The Causes of Global Warming
Whether skeptics believe it or not, it is a proven scientific fact, that our planet has slowly been
warming up over the last century. It has been concluded that the average temperature on Earth
has gradually risen by one degree fahrenheit since the beginning of the 20th century.
To many people this small rise in temperature may not be that significant, however the truth is that
according to climate specialists worldwide, the impact will eventually be devastating if this
continual global warming is not somehow stopped.
Humans are not the only cause of global warming, there are also many natural causes of global warming. Here are a few of the natural causes, volcanoes, solar radiation, natural thawing of the Earth`s permafrost and glaciers.
Our planet`s average temperature fluctuates through natural highs and lows that are sometimes caused by sources within the planet itself.
This does not however mean that natural causes are the only causes of global warming.
When it comes to knowing more about the causes of global warming, you need to look at the two main causes of global warming, man-made causes, and natural causes.
Natural Causes of Global Warming
These are the causes of global warming that occur naturally over time on our planet. Many people don`t take notice, however the natural causes do contribute to the overall warming on our planet. However man-made causes do the most damage to our planet by far.
One of the main natural causes that affects our planet is the release of methane gas from arctic tundra and wetlands. As you may already know, methane is a greenhouse gas and it is a very dangerous type of gas for our environment.
A greenhouse gas is basically a gas that traps heat in the Earth`s atmosphere.
Large volcanic eruptions can throw so much dust into the sky that the dust acts as a shield to solar radiation and causes a cooling trend in the atmosphere.
When there are changes in the Earth’s solar radiation levels it can have some impact on the Earth’s climate. Increased solar activity can cause short-term warming cycles on the Earth.
As the Earth spins on it`s axis, it does not achieve perfect rotation. It actually wobbles a little, thus alternately exposing the northern and southern latitudes to more and less solar radiation. This wobble in the Earth’s rotation has been causing changes in the temperature of the atmosphere for many millions of years.
Causes of Global Warming Directly Resulting from Human Activity on Earth
As you may have guessed man-made pollution and mis-use of fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming. When humans burn fossil fuels the fossil fuels they release a gas called CO2.
So who uses fossil fuels on our planet? Well just about everyone does to a certain extent. Every time you get into your gas powered car you are burning fossil fuels. Industries are one of the biggest contributors of fossil fuel burning.
Methane is also a problem, when human beings mine coal or drill for oil, methane is released into the atmosphere, and this is a real factor another one of the causes of global warming.
Another very big cause of global warming, is over-population on our planet. There are just too many people currently living on our small planet. The amount of food and water it takes to feed everyone is massive. To produce that food there are a lot of factors involved, such as transportation, feeding the livestock, machinery to process the food, etc..
Many fruits and vegetables are transported over very large distances to reach their destinations, every mile that they go, they are polluting the atmosphere with CO2. If there were less people on Earth we would burn a lot less fossil fuels.
Methane is a powerful producer of CO2. The more meat we produce the more methane we produce. Why? Because cows secrete manure, inside that manure is CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. So the more people on Earth the more cows we need to feed those humans.
Humans are also cutting down far too many trees, these aretrees that convert our CO2 into oxygen, we're using the land that we cut the trees down from as property for our homes and buildings. We are not replacing the trees and trees are a vital part of our ecosystem. We are constantly taking advantage of our natural resources and giving nothing back in return. This is probably one of the most important causes of global warming.
Until there are significant changes in our society, the global warming problem will continue to escalate. We need to limit the population growth, plant more trees and cut down less trees. We need to find an alternative to gasoline, and other fossil fuels. There are more solutions to global warming, and we will get to them in our section on global warming solutions.
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