Introduction
There is a growing debate that is happening all over the world today regarding the alarming effect of climate change and levels of warming of the earth’s atmosphere. It is believed that intensely dangerous levels of warming in the overall atmosphere is happening and this is further intended to harm the human beings and species that are living on earth to a great extent. This intense levels of warming of the overall earth’s atmosphere is technically defined as “global warming. Climate is generally defined as the assessment of weather related data and its patterns and trends for long period of time. Having defined climate, change in this patterns and trends over a prolonged time period can be defined as climate change.
Rationale
This study aims at studying the impact of global warming and climate change on the overall atmosphere and how it is harming the humankind, with specific relation to the Antarctica region.
Prior Knowledge
It is believed that roughly about 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere comprises of naturally arising greenhouse gases. Prior to the Industrial Revolution that occurred about two centuries ago, the blend of gases in the atmosphere was believed to have been considerably steady.
However, since the evolution of the Industrial Revolution, it is believed that human beings have resulted in the emission of massive volumes of greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, eventually troubling the natural balance and also resulting in the enhanced greenhouse gas effect. Greenhouse gases include “carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) and water vapor.”
Why is it a problem if the Earth’s atmosphere gets a little warmer?
Climate change, with specific reference to this research deals with the changes resulting because of human activities, predominantly because such changes relate more to global warming. If the earth’s atmosphere gets a little warmer and goes up by even just two degrees, then it would result in the mountain glaciers and rivers starting to disappear and increased landslides happening in the mountainous regions. This is because the permafrost that holds all these together gets melted completely. If global warming is truly a reality, then it is the greenhouse gas emission to which the global warming can be heavily attributed to. This study adopts a descriptive research and is predominantly based on secondary research through which the study attempts to answer the following research questions.
Research Questions and outcomes
The following are the research questions that the current research attempts to answer:
Why is it a problem if the Earth’s average temperature gets a little warmer?
How does climate change harm the plants and animals in the Antarctica Region?
What might be the possible outcomes of global warming?
What are the causes of global warming?
The current research attempts to seek answers to the above question and these will form the outcomes of this research.
Literature Review
Changes in climate may happen either because of natural incidents or through human activities. A few pertinent examples of natural incidents that might result in climate change are volcano eruptions, alterations in the in the earth's orbit surrounding the sun, and modifications in the solar output.
On the other hand, human activities that result in climate change may encompass, industrial pollution, fossil fuel burning and high levels of CO2 emissions. These activities along with high degree of urbanization are believed to result in the average annual temperatures to become warm and eventually bring in dramatic changes to the earth's albedo because of massive levels of deforestation in the tropical rainforest region.
Bibliography
Ahrens, D. C., 2014. Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment, 5th Edition.. Fifth ed. New York: West Publishing Company.
Archer, D., 2012. Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast. s.l.:John Wiley and Sons.
Education Scotland, 2016. Enhanced Greenhouse Effect. [Online] Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/weatherandclimatechange/climatechange/globalwarming/enhancedgreenhouseeffect.asp[Accessed 12 March 2016].
Geiger, R. R. H. A. P. T., 2012. The Climate Near the Ground, 5th Edition.. Braunschweig, Germany: Friedr, Veiweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=YlxTI7Bl4X4C&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Influence+of+Climate+Change+and+Human-induced+Environmental+Degradation+on+Lake+Victoria.&source=bl&ots=iL0LplW2ct&sig=UMeyeJtdKQZRubWN3tl0y7IQ1-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT3eS3zMfLAhXRcI4KH
Lejju, J. B., 2012. Influence of Climate Change and Human-induced Environmental Degradation on Lake Victoria. Ethiopia: Organization for Social Science Research in Easetern and Southern Africa (OSSREA).
Steiner, J. F. S. &. G. A., 2012. Industrial Pollution and Environmental Regulation. In: T. Ed., ed. Busines, Government, and Soceity - A Managerial Perspective : Text and Cases. New York(NY): McGraw-Hill/Irwin, pp. 436-463.
The Norwegian Fire Protection Training Institute, 2013. Arctic Regions and Its Concerns, Threats, and Potential Changes, Norway: EUROPA.
