Many individuals are aware of the term global warming. Whether they hear about it from the news, or just personally witness the unusual climate changes occurring around them, they encounter small impacts of global warming daily. However, most do not understand just how serious of an issue global warming actually is. When talking about global warming, scientists are speaking of the global warming emissions that are on a constant rise. These emissions cause various problems. One of the problems is global sea levels increasing. Since 1880, the sea level has increased 8 inches (Global Warming Impacts). While this may not seem like a great amount, this increase causes a higher risk of flooding to coastal and low-lying properties.
Another problem is rising temperatures. Global warming emissions destroy the protective barrier between the earth’s surface and the intense heat given off by the sun. These increasing temperatures cause forests to be hotter and drier for longer periods of time. This then results in a longer forest fire season for the western United States. Also, it can lead to increased drought periods in many parts of the world. This not only limits the drinking water supply, which people need to live and survive, but it destroys crops that don’t get an adequate amount of water. It also can put an increased pressure on pumping the ground water supply, since there is little to no rain water to replenish it.
Most people, including myself, enjoy watching the seasons change. However, with the increasing global warming conditions, the seasons are changing more rapidly and the fall and winter months are being cut shorter in length. According to the article Global Warming Impacts, spring arrives on average 10 days earlier in the northern hemisphere then it used to (Global Warming Impacts). This is causing the snow to melt more rapidly and raise the water levels in the oceans and seas. With the cold months cut shorter, there is less time for the cold weather to regulate viruses. For instance, mosquito’s carry many types of blood viruses, such as Zika. Without the cold winter months, mosquitoes are not controlled as they should be, and it is more likely for these viruses to spread.
Now that some of the global warming effects have been discussed in greater length, we need to understand what causes these effects. Most people know that it can be caused by an unnatural rise in carbon monoxide emissions or other hazardous materials being disposed of improperly. However, what they may not know is that globalization is a leading cause in the rise of global warming emissions. Globalization is the act of businesses operating on a worldwide spectrum, and is possible through the implementation of trade agreements. While this may be beneficial for the business or company due to expansion, and increasing profits, most of the time it is not beneficial to help on cutting back on global warming. There are different ways as to how, but all-in-all it leads to an unnatural increase in carbon monoxide emissions.
One way this is possible is through transportation. With businesses operating on a global level there is more demand for travel and transportation. If the business is a service business, some of the time the companies must have employees travel from one location to another for various reasons. These employees normally travel by use of trains, planes, buses or automobiles. All the listed modes of transportation for travel give off carbon monoxide emissions, through the use of gas or diesel, which are types of fossil fuels. More common, however, is for production businesses and companies to transport goods or products. They may transport whole products to be sold through retailers or parts of products for production to be completed of the whole product. Goods and products are typically transported with the use of boats, airplanes, trucks, and sometimes trains. Once again, all of these types of transportation give off the harmful emissions (OECD (2013).
Another way this is possible is through politics. Since globalization means that businesses operate in multiple countries, they are able to work around global warming regulations to cut costs. Many production businesses produce some type of waste. This waste could be hazardous or it could just be something that decomposes over time. Regardless of what type it is, most waste gives off carbon monoxide emissions. Along with this, different countries have different regulations in an effort to cut back on global warming effects, although some countries regulations are stricter than others. For example, the regulations could be how to dispose of the waste or how much they are able to dispose of in a given period of time. It could also be how much emissions they are able to release into the atmosphere for industrial plant companies. Many global companies look at these regulations and go to the areas that have less strict regulations to help cut costs of disposal and not have to find another alternative for the disposal of their waste. This then allows the business to pollute more than they should be able to and causes carbon monoxide emissions to increase greatly (OECD (2013).
Through globalization, companies are trying to expand their business and increase profits by cutting costs. However, globalization is costing more than it is worth with the negative effects that it produces on global warming. Globalization gives a direct correlation to increasing carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to the negative effects of things such as rising temperatures. While globalization can have benefits to businesses and the environment in other ways, we must be mindful and conservative of its impact. Global warming is on a continuous rise and globalization will continue to effect it.
Works Cited
“Global Warming Impacts.” Union of Concerned Scientists. Union of Concerned Scientists, n.d. Web. 09 May 2017.
OECD (2013), “What is the impact of globalisation on the environment?”, in Economic Globalisation: Origins and consequences, OECD Publishing, Paris.