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Lets imagine for a second, what if, 100 years from now, the coast of California were to look
something like this? It may not seem like it now, but one of the most prevailing issues threatening our planet is global warming. Global warming is the unequivocal and progressive rise in the overall temperature of the earths surface and is considered an international threat among the majority of industrialized nations. If there overall temperature of the earth was to rise by a mere 110F by 2100 as predicted by National Geographics, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctica polar ice caps would cause a sea level rise so intense that London, los Angeles and the coast of Australia would be submerged with water. In its fourth assessment report on climate change, IPCC officially declared with undeniable certainty that carbon dioxide emissions are the leading cause of global warming. In spite of its assurance, there has yet to be a defining answer among the scientific community that classifies the source of carbon dioxide emissions. This led to my narrowed topic. Rather than discussing causes and effects of global warming, I already knew the cause, carbon dioxide, so I decided to write an analytical research paper about the sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Proponents of anthropogenic global warming believe that human induced activity is the source of increased carbon dioxide concentration while opponents claim that natural climate variability climatic change of the earth over geologic time due to Earths natural degassing processes. For the safety of our planet, it is a common ground among most countries, regardless of opinion, to clearly identify the underlying source of carbon dioxide emissions and prevent the threat of global warming. In an endeavor to detect that source, an analysis of historic carbon dioxide concentration reveals two potential causes of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide content: Natural climate variability and anthropogenic global warming. In short, do humans cause carbon dioxide increase or does it happen naturally? In order to save time I wont get into much detail about this, but the beginning of my essay talks about why climatologists believe earths climate changes over time through natural climate variability. Through radiometric dating which is used to determine the absolute age and origin of rocks billions of years old, and extraction of microfossils, it has been determined that the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 200 times greater 1.4billion years ago, and even greater 4 billion years ago when earths second atmosphere formed from extensive volcanic degassing. These provide evidence that earths carbon dioxide concentration has changed drastically overtime without human intervention. More importantly though, the extraction of 490 ice core proxies from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have given us new information about the current Ice Age we are in. Currently we are in an ice age known as the quaternary glaciation. Now ice ages consist of alternating glacial and interglacial cycles. A glacial consists of 100,000 years of cooler temperatures and interglacials consist of 100,000 of naturally occurring warmer temperatures. Right now, we are in an interglacial cycle, which means a current, inevitable increase in climatic temperatures, regardless of human activity. Now, these glacial interglacial cycles have also caused a slight imbalance in the global carbon cycle. This means that the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere is more than the amount of carbon dioxide that can be absorbed, consumed and taken out of the atmosphere, causing a temperature increase. Looking at the global carbon cycle, carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere by earths natural
degassing processes such as subaerial and submarine volcanoes, mid ocean ridges and convergent boundaries. All of these processes produce roughly 0.44 billion metric tons of excess co2 per year. Anthropogenic global warming has a much different history. The start of events began in 1751 when the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center recorded the first global carbon dioxide emissions estimate from the burning of fossil fuels, cement manufacturing, and gas flaring. In 1751, human induced emissions were at 3 million metric tons. By the end of the first industrial revolution human induced annual emissions had risen to 121 million metric tons. By 2008, carbon dioxide emissions rested at a staggering 32 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide/yr. the global rise in emissions directly correlates to records of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. In 1010, co2 levels were measured at 279.5 ppm. In 1750 co2 levels were slightly lower at 2770. As human technology and innovation enhanced, co2 levels significantly increased, now lying at 399.5, directly relating to a 4.50F increase in temperature. A further concept known as the Suess Effect provides sufficient evidence to indicate anthropogenic global warming. The elemtn carbon bonds with the element oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Carbon has three naturally occurring isotopic states: 12C, 13C, and 14C.cont.

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Lets imagine for a second, what if, 100 years from now, the coast of California were to look

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