Global Warming: How GPS Tracking Will Save Lives When Disaster Strikes!
Glenn Freiboth asked:
If you watch the History channel and watch the top 10 disasters that will befall the world, the number one prediction that is actual happening today is Global Warming.
We begin this article with a brief explanation of Global Warming and it’s impact on life on earth and then move on to the worlds first and only command and control system that will help first responders help save lives when disaster strikes.
Global warming is the increase in the earth’s average temperature due to the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities.
Global climate changes were due to many factors, including massive volcanic eruptions, which increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; changes in the intensity of energy emitted by the Sun; and variations in Earth’s position relative to the Sun, both in its orbit and in the inclination of its spin axis. Global Warming: Early Warning Signs Illustrates observed consequences, as indicated by periods of unusually warm weather, coastal flooding, and changes in glaciers and polar regions.
If there is coastal flooding in coming years due to melting ice caps, it won’t happen suddenly and give you a tidal wave effect.
Scientists all over the world are making predictions about the ill effects of Global warming and connecting some of the events that have taken place in the pat few decades as an alarm of global warming.
They also report of extreme weather events, long-term droughts, and rising sea levels. Warmer temperatures will alter weather patterns, making it likely that there will be more intense droughts and more intense rain events. Most scientists also agree extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina or Los Angeles’ July record 119-degree Fahrenheit temperature are directly attributed to global warming.
Moreover, extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts and floods, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity, causing loss of lives and property and throwing agriculture into turmoil.
And the science tells us that human activity has made enormous impacts to our planet that affect our well-being and even our survival as a species. Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet.
Scientists have linked even this amount of warming to numerous changes taking place around the world, including melting mountain glaciers and polar ice, rising sea level, more intense and longer droughts, more intense storms, more frequent heat waves, and changes in the life cycles of many plants and animals.
Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
In the next few years we will see great disasters happening right before our eyes in every corner of the world as man made gases continue to be spewed into the atmosphere causing death and pestilence.
Mankind however will not be extinct. People will survive only if there are systems in place that will aid the successful rescue and evacuation of people on a global scale.
A company called Ordia Solutions that had just released a Mobile Tactical Collaboration System (MCTS) interoperability / communication solution for law enforcement, fire/EMS, and search and rescue agencies. The MTCS is the first of a new generation of intuitive, easy-to-use browser-based solutions that addresses improved interoperability for first responders. The MTCS can be securely hosted inside an agency’s firewall and can be delivered to desktop PCs and laptops, and requires no client installation.
Ordia Solutions MTCS is built around the concept of shared workspaces. Multiple authorized user’s can simultaneously browse to a shared workspace to access the same dynamic operating picture. Each user sees identical data displayed on the map, including incident reports, infrastructure, operations, photographs, drawings, and streamed videos.
Any change to the operating picture by a user with editing access is immediately reflected on every other user’s display. Unlike traditional collaboration tools, MTCS facilitates seamless scaling of the user base during multi-agency operations. Because the system is entirely web browser-based, new task force members can be integrated quickly and begin collaborating by simply sharing a secure hyperlink.
The MTSC system use GPS Tracking called AdvanTraq GPS through a collaboration with GLC Enterprises, Inc. This uses an advanced tracking solutions for personnel, vehicle, K9, and cargo that operate as standalone solutions or integrated with and traceable through a Mobile Tactical Collaboration System workspace. Applications range from tactical operations and border/perimeter security to coordinating multi-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary critical incident response.
The MTCS system allows for real time GPS Tracking with shared workspaces to allow first responders to save lives during the upcoming disasters caused by Global Warming. The system is currently in trials with many governmental agencies including the FBI!
All trials to date have exceeded expectations and will be deployed throughout the world in the coming months.
The bad news is that the impacts from Global Warming cannot be stopped! It’s already a runaway train.
Massive disasters and death will continue to take the toll on the human race. How rescue personnel and first responders respond to the upcoming disasters will no doubt determine how many people can be saved now and in the future.
If you watch the History channel and watch the top 10 disasters that will befall the world, the number one prediction that is actual happening today is Global Warming.
We begin this article with a brief explanation of Global Warming and it’s impact on life on earth and then move on to the worlds first and only command and control system that will help first responders help save lives when disaster strikes.
Global warming is the increase in the earth’s average temperature due to the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities.
Global climate changes were due to many factors, including massive volcanic eruptions, which increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; changes in the intensity of energy emitted by the Sun; and variations in Earth’s position relative to the Sun, both in its orbit and in the inclination of its spin axis. Global Warming: Early Warning Signs Illustrates observed consequences, as indicated by periods of unusually warm weather, coastal flooding, and changes in glaciers and polar regions.
If there is coastal flooding in coming years due to melting ice caps, it won’t happen suddenly and give you a tidal wave effect.
Scientists all over the world are making predictions about the ill effects of Global warming and connecting some of the events that have taken place in the pat few decades as an alarm of global warming.
They also report of extreme weather events, long-term droughts, and rising sea levels. Warmer temperatures will alter weather patterns, making it likely that there will be more intense droughts and more intense rain events. Most scientists also agree extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina or Los Angeles’ July record 119-degree Fahrenheit temperature are directly attributed to global warming.
Moreover, extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts and floods, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity, causing loss of lives and property and throwing agriculture into turmoil.
And the science tells us that human activity has made enormous impacts to our planet that affect our well-being and even our survival as a species. Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet.
Scientists have linked even this amount of warming to numerous changes taking place around the world, including melting mountain glaciers and polar ice, rising sea level, more intense and longer droughts, more intense storms, more frequent heat waves, and changes in the life cycles of many plants and animals.
Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
In the next few years we will see great disasters happening right before our eyes in every corner of the world as man made gases continue to be spewed into the atmosphere causing death and pestilence.
Mankind however will not be extinct. People will survive only if there are systems in place that will aid the successful rescue and evacuation of people on a global scale.
A company called Ordia Solutions that had just released a Mobile Tactical Collaboration System (MCTS) interoperability / communication solution for law enforcement, fire/EMS, and search and rescue agencies. The MTCS is the first of a new generation of intuitive, easy-to-use browser-based solutions that addresses improved interoperability for first responders. The MTCS can be securely hosted inside an agency’s firewall and can be delivered to desktop PCs and laptops, and requires no client installation.
Ordia Solutions MTCS is built around the concept of shared workspaces. Multiple authorized user’s can simultaneously browse to a shared workspace to access the same dynamic operating picture. Each user sees identical data displayed on the map, including incident reports, infrastructure, operations, photographs, drawings, and streamed videos.
Any change to the operating picture by a user with editing access is immediately reflected on every other user’s display. Unlike traditional collaboration tools, MTCS facilitates seamless scaling of the user base during multi-agency operations. Because the system is entirely web browser-based, new task force members can be integrated quickly and begin collaborating by simply sharing a secure hyperlink.
The MTSC system use GPS Tracking called AdvanTraq GPS through a collaboration with GLC Enterprises, Inc. This uses an advanced tracking solutions for personnel, vehicle, K9, and cargo that operate as standalone solutions or integrated with and traceable through a Mobile Tactical Collaboration System workspace. Applications range from tactical operations and border/perimeter security to coordinating multi-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary critical incident response.
The MTCS system allows for real time GPS Tracking with shared workspaces to allow first responders to save lives during the upcoming disasters caused by Global Warming. The system is currently in trials with many governmental agencies including the FBI!
All trials to date have exceeded expectations and will be deployed throughout the world in the coming months.
The bad news is that the impacts from Global Warming cannot be stopped! It’s already a runaway train.
Massive disasters and death will continue to take the toll on the human race. How rescue personnel and first responders respond to the upcoming disasters will no doubt determine how many people can be saved now and in the future.
Global Warming
July 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under Environment
John Nilson asked:
“With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes than he who enacts or pronounces decisions.” Abraham Lincoln.
People exist always only in combination with nature, they can not be separated from it by any means and thus any kind of changes either positive or negative are always reflected in our lives. Long time ago one of the main problems on the planet became the global climate change. The Artic ice starts to melt and disappear, Latin America and South America suffer from lethal storms and floods. Europeans have to face melting glaciers, forest fires and heat waves. The tree rings and ancient coral in ice cores show that the world has not been as warm before as it is now. The warmest years were all starting since 1998. Most of these changes are influenced by human activities, as people burn the nature’s stores of coal, oil and natural gas. As a result billions of tones of carbon dioxide come into the air annually. Some scientists even suppose that these changes were caused by the dawn of agriculture. The well known phenomenon connected with global warming is greenhouse effect. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that makes the obstacle for the Sun radiation in the troposphere, the lower atmosphere. Some researches also show that cosmic rays are also connected with this effect. As soon as the atmospheric CO2 rises the global temperatures are luckily to rise by around 2C to 5 C. As a result the ice starts to melt, changes in clouds and vegetation occur and so on. When the glaciers melt, they will certainly cause some rivers to overflow, while others will be emptied. The situations with water resources might cause conflicts in different regions. All this will of course influence the natural ecosystems, as not all species can move quickly enough to put up with the global warming, for example coral reefs. The melting ices will influence not only the level of rivers’ water, but also the level of the oceans is disturbed. And if the level of the ocean rises 6 meters higher, that would be enough to flood the lands of billions of people.
Forests and oceans on our planet were able to absorb about half of the CO2 people produced, but since 2001 the amount of CO2 is twice bigger, which really limits the resources of the nature.
Methane is the second most important gas for greenhouse effect. The effect of methane is even 20 times greater than carbon dioxide, but there is less methane in the atmosphere. Methane influences 25% of global warming. Methane is produced by cows and termites. Thus agriculture and rice growing can produce methane. Besides coal mining and oil wells also produce methane. The level of methane in the atmosphere is constantly increasing – this is also an alarming fact for the Earth climate.
Public Health organizations are also worried about global warming, as researches state that the global warming is luckily to increase human mortality, when the cases of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and other parasites increase. But the American Council on Science and Health announced the conclusions of its study which show that such diseases could become serious problems for people disregarding global warming and that these diseases can be prevented not only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of these conclusions was certainly to make the diseases for the government not associated with global warming. The findings of the American Council on Science and Health were as follows:
- As the World Health Organization states that there are more than 500 million cases of malaria each year, malaria can not be caused only by warming of the climate, the increasing of the temperature can increase the incidents of malaria only by 10-16%.
- The ACSH studies were also stating that wealth can bring health and stimulate long living, whereas poverty is one of the reasons for hard diseases and short life spans. And public health would be put at risk when great economic costs could go on control of greenhouse gas emissions, as it could lead to poverty.
- Yellow fever, malaria and other tropical diseases could be prevented with fewer costs than those needed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions, for example: use of vaccinations, judicious use of pesticides and biological control methods, usage of mosquito and fly screens and public education.
- Spending money for reducing greenhouse gas emissions means that this money can not be used for better methods of preventing the above mentioned diseases, as better nutrition and sanitation.
This was one of the bright examples how the problem of global warming is not treated in a proper way in order to solve the financial and other problems of the high politic leaders, who care really not much for the future of the whole planet.
But no matter what is said, global warming still stays a great problem of the whole mankind. Certainly it is not possible to stop all human activities that disturb the atmosphere as they are connected with producing food and making people warm. But we should not forget that some predictions about global warming are close to tragic. People are controlling the whole Earth as there are almost no places, which never felt the hand of a human. And thus the whole responsibility is on people. There are certain measures to at least avoid the worst case, the disaster on the planet. People can reduce of greenhouse gas emissions with the help of energy conservation, like turning the computers and other technical devices off, when they do not use them, use compact fluorescent lights, unplug the chargers of cell phones and digital cameras and so on.
The issues of global warming and fossil fuel usage are certainly closely connected. The use of oil and natural resources will decline in a decade. But this would not reduce the carbon dioxide emissions automatically, the replacements with coal, heavy oil and tar sand contain even more carbon, if to make them produce the same amount of energy they will produce twice more carbon. But the fact is that all transport, roads and airports for this transport are useless without oil. To create a new transport system is a task for the whole society, not for an individual, besides it would need money, time, natural resources and a lot of brain power. So the previous arguments concerning a lot of money spent on the stopping or at least slowing the global warming can be put aside against these ones.
The projections made for the future state that Earth will be an ice planet without greenhouse effect, the Earth will get warmer, by the 2100 the temperature will be 1.5 C – 4.5 C warmer, the increase will be less in the southern hemisphere and greater in the northern hemisphere. The global temperature is connected with carbon dioxide level and methane level, which at the moment exceed greatly the past levels.
It is necessary to mention some facts concerning the future in order to understand why the global warming can be considered a disaster for the whole planet. Certainly it is not possible to know the future climate on Earth precisely, but some data are certain: every century brings the increase of the temperature of 1-2C. It is enough for Greenland and Antarctica to start melting, thus some part of northern areas could become a farmland and Sahara might become bigger. Storms can be stronger. Some countries like Bangladesh and Netherlands are luckily to vanish because of the ocean level rise up to 5 meters.
The term “climate forcings” is often used though it is hard to give its precise definition. To define it simply – this is an event that influences global climate. At this point it is necessary to mention that the weather and climate are different things, the weather is described with the help of variations of dryness or wetness, cold and heat. They do not play a great role for the whole picture on the Earth, but climate can be influenced by forcings, like for example a volcanic eruption can cool the climate on the whole Earth. Such forcing is called a short term forcing. An example of long term forcing may be continental drift which within millions of years changes the path of ocean currents. To anthropogenic forcings belong fossil fuel burning and agriculture. Not all forcings of humans result in global warming, sulfur dioxide from coal burning produces aerosols and they result in cooling.
These were the main negative influences on the climate that cause the global warming. They are rather serious and need urgent steps taken by people in order to avoid the catastrophes in the world of nature, to which we by the way also belong.
So the climate of the Earth should be an international concern and not only of scientists and ordinary people, but also of those who hold power in their hand and are able to make the politics work not only for money, but also for the future of the whole mankind. Unfortunately, these are mostly beautiful words and promises when elections are in the future as soon as they are over the real situation changes. Not a single national leader has come out publicly and said that the recent spate of hurricanes was the result of global warming, this is a part of conventional wisdom of environmentalists that they should not frighten the public, but should focus their interest on technical solutions, like for example hybrid cars and so on.
Global warming is such a problem that it is necessary to deal with all its aspects, which includes the politics. When politicians formulate their policy they need inputs from many disciplines and from science as well. But unfortunately global warming has become an absolutely political issue and politicians do their best to influence even science.
In 1992 at the Earth Summit the decision to prevent such dangerous climate change was taken. The first step was the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which is supposed to come into force in 2005.
One of the reports of the U.N. Panel on Climate Changes warns that the U.S. and other wealthy countries should immediately cut their oil and gas consumption and agree to get at least a quarter of their electrical energy from renewable resources – solar and wind power; and that they should double their research spending on low-carbon energy by 2010.In 1997 the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 to make Clinton Administration not to send the Kyoto treaty to Capitol Hill for ratification. In his first term president Bush rejected Kyoto. Russia ratified it, but most believe that Putin was made to do that as British Prime Minister and other European Union officials threatened not to let him become a member of World Trade Organization, which could cost Russia billions of dollars each year. But the chief economic adviser of Putin – Andrei Illarionov shows his doubts as for the upholding commit to Kyoto, he says: “There is no evidence confirming a positive linking between the level of carbon dioxide and temperature change. The U.N. Panel’s so called scientific data are considerably distorted and in many cases falsified” (Can We Defuse the Global Warming Time Bomb?, by James Hansen, 2003, pp.2-15). One of the main ideas of Ilarionov and others is to break the advanced economies of the U.S., Europe and Japan, by persuading the multi-national companies to move plants and jobs to developing countries in order not to comply with emissions restrictions. But the president of the American Policy Center in Washington – Tom DeWeese doesn’t agree that it makes sense, he states as the main concern and the prime target is the wealth of the United States it would not be wise to place factories in Third World countries, as the same amount of emissions would come out from jungles of South America instead of Chicago and in this case we are not talking about the protection of the environment any more. He is right in a way.
The main goal of the meeting in Kyoto was signing the amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Rio Treaty) in order to require the signatory nations to take the necessary steps to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as these gases cause an alarm situation with global temperatures. The costs of signing it for the U.S. could be really high, as the county could be made to reduce between 10 and 20 % of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020, that would cause reduction of gross domestic products by $260 billion annually, it is equal to $2.700 per household. Certainly it was hard to prove that such costs are justified. Besides as millions of American people could be put at risk, several important questions appeared. The first one was about the possible merits or drawbacks of global warming. The World Bank researches prove that about one-third of the whole population suffers from water shortages. By 2025 they say – around 40 % of the whole population could be living in countries without sufficient water supplies. The crops will also suffer from lack of water. Global warming leads to more condensation and more evaporation, thus producing more rains. So it could be in a way an answer to the problem about lack of water. The second positive point about global warming is possibility of agriculture in North America and Europe, the southern regions of Greenland were not covered with ice when between 10th and 12th centuries the temperature was 0.5 degrees warmer than today, and could be also cultivated. The evidence of this was found when: “scientists from the National Science Foundation sponsored Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 extracted in an ice core from Greenland’s ice sheet that spanned more than 100.000 years of climate history. Samplings from the core suggest that a Little Ice Age began between 1400 and 1420, blanketing the Vikings’ farms in ice and forcing them to abandon their farms in search of more hospitable climates”.( Michael Crichton’s State of Fear: Climate Change in the Cineplex, by Amy Ridenour pp.1-5). Thus global warming could mean more agricultural productivity and more water resources.
The idea that great storms are connected with global warming is sometimes called a myth. Those who say so find little evidence to support this fact and also to support a conclusion that there is a connection between global warming and increasing number of such pests and mosquitoes that bring malaria, yellow fever and other diseases. The researches of George C. Marshal institute show that most severe storms are more associated with warm and cold weather, for example in the North Sea the storms occurred between 15th and 16th centuries after the onset of Little Ice Age. The United Health Organization writes that with the grow of international traveling and great number of migrations and refugees people have the chance to communicate more, and thus the diseases are spread more quickly, not just from one person to another, but also from one continent to another.
Another important question concerns the global warming itself. Depending on the time period we are discussing the planet is either warming or not. Our planet has experienced several periods of warming and cooling. In his article in 1994 Richard Kerr offered his point of view about this issue: “In order for a climate model to have credibility, it must first be able to reliably “predict” current climate. … Some “tune” their models by adjusting the strength of solar radiation; others by adjusting the transfer of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere to get just the desired results. The result is climate models that are largely worthless”. (When Science Meets Politics on Global Warming, by Roy W. Spencer, 1998 pp.1-4).
Another question concerns economical results of reducing of greenhouse gas emissions. The plan as to reduce them to their 1990 level by 2000 and with further reductions for 2010 and 2020. This would make the taxes for carbon dioxide raise up to $100 $200 pro metric ton. Then by 2010 this could cause about 500.000 – one million job loses in U.S. The situation in Australia would be even worse, as they have a strong mining sector. The economies of developing countries would also be sensitive to these reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The emissions in Brazil grew by 20%, in India – by 28%, in Indonesia – by 40% between 1990 and 1995.Thus developing nations and oil exporters have fears concerning their economic futures. That is why developing nations were exempted from reduction mandate under the Berlin mandate.
So the main point of political leaders is that the high costs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not worth the climate benefits they could bring. There is a point of view that even if such steps are necessary for improving our climate, we should not hurry and should at first improve our knowledge about causes and consequences of global warming, we should develop technology that could reduce the greenhouse emissions per unit of output, increase the reflectivity of atmosphere. The supporters of this position state that there are a lot of other important economical, scientific and political issues that need to be solved and there is no reason to rush to conclusions about global warming, as scientists themselves are a kind of swept up in the moment. Even after the Kyoto was coming into force constant debates between climate skeptics and global warming “supporters” continued. For example when Kevin Trenberth, being a head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that there was a connection between climate changes and wave of hurricanes, Christopher Landsea, hurricane expert at America’s national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in his public letter that: “because of Dr. Trenberth’s pronouncements. The IPCC process has been subverted and compromised, its neutrality lost” (When Science Meets Politics on Global Warming, by Roy W. Spencer, 1998 pp.1-4).
The concepts of “nature” and “environment” were reconstructed. Actually the human-made phenomenon – global warming- is somehow considered environmental. Some people believe that this framing is political, not just conceptual problem. When the term environment is used it means something that is “out there” and needs fixing, but in reality the problem can not be considered external, as it is within people and not out. And it was and will be the humans’ problem.
Overall, the warming of the Earth has become a serious problem concerning, scientists, citizens and of course policy-makers. It is certainly hard to give one-sided characteristics to all effects, results and reasons of the global warming described above, there are certainly possibilities that not all recent researches and conclusions of scientists are true to life 100%, and the statement that in several decades we will know much more about climate changing and global warming has also some rational points. But on the other hand it is hard to deny the fact that the human beings do influence the climate and the nature greatly. These issues touch every single person on the planet and the whole mankind. They should bother the policy making people as well. They have to care for the wealth of the country but to simply deny all the negative facts about global warming is hardly the best way out. But unfortunately it usually happens so that the politics are more interested in real facts concerning finance and industrial developments than in vague future of the whole planet. As the whole industrial process and thus the economy of almost any country depends on its usage of natural resources, the climate seems a low “price” for spoiling them. When they start to think about problems caused by climate change, they think first of all about refugees, loss of job places, food shortages because of bad development of agriculture and so on.
“With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes than he who enacts or pronounces decisions.” Abraham Lincoln.
People exist always only in combination with nature, they can not be separated from it by any means and thus any kind of changes either positive or negative are always reflected in our lives. Long time ago one of the main problems on the planet became the global climate change. The Artic ice starts to melt and disappear, Latin America and South America suffer from lethal storms and floods. Europeans have to face melting glaciers, forest fires and heat waves. The tree rings and ancient coral in ice cores show that the world has not been as warm before as it is now. The warmest years were all starting since 1998. Most of these changes are influenced by human activities, as people burn the nature’s stores of coal, oil and natural gas. As a result billions of tones of carbon dioxide come into the air annually. Some scientists even suppose that these changes were caused by the dawn of agriculture. The well known phenomenon connected with global warming is greenhouse effect. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that makes the obstacle for the Sun radiation in the troposphere, the lower atmosphere. Some researches also show that cosmic rays are also connected with this effect. As soon as the atmospheric CO2 rises the global temperatures are luckily to rise by around 2C to 5 C. As a result the ice starts to melt, changes in clouds and vegetation occur and so on. When the glaciers melt, they will certainly cause some rivers to overflow, while others will be emptied. The situations with water resources might cause conflicts in different regions. All this will of course influence the natural ecosystems, as not all species can move quickly enough to put up with the global warming, for example coral reefs. The melting ices will influence not only the level of rivers’ water, but also the level of the oceans is disturbed. And if the level of the ocean rises 6 meters higher, that would be enough to flood the lands of billions of people.
Forests and oceans on our planet were able to absorb about half of the CO2 people produced, but since 2001 the amount of CO2 is twice bigger, which really limits the resources of the nature.
Methane is the second most important gas for greenhouse effect. The effect of methane is even 20 times greater than carbon dioxide, but there is less methane in the atmosphere. Methane influences 25% of global warming. Methane is produced by cows and termites. Thus agriculture and rice growing can produce methane. Besides coal mining and oil wells also produce methane. The level of methane in the atmosphere is constantly increasing – this is also an alarming fact for the Earth climate.
Public Health organizations are also worried about global warming, as researches state that the global warming is luckily to increase human mortality, when the cases of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and other parasites increase. But the American Council on Science and Health announced the conclusions of its study which show that such diseases could become serious problems for people disregarding global warming and that these diseases can be prevented not only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of these conclusions was certainly to make the diseases for the government not associated with global warming. The findings of the American Council on Science and Health were as follows:
- As the World Health Organization states that there are more than 500 million cases of malaria each year, malaria can not be caused only by warming of the climate, the increasing of the temperature can increase the incidents of malaria only by 10-16%.
- The ACSH studies were also stating that wealth can bring health and stimulate long living, whereas poverty is one of the reasons for hard diseases and short life spans. And public health would be put at risk when great economic costs could go on control of greenhouse gas emissions, as it could lead to poverty.
- Yellow fever, malaria and other tropical diseases could be prevented with fewer costs than those needed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions, for example: use of vaccinations, judicious use of pesticides and biological control methods, usage of mosquito and fly screens and public education.
- Spending money for reducing greenhouse gas emissions means that this money can not be used for better methods of preventing the above mentioned diseases, as better nutrition and sanitation.
This was one of the bright examples how the problem of global warming is not treated in a proper way in order to solve the financial and other problems of the high politic leaders, who care really not much for the future of the whole planet.
But no matter what is said, global warming still stays a great problem of the whole mankind. Certainly it is not possible to stop all human activities that disturb the atmosphere as they are connected with producing food and making people warm. But we should not forget that some predictions about global warming are close to tragic. People are controlling the whole Earth as there are almost no places, which never felt the hand of a human. And thus the whole responsibility is on people. There are certain measures to at least avoid the worst case, the disaster on the planet. People can reduce of greenhouse gas emissions with the help of energy conservation, like turning the computers and other technical devices off, when they do not use them, use compact fluorescent lights, unplug the chargers of cell phones and digital cameras and so on.
The issues of global warming and fossil fuel usage are certainly closely connected. The use of oil and natural resources will decline in a decade. But this would not reduce the carbon dioxide emissions automatically, the replacements with coal, heavy oil and tar sand contain even more carbon, if to make them produce the same amount of energy they will produce twice more carbon. But the fact is that all transport, roads and airports for this transport are useless without oil. To create a new transport system is a task for the whole society, not for an individual, besides it would need money, time, natural resources and a lot of brain power. So the previous arguments concerning a lot of money spent on the stopping or at least slowing the global warming can be put aside against these ones.
The projections made for the future state that Earth will be an ice planet without greenhouse effect, the Earth will get warmer, by the 2100 the temperature will be 1.5 C – 4.5 C warmer, the increase will be less in the southern hemisphere and greater in the northern hemisphere. The global temperature is connected with carbon dioxide level and methane level, which at the moment exceed greatly the past levels.
It is necessary to mention some facts concerning the future in order to understand why the global warming can be considered a disaster for the whole planet. Certainly it is not possible to know the future climate on Earth precisely, but some data are certain: every century brings the increase of the temperature of 1-2C. It is enough for Greenland and Antarctica to start melting, thus some part of northern areas could become a farmland and Sahara might become bigger. Storms can be stronger. Some countries like Bangladesh and Netherlands are luckily to vanish because of the ocean level rise up to 5 meters.
The term “climate forcings” is often used though it is hard to give its precise definition. To define it simply – this is an event that influences global climate. At this point it is necessary to mention that the weather and climate are different things, the weather is described with the help of variations of dryness or wetness, cold and heat. They do not play a great role for the whole picture on the Earth, but climate can be influenced by forcings, like for example a volcanic eruption can cool the climate on the whole Earth. Such forcing is called a short term forcing. An example of long term forcing may be continental drift which within millions of years changes the path of ocean currents. To anthropogenic forcings belong fossil fuel burning and agriculture. Not all forcings of humans result in global warming, sulfur dioxide from coal burning produces aerosols and they result in cooling.
These were the main negative influences on the climate that cause the global warming. They are rather serious and need urgent steps taken by people in order to avoid the catastrophes in the world of nature, to which we by the way also belong.
So the climate of the Earth should be an international concern and not only of scientists and ordinary people, but also of those who hold power in their hand and are able to make the politics work not only for money, but also for the future of the whole mankind. Unfortunately, these are mostly beautiful words and promises when elections are in the future as soon as they are over the real situation changes. Not a single national leader has come out publicly and said that the recent spate of hurricanes was the result of global warming, this is a part of conventional wisdom of environmentalists that they should not frighten the public, but should focus their interest on technical solutions, like for example hybrid cars and so on.
Global warming is such a problem that it is necessary to deal with all its aspects, which includes the politics. When politicians formulate their policy they need inputs from many disciplines and from science as well. But unfortunately global warming has become an absolutely political issue and politicians do their best to influence even science.
In 1992 at the Earth Summit the decision to prevent such dangerous climate change was taken. The first step was the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which is supposed to come into force in 2005.
One of the reports of the U.N. Panel on Climate Changes warns that the U.S. and other wealthy countries should immediately cut their oil and gas consumption and agree to get at least a quarter of their electrical energy from renewable resources – solar and wind power; and that they should double their research spending on low-carbon energy by 2010.In 1997 the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 to make Clinton Administration not to send the Kyoto treaty to Capitol Hill for ratification. In his first term president Bush rejected Kyoto. Russia ratified it, but most believe that Putin was made to do that as British Prime Minister and other European Union officials threatened not to let him become a member of World Trade Organization, which could cost Russia billions of dollars each year. But the chief economic adviser of Putin – Andrei Illarionov shows his doubts as for the upholding commit to Kyoto, he says: “There is no evidence confirming a positive linking between the level of carbon dioxide and temperature change. The U.N. Panel’s so called scientific data are considerably distorted and in many cases falsified” (Can We Defuse the Global Warming Time Bomb?, by James Hansen, 2003, pp.2-15). One of the main ideas of Ilarionov and others is to break the advanced economies of the U.S., Europe and Japan, by persuading the multi-national companies to move plants and jobs to developing countries in order not to comply with emissions restrictions. But the president of the American Policy Center in Washington – Tom DeWeese doesn’t agree that it makes sense, he states as the main concern and the prime target is the wealth of the United States it would not be wise to place factories in Third World countries, as the same amount of emissions would come out from jungles of South America instead of Chicago and in this case we are not talking about the protection of the environment any more. He is right in a way.
The main goal of the meeting in Kyoto was signing the amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Rio Treaty) in order to require the signatory nations to take the necessary steps to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as these gases cause an alarm situation with global temperatures. The costs of signing it for the U.S. could be really high, as the county could be made to reduce between 10 and 20 % of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020, that would cause reduction of gross domestic products by $260 billion annually, it is equal to $2.700 per household. Certainly it was hard to prove that such costs are justified. Besides as millions of American people could be put at risk, several important questions appeared. The first one was about the possible merits or drawbacks of global warming. The World Bank researches prove that about one-third of the whole population suffers from water shortages. By 2025 they say – around 40 % of the whole population could be living in countries without sufficient water supplies. The crops will also suffer from lack of water. Global warming leads to more condensation and more evaporation, thus producing more rains. So it could be in a way an answer to the problem about lack of water. The second positive point about global warming is possibility of agriculture in North America and Europe, the southern regions of Greenland were not covered with ice when between 10th and 12th centuries the temperature was 0.5 degrees warmer than today, and could be also cultivated. The evidence of this was found when: “scientists from the National Science Foundation sponsored Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 extracted in an ice core from Greenland’s ice sheet that spanned more than 100.000 years of climate history. Samplings from the core suggest that a Little Ice Age began between 1400 and 1420, blanketing the Vikings’ farms in ice and forcing them to abandon their farms in search of more hospitable climates”.( Michael Crichton’s State of Fear: Climate Change in the Cineplex, by Amy Ridenour pp.1-5). Thus global warming could mean more agricultural productivity and more water resources.
The idea that great storms are connected with global warming is sometimes called a myth. Those who say so find little evidence to support this fact and also to support a conclusion that there is a connection between global warming and increasing number of such pests and mosquitoes that bring malaria, yellow fever and other diseases. The researches of George C. Marshal institute show that most severe storms are more associated with warm and cold weather, for example in the North Sea the storms occurred between 15th and 16th centuries after the onset of Little Ice Age. The United Health Organization writes that with the grow of international traveling and great number of migrations and refugees people have the chance to communicate more, and thus the diseases are spread more quickly, not just from one person to another, but also from one continent to another.
Another important question concerns the global warming itself. Depending on the time period we are discussing the planet is either warming or not. Our planet has experienced several periods of warming and cooling. In his article in 1994 Richard Kerr offered his point of view about this issue: “In order for a climate model to have credibility, it must first be able to reliably “predict” current climate. … Some “tune” their models by adjusting the strength of solar radiation; others by adjusting the transfer of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere to get just the desired results. The result is climate models that are largely worthless”. (When Science Meets Politics on Global Warming, by Roy W. Spencer, 1998 pp.1-4).
Another question concerns economical results of reducing of greenhouse gas emissions. The plan as to reduce them to their 1990 level by 2000 and with further reductions for 2010 and 2020. This would make the taxes for carbon dioxide raise up to $100 $200 pro metric ton. Then by 2010 this could cause about 500.000 – one million job loses in U.S. The situation in Australia would be even worse, as they have a strong mining sector. The economies of developing countries would also be sensitive to these reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The emissions in Brazil grew by 20%, in India – by 28%, in Indonesia – by 40% between 1990 and 1995.Thus developing nations and oil exporters have fears concerning their economic futures. That is why developing nations were exempted from reduction mandate under the Berlin mandate.
So the main point of political leaders is that the high costs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not worth the climate benefits they could bring. There is a point of view that even if such steps are necessary for improving our climate, we should not hurry and should at first improve our knowledge about causes and consequences of global warming, we should develop technology that could reduce the greenhouse emissions per unit of output, increase the reflectivity of atmosphere. The supporters of this position state that there are a lot of other important economical, scientific and political issues that need to be solved and there is no reason to rush to conclusions about global warming, as scientists themselves are a kind of swept up in the moment. Even after the Kyoto was coming into force constant debates between climate skeptics and global warming “supporters” continued. For example when Kevin Trenberth, being a head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that there was a connection between climate changes and wave of hurricanes, Christopher Landsea, hurricane expert at America’s national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in his public letter that: “because of Dr. Trenberth’s pronouncements. The IPCC process has been subverted and compromised, its neutrality lost” (When Science Meets Politics on Global Warming, by Roy W. Spencer, 1998 pp.1-4).
The concepts of “nature” and “environment” were reconstructed. Actually the human-made phenomenon – global warming- is somehow considered environmental. Some people believe that this framing is political, not just conceptual problem. When the term environment is used it means something that is “out there” and needs fixing, but in reality the problem can not be considered external, as it is within people and not out. And it was and will be the humans’ problem.
Overall, the warming of the Earth has become a serious problem concerning, scientists, citizens and of course policy-makers. It is certainly hard to give one-sided characteristics to all effects, results and reasons of the global warming described above, there are certainly possibilities that not all recent researches and conclusions of scientists are true to life 100%, and the statement that in several decades we will know much more about climate changing and global warming has also some rational points. But on the other hand it is hard to deny the fact that the human beings do influence the climate and the nature greatly. These issues touch every single person on the planet and the whole mankind. They should bother the policy making people as well. They have to care for the wealth of the country but to simply deny all the negative facts about global warming is hardly the best way out. But unfortunately it usually happens so that the politics are more interested in real facts concerning finance and industrial developments than in vague future of the whole planet. As the whole industrial process and thus the economy of almost any country depends on its usage of natural resources, the climate seems a low “price” for spoiling them. When they start to think about problems caused by climate change, they think first of all about refugees, loss of job places, food shortages because of bad development of agriculture and so on.
Climate Change: How North American Agriculture is Affected by Global Warming
July 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Causes And Organizations
Mike Hirn asked:
When you think of global warming, you might envision dramatic scenes like melting glaciers and flooded coastlines. Agriculture is yet another area that will be seriously affected by climatic changes. Farming challenges may become even more intense. Today it is even more likely that a farmer will face droughts, floods, heat waves, and hurricanes. These types of weather events that are so traumatic for farming will certainly be less rare.
In regions that are already warm, global warming will cause the plants to languish in the heat. Soil evaporation rates will be very high, leaving parched earth and burned plants. Often rain will come down hard when it does come, leading to greater than usual soil erosion.
Some studies show that the news of global warming is not all bad for farming, at least not in the short run.
An increase in temperature has some temporary benefits. For a while, it will simply mean more time for crops to mature because of a longer growing season. This is especially true of regions where the spring and fall were once quite cool.
Strangely enough, all the extra carbon dioxide in the air also has a fertilizing affect on crops. This type of fertilization is most helpful for crops such as wheat, soybeans, and rice. Carbon dioxide fertilization is a beneficial by-product of global warming. However, this benefit may all be in vain. When global warming pushes ground level ozone to higher stages, the carbon dioxide fertilization is voided out by tropospheric ozone. These ozone levels are influenced by both emissions and temperature. When the temperature rises, the ground ozone levels will rise as well.
The overall predictions for farming in North America are neither all bad nor all good. Crops are expected to benefit from the effects of global warming in many regions for a short period of time. Crops will suffer in some places due to regional variations. The Great Plains are now more susceptible to drought. However, Canada will probably benefit from the added heat, causing farming of some crops to shift north.
Right now, and in the near future, global warming does not seem to pose a serious risk for North American farmers in general. There may even be some positive outcomes. However, in the long run, nothing will be able to mitigate the damage to agriculture that will occur if global warming is not slowed or stopped.
When you think of global warming, you might envision dramatic scenes like melting glaciers and flooded coastlines. Agriculture is yet another area that will be seriously affected by climatic changes. Farming challenges may become even more intense. Today it is even more likely that a farmer will face droughts, floods, heat waves, and hurricanes. These types of weather events that are so traumatic for farming will certainly be less rare.
In regions that are already warm, global warming will cause the plants to languish in the heat. Soil evaporation rates will be very high, leaving parched earth and burned plants. Often rain will come down hard when it does come, leading to greater than usual soil erosion.
Some studies show that the news of global warming is not all bad for farming, at least not in the short run.
An increase in temperature has some temporary benefits. For a while, it will simply mean more time for crops to mature because of a longer growing season. This is especially true of regions where the spring and fall were once quite cool.
Strangely enough, all the extra carbon dioxide in the air also has a fertilizing affect on crops. This type of fertilization is most helpful for crops such as wheat, soybeans, and rice. Carbon dioxide fertilization is a beneficial by-product of global warming. However, this benefit may all be in vain. When global warming pushes ground level ozone to higher stages, the carbon dioxide fertilization is voided out by tropospheric ozone. These ozone levels are influenced by both emissions and temperature. When the temperature rises, the ground ozone levels will rise as well.
The overall predictions for farming in North America are neither all bad nor all good. Crops are expected to benefit from the effects of global warming in many regions for a short period of time. Crops will suffer in some places due to regional variations. The Great Plains are now more susceptible to drought. However, Canada will probably benefit from the added heat, causing farming of some crops to shift north.
Right now, and in the near future, global warming does not seem to pose a serious risk for North American farmers in general. There may even be some positive outcomes. However, in the long run, nothing will be able to mitigate the damage to agriculture that will occur if global warming is not slowed or stopped.
The Bad Things That Global Warming Can Do to Your Health
Janet Martin asked:
It is common to see news in the paper or on television about flashfloods in the country or in other parts of the world. These are all caused by changes in the weather and environment which are usually attributed to global warming. Although you may know that these phenomena are serious and can wreak havoc in the future, you may not be aware that environmental changes may actually have a direct effect on your health. While the melting of the polar caps should be a cause for alarm, you should be more concerned about the little changes in your body that global warming can bring.
Here are some health concerns linked to environmental changes:
Extreme Rashes
Due to the rise in greenhouse gases, deadlier strains of poison ivy are on the rise. As a result, the rashes expected from more lethal strains would be worse. A Duke University study found that urushiol oil, which is the one responsible for making poison ivy dangerous, when exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide are 30% more potent than those that are exposed in prevalent CO2 levels. In fact, some experts believe that the toxicity of poison in plants like poison ivy is already higher today than decades ago.
Heatstroke
For the past few years, more and more people in the US have died from heatstroke. The people who are at a higher risk of getting heatstroke are the elderly and the very young children. One of the main reasons why temperature is high in some places in the country, particularly during summer, is that changes in climatic patterns are affecting the region’s nighttime cooling. In Europe back in 2003, figures have shown that about 35,000 people were killed during heat waves.
Skin Cancer
Experts have estimated that over 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be reported in the US in 2008. In fact, this type of cancer is the most common in the country today. Although efforts in dramatically reducing the production of chlorofluourocarbons (more commonly known as CFCs) were successful, the damage has already been done in the ozone layer. As a result, more deadly ultraviolet rays are penetrating the earth.
Toxic Seafood
The rising ocean temperature is making sea-borne bacteria flourish. In the past decade, you will see a rising trend of red tide outbreaks in clams, oysters, mussels and other shellfishes that did not only affect fish, but also humans. Aside from making shellfish unfit to eat, these sedimentary organisms are also responsible for turning regular mercury into methylmercury, a more toxic form, which can be found in aquatic animals like shark, tilefish, tuna, king mackerel and swordfish.
Severe Allergic Reactions
People allergic to pollen are sneezing and coughing a lot more as the spring and summer seasons seem to be longer due to global warming. The increase in CO2 is also making plants produce bigger and more pollen. Furthermore, the greenhouse gases are also encouraging more fungi spores to grow.
What You Need To Do
The first thing you need to do is to start caring for the environment. The little things that you do in saving electricity and resources or minimizing garbage and pollution can go a long way in stopping the further deterioration of the planet.
Secondly, it would be wise for you to start protecting yourself from the harmful rays of the sun by using sunscreen every time you go outdoors during the day. Make sure that the sun block that you buy protects you from both UVA and UVB rays.
Lastly, boost your health by eating right and exercising daily. You may also perform detoxification at least once or twice a year to make sure that the toxins inside you will be safely eliminated out of your body and system. One product that can help you undergo detoxification with ease is Colpurin. For more information about Colpurin, simply click on to
It is common to see news in the paper or on television about flashfloods in the country or in other parts of the world. These are all caused by changes in the weather and environment which are usually attributed to global warming. Although you may know that these phenomena are serious and can wreak havoc in the future, you may not be aware that environmental changes may actually have a direct effect on your health. While the melting of the polar caps should be a cause for alarm, you should be more concerned about the little changes in your body that global warming can bring.
Here are some health concerns linked to environmental changes:
Extreme Rashes
Due to the rise in greenhouse gases, deadlier strains of poison ivy are on the rise. As a result, the rashes expected from more lethal strains would be worse. A Duke University study found that urushiol oil, which is the one responsible for making poison ivy dangerous, when exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide are 30% more potent than those that are exposed in prevalent CO2 levels. In fact, some experts believe that the toxicity of poison in plants like poison ivy is already higher today than decades ago.
Heatstroke
For the past few years, more and more people in the US have died from heatstroke. The people who are at a higher risk of getting heatstroke are the elderly and the very young children. One of the main reasons why temperature is high in some places in the country, particularly during summer, is that changes in climatic patterns are affecting the region’s nighttime cooling. In Europe back in 2003, figures have shown that about 35,000 people were killed during heat waves.
Skin Cancer
Experts have estimated that over 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be reported in the US in 2008. In fact, this type of cancer is the most common in the country today. Although efforts in dramatically reducing the production of chlorofluourocarbons (more commonly known as CFCs) were successful, the damage has already been done in the ozone layer. As a result, more deadly ultraviolet rays are penetrating the earth.
Toxic Seafood
The rising ocean temperature is making sea-borne bacteria flourish. In the past decade, you will see a rising trend of red tide outbreaks in clams, oysters, mussels and other shellfishes that did not only affect fish, but also humans. Aside from making shellfish unfit to eat, these sedimentary organisms are also responsible for turning regular mercury into methylmercury, a more toxic form, which can be found in aquatic animals like shark, tilefish, tuna, king mackerel and swordfish.
Severe Allergic Reactions
People allergic to pollen are sneezing and coughing a lot more as the spring and summer seasons seem to be longer due to global warming. The increase in CO2 is also making plants produce bigger and more pollen. Furthermore, the greenhouse gases are also encouraging more fungi spores to grow.
What You Need To Do
The first thing you need to do is to start caring for the environment. The little things that you do in saving electricity and resources or minimizing garbage and pollution can go a long way in stopping the further deterioration of the planet.
Secondly, it would be wise for you to start protecting yourself from the harmful rays of the sun by using sunscreen every time you go outdoors during the day. Make sure that the sun block that you buy protects you from both UVA and UVB rays.
Lastly, boost your health by eating right and exercising daily. You may also perform detoxification at least once or twice a year to make sure that the toxins inside you will be safely eliminated out of your body and system. One product that can help you undergo detoxification with ease is Colpurin. For more information about Colpurin, simply click on to
Climate Changes Due to Global Warming
June 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under Environment
Nathalie Fiset asked:
While the drastic effects of global warming has been discussed in many scientific circles, had their run on TV and even had major exposure through well-meaning (but sadly inaccurate) Hollywood films, it’s a concern that has a broad political, economic, social and geographical significance to countries all over the world. Quite literally, for all of us, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run and we can’t stop the climate from changing. It’s just way too big for us.
How to recognize global warming
Whether or not it’s brewing something good or something bad, Nature always tries to warn us through many signs. The slow process involved in global warming results in many different things and some of its signs include:
Melting of glaciers
Most of the mountain glaciers on our planet that have been monitored for the past 150 years are reportedly shrinking. The glaciers most affected by global warming those located in the lower latitudes and many of them are disappearing. If glaciers continue to shrink, it could affect water supply in areas that depend heavily upon mountain watersheds.
If the scenarios of global warming continue, most of the glaciers that still stand today will disappear by 2100.
Ocean warming
Sea level increase is attributed to warmer temperatures, which in turn result to the melting of ice glaciers. Over the last 100 years, sea level has increased from 10 cm to 25 cm. Projections over the next hundred years indicate that sea level will rise higher, from about 15 cm to 90 cm. Based on the higher figure, that’s about 3 feet.
Translated, this could mean that beaches lose about 50 feet of area for every foot of increase in sea level. Some islands may even disappear beneath sea water completely.
Heat waves
Heat waves and periods of weather that are unusually warm are also signs of global warming. These may come about with varying degrees of their severity and frequency, causing concerns in the economics and health on a global scale.
How global warming brings climate change and what it means to us
The earth’s climate has always been changing, although not at an abrupt rate. There had been periods of warming and cooling in the earth’s 4.65 billion-year history. Strange as it may sound to some, this is the reason why life became possible on this planet millions of years ago. Unfortunately, not all of the changes in climate brought about by global warming may be beneficial to many of us.
For one, global warming will raise the temperatures in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere, causing the melting of mountain glaciers. This means that areas that are currently experiencing light snow may no longer experience snowfall anymore. Snowlines found in mountains in temperate regions may also be higher and packs of snow will melt earlier than before.
Spring may be experienced earlier and temperatures during night time and in winter will rise. The world will experience a more humid atmosphere since sea water will have a higher rate of evaporation. With greater humidity, rainfall is expected to increase on average.
Storms will also occur with more frequency and intensity. Ironically, water in the soil will evaporate faster, causing dryness between rains. Regions that are already considered dry will experience more dryness. Some semi-arid regions in the African continent, for example, may suffer more while areas that depend on their region’s mountain snow packs for irrigation will not benefit from earlier melting between growing seasons.
With warmer weather, some hurricanes will be more severe and winds are expected to blow stronger. It is also possible that wind patterns may shift. Extremely cold periods may be experienced as well.
The phenomenon known as El Nino may occur in more frequency and severity. This is expected to affect different regions in many countries. All in all, scientists will have some difficulty in predicting weather patterns.
With changes in climate brought about by global warming, health concerns and risks may also increase. Heat stress and diseases may become common in places that did not have any problems with them before.
Global warming is an issue that requires immediate action. Even plants and animal species are adversely affected by it. While many of the changes that occur in our planet are totally out of our hands, we have been direct contributors to events that have had negative effects on our environment. This is why many leading social and scientific organizations have urged nations to cooperate in the move to counter this worldwide problem before it’s too late.
While the drastic effects of global warming has been discussed in many scientific circles, had their run on TV and even had major exposure through well-meaning (but sadly inaccurate) Hollywood films, it’s a concern that has a broad political, economic, social and geographical significance to countries all over the world. Quite literally, for all of us, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run and we can’t stop the climate from changing. It’s just way too big for us.
How to recognize global warming
Whether or not it’s brewing something good or something bad, Nature always tries to warn us through many signs. The slow process involved in global warming results in many different things and some of its signs include:
Melting of glaciers
Most of the mountain glaciers on our planet that have been monitored for the past 150 years are reportedly shrinking. The glaciers most affected by global warming those located in the lower latitudes and many of them are disappearing. If glaciers continue to shrink, it could affect water supply in areas that depend heavily upon mountain watersheds.
If the scenarios of global warming continue, most of the glaciers that still stand today will disappear by 2100.
Ocean warming
Sea level increase is attributed to warmer temperatures, which in turn result to the melting of ice glaciers. Over the last 100 years, sea level has increased from 10 cm to 25 cm. Projections over the next hundred years indicate that sea level will rise higher, from about 15 cm to 90 cm. Based on the higher figure, that’s about 3 feet.
Translated, this could mean that beaches lose about 50 feet of area for every foot of increase in sea level. Some islands may even disappear beneath sea water completely.
Heat waves
Heat waves and periods of weather that are unusually warm are also signs of global warming. These may come about with varying degrees of their severity and frequency, causing concerns in the economics and health on a global scale.
How global warming brings climate change and what it means to us
The earth’s climate has always been changing, although not at an abrupt rate. There had been periods of warming and cooling in the earth’s 4.65 billion-year history. Strange as it may sound to some, this is the reason why life became possible on this planet millions of years ago. Unfortunately, not all of the changes in climate brought about by global warming may be beneficial to many of us.
For one, global warming will raise the temperatures in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere, causing the melting of mountain glaciers. This means that areas that are currently experiencing light snow may no longer experience snowfall anymore. Snowlines found in mountains in temperate regions may also be higher and packs of snow will melt earlier than before.
Spring may be experienced earlier and temperatures during night time and in winter will rise. The world will experience a more humid atmosphere since sea water will have a higher rate of evaporation. With greater humidity, rainfall is expected to increase on average.
Storms will also occur with more frequency and intensity. Ironically, water in the soil will evaporate faster, causing dryness between rains. Regions that are already considered dry will experience more dryness. Some semi-arid regions in the African continent, for example, may suffer more while areas that depend on their region’s mountain snow packs for irrigation will not benefit from earlier melting between growing seasons.
With warmer weather, some hurricanes will be more severe and winds are expected to blow stronger. It is also possible that wind patterns may shift. Extremely cold periods may be experienced as well.
The phenomenon known as El Nino may occur in more frequency and severity. This is expected to affect different regions in many countries. All in all, scientists will have some difficulty in predicting weather patterns.
With changes in climate brought about by global warming, health concerns and risks may also increase. Heat stress and diseases may become common in places that did not have any problems with them before.
Global warming is an issue that requires immediate action. Even plants and animal species are adversely affected by it. While many of the changes that occur in our planet are totally out of our hands, we have been direct contributors to events that have had negative effects on our environment. This is why many leading social and scientific organizations have urged nations to cooperate in the move to counter this worldwide problem before it’s too late.







