SCI 110, Week 9 Assignment
Professor Dr. Anderson
December 8, 2013
Global Warming and Mitigation
Is our environment being compromised from excessive use of different chemicals? This is the question that has been the ground for major debate for many years, is our advancements causing global warming? When debating global warming the first thing to consider is what the cause of global warming is, and the answer to this basic question is greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are natural gases such as CO2, Nitrous Oxide or Methane and are created in one of two ways. The first way is, through natural cycles, for instance, CO2 is released through animal respiration or plant photosynthesis. The alternative greenhouse gas production comes from man’s use of different fuels and products; this can lead to anthropogenic climate changes.
Anthropogenic Climate Changes are changes in the atmosphere brought on by human activity, and there is evidence of these kinds of changes all over. By studying the size of the polar ice caps we can see that they are shrinking and this may be due to a warmer atmosphere temperature brought on by none other than an anthropogenic climate change. An IPCC report from 2007 showing levels of some of the greenhouse gases also shows that the levels of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere has skyrocketed since the post-industrial era, this can only be attributed to man-made machines that have come to rise. So how does human activity attribute to the climate rise?
Greenhouse gases are natural occurring gases that hold in some of the heat energy that comes from the sun and bounce off of the earths’ surface; it’s not that these gases are bad in nature, we actually depend on them to keep the climate of our earth at a sustainable temperature, with that being said though, they are only positive for our atmosphere in moderation. In nature the gases such as CO2, Nitrous Oxide and
References: 2013, Anthropogenic Climate Change found at http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/anthropogenic-climate-change.html 09.13.2013, Climate Change Indicators in the United States found at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/ghg/ 09.09.2013, Overview of Greenhouse Gases found at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html Iver Peterson, March,30, 1985, Acid Rain Starting to Affect Environment and Politics in West found at http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/30/us/acid-rain-starting-to-affect-environment-and-politics-in-west.html