Running Head: Is global warming a real phenomenon?

Is global warming a real phenomenon?
Western Governor’s University

Is global warming a real phenomenon?

Global warming is the raising of average global temperature due to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human emissions. While there is a general consensus among the scientific community that global warming is currently occurring due to human emissions, there is also opposing arguments by skeptics that do not believe that global warming is happening or point out that previous warming periods have occurred in the past for a variety of reasons that may still be in play now. There have been dramatic changes to environmental systems throughout the world since human emissions increased at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution that directly demonstrate that global warming is occurring. Not only have there been immense changes in the past, but there is further evidence to indicate the changes the environment will continue to change in colossal ways in the future. This warming also is set apart by the vast differences in behavior and effect for previous warming periods in the past. Research indicates that global warming is a true phenomenon that can be explained by evidence including ongoing massive environmental and atmospheric changes since the industrial revolution, scientific model projections, and the differences between the current and previous warming periods. The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change for human carbon emissions and how fossil fuels were used. Coal had previously been used in homes as early as the 1600’s, but it was with the invention of the first coal-burning engine in 1712 that the Industrial Revolution really began (Johansen, 2001). This was the first time in