The Root of Global Warming: Are Humans At Fault? The earth is warming. No credible scientist will deny this fact. Certain gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap and absorb the sun’s energy and re-radiate that thermal radiation in all directions, which causes the Earth’s surface to warm. This is known as the greenhouse effect, which is another undeniable fact. The greenhouse effect is not a new concept, however the media portrays its influence to be entirely harmful on the climate. Most people fail to realize that if greenhouse gases were absent in the atmosphere, the average global temperature would drop to -18°C (Farley 69-75). It is safe to assume that the greenhouse effect is vital to human lifestyle and existence because without greenhouse gases the oceans would be completely sheeted by ice and the entire biosphere would be dramatically different. On the other hand, an overabundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could also prove to dramatically change Earth’s environment by flooding most of the land on earth and then leading to a possibly massive drought. Humanity as a whole needs to realize that the emissions released during human activity, especially carbon dioxide, are greatly affecting the climate. While looking at concrete facts, even though a 1500-year natural earth cycle is evident, the fastest temperature increase in recorded earth history cannot be disregarded, and neither can the melting ice caps due to increasing atmospheric carbon
Jennifer B. Rodriguez Professor Medina ENC1102 3 March 2015 37.1 1. Many motorists are unaware of the dangers of texting while driving, but lawmakers have taken the matter into their own hands. Because many motorists are unaware of the dangers of texting while driving, lawmakers have taken the matter into their own hands. 2. The tallest
The report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consisting of more than 150 scientists, states that (Stocker, 2013) “Warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate systems that are unprecedented over decades to millennia.” In the last quarter of twentieth century, the climate change problem has been the global issue. From the
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.
Climate Change- Climate is a long term change in the Earth's weather, especially due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature. According to research, it was discovered that the Earth's temperature rose by 0.6 degrees Celsius (C) and predicted that the sea surface temperature may rise by up to 1 degrees C over the next 50 years. Unfortunately, carbon dioxide and methane gas levels are the highest they have ever been for the last 420000 years. These two gases with water vapour, nitrous oxide and halocarbons create the five predominate greenhouse gases, effecting the environment greatly. Furthermore, it is evident that an average person release 4 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Due to this fact, carbon dioxide
Climate change has been happening over the last century, and the debate of its effects has become more intense over the last years. The issue of the climate change has become national, to the point that even the government has gotten involved. The fight between the government and the environmentalists has created a controversy in the United States, but not many changes have been done to protect humanity.
We as a society have reached one of the most crucial time periods in the history of our world. Due to the way we have used the resources on this earth we have created a situation in which our climate is drastically changing. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil has caused gases like carbon dioxide to become trapped in the atmosphere causing a natural greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect has caused the earth’s average temperature to rise and has resulted in arctic glaciers melting. These glaciers had gases trapped inside them that are now being released into the atmosphere further raising the earth's temperature. Due to the way we are polluting our air we have caused global warming. This global warming has caused stronger natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires putting our society in more danger than ever before.
As stated in the previous section, climate change is not necessarily a new issue. However it’s been receiving the spotlight lately, as it should. The issue of the “Greenhouse Effect” has been around as early as 1820’s when scientist Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier theorized that the Earth should be
Scientists started charting climate change in the late 19th century (The Discovery of Global Warming). Some people that were involved in this topic when the problem was confronted included scientists who were in the field of study and donors such as the U.S. Office of Naval Research (The Discovery of Global Warming). Right now, global warming is worse than ever. This is due to high amounts of carbon pollution/dioxide in the air (World Wildlife Fund). Most experts like Union of Concerned Scientists and World Wildlife Fund feel that action should be taken now or things will only get worse. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is doing many things to help such as reducing greenhouse emissions (United States Environmental Protection Agency). Global warming is still important today because it is causing unfixable problems in the environment. Climate change is becoming a bigger threat each year, and Americans have let it become a serious problem since the late nineteenth
If we talk about the biggest problem, we will see climate change in the world. There is certainly a great deal of evidence to support the view that global warming is a result of the build up of greenhouse gases caused by human activities. In this essay I will
The concept of climate change has been around for quite a while. The earliest mention of climate change dates back to the 19th century. Swedish scientist, Svante Archenius was the first scientist to study the effect of CO2 on climate. (Rodhe et al 1997) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century have been highest in 650,000 years. Till 1950, the levels rose by 11% and recently the levels have risen by 40%. Arctic ice is melting rapidly. It is estimated that by 2040 the region is to have a completely ice free summer, or even earlier. More than 1 million species have become extinct due to disappearing habitats caused due to global warming. Sea levels have risen about 7 inches in the last 100 years, which is more than the previous 2000 years combined. The rising sea levels due to global warming could threaten the lives of people living along the coastal areas. The consumption of fossil fuels in last few decades has contributed much to the destruction of our environment. Global warming, climate
Jennifer Kreinbrook English 112 Edwin Cummings 9-26-14 Global Warming Fact Or Fake? The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, climate is defined as “The climate of a place, a region, or the Earth as a whole, is the average over time of meteorological conditions that occur there the average weather” (Dessler &ump; Parson, 2010). Over the last century, the temperature has risen by around 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius). So far the worst years recorded were 2001, 2002, 2003 so technically speaking we are doing slightly better than we were.
Over the last few years almost everyone has heard that the earth is warming. Also, almost everyone has heard the pleas to go green and reduce carbon emissions, led by former Vice-President Al Gore. Even though there is not a truly accurate definition of global warming it can be roughly defined as a rise in average global temperature according to Laurence Pringle’s book Global Warming Assessing the Greenhouse Threat (19). Global Warming Assessing the Greenhouse Threat also bring up that the average temperature data that scientist are using only goes back to 1860 giving scientists today only 150 years of temperature data. Also, with this current warming, even with humans contributing to the rising average global temperature, scientist today
Global climate change has been a concern for everyone since scientists first discovered that our actions from polluting can have drastic effects on our environment. Many scientists began to note the changes in the atmosphere and temperature, global warming, in the mid 1800’s. Many people believe that the Earth’s climate cycles and changes periodically over time. Many believe that the changes occur as a result of human activity. The big questions is what effect is our activity having on the environment.