human activities bringing changes on earth?

Answer 1

I did a lot of research paper on Global warming and wrote a paper on it so I give this to you with my sources as well. it will answer all of your questions concerning global warming.

The rise of carbon dioxide is more poisonous to our atmosphere and our oceans than we may realize. The carbon dioxide from human activities causes a greenhouse gas which induces global warming, so if this greenhouse gas continues to rise, the oceans will become so acidic it could drastically threaten marine life by the year 2100. In the past two hundred years the Earth has absorbed about one third of the carbon dioxide caused by human activity. However, the rate now of the earth’s absorption of the carbon dioxide is at about one half. Faster carbon dioxide emissions overwhelm the capacity of land and ocean to absorb carbon. (Sanders) The rate of the emissions of carbon dioxide needs to be reduced in order to slow down global warming. However, there a few solutions to this problem for example, injecting the carbon dioxide into the ocean floor to absorb the carbon.

Some examples of the causes of the carbon dioxide rising are the following: fossil fuel combustion, cement manufacturing, Coal-burning power plants, Freon, industrial revolution etc. How does carbon dioxide cause global warming?

Greenhouse gases alter the situation because of their peculiar absorptive properties. The sun’s radiation arrives mostly in the form of visible light, which greenhouse gases allow to pass freely.

Coffaro 2

The earth’s radiation, meanwhile, is emitted mostly in the infrared part of the spectrum. Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and then reemit it—some out toward space and some back toward earth. The process of absorption and reemission has the effect of limiting the outward flow of energy; as a result, the earth’s surface and lower atmosphere have to be that much warmer before the planet can radiate out the necessary two hundred and thirty-five watts per square metre. The presence of greenhouse gases is what largely accounts for the fact that the average global temperature, instead of zero, is actually a far more comfortable fifty-seven degrees. (Kolbert)

The rate of the increasing carbon dioxide is almost catastrophic to our atmosphere and our oceans. Elizabeth Kolbert has stated in her article, “The Climate of Man—I,” ‘Scientists at NASA have calculated the throughout the 1990s the ice sheet, despite some thickening at the center, there were also shrinking by twelve cubic miles per year.’ (Kolbert) She has also stated that in the summer of 1996, the ice around the Swiss Camp moved at the rate of thirteen inches per day, but by 2001 it increased, not decreased, to twenty inches per day. Over the last hundred years the waters risen by about a half a foot globally, and will continue to rise anywhere from four inches to three feet by the year 2100. (Kolbert) In the summer of 2002, Kolbert stated that the satellite images taken by NASA showed that the ice on the Swiss Camp melted up to an elevation of six thousand five hundred feet. By 2003, she states that an additional five feet of ice was lost. People ask where this global warming is.

Coffaro 3

In the air temperature, the signal is very small compared to noise. What permafrost, soil or rock that remains below 0°C throughout the year, does is it works as a low-pass filter. That’s why we can see trends much easier in permafrost temperatures than we can see them in atmosphere temperatures. In most parts of Alaska, the permafrost has warmed by three degrees since the early 1980s. In some parts of the state, it has warmed by almost six degrees. One of the risks of rising temperatures is that under the right conditions, organic material that has been frozen for millennia will break down, giving off carbon dioxide or methane, which is even more powerful than greenhouse gas. In some parts of the artic, this is already happening. Kolbert says that while we are waiting for evidence of global warming: we may not be given a warning until the carbon dioxide is so saturated that a significant climate change is unavoidable. By 2080 is predicted that the perennial sea-ice cover will totally disappear.


The ice and atmosphere are not the only things that are going to suffer during this drastic change in the climate. This will also significantly put a negative change to our oceans as well. Naturally when this happens the saltwater organisms will eventually diminish, because saltwater organisms cannot survive in fresh water. The North Atlantic Ocean has become fresher due to melting glaciers and increased precipitation since the 1960s both associated with global warming. Also has enhanced continental runoff due to rising waters in artic and sub-artic seas. (Caldeira)

Coffaro 4

The pH (potential of Hydrogen) scale is from 1 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Anything that lowers pH makes the solution more acidic. The scientists calculated that over the past 200 years, the pH of the surface seawater has declined by 0.1 units, which is a 30% increase in hydrogen ions. If an emission of CO2 continues to rise as predicted by the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang’s IS92a scenario, there will be another drop in pH by .5 units by year 2100, a level that has not existed in the oceans for many millions of years. In addition, the changes in the ocean’s chemistry will reduce the ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, which in turn will accelerate the rate of global warming. (Caldeira)

As the oceans become more acidic, this makes it hard for living organisms to thrive. The ocean pH balance becomes more corrosive to shell organisms such as coral and can interfere with their oxygen supply. This could have a negative impact on calcified creatures such as phytoplankton and zooplankton, which are some of the most important players in the oceanic earth’s food chain.

Other major issues we will have to deal with would be the erratic weather changes. There would be more droughts because naturally the weather would be much hotter with this greenhouse effect. The storms would be much more violent and would be additional precipitation because of the increased evaporation of the waters.

Despite all of the radical changes happening in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans

Coffaro 5

due to the greenhouse effect, scientists hunt to find a solution for the carbon dioxide problem. Scientists tried to fertilize phytoplankton to help solve the carbon dioxide problem in two parts of the ocean but there was no significant change made.

Scientists have quantified the transport of carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean in response to fertilizing the ocean with iron, an essential nutrient for marine plants, or phytoplankton. Prior work suggested that in some ocean regions, marine phytoplankton grow faster with addition to iron, thus taken up more carbon dioxide. However, until now, no one has been able to accurately quantify how much of the carbon in these plants is removed from the ocean. New data, reported in the journal Science, suggests that there is a link between iron fertilization and enhanced carbon flux and hence atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, but the quantities that can be removed are no greater than that of natural plankton. (Fertilization)

Other solutions that scientists are experimenting with are that they are going to try to bury the carbon dioxide deep underneath the ocean floor. When you inject the carbon under the ocean floor, the carbon dioxide will want to sink, not rise, so it will stay there forever, geologically speaking, or for millions of years at least. Under thousands of feet the carbon will be cold, compressed, and heavier than the water. (Scientists) Unfortunately though, the carbon burial would not work everywhere. In some areas it would be too expensive to have so much carbon buried into the ocean floor.

Coffaro 6

As a result of the issue of the carbon dioxide turning our oceans into acid and melting away our polar ice caps, we need to continue to hunt for ways to not speed up the process of the global warming. If we continue to pollute the air with carbon dioxide many creatures will suffer and others will go extinct. Our weather would be horrendous and global warming as a whole will be a drastic and catastrophic change we couldn’t even imagine what we may to have to live in. It may be a never-ending battle before people will realize that global warming is real and that the scientists who study this are in a constant hunt for the final solution to this problem.

some really good sources on this... Elizabeth Kolbert is one of my favorite scientists on this subject and Ken Caldeira is also good.

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#Q11
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/25/050425fa_fact3
http://www.wesjones.com/climate1.htm
http://www.livescience.com/environment/050630_oceans_acid.html

Answer 2

The earth’s climate is one of humankind’s greatest natural resources. The
very existence of human beings on the planet depends on a favourable type
of climate. We depend on the right climate for crop production and for main-
taining our vital water resources. Climate plays an important role in our
culture, how and where we live, in our health and in sustaining plant and
animal life. In many places, we already have to deal with the periodic failure
of expected seasonal rains, which might lead to droughts, crop failure and
occasional famine. On the other hand, too much rainfall in a very short time,
or even over a season, can result in major floods that cause the loss of
human life and the destruction of property. In general, we have developed
the capability to adjust to these known situations. If we have changes in
climate, we could make these situations worse or cause them to occur in
places where they do not normally occur. Should we not try to keep climate
the way we know it, rather than see changes which could bring uncertainties
to our way of life?In this connection, unfortunately, there is now major concern that ourhuman activities are bringing about changes to the climate of the earth. A
few decades ago, scientists began noticing that changes were taking place
in the earth’s atmosphere. Certain gases, which can cause the earth to
become warmer, were increasing because of various human activities. At the
same time, it was discovered that the earth’s mean temperature had also, for
some time, been steadily increasing. The warming of the earth would result
in changes in climate, which in turn would have major implications for
affected areas around the world.

Answer 3

The layer of atmosphere that we live and breathe in is the smallest layer of the atmosphere. With the right wind pollution produced in China can be in America in a matter of days, and visa versa. Human beings definitely have an effect. For one thing, C02 increases the amount of water that air can hold. C02 is heavier than air, so it weakens natural convection cycles which drive cooling in our layer of atmosphere. C02 production of humans is less than volcanoes, but is more continous, and has less chemicals that reabsorb the C02. In short, human pollution is worse than any form of natural pollution. Deforestation complicates the problem as natural forests, reabsorb more overland C02 than almost anything. Kyoto protocol was too weak to have strong effect on policies of government, consumers or industry. What is needed is some kind of massive public transportation system overhaul. No government is willing to fund that. Anything that requires the private individual to change by their own massive effort will also fail. So that leaves industry to make up for what government and individuals refuse to do. Industry won't change until it is profitable, however, and it may be very bad by then. An unheard of solution, would be to have car exhaust filtered through lye and water vapor. This would remove C02 from the exhaust before it even reaches the atmosphere.

Answer 4

Carbon dioxide emission.

Answer 5

all i have to say is watch an inconvenient truth and then think about wh ythey are making hybrid cars.

Answer 6

yes, the dont's.follow the do's not the don'ts. one example:reduce,reuse, recycle

Answer 7

by adopting afforestation