Controversies in Science/Are humans causing global warming/A Critique of Global warming and long term climatic changes: a progress report.
(Review Paper) Cited in Controversies in Science/Are humans causing global warming/A Critique of Global warming and long term climatic changes: a progress report.
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have little impact in the warming of the earth.[edit | edit source]
CO2 is the major studied gas that is responsible for the heating of our planet. Humans contribute to the CO2 production but in comparison, the environmental contributions are higher in volume compared to the humans. The increase of concentration of those gases in the atmosphere accelerates the rate of climate change. [1]
Methods[edit | edit source]
The scientists took several different measurements including the comparison of the emissions of CO2 produced by people and by the natural environment, used the mathematical equation to demonstrate the negligible effect that humans have on temperature, gave credible examples of natural sources of gargantuan CO2 emissions and also showed that methane plays an equal or greater role in global warming than CO2. The human level of CO2 was 5.7 billion tonnes a year and the volcano activity releases 20 to 23 billion tonnes of CO2 a year[1].
Results[edit | edit source]
Most of the CO2 that is caused by humans is absorbed by living matter (plants, for example, need CO2 to survive). The CO2 that is released by underwater volcanoes is absorbed by the ocean water. When temperatures rise, the water evaporates, and the CO2 is therefore released back into the atmosphere. Since the CO2 levels that are caused by natural processes are 50-60 times higher than the levels caused by humans, humans cannot be completely responsible for the greenhouse effect[1].
The researchers took the equation ∆T = (T*a*∆p)
After plugging in T=288 K, a =0.1905, and ∆p=1.48•10^-4 atm into the equation, the result was ∆T= 8.12•10^-3K.
The implication of this is that the increase in the surface temperature of the earth at sea level elevation caused by human CO2 contributions will be < 0.01 K, which is tiny in comparison to the natural fluctuations of the global temperature.
Global surface temperatures are linked with solar activity. The earth absorbs more radiation due to higher solar activity. The result is hotter temperatures on earth and warming of the atmosphere. Over time scientists have concluded that the historical scale shows that carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is due to the radiation of the sun. The temperature changes causes the greater concentration of carbon dioxide.[1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Khilyuk, L., & Chilingar, G. (2004). Global warming and long term climatic changes: a progress report. environmental geology, 46(6), 970-979. Retrieved on March 8, 2011 from http://www.greencropnetwork.com/media/pdf/webcourse/lecture4-reading%202.pdf