Abstract
Global warming has caused a lot of destruction in various ecosystems. The worse part of it is the fact that a consensus is yet to be reached on what actually causes it. This fact has led a number of individual scientists and research organizations to conduct research in a bid to establish what the causes of global warming are. Although a number of findings have came out of such research activities, most of these research activities lead to the conclusion that global warming is a result of human activities.
Introduction
Global warming has, for a number of decades, been a major issue affecting humans worldwide. Its environmental effects are so adverse that it has led to the extinction of several species of both flora and fauna. Despite the controversy surrounding the causes of global warming, there has been substantial academic research showing that human activities are responsible for the continued warming of the earth’s surface.
Some critics of this fact have been arguing that the sun is continually getting warmer, but their arguments are based on speculations. This paper is a proposal for a research seeking to establish the cause of global warming, and determine if global warming is as a result of human activities (Global Warming 2009, p. 1).
Literature review
As stated in the discussion above, the question of the cause of global warming has sparked a lot of controversy from both environmentalists and their critics. While most environmentalists believe that global warming is caused by human activities, their critics argue that the sun is continually getting hotter, and thus they are of the opinion that human global warming is not a result of human actions.
Despite this controversy, reliable research has shown that the production of greenhouse gases by the activities of humans is the leading cause of global warming. These are gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Their effect on the atmosphere is that once they accumulate in the atmosphere, they form a blanket of greenhouse gases that cushion heat from escaping to the atmosphere. This leads to continual heating of the earth’s atmosphere.
Some of the activities that produce greenhouse gases include burning of fossil fuels, incomplete combustion of gas in faulty automobiles, and the like.
The main problem with global warming is that it is self sustaining. For instance, global warming leads to the melting of ice caps on the highest points of mountains. These caps normally act as heat reflectors, and thus when they are molten, heat from the atmosphere has worse effects on the earth’s surface. As mentioned earlier, global warming creates harsh living conditions in a variety of ecosystems, and endangers the existence of species existing in these ecosystems.
Methodology
This research can be conducted by integrating both field research, and desk research. This is because a lot of research has been conducted on this topic and it is imperative that existing knowledge on this topic be utilized.
The field research will thus be used to fill the gaps in the existing research, and also establish the truth behind the possible negative effects of past synergies in a number of research documents. This will ensure that the findings of the research are credible, and that they are guided by the most probable cause of global warming (Godfrey, 2010, p. 1).
Conclusion
As evidenced in the discussion above, global warming is caused by human activities. The proposed research is bound to prove this fact, and thus be in agreement with research that has been done on this topic. The research hypothesis can thus be formulated that “global warming is not caused by human activity” so that in the end, the hypothesis is rejected.
Since global warming has been proven, by past research, to be caused by human activities, the proposed research will act as a reinforcement of this fact, and bring fresh ideas on the measures that can be taken to mitigate the effects of global warming. It is thus of essence that once this kind of research is completed, its findings and recommendations are taken seriously and implemented diligently.
Reference List
Global Warming. (2009). Global warming. Web.
Godfrey, G. (2010). Global warming. Web.