Climate Change - The Coming Crisis
By: Jonathon Hardcastle
While many contend that there are different reasons behind the changing of our climate, few can deny that our planet is going through a period of immense changes. While some may discredit the science, global warming is one of the main hypothesis for why our planet is heating up. In this article, we’ll try to explain some of the science behind global warming so that you can understand the problem more clearly.
According to numerous scientific studies, our planet’s surface temperature has increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit within the last century. Most of this change has occurred in the past two decades, prompting the question: are our lifestyles accelerating this global change? The evidence definitely seems to point in that direction.
Many scientists point to the emission of greenhouse gases as one of the leading reasons that we are undergoing this global change. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are some of the main compounds that we are releasing more and more, causing something known as the ‘Greenhouse Effect’. This occurs due to the fact that these gases tend to trap heat, and when they are released into our upper atmosphere, they trap some of the heat energy that would normally be reflected by our earth’s natural processes.
It’s an undisputed fact that there is more greenhouse gas in our atmosphere due to humanity. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, it is estimated that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by as much as thirty percent. While a little greenhouse gas helps to keep our planet warm, the more and more that we release, the hotter the planet is going to get. That is an important fact to consider, being that our biosphere is finely tuned to live at the temperatures at which our planet currently operates. Many forms of both plant and animal life run the risk of extinction should the temperature change be accelerated. Fossil fuels are primarily responsible for the amount of greenhouse gases that we are releasing, and to help fix the problem, we are going to need to find an alternate source of energy, and quick. Research into alternative fuels has yielded several possible options, including the use of corn in the production of ethanol, which has already had proven usage in places such as Venezuela. The most accelerated period of temperature change has occurred in the past twenty years, and it’s clearly evident that we need to address this problem while we still can.
Climate Change Information By Oscar Lama
April 30 2009 | Climate Change Information By Oscar Lama | Comments Off
The Important Differences Between “Climate Change” and “Global Warming”
By: James Nash
Many people in the media (and elsewhere) use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” interchangeably, as if they were the same thing. But there are differences between the meanings of the two terms.
Getting a better handle on the definitions of and differences between “global warming” and “climate change” will help us understand why the threat caused by continued warming of the planet is so serious.
Planet Earth’s current warming trend is based largely on natural warming and cooling cycles that have been happening for eons; as well as human-caused additions to greenhouse gases, which are boosting the atmosphere’s ability to trap heat in the biosphere. Minor factors like an overall increase in the sun’s solar intensity play a smaller role.
While greenhouse gases are an essential component of a livable planet - they’re what keep Earth from being a lifeless ball of ice - humans are causing greenhouse gas levels to increase so quickly that it’s causing the average global temperature to rise much faster than it would naturally. This warming is predicted to lead to a variety of negative effects, including:
1) Melting (and possible disappearance) of glaciers and mountain snow caps that feed the world’s rivers and supply a large portion of the fresh water used for drinking and irrigation.
2) A rise in sea levels due to the melting of the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, with many islands and coastal areas ending up more exposed to storm damage or even underwater.
3) Increasingly costly “bad weather” events such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and severe storms.
4) Lowered agricultural productivity due to less favorable weather conditions, less available irrigation water, increased heat stress to plants, and an increase in pest activity due to warmer temperatures.
5) Increases in vector-borne infectious diseases like malaria and Lyme Disease.
6) Large numbers of extinctions of higher-level species due to their inability to adapt to rapidly changing climate and habitat conditions.
The first two of these effects are mostly related to increasing average temperatures. Items 3-6 are related to heat too, but also playing a role are non-temperature factors - i.e. “climate-change factors.”
Climate change is about much more than how warm or cool our temperatures are. Whereas “global warming” refers to increasing global temperatures, “climate change” refers to regional conditions. Climate is defined by a number of factors, including:
1) Average regional temperature as well as day/night temperature patterns and seasonal temperature patterns.
2) Humidity.
3) Precipitation (average amounts and seasonal patterns).
4) Average amount of sunshine and level of cloudiness.
5) Air pressure and winds.
6) Storm events (type, average number per year, and seasonal patterns).
To a great extent, this is what we think of as “weather.” Indeed, weather patterns are predicted to change in response to global warming:
1) Some areas will become drier, some will become wetter.
2) Many areas will experience an increase in severe weather events like killer heat waves, hurricanes, flood-level rains, and hail storms.
It’s tempting to think that all of these changes to the world’s climate regions will average out over time and geography and things will be fine. In fact, colder climates like Canada may even see improved agricultural yields as their seasonal temperatures rise. But overall, humanity has made a huge investment in “things as they are now, where they are now.”
Oscar Lama Climate Change And Global Warming
April 03 2009 | Oscar Lama Climate Change And Global Warming | Comments Off