Ryan Munez Global Warming Ms. Jones Global Warming is a huge epidemic in our society today.

As of right now humanity is doing very little to prevent the future catastrophe in the near future. Global warming is the increase of the greenhouse effect due to increased amounts of greenhouse gasses. As the amount of greenhouse gases are being released solar radiation is being more retained, and the radiation causes temperature to rise every year after year. Everyday things such as driving to work, flying on a plane, and simply turning on a light bulb. Each thing that requires fossil fuels add to the Carbon Dioxide emissions. With the increase of earths average temperature global warming causes the ice caps to melt, harsher weather, and hotter temperatures. Global warming has a enormous causes and effects from human population, human density, has terrible short term effects, worse long term effects, and we should prevent these catastrophes from happening as humans. To begin human population has a significant part in global warming. As more humans are born. When there are more people there is a much larger demand for electricity to power homes for these people. Since there is more demand for this amount of power, therefore more coal powered power plants to produce electricity on such a scale. Also, when there are more power plants there is a higher output of carbon dioxide being released in the air. This in turn leads to more of the greenhouse effect from just a few more humans born each day. If either the death rate increases or birth rate decreases humans are growing at an alarming rate. Especially in Charlotte is one of the largest and most growing city in the United States. We have possibly exceeded our carrying capacity

of the earth to contain us. Not only does the world population cause global warming but it is also caused my human concentration. Furthermore, human concentration is another key factor in global warming. There can be millions of people scattered around the world but big cities often contribute the most carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is because of the fact that the more people there are in an area there are more cars, and there is a much larger need for energy. So more power plants are built in the area to accommodate all these people. In Charlotte there are at least 8 power plants in the area. Sadly not many are clean energy plants, most of these are coal powered plants. Since there are more people in the charlotte area there are more cars being driven each day. As these people drive more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere. Sadly not many people are investing in hybrid vehicles. In brief human population density contributes to the effects of global warming. The growing population, and population density contribute to the horrendous short term effects of global warming. Afterwards, global warmings short term effects are slow but constant. Each year the earths temperatures are gradually increasing by 2-3 degrees this may not seem like a reasonable amount to fret over, but this change in temperature causes weather changes on earth. The polar ice caps have been melting. In recent studies at least one third of the polar ice caps have melted due to increasing temperatures in the ocean, and in the atmosphere. This is alarming, because that the polar ice caps help keep the northern atmosphere cool, and freezing. The ice caps are also responsible for reflecting the solar radiation emitted from the sun. Without the ice caps global temperatures will increase at an even more alarming rate that it is going all by itself. One things definitely for sure:

hurricanes were around a well before human beings began chopping down rainforests and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With the increase of temperatures the ocean is getting much warmer than the atmosphere is. This in turn causes hurricanes to be more fierce due to the fact that hurricanes feed on the warm water of the oceans. Scientific reports suspect that with the temperatures growing in the Caribbean and the pacific ocean hurricanes such as Katrina can be much more devastating than before in history. Hurricanes are also increasing every year because of the much more larger feeding area in the Caribbean making them more destructive. The average number of hurricanes and tropical storms have doubled in the past century. Venus a planet with an atmosphere composed of practically all greenhouse gases has a average temperature of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. If the amount of greenhouse gasses, and carbon dioxide our planet can end up like Venus in the future, and long term effects would be severe. Long term effects of global warming can be dire to the human race, and all life on earth. Several predicted long term effects would be rise in ocean levels, desertification mass extinction, and terrible weather conditions not suitable for life. At the moment earth is at a stable temperature, but if these temperatures continue to increase the world can possibly become a huge desert when all plants die from intensive heat. If the polar ice caps completely melt the coasts of all the continents would be completely submerged from all the frozen water in the north pole. Cities on the east coast of the United States could go underwater. If the earth becomes a desert than all the trees in Charlotte will die and all the life would disappear from the earth simply because it is too hot for organisms to live. Entire ecosystems will be destroyed, and humans will be extinct like other organisms before us. All of these dire effects can be averted by simply practicing eco

friendly customs. As earths in habitants we have a responsibility to keep our world stabilized, and should reverse the effects, and damage from global warming. Try carpooling you save gas and you have a less of and impact on the environment. Taking the bus to work or wherever your going saves gas and the earth. As a country we should invest in cleaner power to supply Americans are hungry for. In Charlotte North Carolina we have two nuclear reactors which have less of an impact on global warming. Wind power is another clean source of energy and requires no fuel. Solar power is another form of clean renewable energy. Researchers are also looking at geothermal energy which is using the heat from the earth to make steam to power to turn generators. Sadly all of these solutions are rarely used. It is up to future generations to solve the problems to global warming

Sites used http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2007-07-29more-hurricanes_N.htm http://www.awitness.org/journal/melt_ice_cap_glacier.ht ml http://www.ehow.com/about_4676078_long-termeffects-global-warming.html http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ http://www.climatehotmap.org/