Abstract
Today, global warming is very serious and demands our immediate attention. Unfortunately, due to gradual climate change, not all people see the problem as one that requires intervention. Global warming caused by the greenhouse effect. This effect arises from the growth of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, which are greenhouse gases. These gases let the sun rays inside the atmosphere and detain them there, thus gradually heating the earth surface and the oceans. In fact, all life on earth and warm, are due to the greenhouse effect itself. Because thanks to it, our planet maintains the required temperature for our lives. However, due to harmful human activity, increasing emissions of these gases in the atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, pollution of surfaces and oceans, and others, this effect began to harm our planet. During the history, we were able to observe different climate changes. Even though, we do not feel its impact that much but for our planet it is enormous and our nature can not handle this problem alone. This requires the help from our side, for instance, development of renewable energy technologies, recycling, reduce excessive water use, etc.
The world needs our help and we need to do all that is possible to solve this problem. We need to spread knowledge and understanding of the problem among people, suggest possible ways to solve it. Quite often you can meet advertisement campaigns and seminars conducted for this purpose. It is up to us and our actions to influence the future of the planet.
People began to reflect on the problem of global warming since the early 2000s. Information on this issue is a lot, however, people do not take it seriously enough. This may be because climate and temperature changes were not that quick as we imagine it to be. People do not feel much pressure from this side that is why they do not pay much attention to this issue. However, even though we do not feel these changes, but for our planet, they are a super-fast. The reason of global warming is considered to be a Greenhouse effect. This means that annual temperature of the surface of the Earth’s atmosphere and the oceans increases, because of the rising concentration of the greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, etc.) (Shah, 2015). Those gases act as a Greenhouse, this is why the effect was called so. They are easily passing the sun rays into the atmosphere and trap heat inside it. Historical records show that at the beginning of the second millennium (11-13 century), a large part of Greenland was not covered with ice (that is why the Norwegian sailors dubbed it the "green land"). Then the Earth's climate became more severe, and Greenland become almost entirely covered with ice and the Thames in London used to freeze in the Middle Ages. A pretty rapid warming has begun since the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, by 1940, the number of ice in the Greenland Sea has decreased by half, in the Barents - almost a third. In 1940, there was a slight cold again, but since 1979 - the rapid growth of temperatures, which caused dramatic melting of glaciers (Shah, 2015). For the past 50 years, the thickness of Arctic ice has decreased by 40%. In general, we can observe the rise of the level of the oceans by an average of 10-20 centimeters, the decrease by 8% of the area of snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere and the increase of the average temperature of the surface layer of the atmosphere (by 0,3-0,8°C), over the last hundred years (Shah, 2015). Today there are many theories about the origin of the problem. The most popular is the human causes. Because of the intensification of human activity, as because of the development of different technologies, it has a significant impact on the nature generally and on the chemical composition of the atmosphere of our planet. To reduce the threat of global warming, we must first reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. We receive 75% of global energy, by burning of fossil fuels (Shah, 2015). With the rapid increase of number of on the planet the risk of further emissions increases too. However, the stabilization of CO in the atmosphere at a normal and safe level is still possible. For example, the further development of renewable energy technologies and greater use of renewable energy sources can decrease the greenhouse gas emissions by 60% to the safe level (Shah, 2015). Besides this issue, deforestation, pollution of the planet and seas, excessive water use and other problems also affect environmental degradation. The global environmental organization became active in the field of advertising, to increase awareness of the people on this issue. The most active are the creative giants such as the WWF, Greenpeace and NRDC. All of them draw people's attention to the seriousness of the problem and the fact that it is still possible to be corrected because we have to save the planet for the future generations.
References
Shah A. (2015). Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction. Global Issues. Retrieved from: <http://www.globalissues.org/article/233/climate-change-and-global-warming-introduction>
