Research Question: How much of an effect does global warming have on annual floods and rising sea levels?
Thesis: Although rising sea levels and increased annual flood frequency are problems that are projected to worsen worldwide over the next decade, there are structural, political, and educational provisions that can be made for people to navigate through these adverse effects, and there are pragmatic steps to ensure that these problems do not get worse than already projected.
Climate change is a major issue on the earth. It comes with unpredictable weather seasons, loss of biodiversity because of harsher weather conditions, harm to human lives and property, and, most ostensibly, global warming. Global warming is the gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth due to a depletion of the ozone layer and the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Ozone layer depletion has increased the number of ultraviolet rays that humans are exposed to. These rays cause an array of health problems of which skin cancer is the most known and feared. The scientific and technological industries have invested much effort into creating health products, strategies, and technologies to ensure that humans are safe from the effects of the earth’s depleting ozone layer and to reduce ozone layer depletion. However, greenhouse gas emissions have not received the same attention. While greenhouse gases do not harm human beings directly, the harm they bring is nearly irreversible. Greenhouse gas accumulation continues to warm the earth slowly but steadily. This has led to annual flood frequency and sea levels increasing slowly but steadily in some areas and rapidly in other locations. Currently, these effects cannot be undone by existing technologies but can be prevented. However, the majority of humans are ignorant of how they actively or passively contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, those that are aware of their role in greenhouse gas emissions have built up strong arguments for why they cannot be blamed for rising sea levels and increased flooding across the globe.
David S K Ting, and Jacqueline A Stagner. Climate Change Science: Causes, Effects and Solutions for Global Warming. Elsevier, 2021. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2736493&site=eds-live&scope=site.
In this article, author, researcher, and professor at the University of Windsor David S K Ting and his colleague Jacqueline A Stagner talk about the causes of global warming. Both of these people have solid research backgrounds in turbulence and energy and go on to buttress the points they make in this article by citing previous research journals by dozens of authors. They point out there is a correlation between deforestation and climate change – this correlation is defined as highly positively correlated. They also highlight that most activities involved in urbanization directly or indirectly promote global warming. Later, the authors shift their focus from the causes to contemporary tactics employed to resist climate change. One of the most widespread tactics in the war against climate change is Integrated Coastal Management (ICM). ICM is described as processes that concentrate on “waste management, resource conservation, and better planning of infrastructure” in a way that minimizes carbon emissions. Although the researchers based their assertion that there is a correlation between deforestation and global warming using only data gotten from the city of Islamabad in Pakistan, this article will still be very useful for my research paper. It will help me develop an argument on what climate change is and make my audience aware that so many daily activities observed in society aggravate global warming and climate change.
Ede, Piers Moore. “Come hell or high water: rising sea levels and extreme flooding threaten to make the South Pacific's Tuvalu the first victim of global warming.”Alternatives Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, winter 2003, pp. 8+. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A99121626/GIC?u=tusc49521&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=bbea3dda. Accessed 11 Mar. 2023.
This article, written by renowned British author and globetrotter Piers Moore Ede, gives a rare view of global warming from its impact on the island country of Tuvalu. It takes an approach of pleading to both the minds and the hearts of its readers. It reveals that the majority of human beings are unaware of who gets harmed the most by recent climate changes – island people in the pacific. This paper’s greatest strength is highlighting the problems that arise from global warming beyond floods and rising sea levels. The author reveals that rising sea levels start a chain reaction of issues such as displacement, cultural extinction, and loss of biodiversity. It mentions that the extra issues caused by flooding and sea level rise in island nations have warranted political and legal action from some of their leaders against the nations most responsible for carbon emissions. Despite this new perspective, the argument on how the negative impacts of global warming would have been made stronger if statistics were more in the paper. Saying “increasing occurrence of cyclones and storms” does not give imagery that is as vivid as when the estimated or actual percentage increase in cyclone occurrence is given. Nevertheless, this paper will help me give specific examples of places that have experienced global-warming-induced floods. This paper will also help me to explain how quickly people’s lives change when the climate of their homes changes.
Guile, Bruce, and Raj Pandya. “Adapting to Global Warming: Four National Priorities.” Issues in Science & Technology, vol. 34, no. 4, Summer 2018, pp. 19–22. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx direct=true&db=rgm&AN=133124799&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Bruce Guile, a man with over two decades in engineering research, and Raj Pandya, director of Thriving Earth Exchange and former member of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, wrote this article like some advice for all policymakers in every nation. It talks of the effects global warming will have on political stability and policies that should be enforced in the coming decades for humanity to successfully navigate through the effects of rising sea levels. Such policies include closing the “gaps [that] exist between the way scientists think about climate adaptation and the information citizens, governments, and company leaders” are given. The authors continue to highlight the need for widespread information on the effects of global warming especially coastal flooding by saying “an explicit public discussion of different cost scenarios would help build public understanding and flesh out possible responses”. According to these authors, knowledge that “annual temperature is estimated to increase between 4.5 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit” and “average sea level rise of between 8 and 20 inches” is good. However, knowing how to abate these impacts or how to survive what cannot be abated is better. This article provides me with figures to increase the authenticity of my argument that flooding and rising sea levels should be one of the most feared consequences of global warming. It also gives a new perspective that politics is not immune to the impacts of climate change.
Takayama, Ryota, et al. “Pseudo Global Warming Experiment of Flood Inundation in the Upper White Volta River, Ghana.” Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, vol. 45, Feb.2023. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101297
This research headed by Ryota Takayama, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Niigata University, took a clinical approach to study the relationship between global warming and precipitation. Rather than just observing the natural environment, the researchers created their own environment for observation. No expense was spared in creating this anthropogenic environment: they employed “satellite detection techniques” and “synthetic aperture radar (SAR)”. The data gathered was further reinforced by theoretical analysis: “a warmer future atmosphere could hold a larger amount of water vapor, according to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, and thus potentially generate more precipitation (Held and Soden, 2006).” The weakness of the data is the fact it only simulated global warming in the White Volta River basin, Ghana. This makes the results of this research easily applicable to water surfaces but questionable to apply to terrestrial environments. However, rising sea levels are not a problem that happens on terrestrial surfaces. It happens out at sea and culminates in the recession of coastlines. Oil rigs are often out at sea; it is at sea that these oil rigs release massive amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. In my research essay, this research will be useful for me in debunking arguments that the increased sea levels observed have natural causes. It shows that something is actively making flooding worse.
Usborne, Simon. “The High Seas.” New Scientist, vol. 253, no. 3375, Feb. 2022, pp. 44–47. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(22)00342-6.
This article is by Simon Usborne, an experienced writer for The Guardian, Tatler, and the Financial Times. It is strongly based on meteorological and environmental research. It cites multiple longitudinal research such as “sea level over the past 3000 years in 24 locations”. It avoids exaggerating or euphemizing the effects of climate change by including exact figures for sea level changes. This article includes eye-opening information on the existence of issues concerning the reporting of climate changes: “IPCC has traditionally been accused by climatologists of underestimating future sea level rises”. It also highlights places where the effects of global warming must be mitigated. This article stands out in how it is one of the few that included solutions to global warming already being implemented. Though it failed to include numerical data on how much human contribution to global warming has increased over time, it covered up for that by making the reader know how the impacts of rising sea levels have progressed over time. The author makes it clear that sea levels have not dropped in any of the twenty-four locations but constantly increased. I will use this information in my research essay to emphasize that though there are efforts to mitigate climate change, the efforts are not enough. The information obtained from this article will also form the backbone for my message that collating and disseminating accurate information on climate and environmental change is necessary for avoiding improper allocation of resources by governments when they seek to tackle climate change. Accurate data is also necessary to ensure that policymakers do not assume that the same strategies that prevented sea level rise in one geographical location will work in another geographical location; there are external factors that always need to be put into consideration when tackling climate change.
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