Human Activity Cause Global Warming?

¶ … Human Activity Cause Global Warming?

SCI 102 Lab Report Template (Save as: YourName_Module#_Report.doc)

Does the data available about the earth's average temperatures support the contention that the earth is getting warmer? Do the temperature data and data about carbon dioxide and fossil fuel emissions suggest that the warming trend is due to greenhouse gases, and is related to human activities?

Overall, the existing data available supports the contention that the earth is getting warmer, and the preponderance of the evidence suggests it is due to human-related causes.

Global warming is one of the most contentious scientific issues of modern times. Until recently, many individuals disputed that the earth was getting warmer at all. Now, it is hard to deny that almost all existing evidence indicates that the earth's temperatures are steadily increasing. But the controversy rages on: whether climate change is due to man-made interference in the environment through industrialization is still a politically-charged issue. However, most scientists think that the debate, factually speaking is decided.

The question of causality is critical in the global warming debate, given that there is little human beings can do at present to alter the climate if the warming trend is part of a natural environmental change, as occurred in the opposite direction during the Ice Age. However, if the modern lifestyle of cars, industrial production, and heavy fossil fuel consumption is at the root of the phenomena, it is incumbent -- morally and logistically -- that human beings alter their lifestyles to improve the fate of the planet for future generations. "Because a warmer climate means more evaporation of water from land and oceans" this would result in "longer and more severe droughts in some areas and more flooding in others…because a warmer world means the continued melting of glaciers and polar ice, it leads to rising sea levels -- which threaten places prone to flooding, as well as places vulnerable to sea surges during hurricanes" (Kakutani 2010).

However, members of the developing world argue that limits upon industrial growth are unfair, given they have not enjoyed the economic and lifestyle benefits of industrialization like the West. According to the New York Times, "At the heart of the international debate is a momentous tussle between rich and poor countries over who steps up first and who pays most for changed energy menus" ("Global Warming," Times Topics, 2010). There are also influential political interests in various industries who are lobbying Congress to promote data that indicates climate change is not related to human activity.

The lab experiments support the human origins of global warming through comparing average temperatures and fuel emissions over the course of the industrial era and beforehand.

Materials and Methods:

The methodology of the study was to examine the standard deviation of temperatures spanning from 1860 (the beginnings of the industrial revolution) to 2000. Negative values represent a cooler deviation from the norm, and positive values represent a warmer deviation from the norm. Until the turn of the century, deviations were trending lower, when suddenly they began to increase around 1980 (Step 2, p.1).

Of course, the problem with such data is that climactic averages have only been tracked relatively recently. However, projected past data suggests the previous 1,000 years were characterized by a general cooling trend, making the current trend in the wake of industrialization anomalous (Step 2, p.4). Carbon dioxide emissions have also been increasing stratospherically rising since 1960, and the most notable rise in temperature occurred around 1980, along with a sharp spike in the earth's temperatures.

Results:

The correlation between rising carbon dioxide emissions and the overall increase of the earth's temperature in the past fifty years indicates that human-generated activities are at the root of global warming.