Definition For Global Warming

Definition for global warming Climate change is any substantial change in Earth’s climate that lasts for an extended period of time. Global warming refers to climate change that causes an increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere. Global warming can have many different causes, but it is most commonly associated with human interference, specifically the release of excessive amounts of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapor, and fluorinated gases, act like a greenhouse around the earth. This means that they let the heat from the Sun into the atmosphere, but do not allow the heat to escape back into space. The more greenhouse gases there are, the larger the percentage of heat that is trapped inside the earth’s atmosphere. The earth could not exist in its present state (that is, with life) without the presence of some naturally occurring greenhouse gases, such as CO2, CH4, and water vapor. Without any greenhouse gases no heat would be trapped in atmosphere, so the earth would be extremely cold.

What is global warming? Some of the devastating effects of global warming include heat waves, droughts, increased hurricanes, and massive sea-level rise. Although there is a lot of bad news - the good news is it's not too late! We can implement solutions, but we need to act fast and we need our government to take the lead. We're seeing the effects of global warming all around us - more intense heat waves that disproportionately affect the elderly and poor, more severe storms that wreak havoc on our homes and communities, and all kinds of changing cycles in the natural world.

Environmental News Live Earth concert rocks crowds around the globe! The eco-friendly Live Earth show featured popular musicians in an effort to educate the world about global warming issues. By Erika Hayasaki and Alicia Lozano

LOS ANGELES TIMES EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Live Earth, the confederacy of musicians who performed Saturday on all seven continents to highlight the issues of global climate change, featured superstars such as Madonna and the Police, who entertained crowds in packed stadiums. Live Earth used the now-familiar template of concerts-for-causes that was shaped largely by Live Aid, the 1985 famine relief shows. But the 24 hours of

music circling the globe used the Internet and high-definition camera technologies to create a uniquely 21st century event. Leading up to the event, though, Live Earth was also criticized by some for being too vague in its cause or for being a promotional tool for its co-founder, environmental activist Al Gore, the former vice president. The politician was given a rock star's welcome at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, where he was introduced by Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In London, the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am premiered a new pro-Earth song that he said he recorded after an inspirational encounter with Gore at the Grammy Awards in February. One of the song's lines: "We got a new terror threat: The weather." The other Live Earth concerts Saturday were in Hamburg, Germany; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo; Shanghai, China; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Johannesburg, South Africa, while many "unofficial" events borrowed the name and cause of the day, such as the Viva Earth show, an R&B and hip-hop concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Climate Solutions report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms that hundreds of technologies are now available, at very low cost, to reduce climate damaging emissions, and that government policies need to remove the barriers to these technologies. Implementing these solutions will enable people to usher in a new era of energy, one that will bring economic growth, new jobs, technological innovation and, most importantly environmental protection. However, for global warming green solutions to find a foothold in the market, governments and corporations need to shift away from polluting technology. In most industrial countries, conventional electricity is heavily subsidized, and the negative environmental impacts of its production are not reflected in the cost to end-users.

Green Living is helping to alleviate problems such as global warming, depletion of resources and toxic waste production, Green Living will save us money so we can live inexpensively but environmentally. From non toxic alternatives to energy efficient items, clean alternative energy to green batteries, there is still room for money saving. From natural, up to date, sustainable fashion and furniture, to recycled materials, we've got what you need to live green and affordable and even make your life style carbon neutral! Green Living is a perfect combination of saving the environment as well as your money!

The Greenhouse Effect The atmosphere has a natural supply of "greenhouse gases." They capture heat and keep the surface of the Earth warm enough for us to live on. Without the greenhouse effect, the planet would be an uninhabitable, frozen wasteland. Before the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere was in a rough balance with what could be stored on Earth. Natural emissions of heat-trapping gases matched what could be absorbed in natural sinks. For example, plants take in CO2 when they grow in spring and summer, and release it back to the atmosphere when they decay and die in fall and winter.

Too Much Greenhouse Effect Industry took off in the mid-1700s, and people started emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels were burned more and more to run our cars, trucks, factories, planes and power plants, adding to the natural supply of greenhouse gases. The gases—which can stay in the atmosphere for at least fifty years and up to centuries—are building up beyond the Earth's capacity to remove them and, in effect, creating an extra-thick heat blanket around the Earth. The result is that the globe has heated up by about one degree Fahrenheit over the past century—and it has heated up more intensely over the past two decades.

If one degree doesn't sound like a lot, consider this: the difference in global average temperatures between modern times and the last ice age—when much of Canada and the northern U.S. were covered with thick ice sheets—was only about 9 degrees Fahrenheit. So in fact one degree is very significant—especially since the unnatural warming will continue as long as we keep putting extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

How Much Is Too Much? Already, people have increased the amount of CO2, the chief global warming pollutant, in the atmosphere to 31 percent above pre-industrial levels. There is more CO2 in the atmosphere now than at any time in the last 650,000 years. Studies of the Earth’s climate history show that even small changes in CO2 levels generally have come with significant shifts in the global average temperature. Scientists expect that, in the absence of effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the global average temperature will increase another 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Even if the temperature change is at the small end of the predictions, the alterations to the climate are expected to be serious: more intense storms, more pronounced droughts, coastal areas more severely eroded by rising seas. At the high end of the predictions, the world could face abrupt, catastrophic and irreversible consequences.

The Science Is Clear! Scientists are no longer debating the basic facts of climate change. In February 2007, the thousands of scientific experts collectively known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that there is greater than 90 percent likelihood that people are causing global warming. (IPCC, 2007) These latest findings amplify what other highly respected science organizations say: •

In a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said:

"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify costeffective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions."—Joint Statement of Science Academies: Global Response to Climate Change, 2005 The American Geophysical Union, a respected organization comprising over 41,000 Earth and space scientists, wrote in its position on climate change that "natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century."