“Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation.” I found an interesting article that addresses global warming relating to the polar regions of the earth. Previous studies have shown temperature rises at both poles, however, none until now have scientifically attributed the cause solely to human activity. This change in climate is known as anthropogenic climate change, or the climate change due to human activity.
These studies were carried out over a 100 year period in the artic, and a 50 year period in the Antarctic, due to the fact that no data was recorded before 1945. This data was recorded by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK. “Scientists think they have uncovered conclusive proof that human activity is responsible for rising temperatures in both polar regions.” This research was performed by making two models. The first model involved how the climate was affected solely by natural forces, such as volcanic activity and solar cycles. The second model possessed the variable of anthropogenic (or human) affect on the environment. This model took into account greenhouse gases, sulphate aerosol and stratospheric ozone depletion. “Scientists discovered that the observed changes in Arctic and Antarctic temperatures are not consistent with internal climate variability or natural climate drivers alone.” Therefore, the variable of anthropogenic activity resulted in a clear change in climatic activity, due to the fact that natural causes were incapable of producing such a drastic affect. The greenhouse effect caused by greenhouse gases works by the ozone layer trapping larger amounts of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide and methane and other such gases in the atmosphere, trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere in a way.
“The report may go some way towards silencing climate skeptics who point to evidence that most of Antarctica has been cooling for some time.” Although this data is almost completely definitive and scientifically legitimate, scientists believe that skeptics around the world will still be out there due to ignorance, and other similar factors. Some of the arguments these skeptics present is that there has been a slight cooling over the continent of Antarctica over the observed years, however, scientists have an answer for this. In the article, scientists have stated that this cooling is due to circulation changes which are due to ozone depletion, which coincidentally is also caused by humans.
"I'm afraid that there will always be people that don't believe that we are making all these changes" I myself feel that the issue of global, and therefore polar warming, should be taken care of as soon as possible. I feel as though everyone in the political world, the scientific community, and the media are doing many things to make the issue relevant and known to the common folk, however, not enough steps are being taken toward a much needed change in our modern and industrial lifestyles. I feel as though people are waiting for a serious impact to occur before we do something about this catastrophic issue. "Some people are waiting for the science to say that a particular heat wave is caused by humans. But attributing specific effects to human activities is much more difficult than attributing global changes. I don't know if we should wait for that because it will be too late.I see from the data that there is warming. This is really frightening." The results are completely pragmatic, and I feel as though humans need to make a stand to change this disaster. There are many great ideas out there for positive change (we have brought many of these issues to surface in discussion) and things can be done…people.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/30/polar.warming/index.html
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