These Days global warming is a very hot topic, and no wonder, seeing as the earth grows hotter every year. For a long time now, the impact of man's industrialization and technological progress has quietly yet continuously eked away at the delicate balance of Earth's atmosphere and ecosystems, but in the last 30 years the pace of this damage is significantly faster! Fade Global Warming Just as Big Tobacco once vehemently denied the link between smoking and lung cancer, for the longest time a number of multi-billion dollar a year industry has also question the existence of global warming and deceiving the public about its reality. In fact, the Bush II years have been particularly devastating for environmental rights, but still amazingly lucrative for those who would benefit from the loss of such protection. In what can best be described as an orgy-fest of self-congratulatory backslapping, many a heavyweight lobbyist for industries such as oil, coal, mining, logging, aviation, the automobile manufacturers left the Bush White House grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat, because they had been fixed knowledge that pesky environmental laws would never get in the way of business as usual! An example of how the Bush II administration misled the public into believing that they were really concerned about protecting the environment was the insidious way in which they enacted laws such as "Clean Skies Act. Clean Skies Act was introduced in February 2003, apparently working to strengthen existing environmental legislation such as The Clean Air Act, but which in reality is actually weakened and undermined them. Clean Skies Act gave the polluting industries much leeway to allow them to spy another 42 million more tons of pollutants into the atmosphere and raised caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Shortly after Bush II came to power, the situation became so bad that after decades of effective service, two of the most senior inspector in the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) departed with reference to an agency that persecuted contrary objectives that actually protect the environment. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is no stranger to this tactic. As perhaps the most recognizable face in the fight against global warming, he has mocked and ridiculed by the same people who would have us believe global warming is nothing but a myth! Recently in 2007, many researchers have gone on public record with reference to allegations of a Gestapo-like environment of intimidation to produce figures and reports that belied the true extent of global warming! To global warming The unprecedented super-accelerated global warming happening today is because the amount of greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere. The best-known greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2), as it so happens to be the largest single contributor to global warming (CO2 comprises more than 75% of all greenhouse gases). So what's spewing all that CO2 in the air? In simple terms - man and his toys! Some of the biggest greenhouse gas pollution include cars, electricity, air, maritime and the various industries manufacturing scattered all over the world. Science Of Global Warming This article is intentionally not a thorough treatise of global warming, but with that said, here is a brief explanation: are rays from the sun consists of short-wave solar radiation passes through the atmosphere and then absorbed by the soil, thus warming it. Some of this absorbed energy is reflected back into the atmosphere as long wave infrared radiation which is usually trapped by greenhouse gases. This trapped heat makes the earth is warmer by about 33 degrees than it otherwise would be. This trapped heat is actually good for us, because if it were not for these greenhouse gases and other constituents in the atmosphere that trap heat, the earth would be as cold as Mars, which has essentially no atmosphere purpose to talk about. Over the past century, the Earth has warmed by about 0.7 degrees Celsius. This may not seem like much until you consider that the difference between the average soil temperature today and another ice age is only 5 degrees! The effects of global warming wipe! Flood! Sickness! Hurricanes! Starvation! Unbearable heat! Any of these words seem to you to be appearing much more frequently in the news than before? Do you remember the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed more than 200,000 people? Remember Hurricane Katrina, which claimed over 2000 lives? These are the better documented horror stories. The less well-documented global-warming related stories are often condescendingly dismissed as ethnic conflict in a region (Africa) which supposedly little else can be expected. Disastrous environmental effects of Global Warming first Larsen B: In 2002 a 500 billion ton chunk of ice was 220m thick and covers an area of 3250 km ² was dissolved in 35 days! What was especially disturbing was that the experts expected the ice mass to be preserved for the next 100 years even after factoring in the current global warming trends. Even more alarming is still that there are two other very, very large ice masses, which exhibit the same global warming-related decay properties! These endangered ice is Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Shelf was previously considered to be stable. As these glaciers are land-based (as distinct from Larsen B) if any of them, they could raise sea levels by 20ft piece! If both wound around the same time, sea levels could rise by 40ft! Catastrophic not adequately describe the subsequent destruction. More than 66% of the world's largest cities would be devastated if even just one of these ice masses was dissolved. While many of the affected low altitude coastal areas are in Asia, New York, Florida, San Francisco and the Netherlands are also on the list! Perhaps this disturbing data may explain the late, albeit reluctantly, the recognition of the Bush II administration that global warming is not a myth after all and that it not only affect the poorer regions in the world. Currently, experts are predicting that with the current stable global warming trends in Greenland may collapse as soon as the 2050th 2nd Lake Chad: Lake Chad used to be the sixth largest lake in the world but because of global warming has shrunk to 1/20th of its former size. In fact, Chad, the country of which it is named, is now more than 60 miles from the water! 3rd New Ice Age: The northern hemisphere of the world is located above the equator and a large part of the world's landmass and nearly 90% of the world population. Although the current expert reports on global warming means that the northern hemisphere initially will actually benefit from the increase in temperature (unlike the southern hemisphere where unprecedented drought and famine predicted by 2020) what is little mentioned is how global warming could initiate a New Ice Age! Some paradox, huh? Warming is freezing! Here is a brief simplified explanation of how it comes about: the Gulf Stream current is one of several currents that occur in the Atlantic. The special significance of the Gulf Stream Current and its northern extension (the North Atlantic Drift that flows to Europe) is that their warm-water species flux heats the surrounding air, which in turn ensures that the temperature in the northern hemispheres not dip precipitously. These two currents are saline (salt) based. If a large mass of fresh water (such as a melting body of ice the size of Greenland) was to dilute these currents, in practice it would shut down the Gulf Stream Current! When the Gulf Stream Current off the temperature will drop precariously in the U.S., Europe and other nations located in the northern hemisphere. As it happens these regions freezer into another ice age! Global warming and CO2 Wars The following figures show CO2 emissions from the different regions around the world: U.S. 30.3% Europe 27.7% Russia: 13.7% Southeast Asia: 12.2% Japan: 3.7 % South America / Central America: 3.8% Middle East: 2.6% Africa 2.5% Australia: 1.1% These figures clearly show how Western Europe and the U.S. is by far the greatest responsibility for the effects of global warming we see today. Contrastingly, the regions least responsible are the ones who will bear the brunt of these effects (initially at least until that process is developing into an ice age, then the situation will reverse). But with two mega economies of China and India rapidly (each with a population of over 1 billion) once its greenhouse gas emissions may surpass the U.S. A series of meetings held in Washington in early 2007, U.S. regulators require that developing countries must be maintained in the same greenhouse gas emission responsibilities of the developed countries! Not unexpectedly, the worldwide protests and accusations of shameless hypocrisy made against the United States. With the not unreasonable claim that they have the right to develop and advance in the same way that both Europe and America have had over the last forty years, these two looming economic giants will not be enslaved by Washington. Furthermore, considering the suspicious manner in which the U.S. justified its invasion of Iraq, is getting these days tend to believe a word that Washington says. Aggravate the climate of mistrust and suspicion are the many dubious privilege the U.S. allegations. These include: 1. Not subscribing to the Kyoto Protocol (Treaty on Global Warming) 2. Looking for the right to pre-emptive strikes (Bush II) 3. Demanding to be exempt from the Geneva Convention (Bush II) 4. Not a participant in the International Court 5. Biggest contributor to global warming, but do it at least to correct the situation. In a world in which America demands exclusive rights to prevent attacks, maybe then it's not too farfetched to understand if India and China harbor a certain degree of paranoia that the U.S. may one days set its targets on them. After all, for a country that is so conveniently and magically connected two completely unrelated events to each other as an excuse to pursue their ultimate goal (the U.S. invasion of Iraq after 911), it is not unconceivable that the U.S. would one day argue that emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from the Asian giants are threatening the very existence of its coastal cities and hence amount to an act of war! For its part, the Asian giants are already suspicious and see Washington's demands concerning greenhouse gases as a thinly veiled attempt to limit their economic development. That said, China and India is unlikely Iraq! There are two countries that boast formidable nuclear arsenals that are capable of reaching the American side of the United States to take drastic measures, it is unlikely that the slumbering Russian bear would remain dormant much longer. World wars have broken out over the much smaller and the warm climate of the day it only takes one more small spark to set everything up! Global Warming Resources
