Global Climate Changes are Manmade - Essay Example

Global Climate Changes Are Manmade” The climate changes in the past, especially since the1950’s, have assumed the character of a polemical subject of debate which has not only agitated and alarmed the whole world but has also baffled it, owing to its astonishing complexities and findings. The subject of climate change is now synonymous with a more popular name ‘Global warming’, infamous yet realistic in its own fabric of nature. Global warming, climate change is defined as the rise in the average temperature of the of the surface of the earth, its atmosphere and oceans due to the increased intensity of human activities that have imbalanced earth’s atmospheric equilibrium, and it is since the Industrial Revolution of 1750 that changes have been observed in the average temperature of the earth and has been well accounted for. Although eminent scientists have long studied the subject of global warming, but no definite conclusion has been made so far as to what really causes global warming, as the phenomenon of global warming is taking place globally and gives birth to several reasons which makes it all the more difficult to have a profound and penetrating understanding for . Still 90% of the scientists who have conducted individual and collective researches on global warming have laid out their views and opinions, coming of a presumed conclusion that it is largely due to the result of human industrial activities that global warming is taking place, while only a handful of scientists reject its causes and some even rejecting its existence completely. The research supporting the viewpoint that global warming is a result of human industrial activities has been fortified by temperature recordings of the last 50 years of the troposphere. They prime causes are: 1. Increase in concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 2. Human activities, such as deforestation, on a global level. 3. Increase in concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere. Moreover, natural causes have also been attributed to global warming such as climate oscillations and volcanic activity. (Pringle, L. P. 1990) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most reputed organization observing global warming, has concluded that it is primarily due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. The same conclusion has also been given by many other scientists and a number of other scientific organizations. The key attributes of global warming are as follows: Greenhouse gases: Rise in the concentration of Carbon dioxide is the considered as the prime constituent of climate change. Carbon dioxide is emitted and absorbed naturally through carbon-cycle, animal and plant respiration, ocean-atmosphere exchange and volcanic eruptions. Human activities such as deforestation and burning of fossil fuels release large amounts of carbon to the atmosphere causing CO2 concentration to rise. This was first observed by Charles David Keeling in 1958 and the predictions he made regarding Carbon Dioxide levels and global warming have turned out to be true, since the concentration levels of Carbon Dioxide at present and their effect on global climate are consistent with what he predicted. This iconic study now holds the stature of being a profound evidence of human-induced effects on global climate. Along with CO2, nitrous oxide, methane, hydro-fluorocarbons, per-fluorocarbons and sulfur-hexafluoride are also listed as major contributors to global warming according to the Kyoto Protocol. These emissions are largely anthropogenic as emitted by power stations, industries, transportation and agricultural by-products. (Bily, C. A. 2006) Deforestation: Deforestation is the second biggest contributor to global warming. This is because forests have the ability of absorbing carbon dioxide, which in turn decreases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere inducing a positive effect. About one-third of harmful emissions were made due to deforestation between1750-2007. Livestock and land use: More than 18% of emissions were attributed to livestock and livestock-related activities such as fuel consuming farming practices, deforestation, land grazing, methane emitted from manure and nitrous oxide emitted from fertilizers. Aerosols: Aerosols are tiny droplets released into the atmosphere through air pollution in the form of soot, sulfates, nitrates, ammonium and dust produced by deforestation such as desertification and biomass burning. Human activities in the last 150 years have emitted exorbitant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing atmospheric temperatures to reach unprecedented levels. According to the temperature records of the last century, earth’s surface air temperature has risen by 1.6 Fahrenheit. The Assessment Reports made by IPCC between explain that global warming is primarily caused by industrial activities and has reached unprecedented levels. This has mostly been accepted and believed due to the fact that no evidence has ever been presented against it. The evidence strengthening that indeed global warming is a result of human activities is based on ‘fingerprint studies’, studies in which each key attribute is separately researched and evaluated and its unique effects on global warming are determined. (Flannery, T. F. 2005). Extreme weather events of the past like the European summer heat wave of 2003 have also led to the solidifying of these conclusions. Eminent institutes such as U.S. Global Change Research Program have also concluded that global warming is happening because of industrial activities. In addition to that, essays, research journals and studies have been published since the 1980’s, all arriving at the same conclusion. The first line of evidence is based on scientific research and understanding how greenhouse gases trap heat, how the earth’s climate system responds to it and how other natural factors affect global warming. The second evidence relies on the fact that temperatures in the last decades are unusually higher than those in the last 400 years and this is established by conducting research on carbon isotopes obtained from remains of living things of that time. The third line of evidence comes from the qualitative consistency between the computer generated climate model simulations and the observed changes in climate. These models show gradual warming of the earth and ocean surface, increase in ocean heat content, rise in global sea level, retreat of sea ice and melting of snow caps and glaciers and changes in pressure patterns and large scale precipitation patterns. Recently, a prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming, Richard Muller conducted studies for 2 years analyzing if climate change was really happening, and he also gave the same conclusion that many others have given. (Kolbert, E. 2006) REFERENCES 1. Pringle, L. P. (1990). Global warming. New York: Arcade Pub. 2. Bily, C. A. (2006). Global warming. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 3. Flannery, T. F. (2005). The weather makers: How man is changing the climate and what it means for life on Earth. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 4. Kolbert, E. (2006). Field notes from a catastrophe: Man, nature, and climate change. New York: Bloomsbury Pub. Read More