Global warming is called the phenomenon of gradual increase in temperatures experienced during the last century on Earth.
In this sense, according to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the average temperature of the planet increased around 0.75 °C throughout the 20th century, and the projections of increase for the 21st century are around 2 °C and 4 °C.
Causes of global warming
Some experts in the field explain that the main cause of global warming is the activity of the human being. This has intensified in recent decades with the growth of the world’s population, leading to deforestation and an increasing dependence on fossil fuels.
It is precisely the burning of these fuels that has generated the emission of gases into the atmosphere that cause a greenhouse effect, that is, that the gases accumulate in the atmosphere, preventing the sun’s heat from bouncing off the earth’s surface and leaving to space.
However, other scholars of the subject indicate that this theory is completely wrong, because they ensure that climate change and global warming are natural phenomena and that efforts to reverse climate change will be useless. The climate as well as the variability in tropospheric temperature have changed many times since the origins of our planet.
The really worrying thing is that as a consequence of this (global warming), a series of natural processes and phenomena have been affected. Climate patterns are modified by affecting the meteorological parameters, which influences our lives and those of the animals and plants with which we share the planet.
Consequences of global warming
Some of the most obvious consequences of global warming, in this sense, are:
- the drought
- desertification,
- the thaw (at the poles and glaciers),
- the increase in the level of ocean waters,
- the change in rainfall patterns, among others.
All this, of course, brings with it significant changes in the life forms of the planet, such as the decrease in biodiversity due to the extinction of animal and plant species, or loss of the agricultural production capacity of the human being, which would put at risk the food security of the population, among other things.
In the not too distant future this problem can lead to serious problems for all living beings on planet Earth, since not allowing the sun’s rays to come out after bouncing on the ground will cause temperatures to gradually increase, which can cause melting. of the glaciers of planet Earth, leading to the flooding of a large part of the cities of the world, ending the possibilities of many species including human beings.
Global warming and climate change
We must not confuse global warming with climate change. The climate change refers to the phenomenon of modification average temperatures, whether it be heating, cooling well, which periodically undergoes planet Earth.
For its part, global warming is a consequence of the greenhouse effect, which in turn leads to the increase in the temperatures of the Earth’s climate system. In this sense, global warming is part of climate change only when it is related to the process of global warming.
Climate change prevention
There are several possibilities or ways of action that current students of the subject handle, which seek to prevent or manage the global warming situation, within which we can name the following:
- Mitigation refers to the reduction of the magnitude of future climate change, and it is one that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
- Adaptation, another response includes the adaptation of human beings as well as the infrastructure and way of life to climate change, which is not yet feasible, due to the little importance that this thesis gives to greenhouse gases that At some point, any system and the adaptive capacity of human beings can collapse.
- Climate engineering, also called geoengineering, is one that seeks deliberate climate modification, has been the subject of study by NASA. These techniques under investigation usually have to do with the categories of solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal, although some different strategies have also emerged.
