Unfortunately, the activity of burning or combusting fossil fuels releases various kinds of hazardous substances and pollutants which eventually leads to changes in the environment; such as climate change, global warming, and changes in environmental health. Let us start with the change in climate or climate change. For over the past 150 years, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere. These gases prevent heat from escaping to space, somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse. It would change our climate, but it would not bring us close to the level of uninhabitable Venus.
In environmentalist Bill McKibben’s 2008 article, “Civilization Last Chance,” we are warned that we are in a state of emergency time we have little to save our environment from the danger. The current status of our earth is in danger, and people don’t seem to realize the serious consequence for the future. Robert W. Christopherson’s textbook, Geosystems, is an introduction to physical geography with scientific evidence. The current edition of Geosystems introduces the consensus science regarding human-created climate change. The high content of carbon causes global warming and global warming causes climate change.
To what extent the causes of global climate change natural? What is ‘global climate change’? Climate change is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average, for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events. Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.
Global warming has been an issue since factories were introduced to this world; gases and toxins are being highly exposed into our atmosphere causing a tremendous reaction to the balance of nature. This is where one ecological system cannot function without the other throwing off the equilibrium in the world, and causes bad weather patterns. Scientists since 1970 have been warning the government that automobiles and factories are emitting a high level of
Now that global warming has been studied further, there is still debate over whether the increase in the greenhouse gases are caused by natural sources, such as volcanoes and forest fires, or if it is caused by man-made practices such as emissions from driving automobiles (David). The controversy first gained national attention in 2005 when former vice president Al Gore released the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Gore’s documentary is a compilation of scientific research, theories, and facts. All of which serve to prove that human activity as the main culprit of global warming. Although the issue did not start to gain national attention until the early 2000s, scientists have been studying atmospheric gases and the effect that human consumption of fossil fuels has on the atmosphere and climate since the early nineteenth century (Rich).
The report (UNEPWMO, 2004, P10) also pointed out, the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. In addition, changes in land use play an important effect on climate. For instance, deforestation, desertification, urbanization and agriculture can contribute to climate changes and increase carbon dioxide emissions.
First, the melting of ice caps and glaciers is releasing water into the oceans. Second, human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, combined with natural activities, it causes the rise of the earth's surface temperature.3 Second, climate change is already having a serious effect on every continent and throughout the world’s ocean. The consequences of sea level rise mainly reflected in three aspects: cultural heritages, indigenous communities and coastal lands. 4 First, sea level rise threats cultural world heritage. Data shows that 136 out of 700 listed cultural heritages throughout the world will be affected in the long term.
Since the temperatures have started to rise, the ice that they once lived on has melted and they are having a very difficult time surviving. People have increased the temperature of the Earth by contributing their pollution. Burning fossil fuels and forests has been the biggest issue amongst us all. Simple changes could help in simple ways but the fact is that since it is a global issue, the world has to be involved in order to make a difference. The United Nations has contributed in this way by holding meetings to discuss the climate changes throughout the world and what can be done to help.
(WMO, 2010). Over the last century however, climate change has largely been due to human activities, adding a large concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This comes as a result of burning fossil fuels, the degradation of land for agricultural purposes and deforestation. CO2 levels have increased from 280 parts per million (ppm) in the middle of the nineteenth century to 388ppm at the start of the twenty-first century. (UN Chronicle, 2013).
Weather or Not Climate change, a serious and growing problem that faces the United States and the world, negatively impacts the environment, economy, and society. Climate change is the change in global weather patterns largely due to increasing amounts of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere. Some citizens and politicians deny the existence of climate change for political reasons, but we can’t afford to be wrong about this issue; our planet and lives are at stake. We cannot look to politicians with hidden agendas to verify the truth of the matter asserted, but rather scientists and researchers whose factual data proves its existence. Recent studies have shown that ninety-seven percent of scientists believe that manmade actions cause climate change (Samenow).