Causes Of Global Warming

All of the causes of global warming can be summarized with one word: heat. There are many contributing factors to that heat, however. Global warming is the theory or fact, depending on what you believe, that the earth's atmosphere is slowly getting hotter. The implication behind this temperature increase is that it is caused by humans. Scientists believe they have identified the basic global warming causes. Many of them are quite simple to explain.

The first global warming cause is the greenhouse effect. The atmosphere is acting like the glass in a greenhouse. This means that the atmosphere lets sunlight in, but doesn't let all the heat out again. Certain gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and a few others cause this insulating action of the atmosphere. These gases act to trap excess heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming.

Human industrial activity contributes to the cause of global warming. Many industrial activities involve burning or combustion, especially fossil fuels. When organic materials such as gasoline, coal, and heating oil are burned completely, carbon dioxide and water vapor are emitted to the atmosphere. Most combustion devices are not completely efficient, so other pollutants are emitted as well. While some of the carbon dioxide and water vapor are used by growing plants, these excess greenhouse gases generated by human activities are causing global warming.

The generation of greenhouse gases causes global warming side effects that accelerate the temperature increase. Polar ice reflects a great deal of sunlight, but when it melts, it allows the ground to absorb more heat. Climate shifts occur, causing forests to disappear. Those forests used to absorb carbon dioxide and block solar heating. Now there are fewer trees to absorb the carbon dioxide, and the ground is heated even more.

Global warming causes are many. They interact in complex and unexpected ways to accelerate the global temperature rise. Only by identifying the exact causes of global warming can the global community learn how to minimize or eliminate this massive global warming effect.