Climate Change and Global Warming Essay Example for Free

Climate Change and Global Warming Essay Cause Climatologists, who predict short and long-term climate trends, believe carbon dioxide and other emissions, mainly from industrial and commercial activity over the last two centuries, have altered the Earths atmosphere. This change has caused a greenhouse effect which is rapidly warming the planet. Effects The predicted effects of global warming include the melting of polar ice caps; a significant rise in sea levels; more extreme weather events; a reduction in agricultural land; water shortages; food shortages; loss of rain forests; and more species becoming extinct. Solutions Scientists believe all nations must take immediate and urgent action to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Technological solutions have been proposed, ranging from carbon scrubbers that remove carbon from the atmosphere and reduce greenhouse gases to placing giant mirrors in space to reflect enough sunlight to cool down the planet. Controversy Although an overwhelming majority of scientists accept the man-made global warming theory, a minority have questioned this consensus. They suggest that mans impact on the climate is negligible and that global warming is wholly the result of natural cycles. David Kennedy, nd. Basic Causes of Global Warming Retrieved February 27, 2013 from http://www.ehow.com/about_5057613_basic-causes-global-warming.html Basic Causes of Global Warming Greenhouse Effect When sunlight hits the Earth some is absorbed but most is reflected. The greenhouse effect is when sunlight escaping back into space is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and then reflected back onto the Earths surface. Most greenhouse gas is water vapor, but other gases that contribute to it include carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and other gases that have a less significant impact. Carbon Dioxide According to the U.S. Emissions Inventory 2004 Executive Summary, in 2002 around 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions were the result of burning coal for electricity. Around 93 percent of the electric utility industry burns coal. Carbon dioxide emissions also come from cars and other vehicles, airplanes and buildings. New technologies, like the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and hybrid electric vehicles, are some solutions for minimizing vehicle carbon dioxide emissions. Methane Methane is the second largest contributor to the greenhouse effect. Methane is a natural byproduct of living organisms and is produced by plants and bovine flatulence. Bacteria decomposing organic material also produce methane. According to the U.S. Emissions Inventory 2004 Executive Summary, methane levels have increased by 145 percent in the last 100 years. In the United States, all rice fields are grown in flooded areas which produce methane gases. Deforestation Deforestation is the process of clearing forests, either rainforest or temperate forests. The burning of forests is responsible for up to 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. This is the result of clearing and cutting nearly 34 million acres a year. Forests are also important because they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. So while carbon dioxide emissions increase, the lack of forests is making the number increase faster. Permafrost Permafrost is a layer of land and soil that has been frozen and kept at freezing temperatures or below. In many northern climates like Alaska, Canada and Siberia, the permafrost layer of soil holds vast amounts of carbon. What researchers and scientists fear is that the permafrost will warm up and microbes will decompose the soil and release carbon dioxide. Permafrost has absorbed carbon dioxide for thousands of years, but may release it back if thawed. Timothy Sexton,.nd. Global Warming Cause Effects retrieved February 27, 2013 from http://www.ehow.com/about_4744736_global-warming-cause-effects.html Global Warming Cause Effects Greenhouse Effect The overriding cause of global warming is an umbrella term known as the greenhouse effect. As the rays of the sun reach Earth, some of the heat is absorbed and some is radiated back into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act similarly to a gigantic mirror and reflect warmth back to Earth that in the past would have continued being radiated into space. It is this reflection of heat back to Earth that is at the heart of the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse Gases These greenhouse gases that are responsible for reflecting back heat that would otherwise be lost include simple water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and the infamous ozone. Unfortunately, there is no way to know exactly which greenhouse gas is most responsible for the greenhouse effect. Cause of Increased Gases The problem of global warming has been caused by the addition of more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The gases responsible will rise into the air whether humans are here or not; the problem is that much of basic human activity in the 20th and 21st century produced greenhouse gas at a level never experienced before. Basically, any activity that produces one of the gases listed above is a cause of global warming; everything from driving a car to using electricity. Because trees act as a natural conversion plant to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, deforestation contributes to global warming because the fewer trees there are, the more carbon dioxide gets into the atmosphere. Effects The effects of global warming are potentially far-ranging. Increased temperatures means melting of glaciers, ice and snow around the poles, which means an increase in sea levels. Warming water will also increase the potential for hurricanes and typhoons so devastating that they will make Hurricane Katrina pale in comparison. That rise in sea levels could also mean that beachfront property will soon be found 10 to 50 miles inland from where beaches are now. Temperatures The average temperature on Earth has been steadily rising since the mid-1980s, and global warming is expected to continue this trend. In addition to longer and hotter summers, rising temperatures will affect agriculture. Indeed, the effect of a hotter Earth is already increasing the transmission of infectious bacteria that thrive under warm conditions. Hoax? There are still a great many people who believe that global warming is simply some kind of politically-created hoax. Those leading the charge against global warming tend to be industry with a vested interest. On the other hand, the list of scientific entities that have agreed on the reality of global warming include, among many others, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Royal Society of the UK.

A Critique Of d-day June 6,1944: The Climatic Battle Of Wwii :: essays research papers fc

The book D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II was written by Stephen E. Ambrose, and published by Simon & Schuester in New York. This book begins with a prologue that is followed by 32 chapters, a glossary, endnotes, a bibliography, an appendix, and an index. The first ten chapters give the events that lead up to D-Day, it discusses a variety of topics ranging from, general topics like the attackers and the defenders, to topics like what kind of weather conditions would be necessary for the invasion. Chapters 11 through 14 discuss the air invasion that occurred shortly after midnight, and the air and naval bombardment of the beaches prior to the infantry landing on the Normandy shore. Chapters 15 through 25 cover the landings on the beaches and the struggles of the American forces to get up the bluffs and inland. Chapter 26 titled "The World Holds Its Breath", is exactly what it says, it gives a view of the home front during the invasion. Chapters 27 through 31 talk about other allied landings on the beaches. Chapter 32 ends the book by giving a summary of the accomplishments of D-Day, and giving the general feelings toward the success of the invasion after the first day of fighting. This book was written to provide everyone with an up close and personal view of WWII.The first two chapters on the book are titled " The Attackers" and "The Defenders". In these two chapters the author talks about the warring nations. The Germans who originally used blitzkrieg style warfare to remove the allied powers from Europe, by 1944 had dug in, and was now a complete opposite of what they once were. This would have probably worked just fine had the Nazis not conquered more territory than they could defend. Hitler knew that an invasion was immanent and that if he could send the allies back into the channel with great loses it would take months to organize another attempt, and hopefully by then Roosevelt and Churchill, would be gone. The allies had to penetrate Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. This stacked the deck in Hitler’s favor, because the Allies would have to cross the English Channel an make an amphibious assault on the German fortifications. Prior to WWII there had only been two times that an attack such as this was successful One was led by Julius Ceaser, and the other was led by William the Conqueror.

Legislative Initiative

On April 1, 2008, House Bill 2833 entitled Food Security Act passed the Senate Committee on Finance and would only require majority approval in the Senate floor to become a full fledged law (Office of Sen. Rice, 2008). This initiative is the output of the Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger established May last year and aimed at the concretization of its recommendations based on the study regarding the issue.Bartfeld, Dunifon, Nord and Carlson (2006) defined food security as â€Å"the access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life† (p.4). Reports reveal that Oklahoma ranks fifth among U.S. states currently experiencing high levels of food insecurity and seventh among states with high poverty levels (Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger, p.5, 8). This means that many individuals in the state do not meet the daily required nutritional needs in order to realize their full physical and mental potentials because they can not afford to buy food.From 2003-2006, st udies showed that Oklahoma’s wage and salary employment rates have steadily increased and resulted in remarkable economic growth. The state’s workforce is concentrated in the retail, health services, accommodations and food services and manufacturing industries as well as in local government and administrative and waste services (Snead and Barta, 2007). However, there are 10 counties which experienced job losses within the period.Improvements in the economy are not equally distributed in the state. Barta and Snead (2007) underscore the observation that â€Å"larger economies have a built in competitive advantage through economies of scale and greater amenities for residents relative to smaller regions and should be expected to outperform smaller regions† (p. 3). Thus, out of the state’s 77 counties, people in the metropolitan areas have higher standards of living than those in the 35 smaller, rural counties mostly located in the northwest region.Hence, a significant number of Oklahoman families in these areas are middle to low income earners and may account for the 14.6% of the population who are hungry or the 17% who are living below the poverty line. They lack the capacity to sufficiently obtain all their needs such as housing, healthcare, education and utilities. Family budgets for food are compromised in order to cover all basic needs. More expensive nutritious foods are replaced by cheaper but unhealthy foods and deprivation results in poor eating habits (Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger, p. 5).The Task Force on Hunger estimated the following: â€Å"a single parent with one school age child living in Tulsa Country needs to earn $13.53 an hour to be economically stable while a single person needs $7.52† (p. 9). However, the state’s minimum wage is pegged at $5.85 an hour while the costs of basic necessities are quickly and steadily rising. Although jobs are being created, most are temporary as in the manufacturing sec tor, adding job insecurity to low pay.Food insecurity impacts greatly on children.   Ã‚  Ã‚   They make up more than a third of the poor population in the state where 1 out of every 5 children potentially experience hunger on a daily basis (Office of Sen. Rice, 2008). Insufficient nutrition affects their physical and mental growth, evidenced in poor school performance, susceptibility to disease and the high obesity rates. According to the Sodexho Foundation findings, these consequences of hunger cause the state to lose $1.4 billion annually (Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger, p. 5).The passing of HB 2833 in the Senate will create the Oklahoma Food Security Committee as the body responsible for its implementation. In the immediate, it seeks to increase the utilization of state welfare food programs and the reach of non-government charitable organizations providing food relief for families and children (Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger, 2007). In the long term, it will address insufficient family income and raise food security levels.The Food Stamp Program currently allows persons to use electronic benefit cards to buy food items with an equivalent of $90 under the Thrifty Food Plan. The Women, Infants and Children Program, on the other hand, provides services such as nutrition education, health care referrals and supplemental food for needy families. The Senior Food Program targets the health, nutrition and social needs of the elderly. School nutrition programs provides for children through free lunches and snacks.In addition, private organizations operate soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries among others. Meanwhile, taxes may be deducted from low income earning families through claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit. Taxes imposed on small farmers in the market may also be lessened through the Sales Tax Credit Relief. Secondary to this, the agricultural sector also needs a boost in order to locally produce adequate food stuffs for the state’s nutrition n eeds.Through these measures, the Food Security Act will work to increase the amount that families may spend for food and other needs as well as harness all available resources to generate more food supplies. Increase in net income and supporting food relief will decrease the number of families and especially children, who are poor and hungry. This effort will raise the state’s food security levels towards acceptable levels within the next 5 years.Although, the Food Security Act as a legislative initiative is laudable in its objectives, I think that ultimately, significant change in economic status is the result of secure employment and sufficient pay. If the state should raise its minimum wage, even by a fraction, then that is a concrete step.The state should also complement the existing welfare food programs with similar initiatives in health care and education. This will further reduce the full burden of lower income earners in shouldering the food, school and health care n eeds of their children. The state should also put primacy in allocating funds to sustain these programs.List of ReferencesBartfeld, J., Dunifon, R., Nord, M. and Carlson, S. (2006). What Factors Account for State- by-State Differences in Food Security?. Economic Information Bulletin, 20. Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   4 April 2008 from http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB20/eib20.pdf.Office of Senator Andrew Rice (2008). Food Security Act Advances to Senate Floor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved 4 April 2008 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.ok.gov/newsroom.php?page_id=681&type=1.Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger (2007). Hunger is Not Ok. Retrieved 4 April 2008 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.hungerinoklahoma.org/Task%20Force%20Report.pdf.Snead, M.C. and Barta, S. (2007). Economic Recovery Growth Patterns in Oklahoma 2003-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2006. The Oklahoma Economy Research Release. Retrie ved 4 April 4, 2008 from    http://economy.okstate.edu/search/research.asp.

Ways of Writing a Descriptive Essay on Nature

Among all other types of essays descriptive texts are often considered to be easier to write. After all, you simply have to compose description of something, whatever it is. When it comes to practice, however, everything is far less simple. A descriptive essay should be properly structured, it follows its own principles of logical composition, it has its own dos and don’ts, and failing to comply with one of these numerous requirements may result in getting an unsatisfactory mark for the entire work. First of all, you should remember that although you are often given a great degree of freedom when it comes to descriptive writing, usually you are supposed to give a very detailed account of a single experience, so try to avoid generalities. If you write about nature, you should describe a particular landscape, or some striking experience from your life, for example, your first visit to the mountains, or a particular spot you remember well, or something along the same lines. How to Write an Essay about Nature So, you have to deal with descriptive writing about nature and you have already chosen an approximate topic you are going to write on. Next, you are supposed to imagine the scene you are about to describe and think about the ways to make this description as picturesque and vivid as possible. The good thing about descriptive writing is that there are almost no limitations to what you may write. You are free to use any tropes, any literary approaches – as long as they work. But remember – the main task is to make the reader see what you describe as if he were there himself. Reread your essay about nature after you have finished and try to look at it from the reader’s point of view. Can you imagine the same scene that was in your head when you have started writing based only on your essay? If no, you are doing something wrong. Study a Descriptive Essay Example In theory it is all very well, but you will never get a clear understanding of how to write this kind of essay from theory alone. Look for a descriptive essay example online – thus you will be able to judge what you are doing right and what you have gotten wrong. It is better for you to use an essay written on a completely different topic as an example – if the theme of the sample essay is close to your own, you may feel compelled to use elements from it in your own work. And while occasional borrowing of ideas is nothing to be afraid of, nobody knows when your tutor is going to check your essay for plagiarism – and if he does, he might consider a harmless lifting of an interesting idea to be copy/paste. So the best advice that can be given here is to use examples for reference, but to use your own language – and make sure this language stays clear and concise. Avoid overly elaborate wording – it is much more important to be correctly understood tha n to impress the reader with your word-juggling prowess.