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The Greenhouse Effect From Industry & Consumer Society
By releasing more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere through human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels and poor agricultural practices, that natural balance is artificially disrupted.
 Both the oceans and the biomass on the land absorb or ‘sink’ carbon dioxide in a natural cycle called the Carbon Cycle. However, both of those “carbon sinks” cannot handle the extra amount produced by industrialization. The result is a dramatic accumulation of carbon, and a warming of the atmosphere (Global Warming) from the increased carbon dioxide.
In response to the claim that natural climate change or ‘climate variability’ may be contributing to global warming of the past few decades, the IPCC states that ‘most of the observed warming over the past 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations,’ which is ‘attributable to human activities’ (ITCC; Ecologist Report 2001: 6).
The world will become MUCH warmer than during the past millennium.
Human-Caused Carbon Dioxide (C02 ) Now At Unprecedented High Levels
The human-induced “Greenhouse Effect” was first studied in 1827 by Baron Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier.
During the past 150 to 200 years, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased by 30%. The graph shows that CO2 levels are now at higher concentrations than at any other time in the last 400,000 years, and likely higher than during the past 20 million years (ITCC; Ecologist Report 2001: 5).
Global Experiment
CO2 concentrations are likely to reach 700 ppm by 2100, but could vary from a low of 450ppm (if we really work hard to reduce our CO2 emissions), to a high of 900 ppm (if we use a lot of fossil fuels).
This is of great concern to many environmentalists, international development experts, scientists, governments, and certain economic sectors, as these dramatic increases in atmospheric CO2 levels represent one huge global laboratory experiment with largely unknown consequences. |
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