The Impacts Of Climate Change

Earlier it was believed that shifts in the climate pattern from ice age to warmer periods was because of time however later it was imagined that it is due to regular melting of ice sheets of more than a kilometer in thickness. Our climate is getting warm rapidly by the rate of approximately 8°C over the course of 10 years. A huge industrial revolution in the modern time has largely impacted the global cli... ... middle of paper ... ...onsumption of fossil fuel has increased dramatically. The world now burns at least five billion tons of fossil fuel each year. As this carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels enters the atmosphere, some of it is taken up by photosynthesizing plants, and the oceans absorb some.

What is Global Warming? Global Warming is the increase of surface temperature due to effect of green housing effect and burning gasses. Increase in global warming: There are many things that cause increase in global warming: Carbon dioxide (CO2): Human beings have increased the Human beings have increased the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by about thirty percent, concentration in the atmosphere by about thirty percent, CO2 spread in atmosphere from human breath, industries , smoke of automobiles and fossil fuel etc… when we burn fossil fuel the co2 gases escaped in to air and outer layer of earth. Outer layer of is the layer that reflect the ultraviolet rays of sun. So the co2 and burning gases causes the increase of global warming (http://www.nmsea.org/Curriculum/Primer/Global_Warming/fossil_fuels_and_global_warming.htm) Radiations: Radiations also increase the global warming.

Glaciers are melting up which results in the rise of sea level, oceans are turning more acidic. These climatic changes shall throw more challenges to our environment. Greenhouse effect and Greenhouse gases: Earth absorbs lot of energy from sun and gets warmth during the day. It gets cooled down by releasing infrared radiations. But the greenhouse gases do not let the infra-red radiations escape into the outer space.

For the past few hundred thousand years the amount of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere have been at natural and comfortable life sustaining levels. But in just the last one hundred or so years, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the levels of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, have gone through the roof. Global warming can, and will, if not stopped, have devastating effects on our planet; possibilities include rising temperatures, droughts, mass extinctions and much more. Humans are having a strong, negative, impact on the environment. The “greenhouse effect” is the most prominent cause for the rise of global temperatures.

Together, the present Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets contain enough water to raise sea level by almost 70m if they were to melt. Models project that a local annual average warming of larger than 3°C, sustained for millennia, would lead to virtually a complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a resulting sea level rise of about 7m. For a warming over Greenland of 5.5°C, consistent with mid-range stabilisation scenarios, the Greenland ice sheet is likely to contribute about 3m in 1,000 years. For a warming of 8°C, the contribution is about 6m, the ice sheet being largely eliminated. For smaller warmings, the decay of the ice sheet would be substantially slower.

Volcanic eruptions and change in solar radiation are two of the external events that cause climate to change on earth. Although these two events cause the climate to change, they only have a short term effect (Canada). Islands and dry place are more common to have an increase in temperature because of the amount of energy that is generated and released back to the atmosphere. As the ozone is breaking down, the amount of solar energy being generated and released to the atmosphere is greater than before, which produces an increase on the world’s climate. Movement of crustal plates is also something that changes the climate on earth.

As the ozone is breaking down, the amount of solar radiation being generated and released to the atmosphere is greater than before, which causes temperatures to increase. In an article written by Bryan Nelson, it states that the Northern Hemisphere usually gets warmer than the Southern Hemisphere due to the larger amount of land mass found in the Northern Hemisphere (Nelson). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the past year, the change in the planet’s orbit has led to an increase in temperatures. During earth’s orbit, the earth goes around the sun, there is moments when earth moves closer and farther to the sun than usual, which cause temperatures to increase or decrease. Volcanic eruptions and the movement of crustal plates are also two events that naturally affects the climate.

Global warming does not require a reduction of the standard of living of people. However it does demand a rapid shift in the patterns of consumption of fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, to an economy more reliant on solar energy, hydrogen gas, wind biomass, and other renewable energy sources. The term greenhouse effect is used to describe the increased warming of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere due to increased levels of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases that absorb radiated energy in the atmosphere and then reradiate it back to the surface. But if it were not for the greenhouse effect, temperatures at the Earth's surface today would be much colder then they are now, and life as we know it could not exist. Scientists are now concerned that the greenhouse gases are being increased by human actions to levels that could be very harmful to life on Earth.

Like I explained earlier, carbon dioxide in the Earth has increased dramatically and this is cause by burning fossil fuels which results in the Greenhouse Effect. Almost everything in the world consists of fossil fuels in some type of way. We burn fossil fuels when driving our car, powering machinery, using electricity, flying planes, etc. (Planet Save) I thought that the following chart was very interesting because it explains that the human causes of global warming are extremely higher than natural effects. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this dec... ... middle of paper ... ...are efforts to slow down the rate of global warming that are being implemented.

Mankind’s industrialization of the world has caused a drastic increase in temperature. This rise in temperature is caused by solar radiation remaining in our atmosphere because of gases produced by humans through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities. These gases block the radiation from escaping into space therefore warming our planet. The result is raising of ocean levels, extinction of species and threatening of children’s health because of disease and less freshwater to drink. While many view climate change to be a more natural occurrence than others do, scientists have proven the average temperature rise of the Earth between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the last 100 years.