In January 200l the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientific experts assembled by the United Nations, released a frightening report on the potential consequences of the climate phenomenon known as global warming. The panel found that the 1990s had been the warmest decade on record and predicted that temperatures will rise anywhere from 2.5 to 10.4 degrees around the world over the next century, causing changes to global weather patterns. Indeed, unusual and frequently destructive weather had been occurring around the globe: twenty-seven inches of rain in one day in Hilo, Hawaii; an unheard-of thunderstorm in Barrow, Alaska; a huge ice storm in Atlanta, Georgia; massive floods in Europe; and an unprecedented …show more content…
Because of the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, states Maslin, "planet Earth is warming faster than at any other time in the past 1000 years and there is little doubt that human activity is to blame."
The Debate over Global Warming
Experts disagree about the causes of global warming, its severity, and how best to solve the problem. Kevin A. Shapiro, a neuroscience researcher based at Harvard, while acknowledging that earth's climate has warmed slightly in the last century, argues that this fact "more or less exhausts the scientific consensus. On every other important question--what the major causes of global warming are, what its effects will be, whether we should try to prevent it and, if so, how--there is considerable uncertainty." The use of computer simulations of weather patterns to predict the future extent and impact of global warming is particularly divisive. According to Shapiro, the use of these models has resulted in the accumulation of patchy and unreliable conclusions about human impact on earth's climate. Even the 2001 IPCC report, which was written by 122 lead authors and 515 contributing authors and was reviewed by another 450 scientists, does not represent total agreement among climate experts about the causes and effects of global warming. Meterologist Richard Lindzen, who was one of the 450 scientists who contributed to the report, notes that the
The report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consisting of more than 150 scientists, states that (Stocker, 2013) “Warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate systems that are unprecedented over decades to millennia.” In the last quarter of twentieth century, the climate change problem has been the global issue. From the
The world now faces one of the most and complex issues it has ever had to deal with: climate change. Many people believe it 's not true and caused much uproar on the topic. But most of the world’s great nations or company leaders can no longer deny that it is a real issue. The huge impact that humans have had on the Earth has literally changed the climate and how it functions. Higher temperatures are reported yearly and even monthly, stronger storms are forming causing harsh tornados or hurricanes, and some of the planet’s critical nonrenewable resources are being depleted forever. For all of these major changes that in the very end affect everyone on Earth, The nations of the world have not all gone about climate change in the same
This webpage describes multiple advantages of wind power. It as well describes the challenges that come with wind power. It also describes how wind power is a clean, renewable source of
It is widely held that climate change is real and happening now Case (2006) as global average temperature has warmed about 0.8°C within the past century. Coupled with this, the past three decades has witness a global average warming of 0.6°C (Hansen et al., 2006). This is largely to due to human induced factors (IPCC, 2001). A recent report produced by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences confirms that the last few decades of the 20th century were in fact the warmest in the past 400 years (National Research Council, 2006). The IPCC also projects that if greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of climate change, continue to rise, the mean global temperatures will increase 1.4 – 5.8°C by the end of the 21st century (IPCC, 2001). In a similar
Multiple scientific studies stated that the global mean temperature has risen 1 to 2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial periods and claims the climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. As a matter of fact, the Earth had gone
Global warming, while once viewed as an unfounded concern by the political right, has quickly grown into a global issue recognized by a growing number of people. Over the years, the effects of global warming have taken a steady toll on the planet and has reached a point where it is more than “An Inconvenience Truth” Al Gore (2006). The effects include warming oceans, the raising of atmospheric temperatures, melting ice caps, and more. Despite a mountain of evidence that global warming is real and is something that should be taken very seriously, there are still people who choose to believe that it is only a myth. In fact, it is for this very reason that the term “Global Warming” has been generally changed to “Climate Change.” Hopefully, reading
Climate change is a heavily ignored subject to many industrialized countries and businesses. While 97 percent or more scientist agree on published peer-reviewed studies that climate change is real, many of the leading industries producing pollution turn a blind eye to the obvious detrimental effects that they are causing. In a multitude of studies on climate change data is showing rising sea levels and global temperature, warming of oceans and shrinking of ice sheets, decreased snow cover, ocean acidification, an increase of extreme events with exceeding power, rapidly declining arctic sea ice, and more. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes 1,300 independent climate change experts, have actualized 95
But as convincing that the data supporting a warming Earth may be, it is not without its uncertainties. There are many people who disagree upon the data that scientists present to explain the temperature phenomenon. James L. Payne presents a valid point in his writing “The Real Case against Activist Global Warming Policy”. According to Payne, “They express their findings and predictions with probabilistic language” (266). If given the chance to examine the works presented by supporters of global climate change, it is easy to see where Payne is coming from. Many authors do not use the words for certain, or absolutely when talking about what global warming will do. The phrases that they choose to use instead are ones like: this is likely, this will most likely happen, or this is very possible (Payne 266). This shows that the supposed evidence is just that, supposed. There is little to no certainty in research for global warming because we simply do not know for an absolute fact that what humans are doing is causing the problem. We also are not for sure about what the heat will do to the Earth. It is understandable to question worldwide temperature change if the people that advocate it do not even know if the proposed effects will actually
For over a hundred years, scientists have been carefully gathering and verifying data on the earth's temperature. The latest data reveals some striking trends:All 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last 15 years The 1990's have already been warmer than the 1980's- the warmest decade on record The global average surface temperature has risen 0.5 degrees (site source)For the first time ever, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the authoritative international body charged with studying this issue, concluded that the observed increase in global average temperature over the last century "is
The IPCC Status Report on Climate Change Summary for Policymakers is an assessment of the current scientific understanding of the impacts of climate
According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) there is a scientific consensus that the earths climate id being affected by human activities. The IPCC 's conclusion is that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations. (McCarthy 2001, p.21) . “Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth 's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise” (National Academy Press 2001, p. 1).
With all the instruments and computers scientists use today, people can be sure that the results being published are, for the most part, reliable. However, it was not always this way. In the 1960’s and 70’s, many scientists were just beginning to see the real picture of global warming. Using the newest technology available, they conducted studies and found that humans were indeed contaminating both the Earth and its atmosphere. But, just as there were many people finding the truth, there were many others that did their best to convince people that global warming was nothing more than a man-made hoax. Many major companies also conducted “studies” of their own and their results found nothing wrong with the environment. These were mostly oil companies and other businesses that saw global warming as a threat to their profits. For the rest of the decade, they printed reports on newspapers and magazines about how global warming was a myth created by scientists and the government. They succeeded, too. About 50% of
Dear World, I want to talk about something affecting you all. It’s about global warming. This issue will more than likely take away from everyone in the end, or at least humanity’s efforts to be a greater civilization, if you don’t take care of it. My question is, why aren’t you? For billions of years your Earth withstood countless hardships and has since lived among the cosmos, but now it’s going to be intoxicated and fall ill in a manner of hundreds of years, because of you? Global warming is the issue of the earth warming up due to man’s technological accomplishments since the industrial revolution, greatly committing to the massive unnatural build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and it comes up with a great deal of many other problems, including pollution, the maintaining of ecosystems in the polar regions, and the depleting rate of fossil fuels and non-renewable energy sources. But besides the problem itself, which is already a major issue, there comes the people. There are more than one sides to a problem, and in this case, it’s about whether global warming is actually real or not. There are those who side that it is, and those who side that it isn’t, and even those who say that humans aren’t causing it. Although there are more than two sides, it needs to be said that global warming is indeed real and happening as you read this. Putting an end to the modern era and giving up our energy needs is simply too cruel, but there is never just one solution, and this
The issue of global warming should be on the list of our top priorities. Studies show that the average of global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution began. Since the Industrial Revolution, human emissions has quadrupled the frequency of certain heat extremes and many scientists have warned that a failure to bring greenhouse gases under control could eventually lead to a 62-fold increase in extreme heat blasts (Gillis Justin A17). Most of the increase is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. These activities contribute to a build-up in carbon dioxide and other gases in Earth’s atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is made of gases like nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen. These gases act as a blanket that covers and gives us warmth, but once these gases such as carbon dioxide absorbs heat, but does not release it back into space in which causes the increase in global temperature. This is called the greenhouse effect because it only traps heat but does not release it.
Global warming and environmental issues such as contaminated water, the loss of habitats, etc. are topics that have raise the attention of many people (associations or campaigns) who are constantly trying to discover new ways to reduce global warming. This problem has many outcomes such as ice melting in Antarctica, the dramatic climate changes, among others; The list goes on and on of negative environmental issues that are happening and that are rapidly increasing each day. That is why these associations try to find ways to create awareness in people about the situation. Exploring about the different solutions that can help reduce or slow down the effect of global warming is a good way to answers questions like, “does recycling plastic materials help reduce global warming?” or, “How many people would have to cooperate to make a significant change to slow down the increment of global warming?”