global warming? no snow?

Question

What is global warming? Why is it so bad? what causes it? Is it true that there is going to be no snow in new jersey this year because of it? Is this stuff suppose to be happening so fast?

could global warming be why there are now cougars in momouth county???????

Answer 1

Let's look at this one step at a time.

First of all, there's the temperature right now. Nobody can seriously say, "Today's temperature is caused by this one thing...". Weather is wickedly complex. There are pretty much countless influences on it, and all of them will nudge things a little one way or a little another until we get the sum total of a particular temperature on a particular day. Enough about that.

Now 'global warming' is a description, not a cause. All global warming means is that the average temperatures are getting higher. The globe is warming. There is no dispute that this is occurring - data clearly shows this. But remember it's a description of what's going on, not a source. Something may be causing global warming, but global warming doesn't cause anything (except maybe a lot of air conditioner purchases).

Where the dispute arises is around the question of human-caused effects on global warming. Some people think that our activity has had a variety of drastic effects that have produced this current incontrovertable warming. One of the main ways this might happen is from by an increased production of carbon dioxide from burning most fuels. Carbon dioxide contributes to the 'greenhouse effect', which causes more energy to be retained within the Earth's systems.

If those people (most scientists and most people in the world among them) are right, then it seems likely that the warming will not only continue, but with ever-increasing speed. Which would be really, really bad. Even in the next few decades, and perhaps already. On the other hand, even if the current global warming trend is not caused by humans, it would probably be to our benefit to keep it under control anyway.

So ultimately (in my mind, at least) the question of whether humans caused global warming isn't really relevant. Our society has flourished under current conditions and it serves our purposes to keep them the same if we can. Just because it's never been done before, it doesn't mean we can't do it now!

Hope that helps to straighten things out! Peace.

Answer 2

Global warming is the gradual increase in global temperatures caused by the emission of gases that trap the sun's heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

Weather is unpredictable, but it can happen that Jersey doesn't receive snow. This is a cause of global warming.

The world will be experiencing the hottest year ever as El Niño combines with Global Warming!

Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time WASHED AN INHABITED ISLAND off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

As the new year was ushered in with stormy conditions across the UK, the forecast for the next 12 months is of extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge.

Well, we can decreas global warming but humans seem to be increasing it, through gas emittions to the earth's atmoshpere, so it is rapidly increasing.

Answer 3

First of all the answer to your question is no, this years winter has nothing to do with global warming, or El Nino for that matter as mentioned in an earlier post.You cannot link one particular event to such a broad scale idea. This years abnormally warm temps are due to a primarily zonal wind pattern that has kept artic air masses bottled up at the north pole. May I remind you that as of today (jan 2nd) there is no significant signs that an el nino is occuring so please dont assume and use these terms if you do not know what they really do mean... As for the other post...The process you have described is not "global warming" the process you are refering to is the greenhouse effect. Shortwave radiation from the sun is absorbed by the earth and re-emitted as longwave radiation on the order of about 9 microns. This outgoing radiation is NOT "TRAPPED" nor "reflected" by greenhouse gases such as C02, methane, water vapor, etc. It is absorbed and re-emitted by these gases. Similar to what happens in a greenhouse, hence the name. Global warming is a very slow process and we should not be jumping to outragoues conclusions that certain synoptic scale weather events and patterns are caused by global warming. People need to educate themselves by reading scholarly articles and books rather than just believing what the media is telling them. You should not just assume that this winter is warm, or that hurricane was strong, or that tornado was devastating because of global warming. That is completely ignorant and misleading.

Answer 4

Global warming occurs in cycles with global cooling over thousands of years. It started before there were people in the world.

Answer 5

In the thousands of years it took for Global Warming to START to have a noticeable effect, it with be centuries before we have anything to worry about.

Answer 6

its terrible, what makes it worse is that people don't want to admit it, go to these sites

http://www.climatecrisis.net/pdf/10things.pdf

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp

good luck sister!!

Answer 7

our earth is being destroyed