The Causes of Global Climate Change

The Causes of Global Climate Change

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and certain other trace gases including methane (CH₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), chlorofluorocarbons’ (CFCs) and Ozone (O₃) are accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities. All of these are green house gases which absorbs radiated heat from the sun, thereby increasing the temperature of the atmosphere. Additional, though minor, greenhouse gas include carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform, chlorodifluromethane, sulfurhexafluoride, trifluromethyl sulfur pentafluoride  hexafluoride, trifuluorothane. The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide  has grown from about 288 parts per million (ppm) approximately 200 years ago (before the Industrial  Revolution) to 382 ppm in  2006. Because CO₂ and other gases slow the loss of heat generated by the incoming solar radiation, the natural trapping of heat in the atmosphere is often referred to as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities are thus causing an enhanced greenhouse effect. There are different indications in the atmosphere which indicates climate change, some of these indicators are:

·          More fossil fuel carbon in coral

·         Nights warming faster than day

·         30 billion tones of CO₂ produced per year

·         Less oxygen in the air

·         Troposphere  rising

·         Thermosphere shrinking

·         Less heat escaping to space

·         Stratosphere cooling

·         More fossil fuel carbon in the air

·         Heat returning to earth

One of the complications that makes the rate and extent of global climate change difficult to predict is that other air pollutant, known as atmospheric aerosols, tend to cool the atmosphere, called the aerosol effect. Aerosols, which come from both natural and human sources, are tiny particles, so small that they remain suspended in the troposphere for days, weeks, or months. Because sulfate particles are efficient at scattering, radiations, a sulfate-laden haze tends to cool the planet by reflecting some of the incoming sunlight back into the space. By contrast, sooty aerosol generally absorbs radiation, atmosphere, there are complex mixtures of aerosols of various types, making the actual aerosol effect om the climate relatively uncertain.