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Role of human beings in perpetuating climate change
The causes of climate change
The causes of climate change
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As time has progressed, the effect of human activity on Earth has lead to a shift in the way our climates now operate. More recently in humanity’s history, global warming has become an imminent source of worry for the future. The cause of climate change on the planet is directly linked to industrialization and the acute exploitation of fossil fuels. In relation to sociology, globalization is a contributor to the variance in climate, changing how the world operates on a global scale. The choices made by those in power, more specifically those who hold high ranking political positions, are considerably influential to the Earth’s future. While some people may attribute climate change solely to the ice age cycle and deny the very the existence …show more content…
While the Earth has historically gone through fluctuating periods of heating then cooling, “[there is over a] 90 percent certainty that emissions from heat-trapping gases due to human activities have caused [the majority] of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century” (Solomon et al., 2007 as cited in Ekwurzel). These emissions are largely due to non-renewable fossil fuels, like oil, coal and gas, that are burned to power vehicles and produce electricity. Carbon is mined from the Earth’s crust, which is the source of fossil fuels. Global warming is the rise in temperature on Earth, caused by the phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Radiation from the sun is reflected onto the Earth’s surface; the solar …show more content…
These nations “with the least resources have the least capacity to adapt and are the most vulnerable to climate change damages, just as they are more vulnerable to their environmental stresses” (Ravindranath et al., 2002). The largest problems will stem be from a lack of water in already water scarce areas, a decline in the crop yields and health issues relating to the climate change. Heat will become a major source of harm and diseases will increase as well (Ravidranath et al,
Will this century mark the decline of society? Is the future safe from the mistakes of mankind? In “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene”, Roy Scranton suggests that the question we should be asking ourselves about global warming is not whether it exists or how it can be stopped, but rather how are we going to deal with it. The purpose of the article is to convince everyone that current life is unsustainable, and that nothing can be done to reverse the process; we must acknowledge that the future will be drastically different and plan in advance if civilization is to keep moving forward. Dr. Scranton develops a realistic tone that relies on logos, pathos, and ethos appeals to persuade readers of his claim. Scranton sufficiently backs up
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).
Alleged Global Warming has been a hot topic and been widely reported in the American media since the 1970s. In March 2014, TED, a nonprofit committed to expanding ideas with short talks, gave a powerful presentation of the alleged current consequences of Global Warming in Gavin Schmidt’s (2014) talk: The emergent patterns of climate change. His claims are stark and he implores his audience to take the grave predictions of Global Warming seriously and not just write it off as insignificant. While Google Trends (2014) shows (graph 1) that search terms for global warming in the United States (red) have decreased while worldwide (blue) interest (image 1) fluctuates with India showing the most curiosity. Yet, not everyone agrees that Global Warming is real just as not everyone agrees that cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health when scientific studies show otherwise. By defining Global Warming, giving the major arguments on both sides of the topic, and offering an overview of scientific studies, this paper will help one think critically and thoughtfully about Global Warming.
The rising of temperatures is caused by factors called climate forcing or “forcing mechanisms”. This includes processes such as variations in solar radiation, variations in the Earth’s orbit, mountain-building and continental drift, and changes in greenhouse gas concentration. Solar radiation gets trapped by gases, which are created on earth, in the atmosphere. The radiation comes from the sun towards earth and bounces off the earth’s surface. However much of the radiation gets trapped by the gases remaining behind which warms our planet instead of going back into space like previously. This is known as the greenhouse effect. Some of the major contributing gases are; water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and our ozone layer. According to sources at Real Climate, 36-85% of the greenhouse effect is due to water vapor (including clouds), followed by carbon dioxide at 9-26%, and last all the minor greenhouse gas absorbers at 7-8%. Humans contribute to the greenhouse effect by deforestation, land use changes, and burning fo...
Most climate scientists agree that the main cause of global climate change is the human expansion of the greenhouse effect. This is the global warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space (climate.nasa.gov). The main gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (climate.nasa.gov). Human activities are changing the natural greenhouse effect. The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (climate.nasa.gov). Carbon dioxide levels have increased from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years due to human act...
The Earth's climate has changed significantly throughout history. In the last 700,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat. With the abrupt end of the last ice age approximately 7,000 years ago the beginning of the modern climate era was born. In the last century the global sea level has risen 17cm. All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years, having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. There is no denying global warming. Once considered a conspiracy theory by the world’s leading governments, industries and populations; global warming
Earth’s climate is determined by the physics and chemistry of its atmosphere. Earth’s atmosphere consists of four layers; troposphere which is closest to earth, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. Hardy says, “During the past 100 years we humans, as a result of burning coal, oil, and gas and clearing forests, have greatly changed the chemical composition of the thin atmospheric layer.” There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to burning fossil fuels. The atmosphere is made up of many gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. It also consists of trace gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, chlorofluorocarbons and, ozone. The trace gases have the greatest effect on our climate (Hardy 5). Up to a certain level, these gases help to keep the planet warm by absorbing certain infrared wavelengths, so that there can be life on the planet. Thus, they trap heat in the troposphere and stop it from escaping to space (Hardy 7). Therefore, the greater amount of greenhouse gases, the more heat trapped in the atmosphere. Earth’s temperature is increasing due to increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide released into the air from burning fossil fuels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2001 report projects “global average surface temperature increases ranging from 1.4 to 5.8 degrees
Mobility has allowed human civilizations throughout history to reap the benefits of unrestricted, intercontinental trade, but there are environmental costs as a result which are not immediately apparent. There is no doubt that trade between nations has depleted natural resources, but the question as to whether current trade policies augment or temper environmental degradation is currently under contention. One view is that environmental regulations will create "pollution havens" in countries where there are less stringent regulations, simply relocating environmental damage to a country where the environment is worth less. The opposing view comes in the form of the "Porter hypothesis" named for Michael Porter and his suggestion that stringent regulations will encourage technological innovation among polluting firms thereby decreasing the rate at which the environment is damaged. The opposing views deal with current trade policies, but it is also important also to look at the effects that trade has had on the environment when trade policies were just taking shape.
While critical of global warming alarmism, this documentary does not doubt that the earth is warming. Instead, they claim that scientific evidence demonstrates that such warming is but a natural variation in earth’s climatic history, similar to the Medieval Warm Period of the Little Ice Age. The documentary uses several lines of evidence to back up this claim, including ice core data that they claim when rightly interpreted shows carbon dioxide as having a lag time when earth’s climate has warmed in the recent and distant past, making it doubtful that it could be responsible for the increase in temperature that has been observed recently. The timing of the recent warming, which was most pronounced in the late Nineteenth Century through World War II, stopped and reversed to a cooling trend in the mid-Twentieth Century, and then rapidly warmed again in the past three decades, is dissected. Since this warming began before the advent of major human sources of greenhouse gas emissions and the period of most dramatic industrial...
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 in 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. As an outcome, researchers around the globe have established that the by-product of burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of the increasing temperatures. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900, as shown above from a study carried out by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.
The most destructive human contribution to climate change is fossil fuels combustion, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons levels in the atmosphere cause an imbalance in the earth’s energy. This is because the gases alter solar radiation and thermal radiation which regulate the earth’s energy. Research indicates that anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the increased global warming over the last fifty years. 57 % of the carbon dioxide emitted is absorbed into the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed into the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most central greenhouse gas that is associated with global warming (Eby, Zickfield, Montenegro, Archer, Meissner, & Weaver,
One of the major issues in today’s society is Global warming. It is one of many kinds of climate that the Earth goes through. The primary cause of global warming is the human expansion of the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases keep the earth warm through a process called greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases like Carbon dioxide trap heat from the atmosphere and maintain the soil warm. Without greenhouse gases, our planet would be too cold. However, people are adding extra greenhouse gases when they’re driving, using electricity, and in a factory. A lot of energy comes from fossil fuels. According to Environmental Protection Agency, the earth’s temperature has increased by 0.8 degree Celsius over the past century. More than half of this grew
Experts argue that in the 21st Century climate change has become one of the most challenging problems. There are many policies, regulations, and social principles that need to be changed in order to make a significant impact on global warming. Though, since climate change is a world wide problem, climate policies need to be made on both a regional and global scale. International agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol set by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well policies by the European Union (EU), governments, municipalities, and local NGOs that strife for a better environment, are crucial to changing global warming. Some areas are more sensitive to global warming than others, and therefore people from these areas tend to upkeep their own regional environmental policies more than others. China is the world’s largest growing economy, but one of its major issues has been the dealing with climate change. Nevertheless, one needs to understand that one lives in a world where the climate is changing rapidly, and a world that is interlinked – at the end of the day all humans live under the same roof. The phenomenon of globalization shows how human kind has developed an integrated world with similar views, products, ideas and culture (Al-Rodhan & Stoudmann, 2006). China is the most obvious example of globalization and climate change, and will therefore be interlinked throughout this essay. Since both climate change and globalization are aspects that both have a global influence, one could argue that these two have positive feedback on each other. O’Brien and Leichenko point out that the “processes of economic globalization are modifying or exacerbating existing vulnerabilities to climate change” (O’Brien & Leich...
Global warming will have a worldwide effect, but the problem is expected to be most severe in Africa, where the people are poor, temperatures are high, precipitation is low, technological change is slow, and where agriculture drives the economy. Climate changes in Africa will ultimately affect their habitats, native and non-native species, agriculture, weather, health, and energy use. First, across Africa, the landscape is changing, the snowy caps of Mount Kilimanjaro are melting and the shorelines of Lake Chad are receding. The once enormous Lake Chad has nearly vanished, it is now half the size it was thirty five years ago (Offor, 2008). The town of Burundi is on Lake Tanganyika, which is still a vast expanse of water, but the shoreline has retreated 50 feet in the last 4 years, and ships can no longer reach the port.
Global warming is an increase in the earth's temperature due to fossil fuels, industry, and agricultural processes caused by human, natural, and other gas emissions. This results in an increased evacuation of greenhouse gases. “Short-wave solar radiation sinks into the Earth's atmosphere and warms its surface while long-wave infrared radiation emitted by earth's surface is absorbed, and then re-emitted by trace gases.” (2)