thrivalinternational

“Climate change is variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It encompasses temperature increase (global warming), sea-level rise, changes in precipitation patterns and increased frequencies of extreme events. Each of these phenomena can impact on biological diversity. In fact climate change is one of the major threats to biodiversity.” The Convention on Biological Diversity

whether you believe it or not global warming is happening.  Find out what the causes are and how to do your bit. Just for future generations we should be more careful to walk more gently on the planet, taking only what we must, take responsibility to get the facts and if we care enough, do what we can to undo our mistakes so far.

– scientist all agree on the Basic Facts of Global Warming

– Science community confirms global warming is happening – and people are the cause.

– The only real debate is about how fast warming will occur, and how much damage will be done, as a result of human activities that produce heat-trapping CO2 and other greenhouse-gas emissions

– Make no mistake: Science has given us unequivocal warning that global warming is real. The time to start working on solutions is now.

– chemist Svante Arrhenius first proposed the idea of global warming in 1896.

– Carbon dioxide, he knew, traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. He also knew that burning coal and oil releases carbon dioxide (CO2).

– Arrhenius speculated that continued burning of coal and oil would increase concentrations of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, making the planet warmer. It’s called the “greenhouse effect.”

– What warms the Earth? There are essentially three factors that could be responsible for recent rapid global warming.  
The sun
Earth’s reflectivity
Greenhouse gases

– Which of these is causing our current global warming? All the evidence points to greenhouse gases,   Source: NASA Earth Observatory

– Historic CO2 Levels: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in measurable history, and predicted to increase dramatically this century.

– An increase of 25% more CO2 than the highest natural levels over the past 800,000 years.  GlobalChange.gov

– Additional CO2 in the atmosphere comes mainly from coal and oil, because the chemical composition of the CO2 contains a unique “fingerprint.” 

– case closed: human activity is causing the Earth to get warmer,  through the burning of fossil fuels, with a smaller contribution from clearing forests. All other scientific answers for why the Earth is getting warmer have been knocked out.

– World View of Human Impact on Temperature Since 1900
Continental and global temperatures modeled with and without human influence show the impact of human activity on global warming

– Glaciers are Melting and Contributing to Sea Level Rise

– Between 1961 and 1997 the world’s glaciers lost 890 cubic miles of ice. ( even though some get bigger, its not enough)

– melting ice caps and glaciers accounted for about 25% of sea level rise from 1993 to 2003. Over the 20th century sea level worldwide rose by 6.7 inches, and the 2007 IPCC report concludes it is now rising faster.

– Greenland’s massive ice sheet could soon reach a tipping point that would trigger an irreversible meltdown and an eventual sea-level rise of over 20 feet.

– Melting sea ice can accelerate warming

– Since 1979, Arctic sea ice has declined by 11.2 percent per decade

– Scientists believe the polar ocean, including the geographic North Pole, could be entirely ice-free in the near future. Their predictions range from as early as 2013 to as late as 2100.

– Global Warming and Increased CO2 will Harm

– CO2, warming in just the middle range of scientific projections would have devastating impacts

– Rising seas would inundate coastal communities, contaminate water supplies with salt and increase the risk of flooding by storm surge, affecting tens of millions of people globally. Plus, extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts and floods, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity, causing loss of lives and property and throwing agriculture into turmoil.

– Even though higher levels of CO2 can act as a plant fertilizer under some conditions, scientists now think that the “CO2 fertilization” effect on crops has been overstated

– We live in a global community. The idea that there will be regional “winners” and “losers” in global warming is based on a world-view from the 1950’s.

– Many Communities Won’t be Able to Adapt to Rapid Climate Change

– Dramatic coastal erosion is forcing residents of Shishmaref, Alaska to relocate.

– The current warming of our climate will bring major hardships and economic dislocations — untold human suffering, especially for our children and grandchildren

– Climate has changed in the past and human societies have survived, but today six billion people depend on the earths systems.

-there is much greater risk to today’s larger population and infrastructure.

– unless we limit the amount of heat-trapping gases we are putting into the atmosphere now, we face continued warming and even larger climate changes than we already see today.

– If action isn’t taken, 100 million people worldwide could be flooded by the sea each year in the 2080s.

– In what appears to be the first forced move resulting from climate change, 100 residents of Tegua island in the Pacific Ocean were relocated by the government in 2005 because rising sea levels were flooding their island.
Some 2,000 other islanders plan a similar move to escape rising waters.

– In the United States, the village of Shishmaref in Alaska, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, is collapsing from melting permafrost. Relocation plans are in the works. On the Torres Strait Islands a high tide during wet season can mean disaster for the towns electri and waste systems.  Main streets can be seen under water at king tides.  See www.koorimail.com n search tides Torres Strait Islands.

– Even if people find a way to adapt, the wildlife and plants on which we depend may be unable to adapt to rapid climate change. While the world itself will not end, the world as we know it may disappear.

Referances: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagid=54136
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=54099&template=1359&archive=5563
http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentID=11026 http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentid=11029

In closing, hopefully i have shown that from the latest information available, global warming is really happening and is a real threat to humanity and wildlife.  I believe it important to do everything we can to find out how we can do our part to reduce the rate and effect of this global problem.  To find out what we can do, you can start by logging onto: stopglobalwarming.org, http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Action-to-Reduce-Global-Warming or watch the video the inconvenient truth at http://www.climatecrisis.net