Global Warming

Meaning of Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since
the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. The scientific consensus is that global warming is
occurring and is mostly the result of human activity. This finding is recognized by the national science
academies of all the major industrialized countries and is not rejected by any scientific body of national or
international standing.

 Most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century has been caused by
increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which result from human activities such as the burning
of fossil fuel and deforestation.

Regarding future warming, the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC) used climate model projections to assess six possible greenhouse-gas emission
scenarios. Depending on which scenario most closely matches actual overall greenhouse gas emissions,
global surface temperature is likely to rise a further1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) by 2100,and the upper
limit of that range does not include any warming from the potential release of certain carbon-cycle
feedbacks. By 2010, more recent observations of emissions made the A1FI scenario the "business as
usual" case, and confirmed that "the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories or even worse are being
realized". Including of some of the carbon-cycle feedbacks in the A1FI scenario increases the best
estimate to a temperature rise of 4°C in the 2070's and 5°C by 2090, with a potential range between 3-
7°C., and even that estimate appears conservative because it does not include feedbacks from
permafrost, which could be extreme.

In even a 4°C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world,
while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world.
Hence, the ecosystem services upon which human livelihoods depend would not be preserved. [13] For
these reasons, virtually all climatologists are now convinced that global warming poses a clear and
present danger to civilization. 
 Effects of Global Warming
Main effects of global warming
There are two major effects of global warming:

 Increase of temperature on the earth by about 3° to 5° C (5.4° to 9° Fahrenheit) by

the year 2100.
 Rise of sea levels by at least 25 meters (82 feet) by the year 2100.
 

More details and secondary effects of global warming :

Increasing global temperatures are the primary effects of global warming. However they are
causing a broad range of additional, secondary effects:

 Sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to melting of
land ice.
 Amounts and patterns of precipitation are changing. The total annual power of
hurricanes has already increased markedly since 1975 because their average intensity and
average duration have increased (in addition, there has been a high correlation of
hurricane power with tropical sea-surface temperature).
Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have also global effects on extreme
weather events: They increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of floods, droughts,
heat waves, and tornadoes. Other effects of global warming include higher or lower
agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species
extinctions. As further effects of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into
areas where they have been extinguished earlier.

 
Global Warming Causes 
As said, the major cause of global warming is the emission of green house gases like carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc into the atmosphere. The major source of carbon dioxide
is the power plants. These power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from
burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. About twenty percent of
carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere comes from burning of gasoline in the engines of
the vehicles. This is true for most of the developed countries. Buildings, both commercial and
residential represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks.
Building of these structures requires a lot of fuel to be burnt which emits a large amount of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as effectual as CO2 at
entrapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is obtained from resources such as rice paddies,
bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel manufacture. When fields are flooded,
anaerobic situation build up and the organic matter in the soil decays, releasing methane to
the atmosphere. The main sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production,
cars with catalytic converters, the use of fertilizers in agriculture and the burning of organic
matter. Another cause of global warming is deforestation that is caused by cutting and
burning of forests for the purpose of residence and industrialization.
Greenhouse effect

A representation of the exchanges of energy between the source , the Earth's surface, the Earth's
atmosphere, and the ultimate sink outer space. The ability of the atmosphere to capture and recycle
energy emitted by the Earth surface is the defining characteristic of the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by
atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back
towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere. As a result, the
temperature there is higher than it would be if direct heating by solar radiation were the only warming
mechanism.

This mechanism is fundamentally different from that of an actual greenhouse, which works by isolating
warm air inside the structure so that heat is not lost by convection.

The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, first reliably experimented on by John
Tyndall in 1858, and first reported quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.[3]

If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth is, it would
have a temperature of about 5.3 °C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30% (or 28%) of the
incoming sunlight, the planet's effective temperature (the temperature of a blackbody that would emit the
same amount of radiation) is about −18 or −19 °C, about 33°C below the actual surface temperature of
about 14 °C or 15 °C. The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface
temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse
effect.
Global warming