Global Warming: Term Paper mostly on Effects.

Essay by cheetahfan55High School, 10th gradeA+, January 2006

download word file, 12 pages 4.9

Downloaded 282 times

The world has been around for billions of years and never has any creature affected it in such a way as human kind has. However most of the affects have come since the Industrial Revolution, and the effects are really beginning to be seen, as we have started to change our very own global climate. Although the reality of global warming is often disputed, its effects on our world are too threatening to be ignored considering the evidence backing it up.

The world has been warming due to global warming and the greenhouse effect, and the temperature is expected to climb even higher. Globally, temperature has gone up 1C (1.8F) over the past century (Appenzeller), but most of the coldest, highest, or remote spots, like Alaska and Antarctica, have warmed up to 3.5F in the past 45 years (Luhr). Though the planet has warmed considerably, 90% of it has gone directly unnoticed into the water.

On Signy Island, near Antarctica, dozens of lakes have warmed more than 1C (1.8F) in the past 15 years alone. Also, the oceans increased 1F, and at depths 0.5F, but it is the sheer volume that matters (Radford). This warming has occurred because we've pouring CO2 and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere for centuries faster than plants and oceans can keep up. The greenhouse effect occurs naturally, but it is augmented by human activities that introduce more natural gases into the atmosphere.

The way greenhouse effect works is as the Earth absorbs incoming solar radiation and then tries to cool down by emitting long wavelength radiation, this radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases and can't escape causing the average annual temperature to rise (Greenhouse). Climate experts generally agree that global warming must have a part in the world's temperature (Kuchment). Even President...