Introduction to Global Warming

The first thing to really understand is that global warming and the greenhouse effect are not the same thing. Without the greenhouse effect life would not exist on the planet earth, so it is as much our friend as water and sunlight.
  • Global warming is the overall increase of the earth's global temperature as a result of increased greenhouse gas concentration. This global temperature fluctuates over decades, hundreds, and hundreds of thousands of years as a result of minor changes in the composition of the atmosphere.
  • A billion years ago the atmosphere was far different from what it is today and would not support life, as we know it. Understanding this shows us that of course we can expect a different climate in the future than we are experiencing now because it is always changing. What is of great concern here at earthSOS is the rate at which the global temperature is changing and the fact that it is proved that man is influencing the current changes.

How do we know that man is effecting the change of temperature globally?

We use things like seafloor sediment, tree rings, and glacial ice samples and analyze them for the different hints they give us to the state of the atmosphere and temperature in the past. All 3 of these forms of evidence can give us hints in chronological order as to what the temperature was in a given time period. Using these detection devices we can find correlations between the temperature of the earth and what the composition of the atmosphere was at a certain time and temperature in the past. Understanding the composition of the atmosphere, the concentrations, how it is created and destroyed, we can easily see how humans are adding or subtracting from it. We also have to remember that these devices only give us a general picture of the state of the climate during any given time period in the past and as we move closer to today the information gets more specific and reliable.

Natural factors like volcanic activity can also give us interesting insight in to what can happen to the weather when a large amount of gas and fine-grained debris enters the atmosphere. Historical documents give us insight as to when drought, memorable storms, and other extreme weather conditions happened. We always have to remember that weather is a result of many factors from atmosphere composition to differences in temperature being given off by the earth's surface. From the shape of the land affecting wind patterns to the time of the year and the suns angle to a given spot. On the flip side though global warming is looking at the whole world as one big system and it is easier to spot generalities when we are not being so specific to region, altitude, latitude, or time of year.

Thank you to greenhouse gases for helping create the atmosphere we live in and breathe and we hope you stay so this may continue. But what happens when a significant amount of these gases is added in comparison to what is already they're creating the atmosphere that already works for us?

The result appears to be a changing atmosphere that is warmer than the one we have known. We have no doubt the earth will continue on as it has, through this warming and future ice ages, but our we, as a species, going to make it through this warming? If so, what are the effects we can expect?

Scientists around the world are trying to answer these questions and more and we can work together to alter our consumptive lifestyle, through innovation and respect for the diversity of life, to allow the earth to go back to a more slow form of change and give us time to learn.