Global Warming – Several Major Agrarian Concerns

For many years, researchers have focused on maintaining the availability of food sources for the ever-growing human population. There are many factors that may impact the abundance of food; this research will focus on overall increase in temperature across the world and its impact on the agricultural environment. Global warming is a major research topic that presents several major agrarian concerns. In order to combat these concerns, scientists have been trying to find the root causes of problems presented through an agricultural-scientific lens.

One main consideration highlighted through this project is the major decline in crops due to global warming's influence on insect pests that are harmful to crops. As a result, the agricultural economy is being indirectly impacted as farm workers may lose their jobs due to the underproduction of crop supply. A loss of job may lead to a lack of money to spend, adding on to the major deficit in profit that circulates in the economy, leading to a stall in a community's economy. Furthering the domino- effect of global warming concerns comes from finding a potential solution to the underwhelming harvest. When faced with a lack of crops, the controversial usage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will further surface and may potentially cause even greater concerns for a population's overall wellbeing. Side effects of global warming are impacting everyone and will eventually be the fault of the instability of the world. This highlights the purpose of continuing the research on global warming.

Climate change, formally known as global warming was starting to be first observed during the early 1800's, around when the Industrial Revolution first began. According to NASA, the global temperature has risen 0.8 since the 1880's. Most of the increased warmth has happened since 1975, and since then, each decade, the temperature has risen about 0.15. In order to keep the records precise and consistent, scientists started focusing on the temperature changes mainly during the years 1951 to 1980. This period of time was selected to be used as a comparison for any future change. Additionally, most of the world's population today grew up during that time period, so they are able to remember and compare the condition of the planet today. The National Climate Assessment found the years 2000 to 2009 to be the hottest decade in at the least 1000 years. Environmentalists have kept track over which years have been having the hottest temperatures and sure enough, each year since 2001 has made a new record. From a study made from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Climate Assessment, it was determined that also that human activity played a major role in increasing the effects of global warming. In this study, it will be experimented what the effects of global warming will have on a staged agricultural environment. This will include the changes in the conditions of the plants, as well as predators and preys, in this case, insects. In this specific experiment, the global warming aspect of the project will be limited to only temperature change, which will be altered by using heating lamps. Along with having multiple environments that have gone through the change, it is also important that there is a constant variable ’ or an environment that does not go through any change to emphasize the difference.

It is vital to ensure only one independent variable is presented in this case, the temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) will vary per sample. It is important to determine the components that may change the outcome of the experiment so that researchers keep them at a constant level. Not being able to properly distribute the amounts of aphids in each sample has a possibility of altering the accuracy of results. In addition, it is important to note throughout the study that the water amount given to the plants and insects may affect their performances in growth. Only changing the temperature will ensure that there are limiting factors to how the results turn out. In addition, to make sure the results are clear, the testing will last for a full seven days. The organisms that will be tested in the study will include Ladybugs (Hippodamia Convergens), Pea Aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum), and alfalfa sprouts (Medicago sativa). In the study, the ladybugs will act as the predators, while the aphids will act as the prey and the alfalfa sprouts signify the crops. From the research gathered, it is hypothesized that if the temperature of the environment increases, there will be an increase in prey and therefore a decrease in predators and the plants will drastically decline in health. This is hypothesized because the metabolism levels of the insects correspond with the temperature of its environment, so they should be more active as the temperature increases. The overall increase in activity of prey will lead to a demise in plants which will deplete their food source. A failure to access plants will lead to a loss in the prey population, which will therefore lead to a decrease in predators. With the plants being the primary source of energy for the environment sample, the whole ecosystem will collapse as the sprouts die. My hypothesis greatly portrays the agricultural effects that take place as global warming worsens.

Studies show that global warming already has a significant impact on the world. Agriculture is severely important to everyone residing on the earth, including all organisms. Between losses in harvest, a decline in the economy, and a rise in the use of GMOs, something must be done for not only the sake of the wellbeing of the human population, but the survival of the planet in general. Global warming is a much talked-about concern for the Earth, but it seems rare to find people with extensive information on how it is truly affecting communities across the planet- both small and large. Education on this topic is imperative as researchers continue to find temporary and permanent solutions to one of the largest threats to the planet's survival: global warming.

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