What effects of these things do we see in the world's climate? We will talk about the major one in a minute, which is global warming. There are other effects we need to think about and work on in order to reduce our adverse impact on the environment. Global warming has been caused by overuse of petroleum fuels, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, disruption of the water resources, loss of the rainforests, and wasting the land to be used instead for livestock raising. We have also contributed to environmental and climate changes by adding acid to our soil and water. This comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which return to earth as acid rain. We also disrupt the nitrogen cycle by producing too much nitrogen oxides in our industries and adding ammonia to the soil through fertilization practices. These can have long-term implications for our climate.
GLOBAL WARMING AND FUTURE EXPECTATIONS These are the main things humans have done to contribute to global warming: •
Increased the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, adding a warming effect to the environment. Carbon dioxide is the greatest contributor to global warming as a greenhouse gas.
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Deforestation and other land surface changes adding a warming effect.
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Increased aerosols into the atmosphere, which could have a cooling effect.
Efforts have been made to predict the future of the earth and its weather as a result of warming temperatures. This is done by looking at what has been done so far to our climate and moving this forward several decades. Let's look at what these predictions indicate. We have talked about what the different effects are of human activities on our climate, but there are other things we need to consider from the perspective of meteorology, such as whether or not there really has been an increase in extreme weather events. There has definitely been an increase in the incidence of hot summers in recent years. This might translate to an increase in extreme weather events overall. Expect stronger hurricanes and prolonged droughts.
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