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Impact of disaster on society
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The Invisible Threat: How Climate Change Came to be Regarded as a Social Problem The dawn of the twentieth century marked the beginning of dramatic changes around the world. The invent of steam and coal driven machines was creating an industrial boom the likes of which the world has never seen. As the world’s focus was turned to the exploding economy of the Second Industrial Revolution, behind the scenes, carbon dioxide pollution was beginning to collect in the atmosphere. The collection of this gas caused the atmosphere to absorb more solar radiation and was slowly heating the earth. At the time many people believed shift in the climate was not caused by gases in the atmosphere, but the ever present forces of earthly elements such as …show more content…
Researchers such as Callendar had gotten the idea on the table, but it would be up to others in the decades to come to gather evidence able to sway the opinion of the rest of the scientific community as well as the public. By the middle of the nineteenth century, technology had come quite a long way and electronic computers were becoming readily available for researchers to use in their quest to prove beyond a doubt the effects of carbon dioxide emissions on the climate. In a twist of luck for climate researchers, government funding was becoming more readily available as the Cold War sparked an interest in the environment in hopes of learning how to manipulate it (Weart 2015). Spurred on by the increased funding and new technology, research into climate change continued under the guise of research for climatological warfare. Eventually, a breakthrough in public recognition came following a report published by oceanographer Roger Revelle. He reported that the oceans were not absorbing excess carbon dioxide at the rate previously predicted and that the process was actually much slower (Revelle, Suess 1957). He also became the first to put a negative spin on global warming. While scientists of the past had seen only milder winters and increased crop growth as the effects of global warming, Revelle predicted negative consequences in the form of melting ice caps, expanding deserts, etc. He said that humanity was becoming part of an unintentional climatological experiment and reminded people that the earth was a closed system that there was no escaping from should anything go wrong (Keller
In the article “Climate of Complete Certainty” by Bret Stephens, he argues upon the topic that politicians exaggerate scientific certitude to benefit themselves. Stephens uses Clinton’s campaign loss and the climatic debate as illustrations to show that scientific fact doesn’t always give the defining factor of gains or losses. As stated by Stephens, Brexit showed the Clinton campaign that the populist tide causes a major surprise factor when determining the end result. With this example in mind, Stephens conveys that the end result strayed away from absolute certainty. Another instance in which scientific certitude is altered is within the topic of climate change.
Lindzen begins his piece by asserting that there isn't, and never will be, static, unchanging climates on planets with fluid envelopes. Throughout this article, he ponders why there has been an increase in alarm over climate change in the past few years. At the beginning of the article, he states that the increase in alarm is because the public has become scientifically illiterate, which, in turn, makes them more susceptible to being taken advantage of by people of higher status. He continues on by saying that the panic over climate change is falsely placed and that the climate is and has constantly been changing over time. He gives supportive examples of this through climate changing events that have occurred throughout the centuries. Also, according to Lindzen, findings on climate change are problematic because they are based on computer models. He claims that the data conflicts with the models, and that scientists “correct” the data to agree with the models, which points to some level of corruption in climate science. Although Lindzen does give reasons that he believes climate change may be over exaggerated, he keeps going back to another reason. Throughout the article, he ind...
An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary film in which basis are put long-term researches of changes of climate, level of carbonic gas in the atmosphere, and conditions of polar ices. In this film, El Gore, a presidential candidate of 2000 and former vice president of the United States, explains the scientific and political view of global warming and its serious consequences that we already observe on Earth, and other more tragic consequences that are still to come in the near future if we do not reduce emissions of exhaust gas in the atmosphere. Nothing especially new about the global warning is presented in the film, but what made this film effective is, firs of all, the fact that El Gore, a public and well known figure in the United States, is the main protagonist of the film. Another effective point in the film is that El Gore put all the scientific work together and showed that the problem is real, it is not a myth, and it should not be ignored any longer.
English 122 has been a challenging class for me to learn about my writing and researching techniques. This essay is about how the assignments help me with my writing and which assignments are challenging for me.
Since measurements began in 1958 -- and it can be assumed to have been the case since the industrial revolution -- emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has risen steadily as a result of the burning of fossil fuels (Quay, pp 2344). Although there is much argument over the implications of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, there are several points that almost all scientists would agree on: firstly, carbon dioxide acts to absorb radiated heat; if present in our atmosphere will do just that to some extent. Second, the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is rising. Third, the temperature of the planet is rising - although the amount of this increase and the causes of this rise are subject to disagreement (Philander, pp 193).
The Industrial Revolution was not only a turning point in the progress of human history, but the start of a great change in the Earth’s environment. Technological advances in industry and mass migration into urban areas led to a rising demand for energy sources, a demand met by fossil fuels. Casper, J. (2010) describes coal as ‘symbolic of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution’, the increased combustion of these ‘dirty’ fossil fuels further polluted the air and enhanced the volume of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Changes in land use attributed to population rise, reduced the amount of photosynthesising biomass on Earth, diminished an important ‘carbon sink’ and concluded to enhance the Greenhouse Effect.
The earth is facing climate change and the word has no longer positive meaning but negative definition. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol ratified the agreement about reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to avoid climate change and it seems to formulate the consensus that human activities cause global warming. As Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, adopted the Paris Agreement in the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, Australia had pledged to contribute substantially to reduce emissions (Jones 2015). In terms of climate change in Australia, Tim Flannery is one of the most eminent scientists. The aim of this essay is to present Tim Flannery’s life, his contribution to society, an aspect of work, controversial issues, and opponents to discover him
Mankind’s industrialization of the world has caused a drastic increase in temperature. This rise in temperature is caused by solar radiation remaining in our atmosphere because of gases produced by humans through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities. These gases block the radiation from escaping into space therefore warming our planet. The result is raising of ocean levels, extinction of species and threatening of children’s health because of disease and less freshwater to drink. While many view climate change to be a more natural occurrence than others do, scientists have proven the average temperature rise of the Earth between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the last 100 years.
Upon opening Ralph Waldo Ellison’s book The “Invisible Man”, one will discover the shocking story of an unnamed African American and his lifelong struggle to find a place in the world. Recognizing the truth within this fiction leads one to a fork in its reality; One road stating the narrators isolation is a product of his own actions, the other naming the discriminatory views of the society as the perpetrating force infringing upon his freedom. Constantly revolving around his own self-destruction, the narrator often settles in various locations that are less than strategic for a man of African-American background. To further address the question of the narrator’s invisibility, it is important not only to analyze what he sees in himself, but more importantly if the reflection (or lack of reflection for that matter) that he sees is equal to that of which society sees. The reality that exists is that the narrator exhibits problematic levels of naivety and gullibility. These flaws of ignorance however stems from a chivalrous attempt to be a colorblind man in a world founded in inequality. Unfortunately, in spite of the black and white line of warnings drawn by his Grandfather, the narrator continues to operate on a lost cause, leaving him just as lost as the cause itself. With this grade of functioning, the narrator continually finds himself running back and forth between situations of instability, ultimately leading him to the self-discovery of failure, and with this self-discovery his reasoning to claim invisibility.
One of the most compelling and difficult environmental problems society faces today is climate change. People do not realize how much the environment has changed for the worse in the last ten years, until they are told that the last two decades of the 20th century have been the hottest in the last 400 years, according to climate studies (Conserve Energy Future). Today, the carbon dioxide levels have reached 396.81 parts per million (ppm). “Carbon dioxide (CO2) has also increased over the last 100 years-- from about 300 ppm to 370 ppm. Interestingly, the majority of these additions have occurred in the last 50 years, when temperature increases have been the slowest” (geocraft).
Furthermore, this analysis must take place amidst serious gaps in the existing research and technology concerning the developing climatic conditions. For these reasons, global warming stands as one of the most daunting policy issues facing our world today. This is compounded by the debate over the very existence of climate change. While countless sources of empirical evidence testify to the very real presence of climate change the world over, considerable denial of the phenomenon still exists. The argument has been made that evidence of climate change is a gross overstatement, or in some cases, a complete fabrication.
Our world is always changing, so is our climate. Some changes are apparent, others not so much. Climate change is an important issue of concern in the twenty-first century. Environment, if it changes at all, evolves so slowly that the difference cannot be seen in a human lifetime (Wearth, 2014). Mostly all scientists predicted that it would take thousands of years for the planet to warm up due to emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels called greenhouse gases. But in the past 200 years, things began to change. The rate and the amount of warming that is happening on this planet are unprecedented. Wearth says, “People did not grasp the prodigious fact that both population and industrialization were exploding in a pattern of exponential
The evidence clearly provided in this essay strongly supports the argument that greenhouse gases caused by air pollution are the main cause of anthropogenic climate change. The tables and graphs demonstrate just how greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. As is evident, climate change is an ever growing problem globally. Due to the increase in anthropogenic air pollution, greenhouse gases have amplified also, as shown by table 2. Figure one shows how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased exponentially, mirrored by anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide. The various examples described clearly support the argument that greenhouse gases caused by air pollution are the major anthropogenic causes of climate change.
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 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...