Global Warming
The term “global warming” refers to the rise in Earth’s surface temperature during the past 100 to 200 years. The troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, which stretches from the planet’s surface to 6 to 11 miles above sea level, has experienced the majority of the increase in average temperatures at the Earth’s surface over the past century or two. The so-called greenhouse effect, which is triggered by the presence of water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, and other greenhouse gases, is what is responsible for the increased quantity of heat of the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere that results in present global warming.
Scientists have discovered that increased fossil fuel use has contributed to global warming, and at a faster rate than in the past, despite the fact that the Earth’s surface should have cooled slightly over the past 50 years due to natural factors like increased solar radiation intensity and volcanic activity. It is far faster than at any previous time, 800,000 years. The Earth’s temperature has changed significantly over the past 800,000 years due to natural cycles and oscillations, but human activity—particularly the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, gasoline, and natural gas—is primarily to blame for the current warming trend. The greenhouse effect arises as a result. Through the burning of fossil fuels, the logging of forests, and the breeding of animals, humans are having an increasing impact on the climate and temperature of the globe. Because of the burning of fossil fuels in particular, the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased. The global average temperature has increased as a result, hastening the recorded climate shifts that have been seen since the early 20th century.
Sea surface temperatures are rising as a result of global warming because the oceans absorb the majority of the heat that is trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, the warming effect of the heat-retaining gases that humans release into the atmosphere generally outweighs this cooling effect. However, an increase in the molecules that keep people warm in the atmosphere is the primary cause of the current warming. The majority of climate experts concur that the 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degrees Celsius) increase in the global mean temperature since the late nineteenth century is primarily due to this rise in heat-trapping gases.
World warming, also known as excess heat in the atmosphere, is the result of a significant rise in the average global temperature. During these cycles, the average global temperature fluctuated between 3 and maybe 8 degrees Celsius (5 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit). Since the pre-industrial era, the average global temperature of the Earth is thought to have risen by roughly 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), and it currently rises by about 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) every decade. Due to human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, which raises the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere, the Earth’s climate system has been warming for a long time. Between the pre-industrial era and the present, this warming can be detected (between 1850 and 1900).
Despite the fact that the latter word clearly refers to the consequences of both natural and human-caused warming on our planet, the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. The regular variations in Earth’s average temperature that occur between cold (also known as the ice ages) and warm geological periods are also referred to as climate change (interglacials). The term “global warming” is frequently used to describe these anthropogenic temperature increases. Two significant hazards to life on Earth posed by climate change brought on by global warming are extreme weather phenomena and catastrophic floods.
In addition to modifying or destroying ecosystems, diminishing food sources, bringing on droughts and other extreme weather events that harm species, and even outright killing animals that just cannot survive, the earth is warming faster than many species can adapt to. Due to human activity’s continued emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, these changes are taking place.
The concentration of these greenhouse gases raises the earth’s heat content, which leads in a rise in global temperature that is caused by humans (or anthropogenic warming). By absorbing thermal energy from the Earth’s surface and releasing it into the atmosphere through industry and transportation, greenhouse gases, also known as trace gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are on the rise. As a result of the atmosphere’s warming, precipitation patterns are changed, and temperatures rise. Since carbon dioxide has been acknowledged as playing a crucial part in maintaining the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect since the mid-1800s, we can deduce that human activity is mostly to blame for this warming.
Between 1890 and 2010, there was a warming trend of less than plus or minus 0.1 degrees Celsius, which is thought to have been brought on by natural factors such variations in solar radiation or volcanic activity. Second, over hundreds or millions of years, natural climate change factors like modifications to the Earth’s orbit gradually warm the planet.
Countries in the tropics and subtropics of the Southern Hemisphere are projected to be most affected by climate change on economic growth if global warming increases from 1.5°C to 2°C (medium confidence). A number of regional climate changes, including an increase in temperature extremes across many regions (high confidence), an increase in the frequency, intensity, and/or amount of heavy rain across regions, and an increase in the intensity or frequency of droughts in some regions, are predicted to occur with global warming of up to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (medium confidence). Although there is significant regional variation, limiting global warming to 1.5°C rather than 2°C might reduce the proportion of the world’s population subject to increased water stress by up to 50%. (medium confidence).
However, according to climate scientists, warming global average temperatures are increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme weather occurrences. As the world’s temperatures continue to rise, scientists predict shorter winters on average, which could result in fewer snow days overall.
In 2016, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine declared that it is now possible to make a direct connection between climate change and some extreme weather occurrences, such as heatwaves, droughts, and heavy rains. Human activity’s increase in average global temperature has various effects on the world, such as more intense and frequent storms and droughts, melting ice caps and glaciers, increasing sea levels, and warming and acidifying oceans. This estimate was further developed in a special report the IPCC produced in 2018, which noted that humans and human activities were to blame for the 0.8-1.2 degrees C (1.4-2.2 degrees F) rise in the world’s average temperature. Human activity is largely responsible for the warming that has occurred since pre-industrial times, much of the warming observed in the second half of the 20th century.