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To What Extent Is Climate Change a Result of Human Activities

The quantity of greenhouse gases, cloudiness in the earth’s atmosphere, and aerosols (small particles) changes when people participate some activities. The sun emissions are affected by the actions that humans do in their day-to-day lives. The most known emission source is the combustion of fossils fuels, which emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hence, there is a direct relationship between climate change thermal and solar radiation production from the earth .Carbon dioxide and aerosols affect the earth’s energy balance. In case the quality and the number of certain particles and gases in the atmosphere change, it’s evident that the entire climate system changes. For over two centuries, human activities have greatly affected climate revolution, starting with the modern industrial revolution. Therefore, as a result, normal climate variability is highly outweighed by human-caused average temperature change, for example, causes such as solar activities and volcano eruption.

There is a lot of disagreement on to what extent is human activities contributing to climate change in the United States. Whether a human being is to be blamed on the current rising global warming. Researchers and scientists argue that human activities are the leading cause of the present cause of rising in the glob temperature; however, according to the data, this is not the case. According to the IPCC’s fifth assessment report, human emissions and actions have been the leading causes of global warming in the last six-decade decades.

Human activities were in charge of almost half of the increase in global average surface temperature according to the intergovernmental panel in 1951 to 2010 in the fifth assessment report. Since the industrial revolution, it is more likely that human activities have highly contributed to the present global warming, according to the researchers in the early nineteenth century. According to satellite data, NASA reported that the earth’s surface was warming rapidly. The world’s temperature started to rise in the early 1900s. Human increased use of fossil fuels was the leading cause of the atmospheric concentration that led to the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, other scientists would take 50 years before recognizing this as a warning tale. In the 1980s, the first widespread public awareness concerning the worldwide impact of human activities on the temperature began and was the headline of every newspaper. After going round to other planets, satellite measurement gave a first global picture of what was happening. Over the past 50 000 years, lake sediment and ice cores can be aid to determine the changes in the global heat (Trenberth, 2018).

We already recognize that global warming is rising. It will last to accelerate quickly in the future/ when humans begin continue the fossil fuel for energy production. One degree Celsius has increased to the average global temperature. This means that the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than 800 thousand years ago. However, according to recorded history, the carbon dioxide concentration has never gone beyond 300 parts per million. This means in every million moles of gas, 300 are the moles of carbon dioxide gas. Currently, the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than they were in the past. The concentration is above 413 parts per million currently. This rate of carbon dioxide buildup has surpassed the historic record average once again. As a result of the battle of COVID -19, CO2 emission temporarily reduced in 2020. However, these changes will have no long-term effect on the climate issue globally. According to the researchers, an average of 90 to 123 percent of global change was observed between 1951 to 2010.

There is debate on whether or not the temperature rate is due to human activities. Experts argue that despite those volcanic and solar activities contributing to the cooling, human activities have averagely contributed to more than 100 percent in the last 50 years.

Daily, human activities release a large amount of CO2, CH4, N2O, and halocarbon to the atmosphere. Human activities are the leading reasons of climate variation in the greenhouse gases for example carbon dioxide (CO2). These are gases containing fluorine, bromine, and chlorine. When they accumulate in the atmosphere in high numbers, their concentration rises. Since the beginning of the modernization evolution, the concentration of these gases has increased dramatically. For all, Human-induced rises in the full of atmosphere greenhouse gas are caused by concentration of the emitted x-ray lights from numerous atmospheric gases. Increases in CO2 levels have had the most effect on greenhouse gas. The stratospheric ozone level concentration has decreased; the troposphere has risen, resulting in warming and cooling of the atmosphere.

Aerosol particles directly influence radiative forcing by reflecting and absorption of the solar infrared lights. Aerosols have either positive or negative charges depending on their composition. When there is an increased number of aerosols in the atmosphere, they result in the cooling effect of the environment (DRF). Despite aerosols not being directly linked to global change, it is recognized that they negatively affect the radiating force. Due to the industrial revolution, human activities have affected the worldwide global land cover, mainly by changing cropland productivity, forest areas, woods, and pastures. Ice and snow have been affected as well. The quantity of solar radiation reflected on the earth is dependent on the result of human activities. This has the effect of pressure in the wrong direction.

Many variables have been examined to assess the quantity of energy that reaches and remains in the earth’s climate. The process known as radiative forcing is used. Besides changes in the number of greenhouse gases, land-use change, and atmosphere, other factors that determine the amount of solar radiation and cloud formation include aerosols, which result from human activities, the eruption of the volcano, and the amount of the solar reflected into the earth surface (Cook et.al .2013) . Therefore, if greenhouse emissions are the leading cause of climate change, global warming would be one-third higher. Other effects of fossils fuel combustion are Sulphur dioxide and atmospheric aerosols, which help to moderate the effect of greenhouse warming. With the increasing amount of clouds in the atmosphere, the tiny particles in the atmosphere reflect the sun’s energy to the energy, leading to the reflecting cloud cooling and forming the earth due to the high quantity of clouds in the stratosphere (Soon and Baliunas, 2003).

Chemicals like chlorine fluorocarbon (CFCs) deplete the ozone layer while other halocarbons lead to conserving of the higher atmosphere. The earth’s normal temperature has increased by some degree Celsius due to the convergence of the change of the ozone sheet (Stroeve et. al 2007).

Therefore, human activities are to be blamed on the present trend in global warming and climate change. Even though science has long known that other factors contribute to global warming, such as volcanic eruption and solar system activities, scientists believe these two factors contribute to the cooling of the atmosphere rather than warming. Natural variability is thought to have a negligible effect on global warming, but nobody can state its significance. Proof has led experts to consider that human activities are blamed on global warming and climate change. Behavioral change of human beings could help reduce some of these global changes. Hence, it can be concluded that human activities are very accountable for climate change to a very great degree.

Bibliography

Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Green, S., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., Way, R., Jacobs, P. and Skuce, A. (2013). Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature. Environ. Res. Lett., 8(2), p.024024.

IPCC (2007). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Soon, W. and Baliunas, S. (2003). Global warming. Physical Geography, 27(3), pp.448-455.

Stroeve, J., Holland, M., Meier, W., Scambos, T. and Serreze, M. (2007). Arctic sea ice decline: Faster than forecast. Geophysics Research34(9).

Trenberth, K.E. (2018) Climate change caused by human activities is happening and it already has major consequences. In: Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law. 36(4) pp. 463-481

 

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