Climate is an important factor that not only helps in regeneration of plant life and growth of crops but is also important to mankind. Humans can’t tolerate too much cold or too much heat.

South Africa is no different from the rest of the world and has witnessed severe climatic changes in the last 30 years. According to study by scientists, it is predicted that Africa will suffer the direct impact of extreme climatic changes. South Africa, which has a stable economy as compared to most of the African countries, will suddenly become the shelter for people from other parts of Africa. This will happen due to the rise in temperature, which will destroy the crops. There will be droughts and the animal populations will decline.

As of today, Africa is one of the few continents with a high rate of malnutrition deaths, which is 4 million annually. If the temperature rose by even  then there will be more people dying of hunger. This  rise in temperature will affect South Africa’s water supply, which will drop by 20%.

One of the governing factors of climate in South Africa is the westerly storm, which brings winter rainfall in the Cape region. Due to global warming, this storm will move further south and lose its water in the sea. This will impact the wheat production and also lead to drought. Agriculture will suffer the most as more and more water will used for drinking purposes.

The greenhouse effect is the most important cause behind global warming. In fact global warming is known as the greenhouse effect. This phenomenon leads to an increase in the Earth temperature due to certain gases like CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane. These gases trap the energy from the sun and without them the heat would go back into space and Earth would be one massive iceberg. Since these gases warm the Earth, they are known as greenhouse gases.

In the last couple of decades, people have started using glass houses to grow plants in winter and these are called greenhouses. Typically, these houses will trap the heat from the sun. The glasses in the greenhouse let the light through and at the same time prevent the heat from escaping.

As a result, the greenhouse heats up to keep the plants alive in the winter. Similarly, the greenhouse gases in the Earths atmosphere work like the glass and prevent the heat from escaping. The sunlight enters piercing through the cloud of greenhouse gases and when it reaches the Earths surface, it is absorbed by land, water, and air.

After absorption the same energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of it remains trapped in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse gases and this energy makes the Earth warmer. Since there has been an increase in CO2 emissions in the last couple of decades, more and more heat is being absorbed in the atmosphere. This is increasing the temperature of the Earth gradually and causing global warming.

The causes of global warming are many and effects are far more profound. What we have really witnessed in the last couple of decades is just the tip of the iceberg.

CAUSES
The main underlying cause of Global Warming is greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2). Every tree takes CO2 from the air during its growing process. When a tree dies or the wood decays then CO2 is again returned to the atmosphere. In the last couple of decades tropical forest have borne the brunt of major felling of trees and burning of wood, which has added more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Today deforestation has reached a stage where it cannot be turned back. In 1987, a major chunk of the Amazon forest was burnt and it was of the size of Britain. This released 500 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The lesser the number of trees, the less CO2 will be absorbed.

EFFECTS
The effect of global warming will be catastrophic and if you look around you, then you will see some of the signs. If no action is taken now, then it will be too late as the greenhouse effect will slowly increase the average global temperature by 1.5 to 4.50C. This rise in temperature will affect the polar ice caps more than the tropical belt.

Winters will become warmer and the world will be hotter than what it was 100,000 years back. By the end of the next century, the temperatures would have soared very high and it will be tough for humans to survive. The last 15 years have been the ten hottest years since the 1860’s.