Looking into Current Global Warming and Climate Change

The most commonly cited reason for climate change is global warming, which is most often explained by an increase in CO2 density of the earth’s atmosphere, because of increases in mankind’s fossil fuel burning activities. Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere absorbs infrared energy emitted from the earth’s surface, preventing it from being dispersed into space, thus trapping it, and warming the earth’s atmosphere.

Industrial Causes

Fossil fuel combustion, in coal fired power stations, from vehicle emissions, and industrial smog, are a primary contributing factor. Ozone depletion in the earth’s atmosphere is a key contributing factor, which was addressed by the banning of CFCs, the results of which are contentious. Aerosols trap solar radiation that would otherwise be absorbed by the earth’s surface, resulting in temperature increases in the atmosphere. Methane gas is referred to as a greenhouse gas because of its planet insulation and warming effects. Methane emissions emanate from oil and gas exploration and production, and from mining. De-forestation resulting from the lumber industry reduces the ability of the planet to naturally consume CO2 by way of plant respiration. Measures to reduce de-forestation include local legislation to penalize the activity, grant funding to purchase and preserve tracts of forests, and new-seedling replanting initiatives.

Agricultural Causes

Methane emissions emanate from organic matter decomposition, both in the ground and within the intestinal tracts of livestock. Nitrous oxide based fertilizers have far greater magnitudes of capacity for trapping the suns heat on large expanses of the earth covered by mass croplands. Nitrous oxide-based run off is toxic and creates imbalances in the ecosystems of our rivers and seas, and dead zones, which impact the ability of the earth’s oceans’ plant life to consume CO2. De-forestation to make way for new crops is another culprit, especially on the fringes of the Brazilian rainforests, where the process is driven by the demand for new bio-fuel croplands, ironically.

External Causes

Sunspots alter the radiation flow from the surface of the sun, creating other effects, and distorting climactic and atmospheric conditions. Methane emissions emanate from beneath the seabed under the melting Arctic ice cap. These melting ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland are resulting in higher sea levels, affecting global climatic tidal and atmospheric current flows, with progressively less cooling effect from diminishing polar ice. Increases in atmospheric temperatures lead to increases in atmospheric humidity which alter the seasonal rain cycles and exacerbate climatic conditions, resulting in increasingly powerful storm systems and atmospheric deluges, as the warming atmosphere dumps the larger and larger quantities of water vapour that evaporates into it. Plankton growth surges due to warming seas, creating imbalances in the oceans ecosystems, which are a major consumer of the earth’s CO2.

Interconnected Complexity

Global warming alters the balances in the earth’s ecosystems and climactic conditions and produces long ranging effects that often seem counter-intuitive, but are indisputably inter-connected by a complex web of cause and effect reactions. Examples are the seemingly contradictory developments of desertification and exacerbated storm systems, rainfall, and flooding; periodic surges in some forms of sea life, such as excess plankton growth, and the extinction of other forms of sea life, such as coral reefs. Together these effects and the environmental and atmospheric changes causing them, may work in ways to accelerate the pace of global warming, exacerbate climate change- or perhaps have the opposite effect.

The Science

The science is confusing, and has spawned numerous think tanks and research institutes, often working for vested interests. Scientists are banding together and teaming up to tackle it, as for example, are the Union of Concerned Scientists.  Independent information is difficult to qualify, but for those wishing to learn more, the World Organization provides a listing of information resources. One might be forgiven for imagining the disinformation propagated is for the vested interests of the fossil fuel industries etc. Unsurprisingly, there is ample evidence of the misleading efforts of environmentalists, and proponents of government sponsored policy reform, and these and other groups, are no-less guilty of similar indiscretions, and misdirection.