Climate Change And Synthesis Essay

430 Words2 Pages

Throughout history Earth`s climate has changed a lot, and there is a lot of evidence that shows how humans have contributed to this changed and effected the Earth. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advances, the increase in the thickness and area of a glacier. As well as glacial retreats, a condition occurring when backward melting at the front of a glacier takes place at a rate exceeding forward motion. Most climate changes are attributed to very small variations in the earth`s orbit, that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives. The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history. 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, according to Nasa and the National …show more content…

Human activities contribute to climate change by causing changes in Earth`s atmosphere in the amounts of greenhouse gases. Since the start of the industrial era (about 1750) the overall effect of human activities on climate has been a warming influence. The United States is the second biggest contributor of CO2 in our environment, however it is home to only 4.4 percent of the total population. In the event that everybody on the planet lived the way individuals do in the U.S., it would take four Earths to give enough assets to everybody. In many ways over time the effect that humans have on the climate is very bad and very dangerous. Arguably the most significant thing humans have done to cause climate change is the drastic increase in CO2. As a result of human activities, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and the halocarbons (a group of gases containing fluorine, chlorine, and bromine) build up in the atmosphere over time, as well as the natural sources of CO2, like vegetation. The concentration ofCO2 has went from 280 to more than 380 parts per million in just two hundred years. Still currently rising, the burning of fossil fuels by humans will continue to cause global warming and climate