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The causes of global warming

Info: 2195 words (9 pages) Essay
Published: 16th Mar 2021 in Environmental Sciences

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With the rapid development of economy, the issue of the causes of global warming has been brought into public focus. The reason is that global warming results an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, which effects human’s living, animal’s living, and plant’s growth. However, most of people state that the most significant reason of the cause of global warming is a natural phenomenon. As a matter of fact, it is modern anthropogenic global warming. In this research paper, I intend to research this thorny topic from five aspects. There are population, eating meat, pets, forest destruction, and air pollution. In addition to examining causes, I will also consider some briefness of the effects of the global warming.

You can also find out more about further causes, effects and solutions to global warming.

First of all, I want to begin my research paper with three definitions of the key ward “global warming”. I will provide a brief description of the causes of global warming.


First of all, according to my research paper topic “the causes of global warming”. I want to begin with the keyword “global warming”. It means “an increase in the earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures” (Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary). Therefore, when people talk “global warming,” it is a fact that people are living in a earth where the temperature is becoming higher and higher. The cause of global warming refers to the global temperature increasing. The cause global warming is mainly due to human beings in nearly a century, using a lot of fossil fuels (such as coal and oil), discharging large amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, leading global warming. The consequences of global warming will lead to a global redistribution of precipitation, melting glaciers and permafrost, and rising sea levels. Not only global warming endangers the balance of natural ecosystems, but also it threatens human food supply and living environment (Rationalwiki).

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From internet, I also get some specific definitions. The online dictionary says that global warming is “an increase in the earth’s average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect” (dictionary.com). In other sources, Wikipedia claims that global warming is “the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation” (Wikipedia). In other words, the situation means that people are living in a place where the temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans is raising constantly and the different species are continually decreasing. That is a very critical condition that people in face ,because human can not live in that high temperature and the resources of human’s living are reducing in that situation.

Description of the causes of global warming

People have paid most attention on the different explanation of the causes of global warming, at the same time it raises the debate on the political and economic. Global warming is caused by many things. The causes are split up into two groups, man-made or anthropogenic causes, and natural causes. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century was caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning deforestation” (Wikipedia). From this section, it is no exaggeration to say that the most important reasons for this situation people who be confronted with global warming is resulted from human themselves.

“Human activity since the Industrial Revolution has increased the smount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. The concentrations of CO2 and methane have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since the mid-1700s” (Wikipedia). From this definition, we can simply understand the causes of global warming. The source of global warming is from the CO2 of the air and fossil fuel burning has produced about three-quarters of the increase in CO2 from human activity over the past 20 years, however most of the rest is due to deforestation.

Most of scientists believe that a large number of emissions of greenhouse gases caused by increased greenhouse effect may be the basic causes of global warming.

The Causes of Global Warming

Now I will discuss the causes of global warming, there are five causes of global warming: 1) population (The Canadian Press,2009 and CBC News); 2) eating meat (Juliette Jowit, environment editor The Observer, Sunday 7 September 2008); 3) pets (Cathal Kelly Feature writer); 4) forest destruction; and 5) burning. I intend to provide a brief description for each cause.


As we know from the Canadian press, some experts said that in developing countries offering contraceptives to women could slow down climate change through presenting population growth. In this report, it said that as a matter of fact over 200 million women want contraceptives but they do not keep them. However, it results in 76 million women conceive without consciousness every year (The Canadian Press, 2009).

In other ways, the editors say that if those women had some ways to keep the free condoms or other birth-control ways, the rates of population growth would increase slowly. Then it is possible that the pressure on the environment would reduce. It is because we breathe out CO2 into air that the CO2 contributes to global warming. It is said that the population around the world will rise to 9 billion by 2050, in which over 90 per cent of that growth is from developing countries (The Canadian Press, 2009). The most important is that experts state that although the normal population growth is not a substantial increase in global warming, but overpopulation also could result increased demand for food and shelter, which could threaten the environment because it brings global warming with much CO2 (The Canadian Press, 2009).

In recent years, one of the main factors that the rapid increase in population is leading to global warming. Meanwhile, this is a serious dangerous situation affecting a balance between the natural ecological environment. So many people, only its own emissions of carbon dioxide per year would be an amazing figures, the result will directly lead to the content system of atmospheric carbon increasing (CBC News, 2008).

Eating meat

The second cause I want to discuss is that “UN says eat less meat to curb global warming” (guardian.co.uk THE OBSERVER). The editor said that people should give up eating meat on one day per week if they want to help solving climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri (chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change) also said that “people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further”. However, his comments are very controversial ideas and added on how personals can help solve global warming.

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On the other hand, Dr Pachauri also stressed other ways in lifestyle would help to curb global warming. He provides his advice to the food industry, and hoping food industries reduce meat consumption. Because if people stopped buying imported food, people would save a lot of carbon emissions. He said that “if the average UK household halved meat consumption that would cut emissions more that if car use was cut in half” (Dr Rajendra Pachauri from guardian.co.uk).


A third cause of global warming is about pet. According to New Zealand-based researchers Robert and Brenda Vale (CATHAL KELLY, feature writer The Toronto Stan) said that a great many household pets chew up more resources than a lot of cars. According to their figures, “feeding a medium-sized dog for a year has twice the environmental impact of driving a luxury SUV for 10,000 killometres”. It means that a dog’s food in a year is equal to a person’s food consumption. Vale said that “if a person want a big dog, maybe he or she should be a vegetarian and take the bus” (Brenda Vale from The Toronto Stan). This cause is related to the second cause eating meat. Some pets only eat meat, so it is impossible that let those pets be vegetarians. Therefore, Vale advices that people should limit themselves to eco-friendly, vegetarian pets, like hamsters or rabbits (Brenda Vale). So people can image that pet’s food consumption is an amazing.

Forest Destruction

Around the world, due to natural or man-made factors are causing forest area dropped significantly, which has also been a controversial topic. Because atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide is increasing and that it showed the trend of faster and faster. One of major cause is forest destruction. For fuel in living, using forests is one cause of deforestation. Because the use of forests for wood and charcoal, people have to use them from forests. However, deforestation let large amounts of carbon increasing, and then it will threaten global warming. The most important function of forests is there can absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“Rainforests play the important role of locking of locking up atmospheric carbon in their vegetation via photosynthesis” (rainforests.mongabay.com) . It is reported that when forests are burned, degraded or cleared, will have the opposite effect: a lot of carbon in the atmosphere is being transformed into carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (Rainforests). Deforestation is one of the causes to global warming, and it also is the most important reason enhanced greenhouse effect. It is said that “tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions”. In many tropics, forests can save our air from pollution because trees can remove carbon from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis and release oxygen back into the air during normal respiration (Wikipedia.).


The final cause I want to provide is burning. A second major cause of global warming has been burning gasoline for transportation. Since the industrial era in 1750, human activities have increased the degree of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In living, burning is using in many aspects such as transportation and industries. In nowadays, there are many cars that burning gasoline in many developing countries. On the other hand, there are also many industries that burning coal and oil, again there are thermal power stations that burning coal and oil. At present, human activity of carbon dioxide is more than 20 times of natural sources of carbon dioxide (Wikipedia). Burning of fossil fuels results in higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations for two main reasons: first, the rapid increase in population, second, the rapid increase in consumption of fossil fuels in industrialization in the development of human society. All aspects of that burnings are making atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased (Wikipedia).

The effects of global warming

The effects of global warming has been brought into human attention. Human health depends on good ecological environment. It is said that global warming will be the most factor that effecting human health. Extreme high temperature will be the next century plagued human health, which will also become more frequent, more widespread (Wikipedia). On the other hand, global warming effects water stressed. Global warming affects drinking water and agriculture in some coastal zones. Because global warming firstly effect climate change, then increased evaporation will decrease the effectiveness of reservoirs (Wikipedia).


As we can see from this paper, I discuss five causes that have severely affected the global warming. There are pollution, eating meat, pets, forest destruction, and burning. Every cause of global warming is connected with another one. From the industries starts to present, human activity continually create different effects to global warming.

However, human beings are constantly research the causes of global warming, the researchers hope that in the near future they can find some way to slow down the speed of global warming. Because, after all, the reasons of global warming is result of human, so the solution also begins with human.

From the impacts of global warming, the main factors are the emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Human not only increase the carbon dioxide emissions, but also increase deforestation reduction of carbon dioxide.


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