What is global warming and how is it effecting earth? Global warming is when the climate changes in temperatures and weather patterns. The shifts in weather patterns and temperature are common however, since the 1800s human activities have been the main cause of climate change. You might be asking yourself how are we as humans contributing to climate change. There are many ways that we contribute to weather change such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas which produces heat, because these things produce heat earth is getting warmer. someone once asked me why is the earth getting warmer a problem? I found it crazy that they asked me this but I went on to tell them that the warmer the world gets the more problems it creates for us and animals. I came across some New York Times articles that go into further explanation of why global warming is not safe and why we should be doing everything in our power to try limit unnatural climate changes. The articles that I came across are “five takeaways from the U.N report on limiting global warming”, ” who’s most responsible for global warming”, and the final article that I came across was ” Scientist predicted widespread extinction by global warming” All these articles helped me understand global warming better so lets walk through each of them.

The first article ” Five takeaways from the U.N report on limiting global warming” helped me understand why this topic is so important. The opening of this article states that “nations are not doing enough to prevent global warming from increasing to dangerous levels within the lifetimes of most people on earth today”, according to new report by the international panel on climate change, a group of researchers conveyed by the United nations. They go on to explain that limiting the devastation won’t be easy, however it is possible. One of the topics of this article that really stood out to me was when they spoke about how much trouble we are heading towards if we do not take action quickly. As I was reading this there were some interesting facts about the increasing temperature. They stated that ” Nations current pledges to curb greenhouse-gas  emissions most likely will not stop global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, within the next few decades.” Even through they started trying to limit global warming it is still spreading fast, 2.7 degrees may not seem like a lot but think about that number increasing every few decades, eventually that number will add up. Going forward I read that there are multiple ways that we can limit global warming without spending a lot of money, even though I think the government should spend money to protect our planet. Some ways we can limit global warming are more recycling and more white collar work going remote and virtual, Better public transit and more walkable urban areas have benefits for air pollution and overall well being according to Joyashree Roy who is an economist at the Asian Institute of Technology.  Based on the ways Joyashree explained there is no excuse why we can’t help limit global warming, it does not cause a lot of money its literally just doing the right thing.

The second article I came across was ” Who’s Most Responsible for Global Warming” This was my favorite article because I wanted to know what places in the world barely attempt to limit global warming and my findings were shocking. The article stated that todays highly industrialized economies the United States and Europe got a big head start on burning fossil fuels. The United Stated pumped more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other nation between 1850 and 2014. The European Union, including Britain, was the second largest source of fossil fuel emissions over that period. The United States did not surprise me as I was reading this data. what surprised me most was the last place that they brought up. The last place they brought up was China. The article stated that China is the biggest emitter of today by a mile. In 2014, China released 10.3 billion metric tons of  carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and industry, The United States burned more than 5.2 billion metric tons that year. Which means that China managed to double that number. Although China does most of the damage today, the United States still caused the most damage overall. In 2014 the average American was responsible for more than twice as much carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Imagine how much people would help the world if this statistic was cut in half. I did some further research and found out that the United States was responsible for twenty-seven percent of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions. That much carbon pollution over the course of 150 –  160 years is sill with us today and is still determining our future.

The final article that I read about was ” Scientist Predict Widespread Extinction by Global Warming” I think this is the most important topic yet since it is concerning the well being of animals. A group of international scientist that analyze research around the world, have concluded that a warming climate will rival habitat destruction in prompting widespread  extinctions in the century. By the year 2050, scientist say that if the current global warming trend continues 15 to 37 percent of the 1,103 species they studied will be doomed. Even though the scientist did not predict the extinction of species worldwide the sample they had showed that climate change could be disastrous. Researchers used predictions of increased temperature ranging from mild to extreme and applied three different methods for predicting extinction, all based on the relationship of species disappearance to the loss of a livable habitat. They also considered two different possibilities for gauging how well the different species would be able to disperse as temperatures at home became uncomfortable. Scientist attribute to emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases  in the burning of fossil fuels presents a ” very serious risk to huge number of species and at least ranks alongside habitat destruction” as a threat. This just goes to show that not only can contributing to global warming hurt us, but it hurts the living conditions of animals in their natural habitat. We should not only think of ourselves when it comes to this topic but we should think about the earth and animals.

In conclusion Global Warming is a topic that everyone should take serious and try to limit. Do not contribute to the destruction of the planet. There are many ways that we can help limit global warming such as driving less, recycling more, lesser burning of fossil fuels, and one of the most important ones planting more trees instead of trying to destroy them. Help save our environment.