One
of the most obvious global
warming facts is that it is the greatest threat that
mankind has ever faced.
Global Warming Facts -
The
Consequences While
we still don't fully
understand the complex interactions between
factors that cause climate
change, global warming.
At the rate at which it has been
changing
for the past 200, and particularly the last 30 years, threatens to
bring a big change to our life with floods and droughts devastating agriculture,
coastal cities flooded by rising sea levels, and
conflicts rising from migration
of environmental refugees.
Global Warming Facts - What
Causes it? While
other types of climate
change
are caused by complex interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans
and the bioshphere, the recent, short-term global warming is mostly
caused by accumulating levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's
atmosphere.
Greenhouse
gases,
(the most important being carbon dioxide -CO2), may be getting bad press
nowadays, but we need these gases for our survival.
They are insulating gases that trap
the heat
in the Earth's atmosphere and keep the temperature just right for
plants, animals and us humans. They are a tiny part (less than 0.1%) of
all the gases in the atmosphere, but without them our planet would be
as cold as Mars.
Global Warming Facts -
The Problem
The problem is that while carbon dioxide levels have been remarkably
constant for the past 650,000 years, they have increased by 1/3 in the past 200
years and keep rising. And so the temperatures are rising
too.
So what has been happening during the past 200 years?
Good question - industrialism of the western world started in 1800s.
Coincidence?
Not likely.
Carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuels - in
factories, power stations, buildings and means of transport.
So what
can we do to help
diminishing global warming?
To prevent catastrophic global warming we have to reduce our carbon
emissions as soon as possible.
It means changing the ways we move around, grow food, manufacture goods
and generate energy.
And - halting rainforest
destruction
is estimated to provide 1/3 of the total emission reductions that we
have to make within the next ten years to avoid catastrophic climate
change.
It will be very hard to move towards a low-carbon future
without saving
our rainforests.
Note:
This site uses British English, which is the English we use in
Australia. Disclaimer:
This website is about interesting facts about rainforests.
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is not
trying to be comprehensive. Although best efforts
have been made to
ensure
that all the information on this
site is correct, rainforest-facts.com
is
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