Global warming occurs when the earth suffers a general rise in its average temperatures. This has resulted from emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, water vapor and ozone into the atmosphere, these gases can stay within the atmosphere for very many years, for example carbon dioxide stays within the atmosphere for as long as 50 years to 200 years. These gases trap too much heat and light within the earth's atmosphere which under normal circumstances would be reflected into space. The gases thus create a situation similar to what would happen in a greenhouse where too much is maintained within the greenhouse only that in our scenario the excess heat and light is trapped within the earth's atmosphere. These gases have led to a rise in global average temperatures from approximately 13.70 C (56.50 F) one hundred years ago to approximately 14.40 C (57.90 F) currently. The rise may seem very small but its environmental repercussions are a source of nightmares to the international community. While emission of these gases into the atmosphere is a very simple process its reversal is very hard and requires a lot of time and therefore at any one time its prevention would be the best solution. These gases are emitted into the atmosphere mainly by operations of man and mainly due to combustion of fossil fuels as a source of energy especially to power motor vehicle engines. This has resulted in excess carbon dioxide within the atmosphere. Deforestation has made it even worse by reducing the number of trees that assist in conversion of carbon dioxide within the atmosphere into oxygen. The consequences of global warming has now more than ever become a threat to many nations all over the world while to some regions it is something they are happy about , unluckily only very few nations within the world can benefit and their benefit would not be justified since it would be at the expense of other states. This thus brings the world into congruence of objective; they should all devote a lot of resources to prevent further global warming by reducing activities that accelerate it. The effects of global warming are all over the world with all continents facing some kind of environmental effects. The very high altitude regions such as mountain caps, Antarctica as a continent and other regions that experience continued coverage by ice have had their share of it. The high temperatures have resulted in melting of ice in these regions. Some of this ice is sometimes the source of some rivers since the ice holds water which it releases slowly into the environment. Its disappearance therefore means that most of this rivers will dry up yet the rivers are a source of life to animals that rely on it for water, some of these animals have have died due to lack of water or forced to migrate in such of water, this has also at times been the source of humans to animal conflicts due to fight over water sources or during migration of animals. In some cases however the cold regions are becoming colder. The winters are becoming more severe and lasting longer than normal forcing people to remain indoors and curtail most of their economic activities and hugely affecting vegetation growth and other agricultural activities. This has been evident recently in European countries where the winter was too extreme and even led to the closure of some airports for a number of days. The melting of the ice has also meant more water within the oceans and seas since the water which currently stayed as ice in these high altitude regions is within then oceans resulting in a higher sea level. Failure to control global warming could lead to rise in sea level by more than 25 meters. Higher sea level has resulted in flooding in many regions within the shore line which were previously dry lands, these has caused death of plants and animals within the flooded areas. Low altitudes countries such as Bangladesh are now facing nightmares because of this because this has meant more frequent and violent floods year after year which causes massive economical damage to these countries and loss of many lives. To the hotter regions the effects are even worse .Global warming has made it even hotter within the dry lands such as arid and semi arid areas. What this has meant is frequent and uncontrollable wildfires within forests in these regions. This has caused the destruction of a wide percentage of forest cover in these wild fires. The very hot temperatures combined low rainfall in many dry areas and especially Africa has made plant survival to the less adaptive plants next to impossible. This is causing lesser vegetation cover year after year. The low vegetation cover leaves the ground more exposed to the violent winds within these regions and thus very high rates of erosion. Many African countries have their economies being agricultural based, weather patterns within these countries have changed and are now faced drier spells and since they practice rain fed agriculture the situation is making crop production impossible and many animals and citizens of these nations are dying year after year due to lack of food a situtiation that would otherwise would not have occurred. Global warming is also affecting the spread of disease to the disadvantage of some states and to the advantage of others. Some insects such as mosquitoes which are usually hosts to disease causing microorganisms do require certain climatic conditions for their survival. With the rise in temperatures some areas that were previously too cold for survival of these insects and these microorganisms are becoming habitable by these insects and the microorganisms that require higher temperatures for their survival while making it impossible for insects and microorganisms that require cooler temperatures for their survival to survive in regions that were previously cold but are now very warm. This has resulted in new disease patterns in different places, for example diseases such as malaria are now emerging in regions where they previously never existed. This has been a disadvantage to countries facing new cases of diseases and an advantage to countries where the diseases are disappearing. Global warming thus affects our environment differently depending on altitude and position along the longitude of the region on focus. Global warming causes changes in air flow due to different atmospheric pressures in different locations resulting from increase in temperatures in previously cold regions. These new pressure patterns are causing extreme weather conditions such as floods, hurricanes and droughts. African countries have mostly been hit by long durations of drought resulting from global warming and where adaptation has failed the result is becoming catastrophic. The very large African deserts are increasing their area of coverage and becoming hotter day by day. This has resulted in failure of many species of plants within these regions and some many more plants within these regions are facing extinction. Reduction in crop cover within these regions is making it even worse by exposing the ground to violent winds which are also the effects of global warming as air flows in an attempt to balance the differing atmospheric pressures by moving from the high pressure regions which are usually the hotter regions to the low pressure regions which are the low temperature regions. This causes wind erosion and even makes it harder for crop survival, the result is African nations being unable to produce enough food to feed their population. In the lowlands, the situation has been the opposite, much of the water that has melted from the ice capped regions due to global warming has now moved to this locations. The lowlands now have to cope with higher than normal levels of water. Flooding is hitting these regions occasionally due to swollen rivers carrying more water than their banks could hold and higher ocean and sea level. This has led to many regions being submerged under water leading to their death due to excess water and lack of enough sunlight. Global warming also comes hand in hand with acid rain which causes plant death to those plants that cannot withstand the high acidity. However excess water may at times be advantageous to some crops that require more water and thus may improve the economy of regions that depend on agriculture of such crops like rise. The ocean covers 70% of the earth and does support substantial amount of life. Millions of plant and animal species that survive within the ocean are also suffering due to global warming. Acid rain caused by the greenhouse effect is causing acidification of the oceans. Many plant species such small plants that grow within the oceans and algae that mostly grow floating in the ocean are the start of food chains and food webs in the ocean since the small fish and other creatures feed on them for their food. The small fish then provide food for the larger fish. The acidity of ocean water is threatening growth of these plants and algae. The parent sources of food for marine life could therefore not survive and the repercussion would be death of the entire marine life. Some regions have however benefited from the high temperatures especially the previously very cold places. This occurs where the excess heat that is trapped by greenhouse gases continue to be held and certain amount of the heat is also held through the nights warming regions that would otherwise have been too cold to inhabit making them habitable and ensuring crop survival by plants that would have otherwise not survived in this regions due to excess cold. What is common in all the effects of global warming is the unpredictability of these occurrences and variability in climatic conditions. The droughts, floods, hurricanes etc all are happening even in areas where they had never been thought of and hence the victims are at most times not prepared while neither the plants and animals being able to change then adaptation skills. In all the above effects of global warming also, the economical damage suffered is substantial. Destruction of important infrastructure such as national highways, bridges and crops lead to massive economical damage to states. Global warming is therefore greatly affecting economic development of many nations. Many nations are also being forced to change their main economic activities because of the changes in climatic conditions an example is where a nation process crops that require plenty of rain but the country is now faced by continuous droughts or a country having its temperatures becoming lower year after year yet the country produces a cash crop whose output is greatly affected by low temperatures negatively. The countries have to contemplate a shift to other economic activities which may not be to their advantage. In my personal opinion, the negative effects of global warming by far outweighs the few goods it gives in some scenarios and neither are the few advantages to some countries justifiable since they are at the expense of other nations. Global warming is posing a very great threat to the continuity of life and immediate measures need to be put in place to counter the likely repercussions. Since many countries are already suffering economically, it would be fair enough for them to contribute to correction of the situation and put in place measures to avoid global warming.
