Essay 1: Climate change #Draft1
By definition, climate change refers to all variations of the statistical average in weather
conditions over an extended period ranging from decades or longer. Over the 4 billion years of
existence, the Earth’s climate has changed many times caused by natural factors; However
during the last century, human activity has been the principal cause of climate change. In other
words, according to scientists’ researches climate change is a natural phenomenon that has
occurred in the past as well as an event made worse by recent human activity. There are many
natural causes of climate change, the more common are continental drift, volcanic eruptions,
and the melting of the glaciers. In addition to these causes, climate change has also many
man-made causes such as the emission of greenhouse gases, deforestation, pollution, use of
chemical fertilizers, burning of fossil fuels. All these causes have almost the same consequences
that are the increase of the earth’s temperature, extreme weather, and the rise of the sea level.
According to scientist Alfred Wegener, it was a time when all the Earth’s continents
have been joined together into one continent. This phenomenon occurred 250 million years
ago and it is named Pangaea. Since that time, they have been drifting apart to become the
continents we know today. This drift had an effect on the Earth’s climate and even continues
today; in fact, it changed the flow of the winds and oceans’ currents and it also enhanced the
tectonic activity and increased the level of carbon dioxide released on the atmospher...
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... Some of the man-
made causes are the emission of greenhouse gases, deforestation, pollution, use of chemical
fertilizers, the burning of fossil fuels. They have almost the same consequences linked one to
another; for example thee increase of the earth’s temperature is the cause of the melting of the
glaciers which is the cause of the rise of the sea level and may cause the extinction of species in
a few decades. And continental drift and changes in volcanic activity are also causes of the
extreme weather condition. Nevertheless, the climate is changing and will keep changing if
humans don’t make some changes in the way they live now. Indeed, the consequences that are
expecting by scientists could lead to the destruction of life on earth in a few decades. This
phenomenon threatens everyone and all countries must work together to avoid this threat.
15. The pictures above show how the continents on Earth’s surface have changed position over a very long period of time. What explains this change? (S6E5e, f)
and fall of sea level due to tides is the most apparent aspect, it is also the
First, during the last few decades the Earth is experiencing greater rate of rising temperatures due to greenhouse gases that are being produced by human activities rather than because of environmental reasons, such as solar or volcanic activities. In 2006 the President of the National Academy of Sciences stated: “There is no doubt that the Earth is warming,” also he added that people are at least partly responsible for these changes in addition to regular factors (Cicerone, par.4). Natural factors have produced climate fluctuations on Earth for several million years. People have effected an atmosphere of the Earth just for nearly one hundred years, since Industrial Revolution has begun (Revkin 340). Of course, it is unfair to say that global warming is caused entirely by humans. For example, people can not have an impact on the position of Earth in relation to the sun, or on the galactic density, or such nature events as air emissions of volcanic gases. As a result of these environmental factors, Earth usually had higher rates of temperature fluctuations during the previous million years than it has in later centuries. On the other hand, people are responsible for the highest concentration of greenhouse gases during the last 650,000 years in the atmosphere due to industrial manufacturing, driven by the increase in consumer consumption (Lindsey, par.
Traveling back a hundred million years ago to the mid Cretaceous period, Bay Area did not exist yet. The Bay Area was still in the process of drifting a hundred million years ago. The continents drifted toward their pr...
The Permian Period was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. During this geological time period’s earlier stages glaciation was extensive. Middle Permian began to warm, and by the late Permian the environment was hot and dry. The environmental conditions were so extreme that the marine and terrestrial life forms were greatly affected. According to research the drastic climate change could have been caused by the formation of Pangaea. In 1912 Alfred Wegener while studying his theory of the continental drift, discovered Pangaea’s very existence. A combination of all of Earth’s landmasses joined together and covered 1/3 of Earth’s surface. Pangaea was f...
...t of laurasia, just like most of the other plates. North America,Europe, and Green land all used to be connect because of Pangea ( as mentioned earlier). But when everything started to separate, first europe, then green land, and lastly the North American plate. After pangea was no more and the plates all started moving, the continents started going their own ways, there fore putting the continents where they are today.
The temperatures rise and the amount of rainfall decreases which disturbs the natural system of the Earth, causing ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise, plants and animal food sources to deplete which in turn affects humans food sources and agriculture, and natural disasters to occur more often. Similarly, climate change seems to have the greatest impact on the oceans and ecosystems along the coast. Many countries center themselves on their water supply; for instance, throughout history, population has always been the densest along rivers and lakes, but mostly along the coasts. People need water to survive, not only for drinking and their homes, but they also use water to import and export goods, and for transportation. “Many areas of the United States, especially the West, currently face water supply issues. The amount of water available in these areas is already limited, and demand will continue to rise as population grows. The West has experienced less rain over the past 50 years, as well as increases in the severity and length of droughts; this has been especially of concern in the Southwest” (“Climate Change Impacts”). Another concern of climate change is the rising of sea levels, which is caused by ice melting or the shifting of the land and the plates. When the sea level rises, it affects not only all of the human activities, but the quality of their water, as well as the plants
Thesis statement: The global warming and the resultant climatic change is due to uncontrolled human exploitation of earth and its resources thereby emitting large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Other changes are more gradual but much more dramatic when viewed over long time scales. Powerful telescopes reveal new stars coalescing from galactic dust, just as our sun did more than 4.5 billion years ago. The earth itself formed shortly thereafter, when rock, dust, and gas circling the sun condensed into the planets of our solar system. Fossils of primitive microorganisms show that life had emerged on earth by about 3.8 billion years ago.
include the earth warming 2 to 3 degrees in the next century, arctic ice disappearing
Earth was formed 4.8 billion years ago (3) . It became the home for hazelnuts because it had an atmosphere and environment which allowed for life to prosper in later years. Earth’s surface was once composed of a single landmass, known as Pangaea (1).Over time it was broken up into seven different plates which were free to move as a result of movements in the hot, semi-liquid magma beneath the...
14. Southwick pp. 130-131. He lists "deforestation, overgrazing, intensive burning, over-cropping, land scarring, and extravagant use of irrigation" which had consequences such as "increased erosion, soil loss, declining water tables, salination…reduced atmospheric humidity and cloud cover, increased heat reflectivity, and lower amounts of rainfall."
All the causes are giving a great impact for climate changes in our earth. But another question is What are the consequences of these causes for the climate changes to our world? We can see that there are three main effects on climate changes in our
Glaciers have disappeared due to increasing in global temperatures because of which the water level had drastically increased and its causing flood all over the world
As matter of fact, the increasing of greenhouse gases (GHGs) including water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (C...