Global Warming
Charles Bennett
Axia College of the University of Phoenix
For hundreds of years explorers have searched for a shipping route through the North West passage (the Arctic). Unfortunately, the ice has always been so thick that it was nearly impossible for ships to pass through, that is until the summer of 2008 when for the first time in recorded history enough ice had melted to allow ships to get through. (Borgerson, 2008). While some people say that the changes in the earth’s climate, (Global Warming) is natural and would happen with or without human intervention. Years of research show that humans have contributed to the acceleration of global warming.
Global warming is caused by an accelerated “greenhouse effect”. (Knox, 2006). Carbon dioxide and water vapor as well as some other gases that surround the earth absorb the heat from the sun which acts as a kind of greenhouse for the earth. If there were no greenhouse effect on the earth it is estimated that the average temperature would be about 0 degrees Fahrenheit (Knox, 2008). The greenhouse effect is not a bad thing in itself but since the industrial revolution the amount of greenhouse gases that have been released because of industry and agricultural growth have increased to a point that they are causing an increase in the greenhouse effect. This increased greenhouse effect is causing the earth’s temperature to rise at an alarming rate.
The average temperature has risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. This does not seem like much but, it has a dramatic affect on the earth. The temperatures at the South and North poles has risen approximately 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit. [pic]
[pic] There has been some cooling during the past 100 years. Between 1940 and 1970 the temperature of the earth actually cooled. Scientists say this is because of sulfur pollution that reflected the suns...