Global Warming and Its Causes
Discuss about the Global Warming And Possible Impact On Agriculture.
Global warming is one of the debateable issue which is under rigorous analysis since last few decades. With rise in the level of carbon emission and other greenhouse gases reflected heat from the earth’s surface is being trapped in the air which is raising the global temperature causing catastrophic effect on the various economic factors as well as possessing threat to the living hood of the planet earth (Chauhan et al. 2014). Global warming is not only enhancing the externality to the human being, rather from the broader perspective it can be seen that the whole living organism is being harmed through the rise in the global warming. Global warming has the ability to enhance the overall all global temperature and while doing so it will enhance sea level leading to lack of the habitable land in near future (Change 2018). With the ever increasing level of global warming has been affecting the various economy around the world too. It can be seen that the various economies around the world has been facing reduced production compared to the forecasted level and rise in temperature is accounted as one of the main reason for this. Under this context, it has become crucial for the researchers to analyse the global warming and its trend in order to depict what can be done so as to control and mitigate the effect of the global warming.
Under this context, this report is aimed to analyse the global warming effect and its impact on the economy through analysing the reasons for occurrence and the trend of the same. In addition to this the report will consider the analysis of various policies taken by the government for reducing the effect of the global warming. Moving forward, this report will analyse the effect of the command and control mechanism and market based approach utilised for controlling the global warming and then it will portray which one is best for curtailing the externality of the global warming. To conclude the report will provide summarised overview of its findings and then it will provide the various recommendations for the same.
Global warming is defined as the climate change that leads to rise in the average temperature of the earth’s climate system observed through the century scale. One of the main concern of the global warming lies within its negative externalities that gives rise in the various catastrophic effect on the economic performance as well as the performance of the factors of production (Karl et al. 2015). During the last seven decades it can be observed that the global warming has been rising at a rapid speed, which is evolving itself day by day through the rise in the carbon emission. One of the major impact of the global warming is the rise of the temperature around the world. According the researchers it can be seen that due to rise in the greenhouse gases, reflected heat by the soil of the earth is being trapped in the air that leads to rise in the overall temperature of the environment. With the rise in the carbon emission and other gases like methane and humidity, global warming has increased by a large extent. As it can be seen from the figure 1, global temperature has been rising at 0.90C annually and the rise in the temperature has been aggravated by large extent since the 1950, when the world economy started to face industrialisation (Change 2018). Over the year, there has been rise in the global temperature that has made catastrophic effect on the ice level in the arctic region and has allowed the production from the agricultural sector to fall from the perceived level. Thus it can be entailed that global warming has far reaching effect to the human life by affecting the production and sustainability capability of the earth (Vuille et al. 2015).
Impact of Global Warming on the Economy
From the figure 2, it can be seen that carbon dioxide emission has been rising at an alarming rate during the recent decade. The upward slopping trend line highlights that over the last ten years carbon dioxide Parts Per Million has been increasing at a sharp rate (Desmet and Rossi 2015). This rise in the major greenhouse emission has caused the global warming to rise. It has caused loss in land and rise in the water level.
As per the figure 3, sea height around the world has been rising sharply since the decades. According to the estimation, if the present trend of the sea level rise continues, then sea level will rise by 4 ft. by the end of 2100 making a lot of place slip under into the water making land for living scare around the world (Change 2018). Economists argue that, if there is loss in the landmass, then it will reduce the livelihood of the living organism because loss of the land will cause fall in the production capability of the economy as well as make the biodiversity vanish from different part of the world.
According to the latest report, there has been fall in ice mass in the Antarctic region by 127 gigatonnes annually and since 2000 and if there is no plans to control the same, then the ice blanket of this region will vanish within the next few years. It will rise the temperature of the earth further making it inhabitable.
Economic impact of the climate change is vast and far reaching in different sectors. Through the rise in the global warming it can be seen that there is epidemic rise in the negative externality. As the direct outcome of the rise in the global warming, it will increase the frost free season, which will increase the crop yield (Visser et al. 2016). At first instance, it may look good, however, there will be rise in the several partial impact of the rise in the frost free schedule. During the frost free time temperature will gradually rise and it will affect the sustainability of the pest. With the larger number of pest, there will be rise in the loss of crop, which will deteriorate the situation in coming days. On the other hand, precipitation pattern around the world will change drastically. With the rise in the precipitation level, there will be fall in the productivity and lead to fall in the world wider output of the crops (Santamouris 2014). It will enhance the inflation rate around the world and with the capitalist firm utilising the differentiated pricing in different regions will aggravate the situation of food crisis. It will further deteriorate if the land loss occurred by the global warming is considered.
Government Policies for Mitigating Global Warming
As per the measurement of the NASA, during the next two decade, there will be rise in temperature by 1.80C and it will increase the sea level substantially making the landmass go under the water level. Besides this, there will be drastic change in climate of the world, which will lead to change in the production pattern in various places around the earth. As per the prediction, southwest heat waves will increases making the abnormal climatic environment. It is projected that summer temperature around the world will rise by 5 to 6 degree and in several places like middle east will be inhabitable with the rise in temperature (Karl et al. 2015). It will increase the rise in the various diseases and epidemics may break out as it can be seen in the case of the Ebola virus. Researcher of NASA predict that there next two decades will be hotter than ever in the history of the earth depicting the poor condition of the habitability of the earth (Change 2018). As per the prediction, there will be rise in the occurrence of hurricanes, which will cause fall in the productivity and loss of the livelihood as well as lives all around the world. Forecast suggest that rise in the number of category 4 and category 5 hurricanes and associated storm will eventually rise making the economy around the world dwindling in front of the natural disaster (Santamouris 2014).
One of the off bit impact of the global warming will arise in the form of climate driven refugees (Visser et al. 2016). As it has been stated, with the rise in the temperature, various places around the world will be inhabitable forcing the population of that area to shift from there to other places. In addition to this there will be impact in the irrigation system too, which will either be dried up or flooded with the water making the farming vulnerable in front of the global warming. Moreover, cool vulnerable livestock will face it hard to survive under a hotter climate leading to fall in the supply of the food (Change 2018). Under this context, it is essential for the government to take necessary steps in order to deal with the climate change effect otherwise it will soon happen that earth will become an inhabitable place.
Since decades there has been rise in the concerns regarding how to curtail the impact of global warming and over the years, it has been found there are two distinct procedure to deal with the global warming. One of is market driven carbon tax approach and the other is command and control model which (Nordhaus 2014)
Effectiveness of Market-Based and Command and Control Mechanism to Control Global Warming
As it can be seen from the above diagram that capitalist firms produces more amount of cash goods that gains them higher revenue. MPC curve shows the capitalist level of output that leads to higher amount of carbon emission. If through market based approach, carbon taxation is utilised, then it will shift the supply curve from MPC to MSC leading to fall in production, which will ultimately produce only that amount of goods and services which is beneficial for the society and reduces the greenhouse gas emission (Cotana et al. 2014). It will cause societal benefit rise by the orange shaded zone.
Contrary to this, command and control mechanism makes it essential for the firm to reduce the greenhouse gas by limiting the production. If the firm observes that the limit of production is less scare, then it may reduce the emission by the means of investing more amount of fund into greener technology (Smith and Leiserowitz 2014). However, it may so happen that the firm opts to enhance its operation if the limit is higher leading to rise in the production of the greenhouse gas emission.
A long standing debate is there regarding the effectiveness of the market based approach and regulation based strategy to deal with the growth of the global warming. As it can be seen that both the strategies has different advantages, however, which one is best for the present situation is under debate (Urry 2015). Considering the case of the market based system, it can be seen that it is based on the carbon taxation, which fails to predetermine the level of carbon emission at the end of the year so does it fails to control the production of the greenhouse gases (Cole 2015). In addition to this, there is lack of measurement to control the carbon emission through the carbon taxation that makes it primitive in nature. However, when it comes to curtailing demand of the goods and services that produces more amount of carbon emission, then market based approach is the best one. Contrary to this, command and control model pre determine the carbon production level for the each entity depending upon its level of operation. Though it is effective in nature, however, it requires huge amount of investment and the technological advancement that makes it hard for the firms of different region to comply with the norms (Bailey 2016).
Under this scenario it become evident that though the market based approach of carbon taxation is primitive in nature, yet it is effective to curtail the carbon emission through reducing the demand of goods and services of those who are entitled to produce much amount of greenhouse gases.
Recommendations
Conclusion:
From the above analysis it has been found that significant amount of threat is looming over the sustainability of the livelihood in the world due to rise in the global warming. With the rapid increase of the global warming with the rise in the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and others are making the sea level rise and climate hotter than the sustainability range in various parts of the world. Negative externality of the global warming has been affecting the productivity around the world and reducing the crop production. Under this situation, it has become essential to introduce various plans for curtailing the implication of the global warming. As the report has found through the analysis, market based approach is one of the best possible strategy that need to be implemented properly. With the help of the command and control model, which is a market based approach of curtailing the global warming will aid the world environment to get rid of the carbon emission through predetermined the level of carbon emission depending upon the level of activity of the entity. To conclude, it can be entailed that, global warming is the man made problem that has been affecting the overall economy of the world, thus it need to be eliminated at earliest other earth will soon become an inhabitable place.
Reference:
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