What is Global Warming?
As the word already says, global warming is the warming of the globe, the earth. Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the surface of the Earth, and the oceans. The United Nation’s IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, defines it like this: “An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system”. Many people think that the terms “global warming” and “climate change” mean the same thing, and many people use these words interchangeably, but there are differences between the meanings, and are not the same thing. Whereas “global warming refers to the increasing temperature of the globe, “climate change” refers to the regional condition, which includes not only how warm or cold it is, but also, for example, humidity or air pressure.
According to the Academy of Sciences, "the phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are other changes in addition to rising temperatures."
How does Global Warming really work?
Carbon dioxide and other gases, which are called greenhouse gases, warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests, we humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide (greenhouse gases) in the Earth’s atmosphere, trapping more heat, and temperatures are rising.
These diagrams, taken from ., may help you understand…
Is the Earth getting warmer?
Sadly, yes. Yes, the Earth is getting warmer. Global warming is really happening. Look at this graph, showing the instrumental record of global average temperatures for the past over 140 years. This data was compiled by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and the Hadley Centre of the UK Meteorological Office.
the zero on this figure is the mean temperature from 1961-1990 (which was about 14 degrees)
From this graph, you can see that the Earth is really getting warmer. As the graph shows, the 100-year linear trend (1901 to 2000) of the planet’s globe surface temperature was 0.6 degrees Celsius, meaning that from 1901 to 2000, the average temperature of the whole globe (the surface) increased 0.6 degrees Celsius. The increase of 0.6 degrees may not sound a lot, but it is a big jump for only in a single century, as this temperature increase happened four to five times faster than any other climate change in the past millennium (How do people know this? Because of experiments and proofs like from tree rings.). But still, the temperature is increasing with a faster speed. According to the IPCC, the 100-year linear trend of 1995 to 2006, was 0.74 degrees, much bigger than 0.6. Also, eleven of the past twelve years were the warmest since around 1860.
Is it disputed?
Yes, it is disputed by people. Some people, including some scientists and the skeptics, have said that this warming of the globe that’s happening now, might just be the natural cycle and that it’s not the people that are causing it. (As I said before, the skeptics have even said before that global warming is not happening, and the earth is actually cooling!) But still, most of us believe the IPCC that the global warming that’s happening now is mostly because of us, the humans.
How much will the temperature rise in the future?
To see how the temperature will rise in the future, scientists have projected a range of possible temperatures based on a number of future greenhouse gas emission scenarios. According to the scientists and their scenarios, the Earth’s average temperature will rise by 1.1°C to 6.4°C by 2100. Look at this graph, taken from the IPCC, indicating how the Earth’s surface temperature has increased since the 19th century:
The effects of Global Warming/Climate Change
There are many, many effects that are happening now, in the world, because of global warming. These are few of the things that’s happening right now… (taken from www.mmah.org):
• Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.
• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.
• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.
• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.
• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.
• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.
And here are some of the things that can happen in the future that’s not so far away…(reported by the IPCC):
•Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) by century's end. Rises of just 4 inches (10 centimeters) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia.
• Some hundred million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level, and much of the world's population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities.
• Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water.
• Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause food shortages in many places.
• More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans.
• The ocean's circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes.
• At some point in the future, warming could become uncontrollable by creating a so-called positive feedback effect. Rising temperatures could release additional greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water.
So who is Contributing the Most to Global Warming?
To find this out, let’s change the question, ‘who is contributing the most to global warming’, into which country is emitting the most amount of GHG (greenhouse gases) in total, and per person per country since the main cause of global warming is thought to be the greenhouse gases which trap the heat as I explained before. This time, I used the information from CAIT, the climate analysis indicators tool, developed by the World Resources Institute. Since greenhouse gases that cause global warming is mostly carbon dioxide, I looked at which country in total is emitting the most amount of carbon dioxide, and per person.
Here’s what I got, top ten countries that emitted the most carbon dioxide in total, with the amount they emit in metric tones, and the CO2 it emitted compared to the total CO2 emitted in the whole world in %, and also how much CO2 on average each person in that country emitted. (Data from 2007***************** 2004):
As you can see from this table, United States of America is emitting the most carbon dioxide in the world, emitting 19.80% of carbon dioxide out of all the carbon dioxide emitted in the world, which is a lot! Then China, 17.5%, followed by the European Union, which isn’t a country, but as a European Union, it is emitting 13.51 % of carbon dioxide out of all carbon dioxide emitted!
So now, you know which ten countries are emitting the most carbon dioxide into this planet, causing global warming!! But you have to remember that this table is showing the top ten countries that emitted the most CO2 as a whole country, and not the top 10 countries that emitted the most per person. As you can see, United States of America is on first, but it also has a lot of people. Also, it says in the table that America is the seventh country that emitted the most CO2 as an individual.
Therefore, this table, from the CAIT, shows you the top 10 countries that emitted the most CO2 as an individual (per person) in 2004. This was done by the CO2 emitted as a whole country divided by the population of the country:
Finally, I compared the two countries the Netherlands and Cameroon, as an example:
How much I think I’m contributing to climate change
I have tried out the global footprint calculator on ‘footprint.wwf.org.uk’. The result I got was…“You’re living as if we had 2.86 planets to support us. Although you are below the UK average, we obviously have the one!” And it also calculated my carbon footprint, which was 13.94 tones per year. The website calculated that I was below the average UK people, so I think that I have a lesser effect or about the same effect to global warming than the people around me. Although my carbon footprint was 13.94 tones, which is more than the average tones of carbon emitted per person from the Netherlands (11.5 tones), I think that I am still about average. Still, I think that I should try and think more about global warming and try not to have much effect on it, because according to the calculation, if everyone lived like me, we would need 2.86 earths!
What everyone can do to reduce the effects of climate change
As we have talked about climate change you’ve probably wandered if you can do something to make a difference, to reduce the effects of climate change. And the answer is yes, there are many little things which everyone can do to reduce the effects of climate change. If we try, we can all reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we put into the atmosphere. As I’ve said, these greenhouse gases trap the solar energy in the atmosphere and make the Earth warmer, so if we reduce greenhouse gases, we’re reducing the effects of climate change.
There are many things which we can do to reduce greenhouse gases, to reduce the effects of global warming (or climate change). The main idea is to be more energy sufficient. These shown below, are some of the things which I think most of you can do to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases:
- Use energy saving light bulbs (such as compact fluorescent bulbs).
- When buying an appliance (such as a refrigerator, a dishwasher, an air-conditioner), select the one with the highest energy efficiency rating.
- We can use less energy by what’s called carpooling- for example, driving to work with four people together in one car, rather than each riding a car.
- Save electricity. When you use electricity, you are helping put greenhouse gases into the air. By turning off lights, or any other things which use electricity, when you’re not using, you can help a lot.
- You can try to walk or bike instead of other modes of transport. Buses or trains are still better than cars, because they can take many people at once.
- Plant trees. They absorb carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases.
- Recycle tin cans, glass, bottles, plastic bags… etc. When you recycle, you send less trash to the landfill, helping save natural resources (such as trees, oil, elements)
- Buy recyclable products instead of non-recyclable ones. Recyclable products are usually made of things that have been used already. It takes less energy to make recycled products than to make new ones. The less energy used, the better it is.
- Stop using petrol/diesel cars and use cars which doesn’t release CO2 as much, like hybrid cars.
- Buy more seasonable local food rather than food from abroad. It takes energy to transport food from abroad, and the less energy, the better. (You’re releasing CO2 by transporting).
- Turn down heating temperature. Try to keep your temperature low. By heating, you’re using energy, and the more energy used, the more greenhouse gases are released.
- Reduce waste. Buy minimally packaged goods.
What I’m actually doing to reduce the effects of climate change
Personally, I think that I’m doing a lot to reduce the effects of climate change. One of the things I do is that I rarely use the car. I usually go around with my bicycle or I walk whenever I can. Another thing I do is I turn off the lights, computer and TV when no one is using it. What I also do is recycle. I think recycling is well-done in my house, because we recycle most of the things you can recycle including glass, plastic, food, and paper. The last thing I can think of, which I do, is turn down the heating to 18°C (Before this project about global warming, I actually didn’t really think about the heating in my house, so it was usually about 22°C, but now that I know, I try to keep it about 18°C).
Where is a good place to look to see the effects of climate change?
The things I mentioned in “the effects of global warming/climate change” are some of the things which are happening now, and which you can see the effects of climate change. Though I think that the best place to look is probably the North Pole, which has been frozen for 100,000 years, but it is melting now. And as the result, the sea level is rising. Another thing you can look to see the effects of climate change is of course the average temperature, over these years. Also, another thing you can see the effects of climate change, is the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, which are rising.
Where should we look to find evidence that any action being taken is having an effect?
Personally, I think, that the best thing to do to find evidence that any action being taken towards climate change is having an effect, is to get up-to-date information, or the most recent report from the IPCC, for example, and see if the amount of GHG emitted in the year have reduced compared with the year before. Or maybe even see if the temperature is not increasing as much.
My evidences & why you can trust them
This report was written by me, using information from many websites. (The websites I used are at the very end, so if you want to check if they are trustable yourself, go ahead). I thought these websites were trustable, because most of the information on the websites was information the website took from many books or reports done by scientists (climate scientists). Scientists are usually trustable, in my opinion, because they do many experiments to prove their statement. Also, when they publish a report or a book, the editor of it has to also be a scientist to be able to check the work, meaning that the work by a scientist is checked by another scientist, so I would say that it is really trustable. I also used the report from the United Nation’s IPCC (and websites which people wrote what the IPCC said, but in a simpler way), and they surely are trustable, because the IPCC or the International Panel on Climate Change, are one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, and they are comprised of more than 2000 scientists from 100 different countries.
The table which I had about which country is emitting the most CO2 was taken from CAIT, the climate analysis indicators tool, developed by the World Resources Institute. I think that they are trustable, or at least they had the most recent and trustable information out of all the websites I looked.
Overall, I think that my evidences were trustable, and quite up-to-date.
Conclusion
During working on this project about climate change, I personally learned a lot about global warming and climate change. Honestly, I’ve never even cared seriously about global warming, and I actually didn’t really know much about it. But now I do, and I hope you do as well! As a conclusion, I’d like to say that we all have to work together to overcome this whole big problem about climate change, and so I hope that all of you who read this will tell everyone else about it and to take action!
Thank you very much for reading my report “the truth about climate change”.
Here’s the list of websites I used to write this report:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/climate/overview_what-e.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2007/01-02/global-warming-vs-climate-change.htm
http://www.lifeofearth.blogspot.com/
http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=135
http://earth911.org/blog/2007/08/17/green-forum-global-warming-vs-climate-change/
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/cli_effects.html
http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/tmorris/an_inconvenient_truth/an_inconvenient_truth.htm
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basicinfo.html
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_change/science/skeptics.asp
http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GlobalWarming.asp
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html
http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/
http://www.lenntech.com/greenhouse-effect/fossil-fuels.htm
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/issues/climate_change/
http://ecohealth101.org/temperature/temp1.html
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-syr.htm
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/162241/17_200_Scientists_Dispute_Global_Warming
http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/science/faq/question2.html
http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/science/faq/question2.html
http://hdgc.epp.cmu.edu/teachersguide/teachersguide.htm
http://www.greenhouse.nsw.gov.au/what_is_climate_change
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/
http://www.gcrio.org/gwcc/part1.html
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/fun/369960/519234/1005981?pop2=on
http://www.effectofglobalwarming.com
http://timeforchange.org/cause-and-effect-for-global-warming
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/2558.jsp
http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/03.html
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/environment/global-warming/gw-effects.html
http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/03/root18.html
http://www.mmah.org/page15/page15.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2-emissions.html
http://www.thehcf.org/images/2007/5B_Co2_v2S.jpg
http://www.thehcf.org/emaila5.html
http://cait.wri.org/cait.php?page=yearly&mode=view&sort=val-desc&pHints=shut&url=form&year=2004§or=natl&co2=1&update=Update
http://cait.wri.org/cait.php?page=background&from=yearly
http://cait.wri.org/
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/emis/tre_coun.htm
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/difference.html
http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/04.html
http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/index.html