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Essay about Human Activities That Cause and Accelerate Climate Shift

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Increasing sea levels, irregular temperatures, melting glaciers, extinction, of species, and warmer oceans are alone a few signs that worldwide climate is changing (global warming). This paper will follow the human activities that cause and accelerate climate shift. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also known as NOAA explains that “climate is the ‘average weather’ over a period ranging from months to thousands or millions of years.” NOAA goes to define global warming as “a change in climate (for example, in temperature or precipitation) that takes place over a few decades or less, persists for at least a few decades, and causes significant disruptions in human and natural systems" (NOAA 1). Relishing excess greenhouse …show more content…

In the summer of 2006, in central California, hundreds of sheep died during a 10 days of extreme heat wave (Davis 42). The researchers have found that even if humans stop completely the emission of greenhouse gases today, past emissions will still affect us in many ways in the future. In a New York Times interview in October of 2012, Mr. Barry Commoner said, “regardless of anything else about the environment, if nothing is done beginning now to cut back strongly on the use of fossil fuels, we are heading for a disaster” (Commoner). The Earth still will continue to warm because CO2stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years (Spotts CCR). The average temperature of Earth’s surface is maintained by balance of various forms of solar and terrestrial radiation. The sum of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth is only a small fraction of total solar radiation that enters our atmosphere. “Approximately 30% of the incoming solar radiation is reflected back to space by clouds, the upper atmosphere, or reflective parts of the Earth’s surface. In order to maintain high temperature stability, Earth’s surface and atmosphere also must radiate the remaining 70% back to space according to the Stefan-Boltzmann law”(Britannica). Even though natural greenhouse gases can create also in trouble, but it is also helpful. They can trap heat and moisture in the air, acting like a blanket to keep Earth warm throughout at the night. Without that all heat being released, which

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