The 21st century, when calculated in terms of Earth’s lifetime, amounts to approximately a quarter of a second. Our sun is estimated to have existed for four billion years and calculations suggest it will exist for another six billion years. With more than half of Earth’s life remaining, somehow humanity has managed to create an unprecedented spike in climate change in this tiny sliver of the earth’s lifetime, by human induced alterations occupying less than a millionth of the elapsed time on Earth. The accelerating rate at which our planet’s finite resources are being depleted is in essence due to our energy dependency and exponential population growth. The exploitation of energy brought by the industrial revolution, and the exponential …show more content…
Algae were able to survive in extreme heat and upon death it sank to the bottom of the seas. Sediments from rivers were transported into seas, through fluvial processes, burying the organic remains of algae. The pressure growth contributed to heat growth, until such time when a chemical reaction converted the organics into hydrocarbon fossil fuels, oil, and natural gas. It took nature approximately five million years to create the amount of fossil fuels that are consumed in one year. The industrial revolution gave birth to a period when humanity exploited Earth’s non-renewable resources to the detriment of the planet. By extracting and harnessing the fossil fuels trapped deep within the earth, the amount of energy generated allowed societies to grow remarkably. The following years produced a global economy that would be so fossil fuel dependent that virtually everything in a modern industrialized society would require energy from fossil fuels for power. Since then, we have been using this method of energy to power our factories, run our cars, and light our streets. Many modern cities have an infrastructure in which roads are made from asphalt, a petroleum product. More so, the construction of many modern cities suggests that they were built on the assumption of plentiful oil and energy. Residential areas are constructed at a distance from commercial areas, pushing people to drive. Large geographical areas would not be inhabitable without heating in the winter and
Climate change is known as one of the greatest threats to the planet. It is not only a threat to the planet environmentally, but it is a threat socially and economically. As we all could feel, see, and know, the weather patterns globally and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been increasing over an extended period of time. Although it may seem like it’s not a dramatic change since it is data from over a large amount of time, it is considering the fact that the large amount of time is not that large as it should be. Climate change is nothing new to us. It’s happened many years ago in the past because a variety of reasons but as the years go on, the rate on charts are just getting higher. As much as I would like to blame this predicament on nature, humans has a fault as well. We release thousands of greenhouse gases into the air through many procedures, but there are things that we cannot entirely control. However, whoever’s fault it is to blame I believe that if we work together and think we will more likely be able to find effective solutions for this problem.
Climate change is the most serious issue humankind is facing in the 21th century. Future generations depend on our ability to make the necessary social changes, before reaching the tipping point of irreversibility, which will lead the planet into a catastrophe incompatible with life.
In recent years, global climate change due to global warming has been largely researched. The paper, “Global Climate Change Triggered by Global Warming,” offers compelling evidence from various scientific papers that the process of Earth’s climate undergoing significant change has already begun and requires our attention due to the probability that human-generated greenhouse gases are the primary cause. Major focal points are shifting towards determining the causes to mitigate the effects rather than establishing the existence as sufficient amount of evidence has proven that global warming is indisputable. During the final decade of the 20th century, climatologists have concluded that the past millennium to be the warmest, especially in the year of 2005. Solutions towards the cause would require assistance from the population as a whole.
Global climate change has become an undeniable and unavoidable reality. In its latest assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body that provides the most comprehensive reports dealing with the science of climate change, has established that warming of the climate system is ‘unequivocal’. Additionally, it concludes that human activities such as land clearing and burning of fossil fuels have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to unprecedented levels (IPCC 2013).
Humans will destroy the earth if no one acts. Climate change is a serious problem that has been around for decades. The 21st century is special because of the technology and information available. Yet, people continue to ignore the overwhelming destruction happening to nature. Through many years, masses have begun to take responsibility and restore the planet. In time, the earth might be what it once was.
Exploitive human actions damage the earth. Human’s daily habits cause rising temperatures from carbon dioxide emissions. The excessive use of coal, oil, and natural gas leads to more carbon dioxide emissions, which traps more heat causing the temperature to rise (Friedman 32). For example, in the last 100 years, scientists measured an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 280ppm to 400ppm (124). Based on research conducted by NOAA, temperature and the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide have a strong correlation. Temperature rises as carbon dioxide rises. The growing population of the world leads to increased exponential resource consumption and growing levels of carbon
In today’s world humans are consuming massive amounts of fossil fuels. The top five oil consuming countries in the world are the usual suspects. These include the United States, China, Japan, India and Russia. Canada comes in at number 10 with a daily consumption of 2,287 thousand barrels per day. There are three major types of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. These resources were formed during the Carboniferous Period 360-286 million years ago. During this time earth was covered in swamps with large amounts of plants and waters filled with algae. When these plants and trees began to die they would form layers of peat. Hundreds and thousands of years would pass adding sand and other materials on top of the
Earth is an immeasurably complex planet, and the processes that make it so are equally as intricate. It is this same intricacy, however, that makes the Earth so vulnerable to even the slightest variation in overall temperature or change within the gases that which compose the atmosphere. What We Know About Climate Change by Kerry Emanuel aims to address this issue of Earth’s vulnerability head-on as it suggests the plausible causes for the undeniable planetary warming observed in the last century all the while proposing pragmatic solutions to discontinue the unnatural processes credited with the abnormal warming.
Right now, you believe that in the next three centuries, we’ll have flying cars and interstellar space exploration. Right now, you believe that life as it is will resume for the next thousand years. Right now, I’ll tell you that it won’t, because right now is the moment that humans begin to make a critical mistake from feigning ignorance and overestimated belief in the impossible. Global warming is the result of climate that is rising, and it’s going to happen faster than ever before. Earth runs through cycles of global cooling and warming, but this is time, it’s not from natural causes. The 80’s is the start of an economic rise, but so are carbon dioxide emissions. The causes of global warming start here, and because of that, the dangerous
Humans’ contributions to Climate Change are constant, and not going slowing down without changes. Climate Change is the changing of global weather and temperatures at an abnormal rate. Most activities in our everyday lives has made a contribution, whether it be the technology being used or the cars being driven --- with that, many choose to ignore Climate Change, proceeding with their everyday activity. Meanwhile, on a global scale, the rate of these changes is detrimental to life on earth. NASA explicitly addresses that these fluctuations of climate are natural, but the rate in temperature changes is quicker than ever before. Vast studies show that typically the changes last about a thousand years before the next period of changes, but recently that has taken a turn. Human innovations have backfired, with the earth at stake due to unforeseen externalities. With the advancement of a more technological society, comes great responsibility to the earth, our home.
The earth is a beautiful and extraordinary planet, but are we treating it right? For the past 20 decades, temperatures have been rising along with hundreds of factors contributing to it. Climate change concerns the public as they wonder if its occurring, how much has occurred in the modern era, what has caused it, what the effects will be if we don’t do anything about it and much more. Many people and scientist agree that mankind is the number one cause of climate change. Humans have influenced this by greenhouse gases, methane nitrous oxide.
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
The findings were shocking as well as frightening to many as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that “even if we were able to stabilise emissions of each of the greenhouse gases at present day levels from now on, the temperature is predicted to rise by about 2°C per decade for the first few decades. The global warming will also lead to increased global average precipitation and evaporation of a few percent by 2030. Areas of sea-ice and snow are expected to diminish.” The report concluded that “he changes predicted to occur by about the middle of the next century due to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations from the Business-as-Usual emissions will make global mean temperatures higher than they have been in the last 150,000 years (IPCC report).
Probably the most anxious threat to our earth in these two decades is climate change. Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other saying, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer (Epa.gov, 2015). The rate of warming is increasing. The United Nations ' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850 (News.nationalgeographic.com, 2015). The temperature keeps increasing year by year. The scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reported that the average global temperature on earth has increase by about 0.8° Celsius since 1880 (Earthobservatory.nasa.gov, 2015). This essay will talk about the causes and effects of climate change, and also present some possible solutions which relevant to the issues.
Climate change otherwise known as global warming has been an ongoing issue for decades. Beginning in the 19th century, climate change has increasingly affected Earth and its atmosphere. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are warming the Earth’s atmosphere, causing rising sea-levels, melting snow and ice, extreme fires and droughts, and intense rainfall and floods. Climate change has and will continue to affect food production, availability of water, and can add to many health risks in humans and animals. In fact, in an article by Justin Gillis titled, “Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries” he focuses on a paper written by a former NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, explaining the effects of climate change on Earth today. Although many believe Hansen’s theories in the paper are quite far-fetched, the author mentions, “Despite any reservations they might have about the new paper, virtually all climate scientists agree with Dr. Hansen’s group that society is not moving fast enough to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, posing grave risks” (Gillis). Gillis validates the fact that climate change has been rapidly expanding throughout Earth and society has not been able to reduce it fast enough. Many negative risks are being posed and will continue to mount if the issue of climate change is not taken seriously. Although climate change negatively affects nearly all aspects of Earth, it poses a big