RESEARCH on Global Warming (Jun Xiang)™

What is global warming?

Global warming is the gradual increase in the iverall temperature of the earth's atmosphere due to the greenhouse gas effect caused by the increase of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants such as methane and nitrous oxide

What is the greenhouse gas effect?

The greenhouse effect is when the temperature rises because the sun’s heat and light is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere. The heat and light can get through the atmosphere, but it can’t get out. As a result, the temperature of the Earth rises.

Sometimes, the temperature helps us in a way. The greenhouse effect makes the earth appropriate for people to live on. Without it, Earth would be freezing, or on the other hand, it would be burning hot. Although the greenhouse effect makes the earth able to have people living on it, many plants and animals will die because of the heat. Humans will also die indirectly, not just because of the heat. For example, when the Earth gets too warm and hot, many plants and vegetations cannot withstand the heat and thus, they will die. This applies to the animals too; if the Earth gets too hot, their physical environment can be changed drastically. When the animals cannot adapt to the new physical environment, they die. For humans, without food ( vegetables from plants, and meat from animals) they will also die of hunger.

Global warming FACTS

• Average temperatures have climbed 0.8 degree Celsius around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (ISS).

• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indegenouscultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.

• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wild fires and heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.

How global warming is caused and what are the effects?

• Industrialization, deforestation and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface.
• Humans way of life resulted in more carbon dioxide produce than what the plants can absorb

Effects

- Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) in a century’s time

• Rises of just 4 inches can flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of the 2Southeast Asia.
• Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent for fresh water such as indonesia.
• Result in more than a million species of animals facing extinction
• Changing ecosystems, acidifying the oceans, thus killing the fishes
• Rain precipitation and agricultural yields are changed