Essay Sample on Climate Change: Pre-Industrial Activity & Global Temperature Fluctuations

Climate change in most regions can be characterized by activities before, during, and after the industrial revolution era. Conventionally, the occurrence of these activities influenced an imminent fluctuation of world’s global temperature with time (Frisken, 1971). Ideally, climate change occurs when adverse human and natural activities cause adverse weather conditions, thus posing toxic gases into the atmosphere, and causing prolonged heating of earth surfaces. However, the pre-industrial revolution era before 1760 was only characterized by a few industries, while the few existing ones such as the cottage industry, was primarily done at the rural areas by weavers, and dyers (Frisken, 1971). Therefore, it is imperative to note that during this time, people were mostly settled in rural areas; hence the majority of the land was covered with natural resources and plantations such as trees. Perhaps, the existence of vast Greenland facilitated regular production of oxygen, with reduced CO2 emissions, balancing off the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (Frisken, 1971). The purpose of this study is to discuss the initial causes of climate changes during and after the industrial revolution era.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Nonetheless, the nature of the environment began to change during the early stages of the industrial revolution era between 1760-1840 (McGlade & Ekins, 2015). During this time, there was a massive transition from agricultural activities to manufacturing services, especially in the United States and other European countries. As more industries were continuously set up, there was an extreme movement of people from Britain's rural areas, and other foreign countries to the newly set urbanized regions in seek of employment. Perhaps, the industries needed much workforce from the laborers to provide faster development and growth for their towns. These movements caused population pressures in the urban areas, and more land was retrieved for constructing houses. More roads were also set up to enable easy transportation of the raw materials and people into the town.

Most importantly, the industries used fossil fuels for the production of various products, which were further supplied throughout Europe with the use of cars. In either way, the burning of fossil fuels increased the rates of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, causing differential heat uptake. Concurrently, the level of CO2 and other affluent gases obtained from the burning of natural gases rose higher; thus, affecting the global temperatures (McGlade & Ekins, 2015). To reiterate, researchers, professionals, and several scientists across the globe believe that upon introducing the industrial age, human beings began to burn much fossil fuels including but not restricted to coal, and natural gas. There is no doubt that these impacts introduced more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere leading to greenhouse effects and global warming. To worsen the situation, the trees which could be used to absorb high levels of CO2 had been cut to create more land surface for settlement and setting up of more industries. Considerably, the two caused a shift in the global temperatures and general climatic changes. Nonetheless, studies by Zecca and Chiari (2010) postulated that the temperature changes in parts of Europe and American continents would not have been controlled significantly at its early stages. For instance, people were less knowledgeable about the impacts of the processes. As Zecca and Chiari (2010) stated, “climate change is a detrimental environmental challenge whose effects cannot be felt overnight for whatsoever reasons." People were desperately advancing and could not realize the immediate impacts of climatic changes. Moreover, alternatives for fossil fuels such as diesel had not been discovered by that time.

Unfortunately, the present-day dynamics have ultimately changed in regard to the extent of current industrialization and urbanization. Almost every part of the world seems to have undergone through the industrialization process. The essential implication of this phenomenon is that, the challenge of temperature change which was initially concentrated in European nations, as disseminated almost proportionally in other continents. Therefore, the challenge has become even more detrimental as the entire world is undergoing the effects of greenhouse effects and global warming. In other words, what causes a rise in the world's atmospheric temperatures is that, as more CO2 gets emitted, the ozone gets interfered with, and hence global warming. Upon evaluating the present climatic condition, it is vital to acknowledge and appreciate the fact that, alternative sources of energy can be used besides fossil fuels, to reduce the rates of CO2 emissions (Mabey et al., 1997). For example, diesel and electricity are more applicable, to ensure that there is no burning of fossil fuels which hazardously impacts the environment.

Therefore, the future of the world's climatic conditions solely depends on whether people will shift to the use of alternative sources of energy. If organizations form partnerships to create awareness for industries on the importance of using diesel and other sources of energy, then levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will reduce. It will further help in managing greenhouse and global warming effects. Meanwhile, if these strategies are not put in place, then atmospheric temperatures will exponentially rise, causing severe effects such as drought, floods, hurricanes among other effects (Mabey et al., 1997). There must be a global outlook on the matter, to create more apparent continental policies which will help to control the activities that are being undertaken by industries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the world's climate has increasingly changed with the rising global temperatures since the industrial revolution age commenced back in the 1760s. The use of fossil fuels in the industries led to continued emission of CO2. Badly enough, the population pressures in the urban centers, pushed for deforestation acts, reducing the number of available trees to absorb the produced CO2, to neutralize up the growing challenge eventually. The findings of this study have undoubtedly proven that the rising global temperature is the most substantial cause of climatic variations. To control this, industries should consider using alternative sources of energy such as diesel, instead of petroleum products to reduce effluent emissions. If the proposed action is not implemented, then more severe results are likely to be projected in the future.

References

Frisken, W. R. (1971). The extended industrial revolution and climate change. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 52(7), 500-508. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/EO052i007p00500

Mabey, N., Hall, S., Gupta, S., & Smith, C. (1997). An argument in the greenhouse: The international economics of controlling global warming. Taylor & Francis US.

McGlade, C., & Ekins, P. (2015). The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 C. Nature, 517(7533), 187-190. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14016

Zecca, A., & Chiari, L. (2010). Fossil-fuel constraints on global warming. Energy Policy, 38(1), 1-3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421509004844