What exactly is global warming?

Answer 1

It means different things to different people.

To politicians - Money
To tree hugging crusties - A reason not to work
To students - A reason not to wash
To me - Big con

Answer 2

Global warming is about the increase of the average temperature of the ENTIRE world. How they do this, I don't know. It's still being explained to me but I can give you a layman's answer. I'm past 80 years old and the only official science education I had was in high school but I've been a life long amateur scientist in a way, having read many books on physics, engineering, and chemistry.

There are weather stations in various locations around the world. These weather stations each have many thermometers. So in each location, many thermometers do a reading and they get an average temperature of that location. Then they take an average reading of all the locations. What climate scientists have found is that the average temperature of the entire world has gone up by a percentage of a degree in the last 100 years. This somehow takes into account all uncertainties, fluctuations, and variations that they can measure a temperature change with precision to less than a degree. If only our weathermen can be so precise.

It is hard to know the actual average temperature of the entire world before this above process was started. There is a scientific process of guessing that temperature by various means but the exact temperature number is IMPOSSIBLE to know with any accuracy.We don't know the actual average temperature of the whole world 800 years ago but we use much inference to guess that temperature to know that there was a medieval warm period. From all the evidence, we can come to many conclusions but nothing is precise. For instance, some scientists claim that the average temperature of the entire world was more during the medieval warm period then it is now, some scientists say it was less.

What we do know is that CO2 goes through a natural cycle on the earth of being release in the atmosphere and then being absorbed. All natural processes of CO2 production is said to have an equivalent absorption. The CO2 in question is the CO2 that gets released from fossil fuels. This CO2 is said to have been locked under the earth for thousands of years and the release of this CO2 is causing a surplus of CO2 in the air. This surplus has been the hypothesis of being the cause of the temperature increase that has supposedly started since the dawn of the industrial era.

So the question is, does this extra CO2 have a measurable effect on the climate? Also, does the fact that the earth being mostly ocean( a a giant carbon sink in itself besides the plankton which is another sink) and the high percentage of H2O on the earth prevent a global greenhouse effect? Any greenhouse effect on earth has so far been only local and never spread out all over the planet (though scientist believe that a feedback mechanism would occur increasing green house gases to a point where it can cover the entire planet!) often dissipating because of the vast amounts of re-absorption of H2O gas and CO2.

As I understand the science further, I will try to explain it to the best of my capability in simple terms whenever I can on these message boards and Yahoo answers.

Answer 3

Global warming is a topic that is tossed around a lot these days. A lot of people are getting involved into it and that is a good thing these days. Global warming is basically what it sounds like. The earth is warming. This is caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases. These are gases that trap the sun rays in that makes eath hotter. Yes,at the equator the temperature did increase 1 degree. You may not think that is much but at the poles, the temperature increased 10degrees and more. The earth is like a giant car sitting in the hot sun. We are getting warmer by the huge amounts of CO2 we are putting into the air. THe increased temperature will cause more rain insome places and droughts in others. Everything will be put into the extreme and common life will be not the same unless we change.
-go green

Answer 4

Third grade science and a mountain of data. I'll give you a basic explanation. Be sure you disregard the 26 most common myths about global warming. Let me give you a link to them also
All light, including sunlight, has a frequency. The frequency is higher if the light has a lot of energy, and lower if it has less. Light at different frequencies makes up the visible and the invisible spectrum. The red end is the low energy end, the violet is the high end. These extend very far in both directions, especially in the case of sunlight.

Light, when it passes through matter loses some or all of it's energy. If the matter is a brick wall, or a sheet of metal, it loses all it's energy, and we call the matter "opaque".

In other cases, like air, water or glass, it loses only part of it's energy. It's frequency (or color) shifts toward the red, or lower energy portion of the spectrum (the "red" end). That's the matter we call "transparent", or "translucent".

In many cases, light that has enough energy to pass through that type of matter loses enough energy that it can't pass through a second time. An example would be a car parked in direct sunlight. The sunlight gets in, but loses enough energy that most of it can't get back out. It just bounces around inside, giving up it's energy as it does. The inside of the car will be hotter than it's surroundings.

Another example is a greenhouse in wintertime. Sunlight enters, loses energy, and is trapped inside. The interior of the greenhouse stays warm enough to grow plants, even when the temperature is below freezing. Today we use grow lights and electricity, but these were the standard a hundred years ago.

The earths atmosphere robs sunlight of some of it's energy as it passes through. It is just enough that very little is reflected back into space. That keeps us from frying, and also keeps us warm. As long as the composition of the atmosphere stays the same, so does the climate.

Since industrialization, humans have added tons of Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere. At this point it amounts to a layer 300 meters deep, covering the entire surface of the earth. CO2 is heavier than most gases, so it stays near the ground. The thickness of the layer will continue to increase as long as we continue to add CO2.

CO2 has one other important property. Every element or compound absorbs energy at any frequency, but emits only on one frequency that is specific to that particular element or compound. (that's the principle behind lasers) In the case of CO2, the frequency is smack in the middle of the infrared, or heat portion of the spectrum. That's why CO2 is a favorite choice for laser makers who specialize in cutting lasers, such as surgeons use. This causes CO2 to play a larger role than some other greenhouse gases like water or methane.

Answer 5

That takes some answering and is best done with the use of diagrams and charts. Have a look at this page which explains what global warming is without the use of scientific jargon - http://profend.com/global-warming/pages/causes.html

Answer 6

Global Warming is the gradual increase of temperature world wide caused by greenhouse gases locking in the sun's heat.

Answer 7

an increase in the earths average temperature as a the result of a build up of heat- trapping green house gases in the atmosphere, largley due to humna activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the earth. when the gases increase beyond what is normal and healthy so does the planets average temperature, thus causeing glacier melting which can or will lead to a major flood, new diseases, and more people will die beasue of these diseases. our drinking water will go bad.. and our crops will die..... if it keeps up it will soon be the end of humans and the earth

Answer 8

global warming is a gradual increase in the earth's average ground and atmospheric temperatures across the whole planet.

Answer 9

Its what the g8 have come up with for making us pay more taxes for blaming us on polluting the earth and causing global warming and making the polar ice caps if you actually research global warming you will see that it is a myth the earth has been heating up sinse the beginning of time which is a known fact and the ozone layer doesnt actually exist.

Answer 10

it depends on the part you are looking at according to al gore its that the ozone layer is letting in more sun and not letting enough out causing the ice to melt which in 50 years means anyone in new york, New York and any other coast line area are dead anyone in nebraska like me are snug bunnies but in 100 years all that will be left are twinkies and cockroaches.

Answer 11

Cuddleing?