Schmidt's Argument Essay: Does Human Action Cause Climate Change?

In addition, global climate change will exacerbate these challenges faced by countries and populations. Shifting precipitation patterns threaten to reduce water availability in some regions while inflicting stronger storms on others, increasing both potential droughts and floods. This may increase the frequency of more serious

The public discussion on climate change has become so polarized that some scientists don't even acknowledge there is a debate. Climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt, is one of those people.

According to Dr. Denning, “as the global climate changes, average temperatures will rise sharply. Because Colorado is so far inland, this effect will be stronger because large bodies of water help mitigate temperature swings and Colorado is far from our oceans or Great Lakes. Imagine the climate of Albuquerque as far north as Greeley.” Additionally, we must consider the agriculture industry is estimated to be worth around forty-one billion dollars in Colorado, which means climate change will have a drastic impact on food production. Colorado’s geographic location is problematic in itself, but the continuous temperature changes means longer growing seasons. Ultimately, the rising temperatures make plants consume more water and it reduces the annual snowpack, which creates a conundrum of issues. Similarly, we can assume a warmer Colorado will also mean a much drier Colorado, which will hurt agriculture on every level.

The southeastern United States and Texas will face significant economic risks from the continuous climate change. The risks vary from different states, which will be explained in general. Texas is going to be focused deeply in separate. Despite the variability in each region, we can identify some general trends in how the states in the southeastern United States and Texas will react to the climate change.

The Great Plains livestock production is a major component of the Great Plains economy. Texas has the largest cattle produce in the United States. The temperatures increase cause the animals extreme heat stress and will decline meat, milk, and egg production. It also makes it easier for the spreading of diseases. Livestock could become contaminated and affect the other livestock in that area. (EPA: Climate Change, Great

An increase in flood damage, strained drainage systems, and reduced drinking water availability is what's happening when climate change. Their lakes has 84 percent of North America's surfaces freshwater, and provide drinking water to more than 40 million people.

One of the biggest economic challenges in the United States today is climate change. Climate change effects all sectors of the economic, however, most especially agriculture, energy, and transportation are more likely to be effected (EPA, 2016). Thereby, all of society is highly dependent on the stability in the environment to carry out all of life processes. A shift in the normal range of conditions can impact people and areas that are more vulnerable to coastal storms, and drought. For example, some of the effects of climate change in the Northeast region of the United States are “heat waves, heavy downpours and sea level rise pose growing challenges to many aspects of life in the Northeast” (NASA, n.d.). Thereby, increasingly compromising the agriculture, fisheries and ecosystems in the Northeast region of the United States.

The effects of climate change in areas such as health, economy and security have negative implications for the future.

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.

In recent years, global climate change due to global warming has been largely researched. The paper, “Global Climate Change Triggered by Global Warming,” offers compelling evidence from various scientific papers that the process of Earth’s climate undergoing significant change has already begun and requires our attention due to the probability that human-generated greenhouse gases are the primary cause. Major focal points are shifting towards determining the causes to mitigate the effects rather than establishing the existence as sufficient amount of evidence has proven that global warming is indisputable. During the final decade of the 20th century, climatologists have concluded that the past millennium to be the warmest, especially in the year of 2005. Solutions towards the cause would require assistance from the population as a whole.

A controversy is brewing as to what is the real cause of climate change. A section of the population believes the problem is largely man made whereas others think it is a problem to do with natural causes. There is a wide range of views on this topic, but what causes a lot of concern is the fact that the recent years have experienced an accelerated climate change. It is for that reason that some scientists argue that what is being experienced is as a result of human activity. That is especially true considering that there has been no scientific body that has refuted those claims. Most climate change peer reviewed papers hold on to the claim that man has had a huge role to play in the changes going on in the environment; but while, at it, those in the businesses that are greatly blamed for the overproduction of greenhouse gases and other dangerous chemicals released into the atmosphere refute these claims.

Climate change is happening all over the world, but not only is it affecting humans, but animal and plants as well. Plants are an essential part of everyday life; the plants help us breathe, provide food for humans and animals, and most importantly help us breathe. Climate change is melting the polar ice caps, it is exceeding the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases in our atmosphere, rising the sea level, along with many other dangerous changes. Moreover, with the temperature rising many places such as Southern Africa, the Sahel region of Africa, southern Asia, the Mediterranean, and the U.S. Southwest, for example, are getting drier. As Joseph Romm said “A basic prediction of climate science is that many parts of the world will experience longer and deeper droughts, thanks to the combined effects of drying, warming, and the melting of the ice” (p.42).

Earth’s history is filled with drastic climate changes, from ice ages to warm fertile periods. But only in recent years has the thought of humans having an impact on Earth’s climate been an issue. The definition of climate change is “the long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over decades to millions of years,” but some recent definitions of climate change have been formed with the idea of human impact embedded in them. One such definition states “climate change as mainly the change in modern climate augmented by human activities.” Ideas of this arose in 1896 when Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius carried out the first calculations of global warming. Arrhenius lived during the time of the industrial revolution, which introduced the use of coal, railroads and factories. He had ideas that the CO2 produced from burning fossil fuels might contribute to the increase in temperature of the Earth. Global warming is a global topic and the source of much controversy in the world today. Although some people may be skeptical of it, global warming is real, and there is evidence to prove it. On a basic level, we have noticed that the average global temperature has been rising over the past one hundred and thirty years, with the majority of this warming occurring since the 70’s and the warmest years within the past ten years.

Over the course of this class we have discussed the importance of climate change and the different factors that either help or harm the climate in different ways. We have discussed greenhouse gases, changes in earths orbit around the sun, and the fluctuating changes in the environmental temperature. Earth’s climate was healthier, cleaner, and possibly even warmer in past history. Climate change is not caused by any individual and not just changed on a whim, climate change occurs naturally. Human existence has contributed to the increase of global temperature and also the increase in the build up of CO2 in the atmosphere. Chapter 1 in the book states, “Unintended byproducts of agricultural, industrial, and other human activities can influence climate. Anthropogenic forcing occurs mainly by the way of additions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere”. Even though Earth’s climate did change well before humans were brought into existence, humans are exacerbating the condition of the climate with all the CO2 concentration that is being used everyday by things you might not see as being harmful. This paper will discuss the history of climate change throughout the years, the human affect, and what individuals can do to help the environment, along with what actions the government can take to lessen the climate from changing.

    Climate change has also affected the land in every aspect from coastal communities to the farms worldwide. “Droughts in the Southwest and heat waves everywhere are projected to become more intense, and cold waves less intense everywhere. Summer temperatures are projected to continue rising, and a reduction of soil moisture, which exacerbates heat waves, is projected for much of the western and central U.S. in summer. By the end of this century, what have been once-in-20-year extreme heat days (one-day events) are projected to occur every two or three years over most of the nation”(NASA).summertime temperatures in the United States that ranked among the hottest 5% in 1950-1979 will occur at least