Humans are Responsible for Climate Change

 

Over the years, climate change has become a big issue in our society. It has become a topic of conversation for political figures like President Donald Trump. The temperature is hotter now compared to the 19th century (NASA). Humans have been playing a big role in climate change and it is because of some of our daily activities. Humans are the ones to blame for climate change.  More research is being done by scientists to see what other activities are done by humans affect climate change. Although, there is some scientist that do disagree with humans being the biggest cause of Climate change. The effects of climate change on our planet are very negative, it is slowly causing the destruction of our home and the home of many other species. The melting of the ice is taking the home away from some animals, the destruction of the forest is also destroying homes for many species. Climate change has also caused the rise of sea levels. You are responsible for climate change and the damage that it is doing to our planet. Human activities like riding a car are the ones causing climate change.

Scientists have been doing a lot of research on climate change. According to the results acquired by them, climate change has been caused by daily human activities like the use of cars and by putting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. These human activities cause the rise of sea levels and the deterioration of our clean air. The current level of carbon dioxide in the air is at its highest level right now. “The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere” (https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/). This has been the warmest time period that humans have lived through. The Earth has never been as warm as it is today, but the warmest year has been 2016 (https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/). Harmful gases that are in our atmosphere block heat from escaping the layers of the earth. The temperature is slowly increasing year by year to numbers that nobody has ever seen or recorded before.

There many other offices and organizations that state the same facts as NASA. The government from other countries, in this case, Canada, also agree with what NASA says about humans having to do a lot with climate change. According to the Canadian government, the biggest issue is the amount of carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels is the one causing the most damage.  Another chain of events affecting climate change is that people convert forest to agriculture (Canadian Government). The carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, can be produced by the burning of fossil fuels. With carbon dioxide is the main way in which humans are the biggest cause of climate change. The problems being faced with climate change can be like seeing the warmest year ever by a human civilization.  

If humans stop or reduce the burning of fossil fuels it can decrease the changes caused by climate change and that way it can make your planet a better place. There are ways in which humans can help to stop climate change. By stopping or reducing some of the daily activities that cause damage to our atmosphere is the best way to help avoid more issues with climate change. We need to stop causing climate change and we need to stop it now. Human is slowly destroying our home, our planet. According to a scientist like Brenda Ekwurzel, some of the hard solutions are to reduce the use of the gases and chemicals affecting climate change (UCSUSA). This will include less burning of fossil fuels and putting less carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. That would need a stop from air pollution and the contamination of our atmosphere. The requirements to be able to stop climate change are not very easy or small. These are big steps that need to be taken slowly, one at the time because it is clear that humans can’t just change the way they do things from one day to the other. Reducing the use of private transportation might put a lot of people in uncomfortable situations but that is one of the solutions to reduce climate change.  Scientists are still doing more research to see what can help stop climate change. Some of the solutions might be hard to do or might take time to get accomplished but are definitely worth it. Factories are one of the biggest cause of air pollution, fewer factories and producing things in other ways can help reduce damage to our planet. There are also other things that happen daily that cause climate change. If humans participate less on the activities causing climate change then that would have a big positive effect of reducing the damage in our air and overall atmosphere.

Before climate change came into play, the world was different because there was little to no pollution and barely any contamination in the air. This also meant that there was no such thing as rising sea level and a constant increase in the temperature. It all mostly started with the creation of cars, factories, and other things. It roughly started around the 1870s with the Industrial Revolution. Cars are also being part of the problem with climate change. With the Industrial Revolution in the 1870s the use of coal started, railroads, and the use of greenhouse gases. The amount of carbon dioxide being put into our atmosphere depends on the gallons of gas being used, “ Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas” (UCSUSA). Millions of cars go on the road every day and that is playing a big role in destroying our planet. The contamination by a gallon of gas is extremely high and it keeps increasing every day because of the fact that more cars are being put on the roads. This is one of the reasons why there is a big emphasis on why people should take public transportation instead of their private car.

Some people disagree and say that humans do not play a role in climate change.  Some scientist says that humans play very little role in the cause of climate change. They also say that the weather on our planet is constantly increasing or decreasing and that would have nothing to do with human activity. Scientist says that other things are causing climate change, “More than one thousand scientists disagree that human activity is primarily responsible for global climate change” (Climate Change). Scientists do believe that humans play a role but are not the main thing causing climate change. Scientists believe that nature plays an equal role as humans when it comes to causing changes in our planet. Nature can also be affecting our atmosphere according to some scientist. Scientist from NASA believes that the carbon dioxide produced by humans is absorbed through nature and that it is not affecting our atmosphere. Scientist believe that the carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere is not affecting climate change, “Human-produced CO2 is re-absorbed by oceans, forests, and other “carbon sinks,” negating any climate changes” (Climate change). According to them, about half of the carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere is immediately absorbed. Scientists argue that the carbon dioxide being put into our atmosphere by humans is not having the big impact that other scientist claim.

A lot of scientists disagree with the ones that say that humans are not responsible for the causing of climate change. Ilissa Ocko, a climate Scientist says, “Scientists are more confident than ever that humans are causing global warming” (Ocko, Paragraph 7).  It makes sense after the provided information by scientist that humans do play a big role in causing Climate change. Most of the research has consisted of constant measurement of the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere. They have also been observing the changes in temperature around the earth and they have said that there has been a lot of changes due to human activity. This supports the point that humans are the ones mostly responsible for causing climate change and that daily human activity are affecting our planet in a negative way. It will take a long time to take all of humanity to stop some of their daily activities that are putting our planet in danger. But after humans stop hurting our planet with some of their daily activities, then our planet will be a better place to live in.

Without the daily human activities like using cars, causing greenhouse gases our planet would be in better condition right now. All research was done by scientist lead to the same answer, humans being responsible for climate change. The causes of climate change were never expected to be so high and we have already passed the expectations. Doctor Gavin Schmidt,  the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies writes, “Unfortunately, with current trends, we are likely to cross this threshold within the next two decades because we are already two-thirds of the way there” (Schmidt, Paragraph 1). The expectations for climate change were never this high, humanity has been having a negative effect on climate change. With more pollution, more contamination and more CO2 in the atmosphere climate change is going to keep getting worse. The warmer the planet gets, the more it affects the sea levels. The annual rise of the sea for the past twenty years has been around 0.13 inches according to National Geographic. Climate change is going to keep getting worse and it will continuously have negative effects on our planet.

Climate change is slowly destroying our planet. Climate change is very important because is one the things causing the most damage to our atmosphere and we are the ones causing it. Human activity has a lot to do with what happens with our planet, a lot of daily activities are. Pollution, other contaminations and putting carbon dioxide is making our planet dangerous and it’s not a safe place anymore. The rise of sea levels and contamination of the air are caused by climate change. By stopping climate change, we can also stop the rise of sea levels and that  If humans were to change some of the things that we do daily, then we would slowly stop climate change in our planet. Using fewer cars would be a great way to start taking care of our planet. The gases put into our atmosphere just reach a larger number every day. Therefore, step by step we can slowly start making our planet a better place for all with fewer contaminations, and less air pollution and less overall damage. More research is being done by scientist to see in what other ways climate change is occurring and in what ways we can stop it.

Works Cited

European Commission. “Causes of Climate Change.” Together Against Trafficking in Human Beings, 28 June 2017. Web.

ProCon.org. “Climate Change ProCon.org.” Is Human Activity a Substantial Cause of Global Climate Change?, Oct. 2018. Web.

Canadian Government. “Causes of Climate Change.” Canada.ca, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 27 Nov. 2015. Web.

Union of Concerned Scientist. “How Do We Know That Humans Are the Major Cause of Global Warming?”. Union of Concerned Scientists. 1 Aug. 2017. Web.

Ocko, Ilissa. “9 Ways We Know Humans Triggered Climate Change.” Environmental Defense Fund, 2017. Web.

Schmidt, Gavin. “How Scientists Cracked the Climate Change Case.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2018

NASA. “Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth.” NASA, NASA, 8 Aug. 2018. Web.

National Geographic. Sea Level Rise.” National Geographic, National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2017. Web.

U.S Global Change Research Program. “Understand Climate Change.” GlobalChange.gov. 2018. Web.

Union of Concerned Scientist. “Car Emissions and Global Warming.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017. Web