Global Warming and Drought

The drought of 2011

By: John Branham

What exactly is global warming?

Global warming is basically an increase temperature due to the greenhouse effect which happens because pollutants. This is what google had to say “A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.”. But really we need to dig deeper then just what it is but more so why is it happening and what are its effects.

What is global warming continued

Whether you believe it or not its happening. The earth is in fact gradually heating up. The reason mostly behind the global warming is solar rays coming into the atmosphere. These solar rays are then reflected as infrared rays which then become trapped in the atmosphere by pollution. The effects of this are mostly and most obviously drought. Ill talk more about that in the next slide. Here is a chart of this happening:

How global warming is related to drought

Now lets start with the drought of 2011. Its not just a coincidence that the drought occurred at the same time either. Its because of global warming of course. Now global warming has gotten worse then ever. If we don’t stop it now it could cause drastic problems for generations to come. While this topic is present lets talk about anomalies. An anomaly is the difference between the short-term average temperature and the long-term average temperature. Here is a chart showing this:.

The chart

If you are questioning global warming…

How we know global warming is occurring

• The most alarming evidence of global warming in action is closely scrutinized data that shows a relatively rapid and widespread increase in temperature during the past 10 years. These were occurring during 1997-2008, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

• The rising temperatures monitored since 1978 are particularly noteworthy because the rate of increase is so high and because, during the same time period, the energy reaching the Earth from the Sun had been measured perfectly enough to conclude that Earth's warming was not due to changes in the Sun.

How this affects us

Based on what we have established already global warming in no doubt in effect. Its not just some seasonal weather pattern. Based on this we can assume places such as Texas and The Great Plains should be expecting some higher temperatures in the future. Also this isn’t looking good for the future either because after a while global warming will start to change ocean temperatures for the worse. Once these ocean temperatures rise there is no turning back due to the amount of thermal capacity water has. This means once water is at a certain temperature it is hard to change it to that temperature or change it back from that temperature. This means in a long time with global warming nothing will survive unless humans, animals, and plants are able to adapt to these high temperatures.

How can we prevent global warming?

So lets think for a second what do you think of when you hear pollution? Probably carbon-dioxide correct? By that assumption you would be partially correct because it is the majority for the fact the earth is rising in temperature. The only problem with that assumption is its not just carbon dioxide but many other reasons. Global warming can be stopped though. We can stop it in its foot tracks or at least slow it by a drastic amount by doing the following.

Cars

Get an electric car or maybe a hybrid for your next family car. The reason being is instead of a combustion engine they use electricity to power a motor that drives the car. Now I know your going to say “well don’t electric cars run off of electricity which means that they are being powered by fossil fuels”. Sorry but that’s not correct because a lot of electric energy can be produced by windmills, dams, and other natural power producing devices like solar panels. That will also lead me to my next slide. Another misconception is that an electric car will look like this:

Cars continued

But some electric cars actually look like this:

Electricity

Now I know you’ve probably heard this a million times but when your not using that one lamp by the couch turn it off. Or if your not using your Xbox or PS4 turn it off. Because when you leave those on it uses electricity. So where does electricity come from then? Electricity comes from power plants. How do these power plants produce electricity? They burn fossil fuel. What happens when they burn fossil fuel? Pollution of the atmosphere due to carbon dioxide and other gasses.

Summary

So global warming is caused by solar rays being reflected from earth and the rays get trapped heating up the earth. This global warming can cause drought. This can also be a problem for future generations so we need to address the problem now. There is no doubt that global warming is happening and it is effecting us. We can prevent global warming by being more conservant with electricity and not having a car/cars that create a large amount of emissions. That is all and I/we will answer any questions after the presentation. Thanks and have a great day!