Climate Change Is a Load of Hot Air. to What Extent Do You Agree with This View?
Climate change is a load of hot air. To what extent do you agree with this view?
David Attenborough once said “There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it” and I couldnt agree more. However not everybody agrees on this subject and over the past few decades an argument has been raging amongst politicians, scientists and skeptics.
One of the main reasons people argue that climate change is happening and real, is that global sea levels have been rising at a current rate of 3.18mm per year for the past 100 years at least. There are many proposed reasons for this event, however the most prominent and most accepted are; Ice caps and glaciers melting, which causes that melt water to enter the ocean causing sea levels to rise. The other reason is the fact that as climate change continues global temperature rise and as this happens the oceans also heat up which causes water to expand and sea levels to rise at the rate they are. Over the past 50 years alone global sea levels have risen an outstanding 7cm total, flooding low lying coastal areas, and causing unprecedented amounts of damage.
Another reason people argue in the favour of climate change is that global temperatures are also rising and in the past 50 years alone they have risen +0.68 celsius which may not sound like a lot and it isnt really, but the thing people worry about is the rapid period of time this change has occurred in. In the past 134 years of global temperature on record the 10 warmest have occurred in the 2000s with the exception of 1998 and if that doesnt convince the skeptics that climate change is happening I dont know what will.
However I think the most important cause of climate change is the very large increase of ‘GreenHouse’ gases in our atmosphere. The one most talked about is CO2 and the concentrations of this gas in the atmosphere has changed from 300 parts per million to just under 400 parts per million in just over 50 years which is a 30% increase and again just like the temperature rise it isnt so much the amount, it is the speed at which this change is taking place which causes the most cause for concern. The way CO2 raises the global temperature is called the Greenhouse effect, and it happens when ultraviolet short wavelength radiation from the sun is absorbed by the earth then re-emitted as long wavelength Infrared radiation, the problems with this is that when Infrared radiation hits a molecule of CO2 the CO2 starts to vibrate which causes the surrounding air to heat causing climate change. Other gases also have this effect and examples are; water vapour and Methane. CO2 is predominantly produced by power stations burning fossil fuels and by a land clearing method known as slash and burn which is used to great effect in the worlds rainforests. These rainforests that we burn down 24/7