We write about global warming at great lengths in our blog. There is a section describing how it started and developed, and the international initiatives to reverse it. We also have a part where we discuss green energy solutions we feel we should support. However, we discovered we do not have a single post on the big picture of global warming, and we correct that oversight here.
What Is the Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change?
They are two sides of the same coin, in fact some people use them interchangeability. Since global warming is the event while climate change is the consequence. Hence, if carbon emissions are the driver of rising sea levels and extreme weather, then that, surely is where we should start.
Global temperatures have always cycled up, and cycled down again. The ice ages, and the warmer periods between them are examples of this phenomenon.. Some noteworthy stakeholders and politicians even insist current warming is just another natural event. However, climate scientists say human activity has caused climate change at a rate not known before, especially since the 1950’s.
The Case for Human Activity Causing Global Warming
We seek for causes and their effects in climate science. The warming began gradually as the First Industrial Revolution started burning fossil fuel to release energy for those giant steam engines.
However, the trend accelerated rapidly in the 1950’s following post-war industrialization, and the democratization of motor cars. Moreover, the die was cast when mechanization followed in Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America. But the final clincher was the carbon blanket this poured into the atmosphere.
The Carbon Blanket and Global Warming
This carbon blanket is trapping more, and more heat beneath it. The process is similar to what happens in glass greenhouses; hence we speak of the greenhouse effect. Therefore, the only way to stop this phenomenon is to prevent the wholesale flow of carbon, resulting from releasing energy from fossil fuel.
If we can do this, then the carbon will gradually dissipate, and the Earth will cool again. Our generation will be okay for the rest of our lives regardless, because there is a little time left on our side. That is the real problem, and the cause, we suspect, why some governments are doing so little about global warming in practical terms.
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