The effects of global warming can be seen worldwide. The effects can be seen in temperatures, agriculture, and many others that are being negatively affected by global warming. To understand how global warming negatively impacts the environment, the root of the problem must first be found. Many theories are used to explain the global warming phenomenon. Some people say it is the earth's natural cycle of going through its phases. Humans just so happen to live in the time of earth's warming up. Although this theory sounds plausible, it is not supported by enough scientific data. The theory that is supported with a lot of scientific evidence is that global warming is caused by human activities. Activities includes the burning of fossil fuels, raising livestock, and many others are contributing to earth being heated up at an unprecedented rate. The scientific data from human's carbon footprint and use of natural resources has built up a case supporting that humans are indeed the contributing a significantly to global warming. If these activities are not reduced, then global warming would continue at its current rate, if not faster, which would threaten the chances of humans survival by decreasing land size, change weather patterns, and shortage of food and water.

One of the effects of global warming is the decreasing of land size as a result of sea levels rising. The sea levels are rising due to the fact that ice caps are melting due to the rise in temperature from global warming. The water that results from the melting of the ice caps has no other place to go but into the ocean. The ocean has no room other than to invade the space of coastal lands. These effects can be measured scientifically, and the data supports that coastal land are indeed getting smaller. Peter M. Vitousek, a professor at Stanford University in the Biological Sciences Department, details the importance of land to human's survival by saying, "human land use/land cover change has transformed one-third to one-half of Earth's ice-free surface" (Vitousek). If approximately a half of the world's land has been used by humans in some way, imagine all the agricultural lands and architectures that would be underwater from the rise in sea levels. It took many years to achieve these feats, and it will all be wiped out if humans do not stop doing activities that are contributing to global warming. Also carbon emission is one of the biggest culprit of speeding up global warming. More carbon released into the atmosphere results in a warmer temperature by trapping heat on earth and not letting it escape. Lands near urban areas are more vulnerable to warm up faster because scientists say, "these areas are already near the threshold to begin with due to their heat-retaining thermal properties" (Conlon). Urban areas has a lot of buildings built closely to each other. This result in an insulation like area that keeps heat in. Also all the vehicles emitting carbon contributes to urban land area being one of the earliest victim to global warming. Humans need land for cities and ports. This is not to say cities and carbon use should be stopped altogether, rather it should be use in a conservative way. If global warming is not contained, its effect would wipe out these precious land and human ability to survive.

Another effect of global warming on human survival is the change in weather patterns. If global warming continues at its current rate then more drought is going to be expected. Droughts are already popping up regularly in the present. Scientist are citing countries that suffer from severe drought as an example of the difficulties of living in one. Droughts affects the amount of crops that can be grown, and the amount of fresh water supply there is. An experiment was carried out in Houston, Texas by a team of scientist to map out future weather conditions there. They used a land surface model (LSM) simulation to show that, "extreme heat events in the United States are projected to become more frequent and intense as a result of climate change" (Conlon). The LSM simulations uses past data with current ones to map out what might happen in the future. The prediction from the simulation in Houston, Texas was that in the year 2040 extreme heat is going to occur more frequently. This result can be applied to places similar places or the states around Texas to study climate change. Areas near the equator that already experiences hot weather, cannot withstand any more increasing temperature. It would be fine if the temperature was increasing at a moderate rate, because human would be able to adapt and change with the temperature. The problem is that temperature are not increasing slowly, rather it is increasing rapidly. It would be impossible to live in such extreme conditions. The rise in temperature due to global warming would also effect the health of the public. Prolong exposure to elevated temperature can result in heat stroke and dehydration. The human body would not be able to function properly due to it is not able to adapted that quickly to such a drastic increase in temperature. The survival of humans is deeply connected to the temperature around us. The moderate temperature not only keeps human alive but plants and animals too. Reptiles for example are cold blooded. Their body temperature are regulated by the temperature outside. Too extreme of a temperature would kill it. Some reptiles are essential in the food chain and keeps populations of other animals under control. If one population of food chain regulating reptiles dies off, there would certainly be an overpopulation of another. Global warming shows how humans and weathers are interconnected, and that it is impossible for humans or animals to survive in extreme conditions.

The last effect of global warming is the decrease in food and water. These two resources are the most basic needs for human survival. Without food and water every living species would not be able to survive. As discussed in the previous paragraph, the decreasing land size and changes in weather directly correlates with less food and water production. Global warming is decreasing crop productions and the drying up of fresh water resources. This is concerning because human's food comes from crops or livestock grown on farms. Farms need land for production to meet the demands of the consumers. With the human population also growing at an unprecedented rate, more farm land would be created to support it. With evidence showing that available fertile lands are being covered up by the rising sea levels, global warming is directly effecting the food supply. On the other hand, raising livestock is also contributing to global warming. The livestock industries causes deforestation and land grazing of livestock contributes to inequalities in the environment. A group of scientists characterizes the livestock industries as, "among the most ecologically harmful of all anthropogenic activities" (Abbasi). There is a direct competition between livestock and humans for lands for food and water. Adding to this fact is global warming is decreasing these vital resources. A theory is being discussed about the possibility of instead of raising livestock, insects should replace them. Most of the nutrient we get out of eating meat is protein. The theory goes, why not change our diet to insects which also contains protein. Thus raising livestock that requires huge amount of resources would be replaced with smaller farms of insects. Scientist coins this theory as "minilivestock" (Abbasi). This idea sounds plausible, but it will be hard for people that ate meat all their lives to suddenly change their diet to insects. Although it may sound disgusting eating insects, there are people in different countries that eat insects as a delicacy. Switching to "minilivestock" farming would greatly reduce the competition for land and water. Humans would not have to devote as much resources to raising the insects. This would be an unusual but effective way of countering the effect of global warming. Since global warming is depleting our food supply needed for our survival, any different kinds of innovations would help human survival rate go up if it reduces global warming.

Global warming is effecting practically all aspect of human life. It is a never ending cycle of the destruction of the environment if not kept in check, and it might end up with the extinction of not only humans but all living species. Global warming is causing lands to be submerge under the growing ocean levels, hotter weathers, and loss of food and water. These are all vital components of what sustains human's survival, and the loss of any of these would guarantee humans would not be able to survive the effects of global warming.

