Essay: Climate Change

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Climate Change
The change of climate is the most significant threat to humanity in the 21st century. In particular, it is the primary cause of global warming, which makes the average temperature to rise tremendously. Some of the contributors to the change of climate are individuals’ activities, such as deforestation, and the emission of greenhouse gases, such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and carbon dioxide. For many years, people have been doing things without minding their future consequences. Currently, many individuals can attest that the climate has changed due to various disasters, such as high rainfall, flooding, and drought, experienced in different parts of the world. Although some of these problems were there in the past, their likelihood of occurrence was minimal as compared to today. For this reason, climate change makes the planet inhabitable for people and other animals, which is the reason why it threatens human existence in the future.
Humans have been performing a significant geophysical experiment on the planet, which poses adverse consequences. Stephen Schneider (1989) argues that climate change started from the industrial revolution. People have been more focused on manufacturing many commodities without paying attention to the impacts of production processes on the environment. People have increased the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 25% through burning fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, emitting greenhouse gases, and clearing forests (Schneider 70). For instance, as the world population continues to increase, individuals search for ways to get space and shelter, which are life necessities. As such, they harvest trees to get enough space for building their shelters without planting others. Since trees act as carbon sinks, when they are reduced, the amount of greenhouse gases in the air rises. Notably, they use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and release oxygen, which is used by animals.
Climate change facilitates the alterations of the environment and ecosystems, which affect plants and animals adversely. For instance, the increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in the air causes a greenhouse effect. Despite the gas being transparent, it absorbs the longer-wavelength of infrared radiation from the earth. In other words, carbon dioxide forms a layer like a blanket that blocks the warm air from rising. On that note, the earth’s temperature increases, resulting in a high rate of precipitation. In a few decades to come, if no action is implemented to reverse the situation, the environmental changes caused by global warming will lead to detrimental and irreversible consequences. The rapid changes will make it hard for numerous species to adapt, which might cause widespread extinctions (McNutt 435). As the ecosystems in which plants and animals depend on to live collapse, many organisms will die. For example, the loss of ocean productivity will cause ...