what are the effects of advancement in physics in global warming?

Answer 1

Glen T. Seaborg is going to have to find higher ground on the beautiful Island of Stability for his 8 brides and laboratory. He may also have to move the boat launch. RIP, Glen!! ts

Answer 2

The physics involved in understanding GW are a century old, and in fact GW was predicted more than a century ago:

http://www.lenntech.com/greenhouse-effect/global-warming-history.htm

The most important new developments are technological improvements in computers, which allow climate models to be more accurate.

Answer 3

I was taught, as a chemical engineering student (a long time ago) that turbulence was one of the most complex and relatively least understood phenomena in science. I know that what little was known involved horrendous mathematics. The earths weather is largely a turbulent system. All sorts of benefits could come if physicists could understand this better.

Answer 4

Well we are certainly able to document our own demise than any other species.

The trouble is, people want a "fix" that will allow them to continue to live as they have been, with no changes to their lifestyle. That isn't one of the options.

If we leave the realm of fantasy, attempts at a definitive repair or improvement in the environment by a technological intervention have an unbroken record of failure, at least in the USA. Many of them have been disasterous, and made the existing situation much worse. there is no better example than the Army Corps of Engineers. Most of the projects involving our inland waterways in the last 25 years are mainly removing the projects carried out in the previous decades.

The other option is to use our technology to guide the cleanup and repair of the ruin we have brought about. Sometimes we don't agree with a solution, but in life or death matters it can be better to just accept it. Our track record with this approach is much better.

During my school years, we knew about Global Warming, but it was pretty far down the list of comcerns. We had radioactive isotopes in the food chain. We had high levels of DDT, causing all sorts of problems. Air quality and water quality were terrible and getting worse. Many chemicals in the water chain were fatal poisons above small levels.

The radioactive isotopes increased with every test (usually 1-3 per week). The current level was published in the paper daily. It was also printed on every milk carton, because that was one of the main points of entry into the food chain. The "safe level" was originally up to 100 microcuries (or whatever the units were). I watched the levels rise and exceed that level. When we stopped atmospheric testing, and then all testing, the levels fell and went away. Nobody knows how many cases of cancer, or birth defects that caused. The solution was to stop the testing, not to find a way to go on doing it.

DDT went into common use during WWII. It was a very effective insecticide. It was used against mosquitoes to fight malaria and yellow fever, and against fleas and lice to fight cholera and plague. It ended up in the ground water, and entered the food chain through fish. Birds ate the fish. The DDT caused the birds eggs to have very thin shells which broke, and many birds began to die out, particularly the American Eagle. The main effect on humans was an increased rate of stillbirths. As long as that was less than the deaths from the diseases not too many people cared. When they realized we were down to around 100 or so eagles, people got upset, and DDT was banned. As the levels dropped the eagles came back (with a lot of help). Other species did not do so well. For the most part stopping using DDT made the problem go away, and other methods were found to deal with the diseases. It wasn't fixed by inventing a magic wand that made the effects go away so we could keep using it.

The air was laden with soot from burning soft coal, and its other byproducts like sulphur dioxide, sulphuric acid and nitric acid. Cars had no pollution controls, and produced many of the same compounds. I remember as a kid waking up and coughing up black soot every morning. My Mom told me when she was in school they had to wear white blouses, and every day by the time she got to school her blouse would have changed to dark gray. For people with lung conditions like asthma, larger cities like Los Angeles were uninhabitable. It was common for doctors to order them to move to Arizona or Nevada if they wanted to live. After more than 20 years we got a watered down version of the Clean Air Act. Use of emission controls were required, cleaner fuels, and a few basic things like that. In an amazingly short time the air cleared, figuratively and literally. Again, they stopped causing the problem, rather than looking for a way to go on doing it.

Water was even worse. The East River in New york and many other rivers were devoid of life. Hudson Bay was almost sterile, and Chesapeake Bay was right behind it. There was a sterile river back east (maybe Cleveland) that actually burst into flames one day for no apparent reason. Eating fish from Americas waterways was risking your life. More than 30 years later we got a watered down version of the Clean Water Act (no pun intended). It banned dumping raw sewage and untreated factory waste directly into rivers, streams and lakes, prohibited the dumping anywhere of the worst carcinogens like gasoline, benzene, acetone, and a few other basic things.
Most of these lakes and streams now have some kind of ecosystems, although dangerous substances are found in high levels in most of them, and populations of traditional game or commercial fish are still at risk. Again, people stopped causing the problem, rather than looking for a way to go on doing it.

Now back then, we didn't have the skeptics advising us that the flaming river outside our window wasn't really there, or was part of a natural process. This forced us to use our brains and solve the problem. The people who question whether its too late to do anything about Global Warming should think about this: all of these issues show humans can cause global problems, and they can repair or correct at least some of the effects if they act. AT THE TIME, we were told that each of these things could not be fixed. Radioactive fallout and DDT would remain in the environment forever, so there was no point in doing anything. What turned out to be true was, when we stopped generating the poisons, the earth did a surprisingly good job of handling what was already there. These are only a few of the environmental challenges people faced while I was growing up. If you let them convince you nothing can be done, nothing will be done.

Answer 5

None that I can think of. Why should knowledge change the climate?

Answer 6

none