Scientist Janet Schlarbaum Discussions By Tim Bijman

There are more and more myths going on around global warming, in this article we’ll discuss a few as stated by the royal society.

1.) There are a lot of scientists who do no think that climate change is a problem. There certainly are different opinions among scientists about some of the details of climate change, and how we as humans contribute to this climate change. A study in the journal Science in 2004 stated that only scientists who work for oil companies, or companies related to oil, reject the impact of human activities on the climate change. Almost all the other scientists however, do believe in the human impact on the climate change. Such a fact is hard to contradict, because a lot of scientists are strongly influenced.

2.) There is little/no evidence that global warming is happening. Even if it’s happening, it doesn’t happens much.
Well, you can’t contradict this statement. Studies have shown that the global surface temperature has risen by 0.6 centigrade degrees during the last century. The question if the risen temperature is a result of human activities, or that it is a result of normal heating/cooling down cycles stays.

3.) The Earth is getting warmer, but not as a result of emissions of greenhouse gases, which are caused by human activities. Not true, it isn’t arguable more to discuss the question if the Earth is warming as a result of the emission of greenhouse gasses by humans. It is, but the question stays whether it is bad.

4.) Scientist have been exaggerating evidence, in order to raise the attention of people. Well, this could be true. There are cases which are very strange, take for example the glacier scientist who stated that the Himalayan glaciers would reduce because the glacier was reduced by a 134 meters a year. Not true, it was only reduced by 21 meters a year. The calculations were based on wrong facts. These kind of cases do raise questions about the evidence given for global warming. We however do not have enough knowledge to judge if they evidence is true or not. So a lot of evidence remains unquestioned.

Janet Schlarbaum About Earth’s Temperature By Michael Duggan

Global warming describes the increase of the earth’s average temperature beginning with the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. Although increases to the planet’s average temperature have been recorded in ice core data for millions of years, the speed and frequency of the current temperature increase has resulted in this recent heating episode being called global warming. It is attributed to the increase in the burning of fossil fuels initially for steam engines and then in the creation of electricity. Both the fossil fuel consumption and temperature rise curves have increased exponentially in the last two centuries, leading the scientific community to conclude that the use of fossil fuels is the one of the main causes of global warming. The evidence supporting this conclusion is now overwhelming, with governments, corporations and individuals realising the implications and the importance of reducing its causes.

Why is reducing fossil fuel burning important and how does global warming affect our climate? The earth’s climate is defined by a complex system of meteorological elements such as temperature, humidity and rainfall that have been recorded over an extended period of time. The planet is also divided into different climatic categories, including tropical wet, mediterranean and arid to name a few. In the last two hundred years or so, changes to the planet’s climate have occurred. These are predominantly attributed to global warming or the increase in average surface temperatures around the globe. The affects of global warming have significant implications for earth’s climate.

Global warming actually affects the planet’s climate in a number of ways. Increased temperatures are the principle cause of climate change as they cause more evaporation to occur in the oceans, resulting in more frequent and extreme rainfall events. Over land, higher temperatures can produce drier and hotter weather conditions leading to increased desertification or enlargement of current arid climate zones. Although, global warming relates to an increase in the average world temperature, different regions will experience different climatic effects. In general, most regions will become warmer and drier, however many regions will also experience colder temperatures and increased precipitation. These variances will continue to increase, resulting in uncharacteristic weather patterns with extreme events, like hurricanes and cyclones intensifying. Changing climate also has many implications for flora and fauna that have adapted to present weather conditions. Species that cannot migrate or adapt quickly enough may become extinct. Humans will also be affected, as the distribution of arable land may change, making it harder to grow crops. Extreme weather events can also endanger settlements and human lives.

One of the most concerning affects of global warming is the increased melting of polar ice caps, resulting in rising sea levels. This process actually increases global warming because less radiation from the sun is reflected by the ice back out to space. Instead more sunlight is absorbed by land and water fueling further warming and increased melting of polar ice. Climate is also affected by this process as many weather systems are influenced by ocean currents at the poles. The large volumes of melted fresh water from the ice caps can alter ocean currents potentially causing significant changes to the global climate.

By Dr. Mark Clayson

Are you concerned about global warming? You should be. Evidence is now not in dispute. And we are to blame.

The threat of global warming has become even more apparent recently as scientists have stated categorically that it is man made. The effects of global warming will include more extreme weather and floods. This will include a number of countries throughout the world including Britain.

Average temperatures could rise by as much as four degrees centigrade by the end of the century. This would have a number of effects including melting of the ice caps and a rise in sea level by 17 inches. In Britain alone this could cause flooding in areas stretching to London.

Two thousand five hundred scientists have come up with this evaluation after a meeting brought together by the United Nations. They have analyzed weather patterns over past years and have been able to give a forecast for the next century. There was a 90% chance that man himself was to blame for the increase in global warming.

Global warming will cause more rains and storms plus hotter weather. The melting of the ice caps will increase the sea levels leading to flooding in many countries. Suddenly areas of places such as Spain and France will become too hot for habitation. Many poor regions in the world will be flooded and this will cause not only loss of life but also a reduction in global food production. The other effect is that there may be mass immigration to other countries.

By: Jerome Exner

Placed by Janet Schlarbaum
Green house gases, are they as big of a problem as people say? People who know little about green house gases, truly are not aware how its effecting our earth, so hopefully this information clears some of this up, and will show you how serious this problem is actually is.

For 2.5 million years, the earths climate has constantly been changing, from our ice ages to warmer years, but in the last century our climate’s temperature has been rising unusually fast, from about 1.3 to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists believe that it is our own human activity, thats driving the temperature up, and this process is called ” global warming”.

Dating back to the times when the industrial revolution began, factories, trains, and eventually cars, have burned fossil fuels such as oil and coal, which were and still are, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, and other gas’s into our earths atmosphere. These green house gases, or trapped heat near the surface of the earth, are formed by a natural process of the sun, and this is called the ” greenhouse effect”. The green house effect, begins with the sun and the energy it radiates to the earth. The Earth and the atmosphere absorb some of this energy, and the rest is radiated back into space. Now with that being said, these naturally occurring gases, in the atmosphere trap some of this energy and reflect it back, thus, warming the earth. Scientists now believe that the green house effect is getting intensified by all the extra green house gases that humans are releasing.

Signs of global warming, include a recent pattern of very warm years. 1998 was one of the warmest years in history, with 2005, a quick runner up. Furthermore, readings taken from ice core samples, Show that green house gas’s, C02, and methane, have hit there highest levels in 420,000 years, and our sea ice is also shrinking.Our sea ice has declined 10% in the last 30 years.

As long as our nations around the globe, consume these energy’s, and increase their fuel consumption, the overall mass of green house gas’s will continue to rise. Researchers predict that our temperature will increase by 2 – 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. What is uncertain is what rising temperatures,will mean for our planet. Some forecast rising sea levels which of coarse would mean floods, along coastal areas around the world. Weather patterns are changing also, making hurricanes more frequent, severe drought is more common in warm areas, and species which are unable to adapt to this change will face a huge drop in numbers and inevitably, extinction.

Janet Schlarbaum Climate Change

A report of the effects of global warming on health published by WHO, has estimated around one million fifty thousand deaths every year due to global warming. Further it declared that each year five million people are suffering from health problems and diseases caused for this global warming. The rising concern over this matter has led many scientists and researchers to take a deeper look and prepare a plan to save human civilization from this onslaught.

Global warming has caused changes in temperature, ocean current flow, sea level ecosystem, economy, agriculture, industry, settlements and related to all these – the health and living. Warmer world has created congenial atmosphere for the breeding and life expanse of various virus, bacteria and carriers of infectious diseases. Few evidences of global warming leaving negative effects on human health are -

- The vectors distribution of infectious diseases have been altered for global warming.

- Heat wave resulted for global warming are causing deaths.

- The seasonal distribution of few species of allergenic pollen have been altered for global warming.

- Various extreme conditions of global warming like droughts, heat and cold wave, storm, flood, fire will increase the death tolls as well as injuries and diseases.

- Malnutrition and disordered development of children are few long term results of global warming.

- Global warming will cause increase of malaria, diarrhea, cholera, dengue, encephalitis and other diseases.

- There will be constant rising rate of mortality due to ground level ozone related diseases as well as high cardio respiratory morbidity for global warming.

Thus global warming will affect human health in two major ways – with extreme weather conditions and with rising infectious diseases. IPCC in a study of one of the most global warming affected area of Illionis, Chicago, has provided an apprehensive report that by 2020 extreme climate condition like heat wave will raise the climate average deaths to 400 and to 497 by 2050 from the present average of 191. European heat wave of 2003 is an example of its severity. Heat waves will even cause cardio respiratory complications resulting to high rate of deaths.

The results of ill health due to global warming and infectious diseases are already evident. Houston as well as many tropical countries are experiencing frequent outbreak of malaria, dengue and other encephalitis diseases. Even colder regions like Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Queens are severely suffering from malaria since 1990 as a result of global warming. McAllen of Texas also suffered a dengue epidemic in 1995. Florida, New Oreleans, Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Colorado, and California – all are experiencing encephalitis epidemic for global warming since 1987. According to IPCC, 65% of world population will suffer from high risk of infectious diseases in near future. The risk itself will be increased by 20%, only as a result of global warming.

Facing such an impending calamity due to global warming, the requirement of proper planning and organized adaptation to new and changing condition has received a new dimension. Along with urgent and basic adaptation practices to fight the immediate effects, a longer planning and elaborate gradual methodology are also necessary to address the severity of future conditions resulted from global warming. A participatory approach to the holistic development of human health is expected to sober down the effects of global warming on health to some extent.

Author: Christophe Catesson

Thanks to Janet Schlarbaum

By Nick Tart

The earth’s climate has been in a constant state of fluctuation throughout its history. Of course there was the ice age but our planet has also gone through long periods of warmth. However, over the last 200 years the earth’s average temperature has been on a steady rise. This is the undeniable fact that our globe is getting warmer.

Causes

This change, known as global warming, is directly correlated with the Industrial Revolution. Ever since the Industrial Revolution humans have depended on the burning of fossil fuels as their primary source of energy. Burning fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, causes the emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases, predominantly CO2, into our atmosphere. Then these gases prohibit the heat from escaping into space, much like the glass panels of a greenhouse.

It is estimated that energy-related activities account for more than three-quarters of CO2 emissions. Of that three-quarters, more than half comes from stationary energy sources, such as power plants. While about a third comes from our transportation.

Just as CO2 emissions have been increasing, so has deforestation. Because trees naturally recycle CO2 back into oxygen, deforestation has caused the effects of burning fossil fuels to be exponentially harmful to our environment.

Some people have argued that the “theory” of global warming is completely inaccurate. They say that we are just going through another period of global warmth, and our planet will eventually cool down on its own. This is wrong.

It has been scientifically proven that:

1. Greenhouse gas emissions cause heat to be trapped within our atmosphere and
2. The Industrial Revolution of the last 200 years has emitted much more CO2 and other greenhouse gases than the earth has ever seen.

Effects

Climate change, global warming in particular, has had several environmental effects. Scientists have already observed some changes in our environment.

* Shrinking glaciers
* Sea-level rise
* Changes in the range and distribution of plants and animals
* Trees and flowers blooming earlier
* Lengthening of the growing season
* Rivers and lakes freezing later and melting earlier
* Thawing of permafrost

Our planet is suffering a process of global warming due to the atmospheric pollution produced by the industry emission of gases. A great threat for the planet is global warming producing what is known as the greenhouse effect. By global warming we understand “The increase in earth temperature produced by the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial processes that lead to the accumulation of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (water steam, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFC)”. Of all gases that produce the greenhouse effect, (carbon dioxide) CO2, is the main responsible and is produced by the combustion of fossil fuels (carbon, petroleum and natural gas) to obtain energy. Each year, more than 7000 millions of tons of carbon dioxide are sent to the atmosphere, 2/3 of which are from the combustion of fossil fuels, while the rest is produced by deforestation and combustion of wood. Since 1896 it is known that carbon dioxide helps to avoid that infrared radiation escape to space, and this makes that a relatively warm temperature is maintained in our planet (greenhouse effect).

Sometimes it is used the name of climate change, that designates any weather change or anthropogenic climate change, where the direct influence of human activity is implicated. Global warming and greenhouse effect are not synonymous. The greenhouse effect enhanced by pollution, can be, according to most theories, the cause of global warming observed since the middle of the twentieth century, when there was and end to the stage know as the little ice age.

And what can we do to avoid global warming?

Of all possible things the easiest are:

* Walk or use a bike instead of a car.
* Consume only what is necessary, you can reduce in an important way the impact to the productive chain to the environment.
* Recycle garbage
* Reuse all we can, such as clothes, books, toys, etc.
* Reduce consume of electric energy.
* Regulate to comfortable temperature in winter and summer, for heating and air conditioners.

By Ian Pennington

The United States government is seriously taking responsibility to resolve the severe effects of global warming. There have been multiple occurrences of severe heat which is hotter than summer that constantly remain unexplainable to this day. “Are the effects of global warming real?” that’s what most people nowadays ask and the answer to the question is an unfortunate yes as its affects all forms of life whether human, animal or plant. It can bring suspicion or possible occurrences of drought, illness, health disorder and even death at worst.

As has been said above, global warming affects all forms of life from human beings to animals and plants. On humans, global warming or severe heat can cause illnesses and increase the chances of these diseases to spread to larger areas. Animals may also suffer from illnesses that may lead to death like dehydration and loss of the body moisture necessary for survival. Even sea creatures could also be affected by global warming as the water temperature would rise thus controlling the growth of marine life and their ecosystem.
Now is the time to believe, with all these information you will stop asking “are the effects of global warming real?” because it already is proven and supported with facts.

The thing that you should be doing today is providing good information dissemination about global warming and constant encouragement to your fellowmen to make them work with you and reach the goal of minimizing global warming. Now is the perfect time to control global warming issue because our condition is heading to higher stage or becoming severe. Temperature is totally going too high to the extent that sometimes people, animals and plants cannot bear it anymore. Get over on just thinking about “are the effects of global warming real?” rather find a way for its solution and its implementation so as to take part in giving cure to the world’s current disease known as global warming. We should all act regarding this issue because our world is deteriorating and getting weak defense against global warming.

Now that it is known that the effects of global warming are real and not just myths and make believes, it falls on our shoulders to try and make our world better as we alone have the power to do so. It is true, there is no way we can totally control changes of this magnitude but what we have to understand is that it is not about total control or eradication. But it is about effecting changes that could help in making our environment better for us and for our family to live on.

Thanks to Janet Schlarbaum

Global warming. For the last few years it has become a very much talked about and hotly debated topic. Is it real or is it just so much hogwash generated by uninformed scare tacticians trying to suppress free enterprise? Changing weather patterns around the globe seem to indicate that the earth may in fact be in the midst of a global warming cycle. Scientific data shows that the earth’s temperature is gradually rising and climate changes are being seen in areas all around the world as a result. We are already seeing moderate rising of sea levels. Storms are becoming more severe. Areas which don’t normally receive much precipitation are documenting higher than normal rainfall. Areas which would normally experience good rainfall levels are receiving less and less.

The ozone layer over the south pole is being depleted allowing more radiation from the sun to enter earth’s atmosphere helping to raise global temperatures, causing the arctic and antarctic ice caps to melt to levels not known of in thousands and thousands of years. Glaciers in various locations around the world once thought to be semi permanent are melting off and receding at alarming rates. The implications to mankind are enormous and potentially devastating. One half to two thirds of the worlds population live in coastal or low lying areas which could be totally eliminated by rising sea levels brought about by the melting of earth’s polar ice caps. Society as we know it could be totally devastated. Major coastal cities totally wiped out or at the very least made partly or completely uninhabitable. Agriculture severely crippled. World commerce severely disrupted. And the more the earth’s temperature rises the faster the effect is amplified. Some scientists are predicting that global temperatures could rise by ten to twenty degrees and sea levels rise as much as twenty feet or more by the middle of this century due to accelerated global warming.

Quite a scary scenario for our future and our coming generations future. But what is causing this phenomena? Is it all part of some sort of natural cycle of the earth or is it somehow being caused or at least intensified by the way we live and use and abuse the resources of our planet? It is very possible that it is part of a normal cycle of climate changes that the earth has experienced since it was created. The earth has gone through numerous climate changes including ice ages and periods of tropic and Sub-tropic forestation since it was created and started to evolve. But it is also quite possible that this warming cycle is being amplified by human interaction with the atmosphere which protects the earth. Interaction in the form of fossil fuels which emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air which help trap greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Industrial air pollution and pollution from the cars we drive are very possibly the main culprits in the effects we are seeing and experiencing with our atmosphere. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century and the birth of the industrial age, pollution levels in our atmosphere have been steadily rising and as more of the world becomes industrialized the problem only gets worse as long as that industrialization relies on fossil fuels.

What can we as individuals do to help stem this rise in the pollution of our atmosphere and the possible contribution to global warming caused by the use of fossil fuels as our principal means of running our societies? First we can demand that our governments work on developing more earth friendly forms of energy. Wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of energy which don’t emit harmful toxins into the atmosphere. Second, we can make changes in our personal lives which will help reduce the amount of pollution we as individuals create. The largest culprit among us is the cars we drive. Cars which use fuels which are improperly formulated to burn properly because oil companies formulate their fuels to only burn efficiently enough to actually allow our cars to operate, so that they can make as much money as they can off of their products without regard to the consequences to our planet.

Slowly, alternative fuels and fuel alternatives are being developed. Ethanol, Natural gas, hydrogen, biodeisel along with electric and solar powered vehicles. Hybrid cars which combine part time electric drives with conventional gas powered engines. These are all potential solutions to the pollution problems caused by our automobiles. Yet their full potential remains years away from full commercial development. However there are ways to actually make our present cars run better by improving the fuel mixture so it burns more completely thus eliminating the vast majority of pollution caused by the unburned fuel emitted as unburned hydrocarbon pollution. This can, thanks to committed independent inventors be easily and economically accomplished by incorporating hydroxy gas systems into our present cars. Hydroxy gas systems break down H2O into a burnable gas which when combined with the gasoline/air mixture creates a much better and cleaner burning fuel mixture which will eliminate almost all of the pollution emitted by our cars, but also increase the car’s gas milage substantially because these systems cause the gasoline to be almost completely burned up in the engine the way it should be if it was properly formulated to begin with by the oil companies.

These systems can be purchased pre built for a few hundred dollars or with proper plans can be easily constructed from readily obtainable materials for under a hundred dollars. There are numerous people and commercial entities who try to dispel and suppress this information either because they are too disbelieving that these systems can actually work or more importantly are the commercial entities who realize that these systems do in fact work and if people implemented this technology into their cars that these entities profits would be drastically affected.

It is ultimately up to each one of us to change the way we do things and do what we can to help reverse the damage which we as a race of people have done to the health of the planet which sustains us and all living things on this planet. Whether though real shortage of oil supplies are due to market speculation, if something like the cost of gas rising to five or ten dollars a gallon forces us to make those changes, then ultimately that is a good thing regardless of how much it forces us to change our lifestyles or the short term hardships it might impose on us compared to the effect of killing the only atmosphere we have.

Placed here by Janet Schlarbaum

In fact, the past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest years on record, a streak which is unprecedented in the historical record. For that to happen, it’s likely there has to be an underlying factor, and that factor seems to be global warming.

U.S. and global annual temperatures are now around 1.0 F degrees warmer than they were in 1900. The rate of warming has accelerated over the past 30 years, increasing at a rate of three times faster than the century-scale trend. It’s likely the increase in CO2 emissions has something to do with that rate increase.

According to an MIT study, there’s been a 100% increase in the intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since the 1970s, most likely due to the increased amount of CO2 emissions to our atmosphere, which has increased the Earth’s surface temperature, and warmer weather is believed to increase the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes.

In fact, the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by 31% between 1800 and 2000, going from 280 parts per million to 367 parts per million. Scientists predict that carbon dioxide levels could be as high as 970 parts per million by the year 2100.

According to the National Climactic Data Centre estimates, $100 billion of damage was caused by hurricanes hitting the U.S. coast in 2005 alone. The increase in severity of the hurricanes and tropical storms is most likely due to the increase of CO2 emissions, which heats up the Earth’s near-surface temperatures. In fact, the average surface temperature has increased by about 0.6 C (1.0 F) over the last 100 years. This is likely why snow cover and ice extent have decreased over the past few decades.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey predictions, Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left by the year 2030, further showing the rapidity of global warming and the impact it can have on our planet in the very near future.

According to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 400,000 square miles of Arctic sea ice have melted, which is threatening polar bear habitats and further accelerating global warming worldwide. That amount of Arctic sea ice is approximately the size of the state of Texas, and we’ve lost that in just the last 30 years, further emphasizing that we need to take action now before the damage becomes too severe for our efforts to really matter.

The sea level has risen by 4?-8? (10-20 cm) over the past 100 years, which is likely due to the melting of the polar glaciers, which is likely due to the increase in the Earth’s near-surface temperature, and that’s being increased by the increase in CO2 emissions into Earth’s atmosphere. This can lead to devastating effects for coastal communities because the sea level is rising, which means that when the sea comes in-tide, more erosion can occur, and if coastal communities are present, more damage done to them. In addition, losing the glaciers reduces the amount of usable fresh water on our planet.

It is also projected that 15-37% of all plant and animal species could be wiped out by global warming by the year 2050, which could further cause considerable damage to our planet’s ecosystem.

The United States is ranked nr.1 among large nations of being a global warming polluter, contributing 25% of emissions, even though the U.S. only makes up 5% of the world’s population. This provides more evidence that the U.S. Government must do more to combat global warming. In fact, six former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaders say that the U.S. is not doing enough to fight global warming. The fact that there have been NO bills passed by the U.S. Congress to cut global warming pollution further confirms what many EPA leaders are saying.

As you can see, there is statistical evidence that proves that global warming is causing changes to our planet, and changes that will do more harm than good. Governments and individuals need to pay close attention to these statistics in order to figure out ways to reverse the disturbing trends that are now occurring. The sooner we take heed of these statistics and implement changes that address global warming, the quicker we can reverse the disturbing trends and the less damage will occur to our planet and way of life.

Posted by Janet Schlarbaum