Louie
SaraJClimate Change 101 - What is Climate Change?
February 8th 2007 04:25
I figure this is probably a good place to start! And I’m starting with a disclaimer – these are just my thoughts and how I see it. I am hoping if I explain how I see it, I will give you guys a chance to challenge me on some ideas, I love debate! This is a Forum, and as much as I love the sound of my own voice keyboard, I want to hear what you guys think of all this too.
Firstly – it can not be denied, natural change in climate has occurred since the planet was created (or made, depending on your beliefs, but lets not open that kettle of fish, that’s a whole different blog). The climate change occurring at the moment and which is becoming the hot topic (pun intended) is climate change caused by a change in the concentration of Carbon Dioxide (or other Greenhouse Gases) in the atmosphere.
Some refer to this as Global Warming… I’m a bit of a purist (I’m a lawyer so am expected to be at least a little anally retentive) and I’m not so keen on the term Global Warming – as although technically the global average temperatures have risen (see the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report for proof of this – I will summarise that at some stage over the next 2 weeks too). Global Average Temperatures are predicted to rise further, weather patterns are rainfall are also affected, and so I consider Climate Change a much more encompassing term.
How are Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases related? Well if you had asked Johnnie Howard a couple of days back he would have said “the jury is still out on the relationship between global warming and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. [Groan, my goodness did he look like a 5 year old child when he had to backtrack from that one]. I digress.
So, 99% of the earth’s atmosphere is made up of either nitrogen (78%) or oxygen (21%). The term Greenhouse Gases, or GHG’s covers 6 gases commonly attributed to global warming. These are: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Sulphur Hexafluoride, Hydrofluorocarbons and Perfluorocarbons. These gases make up 1% of the Atmosphere. Only 1%! So why are they so scary?
Well (stop me if you’ve heard this). The sun sends us its warming rays, and they pass through the atmosphere to the earths surface. Put simply (without getting all technical and going through differences in long-wave and short-wave radiation) the earth then absorbs some of this heat, and reflects some of it. However, the Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere absorb some of this heat an in essence trap the heat much like a Greenhouse (hence the term) and also, I tend to think, akin to the way that a cloudy night is warmer than a clear night.
Phew… that’s rather enough for today.
Firstly – it can not be denied, natural change in climate has occurred since the planet was created (or made, depending on your beliefs, but lets not open that kettle of fish, that’s a whole different blog). The climate change occurring at the moment and which is becoming the hot topic (pun intended) is climate change caused by a change in the concentration of Carbon Dioxide (or other Greenhouse Gases) in the atmosphere.
Some refer to this as Global Warming… I’m a bit of a purist (I’m a lawyer so am expected to be at least a little anally retentive) and I’m not so keen on the term Global Warming – as although technically the global average temperatures have risen (see the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report for proof of this – I will summarise that at some stage over the next 2 weeks too). Global Average Temperatures are predicted to rise further, weather patterns are rainfall are also affected, and so I consider Climate Change a much more encompassing term.
How are Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases related? Well if you had asked Johnnie Howard a couple of days back he would have said “the jury is still out on the relationship between global warming and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. [Groan, my goodness did he look like a 5 year old child when he had to backtrack from that one]. I digress.
So, 99% of the earth’s atmosphere is made up of either nitrogen (78%) or oxygen (21%). The term Greenhouse Gases, or GHG’s covers 6 gases commonly attributed to global warming. These are: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Sulphur Hexafluoride, Hydrofluorocarbons and Perfluorocarbons. These gases make up 1% of the Atmosphere. Only 1%! So why are they so scary?
Well (stop me if you’ve heard this). The sun sends us its warming rays, and they pass through the atmosphere to the earths surface. Put simply (without getting all technical and going through differences in long-wave and short-wave radiation) the earth then absorbs some of this heat, and reflects some of it. However, the Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere absorb some of this heat an in essence trap the heat much like a Greenhouse (hence the term) and also, I tend to think, akin to the way that a cloudy night is warmer than a clear night.
Phew… that’s rather enough for today.
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Comment by Varsovian
I'd suggest boosting sheep production in the years to come - we'll need all that wool to knit our woolly jumpers!