Global Warming

A topic overview.

The terms global warming and climate change may seem like they have the same meaning and are often used interchangeably, it actually applies to different phenomena. Climate change alludes towards the changes in Earth's sea level rise, changes in weather patterns, melting glaciers, and warming oceans. Meanwhile global warming is the contributing factor towards climate change, referring towards greenhouse gases on Earth's atmospheric layer adding onto the average surface temperature. In discussing the rising temperature due to the greenhouse gases then global warming is the proper term used. But when discussing the long term differences that occur towards earth in both hydro and meteorological aspect then climate change is more appropriate.

But where does the term global warming originate from? It originally appeared in Wallace Broecker's 1975 Science magazine article. Wallace Broecker, a geochemist, titled the article "Climate Change, Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" The study towards the effects of greenhouse gases on Earth's climate was conducted by scientists a century prior, however, as early as 1820 was the time a French scientist named Joseph Fourier first discovered the Earth's atmospheric functions and its capability to retain the sun's heat. By the 1900's, Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Milankovitch identified that there were long-term effects on the climate and its natural fluctuations in the Earth's orbit as well as its tilt and precession in its axis. Ever since then scientists and policy makers have been working hard to better understand this phenomenon for us to be able to respond towards the challenges we face from Climate Change.

Causes of Climate Change

Our planet contains multiple different gases within its atmosphere varying in degree of amount, it acts as a cozy cover that encases the Earth with the heat coming from the sun and prevent it from escaping back to space. This is known to us as greenhouse effect, this is accompanied by the gases, which are subsequently called greenhouse gases. Within these greenhouse gases the main ones are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Greenhouse gases are important for us to continue living and functioning in our planet, it keeps us warm enough for Earth to be able to support life. But adversely, too much greenhouse gases trapped in the Earth's atmosphere increases significantly making temperature rise worldwide.

The processes that Earth does naturally is constantly active albeit slowly. One of these natural processes is the creation and deconstruction of the greenhouse gases. An example of this natural process is the decay of plants and animal matter. These produce carbon dioxide to the atmosphere which plants absorb through a process we know as photosynthesis. The balance in the Earth's carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is kept fairly stable through this process. The planet's weather is also affected by the changes in ocean patterns which are affected by the shifts in the planets crust as well as the melting of glaciers. Fluctuations from the sun and its output of ultra violet rays also affect the Earths atmosphere. Geologic processes also have an effect, namely volcanic activities such as volcanic eruptions due to the mass wasting as well as release of greenhouse gases during an eruption, volcanic eruptions also release other pollutants that can affect the atmosphere. Top scientists that specialize in climate change as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as well as other agencies say that these continuously happening natural processes factor in and play a role however the impacts of these natural processes aren't the cause of the substantial rise in the Earth's temperature.

In average the vegetation all around Earth are said to release and absorb about two hundred billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Meanwhile anthropogenic activities which are referred to as human-made causes of climate change add an additional 7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide offsetting the balance, adding more and more towards the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere overtime. These addition to the atmosphere causes an adverse effect to our climate which may spiral towards unforeseen circumstances. In fact within 150 years there has been an 30% increase towards the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Another anthropogenic activity that continuously plays a significant role in the increase of greenhouse gases is deforestation, the removal of trees lead to the increase of production and the decrease of consumption of carbon dioxide.

Although we have mainly talked about carbon dioxide, which is one of the greenhouse gases, the other greenhouse gases namely nitrous oxide and methane are also produced due to anthropogenic activities. Agricultural and industrial activities resulted from human works produce nitrous oxide, one of which results from the fertilizers used significantly in aggregating plants. Meanwhile, the production from fossil fuels, and landfills causes for more methane in our atmosphere. Methane is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, in which a gas leak from October of 2015 on a storage found in California vented 5 billion cubic feet of gas. It took months for the gases to be sealed and was then capped on February of 2016

Climate Change Predictions

Scientists predict the changes worldwide over a long period of time, but due to this it makes it difficult to have a final consensus to questions relating to climate change. Plenty of studies have been conducted through the years to determine exactly how scientists see anthropogenic activities affecting climate change. Studies varying from surveys to analysis have been published and have concluded that more that 90 percent of climate scientists around the world see anthropogenic activities as a main contributor to climate change and its increasing global temperature crisis.

Despite these claims by climate scientists, surveys have shown that people remain skeptical towards the evidences brought by climate scientists but in the recent years, belief in it has steadily grown. Researchers have observed a relationship associated towards the political factions and views of people and their concern towards global warming and acceptance to its concept and evidences led by climate scientists. Skeptics bring forth the argument that Earth has been dealing with changes in its climate patterns starting from a millennia ago. They also claim that the shifts in recent years are not as serious as what climate scientists say and that there are necessarily no consequences to how we do as of right now. This is of course contested by climate scientists saying that there unwillingness to listen and face the current problems are the cause of such and is also a factor towards the threat posed by human activity towards climate change

There is also an underlying problem where-in even with the support of all members in the society worldwide, there is necessarily no solution as of yet to take back what we have already caused, having a lack of solution towards the ever growing problem. Even the predictions made by climate scientists are not necessarily 100 percent accurate. Despite these problems, scientists continuously look for ways to better their understanding and have a more refined and secure way of producing reliable data. As data's have contrarily shown, most of the climate models fail to predict accurately the change in temperature. Most of which underestimated the severity of the problem. Some of the potent greenhouse gases were able to be found a solution with but unfortunately it leads to the contribution of another greenhouse gas.

Effects of Global Warming

Global warming has remained an threat and an underlying issue that has lead to uncertainty among people, some researchers predict overly substantial change from Global warming. but one thing is assured that future generations will have to deal with a serious problem which is global warming. with the change of temperature oceans are expected to result into stronger and more recurring typhoons. Regions in Earth to have more heat waves that leads to drought and wildfire that can affect a whole nation leading to a disaster. Climate change has been linked to many different disasters that has happened in the twentieth century namely the record-breaking heat in 2012 in the United States, sever drought that plagued the white belt, as well as in Australia where heat wave caused more than hundreds of wildfires to spread throughout the continent. There has also been a recent wildfire in California which affected thousands, the destruction of properties and it has also lead to deaths of people and the displacement of wildlife.

With that said global warming also affects not only us but the habitats of wildlife. It also affects our agriculture due to drought which can lead to our lands drying out or being too wet to support aggregation. Drought can be spread out to a longer array of timeframe which not all animals may be able to adapt to. Long term effects from these changes will most likely lead to lose of biodiversity in Earth as its ecosystems will be heavily affected and even mangrove swamps are likely to take a heavy hit and run out completely. Furthermore serious drawbacks and complications will be felt globally,