Term Paper on "Human Activities on Global Climate"

Term Paper 10 pages (3322 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

human activities on global climate and how these activities result in the global climate change. The first portion of this paper basically concentrates on the debates that have risen with regards to the influence of human activities on global climate and the response to the climate change from various sectors. In this analysis, the paper discusses how proponents and opponents of various factors that affect global climate support their claims while disputing the claims of their opponents. Moreover, the paper discusses the effects of human activities and how they cause climate change while also showing the scientific evidence that nature causes climate change. The final part of the paper shows why human activities are considered as major causes of climate change and their extensive influence on climate.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Debates on the Effects of Human Activities on Global Climate

Responses to the Changing Global Climate

Human Activities Contributing to Climate Change

Scientific Evidence that Nature Contributes to Global Climate Change

How Human Activities Cause Global Climate Change

Conclusion

References

Introduction:

There has been ongoing debate on the global warming controversy concerning the effects of human activities on global climate. This debate has also included the suggestions that some policies should be adopted to evade the possible detrimental effects of these activities on the global climate. According to the current scientific consensus, the recent global warming highlights a moderately firm long-term tendency which is largely caused by human activities. If necessary steps are not taken to stop this long-term and human-caused tendency, serious damages are likely to be experienced in the future. On the contrary, there are a number of vocal scientists in the climate field who disagree with the opinion of the current scientific consensus though they are small in number.

Debate on the Effects of Human Activities on Global Climate:

In addition to the opposition from the small number of scientists who disagree with the current scientific consensus, considerable opposition on the consensus view has also been raised by portions of the political and business communities. These communities not only disagree with the view that human are causing change in the global climate but they are also in disagreement to the conclusion that some actions should be taken to lessen human effects on climate. This opposition mainly arose from claims that these actions may result in huge expense and interruption to the existing geopolitical and economic conditions without identifiable short-term benefits. However, by the year 2007, the opposition had bee largely reduced as a result of the accumulation of more evidence on the effects of human causes on global climate change.

The debate on the effects of human activities on global climate is both political and public with the difficulty in calculating the economic and political effects on both reduction strategies and global warming. For instance, it's challenging to foresee the social and technological changes that have an effect on the costs of lessening fossil fuel dependency. Among typical climate scientist, there is less debate on the reality of global warming even with the continuing debate in the media and on policy levels about the effects of humans on global climate. For non-scientists, debate on the possibility of a scientific consensus concerning the reality of global warming is ongoing. Additionally, this group also debates the existence of enough evidence to validate actions geared towards ameliorating its effects ("Disagreement on Human-Caused," n.d.).

Those who believe in the existence of such a consensus have various opinions such as the recognition of the observed temperature increase, support of efforts that have impact on future climate effects like Kyoto Protocol and resultant measures. Moreover, others believe that the damages on the environment will be harsh necessitating necessary actions in reducing CO2 emissions regardless of the economic costs. On the other hand, the critics of this theory of global warming also express various opinions such as the fact that global temperatures changed way before the industrial revolution when examined over longer time spans. They emphasize that determining global temperatures tendency within the usually cited limited temperature record is impossible.

Responses to the Changing Global Climate:

There have been various responses to the changing global climate that basically arise from the global warming theory that has four main issues. These four main issues that determine the responses to the changing global climate are the extent of the effect of human activity on climate, historical change of global climate beyond natural variations, the future changes in global climate and the results of climate change. These issues are usually mixed up by the proponents of one opinion or another about the changing global climate. In response to the changing global climate, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change) attributes the recent global climate change to human activities. The Panel generally believes that answers to the major questions concerning global climate can not be entirely provided by climate science. However, opponents to this argument state that there is no scientific evidence that supports the scenarios in global warming. For these opponents, if the changing global climate is as a result of human activity, there is no need of any actions since future scientific advances will resolve the problem. Additionally, they state that if there is reduction in emissions, there may be a corresponding decrease in the GDP growth rate.

Human Activities Contributing to Climate Change:

As stated earlier, the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change states that human activities are responsible for the change in global climate. This conclusion is as a result of the widespread assessment of the scientific evidence that has been conducted by the Panel. Additionally, the Panel ascertains this to the visible influence or effect of human activities on global climate. There are two major parts in all the studies conducted to determine human influences on climate with the aim of separating the human-caused factors in climate change from the surrounding noise of natural climate changeability. These two major parts of these studies are the identification of an extraordinary change and the attribution of this change to a certain cause.

These concepts of identification and attribution are simply understood in terms of a medical analogy. Fro instance, the measurement of body temperature basically identifies the existence of an unusual situation or symptom but does not reveal the underlying cause of the situation or symptom. In this medical analogy, the attribution of the condition or symptom to an underlying cause is only possible through extra and more complex tests like x-rays and blood or urine analyses. The step of attributing parts of the observed changes in temperature to human activity utilizes climate models that have been used to approximate the climatic effects of a series of human-caused and natural factors. These human factors that are currently attributed to the change in global climate include the latest changes in atmospheric concentrations of sulfate particles and greenhouse gases. Moreover, the natural factors attributed to the change in global climate include solar changeability, the impact of volcanic eruptions and the internal changeability of the climate system because of the interaction between individual components ("Are Human Activities," 2006).

Notably, the expected effects of human activities on global climate are considered to be much more complex than the identical warming over the whole surface of the Earth and the entire seasonal cycle. As a result, to identify the patterns of change over time and space generally provide a more potent analysis technique. Nonetheless, there are still doubts in the identification and attribution investigations on climate change. These uncertainties are mainly because of the imperfect knowledge of the actual climate-change signal because of human influences. The uncertainties are also because of the partial understanding of the surrounding noise of natural climatic changeability with which the climate-change signal must be identified and the shortages in the observational record. Identifying the actual extent of the contributions of human activities to global climate change is more complex because of such uncertainties.

According to the recent examination of science reveals that human activities have resulted in a visible influence on global climate and that these human activities will have a growing impact on future climate. To further understand whether human activities result in global climate change, it's important to examine both the scientific and political parts in the global climate. These two parts also help in determining the reason why there is ongoing debate on whether human activities cause global climate change. While these two parts do not necessarily validate whether human activities cause global climate change, they are important to understanding the global climate change. They are & #8230;

Scientific Part:

When considered scientifically, climate is very complex since the weather system is fragile regardless of the fact that winds and storms appear to be powerful to humans. Additionally, weather is very complex because of the fact that the atmosphere of the earth is very thin even though it appears to be deep. In fact, the scientific complexity of the weather and climate is clearly explained by using the analogy of a soap… READ MORE

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