Global warming and its impacts on different environments around the world are undeniable and is an issue that the scientific world is all in agreement on. The role of human activities in this rise in temperatures is however still being debated by the science world and also the political world. Man’s activities such as industrialization have been on the rise in the last century and have coincided with the change in climate leading many scholars to conclude that these activities have played a significant role in this climate change. There have been major catastrophic climatic events such as droughts, hurricanes, floods and other disruptions of weather patterns that have been blamed on global warming and therefore scientists need to understand the causes of this global warming and find ways of either stopping or managing it or at the very worst prepare people on how to deal with its effects. This paper will focus on proving that human activities have played a crucial role in accelerating the rate of global warming and they hold the key to controlling this climate change.
The rate at which the earth’s temperature is rising has nearly doubled from what it was about half a century ago and scientists have argued that this sharp rise cannot be due to natural climate cycles alone and the significant rise in emissions by humans must be responsible. NASA reported that the 16 hottest years ever recorded all occurred since the year 2000 except one which caused some controversy as some climate change deniers arguing that the rate of increase has actually slowed down. Several studies have been done since then disproving this claim and actually shown that the rate is still accelerating (Casper, 2010). The fact that global warming will require the involvement of political leaders to solve makes it an even more controversial topic since businesses and other people with vested interests will also join the debate and use their influence to either support or derail the discussion.
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The United Nations brought together a group of scientists to form the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to review and report the latest scientific findings on global warming. The panel found out that emissions of greenhouse gases during fuel combustion were responsible for the rise in temperatures (Casper, 2010). These gases were mostly produced during the burning of fossil fuels to run transportation systems, industries and power generation activities. These gases may stay in the atmosphere for decades or centuries and trap heat leading to a rise in temperatures and is referred to as the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide has been largely responsible for global warming although other gases such as methane also play a role (Haldar, 2018). In the US, electricity production through combustion of fossil fuels produces 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year making it the largest source of these gases. The transport sector generates around 1.7 billion tons coming in second showing how human activities contribute a lot to the increasing presence of green-house gases in the atmosphere (Union of Concerned Scientists, n.d). This is further aggravated by the human-led destruction of forests which act as carbon sinks.
The effects of global warming on the world make it an issue that requires urgent attention by all people and governments. In 2015, California recorded its worst water shortage in 1200 years due to drought with global warming said to have intensified the drought by 15-20%. The probability of occurrence of such droughts or worse in the future was also said to have doubled due to global warming (Union of Concerned Scientists, n.d). With the world’s oceans also experiencing a rise in temperatures, tropical storms are able to gain more energy leading to more powerful storms such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 which were the costliest and second-costliest hurricanes in US history respectively. Other effects around the world such as more severe heat waves, the destruction of coral reefs due to rise in sea levels, rapid melting of glaciers and other numerous effects of global warming have significant negative effects on human activities and wellbeing (Haldar, 2018).
All these findings have been enabled through scientific research by scholars around the world who use various scientifically accepted methods to study the causes and effects of human activities on global warming. The IPCC investigates whether proper scientific methods were employed and once the proper criteria have been satisfied the studies may be accepted as correct. This case example shows how scientific studies with the help of the scientific research method can be used to investigate problems facing man and come up with solutions for them. In this case, it is clear that man’s activities have greatly contributed to global warming through increased emission of green-house gases leading to devastating climatic changes. A solution to stopping or controlling these emissions has to be developed and executed to avoid impending catastrophes blamed on climate change.
References
Casper J. K. (2010). Changing Ecosystems: Effects of Global Warming . Infobase Publishing,
Haldar I. (2018). Global Warming: The Causes and Consequences. Readworthy,
Union of Concerned Scientists. Global Warming: Global Warming Impacts. Retrieved from https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-impacts#.WzIriMRRXIU
