While not universally accepted, there is growing global recognition that climate change poses serious risks to our health and environment, including risks to infrastructure, the food supply chain, and death due to extreme weather, among many others. The Earth has warmed nearly 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, which has seriously damaged our planet's environment. Today's Viz of the Day, based on the fidings from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, examines how various factors, both natural and human-related, relate to global warming.
Natural Factors
Earth's orbit. Our planet wobbles on its axis, and its tilt and orbit change over time, pushing the climate into and out of ice ages. Yet the influence of orbital changes on the Earth's temperature over the prior 125 year-period has been insignificant.
Sun. The sun's temperature varies over decades, nevertheless these changes have had a little effect on Earth's climate change.
Volcanoes. Volcanic eruptions release sulfate chemicals that can actually cool the Earth's atmosphere for a couple of years.
Human-Related Factors
Land Use. Humans have cut, plowed, and paved roughly half of the Earth's land surface. Dark forests are yielding to lighter patches, which reflect more sunlight and have a weak cooling effect.
Ozone. Natural ozone high in the atmosphere blocks harmful sunlight and cools our climate slightly. Closer to Earth, ozone is created by pollution and traps heat, making the climate a little bit hotter.
Aerosols. Some pollutants cool the atmosphere, like sulfate aerosols from coal burning. These aerosols offset some of the warming. But on the other hand, these same aerosols cause acid rain, which is dangerous to human health and the natural environment.
Greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are the main cause of global warming. Almost 100%t of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, etc.
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