What major factors play a role in global warming?

Humans are increasingly influencing the climate and the earth’s temperature by burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock. This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming.

What does the Vostok ice core reveal?

Ice core samples taken at the Vostok station are used to collect data on historical carbon dioxide levels. The data consist of measurements of the percentage of atmospheric gasses, such as CO2 in fossil air bubbles that have been trapped in snow flakes and compressed into ice over 400,000 years old.

How do Antarctic ice cores reveal information about past climates?

Ice cores provide a unique contribution to our view of past climate because the bubbles within the ice capture the gas concentration of our well-mixed atmosphere while the ice itself records other properties. Scientists study the gas composition of the bubbles in the ice by crushing a sample of the core in a vacuum.

What are the primary sources of the global warming that have occurred over the past 50 years?

The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years.

Why is the Vostok ice core important?

Results have been based on ice cores taken from undisturbed ice sheets, such as those in Antarctica . Ice cores provide uninterrupted information on important properties of paleoclimate, including local temperature and precipitation rate, humidity, and wind speed as well as changes in atmospheric composition.

What has ice core data shown about climate change?

Ice cores provide direct information about how greenhouse gas concentrations have changed in the past, and they also provide direct evidence that the climate can change abruptly under some circumstances.

How does industrial activities cause global warming?

The rapid population growth associated with industrialization is also a cause of global warming because of the increased levels of harmful emissions. A larger population leads to increased demand for products, higher levels of production and consumption and, inevitably, elevated levels of greenhouse gases.

How did the Industrial Revolution affect climate change?

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in about 1750, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and oil, have dramatically increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. As a result, the rate of heat-loss from the Earth has slowed, creating a warming effect.