Global Warming | Scott Chapman

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/

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Below is data I captured from a web site a few years ago. It is now December of 2006.

THERE’S NO DISPUTING that the planet’s climate is changing: Global mean temperatures have risen 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century. Researchers have declared last year to be the warmest in 120 years. Analyses of ice cores and tree rings have led experts to conclude that the 1990s rank as the warmest decade in 1,000 years. One study even contends, on the basis of readings from a 2.2-mile-deep ice core from Antarctica, that the current climate trend is unprecedented in the past 420,000 years.
Figuring out the cause and effect is trickier, however - and that’s the root of the controversy over climate change.
In the U.S., public opinion is evenly divided over whether anything should be done about global warming, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: Fifty-one percent of the 500 surveyed in late July said action should be taken, another 43 percent said no action should be taken, and 6 percent were unsure. (You can take a similar poll at left.)
But how much do people know about the current bout of global warming? Is it primarily the result of a natural cycle beyond our control, or is it mostly our fault? What’s the potential impact, today and in the longer term? Here’s a progress report on the search for answers:

The cause
The “greenhouse effect” provides the link between human activity and global warming: Scientists know that some gases in the atmosphere - such as carbon dioxide and methane - can retain heat and re-radiate it to Earth’s surface, just as glass bounces heat back within a greenhouse.
Scientific sleuths have compared today’s atmosphere with bubbles of air trapped within layers of ice, building up a “fossil record” of the atmosphere’s composition. Their findings: Greenhouse-gas levels have risen significantly since pre-industrial times. Carbon dioxide, for example, has gone up from about 270 parts per million to more than 360 parts per million.
Other investigators have used carbon-dating techniques and computer simulations to conclude that much of the greenhouse-gas rise is due to human activity, primarily fossil-fuel burning, agricultural practices and deforestation.
This is the basis for making humans the prime suspects behind the rising temperatures. But that doesn’t mean the case has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Patterns in solar activity and even the earth’s changing orbit also affect global climate.


The Greenhouse Effect

	MSNBC Interactive

	•	Without it, we couldn't live here. A look at why the Earth is a warm and cozy place.

Two reports in the Aug. 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters indicate that solar activity could account for 15 to 50 percent of the temperature rise over the past century or more, based on computer simulations. But both reports also say the solar factor has played much less of a role in recent years - which supports the idea that the human factor is playing much more of a role.
The current computerized models indicate that humans are responsible for two-thirds of the world’s warming trend, says Tom Wigley, senior climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

SIMULATION EFFORTS

How far can the trend go? To answer that question, scientists develop computer simulations that match past patterns and extend those simulations into the future. The current models come up with a 3- to 5-degree rise in global temperatures over the next century.
Because of the interplay of ocean currents, atmospheric circulation and geography, scientists say a continued warming trend would have a stronger impact on the Northern Hemisphere than on the Southern Hemisphere.
But historically, Mother Nature has found ways to compensate for climate shifts: One study has shown that increased carbon dioxide levels stimulate forest and plant growth, which would convert mor