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effects of global warming on the planet
effects of global warming on the planet
effect of global warming
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An increase in the Earth’s average surface air temperature is referred to as global warming. Global warming is part of a natural cycle and is not caused by an increase in Carbon Dioxide emissions from humans. Humans are therefore not responsible for global warming.
Global warming is part of a natural cycle of climate change. The Pleistocene describes the time period that spanned from 1.8 million to approximately 10 000 years ago. During the Pleistocene, significant advances of continental ice sheets in North America and Europe occurred. The Holocene Maximum was a time period that occurred approximately 11 000 years ago and it marked the end of the Ice-age. The temperatures then, were much higher than they are today. The time period between 900 and 1300 AD is known as the Medieval Warm Period ' where higher temperatures were documented in historical accounts. The Little Ice Age took place between the 16th to the mid 19th century. During this period the polar ice caps extended considerably further from the poles than they do currently. Accordingly it is acceptable to state that climate change and hence global warming is part of the Earth’s natural cycle.
It is alleged that global warming is ‘man-made’ due to it being caused by greenhouse gases (most notably Carbon Dioxide) that contribute to the ‘greenhouse effect’. The sun radiates shortwave radiation through the upper part of the atmosphere to the Earth. The Earth’s surface is warmed and the Earth radiates longwave infrared rays to space. Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the sun and radiate it back to Earth. The Earth’s surface is warmed by the reflected heat which consequently leads to global warming.
Man-made Carbon Dioxide emissions alone cannot be...
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Anon. (2007). The Great Global Warming Swindle: Carbon Dioxide is not the culprit!. Stranger than Fiction. (Online). Available: http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/stranger-than-fiction/global-warming.html. [Accessed: 1 March 2009].
Hamilton, C. J. (2009). Sun. Views of the Solar System. (Online). Available: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm [Accessed: 1 February 2010]
Gutmann, E. (2008). Investigating “The Great Global Warming swindle. Ars Technica. (Online). Available: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2008/04/investigating-the-great-global-warming-swindle.ars. [Accessed: 1 March 2009].
People are responsible for higher carbon dioxide atmosphere emissions, while the Earth is now into the Little Ice Age, or just behind it. These factors together cause many years discussions of the main sources of climate changes and the temperature increasing as a result of human been or natural changes and its consequences; even if its lead to the global warming, or to the Earth’s cooling. In their articles, “Global Warming Is Eroding Glacial Ice” by Andrew C. Revkin and “Global Warming Is Not a Threat to Polar Ice” by Philip Stott, both authors discuss these two theories (Revkin 340; Stott 344). Revkin is right that global warming is taking place. Significant increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to human activities combined with natural factors such as volcanic emissions and solar radiation – all together they lead to climate changes and temperatures rising. At the same time, other factors such as deforestation contribute to environmental changes for some glaciers not less than air pollution. However, during global warming not all regions of the planet are affected in the same way, local warming and cooling are both possible during these changes.
The argument put forward by John Coleman, in his article “Global Warming Greatest Scam in History!”, is flawed mainly due to numerous logical fallacies. “Ad Hominem”, “Guilt by Association”, “Red Herring”, “Appeal to Irrelevant Authority”, “Hasty Generalization”, and “Genetic Fallacy” are some of the logical fallacies that can be observed to prevail in Coleman’s argument. As a consequence, the soundness, validity, clarity, reasoning and consistency of the whole article are insubstantial. Coleman’s premises fail to support his proposition that global warming is a scam, making the whole argument distorted and faulty.
To truly understand the global warming, and how it effects the earth, knowing what is the greenhouse effect, and what it does needs to be discussed first. The greenhouse effect is one of the main reasons that the earth is the perfect place to live on. Basically, the reason that animals live on earth is not just because the earth is in perfect distance from the earth, but “Our moderate temperatures are also the result of having just the right kind of atmosphere” (“The Greenhouse Effect”). As a matter of fact, the earth’s atmosphere is like a perfect blanket that keeps the temperature perfect on the surface of the earth (“The Greenhouse Effect”). This perfect blanket that keep the temperature cool on the earth are
Lupo, Anthony. Global Warming Is Natural, Not Man-Mad. Thesis. NAPSA, 2013. N.p.: Napsnet, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
The Earth's climate has changed significantly throughout history. In the last 700,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat. With the abrupt end of the last ice age approximately 7,000 years ago the beginning of the modern climate era was born. In the last century the global sea level has risen 17cm. All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years, having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. There is no denying global warming. Once considered a conspiracy theory by the world’s leading governments, industries and populations; global warming
The greenhouse effect is a natural process that keeps the earth at temperatures that are livable. Energy from the sun warms the earth when its heat rays are absorbed by greenhouse gasses and become trapped in the atmosphere. Some of the most common greenhouse gasses are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. If there were no greenhouse gasses, very few rays would be absorbed and the earth would be extremely cold. When too many rays are absorbed the earth’s atmosphere heats up and it causes what we know as global warming. Al Gore (2006) described the greenhouse effect as the potentially most dangerous environmental problem facing mankind, with consequences second only to nuclear war (p.299). As the name suggests, global warming isn’t merely affecting parts of the world, it is threatening the world globally.
For decades scientists have claimed that the Earth is undergoing global warming caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuel. However, one can look back through history to see that global warming is a natural cycle. The Earth routinely goes through a process of cooling and warming. Approximately, every 100,000 years there is a documented spike in temperature on Earth. Historical data indicates that when this spike occurs there is an increase in CO2 levels.
Evidence of global climate change is in an abundance everywhere we look. The atmosphere’s level of carbon dioxide has increased dramatically to the point where it is causing the average temperature to rise because carbon dioxide holds in heat. The latest measurement,
Kelly, Henry. ”Myths of Global Warming Skillfully Debunked” Lili. Irish Times, November 19 2009. Web. 15 March 2014.
Over time, scientists have been able to perform studies and gather the information as to what exactly causes global warming. Scientists have collectively agreed that humans are the main cause of global warming is human produced. Humans burn coal, oil, and other gases to create energy. In doing so, this creates excess carbons that warm the atmosphere that block the heat from escaping the Earth (Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth). This process is known as the greenhouse effect. Other gasses that contribute to the greenhouse effect include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth). Another human activity that contributes to global warming is
Nelson, T.J. "Cold Facts on Global Warming." Brneurosci.org. 17 Mar. 2005. Web. 5 April. 2011.
Firstly, global warming is said to be caused by the high levels of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans. Smoke produced by factories, vehicular exhaust, and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal in power plants are the primary sources of carbon dioxide. The theory is that carbon dioxide being released into the Earth's atmosphere is steadily building up because it cannot escape into space. The theory as to why the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere actually causes the Earth's average temperature to rise is outlined as follows:
Mastrandrea, Michael D. "Global warming." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
While critical of global warming alarmism, this documentary does not doubt that the earth is warming. Instead, they claim that scientific evidence demonstrates that such warming is but a natural variation in earth’s climatic history, similar to the Medieval Warm Period of the Little Ice Age. The documentary uses several lines of evidence to back up this claim, including ice core data that they claim when rightly interpreted shows carbon dioxide as having a lag time when earth’s climate has warmed in the recent and distant past, making it doubtful that it could be responsible for the increase in temperature that has been observed recently. The timing of the recent warming, which was most pronounced in the late Nineteenth Century through World War II, stopped and reversed to a cooling trend in the mid-Twentieth Century, and then rapidly warmed again in the past three decades, is dissected. Since this warming began before the advent of major human sources of greenhouse gas emissions and the period of most dramatic industrial...
The common definition of global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants (Global warming, Wikipedia). Moreover, the effects of global warming will bring ecological and social changes. Because there is no exact way to predict the effects of global warming, it is almost impossible to say how strong global warming will affect life in the future. Scientists blame the greenhouse gas effect in combination with societies greenhouse gas emissions for the rising temperature. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is emitted back towards the earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere, it results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Simply, global...