Global Warming and Climate Change  Global Warming and Climate Change Date: 2020 From: Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection Publisher: Gale, a Cengage Company Document Type: Topic overview Length: 3,268 words Content Level: (Level 5) Lexile Measure: 1400L Full Text: Though the terms global warming and climate change are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings. Climate change describes long-term shifts in the earth's weather patterns that affect such factors as temperature, humidity, wind, cloud cover, and precipitation levels. Global warming specifically refers to an increase in the Earth's average surface temperatures caused by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. Overwhelming scientific evidence supports the reality of both global warming and climate change, but a vocal minority disagree with the consensus conclusion that these trends are being driven by human activity. The widely accepted scientific model posits that global warming and climate change are being caused and accelerated by the continued use of carbon-rich fossil fuels, as carbon is one of the gasses that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. Opponents of this theory believe that current changes in climate and weather patterns are the result of natural cycles that have repeated again and again over the course of Earth's history. Global warming and climate change are contentious issues with many political implications in the United States. Concerns about the phenomena have inspired activism, laws, and international treaties while also sparking heated debate. The debate over climate change has an influential effect on social and economic policy. Voters have demonstrated a growing willingness to cast ballots in favor of political candidates who share their views. Main Ideas There is strong scientific evidence for global warming and climate change, but some people disagree the trends are anthropogenic, or driven by human activity. The Earth's atmosphere contains several gases that trap heat from the sun in a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. These gases are commonly called greenhouse gases and include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated in 1990 that sea levels would rise at a rate of 1.9 millimeters per year, but data from NASA shows the actual rate between 1993 and 2019 was much higher at 3.3 millimeters per year. Massive wildfires devastated areas of California in 2018 and 2019. Global warming intensifies the ferocity and frequency of wildfires due to the increased abundance of extremely dry vegetation and high temperatures. The hurricane season of 2017 brought severe weather and sea surges that killed many people and caused more than $215 billion of property damage in Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, as well as in several other southern states and countries near the Caribbean Sea. In June 2017 US president Donald Trump announced the United States would withdr.

1. Global Warming and Climate Change
Global Warming and Climate Change Date: 2020 From: Gale
Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection Publisher: Gale, a
Cengage Company Document Type: Topic overview Length:
3,268 words Content Level: (Level 5) Lexile Measure: 1400L
Full Text: Though the terms global warming and climate change
are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings.
Climate change describes long-term shifts in the earth's weather
patterns that affect such factors as temperature, humidity, wind,
cloud cover, and precipitation levels. Global warming
specifically refers to an increase in the Earth's average surface
temperatures caused by human activities, primarily the burning
of fossil fuels. Overwhelming scientific evidence supports the
reality of both global warming and climate change, but a vocal
minority disagree with the consensus conclusion that these
trends are being driven by human activity. The widely accepted
scientific model posits that global warming and climate change
are being caused and accelerated by the continued use of
carbon-rich fossil fuels, as carbon is one of the gasses that traps
heat in the earth's atmosphere. Opponents of this theory believe
that current changes in climate and weather patterns are the
result of natural cycles that have repeated again and again over
the course of Earth's history. Global warming and climate
change are contentious issues with many political implications
in the United States. Concerns about the phenomena have
inspired activism, laws, and international treaties while also
sparking heated debate. The debate over climate change has an
influential effect on social and economic policy. Voters have
demonstrated a growing willingness to cast ballots in favor of
political candidates who share their views. Main Ideas There is
strong scientific evidence for global warming and climate
change, but some people disagree the trends are anthropogenic,
or driven by human activity. The Earth's atmosphere contains

2. several gases that trap heat from the sun in a phenomenon called
the greenhouse effect. These gases are commonly called
greenhouse gases and include carbon dioxide, methane, and
nitrous oxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) estimated in 1990 that sea levels would rise at a rate of
1.9 millimeters per year, but data from NASA shows the actual
rate between 1993 and 2019 was much higher at 3.3 millimeters
per year. Massive wildfires devastated areas of California in
2018 and 2019. Global warming intensifies the ferocity and
frequency of wildfires due to the increased abundance of
extremely dry vegetation and high temperatures. The hurricane
season of 2017 brought severe weather and sea surges that
killed many people and caused more than $215 billion of
property damage in Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, as well as
in several other southern states and countries near the Caribbean
Sea. In June 2017 US president Donald Trump announced the
United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a 2015
global treaty aimed at limiting the rise in global temperatures
that had been championed by his predecessor. Causes of Climate
Change Earth's atmosphere contains several gases that trap heat
from the sun and prevent it from escaping into space. This
phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect, and the gases
are referred to as greenhouse gases. The main greenhouse gases
that occur in nature are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous
oxide. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold
to support life. Over time, the amount of greenhouse gases
trapped in Earth's atmosphere has increased significantly,
causing worldwide temperatures to rise. Natural processes on
Earth constantly create and destroy greenhouse gases. For
example, the decay of plant and animal matter produces carbon
dioxide, which plants then absorb during photosynthesis. This
natural cycle stabilizes atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
Shifts in the planet's crust and changes in ocean patterns impact
weather, as do fluctuations in the sun's output of radiation.
Volcanic activity also affects the climate because eruptions
discharge greenhouse gases and other contaminants into the

3. atmosphere. Climate change scientists at the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other
federal and international agencies recognize that these natural
factors continue to play a role in climate change, but they
generally agree that the impact of these factors alone does not
explain the substantial recent rise in Earth's temperature.
Natural causes of climate change are referred to as naturogenic,
while causes of climate change related to human activity are
called anthropogenic. Earth's vegetation releases and absorbs
more than two hundred billion metric tons of carbon dioxide
annually. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels,
add approximately seven billion more metric tons per year.
Climate scientists believe the cumulative effect of this
additional carbon has had a dramatic effect on the atmosphere.
In the past 150 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has risen by more than 30 percent. Deforestation has
also played a role in this increase by eliminating forests that
would otherwise have absorbed many tons of carbon dioxide.
Increased levels of other greenhouse gases, such as nitrous
oxide and methane, have also resulted from human activity.
Several agricultural and industrial processes, such as the use of
certain fertilizers in farming, produce nitrous oxide on a mass
scale. Methane emissions come from the production of fossil
fuels as well as landfills and livestock. Even though much
smaller quantities of these gases exist in the Earth's atmosphere,
some scientists believe they cause more harm than carbon
dioxide, because they appear to have a much greater per-pound
effect on the Earth's temperature. Methane, for example, is
about twenty-one times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping
heat. Beginning in October 2015, a methane gas leak from a
California storage facility vented about five billion cubic feet of
gas into the atmosphere. The leak took more than three months
to seal and was finally capped on February 18, 2016. The
incident constituted the largest accidental discharge of
greenhouse gases in US history, releasing the equivalent of the
yearly exhaust emissions from 572,000 automobiles. Humans

4. have also created and released greenhouse gases that do not
occur in nature. These include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). These
gases, released during such industrial processes as aluminum
production and electrical transmission, trap thousands of times
more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Climate
Change Predictions Because climate science measures changes
that occur on a regional or global scale over a long period of
time, it can be difficult to provide definitive answers to specific
questions like "When did climate change begin?" However,
since the 1990s, numerous studies have provided evidence of a
consensus in the scientific community that anthropogenic
climate change is occurring. These studies included surveys as
well as analyses of peer-reviewed articles. At least 97 percent
of actively publishing climate scientists around the world agree
that human activities have contributed to rising global
temperatures. Most also agree that the consequences may be
devastating, though the exact nature of the changes are difficult
to predict. No climate model formulated by scientists to chart
climate patterns has had 100 percent accuracy in predicting
changes. For instance, most climate models failed to predict a
slowdown in rising temperatures starting in 1998 and ending in
2012. Similarly, some predictions have underestimated threats.
In its initial assessment of rising sea levels in 1990, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) originally
anticipated a sea level rise of 1.9 millimeters per year from that
year onward. However, studies by NASA have revealed that sea
levels have in fact risen at a rate of 3.3 millimeters per year.
Because of the difficulties in creating completely accurate
climate change models, skeptics of global warming and climate
change note that Earth has experienced cyclical changes in its
climate patterns for eons. They also tend to believe that recent
climatic shifts are not as severe as indicated and may not
necessarily be a direct consequence of human activity. Climate
scientists contend that such skepticism may stem from an
unwillingness to face the scope of the threat posed to the planet

5. by human activity. Additionally, conservative donors, including
several foundations established by wealthy families, have
contributed large amounts of money to organizations that
promote climate change denial. For instance, the environmental
organization Greenpeace claims that foundations linked to the
prominent Koch family have donated more than $127 million to
such organizations between 1997 and 2017. In 2019 tech giant
Google came under fire for making a "substantial" donation to
the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative think
tank that helped influence the Trump administration's 2017
decision to abandon the US commitment to the 2015 Paris
Agreement on climate change. However, acknowledgment of the
effects of human activities on global warming and climate
change has grown steadily in the twentyfirst century. According
to a 2019 The Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll,
the majority of Americans accept that anthropogenic climate
change is happening. In addition, about half of Americans
believe the United States is not doing enough to prevent it and
want immediate action on the issue. According to annual polls
conducted by Gallup since 2001, the public's beliefs about
global warming had shifted considerably by 2019. About 66
percent believed that global warming is caused by human
activity (up from 57 percent in 2001), that climate change has
begun to take effect (up from 54 to 59 percent), and that global
warming will soon pose a serious threat (up from 35 to 45
percent). Researchers have observed a strong correlation
between people's political affiliations and their levels of
concern regarding global warming and acceptance of climate
science. In 2019 Pew Research Center reported that 84 percent
of Democrats and Democratleaning independents believe
climate change is a major threat to the United States, compared
to just 27 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning
independents. Numerous Pew studies have yielded similar
partisan trends on climate change–related issues, while Gallup
polling has also found that people aged eighteen to thirty-five
are more likely than older respondents to believe that the media

6. underestimates the threat of climate change. Effects of Global
Warming