GLOBAL WARMING

What is the greenhouse effect? Climate Change? Global Warming?

The Greenhouse Effect is when carbon dioxide and other gases in the planet’s atmosphere absorb infrared radiation that is emitted by the earth’s surface when there is an exposure of solar radiation, thus increases the earth’s temperature globally.

Climate Change is a long – term change in the earth’s climate and increase in the average atmospheric temperature.

Global Warming is a change in climate that may be resulted from the greenhouse effect.

How are each the greenhouse effect, climate change, and global warming related?

• The greenhouse effect is partially what is leading to global warming because of the increase in the gases in this system.•Global warming can cause drastic climate changes such as more intense storms, pronounce droughts, and the average temperature increasing by approximately 2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit. •In this whole system one leads to another and the results could be catastrophic.

What are the primary causes of Global warming? Here are some examples of how we effect global warming

Driving your car Turning on your air conditioner or heat Eating food that is locally out of season ( or not locally

grown), and shipped from other parts of country or world All of these examples rely on burning fossil fuels which

release CO2. This means you contribute to an overflow of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

With an overabundance of heat trapped gases leads to; Rising sea levels Changes in seasonal weather and precipitation patterns Increased severe weather effects Lower rivers and lakes that are fed by snow and ice-melt

off Habitat changes for a wide variety of plants and animals.

What are the possible consequences if we do not work to stop global warming? Possible consequences include:

Species going extinctPolar bears drowning with no habitatAcidic oceansBleached coral reefsShifting habitat and migration patterns

of animalsForests in west may die outThin ice causing the sea levels to riseAll things would lead to a change in

ecosystems and possible food chain changes which would corrupt everyday life.

How is global warming impacting the economy?

In the United States economy is effected by global warming because there are droughts and loss of soil moisture from warmer climates. This causes the lowering of water tables and will potentially devastate economic impacts to communities throughout the Great Plains in the agricultural industry.

This will also effect timber industries from increased prevalence of pests like the southern pine beetles, slower growth rates for trees, and more frequent wildfires. This mean revenue for producers decrease about $1 billion to $2 billion per year.

What are several ways we can all fight Global Warming?

There are many ways to fight global warming includingCompletely filling the dishwasherUsing recycled paperTaking shorter showersStop using plasticBuying local productsCarpoolPlant treesUnplug electronicsSpread the word

What is the basic arguments against global warming?

Most scientists do not believe human activities threaten to disrupt the Earth’s climate

Some people say the IPCC did not prove that human activities are causing global warming

Others say our most reliable sources of temperature data show no global warming trend

Also, some people said that the Global climate computer models are too crude to predict future climate changes

What are your personal opinions about global warming? Victoria: My personal opinion on global

warming is it can be prevented and if it is not our very existence is at risk. We need to do all we can in order to preserve the earth and protect it from decaying into a different place.

Maria: My personal opinion about global warming is that it is not good. Whenever I think about global warming I think about a polar bear dying from being stuck on melting ice. Then I also think about how we can prevent it by just doing simple things like car pooling or saving energy.

SOURCE SLIDE

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/glossary.html#Greenhouse_effect

http://www.edf.org/climate/climate-change-impacts

http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/27-things-you-can-do-stop-global-warming

http://www.aproundtable.org/tps30info/globalwarmup.html

http://blog.sustainablog.org/2009/06/the-top-causes-of-global-warming-natural-or-human/ http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/podesta_nast.html