Engineering – Climate Change And Global Warming Essay Sample

What should we do in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change? How can international co-operation be achieved?
Contrary to what most people know, there are, in fact, many ways to solve global warming and one of its major complications which is climate change. There are currently three possible lines of actions that humans can take in order to counter the effects of climate changes, perhaps even the theoretically irreversible ones. One of which is through mitigation. Any course of action that aims to reduce the overall rate of greenhouse gas emissions, either in a community, or in an entire country, can be considered as a mitigation strategy. The same principle may also be applied to strategies that aim to increase the ability of the atmosphere to absorb greenhouse gases without actually causing damage to the ozone layer. Because the world economy is highly motivated by capitalist ideas, it only makes sense to think that international cooperation may only be achieved if there would be economic and or financial incentives associated with these mitigation strategies.

What causes climate change? Discuss the scientific theories behind climate change and global warming.

The main scientific cause of climate change that apparently a lot of scientists and academic literatures support is the proliferation of greenhouse gases in earth’s atmosphere. The reason those gases that proliferate In the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases is because of the fact that they facilitate a greenhouse-like reaction in the atmosphere by preventing the heat generated by both human and natural activities (e.g. sunlight) from being dispersed into outer space, which is what should normally happen, leading to a supposedly continuous cycle of heat absorption and heat dissipation. During global warming, this normal continuous process gets disturbed. The heat inflow and production greatly outperforms the ability of the planet to dissipate or release heat towards the outer space. The end result is a net increase in the earth’s base temperature every year. As the ability of the earth to dissipate heat gets weaker,

How Changes in Climate May Affect at Least Two Aspects of the Engineering Profession in the Future

One way how climate change can directly affect the field of engineering in the future is by means of dictating the right type of building that would support the same level of productivity or efficiency but with significantly less amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted as a waste product of whatever the infrastructure has produced. In the case of factories, engineers may soon be required by the government to follow certain standards when it comes to the environmental friendliness of the construction materials, procedures, and even the maintenance and operation of the building after its construction has already been finished In some countries, for example, building owners receive certain grants or incentives often in the form of reimbursements and tax exemptions, from the government in exchange for their participation in its (the government) anti-global warming efforts and programs.
Another aspect in the field of engineering that may be a result of the currently global phenomenon that is climate change would be the field of climate engineering. The truth is that the establishment of this relatively new field under the larger umbrella of engineering would not be possible if we do not currently face climate change. Climate engineering focuses on making large scale changes on earth’s otherwise natural climactic system, with an ultimate goal of reducing global warming. Climate engineering strategies may be based on strategies that aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and those that are aimed to reduce or manage the amount of radiation and thus heat that the earth receives from its normal exposure to the sun.
These two aspects are just some of the many ones that can be affected directly or indirectly by the ongoing global warming phenomenon and its major effect that is climate change.

Health Issues Associated with Climate Change

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “climate change, together with other natural and human man-made health stressors, influences human health and disease in numerous ways” . Some of the major health effects of climate change on human health according to the same source include but may not be limited to following: heat-related illness and death, cardiovascular failures, injuries, fatalities, and mental health impacts, asthma, cardiovascular diseases; proliferation of malaria, dengue, encephalitis, viruses; respiratory allergies, asthma, cholera, malnutrition, diarrheal disease, and forced migration, and mental health impacts.
According to the World Health Organization, on the other hand, “the direct damage costs to health (i.e. excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between 2 to 4 billion USD per year by the year 2030” . These figures only show how significant climate change can affect the ongoing health issues in a negative way and possible create new ones. As the earth becomes hotter and hotter every year that the net heat dissipation into outer space is negative (i.e. more heat enters and gets produced inside the atmosphere than the heat that gets expelled), life cycle of organisms in the planet gets changed too. Prevalence of skin cancers and other heat-related or heat-exacerbated conditions, for example, goes higher. Treating of those diseases costs the government a significant amount of money every year, which is why the WHO said that health costs related to global warming are expected to dramatically increase over the next two decades. If national governments still do nothing to address the situation, then global warming and the health issues associated with it would only get worse.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Climate Effects on Health." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014).
WHO. "Climate Change and Health." World Health Organization (2014).