The issue of whether global climatic changes are man made or not has been a very controversial topic that elicits mixed reaction between groups of people thereby polarizing society into two groups that is; its proponents and opponents. Its proponents maintain that human activities are the main causes of climate change in the world something that is hotly refuted by its opponents who argue that it is due to natural causes.
Researches that have been done by various scientists point to the fact that human activities are greatly responsible for global climatic changes than natural causes and for this reason this paper will specifically focus on how these activities in one way or the other leads to changes in the climate globally.
According to (Espere-Enc), due to the rising concern about the causes of changes in the climate that are being experienced in the world today, various studies and researches have been done to establish the real causes of this trend have split and classified these causes into two categories that is; anthropogenic or man made and natural causes like the release of methane gas from wetlands and Arctic Tundra. It has been established that climatic changes such as global warming are caused by what scientists term as green house gases and these are gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.
Human activities that lead to the release of these gases are many and diverse and that is why they have largely been blamed for this change (Turner). Global climatic changes started increasingly being reported for the first time during the first Industrial Revolution in Europe. Since then, the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air has been rising rapidly in fact it is said to be thirty five percent higher than it was the case about two centuries ago and the cause for this rise is purely human.
During industrial revolutions, a lot of technological changes occurred for example, manual labor was replaced by mechanized labor which in most cases used fossil fuels like coal and petrol. Fossil fuels have been the main source of energy and the good role they play in the society cannot be underrated but again the ways through which they pollute the environment cannot be ignored. When these fuels are burned they emit green house gases such as CO2. One of the ways through which human activities lead to climatic changes is mining.
Naturally, there is methane that is found on the ground and thus when mining takes place, the ground cover is exposed thereby exposing the covered methane to the atmosphere thus increasing its amount in the atmosphere. Another man made factor that leads to the same is population growth. Population growth leads to high demand for transport and thus more energy production. What this means is that more fossil fuels will be burned leading to more carbon gas in the atmosphere.
Again, as global population increases more carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere as people breathe out this gas not forgetting that more farming land will be required thereby encroachment to forests will take place. Scientifically trees purify air by absorbing carbon dioxide during transpiration therefore, when trees are cut for commercial purposes and forests cleared to pave way for farming lands carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continue to increase thereby leading to global warming (Causesofglobalwarming. net).
Again manure that is formed by animals that people keep is another source of green house gases as it contains methane. What happens is that as the demand for more food increases people devise ways of increasing crop production and one of these methods is by application of fertilizers and keeping many animals though that they could get manure that would in turn be applied on farms to boost crop production as it highly nutritious (Fred). Another green house gas that is cited as one of the causes of changes in the climate is Nitrous Oxide.
Though this gas is naturally produced, human activities such as production of anesthetics, production of nitric acid, nylon materials and fertilizer production also increase the chances of this gas being emitted to the atmosphere (Guardian. co. uk). Apart from human causes of global climatic changes, natural causes also contribute to this change. Natural factors that cause changes in climate includes; volcano eruption which in most cases throw dust in the atmosphere which then traps or prevents solar radiation leading to the cooling of the atmosphere (Science News).
The spinning of the earth does not follow an even orbit and thus exposes some parts like southern and northern latitudes to either less or more radiations hence climatic changes. Another natural cause is the release of methane by wetlands and arctic Tundra. Considering that these activities are natural and that have been taking place since time immemorial, why is it that people have of late started being concerned with sudden changes in global climate.
The only rational explanation to this is that increased human activities such as mining, burning of fossil fuels and clearing of bushes and forests have been the main cause of this climatic change unlike it was the case in the past (Ayres). Based on the above provided evidence, there is no doubt that human activities are the main causes of global changes in climate but it should not be forgotten that not only human activities that can lead to these changes but the fact is that they are the main cause and thus if these climatic changes are to be reversed then human activities that pollute the environment should be the first to be considered.
