Thursday, July 22, 2010
Without these gases, the average temperature would be about -18°C... too cold for most life forms. This natural warming effect is also sometimes called the “greenhouse effect”.The climate changes everything. The earth’s climate plays a major part in our environmental system that even minor changes have impacts that are large and complex.
Some of this heat is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and halocarbons.These naturally occurring gases, act as a blanket, trapping in the heat and preventing it from being reflected too far from the Earth. And keep the Earth's average temperature at about 15°C: warm enough to sustain life for humans, plants and animals.
Why does the climate change? The Earth’s climate is driven by a continuous flow of heat energy from the sun. This heat energy from the sun passes through the Earth’s atmosphere and warms the Earth’s surface.As the temperature increases, the Earth sends heat energy (infrared radiation) back into the atmosphere.
Scientific proof: climate change is happening now!!!
As the effect of global warming tightens, the effects are felt all around the world. In just the last few years there are many examples of how global warming is affecting both people and nature all around the world. Global warming is melting glaciers in every region of the world, putting millions of people at risk from floods, droughts and lack of drinking water·
· Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest recorded level during the melt season of 2008. The lowest level, since satellites measurements began in 1979, was 2007. 2003, Scotland's hottest year on record, saw hundreds of adult salmon die in Scotland’s famous fisheries, as rivers became too warm for salmon to be able to extract enough oxygen from the water. Coral reefs around the world have been severely damaged by unusually warm ocean temperatures. The Caribbean sea had its warmest ocean temperatures in 2005, combined with the worst coral bleaching ever. If the same rate of coral bleaching continues, the entire Great Barrier Reef could be dead within a human lifetime. · Cities like Athens, Chicago, Milan, New Delhi and Paris have been hit by serious heat waves. The 2003 summer, an intense heatwave in Europe killed 14,800 people in France alone, according to official figures released in September 2003. Summer temperatures in European capitals have increased by up to 2°C over the · last 30 years, a WWF report showed. Rising sea levels threaten many nations on low-lying islands in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A report released by WWF and leading meteorologists shows that human-induced global warming was a key factor in the severity of the 2002 drought in Australia, generally regarded as the worst ever.
Reference for first paragraph:The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years.Article: James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy, Ken Lo, David W. Lea, and Martin Medina-Elizade. Global temperature change.PNAS 2006 103: 14288-14293. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/39/14288
As the effect of global warming tightens, the effects are felt all around the world. In just the last few years there are many examples of how global warming is affecting both people and nature all around the world. Global warming is melting glaciers in every region of the world, putting millions of people at risk from floods, droughts and lack of drinking water·
· Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest recorded level during the melt season of 2008. The lowest level, since satellites measurements began in 1979, was 2007. 2003, Scotland's hottest year on record, saw hundreds of adult salmon die in Scotland’s famous fisheries, as rivers became too warm for salmon to be able to extract enough oxygen from the water. Coral reefs around the world have been severely damaged by unusually warm ocean temperatures. The Caribbean sea had its warmest ocean temperatures in 2005, combined with the worst coral bleaching ever. If the same rate of coral bleaching continues, the entire Great Barrier Reef could be dead within a human lifetime. · Cities like Athens, Chicago, Milan, New Delhi and Paris have been hit by serious heat waves. The 2003 summer, an intense heatwave in Europe killed 14,800 people in France alone, according to official figures released in September 2003. Summer temperatures in European capitals have increased by up to 2°C over the · last 30 years, a WWF report showed. Rising sea levels threaten many nations on low-lying islands in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A report released by WWF and leading meteorologists shows that human-induced global warming was a key factor in the severity of the 2002 drought in Australia, generally regarded as the worst ever.
Reference for first paragraph:The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years.Article: James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy, Ken Lo, David W. Lea, and Martin Medina-Elizade. Global temperature change.PNAS 2006 103: 14288-14293. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/39/14288
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