Global Warming: The Global Interactive Debate Corner
So You think that Global Warming will notbecome a major threat to Earth?
However we think that
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Argument For Global Warming Being A Major Threat To Earth
GRAPH 1 According to climate models, if the level of greenhouse gases is increasing at the rate of their present emissions, by the year 2100, the increase in the global mean temperature of 2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit, the fastest such rise in the last 10,000 years (Robert T. Watson, "Is Man-Made Global Warming a Proven Threat? Yes: It Bodes Ill for Health, Agriculture, and Biodiversity," Insight, September 4 1995). However, before accepting these predictions, one might question the accuracy of the climate models. True, they may have some flaws in them but over the years, improvements have been made to them and since then, the models have become more accurate. Besides, their capability had been successfully tested when the climate models predicted the effects after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. At first, it seems only to be a slight shift on the temperature scale, but this slight shift is more deadly than one could have ever imagined. In the human history, temperature changes on a much smaller scale had already doomed kingdoms, set off wars, forced people into exile and created new religions. To illustrate the aftermath of a more serious problem, let's take for instance, a 6 degrees Fahrenheit increase in the global average temperature, here are the likely scenarios predicted by climate models: 1) Raging hurricanes which have never been seen before and can kill millions at a go; extremely long and record-breaking heat waves; droughts that can drive Africa and the entire Indian subcontinent to mass starvation. 2) The entire polar ice sheets completely disintegrate, pushing the sea level to unprecedented height. As a result, major coastal cities like New York and Shanghai will find themselves in a whole new "underwater world". Not only that, low-lying islands will also completely disappear from the face of the Earth. If the islands are densely populated at the same time, the population will be forced to displace to nowhere. 3) Wildlife species will go extinct at a rate which is yet to be seen of. Usually, the average rate of natural extinction is very gradual, around 2 to 4.6 families of species per million years. However, with the rise in global temperatures, we may witness the extinction of 50 plant species alone in the next 100 years alone. 4) Dieback of forests would become very obvious, especially for the rainforest in the tropical regions. If the pace of destruction continues, all tropical rainforests would virtually become extinct by the end of this century. If the rainforests die out, rainfall in the Amazon region will drop by 25% and the dry season lengthens, destroying any chance of the forests ever returning.
GRAPH 2 5) Though the rising temperature probably only cause moderate decline in the global food production, most industrailised nations will be relatively unaffected. However, it is the developing nations that will be likely to face more starvation and malnutrition (shown by Graph 2) than before because most of the warming effect will concentrate on these regions. Higher temperatures tend to restrict crop growth, meaning less food for these poor nations. |
Furthermore, below are arguments of supporters of our stand.
So why do you think that Global Warming will not be a major threat to Earth?