...common people. This essay will address some viewpoints of both sides of the global warming controversy. Global Warming: Fact or Fiction What is global warming? Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere on a daily basis as a result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels for energy consumptions or new technologies. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere form a layer that inhibits the suns reflected light from leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. (Pasha, 2009) This makes the planet warmer, thus; global warming. Global warming is actually the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface. (Pasha, 2009) The average temperature is just that, the average. Not all places will experience the same warming effects, but the average temperature increases. The impacts of global warming Global warming is causing the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise. According to Hawkes, the United States has experienced increasing temperatures of about .12 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1895. Globally, 2011 tied 1997 as the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880. (2012) Rising sea levels is another impact global warming has on the planet. As temperatures rise, the ocean temperatures also rise. Water expands as its temperature increases. Thermal expansion contributed to about 2.5 cm of the sea level rise in the 20th century and has increased to 3 times that rate during the early 21st century...
Words: 936 - Pages: 4
...since the early 20th century, during this time period, levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide have noticeably increased. Many believe this increase in atmospheric gases has caused the earth’s rising temperature. Although, many believe that gases cannot be the cause of this because of evidence that human generated greenhouse gases are not impactful enough to substantially change the earth’s climate because the planet is capable of absorbing these increases. The idea that humans are responsible for global climate change is an idea that many people in the scientific community support, the 2010 Anderegg study found that 97-98% of climate researchers agree that human activity is primarily responsible for the change in our earth. The rising level of human produced gases that are released into the atmosphere create a greenhouse effect that traps heat and causes global warming. Scientists argue that CO2 levels did not rise until the mid- 20th century, the rate at which the levels are rising have to be a direct result of burning fossil fuels. Also, the specific type of CO2 that is increasing in the earths atmosphere can be directly connected to human activity. The average temperatures on earth have increased at a rate that is much faster than can be explained by natural climate changes, leading us to the conclusion that we are to blame. Another large issue at hand with global warming is that sea levels are rising, causing the arctic ice cap to melt at an increasing rate...
Words: 698 - Pages: 3
...global warming is very serious, and will eventually affect future generations. As of now, scientist may only research the reason behind temperature changes. And for us people, we may decide on our own whether global warming is serious, or is only a natural thing. The controversy of global warming and its effect on temperature has been around for many years. Scientifically, global warming is described as the increasing air temperatures near the Earth’s surface. An increase in temperature can affect many things such as: weather patterns (potentially causing natural disasters) as well as animal adaptations. An example of how global warming affects animals and their adaptations to certain environments is shown by the following: Twenty years before...
Words: 1102 - Pages: 5
...out from the earth’s surface. This in turn has lead to higher average global temperatures, or global warming. One of the main problems posed by this development is the melting of the earth’s glaciers. This is problematic because more liquid water will cause the planet’s sea levels to rise, possibly by as much as 66m if they are completely melted. Other environmental concerns related to melting include changes to mountain habitats and an accelerated water cycle. Although some modeling has shown no serious deterioration of the earth’s glaciers it is becoming increasingly evident that continued global warming would have serious repercussions on the planet’s ice. With the increasing acceptance of global warming as an important phenomenon occurring in our environment today, its effects on the natural cycles of the planet are becoming the center of research. One of the most interesting of these topics is the effect of global warming on the earth’s glaciers. It has been observed that increasing temperatures have and will continue to lead to glacial melting, and that the additional water will lead to a rise in the earth’s sea levels. The other potential effects of glacial melting are still the subject of controversy but it is becoming clear that nature’s equilibriums are being altered. Factors such as global warming have been blamed for the melting of the Earth’s glaciers. The overall global temperature has been increasing due to the greenhouse effect; over the past century the average...
Words: 2566 - Pages: 11
...McFarland Alyese Professor Joellen Hiltbrand English 221-0850 September 11, 2015 Essay one: Climate Change Climate change is a sensitive topic here in the United States. People are very stubborn when it comes to their own ideas and beliefs on a topic. Some people believe climate change doesn’t exist, some believe it isn’t that bad, and others blame clime change on the government. Even though people have their own ideas on climate issues, change is happening and we need to do something about it to help ourselves, and our future generations. Climate change has risen from the greenhouse effect, and it is a worldwide problem. There are many ways to help with the climate change, and there are things everyone can do to help. There needs to be major changes implemented in terms of dealing with the climate change. We need a proactive leader to get the public educated on climate change, we need adaptive and preventative measures set up for climate change, all major parties in our government to work together to come to a conclusion on climate change policies, and we need to reform the United Nations to help the world deal with the climate change. The first step in dealing with the climate change is having a proactive leader who will use strategic leadership skills to enlist change among the nation, and the world. We need a person who can help encourage the people to change. Mike Zajko states in the article, The Shifting Politics of Climate Science, “the public stands to benefit from...
Words: 1765 - Pages: 8
...Global warming: The beginning of Armageddon My Artefact (1) / My Newspaper article (1) Scientists, celebrities, and everyday people have been trying to understand the nature of global warming. Controversy is rampant and there is intense debate around the world on the subject. The most obvious thing that can be said about global warming is that the earth is getting warmer. Specifically, the temperatures near the surface of the earth and the temperatures in the ocean are rising. Since 1990, there have been 10 years that have been hotter than any others in recorded history. The greenhouse effect is said to be responsible for global warming. The greenhouse effect causes certain vapours and gases to form a sort of blanket that covers and warms the earth. Water vapour, methane, carbon dioxide, and several other trace gases make up this blanket. The greenhouse effect itself is not disputed. No controversy exists on this point because the greenhouse effect is recognized as an inherently beneficial process. If all the energy that struck the earth was reflected right back into space, no one could live on earth. This is what would happen without this blanket that is caused by acceptable levels of global warming. However, global warming is not all good. It can cause the earth's covering to increase in density. With a denser blanket over the earth, less of the heat is reflected back into space. This upsets the delicate balance between heat and cold that is usually maintained...
Words: 1574 - Pages: 7
...Global Warming Anita Orzel Southern New Hampshire University Global Warming The earth has undergone periodic changes known as global cooling, and global warming. Today’s global warming is unique, due to human influences. American people should be concerned, as the world's scientific experts agree that industrial and land use activities are having an unfavorable impact on global warming. Burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline cause buildup in greenhouse gasses, in addition, deforestation, and destruction of ozone layer create global warming. Earth will suffer serious environmental damage if there are no precautions taken now to reduce global warming pollution. To prevent further damage to global warming caused by human activities, policies must be implemented and diligently enforced, all nations need to partake in action plan to implement policies such as fossil fuel conservation and recycling programs. Greenhouse gases help sustain life on earth by trapping heat from the sun and keeping the earth warm. Some greenhouse gasses develop naturally some occur from human activities. Naturally occurring gasses are, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (An Overview of Greenhouse Gases 2009). Human activities, such as, burning of solid waste, fossil fuels such as, oil, natural gas, and coal, wood, raising of livestock, and industrial activities add to the greenhouse gasses, and destroy the ozone layer. Lynas M. (2006) burning fossil fuels release...
Words: 2415 - Pages: 10
...Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to their latest report of 2007, global warming is unequivocal because it appears with evidence in the observation of the increase in global average temperatures of the atmosphere and ocean, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising average sea level. The high concentration of greenhouse gases generated by human activities cause global warming. Their concentration in the atmosphere keeps increasing since the beginning of the industrial era. If today, the state of scientific knowledge and models used by climatologists cannot make fine predictions at the regional level, they predict the overall global large developments that need expect. However, predictions regarding human and environmental consequences are alarmist: disturbance of Gulf Stream, wildfires, ice caps thaw, disappearance of plant and animal species, decrease of water resources, increased flood risk, droughts, forced migration of population, resurgence of diseases…the reality of the risk and the phenomenon is now almost a consensus. The economic, political, social, environmental, even moral stakes, being major, they arouse numerous debates, on an international scale, as well as controversies. Governments, businesses and individuals, through knowledge of trends, can make decisions and strategic policies most relevant to limit the impacts of climate change. The IPCC reports are the main base of information and discussions and the Kyoto Protocol provides mechanisms...
Words: 407 - Pages: 2
...Global Warming General Chemistry I Bret Lynn For millions of years the changes in Earth’s climate have been driven by forces of nature. Although, for the last century and a half, Earth’s average temperature has been rising faster than any time in the past 10 thousand years. “We’re on a track to 700 parts-per-million of carbon dioxide on the planet, we haven’t seen that for 50 million years”(1). The signs are everywhere: droughts in the American southwest, rising seas in Louisiana, tropical diseases spreading north, and extremes of weather from Florida to France. There are people that still say “global warming need not concern us” and “if it is happening at all, it is a natural trend there is not much we can do about it.” However, there is now hard evidence, which shows that the warming is not only real, it’s accelerating. The warming is altering the climate’s most basic chacteristics like rainfall, days of sunshine, and nighttime temperatures. These changes are damaging the environment and agricultural production, threatening wild species into extinction, and putting at risk human lifestyle, health, and cities near the sea. It starts with the warming. In the Artic, reports of heat waves and droughts seem far away. Over the last 100 years, the world has seen a 1 degree Fahrenheit rise in its average temperature (2). However, in Alaska and Canada, winter temperatures have increased by as much as 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 50 years (2). Global warming is...
Words: 2978 - Pages: 12
...its own weather which changes daily and also has its own climate; which is a more permanent season of weather that the region experiences. For years the climate for many places has begun to change and become warmer affecting anything that lives in the area. Some organisms have become endangered and some have died because they haven’t been able to adapt as fast as the rate of climate change. Many believe this to be what’s known as “Global Warming” and others argue that it’s just a coincidence that the earth is on a cycle and it’s at the point where it warms for some time before cooling again. Some wonder if the global warming effect is actually good for the planet and the statement that it’s solely caused by humans is surrounded by much controversy. The warming that earth has experienced is not global warming, it’s due to cycle on which the earth receives stronger radiant heat waves. The common term used when talking about Global Warming is greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses are the portions of carbon dioxide, methane gas and water vapor that get trapped inside earth’s atmosphere while the rest is released into space, known as the Greenhouse Effect. When the term global warming is tossed around, numerous people attribute the cause of it to humans and that it only has a negative effect. The misunderstanding and limited knowledge that some people have can cause them to become biased on a subject, such as global warming, Lane 2 without being presented both sides of the argument...
Words: 3061 - Pages: 13
...There is an issue in society that continues to be a concern and needs to be seriously addressed. The problem is that global warming is increasing at a significant rate. According to NASA’s article entitled “Global Warming”, global warming is the unusual “...rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature,” (2014, para. 1). Our planet, Earth, has had its temperature changed a significant amount of times throughout history. These changes were due to receiving more or less sunlight from the shifts in the Earth’s orbit. However, scientists have found that over the past century another source has influenced the change of Earth’s temperature: mankind. Scientists from NASA’s Earth Observatory suggests that these significant changes are primarily due to the release of greenhouse gases as people burn fossil fuels, given the fact that the rate of temperature increase nearly doubled in the last 50 years (GlobalWarming, 2014, para. 3). Greenhouse gases allow sunlight to shine into the atmosphere freely. When the sunlight strikes the Earth’s surface, some of it reflects back to space as heat. The greenhouse gases absorbs this heat and traps it in the atmosphere keeping the Earth at a suitable temperature for humans to live in. There are various amounts of greenhouse gases but carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane and nitrous oxide seem to be more dominant (Hunt, 2011, online). However, when too much of the gas is released then too much of the heat gets trapped within the atmosphere. This...
Words: 1990 - Pages: 8
...English 1012, GW Essay Global warming, by definition is the increase in the Earth's ocean and near surface temperatures. In the last several decades, there have been numerous debates regarding global warming. The vast majority of the scientific community now agrees that global warming is caused by the increase in greenhouse gasses, but there is an ongoing debate on whether the increase is due to human activity or from natural sources, such as volcanoes and forest fires. The controversy gained a lot of public attention in 2005 when politician and former Vice President Al Gore created a documentary titled An Inconvenient Truth. The documentary was a compilation of scientific research, theories, and facts that served to blame human activity as the culprit of global warming. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) created the Kyoto Protocol in response to the threats associated with global warming (Hawkins 1). The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement among industrialized nations whom have pledged to reduce their annual emission of greenhouse gasses. The protocol currently consists of over 160 nations representing over 55% of the world's greenhouse gases. Ironically, the United States, the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases, accounts for 20.6% of the worlds greenhouse gases, and has not signed the protocol (Clemmit). Our nation's political leaders are at a debate on whether money should be spent in order to decelerate or prevent global warming. George W...
Words: 3132 - Pages: 13
...While fracking is relatively cheap compared to other, older methods of extracting fossil fuels and can still be ran when oil/gas prices drop, it is a major contributor to many other issues which I think outweigh this. The fact that it contributes to global temperature and sea level rises as well as can possibly impede the health of residents nearby the fracking rigs makes it dangerous to the world, even though it is regarded as being a safe structure. Personally, I think that the controversy over fracking could be solved by continuing fracking to procure the amount of fossil fuel that is absolutely need while cutting down the amount of emissions released by burning these fossil fuels. This could be done by having countries convert for using vehicles running on oil and gas to using electrically powered vehicles instead. Thus, lowering the amount of negative impact that fracking has on the...
Words: 1955 - Pages: 8
...Global Warming Romel Turner English 110 03-05-15 Global Warming is the change in climate in locations that shouldn’t be changing. We should be concerned about these things because if the climate continues to change in locations that aren’t to be that climate, such as Antarctica and the melting glaciers, or snow in the desert, it can harm the animals that live there and will harm our planet. I think that some people disagree because they don’t want to face the facts that our planet is changing drastically due to our actions, such as pollution to the air, land, and water. In the article 5 Scientific Reasons That Global Warming Isn’t Happening, by John Hawkins, he argues that global warming is mainly due to scientific reasons, not mankind. He says that there hasn’t been any global warming since 1997, and that the temperature of the planet has essentially been flat for 17 years. Following this statement, he says that the planet was cooling from 1940-1975, meaning that a 17 year pause is necessary to follow that. Hawkins believes that there are no scientific reasoning that global warming is caused by man. He says that over 31,000 scientists have signed on to a petition saying that humans aren’t causing global warming. He also says that Artic ice is up 50% since 2012, meaning that the Artic area has more ice, rather than it all melting away because of global warming. He states that predictions of global warming have already been proven wrong. He believes that global warming is a scientific...
Words: 1333 - Pages: 6
...Salako Tejumade Dr. Matthew Lerberg ENGL 1302-019 20 October 2014 Fossil fuel: Are they worth it? A very reasonable percentage of the UTA faction is definitely aware of the fast rising problems fossil fuels are costing our global environments and the controversy with intent of finding alternative energy sources. Nevertheless the public has appreciated most of this interference with no doubt but some others have resulted in some real dissension. One of the most common controversies that can be put before us is reason for the rise in sea level that deviates from anatomic evolution to the management of water resources to the highly debated issue of climate change. One can think that it is developing as a result of natural instability of the climate system or that it is human-induced, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. Moreover, our global environment has many problems, If the extent of carbon radiation increment is one, low level of intellective involvement accompanying some of the extreme concurrent objections are definitely in addition. Furthermore, there is several captivating and scrutinized investigation on selective concurrent complications just as global warming, and yet some of the foundational issues have remained unresolved and unaddressed. In this paper I will review three main positions areas of neglected environmental analyses that demand immediate attention. First, is the widespread problem of not possessing anything like a general normative infrastructure...
Words: 1213 - Pages: 5
