Global Warming - 5 Facts

Global warming is happening and some people still think it’s not happening which is just fine, but even they have to admit the climate is changing. The planet constantly altering, we have to decide what we will do to adapt. Animals and plants are already changing the way they act by blooming and migrating sooner. With technology constantly changing, new variables are added to this equation of global warming that pessimistic scientists must take into consideration before they doom the planet. Now, for all those skeptics who think global warming doesn’t exist, here are 5 facts about global warming.

1. The Planets Temperature Has Increased And Average of 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) in the last 100 years. With the increase in green house gasses, the suns rays stay trapped and increase the world’s temperature. It is predicted that the temperature will increase in coming years because more and more of the suns heat remains trapped here on earth.

2 The cause of the increase of climate change is Human activity producing pollution and green house gasses according to many scientists. Heavy industry vigorously emits carbon dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, and other gasses. With an increase in competition to create the most products of the best quality comes an increase in the production of green house gasses, but with new laws and filters, the amount of these gasses being emitted into the air has decreased.

3. If the temperature of the planet increases to a certain point, methane from the ocean can be released into the air and drastically increase the temperature of the earth to dangerous levels. This is not to scare anyone and may not even have to do with global warming or human green house gas production, however scientists believe methane released from the ocean ended the Permian era, killed off countless land and sea creatures, and raised the temperature of the planet considerably.

4. People say that deforestation is a contributor to global warming right? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), deforestation occurs at a rate of 53,000 square miles per year. This can negatively affect the atmosphere since trees are 50% carbon as well as cause environmental problems for the land which is used to having large forests on it.

5. There are more than 50 things you can do to stop or slow global warming including, lowering your thermostat, choosing energy efficient appliances and, taking showers instead of baths. Every little thing you can do to prevent energy from being wasted can help decrease the effect of human interaction with the earth’s climate. Global warming or not, preventing the waste of energy doesn’t hurt anyone.

Weather you believe humans are causing global warming or it is a natural occurrence that will pass, you still have to be aware of its effect on the world. Do some homework and learn about both sides of the debate. Now is the time when this topic is at its peak so it will help you to know a few facts.

Stopping Global Warming

Global Warming is a word that you will come across on any news channel or newspaper or magazine these days. Global warming simply means the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere beyond the permissible limits. The overabundance of carbon dioxide that is present in the atmosphere will capture the heat from the rays of the sun and form a blanket that is warming our planet Earth.

The main source that is contributing this abundant carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the humans living on this planet. The carbon emissions from cars, polluting factories and industries and the non renewable power plants are all responsible for giving out greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide etc into the atmosphere. All of the above things that we rely on are a source for making this Earth a less environment friendly for the humans.

One must know that every action, every decision or every purchase he or she makes is going to either help or hurt the future of life on this planet. In fact, all the people in the world have by now know the ill effects of global warming on our planet. So, all of us will be only more than willing to help stop global warming and to make this Earth a better place to live in. A small bit of help from each and everyone living in this planet will make this world a healthier planet for our children, grand children and great grandchildren to live in.

The major source for this rising global warming situation is the human beings living in this planet and it is up to us humans to concentrate on the features that will help to reduce the effect of global warming or will alleviate the occurrence of global warming on our planet. The combating of this dilemma called global warming can be carried out by concentrating on these few points:

• The major step in preventing the occurrence of global warming is to conserve energy. There are so many ways in which you can conserve energy and the following will give you an idea on the regular day to day activities that you can follow to save energy and thereby reduce the effects of global warming: turning off appliances that are not in use; pooling of cars to go for office or function; using energy efficient lamps; not using appliances that release chlorofluorocarbons(CFC); planting more trees etc.

• Cut on the work hours in your profession that will help save energy and if this is practiced by all the working professionals all over the world, then millions of energy can be saved, which will lead to stopping global warming.

• Using of recycled products and recommended plastic carry bags than those with fewer microns which will help in the increase of pollution that will lead to increase in the global warming.

• Using of environment friendly fuels and vehicles which may be a bit expensive, but will not contribute to polluting the environment.

• Using of solar energy, wind power or water energy to generate electricity for your homes and offices.

With the collective efforts of each and everyone living in the planet, and with everyone caring a little bit for our Mother Earth, it will be easy to reduce the effect of global warming on this planet and make this world a happy place to live in.

Negative Effects of Global Warming

There are many predicted effects for the environment and for human life due to global warming. The main effect centres around an increase in the global average temperature. It's been confirmed by at least 20 scientific societies and academies of science, as well as all the national academies of science of the G8 states, that the Earth's global average air temperature near its surface rose by 0.56-0.92 C (0.98-1.62 F) degrees during the last 100 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that this increase is very likely due to the "observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, which leads to the warming of the surface and lower atmosphere by increasing the greenhouse effect."

For humans, these changes in climate are particularly dangerous to those who live near the ocean shore and who already suffer from drought, flooding, and poverty.

The IPCC concludes from models that global temperatures will likely rise by 1.1 to 6.4 C (2.0 to 11.5 F) degrees between 1990 and 2100, with the range of temperatures due to the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions and varying degrees of climate sensitivity.

Other effects of global warming include a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. In addition, there may be more frequent and intense weather events, such as more intense hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, thunderstorms, blizzards, etc., though it is difficult to connect specific events to global warming.

Global warming is also causing changes in agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions, and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities are the major reasons why global warming has been occurring and increasing over the last 50 years.

Effects of global warming are expected to cause more changes as it becomes more pronounced; examples include the following projected climate changes (from Wikipedia):

- "A significant slowing of the ocean circulation that transports warm water to the North Atlantic; - Large reductions in the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets; - Accelerated global warming due to carbon cycle feedbacks in the terrestrial biosphere, and - Releases of terrestrial carbon from permafrost regions and methane from hydrates in coastal sediments."

It is uncertain whether for sure these events will occur or to what severity they will occur if they do, but most believe that the chances of at least one of the above events occurring are likely to increase the longer and more severe climate change becomes.

Some scientific members argue whether there will be positive effects from global warming, but most agree that any positive effects will be greatly outnumbered by the number of negative effects.

Projected climate changes due to global warming have the potential to greatly and irreversibly change our climate that will have lasting impacts on both the continental and global scales. One effect will be increased precipitation, due to the increasing temperature.

As Earth's temperature continues to rise, a very recent report from the IPCC shows that there will be an increasing impact to natural systems and people, especially those who live in Earth's poorer nations. In 2002, Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon endured their worst wildfire season ever. Also in 2002, drought created severe dust storms that caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in Texas, Montana, and North Dakota. Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has decreased by 60%, which has led to some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington to have shorter winter seasons.

As you can see, effects of global warming are very negative on our planet already, from increased air temperatures to rises in the sea level to more severe storms. Currently, it is a challenge to predict how many effects global warming will have and how strong those effects will be, but most of the scientific community is predicting that global warming will have more negative effects on our planet and way of life the longer and more severe climate change becomes.

Understanding Emissions Trading and Global Warming

It goes without saying that there is often an inherent conflict between science and economies. Emission trading is an interesting effort in the global warming arena.

Understanding Emissions Trading and Global Warming

It is a mild understatement to say that global warming is both a controversial and misunderstood field. As the decay of the ice packs and slowing of the ocean conveyer become more apparent, the controversy is starting to evolve into an acceptance of global warming as a fact. Given this great acceptance, the question is now what to do about it.

Every society is based upon some form of economy. Although globalization is the much touted economic subject of the day, the industrial revolution is still really the heart of most economies. Economies, particularly first world economies, are based on the production of goods and materials through manufacturing. These same processes contribute heavily to greenhouse gases and the global warming debate. With such an inherent conflict between production and reduction of pollutants, find a solution to greenhouse gases has often been a dubious prospect. The concept of emissions trading, however, may be a solution.

Emission caps are a method for dealing with economies on a nationwide scale. Essentially, countries agree to cap their total output of pollutants and greenhouse gases at a certain level. Each government then converts this total amount into individual caps for industries or business. The caps essentially tell the businesses the amount they are allowed to emit and assign penalties and incentives for coming in below or above said amounts. In practical terms, a business is penalized for polluting or given a benefit for cutting pollutants.

The interesting thing about emissions caps is that they can be traded. Ostensibly, a country or business that falls under the cap amounts can trade their excess emissions allotment for money. In turn, other parties that fail to meet their caps must buy these allotments. By taking this approach, reduction of pollutants become not only a moral choice, but a potential profit center. For example, Brazil has done an amazing job of converting automobiles to ethanol. It has now evolved from an oil importer to an exporter and is selling emission credits on the open market.

Emission trading systems do not represent a new approach to dealing with the pollution problem. On smaller scales, such approaches have been used within the United States as part of the Clean Air Act to force municipalities and states to act. With the implementation of the Kyoto Treaty, this process will become full blown on the international scene. Alas, India, China and the United States are not signatories to the Treaty, which is unfortunate given their economic growth and production of greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Arguments Against Global Warming

Science is based on facts and evidence compiled by an overwhelming body of research and experiments. To argue against science, there fore, one would need just as powerful a fact baked by just as in depth research and experiments. However, arguments against global warming thus far have seen only unfounded opinions motivated by self indulged intentions.

In the United States, for the longest time right wing politicians tried to convince the people that global warming was nothing more than a liberal propaganda. In the face of mounting ridicule, many of them have changed their position since. However, the force undermining global warming is a dangerous one. As the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative body on the subject partly established by the Untied Nations, prepared to release their report in February this year, oil companies such as Exxon Mobil began to offer academics and intellectuals hard cash to publish articles to counter the IPCC findings. Philip Cooney, a long time lobbyist for the oil industry was hired as a key official in the Bush administration and was given a free pass to edit a report on climate change before the government released it to the public. The idea was to undermine the threat of global warming. After uproar from the scientific community, and after copies of Cooney’s original hand edited reports were leaked in the press, he lost his job.

It seems that the most common recurring factor about the argument against the evidence of global warming is that these arguments are concocted and disseminated by industries that depend on the production and sale of elements that cause global warming. It is also a recurring theme that many of these industrialists have established long and intimate relationships with politicians who help their cause and receive huge financial campaign contributions in returns. In the case of American politics, environment has traditionally been a liberal cause that the Democratic Party fights for. So instead of being treated as a bipartisan issue of much importance, the right-wing media has relentlessly worked to try and disprove the existence of global warming, a movement led by radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, who has also long battled prescription drug addiction.

But perhaps the leading public voice to undermine global warming has been that of Myron Ebell. While the media often hounds him for his ludicrous sound byte for the sake of presenting the opposing view, everyone admits he is the master of spin doctors when it comes to global warming. His D.C based think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute has received regular funding from oil industry giants to perform research and suggest policies that portray global warming as a hoax or worst yet, a good thing for everyone.

It doesn’t take long to realize that there is no serious argument against global warming, and most of the ones that do float around are designed by groups with vested interests. In fact, the general consensus amongst the world’s population, leaders and the scientific community that it is one of the greatest threats that mankind has ever faced has never been stronger.