Unraveling The Causes And Charting Sustainable

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines climate change as a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, altering the composition of the global atmosphere (Lewis, 2017). The direct cause from human activity includes pollution, unlawful combustion and increasing the emission of greenhouse gases from industrial work. Other indirect features include the greenhouse effects. Climate change is a big issue that has serious impacts on the environment. If the people are not concerned about the serious issue of climate change, the results could be catastrophic. Crucial changes need to be made to minimise this transformation of the world’s temperature because it has adverse impacts on the future of the planet and our future generations will suffer for this serious transformation. This essay will outline the main contributing factors and then enlighten what can be done to overcome this serious issue of climate change.

One subsidising issue is high greenhouse effects. “The exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation from the sun that warms the Earth is often referred to as the greenhouse effect because a greenhouse works in a similar way” (Lallanila, 2016). Received UV radiation from the sun is either reflected or absorbed back into the atmosphere as infrared radiation. This infrared radiation gets imprisoned in the Earth’s atmosphere and this further warms up the planet. This heat is a major cause of the rising temperatures of the Earth and it has dangerous impacts on the earth in near future. Warming up of the Earth allows the ice caps to melt at out poles and this causes sea levels to rise. This means that, the oceans are over flowing, and this is causing more often flooding like Tsunami in different places around the Earth. This further destroys homes, work places and the number of deaths in the earth is rising for this reason of flood. “Stabilisation at any level of greenhouse concentration requires ultimate reduction of global net emissions to a small fraction of current emissions. It will likely take centuries to reduce carbon dioxide concentrations much below the highest levels reached unless active steps are taken to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere” (Pittock, 2009). Hereby, the greenhouse effect has a greater impact on the earth than just raising temperatures. The human being cannot control this incident as the radiation from the Sun hits the earth naturally and people cannot prevent it. There are other things that can be done to minimise the impacts of greenhouse effects. One of these is to minimise the use of unsustainable sources and ensure that the day to day resources come from a sustainable source which is good for the environment as well as for the human being. hereby, it is sustainable for the people to utilise renewable resources to minimise the impacts of greenhouse effects. Another way to get rid of the situation is to minimise the incident of cutting the tress because plants are useful to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air ensuring that there is proper balance between the amount of carbon dioxide and the oxygen. If people cut down all the trees, then there won’t be any alternative way for respiring the carbon dioxide from the air and this will be dangerous for the human being if the amount of carbon dioxide is raising day by day. Hereby, the plants are the effective source of mitigating the issue of greenhouse effects as well as people can utilise renewable resources rather than unsuitable resources to reduce the negative consequences on the earth.

There are several contributing factors of climate change which include fossil fuel use, land use, emission of greenhouse gases and burning and cleaning of tropical forests. These are the main factors that raise the issue of climate change and it further has adverse and serious impacts on the living being in the earth. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions further raises the incident of global warming and it in turn affect the climate change and environment. The human beings are also responsible for increasing pollution such as high use of motor vehicles which emits greenhouse gas and apart from that cooking, use of fossil fuel, air conditioner etc.

Another major concern is the emission of greenhouse gases themselves. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. If there is not enough amounts of greenhouse gases in the air, then the Earth’s average temperature would be too low for living things to exist so that the gases are important to maintain the balance in the earth. Too much of the emission of the greenhouse gases is bad and it further adversely hampers the human being in the earth. The levels of these gases are too high for which the planet is warming up too much. “It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate, Earth's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047, with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems, biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide”. Clouds are the major non-gas contributor to earth’s greenhouse effect and also absorb and emit infrared radiation. This infrared radiation has the ability to warm up the earth’s atmosphere and therefore cause the change that we know as global warming.

In the years to come climate change is going to become more drastic than it is now. The few changes that are taking place in the earth’s atmosphere now are nothing much compared to what may happen in the future. In the past years of the planets history, there have been ice ages. This is where the earth was full of nothing but ice and cold which would cover all the surfaces. This lasted for thousands of years until the climate would begin to even out again. “The development of these huge ice sheets must have led to all organic life on the earth’s surface. The grounds of Europe previously covered with tropical vegetation and inhabited by herds of great elephants, enormous hippopotamus and gigantic carnivore became suddenly buried under a vast expanse of ice covering plains, lakes, seas and plateau alike. The silence of death followed...springs dried up, streams ceased to flow, and sunrays rising over the frozen shore...were met only by the whistling of northern winds and the rumbling of the crevasses as they opened across the surface of that huge ocean of ice” (Imbrie Jand Imbrie K. P. 1986). This quote stated that, if the climate was going to keep on changing as it is now and goes onto another ice age then it would be extremely difficult for living beings to exist as day to day activities would be withheld. If actions are not taken now to prevent this, these theories are very likely to turn into fact.

There have been many debates as to whether climate change is a result of all human activity or whether there have been other contributions as well. Some say that it cannot be just based upon human actions as these have only started only a few hundred years ago but drastic climate changes have happened in the past as well, so sure humans may be contributing but it is not all a result of their behaviour. “When the temperature around the world drops even by a few degrees over a long period of time it means that snow doesn’t melt fully certain regions. More snow falls on top of the layer that is already there (Baby Professor, 2017). The bottom layer eventually turns into ice. Eventually these layers are piled-up snow and ice becomes a glacier. The weight of the frozen mass of ice causes the glacier to move forward very quickly over land masses” (Baby Professor, 2017). This passage shows that, the ice age is in fact not a result of human activity but rather just a way of the planet to sustain itself over time. Human activity is merely just a contributing factor that is making what is to happen anyway to just happen faster.

“So how do scientists know that recent climate change is largely caused by human activity? Measurements of different forms of carbon reveal that this increase is due to human activities. Other greenhouse gases are also increasing as a consequence of human activities. In nature carbon dioxide is exchanges continually between the atmosphere, plant and animals through photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition and between the atmosphere and ocean through gas exchange (Giddens, 2017). The carbon dioxide level in 2012 was about 40% higher than it was in the nineteenth century. Most of this carbon dioxide increase has taken place since 1970, about the time when global energy consumption accelerated.” This shows that global energy was the reason for the levels to raise so high and therefore human activity does play a crucial role (Royal Society and Natural Academy of Sciences, 2017). As well as this, there are man-made greenhouse gases too, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), which are very new to the atmosphere. This indicated that human activity is much more able than it would be thought (Giddens, 2017).

Different countries take different actions towards climate change and have different views as to identify that how this problem should be handles. In the UK, many laws and regulations have been put into place to help the idea of decreasing greenhouse gases and making pollution to a bare minimum. One of these is putting in rules about how exhaust emissions should be handled (Giddens, 2017). Currently in the UK, it is illegal to drive a car without a catalytic converter. This is a way of making harmful gases turn into less harmful ones which thereby decrease the levels of pollution. This means that, harmful gases such as carbon monoxide will not reach the air but a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide will. It shows that, all the human beings understand the danger of a toxic gas but they are not fully concerned about this greenhouse gas that can also be very dangerous if kept on being released. “To cope with global warming a long-term perspective must be introduced into politics, domestically and internationally. There has to be some sort of forward planning. Climate change politics is all about risk and how to manage it” (Giddens, 2017). This passage is trying to say that we need to bring the problem of climate change into an item of worldly risk and suggest strategic ways in which we can resolve this issue. This will take many challenges being faced and much anticipation but if not done then the biggest problem of our era will get worse.

Humans are not the only living things which are being affected by this climate change. Animals are also widely being affected. In some ways it is worst for them because they make their own needs to survive and live by the survival of the fittest. They have to live by finding their own food and making their own habitat; unlike humans who have adapted very well to the environment and have learnt to live under extreme conditions (Bradshaw WEB, Holzapfel CMH, 2006). Over the past 40 years, species have been extending their ranges toward the poles and populations have been migrating, developing, or reproducing earlier in the spring than previously. These range expansions and changes in the timing of seasonal events have generally been attributed to "phenotypic plasticity" that is, the ability of individuals to modify their behaviour, morphology, or physiology in response to alter environmental conditions. Phenotypic plasticity is not the whole story. However, recent studies show that, over the recent decades, climate change has led to heritable, genetic changes in populations of animals as diverse as birds, squirrels, and mosquitoes (Bradshaw WEB, Holzapfel CMH, 2006). Hereby, climate change is not only affecting the animals living status but also their bodies. Although these animals are able to adapt to these climate changes over time, the changes are taking place genetically and are related to season. Although we have this information, we cannot clearly say that these are due to the temperature rising alone. “Specific outcomes will be difficult to predict since climate change and invasive species are likely to interact both spatially and temporally to alter functional ecosystem integrity” (Ziska LHZ and Dukes JSD, 2014). Therefore these outcomes cannot be predicted because there are many things linked to these changes and so climate change is not the only factor.

Another living thing which is being affected by the climate change is plants. Plants are essential for life on earth to exist and without them there would be no oxygen for us to respire and the levels of carbon dioxide would increase too much as well if there is no such adequate plants in the planet. Apart from this, plants help us by providing food and vegetation as well. Plants are utilised for direct food for us and it also indirectly helps us being treated the food for animals like cows. For example, if cows didn’t have food then they wouldn’t be able to give milk and again milk is essential for living things without which they would all be victims of malnutrition. As it can be seen, climate change can affect many of our essential and daily needs. Climate change will make plants more vulnerable and not give their daily needs of vitamins and minerals which prevent them from growing and they therefore die (Bradshaw WEB, Holzapfel CMH, 2006).

In conclusion, there are many factors contributing to climate change and these are all playing major roles. The transformation of this weather is not good for the betterment of this planet and if not stopped or prevented from further changes as soon as possible then human life may well seize to exist. Everyone needs to take major roles in this development otherwise humans will be actively at fault. As living things on this planet and it being the home of them, humans should always try to do what is best for the earth because if they fail to protect it then only the human being who are affected for such climate change and who will be in danger in near future. Therefore, if these things are done then humans can continue to live on the planet as they have been doing for thousands of years. It is the responsibility of the human beings to mitigate the issue of climate change as it adversely affects the environment where people cannot live safely. In this regard, the people need to change their perception of burning and cleaning the trees and they need to identify renewable resources for reducing the negative impacts of the unsustainable resources. Moreover, the human being needs to be concerned about the emission of greenhouse gases which is the main contributing factor for such climate change and in this context, the human being needs to control the use of fossil fuel, air-condition, and others. In addition to these, the human being also needs to look forward to use batter car and other alternative options to reduce the issue of air pollution for motor vehicles. These are the alternative ways through which the people can control the issue of climate change. Hereby, it can be concluded that, there are any contributing factors for which the issue of climate change s increasing rapidly year to year and the human being is responsible for mitigating the issue by controlling their consumption of resources and emission of greenhouse gases.

Reference List

• Baby Professor, 2017. Ice Age. Available at:
• Bradshaw WEB and Holzapfel CMH, 2006. Climate change: Evolutionary response to rapid climate change. Available at:. [Accessed on 18 November 2017].
• Giddens A., 2017. The politics of climate change. Available at
• Imbrie, J. . and Imbrie K. P., 1986. Ice ages, solving the mystery. Available at:
• Lallanila A., 2016. What is the greenhouse effect?. Available at:
• Lewis, A. S., 2017. What is climate change. Available at:
• Pittock A. B., 2009. Climate change; the science, impacts and the solutions. Available at:
• Royal Society and National Academy of Sciences, 2017. Climate change evidence and causes. Available at:

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