As many skeptics of global warming argue, the world’s climate does in fact change, has been changing since the beginning of time. However, as scientific research has improved, we can see that there has been a dramatic increase of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main and most abundant GHG that is believed to cause global warming, in our atmosphere today than has been recorded in over 1000 years. What evidence is evidence that humans are a significant cause of the recent changes in climate? Simply put, the primary factor of human impact on global climate change is the recent increase of fossil fuel burning, which use has been relatively increasing since the industrial revolution. Additionally, other greenhouse gases (GHG) are produced by human activity, such as agriculture, which is the source of nitrous oxide (N2O), and more specifically, rice cultivation, which produced methane (CH4). According to “Dire Predictions” Mann and Kump state that “these human sources have increased the flow of N20 into the atmosphere by 40-50% over pre-industrial levels” further proving that humans have an impact on Earth’s climate (27). They also state that decomposing refrigerators and stoves that were banned because gases produced during its use were causing ozone layer depletion are still leaking these dangerous gases, which continues to contribute to the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. These gases, known as CFCs, are very strong GHGs, and contribute to climate change. The increase in GHGs are correlated to the rise in global and oceanic average surface temperature, which have been progressively increasing since the industrial revolution. Moreover, the changes in oceanic temperatures, and phenomenons such as El Niño, and La Niña, have had a great affect on our climate. Mexico has been suffering from severe drought due to the El Niño affect. The rise in oceanic temperatures caused by GHG affects, have caused and increase in amount and in intensity of tropical storms, hurricanes, and cyclones. Evidence of this is the 2005 disastrous hurricane season, which three category 5 hurricanes hitting the U.S, and the tropical storm that has recently devastated the Philippines, killing at least 86 people, and leaving almost 80% of the country flooded. There has also been a major dust storm in Australia, that usually occur inland but has effected the coastal city of Sydney. With the drastic increase of these natural disasters, I do not understand how people continue to be skeptical about global warming. What is it going to take for policy makers to feel enough urgency to act more efficiently and effective about changes we as a country, as well as a global community need to make to help prevent even more disastrous events from occurring?
Tags: and tropical storms, climate change, cyclones, Drought, floods, human-induced, hurricanes, increase in natural disaters, student-citizens
