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Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices
Pdf booklet.
What is climate? Climate is commonly thought of as the expected weather conditions at a given location over time. People know when they go to New York City in winter, they should take a heavy coat. When they visit the Pacific Northwest, they should take an umbrella. Climate can be measured as many geographic scales - for example, cities, countries, or the entire globe - by such statistics as average temperatures, average number of rainy days, and the frequency of droughts. Climate change refers to changes in these statistics over years, decades, or even centuries.
Enormous progress has been made in increasing our understanding of climate change and its causes, and a clearer picture of current and future impacts is emerging. Research is also shedding light on actions that might be taken to limit the magnitude of climate change and adapt to its impacts.
Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices is intended to help people understand what is known about climate change. First, it lays out the evidence that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are responsible for much of the warming and related changes being observed around the world. Second, it summarizes projections of future climate changes and impacts expected in this century and beyond. Finally, the booklet examines how science can help inform choice about managing and reducing the risks posed by climate change. The information is based on a number of National Research Council reports, each of which represents the consensus of experts who have reviewed hundreds of studies describing many years of accumulating evidence.
RESOURCES AT A GLANCE
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- Environment and Environmental Studies — Climate Change
Suggested Citation
National Research Council. 2012. Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices: PDF Booklet . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/14673. Import this citation to: Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
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- Buy Print Booklets Read Description: You can purchase Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices as a set of three booklets.
- Cambio Climatico: Evidencia, Impactos, y Opciones Read Description: A Spanish language version of Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices is available here.
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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY
Global warming.
The causes, effects, and complexities of global warming are important to understand so that we can fight for the health of our planet.
Earth Science, Climatology
Tennessee Power Plant
Ash spews from a coal-fueled power plant in New Johnsonville, Tennessee, United States.
Photograph by Emory Kristof/ National Geographic
Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature. Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels . As the human population has increased, so has the volume of fossil fuels burned. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas, and burning them causes what is known as the “greenhouse effect” in Earth’s atmosphere.
The greenhouse effect is when the sun’s rays penetrate the atmosphere, but when that heat is reflected off the surface cannot escape back into space. Gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels prevent the heat from leaving the atmosphere. These greenhouse gasses are carbon dioxide , chlorofluorocarbons, water vapor , methane , and nitrous oxide . The excess heat in the atmosphere has caused the average global temperature to rise overtime, otherwise known as global warming.
Global warming has presented another issue called climate change. Sometimes these phrases are used interchangeably, however, they are different. Climate change refers to changes in weather patterns and growing seasons around the world. It also refers to sea level rise caused by the expansion of warmer seas and melting ice sheets and glaciers . Global warming causes climate change, which poses a serious threat to life on Earth in the forms of widespread flooding and extreme weather. Scientists continue to study global warming and its impact on Earth.
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COMMENTS
The outcomes of global warming include: change in climate, occurrence and spread of diseases, water shortage, food insecurity, loss of livelihood, social unrest, insecurity etc. The outcomes of ...
The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, which has been accompanied by sea level rise, a strong decline in Arctic sea ice, and other climate-related changes. The impacts of climate change on people and nature are increasingly apparent. Unprecedented flooding, heat waves, and wildfires have cost billions in damages.
Aspect 1: Global warming itself. Global Warming. is, itself, the product of many factors, and its relevance to anything else depends on its. magnitude. Emissions of minor greenhouse gases is a factor, but only one factor (and probably not the most important) among several.
Modern global warming is the result of an increase in magnitude of the so-called greenhouse effect, a warming of Earth's surface and lower atmosphere caused by the presence of water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and other greenhouse gases. In 2014 the IPCC first reported that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and ...
Climate change (sometimes called global warming) is the process of our planet heating up. Our planet has already warmed by an average of 1°C in the last 100 years and if things don't change, it could increase by a lot more than that. This warming causes harmful impacts such as the melting of Arctic sea ice, more severe weather events like
warming of about 0.1 degree Celsius (0.18 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The panel also predicts global warming will contribute to some serious changes in water supplies around the world. By the middle of the 21st century, the IPCC predicts, river runoff and water availability will most likely increase at high latitudes and in some tropical areas.
the greenhouse effect and global warming. 3. Analyze global warming diagrams and resources to obtain a clear understanding of this scientific process. 4. Hypothesize about the effects of global warming on the climate and the world's populations. 5. Conduct research using a variety of primary sources to explore perspectives in the global warming ...
global warming and society or the graduate survey course on global climate change.' Dr James L. Kinter, George Mason University "The latest edition of Houghton's Global Warming: The Complete Briefing provides a comprehensive, accessible overview of what is surely one of the defining challenges of the 21st century.
The UNFCCC is mandated to play a catalytic role in global efforts to ameliorate climate change and its negative impacts. Much is underway at local (e.g., cities), national and regional levels to mitigate GHGs which include the public and private sectors, civil society and other key stakeholders.
First, it lays out the evidence that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are responsible for much of the warming and related changes being observed around the world. Second, it summarizes projections of future climate changes and impacts expected in this century and beyond. Finally, the booklet examines how science can ...
IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
global warming . rise : greenhouse effect . 1. The process in which gases in the atmosphere trap the sun's heat. 2. The types of gases that trap the sun's warmth in the atmosphere. 3. A greenhouse gas with the chemical name CO2. 4. A change in the earth's climate over a period of time. 5. When the average temperature on Earth is getting hotter. 6.
and these show that global warming will continue and accelerate. The best estimates indicate that the Earth could warm by 3°C by 2100. Even if countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth will continue to warm. Predictions by 2100 range from a minimum of 1.8°C to as much as 4°C rise in global average temperatures. II. CLIMATE ...
We estimate that global population increased from 4.4 million people (we also estimate a lower range < 0.01 and an upper range of 8.9 million) in 10 000 BCE to 7.257 billion in 2015 CE, resulting ...
change, global warming, and global change different? A. The term climate change is often used as if it means the same thing as the term global warming. According to the National Academy of Sciences; however, "the phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are [other ...
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming. Adapted for a New Generation, Al Gore A Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, Laurie David and Cambria Gordon How Do We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming, Lynne Cherry Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for
additional warming is commonly referred to as Greenhouse Warming. Greenhouse Warming is global warming due to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, etc.), whereas Global Warming refers only to the observation that the Earth is warming, without any
shifts global ocean currents that melt Antarctica ice which slowly makes sea level rise until New York will be under water. It is this systemic connectedness that makes global climate change so important and so complicated. What is Global Warming? Global warming is the slow increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere
GLOBAL WARMING EFFECTS The issue of global warming has been transformed from one of concern for a small group of scientists to an item on the agenda board of world leaders. As an aid to thinking about the many interconnections of this topic the technique of a "future wheel" can be used. One of the initiators of this technique back in the 1990s ...
As water is heated, it expands, and the sea level rises in response to global warming. • Higher temperatures melt ice and snow which could make the sea level rise even more, if ice on land is melted. • Summer rainfall might increase because of temperature rises, and coastal areas could flood because of sea level rises. •
63 Global warming English ESL worksheets pdf & doc. SORT BY. Most popular. TIME PERIOD. All-time. klarabush. Global Warming. Global warming -the . 2656 uses. klarabush. Global Warming. ... Global warming (word. This worksheet deals. 1005 uses. JuLucy. mind map global warm. This mind map is abo. 616 uses. izabela64. questions about glob ...
Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet's overall temperature. Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels.As the human population has increased, so has the volume of . fossil fuels burned.. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas, and burning them causes ...
Let's Talk about CLIMATE CHANGE. PhilipR. 42718. 667. 404. 0. 1/2. This worksheet contains 18 conversation cards and a matching exercise with pictures. The cards can be cut out if desired and be used as conversation questions.….