Human Destruction of the Planet

Introduction

Even though skeptics believe alarmists cause panic about global warming to receive more funding, evidence of human contribution is prevailing everyday. The temperature is rising all around the globe, this rise in the temperature is causing climate changes. Melting ice bergs, rising sea levels, flooding, unpredictable weather activity; what is the cause for this? Some scientists and others believe it is caused by the release of gases in the air. When fossil fuels are burned, which are used to produce coal, natural gas, and crude oil; it releases carbon dioxide in the air, most of this carbon is emitted from automobiles that are driven daily by billions of people. Signs of global warming have become more apparent every year, many catastrophic and disastrous events have occurred across the world. Some scientists use these events to cause alarm; by causing people to panic they can lobby for more government funding. Anti alarmists believe those same facts are not enough evidence to cause such an alarm. However, it is evident that each year billions of tons of pollutants are emitted into the air from sources created by human activity. Products that are produced from crude oil include: gasoline, plastics, and some fabrics to name a few. Fossil fuels have become such a way of life, humans can't help but to continue to destroy the planet, or not. There are several different things that can be done to change the way we use energy, conserving instead of wasting is a great start.

I. Increasing temperatures has been the very cause of earths' climate change.

First lets' exam and understand what's happening to our precious planet. Global warming is basically the warming of the earths' surface and atmosphere. While the ozone is much warmer than normal this causes the temperature to rise and creates unpredictable weather activity around the world. Increasing temperatures has been the very cause of earths' climate change; this is due to what is known as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is the trapping of greenhouse gases which is "the presence of water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and certain other gases in the air" (Encyclopedia Britannica 2009). What happen here is as the sun heat up the earth, the earth radiates some of this heat back into space in the form of radiation, and these gases absorb the radiation thus heating up the atmosphere.

The most important and widely recognized greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon Dioxide plays a major part in our economy, and in our daily lives, it is emitted from things like automobiles and home appliances. Most of earths' climate change has been due to burning fossil fuels. "For over the past 200 years, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and deforestation has caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere". (EPA 2009) As the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the air increases, it has major effects on the climate. Recent effects on the climate have been temperature changes, melting icebergs, rising sea levels, El Niño effect, and drought.

Climate change is measured over a period of time dating back to the ice age. When the earths temperature began to rise during the ice age it was gradually over a few thousand years. But since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800's changes in the climate and the atmosphere has been steady and rapid. It has become a proven fact that the globe is indeed warming, the true problem is how fast warming is occurring. According to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis, "2008 was the coolest year since 2000 and the ninth warmest year in the period of instrumental measurement". "The top ten warmest years have all occurred within the 12-year period 1997-2008" (Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis, 2009).

II. Global warming has been caused by pollutants released in the air.

Air pollution may have been started thousands of years ago when fires were started inside of caves. The most dominant air pollutant found around the world is carbon monoxide; this pollutant is released in the atmosphere in high concentrations. The majority of this pollution come from automobiles which emits carbon monoxide. Plants and other vegetation absorbs the carbon and convert it back into oxygen. Research has proven global warming has been caused by greenhouse gasses released in the air, major cities and wealthy nations use a mass amount of energy that emits greenhouse gas. These greenhouse gases are released from using and burning non renewable energy such as fossil fuels. Human dependence on energy affects everything around us from aquatic to atmospheric. "In 2007, coal generated the largest amount of electricity setting a new record for coal-fired generation." (Energy Information Administration, May 2009). This is only a fraction of how our energy production depletes the ecosystem.

Human activity releases green house gases in the air on a daily basis via automobiles, factories, home appliances, and industrial plants. Increased amounts of carbon dioxide levels alter temperature and weather patterns, causing multiple climatic issues. Some wealthy countries like China may only represent 7 to 8 percent of the world population but will produce over 20% of carbon dioxide emission. This type of activity across the continent affects the entire planet; there are droughts in China, flooding in Alaska, and the water supply is threatened in some places due to shrinking glaciers.

III. The claims scientists speak about global warming are misleading.

Not everyone believes the warming of the atmosphere is causing abnormal weather activities. Instead they are saying the claims scientists speak about global warming are misleading and misunderstood. Is there some truth to this? How can a slight increase in the temperature really be accepted as the reason for the current events with the weather? These events range from hurricanes to heavy snow storms; and all other weather catastrophes are being blamed on the combustion of fossil fuels. So one has to wonder how it is possible for gases to be trapped in the big open sky. It seems like anything released in the air should go directly into space. These are some of the issues people have with believing global warming is causing havoc. It is said the claims about global warming are unsupported and using unsupported claims about global warming has caused alarm.

The facts that alarmist are basing their evidence on are the rise in the temperature around the world, and the increase of carbon monoxide levels