...People against the Earth: Cycle of melting of ice caps in the environment It is very shocking to see how many people do not have the knowledge or the interest to educate themselves about one of the biggest issues of the Earth. There are many articles about the climate change in general, but this essay will answer a question what are the effects of melting ice caps on climate change? Firstly what is global warming and what is climate change? Global warming is just the Earth’s rising surface temperature and climate change is a bigger category and global warming is one part of its category. In another words global warming is one issue of a much larger problem of human caused climate change. Both of them are a commonly talked about issue among scientists since it causes many changes in the environment including the melting of ices which has an effect on all parts of the world. Because of the sea level rising there are, even if it is not a rapid increase, many devastating effects on land habitants, and also there is a threat of the next ice age. Firstly the melting of polar ice caps can affect countries, as continents. A lot of parts of the “now known” continents would totally disappear under the ocean; which would mean that people that live there now, would lose their homes and the number of people per square foot would rise rapidly. The sunk parts of the countries would affects also the fauna and flora. It is clear that many species are dying out now and also...
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...Climate change is a change in regional weather patterns that occur over time. Climate change causes are air pollution, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels. An area which has already been affected by climate change is Alberta. Alberta has been dealing with quite a few problems now due to climate change, but the three main problems that affect Alberta the most are increasing temperatures, water levels rising, and seasonal changes in agriculture including irrigation decrease. First, Alberta is impacted by climate change due to increasing temperatures. Increasing temperatures can be caused by the greenhouse effect, which traps the sun’s heat in the lower parts of the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise. The main emissions,...
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...Climate Change and the IPCC o What is the IPCC? - Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, created in 1988, first assessment report in 1990 launched global awareness of climate change issue. How the IPCC works - Thousands of scientists contribute to writing and reviewing reports. Does not carry out new research or monitor climate related data. There are 3 working groups and a special tasks force. Terminology – 99%-100% (Virtually Certain) 90%-100% (Very Likely) 66%-100 (Likely) 33%-60% (About as likely as not) 0%-33% (Unlikely) 0%-10% (Very Unlikely) 0%-1% (Exceptionally Unlikely) o Causes of climate change Relative forcing components – Long-live greenhouse gases (Global), Ozone (Continental to Global), Stratospheric water vapor from methane (Global), Surface albedo, Aerosol (Direct Affect, Cloud Albedo Affect, Surface to Continental), Linear Contrails (Continental) , Solar irradiance (Global) Earth’s energy budget & human use Quadrillion BTU 100% Incoming Solar Energy Wood 64% - Radiated to space Coal 51% - Absorbed by land and oceans Oil &Gas 23% - Carried to clouds Hydropower &Nuclear (1900-) 20% - Reflected by clouds 16% - Absorbed by atmosphere 15% - Radiation absorbed by atmosphere 7% - Conduction and rising air 6% - Reflected by atmosphere 6% - Radiated directly into space 4% - Reflected from Earth’s surface 3% - Absorbed by clouds Greenhouse gases (types and impact)...
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...Greene 1 Cause and Effect September 6th 2015 John Bryson Greene Effects of Global Warming Have you noticed that in the past few years the average temperature has changed? The summers are hotter the usual. The winters aren’t as cold as you remember them. Did you realize when storm season comes; instead of your regular thunderstorm you get super storms? All these effects are caused by global warming. Global warming is defined as “An increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution” (Global Warming About). To put that in layman’s terms, global warming is an increase in air and water temperature due to pollution. Global warming has many effects on the Earth. Some of the effects are raising temperatures, melting icecaps, changing weather, and the effect it has on animals If you can’t tell by the name, global warming causes a raise in temperature. The decade of 2000-2010 has been the hottest decade since the 1980’s (Climate Hot). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature of the earth has risen over 2.1 degrees (Enloe). Over the 50 years, the number of record low temperature around the world has declined (Climate). Since the 1970’s, the average temperatures between November and February in the USA have increased by 1-2 degrees (Global Warming And). As mentioned earlier, global warming is causing the...
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...leg due to shrinking ice caps that is the reality in today’s world. Ever since the industrial revolution in the 1850’s, people started to use fossil fuels as energy sources. Fossil fuels create tons of CO2 emissions that get stuck in the atmosphere. These emissions could negatively impact both wildlife and humans alike. CO2 emissions are a big problem in today’s society, and emissions need to be reduced to protect the environment. Some people say CO2 emissions are a myth, and these emissions don’t cause global warming. In the past the Earth heated up to end the Ice Age, and they argue the same cycle is happening today. While the Earth did heat up in the past, it has never reached this kind of global temperature. According to NASA’s climate change graph that shows the Earth’s temperature before fossil fuels and after fossil fuels, the temperature after fossil fuels were used is much higher than before, so this proves CO2 emissions rise global temperature and cause global warming. This creates big problems for the environment. CO2 emissions heat up the Antarctic ice caps causing them to melt. The Antarctic ice caps has been on a slow decline ever since 1992. According John Cook, “Between 1992 and 2011, the Antarctic Ice Sheets overall lost 1350 giga-tonnes (Gt) or 1,350,000,000,000 tonnes into the oceans, at an average rate of 70 Gt per year (Gt/yr).” Even though the Antarctic ice cap gained some of the lost ice from 2011 to 2014, it has lost so much ice due to a rise in CO2...
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...chemical industry needs to be stopped with the use of fossil fuels and that will help somewhat with some of the gases released into the ozone. Sheppard stated, “climate change alarmists warn that Antarctic ice shelves are melting due to warming ocean temperatures, which will lead to a catastrophic rise in sea levels” (Sheppard). For many reasons, the nations of the world would have great difficulty agreeing on a global plan to deal with the earth's changing climate and that's causing many people to be upset and try to find ways to help the planet. Many people argue that even if the production of greenhouse gases is dramatically reduced, global warming will continue and destroy the planet (Global Warming). There is plenty of evidence that global warming in fact is real, including evidence from many scientists and data from the past showing the changes in the earth's temperature and the levels of water based on colder areas. Pile stated, “Endless stories about glaciers melting, polar bears, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica and sea ice...
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...Global Warming “We know that if climate change is not stopped, all parts of the world will suffer. Some will even be destroyed.”— (British Prime Minister Tony Blair, September 2002) There are many environmental issues that seem to be recognized by humans in today’s society. The most important one to me is global warming because it is one of the most serious challenges facing today’s society. Throughout the world, Earth is showing several signs of climate change. Research has shown that Earth is warming rapidly than ever in the past 1000 years. Global warming is due to the substantial increase in greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. The burning of fossil fuel has already raised levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to their highest for the last 20 million years. The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), shows there is clear evidence for a 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) rise in global temperatures and a 7 ¼ in (20 cm) rise is sea level during the twentieth century (Maslin, 2007, p. 7). For example, Arctic ice is decreasing leaving polar bears suffering from the ice loss. The following paper includes what is global warming, causes of global warming, possible global warming effects, what the government doing to prevent global warming, and what is being done at the international level to address global warming. What is global warming? Oil and coal are two of the main problems behind global warming. Global warming is...
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...A. How does the change of water vapour in the atmosphere affect the climate and environment? How can we help prevent these changes if there are any? Since humans began to use coal, oil, and natural gasses and other fossil fuels as main power sources, there have been major changes to the climate; these changes are mostly damaging to the environment and have caused irreversible affects that have damaged the environment. One of these changes is global warming. Global warming is one the main affects that the use of fossil fuels has created. Global warming is an climate change that has its own consequences; it has created many secondary effects. By heating up the planet the ice caps have begun melting; this in turns increases the amount of water...
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...Every place, country, city, region has its own climate. Climate plays one of the important roles in people’s life. Climate is defined as the average weather, which means variety of weather conditions as rain, snow, hail, sun, and wind over period of time about 30 years that can be measured in any particular place.( IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001; editor:A.P.Baede) Climate change is a variation of average weather. There are 2 causes of climate change. The first is human activity which includes deforestation, burning fossil fuels, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure. The second is natural causes which include volcanic eruptions and variations in solar outputs. These causes have negative effect on the natural environment which leads to increasing of temperature, increasing in sea level, changing of precipitations, extremely weather, killing species of animals, birds, fish and plants. This essay will show that the causes of climate change have different effects on the environment. Atmospheric carbon dioxide variations, volcanic eruptions and solar outputs, have negative impacts on animals, plants, and environment. Climate is always changeable. One winter can be early, another late; one summer wet, another dry (Carter 2000,34). For the last century climate has dramatically changed. Consequences of climate change may manifest itself as rapid and through the long period of time. Climate change could lead to number of catastrophic disasters as droughts...
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...divided further and so on. Each of these places has its own weather which changes daily and also has its own climate; which is a more permanent season of weather that the region experiences. For years the climate for many places has begun to change and become warmer affecting anything that lives in the area. Some organisms have become endangered and some have died because they haven’t been able to adapt as fast as the rate of climate change. Many believe this to be what’s known as “Global Warming” and others argue that it’s just a coincidence that the earth is on a cycle and it’s at the point where it warms for some time before cooling again. Some wonder if the global warming effect is actually good for the planet and the statement that it’s solely caused by humans is surrounded by much controversy. The warming that earth has experienced is not global warming, it’s due to cycle on which the earth receives stronger radiant heat waves. The common term used when talking about Global Warming is greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses are the portions of carbon dioxide, methane gas and water vapor that get trapped inside earth’s atmosphere while the rest is released into space, known as the Greenhouse Effect. When the term global warming is tossed around, numerous people attribute the cause of it to humans and that it only has a negative effect. The misunderstanding and limited knowledge that some people have can cause them to become biased on a subject, such as global warming, Lane...
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...Grosvenor, Roble and de Castro - Global W arming and Glaciers The Traprock, Vol. 3, M ay 2004, pp 16 - 19 16 Global Warming and its Effects on Glaciers Andrew Grosvenor, Will Roble and Marcus de Castro The addition of more greenhouse gasses to earth’s atmosphere has been blocking an increased amount of the heat radiated out from the earth’s surface. This in turn has lead to higher average global temperatures, or global warming. One of the main problems posed by this development is the melting of the earth’s glaciers. This is problematic because more liquid water will cause the planet’s sea levels to rise, possibly by as much as 66m if they are completely melted. Other environmental concerns related to melting include changes to mountain habitats and an accelerated water cycle. Although some modeling has shown no serious deterioration of the earth’s glaciers it is becoming increasingly evident that continued global warming would have serious repercussions on the planet’s ice. With the increasing acceptance of global warming as an important phenomenon occurring in our environment today, its effects on the natural cycles of the planet are becoming the center of research. One of the most interesting of these topics is the effect of global warming on the earth’s glaciers. It has been observed that increasing temperatures have and will continue to lead to glacial melting, and that the additional water will lead to a rise in the earth’s sea levels. The other potential effects...
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...any large mass of perennial ice that originates on land by the recrystallization of snow or other forms of solid precipitation and that shows evidence of past or present flow. Exact limits for the terms large, perennial, and flow cannot be set. Except in size, a small snow patch that persists for more than one season is hydrologically indistinguishable from a true glacier. One international group has recommended that all persisting snow and ice masses larger than 0.1 square kilometre (about 0.04 square mile) be counted as glaciers. Glaciers are classifiable in three main groups: (1) glaciers that extend in continuous sheets, moving outward in all directions, are called ice sheets if they are the size of Antarctica or Greenland and ice caps if they are smaller; (2) glaciers confined within a path that directs the ice movement are called mountain glaciers; and (3) glaciers that spread out on level ground or on the ocean at the foot of glaciated regions are called piedmont glaciers or ice shelves, respectively. Glaciers in the third group are not independent and are treated here in terms of their sources: ice shelves with ice sheets, piedmont glaciers with mountain glaciers. A complex of mountain glaciers burying much of a mountain range is called an ice field. Distribution of glaciers A most interesting aspect of recent geological time (some 30 million years ago to the present) has been the recurrent expansion and contraction of the world’s ice cover. These glacial fluctuations...
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...Issues In the world today there are many issues and problems that cause a lot of controversy in American politics and government. A lot of these issues or problems affect the entire world in some way. One main problem that affects everyone around the world in some way is the environmental issues. Some of these problems consist of things like global warming, renewable energy, biodiversity, and recycling. Most people are starting to realize that if we keep going how we are going and don’t try to fix anything now, the problems are just going to keep getting bigger and worst. Most of the problems that the environment has can be controlled and not be as bad if we start doing something about it today. Once the environment is gone, it’s gone for good. One of the most concerning environmental issues the world faces today is the issue of global warming. Global warming just doesn’t affect a small part of the world, it affect the entire thing all the way from the United States to Europe. One way that global warming affects humans is by causing the overall world temperatures to increase. That ends up causing a number of problems such as the raising in sea level, changing in agriculture, and an increase in some deadly illnesses (Leonard). If the temperatures continue to raise that is going to lead to major ice caps and sea ice melting. Recent studies have shown that if nothing is done to try to stop this, the Greenland ice cap will start to melt. That would result in major flooding. For example...
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...resource to humans, which makes the recent changes in the Earth system alarming because many...
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...studied by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that global warming will continue and get worse much faster than was expected even in their last report. Research by NOAA indicate that the effects of global warming are already irreversible. The IPCC reports attribute many specific natural phenomena to human causes. The expected long range effects of recent climate change may already be observed. Rising sea levels, glacier retreat, Arctic shrinkage, and altered patterns of agriculture are cited as direct consequences of human activities. Predictions for secondary and regional effects include extreme weather events, an expansion of tropical diseases, changes in the timing of seasonal patterns in ecosystems, and drastic economic impact. Concerns have led to political activism advocating proposals to mitigate, or adapt to it. Geoengineering is a further potential response, which could potentially reverse some effects that may otherwise be irreversible. It is notable that many of the effects of global warming are non-linear in nature, with potential for dramatic positive feedback effects. This means that the climate may enter a critical state where small changes can trigger runaway or abrupt climate change. Geoengineering has been suggested as a means of interrupting or reversing these effects. A notable example of a 'runaway' effect is the release of methane from clathrates (known as the clathrate gun effect). Climate changes characterized as global warming are...
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