Paper Topic:

Global Warming

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GLOBAL WARMING

I . Introduction

Global Warming is an issue that concerns almost everybody worldwide : it is the primary cause for the erratic and sometimes devastating weather that is experienced around the world . Global warming is causing the rise in sea level which in turn causes the flooding of coastal areas and areas with low elevation

Is global warming really happening today ? Scientists with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP ) believe it is so . In fact , they feel that records from past climates support

the case for global warming

It is indisputable that there has been a rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG ) in the atmosphere during the last century , which scientists think may be one of the causes of global warming . The climate change however is not a direct result of the rise in greenhouse gases but on natural climate feedback ' mechanisms , particularly those due to clouds , water vapor , and snow cover (Bellamy Gifford , 2000

Each of these may change in response to global warming and may therefore act either to enhance or suppress any temperature rise . Past climates have left records in ice and ocean sediment cores which provide some of the best available evidence . The information gathered from the ice which has been trapped for thousands of years suggests that temperatures have varied closely with GHG concentration for most of the past 100 ,000 years

However , scientists are not certain whether the GHG 's caused the temperature to change or was it the other way around . They believe that the factors affecting the earth 's climate controlling ' operate on very different time-scales . The slower acting factors are the earth 's orbital movements around the sun and the expansion and retreat of polar ice caps . The faster acting ones are atmospheric dust changes in ocean circulation feedback due to water vapor , clouds , and snow (Cairncross 2002

This study scrutinizes the effect of global warming worldwide and do the humans are the reasons of causing global warming or if its just a natural process that the earth goes through

II . Background

A . Global Warming and doomsday

Will global warming spell doom for our world ? Scientists believe this to be so . Much depends on what actions we take now and in the coming years ' Meteorologist Jagadish Shukla of the University of Maryland found out that deforestation would cause rainfall in the Amazon River to decline by more than 26 percent from the current 2 .5 m . to about 1 .8 m a year

At the same time , the burning of fossil fuels , particularly coal and oil , produces sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which are hazardous to the atmosphere . Findings show that a single smokestack may produce as much as 500 tons of sulfur dioxide a day . When these gases combine with oxygen and moisture , sulfuric acid and nitric acid is formed . The rain will carry the acids to the ground (acid rain ) which may cause the depletion of calcium and magnesium in the soil , elements...

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