what is global warming ?

Question

is the world comeing to a end. when ?

Answer 1

didn't you watch the Al gore movie? The earth is becoming warmer, i don't think the end will come for a long time though. Ice caps will melt, oceans will rise making less land, some places will become deserts, a slow painful death.

Answer 2

In the last century, global temperatures rose by between 0.3°C and 0.6°C, depending on who you listen to. (NCDC US global mean temperature anomaly 0.3°C, AccuWeather from land based stations 0.45°C, NCDC global mean 0.53°C, UN 0.6°C.)

The real question is; what's causing it?

There is no getting away from the fact that planet Earth warms and cools, by a natural process, without any help from mankind at all. So, are we affecting it or not?

Well, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by about one third since 1900, and human activity is the probable cause of most of this rise.

It has also been shown that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, so the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere should cause the planet to warm up a bit.

Unfortunately, there is no consensus about how much "a bit" actually is.

The scientific understanding of how CO2 works as a greenhouse gas is extremely crude - even in a laboratory. Any estimation of how much the entire climate would change, given the rise in CO2 levels, is basically just guesswork.

Add to that the fact that there are many other factors that affect the climate's temperature - the Earth's orbit, the "wobble" of its axis, the output of the Sun, etc, etc - and you can see that calculating exactly how much is being caused by mankind is almost impossible. It's like trying to work out how well your friend is playing her violin, when the whole orchestra is playing.

The proof of this is the fact that the climate models that the scientist use to predict future warming, are consistently wrong. For example, James Hansen predicted in 1988 what the climate would do by the year 2000. He even hedged his bets by using high, medium and low figures. The actual temperature rise was only one quarter of his lowest guess! (His guesses were 0.25°C, 0.3°C and 0.45°C. The actual rise was 0.06°C)

So, in summary, global warming is happening, but as yet, there is no evidence that we should be worried about it.

Answer 3

The current global warming - there have been others, as world temperature has fluctuated naturally - appears to be a mix of natural warming and warming created by man's behavioural affects.

It seems that since the industrial revolution man has affected the whole planet's infrastructure to such an extent that its temperature has super-heated, largely due to this. Mostly this has been caused through extra Carbon Dioxide ( CO2) and other gases being produced.

I understand that the majority of climate scientists, 90% minimum, now believe this to be the case. There have been many published reports in the last couple of years that warn that the point of no return for Earth would be within 10 years or so. Scary.

Whilst the earth is likely to survive in some state, man's future is uncertain. The earth is much older than man, we are but short-term, possibly temporary inhabitants. Obviously, our behaviour now can limit the damage and, perhaps give our species longer on the planet. (Plus keep a few other species alive). Reduced CO2 output would be a major help.

Rob

Answer 4

1.Green House gases like sulfur dioxide emitted to the atmosphere damage the layers that act as heat and wave filters. (layers in the atmosphere)
2.The rays from the sun directly entered the earth since there are damages on the protective layer. This increase the intensity of heat waves resulting temperature increases.
3.Some of these rays trapped between the earth and the atmosphere which also increase the heat on the surface of the earth.
4. Because North ice region is “relatively” closer to the sun (23.5 degree angle of the earth), the ice met faster at the north than in the south. Anyway, both North and South ice is melting because of the temperature increases.
5.Then as all the people in the world know, when ice melts it become water and the sea level increases with the melting of the ice and cause other environmental damages including hurricanes.
Note: Those who deny GBW should also know that both US and Canadian government now admit that their political policies on environment is wrong! Finally they got it!
There are several incidents of Global Warming and Global Cooling in the history. But there is no sudden changes ever occurred in the history like the one that is happening right now.
Personally, I do not know what to believe. Is it right or is it wrong? You be the judge.

Answer 5

Global warming is the common term for the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation into the future.

Global average near-surface atmospheric temperature rose 0.6 ± 0.2 °Celsius (1.1 ± 0.4 °Fahrenheit) in the 20th century. The prevailing scientific opinion on climate change is that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."[1] The main cause of the human-induced component of warming is the increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which leads to warming of the surface and lower atmosphere by increasing the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases are released by activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, and agriculture.

Models referenced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that global temperatures may increase by 1.4 to 5.8 °C (2.5 to 10.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100. The uncertainty in this range results from both the difficulty of predicting the volume of future greenhouse gas emissions and uncertainty about climate sensitivity. However, some experts using a more conservative model for fossil fuel availibity suggest either no rise [1] or a "couple of degrees" [2].

An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. These changes may increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornados. Other consequences include higher or lower agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer streamflows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. Warming is expected to affect the number and magnitude of these events; however, it is difficult to connect particular events to global warming. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, even if no further greenhouse gases were released after this date, warming (and sea level) would be expected to continue to rise since CO2 has a long average atmospheric lifetime[citation needed] .

Remaining scientific uncertainty comes from the exact degree of climate change expected in the future and particularly how changes will vary from region to region across the globe. A hotly contested political and public debate has yet to be resolved, regarding whether anything should be done, and what could be cost-effectively done to reduce or reverse future warming, or to deal with the expected consequences. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at combatting global warming.

Answer 6

Some gases ("greenhouse gases") let sunlight in, which warms the Earth, and then block that heat from leaving. That's the "greenhouse effect", and it's a natural thing.

Man is making excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, mostly by burning fossil fuels. That causes the delicate natural balance to go out of whack and the Earth warms. That's global warming.

It won't be a Hollywood style disaster. Gradually coastal areas will flood and agriculture will be damaged. But it will be very bad. Rich countries will cope, but it will take huge amounts of money. In poor countries many people will die of starvation, but not all of them.

Most scientists say, in 20-50 years. But we need to start right now to fix it, fixing it will take even longer than that.

Answer 7

I'm a man of no scientific reporte, when you consider the movements of life on earth on a global scale it becomes a cooling effect, the breathing and moving of air for example, the more it moves the cooler it gets picking up gases to alleviate the suns rays on the earths surface. bouncing off harmful uv rays and utilising ir rays to warm plants during the day, strange but true fact, used in making sugars by photoplasmids which we need to make proteins to move. it seems the dulling of the atmosphere with heavy gases that are not used in life's cycles are at fault as well keeping in all that unwanted energy it does let in.
global warming, is the damaging of the ability of earth to counter/use the flows of the suns energy efficiently.

Answer 8

Right, my theory is that global warming is when the earth heats up and everything floods. The earth will increase its temperature and places will become desert. Its like the earth is going to wipe out everything and start evolution all over again. But don't worry, this won't happen for ages yet. But if you help now it won't even happen! So... Walk (if you can) to places! YAY! Hope this helps.

Answer 9

Global warming and global cooling have been happening naturally to the earth for eons. Don't let the wooden soldier (Gore) frighten you. He is in it for the buck!

Answer 10

Its from all the gases and other "Garbage" that we keep releasing into our atmosphere that is basically "Ripping" a hole right through it.That is one reason why weather is changing all around our world.The dinosaurs died from the "Ice Age" and as I see it, the human race is going to vanish from the "Fire Age".
As for the end of the world-only God knows.