What Causes Climate Change?
The second chapter goes beyond this basic introduction to climate change, and into more specifics on greenhouse gases(GHGs), what emissions are used for in society, and how emissions are considered and change by country and over time.
As a note, climate change encompasses the range of effects on the atmosphere and planet caused by human impacts, primarily through various GHG emissions. The range of emissions, including scale and composition, varies heavily across the planet, by country and by sub-areas within countries. When possible, data will use global averages, but there are points where data from the United States of America will specifically be utilized, and will be noted as such.
These wide range of emissions, and actions taken to lower emissions, puts each country and subarea into different contexts in regards to climate change. Which countries have emitted the most historically? Which countries are doing the most to lower emissions? Which countries are completely carbon neutral? These contexts are important, as long as we remember that climate change is a global issue, with unique local effects. Small island nations have historically been extremely environmentally friendly, and yet they will still suffer the most from rising ocean levels. As such not only must we think locally when discussing climate change and its effects, but we must also think globally, and how the actions we take today could affect those across the planet. We will discuss this more later.
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Section 1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Section 2: Comparative Strengths of GHGs
Section 3: Why do we emit so much?
Section 4: International GHGs