Causes of Climate Change. Is It Nature of Negligence?
BRETT LUCAS
TRINITY COLLEGE
L6 SCIENCE
GEOGRAPHY
CLIMATE CHANGE: NATURE OR NEGLIGENCE
The climate of our world is changing, but why? There is a great debate going on in the scientific community on whether our current climate change crisis is a natural occurrence over millions of years – as what has happened on the planet of Mars – or this natural process is being accelerated by man’s negligence. But first we must establish what is climate change? Climate Change is a long-term shift in the statistics of weather (taken from weather.gov October 2007 article on Climate Change). Throughout our planets long history our climate has changed between hot and cold in each time period from the Precambrian period to today. The Earth’s climate has always been considered dynamic with changes occurring through a natural cycle. What we are all concerned about here on earth is whether the changes that have happened today have been accelerated because of man’s living trends. Scientists from classrooms to NASA specialists study climate change, and evidence such as tree rings, pollen samples, ice cores and sea sediments provide vital information. Scientists have all agreed that causes of climatic change are of two types – those that are due to natural causes and those that are created by the main inhibitors of earth, Man.
Natural Causes
Continental Drift
This has been happening on our planet from the beginning of time, which is caused by the continuous movement of our tectonic plates. The proof of our theory is that the western side of Africa and the eastern side of South America seems to be able to fit like a jigsaw puzzle and they have similar fossils. In the past all of the continents formed a massive super continent called Pangaea. When the continent separated it caused great changes to the earth’s ocean current pattern, therefore causing a the fresh and salt water cycle to be off balance thus affecting our planet’s climate.
Volcanoes
During volcanic eruptions
TRINITY COLLEGE
L6 SCIENCE
GEOGRAPHY
CLIMATE CHANGE: NATURE OR NEGLIGENCE
The climate of our world is changing, but why? There is a great debate going on in the scientific community on whether our current climate change crisis is a natural occurrence over millions of years – as what has happened on the planet of Mars – or this natural process is being accelerated by man’s negligence. But first we must establish what is climate change? Climate Change is a long-term shift in the statistics of weather (taken from weather.gov October 2007 article on Climate Change). Throughout our planets long history our climate has changed between hot and cold in each time period from the Precambrian period to today. The Earth’s climate has always been considered dynamic with changes occurring through a natural cycle. What we are all concerned about here on earth is whether the changes that have happened today have been accelerated because of man’s living trends. Scientists from classrooms to NASA specialists study climate change, and evidence such as tree rings, pollen samples, ice cores and sea sediments provide vital information. Scientists have all agreed that causes of climatic change are of two types – those that are due to natural causes and those that are created by the main inhibitors of earth, Man.
Natural Causes
Continental Drift
This has been happening on our planet from the beginning of time, which is caused by the continuous movement of our tectonic plates. The proof of our theory is that the western side of Africa and the eastern side of South America seems to be able to fit like a jigsaw puzzle and they have similar fossils. In the past all of the continents formed a massive super continent called Pangaea. When the continent separated it caused great changes to the earth’s ocean current pattern, therefore causing a the fresh and salt water cycle to be off balance thus affecting our planet’s climate.
Volcanoes
During volcanic eruptions
Bibliography: 1 Climate Institute Climate.org 2 Causes of Climate Change Physical Geography.net 3 Global Climate Change National Aeronautics and Space Administration 4 Causes of Climate Change 5 Geography for AS Editor - Clive Hart 6 Geography - An Integrated Approach David Waugh