Global Warming 2020

The rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be fueling more than climate change. It could also be making some trees grow like crazy.

That is the finding of a new study of natural stands of quaking aspen, one of North America’s most important and widespread deciduous trees. The study, by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) and published December 4 in the journal Global Change Biology, shows that elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the past 50 years have boosted aspen growth rates by an astonishing 50 percent.

Read full story at Sciencedaily.com.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the major greenhouse gas that results from human activities and is responsible for global warming and climate change. The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are increasing at an accelerating rate from decade to decade due to the burning of the fossil fuels in our day-to-day life. Each of our everyday actions consumes energy and produces carbon dioxide emissions e.g. taking holiday flights, driving our cars, working with computers, heating or cooling our homes and offices etc.
Fossil fuels like crude oil, coal and natural gas, being made up of hydrocarbons release carbon dioxide when burned. The carbon dioxide which is released to the atmosphere remains there for 100 to 200 years. This leads to an increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which in turn causes the average temperature on Earth to rise. Studies show that climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years even after emissions stop. That’s why it is absolutely necessary to take steps now in order to save the Green Planet.

In General, Carbon footprint is the term that we use to define our environmental impact in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that we release into the atmosphere. We leave our carbon footprints both directly and indirectly, and the total of our environmental impact is the sum of all these contributions. The main contributors to our carbon footprint are: household electricity and heat, transport, food and clothing. All of these can be translated into a number of tonnes of CO2 per annum released into the atmosphere. All the goods that we consume are either transported in freight vehicles, shipped around the world in containers, or both. This also contributes to our carbon footprint.

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Global Warming Articles : Carbon Dioxide not the cause of global warming ?   by Luka Cempre

 A lot of people have watched the Inconvenient truth by “ex next president” Al Gore. There certanily are some facts and photos that make you think, but is global warming really happening the way that Gore describes it ? There have been many theories against the usual theory that is leaning on the green house. The theories talk about solar activity and that carbon dioxide is acctualy rising and falling due to temperatures happening 800 years before. The product that came out of counter theories is The Great Global Warming Swindle a movie that is worth watching, just to see what people that don’t agree with Al Gore think about the movie.One of the contradictions that is being made in movie is that the usual global warming theory predicts higher increasing of the temperature in the troposphere than on the ground, but the researches (satellite and weather balloon ) have shown that this claim is wrong. As mentioned before one of the strongest theory that is proven with graphs is that increases of carbon dioxide are lagged behind the temperature for about 800 years. That means that high percentage of carbon dioxide in the air is acctualy the consequence of high temperatures in 13th century. In the documentary the scientists are also saying that Carbon dioxide only represents 0.054% of all the gasses in the atmosphere and that humans are only responsible for 1% of those 0.054%, which can’t be enough for global warming. A very strong claim is also that Solar activity is currently at a very high level, and that Solar activity has a big impact on temperature changes, they even backup this saying with a scientist that has earned a lot of money betting on the weather.

There are many theoris that talk for and against global warming. Even though global warming might not be caused by carbon dioxide emissions we should still take care of a super high pollution and switch to natural resources.

About the Author

Luka member of Global Warming Board and fan of {a href=” http://www.zlitt.com/story/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle_/96“}Great Global Warming Swindle Movie

Source: Global Warming articles, cause of global warming, global warming research, definition of global warming information at www.goarticles.com

Global Warming News : Satellite Makes First Ever Observation Of Regionally Elevated Carbon Dioxide From Manmade Emissions

Using data from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA’s Envisat environmental satellite, scientists have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide – the most important greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming – originating from manmade emissions.

More than 30 billion tonnes of extra carbon dioxide (CO2) is released into the atmosphere annually by human activities, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this increase is predicted to result in a warmer climate with rising sea levels and an increase of extreme weather conditions. Predicting future atmospheric CO2 levels requires an increase in our understanding of carbon fluxes.

Dr Michael Buchwitz from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Germany and his colleagues detected the relatively weak atmospheric CO2 signal arising from regional ‘anthropogenic’, or manmade, CO2 emissions over Europe by processing and analysing SCIAMACHY data from 2003 to 2005.

As illustrated in the image, the findings show an extended plume over Europe’s most populated area, the region from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Frankfurt, Germany.

Carbon dioxide emissions occur naturally as well as being created through human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) for power generation, industry and traffic.

“The natural CO2 fluxes between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface are typically much larger than the CO2 fluxes arising from manmade CO2 emissions, making the detection of regional anthropogenic CO2 emission signals quite difficult,” Buchwitz explained.

“This does not mean, however, that the anthropogenic fluxes are of minor importance. In fact, the opposite is true because the manmade fluxes are only going in one direction whereas the natural fluxes operate in both directions, taking up atmospheric CO2 when plants grow, but releasing most or all of it again later when the plants decay. This results in higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the first half of a year followed by lower CO2 during the second half of a year with a minimum around August.

“That we are able to detect regionally elevated CO2 over Europe shows the high quality of the SCIAMACHY CO2 measurements.”

Buchwitz says further analysis is required in order to draw quantitative conclusions in terms of CO2 emissions. “We verified that the CO2 spatial pattern that we measure correlates well with current CO2 emission databases and population density but more studies are needed before definitive quantitative conclusions concerning CO2 emissions can be drawn.”

Significant gaps remain in the knowledge of carbon dioxide’s sources, such as fires, volcanic activity and the respiration of living organisms, and its natural sinks, such as the land and ocean.

“We know that about half of the CO2 emitted by mankind each year is taken up by natural sinks on land and in the oceans. We do not know, however, where exactly these important sinks are and to what extent they take up the CO2 we are emitting, i.e., how strong they are.

“We also don’t know how these sinks will respond to a changing climate. It is even possible that some of these sinks will saturate or turn into a CO2 source in the future. With our satellite measurements we hope to be able to provide answers to questions like this in order to make reliable predictions,” Buchwitz said.

By better understanding all of the parameters involved in the carbon cycle, scientists can better predict climate change as well as better monitor international treaties aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Kyoto Protocol which addresses the reduction of six greenhouse gases.

Last year, European Union leaders highlighted the importance of cutting emissions from these manmade gases by endorsing binding targets to cut greenhouse gases by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Adapted from materials provided by European Space Agency.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080318110330.htm