In this blog post, we will look at the main causes of global warming, such as the increase in greenhouse gases and deforestation caused by industrialization, and the various threats that humanity and the natural environment face as a result.
According to climatology, global warming refers to the phenomenon of rising temperatures near the surface of the Earth. The term “global warming” used today refers to the rise in temperature caused by the increase in greenhouse gases due to the effects of industrialization that began in the 1970s.
The reasons for global warming can be largely divided into natural causes and human industrial activities. First, let’s look at the natural causes of global warming. It takes a long time of research and observation to identify the natural causes, but it is difficult to fully identify them as it has been less than 40 years since the international community recognized the problem of global warming. Although the research period is short, the results so far suggest that changes in the Earth’s axis of rotation affect its orbit, changing the area exposed to solar energy and contributing to global warming. The types of gases emitted during volcanic eruptions and the scale of the eruptions can also affect global warming. There is some controversy over the claim that changes in solar activity increase the average global temperature.
The causes mentioned in the previous paragraph are only secondary factors, and according to research so far, human activities are the biggest cause of global warming. The anthropogenic factors are largely divided into the increase in greenhouse gas concentration due to industrial development and the slowdown in the greenhouse gas purification process due to indiscriminate forest destruction. First, let’s look at the process of increasing greenhouse gases due to industrial development. Since the Industrial Revolution, the use of fossil fuels has increased dramatically, and the concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane has increased, accelerating global warming. In the process of obtaining energy by burning fossil fuels, carbon-containing fossil fuels react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide. Furthermore, the use of automobiles has increased dramatically as various modes of transportation have developed, which has had a significant impact on the increase in greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases originally play a necessary role in keeping the Earth’s temperature warm, but as their concentration has increased rapidly, part of the solar radiation energy is not escaping into the atmosphere, causing the average global temperature to rise abnormally.
In addition, the way land was used changed rapidly around the 1970s. Until the 1960s, the land that was mainly used for growing crops was cleared of forests due to changes in land use caused by industrial development. For example, a large part of the Amazon forest, known as the “lungs of the earth,” has already been lost. The reason why we are paying attention to this change in land use is that plants and trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, during photosynthesis and convert it into oxygen. When forests disappear, it is not just that carbon dioxide is simply eliminated, but the concentration of greenhouse gases increases as photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into oxygen, decreases.
As a result of this rapid industrial development and indiscriminate land development, global warming has reached a serious level. Global warming is threatening human life in three major ways, beyond simply making life uncomfortable due to rising temperatures. First, let’s look at changes in topography. Global warming has been progressing faster in high latitudes than in low latitudes. In particular, as warming is progressing rapidly at high latitudes, the sea level is rising due to the melting of glaciers in that region. As a result, one-third of the many coral reef islands in the Pacific Ocean are expected to be submerged. In fact, two islands located in Sundarbans Natural Park in India, which is of great cultural heritage value worldwide, have been submerged due to rising sea levels.
Second, natural disasters caused by global warming are serious. As global average temperatures rise, sea surface temperatures also increase, and the energy stored in the ocean increases, making typhoons and hurricanes stronger. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the intensity of typhoons and hurricanes has increased by about 50% since the 1970s. In fact, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,500 people and displaced 800,000 people in New Orleans, USA. In Korea, too, Typhoon Rusa caused property damage of over $3.6 billion in 2002, and Typhoon Maemi caused damage equivalent to 1% of Korea’s GDP in 2003. As sea surface temperatures, which have the greatest impact on the strength of typhoons, are rising, large-scale typhoons are expected to occur more frequently in the future. Although precipitation has increased overall due to global warming, there are large differences depending on the region. While there is flooding and damage in one part of the world, precipitation is decreasing in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, and southern Africa, and Lake Chad in central Africa has dried up. When the temperature rises, it can cause heavy rainfall due to the evaporation of seawater, but it can also promote desertification by evaporating moisture from the soil.
Finally, in addition to the loss of islands due to desertification or rising sea levels, global warming has a serious impact on ecosystems and human health. As global average temperatures rise, plants and animals are gradually moving to higher altitudes, and wildlife is facing extinction due to environmental changes. Extinction of a species does not simply mean the extinction of an individual, but it affects the entire food chain, which in turn has a negative impact on humans. Furthermore, rapid temperature changes pose a direct threat to human health. According to the WHO, the number of deaths caused by heat waves and droughts is increasing, and the problem of water shortages is expected to become more serious. As the temperature rises, the range of habitat for disease-causing bacteria and insects that transmit them will expand, and the number of deaths is expected to increase. In fact, the number of mosquitoes has increased in Africa over the past 30 years as temperatures have risen steadily, leading to an increase in the incidence of malaria.
Global warming is currently much more serious than we realize. To solve this problem, the international community is making efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through agreements. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which are the cause of climate change, and was officially adopted at the 1992 Rio Environment Conference. However, this agreement was a simple mutual commitment and was not binding, so the Kyoto Protocol was signed to supplement it. The Kyoto Protocol is a practical agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, and it aims to reduce emissions by an average of 5.2% compared to the 1990s for developed countries that led the industrial revolution in the past. Looking at the trends in international climate change negotiations, developed countries have set targets of reducing emissions by 25-40% compared to 1990 and developing countries have set targets of reducing emissions by 15-30% compared to business-as-usual (BAU) in order to limit the rise in temperature to within 2 degrees.
Considering the seriousness of global warming, immediate reduction policies are needed, as well as adaptation policies to prepare for the problems that have already occurred and the ones that will intensify in the future. The environment is not exclusive to humans, and we must solve the problem of global warming for the sake of our descendants.
