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GLOBAL WARIMING
A. Weather 7
B. Sea Levels 8
C. Agriculture 8
E. Human Health 8
b) International Agreements 11
The energy that lights and warms Earth comes from the Sun. Most of the energy that floods onto our planet is short-wave
radiation, including visible light. When this energy strikes the surface of Earth, the energy changes from light to heat and warms
Earth. Earth’s surface, in turn, releases some of this heat as long-wave infrared radiation.
Much of this long-wave infrared radiation makes it all the way back out to space, but a portion remains trapped in Earth’s
atmosphere. Certain gases in the atmosphere, including water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane, provide the trap. Absorbing
and reflecting infrared waves radiated by Earth, these gases conserve heat as the glass in a greenhouse does and are thus
known as greenhouse gases. As the concentration of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases, more heat energy
remains trapped below. All life on Earth relies on this greenhouse effect—without it, the planet would be colder by about 33
Greenhouse gases occur naturally in the environment and also result from human activities. By far the most abundant
greenhouse gas is water vapor, which reaches the atmosphere through evaporation from oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Carbon dioxide is the next most abundant greenhouse gas. It flows into the atmosphere from many natural processes, such as
volcanic eruptions; the respiration of animals, which breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide; and the burning or decay of
organic matter, such as plants. Carbon dioxide leaves the atmosphere when it is absorbed into ocean water and through the
photosynthesis of plants, especially trees. Photosynthesis breaks up carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere and
incorporating the carbon into new plant tissue.
Methane is an even more effective insulator, trapping over 20 times more heat than does the same amount of carbon dioxide.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane also comes from rotting organic
waste in landfills, and it is released from certain animals, especially cows, as a byproduct of digestion. Since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700s, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled.
Nitrous oxide is a powerful insulating gas released primarily by burning fossil fuels and by plowing farm soils. Nitrous oxide traps
about 300 times more heat than does the same amount of carbon dioxide. The concentration of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere
has increased 17 percent over preindustrial levels.
In addition, greenhouse gases are produced in many manufacturing processes. Perfluorinated compounds result from the
smelting of aluminum. Hydrofluorocarbons form during the manufacture of many products, including the foams used in
insulation, furniture, and car seats. Refrigerators built in some developing nations still use chlorofluorocarbons as coolants. In
addition to their ability to retain atmospheric heat, some of these synthetic chemicals also destroy Earth’s high-altitude ozone
layer, the protective layer of gases that shields Earth from damaging ultraviolet radiation. For most of the 20th century these
Scientists are growing concerned about other gases produced from manufacturing processes that pose an environmental risk. In
2000 scientists identified a substantial rise in atmospheric concentrations of a newly identified synthetic compound called
trifluoromethyl sulfur pentafluoride. Atmospheric concentrations of this gas are rising quickly, and although it still is extremely
rare in the atmosphere, scientists are concerned because the gas traps heat more effectively than all other known greenhouse
gases. Perhaps more worrisome, scientists have been unable to confirm the industrial source of the gas.
As early as 1896 scientists suggested that burning fossil fuels might change the composition of the atmosphere and that an
increase in global average temperature might result. The first part of this hypothesis was confirmed in 1957, when researchers
working in the global research program called the International Geophysical Year sampled the atmosphere from the top of the
Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa. Their instruments indicated that carbon dioxide concentration was indeed rising. Since then, the
composition of the atmosphere has been carefully tracked. The data collected show undeniably that the concentrations of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing.
Scientists have long suspected that the global climate, the long-term average pattern of temperature, was also growing warmer,
but they were unable to provide conclusive proof. Temperatures vary widely all the time and from place to place. It takes many
years of climate observations to establish a trend. Records going back to the late 1800s did seem to show a warming trend, but
these statistics were spotty and untrustworthy. Early weather stations often were located near cities, where temperature
measurements were affected by the heat emitted from buildings and vehicles and stored by building materials and pavements.
Since 1957, however, data have been gathered from more reliable weather stations, located far away from cities, and from
satellites. These data have provided new, more accurate measurements, especially for the 70 percent of the planetary surface
that is ocean water (see Satellite, Artificial). These
more accurate records indicate that a surface
warming trend exists and that, moreover, it has
become more pronounced. Looking back from the
end of the 20th century, records show that the ten
warmest years of the century all occurred after
1980, and the three hottest years occurred after
1990, with 1998 being the warmest year of all.
Scientists use elaborate computer models of temperature, precipitation patterns, and atmosphere circulation to study global
warming. Based on these models, scientists have made several predictions about how global warming will affect weather, sea
levels, coastlines, agriculture, wildlife, and human
health.
A Weather
Greater humidity will increase rainfall, on average, about 1 percent for each Fahrenheit degree of warming. (Rainfall over the
continents has already increased by about 1 percent in the last 100 years.) Storms are expected to be more frequent and more
intense. However, water will also evaporate more rapidly from soil, causing it to dry out faster between rains. Some regions might
actually become drier than before. Winds will blow harder and perhaps in different patterns. Hurricanes, which gain their force
from the evaporation of water, are likely to be more severe. Against the background of warming, some very cold periods will still
occur. Weather patterns are expected to be less predictable and more extreme.
B Sea Levels
As the atmosphere warms, the surface layer of the ocean warms as well, expanding in volume and thus raising sea level.
Warming will also melt much glacier ice, especially around Greenland, further swelling the sea. Sea levels worldwide rose 10 to
25 cm (4 to 10 in) during the 20th century, and IPCC scientists predict a further rise of 9 to 88 cm (4 to 35 in) in the 21st century.
Even a modest rise in sea level will greatly change coastal ecosystems. A 50-cm (20-in) rise will submerge about half of the
present coastal wetlands of the United States. New marshes will form in many places, but not where urban areas and developed
landscapes block the way. This sea-level rise will cover much of the Florida Everglades.
C Agriculture
A warmed globe will probably produce as much food as before, but not necessarily in the same places. Southern Canada, for
example, may benefit from more rainfall and a longer growing season. At the same time, the semiarid tropical farmlands in some
parts of Africa may become further impoverished. Desert farm regions that bring in irrigation water from distant mountains may
suffer if the winter snowpack, which functions as a natural reservoir, melts before the peak growing months. Crops and
woodlands may also be afflicted by more insects and plant diseases.
Animals and plants will find it difficult to escape from or adjust to the effects of warming because humans occupy so much land.
Under global warming, animals will tend to migrate toward the poles and up mountainsides toward higher elevations, and plants
will shift their ranges, seeking new areas as old habitats grow too warm. In many places, however, human development will
prevent this shift. Species that find cities or farmlands blocking their way north or south may die out. Some types of forests,
unable to propagate toward the poles fast enough, may disappear.
E Human Health
In a warmer world, scientists predict that more people will get sick or die from heat stress, due less to hotter days than to warmer
nights (giving the sufferers less relief). Diseases now found in the tropics, transmitted by mosquitoes and other animal hosts, will
widen their range as these animal hosts move into regions formerly too cold for them. Today 45 percent of the world’s people live
where they might get bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite that causes malaria; that percentage may increase to 60 percent
if temperatures rise. Other tropical diseases may spread similarly, including dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis.
Scientists also predict rising incidence of allergies and respiratory diseases as warmer air grows more charged with pollutants,
mold spores, and pollens.
Scientists who question the global warming trend point to three puzzling differences between the predictions of the global
warming models and the actual behavior of the climate. First, the warming trend stopped for three decades in the middle of the
20th century; there was even some cooling before the climb resumed in the 1970s. Second, the total amount of warming during
the 20th century was only about half what computer models predicted. Third, the troposphere, the lower region of the
atmosphere, did not warm as fast as the models forecast. However, global warming proponents believe that two of the three
discrepancies have now been explained.
The lack of warming at midcentury is now attributed largely to air pollution that spews particulate matter, especially sulfates, into
the upper atmosphere. These particulates, also known as aerosols, reflect some incoming sunlight out into space. Continued
warming has now overcome this effect, in part because pollution control efforts have made the air cleaner.
The unexpectedly small amount of total warming since 1900 is now attributed to the oceans absorbing vast amounts of the extra
heat. Scientists long suspected that this was happening but lacked the data to prove it. In 2000 the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) offered a new analysis of water temperature readings made by observers around the world
over 50 years. Records showed a distinct warming trend: World ocean temperatures in 1998 were higher than the 50-year
average by 0.2 Celsius degree (0.3 Fahrenheit degree), a small but very significant amount.
The third discrepancy is the most puzzling. Satellites detect less warming in the troposphere than the computer models of global
climate predict. According to some critics, the atmospheric readings are right, and the higher temperatures recorded at Earth’s
surface are not to be trusted. In January 2000 a panel appointed by the National Academy of Sciences to weigh this argument
reaffirmed that surface warming could not be doubted. However, the lower-than-predicted troposphere measurements have not
been entirely explained.
The total consumption of fossil fuels is increasing by about 1 percent per year. No steps currently being taken or under serious
discussion will likely prevent global warming in the near future. The challenge today is managing the probable effects while
taking steps to prevent detrimental climate changes in the future.
Damage can be curbed locally in various ways. Coastlines can be armored with dikes and barriers to block encroachments of the
sea. Alternatively, governments can assist coastal populations in moving to higher ground. Some countries, such as the United
States, still have the chance to help plant and animal species survive by preserving habitat corridors, strips of relatively
undeveloped land running north and south. Species can gradually shift their ranges along these corridors, moving toward cooler
habitats.
There are two major approaches to slowing the buildup of greenhouse gases. The first is to keep carbon dioxide out of the
atmosphere by storing the gas or its carbon component somewhere else, a strategy called carbon sequestration. The second
major approach is to reduce the production of greenhouse gases.
A Carbon Sequestration
The simplest way to sequester carbon is to preserve trees and to plant more. Trees, especially young and fast-growing ones, soak
up a great deal of carbon dioxide, break it down in photosynthesis, and store the carbon in new wood. Worldwide, forests are
being cut down at an alarming rate, particularly in the tropics. In many areas, there is little regrowth as land loses fertility or is
Many companies and governments in the United States, Norway, Brazil, Malaysia, Russia, and Australia have initiated
reforestation projects. In Guatemala, the AES Corporation, a U.S.-based electrical company, has joined forces with the World
Resources Institute and the relief agency CARE to create community woodlots and to teach local residents about tree-farming
practices. The trees planted are expected to absorb up to 58 million tons of carbon dioxide over 40 years.
Carbon dioxide gas can also be sequestered directly. Carbon dioxide has traditionally been injected into oil wells to force more
petroleum out of the ground or seafloor. Now it is being injected simply to isolate it underground in oil fields, coal beds, or
aquifers. At one
natural gas
drilling platform
off the coast of
Norway, carbon
dioxide brought
to the surface
with the natural
gas is captured
and reinjected
into an aquifer
from which it
cannot escape.
The same
process can be
used to store
carbon dioxide
released by a
power plant,
factory, or any
large stationary source. Deep ocean waters could also absorb a great deal of carbon dioxide. The feasibility and environmental
effects of both these options are now under study by international teams.
In an encouraging trend, energy use around the world has slowly shifted away from fuels that release a great deal of carbon
dioxide toward fuels that release somewhat less of this heat-trapping gas. Wood was the first major source of energy used by
humans. With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, coal became the dominant energy source. By the mid-
19th century oil had replaced coal in dominance, fueling the internal combustion engines that were eventually used in
automobiles. By the 20th century, natural gas began to be used worldwide for heating and lighting. In this progression,
combustion of natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than oil, which in turn releases less of the gas than do either coal or wood.
Nuclear energy, though controversial for reasons of safety and the high costs of nuclear waste disposal, releases no carbon
dioxide at all. Solar power, wind power, and hydrogen fuel cells also emit no greenhouse gases. Someday these alternative
energy sources may prove to be practical, low-pollution energy sources, although progress today is slow.
The developed countries are all working to reduce greenhouse emissions. Several European countries impose heavy taxes on
energy usage, designed partly to curb such emissions. Norway taxes industries according to the amount of carbon dioxide they
In the United States, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, product manufacturers, local utilities, and
retailers have collaborated to implement the Energy Star program. This voluntary program rates appliances for energy use and
gives some money back to consumers who buy efficient machines. The Canadian government has established the FleetWise
program to cut carbon dioxide emissions from federal vehicles by
reducing the number of vehicles it owns and by training drivers to
use them more efficiently. By 2004, 75 percent of Canadian federal
vehicles are to run on alternative fuels, such as methanol and
ethanol.
C International Agreements
International cooperation is required for the successful reduction of greenhouse gases. In 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, 150 countries pledged to confront the problem of greenhouse gases and agreed to meet again to translate these
good intentions into a binding treaty.
In 1997 in Japan, 160 nations drafted a much stronger agreement known as the Kyōto Protocol. This treaty, which has not yet
been implemented, calls for the 38 industrialized countries that now release the most greenhouse gases to cut their emissions to
levels 5 percent below those of 1990. This reduction is to be achieved no later than 2012. Initially, the United States voluntarily
accepted a more ambitious target, promising to reduce emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels; the European Union, which had
wanted a much tougher treaty, committed to 8 percent; and Japan, to 6 percent. The remaining 122 nations, mostly developing
nations, were not asked to commit to a reduction in gas emissions.
But in 2001 newly elected U.S. president George W. Bush renounced the treaty saying that such carbon dioxide reductions in the
United States would be too costly. He also objected that developing nations would not be bound by similar carbon dioxide
reducing obligations. The Kyōto Protocol could not go into effect unless industrial nations accounting for 55 percent of 1990
greenhouse gas emissions ratified it. That requirement was met in 2004 when the cabinet of Russian president Vladimir Putin
approved the treaty, paving the way for it to go into effect in 2005.
Some critics find the Kyōto Protocol too weak. Even if it were enforced immediately, it would only slightly slow the buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Much stronger action would be required later, particularly because the developing nations
exempted from the Kyōto rules are expected to produce half the world’s greenhouse gases by 2035. The most influential
opponents of the protocol, however, find it too strong. Opposition to the treaty in the United States is spurred by the oil industry,
the coal industry, and other enterprises that manufacture or depend on fossil fuels. These opponents claim that the economic
costs to carry out the Kyōto Protocol could be as much as $300 billion, due mainly to higher energy prices. Proponents of the
Behind the issue of cost lies a larger question: Can an economy grow without increasing its greenhouse gas emissions at the
same time? In the past, prosperity and pollution have tended to go together. Can they now be separated, or decoupled, as
economists say? In nations with strong environmental policies, economies have continued to grow even as many types of
pollution have been reduced. However, limiting the emission of carbon dioxide has proved especially difficult. For example, The
Netherlands, a heavily industrialized country that is also an environmental leader, has done very well against most kinds of
pollution but has failed to meet its goal of reducing carbon dioxide output.
After 1997 representatives to the Kyōto Protocol met regularly to negotiate a consensus about certain unresolved issues , such as
the rules, methods, and penalties that should be enforced in each country to slow greenhouse emissions. The negotiators
designed a system in which nations with successful cleanup programs could profit by selling unused pollution rights to other
nations. For example, nations that find further improvement difficult, such as The Netherlands, could buy pollution credits on the
market, or perhaps earn them by helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions in less developed countries, where more can be
achieved at less expense. Russia, in particular, stood to benefit from this system. In 1990 the Russian economy was in a
shambles, and its greenhouse gas emissions were huge. Since then Russia has already cut its emissions by more than 5 percent
below 1990 levels and is in a position to sell emission credits to other industrialized countries, particularly those in the European
Union (EU).
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