Humans tend to be most aware of weather--that is, a local area's short-term temperature and precipitation variations. Scientists such as atmospheric chemists tend to concentrate on climate, or a large region's long-term variations in temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover. Because of discoveries revealing the extreme complexity of chemical reactions in the atmosphere, atmospheric chemistry has become a profoundly interdisciplinary field, depending on new facts and ideas found by physicists, meteorologists, climatologists, oceanographers, geologists, ecologists, and other scientists.

Paleoclimatologists have studied changes in Earth's atmosphere over hundreds of millions of years, while other environmental and atmospheric chemists have focused on such pivotal modern problems as global warming. These studies have led to research aimed at understanding the causes of global warming and the development of theories to explain existing data. Particularly useful has been computerized modeling of Earth's atmosphere, through which experiments can be performed to help scientists understand likely future effects of climate change. These theoretical predictions have placed pressure on various governments to make important changes in policy, such as taxing fossil-fuel use to motivate reductions in GHG emissions.

Atmospheric chemists have come to realize that the goal of their research on global climate change is to understand the relevant chemical species in the atmosphere, their reactions, and the role of anthropogenic chemicals, especially GHGs, in bringing about global warming. Many atmospheric chemists believe that the greenhouse effect is a certainty, and they are also highly confident that human activities generating GHGs are a significant element in the recent rise in average global temperatures. Less certain are predictions about the future.

Computer models developed to synthesize and test theories about the complex chemical interactions in the troposphere and stratosphere necessarily involve assumptions and simplifications. For example, the numbers of chemical compounds and their reactions have to be reduced to formulate even a crude working model of the Earth's atmosphere. Despite these problems, many environmental chemists, building on what they are most sure of, have played an important part in several countries in determining governmental policies as they relate to global climate change.

Atmospheric chemists' discoveries have had a major influence on how environmentalists and other scientists understand the gravity, interrelatedness, and complexity of atmospheric problems. Many atmospheric chemists educate their students and the public about issues relating to global climate change, while others have been carefully monitoring the changes in the Earth's atmosphere. They have also participated in international discussions and agreements about controlling GHG emissions, developing substitutes for CFCs, and passing local and international laws that would lessen the likelihood of some catastrophic scenarios predicted by various computer models. Just as the many components and reactions in the atmosphere make a full understanding of these complexities very difficult, so, too, environmental chemists find themselves in an even more complex milieu in which they have to integrate their understanding with those of other scientists, industrialists, and government officials in both developed and developing countries. Therefore, though global climate change is, at root, a physical and chemical issue, to solve the problem of global climate change will require an integrated, multidisciplinary, and international approach that, though daunting, appears to be increasingly necessary.

Bibliography:

1)         Birks, John W., Jack G. Calvert, and Robert E. Sievers, eds. The Chemistry of the Atmosphere: Its Impact on Global Change--Perspectives and Recommendations. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1993.

2)         Jacob, Daniel J. Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007.

3)         Makhijani, Arjun, and Kevin R. Gurney. Mending the Ozone Hole: Science, Technology, and Policy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996.

4)         Seinfeld, John H., and Spyros N. Pandis. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution to Climate Change. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

5)         Wayne, Richard P. Chemistry of Atmospheres. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Global Warming at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Global Warming and other relevant topics.