United States In The Face Of Global Warming, Essay Example

As a citizen of the United States, one questions whether life in the 22^nd century U.S. is a blessing or a curse due to global warming. About a century or so ago, living in this part of the world was the best thing one could ever think of due to the inspiring  level of development witnessed and projected. This explains the reason why over time there has been an influx of people from all corners of the earth into the United States. Well, as much as development has been motivating, there have been a number of shortcomings resulting form the same development process and impacts of these short comings are being felt to a greater extent in the modern time unlike in the past. This is because most of these shortcomings such as global warming are gradual occurrences and take time for the real impact to be felt.

Being the worst reality to live with in the Unite states today, Global warming is the average increase in the temperatures of the earth which in turn results into climate change (Berger, 2000). Climate change is what a person living in the United States today has to live with yet its causal factors are the activities of the same people and others in the world. Climate change is the long-term average change of the combined weather patterns in a given region. In the context of global warming, the change in these patterns has been caused by the emission of energy trapping (green house gases) into the atmosphere (Houghton, 2004). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, every year beginning 1998 through to 2007 marks 10 of the top 25 warmest years to have ever been recorded in the history of the United States (Berger, 2000). Green house gases are emitted from the automobile industry and the heavily industrialized sector. Activities such as burning fossil fuels and forests which are responsible for reducing some green house gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, have been on the rise in the U.S. Human activities have thus brought an unbearable burden on every person’s live in the United States today. For instance, increased population in the U.S. has prompted people to encroach into the natural vegetation such as forests to create additional space for settlement, industries and food production. Most of these activities depend of fuel-run machines to carry out and because of their magnitude, so much of fossil fuels are being burnt resulting into more and more emission of green house gases making climate change to be on the rise (Thurber and Hartman, 2007).

In the context of the United States, global warming has made us suffer unbearable costs in treating diseases such as malaria particularly among the children as the increasingly warm temperatures encourage mosquito brooding. Many people have had to be put on expensive medication due to pulmonary complications resulting from the abnormal changes in weather patterns and severe heat waves (Houghton, 2004). Weather changes have denied U.S. the reputation it has had of being a good tourist destination since the once admirable things such as glaciers; vegetation and wildlife are no more since they have not been favored by climate change. Prices of agricultural based commodities have increased at an alarming rate over the past few years due to their scarcity since climate change has resulted to desertification and crops failure thus a declined agricultural production.

The key question remains: how ethical are our activities here in the United States as relates to global warming issues? We do clear vegetation to implement construction projects yet this has a directly negative impact on us in the long run. Our states’ leaders, scientists and environment activists have been part of every effort to curb global warming through attending national and international conferences on climate change such as the Kyoto conference and the recently held climate talks in Copenhagen. Despite these efforts being in place the rest of the populace continue with deteriorative acts as they have not had a chance to be briefed on issues surrounding global warming and its impacts on life and what they can do to stop the nightmare form spreading further. In short, it is all about being responsible for one’s activities as they relate to the life of this and future generations.

Work Cited

Berger, John, J. Beating the Heat: Why and How We Must Combat Global Warming. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books. 2000

Houghton, John. Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. 3rd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004

Thurber, Brian and Hartman, Berl. “Global Warming and Economic Growth”. The Boston Globe. June 24, 2007. <<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/06/24/global_warming_and_economic_growth/>>