Parker​- ​rebuttal

Cole- intro and closing

Jake-main argument

What is human impact?

Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes

changes to biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources
caused directly or indirectly by humans.

What are fossil fuels?

A natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living
organisms.

What are the greenhouse gasses?

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

What is the greenhouse effect?

https://www.thetalkingdemocrat.com/2018/03/what-is-the-green-house-effect/

Ice core records allow us to generate continuous reconstructions of past climate, going back at
least 800,000 years[2]. By looking at past concentrations of greenhouse gasses in layers in ice
cores, scientists can calculate how modern amounts of carbon dioxide and methane compare to
those of the past, and, essentially, compare past concentrations of greenhouse gasses to
temperature. Ice coring has been around since the 1950s. Ice cores have been drilled in ice
sheets worldwide, but notably in Greenland and Antarctica. High rates of snow accumulation
provide excellent time resolution, and bubbles in the ice core preserve actual samples of the
world’s ancient atmosphere. Through analysis of ice cores, scientists learn about
glacial-interglacial cycles, changing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and climate stability over
the last 10,000 years. Many ice cores have been drilled in Antarctica. Source:
http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/ice-cores/ice-core-basics/
What is climate?
The weather conditions prevailing in general or over a long period.
Greenhouse gases
● Methane
● Ozone
● Water vapor
● Sulfur hexafluoride
Do humans impact Global Warming?

YES
Simple chemistry​ – when we burn carbon-based materials,
carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted.
1. Basic accounting​ of what we burn, and therefore how much
CO2 we emit.
2. Measuring CO2​ in the atmosphere and trapped in ice to find
that it's increasing, with levels higher than anything we've seen
in hundreds of thousands of years.
3. Chemical analysis​ of the atmospheric CO2 that reveals the
increase is coming from burning fossil fuels.
4. Basic physics​ that shows us that CO2 absorbs heat.
5. Monitoring climate conditions​ to find that recent warming of
the Earth is correlated to and follows rising CO2 emissions.
6. Ruling out natural factors​ that can influence climate like the
sun and ocean cycles.
 7. Employing computer models​ to run experiments of natural
versus human-influenced simulations of Earth.

Consensus among scientists​ who consider all previous lines of

evidence and make their own conclusions
What is Global Warming?
Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s surface
temperature over the past century mainly due to the greenhouse gases
released by people burning fossil fuels.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page1.php
Why do scientist think global warming isn't natural?

Since 1750, the average amount of energy coming from the Sun either
remained constant or increased slightly.
If the warming were caused by a more active Sun, then scientists would
expect to see warmer temperatures in all layers of the atmosphere.
Instead, they have observed a cooling in the upper atmosphere, and a
warming at the surface and in the lower parts of the atmosphere. That's
because greenhouse gases are trapping heat in the lower atmosphere.
Source: ​https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs—which have been

banned in much of the world because they also degrade the ozone
layer—have heat-trapping potential thousands of times greater than
CO2. But because their emissions are much lower than CO2, none of
these gases trap as much heat in the atmosphere as CO2 does. Source:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-
warming-causes/

Prior to the Industrial Revolution and subsequent exploding world

population, the Earth’s climate changed in response to natural forcings.
These changes to the climate generally evolved over long periods of
time, shifting from ice age to interglacial period and back again.

Since industrialization, the human hand in forcing the climate has

become evident. Current global warming trends cannot be explained by
natural forcing alone. Anthropogenic (human) sources of warming need
to be factored in if we are to fully explain the trends that we are currently
observing. Source:
https://climatechangeconnection.org/science/are-humans-the-cause/

An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet
or a high mountain glacier. Google

Sources: ​"Consensus on consensus,"​ ​U.S. National Climate Assessme​nt.

 Do other things impact global warming?

NO

● Effects from global warmin​g

● Increasing sea level causing flooding
● Longer and more damaging wildfire seasons
● More destructive hurricanes
● More dangerous and frequent heat waves (dangerously hot weather is already
occurring more frequently than it did 60 years ago)
● An increase in extreme weather events. Strong scientific evidence shows that
global warming is increasing certain types of extreme weather events like, heat
waves and coastal flooding
● Destruction of marine ecosystem. Higher concentration of co2 in the atmosphere
is causing the ocean to be more acidic and warmer. These two effects threaten
the marine life
●
https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-war
ming-impacts#.XFw2YYpOmhB

Climate Drivers can influence earth’s climate, examples are sun’s

intensity, volcanic eruptions. source:
https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/hu
man-contribution-to-gw-faq.html#.XFwwKdtOmhA

Since 1850, almost all the long-term warming can be explained by greenhouse gas
emissions and other human activities.
If greenhouse gas emissions alone were warming the planet, we would expect to see
about a third more warming than has actually occurred. They are offset by cooling from
human-produced atmospheric aerosols.
Aerosols are projected to decline significantly by 2100, bringing total warming from all
factors closer to warming from greenhouse gases alone.
Natural variability in the Earth’s climate is unlikely to play a major role in long-term
warming.
Source:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-
to-humans