Global warming question;;?

Question

okay so i am having a little h/w problem. I honestly cant find any reasons how people can be causing global warming. so basically i am asking for like a website or a pages worth ofinformation and discription on how humans impact global warming. thanx guys i always can count on u. and i promise to award the person with best answer with 10 points!! thanx again!

~kir

Answer 1

Using their strongest language to date, the world's leading climate scientists are reporting today that they are basically certain that burning gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels has unnaturally heated the atmosphere -- and the effects are likely to last for centuries.

· Answering common questions on climate change

· Opposing climate experts face off

Their conclusions: Evidence of climate warming is unequivocal.

As report co-author Philip Mote, the Washington state climatologist, said in translating his fellow scientists' language about responsibility: "We did it."

"Scientists are pretty well done arguing about whether the warming in the last 50 years is related to burning fossil fuels," Mote said.

Researchers said they are more than 90 percent certain that global warming is caused by humans -- their most powerful assertion to date. And that conclusion was even stronger until last-minute maneuvering by China, whose exploding energy use stands to exacerbate the problem.

Worldwide, the report says, the warming is likely to mean intensified droughts and heat waves, along with unusually strong storms -- such as the ones that left millions of Northwesterners shivering in December, while killing 13.

The scientists also highlighted an increasingly worrisome global trend: acidification of the oceans, which could unravel the marine web of life. It is caused by the carbon dioxide spewed out by power plants, cars and countless other sources, as well as methane and other gases.

In the Pacific Northwest, residents appear headed into a period of more drought, less snow for skiing -- and less water for drinking and watering lawns in the summer. That could mean perilous times for forests, glaciers, salmon and, ultimately, orcas, which eat the salmon.

A larger version of this illustration is available for download (PDF).

If there is a smidgen of good news, it's that many of the worst-case scenarios for rising sea levels don't look as bad as before -- although that signals a slowing of the previously predicted rate, not a reprieve.

And, because recent and unexpected melting of ice in Greenland wasn't factored into the report's predictions, even this bright spot might soon fade.

"It's a cautious, conservative estimate," Mote said.

In a brief report in today's issue of the journal Science, an array of leading climate researchers said recent findings "raise concern that the climate system, in particular sea level, may be responding more quickly than climate models indicate."

Today's report was released in Paris by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was formed by the United Nations. The "Summary for Policymakers" synthesizes findings of scientists and representatives of 113 countries.

The group's last assessment, in 2001, was backed in this country by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Both Seattle and King County are national leaders in the movement to slash greenhouse gases to fend off disastrous changes, and in preparing to adapt to a warmer world:

Mayor Greg Nickels spearheaded an effort that has seen nearly 400 mayors representing more than 57 million Americans pledge to cut planet-warming pollution.

The county and the city are pursuing numerous measures to slow, halt and then reverse the area's contribution to global warming. Examples: King County was the first in the nation to buy diesel hybrid-electric trucks; is expanding its mass transit system; is preserving forestland; and has passed a "green building" ordinance. The city's action list is 34 pages long.

Seattle Public Utilities is studying ways to operate its reservoirs to deal with the changes through more flexible water management. Water supplies are expected to contract each decade by 3.5 percent. The county's new Brightwater sewage treatment plant is engineered to reuse wastewater for irrigation.

Climate change "is going to be the most defining thing this century in terms of human events," King County Executive Ron Sims predicted. "People keep thinking it's a magic date that's going to occur in the future, but it's been occurring for some time."

The Pacific Northwest is emerging as a center of research and commercial development of alternative energy sources.

The country's largest wind farm sits on the Oregon-Washington state line, and the biggest biodiesel refinery on the continent is under construction in Grays Harbor County. The plant's builder, Seattle-based Imperium Renewables, said Thursday that the company will begin using Washington-grown canola to produce fuel.

"The things we're doing will actually aid our economy," Sims said. "The course we've set is good for our region, and it's good for our economic growth."

Across the region, companies and governments are bracing.

While hotter, drier summers are expected to increase the risk of forest fires, timber companies are looking for ways to cash in on climate change by helping slow warming. "We feel that forests are the answer -- a growing forest sequesters carbon and gives off oxygen," said Patti Case, a spokeswoman for Green Diamond Resource Co., a Seattle-based timber company.

Businesses and governments might one day compensate for greenhouse gas emissions by paying timber companies to keep land in carbon dioxide-absorbing trees rather than sell it for development.

Others are trying to figure out how to stay one step ahead of climate change.

"We understand the ramifications of continued warming, but at the same time, we don't believe that our industry is facing an imminent catastrophe," said Scott Kaden, president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association. "We have an opportunity to adapt."

Resort operators are looking at ways to smooth their slopes, moving rocks and trimming shrubs so ski runs would be usable with a thinner blanket of snow. Snow machines and expansion of ski runs uphill are being investigated.

The resorts are contributing to clean energy development and urging their customers to do the same through "green tags" bought with lift tickets.

Warmer weather could increase and spread mosquito populations -- and the risk of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus.

"That worries us," said Ngozi Oleru, director of environmental health for Public Health -- Seattle and King County.

Experts advise taking steps to prepare for the coming changes -- because even if the pollution stopped tomorrow, the warming would continue.

Few scientists dispute that adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere traps more of the sun's heat. Sophisticated tests show that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is at its highest level in at least 650,000 years.

Most of the excess heat caused by industrialization, along with about half the extra carbon, has been absorbed by the oceans. That is making the oceans more acidic, which can kill microscopic animals known as plankton and inhibit the growth of protective plates of microscopic plants -- both at the base of the food chain.

The international science panel also concluded that an increase in strong storms in the Atlantic, such as Hurricane Katrina, "more likely than not" resulted from climate change. The same effect is expected here.

"We don't know if these (recent) storms are (caused by) climate change, but we think this is what it might look like," said Andy Ryan, a spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities.

The report generally does not take into account a factor that some scientists believe could intensify the effects of climate change: so-called feedback loops. For example, as permafrost melts in the Arctic, it releases trapped carbon dioxide -- further fueling the warming.

The area of greatest uncertainty in the global warming equation is the role played by clouds and haze -- small particles of smoke, volcanic ash and pollution in the atmosphere.

The clouds and particles largely are credited with reflecting sunlight and heat back into the atmosphere, helping cool the planet. But they interact in complicated and poorly understood ways, making it difficult to know exactly what kind of effect they are having.

"It's a very difficult problem," said Robert Charlson, a UW chemist and atmospheric scientist.

That lack of understanding about clouds makes Charlson cautious about taking as gospel every word of the study. But that's no excuse for not taking action to slow global warming.

"We know the physical processes of the atmosphere have changed substantially," he said. "That is enough for me right there to say we should be wary of it and control the emissions."

Chris Bretherton, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences, said that while the climate die has been cast for the next 30 years, "On the 30- to 50-year time horizon, there is a lot we can do, and it doesn't involve any technologies we don't have already.

"It's possible, and it's not necessarily even that expensive."

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT

It is "very likely" -- a 90 percent chance or better -- that burning fossil fuels caused unnatural temperature increases over the last half-century.

Temperatures are likely to rise from 2 to 11.5 degrees by 2100. (The world has warmed about 9 to 12 degrees since the depths of the last ice age 20,000 years ago.)

Sea levels are likely to rise 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century, although an additional rise of 3.9 to 7.8 inches is possible.

Oceans will keep growing more acidic

Answer 2

I summarized the science at the link below.

Answer 3

I can prove that people are not causing it.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Earth went into a drastic cooling spell. Scientists and school teachers scared us into thinking a new ice age was coming.  During all this, industry was pumping CO2 into the atmosphere - but could not cause warming even if they wanted to.

Humans are insignificant in Earth's natural warming and cooling cycles.  So, what really causes them?  We know - it is the Earth's eccentric orbit and the Sun's changing energy output.  There's absolutely nothing we can do about those.

Answer 4

http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index....

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.a...

Scientific answers to "skeptical" arguments, including the ones above.

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

Answer 5

There is no website that proves global warming.  It is a theory that has been disproven more than any other theory in history.  If there were any truth then alarmists would:

1) Produce graphs that show that temperatures between day and night time were greater in and before the 1930's when greenhouse gases were less prevalent.  Then compare those readings with todays readings to show that WE are actually creating greenhouse gases.

2) Gore would not have had to lie and the numbers would not have to be altered to show global warming.

3) Alarmists would have never created that global cooling scare in the 70's, if global warming was a real threat since the industrial age.

4) The IPCC's latest 'summary' wouldn't have a goal on page four of 'being consistent' with what the political supporters need.  (Catering to the politicians for more funding)

5) All powerful CO2, if actually possessing that much power at 385 parts per million, which is 1 2500th of our atmosphere, would be packaged in heating pads, lighting, telescopes, microscopes and self contained microwave ovens.  The only CO2 products on the market currently are CO2 fire extinguishers that miraculously COOL FIRES....

So, you ain't gonna find any proof whatsoever that CO2 is even related to warming except for graphs that show warming will cause an increase in CO2 approximately 800 years later.

But, good luck