IS CLIMATE CHANGE REAL OR IMAGINED
Scientific consensus is overwhelming: The planet is getting warmer, and humans are behind it. In recent years, GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE have been the subject of a great deal of political controversy, especially in the U.S. But as the science becomes clearer and consensus grows impossible to ignore, debate is moving away from whether humans are causing warming and toward questions about how best to respond.
The current warming trend is of particular significance because it is unequivocally the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land and that widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause Earth to warm in response.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in Greenhouse Gas Levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming. Carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.
How are Pacific Islanders affected by climate change? Pacific islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change. The most substantial impacts of climate change include losses of coastal infrastructure and land, more intense typhoons and droughts, failure of subsistence crops and coastal fisheries, losses of coral reefs and mangroves, and the spread of certain diseases.
Anote Tong can remember when Tebunginako, on the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati, was a thriving village. But beginning in the 1970s, the tide started inching closer to the houses in the village. Over the years, as strong winds whipped up monster waves and climate change caused sea levels to rise, water inundated the island, overwhelming a seawall that had been built to protect the community. Barely anything remains of the village today.
“It’s no longer there,” Tong said. “What we do have is a church sitting in the middle of the sea when the tide comes in.”
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW:
Almost 200 nations backed the final draft of a historic climate change agreement during United Nations talks in Paris in 2016. But what could happen if global temperatures continue to rise?
If the world temperature rises by two degrees, mountain glaciers and rivers will start to disappear, mountainous regions will see more landslides, with more devastating hurricanes as the permafrost that held them together melts away.
By 2100, sea levels could rise by a meter, displacing 10% of the world's population. Countries such as the Maldives will be submerged and the Indian subcontinent will be left fighting for survival. People will also die in greater numbers as they struggle with the increasing heat.
The ecosystem will collapse and a third of all life on earth will face extinction. Plant growth will slow, then stop. Plants don't absorb carbon dioxide very well so begin to emit it - making global warming worse.
THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE:POLAR BEARS: They are on the brink of extinction. And while you are in the saving mode lets save our planet... its still a really cool place, but a few more degrees generated by greedy corporations and you yourself will be on the brink of extinction also. What can I do? Get involved...just do it.
ZENTRAVELER SAYS: The answer to the question, “Is global warming real?” is YES: Nothing other than the rapid rise of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity can fully explain the dramatic and relatively recent rise in global average temperatures.
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