#29- 2016-The Year in Climate Change

#29- 2016-The Year in Climate Change

  12:54 PM    Unknown

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2016 burned through heat records, and the year is poised to be the hottest year since recordkeeping began 122 years ago, by a significant margin. At only the halfway point of 2016, NASA had announced that each of the first six months (from January to June) set new temperature records. Also, July and August were tied as the hottest month the world has seen in the last 136 years. By November, global temperatures had averaged 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The Copenhagen Accord in 2009 stated that warming should not increase by more than 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) this century, to hopefully avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

• Scientists predicted that this year the global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration would pass the 400 parts per million mark, permanently. In September, a month when carbon dioxide is typically at its lowest, the monthly value failed to drop below 400 ppm for the first time. The 400-ppm milestone is largely symbolic, a sign of modern civilization's devastating impact on the planet, climate scientists have said. Since the industrial revolution, humans have been adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than plants can take up. This process has driven carbon dioxide levels higher, adding to the greenhouse gas effect and increasing temperatures, along with many other climate change impacts.
• The report found that in 2016 ice levels showed the strongest, most pronounced signal of persistent warming due to climate change. In fact, the Arctic has continued to warm at twice the rate of the planet as a whole. With winds pulling warmer air up from the south, some areas of the Arctic experienced temperatures 14 degrees F (8 degrees C) above average this year, according to the Arctic Report Card.

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#22- FACTORS AFFECTING GLOBAL WARMING

#22- FACTORS AFFECTING GLOBAL WARMING

  7:05 PM    Unknown

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1: Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants

Our ever increasing addiction to electricity from coal burning power plants releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal accounts for 93% of emissions from the electric utility industry. Every day, more electric gadgets flood the market, and without widespread alternative energy sources, we are highly dependent on burning coal for our personal and commercial electrical supply.

2: Carbon dioxide emissions from burning gasoline for transportation

Our modern car culture and appetite for globally sourced goods is responsible for about 33% of emissions in the U.S .With our population growing at an alarming rate, the demand for more cars and consumer goods means that we are increasing the use of fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing. Our consumption is outpacing our discoveries of ways to mitigate the effects, with no end in sight to our massive consumer culture.

3: Methane emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies, and from Arctic sea beds.

Methane is another extremely potent greenhouse gas, ranking right behind CO2. When organic matter is broken down by bacteria under oxygen-starved conditions (anaerobic decomposition) as in rice paddies, methane is produced. The process also takes place in the intestines of herbivorous animals, and with the increase in the amount of concentrated livestock production, the levels of methane released into the atmosphere is increasing. Another source of methane is methane clathrate, a compound containing large amounts of methane trapped in the crystal structure of ice. As methane escapes from the Arctic seabed, the rate of global warming will increase significantly.

4:Deforestation, especially tropical forests for wood, pulp, and farmland

The use of forests for fuel (both wood and for charcoal) is one cause of deforestation, but in the first world, our appetite for wood and paper products, our consumption of livestock grazed on former forest land, and the use of tropical forest lands for commodities like palm oil plantations contributes to the mass deforestation of our world. Forests remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and this deforestation releases large amounts of carbon, as well as reducing the amount of carbon capture on the planet.

5: Increase in usage of chemical fertilizers on croplands

In the last half of the 20th century, the use of chemical fertilizers has risen dramatically. The high rate of application of nitrogen-rich fertilizers has effects on the heat storage of cropland and the run-off of excess fertilizers creates ‘dead-zones’ in our oceans. In addition to these effects, high nitrate levels in groundwater due to over-fertilization are cause for concern for human health.

6: Rise in sea Level worldwide

Scientists predict an increase in sea levels worldwide due to the melting of two massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, especially on the East coast of the U.S. However, many nations around the world will experience the effects of rising sea levels, which could displace millions of ice to melt.

7: More killer storms

Scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide. The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research published in Nature the, thought to be driven by rising ocean temperatures, is unlikely to stop at any time soon.

8: Massive Crop Failures:

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies. “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts.

Disapperance of Coral Reefs:

Despite the oceans’s immensity — 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface with an average depth of almost 4km (2½m) — there are indications that it is approaching its tipping point. For reefs, warming waters and acidification are closing in like a pair of jaws that threaten to make them the first global ecosystem to disappear. 

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#11 Global Warming: News, Facts, Causes & Effects

#11 Global Warming: News, Facts, Causes & Effects

  5:29 PM    Unknown

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Global warming is the term used to depict a steady increment in the normal temperature of the Earth's environment and its seas, a change that is accepted to be forever changing the Earth's atmosphere. There is awesome verbal confrontation among many individuals, and now and again in the news, on whether a dangerous atmospheric devation is genuine (some call it a deception). However, atmosphere researchers taking a gander at the information and realities concur the planet is warming. While many view the impacts of a dangerous atmospheric devation to be more considerable and more quickly happening than others do, the logical agreement on climatic changes identified with a worldwide temperature alteration is that the normal temperature of the Earth has ascended somewhere around 0.4 and 0.8 °C in the course of recent years. 

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