GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is a major issue discussed over Medias and governments all over the world. It is a problem that threatens the whole world because of the destructive impacts it can have on us humans, the animals, plants and the environment. Global warming is one of the biggest threats to human kind. It is caused by the raising of earths temperature in the lower atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution the temperature has gone up by 1 degree Fahrenheit of what it has averaged to be for centuries. Doesn't sound like much and you are right, but for every degree it goes up 500 feet of snow won't fall. The atmosphere is something that is around us every day, but do we really think about the changes that occur in it. It isn't that we just aren't paying attention, but more of the fact that it is hard to notice slight changes over long periods of time. Everyday gases are released into the air by all living material. Since the planet was first formed, earths climate has constantly changed and evolved, and temperatures have varied widely. Throughout the period of human civilization, however, the world has been enjoying a warm, temperate, and relatively stable climate. This stability has allowed human civilizations, along with countless other species of animals and plants, to proliferate and flourish in recent centuries. The release of carbon and other gases from the burning of fossil fuels in the last hundred years however may be causing a dramatic spike in global temperatures. Scientists have been studying this phenomenon since the 1950s, but only recently has a consensus emerged the earth is getting warmer due to human activities. Global warming is often referred to as the gradual rise of the earths near surface temperature as a result rapid warming brought on by rising levels of greenhouse gases, in the atmosphere. The green house gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane act as a blanket that traps enough heat from the sun to warm the earth. Greenhouse gases retain the radiant energy (heat) provided to Earth by the Sun in a process known as the greenhouse effect. The energy that lights and warms Earth comes from the Sun. Short-wave radiation from the Sun, including visible light, penetrates the atmosphere and is absorbed by the surface, some of it turns into heat energy in the form of infrared light. The heat gets absorbed by surrounding air and land, which in turn makes it warm. Earths surface, in turn, releases some of this heat as long-wave infrared radiation. Much of this long-wave infrared radiation makes it back out to space, but a portion remains trapped in Earths atmosphere, held in by certain atmospheric gases, including water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. Absorbing and reflecting heats radiated by Earth, these gases act somewhat like the glass in a greenhouse, and are thus known as greenhouse gases. This is the way the Earth keeps itself warm enough for humans to live on it.

This green house effect as it is essential to life, for without it the earth would be so cold and would be uninhabitable. If not enough gases are in the air then the earth would become cold, but if too many gases are released into the air, then we have the problem of things heating up. Some of the naturally occurring greenhouse gases are Methane and carbon dioxide. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700s, however, human activities have added more and more of these gases into the atmosphere. So far, Earth has seen a 0.8c increase in global average temperature because of increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For example, levels of carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, have risen by 35 percent since 1750, largely from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. With more greenhouse gases in the mix, the atmosphere acts like a thickening blanket and traps more heat. Unfortunately, the amount of greenhouse gases that human activities produce grows daily potentially changing the worlds climate pattern, causing disastrous effects. Only greenhouse gases, which make up less than 1 percent of the atmosphere, offer the Earth any insulation. All life on Earth relies on the greenhouse effectwithout it, the average surface temperature of the planet would be about -18C (0F) and ice would cover Earth from pole to pole. With all these gases in the air, it is starting to change the Earths climate. The temperature of the Earths surface is as warm, if not warmer than it has been in any other century since at least 1400 AD. The temperature over the past century has risen one degree Fahrenheit over the last century. These last few decades have been the warmest this century as a result, the sea level has risen 4 to 10 inches, and mountain glaciers worldwide have begun to retreat Global warming is not a new phenomenon. Earth has warmed and cooled many times since its formation about 4.6 billion years ago. Global climate changes were due to many factors, including massive volcanic eruptions, which increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; changes in the intensity of energy emitted by the Sun; and variations in Earths position relative to the Sun, both in its orbit and in the inclination of its spin axis. Greenhouse effect was discovered in the year 1824 by Joseph Fourier .One prominent scientist who projected the problem even before the end of the twentieth century was Professor Svante Arrhenius, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. But what is impressive is the fact that he predicted the occurrence of climate change as a result of the burning of growing quantities of coal by human beings in the developed countries. He estimated that this would actually create a much higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as a consequence of which the earth's climate would change towards

much warmer temperatures. Other scientists dismissed his idea as faulty. In 1896 Arrhenius completed a laborious numerical computation which suggested that cutting the amount of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by half could lower the temperature in Europe some 4-5C (roughly 7-9F) that is, to an ice age level.

As Arrhenius predicted, both carbon dioxide levels and temperatures increased from 19001999. However, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased much more quickly than he expected, but the Earth hasn't warmed as much as he thought it would.

Arrhenius brought up the possibility of future warming in an impressive scientific article and a widely read book. Arrhenius had not quite discovered global warming, but only a curious theoretical concept. In 1938, G.S. Callendar argued that the level of carbon dioxide was climbing and raising global temperature, but most scientists found his arguments implausible. It was almost by chance that a few researchers in the 1950s discovered that global warming truly was possible. In the early 1960s, C.D. Keeling measured the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: it was rising fast. Researchers began to take an interest, struggling to understand how the level of carbon dioxide had changed in the past, and how the level was influenced by chemical and biological forces. They found that the gas plays a crucial role in climate change and that the rising level could gravely affect our future. The ice of the Polar Regions furnishes clues to the makeup of Earths ancient atmosphere. Ice cores that scientists have bored from the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica provide natural records of both temperature and atmospheric greenhouse gases going back hundreds of thousands of years. Layers in these ice cores created by seasonal snowfall patterns allow scientists to determine the age of the ice in each core. By measuring tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice and properties of the ice itself, scientists can estimate the temperature and amount of greenhouse gases in Earths past atmosphere at the time each layer formed. Based on this data, scientists know that greenhouse gases have now risen to levels higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. Before the industrial revolution (roughly pre-1800) there had been large regional or global changes in climate: notably a series of ice ages. The average surface temperature of Earth was almost 15C

(59F).Variations in Earths position, known as Milankovitch cycles, combine to produce cyclical changes in the global climate. These cycles are believed to be responsible for the repeated advance and retreat of glaciers and ice sheets during the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million to 11,500 years before present), when Earth went through fairly regular cycles of colder glacial periods (also known as ice ages) and warmer interglacial periods. Glacial periods occurred at roughly 100,000-year intervals.

The last ice age ended about 20,000 years ago, and we now live in an interglacial period. During interglacial periods, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane naturally increase in the atmosphere from increased plant and animal life. These pre-1800 changes, resulting from causes such as change in solar radiation, or dust and gas from volcanoes, owe nothing to human activity. Since the 1750s ,greenhouse gases have increased dramatically to levels not seen in hundreds of thousands of years, due to the rapid growth of the human population combined with developments in technology and agriculture. Human activities now are a powerful factor influencing Earths dynamic climate. In the 19th century, scientists realized that gases in the atmosphere cause a "greenhouse effect" which affects the planet's temperature. These scientists were interested chiefly in the possibility that a lower level of carbon dioxide gas might explain the ice ages of the distant past. Over the past 100 years, the average surface temperature has risen by about 0.7 Celsius degrees (1.3 Fahrenheit degrees), with most of the increase occurring since the 1970s. Scientists have linked even this amount of warming to numerous changes taking place around the world, including melting mountain glaciers and polar ice, rising sea level, more intense and longer droughts, more intense storms, more frequent heat waves, and changes in the life cycles of many plants and animals. Warming has been most dramatic in the Arctic, where temperatures have risen almost twice as much as the global average. Global Warming, aside from pollution is one of scientists biggest concerns. Major natural disasters have always happened - Hurricanes, Tsunamis, retreating glaciers, volcanoes and cyclones. The hottest

recorded temperature was in 2005 which matched the temperature in 1998. Twice in the last decade we've had the hottest temperature on average ever recorded throughout history. Coincidence?? I think not. The snows of the Kilimanjaro have basically vanished and in a couple decades Glacier National park is going to need a new name because by 2030 there will be no glaciers left in the whole park. The great Greenland icecaps are melting at an alarming pace, and sliding into the sea. Well you are right, who cares it's not like its happening near us. By 2100 all our coastal states will look like Venice including ours. We wont be alive but our children and grandchildren will. The sea level is expected to rise up to 23 inches in the next decade. There has been a 100 percent increase in intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since 1970 according to a 2005 MIT study. How much more evidence do we need before someone does something about this? For anyone who cares at all about the future, the gradual transformation of our earth into a human-furnace makes terrorism look like a game of monopoly. By 2050, 15-37% of all plant and animal species could be extinct. Meaning it will be harder for plants to photosynthesize. Without photosynthesis, oxygen cant be made. Most of us will be in our late 60s by then with children and grandchildren. What does that mean for them? The air will be harder to breathe and be unable to hold underwater species because of rising temperature. Let's talk about what has happened recently. In 2003 Europe and India witnessed a heat wave that killed a total of 21,500 people. In 2004, more than 200,000 people were killed by a tsunami created in the Indian Ocean. You're thinking well I don't do anything to make global warming occur. Unfortunately everyone in this room is adding on to global warming. No one likes the blame game; pointing fingers and making accusations doesnt solve anything. When it comes to global warming, no one person, industry, or country is responsible for the build-up of greenhouse gases. Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to try to make global warming worse. But every activity adds up. The IPCC reports that agriculture accounts for half of the worlds methane emissions and 60% of nitrous oxide emissions. Rice paddies alone account for a third of all methane emissions. Livestock, particularly cattle, represent another major source of methane. People in industrialized countries still eat four times as much beef as people in developing nations, but meat consumption in poorer nations is on the rise, which means more animals are being raised, boosting emissions. Regular field crops, such as corn and wheat, produce nitrous oxide emissions, thanks to the large amounts of fertilizer that farmers use to grow them.

Just what are humans doing to release all those greenhouse gases into the atmosphere? You can pin the blame on two main offences: burning fossil fuels and deforestation. When you burn fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, they release vast amounts of greenhouse gases which trap heat in the atmosphere. The fossil fuel that produces the most greenhouse gas emissions is coal, and burning coal to produce electricity is the major source of coal related greenhouse gases. The second worst offender is using gasoline and diesel for transportation, followed by burning oil to generate heat and electricity.