The Effect of Global Warming on Thermohaline Circulation

In the last 100 years, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased, causing the Earth to warm by an average of 0.6 degrees celsius, largely a result of burning fossil fuels for energy, transportation, and land use changes increased for food production. The basic science is straightforward and climate researchers have shown that gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and others can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Human activities such as industry, transport, energy generation and deforestation all produce these greenhouse gases. In the last 20 years, concern has grown that global warming is inevitable and now considered most probably caused by man-made increases in

Damon Matthews, a professor in Concordia University’s Department of Geography, found a direct connection between carbon dioxide and global warming. Matthew’s studies show that same global temperature increase, regardless of when or over what period of time the emission occurs. The effect of adding more carbon dioxide is predicted in the theory of greenhouse gases. Swedish scientist, Syante Arrhenius, first proposed the theory in 1896, based on earlier work by Fourier and Tyndall. At the same time, many scientists have reached the same conclusion. If we increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the Earth’s temperature will increase. Energy is absorbed from the sun in the form of visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The earth then releases some of this energy as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere captures some of this heat, then re-emit it in all directions. During this process, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases keep the Earth’s surface 33 degree Celsius warmer than it would be without them. According to an ongoing temperature analysis conducted by a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8 degree Celsius. Since 1975, two-thirds of the warming has occurred at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20 degree Celsius per decade.

With the increase in humans populating the planet, there comes a need for more and more resources, as well as more highways for transportation, leading to more cars on the road, and ultimately more greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas activity is obtained by subtracting the long wave radiation which escapes the earth from the estimated radiation emitted by the ocean surface (A.Raval, V.Ramanathan 1989). The escaping radiation has been measured since 1985 by the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) through the use of three orbiting satellites that sense longwave and shortwave radiation escaping the atmosphere. The estimated ocean radiation is found through direct use of the Stefan-Boltzmann law given the average temperature of the ocean surface. There seems to be a huge controversy about these greenhouse gases and how they affect the climate, and whether they even affect the global climate. This is not the first time in the earth’s history that a major climate change has occurred, referring back to the Ice Age when humans were nonexistent. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports predict that the average global temperature will rise about 2 - 4.5 degrees Celsius in the next 100 years, causing some drastic changes to the current environment (Lynch and Jenkins 2007). But if a major change in climate occurred without

The Circulation of the world’s oceans can be divided into the upper and the lower. The upper few 100 metres movement is generally wind-driven whereas below this, circulation is driven by the heating and cooling of waters producing regional density differences. This creates the ‘Thermohaline circulation’ (THC), otherwise known as the Great ocean conveyer, an overturning circulation system.

People distinguish it as the rising amount of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere. The theory is known to say that the burning of fossil fuels is to blame for the gases trapped in our atmosphere. This experiment will conduct the effects global warming may one day have on thermohaline circulation patterns. It will show how an increase of temperature, caused by global warming, will change the patterns of thermohaline circulatory currents. The theory of global warming was interestingly found, as scientists noted an unusual hike in Earth's average temperatures. With this new information, many experiments were conducted to model what may occur if greenhouse gases continued to build on. It was questioned what global warming would also have an effect on. Due to this, it was eventually found that in some sort global warming will have a significant affect on thermohaline circulation

Climate change is influenced by the greenhouse effect which is the increase of Carbon dioxide, Methane, Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide. On one hand, the presence of these gases in the atmosphere make the earth habitable with respect to regulating the earth’s temperature. However, an increase in the concentration of these gases results in trapping energy in the atmosphere and this in turn increases earth’s temperature. “Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% between

Global warming is defined “as an increase in the average temperature of global surface air and oceans since about 1950” (White). The global warming controversy is an ongoing dispute with two main sides; one stating that the direct cause to global warming is through people’s daily activities and the burning of fossil fuels, while other people all around the world refuse to believe that human contributions are the main cause, saying that the earth is going through a natural stage of climatic change, thereby resulting in increasing temperatures in the earth’s atmosphere. Rising temperatures and in increase in greenhouse gases shown through the carbon cycle, demonstrate how the greenhouse effect is incorporated into both views on global warming. Over the past 50 years, experts in this field world-wide have been having an unaccountable amount of disputes over global warming, favoring in either of these positions of human causation or natural climatic change.

Although there are currently many greenhouse gases claiming earth’s atmosphere as their home, carbon dioxide is by far the most abundant and most adversely gas that affects Earth's climate. According to NASA, the amount of energy being emitted from the sun has remained constant since the 1750s. A common misconception when talking about global warming, is that the sun is the main source of the increase of the earth’s global temperatures. But if temperatures were increasing due to the sun, scientists would see warming in all layers of the atmosphere rather than just the lower ones. “Since the Industrial Revolution began around 1750, human activities have contributed substantially to climate change by adding CO2 and other heat-trapping gases

Global Warming has been a very serious conversation over the last decade, because it affects every person living on the planet whether we choose to believe it or not. Most of the scientific community claims that global warming is to blame for the changes in Earth’s climate. However, there are a small number of scientists who deny the very existence of global warming. Temperatures on earth have increased approximately 1.4°F since the early 20th century. Over time, atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) have notably increased. Both sides in the debate surrounding global climate change agree on the CO2 and CH4 being increased and that’s it.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the global temperature has risen about two degrees Fahrenheit since the late nineteenth century (“Climate”). Scientists define climate change as the escalation of the earth’s average temperature by natural causes or human inducement. As gases in the earth’s atmosphere increase, earth’s temperature follows coherently. Scientists cite a correlation between the earth’s increasing temperature and gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. Scientists have found that through human activity these gases show an increase. The upsurge of gases has a lasting effect on the environment: “Scientists warn of the loss of ecosystems and

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. • Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 380 ppm. Current concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are unprecedented in at least the last 650,000 years, based on records from gas bubbles trapped in polar ice. • Independent measurements demonstrate that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere comes

It is said that the Earth’s climate has been changing for the past century (State Government of Victoria, 2014). There is new found, stronger evidence that there have been increases in the average temperature across the globe and that the believed to be main cause of this change is due to human activities (University Corperation for Atmospheric Research, 2013). Greenhouse gases are what are most commonly referred to in conversation on climate change. Although greenhouse gases are generally referred to on the negative side, they are also essential to life (Mapstone, 2011). The greenhouse gases which consist of carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane retain heat in the earth’s atmosphere, gently warming our planet to sustain life, just as a greenhouse would in a cold climate, which is evidently where it receives its name. The sun warms the surface of the earth, which then radiates energy back towards space through the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases then absorb some of the radiation and radiate heat in different directions, including towards earth. This is now adding to the heat the surface of the earth is already receiving from the sun. Without the aid of this greenhouse affect it is said that the surface of the earth

Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas naturally found in the atmosphere. Since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s, humans have devised many inventions that burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gases, which, along with other human activities such as clearing land for agriculture or urban settlements, help some of these greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere that in turn trap more heat radiation in the atmosphere causing the Earth’s climate to become warmer than it would naturally (Mastrandrea). This unnatural phenomenon is termed global warming by scientists and they blame it for an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature of about 0.6°C (about 1°F) over the last 100 years (Mastrandrea).

Much like the glass of a greenhouse, gases in our atmosphere sustain life on Earth by trapping the sun 's heat. The Earth’s atmosphere contains several different gases that act like a blanket, keeping the Earth warm. Water vapour and some trace gases like CO2, CH4 (methane), O3 (ozone), N2O (nitrous oxide), are “IR active”, i.e. they absorb heat energy, and stop the warmth from escaping into space. Without the entrapment of heat, the earth’s mean temperature would be -180 C and life, as we know it today, would not be possible. These gases are present in the atmosphere in tiny quantities compared to the amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. But even a small change in the concentration of these gases may create an effect that could change our

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.