Julie Kerr Casper, Ph.D. | Infobase Publishing © 2009 | Pages : 241 | 12.87 Mb
Humans must address the effect they have on the Earth’s climate and how their choices today will have an impact on future generations. Humans are changing the world’s climate and with it the local, regional, and global weather. Scientists tell us that “climate is what we expect, and weather is what we get.”
Global warming and climate change are urgent topics. How much is fact? What does global warming mean to individuals? What should it mean? Global warming and its threats are real. For thousands of years, the Earth’s atmosphere has changed very little; but today, there are problems in keeping the balance. Since the Industrial Revolution (late 18th, early 19th centuries), human activities from transportation, agriculture, fossil fuels, waste disposal and treatment, deforestation, power stations, land use, biomass burning, and industrial processes, among other things, have added to the concentrations of greenhouse gases.
These activities are changing the atmosphere more rapidly than humans have ever experienced before. Global temperatures then warmed up 8.3°F (5°C) and melted the vast ice sheets that covered
much of the North American continent. Scientists today predict that average temperatures could rise 11.7°F (7°C) during this century alone. As the ocean levels rise, coastal lands and islands will be flooded and destroyed. An increase in severe weather could result in hurricanes similar or even stronger than Katrina in 2005, which destroyed large areas of the southeastern United States.
The set includes the following volumes:
- Climate Systems
- Global Warming Trends
- Global Warming Cycles
- Changing Ecosystems
- Greenhouse Gases
- Fossil Fuels and Pollution
- Climate Management
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