What Is Global Warming?

In this paper we will be doing a critique on National Geography’s article "What Is Global Warming?" National Geographic has been around for many years. There is not one author that wrote this article, but it is a collaboration from some of the world’s best scientists, photographers, journalist, and filmmakers. These articles are pro-science articles which means, “These sources consist of legitimate science or are evidence based through the use of credible scientific sourcing. Legitimate science follows the scientific method, is unbiased and does not use emotional words. These sources also respect the consensus of experts in the given scientific field and strive to publish peer reviewed science (Media Bias/ Fact Check, 2018).” I believe with the intense research done from the organization and the mass amounts of people involved they have high accounts of qualifications. They work to make the best scientific evaluation that gives no better reference to what is going on in the world today.

In this article we talk about what exactly global warming is and how greenhouse gases are affecting the climate, animal and plant life, geographic changes in landscapes, and how it is causing forests to die. As described in the article, “The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse (National Geographic, 2018).” The discovery of greenhouse effects has been noticed since 1824, from a scientist called Joseph Fourier when he discovered Earth would be colder if it had no atmosphere. Then in 1895, a Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered, “that humans could enhance greenhouse effects by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas (National Geographic, 2018).” Svante kick started 100 years of climate understanding allowing us to have sophisticated knowledge of global warming.

Levels of greenhouse gases (GHGS) have increased over the past few thousand years. Temperatures have been fairly consistent until recently. Humans have enhanced GHG by the burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. As the result, it caused climates to change differently in different areas, heating and cooling has become more random causing it to be unpredictable. This brings the question, aren’t temperature changes natural? As explained temperature changes are normal, but the increase in greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution has raise by more than a third. This is a concern because this causes climates to change more rapidly than some living things can adapt. The difference in global temperatures today from that of the ice age have increased by nine degrees Fahrenheit. Which has happened over thousands of years. With this increase the ice sheets we are starting to melt rapidly causing worse flooding increased water levels, and different migration patterns. So, as mercury rises the climate changes unexpectedly making weather more extreme. This will come with more intense storms, more rain with drier droughts, changes in environmental habitation, and loss of water supplies that have historically come from glaciers.

From my point of view the affect this has on the Earth is huge. In the last article I wrote regarding if pollution will end, I stress the importance of how greenhouse gases are damaging Earth today (Cook, 2018). It has been controversial for years to people that believe we have no eminent danger. I believe this article has done a great job outlining what effects GHG has on Earth. I believe if we look at the charts on the increase from where we were a few thousands of years ago to now the effects are self-explanatory. I believe that we have a great danger in front of us today. The biggest thing that threatens us is the political statute involving whether greenhouse gases are affecting the world. It is not a thing that most of the world care to recognize because people today are focused on threats they feel are more important like Space Force (Sending troops into space to learn about the galaxy and prepare for what is out there). We must first appreciate what we have before we can explore other possibilities because if we don’t, one day Earth could possibly be uninhabitable.

But if we look at the brief description of what global warming is from this article, we can see that there is a threat of having worse climate changes. Currently we have several places just in America that have undergone catastrophic events. For example, Hawaii had a volcano erupt destroying majority of the island, then not too long after the volcanic eruption was hit with two hurricanes. The hurricanes moved to Florida leveling cities on its way through the panhandle. These events have been from greenhouse gases. According to Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL, 2018), “Model-based climate change detection/attribution studies have linked increasing tropical Atlantic SSTs to increasing greenhouse gases, but proposed links between increasing greenhouse gases and hurricane PDI or frequency has been based on statistical correlations.” Now this is not just a coincidence that this is happening. If we look at the charts from Our World in Data, we can see what gases are being trapped in real-time. (Roser, n.d.).

This article like many other not only relates to my life, but the lives of everyone on this planet. Though people get caught up in their day to day lives we must understand that the world has been around longer than we have as a species. Understanding and respecting the world is important if we wish to have a future that involves humanity. Though I may not be involved in the next world extinction, we must still work together to help preserve the environment and live harmoniously with the Earth. This article speaks the truth of what is in store for us as a species if we don’t help reverse the effects we are causing on the Earth. These factors that come from greenhouse gases cause not only climate effects but bring pollution to the world like smog in urban areas. Places that were once beautiful are eroding faster, and sea levels rising are causing issues in the ocean. I believe more people should pay attention to articles like this and be educated on the effects we are having on Earth. Articles like this can give us the knowledge we need to become a better society with the planet that supports us.

There are many other articles out there that can explain why it is important to lower GHG effects on the Earth. We must take the time to become educated and understand our planet better. With knowledge comes power and with power we can help to make a change.

Works Cited

Cook, S. (2018, November 24). Will Pollution End Us? Retrieved from Furturism: https://futurism.media/will-pollution-end-us

GFDL. (2018, September 20). An Overview of Current Research Results. Retrieved from Global Warming and Hurricanes: https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes/

Media Bias/ Fact Check. (2018, November 22). National Geographic. Retrieved from The Most Comprehensive Media Bias Resource: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/national-geographic/

National Geographic. (2018, January 30). CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Retrieved from What Is Global Warming: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-overview/

Roser, H. R. (n.d.). CO₂ and other Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Retrieved from Our Worls in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions