What Are the Natural Causes of Global Warming?
There are natural causes of global warming that are part of the natural evolution of the earth. Carbon Dioxide and other types of greenhouse gases are naturally produced and there are factors called Amplifiers that can increase or reduce the changes that occur.
The climate of the earth is a complex and interconnected system of processes. One small change can lead to larger changes and the result can be a chain of reactions that can even lead back to the initial small change in the end.
Carbon dioxide is food for plants and occurs naturally when animals breathe out carbon dioxide after inhaling oxygen. Decaying plants release CO2 but the combination of decaying organic plant material and animal exhalation are not the main causes of greenhouse gases according to scientists.
Eruption
The eruption of a huge volcano can toss particulates and dust into the air to an extent that the sunlight is blocked. This can cause cooling in the atmosphere but it's seldom a volcano erupts to this extent.
The sun is a mass of gases and radiation from the sun is frequently changing due to solar activity. The earth undergoes short periods of warming when solar activity is high.
The earth does not spin in a neat perfect rotation but moves a bit and wobbles on its axis. The axis itself - the tilt of the earth - changes slightly over time. This lack of a perfect rotation leads to warming and cooling effects as it changes the temperature of the atmosphere.
These are known as solar cycles and cosmic rays and often are used as examples against the idea of human contributions to global warming and climate change. European experts estimate the changes in radiation from the sun account for less than 15% of the earth's warming that has been observed.
Natural versus Man Made
It is increasingly clear that man contributes to global warming in a big way. Some of the effects are easily traced while others are activities that effect natural balances and thus lead to an increase in natural causes of global warming.
It's easy to see that driving tens of thousands of cars could contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The same is true of heating and air conditioning or trucking out of season food from one end of the country to the other daily.
These are things that rely on fossil fuels and burning those fuels releases carbon dioxide. In nature, carbon is stored and that helps keep the climate stable. Today, scientists work hard to find ways to store carbon to protect the environment just as nature does.
Burning fossil fuels releases an overabundance of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. These gases are trapped near the earth and can lead to rising sea levels, changes in precipitation and increasing instances of several weather events.
One great concern is the effect on plants and wildlife on the earth as habitats are changed or damaged by the effect of burning fossil fuels around the world.
Difficult Studies
The complexities of natural causes of global warming make it impossible to draw straight lines of cause and effect. We cannot point to one specific human activity or natural cause as a "reason" because of the interconnected nature of the earth's atmosphere.
In a normal climate a balance is maintained. The natural causes of global warming are in balance and the earth will go through cycles of warming and cooling that take places over millions of years.
When adding man-made particulates and greenhouse gases the balance becomes more difficult to maintain. The truth is we have never seen the earth warming as quickly as we've seen in the past generation.
Extreme climate changes lead to extreme changes in the way life is lived on earth. Areas of ice becomes floods, areas of lakes can become deserts and high tides can take miles of coastline and make it part of the sea.
Melting of ice caps and starvation of some species of wildlife such as polar bears have captured the attention of many people who previously believed only natural causes of global warming were in force.
In an effort to slow or reverse the level of greenhouse gases and global warming, we have developed ways to measure carbon footprints and to limit greenhouse gas production in our businesses and our vehicles.
The search for renewable resources to replace fossil fuel use is moving ahead at a record pace as we recognize the necessity of preventing over-warming of the earth's atmosphere.
Summary
The natural causes of global warming are balanced over time by the earth's systems. Increasing populations and industry around the world threaten this balance as man-made greenhouse gases and pollution continued to increase.
Today, scientists understand more about how the earth's atmosphere and eco-systems manage the natural causes of global warming. Now science is focused on reducing the environmental and atmospheric damage caused by humans who populate the earth in increasing numbers.
