The term Global Warming is used to refer to a rise in earth’s average surface temperature. This rise in temperature is due to human activities like the burning of fossil fuel, industrialization etc, which releases gases like carbon dioxide CO2, Methane CH4 and Nitrous Oxide N2O, which are also called green house gases. More than prescribed concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere traps the heat from the Sun, preventing it to escape the earth’s surface, ultimately causing a temperature rise. This effect is called Green house effect. This change in earth’s temperature results in a unexpected climatic changes. Heavy down pours, droughts and a shift in monsoon is experienced at several locations.
We are providing below short and long essay on Global Warming and Climate Change in English.
The essays have been written in simple yet effective English language to make them easily memorable and presentable when needed.
After going through the essays you will know what green house effect is, what are its causes and impacts, how does green house effect causes climate change etc.
These Global Warming and Climate Change essay will prove extremely useful in your school/college assignments where you are required to write an essay, take part in debate or give a speech on the subject.
The whole climate of the world is changing regularly because of the increasing global warming by the natural means and human activities. All the changes have an enormous impact on the people’s lives and ecosystems. The average global temperature has been raised by 1 degree in the last 30 years.
It has been reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that average global temperature can be raised by 2 to 8.6 degrees F by 2100. The rate in increasing global temperature is because of the increasing emissions of heat-trapping gases called green house gases in the atmosphere.
Climate change on the earth is partially takes place by the natural cycles of Earth however currently human activities are still major source of climate change. Increasing level of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide brings more heat to the earth as they have ability to absorb and emit heat in the atmosphere and thus keep earth warm. Some of the dangerous human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, technological inventions, etc are adding more toxic greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. All the greenhouse gases make temperature of earth to increase at higher rate which is not in the favour of life of human beings, animal and plants.
A huge level of climate change disturbs the balance of the global ecosystem as well as increases health risks and more heat-related injuries and deaths. Rising sea levels is a also an example of climate change due to the global warming which in turn causes flood, drought, promotes danger of malaria and other parasites.
There are many reasons of climate change including natural cycles of earth however the major contributors of the climate change is global warming. Many human activities and technological development in the world are forcing the greenhouse gases to increase and getting collected to the atmosphere which in turn makes the earth surrounding hot and warm by increasing the temperature of the environment in fast and easy way. Other climate change like rise sea level causes flood which gives rise to malaria and other parasites, increasing coastal erosion, destroying people’s homes in coastal states and so many.
Higher temperature causes problems to the existence of life on this planet even many important species of the plants and animals have been endangered. Longer and severe heat waves of the environment cause more heat-related injuries and higher atmospheric temperature increase rate of water evaporation from smaller water bodies.
The ever rising temperature has different effects in different regions like in some areas it raise water levels and in some areas it decrease water levels. Freshwater availability is declining all over the world which is a vital resource of life on this planet. In such a hot environment, it is very hard to grow some crops like corn production may reduced by 10 to 30% if the temperature rises by 3.6 degree Fahrenheit.
Climatic changes have become more prominent now because of the global warming which is a global concern. Both are hot issues of the current time and it is the time to analyse causes and prevention methods to prevent the global warming. The release of various green house gases in the atmosphere by many natural means and human activities causes increase in atmospheric temperature because such gases have capability to absorb all the heat of environment from sun, burning coal, etc. Such gases never let sun rays to go back to the atmosphere however trap heat from them.
Increase in atmospheric temperature causes many climate changes like increase in sea level, flood, drought, weather changes, increase summer season, decrease winter season, melting glaciers, increase death rate, increase number of disease, declining ozone layer and other so many climate changes. Fossil fuels burning release more carbon dioxide which is increasing day by day because of deforestation. Plants are the main source to utilize carbon dioxide as a food however we are disturbing the natural cycle by cutting more plants.
Burning coal, oil and natural gases are the main cause of global warming. CO2 gas acts as a blanket which retains environmental heat and warms the earth’s surface. The level of carbon dioxide has become increased to a great level in last century. The earth surface has become successively warmer than ever in the last three decades. Each month is becoming warmer than ever which we can feel very clearly. This increasing heat affecting the lives of human beings, plants and animals even many species have been endangered.
There are many reasons behind climate change, some are natural and some are human activities. Climate change is not area or region specific, it s changing all through the world. Climate change occurs when atmospheric temperatures increase a lot which in turn causes many different changes to the earth such as more floods, intense rain, droughts, increase in rate of more frequent and severe heat waves, increase level of oceans, melting glaciers, warming oceans, sea water becoming more acidic, and so many. All these changes may become more frequent in the future decades and hugely challenge the society and environment.
In the few past centuries, human activities have increased the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide including other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Most of the green house gases come from burning fossil fuels which work as blanket around the earth and trap all the energy and heat available in the atmosphere and thus warm the earth surface. This effect is called as the greenhouse effect which triggers climate to change to the huge level and result in dangerous effects to the lives and ecosystems.
Such a warmer climate affects the availability of natural water supplies, crop production, agriculture, natural environment, safety, security, etc. Such huge climate changes are unavoidable however cannot be stopped at once.
Global warming has really affected and forced the climate to change over the last century throughout the world. Unusual increase in the earth’s average temperature is because of the high amount of greenhouse gases release due to burning fossil fuels and other human activities. Some of the green house gases having more influence on the climate are CO2, water vapour, dinitrogen-oxide, and methane.
According to the research, it has been recorded that almost 30 percent of the heat by incoming sunlight gets reflected back to the space through clouds and ice but because of global warming ice are melting. It means there are no left sources to send heat back to the space and all are getting collected in the earth atmosphere and affecting the climate.
A huge level climate change in the current time attracts the people’s attention very easily. Every one of us is feeling very clearly from the short-term changes in the seasonal patterns of temperature, drought, rainfall without season, changing weather patterns, etc to the long-term changes affecting the entire earth. Climate is a long-term weather trend affecting human lives positively or negatively.
Climate change is the long term variations in the weather patterns. Climate itself adjusts time to time however going at wrong path since many years because of regular loss of huge ice sheets. Earlier the earth atmosphere was covered with ice sheets which were able to make the earth atmosphere cool by preventing earth from heat and sending back extra heat out of the space from the earth.
Climate has changed from cooler to warmer over the last two million years in the cyclical manner. Sun is the ultimate source of heat energy which fueling the weather systems after reaching to the earth. Earlier the harsh and extended bitter cold season was called as the little ice age which was due to the huge level variations in the solar activity. It is found that the positive human activities may play major roles in shaping earth’s climate.
Such a huge variations in the climate may lead to the danger of the human lives. Earlier it was believed that shifts in the climate pattern from ice age to warmer periods was because of time however later it was imagined that it is due to regular melting of ice sheets of more than a kilometre in thickness. Our climate is getting warm rapidly by the rate of approximately 8°C over the course of 10 years.
A huge industrial revolution in the modern time has largely impacted the global climate system by increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. Heat trapping nature of the green house gases contributes to the global warming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the increase in earth’s average surface temperature by 20th century has been approximately 0.6°C.
It has also been recorded in the northern hemisphere over the last century that there is decrease in snow cover by 10 percent, decrease in spring and summer sea-ice by 10-15 percent, increases in rainfall and its intensity, huge level change in shifts of ice freezes and breaks up in the rivers and lakes.
Introduction
Global warming refers to an increase in earth’s average temperature. Climate change, on the other hand is one of the most significant consequences of global warming. Though, global warming and climate change are often used interchangeably, they are distinctly different from one another. In the following essay, we will study global warming and climate change in detail.
What is Global Warming?
Global warming refers to the long term warming of planet since industrial revolution in 1970s. Since then, the average temperature of earth has gone up by a little over 1°C, a change which might seem small, but even small changes in earth’s temperature could have damaging affects and moreover the temperature is still gradually on rise.
What is Climate Change?
Climate change is an implication of global warming. Global warming results in unexpected weather changes, apart from other effects like melting glaciers, raised ocean temperatures and extreme cold or heat. These conditions all together cause changes in climatic conditions throughout the globe.
What Causes Global Warming?
One of the main causes of global warming is an escalated green house effect. It is an effect caused by the increased atmospheric condition of Green house gases like Carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and Methane (CH4). These gases are emitted as byproducts of fossil fuel production and use. Humans extensively use fossil fuels resulting in increased atmospheric concentration of green house gases, consequently resulting in green house effect.
In order to understand global warming, let’s understand green house effect. Under ideal conditions, earth’s atmosphere contains a number of gases including quantities of green house gases. During sunlight hours, these gases do the job of filtering UV rays of sun and also the intensity of sun’s rays. In night these gases help retain the heat absorbed by the earth during the day, by not letting it escape in the atmosphere, thereby resulting in a maintained temperature of earth.
Human activities like industrialization and extensive use of fossil fuels, results in production of green house gases (ex – CO2, CH4, CO etc), and hence a larger green house effect takes place. To better understand green house effect, imagine yourself sitting inside a car on a sunny day, with its windows all rolled up. The rays of sun, will reach inside of the car through window glass, but since the car is completely closed, they are unable to escape back into the atmosphere, thus further raising the internal temperature of the car. This phenomenon is called green house effect, and forms the basis of global warming.
What Causes Climate Change?
Green house effect as explained above is primarily responsible for climate change. Sun’s heat is blocked from escaping the surface of earth by certain gases which form a thermal blanket over the earth. These gases constitute primarily of water vapor (H2O) and other gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous oxide (N2O), and are responsible for maintaining earth’s temperature to a life supporting 15°C.
These gases are called green house gases. Problem arises when the atmospheric concentration of green house gases rise above the permissible level. Human activities like industrialization and excessive use of fossil fuel, produces green house gases.
This raised concentration of the green house gases in the atmosphere, raises the green house effect, consequently raising the earth’s average temperature above 15°C. The temperature rise in earth’s atmospheric and surface temperature results in some unexpected and drastic changes in the climatic conditions, initiated by a series of events arisen due to the temperature rise. For example, the temperature rise results in melting of earth’s ice cover, present in form of glaciers and snow falls. This excess melting of ice results in raised temperature and other climatic conditions.
A rise in earth’s average temperature also changes the movement of monsoon currents, which has resulted in some areas witnessing lesser rainfall, since the past few decades. South Asia has recorded considerably low rainfall during past four decades, while rainfall in tropical western pacific has increased abundantly.
Also, a raised earth’s temperature, results in natural calamities like floods, famine, droughts and storms. Many cyclones and hurricanes across the world have been attributed to the green house gases and a raised green house effect.
Conclusion
Climate change is a consequence of global warming, and the latter on other hand is caused by human activities. Green house effect has been responsible for maintaining earth’s average temperature to a livable 15°C, but in recent decades, there has been an escalation in green house effect, due to increase in human produced green house gases.
With the rise of green house effect, abrupt climatic changes across the globe become inevitable, often resulting in extreme events like famine, droughts, floods and cyclones. Global warming and climate change both are directly linked to the human activities and only humans have to power to reverse or at least nullify the effects.
It is therefore, necessary to take appropriate steps in this regard and save the planet from the consequences of global warming and climate change.
Related Information:
Causes of Global Warming Essay
Effects of Global Warming Essay
Causes and Effects of Global Warming Essay
Prevention of Global Warming Essay
Consequences of Global Warming Essay
Green House Effect and Global Warming Essay
Global Warming and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Essay
Global Warming Solutions Essay
Essay on History of Global Warming
Essay on Impact of Global Warming on Oceans
Essay on Effects of Global Warming on Coral Reefs
Essay on Effects and Impacts of Climate Change