What is Global warming: Definition and 222 Discussions
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, humans have since the mid-20th century had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and have caused change on a global scale.The largest driver of warming is the emission of gases that create a greenhouse effect, of which more than 90% are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Fossil fuel burning (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy consumption is the main source of these emissions, with additional contributions from agriculture, deforestation, and manufacturing. The human cause of climate change is not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. Temperature rise is accelerated or tempered by climate feedbacks, such as loss of sunlight-reflecting snow and ice cover, increased water vapour (a greenhouse gas itself), and changes to land and ocean carbon sinks.
Temperature rise on land is about twice the global average increase, leading to desert expansion and more common heat waves and wildfires. Temperature rise is also amplified in the Arctic, where it has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss. Warmer temperatures are increasing rates of evaporation, causing more intense storms and weather extremes. Impacts on ecosystems include the relocation or extinction of many species as their environment changes, most immediately in coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic. Climate change threatens people with food insecurity, water scarcity, flooding, infectious diseases, extreme heat, economic losses, and displacement. These impacts have led the World Health Organization to call climate change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. Even if efforts to minimise future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries, including rising sea levels, rising ocean temperatures, and ocean acidification.
Many of these impacts are already felt at the current level of warming, which is about 1.2 °C (2.2 °F). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a series of reports that project significant increases in these impacts as warming continues to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) and beyond. Additional warming also increases the risk of triggering critical thresholds called tipping points. Responding to climate change involves mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation – limiting climate change – consists of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing them from the atmosphere; methods include the development and deployment of low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar, a phase-out of coal, enhanced energy efficiency, reforestation, and forest preservation. Adaptation consists of adjusting to actual or expected climate, such as through improved coastline protection, better disaster management, assisted colonisation, and the development of more resistant crops. Adaptation alone cannot avert the risk of "severe, widespread and irreversible" impacts.Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations collectively agreed to keep warming "well under 2.0 °C (3.6 °F)" through mitigation efforts. However, with pledges made under the Agreement, global warming would still reach about 2.8 °C (5.0 °F) by the end of the century. Limiting warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) would require halving emissions by 2030 and achieving near-zero emissions by 2050.
Hey guys,
I made a topic similar to this earlier, but after I was informed that my ideas has several flaws that would prevent it from working, I revised it and researched more about my topic. This is my original idea with several concepts that has changed. I am planning on making a mini-model...
A recent paper by Maldecena and Susskind entitled "Cool horizons for entangled black holes" (http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533) argues that every entangled complex EPR pair of quantum particles must be topologically connected by an Einstein-Rosen bridge (aka a pair of wormholes within the light...
How does the dipole moment effect the 'badness' of a greenhouse gas molecule?
The following link describes what a dipole moment is and how is sums up the bond polarity of a molecule...
As an aspirant scientist, physicist to be more precise, I believe it would be "normal" to be an ecologist. In fact I've always taken care of the Earth in my life since I've been taught to be respectful toward it. This means don't throw objects in nature, don't kill amphibians, don't burn...
Actually, for most of its history the worst thing the Church did was excommunication, which is the same thing you're doing right now. Some scientists tortured sentient animals but that's no reason to accuse all scientists of that. Saying "you can always go to another forum" is like saying "you...
Can someone please explain to me what moment of inertia means??
I googled it and I found that moment of inertia is an objects resistance to angular momentum? What does that mean exactly? Can someone please briefly explain to me (in English) what it means or give me an example? Because I really...
So I am not sure exactly how high the seas will rise if the ice sheets of Antarctica and the Arctic continue to melt by 2100. My best guess would be a rise of about 3-5 feet. Would that seem reasonable. Its just this whole 50 foot increase doesn't really make sense in that time frame that I've...
Dr. Kaku is an eloquent speaker for Physics and he publicized sciences and raise global awareness of controversial issues on science (like nuclear weapons, global warming, etc.) I am not questioning the validity of his popularity.
I am just curious, what has he done on the theoretical side...
I understand that CH4 absorbs more long-wave radiation, on a molecule-per-molecule basis, than CO2. I also understand that "four indirect radiative effects of CH4 emissions have been identified (see Prather et al., 2001; Ramaswamy et al., 2001). Methane enhances its own lifetime through changes...
Ron Paul may very well be the most honest Congressman, but are any of his ideas really practical in increasing freedom? I agree with him that we don't need more government, but I don't think we need less either; we need more direct and accountable government.
Please correct me if you think I am...
Can anyone explain what the right approach to this stuff is? It's an area I am largely ignorant about.
According to the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, the Earth should be -18C. Obviously, this isn't true because the Earth isn't a blackbody. But my questions:
1. Why isn't the Earth technically a...
Homework Statement
I swear this is the weirdest question I've encountered: If the South polar ice cap melts completely due to global warming, then what do you expect to happen to the length of the day?
2.Choices
a. It will get slightly longer
b. It will get slightly shorter
c. It will...
Alright,
ASSIGNMENT
it is required of me to to the physics part in a group project where the topic is "causes of global warming". my group has chosen methane clathrates or methane hydrates if you like (in the ocean, not on land). The way these work is that it is methane gas that is trapped in...
...Earth stopped rotating?
Most of North America would be swamped under poleward rushing oceans.
A whimsical but cool look at an Earth stopped in its tracks...
From http://bigthink.com/ideas/21768".
I am a solid state physicist. I feel bad that I know nothing about global warming (in terms of the details: what experiments have been done, what models exist, key papers, what, if any, real controversy there is).
What resources would be recommended? What papers, books, websites? It is...
After the fiasco in exposure of the global warming liars, I don't see a single, recent post on global warming. Can we now take up this topic as one of cold, objective science rather than one where we are confronted with the Chicken Littles in love with instilling fear in others?
What does...
I don't know if this is (the most beneficial) place to post this but...
This notion seems to be under attack with politics and dronwing any science.
Is this claim wrong or right?
Attention: These rules are deprecated as of 6/9/2014
PF is announcing its regrettable decision to ban all topics of global warming and climate change indefinitely. At this time we are unable to effectively moderate on the issue of climate change and global warming. We hope this ban will be...
Here's a very interesting You-tube interview Russia RT interview. The BBC has responded by announcing it's review of it's reporting of climate science BBC to launch review into allegations of bias in its science coverage. Here's the Mail's webpage BBC probes bias in its coverage of science and...
I am 'the other kind' of skeptic about global warming. I look at climate charts, past predictions, and the many PF threads and come away unconvinced that global warming is occurring at all -- to speak nothing of cause. But global warming opponents are even less convincing to me, using outdated...
Global Warming is a dramatically urgent and serious problem. We don't need to wait for governments to find a solution for this problem: each individual can bring an important help adopting a more responsible lifestyle: starting from little, everyday things. It's the only reasonable way to save...
Hello.
We are 3 boys who writes about global warming for a school project, and we would like to hear your opinion about;
Whethever you think it is caused by the humans or whether it is just a phase in the Earth's cycle.
And who/what do you think, is the cause of global warming.
About what...
Earlier today, I posted on this issue and a lively discussion ensued. I'm happy to have received several responses. As I recall, each of these took issue with one or more of my posting's claims.
An administrator inadvertently deleted the thread of our conversation before this conversation...
Some time ago I wondered about the legitimacy of the Irak war in regards to the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction. I contended that the WMD element was not a deceptive lie but merely the result of the groupthinking mechanism.
On other occasions I tried to demonstrate that some...
Ahhh yess the infamous global warming controversy...
okay so i figured this would be a nice place to post this because it pertains to Thermodynamics
A good friend of mine (who is my current roommate) loves to find things that go against what i believe and claim to prove it.
A few weeks ago he...
Woops, I apologize for the misleading subject heading as the events at CRU were not brought up at all, or even alluded to in the slightest. Not by Chris or any of the 4 members of his panel.
What they did tell you was that if you were a democrat, you should get in line with the rest of the...
Will the Earth really flood when global warming happens? Seems far from definitive and far less clear than the science behind global warming. I remember my Oceanography professor challenging the notion that global warming would raise sea-level, shut off gulf stream, thermohaline circulation. My...
I'm just wondering if Global Warming is considered a fact within the science community? I'm not talking about man made global warming, just global warming in general whether it be caused by nature or man.
Is there any proof that it is the CO2 levels that cause the temperature increases, and not that increasing global temps by themselves increase CO2 levels? It seems to me that the warmer it gets the more things would grow as long as they had sufficient water, if more things are growing then more...
ABC News-->US Military: Global Warming Helps Taliban
Apparently terrorism is our fault due to our greenhouse gas emissions. We have been supporting it for years.
This is probably one of the most far reaching news stories I have ever seen. Listen for yourself. I can't believe that they are...
At school I am constantly called stupid, or an idiot because of my global warming skepticism.
I do not try to get into debates, but kids who think the have a good understanding of global warming try to anchor me to debate them. Although I try to avoid debate I do eventually get in them, and...
I've heard a lot of scientists talk about it like it is a fact. They say that it is unnatural and caused by humans. The Earth goes through times where the temperature is very low (the ice age), and times when it is higher. One of those times is right now, I can't understand why so many people...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6366639.ece
That should read that it would yield the same benefit as removing all of the cars for 11 years...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLlxjYACa5U
When it comes to global warming from CO2, the toughest question is how are clouds going to respond? The IPCC has about 20 different climate models, but only one includes a change in cloud cover. The reason is that there hasn't been much evidence (until now) about how clouds would actually...
I was pondering a posible global warming demonstration.
Two identical clear cubes with thermometers in the center. they have some 1 way valve at the top. Put dry ice in one. The one containing the dry ice is initally cooler, but as all of the dry ice evaporates, the cube fills up with CO2...
While glacier shrinkage is occurring almost everywhere, it's possible this could be reversed in high latitudes if continued global warming (GW) is moderate. This is important, because in the best of circumstances, we will not be able to reverse global warming in the foreseeable future. The best...
I've been watching many documentaries on global warming these days.
One of them said that:
It was a BBC channel documentary.
Global warming is causing the temperature of the Earth to rise.
Global warming is due to increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
This CO2 is attributed to human...
I have recently completed S. Fred Singer's marvelous book, Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years
In it, Fred shatters just about every global warming myth in existence. Of course Fred is a world authority on climate physics, and as such, he thoroughly documents his findings.
About...
Global warming is happening, it could however we a natural cycle that the Earth goes through and little effected by humans, we really don't know for sure. We sure should hedge our bets and try not pollute this planet but it seems that these global warming activists have an unstated major premise...
1. Is an annual increase of lightning strikes worldwide a measure of global warming?
2. What has been the correlation between such discharges and temperature in recent decades?
The temperature of the Earth is governed by physics, namely the Stefan-Boltzmann law which states that the amount of energy radiated is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature.
ERad = SB * Temp^4.
Or Temp = (ERad/SB)^0.25
Where:
SB, the Stefan-Boltzmann constant is 5.670 x...
Some people tend to think of Global Warming in term of air temperatures on the surface of the earth. However, the Earth is composed of many more things that can absorb heat energy. Interestingly, there is not as much coverage on all the other parts of the Earth as they don’t have as much of an...