Abstract
Global warming is a process of increase of the temperature of Earth's atmosphere and global ocean. Scientists have identified: uncontrolled emissions and other irresponsible human behavior has caused the steady climate change that could alter the planet completely. Governments and peoples of the developed countries of the world have recognized the danger of a global catastrophe.
The aim of this work is the disclosure of the problems of global warming, the explanation of the causes of global warming, its characteristic features in particular regions and the effects which may be dangerous for humanity in a not far future, a description of the different models of climate change, as well as the complex of measures that can reduce or prevent negative consequences. Global warming is an issue concerning every inhabitant of our planet, so each of us must make a contribution to its solution.
The climate systems vary in the result of natural internal processes or in response to external boosters, while geological data show the presence of long-term climate cycles that take the form of glaciations. The reasons for such climatic changes remain unknown but among the main external factors are changes in the Earth's orbit, solar activity, volcanic emissions, and the greenhouse effect (“Causes of Climate Change”). According to the direct climate observations, the average temperatures on Earth have risen, but the reasons for this increase are still a subject of debate, but one of the most widely discussed is the greenhouse effect.
Long-term observations show that in the result of economic activity, the composition of the gas and dust content of the lower layers of the atmosphere changes. With the increase concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, the greenhouse effect is related, which results in the heating of the internal layers of the Earth's atmosphere. This occurs because the atmosphere transmits the larger half of solar radiation. The part of the rays is absorbed and heats the earth's surface, while the atmosphere is heated from it. Another part of the rays is reflected from the surface of the planet, and this radiation is absorbed by the molecules of carbon dioxide, thereby increasing the average temperature of the planet. The main greenhouse gasses on Earth are water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and ozone. Nearly half of all greenhouse gasses emitted by mankind remained in the atmosphere. About three-quarters of all emissions of greenhouse gasses over the past 20 years have been caused by the use of oil, natural gas, and coal. Most of the rest emissions have been caused by the landscape changes, primarily deforestation. The fact that the observed warming is more visible in winter than in summer; at night than during the day; at high latitudes than in medium and low, indicates the favor of this theory (“A blanket around the Earth”).
Global warming does not necessarily mean warming everywhere and at any time. In particular, in some areas the average summer temperature can increase and the average temperature of the winter decrease, that is, the climate will become more continental (IPCC, 2007). One of the most visible processes related to global warming is the melting of glaciers in the Arctic. The assessment of the role of Arctic in the formation of global change should take into account the interaction of the following factors: the flora and fauna and the global cycle of carbon dioxide, permafrost, snow cover and glaciers, coastal processes, ocean circulation and structure of seabed water, dynamics, heat balance and composition of the atmosphere, solar and geomagnetic effects. Today, for the first time in a hundred thousand years, people are on the verge of that, the Arctic could be free of sea ice. This could happen as early as 2017, said Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge. Wadhams’ study is based on satellite data from the United States. From this data follows, that over the past 30 years, the sea ice area in the Arctic has decreased by 1.5 million square kilometers. As a result of these processes, as suggested by Professor Wadhams, the central Arctic, and the North Pole will become completely free from sea ice. This, in turn, may lead to the Earth’ warming by 0.6 degrees (Johnston, 2016).
Australian scientists have found that a gradual increase in the water level in the Pacific Ocean has led to the fact that for the past 70 years, five small islands belonging to the Solomon Islands, have disappeared from the face of the Earth. Another six islands in the same period plunged into the water at 20-62 percent. Such information was coming from people living in this region before. In one of the six drowning islands 25 households live, that since 2011 had observed how 11 houses went under water. Gradual drawning of the Solomon Islands in the depths of the Pacific, in particular, creates a threat to some rare animals, including several species of sea turtles and birds. In their report, published in the "Environmental Research Letters" scientists say that even if the temperature on Earth stops growing every year, the global sea level will still continue to grow as a balance, which in the past allowed the glaciers not melting, is already broken (Albert et al, 2016). This means that even under the most optimistic scenario in the foreseeable future, the water will rise up to tens of centimeters. To prevent more catastrophic scenarios, oceanographers call for even more careful consideration of the problem of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Thus, global warming affected the health of people, convenience, and their way of life, food production, living species found on the islands, the nature of resettlement and migration. Within a few years, the people of the Solomon Islands would be at risk of being in a strange and frightening world, in which the threat of devastating epidemics caused by out-of-control infections, will hang over humanity.
Experts believe that this event is an alarm bell for both the archipelago, as well as for a number of coastal cities in different parts of the world. Scientists from the universities of Queensland and Tasmania have estimated that the sea level in the area of Solomon Islands due to global warming and strengthening winds in the past twenty years was rising for about 7 millimeters per year. The average increase in water level in the global ocean makes up about 3 millimeters a year, but, as expected by the end of this century, this figure will reach 7 millimeters per year. Sea level rise and more intense tropical cyclones would force thousands of people to leave their places and move away from the sea shore.
As a result of the projected changes in the earth's climate, the introduction of new technologies and techniques to ensure human activity is required. Today scientists predict global warming and its development, mainly with the help of computer models, based on the collected data on temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and much more. Of course, the accuracy of such predictions is poor and usually does not exceed 50%. Also, ultra-deep drilling of glaciers are used to retrieve data, and sometimes samples are taken from a depth of 3000 meters. This ancient ice keeps the information on temperature, solar activity, the intensity of the magnetic field of the Earth at that time. The information is used for comparison with the indicators of the present time. Organizations and agencies in almost all countries of the world, as well as international organizations such as the UN, UNESCO, WHO, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Weather Watch (WWW), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Charter for Nature, etc. are dealing with the issue of global warming. International non-governmental organizations also play a major role (Green Peace). Such a broad public and international resonance allowed to draw attention to this problem from both the governments of different countries and the entire population of the Earth.
The greenhouse problem can finally be solved thanks to the achievements of scientists from around the world. To combat global warming, new ways of geoengineering are being widely discussed – for example, spraying a mixture of sulfates with water in the sky, so that it would reflect sunlight (which reminds the cooling caused by the eruption of volcanoes). However, scientists from Harvard offered a more environmentally friendly composition of the mixture – the dust of the nano-sized particles of diamonds or aluminum oxide (Extance, 2015). Meanwhile, scientists from the United States and France have found that the production of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing using the injection of carbon dioxide instead of water in the target formation may contribute to the reduction of growth rates of global warming. Scientists have made such conclusions after a computer and statistical modeling, in which they simulated the conditions of shale gas extraction using fracturing employing various types of substances.
According to the new idea published in “Science Advances” by the researchers from the University of Geneva, the climatic situation in the world can be saved by using cloud compacting. The researchers were able to achieve the desired result with a laser in the laboratory. The particle size of the ice in the clouds directly affects their reflectivity. Thus, the smaller the size of the ice particles in clouds, the more sunlight they can reflect back into space, which would be beneficial for the climate of the planet and help in the fight against global warming (Matthews et al, 2016).
The problem of historical and current climate change proved to be very complex and cannot find solutions in schemes of unilabiate determinism. Along with the increase of carbon dioxide concentration, changes in ozonosphere associated with the evolution of the geomagnetic field, play an important role. Development and testing of new hypotheses are the necessary conditions of understanding the laws of the general circulation of the atmosphere and other geophysical processes affecting the biosphere. That is, at the combined effect of a number of negative factors, the probability of all the consequences increases, the nature, and extent of their influence vary.
It is possible that the warming has a partly natural character, however, nevertheless human beings yet made the largest “contribution” to it for a long period of time. Global sea level rise occurs rapidly, while at the same time, global warming will be accompanied by an increase in evaporation from the surface of oceans and climate humidification, which can be seen on the paleogeographic evidence.
Works Cited
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