Causes of Global Warming in the Past

Causes of Global Warming

In the past twenty (20) years, human society has consumed and emitted yearly total emissions of about 6 billion metric tons of "carbon dioxide equivalent" gases worldwide, according to National Geographic (2011). These yearly emissions may seem irrelevant as a number, but this is the amount of gases emitted that contributed to the worsening condition of global warming in the world today. Global warming has so far resulted to the alarming and gradual climate change happening in most parts of the world today. Summer time could be shortened because of global warming, followed by a period of strong rains in unexpected seasons. Harvest period for farmers are significantly changed as a result of unexpected draughts or shorter periods of rain in another part of the country. What was expected as rain turned out to be a shower of hail stones. These are just observed changes in the climate and environment that inadvertently affects every aspect of our lives: food supply and demand and topography change, among many others.

Critical to understand, then, is what causes global warming. Over the years, studies have shown that several factors significantly contributed to this worsening 'event' in human history, citing land use change, sulfate aerosols and black carbon, and greenhouse gases as main culprits. However, with recent political events that aimed to provide concerted efforts to alleviate the effects of global warming, the United Nations-formed group International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has established that scientifically, that the "gas responsible for the most global warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2" (National Geographic, 2011: para 3). The discussions that follow provide support on the major and minor causes of global warming.

Among the minor causes of global warming mentioned are sulfate aerosols and black carbon, and land use change. The first minor cause of global warming is when land is used or changed in such a way that carbon dioxide is eventually released in the atmosphere. Release of carbon dioxide in land use could either be through burning or removal of vegetation in the land, potentially releasing carbon dioxide that has been stored in it for some time. Other minor causes of global warming are sulfate aerosols and black carbon. Sulfate aerosols are primarily released to the atmosphere through industrial activities, as a result of the "burning of fossil fuels containing sulfur." Black carbon, meanwhile, is another industrial manufacturing-generated by-product, released from any of the following sources: industrial pollution, traffic, outdoor fires, and burning of coal and biomass (CCIR-NY, 2005).