Global warming
Introduction
Climate change and the influence of human activities on the changes in the global climate has been a subject of contention for a long time. It is a fact that the global climate is changing, as evident by the increasing global temperatures, hurricanes, hailstones and other harsh climatic occurrences in the recent times (Gillis, 2011). Global weather figures have confirmed that 2010 was one of the most remarkable years with respect to climatology, as evident by the snowstorms and intense summer heat in Russia (Gillis, 2011). However, the subject of controversy is whether human factors are also among the causation factors of the adverse global climate change. The article by Justin Gillis, Figures on Global Climate show 2010 Tied 2005 as the Hottest Year on Record attempts to provide an insight on the impending global climate change. This essay is an analysis of the article with respect to the overall summary of the article, what the article talks about, what is important in the article and what is least explained with respect to the aspect of climate change.
The principal focus of the article is the recent changes in the global climatic conditions. The author has presented his arguments by focusing on the use of empirical data to compare the trends in the recent climatology with that of the past. The bottom line of the issue is that global climatic change is a realm, evidenced by the fact the recent changes in climate are as a result of the influence of the green gases emitted to the atmosphere (McKibben, 2011). The article lays emphasis on the evidence of the global changes on climatology on the recent occurrences such as increase in global temperatures, the 2010 February snowstorms and increasing heat wave in most parts of the United States and Russia. These conclusions are based on the data from research agencies such as the NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which have reported an increase on the average global temperatures (Gillis, 2011).
The article basically talks about evidence of global climatic change. The author of the article has explains his concept of global climatic changes with respect to the recent adverse weather changes. For instance, the article reports that 2010 was one of the wettest years in climatology history and ties with 2005 according to government figures. In addition, evidence of changes in global climate is highlighted through the instances of strong floods, the increased dying of the coral reefs implying increased ocean temperatures, and increasing trends associated with global warming and environmental changes. The evidence of changes in the global climate is well explained in the article. This is due to the persistent comparisons with past climate records and an analysis of the reports of the various agencies. The author emphasizes on the element of global warming as a key evidence for global climatic change, almost all the evidence highlighted in the article has a relationship with the evidence of global warming.
Despite the significance of the evidence of climate change, the article does not highlight the key concepts and an insight into the various views on global climate change and global warming. To demystify the argument that global warming is just but a theory, a lot of research has been carried out in regard to understand the mechanisms of global warming. Global warming have been found to be caused by; emission of green house gases, this includes, carbon, methane and nitrous oxide. Ruddiman argues that an increase of these gases in the atmosphere may last for a long time considering the nature of the gases. For example they argue that carbon gas; molecular radioactive nature may be the main cause of increased heating of the earth by the sun’s radiation. This edifies the fact that an increase of carbon gas into the air can indeed change climate. It is also possible that human activities such as deforestation may alter the climate conditions within a particular area, considering the cool climate that is brought by rainforest and other densely forests areas. The article however does not explain the clear relationship that exists between global warming and the influence of human activity on the changes in global climate. It is important to notice that with global developments such as industrialization, there are emission of gases into the atmosphere, emissions that would increases toxic content of carbon and other gases in excess of their normal levels and initially destroy the ozone layer. For precision, the impact of these gases on the ozone layer has been the main cause of heating up of the earth and gradual global warming.
Conclusion
With the worlds trend in civilization and industrial development global warming may be a phenomenon to live with for many years to come. World leading economies have noticed this and they have been greatly criticized for their participation in their lack of controlling industrial emissions. New developments such as the Kyoto protocol may partly solve the riddance of global warming but, will the developing nations continue to suffer for trouble they never caused? This is probably the question third world countries will continue to ask as they face the effects of global warming. However, global warming can only be controlled through better mechanism of reducing emissions in industries, re-forestation and better farming methods.
References
Gillis, J. (2011, January 12). Figures on Global Climate Show 2010 Tied 2005 as the Hottest
Year on Record. New York Times .
McKibben, B. (2011). The Global Warming Reader. New York: OR Books.
Ruddiman, W. (2005). Plows, plagues, and petroleum: how humans took control of climate.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
