The undergoing climate change has been recognized as one of the most dangerous threats in human history that needs to be taken care of. It is believed that this phenomenon is predominantly caused by human activities which involving the burning of fossil fuels that release large-scale amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere and deforestation (IPCC, 2014).
Human presence has catalyzed the changes in climate from its natural way. These rapid changes bring several effects to the temperature change (global warming), sea-level rise, and extreme weather events that can lead to serious impacts of human life quality degradation such as health, food, and energy security.
The commitment to respond the effect of climate change in order to save the future generation is then required through two main actions by performing mitigation (reducing GHG emissions) and adaptation (minimizing the risks and impacts) activities. The debate on who should be responsible in bearing the climate change burdens by implementing those strategies then raised. Caney (2010) explains three principles which demonstrate who should be the bearer of the climate change and how they are applied. It has been controversial to determine which principle is practically the most reliable and brings social justice for the human kind. These principles, which will be explained later, are part of command-and-control
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This approach evokes moral-driven action with the individual(s) in this regard, historical records used as a benchmark or it can be simply said that PPP is a backward-looking principle. Suppose, in practice, that the actors who burn excessive amounts of fossil fuel through industrialization will have to pay the costs of the emissions released by enabling the victims to address the climate change (Caney,
Climate change is a growing issue with the rise in industrial, commercial, and personal usage of energy. The burning of such things such as oil, coal and natural gases create toxic pollutants called “greenhouse gases.” The largest and most prevalent of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide. (Overview of Greenhouse Gases). The wasteful history humanity has exhibited is deadly to the progression of our Earth. There are many things humanity can do in order to delay the inevitable warming of our planet and to prevent human-generated effects. Knowledge on the subject can significantly increase the awareness and subsequently improve the outcome of a global effort put forth by society. All that needs to be done, is to recognize our impact and how we can make a difference.
For a majority of people, it isn’t new news that the Earth’s climate is changing and increasingly getting warmer. For quite some time now, people have been arguing about what the actual causes are and what role humans have played in the current condition of the earth. A good bit of people seem to be in agreement that due to the actions of humans, the earth’s climate is increasingly getting worse and that if things don’t change, than everyone living on earth will be facing the consequences. However, this is not entirely true. The fault of climate change does not fall solely on the shoulders of mankind, but on the earth as well.
“In the last three decades, the United States has had an average of 80% consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil; all of which contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases” (Josef). All over the world, climate is varied; however, that is not the problem. The problem is that our climate and weather patterns are changing and leaving disaster and catastrophe in its wake. The common question of debate is whether humans are the main cause of this climate change, if it is solely a natural occurrence, and what can we do about it? “Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other words, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind
One of the most urgent environmental and social issue is climate change, its being talked about all over the world since its affecting billions of lives.The earth goes through a period of cool and warm period, which are called climate change. Climate change is when the earth gets warmer or cooler due to the amount of sunlight it receives from the sun. Climate changes isn't just affecting humans, its affecting the whole ecosystem. Coral reefs are turning white and polar ice caps are turning black. Animals are becoming extinct because their environment is being threatened. People all over the country and world are becoming aware that the climate is changing, especially after this year. It snowed in cities that usually do not get snow, it snowed in spring, and also flooding in some cities. The country is starting to realize the role human activities play on climate changes, and because humans are responsible for the rapid climate changes they must take actions to protect the environment. There has been periods of Global Warming in history that were mainly naturally caused but the most recent one which is happening now is influenced mostly by humans. Scientists have been debating on whether or not Global Warming is caused by humans. Both sides, however agree that as sunlight enters the earth's surface only a little bit is reflected back into space, most of it is absorbed into the earth which keep the earth warm, and the rest is absorbed into the atmosphere. As college students, we must work together to come up with a plan to help reduce greenhouse emission. Since in the book of Genesis 1 and 2 it says that God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden as caretakers. Their job was to care for the everything in the garden, they weren't...
Climate change, is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time. These times can be anywhere from decades to millions of years. The Earth’s climate has constantly been changing throughout history. Climate change can be dated back to over 650,000 years ago. Most of the changes that happened before 7,000 years ago happened because of small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy the earth planet receives. Even though climate change is natural, people are speeding up the process at which it occurs by polluting. Climate change has many impacts all over the world and its effects are evident. People can still slow down the process at which climate change
Climate change, otherwise known as global warming, has grown more apparent in recent years, with increased natural disasters, significantly warmer temperatures and unreasonably long seasons. Global warming is one of the main concerns that scientists have been researching for the past century. Scientific evidence shows that global warming is caused by human behaviors. Due to the amount of human-induced carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have been released into the air, the earth is becoming a highly poisonous place to live on. Earth’s climate has been constantly changing ever since the Industrial Revolution, when innovations began and factories were built, which emitted mass air pollution. As more technological advances continued the years after, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air also increased. According to the UPI Space Daily News, “Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the main cause of global warming - increased by 45% between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tonnes in 2010” (Writers 1). The 1900s through the 2000s is the time period in which humans caused the most air pollution by creating vehicles and other industrial machinery. In the contemporary time period, human activities that contribute to climate change consist of hydraulic fracturing, rice cultivation, the increase of fossil fuel burning, and the rise of deforestation.
Gardiner, S.M, (2004) ‘Ethics and Global Climate Change’, Chicago Journals, Vol. 114 ( No. 3), Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/382247 [Accessed 12 March 2014]
The first part of this essay discusses what the human species has done to deal with the problem of climate change. While some improvements have been made, the problem has not been addressed aggressively enough to stop the damage. What is amazing about this is the denial of so many people that problems exist. If they do realize the risks, they are simply not taking actions to contain the damage.
Interactions between human and the ecosystem have been operating for millenniums, and are impossible to eliminate, as each depends on the other in order to survive and flourish. However, as modern technology advances, as well as the increase in the world’s population, the need for natural resources begin to rise to an alarming rate which has started to gradually destroy the ecosystem. Recently, there has been an increase of sea levels in region whilst other rain-bounty areas have begun to experience their first droughts. This phenomenon is known as climate change. Climatologists have concluded that human activity has played a major role in contributing to the changes, therefore requiring extreme measures before this phenomenon evolves into a catastrophe. In this essay, we will discuss human activities that contributed to climate change, as well as addressing possible solutions to the phenomenon.
Climate change has been a controversial topic in the last century. When the debate has been raised about the climate change it was not certain that it is going to be serious threat to our world. In this essay the concept of climate change will be defined and how did it change during the last century. In addition, the causes and impacts of climate change will be pointed out briefly to understand the issue. This essay will be focused more in introducing some measures, which have been taken place so far on global level for example the Kyoto Protocol and on local levels as the case in United Kingdom and China, and how accurate are these solutions. Also alternative measures and actions that can help stop the climate change are going to be discussed.
It is becoming increasingly certain that climate change will have severe adverse effects on the environment in years to come. Addressing this issue poses a serious challenge for policy makers. How we choose to respond to the threat of global warming is not simply a political issue. It is also an economic issue and an ethical one. Responsible, effective climate change policy requires consideration of a number of complex factors, including weighing the costs of implementing climate change policies against the benefits of more environmentally sustainable practices. Furthermore, this analysis must take place amidst serious gaps in the existing research and technology concerning the developing climatic condition.
Climate change has become of the world’s major issue today. The earth’s climate is always changing in a very fast and also in different ways. Climate changes affect our lives psychologically, emotional and also physically. Climate change is defined as a long term change in the earth’s climate, especially a change due to the increase in the average atmospheric temperatures. Due to this change in temperature, a lot of changes has occurred in our environment, these changes include rising sea levels, flooding, melting of polar ice caps, hotter days, colder nights and heat waves. These climate changes plays an important role in shaping our natural ecosystem, our human economics and also the most important, it affects the human race. For
As we approach the future we are faced with many global problems. Most of these problems arise because we have caused them ourselves. We need to face these problems and find a solution. Global warming, although most often overlooked in importance, is a crucial problem of the future directly related to human activities. Global warming is caused by gases humans release into the atmosphere called anthropogenic gases and by deforestation. Anthropogenic gases include carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofl...
Nowadays, we can see a lot of campaigns to reduce this humans’ contribution of greenhouse gases to atmosphere. These campaign’s missions are usually about reducing the energy that we use, convincing us to use recyclable energy, stopping the deforestation... These missions are all about mitigating to climate change. Climate change mitigation is the actions to limit the significant rate of long term climate change. In other words, climate change mitigation is all of the actions about lowering the humans’ greenhouse gas contribution to atmosphere. It is now too late for humans’ to prevent the effects of climate change, but these effects can be reduced in the future with mitigation. The most popular treaty, disenchant of humanity, is Kyoto Protocol. The main goal of Kyoto Protocol is reducing the human emitted greenhouse gases, in other word, mitigation. Also in ways that underlying national differences in GHG emissions, wealth, and capacity to make th...
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...