1. Compare and contrast natural versus anthropogenic climate changes. Include at least two (2) specific examples of each.
Anthropogenic is the type of climate change that is as a result of human activities, these activities include the burning of fossil fuels, cutting of trees. These types of destruction are referred to as anthropogenic climate change. While natural climate change is the one that occurs as a result of natural phenomena’s like volcanic eruptions, changes in the earth orbit, tornados, earthquakes among several others (Richardson, 2017). These two types of climate changes have some similarities, they both cause energy imbalance on the earth, the end result of both of them is climate change. Finally they both have side effects this affects include health issues and natural disasters. Climate change has become a pandemic in recent years; this is because the climate change has a drastic effect not only on the environment but also on human health (Richardson, 2017). The scientists have come to the conclusion that anthropogenic activities are the leading cause of climate change however natural causes also lead to climate change but not as much as the anthropogenic activities.
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2. Take a position as to whether or not global warming is taking place. Provide three (3) lines of evidence to support your position.
Without any doubt, global warming is taking place. The main reason why there are skeptics who do not believe that global warming is taking place is that the scientists have some uncertainty that undermines the findings. It is important to clarify the type of uncertainty that the scientists face and what they are certain about. The scientists strongly believe that global warming does exist and it has an impact on the environment, what the scientist are not certain about is the timing, they are not sure when the global warming will be a very server and drastically affect all life on the planet (Karl, 2015). A good example is the sea levels the scientist know for a fact that it will rise since it has already started rising, the scientists have projections under certain conditions, but they are not certain. The rise of the sea levels largely depends on future greenhouse emissions which is currently unknown. If the emissions continue at the current rate, the seas levels will rise so high that some beach houses will be completely submerged but if the emission is controlled, then there will be a lower projection.
The same will apply to warming and determine the amount of land-based ice and glaciers will melt. The reason as to why I believe that global warming is not a myth is because all these things are already happening. The south pole and the north pole is not the same as it used to be some 20 years ago, the ice is slowly melting away, the problem is that it is hard to estimate the future rates since no one knows about the future emissions (Richardson, 2017). What the scientist can do is to calculate the narrow range of outcomes given a specific scenario. The information given by the scientist is very critical because it enables people and governments to make smart collective choices when planning for the future. Uncertainty or doubt by the disbelievers of global warming is not a reason not to delay acting on climate change, everybody should ensure they do their part in preserving the environment. It is vital for everybody to have the mentality of car insurance, every driver’s hopes that their car won’t be involved in an accident but they still purchase car insurance anyway. Reducing the risk of climate change and adaptation is the same thing as insurance against the effects of climate change, being prepared for the effects of climate change is the mist move a country or an individual can make.
3. Assess two (2) current mitigation strategies for global warming’s, such as carbon sequestration, carbon taxing, clean coal technology, higher fuel efficiency standards, and so on. Analyze the effectiveness of this mitigation strategy, as well as its potential costs and policy implications.
Clean coal technology is one of the strategies put forth by the United Nations environmental development agencies. This is a collection of technologies put together to try and lessen the effects of coal energy on the environment as well as mitigating worldwide climate change. Coal is usually used as a fuel source, the problem with coal is that produces some gaseous emissions, these emissions are as a result of decomposition of coal they include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and other hazardous chemical byproducts, they usually vary depending on the type of coal used. The emission from the coals has been established that they have a negative effect on humans and the environment they even cause acid rains, lung cancer among other lung related diseases. As a result of this, the coal technologies have been established to reduce the effects of these emissions on the environment and the atmosphere (Richardson, 2017). There are several strategies that have been put in place this includes washing the coal with chemicals that will help reduce impurities from the product. Gasification is another method of purifying the coals this method majorly deals with treating the gases. Another method is by capturing and storing the carbon emitted.
The clean coal technology usually addresses the problems in the atmosphere as a result of burning coal. Before the global warming became an issue the primary focus was SO2 and Nitrogen this are the main gases responsible for acid rain, they are also the gases responsible for the deleterious effects on human health (Karl, 2015). This coal technology comes with challenges; there are some debates that exist arguing out the economic viability of these technologies and extra cost involved in depositing the removed chemical and carbon matters from the coal.
The carbon tax is another strategy used by many governments to deal with carbon emotions, a carbon tax is basically a tax levied on the carbon content of certain fuels, and this is a form of discouraging people from purchasing certain fuels. Carbon is present in a variety of fuels, but mostly in the hydrocarbon fuel, this includes coal, petroleum and natural gases, these fuels when combusted they produce carbon dioxide (In Manfredo, 2014). The carbon taxes offer a cost-effective method of dealing with carbon emotions, from an economic point of view carbon taxing offers the government with additional revenue.
4. Speculate on the policy changes that you would propose to help stabilize global climate and determine the business sectors or nations that would be held to more strict standards if you were to implement your proposed policies.
The policy that I would propose to be implemented in terms of climate change would be the renewable energy policy. The world that we live in today is slowly becoming a village, this is because of the ever increase in energy by all population of the world, and on the other hand, the world is not changing. The need for energy to satisfy human wants is increasing at a very first rate. If all the nations of the world turn back to the renewable energy, they will have helped in mitigating climate change. With renewable energy like solar and wind there will be less emission to the atmosphere and hence reduce global warming and the greenhouse gases. The industries that will be affected by this policy will be the power plants that rely on diesel or nuclear energy. (Ussiri, 2017)
References
In Richardson, D., In Castree, N., In Goodchild, M. F., In Kobayashi, A. L., In Liu, W., & In Marston, R. A. (2017). The international encyclopedia of geography: People, the earth, environment, and technology . Chichester, West Sussex: Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Karl, T. R., Arguez, A., Huang, B., Lawrimore, J. H., McMahon, J. R., Menne, M. J., ... & Zhang, H. M. (2015). Possible artifacts of data biases in the recent global surface warming hiatus. Science , aaa5632.
Ussiri, D. A. N., & Lal, R. (2017). Carbon sequestration to climate change mitigation and adaptation . Cham: Springer.
In Manfredo, M. J. (2014). Understanding society and natural resources: Forging new strands of integration across the social sciences . Dordrecht: Springer
