Human Activities Cause Climate Change - Research Paper Example

Climate Change Outline: Introduction: Background on the problem of climate change 3-point thesis statement: Despite some natural causes being responsible for climate change, the effect of industrialization, fingerprinting of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide and evidence against natural causes of global warming indicate that such natural causes just supplement human activities in causing climate change. Arguments for Human Causes of Climate Change: Industrialization increases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere Fingerprinting technology attributes the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide to human activities Natural causes do not have the capability of causing the current climate change Counterarguments: Human activities do not have the ability to cause the observable climate change but natural causes do. Refute: Natural causes only supplement anthropogenic impact of climate change Historical evidence opposes anthropogenic climate change Refute: The current climate change trend differs from the historical climate change trend Carbon dioxide amount rises after and not before temperature rise Refute: Change in temperatures occurs after change in carbon dioxide levels Conclusion: Human activities are the major cause of climate change with natural factors just supplementing such effects. Abstract The current climate change experienced globally has had consequences that have negatively impacted on human life. There has been an increasing debate as to whether human activities contribute to climate change or not. This follows the increased awareness among countries of the need to save the planet Earth from the adverse effects of climate change. This paper postulates that human activities cause climate change. To support this argument, it gives evidence of industrialization as a cause of climate change, fingerprinting attributing the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide to human activities and argument against natural causes of global warming. However, it also appreciates the opposing views, acknowledging that natural factors could also contribute to climate change. In conclusion, it would be appreciated that natural factors supplement human activities in causing climate change hence the significance of human activities in influencing climatic changes. Introduction From both observational and geologic evidence, it would be appreciated that the Earth’s climate is changing, specifically warming. The resultant negative effect has caused the issue to be critically evaluated in most countries. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA gives evidence of reducing Arctic sea sheet and Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and extreme events including hurricanes as pointers towards climate change. This evidence follows years of critical data collection from earth-orbiting satellites. Supporting this is the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC documented by Harvey which cites a temperature increase of between 0.30C to 4.80C by the time this century ends, with the sea level possibly rising by between 26cm to 82cm. This could disrupt distribution of precipitation and ecology and increase forest fires. Thus, it has become important for countries across the globe to undertake measures that would suppress the causes of climate change. Nonetheless, attributing this phenomenon of global climatic change to specific causes has elicited intense debate. Specifically, the widely accepted postulate of human activities being responsible for climate change has received criticism from those who argue for natural causes. Those fronting human causes, also referred to as anthropogenic causes of global warming, postulate that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere emanate from human activities including burning of fossils, industrialization and transportation (Bierman 33). Opponents argue against human activities having the capacity to cause climate change, thus attributing the phenomenon to natural causes (Fernández 19). Despite some natural causes being responsible for climate change, the effect of industrialization, fingerprinting of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide and evidence against natural causes of global warming indicate that such natural causes just supplement human activities in causing climate change. Argument for Man-Made Climate Change Human activities cause climate change. NASA observes that human activities have rampantly resulted in a warmer Earth as a result of carbon dioxide increasing by about 100 parts per million in the past 150 years. Indeed, the scientific community is in consensus that human activities are the major contributors of climate change. IPCC has been cited by many scholars for its contribution in finding evidence of human activities as a contributor to climate change. This is a credible organization bringing together scientists under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization. As Harvey observes, its reviews and summaries of various peer-reviewed research studies on climate change have greatly impacted on the global understanding of climate change. Other authorities noted by Mathez to support anthropogenic climate change include NASA, the National Geographic and renowned media houses, including BBC and CNN (12). Even with NASA indicating that the melting of ice caps on planet Mars has been a result of solar irradiation, it maintains that the warming experienced on planet Earth results from human activities. With such authorities in support of human activities as a major cause of global climate change, it would be important to evaluate supportive evidence. The first contributor to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, and indeed other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide is industrialization. Pall et al. studies the pre-industrialization and post-industrialization global climates noting that industrialization has contributed about 10% to 30% of the atmospheric greenhouse gases (383). These gases allow the sunlight into the Earth’s atmosphere but then trap much of these from being irradiated back to space. It is the thinness of the Earth’s atmosphere that causes it to be vulnerable to these greenhouse gases. This causes the temperature of the Earth to rise resulting in global warming. As observed by Gillespie, even those opposed to anthropogenic climate change appreciate the action of greenhouse gases on climate change (77). Thus, industrialization, a human activity, causes global warming. Secondly, the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been traced down to human activities. Campbell documents deforestation as one of the critical human activities that has contributed to climatic changes (28). The production of oxygen and absorption of carbon dioxide by trees promote a balance in the climate. Deforestation interferes with the carbon cycle such that the excess atmospheric carbon dioxide does not get absorbed and the carbon stored in trees would be released to the atmosphere. Scientists have succeeded in fingerprinting man-made carbon dioxide using isotopic signature. This method appreciates that the carbon dioxide occurring naturally contains low carbon-14 ratio. During the pre-industrialization era, atmospheric carbon dioxide was approximately 280 parts per million. In 2010, the concentration was at 390 parts per million. This additional 100 parts per million of carbon dioxide contains no traces of carbon-14 (Poortinga et al. 1017). This implies that the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere came about as a result of human industrial activities. To support this further, Gillespie argues that bombarding carbon-14 with cosmic rays, the strong rays emanating from space hitting the surface of the Earth, is impossible (24). Therefore, the carbon-14 in the atmosphere could only have originated below the Earth’s surface. This means that humans should have been involved in digging up fossils and then burning them, thus introducing carbon-14 into the atmosphere. As such, human activities have caused an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Lastly, proponents of anthropogenic climate change argue against natural causes of climate change. They argue that the global warming witnessed in the modern times does not arise from natural climatic trends. In fact, if this was in consistence with natural trends, the Earth should be cooling at the moment as opposed to warming. Based on the cycle of 100-year glacial period interchanging with the 10,000-year interglacial period, the Earth currently should be at the height of its 10,000-year interglacial period (Fernández 22). Such times would be characterized by temperatures naturally being at the peak high (Poortinga et al. 1020). As noted by Harvey, the pre-industrial period had the Earth cooling a rate of 0.50C in 8,000 years. While the Earth would be expected to show such trends at the moment, it is warming instead. This indicates that there are factors outside natural ones that influence climate change, leading to the conclusion that human activities contribute to global climatic change. Counter-Arguments The opponents of anthropogenic climate change oppose the postulate that human activities contribute to climate change. They negate the argument of human activities damaging the ozone layer. Supporting this argument is the postulate of the occurrence of numerous natural chemicals in the atmosphere which influence the ozone far much more than the consequences of human activities. NASA’s observation of the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 that caused the Antarctic and Arctic to reduce by 30% and 20% respectively is an indicator of how natural chemicals could impact on climate. Indeed, volcanism would be blamed for the depletion of the ozone (Gillespie 69). Mathez also indicates that solar flux radiation and solar cycles affect climate change (55). However, the impact of these natural chemicals on climate have been observed to be much minimal than the impact of anthropogenic causes. Therefore, naturally harmful chemicals only act as supplements to anthropogenic human causes which are the major cause of climate change. Historical consideration has also been used to front the argument against anthropogenic climate change. This postulate draws its audience back to geologic records which give evidence of past warming and cooling periods which were not induced by carbon dioxide. Knutson observes that such periods encompassed great temperature changes and sea level fluctuations (160). In fact, evidence is given of a Medieval Warm Period where temperatures in Europe rose beyond their current measurements. Similarly, there is evidence that the Arctic used to be warmer that it would be observed today. Certainly, carbon dioxide did not contribute to climate change during these historic times and would therefore not be the cause of the current climatic changes. However, this argument does not hold because as Mathez notes, ancient variations came about from solar forcing, wobbling of the orbit of the Earth and continental configurations (15). Additionally, Europe has had irregular Medieval Warm Period, evidence that does not match the statistics on the current warmth in Europe. The Arctic is still as warm as it was in the 1930s with recent studies indicating an even warmer climate in the region. As such, this historic postulate does not provide concrete argument against anthropogenic climate change. Finally, the argument of carbon dioxide levels rising before an increase in temperature is incorrect because this increase occurs only after temperature rises. This argument takes the audience aback approximately 1 million years ago. This period was characterized by 100,000-year interval of rise in the level of carbon dioxide and temperature. Knutson emphasizes on the need to appreciate that increase in carbon dioxide levels came after temperatures rose and not before (159). This could be attributed to the liberation of gases from large water bodies, specifically the oceans, into the atmosphere (Gillepsie 24). Despite the validity of this argument, it could be said to be irrelevant. The increase of carbon dioxide in ancient ice-cores happened after temperature had rose by several hundreds of years. This is an equivalent period of time required for oceans to react to atmospheric changes resulting from the wobbling of the orbit of the Earth. Nonetheless, changes in temperatures would only occur after changes in carbon dioxide levels. Furthermore, the current situation does not resemble the past situation. The 35% atmospheric carbon dioxide level increase could be ascribed to human activities. The levels are in themselves higher than they were about 650,000 years ago, a period when ice-core records were captured. In fact, these levels could be the highest ever recorded over the last three million years. Conclusion Indeed, the need to understand the exact causes of the climate change currently experienced globally is valid given the negative consequences the phenomenon has had on human life. This evaluation of the debate for and against anthropogenic climate change leads to the conclusion that the global climate would have been much more stable had it not been for human intervention. Indeed, natural factors like solar irradiation cyclic changes and volcanism resulted in the historic climate change and could still be the cause for the current climate change. However, the modern climate change occurring more rapidly gives an indication of an external influence. With the consensus that greenhouse gases cause an increase in global temperatures, scientists have engaged in studies that have fingerprinted anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide. Whereas the current climate change could not be fully attributed to anthropogenic factors, natural factors also having shown considerable contribution, human activities have played a significant role in enhancing global climatic changes. Works Cited Biermann, Frank. Global Climate Governance Beyond 2012: Architecture, Agency and Adaptation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print. Campbell, Kurt M. Climatic Cataclysm the Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution P, 2008. Print. Fernández, Manuel H. "Tempo and Mode in the Influence of Global Climatic Changes on Mammalian Evolution." Quaternary International 279.280 (2012): 195-196. Print. Gillespie, A. Climate Change, Ozone Depletion and Air Pollution: Legal Commentaries with Policy and Science Consideration. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006. Print. Harvey, F. “IPCC Climate Report: Human Impact is ‘Unequivocal’.” The guardian.com. The Guardian, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. Knutson, T. R., et al. “Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change.” Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 157 – 163. Print. Mathez, E. A. Climate Change: The Science of Global Warming and Our Energy Future. New York, NY: Columbia UP, 2009. Print. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.” Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Plant.” Nasa.gov. N.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. Pall, P., et al. “Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Contribution to Flood Risk in England and Wales in Autumn 2000.” Nature 470.7734 (2011): 382 – 385. Print. Poortinga, W., A., et al. “Uncertain Climate: An Investigation into Public Scepticism About Anthropogenic Climate Change.” Global Environmental Change 21.3 (2011): 1015 – 1024. Print. Read More