Global Warming: Cause and Mitigation

Global Warming Cause and Mitigation
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Climate change is evidenced through shifts in the weather patterns such as winds, humidity and temperatures over certain durations. Natural climate changes occur less frequently and they are triggered by factors related geographical aspects as well as solar radiation. The earth’s movement on the orbit triggers changes in climate causing some areas to have higher temperatures than usual while others are significantly cold depending on the position of the earth on the orbit. The heat form the sun causes changes on the stratospheric ozone and it increases the amount of greenhouse gases. Heat from the oceanic crust also contributes to warming as a result of episodic hydrothermal venting (Liao & Sandeberg, 2012). Volcanic activity also causes a release of certain elements that may block the sun and also contribute to increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Anthropogenic climate changes occur as a result of human interactions with the environment. The most destructive human contribution to climate change is fossil fuels combustion, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons levels in the atmosphere cause an imbalance in the earth’s energy. This is because the gases alter solar radiation and thermal radiation which regulate the earth’s energy. Research indicates that anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the increased global warming over the last fifty years. 57 % of the carbon dioxide emitted is absorbed into the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed into the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most central greenhouse gas that is associated with global warming (Eby, Zickfield, Montenegro, Archer, Meissner, & Weaver, 2009).
Climate changes occur with changes in the solar energy which is absorbed in the atmosphere, earth’s surface and the ocean. Both human activities and natural factors contribute to the climate changes through the release of greenhouse gases. Human activities release destructive gases more frequently as compared to natural factors such as movement of land surfaces and volcanic eruptions which are less frequent.
Shifts in the average temperature in the globe causes increased changes of atmospheric circulation. This results in some parts of the globe being warmer than others. One line of evidence for the occurrence of global warming is taking place is the loss of polar ice. Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been reducing from 1979 to 2007 at a rate of 8.7 per cent. Records show a 24 percent decrease of its ice and the complete absence of ice on a part of the ocean for the first time ever in 2007. The Antarctic ice shelves have also broken with the most drastic break up occurring in Larsen B in 2002. The temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula rose by 2.5 degrees Celsius in over the past fifty years. The breakup of the ice shelves contributes to faster movement of glaciers into the ocean and the subsequent increase in sea level (Thompson, 2010).
Another line of evidence is the reducing mountain glaciers. The highest point of Mt Kilimanjaro has lost eight five percent of the ice cover since 1912. Research comparing the cover indicates that the glacier broke into two and thinned out from 9.5m to 4.7 m between 2000 and 2007. Other reports indicate that the Glaciers National Park’s glaciers have reduced to 26 from over 100 that existed in 1910 and forecast indicate that the remaining will thin out by 2030. Glaciers are thinning in other places such as in the northern Alaska Brooks range, High Asian region and the Himalayan Mountains among others (Thompson, 2010).
There is increased acidity in the ocean resulting from the increased levels of carbon dioxide emissions that are absorbed in the ocean. The upper surface of the sea absorbs two billion tons of Carbon dioxide every year and this has increased following the industrial ...