It's All Our Fault

Have you ever had the experience of standing in the sun for so long that you feel like your are about to pass out any minute? According to statistics provided by the University of Memphis, approximately 300 people die each year on average from exposure to heat. This number of death due to heat may increase greatly each year due to global warming. This is an alarm for us to take the changes in our planet more seriously. In this post, we are going to inform you about the causes of the changes in the planet we depend on.

CO2 emissions due to fossil fuel burning (blue line and right axis) from 1800 to 2006 and atmospheric CO2 concentrations (red line and left axis) from 1847 to 2008.
Based on data from Boden et al. (2009), Keeling et al. (2009), and Neftel et al. (1994)

Global warming is the increase in earth’s average temperature over the entire earth surface.  The occurrence of global warming has gained the attention and concerns of many scientists all around the world today. The main cause of rise in the earth’s average temperature is the increase in large amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the earth’s atmosphere. This carbon dioxide is all from us, the humans. Since the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, the humans have been emitting increasing amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels in numerous human activities, such as manufacturing factories.

http://on.natgeo.com/aQ75g9

According to the NASA Earth Observatory, the earth’s surface temperature has risen from 0.6 to 0.9°C, which is equivalent to 1.1 to 1.6°F, since the beginning of 20th century. The rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. (http://1.usa.gov/b0KDVn) . The increase in the earth’s temperature is not obvious, so many people overlook it. However, a slight increase in the earth’s temperature may cause many changes in the world we have today. These changes include the melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels, and severe weather patterns. The melting ice caps could create large amount of freshwater into the ocean and cause a rise in sea level. According to the National Academic Press, sea level could rise from 2.5 to 6.5 feet (0.8 to 2 meters) by the year of 2100.  Global warming also leads to climate change. There could be intense rainfall or drought in different regions across the world. Hot days and nights may become warmer and more frequently, which many cause destruction in the ecosystem and other environmental systems.

Worldwide projected changes in temperatures, relative to 1961-1990 averages, under three different emissions scenarios (rows) for three different time periods (columns). SOURCE: Meehl et al. (2007a)

    All in all, the accelerating global warming occurrence is mainly caused by most of human activities on the planet. In our next post, we are going to inform you about the effects of going green and how every action from you can make a difference for our planet.