Anthropogenic forcing

We know that human influence has an impact on the level of energy in the earth’s atmosphere. Let’s look more closely at what in our atmosphere increases and decreases that energy level.

Watch Dr. Nathan B. English examine how our own actions are impacting the windows that radiation can pass through and contributing to the warming of the Earth.

Video guide

Since this video is a little longer than most videos in this course, here is a guide to the topics it covers.

Now it’s your turn

Having examined the cause and effect of some of the major contributors to global climate change, what actions can we as individuals take to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? Share your thoughts in the comments.

References

Figures SPM.1, SPM.2, SPM.5 and SPM.8 from IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson- Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.