Climate Change in The Hudson Hills and Highlands: What Can we Expect?
World leaders recently gathered in Copenhagen to debate how humankind should respond to a warming planet and changing climate. Optimists concluded that progress was made in Copenhagen, but from my perspective the results were more hot air than political resolve. This lack of commitment tells me that collectively people don’t fully understand the climate change issue: what we know and how we know it; what is likely to happen and when; and how will a warming planet affect us locally in our daily lives. Luckily, there is much information available online. As a starting point, I recommend the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the National Council for Science and the Environment’s websites Climate Solutions and the Encyclopedia of Earth.
In the last century, the Earth’s average surface temperature increased by over 1oF. The warming has been greater at the poles, already significantly reducing polar ice and changing weather patterns and sea level heights worldwide. The Earth is now warmer than it has been in 650,000 years – and is expected to climb another three to ten degrees this century!
Scientists tell us that a rising temperature of just a few degrees, surprisingly will cause a cascade of detrimental climatic changes (e.g. in precipitation patterns causing both droughts and floods, and in sea level heights) and biological changes (e.g. in geographic ranges of wildlife and rates of species survival). In the last decade, a broad scientific consensus has emerged that global warming and climate change are due to increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. While volcanoes and other natural events release greenhouse gases, it is the human-driven emissions of carbon dioxide over the last 150 years from burning fossil fuels for energy, as well as released gases from deforestation and our agricultural practices, that are responsible for a warming Earth.
Hudson Valley Climate Change « Teatown Thoughts
Climate Change in The Hudson Hills and Highlands: What Can we Expect?
World leaders recently gathered in Copenhagen to debate how humankind should respond to a warming planet and changing climate. Optimists concluded that progress was made in Copenhagen, but from my perspective the results were more hot air than political resolve. This lack of commitment tells me that collectively people don’t fully understand the climate change issue: what we know and how we know it; what is likely to happen and when; and how will a warming planet affect us locally in our daily lives. Luckily, there is much information available online. As a starting point, I recommend the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the National Council for Science and the Environment’s websites Climate Solutions and the Encyclopedia of Earth.
In the last century, the Earth’s average surface temperature increased by over 1oF. The warming has been greater at the poles, already significantly reducing polar ice and changing weather patterns and sea level heights worldwide. The Earth is now warmer than it has been in 650,000 years – and is expected to climb another three to ten degrees this century!
Scientists tell us that a rising temperature of just a few degrees, surprisingly will cause a cascade of detrimental climatic changes (e.g. in precipitation patterns causing both droughts and floods, and in sea level heights) and biological changes (e.g. in geographic ranges of wildlife and rates of species survival). In the last decade, a broad scientific consensus has emerged that global warming and climate change are due to increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. While volcanoes and other natural events release greenhouse gases, it is the human-driven emissions of carbon dioxide over the last 150 years from burning fossil fuels for energy, as well as released gases from deforestation and our agricultural practices, that are responsible for a warming Earth.
via Hudson Valley Climate Change « Teatown Thoughts.
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