In the last 100 years, Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.4°F. The rising global

The rise of air temperatures near Earth’s surface over the past century is known as global warming. Earth has experienced periods of gradual warming and cooling throughout its existence due to natural causes, such as volcanic eruptions and variations in the Sun’s output. However, scientists have created the idea of an increase in global temperatures to human cause, mostly the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a result of industrial industry. These greenhouse gases which absorb and trap heat emitted from Earth’s surface through a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect.

Climate change occurs when weather patterns change continuously for an extended period of time. This leads to an increase in the global temperature, also known as global warming. When solar radiation is reflected back to space, a tiny amount of it is captured by a layer of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and many more. Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse effect. This is due to the heavy burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and volcanic eruptions.

Albedo and global wind patterns are another two factors that influence climate. Albedo is the amount of solar power that arrives at a surface and then gets reflected back into space (Hewitt, 348). Dark surfaces absorb the solar energy and eventually the heat radiates back to space, but light surfaces immediately reflect the solar energy back into space. The total albedo differs depending on cloud coverage, snow, ice, forests, and human developments. Earth’s albedo decreases with the melting of ice caps and causes Earth’s temperature to rise (Hewitt, 349). Wind patterns are also a factor of climate. They re-distribute the heat from the equator to the poles.

Light radiates from the sun into the Earth’s atmosphere and then to its surface in the form of solar or short wave radiation. The Earth’s surface then re-radiates the heat from the sun’s light back into the atmosphere in the form of infrared or long wave radiation. However, the infrared radiations do not easily penetrate beyond the Earth’s atmosphere because certain gases, called greenhouse gases, trap these radiations in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and ozone. When the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps the infrared radiations, heat is released, and global warming results.

Earth’s climate, or the particular weather patterns over an extended period of time, has many contributing factors and has varied over the course of the planet. The planets’ global climate can also be broken down into regional climates based on the weather patterns of a specific area of land. These differing regional climates are averaged together and all contribute to the overall global climate of the planet. The Earth’s global climate effects factors such as temperature, amount of rainfall, glacial melting, and rising and downfall of sea level, along with many more aspects of planet Earth. Affected by both natural and man-made elements, Earth’s climate is constantly changing. These climatic changes have been taking place for 4.6 billion years and are now studied by using satellite-derived and thermometer-based temperature records and trends. However, these methods only allow scientists to study the global climate as far back as the 17th and 18th century, just a small fraction of Earth’s lifespan. In order to extend our understanding of Earth’s climate beyond this instrumental record of just a few centuries, scientists use proxy data, or natural clues that are buried in sediments, coral reefs, tree rings, fossil pollen, and glaciers. Methods such as paleomagnetism, tephrochronolgy, and radiocarbon dating assist in the extended understanding of Earth’s changing climate over the course of time.

The Earth has been known to go through various natural warming and cooling periods throughout history. During warmer interglacial periods, CO2 levels are higher and during cooler glacial periods, CO2 levels are lower (Monnin, 2004). This is because the heating and cooling of Earth’s surface can cause significant changes in greenhouse gas concentrations (Monnin, 2004). These changes often act as a positive feedback, intensifying the existing temperature changes (Monnin, 2004). For example, it was slightly warmer during the Holocene Climatic Optimum about 5,000-6,000 years ago and was slightly cooler during the Little Ice Age from about 1600 AD

The planet’s system experiences a flow of energy either inside or outside of it. The balance between these movements determines the earth’s temperatures. The sun releases energy that is absorbed into the crust resulting in a warm climate. The earth does not warm in the event where the sun’s energy gets reflected back into space. There is a cold climate that results from the release of absorbed energy back into space (Revkin, 2002). Many factors attribute to variations in earth’s energy balance. They are either natural or man-made and include changes in the sun’s energy accessing the earth.

Global warming is a serious issue affecting the modern world. This phenomenon is caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Bradford). In fact, the atmosphere now contains 40% more carbon dioxide than in the mid-1700’s (“Causes of Climate Change”). The Greenhouse Effect, caused by gasses such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane, traps heat within the atmosphere that would normally be reflected into space. The retention of heat is natural and has occurred since the earth’s formation; however, the retention rate has never increased so rapidly. This rapid change, if allowed to continue,

Climate change, on the other hand, examines the shift in temperature, wind and precipitation over several decades (EPA, 2015). Greenhouse gases have a major impact on climate change because they are responsible for reflecting the heat back that is released from the earth’s surface. The heat is responsible for the shift in temperature, precipitation and wind patterns experienced on a global scale (EPA, 2015). The earth’s surface temperature has increased by 0.74°C in the last century and the current data suggest that the rise in the temperature is due to an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere (Nuleas et al., 2013). An increase in greenhouse gases has results in significant changes in climate patterns.

Global warming is a process in which Earths overall temperature gradually increases due to CO2 and other gases. The greenhouse effect is caused by gases in the atmosphere, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. These gases trap sunlight in the atmosphere, so when after the Earth absorbs energy from the sunlight the energy left over, which is heat, is trapped in the atmosphere as well. This causes a rise in temperature. Before, changes in the Earth’s temperature were caused by natural causes, like the Earth’s orbit, changes in solar activity, and volcanic eruptions. However, humanity has substantially increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, from the burning of fossil fuels – therefore increasing the amount of energy and heat that is trapped. (USEPA)

The issue of global climate change is one of the most popular debates in modern day society. For decades, scientists have been battling to find the source of our global climate change. This matter brings to us whether or not humans are accelerating the process of global climate change. Scientists have provided solid evidence of global climate change by humans in multiple studies, but others believe that climate change is caused solely by nature and the naturalness of the Earth’s cycle. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, over 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming is mostly likely caused by human activities. In our society today, there is a lot of misconception of the definition of weather and climate. As these two terms are often associated with each other, they are not the same. Mark Twain simply summed up the definition for us: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get”. According to Andrew Dessler, a science politician, climate is the behavior of the environment throughout a long period of time, usually a decade or so, whereas weather refers to the actual temperature of the atmosphere at a particular period of time. “Climate change”, however, is “any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate elements (such as temperature, pressure, or winds) sustained over several decades or longer” (Dessler). Our society often forgets that our current projects are not always necessarily benefiting us,

Probably the most anxious threat to our earth in these two decades is climate change. Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other saying, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer (Epa.gov, 2015). The rate of warming is increasing. The United Nations ' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850 (News.nationalgeographic.com, 2015). The temperature keeps increasing year by year. The scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reported that the average global temperature on earth has increase by about 0.8° Celsius since 1880 (Earthobservatory.nasa.gov, 2015). This essay will talk about the causes and effects of climate change, and also present some possible solutions which relevant to the issues.

The Earth’s climate is constantly changing. We all know that throughout the year, the climate is different. In the beginning of the year it is very cold, whereas the middle of the year it’s very hot. Although, there has been many changes in the weather and in the environment around us. Global Warming has an observable effect. For example, there are more intense heat waves, wildfires, glaciers have shrunk, ice rivers and lakes are breaking up sooner, plant and animal ranges have shifted, trees are flowering sooner, etc. All these things are caused by climate change. There are 2 causes of this. First off, Earth is like a greenhouse. Let me break it down. A greenhouse is a house made out of just glass made for growing crops. It is built like that so that when sunlight passes through the glass onto the crops, the warmth gets trapped in the greenhouse and is not able to escape. The Earth’s atmosphere plays a similar role. The sun shines through the atmosphere which warms up there Earth’s surface. At night, the Earth’s surface cools down and releases the heat back into the air. But some heat gets trapped by the greenhouse gasses of the atmosphere. Too much carbon dioxide and other gases are making this greenhouse effect stronger and stronger and this causes the Earth to get warmer and warmer. This leads us to the 2nd cause of climate change. The 2nd cause of climate change are humans. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, which is a group of 1,300 scientific experts from

Most scientists agree the primary cause of modern climate change is the greenhouse effect, the warming of the Earth due to the atmosphere retaining excess heat (National Aeronautical and Space Administration [NASA], 2014). The increasing accumulation of long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) in the atmosphere is causes the greenhouse effect. In order for scientists to understand climate change, they had to relate the sun’s radiative effects on Earth’s atmospheric gases and interpret the past and present causes of change. In atmospheric equilibrium, about 30% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space upon collision with clouds and Earth’s surface, while the other 70% is absorbed by the surface. This absorption warms the Earth’s surface and further emits

First of all, understanding Global Warming scientifically can help people understand how It is effecting and is going to effect our planet eventually our lives. So, the sun is a source of heat and warmth on the Earth. Ice and cloud reflects some of the heat away and rest is absorbed by land and water and re emitted as heat. Because our planet is a closed system some of the heat escapes to space, and some is held by the atmospheric greenhouse effect. Green house gases