No one in the scientific community would argue with the premise that the earth’s climate has changed over the eons of its existence or that it will continue to change. The arguments now revolve around if mankind’s use of the environment has specifically altered our climate.
Scientists have described our world as a clump of matter that spun out of the sun to join its journey hurling though cold and empty space. Our spaceship earth would match the moon and have no climate had not molten core continued to pierce its cold crust, spewing forth chemicals that would eventually form our atmosphere, our seas and life itself (“Mcphee”).
The geological record shows a tumultuous earth, but because the events occur slowly over millions of
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In an online edition of the Journal Science, one team suggests that glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea are melting twice as fast near the coast than they has ten years age. These glaciers help drain the West Antarctic Sea, and area that consists of enough ice to raise the sea level twenty or so feet (“Revkin”). As the receding glaciers and polar ice caps part of the natural gerological process, or is the human’s comsumption of fossil fuels to blame? Do we as humans face a dilemma of rising seas of our own making or is the earth following it own path and we can only be observers of events that our beyond our control? The earths history is recorded in rocks, tree ring, ice cores, and mud. We must assume that the climates were warmer or colder based on the type of fossiled fauna left in the geological record. No actual evidence is left in rock formations that shows the chemical make up of historic atmospheres. Scientists have recently by passed this dilemma by coring glaciers, allowing them to look into past atmospheres as old as 750,000 years.
Glaciers are made by compaction of snow on land. As the snow compacts and gets deeper it “is subject to alteration and movement owing to its own weight and pressure” (Curry 292). Snow deposits transform into a glaciers at an average depth of about 10 meters. The deeper the firn snow us the stronger the bonds between snow flakes become through a process called sublimation, thus
We all know that atmosphere is continually evolving. We have had ice ages and hotter periods when gators were found in Spitzbergen. Ice ages have happened in a hundred thousand year cycles for the last 700 thousand years. There also have been time periods that seemed to have been hotter than the present in spite of CO2 levels being lower than they are currently. Overall what I am saying is that we have had the medieval warm period and the little ice age. Because of these evolutions there has been different effects on the earth.
Remote sensing has become a very valuable tool for documenting the response of glacier to changing climate (Bamber and Kwok, 2003; Kuhn, 2007; Pellikka, 2007; Solomon et al, 2007) because the rugged terrain, inaccessibility and legendary poor weather of glacier areas has resulted in relatively few field- based studies. Indeed, in order to use glaciers and their changes as indicators of climate change, or as an early warning signal for sea level rise, remote sensing is the only tool to provide glacier change information from all the continents and from a large number of glaciers and ice sheets. On the other hands, because space borne and airborne remote sensing data provide superior cost- effective and area effective data and methods for monitoring the glaciers and their changes, part of this monitoring can be carried out by it.
Even scientists who think human activity is the main cause of climate change don't deny that natural changes will cause temperature fluctuations on Earth. However, their argument is that in the current cycle of climate change, the impact caused by man is far greater. But there’s no indication that the two sides of the climate change debate will reach any common ground in the near future on what scientific evidence is showing, or what policy decisions should be adopted.
The evolution of that formation created the world we live in today. The earth has been in existence for a little over four point five billion years to be exact. The earth shares a story that we are still exploring. From its colorful coral reefs in bright and vibrant
What we are doing to stop burning fossil fuels and help the environment is everything we
A glacier occurs when the climate of an area is so cold that new snow does not completely melt each summer and more snow is added in the winter. After many winters the accumulation of this snow becomes compact and re-crystallizes, thus forming a glacier. Currently, glaciers cover about ten percent of the Earth's surface. Yet, in the past, glaciers covered much more land and were thousands of meters thick. (Tierney)
It’s deceitful to characterize the basic facts of climate change as debatable or unsettled. Year after year, humans extract billions of tons of carbon from the bowels of the earth and blast it into the atmosphere. We need to stop indulging the questioning of humanity’s culpability.
The debate is over. Yes, Earth’s climate has always fluctuated and drastically variable eras of weather is far from an unusual notion, but it is the unprecedented pace at which it is all currently occurring that is of most potent concern. Even the dastardly right-wingers, who’ve tactically denied climate change for so long, have joined an overwhelming scientific consensus about anthropogenic atmospheric deterioration. Data from the past century has revealed blatant indications of natural systems breaking down; i.e.: the oceans, used by Earth as a primary mechanism in cleansing atmosphere of CO2 and seemingly slight temperature shifts are ensuing extreme consequence.
In the early millennia of the solar system, the Earth was in an inchoate state.
We now focus our attention on the formation of one particular planet, one that is so far unlike any other in the universe, Earth.
Glaciers are one of the most fundamental phenomenon on the planet, and much of their purpose and impact on earth has been well documented and published. Ice sheets, Ice Caps and Glaciers trap nearly 90% of the world's fresh water, and are replenished by snowfall each year. Their existence on this planet dates back 650,000,000 years and yet they are always moving, always shifting and always melting. Before, human existence and even during the brief era of humans, ice dominated all of the earth's landmass and have regulated, created and altered many of the landscapes around the world.
Global warming is an increase in the temperature of the earth's weather. Global warming is also known as the green house effect. Global warming is a very serious world issue. Most humans are trying to do as much as they can to help stop global warming. Global warming has caused many problems to the earth in addition to the humans that live here on the earth. A problem caused by global warming is very hot summers. Some summers have had days that the temperature had reached 30*C. Another Problem that global warming has caused is the melting of polar ice caps. Global warming caused the polar ice caps to melt which will cause the ice to break free as well as melt in the sea, sea levels all over the world will rise. Lastly,
In recent years, the controversial subject of global warming has been more predominantly brought to our attention. Is the threat of global warming real? Is it man-made or is this just a natural cycle of earth? Does it really affect earth’s inhabitants? Should action be taken against it? If so, what kind and to what extent? It cannot be only a coincidence that the alarmingly rapid climate change coincides perfectly with the increased amount of pollutants that humans release into the environment. The once stable climate has in recent years begun to skyrocket, thus altering the delicate structure of earthly life. This proves to be hazardous to the future of the planet; some people worry that many of the resources the environment provides that
Soon after the birth of earth, it was a very different place from the one we know today.
The climate changing was first suspected in the 19th century when scientists in britain debated whether Europe was covered by ice in the past. “Guy S Callender suggested that the warming trend revealed in the 19th century had been caused by a 10% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.” (Harding) The debate intensified by 2005 when a study was published stating that a large scale disruption could occur by 2050 if we do not slow the process of climate change. The debate has now spiraled back to whether climate change is occurring or not. However the climate warming pattern has been increasing exponentially since the 1950’s.