Global Warming is Happening Now
Not global warming is that for future generations. Changes in our climate are documented on the planet today. People, animals and plants are already feeling the heat. The Earth's atmosphere has warmed by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. This signal is also warming ocean temperatures, soil temperatures, melting glaciers and the melting of the polar ice caps. This was associated with widespread effects on the ecosystem of the planet. This preponderance of the evidence all points to the conclusion that our planet is warming and natural systems are difficult to follow.
Temperatures are increasing:
The clearest evidence of global warming is closely studied the data, which show a relatively rapid and wide distribution of temperature over the last century. 10 warmest years have occurred during 1997-2008, according to the data of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The temperature rise observed since 1978 is particularly notable for the fact that the growth rate is so high, because in the same period, the energy that reaches the Earth from the Sun has been measured precisely enough to conclude that global warming is not due to changes in the sun.
Sea levels are rising:
Global sea levels rose about 8 inches over the next century, and the growth rate is accelerating. Global warming causes the sea level rise in two ways: (1) Sea water expands when heated. (2) ice from the land of glaciers and ice caps are melting.
Sea level rise is happening even faster than scientists expected a few years ago. If recent forecasts are accurate, 2-3 ° F warming may bring about a 3-foot sea level rise in 2100, displacing about 56 million people in 84 developing countries around the world. Coastal habitats are also facing major changes that the low areas are flooded with salt water.
Sea ice is melting:
Reduced sea ice is one of the most obvious signs of global warming on our planet. Since 1979, the surface of the Arctic sea ice in September (when the annual minimum is reached) fell more than 30 percent, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. In other seasons volume of ice has decreased, too. Although several large expanses of ice in 2009, recent observations suggest that the ice is thinner and much younger (under the multi-year ice), which used to be.
From an average of 9.6 million square miles, an ice field, floating on the waters of the ocean plays an important role in regulating our climate by reflecting some sunlight back into space, and life cycles of many polar species such as polar bears, seals and walruses.
Precipitation patterns are changing:
In some places become less precipitation and more. Almost everywhere are experiencing heavy rainfall than warm air can hold more water vapor.
Here in the US we are already seeing some of the important trends in precipitation. West seems to evolve to a more arid climate, where the conditions of dust storms will become the new standard. The total annual rainfall in the Northeast, the Midwest and the plains grew from 5 to 20 percent over the past 50 years. South of the United States has as droughts and floods more.
Oceans are acidifying:
The ocean has absorbed much fossil fuel carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere, warming the planet's speed slows down. But all this extra carbon dioxide has an impact on the ocean,. RN surface seawater by 0.1 units has decreased since 1750, and should fall another 0.5 units by 2100, if no measures are taken in order to reduce fossil fuel emissions. These changes will be tens of thousands of years ago.
