Composition
This paper is a causal analysis essay. This is the Thesis that I started with, Thesis: The role of human activity, The Greenhouse Effect, and Global Warming are the factors that contribute to Climate Change. If you have a better idea that would work please go with it.
ANSWER
Climate Change
Everything that is wrong with the planet today is a product of human activities. The planet would be a better place if humans lived like animals or did not exist. Humans are taking more from the earth and giving lesser and lesser. Human activities have highly influenced climate change. The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and farming livestock are among the leading human activities leading to the climate changes that have been experienced over the years (Trenberth, 2018). Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in 1750, human beings have played a role in climate change adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and producing heat that led to other gases being trapped. The greenhouse effect has led to the retention of heat, thus making the earth warmer than usual. Human activities are therefore the catalysts of climate change as a result of an increase in greenhouse gases.
The temperature on earth depends on the balance of energy entering and leaving the system. The earth absorbs the coming energy from the sun, and it warms, and once the energy is reflected back, the earth avoids warming. The then absorbed heat is released back into space, and the earth cools (Blaum et al., 2017). This process can, however, be altered by natural and human activities. These activities cause variations in the energy balance on earth. Some of the changes include; variation in the solar energy reaching the earth, changes in the greenhouse effect which affects the amount of heat retention on the earth’s atmosphere, changes in the reflection of heat on the atmosphere and the surface. These changes, therefore, lead to climatic changes. Before the industrial revolution, these changes occurred naturally over the years, depending on a wide range of time scales.
Before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide levels changed with the glacial cycles. Warm interglacial cycles caused high carbon dioxide levels, and cool glacial cycles caused lower carbon dioxide levels. The heating and cooling of the earth and the oceans naturally caused changes, and there were changes in the greenhouse gas concentrations. The changing concentrations usually acted as positive feedback and thus amplified the temperature changes caused by the shifts in the earth’s orbit. After the industrial revolution, there were increased greenhouse gas emissions, and thus the greenhouse effect increased. The main human activity that has led to greenhouse emissions is the burning of fossil fuels.
The primary greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and many more. Human activities produce these gases in different ways. Carbon dioxide is the primary contributor to climate change in recent years. In the past volcanic eruptions were the main contributors to the release of carbon dioxide (Blaum et al., 2017). It is, however, clear that human activities have increased the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The human activities that have led to the increase in carbon dioxide include the burning of fossil fuels and the changes in land use. Methane and nitrous oxide are also produced through human activity and natural causes. The production of these gases has a negative impact on the planet and, thus the climate change.
Climate change is also affected by particles and aerosols in the atmosphere. Human activities increase emissions through burning biomass (Trenberth, 2018). However, aerosols are produced by human activity and can appear naturally from natural sources such as volcanoes and marine plankton. Black carbon is an example of an aerosol that is produced. It is not a gas, but it contributes to the warming of the atmosphere. Black carbon dies not to function like greenhouse gases. It directly absorbs the incoming and reflected sunlight. Black Carbon, when deposited on snow, darkens the surface and accelerates the melting. The interaction of clouds with warming and cooling aerosols changes the formation of clouds and their attributes. Clouds can contribute to both cooling and warming by reflecting the sunlight and trapping the outgoing light.
There are natural causes of climate change, such as the changes in the sun’s energy. Changes that occur in the sun also can affect the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the earth. The sun’s intensity can either cause warming or cooling (Trenberth, 2018). The changes in the intensity of the sun can affect the climate, but the effects on the earth’s climate are not significant. It is also possible for the climate to be affected by a change in the shape of the earth’s orbit as it can affect the amount of sunlight reaching the earth.
In conclusion, climate change is impacted by both natural and human activities, but human activities are the biggest contributors. It is evident that human activities since the industrial revolution have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and negatively impacted the climate. The burning of fossil fuels, the new methods of agriculture, the use of biomass, livestock keeping, and deforestation are the main contributors to the climatic changes that are occurring in recent years. It is, therefore, the duty of human beings to find ways in which they will control the emission of greenhouse gases because the gases are doing more harm to the environment and thus posing a risk to human beings and animals. The earth is at risk of extinction as a result of climatic changes and global warming.
References
Blaum, D., Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Britt, M. A. (2017). Thinking about global warming: Effect of policy-related documents and prompts on learning about causes of climate change. Discourse Processes, 54(4), 303-316.
Trenberth, K. E. (2018). Climate change caused by human activities is happening, and it already has major consequences. Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, 36(4), 463-481.
