Why Earth's Climate is Changing
‘The uneasiness of modern man arises from a rupture between himself and nature that leaves him homeless within the universe...’
William Barrett
Introduction
Over the past years most individuals have become acutely aware that the intensity of human and economic development enjoyed over the 20th century cannot be sustained. Material consumption and ever increasing populations are already stressing the earth’s ecosystems. How much more the earth can take remains a very heated issue. Here a look at the facts sheds some very dark light. In 1950, there were 2.5 billion people, while today there are 5.8 billion. There may well be 10 billion people on earth before the middle of the next century. Even more significant, on an ecological level, is the rise in per capita energy and material consumption which, in the last 40 years, has soared faster than the human population. “An irresistible economy seems to be on a collision course with an immovable ecosphere.” Based on these facts alone, there is grave reason for concern.
Taken further, it is even more frightening to note that, while man has affected the environment throughout his stay on earth, the impact has been most intense in the relatively short industrial era. Since the industrial revolution, and over the past century in particular, man’s ecological footprint on the earth has quickly grown from that of a child to one of a giant. True, this period is heralded as an economic success story, which it certainly has been. However, many argue that it seems increasingly likely that the path to man’s success will soon slope downward to his demise. The climate is changing, and so must we.
This paper will look at the coin of climate change, where on the one side the human impact on the earth will be shown, and on the other, the impact of earth on man. Such a study is inevitably somewhat polemical, as it is still open to debate what the precise effects of man have and will be on climate change, and also what climate change will mean to man. It will also be quite general in analysis, as a paper of this scope can allow no more. What will be made clear, nevertheless, is that the relationship between man and earth is clearly changing. More specifically, man is outgrowing the earth. If the relationship is to continue—ind...
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...in 1940, to defeat the last threat against human hope.” This strain of reasoning provides a welcome contrast to the depressing observation noted by Barrett at the opening of this study. And it is true, there is nothing to suggest that we are firmly locked into a future that is condemned. For the first time in history, it may well be possible for a balance to be found between man and nature.
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Ponting, Clive. Ch.11 from "A Green History of the World," St. Martins Press, NYC, 1991
The thesis of these excerpts from Bill McKibben’s book, Earth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, is that humanity has permanently changed the earth through global warming. This idea relies on the assumptions that global warming has caused irrevocable changes to the environment and that humans have only recently changed the earth.
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In recent decades, the contentious issues surrounding climate change and the corresponding effects it likely exerts upon contemporary civilization has developed to become one of the most pressing areas of concern afflicting humanity (Armstrong, 1). Currently, climate change has started to demonstrate its potentially calamitous consequences upon human subsistence practices, and has even begun to alter the very environments that entire societies reside in, theoretically endangering them in both instances (Armstrong, 1). Though the hindrances inherent in climate change are potentially devastating to the preservation of modern society, the problem of climate change itself is not one that is exclusive to the contemporary era. Rather, the harmful
Something New Under the Sun, is forthright on the environmental history of the twentieth century. John R. McNeill makes the claim that the human footprint on Earth during the twentieth century is unheard of and hidden from history. It is made clear that in the midst of this time, the human changes on the planet was at its most critical stage. McNeill expresses that humans were very adaptable before, but have become accustomed to a limited supply of cheap resources, which include, power and water. Now humans are unable to conform to scarce conditions. McNeill provides a wide range of valuable information that is up-to-date and restrains from mitigating environmental issues. The book is divided into 12 chapters, each with an introductory paragraph and a concise overview of the proposed topic. The content of the book includes an examination of the Earth’s lithosphere, pedosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. McNeill pleasantly displays the historic account
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Nowadays, climate change is became a major global issue which are affecting our life such as global warming ,mean sea level changing and more extreme weather events etc .According to the research of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 ,it showed that the global mean temperature rose by 0.74 °C during the hundred year period from 1906 to 2005. Between 1956 and 2005,the rising rate was 0.13°C per decade in this 50 years , nearly twice the rate in the past 100 years. Eight (2010, 2005, 2003, 2007, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2004) of the last ten years (from 2003 to 2012) rank among the 10 warmest years on record. It seems that climate change is potentially affecting our life.In fact,human activities and natural effect are the causes of climate change.Generally,most of the scientists and government agree that human activities is the main causes of climate change rather than natural causes.Therefore,this essay is going to discuss why human activities change the climate more seriously than natural effect.Afterward,I will also present some possible solution to reduce the climate change.
Ponting, Clive. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations. Penguin, Toronto, 1994.
The first part of this essay discusses what the human species has done to deal with the problem of climate change. While some improvements have been made, the problem has not been addressed aggressively enough to stop the damage. What is amazing about this is the denial of so many people that problems exist. If they do realize the risks, they are simply not taking actions to contain the damage.
While Rachel Carson’s “The Obligation to Endure”, Christopher Kemp’s "Medieval Planet", and Jared Diamond’s “The Ends of the World as We Know Them” all cover subjects relating to environmental issues, each author goes about purveying his or her message in a different manner. Kemp’s New Scientist article explains humanity’s environmental effects by imagining a world in which we never existed and hypothesizing how it would look and function with our absence. Carson’s essay depicts a frightening reality about the current state of humanity and the environment. She warns readers about how we are the only species who possess the capability to disrupt and even destroy Earth’s natural patterns. Diamond articulates his work with an unusual spin, using examples of historical civilizations that have snuffed themselves out by their own progress or poor relationship with the environment. The main message conveyed in Diamond's essay is that we are just as capable of choking ourselves out by our own doing today as were the historical civilizations that suffered the same fate. Despite their differing focuses, each article agrees that humans are outgrowing the finite amount of resources that the Earth can provide. A delicate symbiotic relationship between life and the environment has been maintained throughout time. Life on Earth was shaped by the constantly changing climate and surroundings. However, humans have gained the capacity to transcend this relationship. Through our ingenuity and industrialism, we have separated ourselves from natural restrictions. Because of this progress, we have been destroying the natural cycles of Earth’s environment and continue to do so at an alarming rate. Humanity has become Earth’s infection, ravaging the worl...
Withgott, J., & Brennan, S. (2011). Environment: the science behind the stories (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.
Sustainability Revolution: Earth, the planet we call home, is a complex system made of interdependent parts and pieces of life that are constantly changing. Earth’s planetary system has maintained a balance of dynamic equilibrium—it has been sustainable— since its beginnings about 4.5 billion years ago. This balance, however, has been progressively disrupted by us—humans— especially during the last few decades. Mother Nature has provided us with natural resources and the habitat for all species to sustain life on our planet. Since the industrial revolution, we have maintained a belief that these resources are infinite, and that economic growth and our attempts to improve our standards of living can continue forever. All forms of human economic