According to John Houghton, Co-Chairman of the Scientific Assessment of Climate Change, "the basic principle of global warming can be understood by considering the radiation energy from the sun which warms the Earth's surface and the thermal radiation from the Earth and the atmosphere which is radiated out to space" (Houghton, 12). ... "Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased nearly 30%, methane concentrations have more than doubled, and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen 15%" (U.S. ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Plate Tectonics In the early 1960s, the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics started a revolution in the earth sciences. ... Plate tectonics is a relatively new scientific concept, introduced some 30 years ago, but it has revolutionized our understanding of the dynamic planet upon which we live. ... But at the time Wegener introduced his theory, the scientific community firmly believed the continents and oceans to be permanent features on the Earth's surface. Not surprisingly, his proposal was not well received, even though it seemed to agree with the scientific inf...

• Word Count: 2775
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, during the Industrial Revolution, we began altering our climate and environment through changing agricultural and industrial practices. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activity released very few gases into the atmosphere, but now through population growth, fossil fuel burning, and deforestation, we are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere. ...

• Word Count: 3240
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: Undergraduate