Abstract
This paper delves into the issue of global warming and attempts to showcase its origins, its impact, and what can be done to potentially resolve it through a viable solution that would work.
Introduction
In the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore presents viewers with the results of human activity on the planet. He shows how storms are getting stronger, droughts are getting longer and dryer and, as a result of humanity’s unmitigated use of fossil fuel resources, the Earth is supposedly getting hotter resulting in global warming which has severe ramifications for the future of humanity. He explains that it is within the past 70 years that humanity’s expansion and consumption has reached a critical point resulting in the slow decline of the planet’s natural ability to replenish resources. It is with this view in mind that this paper will delve into the issue of global warming and its impact on the planet.
The rapid expansion of the global population following the 1960s resulted in humanity consuming more resources than the planet could replenish, resulting in the present-day conditions wherein 6.8 billion people are consuming the equivalent of 1.4 Earth’s. This phenomenon described as an “ecological overshoot” can be seen in the rapid degree of deforestation in various countries around the world, the rampant overpopulation in developing and Third World countries as well as the sheer amount of pollution currently in the planet’s ecological system (Newman, 2014). Such activity has consequences which have affected weather and climate patterns to such a degree that it has caused artificial climate changed resulting in an increasingly hot atmosphere due to the accumulation of pollutants such as C02 in the air as a result of cars and fossil fuel burning power plants.
Various scientists have stated that a grim future for humanity is expected based on accelerating conditions wherein farmlands have turned into deserts, freshwater is nonexistent, the climate is hellish, and natural disasters abound as a result of the ill-advised nature of the voracious human exploitation of the planet’s resources. Insights gained from various academic journals reveal that the main reason behind global warming, which threatens the very future of the planet is the rampant overpopulation of humanity, which threatens to drain the resources of the planet.
It is revealed that as the population of humanity grows so too does the strain the human species places on the planet. This strain can be seen in the increased consumption of water which has drained underground water reservoirs; formerly lush plains turned into arid deserts and the very sky itself filled with CO2 gases as a result of humanity’s rampant consumption of fossil fuel-based products and resources (Newman, 2014). It is based on these factors that this paper will delve into the various factors that prove the existence of global warming and will attempt to create a method by which such a problem can be addressed feasibly.
Methodology
This section aims to provide information on how the study will be conducted and the rationale behind employing the discussed methodologies and techniques towards augmenting the study’s validity. Due to the nature of this study, the research shall be based on an extensive review of literature and case studies. Once all of these have been examined and collated, several recommendations shall be made. Data will be collected from existing research materials and eventually synthesized and evaluated
What is Qualitative Research?
In the book “Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation” explains that qualitative research is a type of exploratory research in that it tries to examine and explain particular aspects of a scenario through an in-depth method of examination. While it applies to numerous disciplines, it is normally applied to instances which attempt to explain human behaviour and the varying factors that influence and govern such behaviours into forming what they are at present.
Thus, it can be stated that qualitative research focuses more on exploring various aspects of an issue, developing an understanding of phenomena within an appropriate context, and answering questions inherent to the issue being examined. This makes it an ideal research method to be utilized in this study since it would enable the researcher to examine the variables that would prove the existence of global warming. Moreover, a qualitative research approach is used to understand a particular phenomenon to discover the innermost meaning. In this case, the hope is to understand the development of global warming and what can be done to prevent it in the future hopefully.
Document Analysis
Despite the effectiveness of an interview-based analysis via subject matter experts, this study chooses to rely almost entirely on document analysis due to current time constraints. A research study that relies almost entirely on academic literature without other methods of external data collection runs the risk of being confined primarily to the results exhibited by the research studies utilized. This can result in a study that is severely constrained in terms of the number of factors that it is capable of encompassing especially in situations where the research subject that is being examined is focused on a narrowly specific topic. On the other hand, relying purely on academic literature to investigate a particular study does have its advantages since it reduces the amount of time need during the initial stages of preliminary research and enables the research to more effectively justify the results presented by indicating that they had already been verified by previous researchers. It is based on this that this research project will primarily focus on document-based research as the method of examination to prove the existence of global warming
Study Limitations
The primary limitation of this study is that it relies on document-based research as the source for all the information and views that will be presented. The use of other methods of research and analysis such as a survey, narrative analysis, or other forms of research will be eschewed in favour of focusing entirely on the collected data and results of other researchers. Document-based methods of analysis primarily concern itself with an examination of various academic texts to conclude a particular topic. While each method of analysis does have its level of strengths such as in the case of a narrative analysis that enables a researcher to utilize learning and adaptation approaches in order to examine various types of data, it should be noted that a document analysis is far easier to do and has a higher degree of academic veracity as compared to narrative-based research which can often result in mistaken conclusions.
As this research is based on secondary sources, the available data may limit the findings from this and, as already stated that the study is based on the current situation in Russia, its findings may only be valid for a limited time. Another limitation associated with the use of secondary sources is the likelihood of the sources not meeting the researcher’s specific needs as in most cases, the information and data from secondary sources are not presented in a way which meets the researcher’s needs. In this case, the researcher is required to classify the data, which may be a cumbersome process. Lastly, compared to primary sources, secondary sources are not self-governed and controlled by the researcher. This compels the researcher to scrutinize the data source and its content closely. To address this limitation, the researcher will undertake sufficient steps to evaluate the validity and reliability of the provided information critically.
Results of the Examination
The Problem of Overpopulation and its Connection to Global Warming
The inherent problem with the concept of overpopulation is the fact that the finite resources available on Earth cannot hope to support the potentially infinite expansion of humanity. The Earth itself is a closed-off ecosystem with no resources entering into it, as such, its surface can only support a certain population of species, both human and animal alike before the ecosystem inevitably collapses in on itself as a result of a severe strain on the planet’s natural and ecological resources. Nature itself has a certain system of prevention in place that prevents populations from growing beyond their means due to the predator and prey dynamic (Long, Xie, Zheng, & Liu, 2014).
Humanity, which long ago evolved to be the dominant species on the planet, does not have an imposed system of control placed upon it by natural forces and as a result, can expand exponentially due to this apparent freedom. It is this exponential expansion that this report believes is at the heart of today’s problem involving global warming. While there are initiatives towards conservation and the use of renewable energy resources through the energy transition, the fact remains that such initiatives will become useless in the face of a growing human population that has already exceeded how the Earth can support it.
Environmental Changes and Human Diseases
When examining the evolution and spread of diseases what must be understood is that all diseases mutate and spread within a set environmental context with specific impacts to the environment caused by human activity also has a way of changing the way diseases spread and evolve. For example, diseases rely on insects as carriers to spread from one location to the next, with the current issue of global warming and habitation alteration affecting many natural environments this has in effect changed how certain insects proliferate in the natural world. The mosquito, for example, has thrived as of late as a direct result of the current changes inhabitations and global weather patterns, this has resulted in an increased area of effect of certain mosquito populations wherein the range of disease-carrying mosquitoes has grown to encompass increasingly larger landmasses (Long, Xie, Zheng, & Liu, 2014).
With this increased range comes the issue of certain diseases traveling outside of areas from which they were previously confined. For example, people in various temperate regions of the world are increasingly finding themselves beset by various types of diseases that were historically confined to tropical climates and environments however due to the increased range of mosquito populations these diseases have now been brought into new environments that have little resistance to these new diseases. Malaria, for example, has spread to various regions of the globe with increasingly virulent and treatment-resistant strains as a direct result of its prevalence and spreadability in certain population centers diseases.
Even dengue fever that was previously isolated to South East Asia has found its way into the U.S., causing widespread cases in populations that have little experience in dealing with this particular type of disease. What must be understood is the fact that with diseases spreading from where they were previously confined comes the possibility of new strains developing as a direct result of being introduced to populations that have had little resistance to the disease itself (Long, Xie, Zheng, & Liu, 2014). Virus strains evolve as a direct result of environmental and carrier characteristics wherein the environment acts as a method of control, and carriers act as a means of transmission. With global warming creating better conditions for diseases to thrive, this has resulted in a literal explosion of new virus strains that have impacted animal and human populations alike.
In most cases diseases find themselves in environments that have a distinct level of control as well as carriers that have a certain degree of resistance, this acts as a stopgap measure in preventing the disease from evolving beyond a certain capacity. However, with global warming facilitating the development of conditions where diseases can multiply unabated, this has created a worrying trend in the spread of diseases that used to be contained due to the climate of their natural environment.
Case Example of Global Warming: The Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades is one of the last bastions of nature left in the U.S. where human progress has pushed plants and animals alike to the fringes of human civilization. It is the largest of the remaining subtropical environments left within the country consisting of 10,000 tiny islands, various rivers, lakes, streams, prairies, forests as well as a plethora of plant and animal life. It can be said that the Everglades is a type of microcosm of the various environments seen around the world due to the varied environments contained within a location that is roughly 1.5 million acres in size (Smith & Leiserowitz, 2012). Based on current studies, the Everglades at any given time is home to up to 150 species of trees, 40 species of various mammals, various reptiles and amphibians as well as a host of innumerable insect life.
Unfortunately, due to increasing temperatures (i.e., Global Warming), the Everglades and its surrounding areas have been adversely affected, resulting in its slow deterioration. Previous studies examining the Everglades reveal that originally the Everglades covered 1/3 of Florida’s landmass and its main river was 110 miles long. Presently, the Everglades only covers an area of roughly 1.5 million acres, and the river is only 70 miles long (Smith & Leiserowitz, 2012). The reason behind this was connected to rising temperatures, which slowly reduced the amount of water within the region to its present state.
Combined with the various home owned and corporate farms within the area, this has resulted in the depletion of water faster than the river can replenish itself with. The result is slow deterioration of the marshlands, which continued to shrink the Everglades every year. It has been estimated that if nothing is done within the immediate future, the Everglades will disappear by 2035 or 2050 as global warming shrinks the natural resources available within the immediate area (Smith & Leiserowitz, 2012).
Global Warming and Ecosystems
Ecosystems in general act as filters so to speak of the environment, various cities in China, Japan, the U.S., and the Philippines include certain ecosystems into city planning documents since such systems act as “lungs” for the city. With the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air as a result of human activities, there is a definite need to help resolve this issue by continuing to develop and expand present-day ecosystems to control the excess levels of CO2. Ecosystems that have been degraded by human activity need to be restored to their former glory lest humanity pays the price for such actions (Back, Russ, Liu, Inoue, Zhang & Otto-Bliesner, 2013).
Evidence of landslides in China, the Philippines, and several South American countries show the result of unmitigated environmental deterioration. Several ecosystems within those areas had the function of acting as reservoirs for rainwater and to keep the ground stable (Tranter, 2013). Once they disappeared, there was nothing to hinder the water from eroding the surrounding land and cause landslides. Such occurrences are, but a small example of what can happen should damaged ecosystems be left in their current state. In terms of who should pay for the reconstruction of ecosystems, local and national governments should be the ones to take care of it using taxes to help revive dead or dying ecosystems within a general area.
What must first be understood is that population density, as well as the industrial infrastructure within a given country, directly affect the consumption of electricity. The greater the population density within a country, the higher the likelihood is of larger factory complexes existing in a certain area which directly contributes to the rising rate in energy consumption. Unfortunately, the largest suppliers of energy in most countries have been fossil fuel power plants. They have been a reliable and proven form of energy production; however, the sheer amount of carbon dioxide emissions that have been linked to their usage are cited as being one of the primary causes of global warming.
With energy consumption expected to increase within the coming decades, this would require countries to supplement their current energy infrastructure. The inherent problem with this is that the fuel source of the most widely used type of power plant is oil and coal, which are finite resources. As energy demands grow so too will the demand for such resources, the inherent problem with this is that the price of finite resources continues to increase over time as demand grows (Tranter, 2013). There will eventually come a time where the world will have to deal with the dwindling supply of fossil fuels and the after-effects they cause on the environment (Tranter, 2013). Based on this, it can be expected that a shift will start wherein global governments will start to pour resources into renewable energy technologies to supplement their energy infrastructure. What this means for the global economy is the start of a trend leaning towards recycling and environmental stewardship creating new product markets that specialize solely in environmentally sustainable goods and practices.
Discussion
Environmental Issues
The inherent problem in utilizing fossil fuel-burning power plants is the resulting carbon dioxide waste that gets expelled into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. It must be noted that increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere especially in areas where there are few natural ways for the resulting gases to be absorbed results in significant accumulation in the air for quite some time which has the potential to cause various respiratory diseases. China which possesses one of the world’s most extensive power grids which utilizes dozens of fossil fuel burning power plants has seen a rise in respiratory diseases as the amount of smog in the air continues to accumulate.
In the figure above, an examination of the current amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere by 2010 reveals that billions of metric tons of carbon emission gas were released by various sources into the atmosphere. This number is a combination of both emissions from motor vehicles as well as those coming from fossil fuel burning power plants. This contributes significantly to the rising temperatures around the world and can be stated as the primary contributor to global warming.
Based on current estimates of the amount of energy needed by the world within the next 5 to 10 years or so, it can be expected that the number of carbon emissions in the atmosphere will increase as a result if the world compensates for this need by creating more fossil fuel-burning power plants. One possible solution to such an issue is the use of solar and wind turbine facilities which have next to no carbon footprint due to the fact they do not produce any CO2 emissions.
Examining the Use of Alternative Energy Sources as a Solution to Global Warming
The main issue with renewable energy resources is that they are as of yet an unreliable form of main energy generation. There are three reasons behind this: renewable energy resources from a commercial energy standpoint are as of yet an unproven method of reliable energy production, the means by which renewable energy is produced requires a high initial startup cot and finally in terms of overall reliability only geothermal plants or hydroelectric dams are the only proven reliable sources of renewable energy both of which cannot be used just yet due to the overall lack of the necessary areas actually to create them.
Commercially speaking, when comparing fossil fuel-burning power plants to either solar-powered arrays or wind turbines, most energy producers would choose to construct a fossil fuel burning plant rather than a renewable energy production site. The reasoning behind this is simple: fossil fuel power plants require less space and produce more power compared to solar or wind-generated energy sources. To prove this point, the example of Egypt and its attempt at utilizing renewable energy resources should prove to be an adequate example. In its attempt to expand into the renewable energy industry to supply energy-starved populace with more electricity, Egypt introduced both solar and wind energy into its electricity-producing infrastructure.
The result was the wind turbine installations in the Red Sea producing only 230 MW while the solar energy array only produced 30 MW. When taking into consideration the fact that Egypt requires 36GW within the next ten years to keep up with demand indicates that renewable energy resources currently do not have the needed capacity to keep up with an ever-increasing demand for electricity. It is based on this that when it comes to addressing the issue of global warming, renewable energy sources may seem to be a viable solution; however until they become economically feasible, it is doubtful that it can be implemented as a replacement for fossil fuel-based power plants.
Nuclear power plants as the only economically viable large-scale alternative for electricity production
A shift toward the production of electricity through nuclear fuel presents itself as a viable method of saving a large amount of the oil and, as a result, would help to resolve the issue of global warming. An examination of local power plants in various countries reveals that on average the five main power stations in the country can produce 13.1 GW of electricity for consumption, this is based on data gathered in 2008 and does not take into account subsequent changes made to increase power output. Based on the gathered data, nuclear power plants (NPP) would be a viable option to consider as a means of expanding the current energy-producing capabilities of the world. Not only can NPP’s produce the amount of electricity needed they can do so at a fraction of the cost associated with fossil fuel burning plants. On average a single fossil fuel power plant can go through several thousand barrels of oil in a single day, NPPs, on the other hand, use nuclear fuel rods which can last several years and are relatively inexpensive when compared to the cost of oil. Taking this into consideration, a shift towards nuclear energy production would help in resolving the issue of global warming.
Conclusion
Based on the information presented, it can be seen that the current growth of the human population is unsustainable in the long run due to the finite resources on the planet. As a result, the issue of global warming, which is currently facing humanity will only get worse if nothing is done to prevent human overconsumption and ecological abuse from permanently disrupting Earth’s natural ecosystem. The main problem is not humanity’s overconsumption but rather the size of the population that has lead to overconsumption. The problems that Al Gore states earlier on in this paper can never be truly overcome so long as overpopulation persists. If true change is to be established, what is needed is to reduce the problem of humanity’s burgeoning population, which would result in the other problems taking care of themselves over time.
Overall, humanity can be compared to a swarm of locusts, consuming everything indiscriminately in its path and leaving nothing but ruin in its wake. This report says this because if current trends are not changed what will be left will be nothing more than a dry, empty shell of a planet with few exploitable resources and nothing more than a hellish environmental scenario for future generations. As such, to prevent this future from coming to pass one of the first initiatives that should be undertaken is a shift towards alternative energy resources in the form of nuclear power.
Reference List
Back, L., Russ, K., Liu, Z., Inoue, K., Zhang, J., & Otto-Bliesner, B. (2013). Global Hydrological Cycle Response to Rapid and Slow Global Warming. Journal Of Climate, 26(22), 8781-8786.
Long, S., Xie, S., Zheng, X., & Liu, Q. (2014). Fast and Slow Responses to Global Warming: Sea Surface Temperature and Precipitation Patterns. Journal Of Climate, 27(1), 285-299.
Newman, A. (2014). Global-warming Alarmists Double Down After Devastating 2013. New American (08856540), 30(3), 17.
Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). The Rise of Global Warming Skepticism: Exploring Affective Image Associations in the United States Over Time. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 32(6), 1021-1032.
Tranter, B. (2013). The Great Divide: Political Candidate and Voter Polarisation over Global Warming in Australia. Australian Journal Of Politics & History, 59(3), 397-413.