Andrew Heywood
ENG 1101
Larson
August 24, 2015
Climate Change and the Arctic
Earth is a self-sustaining system that is built to cleanse and rehabilitate its own environment. Due to our interactions with the environment, producing mass amounts of greenhouse gases and releasing chemical waste, we are slowly tearing the Earth apart faster than it can repair itself. One effect this has created is climate change. Climate change has caused much of Earth’s environment to degrade, the Arctic being the most devastating. With the emission of greenhouse gases that tear Earth's defense system apart, climate change has become a crucial problem to the Arctic. Will all these problems, Earth has recently been put in a critical position.
Earth itself is a special …show more content…
Mankind has played a major role in causing climate change on Earth. Starting in the early 19th Century, the industrial revolution used fossil fuels massively. The use of raw fossil fuels in the 19th century contributed only a small part to increase in greenhouse gas. “In the 1990’s, humans added 8.0×1015 grams of carbon (1015 grams of carbon = 1 PgC) to the atmosphere each year, primarily by burning fossil fuels (6.4 PgC/yr) and clearing land in the tropics (1.6 PgC/yr). The ocean took up 28% of this carbon, and the land absorbed 32%. Only 40% remained in the atmosphere to cause climate warming” (McKinley “Carbon and Climate”). Humans now with an increased worldwide population have demanded more products to be produced. There is also a higher use of automobiles which produces mass amounts of greenhouse gases. Humans are adding more CO2 to the environment than Earth’s systems can …show more content…
Humans are also affected by climate change. Many indigenous communities in the Arctic are not able to build igloos for habitation due to temperature increase. “Their local surroundings are becoming unfamiliar, making people feel like strangers in their own land”(Arctic Climate Change). Temporal changes have in a way created a separate environment these communities live in. The people living in the Arctic are no longer able to predict weather patterns as they were once able to do. These different patterns of weather make hunting and habitation location difficult to carry
ENG 1101
Larson
August 24, 2015
Climate Change and the Arctic
Earth is a self-sustaining system that is built to cleanse and rehabilitate its own environment. Due to our interactions with the environment, producing mass amounts of greenhouse gases and releasing chemical waste, we are slowly tearing the Earth apart faster than it can repair itself. One effect this has created is climate change. Climate change has caused much of Earth’s environment to degrade, the Arctic being the most devastating. With the emission of greenhouse gases that tear Earth's defense system apart, climate change has become a crucial problem to the Arctic. Will all these problems, Earth has recently been put in a critical position.
Earth itself is a special …show more content…
Mankind has played a major role in causing climate change on Earth. Starting in the early 19th Century, the industrial revolution used fossil fuels massively. The use of raw fossil fuels in the 19th century contributed only a small part to increase in greenhouse gas. “In the 1990’s, humans added 8.0×1015 grams of carbon (1015 grams of carbon = 1 PgC) to the atmosphere each year, primarily by burning fossil fuels (6.4 PgC/yr) and clearing land in the tropics (1.6 PgC/yr). The ocean took up 28% of this carbon, and the land absorbed 32%. Only 40% remained in the atmosphere to cause climate warming” (McKinley “Carbon and Climate”). Humans now with an increased worldwide population have demanded more products to be produced. There is also a higher use of automobiles which produces mass amounts of greenhouse gases. Humans are adding more CO2 to the environment than Earth’s systems can …show more content…
Humans are also affected by climate change. Many indigenous communities in the Arctic are not able to build igloos for habitation due to temperature increase. “Their local surroundings are becoming unfamiliar, making people feel like strangers in their own land”(Arctic Climate Change). Temporal changes have in a way created a separate environment these communities live in. The people living in the Arctic are no longer able to predict weather patterns as they were once able to do. These different patterns of weather make hunting and habitation location difficult to carry