Global Warming

Global Warming

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Global Warming

Introduction

Global warming may be defined as a rise of the Earth 's average surface temperature caused by concentrations of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere . According to National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , the ecosystem on earth is dependent upon the warming capacity of these gases , referred to as the greenhouse effect ' for maintaining a habitable climate . Indeed , it is this greenhouse effect that accounts for the abundance of life on earth (Rosa

p Because of greater sophistication in the modeling of climatic patterns scientists now believe human activities are having substantial impact on the global climate (Hansen , Ruedy , Sato Reynolds . The Pew Center on Global Climate Change study shows that dramatic growth of human industrial activities has exponentially increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - mostly carbon dioxide from combustion of fossil-fuel , such as coal , oil , and gas . According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC , 2 ,500 scientists from more than 50 countries now believe that concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are about 26 percent higher now than they were 100 years ago . Over the last century , the global mean temperature has increased somewhere between 0 .3 and 0 .6 degrees centigrade (IPCC The 1980s were the warmest decade recorded on a global scale (Rabe

The mean global temperatures in 1990 and 1995 were the warmest ever recorded (Hansen et al . These findings suggest that humans may be altering the atmosphere in ways that will bring on an irreversible climate change (IPCC . Unless the current rates of combustion of carbon based fuels , coal , gas , oil , are reduced , the IPCC warned , temperatures will rise between 1 .8 and 6 .3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century

Temperature changes in the middle level of that scale could cause a 20-inch rise in sea levels that would flood coastal low lands and tropical islands . In addition , the temperature changes are expected to cause weather extremes and global damage to forests and crop lands . By the end of the 21st century , scientists expect carbon dioxide concentrations to rise anywhere from 75 to 350 percent above the pre-industrial concentration level , according to the IPCC 's Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES . This concentrates on policy issues related to global warming and provides some insights into the solutions to this problem

Policy Issues

What makes controlling global warming complicated is that global warming is a truly global ' phenomenon (Young . The amount of greenhouse gas emission varies significantly from country to country , depending on industry types and energy uses , and not every country is equally affected by consequences of global climate changes (Rabe . Thus , it can be argued that conventional one-size-fits-all ' and command-and-control ' approach from a national level may not be successful . As a consequence , some have argued that global climate change control policy should take into consideration the high degree of variance in global warming impacts and idiosyncratic characteristics across state-by-state (Rabe

Another challenge is the...