As you navigate your way through any form of media, whether it be a news source or social media outlet, we constantly run into articles debating the current climate situation and we are flooded with information and arguments about this shift in our planet’s temperature.  And with such an influx of viewpoints, we are presented with the ultimate question: what is the root cause of this phenomenon?  There are sides that tend to argue that this phenomenon is not a phenomenon at all and that “global warming” is simply a myth, however others have begun to see it as a pressing issue that calls immediate attention. Our environment cannot simply be taken for granted, it is supposed to sustain life, but if we keep treating the Earth as a disposable wasteland, there will be a slim chance that our planet will endure for preceding generations – through thorough research and in an attempt to find an answer to this debate, I have concluded that our industrial dependence is what is fueling the rapid change in our climate.

It all started from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution: since the revolution, we have changed the way we go about our everyday lives - we were introduced to dominating industries and we witnessed an economic boom that shifted how we ran the country.  We soon began using cars and electricity, as well as producing large factories which we needed to fuel, but in order to do so we needed to further extract natural resources from the Earth, and as a result of this we have created an endless cycle of exploitation.  We soon began focusing on industrial profit and economic gain so heavily that we failed to see how it impacted our planet, “The Industrial Revolution produced wide varieties of pollutants to the water, air, and soil.  Most of these pollutants have adverse effects on many biological systems including trees, grassland, arable crops and farm animals.  Also, these severe pollutions have impact on human health and on the Earth’s climate,” (El-Nemr, pg. IX) yet, as we continue to abuse our planet’s resources, such as natural gases, our economic power and stability continue to grow and emerge.  With recent abundance in fossil fuels, such as shale gas, on the rise, we are now able to use methods such as hydrocarbon gas production in order to better export resources in the United States. Hydrocarbon gas production has begun to revolutionize how we drill for oil - not only does this process free up more oil, but it has the potential to create a significant boost in our national economy, “[production] has grown by 60 percent since 2008, climbing by three million barrels a day to more than eight million barrels a day… it will exceed its old record level of almost ten million barrels a day as the United States overtakes Russia and Saudi Arabia and becomes the world’s largest oil producer,” (Morse) proving that this method can create both sustainability and better stability for the United States.  Not to mention, this method would create purely American-based oil – meaning that it would be “drilled” here in the US by small, privately owned companies – eliminating the cost for trade and additional emissions, and with this growing production we are able to start making America a more economically independent nation.  Processes such as hydrocarbon gas production are also able to create more jobs and cut down production costs, allowing a sufficient decline in gas prices and electrical costs – saving around $30 billion annually (Morse).  And because processes such as this one have the potential to boost our economic markets, we should begin questioning whether or not these efficient advancements and economic power are coming with a price.

Even as consumers, we seem to play a role in continuing the exploitation.  We create a constant demand for fossil fuels and therefore we constantly contribute to the ongoing cycle – today fossil fuels power over 85% of the world’s energy and we continuously use it to power our homes, fuel our cars, and run our factories (Mitchell).  We have created an unhealthy dependence on fossil fuels and the energy they provide for us – soon the Earth’s resources will diminish if continue to abuse their power for monetary gain – and now that we are so reliant on their functions, it makes decreasing their use that much harder (“Our Energy Sources: Fossil Fuels”).  The amount of fossil fuels we rely on is beginning to become a problem because not only are we ignoring the fact that their supply will soon run out, but we also refuse to look at the destruction they are causing.

As a result of industry dominance and greed for profit, we continually forget to acknowledge how our exploitation affects our planet.  Recent studies and findings have begun to show how our greed for revenue has led to excess emissions of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, “The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the last 150 years,” (“Climate Change Causes: A Blanket Around the Earth”) and these gases are taking part in Earth’s global warming in recent years, “The largest known contribution comes from the burning of fossil fuel, which releases carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gases to the atmosphere,” (El-Nemr, pg. IX).  

The rising levels of gas emission is beginning to get out of hand, particularly because we are pumping more gas into the Earth’s atmosphere than it can let out, “Adding CO2 to the air is like throwing another blanket on the bed. It reduces Earth's heat radiation to space, so there's a temporary energy imbalance. More energy is coming in than going out, until Earth warms up enough to again radiate to space as much energy as it absorbs from the Sun,” (Hansen).  And although some may continue to argue that industries are not the root cause of the planet’s global temperature rise, experts, such as those from NASA, have profoundly agreed that most of the observed temperature rising was caused by humans (“Climate Change Causes: A Blanket Around the Earth”).  The most unfortunate part is that this change in our climate is beginning to impact the environment around us.  We are starting to see melting ice caps and rising sea levels in spite of this change, “…The warming of the 20th Century has contributed significantly to  the  observed  sea  level rise, through  thermal  expansion of  sea  water and widespread  loss  of land  ice,” (El-Nemr, pg. 5) however instead of rethinking the way we treat our planet we decide to use it as another way to profit economically, “The loss of sea ice that has made offshore oil exploration easier also has exposed Alaska villages to powerful storms, flooding, and coastal erosion—more than 60 feet a year in some spots. A 2009 federal report estimated that 31 Alaska villages faced “imminent threats,” (Bourne).  The more we delve into exploiting our planet the more consequences we begin to see as a result.  

As climate change fosters, we can expect to witness the most evident consequence unveil – the rise in global temperatures.  However, people tend to underestimate to what extent temperatures will increase – we are forecasted to experience a “four-degree global average temperature scenario” if we do not start cutting down emissions.  To better explain this phenomenon, researcher Alice Bows-Larkin created a scenario of the four degree centigrade in order to create a better context for the situation, “…So now put yourself in a city center… It's the hottest day that you've ever experienced. There's sun beating down, there's concrete and glass all around you. Now imagine that same day --but it's six, eight, maybe 10 to 12 degrees warmer on that day during that heat wave. That's the kind of thing we're going to experience under a four-degree global average temperature scenario,” (Bows-Larkin).  This scenario is something we would begin to see on a day-to-day basis if we continue put out the same levels of greenhouse gas emissions. What many people fail to realize is that climate change does not only entail the “global warming” factor, but it also includes more extreme weather conditions such as flooding, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and so on, and it is important to realize we have begun something that will soon be out of control, “ Ice sheets would continue to disintegrate for centuries. There would be no stable shoreline. The economic consequences are almost unthinkable. Hundreds of New Orleans-like devastations around the world,” (Hansen).  We will soon begin to see the extremes of whether and natural disasters more and more often, “Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies coastal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some regions, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of some infectious diseases. Some of these changes are already occurring,” (“How Will Global Warming Change Earth?”).  If we even look into the news today, we can even begin to notice how much more frequently we see storms happening, such as the recent influx of hurricanes along the eastern shore of the United States.  We are also often bombarded with the news of the Arctic ice caps melting, and though we choose to ignore these messages, they are bound to lead to rising sea levels and more frequent flooding, “ The problem is serious because up to 10 percent of the world’s population lives in vulnerable areas less than 10 meters (about 30 feet) above sea level,” (“How Will Global Warming Change Earth?”).  Disasters such as flooding not only impact the living conditions of humans, but they are also hitting ecosystems as well, “Warmer temperatures have already shifted the growing season in many parts of the globe.  The growing season in parts of the Northern Hemisphere became two weeks longer in the second half of the 20th century,” (“ How Will Global Warming Change Earth?”).  This could lead to a decline in our agricultural markets as seasons for growing are thrown off – our crops would have difficulty to grow and hence we would see increased sightings of food shortages.  This trend also impacts animals that work hand in hand with ecosystems such as our beloved pollinators: the bees.  If crops do not grow when they are supposed to, bees would not be able to pollinate which will hinder the survival of the crops and the bees: and ultimately us.  The arid temperatures will also begin to dry out plants and crops, causing increased risks in wildfires and further impacting growing seasons (“How Will Global Warming Change Earth?”).  As we can see, the impacts of global warming are far more severe than just an increase in temperature – we are facing a threat to our way of life.

If we as humans could start this dooming cycle of exploitation and destruction to our planet, then it can only be us who stops and mediates it.  We have to understand that in order to begin changing we must grasp how difficult decarbonizing our planet will be, “Limiting the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is a daunting task for several reasons: first, no one owns the problem, making it enormously difficult to manage; second, the large gap between the developed and the developing countries is  a  thorny issue fraught with equity and disparity problems; and third, combating  the  problem  is  likely  to  result  in real  and  immediate pain while promising speculative and distant gains, largely benefiting generations yet to be born – a classic legacy issue of unusual proportions,” (El-Nemr, pg. 160).  We have to begin considering solutions as to how to deal with this global crisis and we would have to start to learn how to compromise.  In order to avoid what Bows-Larkin calls the “four-degree global average temperature scenario,” we would have to begin cutting down fossil fuel emissions immediately.  Consider we started right now, we would have to cut emissions by 10 percent, now throw in developing countries that would be reliant on fossil fuels in order for economic growth, we would then have to cut our fossil fuel use even further, “If we're all constrained by the same amount of carbon budget, that means that if some parts of the world's emissions are needing to rise, then other parts of the world's emissions need to reduce,” (Bows-Larkin) and if we wait any longer, we would have to make much more drastic implementations.   Unfortunate enough as it is, using purely renewable energy sources would not be able to sufficiently supply and sustain enough energy to meet our demands, “energy from wind [blows] 30-35% of the time, solar energy [is] available in the northeast only 13-15% of the time, and, wave/tidal current sources only reaches full output capacity for a few hours each day,” (Mitchell).  On top of that, many of these forms of renewable energy are quite costly and require a lot of time and effort – we would have to set up many manufacturing farms in order to make them sufficient, replace trees and crops for renewable energy sources such as wood and biomass energy, and make sure that none of these sources hinder the environment around them.  Not to mention, most of them rely purely on the weather, which has a tendency to be a little unpredictable at times (“Case Study: Changing Energy Use in UK”).  So in order to integrate more renewable energy sources and create an easier way for them to produce enough energy to power everything we use day-to-day, we would have to start conserving energy and limiting how much we use in order to make it easier in the long run, “as we continue to roll out the supply-side technology, we will have less of a job to do if we’ve actually managed to reduce our energy consumption, because we will then need less infrastructure on the supply side,” (Bows-Larkin).  We are extremely dependent on energy and for a wealthy and well-developed nation to have to cut down on energy use it would take some getting used to. On the bright side, in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, we have already begun using renewable energy in many ways: we can see solar panels and wind turbines in use to power electricity, and countries such as New Zealand and Iceland have been able to use geothermal energy successfully, all it takes is perseverance (“Case Study: Changing Energy Use in UK”).  

One of the hardest parts to grasp about conserving energy and implementing different approaches to how we handle emissions, is that we actually have to change, “This is a really difficult message to take, because what it suggests is that we really need to do things differently. This is not about just incremental change. This is about doing things differently, about whole system change,” (Bows-Larking).  We cannot simply expect the world to “decarbonize” itself without help from us.  We were the ones who began exploiting the Earth for its natural resources and using those resources to fuel our every day activities, so we have to be the ones to give back to our planet and preserve its natural state.  Ultimately, the only solution to resolving this crisis is being aware of our habits and changing the way we live.   
