A Global Warming Predicament

The world is an ever changing place no matter what the topic at hand is. The climate change is one such topic that has received a lot of attention as of late. That’s right, global warming is here, it’s strong and it’s taking affect right now. Global warming is no longer science fiction as it was once thought of, it’s a real issue that will affect people now and continue to well into the future generations down the line. This steady global heating is the problem that will eventually plague us unless something is done to fix, or at least mend, this conundrum planet earth and its inhabitants have gotten itself into. There are many ways to slow if not halt this climate change, one such way is by exploring new types and sources of fuels whether it be bio fuels that are a renewable resource all the way to different, more economical uses of our current fuels. Slowing the expansion of industries that consume massive amounts of fuels and create greenhouse gasses that are hazardous to the ozone layer or at least find a better eco friendly solution would help in this fight drastically. Regulating emissions on a large scale would probably be the hardest to accomplish but the most successful towards the overall health of the ecosystem allowing for a maximum cap on emissions for every country.

There is a serious problem at hand that will continue to escalate if left unbridled. Global warming will eventually get to the point of no return where nothing can be done to affect the global temperature for the better. According to the “Inconvenient Kyoto Truths” the earth has warmed about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the twentieth century alone. Although not entirely clear on how much of it was caused by humans, the certainty is that the humans and their actions did have an impact on this (Will 1). With the industrial revolution comes pollution, and lots of it, resulting in the depletion of the ozone layer. With the ozone layer constantly thinning, it steadily allows more and more of the suns hazardous rays through causing the earth’s ecosphere to rise in temperature. Author Tomas Kellner said that the expected insurance payouts for Atlantic hurricanes should be adjusted from 7 billion up to 10 billion dollars. An estimated 10-60 % of 3 billion dollar boost is the direct result of global warming. At 60 % it costs insurers an additional 1.8 billion dollars in annual losses (1). Global warming has given the severity of the weather quite a boost as can be seen by the statistics. With global warming steadily rising, the destructive power of these storms will be rapidly increasing along with it. The signs for an incredibly destructive storm attributed to the affects of global warming are imminent and almost unavoidable.

Global warming is a steadily growing problem that will only get worse as time progresses. In an attempt to counteract the rising heat new fuel sources need to be explored. Not just any fuel sources will do, fuel sources that produce less harmful emissions with a lower greenhouse gas output’s like those of the ethanol type where an alcohol is produced from organic compounds and mixed with water to create a significantly cleaner burning fuel (Cohen 1). Author George F. Will said, “Ethanol produces just slightly more energy than it takes to manufacture it. But now that the government is rigging energy markets with mandates, tariffs and subsidies, ethanol production might consume half of next year's corn crop” (2). With that small of a gain from it, it barely seems rational to pursue those avenues but a gain does occur making it a viable process. With ethanol production possibly consuming half of the corn crop of next year it will put corn in high demand by inflating the market which will be good for the many farmers in the economy but bad for any consumers that want this product and even worse for those countries that depend on corn for the majority of their diet. While that may be true, when David Cohen says, “Its advantages over petroleum-based fuels are clear. It releases no particulates, emissions of carbon monoxide are reduced typically by 35 % and nitrogen oxides by up to 20 %. More importantly, because it is made from plants, which soak up carbon dioxide, bioethanol is closer than other fuels to being carbon dioxide neutral” (1) the advantages of ethanol based fuels become very apparent. A fuel that has that many advantages over its competitor deserves some more attention and more applications on a broad stage. A 35% reduction in carbon monoxide and a 20% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions on a global scale would be an enormous change. Even tough ethanol’s output to production ratio isn’t an extremely high one it still yields a gain and may be just what is needed to counter the affects of global warming.

With the ever growing population and urban sprawl comes the expansion of industries to support such growth.