If you have been caught in any discussion that has to do with climate change, there is a high probability that you might have heard the phrase "nothing like climate change" or maybe the other one like " Climate change is natural". One thing I have learned to understand and come to live with is that we all navigate different ideas based on our level of education or knowledge on that matter. Misconception sometimes can be a result of circumstances and actually, while we (I am talking those who know the truth) assume that we have a knowledge of a topic now, there was a time that we were ignorant to it as well. So I will be using this as an education tool.
One thing is true that climate change for the longest of time has been affected by natural forces, and in fact it is this natural forces that scientists relied on to first understand how climate change occurred but then while there are natural causes, there are also human causes of climate change and so when climate change is being discussed, the natural causes are also factored but when we are looking at the speed and the scale at which climate change has gone since after the industrial revolution, there is no way we will not factor human activities to its cause.
While earth's climate is what we usually look at it is no doubt that it is complicated. When I ask you what is the climatic condition in your region, you might realize that it is completely different from mine and this is because of the position of the earth but one thing that we can pick when talking about climate with regards to change is temperature.
Temperature has to do with how quick the atoms of an object move due to change in external factors. The faster the atoms moves, the higher the temperature while the lower the atoms move, the cooler the temperature. As the higher the movement of the atoms,the mote kinetic energy it has so heat is actually energy that is moved causing the atom to move. The sun is the first source of kinetic energy and energy from the sun reaches the earth in about 8 minutes and 1/3 of the sun is reflected back to space when they hit ice or bright cloud but then the land and ocean absorb majority of it.
When the earth heats up, they transfer the thermal radiation energy to other parts of the earth. When land gives off the energy to the atmosphere, it is absorbed by water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane known as green house gas molecules. These molecules radiates the heat they get from the earth to the earth again in what we refer to as the greenhouse effect. This green house effect is good for earth because if they weren't existing, we would be having temperatures of negative degree Celsius. While green house gasses are doing well in the natural cause, it becomes harmful in the man made effect leading to much green house gasses in the atmosphere causing the earth to be more warmer like it is today compared to what t should be.
Talking about Climate forcing, when it is negative, the earth is cooling off but when it is positive, then the earth is getting warmer. There are a lot of reasons for earth climate to pull out more or less energy from the sun. In recent years of over 4 decades, the sun activity and brightness has been steady or dimming slightly but earth's temperature has been increasing.
Volcanic eruption also affects earth's energy and heat but then we have been having the same level of volcanic eruption for the many years now even before the industrial revolution. Although, volcano comes with other things like the release of ash, Carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), sulfur. But the amount of the gas produced now from volcano is small as there have not been a large volcanic eruption compared to the the dinosaur extinction period.
Actually, we cannot rule out the natural causes of global warming and scientists are still looking to get information on so many natural causes that can influence climate change but then,for us to get the kind of climatic results we have today without putting the human factor into consideration
Reference
https://ecn.ac.uk/what-we-do/education/tutorials-weather-climate/climate/factors-affecting-climate
https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/climate-forcing
https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change
https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/TBI_natural_climate_change.pdf
https://homework.study.com/explanation/our-sun-gives-off
https://earthathome.org/quick-faqs/do-volcanoes-cause-global-warming/
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/effect-of-volcanic-eruptions-significantly-underestimated-in-climate-projections
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/energy-from-sun
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