A Farewell To Alms Chapter 1 Summary

Is the world facing Global warming? Industrialization is leaving tremendous amounts of Carbon Dioxide than ever before. But how and why? Who started this and does it really matter? These are important questions that if answered could help us understand how to help our future generations live, develop and continue to thrive in the world.

Carbon dioxide is accumulating rapidly in the atmosphere, it is extending geographically as much as possible, and it is extremely expensive to fix, not to mention if it worsens. In Goodland’s research, the year 1990 was the warmest year, on record in more than a century, closely followed by the rest of the years of the 90’s. Since Goodland’s essay was written, 2016 was the warmest year ever recorded, followed closely by 2015 and 2014, according to the NOAA. The increase in climate is especially alarming because in the last 10,000 years, temperature did not change more than 2 to 4 degrees and it is currently steadily increasing at least .25 degrees every 10 years! Even though scientists all over the world disagree on the rate at which the world is warming they all agree on one thing: the world, is in fact, warming.

[1] Over the last century, the Earth's average temperature has risen by 1.4 °F. Over the next century, that average is expected to rise an additional 2-11.5 °F. This change has shown a strong correlation with the increase of greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. In fact, every year, human activity releases over

The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and deforestation over the last 200 years has caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere. These gases prevent heat from escaping to space. Greenhouse gases are necessary in our lives as they help in keeping the planet 's surface warmer than it would otherwise be. But, as the concentrations of these gases continue to increase in the atmosphere, the Earth 's temperature is climbing above past levels (USEPA, 2014).

The industrial revolution has caused the current situation of deteriorating climatic conditions in the globe. It is a topic that has received varied opinions some supporting and some going against it. Even though, scientists have tried their best to illustrate the fact. The scientists have kept track of the changes in the levels of greenhouse gasses, and they have demonstrated that the levels keep rising every day. Human action is the core cause of these changes. The impact of these greenhouse gasses is what many people call global warming. Global warming has been described as a state of ever increasing global temperatures and other adverse weather conditions mainly as a result of interference of the ozone layer.Emission of corrosive gasses into the atmosphere corrodes the ozone layer leaving huge holes that cause the ultraviolet rays of the sun to reach the earth. The result of this is human diseases like skin cancer, melting of the polar ice leading to rising sea levels and other impacts on agriculture. These scientists have gone a step further to give a detailed analysis of how these effects occur or, in other words, the science behind it. The aim of this paper is to offer supporting evidence of the fact that human activity, precisely the industrial revolution, is the primary cause global warming.

Global warming sped up during the industrial revolution. This was a period in history that constituted of many economical, social, cultural changes and most importantly, environmental changes. The invention of new, faster and power-driven machines, replaced the use of hand made tools. As industries started focusing on mass production, their mentality shifted and many power plants and factories started using and burning fossil fuels, such as oil and coal. Although

The United States Environmental Association (EPA) has listed natural changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, volcanic eruptions and solar energy as some of the natural causes of climate changes on earth. However, the recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone. Research indicates that natural causes are very unlikely to explain most observed warming, especially warming since the mid-20th century. Rather, human activities can very likely explain most of that warming. These human activities are the causes of anthropogenic climate changes. The article also adds “Since the Industrial Revolution began around 1750; human activities have contributed substantially to climate change by the addition of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas emissions have increased the greenhouse effect has caused Earth’s surface temperature to rise. This is the primary reason which is affecting the amount and rate of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.” Other activities that initiate climate changes are caused by the gas emissions from fossil fuels used to heat homes, petroleum based fuels like gasoline and diesel used for transportation and electricity production which comes from burning fossil fuels.

Climate change is an extensive concern that takes place all around the globe. One major contribution to this progressing issue is in reference to human activity. Although traces of human activity has been occurring since the beginning of time, as early as the Industrial Revolution in the 1700’s, harmful activity due to humans have caused stress on our planet. According to (HISTORY) the industrial revolution, which took place in both Europe and America during the 18th and 19th centuries, was a period of vast urbanization and where rural societies began to industrialize. By doing so, this brought improved structure to both Europe and America but also left the environment a polluted area.

Climate change has been an issue for many centuries. This could stem from a variety of sources, including the many different revolutions of the colonial age. From the agricultural revolution, to the industrial revolution, humanity has been shaping the environment though inventions and innovations. Many inventions show some connection to the increase in temperature, including James Watt’s invention of the steam engine in 1784 (Crutzen 1). These different inventions used the resources of the world to benefit humanity, and provided short term benefits. However, as seen later by people such as Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani, the world was changing, and this new force by humanity, “may be compared to the greater forces of earth,” (2). These past changes have only been increased in size and destruction over the course of the last century.

The industrial revolution marked a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans relationship with their environment, the impact on the climate change register on 1960s 200 years after its beginnings. It wasn’t the industrial revolution became a stalwart juggernaut overnight, it started in mid-1700s in Great Britain when they replace wind, water and wood by fossil fuels, used for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes. The impact of the industrial revolution would not begin until about 100 years later in 1800s, when the use of machines to replace human labor spread through Europe and North America. Global warming didn’t develop at the same time across all the planet because industrial revolution started in europe, tropical oceans and the arctic were the first region to begin warming, after that in the 1830s europe, north america and Asia start two decades later, and finally

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the earth has seen a dramatic escalation of CO2 emissions of almost 12-fold, though large-scale fossil fuels burnings.

Current data reveals that the concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the earth's atmosphere is approximately 387 parts per million, which is roughly a 31% increase in the period 1750 to 2009. Consequently, it is evident that such increases in temperatures have caused a warmer planet (7). It is also evident that it is impossible to reverse the developments of industrial revolution. This means that as the advancements of industrial revolution continue and as energy demands increases, it is possible that this trend of climate change will continue for decades to come (McAloon, 8). The consent of the climate research community is that it most likely already affects climate noticeably and will compel significant

About 200 years ago, a wave of modernization and industrialization began and spread across the planet. A few decades later, from the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, global changes were measurable. This marked the beginning of the “Anthropocene”, and era where human activity became a force affecting the Earth’s natural cycles.

Global warming is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants (Collins). The current climate changes that are occurring all over the world have sparked a growing controversy on whether global warming is true or false. Many of these individuals who play a role in this controversy argue that the current climate changes are simply part of the cycles seen in the earth’s geological history or that it is simply caused by an increase in the brightness of the sun. This point-of-view is understandable as humanity is dependent on the climate for survival. However, many climatologists and scientists have found that the current climate changes are much more worrisome than previous climate changes. They have found that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have increased over the years because of an increase in the use of coal, oil, and gas and that the Earth’s current pattern of warming is greater and faster than that of prehistoric warming episodes.

The above fig1.2 indicates that the temperature rose faster from 1975 to now than from 1880 to 1975, and so did CO2. It also indicates that the temperature has been highest recently and so has CO2. A clear relation between Technological development (industrialisation), Carbon emission and Global temperature can be established from the above facts. It is evident that advances in technology have largely been responsible for creating our unsustainable, globalised economy, some of the major technological development in human history has have impacted environment adversely. But as much as technology is making things difficult, it also offers some powerful solutions for sustainability. From the 1970s to 1990s the increase of carbon emissions decreased slightly, in part due to the construction and operation of large nuclear power plants worldwide. At the same time, fossil-fired equipment became more efficient and natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants with high efficiency levels went into operation. In