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Carson Wood

Professor Hunter

English 1201

09 February 2022

Climate Change
There are many challenges that we as humans have to face throughout our lives. They can

be personal or on a larger scale. One of the biggest things that we have to deal with is climate

change. Throughout the years there has been a growing concern over this topic. A lot of people

panic about our future because of our world’s temperature constantly changing. Some believe it

could be the end of the world and others believe that it is just something natural that the Earth

goes through. The question being asked today is, Why is climate change such a big deal?

The world has always had climate change. Throughout time the temperatures have risen

and fallen constantly. We have only seen a drastic change in our climate since the 1950s, but

early signs since the 1830s. This huge spike is a rise in carbon dioxide levels. Levels had never

gone above 300 ppm for 800,000 years before 1950. The levels had always fluctuated between

180 and 300. Once we got to 1950, we saw a spike reaching around 410.

How did we get here you may ask? Well, starting off, this is significant because it does

not follow any pattern we have seen before. For hundreds of thousands of years there have been

glacial advances and retreats. That's where you would see the levels go up and down from 180 to

300. If you look at what we have done as humans since 1830, 1950, and then now, you will see

the signs of what humans have contributed to this effect. The way we run our world through

machinery and technology shows that we have made a major contribution to this change.
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If you do not understand why this is happening, you will never be able to find solutions.

This is why it is important to look at the causes and science behind this. The first thing we can

look at is greenhouse gasses. These are things like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and

fluorinated gasses. These are very impactful to our environment. These gasses trap in heat and do

not allow it to be released outside our atmosphere. This is why they are called greenhouse gasses.

They act like the glass in a greenhouse, trapping heat in, and not allowing it to leave the room.

We as humans greatly impact this release of gasses. Things like burning coal, oil and gas

produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. When we cut down forests, the carbon in the trees

releases and their cycle of carbon dioxide for our world is lost. A large amount of livestock

increases the amount of methane released too. The list can go on and on. The problem with this

is that it takes so long for these gasses to release. Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas

than carbon dioxide, but has a shorter atmospheric lifetime. Nitrous oxide, like carbon dioxide, is

a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere over decades to centuries. There

is no easy way to let these gasses release into space. The best thing we can do right now is slow

down or stop the release of these gasses.

Thankfully, there are some things we can do to slow this process down. Keeping fossil

fuels in the ground is one of the best ways. We use resources that release gasses into the

atmosphere just to get more resources to release more gasses. This is really a loss-loss situation.

It would be better for use to look at an alternative source like wind, water, or electricity. We have

made advances towards this, but it could be so much further than it is now. Another thing that

you may have not thought too much about is plastic. Plastic is made from oil, which is obtained

mostly from burning fossil fuels. Plastic is also very hard to dispose of too. The way we remove

it is by burning it. This also releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the air. This is another loss-loss
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situation that we could manage or avoid. There are also many things you could do on a smaller

level too. Keeping your house cool and not using your AC helps a lot. Also changing your diet to

revolve more around plants and switch to better transportation are all things you could do.

Overall, climate change has become a big concern. Things like the biggest emission

levels in this melinia, ocean levels rising at a record rate, and our global temperature rising at an

unseen level too. All of these things could impact us greatly in the near future. This is why we

should step in now. We have been given solutions. Now it is time for us to start using them. It

starts with one person, but has to be finished as a whole.

Works Cited

“Causes of Climate Change.” Climate Action,

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/climate-change/causes-climate-change_en#:~:text=Humans
%20are%20increasingly%20influencing%20the,greenhouse%20effect%20and%20global
%20warming.

“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” Edited by Holly Shaftel et al., NASA,
NASA, 8 Feb. 2022, https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.

James Rodger Fleming. Fixing the Sky : The Checkered History of Weather and Climate
Control. Columbia University Press, 2010. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=584678&site=eds-live.

Pei, Wenqiang, et al. “Human Impact Overwhelms Long-Term Climate Control of Fire in
the Yangtze River Basin since 3.0 Ka BP.” Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 230, Feb.
2020. EBSCOhost, doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106165.

“What Are the Solutions to Climate Change?” Greenpeace UK, 2 July 2021,
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/climate-change/solutions-climate-change/.