Our Legacy
Climate change is an issue that will not only affect every living creature today, but it will affect all of the future humans and creatures that will exist as well. Leaving the environment as an uninhabitable wasteland is one of the many possible outcomes of the increased global temperature. There are many reasons behind climate change, some are natural and some are due to human activities, but stopping these potentially harmful effects is crucial to the survival of the human race. Climate change does not specifically affect one nation, area, or race. It affects everyone and everything. Climate change is a major issue in today’s society and will affect every future generation. Whether one believes in climate change or not, it’s
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Ever since I was a child, visiting my grandparent’s house was one of my favorite things to do. My grandparents would always smile at me and love me unconditionally. They’d always let me wander around their house. Ever since I was four years old, I would wander around their backyard and travel around the vast amounts of flowers they had. I always wondered why there was so many flowers and stared in awe at the thousands of carnations and trees all lined up next to each other. My grandfather was a botanist, but he grew plants because he wanted to and not because it was part of the job. He gave me a few carnations to water and take care of, but they always died due to my lack of a green thumb. My grandpa was a heavy smoker and eventually, he suffered from terminal stage lung cancer. He was suffering from unbearable pain and every breath was a struggle for him, but he always had a smile on his face when he was talking about his flowers. On his death bed, he asked me, “Do you know why I grow so many plants?” and I honestly did not know. He looked me in the eye told me, “I grew all these plants because I love you and wanted to at least try preserving the planet for you.” My grandfather spent so much time and effort on preserving the environment for the next generation, and I want to at least try to do the …show more content…
The study states that “When the earth began coming out of the Pleistocene Ice Age 18,000 years ago, sea levels were about 400 feet lower than they are today and have been steadily rising ever since.” Judith Curry, PhD, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology states that "it is clear that natural variability has dominated sea level rise during the 20th century, with changes in ocean heat content and changes in precipitation patterns." Freeman Dyson, Professor of Mathematical Physics and Astrophysics at the renown, ivy league college, Princeton University, has stated that “there is no evidence that rising sea levels are due to anthropogenic climate change.” The NASA Earth Observatory journal argues the contrary that the ice caps are melting due to increased temperatures caused by humans. They also state that rising sea level is “in part due to the addition of water to the oceans through either the melting of or the "calving" off of icebergs from the world 's land ice. Many individual mountain glaciers and ice caps are known to have been retreating, contributing to the rising sea levels.” Many studies state that rising sea levels are a natural process. However, both sides of the argument agree that over the past couple centuries, the global sea level has been increasing gradually. It is an undeniable fact that sea levels are
Climate Change is costing the world millions of dollars and is the biggest issue facing society today. Climate change is causing greenhouse gases to build up, ice caps to melt, etc. Some people believe climate change is not a big issue. For instance in the article “Gospel of The Climate Change Deniers” it is stated, “Barton a guy who called Al Gore ‘totally wrong’ about global warming and advised people to get shade to adapt to rising temperatures” (Kroll). Although, this is an appealing mindset, it is illogical because climate change has many more effects than just warmer temperatures. For example, Frank Ackerman: an economist known for his work in environmental economics and Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanton an environmental economist and
According to Erik Conway of NASA, “Global warming refers to surface temperature increases, while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas amounts will affect” (Conway). Recently the United States has experienced a drop in temperature. This past weekend I was walking with a friend. With nothing to talk about, the awkward silence was finally filled with a comment on the weather. He said, “It’s so incredibly cold! So much for global warming!!” What my friend, nor I at the beginning of the semester, did not understand was that “temperature change itself isn’t the most severe effect of changing climate. Changes to precipitation patterns and sea level are likely to have much greater human impact than the higher temperatures alone” (Conway). Thankfully the national media has begun to increasingly reference the more scientifically significant term: climate change.
Climate change is a major issue that is only going to get worse. Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns. It has become more apparent since the mid to late 20th century onwards and is attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Climate change has been an important issue for decades that has effects on the environment and people of the world with the end result potentially being catastrophic. Although many believe that prolific use of fossil fuels is the direct cause of climate change, there are many more underlying causes including population expansion as well as irresponsible consumption of natural resources that have
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 a term used to describe the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface and has been a major problem recently. Our world is constantly changing and therefore so is our climate, as our country industrializes we create more greenhouse gases from the immense human activity being produced. “These gases get into the atmosphere when coal, natural gas and oil is burned for energy and over the last century the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide… the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.”(NASA 1). Climate change is causing global warming that causes the earth to heat up rather than
Climate change has been nothing, but controversial in the last fifty years. Climate change is a change in the average weather of a region or city. Scientists have opted to use the term "climate change" instead of global warming because as the Earth's average temperature changes, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, as well as warm others. There is an ongoing dispute about the effects of humans on the global climate and about what policies should be implemented to avoid possible undesirable effects of climate change. Ninety-seven percent of published scientific research concluded that climate change is real, problematic for the planet, and has been exacerbated by human activity. But what about the three percent that contradicts that?
Climate change is temperature increasing over a long period of time. Climate is imoortant to both humans and ecosyestems in order to thrive. One slight change can disrupt an entire ecosystem. Most people recognize that greenhouse gasses such carbon dioxide have been contributing to climate change. Greenhouse gases are part of earth’s many natural processes. Greenhouse gasses are important to keeping the earth at an overall warm temperature. When When sunlight shines down to Earth, it warms the surface but after so much warming, some of the heat goes right back out into the atmosphere. Some of the heat hits the greenhouse gases. When this happens, the molecules become excited and release even more heat. The issue of climate change has been
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
Scientists appear to have become aware of the issue of rising sea levels in the mid to late 1980s. An article published in Science News in 1987 predicted that “global warming… will cause… the world's oceans to expand, raising the average sea level by 4 to 8 centimeters in the next 40 years” (Monastersky). Though 4 to 8 centimeters sounds like a miniscule amount in relation to the vastness of the world’s oceans, this early article disturbed many readers. Many for this reason: early stud...
Jeffrey Salmon is the executive director of the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington D. C. This is an organization that conducts scientific research on issues that affect public policy. Salmon disagrees that global warming poses a serious threat to human health or the environment (Salmon 23). He believes that there is no solid scientific evidence to support the theory that the Earth is warming because of man-made greenhouse gases. Salmon says that environmentalists and politicians have seized the very few scientific findings and promoted a sense of crisis in order to further their own agendas. A lot of the talk about how the world will only be saved if humans reduce fossil fuel emissions is only out there because of these people putting getting the word out and striking fear in people. The truth is that the Earth is not experiencing rapid enough changes for all of that to be necessary (Salmon 25). Salmon also compared the global warming threat to a weekly weather prediction. He says that just like a weatherman is often wrong about the weather of the week, the predictions about Earth’s future weather is a little sketchy. If weather cannot always be predicted a few days in advance, then there is no way the claims of Earth’s weather in several years can be determined true (Salmon
Climate change has affected us greatly. Many of the resources we take for granted everyday are being affected by climate change. Seafood, chocolate, coffee and peanut butter are just
Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon that is being experienced globally in various forms, such as temperature rise. Sea level rise, droughts, floods, hurricanes, landslides, etc. According to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC project, even with immediate implementation of mitigation strategies, global climate change will continue for decades. Climate change is inflicting serious consequences on human wellbeing and will continue to inflict damage in the future. It is estimated that global temperature will rise by 1.8 oC - 4.0 oC by the end of the 21st century (Izaurraade, 2009).
Climate change is one of the major issues surfacing on Earth over the past century. The earth’s temperature has increased over the years, leading to detrimental effects on the economic and life sources of people, especially that of agricultural production and livestock. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), defined climate change as a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid late 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007) predicts that by 2100 the increase in global average surface temperature may be between 1.8° C and 4.0° C. With increases of 1.5° C to 2.5° C, approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are expected to be at risk of extinction. Moreover, the IPCC (2007) purported that climate change has severe consequences for food security in developing countries.
Climate Change is any substantial change in climate that lasts for an extended period of time. One contributor to current climate change is global warming, which is an increase in Earth’s average temperature. Plants and animal species throughout the world are being affected by rising temperatures. Many plants are flowering earlier now than they once did; animals, such as the yellowbellied marmot, are emerging from hibernation earlier; and many bird and butterfly species are migrating north and breeding earlier in the spring than they did a few decades ago, all because of slight changes in temperature cues. (Shuster)
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...