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 …show more content…
But the debate over whether climate change is real or not is over. The U.S National Academy of Sciences quotes, “Some scientific conclusions or theories have been so thoroughly examined and tested, and supported by many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found to be wrong is vanishingly small. Small conclusions and theories are then regarded as settled facts. This is the case for the conclusions that the Earth System is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities.” This suggests that there is a strong body of evidence from all around the world including record temperatures, rising sea levels, retreating glaciers and extreme weather events showing that climate change is occurring and it is mostly caused by human activities. According to Metz, “July 2012 marked the hottest month in U.S history, and drought expanded to cover 63% of the contiguous U.S. The average temperature was 25.33 degrees Celsius, 1.8 degrees about the 20th-century average, making the hottest 12-month period the nation had endured in 117 years of record-keeping.” This suggests that these record-breaking temperatures are the result of global warming. It is nothing else but climate …show more content…
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
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 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...
Earth’s carbon levels have followed a natural cycle throughout the past 800,000 years where the carbon dioxide concentration varied from 180 ppm (parts per million) and 280 ppm which resulted in several changes in the environment.. In the grand scheme of Earth, these changes are miniscule and have stayed within the natural cycle. But when looking through the eyes of humans, these changes are drastic causing ice ages, draughts, and rain for years (Goldstein 6). During the last century carbon dioxides levels in the atmosphere have become significantly larger than they ever have in the past 800,000 years. Today these levels are at 390 ppm and show no signs of stopping which will cause temperatures to rise because carbon is a greenhouse gas. When a greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide or water vapor are present in the atmosphere, they absorb the heat that the Earth is giving off, creating a thermal blanket over Earth trapping in heat (Houghton 20).
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).
Global warming and global climate change is the study of future increases of temperature across the globe. Studying climate change refers to how the over- all climate will change such as the dry places getting dryer and the wet places getting wetter. Global climate is dependent on “the greenhouse effect a natural process that helps regulate temperature” (Easterling and Karl). In the past few centuries humans have had a monumental effect on increasing of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change is result of the increase amount of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere such as methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and ozone. “Global temperature has rose approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over
The atmosphere is a layer, surrounding Earth, composed of air and different gases. One of its main functions is to act as a shield to protect Earth from solar radiation, and, at the same time, to trap heat inside to keep the planet warm. Over billions of years the atmosphere has changed several times. Atmosphere affects climate, so, as it changes, climate changes as well. Climate change, as its name says, is the variation of global climate over long periods of time. Climate model projections made by the US Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show that, recently, global temperature has increased. This increase in temperature is referred to as global warming. One of the main causes of global warming is greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorb solar radiation to keep the planet warm. These gases have increas...
The climate change occurring now, which affects every continent and ocean, has both human and natural causes. Developing land to support human activities, harvesting forests, and burning fossil fuels are human contributions to the problem; while volcanic activity, intensity of the Sun, Earth’s orbit, and the interaction of the atmosphere and oceans are natural causes. Greenhouse gases are natural and help keep the planet warm by trapping heat in the atmosphere, but the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are exacerbating this effect. Since the Industrial Revolution, increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have caused global temperatures to rise and at an even higher rate over the last 30 years (EPA). The consequences of global warming include a drastic increase in the number of hurricanes, tropical storms, heat waves, and terrible droughts in the southeastern and southwestern United States, Europe, and Africa (Colemen & Kerbo); melting ice in the Arctic and melting glaciers worldwide, rising ocean temperatures and sea levels, and acidification of the oceans caused by higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere (EPA).
Global warming, which is an increase in the average temperature of the earth, has many factors that have to be considered to what is the culprit in an increase in temperature. According to Utah researchers, Eldredge and Biek, the earth is currently in an ice age with temperatures colder than they have been throughout some of earth’s history. Going through cycles of above or below average temperatures is very normal for the earth as many different factors go into the temperature including ocean and atmospheric temperatures, volcanic eruptions, and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Eldredge and Biek, 2010). Knowing that the earth goes through cycles of warm and cold weather makes it difficult to have a definitive answer of how much human activities actually contribute to the warming of the earth. With the amount of carbon Dioxide that humans emit into the atmosphere, almost all scientists agree that human activity is having a profound affect on global warming. Stanford researchers Lobell, schlenker, and Roberts present data showing an increase of .13 degrees Celsius every decade since 1950 with an expected increase in temperature per year due to carb...
Global warming is both a political and scientific problem, which tends to be manipulated by media to prove one side of the argument. Although the media sways the public to see global warming as a settled matter, it is far from that. Scientifically speaking, the evidence to support man-made global warming comes from assumptions rather than solid evidence that can be fully proven. Scientists cannot say for certain whether or not the warming of the globe is primarily man-made or natural due to the constantly changing research, unreliability of climate models, lack of research, and prior observations before the pre-satellite era.
The Earth's atmosphere has already warmed by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. Scientists contend that anthropogenic additions of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, greatly enhance the natural warming of the earth. (Global Warming FAQ, n.d) The use of fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural activities are all contributions to the rising of greenhouse gases, which cause the earth and the suns surface to heat up and trap in the atmosphere causing us to encounter global warming.
Although the earth has undergone periodic changes known as global cooling and global warming, today’s global warming is unique, due to human influences. The greenhouse effect is essentially gasses in the atmosphere trapping heat, rather like a car window does in the summer. The major heat trapping gasses found in the atmosphere are; CO2 and water vapor- which are found in large quantity, 03(ozone), ch4(methane), and N2O(nitrous oxide)-which are better heat trappers but found in smaller quantity, CFC’s and PFC’s- which are very potent and destroy ozone. The rapid elevation of these gasses in the past fifty years have been the cause for concern of scientists calling it a global warming problem.
Future environments on certain parts on Earth have been foreseen, and global warming seems to be a leading game changer in it. The term “global warming” and “increased global temperatures” have been a hot topic for years now, but what are they? Global warming is simply, the gradual warming of the Earth. Climate change is also synonymous to global warming. The Earth getting warmer is not at all new; “Since 1951, Earth’s climate has warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius…” (Spotts). However, prior to the presence of humans, climate changes happened completely from natural causes such as changes in volcanic eruptions, natural changes in greenhouse gas concentrations and solar energy changes (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
Climate change is something very real in today’s society. People need to be more aware of what is happening to the world around them. CO2 levels are rising, the ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising. The awareness about global warming should rise...not our CO2 levels. According to the graph shown on NASA’s climate change website, our CO2 levels on earth have rose ever since the Industrial Revolution. Multiple greenhouse gases block heat from leaving Earth’s atmosphere. Over the years, the amount of fossil fuels that are burned, have increased greatly. Burning fossil fuels creates these greenhouse gases. The more fossil fuels we burn, the more greenhouse gases that are stuck in our atmosphere. These gases heat up the earth over time as no heat is capable of escaping.
Climate changes occur in our earth's atmosphere due to a buildup of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can occur naturally as well as a result of human activities. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. “Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels, and wood are burned.” (2) The gases help to warm the surface of the Earth. Each greenhouse gas absorbs heat differently. If natural gases did not occur, the temperature of the earth would be considerably cooler. “Problems can occur when higher concentrations of greenhouse gases are present in our atmosphere because they have enhanced our earth's heat trapping capability.” (3)
The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases –– primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’’s climate responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising. Go to the Emissions section for much more on greenhouse gases.