prepare a report on recent climatic changes and its effects due to excessive use of fossil fuels
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
What is global warming?
When carbon (CO2 or carbon dioxide) and other heat-trapping emissions are released into the air, they act like a blanket, holding heat in our atmosphere and warming the planet.
Overloading our atmosphere with carbon has far-reaching effects for people all around the world, including rising sea levels, increasing wildfires, more extreme weather, deadly heat waves, and more severe droughts.
What causes global warming?
The primary cause of global warming is human activity that releases carbon into the atmosphere, most significantly the burning of fossil fuels to drive cars, generate electricity, and operate our homes and businesses.
Tropical deforestation, also by human hands, is another major contributor. When these forests are burned, they release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and in addition, because the forests no longer exist, they are no longer available to absorb CO2.
Who can reduce global warming?
To address global warming, we need to significantly reduce the amount of heat-trapping emissions. As individuals, we can help by being mindful of our electricity use, driving more efficient cars, reducing the number of miles we drive, and taking other steps to reduce our own consumption of fossil fuels.
But we can also help by calling for government and corporate decision makers to reduce the threat of global warming by:
Expanding the use of renewable energy and transforming our energy system to one that is cleaner and less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels.
Increasing vehicle fuel efficiency and supporting other solutions that reduce US oil use.
Placing limits on the amount of carbon that polluters are allowed to emit.
Building a clean energy economy by investing in efficient energy technologies, industries, and approaches.
Reducing tropical deforestation and its associated global warming emissions.
Implementing effective national and regional climate policies.
How do we know that humans are the major cause of global warming?
We all know that warming—and cooling—has happened in the past, and long before humans were around. Many factors (called “climate drivers”) can influence Earth’s climate—such as changes in the sun’s intensity and volcanic eruptions, as well as heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
So how do scientists know that today’s warming is primarily caused by humans putting too much carbon in the atmosphere when we burn coal, oil, and gas or cut down forests? We know human activities are driving the increase in CO2 concentrations because atmospheric CO2 contains information about its source. Scientists can tease apart how much CO2 comes from natural sources, and how much comes from burning coal, oil and gas (called fossil fuels).
Carbon from fossil fuels has a distinct “signature,” essentially the relative amounts of heavier and lighter atoms of carbon, than carbon from other sources. The smaller the ratio of heavier to lighter carbon atoms, the higher the proportion of carbon from fossil fuels.
Over the years, the ratio of heavy to light carbon atoms has decreased while the overall amount of CO2 has increased. This information tells scientists that fossil fuel emissions are the largest contributor of atmospheric CO2 concentrations since the pre-industrial era.
Moreover, natural changes alone can’t explain the temperature changes we’ve seen. For a computer model to accurately project the future climate, scientists must first ensure that it accurately reproduces observed temperature changes. When the models include only recorded natural climate drivers—such as the sun’s intensity—the models cannot accurately reproduce the observed warming of the past half century. When human-induced climate drivers are also included in the models, then they accurately capture recent temperature increases in the atmosphere and in the oceans. When all the natural and human-induced climate drivers are compared to one another, the dramatic accumulation of carbon from human sources is by far the largest climate change driver over the past half century.