At this time, emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, is warming the earth significantly faster than anticipated. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), greenhouse gas emissions will cause the average world temperature to increase from 1.8°C to 4°C (Merson, Black, & Mills, 2012). While a relatively low increase, the impact on our environment is significant. Rising levels of carbon dioxide and other gases have caused variable weather patterns, heat waves, heavy precipitation, flooding, droughts, more intense storms, rising sea levels, and air pollution, all of which is a cause of climate
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
Global warming is one of the most tumultuous topics in today’s society. Some believe it is happening as we speak, while others question its very existence, So, is it real, or is merely a hoax? There is no one answer, but evidence does overwhelmingly support the former. Surely we have all heard this word at one time or another, but few individuals actually know its true definition. Justifiably, however, global warming is not that simply explained. In layman’s terms, it is the dramatic increase in the Earth’s average air and ocean temperature since the 20th century. This increase is primarily attributed to two main culprits: the greenhouse effect and human activity, such as fossil fuel burning. In both cases, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the
In the last 100 years, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased, causing the Earth to warm by an average of 0.6 degrees celsius, largely a result of burning fossil fuels for energy, transportation, and land use changes increased for food production. The basic science is straightforward and climate researchers have shown that gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and others can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Human activities such as industry, transport, energy generation and deforestation all produce these greenhouse gases. In the last 20 years, concern has grown that global warming is inevitable and now considered most probably caused by man-made increases in
Every year, almost 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere by human activity. That is the equivalent of 107,700,000 jet airplanes being in the air at once! This harrowing figure is the main cause of global warming, and has been increasing for the last 50 years. Global warming is caused by the increase of greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane primarily, in the earth's upper atmosphere directly caused by human burning of fossil fuels, industrial, farming, and deforestation activities. Global warming is defined as an increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere (especially a sustained increase that causes climatic
Climate change is influenced by the greenhouse effect which is the increase of Carbon dioxide, Methane, Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide. On one hand, the presence of these gases in the atmosphere make the earth habitable with respect to regulating the earth’s temperature. However, an increase in the concentration of these gases results in trapping energy in the atmosphere and this in turn increases earth’s temperature. “Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% between
[1] Over the last century, the Earth's average temperature has risen by 1.4 °F. Over the next century, that average is expected to rise an additional 2-11.5 °F. This change has shown a strong correlation with the increase of greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. In fact, every year, human activity releases over
Global warming and climate change attributed to increased emission of greenhouse gases have continued to be pressing issues in today’s society since they threaten the stability of the climate, population, and economy of the world (“Meeting the Energy Challenge”, 2007). The challenges associated with global warming and climate change is attributed to the fact that 75 percent of world’s carbon dioxide
Global warming has been a controversial topic for years and some have even denied its existence; however, as more studies are being published every day in regards to our changing climate, it is hard to ignore this growing issue and how humans contribute to it. The term greenhouse gases refers to the group of gases that are primarily responsible for global warming and chief among these gases is carbon dioxide. Rising carbon dioxide levels can be attributed to a combination of burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum as well as deforestation in general ( Source A). To slow the effects of global warming, it is important for leaders in our society to consider their greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, and make
Climate change or colloquially known as global warming, now pose a new threat to civilization as the levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) are soaring to new levels. The most significant contributor to greenhouse gasses would be Carbon Dioxide (Co2). The levels of Carbon Dioxide (Co2) gas have risen to levels civilization has not seen before. As such, the effects of these levels are not known to civilization as data gathered from the ice cores drilled in the Antarctica only shows data up to 650,000 years ago. However we can conclude that present CO2 concentrations are higher compared to any time in the last 650,000 years (IPCC 2007). Current carbon dioxide concentrations are hovering around 389 parts per million (ppm) as of September 2011,
Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas naturally found in the atmosphere. Since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s, humans have devised many inventions that burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gases, which, along with other human activities such as clearing land for agriculture or urban settlements, help some of these greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere that in turn trap more heat radiation in the atmosphere causing the Earth’s climate to become warmer than it would naturally (Mastrandrea). This unnatural phenomenon is termed global warming by scientists and they blame it for an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature of about 0.6°C (about 1°F) over the last 100 years (Mastrandrea).
The rapid change in our climate due to anthropogenic forces has caused the Earth’s average temperature to rise to an unparalleled level in human history. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as the cyclical processes of the Earth and Sun, affect the warming of our oceans and atmosphere. Although processes other than anthropogenic practices modify the climate, our influence on the climate since the Industrial Revolution has been unmatched. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Recent climate changes have widespread impacts on human and natural systems” (IPCC , 2014). The impact that climate change has on human and natural systems is difficult to quantify, because the effects are complex and slow moving. Although the magnitude of the impact is challenging to measure, it is quite clear that, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen” (IPCC , 2014). Equally important, carbon dioxide levels have reached nearly 390 ppm and scientists estimated this number could rise to 500 ppm by 2050 and 800 ppm by 2100 (Hardt & Safina, 2010).
The issue of global warming should be on the list of our top priorities. Studies show that the average of global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution began. Since the Industrial Revolution, human emissions has quadrupled the frequency of certain heat extremes and many scientists have warned that a failure to bring greenhouse gases under control could eventually lead to a 62-fold increase in extreme heat blasts (Gillis Justin A17). Most of the increase is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. These activities contribute to a build-up in carbon dioxide and other gases in Earth’s atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is made of gases like nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen. These gases act as a blanket that covers and gives us warmth, but once these gases such as carbon dioxide absorbs heat, but does not release it back into space in which causes the increase in global temperature. This is called the greenhouse effect because it only traps heat but does not release it.
The topic of global warming as a result of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration is arguably the most important environmental issue that the world faces today. CO2 has always been in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas keeping the global atmospheric temperature at life sustainable levels by preventing the infra-red radiation to leave the atmosphere (CO2 Capture and storage, 2016). However due to human interference and the burning of fossil fuels (as shown by the following equation), the rate at which atmospheric CO2 concentrations is rising has been increasing in the last 50 years as evident on Graph 1 above as well as the equation below.
Global warming is a serious epidemic that is affecting the earth due to the main recklessness of its people. Even a minor change in temperature due to global warming affects the earth and its people. It the temperature were still to increase, it could cause drastic changes and affect the earth and earth’s population. Tremendous difference in temperature can directly and indirectly cause the loss of human life and harm the animals. The hard face is that despite what many nations, companies, cities and people are starting to do to reduce their global warming emission. The world is putting out more carbon dioxide into the air than ever before. The current amount is 385 parts per million (ppm), higher than ever in the past
Carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants are collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and causing the planet to warm up. Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in history. Scientist says that unless we curb the emission that cause climate change, average U.S temperatures could be 3 to 9 degrees higher by the end of the century. According to an analysis of climate change data, there has been 90-99% chances that human have led to carbon dioxide emissions resulting from burning of fossil fuel that have causes