global warming and sea level change

Running head : GLOBAL WARMING AND SEA LEVEL CHANGE

Global Warming and Sea Level Change

Our planet is on a constant change . Every now and then we hear of new developments , new discoveries and a lot more . The information that we once knew may not be acceptable today , the places that we once visited as a child may be different after a very short period of time . Together with this constant development is the increase in number of industrial factories that emits harmful chemical substances to our environment

Over the passed years different

problems pertaining to our environment have been discovered of which , majority are of anthropogenic sources and among these threats is global warming . Through the years we have heard much about global warming and its possible effects to living things including us , humans but the problem is only a few understands the whole situation . According to scientists and experts , global warming is the increase in earth 's temperature due to the increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide

How does these increase in greenhouse gasses affects the temperature of the earth ? According to the report given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC (2001 , a body established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programs (UNEP , global warming happens when

Increases in the concentrations of greenhouse gases will reduce the efficiency with which the Earth 's surface radiates to space . More of the outgoing terrestrial radiation from the surface is absorbed by the atmosphere and re-emitted at higher altitudes and lower temperatures This results in a positive radiative forcing that tends to warm the lower atmosphere and surface . Because less heat escapes to space , this is the enhanced greenhouse effect - an enhancement of an effect that has operated in the Earth 's atmosphere for billions of years due to the presence of naturally occurring greenhouse gases : water vapour , carbon dioxide , ozone , methane and nitrous oxide

Here , the IPCC is pointing out that the increase in greenhouse gasses reduces the capability of the earth to emit heat to outer space . When this happens the heat is piled up in the atmosphere which is now the cause of the earth 's increasing temperature

Through time , scientists found out that the earth 's surface temperature has increased to a certain level which is alarming . It has been recorded that over the past century , the earth 's temperature has increased to about 0 .60 Celsius (IPCC , 2001 . And in relation to the increase in the earth 's temperature is the change in sea level . It has been believed that because of global warming , the sea level would rise due to the melting of ice . According to Alley , Clark , Huybrechts and Joughin (2005 , future sea-level rise is an important issue related to the continuing buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations . They further emphasized that the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctic has the potentials to raise the sea level up to 70 meters if it is completely melted

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