Posted:
Greenhouse Effect, Climate Change
and Global Warming
and Global Warming
Hello everyone,
We all know that there's severe climate change these days and we all are concerned about this issue. So why not we debate on this topic. Share your thoughts about what do u feel based on these articles and anything u wana talk about global warming.
Sincerely,
Glam Girl
The Greenhouse Effect: Scientists are sure about the greenhouse effect. They know that greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by trapping energy in the atmosphere.
Climate Change: Climate is the long-term average of a region's weather events lumped together. For example, it's possible that a winter day in Buffalo, New York, could be sunny and mild, but the average weather – the climate – tells us that Buffalo's winters will mainly be cold and include snow and rain. Climate change represents a change in these long-term weather patterns. They can become warmer or colder. Annual amounts of rainfall or snowfall can increase or decrease.
Global Warming: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities.
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UN blames people for global warming
Fri Feb 2, 5:23 AM
PARIS (AFP) - The UN climate panel has blamed humans for global warming and warned it would be unstoppable for centuries to come, causing rising seas and fierce storms.
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the world's paramount scientific authority on global warming -- said Friday the phenomenon was "very likely" caused by human activity, with a certitude of 90 percent.
The Earth's surface temperatures will likely rise between 1.8 Celsius to 4 C (3.2 F to 7.2 F) and sea levels increase 18 to 59 cm (7.1 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, the report concluded.
The scientists also predicted increasingly intense storms, heat waves and heavy rains in the decades to come.
The impact of pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will cause serious climate disruptions "for more than a millenium," the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.
The exhaustive study by 2,500 scientists from more than 100 countries sounds alarms about the impact of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, and is designed to help policy makers.
Sea rises, the report notes, are predicted to shrink both the Arctic and Antarctic, and in some projections "Arctic late summer ice disappears almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century."
"It is likely that that future tropical cyclones" -- similar to the one that devastated New Orleans -- will become more intense, with large peak wind speeds and heavy precipitation," it said.
Britian's environment minister, David Miliband, said the report confirmed "concerns that the window of opportuinity to avoid dangerous climate change is closing more quickly than previously thought."
Environmental pressure groups responded by calling for urgent international action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Friends of the Earth said the world now faced a "crisis," and the WWF International conservation group said governments must now "slash emissions." Greenpeace warned the "window for action is narrowing fast".
"The IPCC report embodies an extraordinary scientific consensus that climate change is already upon us and that human activities are the cause," said WWF International director general James Leape.
"It is a clarion call to governments to act urgently to slash emissions," he added in a statement.
Jan Kowalzig, climate and energy campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said "The IPCC report scientifically confirms the extent of this man-made crisis already hitting people around the world and makes bleak predictions for the future."
He added: "We can no longer afford to ignore growing and compelling warnings from the world's leading experts."
On Thursday night, before the report was published, the lights went out at major tourist attractions across western Europe for five minutes, including the Eiffel Tower and Rome's Colosseum, to raise awareness about climate change.
The normally glittering night-time view of France's most famous attraction was plunged into darkness if only for a few minutes as part of a campaign organised by environmental and dubbed "five minutes' break for the planet."
WWF said governments must ensure the next UN Climate Conference in Bali is a success. Hans Verolme, head of the WWF global climate change programme, said it must set a "tight time frame for negotiating new cuts in emissions within a next Kyoto Agreement that will also promote clean investments."
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, Stephanie Tunmore, called the IPCC report a "screaming siren" of a warning.
"The good news is our understanding of the climate system and our impact on it has improved immensely. The bad news is that the more we know, the more precarious the future looks," Tunmore said.
"There's a clear message to governments here, and the window for action is narrowing fast. If the last IPCC report was a wake up call, this one is a screaming siren."
The annual UN climate change conference is to be held in the Indonesian resort of Bali in December.
The Kyoto protocol is the only international treaty to set targets for limiting the fossil fuel pollution that causes the greenhouse effect. It has been rejected by the United States.
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A perfect storm
What a week for it's been for enviro-happy political junkies. A TV writer like Aaron Sorkin could not come up with a better story.
Coming out of the holiday break, all the MPs had the environment on their minds. With each party claiming to be greener than the next, it didn't take long for the elected members to begin picking on the carcass of the Conservatives' still-warm environmental policy. The Liberals even went so far as to wear little green ribbons in the House.
The week-long debate highlighted one incredible miscalculation on the part of the Tories. They came into power a little more than a year ago, and already they're faced with having to shift gears. One minister and several million-dollar announcements later, they're backpedalling on a portfolio they'd deemed irrelevant only to find that it had taken the position as the foremost concern among Canadians. In a bid to neutralize the newly minted, environmentally minded Opposition leader, they unleashed a series of attack ads. Then, a revealing letter penned by Harper painting him as an enemy of the green movement found its way into the hands of the media. (Three guesses who let that slip.) Finally, Harper reluctantly dispatched his new environment minister, John Baird, to Paris for the unveiling of a landmark UN report on the issue of global warming.
The public, it seems, is skeptical of the tone of the debate. While Canadians have put environmental concerns ahead of health care as the most pressing issue facing us today, we aren't taken by any of the major political parties' commitment to environmental policies.
But it hardly stops at Ottawa. This perfect storm for friends of the environment also included the media. News outlets across the country were trotting out experts who were sounding increasingly alarmist in their predictions about what the changing climate would bring.
One of those experts actually said that he was more vocal now than 10 years ago as a result of the threat he feels we face. Which raises the following questions: Are scientists turning into climate crusaders? Should they? If not, with whom should that responsibility rest?
Share your thoughts.
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THE PLANET'S FUTURE IS AT STAKE
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/...5258&ch=222562
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