Global Warming

Every 100 pounds of wood contains approximately 44 pounds of carbon. When burned, this carbon combines with oxygen (some in the wood and some from the air) to produce about 163 pounds carbon dioxide.

Absolutely! Every action we do is linked to our surroundings. In developed countries we are using more and more energy doing things like heating our homes, running our cars, using electricity, etc. This increased demand for energy creates more air pollution, altering the atmospheric cycle and warming the earth faster than normal. Earth will eventually warm up by its own and the ice will melt, but we are speeding up this process unnaturally.

Water Security is the protection of adequate water supplies for food, fiber, industrial, and residential needs for expanding populations, which requires maximizing water-use efficiency, developing new supplies, and protecting water reserves in event of scarcity due to natural, manmade, or technological hazards.

No. Not always (but usually), sometimes the process of discovery can be reversed. The steam engine is one example. The only thing the inventors of the steam engine knew was that steam from boiling water could move the engine.

The greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane trap infrared heat rising from the surface of the earth. This heat warms the atmosphere and also the earth again.

Photosynthesis is a process that does not release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Instead, during photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the environment and convert it into oxygen through a series of chemical reactions.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. When trees are cut down and not replaced, this carbon dioxide is no longer absorbed, leading to an increase in its levels in the atmosphere. Additionally, when trees are burnt or decompose, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Sea levels have risen approximately 3.6 inches (9.1 cm) globally since 1992, as measured by satellite data. This rise is primarily due to the melting of glaciers and ice caps and the thermal expansion of seawater caused by global warming.

On average less than 1%. It is estimated that volcanoes emit on average 200 million tonnes of CO2 a year. This includes all volcanoes, hot springs and and undersea hydrothermal vents. Humans emit 26 billion tonnes (2003) a year by burning fossil fuels. The gas burnt onsite at oil wells in gas flares accounts for more CO2 emissions than all volcanoes put together.

Trees help to reduce global warming by 'cleaning the air'.

Here's how: * A gas that helps to cause global warming is carbon dioxide. * Trees 'breathe' just like we do except when they breathe they take in carbon dioxide not oxygen. * When a tree breathes out it breathes out oxygen. * This is then breathed in by a human. * Carbon dioxide is breathed out the the human... * ...and breathed in by the tree... * This carries on continuously. Some trees have been growing in tropical rainforests like the Amazon Basin for hundreds of years. They store almost half their weight in carbon. So trees help reduce global warming in a way, but with people producing so much extra carbon dioxide global warming is happening. Trees probably have other effects on the environment and global warming, but I only know what is above. Hope it helps :) Yes, living trees breathe in carbon dioxide. But when they die, they ROT, and when they rot, all the carbon they stored over the years will be oxidized and released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Well, not ALL of the carbon. Some part of it will be transferred to the soil. But in places like the Amazon Rain Forest, the soil is too thin to hold much carbon, so very little goes into the soil and what little does is rapidly released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. On the other hand, if, instead of allowing trees to die and rot, we were to HARVEST the trees, turn them into lumber, and treat them to prevent rot, the carbon therein would be sequestered (prevented from oxidizing into the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) almost indefinitely.

As the water recedes back into the ocean, it doesn't just go straight back out to deep waters. It stays closer to the coast, which causes the rise of ocean levels.

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Sorry, but that is wrong. A tsunami is a wave and once the water it has flung onto land has flowed back to the sea, sea-level is as it was. In fact, however devastating the tsunami, the volume of water it moves is so small compared to world-wide ocean volume, its effect on sea-level is too all intents and purposes, non-existent.

Water cannot behave as you say anyway!

One very important point. The section heading is "Global Warming, Oceans and Seas". Most, and certainly the most destructive, Tsunami have nothing to do with climate or sea-level change.

• Earth's previous climate changes were natural and took place over tens of thousands of years.
• Today's global warming is caused by human activity (the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation) and is happening very quickly (gradually since 200 years ago and then very rapidly since 1980).

The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenom by which greenhouse gases keep the earth at a comfortable level suitable for human existence. This occurs when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are around their long-term level of 260 to 280 parts per million (ppm). The enhanced greenhouse effect, which is what we usually mean when we just talk about the greenhouse effect, results when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, as they have done to the present level of over 380 ppm. This results in global warming and therefore climate change. This will result in widespread species extinction, coastal inundation and, in the longer term, great economic loss.

Ozone depletion is specifically the reduction in levels of the ozone gas in the upper atmosphere and results from the use of CFC gases, which are no longer permitted to be manufactured for industrial use. The world's ozone layer is gradually recovering, although there is also a natural, seasonal cycle of depletion and recovery. The risk of ozone depletion was that too much ultraviolet radiation would reach the earth's surface, resulting in high levels of skin cancer.

Industrial processes can result in slightly acidic rain as a result of high levels of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution. Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides dissolve very easily in water and can be carried very far in the wind and become part of the rain, sleet, snow, and fog that we experience on certain days. Acid rain can cause health problems, damage to crops and damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Global listening in communication refers to paying attention to the overall message and context of a conversation, rather than just focusing on individual words or phrases. This involves understanding the nuances of tone, body language, and cultural background. For example, if someone says they are "fine" but their body language suggests otherwise, global listening would involve recognizing the discrepancy and exploring further to understand the real feelings behind the words.

The IPCC has also been involved in a number of scandals including:

Climate-Gate - e-mails obtained from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia suggested that facts inconvenient to the global warming case were being deliberately hidden/obscured.

Himalaya-Gate - Alarmist report by the IPCC that the Himalyan glacier will have melted by 2035. As it transpired the report was without any scientific basis.

Amazon-Gate - The IPCC claimed that up to 40% of the rain forests in the Amazon were at risk from global warming and would likely be replaced by "tropical savannas" if temperatures continued to rise.

The scientific-looking report, on which this claim was based, was a non-peer reviewed article for the WWF, by an Australian policy analyst and a freelance journalist for the Guardian newspaper (not even experts let alone scientists!).

But the biggest scandal to date is the IPCC's claim, made in 1995, that it had found "a "discernible human influence" on the earth's changing climate. The claim was inserted by the report's lead author, Ben Santer of the Lawrence Livermore government laboratory, after the IPCC's consulting scientists had agreed a draft that specifically said no such "human fingerprint" had been found.

Due to this deliberate reversal of the report's findings, Santer also altered the trajectory of every IPCC document since. He argued that the alteration that it was justified based on two of his own studies, which "cherry-picked" the earth's temperature record from 1963-1987, deliberately ignoring temperatures that didn't confirm the Greenhouse theory. Thus the "discernible human influence" as claimed by the IPCC remains without scientific support to this day.

The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising as the gases responsible are produced without any attempt to reduce the levels. The gases such as Methane, water vapors, Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ), Nitrous Oxide and especially chloroflurocarbons ( CFCs ) are increasing day by day as it is used in manufacturing many products. If such trend continues it may result in the huge climatic changes which may result in mass deaths due to extreme weather conditions and diseases caused by such gases

No, the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. This leads to the trapping of heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change.

Deforestation of the rainforests destroyed trees that used to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This allows CO2 levels to build up in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases cause the greenhouse effect, keeping the earth warm. Because of deforestation and man's burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in industry, transport and the generation of electricity, levels of CO2 in the air are rising, causing global warming.

• The greenhouse effect has been keeping the earth warm enough for life for hundreds of millions of years.
• The enhanced (or accelerated) greenhouse effect which is causing global warming has been going on since we started burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in the Industrial Revolution, about 200 years ago.

Until relatively recently, lead was added to petrol to raise its octane rating. After decades of cars emitting this into our atmosphere, scientists began to find high levels of lead in the air of our cities and along major traffic arteries. Even after lead is no longer added to fuel, the lead remains in our urban environment and re-enters the atmosphere when disturbed.

• An increase of solar activity reaching the earth's surface would warm the surface more.
• There would be an increase in the amount of infrared heat rising into the atmosphere.
• This heat would be retained by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causing an increased warming of the earth.
• Extra warming would melt glaciers which flow off the land into the ocean raising sea levels.
• Extra heat in the oceans would make them expand raising sea levels all round the world (including the coastline of the US!).

If global warming were impossible, the world would be at least 30 degrees Celsius colder than it is today. One thing research scientists and global warming denialists do agree on is that greenhouse gases keep the earth at a comfortable temperature suitable for human habitation. So, global warming is not only possible, but necessary. And just as it is possible to keep the world at a temperature suitable for the maintenance of the world's current biodiversity and human existence, so also it is possible to raise the world's temperature, simply by adding new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That is what scientists say is happening now.

Also, let's make sure we separate the concept of the greenhouse effect and the concept of global warming. The greenhouse effect is the process by which greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, insulate the earth, causing more of the earth's reflected heat to be captured instead of drifting off into space. Global warming is the theory that present-day increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide are causing the earth's temperature to permanently increase.

The greenhouse effect is a well know fact, with many observable examples of where it has exhibited itself (ie, Venus). Scientists who study the subject know that the greenhouse effect is the process of confining the energy from the sun that get radiated back out at longer wavelengths. What inhibits the cooling by radiation is the material in the atmosphere that absorbs energy. It turns out that water is one of those and, it is very important. If it wasn't, your microwave wouldn't heat your coffee. But, increased warming increases water vapor and that makes everything even worse, and not be a little bit. NASA satellite imagery has been reporting water vapor distribution in the atmosphere for decades. The NASA web site summarizes a study on this saying, " Increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperatures, which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiraling cycle. " See http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/vapor_warming.html There are an infinite number of ways that you can conjecture what might be true, but with real scientific research, the job is to whittle all those "might cause" ideas down to one. That is an advantage science has.