Why is Earth’s climate always changing? First of all, what is climate change? Climate change is defined as “a change in the typical or average weather of a region or city” (Dunbar). Weather and climate can be mistakenly confused. Weather is short-term conditions while climate is the weather averaged over a long-term period. According to Dunbar, Earth’s climate has been through hotter and chillier periods which have lasted many years (Dunbar). “Observations show that Earth's climate has been warming. Its average temperature has risen a little more than one degree Fahrenheit during the past 100 years or so. This amount may not seem like much. But small changes in Earth's average temperature can lead to big impacts” (Dunbar). There are a lot of factors that lead to Earth’s climate change. Just like Dubar said, “Some causes of climate change are natural” (Dubar). One …show more content…
“Climate is influenced by natural changes that affect how much solar energy reaches Earth. These changes include changes within the sun and changes in Earth’s orbit” (“Causes of Climate Change”). Fluctuations happening in the sun itself can impact the power of the sunlight that gets to Earth’s ground. It can either cause the Earth to warm or cool. There is a natural process that the sun undergoes for an 11-year time period of little ups and downs in solar intensity. However, the impact on Earth’s climate is minimum (“Causes of Climate Change”). How has the sun’s energy played a role in climate change? One way to show the role it has played was back in the 17th and 19th centuries. It was called the “Little Ice Age”. People think that it “may have been partially caused by a low solar activity phase from 1645 to 1715, which coincided with cooler temperatures. The ‘Little Ice Age’ refers to a slight cooling of North America, Europe, and probably other areas around the globe” (“Causes of Climate
Climate change is temperature increasing over a long period of time. Climate is imoortant to both humans and ecosyestems in order to thrive. One slight change can disrupt an entire ecosystem. Most people recognize that greenhouse gasses such carbon dioxide have been contributing to climate change. Greenhouse gases are part of earth’s many natural processes. Greenhouse gasses are important to keeping the earth at an overall warm temperature. When When sunlight shines down to Earth, it warms the surface but after so much warming, some of the heat goes right back out into the atmosphere. Some of the heat hits the greenhouse gases. When this happens, the molecules become excited and release even more heat. The issue of climate change has been
When the sun heats the Earth gases are released as well as water vapor. They go into the atmosphere and regulate the temperature. This is known as global warming or the greenhouse effect. Many of the environmental complications derive from the political and social involvement. The climate was not the only cause, but we had humans played a role on what had been occurring to the world. Earth has many different atmospheric layers that are influenced by the greenhouse gases. “Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have now increased nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; methane levels have more than doubled; and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15 percent” (Fagan 209). The increase of these gases also enhanced the trapping of the heat. With more heat being trapped this lead to many coastlines to flood due to the melting of snow and ice. The increase of dangerous weather actions will pose as a threat also. These changes in the environment would eventually lead to political and social change of the people Overpopulation in certain areas and industry formation influence the greenhouse effect. We as a whole are destroying the place we live, the natural world. Although there are ways to prevent and reduce global warming, we cannot stop the natural occurrence of future climate. Climate is not the only factor, each individual that as
It’s been said by many and thought by others, countless times before. “It’s not that bad. The media and these environmentally obsessive individuals are over exaggerating the negative global climate change impacts”. After all the planets warming has potential to produce positive outcomes as well. It has even been argued that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant; rather it is an essential component for photosynthesis, a process that indirectly supports human life deeming the greenhouse effect as normal. Furthermore the warming of the planet would result in less harsh and cold winters; in turn this would mean fewer deaths, predominantly among vulnerable groups such as the elderly. Environmentally this could potentially produce greener rainforests and enhanced plant growth in the Amazon, increased vegetation in northern
Global warming, or climate change is a gradual increase in average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its’ oceans. It is thought that global warming is permanently changing the climate. So, how exactly does global warming increase the Earth’s average temperature? Well, it is done by something called the greenhouse effect. When the sunlight hits our atmosphere the greenhouse gases only allows so much sunlight into the atmosphere while redirecting the rest back into space. This is what keeps Earth from being too hot or too cold. When people are adding pollution to the air – the burning of fossil fuels – they are actually destroying the ozone layer. If the ozone layer
Many scientist believe that the current warming trend is significant because, much of it has been caused by human activities. Satellites orbiting the earth and other technological equipment enables scientists to see and collect various information about our planets climate. Scientists have studied this collected information and has revealed the many changes of our planet and how these changes are effecting our climate, a few of them are:
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 unique among international issues because of its global scale and impact, and the cooperative nature of the plausible solutions. If we are to build a sustainable environment for our species we must act as one world, as opposed to a loose collection of nation-states acting for our own self interest. Our political systems are not designed to meet such ends, so climate change holds an interesting position on the stage of international diplomacy.
Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.205). Scientific studies suggest that all these played a role in past global warming and cooling periods. Today, however, there is a lot of conflict on whether humans are causing a global warming that could be disastrous to humans and all species of plants and animals on this earth. This paper will first explain the greenhouse effect, then take a look at both sides argument, and, finally, analyze the effect of global warming on world-wide sustainability
When climate change occurs there are a few major effects that are critical to climate change. First the sun passes through the clear atmosphere with its solar rays which then reach the earth's surface. Then, about 70% of the sun’s solar rays are absorbed by the earth surface making the temperature rise while the rest go back into the atmosphere. Some of the rays escape back out into space, while some are absorbed by gases in the atmosphere. These gases are important because they allow the sun to heat the earth and then the gases get trapped, making the earth warmer. They trap the heat like a big blanket to maintain the planet at a stable temperature.
The climate on the Earth is changing. Ice age is interleaved with the global warming. In the present age, the temperature of the Earth's climate system continues to rapidly increase and it leads to global warming. Global warming is the process of gradual growth of average annual temperature of the atmosphere of the Earth and World oceans. The average temperature on the Earth was increased by 0.6C. There are various reasons for global warming, such as human activities, natural events, increasing of gases, such as carbon dioxide in atmosphere and solar activity (Global warming).
Our world is always changing, so is our climate. Some changes are apparent, others not so much. Climate change is an important issue of concern in the twenty-first century. Environment, if it changes at all, evolves so slowly that the difference cannot be seen in a human lifetime (Wearth, 2014). Mostly all scientists predicted that it would take thousands of years for the planet to warm up due to emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels called greenhouse gases. But in the past 200 years, things began to change. The rate and the amount of warming that is happening on this planet are unprecedented. Wearth says, “People did not grasp the prodigious fact that both population and industrialization were exploding in a pattern of exponential
Climate change is natural and natural climate change is occurring constantly. However, natural climate change has been overtaken by human induced climate change which is causing the majority of climate change we are seeing today.
Climate change is a long-term change in regional or global climate patterns. From the mid twentieth century to now, there has mostly been a significant increase in average global temperatures. Climate change is a major issue in the world today, and a lot of people feel very differently about the cause of it. The common argument is whether climate change is a natural occurrence or if the recent increase in temperatures is because of humans. Climate change is a natural cycle in the Earth’s weather.
This is based upon the sunlight and volcano eruptions which plays an extreme factor. "Most often, global climate has changed because of variations from sunlight. Tiny wobbles in Earth’s orbit altered when and where sunlight falls on Earth’s surface. Variations in the Sun itself have alternately increased and decreased the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. Volcanic eruptions have generated particles that reflect sunlight, brightening the planet and cooling the climate. Volcanic activity has also, in the deep past, increased greenhouse gases over millions of years, contributing to episodes of global warming." (Global Warming, web.) However, I firmly believe that climate change is not only the result of natural causes alone. I think it is man-made and the major factors are from CO2, factories, and power plants burning coal/ oil, natural gas.
Climate change is caused due to the release of few carbon compounds into the atmosphere, which drastically brought the weather changes all over the world. Climate change is not confined to a single region. It has become an important issue all over the world for the past few years.