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Josh Koger
Harris
English 111
22 November 2015
Is Global Climate Change Man-Made?
Climate change is a major and rapidly growing problem in the world we live in today.
Most of the world today agrees that we as mankind have negatively impacted the changing of
Earths climate. We as people need to help prevent and keep our planet from the negative
outcome if climate change gets beyond control. The majority of scientists today also agree that
we have a great deal to do with impacting our climate. Much of our air is polluted with
emissions coming from anything that burns off fossil fuels. These emissions are not only
harmful to our health but are also harmful to our planet. Global temperatures have risen since
the rise of our heavy use of fossil fuels in the modern-day world. Carbon dioxide is up to 400+
parts per million (Global Climate Change). Ice levels are going down and sea levels are rising.
Carbon dioxide which is a heat trapping gas, is being released rapidly into Earths atmosphere
from all the burnings of fossil fuels. When carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere it traps heat and
warms up our planet from its norm. This change in temperature can cause rapid and excessive
changes in weather, such as record breaking heat, melting ice from colder climates and droughts.
The change can cause the globe to become so dry from the lack of water that it will causes
massive wildfires. Many land areas that are near or at sea level may soon be engulfed by these
rising sea levels and can cause much destruction to those areas. The year 2015 has been the
hottest year on record throughout the globe and throughout recorded history, conditions will only

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continue to get worse unless the world decides to make a change and help preserve our natural
state of our planet and secure the future of generations to come. Here is a graph depicting how
much carbon dioxide has risen in the past decades. This is when heavy use of fossil fuels became
in effect.

-This image from NASA depicts the rapidly growing releasing of carbon dioxide into Earths
atmosphere (Global Climate Change)
We as people must realize that climate change is real and must help to put a stop to it. It is vital
for the health of our planet that we regulate and diminish these emissions from the burning of
fossil fuels and switch to a clean and efficient energy source as an alternative. Climate change is
a major issue in the modern world today and the human race is becoming aware of the evidence
and are ready to make a change and help preserve environmental stability for our future.

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One of the most popular alternatives to fossil fuels is wind energy. Wind energy is
attainable by using wind turbines to generate electricity by wind power. Here is a picture of what
a wind farm looks like.

-The Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon (Wind Farm)

One of the reasons wind energy is so popular because it is clean energy, this means that it doesnt
cause pollutants, and its also renewable which means it can be used over and over without
running out of it. Many governments are implementing wind farms as a source of energy due to
climate change. Wind energy is one of the great solutions in providing clean energy to people. It
doesnt pollute the air or use up our natural resources. There are some problems with wind
energy such as, there may be a small amount or no wind that day to produce a sufficient amount
of energy, wind farms take up a large amount of land, and wind turbines will on occasion kill
birds when they fly into them.

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Another highly sought after source of energy is solar energy. Solar energy is generally
created by capturing solar rays into solar panels. Solar power is also a very smart way to prevent
pollutants from entering our atmosphere and helps keep climate change a diminishing threat.
Many people across the globe use solar panels on their roofs to power their homes. There are a
handful of very large solar power stations across the country which produce an enormous amount
of electricity. Here is an example of a solar power station.

-An aerial view of a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert (Solar plants)
Solar power is a great alternative as well but it does have some issues just like wind farms. It
produces little power at night time and can on occasion kill birds by magnifying light onto them.
However, the negatives of both of these two very popular alternative sources of energy still do
not amount to the devastating effect that climate change has and even worse if left un-resolved in
the future. Many governments/organizations are looking for even better, more efficient
alternatives to clean energy as our primary source rather than relying on fossil fuels.

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One of the causes of climate change is the mass deforestation that is happening on our
planet. Forests are very important for our survival and house millions of different species.
Forests protect soil from erosion, produce oxygen, and store carbon dioxide, which helps fight
against climate change (Climate & Weather). Deforestation is one of the many causes of
climate change and should be regulated to the amount of trees we cut down. Trees are very ecofriendly and provide many benefits to our planet. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from our
atmosphere and when they are cut or burned down the carbon dioxide is released back into the
atmosphere which leads to an increase in climate change. Here is an example of what
deforestation looks like.

-This image shows a cleared forest in Indonesia which is one of the most prominent areas for
rainforests around the globe (Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects).

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We as society need to stop deforestation and find better alternatives for supplies other
than cutting down a countless number of trees. Not only does all of this deforestation affect us,
but it affects several different species that live in that area. Many of these species have lived in
their habitat for generations and their bodies have adapted to its climate and environment, and
when that is instantly taken away it causes many animals to starve, become sick, and die.
Preventing deforestation not only helps fight against climate change, but it also greatly helps
keeping a certain species from becoming endangered or even worse become extinct. Many
locals have also lived in these areas and their homes and communities are torn down due to
governments and organizations tearing/burning down these massive areas across the globe.
Many organizations say they replant for every tree that they cut down, well that does help to a
degree, those trees take a very long time to get back to the mature size that they once were and
they dont have the ecosystem nearby that they once did. Trees need to be given support and
endurance to be able to sustain a healthy life and therefore regrown forests take a very long time
to return to the natural state they were once in before they were torn down. Deforestation is used
primarily for fuel and land, such as charcoal and large areas for big business to flourish. Like I
stated earlier in this essay there are different and more environmentally friendly alternative
sources for obtaining energy than our current primary uses of energy sources. We as people need
to stand up for our planet and demand that we dont want our world torn down. We dont want to
have our climate changed just because governments and big organizations want to make lots of
money while causing devastating effects to everyone else. Our planet is our home and we should
treat it with respect by creating more efficient and intelligent ways to obtain energy for
ourselves. Deforestation should be highly regulated and should only be done when necessary.

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Some of the noticeable effects of climate change are already showing and are continuing
to grow at an alarming rate. Nine of the ten warmest years on record have occurred since the
year 2000; enormous amounts of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere from the
burning of fossil fuels which heats up our planet and can cause unstable weather patterns. Arctic
ice has shrunk 13.3 percent per decade and is still continuing to diminish, which in turn raises the
levels of our oceans and causes severe damage to communities at sea level and also to the
ecosystem of the arctic (Global Climate Change). Below is a recent photograph of our
melting arctic.

-A polar bear hanging onto a block of ice as nearby areas are full water (Bears pay price of
Arctic ice melt)

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Many politicians in U.S. congress and governmental organizations such as the EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) are doing as much as they can to help regulate and diminish
the amount of emissions entering our atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. People in our
modern-day world are coming to the realization that climate change is indeed man-made and
needs to be stopped in its tracks before the effects become disastrous to our planet and to our
own safety and health. Climate change is one of the most talked about and major issues today
not only American politics but also in global politics. We as people need to stand up for what is
right to protect our planet Earth and to ensure the safety of our future generations to come.
Science has laid out tons of evidence that man-made climate change has been, is, and will
continue to happen unless we take the necessary precautions and actions to make sure climate
change does not gain any more traction. We need to end our use of fossil fuels which is a
resource we are running out of at a rapid rate and switch to clean, affordable, and renewable
energy that is not harmful to our planet nor our ecosystem. Denial of climate change is causing a
great deal of problems around the world and is caused by ignorance. We need to inform
ourselves of the facts and stop being so closed-minded to anything that may change our way of
traditionally thinking and doing things. Global climate change is man-made and will be beaten
not only for the protection of our planet and ecosystem but also for the modernization and future
of the human race.

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Works Cited
Global Climate Change:
climate.nasa.gov
Wind Farm:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm
Solar Power:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
Climate & Weather:
www.climateandweather.net/global-warming/deforestation.html
Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects:
www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
Bears pay price of Arctic ice melt:
climatenewsnetwork.net/bears-pay-prive-of-arctic-ice-melt/