learning about# global warming

what is global warming

Global warming is the ceaseless increase of overall temperatures in our planet —on the surface, the atmosphere and in the oceans. It is attributed to greenhouse effect gases, which are due to both natural causes and human behaviour.

The Sun naturally warms up our planet and part of this energy is absorbed by the earth’s surface and living beings but greenhouse gases trap amounts of heat that otherwise would be released back into space, hence increasing the temperature.

causes of global warming

The underlying reason for climate change is our careless attitude towards Nature. Our civilization runs on the idea that the planet and its resources are ours to plunder but the awful truth is that Earth will thrive without us but not vice versa.

However, from a scientific point of view, man-driven greenhouse emissions are the main cause for global warming. The main greenhouse effect gases are water vapour, methane, ozone and carbon dioxide. All of them are naturally released by different processes occurring in our planet but since the Industrial Revolution mankind has acted as its trigger, skyrocketing its production, especially CO2.

which problems are we facing?

The gradual increase in Earth’s temperature is extremely dangerous for life and balance as we know it. It is common knowledge that ecosystems are fragile and can only prosper if the balance remains moderately constant.

The main problem caused directly by global warming is the melting of the ice caps. We may think that having no more polar bears or penguins is not a huge deal in our daily lives but as the ice caps melt, sea level rises.

Countries such as The Netherlands will be completely flooded and therefore inhabitable. Some years ago, the president of Micronesia begged before the UN for a rapid solution on global warming as just a minor increase in sea level will mean the destruction of their entire nation.

Desertification, severe droughts and rainstorms, colossal floods, typhoons and all shorts of climatic disasters will be more likely to appear and in areas which traditionally never suffered those. The Amazon Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef are believed to be the first major ecosystems to collapse.

As these climatic catastrophes take place mankind will be severely affected. Food shortages may lead to armed conflicts, terrorism and massive migrations due to what is now called climate refugees.

solutions — averting climate change

Awareness. There is a core idea, a motto if you may, that can be applied to any problem humans face: we can only act on what we know. Raising awareness about global warming is the first step to counteract its effects. The more people are aware of this paramount problem, the more will be willing to fight it.

Governments and international organizations are already struggling to avert climate change but we as individuals can do a lot. We can share all the information we have (social media has made it extremely simple) and put our money where our mouth is, i.e. practising what we preach.

As consumers we have a relevant power to change how things are made. From individual actions such as buying ecofriendly furniture or organic produce to collective endeavours like lobbying to demand further and more dramatic action from authorities.

Recycling. Prevent waste of potentially useful materials it is a win win since we needn’t extract more resources from an already exhausted planet and we avoid generating waste that would take ages and more pollution to degrade.

Renewable energy. Not only do we need to move away from fossil fuels as the main drive for our economy but also boost the efficiency on how we produce and consume energy and transportation.

Renewable energy such as solar power, wind power, tidal power or geothermal power can be the solution because they have two extreme advantages over fossil fuels: they do not run out and they do not contribute to global warming.

Renewable energy is often referred as clean energy since no greenhouse effect emissions are released to produce power, but their main feature is that they are inexhaustible; they will last forever.

However, green energy has powerful enemies such as its financial cost and the pressure made by oil and gas companies which don´t want to see their business wiped out. Anyway, our future is at stake so it is a decision we should all take.

Write an essay of around 200 words about Global Warming.

Write down some key vocabulary and explain it.

Prepare a 3 minutes’ exposition on Global Warming.

Translate these sentences —

En realidad, la mayor amenaza para el equilibrio de la vida en nuestro planeta podría ser la propia especia humana, lo que a estas alturas ya es de dominio público.

Los hechos hablan por si mismos: desde el inicio de la Revolución Industrial hemos perdido miles de especies de flora y fauna que nunca podremos recuperar.

Incluso para aquellos que han aprendido en la escuela de la vida, resulta cristalino el hecho de que la pérdida de diversidad genética es una tragedia difícil de cuantificar.

El calentamiento global y la sobreexplotación de nuestros recursos fósiles no es física cuántica. Sin necesidad de convertirlo en algo para tontos, todos entendemos que nuestro futuro está en juego.

Las consecuencias de una mínima subida de la temperatura en la tierra podrían ser mucho más catastróficas de lo que habíamos previsto.

Digamos que, en el mejor de los casos, la temperatura solo subiese 1 o 2 grados Celsius. Esto supondría una merma irreparable de las capas polares y el consiguiente aumento del nivel del mar hasta el punto de dejar grandes metrópolis bajo el agua.

Y lo que es más, los fenómenos climáticos de nuestro planeta no son hechos aislados independientes los unos de los otros si no que la alteración de unos supone la descompensación de los otros.

El aumento del nivel del mar supondría mayores anticiclones y tsunamis ya de por sí muy vulnerables a estos fenómenos.

Algunos científicos sostienen que todo nuestro sistema solar, desde Mercurio a Neptuno, está experimentando un aumento de la temperatura, lo que necesariamente parece llevarles a declarar a la humanidad como inocente.

Incluso aunque es bien sabido que los humanos solo tendemos a reaccionar cuando le vemos las orejas al lobo, debemos plantearnos un curso de acción inmediato que asegure la supervivencia de las futuras generaciones.