Climate Change Persuasive Essay

Thomas Abshire

Professor Brazzel

English 102 Research Essay #1

25 October 2014

Climate Change: How to stop it

“Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” says Bill Nye. What is climate change? Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the variation of weather around average conditions. Climate change is caused by factors of differences in solar radiation received by Earth. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as "global warming".

The most general definition of climate change is a change in the properties of the climate when considered over long

On the biggest scale, the rate at which energy is received from the sun and the rate at which it is lost in space determines the temperature and climate of Earth. This energy is distributed around the world by winds, ocean currents, and other means to affect the climates. Things that can affect the climate are called climate forcings. These include: solar radiation, changes in the Earth's orbit, and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. Some parts of the evidence for climatic change is taken from a variety of sources that can be used to recreate past climates. For earlier periods, most of the evidence is indirect—climatic changes are inferred from changes in proxies, indicators that reflect climate, such as vegetation, ice cores, sea level change, and glacial

Both long- and short-term differences in solar force are known to affect global climate. Three to four billion years ago the sun gave only 70% as much power as it does today. If the atmosphere was like that today, liquid water should not have existed on Earth. Over the following approximately 4 billion years, the energy output of the sun increased and the atmosphere changed. The Great Oxygenation Event – oxygenation of the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago – was the biggest change. This caused the sun to become magnified, increasing our climate change. Some studies point toward solar radiation increases from sunspot activity thus affecting global warming, and climate may be influenced by the sum of all effects.

The biggest contributor to climate change though are humans. Of most concern in these influences is the increase in CO2 levels due to pollution from fuel combustion, followed by aerosol and the CO2 released by cement. Other things, including land use, ozone depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation, are also parts that effect the climate. They play – both separately and together with other factors – in affecting