Whether you admit it or not, careless human acts have been a great contributor to the increase of global temperature. With this said, the impact of greenhouse gases becomes a risk to humanity’s survivability. For instance, the desertification of the then fertile areas, surge of flood in coastal cities, melting of the glacial masses as well as proliferation of huge hurricanes are only few of its consequences.
What Exactly is Greenhouse Effect?
You may have been hearing it thousands of times already but do you really know what is it in the first place? Well, for the benefit of those who don’t, this is a natural phenomenon and is also beneficial to living matters on earth.
There are some types of gases present in our atmosphere that keeps some of thermal radiation being emitted by the surface of Earth after it’s heated by the sun. This is maintaining the temperature of our planet at acceptable level for life to survive and grow. On the other hand, human’s action helped in increasing the presence of such gases in our atmosphere, primarily methane and carbon dioxide.
These two are causing more heat to be retained and thus, increasing earth’s temperature. In short, the reason why we are experiencing global warming.
Possible Consequences if it’s not Addressed
The increased in earth’s average temperature can literally change the living conditions of animals and people living on the planet. To give you just a simple example, cars used by USPS to deliver letters can easily overheat because of the earth’s global warming problem. But let us look at the more serious issues if greenhouse gases will be taken for granted.
Glaciers will be thawed
The melting of glaciers have consequences too, one of the obvious is reduced albedo. This is the percentage of the solar radiation that is reflected from the surface of the earth back to atmosphere. As a result, it retains heat and causing glaciers to melt and sea level to rise.
Floods in Coastal Cities and Islands
During 1901 to 2010, sea level has risen to about 19cm according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This as a result causes islands and coastal cities to be easily flooded.
More Damaging Hurricanes
The increase of greenhouse gases also intensifies hurricane formation as it forms over waters with minimum temperatures of 26.51 degrees Celsius.