The changes in Earth’s weather patterns as a result of global warming can be noticed all over the globe. Many of these changes have never been seen or experienced before, are causing profound effects on humans. Global warming has a cyclical effect on our environment. As the Earth is warmed from the increasing presence of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere, this causes glaciers to melt which raises sea levels worldwide. Also, global warming causes the permafrost to melt, which releases vast stores of methane gas, thus further enhancing climate change. Human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels since the start of the Industrial Revolution have increased atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations. There are several “natural” causes of global warming, which humans are not directly responsible for, such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, etc. which release large amounts of methane gas and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. So, global warming is taking place, and unless we change our habits and our dependence on fossil fuels our planet will become permanently altered even further. The government, international/national organisations, state and local governments, large and small industry and businesses, non-governmental organisations, and individuals need to make concerted effort to educate the public, children and youth to combat the problem of global warming and climate change, as it can exacerbate the damage both to the natural world and to human communities. Thus, effective policies are essential if reduction of global warming is to be brought under control and reducing the carbon footprint and promoting environmental care. To arrive at global solutions, it is necessary to address human attitudes and behaviour towards environment. Hence, focusing on sustainability is the only way forward as it will help to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own goals (United Nations, 1987). Global warming and climate change refer to an increase in average global temperatures. These phenomena have been occurring since the beginning, as there have been periods of heating and cooling of Earth’s atmosphere. It can be described as a struggle between human progress (in the form of industrialization, population increase, and economic growth) and nature, which will not only affected the atmosphere and the sea but also the geology of the Earth. As predicted by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Earth’s mean temperature has already increased by 0.6°C in the 20th century (IPCC 2013). The emissions of carbon dioxide due to the excessive use of fossil energy will change the climate and will result in increased temperature up to 3°C. It might be accompanied by an increase of extreme climatic events, and alteration of global precipitation patterns.
Gary Austin is the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University; he has been on the faculty at Wesleyan for more than 40 years. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1975. Austin’s current research concerns the behavior of extreme weather events in a changing climate, especially heat waves, intense precipitation, drought and tropical cyclones. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He was selected by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2012. He made Bloomberg News list of fifty most influential people in 2013. He has received the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education, the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate, the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the AAAS, the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union and the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is a Fellow of the AGU, AMS, GSA, AAAS and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
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