Global Warming Is Real And People Are Causing It

Humans are causing global warming and it needs to be stopped. First of all, Earth’s climate is rising. Second, we are the ones causing it. Third the Earth’s rising temperature could outcome worse than you expect. You may think it’s not real but it is, and something needs to be done.

Research has been done showing that Earth’s climate is warmer than a century ago. The amount of CO2 is also rising. There used to have about 0.03% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is a good a good thing. If the Earth had no carbon dioxide then it would be a giant snowball. If the Earth had 0.06% carbon dioxide then it would it would be extremely hot and could not support life at all. Now the Earth has over 0.035% carbon dioxide, which is more than before. You may be thinking, “What does the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere have to do with the climate?” It’s called the greenhouse effect. When a star’s rays hit a planet’s surface, they bounce back, making the rays go back into space. When there is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it makes some of the rays go back to the planet. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the less rays go back into space, and the hotter the planet is. Scientists estimate that if humans keep putting greenhouse gasses into the air as they are now the climate will keep rising and rising so much it could become irreversible. The high temperature is also melting the polar ice caps at the poles. I’ll talk about that later though.

How do we know that humans are causing the CO2 levels and the climate to rise? Volcanoes spew out 500 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, but that is nothing compared to the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide humans make every year. Not only that but there is a difference between volcanic CO2, and car and factory CO2. Volcanic CO2 is heavier than CO2 made by burning fossil fuels. So we know it’s humans. What we also know is that the climate started rising in the 20th century (the 1900s), just when burning fossil fuels started becoming popular. Well maybe it’s the sun that’s causing global warming. Nope, the sun’s solar energy output hasn't changed. Also, the Earth is warming more at night than at day, and more at winter than at summer. Which is the exact opposite of what the sun would do. If people started becoming more aware of what’s happening, than maybe people will change their ways. The bad thing is, carbon dioxide is invisible, but if we could see carbon dioxide, we would be seeing it around us everywhere. In places like New York and other big cities would be filled with it. You would see tons of it floating up from every car. And places with lots of factories, you would see clouds of carbon dioxide continuously coming from each of them.

The thing is though, there is another factor in global warming. There is a thing called positive feedback. Positive feedback is when something gets hot, and then causing things to get even hotter. For example, the polar ice caps are melting, but you may be asking, “Who cares if the polar ice caps melt?” But melting the polar ice caps make less ice, more water. Water is very dark and absorbs heat, keeping heat trapped in the Earth. Ice is very bright, reflecting most light. The increase in water causes the Earth to get even hotter, while there’s less ice to reflect the heat back to space, but the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more it’s going to make the reflected heat from the ice go back to earth, making it hotter. Therefor melting even more ice, making it even hotter. If you want to know what the Earth will be like if humans keep this up, think of Venus. Venus used to be just like Earth, but its CO2 levels naturally went out of control, and now it’s so bad it would never be able to support life. The reason that happened to Venus, is because it lost it’s ocean to space long ago, and without any water at all, the carbon couldn't be harvested by microscopic algae. That’s why it happened naturally. The Earth’s rise in carbon dioxide isn't happening naturally though. It’s happening because humans are too lazy and skeptical that they won’t even think about what they are doing to the Earth. If you don’t believe me, believe Channel One, believe Carl Sagan, believe all those scientists who spent years studying this.

Last winter was one of the coldest winters in a while. It snowed in St. George, and Santa Clara had snow on the ground for over a week. But there is a difference between climate and weather. Climate is the overall temperature over all the Earth. Weather is unpredictable, weather is like a dog on a leash. You never know what might interest the dog, he could go left and right but he is always with the owner. Look at the owner, not the dog.

Global Warming is real. Earth’s climate is rising, and humans are the ones causing it to rise. Even the people who don’t believe in global warming could at least think this, “If global warming isn’t real then that’s great, but what if it is. What if it turns out it is real and the all the species on the Earth are wiped out because of us.” So why take the chance? There has been a known solution to this whole problem since 1878, Solar energy. The sun gives out more energy than we will ever need, so if we start using solar energy instead of fossil fuels, it would be cheaper, easier, and not wreck life on Earth.