Our World Is Changing
The Air We Breathe
The layer we live in is called the troposphere and it’s where fog swirls, the wind blows, snow falls, and clouds form—the weather. To give you a sense of the height of that thin layer, look for the white trails left by commercial jets flying overhead. When at cruising altitudes, jets are near the top of that thin layer. That space, between you and the person gazing down, is changing, and big time.
Photo Credit: NASA
Greenhouse Gases
How do greenhouse gases work? When sunlight (solar energy) hits a dark roof or a vast desert, the surfaces absorb the energy and radiate it back into the atmosphere as heat. Greenhouse gases absorb much of that heat, trapping it in the troposphere. Just since 1980, one of the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide—has increased over 40%. Increasing greenhouse gases have resulted in warming of the atmosphere by almost 2˚F since the late 1800’s. These increases could result in 9˚F of warming by 2100 and that is dangerously hot. To keep up to date on increasing greenhouse gases please see NOAA’s website.
Humans generate a lot of greenhouse gases, for example, by driving over 1,000,000,000 cars and taking advantage of 39,000,000 airline flights annually. In the United States, the primary sources of greenhouse gases are transportation (28%), the production of electricity (27%, industry (22%), commercial and residential heating (12%), and agriculture (10%).
Humans Are the Cause
Humans are causing the warming of the thin layer that circles the globe. This is referred to as global warming, and because of it, the climate is changing. For example, Chicago has less severe winters than it used to—Chicago’s climate has changed. And climate change is different from weather. Weather is what is happening right now: the temperature, rain, snow, wind, and can vary by the hour, day, and season. Weather is short-term, climate change is long-term—trends over decades.
Climate change is not a natural phenomenon. The changes that are occurring are happening too fast and are too intense to be explained by any natural causes.
Ice Is Melting Everywhere
Large masses of glacial ice that cover thousands of square miles of land are also melting. Since 2002, the Greenland ice sheet, for example, has been losing 280 billion tons of ice per year and has now reached a point of no return. The melting will continue even if global warming stops. These glacial meltwaters flow to the seas and contribute to sea level rise. To stay current on melting ice around the globe see the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The Evidence is Everywhere
The evidence for a changing climate abounds. The oceans are more acidic than they should be because they are absorbing carbon dioxide emitted by human activities. This increased acidity interferes with shell formation in lobsters, clams, corals, and plankton, the foundation of the ocean’s food web. In addition to changes in our oceans, torrential downpours have increased; heat waves and droughts are becoming more common and intense, and forest fires burn longer and with greater ferocity, to name a few.
What the Future Holds
Climate-change scientists use mathematical models to help predict what the future holds. They have confidence in these models because they based on well-established laws of physics and many observations. Models, however, are not good at forecasting events beyond their capability such as the unstoppable thawing of permafrost. That thawing releases greenhouse gases, which cause more warming, which melts more permafrost, and so on. The effects would be felt around the globe.
Climate change poses an enormous threat and many experts agree that, unabated, it is an existential threat to civilization as we know it today.
Our World Is Changing
The Air We Breathe
The layer we live in is called the troposphere and it’s where fog swirls, the wind blows, snow falls, and clouds form—the weather. To give you a sense of the height of that thin layer, look for the white trails left by commercial jets flying overhead. When at cruising altitudes, jets are near the top of that thin layer. That space, between you and the person gazing down, is changing, and big time.
Photo Credit: NASA
Greenhouse Gases
How do greenhouse gases work? When sunlight (solar energy) hits a dark roof or a vast desert, the surfaces absorb the energy and radiate it back into the atmosphere as heat. Greenhouse gases absorb much of that heat, trapping it in the troposphere. Just since 1980, one of the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide—has increased over 20%. Increasing greenhouse gases have resulted in warming of the atmosphere by almost 2˚F since the late 1800’s. These increases could result in 9˚F of warming by 2100 and that is dangerously hot. To keep up to date on increasing greenhouse gases please see NOAA’s website.
Humans generate a lot of greenhouse gases, for example, by driving over 1,000,000,000 cars and taking advantage of 39,000,000 airline flights annually. In the United States, the primary sources of greenhouse gases are transportation (28%), the production of electricity (27%, industry (22%), commercial and residential heating (12%), and agriculture (10%).
Humans Are the Cause
Humans are causing the warming of the thin layer that circles the globe. This is referred to as global warming, and because of it, the climate is changing. For example, Chicago has less severe winters than it used to—Chicago’s climate has changed. And climate change is different from weather. Weather is what is happening right now: the temperature, rain, snow, wind, and can vary by the hour, day, and season. Weather is short-term, climate change is long-term—trends over decades.
Climate change is not a natural phenomenon. The changes that are occurring are happening too fast and are too intense to be explained by any natural causes.
Ice Is Melting Everywhere
Large masses of glacial ice that cover thousands of square miles of land are also melting. Since 2002, the Greenland ice sheet, for example, has been losing 280 billion tons of ice per year and has now reached a point of no return. The melting will continue even if global warming stops. These glacial meltwaters flow to the seas and contribute to sea level rise. To stay current on melting ice around the globe see the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Oceans Are Acidifying
The evidence for a changing climate abounds. The oceans are more acidic than they should be because they are absorbing carbon dioxide emitted by human activities. This increased acidity interferes with shell formation in lobsters, clams, corals, and plankton, the foundation of the ocean’s food web. Torrential downpours have increased; heat waves and droughts are becoming more common and intense, and forest fires burn longer and with greater ferocity, to name a few.
What the Future Holds
Climate-change scientists use mathematical models to help predict what the future holds. They have confidence in these models because they based on well-established laws of physics and many observations. Models, however, are not good at forecasting events beyond their capability such as the unstoppable thawing of permafrost. That thawing releases greenhouse gases, which cause more warming, which melts more permafrost, and so on. The effects would be felt around the globe.
Climate change poses an enormous threat and many experts agree that, unabated, it is an existential threat to civilization as we know it today.