Climate Change Background Information
What is Climate Change? Climate Change discusses the alteration in climate patterns over a period of time, from several years to millions of years. Climate change can happen in any direction and can be caused by many different factors such as variation in the earth’s orbit, volcanic eruption and so on. However, recently, due to unregulated human activities, many scientific researches showed that the temperature of Earth has constantly increased during the past half century. Therefore, climate change is now often referred to as “global warming”, which talks about the uncommon increasing in global climate temperature caused by human activities and the negative consequences it would bring to our environmental and ecological stability.
Consequences of Climate Change and Why we need to combat it Several natural abnormities have given human beings clues that climate change is affecting us and all other living organisms. Carbon Dioxide (CO2, the most common greenhouse gases) has reached its highest level all over history. (Below is a photo from NOAA, national oceanic and atmospheric administration, a federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere. 2014) Based on NOAA’s measurement, the global carbon dioxide parts per million is 401ppm in October, 2015. (NOAA, 2015)
What’s more, continuing global warming has brought us long period and severe drought in certain region, more intense tropical storms. Greenland and
Climate change is classified by many different events and reactions that are happening. The first is that the earth’s atmosphere is trapping more heat. “The warming of Earth's climate, due mostly to increased trapping of heat by gases in the atmosphere, often is termed the greenhouse effect. Some degree of greenhouse effect is natural and normal” (Lerner 3). Some percent of greenhouse gases are produced naturally but a majority of the gases are being produced by humans. ”Most scientists agree that this warming trend is the result of loading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases” (Freedman 2). The atmosphere is being loaded with carbon dioxide and other harmful gases and this is making the atmosphere trap more heat. Changes in air temperature is another factor of climate change. “The greenhouse effect has been extremely important to the evolution and survival of life on Earth. A surface temperature of 59°F is sufficient to maintain the Earth’s reservoirs of life-sustaining liquid water, and to impel climatic
Throughout the middle of the twentieth century, until now, there has been debate over the existence of climate change. Climate change is the increase of earth’s inclusive temperature of the atmosphere, and the side effects caused by rising temperatures. Climate change is caused by many reasons: burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, landfills, and deforestation. Climate change is mainly caused by greenhouse gases and humans. The effects of climate change are detrimental to earth; the effects have lead to stronger and more intense hurricanes, a rise in temperature, and the melting of glaciers(“Global Climate Change: Effects”).
During the past several hundred years, civilization has made rapid progress in industries like air travel, automobiles, and energy production. These developments were made without consideration of the long-term effects that their emissions may have on the planet. Changing weather patterns are now wreaking havoc around the world, and scientists attribute this to human-caused climate change. During President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2015, he stated that, “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” (“Remarks by the President”). Warming temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change have disastrous consequences that pose a threat to humanity and the environment.
Global warming is defined as the recent increase in the world 's temperature that is believed to be caused by the increase of certain gases (such as carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere. There are many different theories on whether global warming is similar or not to climate change. Simplistically, climate change is different because climate change is defined as a change in global or regional climate patterns or, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels, having been measured over long periods of time, due to the changes in Earth’s orbit and organic carbon which reflect sunlight. Global warming and climate change are not to be confused because global warming is caused mainly by anthropogenic factors like the emission of carbon dioxide gas and use of fossil fuels whereas climate change is completely natural, however, according to Milan Radovanovic, “it is clear that the anthropogenic factors dominate the increasing temperature and the natural ones have the maximum influence…” (Radovanovic). Therefore, “the contribution to global warming from natural forcings and from natural internal variability is in the range between -0.2 to 0.2 [degrees] celsius over the period 1951-2010…” (Radovanovic). Natural factors have had the most effect on global temperature in the past 59 years totaling a 0.4 degrees celsius increase in
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.
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 earth as we know it is steadily changing. Weather its evolution, technology, weather or our environment, nothings is what it used to be. Climate is a major factor that is changing. This has been going on for quite some time yet, not taken seriously. Our planet has been much warmer in the past 2 centuries then ever before and scientist are working frantically to reduce this trend,
Climate change and Global Warming are out of control. This means that, no matter what policies, processes or actions are implemented, the Earth as we know it will never be the same again. There is significant evidence to support this hypothesis. The dilemma becomes whether we can limit the damage and adapt to a new status quo or not. Rising sea levels and the damage caused by this phenomenon has irreversible impacts on coastlines worldwide. Damage to sensitive reef systems cannot be fixed. This also has permanent impacts of the ecology not just of those immediate areas but also the ocean as a whole.
Climate change is defined as the increase of the average surface temperature on the earth. There is speculation that this climate change is due to human activity, but there are skeptics that say that it’s the earth’s natural variation of temperature. Even though natural variation is evident, data reveals that the extent of this climate change isn’t only effected by natural variation.
Climate change is happening and it is happening quite rapidly all around the world. The earth is undoubtedly warming and over the past one hundred years, Earth’s average temperature has increased by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. (EPA 1) The big problem with the average temperature rising is that it can have a negative effect on the planet and potentially have dramatic shifts in the global climate. According to the EPA, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Many places have seen changes in rainfall, resulting in more floods, droughts, or intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat waves. The planet's oceans and glaciers have also experienced some big changes - oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, ice caps are
There is no myth concerning climate change, only vested interests arguing over humanities role in our current climate change event. By careful reasoning and logic this paper sets about systematically showing that not only is climate change real but that currently the planet is experiencing a period of warming that is without equal within any of our historical data. Most confronting of all is that humanity is significantly influencing this current event and has the ability to mitigate the consequences.
(Swim et al., 2016). In addition to rising temperatures, this includes more frequent wildfires and hurricanes, rising sea levels, longer periods of drought in some regions and an increase in the number,
The following research will explain how climate change affects us, what it has done in our past and what effects it will have on our future. Climate change is something that is happening as we speak, however, many people in our society are completely unaware of what is causing it and how it can affect the earth. Charts from NASA and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will give a visual of how the temperatures have changed in recent years and how they will be changing in the future.
Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and the lakes are breaking up. Earlier plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Effects that scientists had predicted in the past and would result from global climate change, are now occurring. There is a loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer more intense heat waves.(3) Each of the past 37 years has been warmer than the 20th century average. The twelve warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998. The hottest year ever recorded for the contiguous United States occurred in 2012. Globally, the average surface temperature has increased more than one degree Fahrenheit since the late 1800’s. Most of that increase has occurred over just the past three decades. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for
Global warming is the warming of our planet at an extreme rate. The Earth’s climate has warmed by 7.8OC since 1880. (Quick facts about science, 2015). What causes global warming? The cause of global warming is the carbon dioxide. This acts like a blanket. Protecting the earth, and heating the earth. Sun rays would normally bounce around the earth, but with the blanket, the sun rays heat the blanket which heats the earth. (Petersen Science Text Book by G. Linstead, W. Clarke, 2015). “Of all the wealthy countries, we are probably the most vulnerable,” says Professor Will Steffen, executive director of ANU’s Climate Change Institute. “We’re locked into another 0.5OC temperature rise due to past emissions, but what we do between now and 2050 is crucial for the magnitude and rate of climate change later this century and beyond,” he says. (ABC, 2015) Figure 1.0 shows the percentage of carbon emissions being emitted into the atmosphere. Humans are contributing more and more to the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere because every person now has a car and each car releases 9 kilograms of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Every factory has huge pipes, which are used to emit thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. This is leading to the cause of global warming because carbon dioxide attracts heat from the sun, which acts as a blanket, like a green house. With the layers of