Yes

by Kevin Numerick

Created on: April 30, 2010   Last Updated: May 01, 2010

Al Gore understands that Global warming is not just an environmental issue. Many people do not see the entire spectrum of which global warming and the solutions to try to stop it touch. It expands across most major functions of the United States, including national security, the economy, agriculture, human health and the environment.

Global warming is linked to pollution that oil produces, which can create wars, fighting over oil which endangers our troops and threatens national security. The oil we purchase from overseas also helps fund terrorism to some degree, which is a significant problem.

If the United States were attacked and all oil imports were brought to a halt, the U.S. would be unable to function as goods could not be delivered across the country, including food.

The United States military also recently put global warming and climate change as one of the top threats for the future. The reason behind this is that it will lead to further wars over resources, such as clean drinking water, which is already becoming a problem.

If unchecked, global warming can also be the cause of mass human migrations, hundreds of millions of people from regions of the world disappearing due to sea level rise.

Global warming may also result in destabilization of what is already the most unstable regions of the world, which has been quoted as taking a hornet’s nest and shaking it up, once again creating more wars.

If we are able to transition away from oil and fossil fuels altogether, the U.S. will become energy independent, strengthening national security. Using renewable energy, such as wind and solar, we can use electric vehicles, high speed electric rails and other transit.

This will help boost the United States economy and if done correctly, make us the leaders in the next world economy of clean energy technology. This is a major aspect to solving the global warming problem and our economic problem.

If the United States moved forward with trying to solve global warming, millions of jobs would be created from restructuring the power grid to manufacturing the clean energy technology, building new rail systems, advanced batteries and electric cars, among many others.

If done correctly, it will also allow the United States to create new technology, using innovation to lead the world and export our products globally. There is enormous potential to strengthen our economy through clean energy solutions while trying to slow and stop human enhanced climate change, but we need to do it fast before the rest of the world does.

China took initiative to move ahead with clean energy technology production and within just the last two years has gone from fifth in the world to first at manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels.

This should be a flag for the U.S. to pay attention and start moving swiftly in that direction, otherwise we’ll soon be following China, instead of leading.

As the planet warms, agriculture will be impacted significantly. More frequent high temperatures will slowly remove moisture from the ground making it more difficult to grow crops, which could lead to less food being available. As global warming continues, the human population will likely grow substantially as well. Therefore, there will be even less food to feed more people.

As warming trends continue to increase it will also make the seasons change at different times of the year, making it more difficult for farmers to predict when to plant crops, or in some cases, destroying crops that were already planted. This will also result in less food for both humans and livestock.

There is a chance that disease and illness will increase with a warming world as well. As the temperatures increase insects will migrate into new territories, bringing with them illness and disease for humans, animals and plant life. This could also result in an economic problem for states where tourism is a major part of their economies, such as Michigan.

Pollution from energy sources that the United States currently use are not only related to global warming and national security, but have been directly linked to certain respiratory illnesses.

The United States Supreme Court recently declared that green house gases, global warming pollution, are a threat to human health. Thousands of lives could be saved in the future just by changing how the United States gets and uses energy for that reason alone.

Environmental issues are generally the most commonly known problems that are talked about relating to climate change, but there are billions of dollars that are at stake and more importantly, enormous potential for mass human casualties in the future if the worst cases of global warming scenarios come true. 

Among environmental issues include more severe storms, droughts, flooding, heavier snowfalls, an increase in wild fires, species extinction, warming waters, and more.

When you tie together the problems of global warming and the solutions to the problem it becomes apparent at how much of the United States' future is at risk.

It is incredibly important for the United States to take a strong stance on this issue because the rest of the world looks at us as leaders and has made it more than clear they are waiting for serious action by the U.S.

People either love Al Gore or have a knee jerk reaction to his name. The often clouded response from the people who oppose what he is saying leads to confusion and can frankly end up being a major reason that the United States does not take appropriate action on global warming. Do not be fooled, this issue is of significant importance to the current state of the U.S.’s economy, national security, health, and is even more important for the sake of future generations.

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