Climate Change Controversy

The human race all around the world wonders if the climate is changing due to human activity or if it is just a natural occurrence. At certain parts of the Earth's surface, the climate can be observed much differently than other locations. As the years go by the average temperature of the Earth increases by little intervals. There are several different reasons why people believe the climate is changing every year. However, the increase of worldwide population and production of heat to the atmosphere is due to the increase of human activities that take place on a daily basis. Human activity is the main cause of the global climate change. The human impact on climate exceeds any known changes due to natural processes. The impact of this human activity is often misunderstood when looking at climate change.

According to this Chapter, the cause of these climate changes came from forcing. Forcing is any ongoing process or discrete event that alters the energy of the system. Examples of natural forcings include volcanic eruptions, periodic shifts in the Earths’s orbit and changes in the sun’s

on, there are other, natural forcings that have effects on the global climate. A few of these

Climate change is evident throughout the world and is a major issue. It is no secret that our planet is getting warmer. Global warming is now recognized in the scientific community as a real problem. There are multiple aspects that are causing this issue. Majority of the warming is caused by greenhouse gases. Volcanic eruptions and changes in the intensity of solar radiation have offset the warming partially. It is estimated that average annual temperatures will increase 3.5°F-9.5°F by the century’s end.

The first argument examined on the man-made global warning side is that increasing greenhouse gases caused by human activities is causing directly observed climate changes. The first resulting climate change discussed is warming global surface temperature. There has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.74 degrees C since the late 19th century. In the last 50 years alone the temperature has increased by 0.13 degrees C per decade. North America and Eurasia have seen the largest increase in warmth. However, some areas of the earth have actually cooled some this past century (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para6). After the mid 20th century 70% of the global land mass saw reduced diurnal temperatures. From 1979 to 2005 the maximum and minimum temperatures have shown no change; both indicate warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para10). Furthermore, borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data all seem to agree with recent warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para11).

The natural gases that are trapped in the atmosphere that warms the earth and keeps earth climate livable is commonly known as the Greenhouse effect.

One statement that skeptics make is that the sun is causing global climate change. They claim that the sun has been more active in the prior 60 years than in the entire 1000 years before and the number of sunspots has increased, causing the world to get warmer. These people also claim that the sun varies in intensity and that these variations occur in predictable cyclical patterns.

As per a Dec. 2013 study in Nature Geosciences, the sun has had just a "minor impact" on the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere in the course of recent years, and a dangerous atmospheric heating from human-delivered greenhouse gasses has been the essential driver of environmental change following 1900. Another 2013 study found that sun oriented action couldn 't have added to more than 10% of the watched a worldwide temperature alteration over the twentieth

But many climate scientists will tell you that this change in climate is due to humans and their activities. It is said that humans release greenhouse gases and “if emissions continue unchecked, they say the global warming could ultimately exceed 8 degrees Fahrenheit, which would transform the planet and undermine its capacity to support a large human population” (Gillis, 2015). To make it easier to understand, as sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface there are two things that can be done, one; it can either be reflected back into space or two, it can be absorbed by the Earth. Once the Earth absorbs the sunlight, it then releases some energy back into the atmosphere as infrared radiation, also known as heat. Then these greenhouse gases tend to act like a “blanket,” therefore making the Earth warmer than it would be otherwise. This process is what we call the “greenhouse effect.” The reason scientists say that climate change is caused by humans is that it’s simple, humans drive, cook food, and even heat or cool their homes, which release gases such as, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4 ), and water vapor (H2O).

That’s not to say that links between solar activity and Earth’s climate don’t exist, however; they clearly do. There are just other factors that may be more influential. For example, the amount of power the sun produces, or solar irradiance, is reduced by only 0.1% during this time of less frequent sunspots. However, the amount of ultraviolet output over a solar cycle can deposit energy in our stratosphere that is a direct causation of colder winters in Europe at

In the last 100 years, Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.4°F. The rising global temperatures have caused changes in weather and climate. Global warming refers to the ongoing rise in the average temperature near Earth’s surface. This is causing a climate change, which refers to any significant change (major change in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns) in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time (several decades or longer). Due to this, it is projected that the temperature will rise from 2 to 11.5°F in the next hundred years (US EPA, 2014). The “drivers,” which are the principal causes making this occur, are very controversial. It is debated whether a change in temperature is due to the work of

Basic scientific concepts show that this view is naive and incorrect. The forces of the Earth do not work so that there are equal balances in the temperature chances in the world, so that they average out to be a comfortable room temperature. For example, the troposphere (the lowest part of theatmosphere) is warming, but the levels above, from the stratosphere up, are cooling, as less radiation is escaping out to space. This rules out cycles related to the Sun, as solar influences would warm the entire atmosphere in a uniform fashion. The only explanation that makes sense is greenhouse gases (Climatesight 1). Furthermore, it is clear that it is not the whole atmosphere that is heating up, only the troposphere is. The rest of the atmosphere above that is, in turn, cooling down. Clearly, the climate change is much more complex than this predicted equilibrium.

Our world’s climate depends on a balance between the incoming and outgoing energies. The vast majority of incoming energy is from the Sun, approximately 29% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into outer space while 23% is absorbed by the atmosphere and 48% by the surface of the earth. Thus, the Earth system absorbs roughly 71% of incoming solar energy. The Earth’s surface and atmosphere also radiate thermal infrared energy in order to balance the absorbed solar radiation. This process of reflection, absorption, and thermal radiation constructs the Earth’s habitable environment. There are factors, man-made and natural, that can change this balance such as variations in the Sun’s energy, changes in the Earth’s reflective surface, and changes in the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect can be described as a blanket that covers the Earth, which consists of various gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and F-gases. For hundreds of thousands of years, the climate and greenhouse gas density have had a parallel correlation. During glacial periods, CO2 levels were lower than they were during the warmer interglacial periods. In other words, the Earth was cooler when the greenhouse gases were thinner and it was warmer when they were denser.

Scientists have discovered 'climate forcing’s ' influence variations in climate systems and based on the depth and period of such forcing’s the adjustments to climate may be in a shorter or longer earth cycle. Natural forcing’s like variations in earth 's orbit, solar variation, volcanic eruptions and motion of tectonic plates have influence on the Earth 's climate

Previously, many scientists believed that any changes to the climate were simply just a natural part of planet Earth’s climate cycle, but over time it has become more and more clear that it isn’t quite the case. Most experts on climate now believe that humans and their activity are the main cause of climate change. Scientists agree on the fact that