Climate change is one of the top serious problems that the 21 st century is facing and a subject that is deeply contested by many ( Donner & McDaniels, 2013) . Although many people have heard about climate change, others have formed opinions concerning this global issue. It is important to note that climate change is related to public policy, and therefore, controversies about it are inevitable. This means that everyone cares about climate change, as reflected in the study done by Donner and McDaniels (2013) . Some people do not believe that climate is changing because of the potential solutions they are witnessing, which they perceive to be objectionable. This is an understandable conceptualization because climate change is a global issue that calls for policy actions, according to Schwartz (2018). From an environmentalist point of view, these people argue climate is not changing because they are concerned with values and policy. On the contrary, I believe that climate is changing and it has more to do with science. Scientists have been at the forefront of studying climate and how rapidly it is changing by reevaluating the climate of the past. For example, scientists analyze changes that have taken place, such as the earth’s temperature over the decades. By doing so, Yang et al. (2015) argue that they have unearthed and gained an in-depth understanding of global climate change, and therefore, they can determine its environmental consequences. Different ways that have been explored to study climate change include, but are not limited to, the use of satellite, and historical, instrumental, and environmental records. However, the uses of instrumental data and satellites have been limited in scope due to their lifespan which is rather short compared to the age of the earth. Therefore, studying climate processes that occurred in the past is certainly difficult. Natural environmental records have remained effective tools that scientists have used to look for clues, as asserted by Walther, Kingsford, and McCulloch (2013). The clues about the past climate are locked away in coral reefs, preserved in rings of trees, frozen in glaciers and ice caps, or buried in sediments at the bottom of seas and oceans. All these natural recorders give more details about precipitation, temperature, and so on, thus giving the overall presentation of the global climate. Many scientists have come forth and challenged that the surface of the earth has stable temperatures, and it is relatively mild, unlike other planets in the solar systems that are bitterly cold or extremely hot. The reason is that the earth has an atmosphere consisting of thin layers of gases that protect it. Presently, many scientists believe that man’s activities have lent a lot to climate change, especially through the destruction of the ozone layer over the last centuries. To understand this better, it is essential first to become familiar with the greenhouse effect. In a nutshell, the greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the surface of the earth. Of equal importance, Latake, Pawar, and Ranveer (2015) agree that the surface of the earth is bombarded with incoming and outgoing radiation, which in return, warms it, and thus greenhouse effect since a greenhouse works in the same manner, as noted by Schwartz (2018). Global warming, as delineated by scientists, is associated with the human expansion of the greenhouse effect. Certain gases block trapped heat from escaping the surface of the earth into outer space. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, water vapor chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and methane are well-known greenhouse gases that have contributed significantly to climate change (Latake, Pawar, & Ranveer, 2015). For example, carbon dioxide acts like a “blanket” that prevents absorbed heat from escaping. The net effect of high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is global warming. This is a surefire that carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that underpins global climate change, as reminded by Latake, Pawar and Ranveer (2015), and it keeps increasing every month. This is an indication that changes in the concentration of the greenhouse gases mentioned above increase the risk of climate change. Today, scientists are using climate change to describe multifaceted shifts that are driven by the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and which are said to affect climate and weather systems. Presently, people are complaining about increased temperatures (global warming), rising sea levels interlaced with tsunamis, air pollution, food supply disruption, disease outbreak, global migration of wildlife, and other impacts (Latake, Pawar, & Ranveer, 2015). This is why Schwartz (2018) mentioned that organizations and governments are working hand-in-hand to trace the latest climate science by measuring the concentration of greenhouse gases so that sound solutions can be implemented.
References
Donner, S. D., & McDaniels, J. (2013). The influence of national temperature fluctuations on opinions about climate change in the US since 1990. Climatic change , 118 (3-4), 537-550.
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Latake, P. T., Pawar, P., & Ranveer, A. C. (2015). The greenhouse effect and its impacts on environment. International Journal of Innovative Research and Creative Technology , 1 (3), 333-337.
Schwartz, S. E. (2018). The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change.
Walther, B. D., Kingsford, M. J., & McCulloch, M. T. (2013). Environmental records from Great Barrier Reef corals: inshore versus offshore drivers. PloS one , 8 (10), e77091.
Yang, W., John, V. O., Zhao, X., Lu, H., & Knapp, K. R. (2016). Satellite climate data records: development, applications, and societal benefits. Remote Sensing , 8 (4), 331.
