Global Warming

Temperature change is a normal occurrence that is happening in the planet that we live in, but the varying temperature patterns seen lately has been linked to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, more simply known as Global Warming. Even though there were changes in the temperatures in the early ages of our planet, it was considered to be normal. But, the evolution of industries and factories in the early 1900's has brought a wide change in the temperature patterns that are causing a lot of concern to the researches and scientists. The main factor attributing to global warming is the emission of polluting gases like carbon dioxide, methane etc into the atmosphere. By definition, Global warming is the increase in the average temperature that gradually warms the Earth's atmosphere.

Global warming is a phenomenon that has been on the rise all these years. But, in the last century, the rise in the temperature levels has...

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Greenhouse Effect is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be described as the process where the emission of infrared radiation from the earth surface is blocked by certain gases present in the atmosphere. As a result, our planet is insulated and remains warm. Due to this phenomenon only, life has existed on this earth for more than 4 billion years. Some of these gases that aid in thermal blanketing include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur, which are also known as greenhouse gases.

It is the interaction between the light emitted by the sunlight and the layer of greenhouse gases surrounding the earth's atmosphere that causes greenhouse effect. Sunlight emits different forms of radiation consisting mainly of visible light, infrared light, ultraviolet radiation, gamma rays and x-rays. As this light passes through the earth's atmosphere, the entire radiation except the visible light gets absorbed by the greenhouse gases. Almost 85% of this visible light is absorbed by the life on the earth and the rest is reflected back along with the heat energy released by the earth's surface into the atmosphere. This heat is again absorbed by the greenhouse gases and as a result they become warm and send the heat back to the earth, thereby ensuring that equilibrium is maintained between the total amount heat that reaches Earth and the amount of heat Earth radiates back into the space.

From the Gaurdian site at http://www.guardian.co.uk

The vast Greenland ice sheet could begin to melt more rapidly than expected towards the end of the century, accelerating the rise in sea levels as a result of global warming, scientists warned yesterday.

Water running off the ice sheet could triple the current rate of sea level rise to around 9mm a year, leading to a global rise of almost 1 metre per century, the researchers found.

Sea levels are already on the rise as a result of increasing temperatures, because the oceans expand as they warm up, but until now scientists have had a poor understanding of how quickly ice sheets such as those in Greenland and Antarctica will begin to disappear.

There are signs that the Greenland ice sheet, which covers 1.7 million square kilometres of land, has already begun to melt faster than expected. The reason is thought to be surface water on the ice sheet trickling down through fissures to the underlying bedrock, making the ice sheet less stable, and the loss of buttressing ice shelves along the coastline.

Climate scientists are uncertain how susceptible ice sheets are to global warming, largely because they have never witnessed one disappear, so researchers led by Anders Carlson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to look back to the end of the last ice age for clues.

Around 20,000 years ago, when the last ice age was at its peak, a giant mass of frozen water called the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of what is now North America. The ice sheet, which was three miles thick in some places, had almost completely melted 6,500 years ago as the world warmed as part of its natural cycle. At the time, surface air temperatures were similar to those that climate scientists predict for 2100.

More about this at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/01/sea.level.rise?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

This is the one event you will want to support, this is the one thing that might start the change, you do not want to me miss that. How many times does a person have the possibility to actively effect the future of his entire race, who will not answer the call and save his children's lives, his friends lives, his own?

Climate change and global warming are very real, they are happening as we speak, they are the real colossal danger to this planet and the creatures that live on it, this is the time to move, it does not matter if you are 8 or 80 years old, this might be the most important protest you have ever been in, or will be in.

Live earth.
Answer the call.
http://www.liveearth.org/