Many scientists across the globe have concluded that the current warming of the global climate is anthropogenic. It means that human activities after the Industrial revolution like burning fossil fuels and cutting trees have contributed to a huge increase in greenhouse gases concentration in the Earth's atmosphere causing increase in average annual temperatures around the globe. The graph from NASA below shows the unusual fast rise in CO2 concentrations in the past 50 years in comparison to the changes in CO2 concentrations in past 400,000 years:
The videos below summarize historical scientific data behind global warming and how we know that humans contributed to the current global warming and not natural climate patterns:
For more lines of evidence of climate change happening and its effects on the planet and our life, visit these pages: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence, http://climate.nasa.gov/effects.
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The videos below summarize historical scientific data behind global warming and how we know that humans contributed to the current global warming and not natural climate patterns:
For more lines of evidence of climate change happening and its effects on the planet and our life, visit these pages: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence, http://climate.nasa.gov/effects.
A Global Context
Energy crisis
Our research group collectively decided that there are three main anthropogenically-caused contributors to climate change and its resulting inequities that were important to discuss on this website: the energy crisis, emissions, and sea level rise.
The energy crisis is a huge topic of political discussion in this decade. Many countries are reaching their peak oil curves according to the Hubbert Theory (https://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/the-peak.html), and therefore many economies are beginning to panic about what kind of energy will be available in the foreseeable future. There are many ideas circulating to solve the issue--such as natural gas, nuclear energy, and renewable sources like wind farms or hydropower--that are surrounded by controversy and scientific uncertainty. The basis of the energy crisis causing climate change issues stems from both the processes of producing oil as well as burning fossil fuels to run machinery. Oil production can be hazardous to the environment in a multitude of ways (http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/learning/substances.htm), causing harm to both the natural environment and the health of the local societal environment. One of the biggest problems with oil use in the context of climate change, however, is the issue of its burning. Burning fossil fuels emits an overwhelming amount of toxins into the atmosphere, which can contribute to both human health problems and greenhouse gas emission build up (http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html).
This idea leads to the second contributor of climate change that causes major inequities: emissions.
Emissions
Emissions are coupled with economic growth: developed economies, which comprise roughly 15% of the global population, use approximately half of the global resources. Developed economies were responsible for 45% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2004, whereas the poorest economies (37% of global population) were responsible for 7% of global emissions (Benchmarking Working Europe ch. 6 2012)
Sea Level Rise
Sea level rise due to climate change occurs from thermal expansion of ocean waters and melting from glaciers and ice fields as the average global temperature slowly rises. The following map from the United Nations Environment Project is a graphic that demonstrates what areas of the globe will be affected by changes to the climate, including sea level rise, as the average temperature continues to change.
