...Article Rebuttal: Global Warming and Climate Change Jeffrey Rohde BCOM/275 April 1, 2012 Edward D’Avola Global Warming and Climate Change A controversial and heavily debated topic in the media today is global warming and climate change. Countless articles have been written about the impact of global warming on the climate changes. A majority of the global warming claims are based on either human factors or natural cycles. I came upon a recent article by Nina Chestney titled “Global warming close to becoming irreversible”. The article claims the global warming is a result of “the world's temperature looks set to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to rise uncontrollably” (Chestney, 2012). The temperature increase is the result of human activities. The purpose of this essay is to challenge the claims made by the author of the article. The rebuttal will be made by analyzing the credibility and validity of the author and their claims. The author’s credibility on the subject can be debated because of the lack of references listed. The points presented are, in a relative sense, true, but highly generalized. The author claims “the world's temperature looks set to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to rise uncontrollably”(Chestney, 2012). The author fails support the claim with data. The article discusses several negative impacts on the global climate: loss of Greenland...
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...trends that can affect the entire Earth, se long-term (typically 30-year) weather trends are called "climate." It is therefore important understand the difference, as well as the relation, between "weather" and "climate." An example of the relationship between weather and climate is El Nino, which is weather with local, short-term consequences as well as with global, long-term importance. In the ort-term. El Nino can bring a dry summer for some regions and a wet winter for others; however, over the course of many years, the number of times El Nino conditions occur may decade changes in the global climate. Variations in the behaviour of the weather over long time periods, such as from one century another, are referred to as climate change. Climate itself adjusts from the times of 'ice ages,' hen huge ice sheets covered large areas that are currently ice-free, to periods similar to today hen ice sheets are largely confined to Antarctica, Greenland, and the floating Arctic sea ice. Paleo-climate records indicate that much of the climate changes over the last two million years occured in a rather cyclical manner; with glacial periods lasting roughly 100,000 years with warmer interglacial periods of 10,000 years occurring in between. The sun, of course, is the ultimate source of heat energy reaching the Earth, fueling our weather systems, and establishing our major climate zones. There is, however, good evidence that larger variations in the sun's activity do occur. For example...
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...Global warming is largely attributed to human activities that emit greenhouse gases to the atmosphere rather than the natural causes. The greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are the main causes of global warming since presence in the atmosphere leads to absorption of heat energy from the sun rather than emitting it to the space (Silver 135). The issue of climate change is a global concern since affects all regions and not just the countries where there are huge emission of greenhouse gases. Despite this, the initiatives to control global warming mainly lie with the governments, environmental organizations, and industries whereas there is little input of the individuals. These agencies are characterized with deep information about the consequences of global warming that is linked to strong intervention practices adopted. There are numerous researches conducted on global warming and consequences whose discussions are embraced in government and environmental agencies. Greater success of intervention practices would be achieved through increased involvement of the people. Since the knowledge of global warming impacts is influential to the development of control measures, greater understanding of the impacts of global warming would be instrumental to attain increased involvement of individuals in intervention practices. Global warming causes extreme temperatures, which affect quality of life and could be unbearable to people and other living organisms in highly affected regions...
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...Global climate change is man-made Thesis Statement: The debate on global climate change has been going on for several decades. One group is of the opinion that man in the name of technological progress has actually caused damage to the environment and was the reason of the global climate change. The other group believes that global change is a phenomenon that has been in progress for thousands of years and that it is nothing new to worry about. There have been heated arguments and discussions on both camps, but neither is willing to back down or come to a resolution. First Supporting Sentence: The scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth's climate system is unequivocally warming, and it is extremely likely (at least 95% probability) that humans are causing most of it through activities that increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels. Second Supporting Sentence: Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. Third Supporting Sentence: The world temperature is increasing and it is occurring due to the activities of the people living in this world. The major culprits of this process are the developed countries of the world whose economies significantly rely on industrialization which...
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...Climate change has been identified as the leading human and environmental crises of the 21st century (Tadesse, 2010). Globally, it adversely affects livelihood activities through the occurrence of diverse extreme events such as floods, cyclones, droughts, and unpredictable rainfall patterns (Urama & Ozor, 2010). Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns affect agriculture, especially in tropical regions. Consequently, rain-fed agriculture is seriously threatened resulting in imminent global food insecurity Although the impacts of climate change is global, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is noted to be the region most vulnerable to many adverse effects of climate change because of her high dependence on rain-fed agriculture for food security, economic growth, coupled with low adaptive capacity (Kotir, 2011). In SSA, 93% of cultivated land is rain-fed (Sharma, 2011) and over 80% of the rural households derive their livelihoods from rain-fed agriculture (Gbetibouo & Mills, 2012) with about a third of the people in this region living in drought prone dry lands (Singh et al., 2009). Climate change has resulted in low crop productivity and crop...
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...production, deforestation, land use and etc., are playing a significant role that produce a lot of greenhouse gases and intensify climate change as living in modern society. Oil, gas and coal are the main fossil fuels and energy sources in our daily life. It produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. The greenhouses gases could increase the surface temperatures and delay cooling in the atmosphere (Giddens, 2009). Hence, this phenomenon is called as greenhouse effect and which causes the climate change and global warming. Climate change is an issue which cannot be abandoned to the next generation (Francis, 2015). Therefore,...
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...implies that the economy is maturing, moving towards the secondary and tertiary sectors. However, farming remains vitally important to the economy with 638 000 people formally employed (Statistics SA, 2012 Q2) – although it’s estimated that around 8,5-million people are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture for their employment and income. However, global climate change will affect the government’s efforts to alleviate poverty and fast-track development in rural areas. Definition of terms Global warming: refers to the increased temperature of Earth's surface, including land, water and near-surface air. Climate change: means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (UNFCCC). 2. Causes of Climate Change Any factor that causes a sustained change to the amount of incoming energy or the amount of outgoing energy can lead to climate change. They are factors that operate in favour of climate change; these factors that cause climate change can be divided into two categories. Those related to natural processes and those related to human activity. 1|Page...
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...Research Paper EN 102 Climate Change – Global Warming Climate change has become really important for the whole world due to its drastic change, because of the release of carbon dioxide and other gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The climate on Earth has always been a subject of change. From history we know that there was an ice age on the planet Earth that ended about 10,000 years ago. The time has passed; “people have developed advanced industry, and technology, discovered fossil fuels and the very effective way of using them by turning them into heat, transportation, and the basis for manufacturing and construction” (Global Climate Change.) That has changed the world forever for all of us. What are the fossil fuels? “In general, fossil fuels are a legacy bequeathed to us by the biosphere of the distant past.” Basically, on an ancient Earth existed a high concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. There also existed photosynthetic organisms that were able to absorb CO2 and produce plentiful organic material. When these organisms died, they were buried deep within the earth and slowly turned into coal and oil, and now they are presenting the fossil fuels (Global Climate Change). Since the 1800s the usage and burn of the fossil fuels has been increasing in order to power the developing technological and global civilizations. As a result of burning the fossil fuels there has been a huge release of the CO2 back into the atmosphere, increasing the atmospheric...
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...against global climate change. Like all other things, global climate change also got a strong basis of global agenda in international relations specificly in 1972. Since then international relations and global climate change have become very intimate to one another to be discussed. By 1972 and having a remarkable benchmark in 1992, global environment as well as global climate change is being practiced almost with every aspect of international relations which include state, non-state actors, domestic international relationship, various political approach, several global accord, security and world trade as well. In this paper, we will try to find out the intensity of the intimacy between international relations and global climate change through several different approaches. In the beginning of the paper we will survey on the theories of international relations through which both international relations and global climate change can be explained then the discussion will be shifted to the role of state and non state actors on climate change, which will be pursued to the effect of climate change on human activities and the history of global climate change co-operation. Then we will move to an analysis of the global climate change regime through the several grand theories of international relations. Having theoretical analysis the paper will look forward to the domestic-international relationship on the global climate change negotiation and the political approach to climate...
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...In the article “Global Warmings Terrible New Math” the effect of climate change and its devastating consequences on our environment were outlined. More specifically it was illustrated how developing countries are at a greater disadvantage than developed countries when it comes to adapting to climate change. This can be due to their geographical location and concepts such as space and place can explain why they’re more vulnerable. Additionally, the history of the countries development also plays a role in determining how these countries are unable to adapt to a climate crisis. Another factor that can be taken into consideration is the particular countries global processes. This brings me to my argument that developing countries struggle with adapting to...
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...The causes and consequences of the enhanced greenhouse effect and global climate change Figure [ 1 ] - The greenhouse effect diagram, http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/indicators/images/oze_fs_009_02.jpg Figure [ 1 ] - The greenhouse effect diagram, http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/indicators/images/oze_fs_009_02.jpg “The unprecedented increases in greenhouse gas concentrations, together with other human influences on climate over the past century and those anticipated for the future, constitute a real basis for concern” (American Geophysical Union, 2014). The Earth's surface temperature has to be just right for humans, not too cold and not too hot. Thanks to the natural greenhouse effect, which has kept the Earth warm. It’s a phenomenon where the earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation, caused by the presence in the atmosphere of gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through but absorb heat radiated back from the earth's surface. As there are naturally occurring greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that help keep the Earth warm, added amounts of these gases leads to extra heat being trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases (carbon dioxide, methane etc.) are being added by human activities and are enhancing the greenhouse effect as shown in figure 1. The global climate change is causing many environmental consequences and will cause more. There are five gases that contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect. These five...
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...Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk. During this century, earth's average surface temperature rises are likely to exceed the safe threshold of 2°C above preindustrial average temperature. Rises will be greater at higher latitudes, with medium-risk scenarios predicting 2-3°C rises by 2090 and 4-5°C rises in northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. With this current situation, the whole of U.K. population is at risk considering the changing patterns of disease, water and food insecurity, vulnerable shelter and human settlements, extreme climatic events, and population growth and migration. Although vector-borne diseases will expand their reach and death tolls, especially among elderly people, will increase because of heat waves, the indirect effects of climate change on water, food security, and extreme climatic events are likely to have the biggest effect on global health (Prof A. Costello FRCPCH, S Ball BSc, C Patterson LLB). Aside from the bigger picture of climate change we still need to consider the leading global risk for mortality, Hypertension is responsible for 12.8% (7.5 million) of total deaths worldwide, according to a new report issued by the WHO. The report also identified hypertension as responsible for 3.8% of years of life lost due to premature death plus years of healthy...
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...Global Warming Nowadays the human life is developing continuously in every field like technology, science, education, art, society and so on. Besides that, these developments have generated many negative effects. One of these biggest problems currently is global warming, that the whole world is facing with. According to Theodore C. Sorensen, an American presidential adviser, “Global warming is for real. Every scientist knows that now, and we are on our way to the destruction of every species on earth, if we don't pay attention and reverse our course”. In fact, global warming is happing and humans are causing it. Global warming will largely affect human in the future, so it is worldwide concern. However, none all of us know exactly the definition, the reasons, the impacts of global warming, and the solutions for global warming. What is the global warming? Global warming is a gradual increase in temperature of Earth’s surface, oceans and atmosphere. Scientists have documented and accepted the global warming as fact since 1800s. According to the lasted (January 2014) analysis from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1980. Temperatures are predicted to rise another 1.133 to 6.42 degrees Celsius (2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next 100 years. These statistics of temperature change are based on many independent scientific analyses from observations of the climate system...
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...Marcus McClenty W. Steward Environmental Issues EG481 22 February 2015 Outline: Is Climate Change Manmade? Hypothesis: Climate change is not manmade. The climate is changing, the globe is warming, both these terms express an action is taking place. Why are these actions taking place? Are these actions caused by man or nature? Is the correct terminology being used when describing this phenomena? These are just a few questions that will be explored in this report. The term global warming is an attention to temperature increases in the earth’s surface atmosphere. Climate change refers to the long term effects of transformations in the earth’s atmospheric conditions. From these two terms one could derive global climate change defined as the increase in the earth’s surface temperature and the effects of that change within the atmosphere over the long term. Both these terms are used in American politics,” partisans routinely use the power of terms to frame political issues in ways that promote ideologically consistent attitudes and beliefs… The term ‘‘climate change,’’ in contrast, may recruit more general associations of temperature changes, which can easily accommodate unseasonably cold temperatures and record snowfalls. In addition, Whitmarsh (2009) observed that ‘‘global warming’’ evokes stronger connotations of human causation, whereas ‘‘climate change’’ evokes stronger connotations of natural causation.” (Schuldt, Konrath, and Schwarz 2011) From these authors observation’s...
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...Introduction Over the last century, climate change has become one of the greatest threats facing the world. There is overwhelming scientific consensus that the increasing global temperature and the variable weather condition are closely related to the increase of greenhouse gases. In order to tackle the issue of climate change effectively, the Kyoto Protocol has been established. However, the rate of climate change is beyond prediction and the adverse impacts of climate change are increasingly serious. Besides, the debate about the main cause of climate change is significant. As the main driver of climate change is difficult to identify, countries face the challenge to formulate practical strategies to reduce greenhouse gases. This report will define climate change and explore what is the main driver of climate change as well as focus on climate change response strategies in Kenya. 2. Definition of Climate Change Climate change is characterized as observed increase in global average temperature of the earth. Climate is totally different from weather. Weather is the state of atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, cloudiness, wind and rain (CCIR-NYC 2005, p. 1). However, climate is a region’s weather patterns in a relatively long period (CCIR-NYC 2005, p. 1). The CCIR-NYC (2005, p. 1) claims that the variations of the state of climate on space and time are the dominant features of climate change. It is reported that global average temperature has increased...
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