Global warming facts

Global warming and climate change are caused by the rise in atmospheric concentration of a collection of greenhouse gases, the most important of these by amount being carbon dioxide ( CO2). Carbon Dioxide is an inevitable by- product of the way we all live today. It is produced primarily through the burning of fossil fuels in: Electricity generation The powering of vehicles, trains and aircraft Home heating and cooking (gas, wood, coal, oil). It is widely accepted amongst a global coalition of meteorologists and associated scientists that the Earths atmosphere is warming rapidly and that this change has been brought about by the activities of humans. Put simply, gases released into the atmosphere by human activity are forming an insulating barrier around the Earth, preventing the natural release of heat from our atmosphere. There are a number of gases that are held responsible for this process, which is sometimes referred to as the greenhouse effect. While methane and other gases contribute to the problem, the chief culprit, by virtue of the volumes produced, is carbon dioxide. Much of the reason is the increased use of coal, gas and oil. Like wood and other organic fuels, these "fossil" fuels are composed mostly of carbon which, when burned, unites with oxygen and forms carbon dioxide (CO2). This causes at least 55% of the greenhouse effect both by allowing celestial heat to enter our atmosphere and by blocking much of this accumulated heat from escaping Current climate models suggest that global temperatures could warm from between 1.4 to 5.8C over the next 100 years. The potential social, environmental and economic costs associated with this are huge. We've seen the dry seasons getting longer and hotter. We've seen storms growing in frequency and violence. We've seen floods where they had never been before. And rivers becoming salty even though they are far from the sea. We've seen islands disappear and new diseases arrive. Like the people of these

lands, we know the climate is changing right before our eyes - and the change is moving quickly to the world's more temperate lands. The Kyoto Protocol, negotiated by more than 160 nations, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting legally binding emissions reduction targets for developed countries. Under Kyoto, the UKs target is to cut its emissions by 12.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. However, the UK government is convinced that the UK can and should go further. The Kyoto Protocol is only the first step. The Government has therefore set a domestic goal to go further than the Kyoto commitment and cut the UKs emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. What might happen if the global temperature rises two or more degrees Centigrade? Some of the devastating effects include; > Coral reefs, which feed both humans and larger fish populations, will further perish because of their inability to quickly adapt. > In 1995, 200 million people were afflicted with Malaria. Five to ten million people die each year from the disease. Malaria will spread to regions where temperatures are currently a limiting factor. > Elephantiasis currently afflicts 400 million people and will likely spread further. > No vaccine exists for dengue fever and sleeping sickness, which are spread by insect bites. Subtropical areas like Texas and Florida will become tropical, and tropical insects will follow. > Hurricanes: A simple relationship exists: the higher the ocean and air temperatures, the higher the velocity of hurricane winds. In 1995 it was predicted that with slight increases in temperatures, hurricanes would also start earlier: We see on the news that this year has the highest number of early hurricanes and tropical depressions. Hurricane season will eventually lengthen from June-November to April- December. > Sea Level: A warmer planet causes the water temperature to rise. Water expands as it warms. In this way, a two degree C. rise could raise sea levels four to six inches. That's only the beginning. Global warming is melting the polar ice packs. Some greenhouse projections predict a 20 foot rise in sea levels-largely due to melted ice. > Building dikes wouldn't help. Most coastlines are made up of porous limestone rock. A higher sea level will put pressure on the underground water supply making nearby wells too salty for use. GLOBAL WARMING EFFECT ON GLACERRIES ( ICE )
Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years. We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon. What will we do to slow this warming? How will we cope with the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the face of the Earth as we know itcoasts, forests, farms and snow-capped mountains hangs in the balance. Greenhouse effect

The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse. First, sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiates back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, greenhouse gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escapes into space. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped. Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is what keeps the Earth's climate livable. Without it, the Earth's surface would be an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. He kicked off 100 years of climate research that has given us a sophisticated understanding of global warming. Levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have gone up and down over the Earth's history, but they have been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures have stayed fairly constant over that time as well, until recently. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other GHG emissions, humans are enhancing the greenhouse effect and warming Earth. Scientists often use the term "climate change" instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth's average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas. Aren't temperature changes natural? The average global temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years as the Earth's position relative to the sun has varied. As a result, ice ages have come and gone. However, for thousands of years now, emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere have been balanced out by GHGs that are naturally absorbed. As a result, GHG concentrations and temperature have been fairly stable. This stability has allowed human civilization to develop within a consistent climate. Occasionally, other factors briefly influence global temperatures. Volcanic eruptions, for example, emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth's surface. But these have no lasting effect beyond a few years. Other cycles, such as El Nio, also work on fairly short and predictable cycles. Now, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the industrial revolution. Changes this large have historically taken thousands of years, but are now happening over the course of decades. Why is this a concern? The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it is changing the climate faster than some living things may be able to adapt. Also, a new and more unpredictable climate poses unique challenges to all life. Historically, Earth's climate has regularly shifted back and forth between temperatures like those we see today and temperatures cold enough that large sheets of ice covered much of North America and Europe. The difference between average global temperatures today and during those ice ages is only about 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), and these swings happen slowly, over hundreds of thousands of years. Now, with concentrations of greenhouse gases rising, Earth's remaining ice sheets (such as Greenland and Antarctica) are starting to melt too. The extra water could potentially raise sea levels significantly. As the mercury rises, the climate can change in unexpected ways. In addition to sea levels rising, weather can become more extreme. This means more intense major storms, more rain followed by longer and drier droughts (a challenge for growing crops), changes in the ranges in which plants and animals can live, and loss of water supplies that have historically come from glaciers. Scientists are already seeing some of these changes occurring more quickly than they had expected. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eleven of the twelve hottest years since thermometer readings became available occurred between 1995 and 2006.

10 key indicators of a human fingerprint on climate change below, with links to the science behind them.
The science is firm that global warming is happening. Even so-called climate skeptics are realizing this. We have discussed many times on Planetsave how humans cause global warming and the main effects and causes of global warming, but with so many people still confused or unaware, when someone comes out with an excellent visual AND science-backed explanation of how human actions are causing global warming, it is a crime not to share.
> Highly recommended: What is Causing Global Warming?

Global warming expert John Cook of Skeptical Science has just done that. A recent post of his, 10 Indicators of a Human Fingerprint on Climate Change, is where I got the visual above. To go with that visual, here are 10 science-backed explanations of those 10 indicators:
1. Humans are currently emitting around 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year (CDIAC). Of course, it could be coincidence that CO2 levels are rising so sharply at the same time so lets look at more evidence that were responsible for the rise in CO2 levels. 2. When we measure the type of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere, we observe more of the type of carbon that comes from fossil fuels (Manning 2006).

3.

This is corroborated by measurements of oxygen in the atmosphere. Oxygen levels are falling in line with the amount of carbon dioxide rising, just as youd expect from fossil fuel burning which takes oxygen out of the air to create carbon dioxide (Manning 2006).

4.

Further independent evidence that humans are raising CO2 levels comes from measurements of carbon found in coral records going back several centuries. These find a recent sharp rise in the type of carbon that comes from fossil fuels (Pelejero 2005).

5.

So we know humans are raising CO2 levels. Whats the effect? Satellites measure less heat escaping out to space, at the particular wavelengths that CO2 absorbs heat, thus finding direct experimental evidence for a significant increase in the Earths greenhouse effect. (Harries 2001, Griggs 2004, Chen 2007).

6.

If less heat is escaping to space, where is it going? Back to the Earths surface. Surface measurements confirm this, observing more downward infrared radiation (Philipona 2004,Wang 2009). A closer look at the downward radiation finds more heat returning at CO2 wavelengths, leading to the conclusion that this experimental data should effectively end the argument by skeptics that no experimental evidence exists for the connection between greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere and global warming. (Evans 2006).

7.

If an increased greenhouse effect is causing global warming, we should see certain patterns in the warming. For example, the planet should warm faster at night than during the day. This is indeed being observed (Braganza 2004, Alexander 2006).

8.

Another distinctive pattern of greenhouse warming is cooling in the upper atmosphere, otherwise known as the stratosphere. This is exactly whats happening (Jones 2003).

9.

With the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) warming and the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere) cooling, another consequence is the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere, otherwise known as the tropopause, should rise as a consequence of greenhouse warming. This has been observed (Santer 2003).

10. An even higher layer of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, is expected to cool and contract in response to greenhouse warming. This has been observed by satellites (Latovi?ka 2006). Planetsave (http://s.tt/12ttg)

Global Warming
Our planet is warming up, and not in a good way! The last 20 years were the hottest in 400 years, according to several studies. 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. Between 1970 and 2004, global greenhouse gases (GHGs) have increased 70 per cent due to human activities. You dont have to be an environmentalist to know thats a massive jump in pollutants and a big problem for the effect it has on the planets natural temperature. Its even worse for carbon dioxide; its annual emissions grew by about 80 per cent between the same period. Our society is pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it. According to e! Science News, atmospheric CO2 is currently 385 parts per million (PPM) and is increasing by about two PPM each year from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and from the burning of forests. Experts predict the point of no return is 450-500 PPM so that leaves us around 30 years before it will be very uncomfortable to breathe natural air. That may sound a long way off but its probably in most peoples lifetime. Paul Krugman, internationally renowned economist and author, painted precisely the current situation in his column for New York Times - "And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldnt help thinking that I was watching a form of treason treason against the planet." Its a basic fact that the Earths natural temperature is not going to stabilize itself unless we join our forces and start making a difference!

Global Warming
Our planet is warming up, and not in a good way! The last 20 years were the hottest in 400 years, according to several studies. 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. Between 1970 and 2004, global greenhouse gases (GHGs) have increased 70 per cent due to human activities. You dont have to be an environmentalist to know thats a massive jump in pollutants and a big problem for the effect it has on the planets natural temperature. Its even worse for carbon dioxide; its annual emissions grew by about 80 per cent between the same period. Our society is pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.

According to e! Science News, atmospheric CO2 is currently 385 parts per million (PPM) and is increasing by about two PPM each year from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and from the burning of forests. Experts predict the point of no return is 450-500 PPM so that leaves us around 30 years before it will be very uncomfortable to breathe natural air. That may sound a long way off but its probably in most peoples lifetime. Paul Krugman, internationally renowned economist and author, painted precisely the current situation in his column for New York Times - "And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldnt help thinking that I was watching a form of treason treason against the planet." Its a basic fact that the Earths natural temperature is not going to stabilize itself unless we join our forces and start making a difference!