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Causes and effects of global warming
Causes and effects of global warming
What are the consequences of climate change
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Ever wonder where the term “greenhouse gases” came from? Or how a greenhouse can relate to the warming of the earth? According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we use the term greenhouse because a greenhouse lets in sunlight and traps heat just like the gases on Earth’s atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is a process in which the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap heat and warm up the Earth. The increase in greenhouse gases is one of the main effects of climate change. NASA official Brian Dunbar, describes climate change as a, “change in the usual weather found in a place.” As a result, it directly affects agriculture, our health and society as a whole. The differences between climate and weather can help understand the causes …show more content…
The EPA states that the, “crops, livestock and seafood produced in the United States contribute to more than $300 billion to the economy each year.” Greenhouse gases cause changes in temperature and precipitation that can prevent crops from growing. Increase in heat waves directly affect livestock and the EPA states that overtime, “heat stress can increase vulnerability to disease, reduce fertility, and reduce milk production.” The EPA also states that when greenhouse gases get released into the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs 1/4th of the emissions and as a result fishermen experience a decrease in harvest and consumers experience changes in prices. This confirms that climate change is making an impact not only on agriculture, but to our …show more content…
The EPA says that, “Warmer temperatures and shifting weather patterns can worsen air quality, which can lead to asthma attacks and other respiratory and cardiovascular health effects.” This shows that extreme heat and poor air quality increases the risk of illnesses and deaths. Climate change also affects our safety because it can cause an increase in extreme weather events like storms, floods and droughts. According to the National Climate Assessment (NCA), these extreme weather events can have impacts on our “mental health, such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Rising sea levels intensify floods and the NCA says that as a result it can cause, “injuries, deaths, stress due to evacuations, and water quality impacts, among other effects on public health.” This demonstrates that climate change has the potential to control our well being and our
Earth’s average temperature has increased about 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1880 and another degree could cause even more problems than there already are. Climate change is an important issue to be aware of because it is real and it affects you and the things around you each and every day. Every day animals lose habitats and die because climate change caused there home to burn, or their food sources started to deplete, etc. Along with these, more and more CO2 is being released into the air due to wildfires burning which is causing the atmosphere to heat even more. With the temperature increasing the oceans will become warmer and evaporation and rainfall patterns will change which will affect humans and animals, because we all work together in a system. There are many consequences of climate change like human health issues, and more animals becoming endangered, but the most important consequence is the rising amounts of wildfires.
Think about a time when your car was parked on the side of the street all day long. Then you decide to run to the store and get some things for dinner. The minute you opened the car door, you feel the currents of hot air blowing past you, and when you sit down, you feel as if your car is radiating heat! This is a tiny, yet real example of the process called the greenhouse effect. This effect includes a form of matter, absorbing heat or radiation from the sun. What happened in the car was the glass assists the absorption of the heat and trapped the heat inside, containing it. Equally, the earth's atmosphere contains gases called greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and water vapor, which absorbs the rays we receive from the sun, and trap the heat inside. Our atmosphere, which contains the greenhouse gases acts like a blanket; absorbing the heat from the sun, and preventing it from going away from the earth's surface. The more the heat gets trapped because of the increase in greenhouse gases, the more the temperature rises, causing global warming. Global warming is “an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution,” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). The two main causes of global warming are the greenhouse effect and solar variations. The Greenhouse Effect “refers to the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation atmosphere gases (mainly Greenhouse gases such as CO, NO, and Carbon Monoxide) warms the Earth’s atmosphere and surface,” (Merriam Webster Dictionary).Solar Variations are “changes in the amount of radiant energy emitted by the Sun,” (Wikipedia).
The Greenhouse Effect occurs when all of the heat is being trapped which involves elements like CH4, N2O, O3. But , the one thing that causes global warming is CO2 ( Schlosser). The society has to remember that not only the elements cause this change , critics are causing the climate change also. For example , fire is natural and beneficial but it can also cause the weather to change because it releases carbon monoxide , and all of that goes up into the atmosphere which can cause global change. Not only does it cause warm temperatures but it also disrupts ecosystems pushing those to extinction for those who can’t adapt. There is also the Greenhouse effect temperatures. They have been rising to about 0.8 degrees celsius. According to Dr. Schlosser , in the atmosphere, it returns about 30% of the energy in approaching sunlight and takes in about 30% at the same time.
An analogy of a greenhouse effect is the effect that you get when you go to the beach in a hot summer day and you leave your car with the windows closed. After you come back and open the car door you get a furnacelike blast of heat in your face. Inside the car everything is too hot to touch. This is similar to what the earth experiences when heat enters the atmosphere and is not reflected back.
The effects of climate are felt throughout the world, all living things are affected with it. The effects of climate change are affecting directly the human life. It has been noticed that around the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing and sea levels are rising. The world compares to century ago, it has changed drastically and it is becoming worse with climate change. Climate change will rapidly alter the lands and waters which we all depends upon for survival which will leave our children thus the future generation with a different world. In the time to come if not much is done for the case of climate change, There will be shortage of food and drinks, many new illnesses and diseases and some part of the world will become in appropriate for living things to live due to natural disaster. It can be that with the rapid Global warming and climate change, one-fourth of Earth’s species could be headed for extinction by the year 2050.
Climate change is not often the sole cause of increases in the burden of climate sensitive health outcomes, but it interacts with other public health stresses. The increasing extent and rate of climate change means it is expected to be a major health...
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
Due to climate changes, we are a “gradual and uncertain rather than immediate and obvious” process, we as humans cannot understand it (Jamieson, 102). In addition, climate change effects have no geographical bounds and because very few people pay attention to events that occur beyond national boundaries, most people are oblivious to its existence. Jamieson makes the point that climate change must be thought rather than sensed, and we as humans are not very good at thinking (Jamieson, 103). On top of that, even if we succeed in thinking that something is a threat, we are less reactive than if we sense that it is a threat. Since we cannot even comprehend climate change's presence in our world right now, it also makes it extremely difficult for us to comprehend how our anthropogenic actions of today will affect future generations all over the world.
Climate change has become of the world’s major issue today. The earth’s climate is always changing in a very fast and also in different ways. Climate changes affect our lives psychologically, emotional and also physically. Climate change is defined as a long term change in the earth’s climate, especially a change due to the increase in the average atmospheric temperatures. Due to this change in temperature, a lot of changes has occurred in our environment, these changes include rising sea levels, flooding, melting of polar ice caps, hotter days, colder nights and heat waves. These climate changes plays an important role in shaping our natural ecosystem, our human economics and also the most important, it affects the human race. For
The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global-average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue as an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
Global warming and the greenhouse effect are issues discussed by scientists all the time. A natural process that keeps earths temperature at a livable rate is called the greenhouse effect. The energy from the sun warms up the earth when the rays from the sun are absorbed by greenhouse gases. The gasses then become trapped in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and nitrous oxide are the most common greenhouse gases.
The Centers for Disease Control have been involved in studying global warming's effect on human health. Its affect on the climate can adversely affect humans. Plagues have been attributed to global warming. An increase in temperature can result in a longer life cycle for diseases or the agents spreading them.” Global warming will lead to more precipitation, which enables infectious diseases to be more easily contracted and spread.” (2) Effects of global warming on human health might not be immediately detected.
all the time. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that keeps the earth at temperatures that
The common definition of global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants (Global warming, Wikipedia). Moreover, the effects of global warming will bring ecological and social changes. Because there is no exact way to predict the effects of global warming, it is almost impossible to say how strong global warming will affect life in the future. Scientists blame the greenhouse gas effect in combination with societies greenhouse gas emissions for the rising temperature. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is emitted back towards the earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere, it results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Simply, global...
Global warming is the gradual rise in temperature and oceans due to recent human activity. This is created by the production of too much carbon dioxide that is released into the earth’s atmosphere. The carbon dioxide, also known as a greenhouse gas, remains in the air trapping heat and gradually warming the planet. Other greenhouse gases such as: methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor also contribute to this slow warming. According to Live Science, The state of these gases being trapped is called the greenhouse effect, which is one of the leading causes of global warming (Lallanillia). All the gases are created differently and have different effects on the earth. As for some greenhouse gases can be in the atmosphere for a short amount of time, other gases can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of