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
