Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of climate change on humans essay
Debate on earth warming
Controversy of global warming
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of climate change on humans essay
Man made global warming has been a topic of uncontrollable controversy for many decades now. Global warming is the increase in the average global surface temperature in the Earth’s atmosphere. There are many theories as to why there has been such a drastic change in the Earth’s atmosphere throughout the years. These theories have ignited many debates amongst scientists. According to multiple scientists, humans are the ones responsible for the alarming change in the Earth’s atmospheric temperature. Theses scientists also fear that human activity will have long consequential problems for the world. Bill Nye, the science guy, is one of those scientists that believes humans are at fault for the increased temperature of the Earth. On the other side of the argument lie a numerous amount of skeptics who are not convinced that human activity is the cause of global warming. Marc Morano is one of those skeptics that opposes the concept of man made global warming. He is the publisher of “ClimateDepot.com” in which he explains why he believes that humans are not at fault. Marc Morano believes that the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere is just part of Earth’s natural weather cycle and nothing more. To him, the increasing rate of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not affect the climate of the Earth. I agree with Bill nye, the science guy, and his theories about human activity causing global warming.
Decades ago scientists did not know wether the Earth’s atmosphere was cooling down or getting warmer. For many years it was hard to tell in what direction the climate was headed. It was not until 1975 that highly sophisticated computer models were predicting that the temperature would increase by roughly 5 degrees fahrenheit or 2.8 degrees cel...
... middle of paper ...
...al rate. Failure to do so will result in devastating catastrophes in years to come. The world as we know it will change and will be different form what we know. Bill Nye and Tim Flannery made many compelling arguments and provide evidence that show how Human activity is slowly destroying our planet. Global warming is an epidemic and it is up to us, society as a whole, to terminate this epidemic.
Works Cited
Walker, Sally M., and Tim F. Flannery. We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009. Print.
Mooney, Chris. "It May Be Cold Outside, but Planet Earth Is Getting Hotter."BillMoyerscom. N.p., 30 Jan. 2014. Web.
Morano, Marc. "Climate Depot." Climate Depot Links RSS. N.p., n.d. Web.
Gillis, Justin. "Panel’s Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2014. Web.
In his piece on climate change, Richard Lindzen addresses his stance on the heated debate of global warming. He claims that there is, in fact, no ongoing catastrophic temperature increase. Lindzen, a Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a recipient of the Jule Charney award from the American Meteorological Society (Richard Lindzen), believes that the earth goes through natural phases of warming and cooling. In this piece, he examines why he believes people have a false conception of Earth’s climate shifts.
“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” BARACK OBAMA, speech, Apr. 3, 2006. Climate change is not a theory contrary to what many individuals believe and is in fact confirmed by major scientific agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States. Global Warming causes are mainly due to greenhouse gases that are trapped in the atmosphere and cause depletion of the earth’s ozone layer. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and although it is a necessary component in our atmosphere as it helps plants perform photosynthesis, too much of it causes ozone depletion and therefore climate change. Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased tremendously after the industrial revolution, which indicates that the major cause of this issue is due to anthropogenic activities.
First, during the last few decades the Earth is experiencing greater rate of rising temperatures due to greenhouse gases that are being produced by human activities rather than because of environmental reasons, such as solar or volcanic activities. In 2006 the President of the National Academy of Sciences stated: “There is no doubt that the Earth is warming,” also he added that people are at least partly responsible for these changes in addition to regular factors (Cicerone, par.4). Natural factors have produced climate fluctuations on Earth for several million years. People have effected an atmosphere of the Earth just for nearly one hundred years, since Industrial Revolution has begun (Revkin 340). Of course, it is unfair to say that global warming is caused entirely by humans. For example, people can not have an impact on the position of Earth in relation to the sun, or on the galactic density, or such nature events as air emissions of volcanic gases. As a result of these environmental factors, Earth usually had higher rates of temperature fluctuations during the previous million years than it has in later centuries. On the other hand, people are responsible for the highest concentration of greenhouse gases during the last 650,000 years in the atmosphere due to industrial manufacturing, driven by the increase in consumer consumption (Lindsey, par.
"global warming, climate change, earth and environment news from Scientific American." global warming, climate change, earth and environment news from Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
Global temperatures have noticeably been rising since the mid 1800’s.The average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 according to (John Sweeney, 2003)with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. The legitimacy of global warming had long been debated, however in a report by (IPCC, 2007) it states that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level. Simulations on models such as EC-Earth provide us with predictions for future climate change. Depending on levels of emissions an increase of 1 to 5.5 degrees celsius is expected in average global temperatures by 2100.
Climate change will ruin the world as people know it and if people do not do something now, everyone will die. At least, this is David Wallace-Wells assertion in his article The Uninhabitable Earth in New York magazine. Wallace-Wells establishes the issue of climate change in a new way where if people do not start taking scientists’ warnings about it seriously, then all living things will die. Wallace-Wells’ robust and frightening images of the the effects of climate change, appeals to his audience’s sense of fear and worry about the planet, and utilization of staggering statistics about climate change all assist in his idea that the rising temperatures will cause dramatic and devastating consequences to life on earth.
Global warming has become on of the most controversial issues in the media today. While most of the Western world countries have generally accepted the premise that man's chemical emissions in the atmosphere can and are affected by the world’s climate patterns, in the United States, the issue has become so politicized with many republicans challenging the science behind the theory. Global warming is a greenhouse effect whereby gases are trapped on the earth’s surface causing it to heat up (Maslin 14). It is based on the worldwide temperature records that have been maintained by human beings through their activities since the 1880,s. In addition, global warming is not only caused by human activities only but also through climate changes in solar radiance. The problem is that, humans continue to contribute to the global warming phenomenon. All citizens should work in reducing human activities that cause global warming and also support the development of nuclear power. Scientists deem that, global warming is mainly caused by human activities which accelerate the natural process by creating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Human activities have become a great contribution to the greenhouse effect and this means that climate changes are inevitable. They further argue that, if these activities continue and are not reduced, it will lead to more trapping of energy radiated from the earth and this will likely lead to extreme weather and global warming. Global warming should be at reduced levels or else, it will be catastrophic.
They believe that humans have caused most of the past century’s warming by releasing greenhouse gases; their levels are higher now than in the last six hundred fifty thousand years. Greenhouse gases happen when sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiated back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, “greenhouse” gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escapes into space. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change. CO2 is absorbed and emitted naturally as part of the carbon cycle, through plant and animal respiration, volcanic eruptions, and ocean-atmosphere exchange. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, release large amounts of CO2, causing concentrations in the atmosphere to rise. The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is presenting two major problems: extreme weather and melting of ice sheets. In addition, our sea levels could potentially rise too high, possibly flooding
The Web. 04 Feb. 2014 -. The Effects of Global Warming. National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web.
“Climate change: How do we know?” NASA. NASA n. d. n. pag. Web. 28 November
There is no longer any question that our world climate has changed (King, 2004). Over the last 100 years, "temperatures have risen by about 0.6 degrees Celsius and global sea level has risen by about 20cm" (K...
The subject of global warming is as popular as the president. These both topics have always been hot subjects in everyday life. Global warming is the biggest storm headed in our way. It is also the most important issue of our times. Those ads or public service announcement on TV about global warming might not be the most attractive but the cause behind it is very important. Global warming is one of the major threats our planet is facing. Most scientists prove the fact that global warming is mainly caused by human activities rather than natural cycles. To simplify it, most mechanisms that we use are affecting earth. These mechanisms are created by humans. Therefore, humans are affecting earth.
Solomon, S. (Ed.). (2007). Climate change 2007-the physical science basis: Working group I contribution to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC (Vol. 4, pg 501). Cambridge University Press.
In conclusion, many facts point to global warming being detrimental to our world. With scientific predictions, rising temperatures, human causes, drastic climate changes and animal adaptations being some of the more thought about topics it`s hard not to agree that our world can not continue to be used as it is. Even with some scientists arguing against the topic, our Earth`s orbit changing the temperatures before and have been through hotter and cooler time periods the pros still outweigh the cons. This is why we, as a global population, need to take into consideration the outcome of our planet should we continue to abuse it the way we do. Our earth and resources are not a right but a privilege and we should learn to treat them as such before we no longer have either.
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...