildings with air-conditioning, or more families with ‘smart’ facilities in kitchens and living rooms. They also need to use more electricity and fossil fuels, which causes more carbon dioxide to be emitted. According to all of the above, transportation, deforestation and industrial development are the chief three causes of global warming.
Many results occur with global warming. First, climate change is more obvious because we can feel it. There are more hurricanes because of the warmer climate, and they are stronger than before. Researches point out that hurricanes have doubled since the 1970's. At the same time, the sea level is rising because glaciers are melting. As a result, more intense storms and floods have been occurring more frequently than before. Secondly, Global warming is hurting our health. Heart problems are more common because higher temperature make the heart work harder. Higher temperatures also make people breathe with more difficultly. As a result, many people suffer illness of breath system. High temperatures can also cause infection, so mortality rate has been rising in recent years because of global warming. Thirdly, the effect of global warming on agriculture is great. High temperature increases the number of weeds and harmful insects, so the output of food drops every year. Lastly, global warming changes the natural environment, so lots of animals and plants become extinct because they can’t adapt to such changes. Maybe after many years, we will also suffer the environment like those animals and plants.
From above, we must take some methods to control global warming.