What Will a Few Degrees More Matter?

 

 

 

 

Andrea L. Sitler

Berkshire University

 

ABSTRACT

 

 

Global Warming is a real and valid issue that is occurring today. Despite the number of people who reject the finding, science proves that the earth is warming. This phenomenon occurs with dire consequences.  We, the human race, are to blame for the destruction of our planet. However, if we act globally, as a united force, Global Warming can be thwarted.

What Will a Few Degrees More Matter?

 

 

Many dispute the facts the Global Warming even exists.  Despite all the studies and evidence; the mass still question the existence of global destruction through warming conditions.  Through this disbelief we continue to place ourselves and our planet in peril.  Steps need to be taken to conscientiously reduce the amounts of CO₂ discharged into our atmosphere.  But these steps will not be taken until Global Warming is considered a real threat.

You may ask," What will a few degrees matter?" "Scientists believe that Global Warming, even of a few degrees, will have major impacts on our world as we know it today."^[1]  Rising temperatures produces changes in the biosphere.

The warming of the earth can affect the inhabitants in various ways. Most are them; not to the better.  A few degrees of temperature change upon this earth and its inhabitants can mean annihilation of the habitat and the life it supports. 

Global Warming is evident and all one needs to do is keep an open mind to notice the signs. 

Average global temperature has increased by almost 1ºF over the past century; scientists expect the average global temperature to increase an additional 2 to 6ºF over the next one hundred years. This may not sound like much, but it could change the Earth's climate as never before. At the peak of the last ice age (18,000 years ago), the temperature was only 7ºF colder than it is today, and glaciers covered much of North America!

Even a small increase in temperature over a long time can change the climate. When the climate changes, there may be big changes in the things that people depend on. These things include the level of the oceans and the places where we plant crops. They also include the air we breathe and the water we drink. [2]

Storms are gaining intensity every year.  Birds, bugs and other creatures are migrating to places never before considered habitable by them due to shifting climates.  Seasons are no longer coming and going on what has been know as a "normal" time frame.  The sun of today is more intense and damaging than in the past. 

Global Warming causes more than just heat.  It is a total change in climate and weather occurrences. The world is changing and it is past time for us to stand up and take notice.

Studies have been made of the weather for over hundreds of years by both satellite and surface temperature measurement methods.  Since instrumental records were available (1861-2000), we have seen that globally, it is very likely that the 1990s was the warmest decade, and 1998 the warmest year on record[3]. Temperatures recorded, snow and rain fall measures, average length of seasons, average amount of storms, recorded severity of weather patterns, trade wind patterns and changes, humidity and pollen counts have all been taken and documented.  These records have established a pattern in which we see the earth in a warming trend.  These "temperature changes have not been uniform globally, but have varied over regions and different parts of the lower atmosphere."[4] However the fact that the globe is warming is real is a statement of agreement by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Additionally in their report the group stated, "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."[5] Other issues of importance included the list of observed changes to climate and biophysical systems in the 20th century.

Over 160,000 years of CO₂ atmospheric concentrations have been recorded and found that as CO₂ content increases so does the temperature of the earth.

Emission scenarios project the following characteristics for 2100: CO2 concentrations of 540-970 ppm; an increase in globally averaged surface temperature of 1.4-5.8°C; and an increase in sea level of 0.09-0.88 m. The … projected climate change will have beneficial and adverse environmental and socioeconomic effects, but the larger the changes and rate of change in climate, the more adverse effects predominate."[6]

For those of us living in milder climates; we may desire a few more warm days. However, overall such a trend can lead to a disastrous end.

As with all things; there are the skeptics.  Ones who say that Global Warming is a hoax and that there is no such thing.  They dispute the evidence.  Such people claim that there is no such trend and no conclusive data.  They offer questions or evidence will you; which is in direct contradiction to accepted scientific studies and therefore easily refutable.  Some examples are:

1.        To 'prove' that the world is getting hotter 1897 is used as a base year to compare to. 1897 was an unusually cold year, where thousands died across Europe and the US being caught in blizzards. In fact, the idea that its getting hotter depends totally on what year you compare it to.

2.        There was a substantial increase in CO₂ emissions during the 60's, but no corresponding temperature increase. It actually got colder.

3.        Predictions that the sea levels were going to rise and permanently flood low- lying countries by the year 2000 have not come true.

4.        We haven't been keeping records of weather patterns long enough to be able to distinguish between natural cycles of the earth and man made effects.

5.        The effect of rotting plant and animal matter world wide produces so much CO₂ per year it makes any amount humans produce pale into insignificance.[7]

Others tell us that scientist return to using computer simulations when the natural occurrence of the earth's weather does not "cooperate" thus convincing us that this data is inconclusive and unreliable.

In other words, we'd have better evidence for Global Warming if only normal climate would cooperate. Other scientists have hypothesized that the true magnitude of Global Warming, which they characterize as unprecedented is apparently hidden by a natural cooling trend. Thus, they seek to explain an unobserved, but unprecedented warming trend, with an unprecedented and unobserved coincident cooling trend. These appear as Ad Hoc explanations.[8]

Furthermore –

R.J. Stouffer and colleagues at Princeton report about what adding the North Atlantic conveyor does to their computer model of climate. The conveyor refers to a system of ocean surface currents that carry warm, salty water from the Caribbean to the Norwegian Sea, and which have a profound influence on the climate of the entire hemisphere. They ran a 1000 year-long simulation of climate with this model and found that earth temperature fluctuated up and down, but that none of the fluctuations lasted as long as what we observe in the 20th century. They conclude from this that the observed 20th century warming must be man-caused or the result of some process not included in their model. Since they haven't included thousands of possible processes in their model, however, we should be skeptical about what this says about man-caused warming. In fact, temperature proxies such as borehole temperatures in glaciers and mercury levels in peat bogs suggest millennial temperature variations. Other, even worse, studies exist that replace observations of actual climate with simulated thousands and million of years of Earth climate from a global climate model. A fair criticism is that they contain circular reasoning.[9]

These skeptics tell us that the question of whether the earth's temperature is currently increasing seems to be open. It is a fact they fail to acknowledge.

The most important measures of a climate, both from the standpoint of agriculture and the natural environment, are the extreme values expected of temperature, rainfall, and so forth. For temperature, in particular, extreme low values seem more important than extreme high values. For instance, one unusual cold spell destroys an orchard that may have thrived over a period of 25 years during which local average annual temperature varied by many degrees centigrade. Average temperature for that year might not even show any trace of the disaster.

The winter of 1948-1949 provides a real example of such a disaster. The winter wreaked havoc across the western U.S. and northern Mexico, caused unprecedented damage to citrus and livestock businesses, and set records for low temperature and duration of snow cover. Yet, this winter counts among the warmest in the northern hemisphere over the past century.

Earth temperature has recovered somewhat from Mt. Pinatubo's cooling. The recent El Nino (1997-1998) caused average temperature to rise quite fast, but not unexpectedly, and some opportunists saw this as a means to publicize an acceleration of Global Warming. I expect journalists to soon pound us mercilessly with stories about man-caused warming; and Global Warming proponents will offer more frightening scenarios of a world without winter. Lost in the debate, and in the distractions of the technology of computer modeling, is any understanding that the danger we face comes not as a climate too warm, but as weather too cold. I do not know that Global Warming will decrease extremes of cold weather. I suspect it may even increase it; but if Global Warming does put us farther away from this danger, it will provide a great service.

A note added in September 2000: Recently in Science Easterling et al emphasize that the risks we face from climate change do, indeed, come from climate extremes and not from the drift of climate averages.[10]

Still I must ask how one can ignore a study of Global Warming in Greenland that shows the implication on global sea-level rise? "Ice sheet models project that a local warming of larger than 3°C, if sustained for millennia, would lead to virtually a complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a resulting sea-level rise of about 7m."[11] Yet many still do.

Many ignore the facts because they fear the financial burden that truth will bring. Others do not wish to face the guilt for the consequence of their actions upon the earth.

Cost can not longer be an excuse to not act.  Big business must dig into its' pockets or it will eliminate its' customer base through death of product and/or cliental thereby still resulting in bankruptcy. 

The sooner action is taken, the longer the term allowed for completion. This differs not for as with most actions; the longer the timeframe for completion, the lesser the costs.  Those business, governments and organizations waiting until the 12^th hour will be forced to endure the greatest financial burdens. Many businesses and governments have heeded this warming and helped their bottom lines by taking steps "in the right direction".  However, there are plenty that still fight the system. Because of these groups; society tends to ignore the signs and stay the course of destruction.

The world governments do not help the situation.  Consider an incident brought to our attention by Ms. Zalasiewicz, a lecturer in the geology department at the University of Leicester, when she traveled from Nottingham to just outside London.

The day return rail ticket cost £102. Had I used my car, or had I flown (the most carbon-intensive means of all), it would have cost me maybe a quarter of that, or less. Given the present and likely future trajectory of our climate, this organization of micro-economic incentives can be regarded, technically, as stark staring bonkers.

Still, there is an upside. The Pentagon and Hollywood have recently got the message that something is up with climate. They have produced bloodcurdling reports (www.gbn.org/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231) and blockbuster films (The Day after Tomorrow) respectively, predicting megadeath and destruction. Trouble is, they both predict that our developing greenhouse will hasten not a hothouse world, Jurassic-style, but rather the next Ice Age, and in the next few years at that. According to most climate scientists, that particular scenario is somewhere in the grey area between severe unlikelihood and nonsense. Yes, a comparable phenomenon has indeed been recognized (water from melting ice acting as a brake on north Atlantic circulation). But its effects won't, on current understanding, be so great or so rapid, and anyway these effects will be overwhelmed by the globally rising heat.[12]

Let's face facts!  Global Warming is caused by an increase of CO₂ emissions, increase in various greenhouse gasses as well as various other factors. NASA studies tell us that:

Owing to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide caused by modern industrial societies' widespread combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), the greenhouse effect on Earth may be intensified and long-term climatic changes may result.

An increase in atmospheric concentrations of other trace gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (Freons), nitrous oxide, and methane, due again largely to human activity, may also aggravate greenhouse conditions. [13]

Greenhouse gases are needed for the planet to support life.  These gases are not the problem; it is the percentage of concentration of each individual gas and how they play into the collective. 

This is fortunate for the natural greenhouse effect creates a climate in which life can thrive and man can live under relatively benign conditions.

Otherwise, the Earth would be a very frigid and inhospitable place. On the other hand, an enhanced greenhouse effect refers to the possible raising of the mean temperature of the Earth's surface above that occurring due to the natural greenhouse effect because of an increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases due to human activities.

Such a Global Warming would probably bring other, sometimes deleterious, changes in climate; for example, changes in precipitation, storm patterns, and the level of the oceans.

The word "enhanced" is usually omitted, but it should not be forgotten in discussions of the greenhouse effect.

Without this greenhouse heating, the Earth's average temperature would be only about -73 C (-100 F); even the oceans would be frozen under such conditions.

Alternatively, a "runaway" greenhouse effect like that found on the planet Venus would result in surface temperatures as high as 500 C (932 F).[14]

Studies in Global Warming have been done and we have found that simulation

…models project an increase in daily, seasonal, inter-annual and decadal climate variability, as well as changes in frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme climate events. It also states that greenhouse gas forcing in the 21st century could set in motion abrupt/non-linear changes in physical and biological systems over the coming decades to millennia, with a wide range of associated likelihoods. Further … the projected changes in physical systems and in the natural sources and sinks of greenhouse gases could be irreversible, but there is an incomplete understanding of some of the underlying processes. Changes in climate could increase the risk of such changes in many ecosystems. A table [constructed by the IISD delegation] gives examples of climate variability and extreme climate events, and examples of their impacts.[15]

What will occur?  We are not talking about a few warmer days for those living in the cooler climates. "Global Warming doesn't necessarily mean that it gets warmer.
What happens is that basically a lot more energy than usual is 'pumped' into the climatic system. That energy might become heat, but it might just as well translate to higher wind speeds, strange weather patterns [and/or] shifting ocean currents."^[16] We will see sea levels rise, climates will switch, unbearable temperatures like Death Valley in the summer but occurring in places like Alaska and snow in unexpected regions of the world.

"Changes in sea level, snow cover, ice extent and precipitation are consistent with warming near the Earth’s surface, providing examples and noting uncertainties. [Reports] state that observed regional climate changes have already affected hydrological systems and terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and socioeconomic vulnerability to climate change appears to be rising."[17]  These changes will affect hydrology, crop production, forestry and human health. 

Climate zones would shift. This will eliminate some tree species and the life forms they support.

As the climate warms quickly, many species of tree would not be able to adapt fast enough and would become extinct. Also, in northern areas, trees would be forced northwards (as climatic zones change) into areas with poor quality soils and poor nutrients, many would not survive. Wildfires would also increase in forests and this would encourage a change in the composition of species, favoring species that grow more quickly.[18]

Tropical diseases will be spread as the tropics begin to consume more of the globe. "[H]uman health threats [will rise]. [N]ot only in heat-related illnesses but also in altering patterns of disease. Diseases like malaria and yellow fever would become commoner."[19]

Rising water eliminates coast areas there by displacing the inhabitants.

"The effects of permafrost melting to say that landslides will affect water courses and wetland ecosystems, as well as infrastructure" was agreed by the IISD.[20]  This combination (polar melt, warming water; yielding increase to storms) would be devastating to people in developing countries like Bangladesh. 

"Biodiversity would decrease in many areas and large scale forest change would have major implications for wildlife. Many species would become extinct."[21] Life cycles of animals are disturbed thus leading to their death and finally to the end of the human race.

This is all happening due to human actions.  Global Warming is a direct result of the course of human evolution.  As the human race struggles to advance; each step takes its toll upon the earth. 

The greatest step toward global destruction is the Industrial Age. "The Earth’s climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the pre-industrial era, with some of these changes attributable to human activities."[22]  

Nearly 100 years after the Arrhenius prediction, we are now aware that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing, with the likelihood that it will double by the middle of the next century from the levels at the time of Arrhenius. Post-World War II industrialization has caused a dramatic jump in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[23]

Humankind learned to depend on products that produce carbon dioxide.  This increased release of CO₂ into our atmosphere is the building blocks for Global Warming. This dependency only increases and therefore further pollutes our atmosphere. As we as a race progress; we as a component of earth digress.  This is a trend with a deadly conclusion.

How may this occur?  In short; this may include loss of vegetation. A few more degrees can change the growth of vegetation.  This is our means of food.  It is what allows us to survive. 

Computer models of climate change reveal that climatic belts would move up to 150 kilometers northwards. This would move the major food production area away from where it is now, in the region of good soils in North America and Russia. It would move to areas of less fertile soils, so food production would decrease. A drop of 10% in food production could have many bad consequences for the world, as starvation would increase, especially in poor countries where governments can't afford to import food. As food gets scarcer, the price rises.[24]

The warmer temperatures will alter the growing cycle.  Eventually the plants will no longer be able to sustain the higher temperatures.  The shifting weather patterns added with man's desire to clear the land will have destroyed all the top soil that allows for plant growth.

Plants heat or cool the air around them (through the reflection and absorption of solar radiation and the evaporation process), remove momentum from surface winds, and take up and release moisture into the air (thus contributing to alterations in the hydrologic cycle).

In turn, changes in climate will affect the patterns of vegetation growth. For instance, forest stands that require relatively cool conditions may not be able to adjust to the relatively rapid warming that is being predicted for the interiors of climates.

With slow warming, scientists expect that the northern edges of North American forests would creep slowly forward to more-favorable conditions, while the southern edges would give way to grasslands that are better suited to the warmer conditions.

With overly rapid warming rates, however, the loss at the southern edge would be more extreme, and the migration at the northern edges would not be able to make up for the loss at the southern edge.   

Other feedback effects at work also must be considered. In normal conditions, plant leaves take in carbon dioxide from the air and release moisture to the air as part of the photosynthesis process.

The release of moisture through evapotranspiration causes the air to cool. With increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, one can expect to see a change in plant carbon exchange rates and water relations.

This may result in reduced evaporation rates, thus amplifying the summer continental warming. Without plants, the ground and air would become warmer, exacerbating the problem.[25]

Add to that the changes in rain which equal changes in what can be raised. An increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius would mean that millions of the poorest people on earth who live in the tropics and subtropics will experience a decrease in their agricultural production thereby increasing the risk of hunger where the risk is already the greatest. As temperatures continue to rise; food shortages will spread on a global scale. 

Life on earth needs vegetation to survive. Humans can exist a maximum of 80 days without food.  Animals; which we depend on for food, need vegetation to survive. Lower life forms either feed on vegetation or find shelter within its leaves and stalks. With the destruction of vegetation; the inhabitants of earth will be no more.

The raise in temperatures will force those insects and animals capable of migration to do so. We see this occurring today.  Mosquitoes and other "killer" insects are moving away from the tropical regions.  Water fowl have changed their migration patterns.  Llamas, emus and other Central American animals are now seen being raised in the United States. This is a man induced transfer but the fact that these "warm" weather animals can survive in what was the cooler climates of the US is an indicator of shifting climates.

Most past climate changes occurred slowly, allowing plants and animals to adapt to the new environment or move somewhere else. However, if future climate changes occur as rapidly as some scientists predict, plants and animals may not be able to react quickly enough to survive. The ocean's ecosystems also could be affected for the same reasons.[26]

What is to become of those animals that can not migrate?  Man has created many obstacles for his non-human companions.  Many animals are limited in their migratory options due to lack of land, continental breaks, domesticity and various other factors.

Some animals can not migrate due to size or limitations in their diet that would not allow them to survive in another area that did not offer a specific food type. Kola bears and Panda bears are prime examples of animals limited by dietary necessity.  Those unable to migrate or unable to migrate quickly enough will perish.

The greatest concern connected with Global Warming is hydrologic changes. The rising temperatures are melting the Polar Caps.  This in turn is causing flooding. "Estimates of 18 CMS by the year 2025 seem to be realistic. If this is true, then the whole of Bangladesh, many oceanic islands, Holland and parts of Egypt would be under threat."[27]

 

The fact is we are loosing land each year. According to Maryland Marine Notes funded by Sea Grant Maryland and NOAA, "Worldwide estimates of sea level rise due to climatic warming range between 1.2 and 2.4 millimeters per year."[28]

 

With costal areas being taken from us; our land masses are shrinking.  "It is believed that even a small rise in sea level could flood up to one third of [the entire] world's land surface! This would be catastrophic for humans."[29]

This gives us less space for the ever growing population of the world.  "With many of the world's population moving for various reasons this would create a large number of refugees and the strain on some countries could be catastrophic, leading to instability and break down in law and order."^[30] In essence: anarchy would reign.

In turn, we have less area to grow and raise food.  People are migrating inland or sustaining substantial cost to remain on the water's edge.

Sea level may rise between several inches and as much as 3 feet during the next century. This will affect both natural systems and manmade structures along coastlines. Coastal flooding could cause saltwater to flow into areas where salt is harmful, threatening plants and animals in those areas. For example, an increase in the salt content of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays is thought to have decreased the number of oysters able to live in those waters.

Oceanfront property would be affected by flooding, and beach erosion could leave structures even more vulnerable to storm waves. Whether we move back from the water or build barricades in the face of a rising sea, it could cost billions of dollars to adapt to such change. Coastal flooding also may reduce the quality of drinking water in coastal areas.[31]

"There are severe social and economic effects faced in particular by populations that inhabit small islands and/or low lying coastal areas, such as the loss of beaches, coastal erosion and storm surges. [T]he impacts of climate change are already being felt in small island States. The potential for adaptation is to reduce adverse effects of climate change and to produce immediate ancillary benefits, but not to prevent all damages. Several figures are included [in the reports] to illustrate the answer, including: socioeconomic, emissions and greenhouse gas concentration scenarios; temperature and sea-level change; and changes in annual run-off. "[32]

A hydrological change also means water shortages. "Global Warming would also reduce water supplies in many areas, because rates of evaporation would increase over most of the world. This could force whole populations to migrate to find new water supplies."[33]

"Extreme weather conditions [are] becom[ing] more common. Heat waves and droughts could have serious consequences in many parts of the world."[34] Storms are intensifying.  "The El Nino Southern Oscillation is a good example of how a comparatively slight change in one place can lead to major droughts or floods in another."[35] El Niño and La Niño cycles constitute natural cycles of ocean-atmospheric disruption with global consequences. These variants in trade winds allow for warmer water to feed the storms. 

 

This is the second greatest concern of Global Warming.  With this effect; warmer water can feed more intensity into storms thus causing higher magnitude storms and a significant increase in their frequency or intensity.  Wetter winters, hotter and drier summers and increased frequency of large storm events as well as increased droughts in the Northern temperate latitudes are expected.

Changes in the rain patterns are causing a change in the climate.  Rainfall pattern changes are making some currently viable crop-growing areas hotter and drier until they degenerate into desert. There are widespread areas of droughts and floods.  We see heavy rainfall in traditional desert areas. Snow in July is not an unexpected occurrence in the near future in the Northern Hemisphere. Already our northwestern states experience snow from August to May in the higher elevations.

These changes in temperature will affect human life.  We have been told that the key number in these warming trends is 2 degrees Celsius.  Changes less than 2 degrees Celsius per stage are considered adaptable. However, changes over 2 degrees Celsius per stage are considered too quick of change to be adaptable. Just as the animals must adapt and migrate, so must man or perish. 

 

Man's adaptation may be harder than that of the beasts.  Animals adapt naturally to slow changes in their environment.  Man chooses to alter his environment to suit him.  This is what has gotten us into the current situation.  No one species has done more damage to the earth in such a short time than the human.  Human being wishing to bend the world to their will instead of living in harmony with nature has brought upon us the consequences of our actions. The penalty is death.

 

Adding to the severity of this situation is the fact that our world is becoming overpopulated.  In many areas of the world there are limits on population growth.  With the change in the earth's temperatures, this is of increasing concern. 

 

As the waters rise and land diminishes the population of the earth may play a major role in survival.  "Even a one-met[er] rise - the smallest of small change by geological standards - will likely displace one hundred million people or so."[36] The more people we are to house, the less our changes; as a race, of survival.  We may revert to a society where only the "strong survive".  "It's been said that civilization is only two square meals away from barbarism."[37]

 

Even wealth and power can not help you if this is to be our fate.  Those of strong will and survival ways through adaptation will be the ones to live on while the rest fall peril to our creation. 

 

A few degrees more; in short will mean their will not be enough room or food for the masses. Diseases will spread due to the overall warming of the globe. Man and beast will fade out due to their inability to adapt quickly enough to the rapid changes of the world.  The species with the most probably chance of survival are those with the shortest life span.  Such species have the opportunity to restructure their gene traits and evolve to adapt to the "new" world. This means that only some varieties of insects may even have a remote change of survival if the temperatures of the world continue to increase and so do on a rapid scale.

 

Does this mean we are doomed?  We do not have to give up.  If we work as a global unit; the damage can be thwarted and even reversed.  This will require a world wide effort.  Steps such as the Kyoto Protocol are major steps in achieving this act of global cooperation and unity. The world as a whole must reduce damaging emissions. For even after life saving steps are taken "temperature and sea levels continue to rise long after emissions are reduced."[38]

To survive we must think and act "green".  We must become a planet of "green consumers."  Increasing the share of lower carbon emitting fossil fuels, advanced fossil fuel technologies and renewable energy technologies is an excellent step in that direction. There is a "link between climate change and other environmental issues, such as biodiversity loss, desertification and stratospheric ozone depletion, pointing to synergies and trade-offs."[39]  "Local, regional and global environmental issues are inextricably linked and affect sustainable development, and that synergistic opportunities exist to develop more effective response options that enhance benefits, reduce costs, and meet human needs more sustainable."[40]

Predicting the future course of events is made difficult because of our insufficient knowledge about the detailed behaviors of the atmosphere and oceans. There are at least five areas of incomplete understanding:

·         sources (places of origin) and sinks (places of storage) of greenhouse gases – which affect predictions of future concentrations;

·         clouds – which strongly influence the magnitude of climate change;

·         oceans – which influence the timing and patterns of climate change;

·         polar ice-sheets – which affect the predictions of sea-level rise;

·         land surface processes and feedback (when the output of a system affects the input) – which affect hydrological and ecological processes.

There are also limitations to the computer models which are used to simulate an Earth-atmosphere system. [41] 

An important need in the further development and verification of climate models is the acquisition, assembly, and analysis of reliable climate data.

The highly-accurate, self-consistent, and long-term data sets that will be acquired by the Earth Observing System (EOS), as part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth with a series of satellite launches beg[an] in 1998 [and] are designed to fulfill that need.[42]

As technology improves so can our knowledge of the environment as well as our predictions for the future. Improving our computer simulations will greatly aid in our quest for answers.

Our goal of survival begins with stewardship for the earth. Man must once again learn to live in harmony with Mother Nature.  No longer can we try to bend her to our will.  The will of the earth will live on. We can too if we choose to be part of the earth in which we live instead of a virus that preys upon the earth.

 

REFERENCES

 

de Blas, Alexandra (2000, November 4) Scientific report on climate change makes staggering predictions Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Retrieved on June 5, 2004 from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s211808.htm

Drake, John B. (1996, May 16) Predicting climate change Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA Retrieved on June 5, 2004 from: http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev28_2/text/cli.htm

Earth Negotiations Bulletin (2001, October 2) International Institute for Sustainable Development. [Electronic Format] Retrieved on June 5, 2004 from:  http://www.iisd.ca/vol112/enb12177e.html

Enhanced Greenhouse Effect – a Hot International Topic (2000, December) Australian Academy of Science Retrieved on June 5, 2004 from: http://www.science.org.au/nova/016/016box03.htm

 

Enviro Issues  (2003, July) ESD Challenge. Retrieved on June 5, 2004 from:http://garage.nexted.com/usqonline/users/d1015335/ESD/enviro_issues.htm