Climate Change

Mahnoor
Research Questions

(1) To what extent human activities play a role

in increasing greenhouse gases which led to
climate change?
(2) How the increasing amount of greenhouse
gases can be limited?
(3) What impact will climate change have on
children living in rural areas?
 Research Process
I faced a lot of difficulties in finding some good articles because it was my first
time doing that, but I think by the time I got used to the website it became little
easy. The biggest problem that I faced was putting the correct words to find
an article, but now I know as I learnt it through this project.

Some words that I used to find my articles are:

Climate change and human activities

Climate change and impact and humans

Climate change and prevention

I used power search, and opposing viewpoint, and also topic finder to find
some articles. The two of the articles that I found are academic journals, one
of them is from opposing viewpoint, and the other one is from a book that
opposed the views of an article that I got from opposing viewpoint.
 Article#1: Human Activity Causes Global
Warming (opposing viewpoint)
Quotes: "Over the past 50 years, human influences have been the dominant
detectable influence on climate change."

Global changes in atmospheric composition occur from anthropogenic

(human-caused) emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide that
results from the burning of fossil fuels and methane and nitrous oxide from
multiple human activities

Changes in land-use through urbanization and agricultural practices, although

not global, are often most pronounced where people live, work, and grow
food, and are part of the human impact on climate
Summary: In this article, Thomas R. Karl and Kevin E Trenberth had argued how
human activities such as burning of fossil fuels have increased the greenhouse
gas emission which led to climate change. They have claimed that because of
human activities, the amount of CO2 has increased 31% since 1965 due to which
outgoing radiations from the Earth are being trapped by carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases resulting in the warming of the planet. The authors have also
claimed that humans are also impacting the land surfaces through deforestation,
and desertification that leads to climate change. Basically, what the authors are
trying to say that people are cutting down trees daily due to which CO2 is
increasing. Trees are the really good source of taking in carbon dioxide, and
producing more oxygen. So, obviously, if there are less trees in our environment
less carbon dioxide will be taken in by the trees, increasing the amount of CO2 in
atmosphere.
Evaluation of the source (credibility):
This article is credible as it is both academic and opposing viewpoint and as it provides me with all the information of how
human activities are causing climate change.The authors of this article are Thomas R. Karl, a director of the National
Climate Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Kevin E Trenberth, head of the Climate
Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
 Book: Opposing viewpoints on Global
Warming
Chapter#2: Human produced Carbon dioxide does not contributes significantly
to global warming
Quotes: Most vegetation loves more carbon dioxide. It grows faster, is more
drought-tolerant, and is more efficient in its water use

Plankton actually grows faster and bigger when more CO2 is pumped into the
water

No matter how much CO2 we pump into the atmosphere each year, the
biosphere takes out an average of 50% of that extra amount. Even after we
triple the amount of CO2 we produce, nature still takes out 50% of the extra
amount
.
Summary: In this chapter, Roy Spencer had viewed his own point of views of
why human produced carbon dioxide has nothing to do with climate change
instead its good for environment. He had described the significant of carbon
dioxide on plants, and sea life, and how they takes out 50% of the gas from
atmosphere. He thinks that more the amount of CO2 , more it will be good for
the life on Earth. According to the author, presence of large amount of carbon
dioxide in atmosphere, allows the biosphere to take in this gas for their growth,
resulting in the decrease in its real amount, which is really good for our
environment.

Evaluation of the source (credibility):

Its a credible source as this chapter is taken from a book, which was written in
May 1, 2008 by Roy Spencer.

In this chapter, he presented his ideas on how human released gases are not
harmful for our environment and opposed the authors of the article#1 that I
used.
Article#2: Implications of climate change for
children in developing countries
Quotes: Children are potentially much more vulnerable than adults to
environmental factors (for example, heat, pollution, or famine) because they
are both physically weaker and less able to dissipate heat

The reason is partly that poor countries, on average, have warmer climates
than richer ones do, and temperature changes may affect health and
agriculture more severely in areas that are hotter to begin with

In 2013, the infant mortality rate was 10 times higher in low-income countries
than it was in wealthy ones: 53 vs. 5.3 deaths per 1,000 births, respectively

Because climate change is likely to exacerbate conditions that bring forth

infections and parasites, the health of children in poor nations is likely to suffer
substantially more than that of children in richer ones
Developing new technologies, inventing more-weather-resistant crops, improving
access to clean water, increasing foreign aid during disasters, and offering more
assistance to help poor countries expand their safety net programs

Summary: In this article, Rema Hanna and Paulina Olivia has claimed that climate
change is dangerous for humans especially for children in developing countries.
They have claimed that in poor areas as many people depend on agriculture, which
is being affected due to excessive heat or rain, are not able to feed their kids. Poor
nutrition, contaminated air and water are affecting children health. Both of them
also talked about how to lower these threat to children in developing countries.

Evaluation of the source (credibility):

This source is really credible as it is an academic article written by Rema Hanna and
Paulina Oliva. This article was published in 2016.

It provides me with the information on how the children living in developing areas
are getting affected more than the ones living in developed areas.
Article#3: Climate change
Quotes: Several recent accounts suggest that we must limit the total
emissions of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases), not to exceed 1
trillion tons, if we are to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees C, which
many believe is the maximum temperature change that will not produce huge
impacts to life on Earth

Believe that a tax on emissions of fossil carbon will be the simplest, fairest,
and most effective way for us to reduce our impacts on climate

Many geoengineering schemes, such as the capture of CO2 from power

plants and its deep injection into the ground, are fairly expensive, but
straightforward and potentially without many negative impacts
Summary: In this article, William H. Schlesinger talked about how the amount
of increasing greenhouse gases in Earths atmosphere is causing climate
change, how this increase is impacting our environment, and what steps
should be taken to limit climate change. To prevent these changes, humans
should limit the use of fossil fuels, and in order to do this, taxes should be
imposed on use of fossil fuels. He also claimed that geoengineering can be
used to solve global warming problems.

Evaluation of the source (credibility):

This article is credible as it is an academic journal written by William H.

Schlesinger, published in 2011.

It provides me with some information of what steps should be taken to control

climate change.
 Thesis Statement

While some experts think that human caused greenhouse gases,

especially CO2 are good for our environment, most of them blame
human activities for climate change which badly affect children, mostly
living in developing areas.
 What to do next
Now I just want to gather all the information together, and get it ready to be written. I also want to do
more research about my topic. Then, I will organize all the information, and decide how I want to put
all the information in my essay. Finally, write the research paper.

I would also like to research more about how geoengineering schemes can store CO2, and how CO2
can be released underground.

If it is possible to store CO2 underground, what impacts will it have on our environment.

Why poor countries are warmer than richer countries?

Learning
Through this project, I have learned to do good research from reliable sources (not from google), and
how to check whether the source is credible or not. This kind of research projects are really
important because later, in future, these learnings can help us to write good research papers in
college.
 Sources
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPort
letWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&p=OVIC&catId=&u=nysl_me_73_sh
b&action=2&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010222238&zid=06f2df56a7e4c5d69b7b
1ded37f91db7#.WEThT16DSL4.gmail

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=nysl_me_73_shb&v=2.1&it=r&id=G
ALE%7CA451939082&searchId=R4&tabID=T002&linkSource=termClusters&inPS
=true

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=nysl_me_73_shb&v=2.1&it=r
&id=GALE%7CA270980369&asid=733c81c7bfb9dd15b15aa3594208fac5#.WETp
WOAv30c.gmail