The Climate Change Debate
The main argument presented when talking about the “climate change debate” is ‘Is climate change caused by humans? Or is it part of the planets natural path?” This report will be focusing on the affirmative side and looking into the facts that humans may well have caused climate change.
Before I start, let me outline what Climate Change and greenhouse gases are. The earth is covered by a layer of gases that heats and warms the earth like a blanket. These are called greenhouse gases. These gases are essential to our existence and without them we would not be able to survive. What scientists are saying is that humans, because of all the emissions and extra gases we produce from burning fossil fuels, increase in population and deforestation have increased this layer of gases and therefore have caused a Climate Change.
Let’s take a look at the facts:
Surface temperature stations have been used since the 1850’s and these help us to see the increase in temperature. The 2000’s were hotter than the 1990’s, which were hotter than the 80’s, which were hotter than the 70’s. Making 2010, the hottest year on record.

A graph showing the Global temperature records 1850-2010
A graph showing the Global temperature records 1850-2010

The heating of the Earth’s temperature, causes Ice sheets, glaciers and whole fresh water supplies to melt and run into the ocean causing water levels to rise. A metre rise in sea levels is enough to displace 10% of the world’s population. High water levels are bad enough, but the melted ice alone is a problem. Because the ice is white and is a major reflective surface for the sun, if the ice melts, the sun, instead of being reflected back into space, will instead, be absorbed by the dark colours of the ocean and therefore making the Earth even warmer. The ice melting and running into sea causes ocean acidification, which is when too much C02 is absorbed into the water. This may have very bad effects for the entire food chain.
Until 1960, measurements showed that the sun was gradually getting brighter and its heat increasing. In the same period, temperature measurements of air and sea showed that the earth was gradually warming. So it is not absurd that scientists would put two and two together and