Global warming has been an issue of concern that has been debated across the globe in an effort to mitigate its detrimental implications on the earth’s life, as well as, on human life. On the one hand, certain people have presented evidence-based arguments in support of the occurrence of global warming. Individuals favoring the idea that global warming occurs reveal evidence of both natural causes and anthropogenic climatic change that are attributed to global warming. However, certain people are of the opinion that global warming does not occur, thus do not recognize natural cause or anthropogenic climatic change as contributing factors towards global warming. Nevertheless, there are mitigation plans for global warming since it does occur and there is evidence of its occurrence. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to compare and contrast natural and anthropogenic climatic change, evidence of the occurrence of global warming, as well as mitigation plans and policies for global warming.
Global warming refers to an incidence in which the average temperature of the earth increases gradually over a period of time, and is in fact happening (Trenberth, Dai, Van Der Schrier, Jones, Barichivich, Briffa, & Sheffield, 2014). Various factors or elements point out to the occurrence of global, hence evidence in support of the position taken by the writer that global warming is happening. Among the evidence showing the occurrence of the phenomenon is the drought being experienced in many parts of the world including the U.S.
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Over 12.2 percent of the United States is currently experiencing drought and drought-like conditions, with 0.34 percent of the country now in a D-3, also “extreme drought,” impacting over 89 million people (Trenberth, Dai, Van Der Schrier, Jones, Barichivich, Briffa, & Sheffield, 2014). Another factor that shows that global warming is indeed occurring is the temperature change experienced in many parts of the world. In the U.S, the year 2016 was the hottest the country has ever been, with the earth’s average temperatures reaching 1.69°F, which is above the 20th-century average. In addition to that, the changes in the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent show evidence of the occurrence of Global warming. The Arctic sea ice extent in January 2017 was 13.4 million sq km, which was 1.3 million sq km less than the 1981-2010 January mean (Trenberth, Dai, Van Der Schrier, Jones, Barichivich, Briffa, & Sheffield, 2014). The Antarctic sea extent was 4.0 million sq km, which was 0.6 million sq km less than the 1981-2010 January mean.
Global warming causes climate change that has adverse effects on both the earth and its inhabitants owing to natural causes, as well as, anthropogenic climate change (Venkataramanan, 2011). While natural causes of global warming are attributed to the dynamics of nature and are not influenced by human activity, anthropogenic climatic changes are caused by human activity that results in climatic change, hence global warming. One the one hand, the natural causes of global warming include naturally occurring greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) and solar activity (Venkataramanan, 2011). Naturally occurring greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide cause global warming by trapping some of the sun’s heat in a bid to prevent the earth from freezing (Venkataramanan, 2011). However, in the event natural occurring greenhouse gases are in excess they cause the trapping of too much of the sun’s heat, which gradually increases in the form of global warming.
Solar activity is also responsible for global warming and is among the major leading natural causes of the same. Solar activity causes global by increasing the number of heat waves that reach the earth’s surface. Similarly, solar activity causes a rise in temperature, which causes an increase in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which also contributes to global warming. This is because water vapor is also another naturally occurring phenomenon that contributes to the greenhouse effect, which is attributed to global warming (Venkataramanan, 2011). On the other hand, anthropogenic, also human-caused climatic changes have been known to contribute to global warming in different ways. For instance, the cutting down of trees is an anthropogenic cause of climatic change, thus global warming.
The cutting down of trees has contributed to global warming over the years because the act prevents the taking up of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is said to the number one gas recognized with global warming due to its larger concentration in the atmosphere than any other gas. Therefore, by cutting down trees, there is the elimination of a system to get rid of the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. Another anthropogenic cause of global warming resulting from climatic change is the emission of gases into the atmosphere that contributes to global warming (Sinclaire & Weiss, 2010). Human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil have increased the greenhouse effect, which in turn causes global warming. Agriculture is also another anthropogenic cause of global warming since methane is a by-product of animals reared for agricultural purposes (Sinclaire & Weiss, 2010). Methane can trap heat 20 times more than carbon dioxide, which gradually causes temperature increase and climatic change attributed to global warming.
Current mitigation plans for global warming include the limiting of carbon emission by both new and existing plants. Another current mitigation in a bid to address the issue of global warming is reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by 17% by the year 2020(Nordhaus, 2014). Similarly, policies that can be adopted in a bid to prevent and mitigate the current implications of global warming include banning the cutting down of trees and forests as well as imposing fines people fond cutting trees and engaging in excess or unauthorized carbon emission.
References
Nordhaus, W. D. (2014). A question of balance: Weighing the options on global warming policies . Yale University Press.
Sinclaire, T. R., & Weiss, A. (2010). Anthropogenic global warming. Principles of ecology in plant production , (Ed. 2), 111-124.
Trenberth, K. E., Dai, A., Van Der Schrier, G., Jones, P. D., Barichivich, J., Briffa, K. R., & Sheffield, J. (2014). Global warming and changes in drought. Nature Climate Change , 4 (1), 17.
Venkataramanan, M. (2011). "Causes and effects of global warming." Indian Journal of Science and Technology 4.3, 226-229.
