Global Warming and Climate Change: Implications for Human Security of India (original) (raw)
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Science and Culture, 2020
This essay presents the basic science of global warming. At its base is human interference with the carbon cycle. Major current impacts, worldwide and in India, are discussed. We also present the latest science pertaining to the attribution of extreme events in India. Key to understanding climatic impacts in India is the excessive warming of the Indian Ocean. Planetary feedbacks and tipping points that are being crossed suggest that the urgency to intervene has never been greater.
Research Paper on cause and effect of Global Warming
Most scientists also agree that global warming is the result of human activity. Opponents argue that the correlation between higher levels of greenhouse gases and the earth's warming trend do not necessarily mean that the greenhouse gases are causing the trend. Many see warmer temperatures as part of the normal fluctuations that occur over long periods of time. They also cite the ability of naturally-occurring volcanic eruptions to cause temporary changes in weather patterns and levels of gases in the atmosphere. The body of research on global warming undertaken during the twentieth century has resulted in many governmental policies that affect individuals, business, and industry. Environmental regulations, and their effect on businesses, fuel the controversy surrounding global warming.
GLOBAL WARMING - CAUSES, IMPACTS AND REMEDIES
Global Warming is now becoming a challenge for survival of species on Earth and draws attention of many modern societies, power and energy engineers, academicians, researchers and stakeholders to go for deeper study. Almost all countries are required to act fast and attend to major problems of depletion of fossil fuel resources, poor energy efficiency and environmental pollution and its dire consequences on priority. This book is written to create awareness of the energy engineers, academicians, researchers, industry personnel and society as a whole, and to emphasize current status of global warming and its impact on climate changes. We all know that humanity is at risk due to Greenhouse gases which are the main source of Global Warming . Our beautiful planet is being destroyed, due to excessive exploitation of Earth’s resources from its reservoirs and other serious man-made problems. The main objective of this book is to produce a good documentation from the point of view of knowledge seekers or public readers at large, and also those who are eager to know more about Global Warming and its impact on the Climate Changes, besides those who have raisen their voice for its remedial measures. Present state of environmental damage and continuous occurrence of natural disasters have made the environmentalist and scientists inevitable for their extensive study, and to carry out detailed analysis of the following threats faced by civilization across the entire globe due to global warming: i). Is Global Warming caused by human activity? ii). What are Greenhouse Gases? iii). Fast shrinkage of polar ice may leave us with no ice by summer 2040. iv). Fast rise of the Sea Level. v). Danger for species like polar bear, etc. vi). Ice sheets, where they meet at the Atlantic sea. This area may be affected by cold waves, heavy snow falls and intense storms. vii). Permafrost may create further warming which cannot be reversed. The Global Warming is increasing Earth's average surface temperature, due to the effect of Greenhouse gases such as: Carbon dioxide through emissions produced from burning of fossil fuels or from deforestation, which traps heat that would otherwise escape the Earth. This is a type of Greenhouse effect . The most significant Greenhouse gas is actually Water Vapor , not something produced directly by humankind in significant amounts. However, even slight increase in atmospheric levels of Carbon dioxide (CO2) can cause a substantial increase in Earth’s atmospheric temperature. The ultimate effects, which we are likely to be faced as 21 st century.
The Greenhouse Effect & the Global Warming
Our planet Earth is facing a serious problem called Global Warming; the Earth's surface temperature is getting warmer and warmer, which is changing the Earth's climate everywhere with devastating affects on weather patterns across globe. It has a range of potential ecological, physical and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); melting of the ice caps causing sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems and others. The climate change that we are witnessing is one of the greatest challenge facing humanity today. This may also put out many species at high risk of extinction, threatening the collapse of marine food chain and ecosystem. Shortage of food and water may trigger massive movements of people leading to migration, conflict and famine. Scientists generally agree that unless we address this problem now the situation will get worse and eventually will threaten the very life on earth. Scientist also generally agree that one major contributor to this global warming is the higher concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide CO2 in the atmosphere. This brings us to the important and interesting climatic phenomenon called the Greenhouse effect. Normally the Earth's atmosphere is very cold, so cold that normally life on Earth is not feasible. Today, it is possible for us to live on the Earth only because of what is called this Greenhouse effect where the so-called greenhouse gases. (GHG:water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.) in the atmosphere trap some of the Sun's radiation and radiate these back to the Earth. The process is called the Greenhouse effect, a term taken from the operation of the greenhouses. However, this is somewhat a misnomer; a greenhouse is not primarily warmed by the Greenhouse effect. Anyhow, our Earth is one of the few planets in our Solar system where this Greenhouse effect occurs. Other planets where this Greenhouse effect occur are Venus, Mars and Titan. Without this Greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the Earth's surface would have been very cold, about −18 °C (0 °F) rather than the present average of 15 °C (59 °F) which is comfortable for human life. This present average of 15 °C (59 °F) may be called the normal temperature of the Earth for human civilization. The Greenhouse effect works by preventing absorbed heat from leaving the earth through radiative transfer. Normally, the Earth receives energy from the Sun in the form of ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared radiation. About 26% of the incoming solar energy is reflected back to space by the atmosphere while about 19% is absorbed by the atmosphere. Most of the remaining 55% energy is absorbed by the surface of the Earth and some are radiated back. Because the Earth's surface is colder than the Sun, it radiates back infrared light at wavelengths that are much longer than the wavelengths that were received. The atmosphere in turn radiates back some of this energy downwards depending on the strength of the greenhouse gases. This leads to a higher equilibrium temperature of the Earth surface than if the atmosphere were absent. The strength of the Greenhouse effect-how much extra energy it directs toward the Earth's surface-depends on how many greenhouse gas (GHG) molecules there are in the atmosphere. When GHG concentrations are high, they absorb a greater percentage of the Earth's infrared energy emissions. This means that more energy gets reemitted back toward the Earth's surface, raising its average surface temperature. We can think of the atmosphere as a heat-trapping grid surrounding the Earth. Water vapor, Carbon dioxide and other GHG are the solid bars of the grid while non-greenhouse1 gases (nitrogen and oxygen) are the open spaces between the grid bars. When infrared energy hits an open space of the grid, it escapes into outer space and dissipates; but when it hits a solid bar, the bar heats up and reradiates some portion of the energy back toward the Earth, raising its overall temperature. The more GHG molecules there are in the atmosphere, the more wide are the bars of the grid, shrinking the open spaces and making it harder for infrared energy to escape into space. The tighter the grid, the more energy it absorbs, and the hotter the Earth gets. We need to note that CO2 is not the biggest contributor of the GHG. Water vapor in the form of clouds is the greatest contributor with (32-76%). of these GHG. However, while we humans don't have any control on the natural process of formation of the water vapors (clouds) which are formed based of the surface temperature of the oceans, we humans have control in formation of the next biggest contributor of the GHG, the CO2 which contribute as much as (9-26%) of the GHG. Carbon dioxides also essential for life-animals exhale it, plants absorb and sequester it. There is a natural carbon cycle in the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere when photosynthesizing organisms such as plants, algae, and some kinds of bacteria pull it out of the air and combine it with water to form carbohydrates. It is returned to the atmosphere as CO2 when humans and other animals breathe it out, or when plants die and decompose. For the past thousands of years, this balance of intake and emission has kept the amount of carbon dioxide CO2 in the atmosphere constant. But in modern times, by burning an ever-increasing amount of fossil fuels, we are putting our finger on the scale, tipping the balance toward more CO2 emission. When we mine fossil fuels and burn them for energy, we are
A Study on the Case of Global Warming and Climate Change
Global warming has become familiar to many people as one of the most important environmental issues of our day. Associated with this warming are changes of climate. The basic science of the greenhouse effect that leads to the warming is well understood. Global warming is a phrase that refers to the effect on the climate of human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and large scale deforestation, which cause emissions to the atmosphere of large amounts of greenhouse gases of which the most important is carbon dioxide. Such gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by the earth's surface and act as blankets over the surface keeping it warmer than it would otherwise be. Climate is the average weather conditions experienced in a particular place over a long period. Turkey is one of the sensitive areas to climate variation in the world. Many of the likely characteristics of the resulting changes in climate (such as more frequent heat waves, increases in rainfall, increase in frequency and intensity of many extreme climate events) can be identified. Adaptation to the inevitable impacts and mitigation to reduce their magnitude are both necessary. International action is being taken by the world's scientific and political communities. Because of the need for urgent action, the greatest challenge is to move rapidly to much increased energy efficiency and to non fossil fuel energy sources.
Global Warming: Myths, Facts and Questions
Climate Change, 2020
The present article on the subject of global warming and climate change in general arose from an observed confusion of contradictory publications, ambivalent environmental policies, questionable international agreements and popular climate theories with its supporters and opponents, creating serious doubts on what really is happening to our world. Temperatures in the atmosphere are on the rise and it seems that scientists, experts, politicians and the public in general have been able to notice this phenomenon for the last fifty years or so. The planet's climate changes continuously, which is another of the few statements we can be sure about, although the reasons behind it and its functionality with regards to global warming is still under investigation and discussion. This holds true even more for the question to what extent the human being can influence this rise in temperature and manage it through regulating its CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, which has led to extensive and even vehement debates. As part of a series of conversations among friends with different backgrounds and interests, we arrived at the basic questions: How important is the role of the human being in climate change? In search for answers we started to researching the Internet on these issues, which resulted in an intriguing journey full of surprises, contradictions, manipulations to the point that it became clear, that there are no simple explications or solutions. What did become clear is that our climate system is non-linear, chaotic with feedbacks, which makes it about impossible to forecast even tomorrow's weather.