Causes and Consequences
Ever since the formation of the earth, the climate has always changed or has been unstable. About 10,000 years ago, there was ice age climate which has long ended and humans developed agriculture, civilization, industry, as well as technology. In all these, the global climate remained warm, pleasant, and to the largest extent, predictable. What is of greatest concern to scientists today is the rate at which Global Climate is changing as this has caused regional climates to change mostly drastically and for the human population, very disastrously with human civilization not being the main cause Carbon gas is very fundamental to the biosphere for the continued support of life on planet Earth and so is the carbon cycle.
The discovery of fossil fuels and its transformation into energy is one of the major accomplishments by human being with the greatest significance attached to it. This has found varying uses in transportation, heat energy, manufacturing as well as construction. Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas the burning of vast quantities of fossil fuels to power has resulted to the releasing of about three Gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year producing the effect of increasing Earth’s temperatures while the concentrations of carbon increase. Based on weather data by climatologists for the last few decades, it has been detected a little but consistent temperature rise globally. This paper discusses the causes and consequences thereof associated with global climate change. One major cause is the increasing and enormous amount of greenhouse gases and aerosols both in solar emission and in land use as this interferes with the energy balance of the climate system.
Human and natural causes of Global warming
The major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide which has continued to experience increasing accumulation from the pre-industrialization period with the major contributors being from use of fossil fuels, while human change in land-use being the second but a lesser contributor. Other greenhouse gases include methane, and nitrous oxide. Common sources of aerosols include sulphate, organic carbon, black carbon, nitrate and dust with nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons for the ozone-changing chemicals (Solomon, et. al, 2007).
Human Causes of Global Climate
Human activities that have led to the increase in global climate change through the burning of fossils fuels in the form of coal, oil and natural gas as well as the clearing of forests. Human activities have also been associated with increased emissions of other green house gases like methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010). All these emissions result to the thickening of the heat-trapping gases’ envelop leading to temperature rise.
Human causes of climate change
Carbon dioxide
The major human cause of increased carbon dioxide concentration is associated with the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation, transportation, and in the domestic and industrial uses (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010). In addition, deforestation associated with agricultural practices offers a source of carbon dioxide but reduces the uptake by other plants hence resulting to increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. This activities has gradually contributed to the increasing percentage of carbon dioxide in the ever since the industrialization (Karling, 2001) resulting to increased temperatures.
Methane
The main contribution of methane from human activities is agriculture through rearing of livestock which is associated with methane production from animals’ digestive tracks (Lorraine et al, 2009), mining, transportation and some fossil fuel uses like sewerage, and garbage decomposition in landfills or silages. These sources contribute to about 70 percent of atmospheric methane (Solomon, et all, 2007).
Nitrous Oxide
The main human sources are the use of fertilizers in agriculture and the burning of fossil fuel (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010).
Halocarbons
Halocarbons are emitted into the atmosphere through synthetic chemicals like the Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), as they gain applications in refrigeration and other industrial processes. The main effect of these chemicals is the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer (Lorraine et al, 2009). Fortunately, there has been an international regulation on the protection of ozone-layer depletion which has resulted in the decreasing abundance of these gases in the atmosphere.
Ozone
As a result of human chemical reactions, the ozone gas is continually generated and destroyed. For the troposphere, the abundance of the ozone gas has been increased through the release of harmful gases like carbon monoxide; hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides which in the presence of sunlight undergo processes that make them produce the ozone gas (Karling, 2001). Besides the trapping of heat, respiratory illnesses and other human health problems are caused by excess ozone gas in the atmosphere’s troposphere (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010).As for the stratosphere, ozone gas has had effects ranging from ozone holes in Antarctica to changes in the patterns of wind and regional climates in Antarctica (Solomon et al, 2007).
Water Vapor
This is the most abundant and fundamental of all the greenhouse gases available in the atmosphere. It has the main function of maintaining atmospheric moisture. Human activities like combustion and irrigation have a minute contribution in increasing the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere but due to the surface warming resulting from human activities, the atmosphere water vapor increases (Solomon et al, 2007). As we know, a warmer climate will encourage more evaporation and allow more moisture accommodation by the atmosphere causing a response loop that causes warming (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010).
Other human manipulations
Some human activities reduce global warming while others contribute to global warming in the form of solid or liquid particles in the air (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010).. These particles can either be dust, haze and smoke arising from some combustion sources, overly and densely populated regions as well as highly mechanized regions and areas of intensified agriculture (Solomon et al, 2007). The effects of aerosols in the atmosphere are the dispersion and absorption of radiation and modification of the amounts and microphysical and radiative quality of clouds through their role in condensation nuclei of clouds or ice nuclei (Lorraine et al, 2009). Aerosols can also alter the cloud formation environment through the increased temperatures thus varying the cloud properties a fact that causes changes in precipitation patterns and cloud coverage and ocular properties (Lorraine, 2009).
Human activities that have changed land use like the cutting down and burning of forests, use of natural vegetation land for urbanization and agriculture, as well as large extent irrigation may also interfere with the heat bounced back or absorbed by earths surface causing local warming or cooling (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2010).
Natural manipulations
The sun and volcanic activities are the two main natural influences of global climate change. For instance, there has been a short lived cooling effect (2-3 years) associated with the last two volcanic eruptions of the last 30 years (Karling, 2001). Another natural influence on climate is due to the earth’s tilting away or towards the sun and the gradual shift of the earth’s orbit around the sun. El Nino phenomenon is another influence of climate change that is natural and has influences on the global and regional.
References
Karling H. M. (2001). Global Climate Change. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Huntington: NY.
Lorraine et al, (2009). Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts. Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.3.
Solomon et al, (2007). Summary of Policymakers: Climate change. A report of Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: UK.
U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, (2010). Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. Retrieved on 14-04-11 from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KlJ-jB9viiAJ:downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/Global.pdf+Global+Climate+Change&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjBCh0JmOgRqEs8Y209HB32HV7CXJvrKTl2nmNwjkKHlUXuMPGJgKYwYONJCr3vLrDTgaOpHE7ZFg5IkYnO0b-myFFJZXC0-ge2TJu8GRDQA0kEcVldXpT3slPKkT4TzFAo80Ft&sig=AHIEtbTB-BBGhXBxLHp2TuqL2ThgYty0pw last updated on 2010
