Is Earth Warming? Climate Change, Lines of Evidence is a short video produced by the National Academy of Sciences to help summarize what is known about climate change. Climate is measured by statistics such as the frequency of drought and average temperatures and rainfall. Climate change is attributed to human activity and especially the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to global warming. Emissions of the burning of fossil fuels should lead to an increase of earth’s surface temperature. The information comes from various research conducted and is a compilation of accumulated information on issues pertaining to climate change (National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2012). Climate science is a process of collective learning that has helped in understanding past and present change. Over time, scientific knowledge is said to build and confidence in people’s understanding grows by using observations and models.
Global warming: The Signs and the Science documentary is all about people living in America and how the grave consequence of climatic change affects the life of individuals and communities. The documentary also shows how scientists are inventing new approaches to help in safeguarding the future of young generations from the negative effects of changing climate. It shows how human activities continue to drive and accelerate the effects of global warming such as the spread of tropical diseases in the north. The video is 56 minutes long and shows evidence of how global warming has created great shifts in the seasons as is experienced in the Arctic. Others include the melting in the world’s mid latitude such as glaciers of Africa’s Kilimanjaro where the ice is melting (Global Truth, 2017). Research indicates that a large scale climate change of every kind is visible. Solar radiations are also observed and people are no longer using current sunlight but ancient sunlight, which encompasses the sunlight that was trapped by plants.
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Today, CO 2 concentrations are said to have increased to 379 and in the lifetime to come, they are bound to reach 500. All the activities of humans’ needs energy yet coal is a great contributor to global warming but is still in use by large corporation. The other cause of global of warming is the global population increase, which has resulted in lack of sufficient foods due to increased droughts (Global Truth, 2017). This has been caused by the prolonged heat waves that have triggered tragedies as a result of spikes in temperature resulting from the very little green space available on the face of the earth.
People are seen as a very intricate part of the environment and thus, they are part of the cycle and what one does to the environment harms him or her. Excessive CO 2 is present in the soil due to human activities like fertilizing the micro-organisms that trigger allergies in people. Aspects of global warming have resulted in climate changes, lowered precipitation levels and drought is experienced in most of the world. This even resulted in the occurrence of the West Nile virus that saw many people, birds, and animals die.
Investigations conducted have shown that the world’s entire food supply is vulnerable to climate change. This results in drought convergence of climate change and population increase because the earth lacks good arable land for farming practices to boost the supply of food in the globe. Evidence also shows that the effects of global warming are diverse and is seen in the eroding of coast lines and human life is under threat among others.
Global Climate is the topic under discussion in chapter 12 and is defined as the climate that extends over the entire Earth. The first part looks at those factors regulating global climate, which include: ocean currents, altitude, land and water distribution, mountain barriers, sunshine’s intensity and its variation with latitude, prevailing winds, and positions of both high and low pressure areas (Ahrens & Henson, 2018, p. 352). Later, we discuss how climates are classified by looking at the e Köppen classification system based on the annual and monthly average precipitation and temperatures. Under this system we have the dry climates, tropical moist climates, moist mid-latitude climates with mild winters, polar climates, and moist mid-latitude climates with severe winters. Each of these climatic groups contains subgroups describing special regional characteristics like seasonal changes in precipitation and temperature. Another system is the Thornthwaite system that encompasses the rainforest, grassland, forest, desert, and steppe. The last part examines the different types of climate
Chapter 13 is all about Earth’s Changing Climate that looks at exploring both natural processes and human factors resulting in climate change. Today, one of the great environmental concerns relates to greenhouse gases that have resulted in climate change. Evidence of climate change comes from geological evidence like glaciers, core sample taken from ocean floor sediments and ice from Antarctica and Greenland (Ahrens & Henson, 2018). Additional information is also provided by vertical ice cores that come from ice sheets in past pattern temperatures of Greenland and Antarctica. External changes in climate are as a result of changes in incoming solar radiations, changes in the Earth’s surface, and changes in the atmosphere’s composition. The natural change in climate is caused by shifting continents along with mountain building and volcanic activities.
The anthropogenic (human) activities causing climate change include the injection of aerosols into the lower atmosphere by emissions from autos, factories, aircraft, trucks, home furnaces and fireplaces, and power plants. The aerosols reflect incoming sunlight and this tends to lower the Earth’s atmospheric surface temperature during the day. Clouds are also modified by the aerosols to increase reflectivity. Greenhouse gases have also resulted in the absorption of infrared radiation that plays a major role in the warming of lower atmospheric surfaces (Ahrens & Henson, 2018). By having more CO 2 in the atmosphere, the surface air becomes warmer due to activities like the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. Deforestation has also added to the increase effects of climate change. Land use has also changed resulting in over cultivation, poor irrigation practices, and deforestation. Efforts that can be implemented to curb climate change include geoengineering and employing diplomatic efforts.
Evidence show that record-breaking temperatures, raise in sea levels, humidity and other indicators continue to show how fast the Earth is warming. All the heat-trapping emissions released into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels continue to change the climate. The question that is paramount is what cropping system can be used to alleviate some of the greenhouses emissions in America? Farming systems that need to be employed need to look at reducing greenhouse emissions like the use of natural animal waste as forms of fertilizers. Climate change controllers have contributed to global warming activities on the Earth’s surface.
Tests confirm that nitrogen in the atmosphere is coming from people due to activities like the burning of fossil fuels and fertilization of fields. Such activities need to be reduced because they also contribute to the eroding of the ozone layer, which results in the increase of global warming activities. It is high time that we resort to reducing negative impacts on the environment by engaging in clean-up activities of how we live in the ecosystem. For example, the young generation needs to learn about sustainable activities that will reduce impacts of global warming. Companies and individuals need to also embrace the use of geothermal energy as a way of eliminating the negative impacts brought by human activities.
In the atmosphere, gases present include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, and oxygen. The greenhouse gases comprising of carbon dioxide and methane act like a form of blanket covering the Earth, which trap warm coming from the sun and this makes life of Earth possible for all animal and plant species. Absence of such gases means that too much heat would escape and this would lead to having lower temperatures on Earth. Too much greenhouse gases is also a concern because it will mean that climate change will be experienced such as increase in temperature, extreme climate events like cyclones, storms, droughts, and floods.
References
Ahrens, D. C., & Henson, R. (2018). Essential of meteorology: An invitation to the atmosphere (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Global Truth. (2017, April 1). Global warming: The signs and science [Video file]. https://canvas.colorado.edu/courses/20651/discussion_topics/143394
National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2012, June 2). What is climate? Climate change, lines of evidence: Chapter 1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/qEPVyrSWfQE
