Topic Proposal and Smart Research

Topic: Climate Change - Is it caused by humans or by nature, or rather, is it caused

by both? If so, how much are we humans responsible for...? Should we bother doing

something about it, or is it not a big deal? There are people who believe that it is

man-made, and there are also those who believe that it is caused by nature and that it is

nothing to be concerned about. It is an important discussion to be had since it determines

whether we need to make drastic changes to the way we treat our planet… We can not

simply ride on the claim that there is ambiguity as to whether it's man-made or

nature-made, when in fact, there is no ambiguity.

In this paper, I aim to show that humans are the major contributor to the global

climate change that we hear about all the time. I will explore the effects of some of the

main factors of climate change including industrialisation, burning of fossil fuels,

transportation and agriculture etc. I will show that human activities have a much bigger

impact on the rising temperatures around the globe compared to whatever relatively

minor effect natural causes may have.

I may have some difficulties finding the accurate amount of global climate change

caused by human factors or natural causes as I assume it is not easy to measure global

change. However, I should be able to atleast get an approximate idea… Or better yet,
maybe scientists have enough data to prove that man-made factors contribute to most

(say more than 70%) of climate change.

Works Cited

Grossi, Giampiero et al., “Livestock and climate change: impact of livestock on climate

and mitigation strategies”. Animal Frontiers, 12 November 2018,

https://academic.oup.com/af/article/9/1/69/5173494.

Dupuis, Patrick. “How much do dairy cows contribute to Global Warming”. Dairy

Farmers of Canada, 15 November 2019,

https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/who-we-are/our-commitments/sustainability/cows-gh

g-global-warming.

Radford, Tim. “Why we should be cooling, not warming”. Climate News Network, 7

March 2013, https://climatenewsnetwork.net/why-we-should-be-cooling-not-warming/.

Samurovic, Katarina. “Mega Tree Planting Efforts Around the World”. Geography

Realm, 10 December 2020,

https://www.geographyrealm.com/mega-tree-planting-efforts-around-the-world/.
“How many trees are cut down every year?”. Ran, 6 March 2017,

https://www.ran.org/the-understory/how_many_trees_are_cut_down_every_year/.

“Fossil fuels and climate change: the facts”. Client Earth, 11 November 2020,

https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/stories/fossil-fuels-and-climate-change-t

he-facts/ .

Hausfather, Zeke. “Analysis: Why scientists think 100% of global warming is due to

humans”. Carbon Brief, December 13th 2017,

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due

-to-humans.

Dwortzan, Mark. “How will Covid-19 ultimately impact climate change”. MIT News, 29

January 2021,

https://news.mit.edu/2021/how-will-covid-19-ultimately-impact-climate-change-0129
 Bibliography

Cho, Renee. “How We Know Today's Climate Change Is Not Natural”. State of the

planet, Columbia University, April 4th 2017,

https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/04/04/how-we-know-climate-change-is-not-natural/.

In this article, Renee Cho goes over the evidence presented by various scientists that all

point towards a single fact: climate change is indeed being caused by humans. Clears up a

lot of questions regarding the factors… Some of the details the scientists have provided

may be useful for explaining the causes of climate change….

Hausfather, Zeke. “Analysis: Why scientists think 100% of global warming is due to

humans”. Carbon Brief, December 13th 2017,

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due

-to-humans.

In this online article, Zeke Hausfather goes over the different causes of global climate

change, which are man-made and natural… And the amount of contribution by each of

these factors. It seems that almost 100% of climate change experienced in the last 150 -

200 years is caused by humans. The facts used in the article may be useful evidence for

my paper.

Zhuo, Ruixuan. “The HNS Convention: Will It Be a Game Changer for China’s Marine

Pollution Law?” . Tulane Law school and Shanghai Maritime university, Summer 2020.
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol60/iss2/4/

This article talks about China’ domestic laws regarding marine pollution. This is an

example of man-made environmental disturbance. Helps to show some steps we can take

to improve the state of our planet, for instance making laws that protect biodiversity.