Answer
- What is your position on global warming, Do you think its caused by humans, why or why not?
Yes, global warming is caused mostly by human behavior, for example cutting down forests to create farms or pastures, or for other reasons, causes emissions, since trees, when they are cut, release the carbon they have been storing. Since forests absorb carbon dioxide, destroying them also limits nature’s ability to keep emissions out of the atmosphere.
- Do you think we are taking appropriate action to combat the effects of global warming? why or why not.
Most people are trying to reduce global warming, they do this by re-using and recycling un-degradable materials like plastic instead of burning it.
Many people still plant trees so that these trees can absorb CO2 on the atmosphere, reducing global warming.
- Include background information on global warming, include causes and effects. Include scientific evidence
1. What is global warming?
Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's climate system.
2. Causes of global warming
Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface. Normally this radiation would escape into space, but these pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. These heat-trapping pollutants—specifically carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and synthetic fluorinated gases—are known as greenhouse gases, and their impact is called the greenhouse effect.
Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas causes a large chunk of global emissions. Most electricity is still produced from fossil fuels; only about a quarter comes from wind, solar and other renewable sources.
Manufacturing and industry produce emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels to produce energy for making things like cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes and other goods. Mining and other industrial processes also release gases.
Scientists have examined greenhouse gases in the context of the past. Analysis of air trapped inside ice that has been accumulating over time in Antarctica shows that the CO2 concentration began to increase significantly in the 19th century, after staying in the range of 260 to 280 ppm for the previous 10,000 years. Ice core records extending back 800,000 years show that during that time, CO2 concentrations remained within the range of 170 to 300 ppm throughout many “ice age” cycles, and no concentration above 300 ppm is seen in ice core records until the past 200 years.