causes of climate change

• Scientific Causes

  • Scientist attribute the global warming trend to the expansion of the ‘greenhouse effect’ - warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth towards space.
  • Over the last century, burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• Economic Causes

  • Capitalist industrial method unsustainable production: the extraction and use of resources such as fossil fuels of coal, oil and gas which emit high levels of carbon. Low trade barriers, the internet and electronic banking, the number and power of TNC’s have globalised this method of production.
  • Unsustainable consumption emission reflect the lifestyle and choices of the country. 
• Poverty and inequality has seen high and middle-income countries be responsible for 86% of global emissions. Moreover, deforestation is one type of resource exploitation where trees are cleared for agriculture, housing and industry. Trees are carbon sinks and they absorb carbon from the atmosphere. 
• Political Causes

  • The reluctance of politicians in many countries to forego the revenue from coal, oil and gas, compounded with the economic costs of developing renewable energy resources. 

  Further, lobbying by the fossil fuel industry against a carbon tax or other emission reduction schemes. There is also climate change denial of those who believe the science is fraudulent or faulty.