OPINION
BY KRISTIN GRONINGER, Junior
BLYTHEWOOD -- Polar bears are under threat. Under the threat of extinction. The ice on the North pole is melting because the temperature on earth is rising. Through the higher temperatures the ice is not only melting it is getting fragile, too. A lot of polar bears are traveling on this on the search for food, but often the ice is breaking because it can’t hold the heavy weight of the polar bears anymore. The polar bears fall in the water and drown painfully because they can’t find a spot anymore where they can save themselves.
Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane getting in the atmosphere. This stops the earth from balancing its temperatures. The greenhouse gases work like a wall around the earth. If the earth now wants to dispense it is heat to balance the temperature, the heat get blocked by the wall and reflected back to the earth.
More and more gases are getting in the atmosphere and boosting the greenhouse effect. You can see on the graph from the BBC New on the BBc Web from Dec. 14, 2015 (BBC News. BBC. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.) how strong alone the content of carbon dioxide increased. And the higher the amount of greenhouse gases becomes in our atmosphere the higher the temperature on earth are getting.
In the last 50 years the temperature in the U.S. increased by 5 percent and the precipitation has increased by 5 percent according to the U.S. Global Warming Research Program. The Americans are only 4 percent of the world’s population, but they produce on their own 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning which boosts the greenhouse effect according to the article “11 Facts About Global Warming” of 11 Facts About Global Warming from Dec. 14, 2015. ("11 Facts About Global Warming." 11 Facts About Global Warming. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.)
Even if the number of the increasing temperature might not sound dramatic and a lot of people didn’t even recognize a change in the temperature of the environment and still having an impact on our ecosystem because this is sensible to this changes. This changes causes the dying and changing of animal species and it starts changing the human's life.
We have to do something against global warming to stop the changes in our world and to save what is important to live for our following generation.
The global warming is changing the ecosystem. The amount of rain is decreasing, the temperatures are increasing through this process on earth, and our environment is changing. The water level rises, because the ice is melting, the land is getting dryer because it’s getting hotter and we get less rain.
Areas which where it is warm could become deserts, Areas where it was snowing could become warm over the winter, and area, which where snow over to whole year could only get snow in the winter.
Through this change in the environment some animal species have to change their habitat, change their adaption or rise dying. The temperature increasing has a huge impact of the different animal species. Fish have to deal with a higher water temperature. For many fish their, marine environment is getting lost because the Coral Reefs are dying.
Other animals have also had to struggle with the increasing temperatures and start traveling to higher latitudes to get to a colder environment. The animals can’t change their adaptations which they build up over centuries in such a fast time.
The only thing which is speaking up against doing something against global warming is the fact that some scientists say global warming doesn’t exist or that it is a natural process which isn’t caused by human doing. But these statements are rare and only represented by a couple of scientists. So it sounds more like an excuse to cover up the destroying of the earth than a reliable source.
The bigger portion of the scientists that humans are encouraging the global warming.
”Yes, the humans supporting the global warming because there are more and more people on earth and then there is more pollution because there are more people,” said science teacher Jenna Horne.
But the good thing is that is our choice to do something against the trend of the rising temperature. We can drive less car and start using more public transportation, support the change from energy sources who stress the environment to renewable energy, eat less meat, turn off the light and more.
Everything starts with small steps. If more and more people start doing this we will reach bigger goals.
Moreover the different countries have to change their thinking and build laws for the earth and against the Global Warming.
The earth is the only planet we have and it’s our only chance to make everything right. The chance to find another planet where we can start over and making everything right is small. The earth is our home and we have to start taking care of it instead of destroying it, so our kids and their kids can live on this earth and enjoy her beauty.
