Essay "Climate Change: Causes and Effects"

 

  Nowadays, climate change has become one of the most important problems of humanity. Climate change manifests itself in different ways. Record floods, raging storms, deadly heat and other natural disasters. So what causes and effects of climate change?

  A variety of factors both natural and human can influence the earth’s climate system.

  Firstly, as we all know the earth has gone through warm and cool phases in the past and long before humans were around. Forces that contribute to climate change include the sun’s intensity, volcanic eruptions, and changes in naturally occurring greenhouse gas concentrations.

  But records indicate that today’s climatic warming is occurring much faster than ever before and can’t be explained by natural causes alone. According to NASA «These natural causes are still in play today but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades»

  Secondly, human creates a much greater impact on climate change. The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas for electricity, heat, and transportation is the primary source of human-generated emissions. A second major source is deforestation which releases sequestered carbon into the air. It’s estimated that logging, clear-cutting, fires, and other forms of forest degradation contribute up to 20 percent of global carbon emissions. Activities like agriculture and road construction can change the reflectivity of the earth’s surface leading to local warming or cooling, too.

  As an argument, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides «have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.» Though our planet’s forests and oceans absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and other processes, these natural carbon sinks can’t keep up with our rising emissions.

  The second part of the problem is consequences of climate change caused by people in most cases. Higher temperatures worsen and increase the frequency of many types of disasters, including storms, floods, heat waves, and droughts. Air gets dirtier with smog and soot levels going up. As Arctic`s ice sheets melt into the seas, our oceans are on track to rise one to four feet higher by 2100, threatening coastal ecosystems and low-lying areas. Acidification of oceans poses a serious threat to underwater life, particularly creatures with calcified shells or skeletons like oysters, clams, and coral. According to the World Health Organization, «climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year» between 2030 and 2050. As global temperatures rise, so do the number of fatalities and illnesses from heat stress, heatstroke, and cardiovascular and kidney disease.

  As a conclusion, global climate change is a serious problem which make risks for whole life on the planet. All people around the world should set themselves a goal associated with solving this issue. We can mitigate global climate change by using alternative sources of energy, prohibition of deforestation, cleaning seas and oceans, reducing air emissions etc.