G lobal warming is impacting the entire world with its heat waves, severe droughts, and other dangerous effects. The average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in history over the past 50 years, and is continuing to accelerate. Thousands of people have already died worldwide due to extreme heat waves, and Antarctica is losing billions of metric tons of ice yearly. Recent studies have proven that the average temperature in the United States is likely to increase by 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next one hundred years. Because of this drastic change in temperature, droughts and wildfires will intensify.
Global warming is caused by air pollutants and greenhouse gases collecting in the atmosphere and absorbing sunlight and radiation. This radiation would normally escape to space, but contaminants trap the heat in the planet. The most significant source of heat-trapping pollution in the United States is the burning of fossil fuels in order to make electricity. Power plants that burn coal are by far the biggest polluters, accounting for 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emission as of 2011.
With global warming comes environmental, economic, and health issues. Examples include the increased speed of glacier recession, which causes rising sea levels that lead to coastal flooding; and severe droughts that cause water shortages and fires across western America. Coral bleaching results from warmer water temperatures that stress the coral, causing them to turn white after expelling the algae living in their tissues. Because of this, many plant and animal species that rely on coral reefs as habitats face extinction. Allergies, asthma, and other diseases will also become more common because of air pollution, and the growth of ragweed, a plant that is the prime source of allergies in North America, is increasing.
However, the United States is making efforts to prevent global warming. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency pledged to reduce pollution from power plants. The U.S. Department of Transportation has introduced carbon pollution and fuel economy standards that will reduce emissions throughout the 2020s. Chemicals contributing to global warming, such as CFCs, and energy inefficient items are banned. The United States also met with 194 other countries at the United Nations Conference in Paris, where they agreed to take on provisions that will cut pollution.
In the future, droughts and heat waves will continue, frost-free seasons will elongate, and hurricanes will grow stronger. Droughts and heat waves all over the world are expected to intensify and last for longer periods of time, while cold waves will weaken and shorten. Summer temperatures will continue to rise, and there will be a loss of moisture in the soil. Since the 1980s, the length of the frost-free season has been increasing in the United States, affecting ecosystems and agriculture. Along with frost-free seasons, the intensity of hurricanes have been growing since the 1980s. The contribution of human and natural causes is still uncertain, but hurricane-associated storm intensity and rainfall rates are expected to increase as the climate continues to warm. Overall, a future clouded by the harsh effects of global warming seems bleak.
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