Global Warming

Hand in Hand

What is Global Warming??

Everyone is talking about 'climate change' and 'global warming', but what is it actually??

What is Global Warming??

Global warming can be defined as the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. The average facade temperature of the globe has increased by a little more less than 1 degree Celsius since 1900 and the speed of warming has been almost three folds the century long average since 1970. Increase in temperature doesn't seem much, does it? Yet it is responsible for the conspicuous increase in storms, floods and raging forest fires we have seen in recent years, say experts. Studies and data show that the 1 degree increase in temperature has made the earth much warmer now than it has been in the last thousand years!

What is Global Warming?

Projections from the UN climate change body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say that global surface temperature will probably rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius (2.0 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) during the 21st century. The huge range of estimates is due to the amazing complexity of our Earths climate system and the uncertainty about whether mankind will fight this warming or continue with business-as-usual. A certain degree of warming is unavoidable even if we managed to reduce our burden on the climate immediately. Oceans, for example, act as huge heat repositories that follow changes in air temperature with a time lag of decades or even hundreds of years. Melting ice caps reflect less sunlight than previously, so our planet absorbs more and more heat.

What causes Global Warming?

More or less all specialists studying the climate record of the earth have the same opinion now that human actions, mainly the discharge of green house gases from smokestacks, vehicles, and burning forests, are perhaps the leading reasons for the phenomenon. The Green house gases are the main culprits of the global warming. The green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are playing hazards in the present times. These green house gases trap heat in earths atmosphere and thus result in increasing the temperature of earth. The excessive emission of these gases is the major cause of global warming.

The Greenhouse Effect

Major Sources of Greenhouse gases

Major sources of Carbon dioxide:


Power plants - large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. Coal is the major fuel that is burnt in these power plants. Coal produces around 1.7 times as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy when flamed as does natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil. Cars & other vehicles: About twenty percent of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere comes from burning of gasoline in the engines of the vehicles. This is true for most of the developed countries. Moreover if sports bike and vehicles that are essentially designed for rough terrain, emit more carbon dioxide when used for general purpose on roads.

Major Sources of Greenhouse Gases

Buildings, both commercial and residential represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks. Building of these structures require a lot of fuel to be burnt which emits a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Second major greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, is Methane. Methane is more than 20 times as effectual as CO2 at entrapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is obtained from resources such as rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel manufacture. Almost in all parts of the world, rice is grown on flooded fields. When fields are flooded, anaerobic situation build up and the organic matter in the soil decays, releasing methane to the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide, which is a colorless gas with a sweet odour, is another green house gas. The main sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, cars with catalytic converters, the use of fertilizers in agriculture and the burning of organic matter. Greater emissions of nitrous oxides in the recent decades is leading global warming

Major sources of Greenhouse gases

Another major cause of global warming is deforestation. Deforestation is to be blamed for 25% of all carbon dioxide release entering the atmosphere, by the cutting and burning of about 34 million acres of trees each year. Trees collect the CO2 that we breathe out and give away from various other sources, and they give back oxygen that we breathe in. Thus, cutting of trees is leading to greater concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Greater urbanization, requirement of land for factories and buildings, requirement of timber are all reasons that are leading to

Effects of Global Warming

Global warming is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue.

Effects of Global Warming

A rise in the earths temperature can in turn lead to alterations in the ecology, including an increasing sea level and modifying the quantity and pattern of rainfall. These modifications may boost the occurrence and concentration of severe climate events floods, famines, heat waves, tornados and twisters. Higher or lower agricultural outputs, glacier melting, genus extinctions and rise in the ranges of deisease vectors.

As an effect of global warming, species like the golden toad, harlequin frog of Cosa Rica has already become extinct. Number of species facing a threat of extinction as an effect of global warming. New diseases have emerged lately. Diseases occurring frequently due to the increase in the earths average temperature since bacteria can survive better in elevated temperatures and multiply faster when conditions are favorable.

Extending the distribution of mosquitos due to the increase in humidity levels and their frequent growth in warmer atmosphere. Marine life also very sensitive to the increase in temperatures. A study was done in which marine life reacted significantly due to the changes in water temeratures. Coral reefs expected to die off as an effect of global warming. Expected to cause an irreversible change in the ecosystem and behaviour of animals.

Is global warming and climate change the same?

In a nutshell: global warming is the cause, climate change is the effect.

People often prefer to speak about climate change instead of global warming, because higher global temperatures dont necessarily mean that it will be warmer at any given time at every location on Earth. Warming is strongest at the Earth's Poles, the Arctic and the Antarctic, and will continue to be so. In recent years, fall air temperatures have been at a record 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above normal in the Arctic, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But changing wind patterns could mean that a warming Arctic, for example, leads to colder winters in continental Europe. Regional climates will change as well, but in very different ways. Some regions like parts of Northern Europe or West Africa will probably get wetter, while other regions like the Mediterranean or Central Africa will most likely receive less rainfall.

Climate Change
But it is not just about how much the Earth is warming, it is also about how fast it is warming. There have always been natural climate changes Ice Ages and the warm intermediate times between them but those evolved over periods of 50,000 to 100,000 years. In the past, climate change was triggered by changes in the suns energy output, the changing position of continental plates, or the rotating axis of the Earth itself. Many plants and animals were able to adapt to these slowly changing climates. Even humans have changed their habitat according to the comings and goings of glaciers. All these so-called natural forcings, however, have been ruled out for the warming visible in the last 30 years. Since 1980, temperatures have risen faster than ever before. This radical change is leading towards a sudden loss of biodiversity, a dwindling number and variety of plants and animals. Many species simply wont be able to adapt fast enough. According to the most recent UN assessment, 20 to 30 percent of the Earth's plant and animal species face extinction if the world warms by between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees Celsius.

Is global warming for real?

or are we being skeptical?

The Skeptic's View

The skeptics views vary but the two main ideas are that either this warming is part of Earths natural cycle (the Earth has been warming and cooling ever since its beginning). Or that this is all an effect from solar activity and the temperature of the Earth. The Sun Theory: As supplier of almost all the energy in Earth's climate, the sun certainly has a strong influence on climate change. Consequently there have been many studies examining the link between solar variations and global temperatures. Earth's Natural Cycle Theory: This theory is essentially saying that yes there has been human interference but nothing to the extent of what the alarmist fear. This theory also states that the Earth ahs warmed and cooled before as well as had rises in the levels of CO2 and has always gotten through it.

Facts to support the Sun Theory

Perhaps the best evidence of the sun theory would be this graph showing the temperature in comparison to solar activity

 and to support the Earth's Natural Cycle theory

Some major evidence of the Earths warming cycle would be the fact that Greenland was originally in fact exactly how it sounds GREEN Also the fact that the Earth witnessed a medieval warming period that saw very warm temperatures. As well as the little ice age that occurred in the early 1800s.

Skeptics reasons to be Skeptic

Skeptics say that global warming is just another way for scientists to get significant funding for their experiments. By making global warming out to be a apocalyptic disaster of sorts the government has been throwing money at scientists to find a solution to this problem and learn more about it. So by saying your experiment has something to do with global warming you are more likely to get funds and more significant funds.

However...

Here's why!

Global average temperatures have increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850 Todays CO2 levels are the highest theyve been in the last 650,000 years. CO2 levels have increased by 43% since the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, the average concentration of carbon dioxide was 260-280 parts per million (ppm). In 2008, levels hit 388 ppm, a record high

Evidences...

The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004. Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss. Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly meltingfor example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

 and some more ...



Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleachingor die-off in response to stress ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise. An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Columbian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled in the past decade. At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles