Stratospheric Sulphur By Fannery: A Critical Analysis

Phrases such as “climate change” and “global warming” are often thrown around on the news and in politics; however their meaning and significance was never clear to me. I enjoyed my reading of the Susan Solomon interview because, it was very informative and easy to understand. Solomon’s outstanding achievements as a female scientist are inspiring and remarkable. Her groundbreaking studies in Antarctica concerning the ozone hole, prove to us how important it is to take care of our planet. Human produced substances known as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) have damaged our ozone beyond repair. It is hard to believe that humans can be so careless as to destroy their own Earth. Thankfully, “the nations of the world agreed to stop producing CFCs” in 1987.

Over the past century there is a drastic change on Earth's Atmosphere mainly because of interference of human activities like using fossil fuels as a source of energy, and emission of greenhouse gases due to industrial processes.These activities have release a large amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases causing Earth’s average temperature to rise by 1.4’ and is expected to rise up to 11.5’F such changes can result in undesirable consequences.

One of the first men to give thought into geoengineering was Nils Gustaf Ekholm, a Swedish meteorologist who in 1901 “speculated about the possibility of climate modification via engineered enhancements of [carbon dioxide] emission” because he believed that elevated carbon dioxide had beneficial effects on climate and plant growth (415, Keith 2000). Decades later, geoengineering, known in the 1950’s and 1960’s as ‘weather control,’ was mainly seen as a way to improve the natural state or mitigate natural hazards. Both the Soviet Union and the United States were the leading countries interested in this ‘weather control,’ and from the 1930’s through World War II both countries conducted experiments dealing mostly with cloud manipulation and precipitation. For example, a Soviet experiment during the winter of 1960-61 is reported to have cleared clouds over an area of 20,000 square kilometers (Keith 2000). In 1946, the United States General Electric research labs discovered cloud seeding which sparked a huge interest in weather modification within the country. It was not until 1965 that the attention was shifted from modification of weather to the modification of climate in order to fix the carbon dioxide problem, which is the center of interest today. David W. Keith spoke about this transition in his article Geoengineering the Climate: History and Prospect:

That attempts to reverse the impacts of global warming by using geoengineering methods such as injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere could make matters worse. They feel that this geoengineering technique could cut rainfall in the tropics by 30%. They also think that the changes would happen so quickly that there would be little time to adapt.

Part of the conclusion of the article “Climate change: evidence of human causes and arguments for emissions reduction”, written by Baum, Misra, and Karmosky states, “Climate change is a complex and important issue. The study of climate change spans many academic disciplines across the natural and social sciences, humanities, and engineering. Existing research finds that there is very strong evidence that the climate is changing, that these changes are driven primarily by human activity, and that the changes will have very large impact on natural and social systems.” (12)

The Global Warming Debate encompasses one of the most complex systems in our natural world, the Earth’s atmosphere, so it is very important to understand the basics. In the book, The Science and Politics of

Over the years, the science and political communities have increasingly discussed research on Geoengineering. The concept of Geoengineering was first proposed in a report given to the Johnson administration in 1965 and it received a lot of positive and negative feedback. Today the effects of climate change are becoming more apparent and climate researchers have visited this topic time and time again. However, many researchers for and against Geoengineering believe that researching and deploying such a project would encourage us to turn a blind eye to our moral duties of reducing GHG emissions. Although there are many uncertainties that come with Geoengineering, research on this topic should at least be considered because it will allow us to buy time, help respond to a climate emergency and, in financial terms, it seems very practical. More over, if considered it is important to have a set of rules governing Geoengineering research.

Since the beginning of the Earth’s existence, climate change has occurred. Temperatures, sea levels, quantities of gases in the atmosphere, and levels of precipitation have risen and fallen over a span of billions of years. However, over the last two centuries, climate change has been far too drastic to be caused by natural forces alone. Globally, the alterations in temperatures, sea levels, precipitation, melting of ice caps and glaciers, and violence of natural disasters are clearly caused by another factor, in addition to natural climate drivers. Acknowledging the fact that climate change is indeed occurring, the blame for this change must be placed somewhere. Combined with natural causes, it is evident that the activities of human beings are a significant cause of global climate change.

Scientists do not argue that increases in greenhouse gas concentration have some relationship to higher average temperatures. The consequences of further global warming are hotly contested still and stir widespread debate and disagreement. In fact, arguments over the existence of a natural cycle of climate change and climate change induced by human activity are considerably prevalent. Arguments for both beneficial and detrimental consequences of further global warming are wide-ranging. Because the plethora of arguments contributes heavily to the paralyzation of the international community it is prudent to survey some of the arguments.

Climate change and Global warming are both very similar topics, that are spoken about everywhere around the world, they’re both still very important, that they have been receiving more and more attention as the years go by. It hasn 't become a problem back then till now; over the years it has been changing and evolving. However, its rate of change is what 's been rising, this is happening because the human population, is getting more and more bigger. This increase in our population has only led to the use of more and more fuel, land, manufacturing and producing, all of this discharge has been going out into our atmosphere, only making climate change worse, and intensifying its rate.

The debate on global climate change argues that human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are too small to substantially change the earth’s climate and that the planet is capable of absorbing those increases. It is contended that warming over the 20th century resulted primarily from natural processes such as fluctuations in the sun 's heat and ocean currents. But the theory of human-caused global climate change is based on questionable measurements, faulty climate models, and misleading science. In the first half of twentieth century it was found that the human influenced the daily cold extremes followed by warm nights. Through the global optimal fingerprinting analysis performed by Christidis et al., concluded that there was anthropogenic influence in regional distributions which lead to the extreme warmer days which were expected to become more severe. According to Leopoldian rationale, geoengineering gives an opportunity to eradicate the problem of global warming or at least a solution for the problem. The increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which in fact leads to gain in crop yields which are likely to be offset by damage to plants from higher temperatures, faster drying soils, lower rainfall leading to extreme droughts and floods. The high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere lead to changes like increased rainfall which lasts for decades.

Ever since the late 1970’s, global warming has commonly been considered a hot issue. While the initial craze has died down a bit during the past decade, the overall influence of global warming has definitely left a mark on our eternally evolving society. Naturally, thanks to a handful of documentaries that set out primarily to give the general public a definition of what global warming exactly was and the dangers that it would bring along with its presence, the ever-looming threat of climate change roots itself within most of the population’s minds. As a result of this, such threats have grown to become slightly exaggerated over time, causing several to needlessly panic over what should be considered a nonissue. The truth is that global warming should not really be viewed as a serious affair by anyone, as it is only a part of a natural cycle our planet goes though from time to time.

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

The environmental security is one of the biggest concerns for human society in these days as stability and natural resources preservation have become essential elements of international relations and domestic security. By looking to the current situation of global environmental security, it seems that the rate of destruction to the world’s environment by humans is increasing and the damage is faster than it can be recovered (Fiona Harvey, 2016). There are many factors which play a fundamental role in destroying the global environment. The most visible one is the human’s incorrect activity that resulted in climate change which can be viewed as an enormous threat to environmental security. It is believed that the current local and global climatic changes have been impacted by the increase of greenhouse gases emissions which may effect on reducing the food and water as they are the main elements for environmental and human security. This paper gives an outline of the theory and practice of global climate change and a brief history of the international negotiations on the issue done by United Nations and argues how successful they have been. Then it reviews the impact of climate change on Australia’s environment and explains its national polices and international commitments, as well as the role of both USA and China, the largest contributors in emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. At the end it explains the way in which

Global Warming, much of what does or does not happen forty years from now rests on our actions or inactions taken between now and then. The crucial question is whether we should pour all our resources into mitigation – reducing our carbon emissions. According to scientists who study the climate there are other environmental problems; “we now face a global crises in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization”.