Global Warming.

Evidence for global warming

Temperature records.
Since the 1850s temperature has been measured around the world using
thermometers. This is very reliable, but only a short term record of global
temperature change.

Dendochronology.
Using tree rings to work out how old a tree is. Most trees produce one ring
within their trunks every year, and the thickness of the ring depends on the
climate when the ring was formed, when its warmer the rings are thicker.
Scientists can then date each ring and see what the climate was like for each
year. It cannot give very accurate results at all, just an estimate of the climate.

Pollen in peat bogs.

Pollen can be preserved in peat bogs, and they accumulate in layers, so the age
of the pollen increases with depth. Scientists can take cores and extract pollen
grains to identify the species the pollen came from, and this can give an
estimate of climates, as only mature trees would produce pollen, so the climate
then would have to have been favourable for those trees.

Frozen Isotopes.
Ice cores from the Antarctic is quite accurate. Air is trapped in the ice, and the
proportions of isotopes in the ice reflect the air temperature at the time that the
layer was laid down. This data can go back as far as 3000000 years.

Causes.
Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane contribute to the
greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is when radiation from the sun is
reflected back from the earth as infrared radiation, which is absorbed by the
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This maintains the temperature at a higher
level.
However, with an increasing level of greenhouse gases, global temperatures are
rising. Humans are enhancing the greenhouse effect by burning fossil fuels,
which produces carbon dioxide, and destroying carbon sinks, like trees. Methane
levels are also rising because of greater fossil fuel extraction, and more
decaying waste, as well as greater amounts of cattle for food, which give of
methane as a waste gas.

Some argue that the evidence does not prove that humans are the cause of
global warming, because the data is not that reliable before daily weather
records, or they think the evidence was subject to bias. Also, though there may
be a correlation, this does not prove causation.

Effects.

Rising temperature. This will affect the metabolism of all organisms, as

enzymes denature once past 40 decrees Celsius. It will also affect the
distribution, as conditions in their habitat may change, and they may not
be able to survive the change, so will have to move out of that area

Changing rainfall patterns, some areas may get more rain, some may get
less, this will affect the lifecyles of some plants and distribution of species,
e.g deserts could increase in area because of decreases in rainfall.

Seasonal cycles will change, so life cycles will change, e.g. mating periods
start earlier for some organisms because of change in seasons meaning
earlier availability of food. Distribution of organisms will change.

Reducing Global Warming.

Using biofuels, which are produced from biomass, so there is little net
increase in carbon dioxide production, because of the amount taken in
when the material was growing.

Reforestation, planting new trees to take in carbon dioxide by

photosynthesis.

Renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines.

Past data can be extrapolated to make predictions about the future, using
scenarios, such as emissions growing as they are now, emissions increasing,
emissions being controlled by management strategies. However extrapolation
has limitations. We dont actually know how emissions will change in the future,
we dont know how much each scenario will cause the global temperature to rise
by, etc.