Earth Under Fire: This Book shows how the earth is being changed right now.
“Earth under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World is an important work documenting climate change. With an accessible text and startling photographs, it takes the reader on a world tour of the human effect on our climate.” –Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Climate change is any substantial change in Earth’s climate that lasts for an extended period of time. Global warming refers to climate change that causes an increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere. Global warming can have many different causes, but it is most commonly associated with human interference, specifically the release of excessive amounts of greenhouse gases. (EPA, 2006)
Global warming was once an uncommon term used by a few scientists who were growing concerned over the effects of decades of pollution on long-term weather patterns. Today, the idea of global warming is well known, if not well understood. It is not unusual to hear someone complaining about a hot day or a freak storm and remark, “It’s global warming.”
Well, is it? In this article, we’ll learn what global warming is, what causes it, what its current effects are and what the future effects could be. Although there has been a scientific consensus on global warming, some aren’t sure it’s something we need to worry about. We’ll examine some proposed changes in the United States’ national policies related to curbing global warming and the criticisms and concerns surrounding them.
Global warming is a significant increase in the Earth’s climatic temperature over a relatively short period of time as a result of the activities of humans.
In specific terms, an increase of 1 or more degrees Celsius in a period of one hundred to two hundred years would be considered global warming. Over the course of a single century, an increase of even 0.4 degrees Celsius would be significant.
This is the first recognition that atmospheric CO2 emissions will cause ocean waters to violate EPA water quality criteria.The paper also says that carbon-dioxide induced “changes in ocean chemistry within the ranges predicted for the next decades and centuries present significant risks to marine biota” and that “adverse impacts on food webs and key biogeochemical process” would result.
An international team of twenty five leading researchers described the evidence to date regarding the effects of CO2 emissions on the acidity of the world’s oceans.
Global warming is projected to have significant impacts on conditions affecting agriculture, including temperature, precipitation and glacial run-off. These conditions determine the carrying capacity of the biosphere to produce enough food for the human population and domesticated animals. Any short-term fluctuations of the climate can have dramatic effects on the agricultural productivity. Thus, the climate has a direct influence on food supply. Rising carbon dioxide levels would also have effects, both detrimental and beneficial, on crop yields.
The global warming controversy is a debate about the specific causes of the increase in global average air temperature since the mid-1800s, the prediction of additional warming, and the consequences of that warming. An additional issue is whether the modern warming period is unprecedented or within normal climatic variations.
What You Can do about Global Warming-
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Greenpeace is an international environmental organization founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1971. It is known for its campaigns to stop atmospheric and underground nuclear testing and campaigning against whaling. In later years, the focus of the organization turned to other environmental issues, including bottom trawling, global warming, ancient forest destruction, nuclear power and genetic engineering. Greenpeace has national and regional offices in 41 countries worldwide, all of which are affiliated to the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International. The global organization receives its income through the individual contributions of an estimated 2.8 million financial supporters, as well as from grants from charitable foundations, but does not accept funding from governments or corporations.