Essay on Global Warming: Is it a Real Problem?

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Think of a person riding downhill on a bicycle that has no brake on the wheels, and who knows that there is a large glass plate placed vertically somewhere across the way. The person is sensible enough to predict that if he continues to enjoy this ever accelerating ride, he is going to collide against the invisible glass plate in a short interval. But he is so deeply content on this ride that even after the knowledge of a certain accident ahead unless he jumps out of the bicycle, he is willing to go a bit farther for his personal fulfillment. Today, we face a similar situation in which we are seemingly unwilling to help ourselves out of a possibly disastrous problem of global temperature rise.

For as long as human beings have been in existence, and long before that, our earth has been a hospitable and habitable planet. No other planet yet known to human civilization has conditions so similar to earth that are vital to sustain any life on it. We have been gifted with the greenery, the cool breeze of air, the water and all life supporting elements that we all need to survive. Earth’s life-supportive steady temperature is one of the vital aspects of our habitable planet. We are protected on the Earth’s surface by a layer of gases known as the atmosphere that extends up from the surface, slowly thinning out into space. It is this layer of air that regulates the steady temperature over the Earth's surface, trapping in the reflected heat waves within the reach of plants and animals, by the process known as the greenhouse effect (Mastrandrea). Greenhouse gases are principally comprised of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and water vapor (Environmental Protection Agency). Without the thermal blanketing through nat...

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...st and we cannot just wait until disaster strikes to see if this was just a phase of ice-filled earth. Rather, we all should focus and concentrate on what human civilization has been lacking for generations: earth friendly sources of energy.

For now, it is time for the bicyclist to jump off of his bicycle that has been accelerating downhill or else he will shortly face the hidden accident ahead. This could be the time for us to act together and be bold or else we might not even have a second chance. We could be slammed hard by the force of nature just as the bicyclist would fall from accident. To prevent this, we should sacrifice what we have been enjoying. Having something is better than having nothing. Thus, we want to keep our ruined earth and reform the planet back to its green and cool times rather than to lose the identity of the entire human civilization.

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