His writing covers science, math and home improvement and design, as well as religion and the oriental healing arts. He began writing online in 2010, offering information in scientific, cultural and practical topics. Global warming causes climate change. Not the Sun, not volcanoes, not any natural phenomenon that we know of. An interactive exploration of how global warming is affecting sea ice, glaciers and continental ice sheets worldwide. Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. Some of them can trap more heat than an equivalent amount of CO2. The gases primarily responsible for global warming include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). For example, nitrogen trifluoride has a high global warming potential (GWP) but is only present in very small quantities. Other contributors include methane released from landfills, natural gas and petroleum industries, and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals); nitrous oxide from fertilizers; gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes; and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2. Siberia has one of the largest expanses of permafrost but you can walk across it in areas of Alaska and Canada too. When we quantify the other effects, it's unlikely that anything else could be the cause. The water absorbs the sun's heat, and the oceans also become warmer as a result. The Earth itself also contributes with natural processes that create greenhouse gases and accelerate the warming trend. The link between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and rising global temperatures has been clear to scientists since the 1850s. When those gases that humans are adding to Earth's atmosphere trap heat, it’s called the "greenhouse effect." One of the first things the IPCC concluded is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. The effects of global warming or climate damage include far-reaching and long-lasting changes to the natural environment, to ecosystems and human societies caused directly or indirectly by human emissions of greenhouse gases. A: Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earths surface. The Guardian: Which Industries and Activities Emit the Most Carbon? To come to a scientific conclusion on climate change and what to do about it, the United Nations in 1988 formed a group called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. Study the causes of the greenhouse effect and its importance The greenhouse effect is caused by the atmospheric accumulation of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which contain some of the heat emitted from Earth's surface. An example of the effect of global warming is the melting of glaciers, which leads to sea-level rise. The IPCC meets every few years to review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, buildings, factories, and power plants. Melting Permafrost. All rights reserved. These are often utilized in inefficient stoves or on open fires, which results in increased need for these products due to inefficient burning. Scientists agree that the release of gases that prevent the dissipation of ground heat into space – a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect – is responsible. The Earth receives its warmth from the sun, so it's reasonable to suspect that our home star may be one of the reasons for global warming. To put this in perspective, the carbon we put in the atmospher… Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs—which have been banned in much of the world because they also degrade the ozone layer—have heat-trapping potential thousands of times greater than CO2. 1. Some examples of global warming include: A.8 degrees Celsius increase in the Earth's temperature since pre-industrial times. Nitrous oxide is 264 times more powerful than CO2. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. Copyright 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Global Change Research Program : The average energy coming from the sun generally has remained constant since 1750, and the warming does not occur uniformly throughout the atmosphere. It is a very long-lived gas, which means carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere with ongoing human emissions and remains in the atmosphere for centuries. The agricultural practices that produce food for the people on earth is another … However, the actual rise in sea level could be considerably greater than this. Learn the human impact and consequences of climate change for the environment, and our lives. As the atmosphere warms, it is able to hold more water, which is already the most abundant greenhouse gas. At the poles, the warming of the atmosphere melts the ice cover, exposing water, which is less reflective than ice. If global warming exceeds 2 C, it will create climate destabilization. Some of Australia’s great natural icons, such as the Great Barrier Reef , are already threatened. Greenhouse gases are released into … That's what's known as the greenhouse effect. The agricultural practices that produce food for the people on earth is another of the human causes of climate change. Global warming first emerged as a cause of global concern in the 1980's, a result of the apparent rise in global temperatures, believed to be due to human activities, such as burning of fossil fuels and destruction of forests. Scientific American: Deforestation and Its Extreme Effect on Global Warming. This is caused by the increased concentration and effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon … The use of both commercial and organic fertilizers releases nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. For example, many studies have linked an increase in wildfire activity to global warming. Of the many heat-trapping gases, CO2 puts us at the greatest risk of irreversible changes if it continues to accumulate unabated in the atmosphere—as it is likely to do if the global economy remains dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs. The rapid warming we are experiencing today can only be explained by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- But because their emissions are much lower than CO2, none of these gases trap as much heat in the atmosphere as CO2 does. So, be attentive and: Do not write facts that do not have clear sources of information. This essay on global warming needs to look at the causes of the problem. Carbon dioxide is the main cause of human-induced global warming and associated climate change. When writing the causes of global warming essay, you also need to understand what mistakes should be avoided so that the work is done according to all requirements. The classical example is global warming, where temperature is a random process affected by, but not exclusively, the greenhouse effect. Chris Deziel holds a Bachelor's degree in physics and a Master's degree in Humanities, He has taught science, math and English at the university level, both in his native Canada and in Japan. Increased temperatures cause glaciers to melt and retreat faster than usual. That's created more extreme weather, health risks, a rise in the sea level, and higher food costs. Scientist trust that human activity is the cause of a dangerous atmospheric deviation (global warming). Natural Causes of Global Warming. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, or CO2. Choose a specific cause of global warming essay topic so it could answer the posed question. This is a frozen soil that has trapped environmental gases for centuries. Created and produced by QA International. 1. CO2 survives in the atmosphere for a long time—up to many centuries—so its heat-trapping effects are compounded over time. Rainforest Action Network: How Many Trees Are Cut Down Every Year? Although the amount of energy coming from the sun does vary and may have been responsible for warming in the past, however, NASA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have ruled this out as a cause of the current warming trend. Global warming stresses ecosystems through temperature rises, water shortages, increased fire threats, drought, weed and pest invasions, intense storm damage and salt invasion, just to name a few. The upper layer is actually cooling as the bottom layer becomes warmer. The combination of seawater ’s thermal expansion associated with this warming and the melting of mountain glaciers is predicted to lead to an increase in global sea level of 0.45–0.82 metre (1.4–2.7 feet) by 2100 under the RCP 8.5 emissions scenario. The bulk of the world's scientific community is in agreement that our planet is becoming warmer and that one of the main factors of global warming is human activity. What exactly is global warming and why is it worthy of consideration? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/.../global-warming-causes 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Warming ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves, leading to calving increases at the ice fronts, are responsible for most of the continent's ice shelf mass loss, a study by NASA and university researchers found. Human-caused global climate change is primarily due to the release, through our activities, of greenhouse gases. Some greenhouse gases are not often listed. Essay Example: Effects of Global Warming Introduction. Where there be tundra or glaciers, there is permafrost. Global warming is attributed to the enhanced greenhouse effect. The increased demand for meat and dairy cattle has lead to the creation of feed lots in otherwise forested areas. Different greenhouse gases have very different heat-trapping abilities. There is debate as to whether global warming exists, as it could merely be another example of changes in temperature the world has seen over millions of years. To obtain these products, many community members cut down trees in nearby forests, known as deforestation. A quarter of this is for heat and electricity, while another quarter is for other industrial processes and transportation, which includes gasoline- or diesel-powered cars, trucks, trains and airplanes. around the world since 1880, due to global warming. Global warming is the rise of temperatures throughout the Earth. From the Cambridge English Corpus From the Cambridge English Corpus It is also becoming clear that global warming, whatever its cause, is threatening many sites as changes in permafrost undermine and flood them. Normally, this radiation would escape into spacebut these pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. The more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more dramatic the effect, and the more warming that happens.