Warming Disasters

Essay by puppyloverHigh School, 11th gradeB, March 2008

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An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, tells a horrible tale of what humans have done to the earth in the last century or so. Global warming, being the main focus of the book, isn't coming but is already here. Behind all the problems we now face the underlining cause is the higher and still growing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases' emissions.

"Not only does human-caused global warming exist, but it is also growing more and more dangerous, and at a pace that has now made it a planetary emergency." (Gore 8) It's the human-caused CO2 that is thickening the atmosphere causing less heat to escape, which is why the earth is warming. Though warmer temperatures sound nice consider what will happen as the climate changes. As the air temperature increases so does the ocean's. The rise in the ocean's temperature is helping to melt the polar ice caps.

With less ice to reflect the infrared rays the water absorbs more heat. Melting ice is also the reason sea level is rising. This rise is a threat to shoreline cities around the world but not the worst one by far. Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are becoming more intense and more frequent because of global warming. "As water temperatures go up, wind velocity goes up, and so does storm moisture condensation." (Gore 89) It's the rise in the ocean's temperature that has started these problems and the rise in temperature is ultimately from the higher CO2 emissions.

"The world's oceans are becoming more acidic due to the enormous qualities of CO2 that produce carbonic acid and the change in the pH of the oceans," (Gore 40) The higher acidity level is killing the ocean's beauty. The combination of the ocean being warmer and more acidic has triggered coral 'bleaching'...