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Climate Change and Global Warming IntroductionLast updated Monday, March 05, 2012.

The climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is now overwhelming scientific consensus that it is happening, and human-induced. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing.Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions, and/or increasing extremities in weather patterns.

What are the factors which contribute to global warming?In: Global Warming [Edit categories]

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• Best Answer1.Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). This releases carbon dioxide that had been stored underground for millions of years. This extra CO2 is causing the enhanced greenhouse effect.

1.Cutting down the earth's forests without replanting. Deforestation removes trees and vegetation that absorb and store carbon. Half a tree's weight is carbon, but when trees die they release their carbon and absorb no more.2.Releasing other greenhouse gases. Methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more powerful than CO2, is belched by cattle. The world's demand for red meat means more and more cattle, and sometimes forests cut down for pasture. As frozen lands warm, from global warming, more methane is released. 3.The world's growing demand for electricity. 500 million homes in India, for example, have no electricity. As the world's population grows, the demand for power grows too. At present most of the world's electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels. •Climate change is a topic for discussion, even in the scientific world. Some factors are: human industry: a lot of greenhouse gasses are dumped into the atmosphere, especially by transportation industries, natural effects: since the temperature rises, the water on earth (seas) is vaporizing and, as a consequence, the greenhouse gasses which are contained in this water is also dumped into the atmosphere Another effect is the melting of ice on the north pole, which again adds water (and encapsulates vaporized greenhouse gases again).

Who is the main contributor in the climate change?The main contributor to climate change is MAN!We are causing climate change through Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in industry, transport and the generation of electricity, which releases carbon dioxide (CO2). Climate change is a topic for discussion, even in the scientific world. Some factors are: human industry: a lot of greenhouse gasses are dumped into the atmosphere, especially by transportation industries, natural effects: since the temperature rises, the water on earth (seas) is vaporizing and, as a consequence, the greenhouse gasses which are contained in this water is also dumped into the atmosphere Another effect is the melting of ice on the north pole, which again adds water (and encapsulates vaporized greenhouse gases again).

Possible Results of Climate ChangeBy Kenton ShepardGathering Climate InformationOur history of weather observation using instruments goes back 157 years, and weather/climate data, including that from ice field cores, goes back 650,000 years. Improvements in technology range from the use of weather balloons for recording atmospheric information to global weather data from microwave satellite technology.  Weather-related Changes1.Regional climate dynamics begin to change. Warm, humid equatorial regions which already have large amounts of moisture in the air are affected less than cold, dry polar regions. Weather patterns change. Some areas suffer droughts and others an increase in precipitation. Weather in many areas becomes more extreme. 2.Increased speed of climate change. As the atmosphere becomes increasingly warm, it can hold more moisture, since warm air holds more moisture than cold air. More moisture in the air intensifies the greenhouse effect and the whole process happens with increasing speed like a snowball increases in size and speed as it rolls down a hill. Exactly how climate change will influence future weather… no one really knows. Scientists do their best to create climate projections using computer models which requires the best guesses of those who build them. Although these are often very well-educated guesses, they’re still guesses. Shrinking Amounts of Snow and IceMajor ice and snow fields melt and shrink are shrinking as the earth becomes warmer. This raises sea levels through increased run-off and exposes dark-colored land, which absorbs radiation instead of reflecting it, which contributes to the warming process.  

Ocean-related Changes80% of the heat produced by global warming is absorbed by the world’s oceans, which contain over 320 million cubic miles of water. This heat is spread worldwide by currents which not only circle the earth but also follow paths in which they both dive deeply and rise to the surface. This makes the world’s oceans a very large heat sink. Because this absorbed heat is spread over such a vast area, small changes in ocean temperature can reflect large changes in the overall world temperature.Warming oceans have the following results...1.Thermal expansion from increased water temperatures is projected to be responsible for over 50% of future rises in sea level. Changes in ocean currents: one major concern is that changes in ocean temperature and salinity may affect the behavior of major ocean currents.

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