Behavioral Changes: Reducing the Effects
Behavioral Changes: Reducing the Effects of Global Climate Change
Introduction – What is Global Warming?
The world's climate has been changing since the late 19th century and it has been changing dramatically for the past fifty years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting around the world, the ice cap in the Arctic is melting, ocean temperatures are slowly rising, sea levels are rising around the world, and there are dramatic changes being witnessed in the way the world's plants and animals are responding to the rise in temperatures.
The EPA explains that the greenhouse effect is at the heart of the global warming issue. It is perfectly natural for the sun to heat the earth, and a good share of that heat is then trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by clouds (water vapor and carbon dioxide). However the activities of humans have added greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in heavy amounts, which has been one of the main drivers of global warming, the EPA continues. The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas contribute mightily to excessive greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Those gases are trapped in the atmosphere and result in the fact that the earth's temperature has risen by 1.3°F over the last 100 years.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organizations founded by the United Nations that includes over 100 scientists from all parts of the world, presents frequent updated empirical data on the issue. The data from the IPCC that shows that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from a "pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm (parts per million) to 379 ppm in 2005 (IPCC). The bottom line is – notwithstanding some media commentators and a few elected officials that have either been influenced by the right wing propaganda that denies global warming or are simply out of touch – global warming is very real. Global climate change has been proven through rigorous empirical research conducted by thousands of scientists worldwide, and global warming indeed poses an enormous threat to the planet.