Global Warming: What it is

(An article from the EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency)

Earth has warmed by about 1ºF over the past 100 years. But why? And how? Well, scientists are not exactly sure. The Earth could be getting warmer on its own, but many of the world's leading climate scientists think that things people do are helping to make the Earth warmer.

Greenhouse Effect, Climate Change,
and Global Warming

The Greenhouse Effect: Scientists are sure about the greenhouse effect. They know that greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by trapping energy in the atmosphere.

Climate Change: Climate is the long-term average of a region's weather events lumped together. For example, it's possible that a winter day in Buffalo, New York, could be sunny and mild, but the average weather – the climate – tells us that Buffalo's winters will mainly be cold and include snow and rain. Climate change represents a change in these long-term weather patterns. They can become warmer or colder. Annual amounts of rainfall or snowfall can increase or decrease.

Global Warming: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities.

Global Warming Basics

Q: What causes Global Warming?
A: Carbon dioxide and other air pollution [greenhouse gases] that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up.

Q. Is there really cause for serious concern?
A. Yes. Global warming is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Among these:

• Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West.


• Rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico.


• Warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts.


• Forests, farms and cities will face troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases like the Dengue epidemic in Luzon being spread by mosquitoes that are accustomed to the now-warmer temperatures.


• Disruption of habitats such as coral reefs, arctic ice (home to polar bears) and alpine meadows could drive many plant and animal species to extinction.


• Deadly bush fires being fanned by global warming-backed El Niño as seen in Calfornia.

(Taken from the Natural Resources Defense Council. To read the full article, please go to http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp.
Other sources include the Signos video at http://www.youtube.com/upoucool101 and http://joshuashill.greenoptions.com/2007/10/26/california-fires-and-climate-change-a-match-made-in-hell/)

Five Simple Ways To Help

The following are 5 simple ways that you can do in your everyday life to help reduce Global Warming.

1. Uplug electrical appliances when not in use

Many electronic devices draw power whenever they are plugged into an outlet, even when they are turned off or are fully charged. These include adapters for rechargeable batteries of cell phones and digital cameras. Electronics that are on standby, such as TVs and computer monitors, also waste energy. Turning off the lights when you leave the office or home also helps.

2. Use your own bag for shopping

Instead of using plastic bags from stores, you can bring your own bag for shopping. Plastic bags usually end up in landfills and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases.

You can also refuse to use a plastic bag for an item you just bought. If you will be using the item right away or it will fit in your pocket or bag then you can tell the cashier that you do not need a bag for it. If you plan to go on a shopping spree and you did not bring a shopping bag, you can use the plastic bag from the first store in your next purchases. Combine all the items you bought in one plastic bag whenever possible.

3. Use public transportation or start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates

Using public transportation is one less car on the road. A car that gets 20 miles per gallon will emit about 50 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. If you really need to use a car, you can share a ride with someone. With carpooling, you help save the planet, you save money (share gas cost) and maybe even gain a new friend :)

4. Recycle

Keeping a separate bin for paper, plastic bottles, metal cans and other recyclable materials will help reduce Global Warming. You can also sell these items to used bottle and paper collectors ('magbobote') for extra income.

5. Spread the word

Send a link to this blog to your friends! Email this list and encourage people to do their part. You can also use your social networking skills to help spread awareness on Global Warming. Start a Friendster group or community with the mission of promoting awareness on Global Warming.


Other things that you can do:

• Use Compact Fluorescent (CF) Lightbulbs

CF bulbs may be more expensive than incandescent bulbs but use one-quarter the electricity and last several years longer. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. You are not only helping the environment, but you are also saving money by using CF bulbs!


• Vote for politicians who are concerned about Global Warming

Make sure your voice is heard by voting for politicians who see Global Warming as a problem and makes solving it a priority.


• Contribute to Global Warming organizations

There are numerous organizations that support actions to stop Global Warming. You can volunteer your time or donate money to these organizations. If you are in school, you can join groups that advocate for the environment.

To see more ways to help, please visit:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1602354,00.html
http://globalwarming-facts.info/50-tips.html
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/gsteps.asp

Carbon Footprints

Carbon Footprints: Lending a Face to (and Eventually Unmasking) Global Warming

Some people find it hard to picture out the impact of their lifestyle decisions and consumption on the environment. Most often it takes a striking numeric value, a symbol or image of some sort to change all that. That’s what a carbon footprint is all about.

It is representation (and a reasonable representation, at that) of the impact human activities have on the environment as quantified in units of carbon dioxide. Yes, you read that right: carbon dioxide which is that dirty gunk in the atmosphere, and which en masse results to trapped heat that “warms” the planet, so to speak. To illustrate, two round-trip local flights a year means that the passenger contributes to the filling the air with about a ton of carbon dioxide per year.

As an aside, there’s also the conceptual idea of carbon offsets, the internationally-known proposal of making up and compensating for the carbon footprints of others. But for now, our focus is on the footprint. Countless carbon calculators are on the web, but I recommend that you visit either Zerofootprint.com’s country-adjusting One Minute Calculator or the Yahoo! Green Calculator. For the latter, I made a rough guess that our country’s temperature most closely matches the one of Florida, and that’s how I got my result.

First of all, I am an Internet marketing writer, and I live in a boarding house in Iloilo. Going to work, I take a 5-minute commute, but I prefer to walk home after work. I think it’s also a plus that I’m relatively not too keen on updating my wardrobe and gadgets that often (of which producing leads to carbon by-products). So my carbon footprint hovers between 2.37 (Zerofootprint.com) to 2.4 (Yahoo) tons of CO2 a year.

Yahoo.com has some cool tips how to help drive down our own share of carbon waste. Each of the following steps leads to an improvement indicated by lesser tons of CO2 /yr.

a) Carpool, take public transit, or telecommute one day per week instead o driving to work. Effect: less 0.88 tons of CO2/yr
b) Drive less aggressively- don't accelerate and brake rapidly. Effect: less 0.66 tons of CO2/yr
c) Take one less short domestic round trip flight this year. Effect: less 0.54 tons of CO2/yr
d) Drive at the speed limit. Effect: less 0.33 tons of CO2/yr
e) Drive 10 miles less per week. Effect: less 0.31 tons of CO2/yr
f) Replace a porch light hat's always on with a CFL bulb. Effect: less 0.30 tons CO2/y
g) Switch 3 lights that you use for 4 hours a day with CFL bulbs. This could save the world: 0.15 tons CO2/yr
h) Replace an old TV with an EnergyStar one. Effect: less 0.06 tons CO2/yr

The following has no direct impact on carbon emissions. But eventually these do discourage people from taking for granted stuff that contains carbon:

a) Replace 500 sheets of 0% recycled computer paper with 100% recycled paper.
b) Recycle all steel (in) cans in your garbage.
c) Unplug electronics when you're not using them.
d) Bring your own canvas bags to the store instead of using plastic and paper.
f) Buy locally grown foods. Effect: less 0.0, but it discourages spending on products shipped from abroad.

A Whimsical (but dead serious) take on Christmas Spending

A 2007 paper described the carbon footprint of Christmas in the UK and showed that using up food, travel, lighting and gifts for the holidays produces as much as 650 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person. The report put it more graphically by saying that total consumption and spending on food, travel, lighting and gifts over three days of festivities could result in emissions equal to the weight of some 1,000 Christmas puddings!

Sources:
Yahoo Energy
Gary Haq, Anne Owen, Elena Dawkins and John Barrett (2007). The Carbon Cost of Christmas. Stockholm Environment Institute Stockholm. Retrieved from http://www.climatetalk.org.uk/downloads/CarbonCostofChristmas2007.pdf

Why On Earth is it so Hot These Days?

I was sitting in my room, trying to come up with a simple explanation on what Global Warming is all about to put in this blog, when it hit me. The room was so hot, the air is still and warm. No wind coming in from outside the open windows and the air blowing from the electric fan was warm, too. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable sitting in my chair trying to type on my warm laptop.

Then I thought, “Is this part of what they call Global Warming?”

Of course it is! It is already the rainy season but we’re still experiencing dry spells. Sometimes, the air is so hot you could almost hear tiny dust particles crackling in heat. Sweat tickling down your spine even as you sit still and unmoving. Can you work when it’s hot? As for me, I find it difficult and irritating to work when it’s hot. Haven’t you noticed how grumpy you get when it’s hot and humid? This alone should make us care about Global Warming. Have you ever thought how many traffic crimes were committed not just because of heavy street traffic but because of the heat of the day that boils one’s head off? But aside from this, Global Warming brings a dramatic change to the world that is really a cause of concern.

But just what Global Warming really is?

Simply put, Global Warming is the temperature increase in the Earth that causes changes in our climate. Now, you may ask why should it be a concern if the climate changes? Isn’t it a normal phenomenon?

Climate change is a normal phenomenon, yes. But with the drastic and dramatic climate change that Global Warming brings, it causes the balance of nature to tip off. And anything out of balance is not good news.

At the rate that the Earth’s temperature increases for the last decades, glaciers and snowcaps around the world have drastically melted. Seas and oceans are evaporating more quickly, causing strong typhoons, hurricanes and other natural disasters that claim thousands of lives. In other parts of the world, the increased temperature brings about drought and with it, eventually famine.

Now, don’t you think that is a cause for alarm? And don’t you think we ought to do something about it?

Global Warming: The Simplest Explanation

The sun radiates heat to planet earth in the form of lightwaves, which are later radiated back into space as infrared. Now, Earth's thin layer of atmosphere keeps some of the lightwaves, trapped in the air to maintain a certain balance of temperature. The trapped lightwaves give the earth the needed warmth to make the planet habitable for its living creatures.

However, with too much greenhouse gases that pollute the air, the atmosphere had thickened making it difficult from the excess lightwaves to be radiated back into space. Hence, more lightwaves are trapped in the atmosphere. Over the years, the lightwaves that are trapped have increased way over than what is necessary and healthy for the planet.

The trapped infrared now heats up the earth, melting giant glaciers all over the world and evaporating seas and oceans so much faster than normal that it creates drastic climate change. And that is the danger of Global Warming.

How Are We Contributing to Global Warming?

Human activity is said to be the number one contributor to Global Warming. We may not know it but we are one of the culprits that add excessive amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that concluded human activity has been a very likely primary cause of global warming since 1950. It further said that it has been a major contributor to climate change since the Industrial Revolution in 1750.

So, what are the things that we do that contribute to climate change?

Driving cars and using electricity from coal-fueled power plants. We do these every single day and these activities add more carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to the earth's atmosphere.

Deforestration. The excessive cutting down of trees in the forests to pave the way for housing development and farming also contributes to carbon dioxide increase. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air, so fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide left hanging about.

Agriculture also plays a major role in the increase of methane and nitrous oxide. Farm equipment and transportation used in agriculture are also powered by fossil fuels. Agricultural lime, fertilizers and food/fiber processing also release carbon dioxide in the air.

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are three of the most notable greenhouse gases that pollute our atmosphere these days. And they have alarmingly increased over the past 250 years!

Alarming Facts from the IPCC Report:

• The world’s average surface temperature has increased by around 0.74°C over the past 100 years (1906 - 2005). A warming of about 0.2°C is projected for each of the next two decades.
• The best estimates for sea-level rise due to ocean expansion and glacier melt by the end of the century (compared to 1989 – 1999 levels) have narrowed to 28 - 58 cm, versus 9 - 88 cm in the 2001 report, due to improved understanding. However, larger values of up to 1 m by 2100 cannot be ruled out if ice sheets continue to melt as temperature rises.
• Sea ice is projected to shrink in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Large areas of the Arctic Ocean could lose year-round ice cover by the end of the 21st century if human emissions reach the higher end of current estimates. The extent of Arctic sea ice has already shrunk by about 2.7 per cent per decade since 1978, with the summer minimum declining by about 7.1 per cent per decade.
• Snow cover has decreased in most regions, especially in spring. The maximum extent of frozen ground in the winter/spring season decreased by about 7 per cent in the Northern Hemisphere over the latter half of the 20th century. The average freezing date for rivers and lakes in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 150 years has arrived later by some 5.8 days per century, while the average break-up date has arrived earlier by 6.5 days per century.
• It is “very likely” that precipitation will increase at high latitudes and “likely” it will decrease over most subtropical land regions. The pattern of these changes is similar to what has been observed during the 20th century.
• It is “very likely” that the upward trend in hot extremes and heat waves will continue. The duration and intensity of drought has increased over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. The Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia have already become drier during the 20th century.
• The number of tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) per year is projected to decline. However, the intensity of these storms is expected to increase, with higher peak wind speeds and more intense precipitation, due to warmer ocean waters.