-
Essay / Investigating the Consequences of Climate Change
In 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius published a new idea that when humans burned fossil fuels such as coal, it would increase the average temperature of the planet, because it would add carbon dioxide to Earth's atmosphere. atmosphere. This “greenhouse effect” was just one of many theories about climate change, but not the most logical. Scientists have found reason to argue that these emissions could not change the climate, the main belief being that humanity, on such a small scale, could never have an effect on something as vast as the climatic cycles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Past ice ages have proven that the climate can change dramatically across the entire planet, which seemed beyond belief what humanity could provoke. In the 1930s, people realized that the United States and the North Atlantic region had warmed significantly over the previous half century, which scientists thought was just one phase of a gentle natural cycle. Only the enthusiast GS Callendar insisted that greenhouse warming was occurring. In the 1950s, Callendar's claims prompted some scientists to look into the subject, and new studies showed that carbon dioxide could indeed be accumulating in the atmosphere and should cause warming. By 1960, evidence that gas levels were rising year by year began to open eyes to the problem. Others have found ways to recover past temperatures by studying ancient pollens and fossil shells. It seemed that climate change could happen, as it had in the past, in just a few centuries. In the early 1970s, the rise of environmentalism fueled public doubts about man's positive effects on the planet. Curiosity quickly turned to worry. Along with the greenhouse effect, some scientists have pointed out that human activity releases dust and smog particles into the atmosphere, where they can block sunlight and cause the planet's temperature to drop, which was supported by an analysis of Northern Hemisphere weather statistics showing cooling. a trend that had begun in the 1940s. After a few years, warnings of a new ice age were abandoned as only a few scientists supported this theory, and attention now turned to global warming. Evidence of huge temperature changes has been found when drilling the Greenland ice sheet, and it did so abruptly. Significantly improved computer models began to suggest how such large temperature changes could occur, for example through a change in the circulation of ocean currents. Experts predicted droughts, storms, sea level rise and other disasters linked to global warming. An unexpected discovery was that the level of methane and some other gases was increasing, which would seriously worsen global warming. Some of these gases also degraded the atmosphere's protective ozone layer, and the news stoked public concerns about the fragility of the atmosphere. Additionally, in the late 1970s, global temperatures began to rise again and public concern began again with the arrival of the summer of 1988, which was the hottest..