Sociology

In his book Global Warming The complete briefing, John Houghton essentially provides us with a detailed account of the bits and pieces regarding the subject of global warming which has become an issue of concern for the entire globe. Human activity over the years has remained unchecked and consequently, it has taken its toll over the environment.  This brief report will attempt to shed light upon the issue of global warming, remarking as well on the awareness of the issue amongst the public as well as discussing various methods that have been proposed in order to curb global warming ending with a critical analysis of the entire topic.
John Houghton, in his book, has essentially identified the entire issue of global warming by firstly, outlining its causes while also remarking upon its historical significance as well as discussing some of the potential solutions that have been proposed. Newspapers have basically, over the past, inherently told the story of global warming by displaying various articles. Articles that have been published till today signify the diverse theories that people and scientists have regarding the issue of global warming. Starting from the industrial revolution and moving onwards to the Kyoto treaty as well as the creation of the innovative hybrid technology, in order to reduce carbon emissions, has been published in newspapers all over the world. The fact that the impacts of global warming are not apparently obvious has essentially created a situation in which most people think that the theories explaining global warming are not valid while some have stated that global warming is indeed a by product of increased human activity. This debate has been portrayed by newspapers diligently over the course of history by writing about the slowly changing climate and the things that have led to such a change. Resultantly, people are completely aware of the issue of global warming in almost all of its aspects.
Global warming has basically been set in motion after the industrial revolution which resulted in the creation of by products which have significantly affected the environment over the course of the past years. Gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide etc have been excessively released into the atmosphere because of various industrial manufacturing activities as well as the emissions from vehicles. Such emissions have basically due to chemical reactions within the atmosphere depleted the ozone layer which protects the earth from the dangerous rays of the sun. In accordance with the depletion of the ozone layer, the mean global temperature has risen considerably over the years and will continue to rise if specific actions are not taken to counteract the impacts.
 Over the years, after the identification of the causes of global warming, scientists have worked diligently in order to discover a way to reduce the amount of emissions of these dangerous gases. The result has been a concerted global effort which has led to research into new technologies which will reduce the amount of emissions. One of the major infant inventions has been the creation of hydrogen fuel which basically has only one by product water. However, the hybrid technology that needs to be installed in cars in order to make them run on hydrogen fuel is still in its preliminary stages and is very expensive for the common man. Another recent advancement has been the Kyoto protocol which basically is an agreement between various nations for the purpose of bringing down emission levels to that of the year 1990. The agreement basically involves the use of emissions trading which means that there is an overall limit set on total global emissions and consequently, countries can buy and sell the annual quota of emissions that they posses under the Kyoto protocol.
The basic solution behind the global warming issues lies within a structural change that is required all over the world but at a very micro level in the sense that nations need to change their entire production methods into procedures that are environmental friendly. However, such a change will required the installation of technology which is extremely costly hence application all over the world would be impossible because every nation does not posses the financial means to buy such contraceptives especially developing countries. Therefore, that is why agreements like the Kyoto protocol which have set an overall cap upon global emissions as well as the facilitation of technology and financial assistance to its less fortunate members will inherently show fruitful results.
Nevertheless, one of the most important things to note is that we need to shift our energy production processes towards renewable sources such as solar energy, wind energy etc. Nuclear energy is also a good alternative because it does not result in emissions however, it does produce toxic and radioactive which in turn does affect the environment. Thus solar energy seems like an extremely good option because it is completely renewable and does not have any harmful by products. Scientists are working towards developing vehicles which can be powered by sunlight. Therefore, there are a lot of potential solutions to the issue of global warming however, a lot of work still needs to be done in order to completely negate its effects.