Running head: THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT 1
The Greenhouse Effect
Climate change refers to the changes in the global climate that are significant and long term. Global warming is the most significant change in the global weather. It refers to the increase in the earth’s average temperature often caused by atmospheric gases being trapped within the earth and not radiated into space. The earth is designed like a greenhouse, meant to capture and retain the right amount of sun’s heat for survival. However, in the recent past, this has not been the case, and it has instead retained more heat than needed, leading to a change in the normal climate of the earth.
Climate change and global warming is real. According to a research by NASA (Shaftel, 2019), there are lots of occurrences to support climate change. For example, shrinking of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctic. According to NASA, between 1993 and 2016, an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year has been lost by Greenland. This is as a result of the rise in the global temperatures which has led to the melting of the ice. Another evidence for climate change and global warming is retreat of glaciers. The Himalayas, Alps, and Andes are examples of glaciers that are retreating.
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Humans are the leading cause of climate change. A lot of activities carried out by humans have an effect on the climate. Global warming, for example is due to increased atmospheric temperatures. Some of the human activities have led to emissions that have depleted the ozone layer (Hausfather, 2019). As a result, the heat from the sun directly hits the atmosphere and is trapped as well within the earth. With this, the climate is ultimately altered. Some of these activities include emission of harmful gases from cars and industries, burning coal, and even use of aerosols. Some have argued that there could be other causes of climate change, but I maintain that a lot of these happenings are human related.
The major cause of global warming that leads to climate change is buildup of CO 2 levels in the atmosphere. Human activities are known to be the leading cause of emission and buildup of this gas (How Do We Know, 2017). These activities include extraction and burning of coal, as well as emission of gases from industries and vehicles. Deforestation has also led to the buildup of CO 2 levels because there are no trees to convert it back to Oxygen. Burning of fossil fuels by humans also is a major contributor to climate change. Not all climate change is caused by humans. Natural causes of climate change include aerosols from volcanic explosions, heat from the sun, and tiny organisms in the ocean surface that take up carbon dioxide (The Royal Society, 2014). All these processes occur naturally and have no human influence, yet they alter the earth’s climate.
Climate change has a number of detrimental effects. Climate change has led to the extinction of species. This is mainly because the process is hpenning so fast that some species are unable to adapt. Climate change has also led to melting of glaciers and rising of ocean levels, often leading to floods and deaths in the process. Since humans are the leading cause of climate change, they need to take the forefront in the bid to reduce climate change. Some of the ways include planting more trees and slowing down on the clearing of forests (Denchak, 2019). This way there are more trees to clean the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Industrial gases can be purifies before being released into the environment. Humans can also resort to clean energy sources to avoid use of the fuels that pollute the environment. In genereal, humans have to be careful of the activities they engage in so as to reduce levels of carbondioxide in the environment.
References
Denchak, M. (2019, August 22). How You Can Stop Global Warming. Retrieved December 18, 2019, from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming .
Hausfather, Z. (2019, March 6). Analysis: Why scientists think 100% of global warming is due to humans. Retrieved December 18, 2019, from https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans .
How Do We Know that Humans Are the Major Cause of Global Warming? (2017, August 1). Retrieved December 18, 2019, from https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/are-humans-major-cause-global-warming .
The Royal Society. (2014). Climate Change: Evidence and Causes.
Shaftel, H. (Ed.). (2019, September 30). Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know? Retrieved December 18, 2019, from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ .
