The Responsibility Of Human Beings On Global Warming
The earth is fast heating up. Climatic changes and global warming are aspects of the earth environment and thus can not be easily discounted. People hold different believes on what causes global warming. For instance, some will believe that its solely human activities that are leading to global warming for instance the green house and green house effects. However, believe that global warming is as a result of natural changes in climate.
Whatever the true cause of global warming is, it is a reality but not a myth. A reality that is disastrous and thus people and governments should find ways to curb the adverse effects of global warming in the future. This paper analyzes the causes of global warming and addresses the question of whether human beings can be held completely responsible for global warming.
Discussion
Carbon dioxide is the gas that is responsible for most of the global warming. Though other gases for example methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons which contribute to global warming and even trap heat many times more than carbon dioxide, it (carbon dioxide) is the major contributor. This is because the other gases are in very low concentrations and thus having a higher concentration in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide adds the highest amount of warmth and heat in the earth’s atmosphere.
There are various human activities through which carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmospheres. One of the major ways is buy greenhouse gas emissions (Langdon, 2003).Through greenhouse gas emissions, there is a definite nature imbalance. The basis of global warming is a debate issue. This is because growth in industrialization and some other methods that human beings are using so as to sustain life are creating situations in which the earth is getting hotter day by day.
The issue here is whether to discontinue industrialization, which will have effects on the lives of many people or to continue with this industrial growth and face the adverse effects of global warming. However, it would be essential if human beings found other ways of industrial growth that do not pose great dangers to the environment.Human beings are causing global warming by emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For instance, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through the burning of wastes.
Further, by burning of woods and fossil fuels, human beings are releasing a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These fuels include natural gas, coal and oil. Though these fossil fuels are releasing dangerous carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, there is a high energy demand in the world and most of this energy is supplied by oil, gas, coal and fossil fuels. This is energy that is used for manufacturing, transportation, generating electricity, cooling and heating. This has thus proven difficult to end these human activities.
The greenhouse gases are leading to the greenhouse effect. The light that reaches the earth is absorbed but most of it is radiated back and at longer wavelengths. It is these longer wavelengths which are absorbed by the green house gases that human beings release into the atmosphere leading to its warming. Further, the gases reflect back to the earth heat energy that would have been lost into the space. With the continued human activities, more gases are being released into the atmosphere and this means reflecting back of more heat energy.
Human beings are also creating pressure on land and thus resulting to emission of gases like carbon dioxide. These are activities like deforestation. Where trees have been cut down, it implies that less carbon dioxide will be converted to oxygen. Therefore, this carbon dioxide will end up in the atmosphere. Further, methane is also a greenhouse gas that leads to global warming. Methane is usually released to the atmosphere from agricultural activities carried out by human beings. These include activities like growing of rice and rearing cattle. Land use changes are also increasing the number of atmospheric small particles.
These particles alter the energy absorption and reflection in the atmosphere.Reporting on the National Academy of Sciences find outs, Langdon (2003) cites that there is strong evidence which shows that much of the global warming is attributed to activities of human beings. This is because these activities have led to the alterations of the atmospheric chemical composition. This is because when the greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere, they trap heat and thus preventing it from escaping to the outside world. This way, the heat is retained on the earth’s atmosphere and thus resulting into the warming up of the earth.
The daily human activities are also contributing towards global warming. For instance, when driving, the car releases exhaust that is rich in carbon. This carbon is released into the atmosphere. Planes use jet fuel which greatly adds to the carbon footprint. Human movement also contributes towards global warming. For instance, people will move to develop in suburban areas. This way though they may not know it, they are contributing to the addition of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is because land has to be cleared so as to allow for urban settlement and development. By doing so the land is rendered unable to absorb carbon and thus the only way is to release it.
Activities carried out by human beings have also led to the lift of the troposphere, the earth’s lower atmosphere boundary. For instance, in 2003, research showed that the troposphere had been lifted by 900 feet and more (Oreskes, 2004). This rise in the troposphere is another remarkable fingerprint of humans on the climate of the earth.Research has proved that human activities are contributing to a greater part of global warming. Though greenhouse gases can also be released into the atmosphere naturally, this contributes a very small percentage. Therefore, one can say that it is the activities of human beings that are making great contributions to global warming by release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Conclusion
Though human activities are not the sole causes of global warming, they contribute a very great part in this. For instance, by emission of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere by day to day activities of human beings. These are activities like energy production by burning of fossil fuels, driving where car exhaust releases carbon dioxide to the atmospheres, clearing of land and deforestation. Therefore, people have to change their activities so as to reduce the adverse effects of global warming. This can be achieved by having alternative sources of energy and planting of trees other than deforestation.
References
Langdon, K. (2003). Journal of the Prometheus Society: Human Activity and Global Warming. Retrieved on March 17, 2011 from: http://www.polymath-systems.com/pubpol/globwarm.html.
Oreskes, N. (2004). Science journal: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change. Vol 306 (5702). 1686.
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