Is Climate Change Caused by Human Activities - Term Paper Example

Climate Instruction Is Climate Change Caused by Human Activities? Climate change has been a contentious issue since the beginning of the 19th century with debate in all the scientific forums. The chemistry that is involved in climate change has always been understandable with scholars agreeing to it and the impacts related to instance acidic rain. The issue that has never been agreed to that well is what or who really causes climate change: human activities or natural occurrences. Climate change is the change in the significant weather of a given area that can take decades or more years to determine. Climate change can be statistically identified by measurement of the mean changes or the changes in the properties of the mean. Climate change refers to the over time change of the climate that may be of any form that may be caused by human activities or variables of nature (Lewis & Laura, 2015). The measuring mechanism is accurate since it has been proven and used over time by the scientist in the climate related fields. The use of ballo0ns and satellite data technology is an invention that is used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is a body under a United Nations that has the best climate change experts, thus no doubt of the precision (Lewis & Laura, 2015). Effects of Climate Change The effects that are related to climate change are of late undeniable since there are proofs that can be observed. Increases in the ocean temperatures and the average air of the globe, the melting of ice and snow that occurs world- wide can be observed. These two effects have led rise of the sea level of the globe, causing related effects like relocation of people, destruction of towns among others (Lewis & Laura, 2015). The year’s between1995 to 2006 is among the warmest years in relation to surface temperature of the world that were measured and recorded since 1850. The records show that the year between 1906 and 2005 had a trend of 0.74 which is larger than the trend between the years 1901 to 2000 (0.6 degrees Celsius). The linear global warming trend experienced over a span of 50 years (1956- 2005) is almost twice that one that covered the 100 years between the years 1906 to 2005. This shows how serious the impact is and how fast global warming is developing (Lewis & Laura, 2015). The increase in temperature is widespread all over the world with the northern latitudes facing a more temperature increase. In a span of 100 years, the average temperatures experienced at the arctic have almost doubled the average rate of the globe. There is a difference when it comes to surfaces with the land regions arming faster compared to the oceans. The observational data show that since 1961 the global ocean average temperature has increased up to the depth of 3000 meters of the ocean. The ocean also has been proved to be absorbed over 80 % of the heat that is additionally induced in the climate system. The satellite and balloon data measurement, analysis show that the warming rates in the middle and lower troposphere to be similar to the surface one (Lewis & Laura, 2015). Global warming has led to the increase in the sea level at an average of 1.8 mm per year over the years between 1961 and 2003 and about 3.1 mm in a year between 1993 and 2003. Thermal expansion is also linked with the rise in sea level with its contribution approximated to be 57%. The decrease in the ice caps and glaciers has contributed approximately 28 % of the sea level rise with polar ice melting contributing to the rest. There is observable that the decrease in the amount of ice and snow is consistent with the global warming. The satellite data collected since 1978 show that the average sea ice has annually shrunk by 2.7% per decade. The largest decrease has been experienced during the summers (7.4 %) per decade (Lewis & Laura, 2015). There are also changes in the amount of precipitation that has occurred over a long period of time. The precipitation has significantly increased in the eastern parts of the areas: South and North America, northern Europe and central and northern Asia. The decline has been experienced in areas like the Sahel, Southern Africa, Mediterranean and some parts of Asia more so southern parts. The area that is prone to droughts has significantly increased since 1970s (Lewis & Laura, 2015). The weather events that are extreme in nature are also the results of climate change. These include the fact that in most of the land areas, frosts, cold days and cold nights have become less with the hot nights and days taking over. Most of the land areas are characterized by heat waves with precipitation that is heavy increasing in most areas. Since 1975, there has been an extreme increase in the sea level (high) globally. The activities related to tropical cyclone have also increased (Lewis & Laura, 2015). 1st Argument: Climate Change is caused by Anthropogenic Activities According to Olah, Prakash and Goeppert (2011) anthropogenic activities that lead to climate change are normally due to the gases that are released as the by- products of these activities. The main greenhouse gases that are released by human activities are: Carbon (IV) oxide (CO2), Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O), Halocarbons (group of gases that contain chlorine, fluorine and bromine) and methane (CH4). These gases when released in the atmosphere accumulate and concentrate with time. Most of this accumulation of the greenhouse gases took place during the industrial error. Anthropogenic activities, like use of fossil fuel in transportation purposes, cooling and heating the building and manufacturing of cement among other goods lead to the release of Carbon (IV) oxide in the atmosphere and reduces the capacity of the plants to absorb it. Fossil fuels examples are coal, oil and natural gas. During combustion the fuel combines with oxygen to release CO2. C + O2  CO2 CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O Human activities like agriculture, landfills and distribution of natural gas has led to the increase of methane in the atmosphere. 60 % of the total amount of methane, that is released in the atmosphere is due to human activities. At the industry level, petroleum systems and natural gas are the greatest producers of methane. CH4 is released to the atmosphere through the processes of processing, production, transmission, storage and when distributing natural gas. CH4 emissions are also caused by the activities that are linked to petroleum use such as production and distribution. The livestock that is domesticated like the sheep and goats produce CH4 through the natural digestion processes. This means the more these livestock are kept, the more the amount of CH4 released in the atmosphere. The manure from these animals also when stored in the holding tanks decompose to release CH4. Agricultural activities are therefore viewed as the primary source of CH4 (Olah, Prakash & Goeppert, 2011). CH3COOH ® CH4 + CO2 The use of fertilizers in farming and burning of fossil fuel leads to the production of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. Human activities have also increased the amount of halocarbons in the in the atmosphere. The main halocarbons forms are the chlorofluorocarbons (example, CFC- 11 and CFC- 12) that are commonly used by human. These CFCs are used in the refrigeration machines as the refrigeration agents and also used in some of the industrial processes even though it was stopped. The use was before the realization of its impacts to the stratosphere. These gases leads to the depletion of the ozone layer thus led to the formation of the legal framework that would see the use of CFC is discouraged. The aim of these legal frameworks is to protect the environment and ozone layer in specific. The formula below shows how the O3 is destroyed by CFCs (Olah, Prakash & Goeppert, 2011). In UV light presence: CCl3F (g) →CCl2F (g)+Cl (g) Cl (g)+O3 (g)→ClO (g)+O2(g) ClO (g) + O (g) →O2 (g) + Cl (g) Human activities have led to the production and destruction of the ozone layer in the atmosphere through reactions that are chemical in nature. The release of gases like nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons has led to the production of ozone. This is counter- reacted by the halocarbons such as CFCs that see to it that the ozone is destroyed, thus causing ozone holes like the one above the Antarctica (Olah, Prakash and Goeppert, 2011). Another cause of the global warming is water vapor, which is natural in nature, but can be influenced by the human activities. Human activities can indirectly influence the amount of the atmospheric vapor through climate changes. A good example is whereby the human activities have led to the increase in temperature, thus high amount of water vapor. Production of CH4 in the atmosphere also lead to the increase in the amount of water vapor. Chemical destruction of methane in the atmosphere leads to the production of water vapor though in small amount (Olah, Prakash & Goeppert, 2011). CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O Aerosols are other causes of global warming; some of the aerosol compounds are directly emitted to the atmosphere while some of them are a product of the already emitted compounds. Activities like the burning of fossil fuel and biomass has made the amount of aerosol in the atmosphere to increase drastically. The product of this has been aerosols that have soot (black carbon), sulphur compounds and organic compounds as some of its components (Olah, Prakash & Goeppert, 2011). 2nd Argument: Climate change is caused by natural processes. There are some of the factors that cause climate change yet they are not anthropogenic in nature but natural. Some of these processes are continental drift, volcanoes, Earth’s tilt and ocean currents. These may be not the only processes since some of the natural processes do similar activities with the anthropogenic impacts. The first process is Continental drift. The separation of the world into several continents led to the formation of lands that experience different form of climate. This climate change has enabled some areas to be warmer while others are colder. The areas that are close to the equator tend to be warmer while those far from the equator (north or south) are colder. The position of the continent, or land mass of the water bodies also were changed, thus changing the climate of the area. These changes in the land mass changed with the flow of wind and currents of the ocean (Team et al. 2014). The second natural process is volcanoes. The Eruption of volcanoes is characterized by the production of sulphur (IV) oxide, vapor, ash and dust in the atmosphere. The vapor and gases produced block the incoming sun rays, thus leading the cooling effect. The SO4 produced react with the vapor in the atmosphere to form weak sulphuric acid. The stratospheric winds move the aerosols quickly around the Earth while in the north or south directions are slower (Team et al. 2014). The second process is Earth’s Tilt. A tilt can make a region of the Earth warmer or cooler since it affects the amount of sun rays that reach the Earth’s surface. The Earth is always tilted at 23.5 degrees to the orbital path inclined in the perpendicular plane. Changes in the Earths tilt change the seasons with more tilt leading to cooler winters and warmer summers (Team et al. 2014). The last natural process is Ocean currents. Oceans cover approximately 71 % of the Earth’s surface and absorb almost twice the amount of sun rays compared to the land. Some parts of the world re influenced by ocean currents more than others. El nino and La Nina are associated with the ocean currents that take place at a given region in given time. The ocean loses heat through water vapor loss which is a greenhouse gas abundant in the atmosphere. Water vapor plays the major role of cloud formation, thus leading the changes on both weather and climate (Team et al. 2014). Anthropogenic activities cause the release of the greenhouse gases and just the same way that natural processes do. Natural processes like decay also lead to the release of greenhouse gases. Wetland which is a natural resource is also culpable of methane release with oils and oceans also releasing N2O and hydrocarbons. Therefore, both the natural and the anthropogenic processes play a role when it comes to climate change. It is worth noting that the human activities are major causes because some of the gases produced are synthetic in nature and also are in large amounts. References Lewis H. Z. & Laura L. M. (2015). Climate change, carbon dioxide, and pest biology: Monitor, mitigate, manage. Journal f Agriculture and Food Chemistry. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost Olah A. G., Prakash G. K. S & Goeppert A. (2011). Anthropogenic Chemical Carbon Cycle for Sustainable Future. Journal of American Chemical Society. Vol. 133(33), pp. 12881- 12898. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost Tim C. et al (2014). Methane Hydrates in Nature- Current Knowledge and Challenges. Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data. Vol. 60 (2), pp 319- 329, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost Read More