Global warming has become the most pressing concern for humanity in the present day. How hot is it getting and how will this affect us?
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Climate change and global warming are the two most pressing concerns facing us in the modern day. In recent years, swathes of scientists, climate experts and activists have voiced severe warnings but lawmakers have only recently seriously taken heed. With internet and media sources making unreliable and unsubstantiated contradictory claims about the environment, we’d like to show the scientific truth about global warming.
Is the earth’s temperature really rising?
Research has shown that the earth’s temperature has risen consistently since the beginning of the industrial revolution. More specifically, as shown by the Goddard Institute of NASA, the earth’s temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) since 1880.
Why is this such a problem?
It’s hard to conceive why a rise of less than 1 degree Celsius in earth’s temperature is such a big issue. The answer lies in the way that global temperature is measured.
Global temperature, as a whole, is measured by considering how much energy it receives from the sun and how much gets radiated back into the atmosphere. Therefore, the average temperature on the global thermometer remains just about the same unless affected by other factors such as the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Usually, it takes aeons for a slight change in global temperature. However, as we emit more and more CO2 into the atmosphere, it rises at a much faster rate.
How does this affect us?
To put things into perspective, the warmest 30-year period in the history of the earth was recorded between 1983-2012. If it continues to rise, it won’t take long for the glaciers and ice caps to melt and cause a massive rise of the sea levels. Not only it would submerge many of our lands, it would also cause the extinction of many species and could potentially cause some huge natural disasters.
