Question

People who say humans cause climate change point to the Industrial Revolution when people started burning lots of coal and oil. Burning fossil fuels and other stuff puts gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into the air. Those gases act like a blanket around Earth and trap heat — that’s called the greenhouse effect. Scientists have been measuring gas levels and temperatures and say both have gone up a lot since big industries started. They use data and computer models to show that the timing of the rise in emissions matches the rise in temperature. Even though the climate can change naturally, these scientists think the fast warming we’re seeing now is mostly because of people and our factories, cars, and power plants.
make this 300 words minimum

Answer 1

People who say humans cause climate change often point to the Industrial Revolution — the period beginning in the mid-1700s when people began burning coal, then oil and natural gas, on an unprecedented scale to power factories, ships, trains and later automobiles and power plants. Burning these fossil fuels releases large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, most importantly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Other human activities such as cutting down forests, producing cement, and some industrial processes also add CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Agricultural practices and livestock generate methane and nitrous oxide, and certain industrial chemicals have been potent greenhouse gases as well.

Greenhouse gases act like a blanket around Earth. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and warms the surface; the warmed surface emits infrared radiation back toward space. Greenhouse gases absorb some of that outgoing infrared and re-radiate it in all directions, including back toward the surface, which raises the planet’s average temperature. This natural greenhouse effect is essential for life — without it Earth would be much colder — but adding extra greenhouse gases makes the blanket thicker and causes additional warming.

Scientists have been measuring atmospheric gas concentrations and global temperatures for many decades. Direct atmospheric monitoring (for example, the long-running record from Mauna Loa Observatory) and measurements trapped in ice cores show that CO2, methane and nitrous oxide levels have risen substantially since the pre-industrial era. CO2, for instance, increased from roughly 280 parts per million before widespread fossil fuel use to well over 400 parts per million in recent years. Global temperature records show a clear upward trend over the same period.

Climate scientists use multiple lines of evidence — observations, paleoclimate data, and computer models — to understand causes of the warming. Models that include only natural factors such as volcanic eruptions and changes in solar output cannot reproduce the rapid warming observed since the 20th century. When models include increases in greenhouse gases from human activities, they match the observed temperature rise. Additional “fingerprints” of greenhouse-gas-driven warming, such as warming of the lower atmosphere together with cooling of the upper atmosphere, are also consistent with the physics of increased greenhouse gases and not with other natural causes.

Although Earth’s climate has changed naturally over geological time, the speed and magnitude of warming in recent decades, combined with the coincidence of rising emissions and greenhouse gas concentrations, lead the vast majority of climate scientists to conclude that human activities are the dominant cause of the current warming trend. This human-caused warming has broad impacts, including more frequent heat waves, changing precipitation patterns, sea level rise from melting ice and thermal expansion, and ocean warming and acidification, all of which pose significant risks to ecosystems and human societies.