What is believed to have caused global warming?

Answer 1

1. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in industry, transport and electricity generation. This adds carbon dioxide to the greenhouse gases.
2. Cutting down forests. This means there are fewer and fewer trees to suck carbon out of the atmosphere.
3. Cement and concrete production. Adds carbon dioxide.
4. Cattle and poor agricultural practices. Adds methane.

A:

Global warming refers to the warming of the earth since the Industrial Revolution and especially in the recent decades.

There is a natural greenhouse effect in our atmosphere which has kept the planet comfortable for millions of years. This is caused by the greenhouse gasestrapping reflected heat and preventing it escaping into space. The water and carbon cycles support this effect.

Global warming is being caused by two things that humans have done during the past 200 years. We discovered coal, oil and other fossil fuels and began burning them in industry, transport and to generate electricity. This released billions of tons of carbon dioxide which was not part of the carbon cycle, but which instead had been safely sequestered underground for millions of years. This turned the greenhouse effect into an enhanced greenhouse effect, where the extra carbon dioxide is retaining more and more heat, causing global warming.

The other main cause is the deforestation of the world. We have cut down huge forests all over the planet. Trees absorb and store carbon. By destroying so much vegetation we made it impossible for the carbon cycle to function normally.

Some gases that contribute to Global Warming and their man-made sources:

Carbon Dioxide from power plants, from cars, trucks, and airplanes. Also deforestation is responsible for up to 25% of all carbon emissions.

Methane from rice paddies and bogs, fossil fuel productions and bovine flatulence.

Nitrous oxide from nylon and nitric acid production, fertilizers in agriculture, vehicle catalytic converters, and the burning of organic matter.

A further answer

Greenhouse gases are gases that help trap the sun's warmth in our atmosphere. They include water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane. While methane is far less abundant than carbon dioxide, its effect on global warming can be far greater. The greenhouse effect is essential to life on earth as we know it. A reduction in greenhouse gases would result in global cooling, while an increase would result in global warming and climate change.

In the absence of human activity, the amount of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas, remains relatively constant over a long period of time. There is, of course, a recycling of carbon to carbon dioxide and back, as plants take in carbon dioxide, convert it to organic matter, then die and decay (or are burnt in forest fires), once again giving off carbon dioxide, but this natural cycle does not alter the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Human activity is what causes an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By cutting down forests for farming, we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere. But most of all, we are doing so by burning fossil fuels.

There is a great deal of misinformation about global warming, leading many to doubt that it really exists. Until recently, an eminent scientist, although not a climatologist, had his own doubts. Richard Muller, a Physics Professor and longtime critic of climate studies, sought to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of skeptics who believe global warming is exaggerated or unsure of the science. The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project at the University of California, Berkeley, was launched with a team of physicists and statisticians, to challenge the scientific consensus on global warming but is finding that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly identical to those underlying the prevailing view.

Professor Muller has conceded that the work of the three principal groups that have analysed the temperature trends underlying climate science is "excellent ... We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups."

Pollution in the air caused by me and you.

• the main cause is the excessive amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• PowerPlants, Factories, Paper, Plastic, Cars, Fires, Non-Energy Efficent Lightbulbs, ALL ARE CAUSED BY HUMANS.
• Whenever we burn coal or oil to make electricity we release the carbon trapped in there and the carbon dioxide goes up and adds to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

global warming is caused because of the trees being cut down so basicly its man kinds fault
Pollution in the air caused by me and you.
green house gases

Answer 2

Global warming refers to the recent warming of the earthsince the beginning of the Industrial Age (about 1750), and especially the rapid warming since the 1970s.

There has always been a greenhouse effect with greenhouse gases keeping the planet warm enough for life. The natural water and carbon cycles have supported this in the atmosphere.

When we began seriously digging up and burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) this released a lot of additional carbon dioxide (CO2) which had been out of circulation for millions of years. (Fossil fuels contain the carbon from the fossilized remains of vegetation and animal matter.)

The natural carbon cycle, which moves carbon in and out of the atmosphere, has been unable to cope with the additional CO2, so more is remaining and is capturing more of the sun's heat.

We didn't help by destroying huge tracts of forests all over the world, which used to absorb CO2 (via photosynthesis) and store the carbon in roots, trunks branches and leaves for hundreds of years. Yes, even the leaves building up at the bottom of the trees held carbon.

So our burning of fossil fuels, and our sad record of deforestation is what is causing global warming.

Answer 3

It is believed that the increase of the amount of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere is the cause of global warming.

Answer 4

Duncan Cook