Can someone answer a few questions on Global Warming?

Question

How does one measure global warming? Please be specific, how frequent are the measuremts taken, where are the measurements taken.

What is the current Global Temperature?

If Global Warming is as big a problem as Al Gore makes it seem, what is the optimal Global Temperature.

Answer 1

It is no hidden fact that the phenomena we studied in school known as the global warming is in for real. The next big thing is that the US Scientists have found ways by which they can measure the rate by which earth is getting warmer. As per the reports, they calculated the radiation from the sun, the heat reflected back into space and the rising temperature of the seas and the extra warmth is equivalent to a one-watt light bulb shining constantly over an area of one sq meter everywhere on the planet.

In simple words, we would raise the temperature of the planet by 0.6C before the end of the century. These facts were reported in the Journal Science on Friday. If this continues like this for another 10,000 years, the heat would melt enough snow glaciers that the levels of the sea would rise by almost a kilometer. Scary statistics indeed.

James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies spoke about these findings: “This energy imbalance is the smoking gun that we have been looking for. It shows that our estimates of the human-made and natural climate forcing agents are about right, and they are driving the Earth to a warmer climate.”

These findings would also give the science community of the United States that they have to take serious steps to stop the gas emissions in their country and perhaps sign the Kyoto protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions and further advancement in the global warming levels. The US government has until now claimed that the findings were not solid enough to justify the steps required to control the pollution levels.

Answer 2

The average global temperature as estimated by the surface instrumental record is somewhat of a joke. The daily high and low readings from the various temperature stations around the world are added together and divided by two. Depending on each station if it is rural of urban different correction factors are applied to remove urban heat island. Then seasonal means are adjusted for, because of summer and winter in the different hemispheres. To assume that  the footprint of human civilization such as concrete, agriculture, deforestation and irrigation have been completely removed from the temperature record is a naive assumption. To also assume that averaging the high temp and the low temp is a valid metric for evaluating climate is not supported by any law of thermodynamics that I am aware of.

That is why the satellites disagree with the surface record. The graph on the left is the warming trend that the surface indicates, the middle graph is the mid troposphere satellite data that uses a "CLIMATE MODEL" to adjust for orbital decay and the one on the right uses a method to complicated to go into here to adjust for orbital decay. You are right to be suspicious of the term global temperature, there has not been any peer reviewed literature to support such a term. Globally averaged phone numbers for each year since the telephone was invented might show a global warming trend very similar to the GISS.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/res...

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Answer 3

Your questions regarding measurements are answered at least partially by this page at the NOAA:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/rese...

Global temperature at a glance:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/gcag/gcag.html

"Optimal" begs the question of "optimized for what", and we are a long way from knowing a lot of that.  What we do know is that sea-level rise and heat-induced drought is going away from optimal, at least from a human point of view.

Answer 4

A variety of means are used to measure temperature, including land based weather stations, sea based stations, and satellite measurements.

Here are the latest global temperatures including 2007, and the trend:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

The optimal temperature is the one nature had in mind, before we started to mess things up.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

"If the Earth came with an operating manual, the chapter on climate might begin with a caveat that the system has been adjusted at the factory for optimum comfort, so don't touch the dials."

Al who?  What university is he at?  I only listen to scientists about this.  They all say it's real and mostly caused by us.

Answer 5

they measure the amount of carbon dioxide that major industrial nations realse, this hurts our planets atmosphere. i dont know how they measure the planets overall temperature. it doesn't matter what the temperature is. If we don't stop poluting, the planet will suffer. the planet will change from the polution.

Answer 6

The problem is reflected in loss of habitat, among other things.

Sorry you don't like reality.

You can always blame it on Al Gore, like everyone else.

But that's whistling past the graveyard.

Answer 7

i find it funny that al gore is the poster boy for all of this... he flies all over the world on private jets. one trip that he took had a bigger carbon footprint than that of the average american for one year. "do as i say not as i do" can you say hippocrite?   IN FACT al gore is HEAVILY invested in "green technologies" what better way to ensure your investment than to make people believe that they NEED what you are selling!   the research does not add up! the tropishere is NOT responding the way all the global warming pundents say given the amount of CO2 that is specified within a given time.

did you know that in the 70's there was a global cooling crisis? scientists wanted to cover the ice caps with black tarps to warm the earth!

i suppose that all of our pollution and SUV's driving around on mars is causing all the global warming there too huh? (mars's ice caps are melting)

don't buy into the liberal media in all this saying that man is the cause. there is no PROOF that man is causing it. NONE!!! IT IS A THEORY!!

granted the earth is approximately one degree warmer than is was 100 years ago.  however, the instruments used now are much more accurate than they were then!

also, some of the NEWEST data, suggests that the rate of increase was inflated due to inaccurate reading of some of test sites! FACT!

here's a site that links to about 250 other sites like NASA, NOAA, and U of COLORADO, that give JUST AS MUCH EVIDENCE that global warming is NOT caused by us and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

all of this hysteria reminds me of the fascist views of hitler in the late 30's. (i'm a history major) DO YOUR HOMEWORK.. by rallying around a "crisis" (real or not) that the media has perpetuated with there liberal agenda, the government is able to EASILY take away liberites and rights of the pwople who think that they NEED THE government to take care of them... i thought it was the government that needed us not the other way around...hhhhmmmm..

http://schnittshow.970wfla.com/globalwar...

Answer 8

http://tinyurl.com/3yop6n

Answer 9

Its virtually impossible for humankind who has only lived on this earth for about 7000 years to drastically alter the world climate when we consider the fact that this world has existed for millions of years and still remain in relatively good shape despite frequent intergalactic bombardments from outer space by meteorites throughout its long history.  Meteorites whose nuclear like impact craters hold evidence of serious carbon footprints larger than Sasquatch can ever fit into.

Answer 10

Arctic Ice Melting Much Faster Than Predicted

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Arctic Sea Ice Gone in Summer Within Five Years?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Map: Global Warming Effects

http://green.nationalgeographic.com/envi...

Answer 11

global warming is measured by the gullability of the American public, which seems to be running rampant on this subject anyway.  And algore hasn't a clue on optimal anything, much less optimal global temperature.  God Bless you.

Answer 12

One way that AGW will become more apparent,is with ever widening parameters in the weather records. Each year here in the Pac. N.W.,we get stronger storms.  As each years record gets reached or broken,the disastrous effects get worse.  It might seem to be going slowly to most folks,but in Earth's history,it's happening in a blink of an eye.  That rapid change is what the scientists are warning us about.