These gases keep the sun’s energy and rays

Running Head: GEOGRAPHY
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Environmental Science
Climate Change Essay
(Student Details: )
3/12/2020

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Climate Change
The essay will be focused on a trending issue of Climate Change (CC) while reviewing the
chosen issue to synthesize a meaningful conclusion. In doing so, this paper will assess
whether human beings are the major responsible reason for CC worldwide. This discussion is
going to evaluate how humans have caused CC in a global society. While talking about the
real cause of CC, this paper will also include long-term predictions related to CC in the near
future. Post researching and analysing the topic of CC, a discussion about the required key
changes in human behaviour will take place (BBC News, 2020). The mitigation of climate
change along with prevention strategies will also be included in this paper. In this context,
both the ethical and moral implications should be considered in the context of CC so that
learning can be fostered among the local public. Thus, the essay will finally provide a concise
summary of the key facts about CC so that readers can use the same for mitigating the
impacts of CC during their daily life (Ahvenniemi et al., 2017).
Firstly, defining the issue of climate change is necessary. In general, CC is the issue of the
current generation and hence requires serious attention and creative solutions. From the
definition perspective, climate change is the process of shifting weather patterns which may
threaten food production and many other daily living processes. This weather shifting process
gives rise to sea levels which ultimately enhances the risk of catastrophic flooding. In
addition, the key effects of CC are continuously rising at a large scale all across the globe.
The human activities are responsible for the CC because human fingerprints are majorly on
greenhouse gases (Bass & Dalal-Clayton, 2012). It has been found that the greenhouse effect
is usually caused by greenhouse gases which occur naturally as an outcome of humans’ daily
activities. It is worth mentioning that greenhouses gases production is also essential to the
survival of millions of humans as well as other wildlife animals. These gases keep the sun’s
energy and rays from reflecting space and thereby making earth liveable (Change, 2014).

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However, the concentration of these greenhouse gases above than a prescribed limit is
dangerous for the life at earth. On the contrary, the abnormal level and concentration of the
greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere usually cause undesired global warming. Such
undesired and bad effect of greenhouse gases on the earth’s atmosphere is known as the
greenhouse effect as it rises the earth’s and oceans’ temperature abruptly. The key reasons for
the greenhouse effect and thereby global warming are deforestation, industrialization, as well
as big-scale agriculture (Edenhofer, 2015). These aforementioned human activities are
constantly increasing the overall quantity of greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere. It
is recorded by the environmental science experts that the level of these greenhouse gases has
risen to the record levels which were not seen during the 3 million years. Also, such a
cumulative level of Greenhouse Gases (herein after referred to as GHGs) keeps increasing
with the rise in economies, populations, and standards of living of the humans in this era
(Flynn et al., 2018).
Human activities give rise to abnormal levels of GHGs in the atmosphere which is directly
linked to the average global temperature on the globe. Since the industrial revolution, the
overall concentration of the GHGs has been constantly increasing and hence enhancing
global temperatures of the earth (Kumar & Taylor, 2015). In this context, carbon dioxide
(CO2) is considered as the most abundant GHG which is accounting for more than 2/3 of
GHGs and it is hugely the product resulted from burning fossil fuels. The modern researchers
have found that the dominant cause of enhancing the concentration of CO2 in the earth’s
atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels like coal, crude oil and many more (Lehodey et al.,
2015). During the last 2 centuries, the fossil fuel growth combustion has been coupled to
world growth in energy use and thereby economic activity (Kumar & Taylor, 2015).
Based on the above knowledge and GHGs production, there are so many long-term
predictions related to CC that appearing to be in the near future (Lehodey et al., 2015). If

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humans will keep increasing the concentration of GHGs into the atmosphere then there will
be a serious shortage of energy resources in the long future. It is because humans are
continuously using conventional energy sources like coal, natural gas, crude oil, water and
many more. The conventional energy resources are limited and non-renewable hence they
will exhaust soon. If life at earth needs to be sustainable then there is a strict need of
replacing fossil fuel use with renewable energy resources effectively (NASA, 2019).
As mentioned above, there are some specific changes in human behaviour which are required
if humans hope to mitigate CC all across the globe. For instance, human behaviour must be
sustainability-oriented where renewable energy resources must be used largely (Plass et al.,
2020). In this context, the use of local public transport instead of using personal cars and two-
wheelers can seriously help humanity to survive after the impacts of CC. To prevent climate
change impacts worldwide, humans can work upon their daily life practices like air
conditioner use, heater use, geyser use, refrigerator use and many more (Flynn et al., 2018).
When it comes to oceans and marine life, humans are consistently disturbing aquatic animals’
life. It needs to stop and humans must leave nature as it is for promoting sustainable
development and averting further natural disasters in the near future (NASA, 2019).
Apart from this, CC has moral and ethical implications which raise a need for responsible
individuals in this sustainability crisis. In addition to that, global climate change is having
moral as well as ethical issues needs to be addressed (United Nations, 2018). It is because any
action taken in response to climate change can confront serious ethical issues like fairness as
well as responsibility all across nations, individuals, and generations in the globe (Lehodey et
al., 2015). In this way, climate change is the most challenging issue facing the world today.
The moral and ethical implications are suggesting that a world where all human beings are
equal, perfectly governed, and rational, while confronted with the prospects of global
warming, then it might reach an optimal decision compelling environmental science. Here,

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such an ideal world would then identify effective international agreements for further
restricting greenhouse gas emissions and thereby avert harmful CC (Urry, 2015).
Therefore, based on the above analysis and the response of corporations and governments to
the date, there is some long-term outlook concerning climate change (Change, 2014). It is
observed that three key ethical dilemmas are complicating the well-known CC debate. The
first ethical dilemma is how to balance the rights and responsibilities of the developed and
developing world. The second ethical dilemma is how to assess our responsibility to future
generations who must live with a climate we are shaping today (NASA, 2019). The third
ethical dilemma is how to evaluate geo-engineering schemes designed to reverse or slow CC
(Willis-Norton et al., 2015).
In whole, the research and in-depth analysis of the CC issue in this era are suggesting that
presently humans are acting as the key driver of climate change as they are producing
greenhouse gases into their daily life activities to a large extent. Undoubtedly, this research
has been found that the mitigation of CC is in the hands of human beings. There are so many
environmental sustainability issues and their solutions are being hidden into humans’ daily
lifestyle. In this way, this discussion is indicating that climate change can effectively be
addressed with the help of forestation and stop using conventional energy resources. There
must be a considerable change in human behaviours so that sustainable development
practices can be fostered and used for further mitigating climate change. In addition to that,
based on this paper it can be said that the average temperature of Earth is constantly rising at
a fast rate than ever. In this way, such a rapid global warming rate cannot be explained with
the help of natural cycles alone, but it is a reaction of human actions daily. Thus, this essay
has successfully explained and analysed the climate change issue with the help of the
greenhouse effect and the global warming concept. The entire discussion is suggesting that
human activities are instigating the GHGs emission and the effect of greenhouse gases

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(GHGs) emitted by humans is producing global warming and hence climate change.
Therefore, climate change can easily be mitigated and addressed with the changed behaviour
and activity pattern of human society worldwide.

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References
Ahvenniemi, H., Huovila, A. & Pinto-Seppa, I., 2017. What are the differences between
sustainable and smart cities? Cities, 60, pp.234-45.
Bass, S. & Dalal-Clayton, B., 2012. Sustainable development strategies: a resource book.
London: Routledge.
BBC News, 2020. What is climate change? A really simple guide. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24021772 [Accessed 2020].
Change, I., 2014. Mitigation of climate change. Contribution of Working Group III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1454.
Edenhofer, O., 2015. Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Flynn, M., Ford, J.D., Pearce, T. & Harper, S.L., 2018. Participatory scenario planning and
climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability research in the Arctic. Environmental
Science & Policy, 79(1), pp.45-53.
Kumar, L. & Taylor, S., 2015. Exposure of coastal built assets in the South Pacific to climate
risks. Nature Climate Change, 5(11'), p.992.
Lehodey, P., Senina, I., Nicol, S. & Hampton, J., 2015. Modelling the impact of climate
change on South Pacific albacore tuna. Deep Sea Reserach Part II: Topical Studies in
Oceanography, 113, pp.246-59.
NASA, 2019. The Effects of Climate Change. [Online] Available at:
https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/.

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Plass , G., Schmidt, G. & Fleming, J., 2020. Carbon Dioxide and the Climate Change.
[Online] Available at: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/carbon-dioxide-and-the-
climate.
United Nations, 2018. SDG 7: Affordable And Clean Energy. [Online] Available at:
http://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-7/ [Accessed 26 October 2018].
Urry, J., 2015. Climate change and society. In Why the social sciences matter. London:
Palgrave Macmillan. pp.45-59.
Willis-Norton, E., Hazen, E. & Fossette, S., 2015. Climate change impacts on leatherback
turtle pelagic habitat in the Southeast Pacific. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in
Oceanography, 113, pp.260-67.