Wildlife is on fire, cloud forests are dying, glaciers are melting, and sea levels are on the rise to keep pace. We, humans, are powering our lives from the past century by releasing heat-trapping gases that are a leading cause of global warming. These gases are also known as greenhouse gases, and their level is higher than ever, which is causing disruptive changes in our earth’s climate.
Global warming has an adverse effect on the environment that encompasses not only change in weather but also shifting wildlife habitats and population, extreme weather events, rising seas, and a wide range of other impacts too. All of these changing are happening so rapidly than expected by scientists as some warmer areas will become colder in the short term and vice versa. Global warming is the leading topic of today’s national news in English because of the destruction caused by climate change in many places around the world.
The greenhouse gases are changing the rhythms of climate, which is affecting the things we all rely on and a significant cause of climate change today. Both the land and oceans are heating up, and the temperature is ticking upwards than record-keeping began in 1880. While we are busy figuring out what we can do to slow down global warming and to cope up with the change in climate, till then, the fate of our mother earth is hanging in danger.
Understanding The Greenhouse Effect
When the sun rays enter the earth’s atmosphere, it usually reflects, but some rays are trapped and re-radiated by greenhouse gases, causing the rise in temperature on the earth’s surface. Some of the greenhouse gases are methane, water vapor, ozone, nitrous oxide, and chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons. The trapped energy in the atmosphere warms it and also the surface of the earth. The greenhouse effect warms the temperature of the earth to normal, which is required to make it possible for humans to live (around 33° C).
The main problem that is causing the greenhouse effect is the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, and agriculture. All these things are increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The problem arises when the greenhouse gases level become very high in the atmosphere that is upsetting the natural system that regulates our climate.
Aren’t Temperature Changes Natural?
Human activities are not the only thing that is triggering a change in the earth’s climate, and there are other factors, too, including variation in solar radiation and eruption in a volcano. These eruptions and radiations increase the earth’s temperatures, and the positioning of the earth related to the sun does play a significant role in it.
Many people are skeptical about this, although scientists claim it is a real thing that is destroying our earth’s environment like slow poison. Besides, models that scientists use to measure the climate of the earth take the entire above factors into significant consideration. Diversion sin solar radiation and minute particle suspension from volcanic eruptions matters and contributed around 2% to global warming. The rest comes from greenhouse gases and other human involved factors too.
The shortcoming of these global warming is by singular effect also, and volcanic eruptions have a worse impact on the earth’s atmosphere. From thousands of years till now, emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere equal to the naturally absorbed greenhouse gases. As a result, the concentrations and temperatures resulting from the land clearing in Purcellville VA have been staying stable, which is why the natural habitat is flourishing with a consistent climate
Now from like past few years, human has enormously increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 1/3 of the earlier amount.
Why There Is a Need for Immediate Actions?
The climate is changing rapidly, and some of the things cannot adopt it faster. The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a huge issue which is bringing unique challenges to human life. Earth’s remaining ice sheets are melting due to the increase in temperature in Antarctica and Greenland. And the water from it raising the sea level to a dangerous level.
