Climate Change

Anthropogenic Climate Change

Anthropogenic climate change is climate change that is directly caused by human actions. Unlike the changes in climate that has happened in the past, the current climate change the earth is experiencing can be directly correlated to human actions. The specific human action that has had the largest impact on climate change is the release of green house gases. Green house gases are gases that take heat, specifically heat from the sun, and trap it in our atmosphere which then begins to warm the climate on earth. These gases included: carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Ozone (O3), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), and Hydrofluorocarbons (HCFC’s & HFC’s). As the level of these green house gases increase, the temperature on earth also increases.

The Science Behind it

The process by which green house gases warm the earth is called the green house gas effect. This effect is nothing new for the earth. It has done it for as long as the earth has been around. It is the process by which it keeps the earth warm enough to be habitable for plant, animal, and human life. The problem with the green house gas effect today is that humans have disrupted the normal cycle of the earth. We have done this by increasing the amount of green house gases in our atmosphere by a large amounts. The green house gas effect first starts with the sun. The sun reflects down on to the earth and provides heat through a process called radiation. This heat is then reflected off the earth and goes back out to space. Green house gases is what stops this heat and keeps it in the atmosphere on earth. When the amount of green house gases in our atmosphere changes, the amount of heat trapped on earth changes. Since humans are adding more green house gases to the atmosphere there is more heat being trapped on earth.

The picture above shows the process of how the greenhouse gas effect works and how humans have altered it.

The graph above shows the solar irradiance and global temperatures from 1880 to present time. When solar irradiance increases the global temperatures increase as well. As you can see, the temperatures have increased by large amounts over time yet solar irradiance has not changed much. Therefor, we can tell that the sun is not to blame for the increase in temperatures.

Why Increased Global Temperatures Are Bad

The increased global temperatures cause lots of negative impacts to the earth. As temperatures rise, ice sheets and glaciers begin to melt. As they melt the water flows into the ocean which causes the ocean level to rise. Also, the increased temperature causes the ocean water to expand more which also causes it to rise. There is two significant consequences to the oceans rising. The first one is that many coastal areas will become inundated with water. The flooding will be so severe that people will no longer be able to live there. This will result in millions of people having to migrate inland. This includes places like New York where over 8 million people live and is a huge economic staple for the U.S.. The second consequence of rising ocean levels is more severe coastal weather. When hurricanes hit the coast lots of damaged is caused by the storm surge. The sea level rises and then floods large areas. With the sea level starting at a higher level, the flooding only gets worse. This could result in even more lives lost during hurricanes and even more destruction to buildings and land.

The increase in global temperatures also results in more extreme weather occurrences. Warmer climates are able to collect, retain, and drop more water compared to cooler climates. This increased temperature then changes climate patterns. This results in wet climates becoming more wet and drier climates becoming more dry. This means that the frequency and severity of extreme weather will only get worse for both wet weather occurrences and dry weather occurrences. The earth will see more devastating weather like hurricanes and blizzards that not only destroy buildings and the land, but also take human lives. The same will happen with droughts. Crops will become harder to grow and food shortages could become more prevalent resulting in increased starvation rates.

The increased global temperatures will also result in higher wildlife extinction rates. All animals rely on the climate they live in to sustain life. They are not like humans that can move or build technology to adapt. They have limitations to how far they can migrate or how much they can adapt. With climates changing there will be more animal life and plants dying off.

All of these different consequences have one thing in common: loss of human life. The climate change that is occurring is only going to get worse with the continued use of fossil fuels and could eventually get to a point where mass amounts of people will start to die because of it. Scientists predict we only have around 12 years to change what we are doing before irreversible damage will be done to our earth. This issues is not just about preserving our earth, it is about preserving human life. What kind of future do you want future generations to have?

This image above shows the reduction in ice caps from 1979 to 2015.

Carbon Dioxide: The Most Important Emission To Reduce

Of all green house gases, CO2 makes up the largest portion of them. CO2 makes up 82% of all green house gases. If a consolidated effort was focused on reducing CO2 emissions alone, then it would have the largest impact on emissions as whole. Lots of CO2 is production through the combustion of fossil fuels, which is the source of energy for most things. If the focus becomes switching how energy is produced, then CO2 could become easily reduced. Lots of alternatives are already out on the market and available. The importance of now switching to those new alternatives has never been more important. If humans want to avoid the severe negative consequences attributed to climate change, an important and impactful place to start would be by reducing CO2.