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Climate Change Response And Current Conditions Essay

Scientific researchers analyze the climatic conditions of our planet and how they shift through diverse means, relying on historic, instrumental, environmental and satellite reports. The latter has been utilized only in the past two decades or so, while instrumental reports’ earliest employment can be traced back to nineteenth-century scientific scholars. The relatively short lifespan of instrumental- and satellite- based information in comparison to our planet’s life poses a challenge, though ("How Do Scientists Study Ancient Climates?” 2017). In order for extending these records, paleoclimatologists attempt to seek hints inherent within the planet’s natural environment records. One may be able to acquire clues regarding prior climatic conditions from sediments deposited on the ocean floor, and within coral reefs, ice caps, tree rings, and glaciers. All the aforementioned naturally-found recorders offer researchers data pertaining to climatic aspects like temperature and precipitation. Several such recorders possess features like layers, rings or bands, which denote a definite time period (typically one growing season or year) ("How Do Scientists Study Ancient Climates?” 2017). These layers possess varying thickness, chemical makeup, color, etc., facilitating extrapolation of climatic data linked to the time of formation of individual layers. This is followed by acquisition of similar natural records...

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When energy from the Sun enters our planet’s atmosphere, a certain amount of it reflects back into space, while the remaining gets absorbed and radiated once again by gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, fluorinated gases and nitrous oxide (these gases have been labeled ‘greenhouse gases’). Most global emissions are the result of transportation, electric power generation, and the generation and utilization of other energy forms (Lallanilla, 2017). The earth is bombarded with enormous huge quantities of solar radiation that strike the atmosphere as visible light, infrared radiations, ultraviolet radiations and similar forms of radiation not visible to the naked eye.
Methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrous oxide constitute the most important greenhouse gases. The other class of greenhouse gases mentioned above, namely fluorinated gases, encompass hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and perfluorocarbons, formed in the course of industrial processes. Despite being present in rather small concentrations, these gases are able to effectively trap heat, thereby rendering them as having elevated GWP (global-warming potential). CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons that are utilized in the…

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References

How Do Scientists Study Ancient Climates? | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) formerly known as National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). (2017). Ncdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 1 January 2018, from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/how-do-scientists-study-ancient-climates

Indicators of climate change. (2017). Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 1 January 2018, from http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/climate-science-data/climate-science/understanding-climate-change/indicators

Lallanilla, M. (2017). Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Causes & Sources. Live Science. Retrieved 1 January 2018, from https://www.livescience.com/37821-greenhouse-gases.html


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