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Global Warming : Climate Change Or The Greenhouse Effect

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This week, after reading Eaarth by Bill McKibben, I became very interested in global warming. Global warming is defined as an increase in the earth 's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect. Global warming is also known as climate change or the greenhouse effect. The main cause of global warming is too much carbon dioxide being contained in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, however, absorbs heat and then warms the planet. Many of the things we do on a daily basis worsens global warming. Some of these things include cutting down forests and burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Global warming was first suggested by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist who discovered the average temperature of the Earth was 15℃. He and Thomas Chamberlin calculated that human activities heated the Earth because they added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This research was intended to prove whether or not carbon dioxide would explain the causes of the great Ice Ages. Their research wasn 't actually verified until 1987. In 1955, Gilbert Plass concluded that water vapor could absorb carbon dioxide. People argued that the oceans would absorb most of the carbon dioxide. In the 1950’s, it was proven that carbon dioxide could survive in the atmosphere for about 10 years. However, it was unknown how long carbon dioxide could survive in the ocean and how much carbon dioxide the ocean could

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