Climate Change and the Burning of Fossil Fuels

The debt over burning fossil fuels and the impact it has caused on climate change as been discussed over years without answer as to say if the gradual warming of the earth is a natural process or if human activity has added to the acceleration of climate change or is the key behind it. Evidence of this is the hockey stick debt as temperature rise rapidly once humans became developed. One thing we do know is that there are many natural events that possibly could accelerate global warming but also many human factors to. Thus making climate change hard to blame on human activities like burning fossil fuels and or nature.
The burning of fossil fuels must have an effect on climate change as it realises CO2, everyday human activity like using cars added co2 into the atmosphere along with industry, this vast adding of CO2 causes the enhanced green house effect. The enhanced green house effect is when the suns long wave radiation gets trapped in the atmosphere as a ‘bubble’ around the earth of green house gases (including CO2) is reflecting back the radiation as it tries to escape into space once its been reflected. This trapping of the suns radiation warms up the atmosphere as the heat can’t escape. Although this process has been happening for years naturally there is evidence since the 1900 there has been a gradual increase in CO2 levels, more then likely from human activity as 10,000 years ago there used to be a stable level of green house gas particles in the air but now is at 380PPM. This would explain the general warming of the planet which has caused the ice caps to melt, if its truly only human activity that has caused climate change then the knock on effect of melting ice caps which is cooling the seas also has a effect on the climate as areas like the UK which receive warmer ocean currents from America which stops the UK from being a tundra like climate would end up becoming a tundra region, this could be one of the causes of the UK recently having some of the coldest winters since records began. This is a natural process to happen but encouraged rapidly through human activity. Overall there is evidence to suggest that climate change is not a natural phenomenon and that humans must have had a influenced as during the industrial revolution took place and could be the causes of the warmer climate today as the effects catch up to the present. This would make sense as LEDCs which are developing through rapid industrialisation like China are now sacrificing there local environments by pumping CO2 through industry into the atmosphere which could have the same effect which industrial revolution as had.
Although the burning of fossils is a possibly of climate change there have been natural process which have added CO2 to the atmosphere that have been occurring since the earth began. Variation in the suns activity which as solar flares is a factor that will affect the climate as a solar flare will bring strong waves of radiation which would cause more energy to be trapped from the green house effect. Other solar activity could be the tilt of the earth and how the axis faces more towards to sun. These two types of activity have been happening for years on different scales and have influenced climate change depending on the scale. But recently in the past 1,000 years there’s not evidence of huge solar activity which would influence climate change so only the gradual adding of this process can be contributed as there’s not enough evidence to suggest otherwise. Seismic activity is also another factor that has contributed to climate change and still does. Volcanoes erupting emit CO2 and other green house gases into the atmosphere. Volcanoes also add lots of other particles into the atmosphere changing the composition of the atmosphere which also have a part to play in the green house effect. As volcanoes have been erupting for years to these also had a part to play. Also big eruptions like Pompeii could have accelerated climate change more so too. But also the small constant eruptions in places like Hawaii which are constantly emitting particles. Although these natural events in nature could be the only reason the climate change its unlikely as they would need to happen on a large scale multiple times for it to cause a huge impact.
The extent of that climate change is a natural phenomenon and has nothing to do with burning fossil fuels is a false accusation as there is evidence that suggests are climate was much cleaner years ago through physical evidence like ice core analysis and biological evidence through pollen analysis. You could argue that it the climate was going to change any way through the green house effect and changing currents through natural factors which is true, but this would of happen on a slower scale and would have been able to mange its self. Due to human activity this long process has just been accelerate through development and lack of attention when it all began. The average emissions of green house gases would have been low if humans didn’t interfere. Plants and trees could of managed this amount for millions of years as they take in many of the green house gases needed to cause climate change. But due to humans developing constants and emitting constantly with miles of forests been cut down daily it’s hard to see how climate change is natural anymore when humans have had a huge effect on it.