Global Warming, How we Humans are Causing it, and the deadly effects it has on our Environment. | Teen Ink

Global Warming, How we Humans are Causing it, and the deadly effects it has on our Environment.

May 31, 2022
By hsharma26 BRONZE, Morris Plains, New Jersey
hsharma26 BRONZE, Morris Plains, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Imagine this, your mom calls and asks you to take out the trash before she gets home, you tell her that you have already finished it, even though you really did not,  then you rush upstairs to finish your Fortnite game that is still in progress. Your mom comes home to find the stinky lasagna leftovers in the trash from yesterday’s dinner that you haven’t taken out. She then takes your game for the remainder of the weekend and you're left bored with nothing to do. This could have been easily prevented by throwing out the trash to avoid the punishment of getting your game taken away for the entire weekend. This situation is a lot like what happens around the planet every day when a person throws a “harmless” piece of plastic in the street thinking it will do no harm because it is just one tiny piece of plastic that they think will not do much. According to “Sas.Org.UK” they state, “Approximately 8 million pieces of plastic are produced and polluted into our environment”. Therefore, it shows that human activities are causing global warming because the global warming trend is being driven by greenhouse gas emissions and all the emissions that humans created led to having 6 of the hottest years in this past decade. 

To begin with, the first reason why humans are causing global warming is because they have many man-made pollutants such as industrial machines and mining factories that are driving the global warming trend around the world. For example, in the article, “What is Black Carbon? The Latest Ways Humans Are Causing Changes in Antarctica”, the author states “There are few places on Earth that humans haven’t mucked up with the waste and pollution that comes up from our gas guzzling cars” (Gainor and Fritz 1). As a result, this shows that humans have produced so much carbon emissions just by using means of transportation to get around daily. Now, there are very few places on Earth where there are not as many greenhouse gas emissions. This presents a very scary fact knowing there are not many places on the planet that does not consist of many greenhouse gas emissions which poses a dangerous fact for the future of humankind if this problem is not solved in the near future. Another point that is presented in this article is the amount of coal fired electricity which is used to power our homes that we humans waste. For instance, in the article “What is Black Carbon? The Latest Ways Humans Are Causing Changes in Antarctica”, the author says “Coal fired electricity we power our homes with have also been linked to the starting of wildfires” (Gainor and Fritz 1). Consequently, this shows that using lots of materials that contribute significantly to the global warming crisis can be detrimental to the environment because they can spread deadly natural disasters wiping out large amounts of plant and animal life. One final reason that is presented in the article is the issue of black carbon. According to the article “What is Black Carbon? The Latest Ways Humans Are Causing Climate Change in Antarctica” the author states “Black carbon — the dark, dusty pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels” (Gainor and Fritz 2). Hence, it is later shown that black carbon is a main reason why lots of ice in Antarctica is melting away due to human pollution activities around the world. 

Additionally, since humans are causing the global warming crisis there have been significant effects on the environment because of it. For example, in the article “Earth Experienced 6th-Hottest-Year on record in 2021” the author states “Climate change has contributed to significant climate disasters around this world such as floods in Germany, wildfires in California, sandstorms in Beijing, and locust plagues in East Africa” (Smith 3). This shows that humans have had a significant impact on themselves and the Earth’s condition because of the heavy amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. All the problems that we create such as the global warming crisis will only come back to haunt us and our future generations as time goes on. Another reason why there have been so many effects of global warming is because sources show that lots of money is being spent to help cope with the natural disasters that have affected many people's lives over the course of the global warming threats. According to the article “Earth Experienced 6th-Hottest-Year on record in 2021” the author mentions that “In the United States alone, there were 20 separate billion dollar weather and climate disasters that killed at least 688 people – more than twice the previous year’s death toll of 262, according to the report. Damage from the U.S. disasters totaled about 145 billion dollars” (Smith 3). As a consequence, this excerpt goes to show that not only are these climate disasters ruining lives, they are taking a huge sum of money from the government to help the people affected by the natural disasters that global warming has caused. This all could have been easily prevented by not emitting so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere causing all these climate anomalies to happen around different countries. One final reason why there are many effects of global warming is because of the glacier temperatures slowly rising causing the ice caps to melt. According to the article “Polar Ice Melt is Accelerating” the author states “The new study, published Thursday by the journal Science, estimates that the melting of the ice sheets has raised global sea levels by 11.1 millimeters (0.43 inch) since 1992. That represents one-fifth of the total sea-level increase recorded in that period. Higher temperatures can raise sea levels in several ways. Some estimates suggest that roughly half of the increase relates to the thermal expansion of the oceans: As the water warms, it becomes less dense and expands. Another source is the runoff from melting glaciers. A third is the increased melting of the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland” (Naik 1). This presents a fact that this is a very serious issue that needs to be solved quickly because if the ice caps continue to melt then there will be a significant rise in sea levels causing major flooding and whole submersions of islands along with precious historical figures.

In conclusion, human activities are causing global warming because the global warming trend is being driven by greenhouse gas emissions and all the emissions that humans created led to having 6 of the hottest years in this past decade. Although some may say the global warming crisis might be caused by natural events, it is not true. This is because the natural disasters that happen around the world are not only because of natural causes, it is because of us humans who emit large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which causes all the disasters to happen at an extreme extent around the world. Now, if we do not slow down the rate of climate change there will be devastating issues around the world such as sea levels continuing to rise, more extreme natural disasters, and more unusual temperature changes around the world. 


The author's comments:

Hello, my name is Hari Sharma and in this piece, I am writing about global warming and it's effects on our environment. I hope you enjoy this writing piece and learn something about the global warming crisis. 


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