It is generally agreed that most global warming is the result of air pollution from developed countries. Although underdeveloped countries usually create less pollution than developed countries, they suffer from the resultant global warming, which is felt worldwide. This paper will look at the effects of global warming on Third World nations.
The greenhouse effect has been around as long as mankind (Bregman, 1998). Gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere trap the sun=s heat and help warm Earth=s land and water. Without the greenhouse effect, most life on Earth would not exist as the average temperature would be -18 degrees C. The very fuels the Earth runs on, like coal and oil, have pumped 30 percent more carbon dioxide and other harmful gases into the air in the past 200 years, and that has resulted in global warming which can have deleterious effects for life on earth. Global warming leads to warmer ocean temperatures and causes seawater to evaporate in massive amounts. Excessive water vapor rises and sheds even more heat into the air as the vapor cools. The problem is that the Earth=s temperature is now rising faster than at any time during the last 10,000 years.
Scientists trying to explain global warming point to several factors, some natural and some due to industrialization of developed nations. Trying to separate the contributions of the two is somewhat difficult. A recent study looked at global average temperatures from 1858 to 1992 and found that the Earth has warmed 0.5 degrees C during this period, but the rate of change has been uneven (Monastersky, February, 1994). Temperatures rose quickly in the early third of this century, then leveled off from 1940 to 1975. They climbed steeply in the 1980s. Some climate experts believe that rising concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are responsible for some global warming, but cannot explain the slow down from 1940 to 1975. It may ...