Global warming. What is it and how will it affect us?

Question

I've heard a bunch about global warming and that we are all going to die. But to completely grasp the meaning of this I would like to ask you to please explain this to me in normal english without all the fancy scientific terms.

Answer 1

Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century, and its projected continuation.

(Just browse through the Wikipedia article and you should have more than plenty of information.)

Answer 2

The idea of global warming is connected with "greenhouse gases."  When sunlight falls upon the Earth, some of the sunlight is reflected and some is absorbed.  The part that is absorbed heats the Earth up and it gives off heat energy (infrared light) that goes out toward space.  Greenhouse gases absorb some of this heat energy and send it back toward Earth, making it warmer than it would be otherwise. If there were no greenhouse gases the Earth would be much colder, definitely too cold for life as we know it.  So greenhouse gases are a good thing, to a certain extent.  Water vapor is the most important and abundant, followed by carbon dioxide. The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere set the Earth's mean temperature.

Since the industrial revolution mankind has been putting more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  This has the effect of shifting the mean temperature of the Earth upwards. The temperature goes up and down from day to day, season to season and year to year, but with more greenhouse gases it eventually must go up (there is really no way around this).

If the mean temperature of the Earth changes it won't do so uniformly.  It may not change much at the equator, but it will change a whole lot toward the poles.  This will not only cause melting of some of the polar ice, it will shift the jet stream and storm track.  It is believed that it will make areas that are now fairly dry (like California, the Mediterranean) even drier.  It will also mean that more precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow.  That's actually a big deal in places like the western United States and Asia, because they rely on melting snow/ice for their water supply.  There are not enough reservoirs to hold the water that's needed to last all year.

Additionally, areas that are important growing regions may not have enough water to be farmed without irrigation (which may or not be available).  The fertile regions of the mid-latitudes may shift poleward.

Some of these things can probably be overcome, but to do so will require IMMENSE investment in new infrastructure, definitely in the trillions of dollars and possibly the migration of large portions of the population.  It may also require animals to migrate to stay within their biome.  Unfortunately it may not be possible for things like trees to migrate so some habitats may be lost entirely.

Answer 3

they are saying the sun is gonna crash into earth and freeze =]

Answer 4

We're all going to get excellent tans.

Answer 5

Have you heard of the Greenhouse Effect?  If you haven't, then I'll explain it to you:

Carbon dioxide and other gases will trap heat in the air, but just enough heat to make living conditions just right for living on Earth.  Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen (that's where we get our oxygen).  Cars and factories release carbon dioxide into the air.  Now there are so many cars and factories releasing carbon dioxide into the air, there just to much carbon dioxide for the plants to take in fast enough.  The effect of this is the average global temperature is increasing.

A very good website to learn about Global Warming is http://save-r-planet.webs.com/

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Just look ,Gore has made millions . The more we propagate GW the higher the cost of oil. If we don't start drilling things could get bad.

Answer 7

Global warming means the earth is getter warmer. It's not going to make an effect in our lifetime.