Climate change is defined as “a long-term change in the earths climate, especially due to an increase in atmospheric temperature”(Dictionary.com 2020). Nasa has been doing research on climate change for many years now. They observe changes in our atmosphere using the space point of view. According to the video “with NASAs carbon monitoring system you can see the amount of co2 in the atmosphere”(Discovery 00:00:21-00:00:26). The amount of co2 in the atmosphere increase during fall and winter and decrease during spring and summer. NASA has created a keeling curve chart that contains the levels of co2 in the atmosphere through out the years. The line charted has been increasing severely since the industrial revolution occurred. According to the video, the measurements of temperature difference “show a really sharp acceleration in the warming over the last four decades”(00:03:22-00:03:30). Over the years the temperature has been increasing little by little. In the last 10 years we’ve noticed the ice start to melt in places like the North Pole and Greenland. The ice melting off Greenland enters the ocean causing a sea level rise. According to one of the scientists in the video, “if we continue on the path we’re doing there’s going to be a lot of coastal communities all around the world that are going to be flooded”(00:04:20-00:04:28). The rise in temperature causes ice to melt, and the run off enters the ocean, which causes a sea level rise, which then causes communities to be flooded. It’s a chain effect.
According to the social problems book, “climate change, a larger environmental problem, has also been relatively slow in arriving but threatens the whole planet”. There are two views of climate change. One view is it’s caused by human activity, and the other view is that it’s just one of Earth’s phases. The first argument is that humans have caused irreversible damage to the Earth’s atmosphere. They believe the warming of the Earth started after the industrial revolution in the 1700-1800s and have continued to get worse. Burning things like fossils fuels and mining into the Earth releases co2 into the atmosphere. The other argument is that the Earth goes through these phases to “restart” itself. There is information to back up both arguments. However, there is more information believing that humans caused climate change.
I learned a lot about climate change from this video. I wasn’t aware there was technology out in space tracking co2 levels in the atmosphere. I also learned more about ice melting. Hearing that ice in Greenland especially melts and runs off into the ocean causing sea level rise was interesting. Lastly, learning about how hurricanes relate to climate change was interesting. I didn’t know those two had any relation until after watching the video. After watching the video, I feel like climate change should be taken more seriously. Right now there’s not much being done to help it. We continue to mine into the ground and burn fossil fuels that release co2 into the atmosphere. As a whole planet, we’re not working together to solve the issue of climate change. It’s not an issue that just affects one country, it affects everyone.
Word Count 527
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/climate-change?s=t
Sociology 201 