subject: Reduce Your Footprints - What Causes Climate Change [print this page] Climate change is defined as a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. There are a number of natural factors responsible for climate change. Some of the more prominent ones are continental drift, volcanoes, ocean currents, the earth's tilt, and comets and meteorites. Also, there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways.
The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, producing 60% of the human-enhanced greenhouse effect that leads to global warming. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted in a number of ways. It is emitted naturally through the carbon cycle and through human activities like the burning of fossil fuels. In fact, about 95% of manmade carbon dioxide comes from the supply and use of fossil fuels. These fuels provide energy because they are made up of chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms that, when broken through burning, release tremendous amounts of energy.
Unfortunately, the by-product of this burning is also tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide. CO2 acts like a blanket in the earth atmosphere and prevents the heat from escaping from the earth's surface, leading to a rise in global temperatures. It increases the temperature level of the earth in the same way the heat is generated inside the greenhouse where plants are grown, thus, it CO2 is known as a greenhouse gas.
Today, climate change is being driven by the addition of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the earth's atmosphere at rates faster than the planet's normal mechanisms can adjust to. The increasing concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere traps heat and increases temperatures, answering the questions "what causes climate change".
