Causes and Consequences of Global Climate Change

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Scholars Research Library
Archives of Applied Science Research, 2010, 2 (2): 100-108

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ISSN 0975-508X CODEN (USA) AASRC9

Causes and Consequences of Global Climate Change
Justin Masih Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad, India

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Abstract During the twentieth century, the earth’s surface warmed by about 1.4 °F. There are a variety of potential causes for global climate change, including both natural and human-induced mechanisms. Science has made great strides recently in determining which potential causes are actually responsible for the climate change that occurred during the twentieth century, providing strong evidence that greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere by human activities are one of the main causes of contemporary global warming. This paper deliberates to deal with some of the others as well. Keywords: Global Warming, climate, climate change, global surface temperature, climatic variations ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Recent decades have seen record-high average global surface temperatures. Thermometer readings sufficient to provide reliable global averages are available back to 1850 (Brohan et al. 2006). In the past century, global surface temperature increased by about 1.4 °F (Figure 1). In the past quarter-century, according to satellite measurements, the lower atmosphere warmed by 0.22- 0.34 °F per decade, equivalent to 2-3 °F per century (Christy and Spencer 2005; Mears and Wentz 2005). The past 20 years include the 18 warmest years on record (Hadley Centre 2005). This well-documented warming trend could result from several factors that influence the earth’s climate, some of which are natural, such as changes in solar radiation and volcanic activity. Others, particularly...