Most people believe that humans are not the main reason behind global warming. This is not entirely true, NASA states that “[the] earth’s climate has changed when the planet received more or less sunlight due to subtle shifts in its orbit, as the atmosphere or surface changed, or when the Sun’s energy varied.” The Earth’s temperature will change naturally over time, but the temperature has rapidly increased over the past century. NASA, an independent agency for the U.S state government, found that “the rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years [from 1.1 to 1.6° Fahrenheit].” In other words, as time goes on, humans are gradually increasing the amount of damage they put on the atmosphere, and it results in increasing temperatures. Global warming is becoming a real threat because the temperature is constantly rising. Some of the reasons that trace directly to humans are the rapid rise in CO2, and the unnatural change in the Arctic ice caps and sea levels.
The rise in carbon dioxide over time can be directly related to humans. The NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory stated that “over the past 650,000 years, atmospheric CO2 levels did not rise above 300 ppm, [and now] atmospheric levels of CO2 have risen from about 317 ppm in 1958 to 400 ppm in 2013.” This kind of change cannot be explained by anything else other than humans. People burn fossil fuels all of the time, and we are the main cause of deforestation. Both of these release mass amounts of carbon dioxide considering the magnitude at which we perform these activities. In fact, Gerrit Hansen at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found that “almost two-thirds of the impacts related to atmospheric and ocean temperature can be confidently attributed to anthropogenic forcing.” This means human caused drivers are directly responsible. Some ecologists might argue that the rise in temperature precedes the rise on carbon dioxide use, which means CO2 is not responsible for the increase in temperature. Although temperature has risen before carbon dioxide levels in the past, I maintain that there are still many more correlations that trace back to humans. For example, the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explains, “20th century measurements of CO2 isotope ratios in the atmosphere confirm that rising CO2 levels are the result of human activity.” The increase in these isotope ratios are directly correlated to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. It is proven that humans burn fossil fuels for energy, and obviously energy is needed. The burning of fossil fuels leads to the rise in isotope ratios, which means humans are directly correlated to the rise in carbon dioxide levels. The IPCC also stated that it is “extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature” from 1951 to 2010 was caused by human activity.
Another cause of humans is the unnatural change in the Arctic ice caps and change in sea levels. For instance, “from 1953–2006, Arctic sea ice declined 7.8% per decade, [and] between 1979 and 2006, the decline was 9.1% each decade. The depreciation in the ice caps in the time span of 37 years is higher than the time span of 53 years. This is impossible without the interference of an outside source. In this instance, the outside source is people. The increase in temperature is the obvious cause of the melting ice caps. This increase in temperature is not only caused by carbon dioxide, but other greenhouse gasses such as methane and nitrous oxide. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) used to be a threat to the atmosphere years ago, and the use has declined a ton. On the other hand, the long lasting effects of them still persist. The only way these CFC’s can be released is by people. With all of these factors hurting the ice caps, Kristina Pistone explains that “arctic ice cover continues to decrease, [and] the amount of the sun’s heat reflected by the ice back into space decreases.” This cycle is speeding up the effects of global warming even faster than before. Just like the increase in greenhouse gasses, this cycle is only going to get worse.
In conclusion, almost all of the effects of global warming are compounding effects. In other words, they only get worse as time goes on, and they constantly stack on top of each other. This calls for a solution to be made, so that the Earth can be preserved for as long as possible. At the moment, humans are being directly correlated with global warming. While there are some people who make an effort to take care of this planet, there are many more that do not. If this continues to be that way, the Earth will progressively be destroyed faster than it should be.
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