Stewart Negron At this point in time, the world has reached a point of no return climatically and the impacts of “Global Warming” are inevitable. Given current atmospheric research, climate change is proven to be a true, unnatural feedback caused by human activity. Due to the medias selective exposure of climate change information, specifically of the skeptic views of the topic, society has not grasped global warming as a current and vital issue. Additionally, the refusal to join climate protection programs by the United States government gave civilians no incentive to act on the issue. At this point, the public needs to make climate change a priority over capita and economics before Mother Nature’s fury catches up. The debate is over and
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The primary cause of climate change is the increased emission of greenhouse gasses by human processes. The most significant greenhouse gasses include carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and nitrous oxide. In order to understand the effect greenhouse gasses have on the earth, one must comprehend how energy enters and exits the atmosphere. The sun constantly emits short wave radiation. This radiation can be dangerous to human health in large quantities, causing sunburn and skin cancers. Ozone (O3), another greenhouse gas, protects life on the surface by absorbing most of the damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In order to maintain a radiative equilibrium, an equal amount of long wave radiation is released back into space. However, due to greenhouse gasses, not all of the terrestrial radiation makes it directly back to space. Greenhouse gasses are unique in that they are transparent to solar radiation, but absorb terrestrial radiation. This in return heats up the troposphere, thus the term “Global Warming” is …show more content…
Some claim climate change is due to impacts of volcanic emissions, solar forcing, and changes in orbital parameters. Volcanic activity releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon ash into the atmosphere. However, volcanic emissions are more likely to cause atmospheric cooling rather than warming since sulfur dioxide acts as an aerosol reflecting short wave radiation, reducing the amount that reaches the surface. Ash is typically insignificant in a climatic perspective since water in the atmosphere quickly filters out the carbon, depositing it back to the surface. Additionally, volcanic activity is responsible for an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when compared to the amount of anthropogenic emissions. According to the IPCC AR5 (2013), since 1750, volcanic carbon dioxide emissions have been at least 100 times smaller than anthropogenic emissions (Myhre et al. ch. 8, p. 62). Solar forcing refers to changes in the amount of radiation that reaches the earth’s surface. Sunspot cycles cause changes in solar irradiance. These occur over periods of eleven years, yet cause minimal changes in the suns luminosity and even smaller changes in the earth’s radiative equilibrium temperature. Such a small change in temperatures over such a long time period cannot explain
The primary cause of climate change is the increased emission of greenhouse gasses by human processes. The most significant greenhouse gasses include carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and nitrous oxide. In order to understand the effect greenhouse gasses have on the earth, one must comprehend how energy enters and exits the atmosphere. The sun constantly emits short wave radiation. This radiation can be dangerous to human health in large quantities, causing sunburn and skin cancers. Ozone (O3), another greenhouse gas, protects life on the surface by absorbing most of the damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In order to maintain a radiative equilibrium, an equal amount of long wave radiation is released back into space. However, due to greenhouse gasses, not all of the terrestrial radiation makes it directly back to space. Greenhouse gasses are unique in that they are transparent to solar radiation, but absorb terrestrial radiation. This in return heats up the troposphere, thus the term “Global Warming” is …show more content…
Some claim climate change is due to impacts of volcanic emissions, solar forcing, and changes in orbital parameters. Volcanic activity releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon ash into the atmosphere. However, volcanic emissions are more likely to cause atmospheric cooling rather than warming since sulfur dioxide acts as an aerosol reflecting short wave radiation, reducing the amount that reaches the surface. Ash is typically insignificant in a climatic perspective since water in the atmosphere quickly filters out the carbon, depositing it back to the surface. Additionally, volcanic activity is responsible for an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when compared to the amount of anthropogenic emissions. According to the IPCC AR5 (2013), since 1750, volcanic carbon dioxide emissions have been at least 100 times smaller than anthropogenic emissions (Myhre et al. ch. 8, p. 62). Solar forcing refers to changes in the amount of radiation that reaches the earth’s surface. Sunspot cycles cause changes in solar irradiance. These occur over periods of eleven years, yet cause minimal changes in the suns luminosity and even smaller changes in the earth’s radiative equilibrium temperature. Such a small change in temperatures over such a long time period cannot explain