Nature

The entire worlds geoscientists and even non-scientists alike have increasingly focused their attention on the issue of global warming in the last century. Political leaders of diverse countries across the globe also seem to be overly disturbed about this contemporary environmental harm to our planet. Most particularly, these leaders are the former American Vice-President (Al Gore) who has researched extensively into this universal problem. The reason behind this swell in concern is connected with the alarming rate at which this global warming is incessantly increasing. Over the last century, the global temperature has been recorded to have an average increase of   0.75 degrees. The natural question that comes to mind at this juncture is what is responsible for this global warming The world body on the issue of climate change has put the major cause as diverse human activities. At least 90 of the cause comes from our activities (Rosenthal, 2007).

Human activities in this context have been explained by scientists as the human acts of burning fossil fuel such as coal and oil, burning forest and other agricultural practices, other emissions of toxic and heated gases to the atmosphere.  What this invariably means is that it is human himself that is destroying the nature he claims to love so much, for there has been no proof whatsoever that there are other natural forces that are responsible for global warming.    

Global warming is irresponsible for heating up the climate, destroying the ozone layer, which protects from the direct radiation of the Sun on the Earths surface. I have personally chosen the word irresponsible simply because this act has enormous consequence to the entire universe. Global warming has been defined by geoscientists as the observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earths atmosphere and oceans. It is the continuous rise in Earths average temperature over the years (Rosenthal, 2007).

Effects of Global Warming
Researches have proven that there has been a gradual increase in the number of worlds storms, hurricanes, cyclones etc. Scientists claim that this is inversely connected to the continuous global warming. In the recent past, America, Asia and some other parts of the world witnessed storms and hurricanes believed to be an aftermath of global warming. Other effects of global warming on climate include increases in water and air temperatures, reduced days of frost, frequent rise in sea level, reduction in snow cover,  prolonged ice-free period on rivers and lakes to mention few. Global warming has been said to also affect the composition of the air in the atmosphere for the atmospheric carbon dioxide has been noticed to be on the increase, the continuous rise in temperature is directly increasing the concentration of not only carbon dioxide but also methane, and other gases. As there is a connection in the air composition and the climate, the climate witnesses changes in the air composition, creating a chain reaction.

These climate changes include droughts and other extreme weather conditions, change in arctic temperatures and broad changes in precipitation amounts, all of which may lead to some species extinctions and reduction in agricultural yields, which is indeed a great adverse effect on the future of Earth.

Observation
Global warming is predominantly caused by the human persistence in interference with the atmosphere. The planet will thus continue to witness environmental transformation until adequate counter-measures are taken. Out of all, the effects of global warming, such as increases in the Earth temperature have received much attention in the recent past. This is perhaps because increase in temperature is a more conspicuous effect on humans. Over the last decades, the temperature of the earth surface has almost doubled compared to the early nineteenth centurys. Research proved that the lower troposphere temperatures have increased above 0.25F per decade since 1979. Before the advent of human emission of greenhouse gases, over a hundred years ago late in the nineteenth century, temperature has been observed to be relatively stable. Scientists across the globe have claimed 2005 to be the warmest year in the recent past, slightly exceeding the former record observed in the year 1998 by some hundredths of degree.

This change in temperature is not peculiar to America or Asia alone, it is a global issue. However, it varies across the globe. The increase in the rate of ocean temperature has been observed to be half of that of the land. This is simply because the ocean has the capacity to lose heat through water evaporation and other efficient heat capacity. Again, the Southern Hemisphere is usually slower to warm than the Northern Hemisphere because, the Northern Hemisphere has more land and more areas of seasonal snow and sea-ice cover. The slow response of the oceans to temperature change means the that climate can possibly take several centuries or even more to adjust to normal, thus even if there is a stoppage of emission of  greenhouse gases, the earth would still experience a continuous warming of almost 0.9F.

It has been established that our present sources of energy and their usage are quite harmful in the long term both to the earth and to the entire humanity.  Our ecology is presently at great risk, due to nothing but the adverse changes in climate condition, a result of emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This global warming will persist if humans continue their activities with fossil fuel and deforestation without control. Even if the emission stops, global warming will persist after 2100, simply because of the relatively long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and high heat capacity of the oceans.
Solution

Today, concerted efforts have been put in place to improve energy efficiency and also reduce the carbon intensity of the world economy.  The world has become fully aware of the need to stop the emission of these gases immediately.  Scientists have not only confirmed anthropogenic global warming, but have vehemently urged the nations of the world to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The nations behind this massive motion are both developed and developing nations. Three of major developing countries involved are Brazil, China and India, which are coincidentally the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world. This current global response to climate change stresses the need for the world to take immediate action due to the nature of this problem. Essentially, the world leaders have pushed an agreement on the immediate reductions of emission of greenhouse gases in order to combat adverse consequences of anthropogenic climate change.

The worlds scientists have decried the continuous lack of control of greenhouse gas emissions. They claim it must be reduced considerably as soon as possible. The unanimous agreement among geoscientists in the world on global temperature has provoked serious attention of several organizations, nations, states, and individuals. Several responses to global warming claim the problem can be resolved in the following ways
Mitigation

This is the means of reducing emissions during the processing of our energy sources, due to the general agreement reached by diverse governing bodies.  All have agreed that the release in greenhouse gases should be reduced drastically. Scientists claim that mitigation will gradually slowdown the rate of global warming, for the temperatures will noticeably decrease only after several centuries. Treaties have been reached on the emission of these gases, with over 160 countries involved. Several environmental committees encourage concerted effort against global warming, regulating the production of fossil fuel across the globe. In the early days of 2005, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme was established in Europe. In 2008, Australia also commissioned its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Adaptation

Since global warming is not a problem that can be instantly resolved, several scientific bodies have claimed that the most effective way of solving the impact of global warming is by the means of adaptive measures. They have hence suggested several measures for the world to adapt to global warming. These measures include installation of air-conditioning equipment, quitting projects in areas threatened by occasional rise in sea level. Other methods to adapt to it include conservation of water and construction of flood preventive facilities, adaptive agricultural practices, protection of the worlds threatened species, water rationing, adaptive medical care and lots more. There have been several publications on the adaptive measure to the global warming.

Geoengineering
This is yet another medium of solving the problem of global warming. It simply means the act of considerably redesigning the Earths natural environment for the purpose of suiting the human needs. A ready example of this is the gas remediation of the greenhouse. This cleanses the atmosphere of the greenhouse gases, using carbon sequestration techniques, which capture carbon dioxide in the air. Another method is solar radiation management, which reduces absorbed solar radiation in the air. However, there are yet to appear noticeable and tangible geoengineering projects across the globe.

Summarily, global warming has been a problem that has persisted in the past centuries. The effects are quite adverse to both human beings and the Earth itself. The effects include adverse climatic condition, extinction of some species, rise in sea level, increase in temperature of soil and several other adverse effects. However, human beings are the reason behind this global warming through such their activities as burning of fossil fuel and deforestation. Solutions to this problem are not far fetched, for the problem can be simply resolved by quitting the emission of these heat-up gases. However, humans have persisted to indulge in such activities. It has been observed that our sources of energy supply pose to be harmful to us in the long run and alternative energies have been suggested.

Finally, the researches conducted on global warming have received much publicity and has thus generated both political and economic debates across the globe. The rich countries in the world have since commenced intensive measures against this problem, but the poor African countries are still far behind in this combat against it.