النهار

Let us face reality. Our world is cleaving its way into destruction, causing it to undergo a slow demise. Yes, in one way or another, our planet has been exposed to both internal and external destructive sources, but we’ll only focus on demonstrating what might be the top threatening source at hand. It’s climate change, also known as Global Warming.

For those who haven’t known what it is, climate change in general is defined as the long term change in Earth’s climate, whether regional or global. And as a special type of the change mentioned above, Global Warming is an observed century scale that displays the rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system, and its related effect as part of the climate change.

As you might know, humans have taken a leading role in endangering their planet. And as an IPCC report concluded, it is extremely likely that the human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since mid-20th century. As a matter of fact, the largest human impact has been the emission of greenhouse gases, which are gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, such as carbon dioxide and methane. This causes the warming of the planet’s lower atmosphere and surface.

Other causes are the factors we cannot control, ones forced by nature or outer influences; take the variation of Earth’s orbit as an example. You might not have known that the tilt of the Earth’s axis and the shape of its orbit around the sun vary slowly over thousands of years. This changes our climate by changing the seasonal and latitude distribution of incoming solar energy into Earth’s surface. However, such variation in the orbital cycle is not expected within the next 50,000 years.

Over the years, our planet showed several reactions to the climate change taking place. On the biospheric hand, global warming causes the destruction of natural habitats. It would, as an epitome, melt sea ice, the habitat of Antarctic polar bears. Hence, will result to the extinction of many species, as well as the reduction in the diversity of the eco system.

And now, I conclude my essay by asking: Are we expected to surrender as we face our ending, one we have created for ourselves, society, and planet? From the bottom of my heart, I wish we, together as the united people we are, would transform what humanity dictates into the actuality we are living. It’s the initial warning of rescue, asserting that Global warming should be put to an end, before our lives are.

Zahraa Srour

Al-Batool High school