Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

The Science Behind Global Warming

Posted by SUPERSquatch , in Science vs. Religion 11 January 2013 · 234 views

global warming climate change

Global warming is a demonstrable fact, yet many people deny its existence–mostly for political reasons. This article will list the proofs of global warming to where it can be shown as a confident fact and explain how deadly this force can be.

Posted Image

The above image is the hockey stick graph, published in 2001 by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From reading the graph, it can be seen that the planet’s temperature has risen about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the year 1800. Many claims have surfaced “refuting” the hockey stick graph, including the false accusation that the Middle Ages were warmer than today. (Based off of temperature reconstructions and other evidence, it has been proved that the world hasn’t been warmer than it is currently for the last 6,000 or, perhaps even, 125,000 years.)

Since the planet is warming, it can be obviously deduced that the ice caps are shrinking. Ice is white and reflects the sun’s rays. With less ice, less solar radiation is being reflected, making the planet even warmer. (This is what is called positive feedback.)

One of the causes of global warming is carbon dioxide getting pumped into the atmosphere. Since the oceans absorb carbon dioxide (About 25 million tons every day), increasing the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere will allow the oceans to absorb more of it. This is not good for the life living in the oceans. Corals will find it more difficult to form their shells with higher carbon dioxide levels. Since corals form a large part of marine biomes in which undersea life dwell, humanity could be looking at a mass extinction of several coral species and, consequently, other marine life species.

Increasing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also bad news for humans. CO₂ traps in heat, so if more of it gets in the atmosphere, the planet is going to get warmer. This is called the greenhouse effect. Higher temperatures on Earth will melt the polar ice caps, resulting in higher sea levels. More than half of all people live within 120 miles of the ocean, and this figure could raise to 75% by the year 2050 (that is, if most coasts aren’t already covered in water). Many people will have to abandon their homes. Along with a higher sea level, higher temperatures encourage a more energetic climate. If the sea levels rise, people should expect more extreme and often cyclones, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves.

Global warming is a fact, and if people don’t realize it is soon enough, we might not have enough time to find a solution. Be kind to Earth and the environment and do not pollute.

Posted Image

Bill Maher said:

There is no debate here, just scientists and non-scientists. And since the subject is science, the non-scientists don’t get a vote.

President Barack Obama said:

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

Al Gore said:

Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.

Tony Blair said:

Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it.