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Impact of human activities on climate

Impact of human activities on climate

Abstract

The centrality of human activities on climate change process cannot be gainsaid. This paper explores the impact of human activities on climate. It relies on secondary literature that focuses on human activities such combustion of fossil fuels, use of fertilizers, clearing of forests and industrial activities. The study reveals that human activities can either increase or reduce global temperatures. These temperature changes can initiate the climatic change processes. The study also reveals that human activities can initiate radiative forcing.
Key words: climate change, global warming, human activities, radiative forcing

Introduction

The earth’s climate has been experiencing a gradual change over the years. Researches by scientists have been focused on the factors that contribute to the gradual change in climate. Climatic condition has experienced change throughout history. The sun has contributed significantly to the rising global temperatures (Fankhouse, 2013). Continental drift that causes significant changes in the shape of the earth has also contributed climatic change. However, these are not the only factors that cause changes in climate. Scientific investigations have revealed that the changing climate has been due to human activities for the last one and a half centuries. The ability of human beings to cause change in climate was discovered 100 years ago (National Council of Science Education, 2015). Investigations revealed that burning of coal by human being raises the amount of greenhouse gases. An increase in the amount of greenhouse gases leads to a corresponding increase in natural warming. This natural warming makes the atmosphere to have higher temperatures compared to warming through natural processes. These studies have elucidated the role of human activities in the climate change process. This paper is developed against this backdrop. It explores the impact of human activities on climate change.

Results
Combustion of coal and gasoline releases varying levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is estimated that one liter of gasoline produces excess amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For every 6 pounds of gasoline burnt, 18 pounds of carbon dioxide is released (IPCC, 2007). Natural gases that are used to drive cars produce the same effect as other fossil fuels. Cars, farms, forests and industrial plants release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases can be classified into four categories which include: carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrous oxides.
The increase in carbon dioxide due to combustion of fossil fuels, transportation and the heating of cement increases the amount of greenhouse emissions. Carbon dioxide is also increased through deforestation that significantly lowers its uptake by plants. In addition, natural processes such as decay of matter are also responsible for the release of carbon dioxide.
Human activities such as agricultural practices, landfills and distribution of natural gas have led to the increase of methane in the atmosphere. Natural processes such wetlands also cause the increase in the amount of methane (NCSE, 2015). However, the last two years have led to a decline in the amount of methane released into the atmosphere.
Nitrous oxide occurs due to the use of fertilizers and burning of fossil fuels. It can also occur due to the natural processes that takes place in soils. However, these processes are less significant compared to the activities of human beings.
Human activities have led to increased level of halocarbons. Examples of halocarbons include fluorine, bromine and chlorine. Major contributors include chlorofluorocarbons that were found to be the cause of ozone layer depletion. However, various global interventions have been sought to reduce the amount of chlofluorocarbon gases.
Chemical reactions attributed to human activities lead to both the production and destruction of ozone layer in the stratosphere. The reaction of gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides produces ozone. On the other hand, halocarbons are responsible for the reduction of ozone layer (Karl & Trenberth, 2003). The reduction of ozone layer leads to increasing global temperatures. The increase in temperatures leads to a warmer climate. Conversely, if the reaction of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides produces excess amount of ozone, the global temperatures can lead to a cooler climate.
Water vapor exists in high quantities compared to all other greenhouse gases. The influence of human activities on water vapor is minimal. Nonetheless, human activities change indirectly amount of water vapor thereby changing the climate. When the atmosphere is warm, it implies that the amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere is high. In this regard, activities of human beings such as emissions of CH4 may lead to a reduction of the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. This is because the reaction of CH4 inside the stratosphere leads to the production of small amount of water vapor (IPCC, 2007). These changes in the amounts of water vapor lead to corresponding changes in global climate.
The presence of aerosols in the atmosphere may also lead affect climate. Aerosols have varying sizes and chemical composition. They get into the atmosphere either through emission of compounds or direct emission. The emitted aerosols are due to the activities of human beings. The combustion of fossil fuels leads to a high amounts of aerosols. These aerosols have sulphur compounds and contain black carbon (Change, 2007). In addition, mining and industrial processes raises the amount of dust in the atmosphere. These particles and compounds have a change effect on the climate condition.

Radiative forcing

Radiative forcing determines how the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system is influenced when factors that affect climate are altered. Forcing occurs when the earth’s radioactive balance is moved from its usual state. The human activities that cause change in climate contribute to radioactive forcing. Each gas absorbs outgoing infrared radiation. These gases include carbon dioxide which is said to have caused the largest forcing since 1750. The increase in troposheric ozone has led to an increase in warming while decrease in stratospheric ozone has led cooling (IPCC, 2007). The absorption of solar radiation and its reflection by aerosols have influenced radioactive forcing. While some aerosols have to positive forcing, others have led to negative forcing. The negative forcing is due to changes that the aerosols cause in the properties of cloud. Human activities have led to increased changes in the nature of land cover. Changes in forests and crop lands can lead radiative forcing. The reflection of solar radiation from the surface of the earth is due to increased human activities. These changes can lead to negative forcing (IPCC, 2007). On the other hand, reflection of solar radiation and absorption of infrared radiation by contrails can contribute to positive radiative forcing.

Discussion

The results highlighted point to a significant impact of human activities in the climate change process. It is clear that human beings play a central role in the climate change process through their activities. These activities lead to the release of green house emission into the atmosphere. In particular, the study finds out that these emissions are categorized into four. These include carbon dioxide, methane, fluorocarbons and nitrogen oxides (Dale et al., 2001). The emission of these gases has a potential impact of the climatic condition. These gases absorb the radiation from the sun and heat up the atmosphere as well as the surface of the earth. This process increases the temperatures of the earth. On other hand, reduction in the amount of greenhouse emissions implies that there would no absorption of solar energy (Dale et al., 2001). In this regard, there would be limited heating of the earth’s atmosphere which will result into cooling.
The study finds out that the increasing combustion of fossil fuels is a lead factor in the global warming. Such fuels are used to drive cars. This follows that a reduction in the amount of combustion will result into reduced global warming while an increase in combustion will result into increased warming. These gases have been found to have an effect on the ozone layer. For example, the halocarbons are said to cause depletion of ozone layer while a reaction between nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide is said to produce ozone (NCSE, 2015). The implication of this result is that the climate of the world will increase to unprecedented levels if high amounts of halocarbons are released into the atmosphere. In this regard, human activities that seek to increase high amounts of halocarbons should be discouraged. It explains the decision that informed the international policy that sought to reduce the production of chlorofluorocarbons. Failure to achieve a comfortable reduction of this compound presents danger to human life and other life on Earth.
The result found out that the reaction of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides produces ozone layer. The centrality of the ozone layer in the regulation of climate cannot be gainsaid. This implies that high amounts of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide should be available for an increase in the amount of halocarbons. This would ensure balance of the amount of ozone layer present in the stratosphere. Without this balance, the effects of ozone depletion can be devastating. Since water vapor forms the highest proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it maintains the global climatic condition. However, influence of human activities such as emission of CH4 should be regulated to ensure that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is retained (Fankhauser, 2013). This is because such emission of CH4 leads to the reduction for amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere. A reduction in the amount of water vapor implies that the atmosphere will experience cooler temperatures. A cooler the temperature implies cooler the climate. However, if the amount of water vapor is increased, the atmospheric temperature will be high. This will imply a warm climate. Therefore, the processes that encourage warming should be balanced with processes that encourage cooling to ensure that there is balance in global climate. Activities such clearing of forests only serve to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to reduced ability of plants to take large amounts of carbon dioxide (Dale et al., 2007).
The results above found out that radiative forcing illustrates the difference of between the amount of sunlight absorbed by the earth and the energy that is radiated back into the atmosphere. When the sun’s radiation reaches the earth’s surface, it is absorbed by objects on the surface of the earth. However, some of the solar radiation is reflected back into the atmosphere. Radiative forcing expresses this difference in watts for every square meter. If the radiative forcing is positive, it means that more radiation warms the earth’s system. On the other hand, a negative forcing implies that more radiation leaves the system (IPCC, 2007). Thus, cool is enhanced when more solar energy leaves the earth’s surface while warming is enhanced when more solar energy remains on the surface of the earth. Therefore, human activities influence radiative forcing in various ways. Carbon dioxide dominates radiative forcing while methane and carbofluorocarbons are smaller contributors of radiative forcing. The average contribution of the greenhouse gasses to radiative forcing constitutes 96% of the total radiative forcing.
In light of the foregoing, it is indubitable that human activities have a major impact on climate. These activities can either lead to global warming or global cooling. Fromm the study, it can be concluded that activities such as combustion of fuels, clearing of forests can lead to global warming. In this regard, embracing sustainable practices would help identify human activities that require regulation so that their impacts on the climate do reach unprecedented levels. The failures to enforce some obligations that limit human activities can results into a warmer climate that may be unsuitable for human survival.

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