Global warming and its impact on sustainability

This report documents the issue of global warming, climate change and their impact on sustainable development. The causes and the effects of the major global challenge of global warming and climate change have been addressed in the report to show how the sustainability is getting affected. This report also presents some recommendations to address the issues more precisely and effectively.

Running head: REPORT
Global warming and its impact on sustainability
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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Investigation..............................................................................................................................3
3.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................4
4.0 Recommendations......................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................8

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Abstract
This report documents the issue of global warming, climate change and their impact on
sustainable development. The causes and the effects of the major global challenge of global
warming and climate change have been addressed in the report to show how the sustainability is
getting affected. On one hand, there is advancement in technology and industrialization leading
to increase in the greenhouse gases, resulting in global warming, on the other hand, due to
climate change, there is massive food insecurity. Similarly, rise in sea levels due to global
warming is increasing the vulnerability of the coastal areas. All these factors are affecting the
sustainability. This report also presents some recommendations to address the issues more
precisely and effectively.

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1.0 Introduction
Global warming has become a major concern for the world. With rapid industrialization,
expansion in the automobile and transport industry, advancement of technology and massive
growth in population, there is a rapid increase in the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere and that is causing the temperature of the planet to rise (Hughes et al., 2017). That
has a severe consequence on the nature which could affect the sustainability. As stated by Carley
& Christie (2017), sustainability refers to the maintenance of natural resources while meeting the
present needs without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs.
This report will present an overview of how global warming is affecting the sustainability issue
and what measures could be taken to improve the sustainability. Secondary data will be used to
present the report. Various journal articles, industry reports, newspaper and online publications
will be explored to gather information about the research topic. The investigation and the
discussion on the research topic are presented below.
2.0 Investigation
Global warming and climate change are severe issues of concern in the present world. As
the human civilization is getting more and more advanced, the impact on the nature and
environment has becoming more dominant and severe. As highlighted by Cook et al. (2016),
there is a rapid growth in the population and it resulted in rapid increase in the demands for
different types of consumer goods. This in turn has led to the industrial revolution and since the
past century, there is a massive increase in all types of industrial production, such as,
manufacturing, agriculture, mining, exploration and production of oil and gas, transportation,
information technology etc. As a result, there is a significant increase in the harmful greenhouse

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gases in the atmosphere leading to global warming. Since 1880, the average global temperature
increased by around 1 °C (about 2 °F) (Shaftel, 2017). Climate change is the resultant effect of
global warming.
It has been noticed that since the past few decades, there have been prominent changes in
the climate and weather in almost all regions of the world. The loss of the glaciers and ice sheets
in the polar regions is the biggest example of climate change and global warming. The retreats of
glaciers are contributing in the rise of the sea levels. Since 1880, the average sea levels rose
about 8 inches or 23 cm, in which 3 inches gained in the past 25 years and in each year, the sea
level is increasing by around 0.13 inches or 3.2 mm (Nunez, 2017). It is a highly concerning
issue as with this rate of sea rise, by next century, almost all the major cities, such as, London,
New York, Tokyo, Sydney etc., and coastal areas will be at risk of survival (Kirwan et al., 2016).
Climate change is also affecting sustainability by affecting the agriculture and food security of
the communities, which is also a hard blow to the sustainability (Campbell et al., 2016).
Moreover, there is depletion of fossil fuel reserves due to increased transportation all over the
world, which is also contributing in the greenhouse gas emission (Abas, Kalair & Khan, 2015).
Thus, as there is continuous advancement in technology, there is increase in the carbon footprint
on the environment, which affects the sustainability.
3.0 Conclusion
It can be concluded that climate change and global warming is a significant challenge that
is affecting the sustainable development. It is threatening the world of grinding poverty, severe
food insecurity, and risk of survival. Thus, the global powers have come together to handle the
issue on an urgent basis. Various measures have been taken to address the climate change and

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global warming challenge, such as, introduction of renewable energy sources, electronic
vehicles, advanced technology in increasing water supply in agriculture, CSR activities by the
large corporate houses etc., which are being implemented in all countries to bring sustainable
development for the future generations.
4.0 Recommendations
The countries should put more focus on implementing the 17 sustainable development
goals designed by the United Nations. It is highly important to achieve food security for the
entire population of the world and hence, measures like hybrid seeds and better irrigation
facilities should be implemented in all the nations to overcome the challenge of climate change.
More focus should be put on the renewable energy sources and reducing the exploration of fossil
fuel as that would not only reduce the carbon emission but also would reduce the depletion of the
reserves, which is a measure towards sustainability. The countries are also pledging the citizens
to reduce the usage of private vehicles and use more public vehicles or bikes as a mode of
transportation, which will reduce the carbon footprints by individuals and promote sustainability.

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References
Abas, N., Kalair, A., & Khan, N. (2015). Review of fossil fuels and future energy
technologies. Futures, 69, 31-49.
Campbell, B. M., Vermeulen, S. J., Aggarwal, P. K., Corner-Dolloff, C., Girvetz, E.,
Loboguerrero, A. M., ... & Wollenberg, E. (2016). Reducing risks to food security from
climate change. Global Food Security, 11, 34-43.
Carley, M., & Christie, I. (2017). Managing sustainable development. Routledge.
Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R., Verheggen, B., Maibach, E. W., ... &
Nuccitelli, D. (2016). Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on
human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters, 11(4), 048002.
Hughes, T. P., Kerry, J. T., Álvarez-Noriega, M., Álvarez-Romero, J. G., Anderson, K. D.,
Baird, A. H., ... & Bridge, T. C. (2017). Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of
corals. Nature, 543(7645), 373.
Kirwan, M. L., Temmerman, S., Skeehan, E. E., Guntenspergen, G. R., & Fagherazzi, S. (2016).
Overestimation of marsh vulnerability to sea level rise. Nature Climate Change, 6(3),
253.
Nunez, C. (2017). Sea level rise, explained. National Geographic. Retrieved from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/
Shaftel, H. (2017). What’s in a name? Weather, global warming and climate change. Retrieved
from https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming/

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Ucsusa.org. (2014). Infographic: Sea Level Rise and Global Warming. Retrieved from
https://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/infographic-sea-
level-rise-global-warming.html

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Appendix
(Source: Ucsusa.org, 2014)