Global Warming
Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth.
Over the last 100 years, the average temperature of the air near the Earth´s surface has risen a little less than 1° Celsius (0.74 ± 0.18°C, or 1.3 ± 0.32° Fahrenheit).
Does not seem all that much ? It is responsible for the conspicuous increase in storms, floods and raging forest fires we have seen in the last ten years, though, say scientists. Their data show that an increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now than it has been for at least a thousand years.
Local Differences in Global WarmingAlthough scientists talk about global warming, temperature increases are not evenly distributed geographically. The image shows that parts of the southern hemisphere have even witnessed some cooling, while the Arctic, Greenland, and Alaska went through a period of significant warming. While South America saw only small temperature increases, warming was stronger in Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. |
For the past 100 years, we have seen and experience great a number of disaster, storms, flooding, droughts, hurricanes and other unexpected events due to climate change.
Minuscule changes – global impact
But while we are still far from seeing major concentrations of CO2 in our atmosphere, slight changes already alter the way our celestial heating system works. Measurements of carbon dioxide amounts from Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii show that CO2 has increased from about 313 ppm in 1960 to about 375 ppm in 2005.
That means for every million particles in our atmosphere, there are now 62 CO2-particles more than in 1960. Even if this does not seem like much, scientists say this increase – most probably caused by human activities – is mainly responsible for rising global temperatures throughout the last decades.
We need to be responsible for our actions, specially when it concerns the growing heat and CO2 emissions in our environment, hoping for a better future for the next generation.
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