The Word - The Global Warming Debate

Analysis

The Global Warming Debate

Hannah Stefanoff - December 10, 2009

Global Warming is a growing world issue that many people may not fully understand.

In the United States, and all around the world, global warming has become a growing issue, but certain things can be done to help slow it down. Whether or not global warming exists has also been a topic of debate for years.

Since global warming research began, the data gathered from many years has shown that global temperatures are rising. There have been numerous discoveries and earth changes to prove that global warming must be happening right before our eyes. The past fifty years have shown numerous effects of global warming.

In 1990 there was a documented temperature change in the first IPCC report. A temperature increase ranging from 0.3 to 0.6 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years from global warming was first reported in that year. The next big evidence showing the existence of global warming was the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) release of a 10-25 cm rise in sea levels over the past decade in the last major report in 2007.

Although there are efforts to help reduce global warming and even though it has been going on for years, global warming still seems to be accelerating. It seems as if global warming problems have been pushed aside since our country's economy has been in a problematic state.

Even if the country as a whole does not seem to be acting effectively on the environmental problems of the United States and world, there are things that individuals can do and hopefully it will take hold among the population.

There are some hybrid vehicles and electric cars that can reduce global emissions, but these can be very expensive. A less expensive way to help reduce pollutants is planting shrubs, trees, and plants. The plants help to capture carbon and other greenhouse gases and put more oxygen into the air.

There are many forms of energy that can be used to reduce global warming emissions. Solar, wind power, geothermal, and hydroelectric are among the alternative or renewable forms of energy.

The least expensive form of alternative energy is wind power. Wind is used to turn turbines and this helps to generate electricity. 2007 was the year when the United States really added to our amount of wind-powered energy. In 2007, .8% of total U.S. energy was generated from wind. The amount of energy produced by wind was raised by 45 percent in one year.

Geothermal energy is energy produced from the heat of earth. The heat produced from earth can be harnessed and be converted into energy in power plants. The power plants drill into rock where earth's crust is heated and capture steam.

Hydroelectric power can be expensive to produce because in most cases dams have to be built to produce it. When dams are built large generators are powered when a turbine gets turned from water flow. While the U.S. produced a percentage of its energy from hydroelectric dams there are countries that produce almost all of their energy from water. Paraguay and Norway produce over 90% of their energy this way.

Because of the other issues in the world it seems as if global warming issues have been pushed aside for years. The greenhouse effect has been known since 1824, but it was not until recently that people really started to fear the possible demise of our earth from the extreme fossil fuel usage. Many meetings, including the Copenhagen conference on December 7, have been set up to discuss these issues, but a large change has yet to be seen.