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1793 | Little_Ice_Age | While summer maximums have showed little trend, the annual average Arctic temperature has risen sharply in recent decades. | Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population . |
2547 | Correlation_does_not_imply_causation | The modelers confused cause and effect, thereby getting the feedback in the wrong direction." | Correlation does not imply causation In statistics , many statistical tests calculate correlations between variables and when two variables are found to be correlated , it is tempting to assume that this shows that one variable causes the other . That `` correlation proves causation , '' is considered a questionable cause logical fallacy when two events occurring together are taken to have established a cause-and-effect relationship . This fallacy is also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc , Latin for `` with this , therefore because of this , '' and `` false cause . '' A similar fallacy , that an event that followed another was necessarily a consequence of the first event , is the post hoc ergo propter hoc ( Latin for `` after this , therefore because of this . '' ) fallacy . For example , in a widely studied case , numerous epidemiological studies showed that women taking combined hormone replacement therapy ( HRT ) also had a lower-than-average incidence of coronary heart disease ( CHD ) , leading doctors to propose that HRT was protective against CHD . But randomized controlled trials showed that HRT caused a small but statistically significant increase in risk of CHD . Re-analysis of the data from the epidemiological studies showed that women undertaking HRT were more likely to be from higher socio-economic groups ( ABC1 ) , with better-than-average diet and exercise regimens . The use of HRT and decreased incidence of coronary heart disease were coincident effects of a common cause ( i.e. the benefits associated with a higher socioeconomic status ) , rather than a direct cause and effect , as had been supposed . As with any logical fallacy , identifying that the reasoning behind an argument is flawed does not imply that the resulting conclusion is false . In the instance above , if the trials had found that hormone replacement therapy does in fact have a negative incidence on the likelihood of coronary heart disease the assumption of causality would have been correct , although the logic behind the assumption would still have been flawed . Indeed , a few go further , using correlation as a basis for testing a hypothesis to try to establish a true causal relationship ; examples are the Granger causality test and convergent cross mapping . |
2374 | Climate_system | Water vapour is the most dominant greenhouse gas. | Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components. |
1300 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | "Yet, a new study of 60 climate models and scenarios shows this warning fails to take into account the fact that global warming will mean precipitation increases. | Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors. |
412 | Eocene | From 1970 until 1998 there was a warming period that raised temperatures by about 0.7 F that helped spawn the global warming alarmist movement. | Eocene The Eocene ( -LSB- pronˈiːəˌsiːn , _ ˈiːoʊ - -RSB- ) Epoch , lasting from , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch . The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C . The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure ( the `` Great Break '' in continuity ) or the Eocene -- Oligocene extinction event , which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay . As with other geologic periods , the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified , though their exact dates are slightly uncertain . The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς ( ēṓs , `` dawn '' ) and καινός ( kainós , `` new '' ) and refers to the `` dawn '' of modern ( ` new ' ) fauna that appeared during the epoch . |
1928 | Antarctica | NASA Finds Antarctica is Gaining Ice, | Antarctica Antarctica ( UK English -LSB- ænˈtɑːktɪkə -RSB- or -LSB- ænˈtɑːtɪkə -RSB- , US English -LSB- æntˈɑːrktɪkə -RSB- ) is Earth 's southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At 14000000 km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctica , on average , is the coldest , driest , and windiest continent , and has the highest average elevation of all the continents . Antarctica is a desert , with annual precipitation of only 200 mm ( 8 in ) along the coast and far less inland . The temperature in Antarctica has reached − 89.2 ° C ( − 128.6 ° F ) , though the average for the third quarter ( the coldest part of the year ) is − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent . Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae , bacteria , fungi , plants , protista , and certain animals , such as mites , nematodes , penguins , seals and tardigrades . Vegetation , where it occurs , is tundra . Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ( `` Southern Land '' ) date back to antiquity , Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered and colonised by humans , being only first sighted in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny , who sighted the Fimbul ice shelf . The continent , however , remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment , lack of easily accessible resources , and isolation . In 1895 , the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians . Antarctica is a de facto condominium , governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status . Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 , and thirty-eight have signed it since then . The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining , prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal , supports scientific research , and protects the continent 's ecozone . Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations . |
2482 | Global_warming | The warm and cool regions roughly balance each other out with little impact on global temperature. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
199 | Biodiversity | In the past, warming has never been a threat to life on Earth. | Biodiversity Biodiversity a portmanteau of `` biological diversity , '' generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic , the species , and the ecosystem level . Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator , which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity . Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth , and is richest in the tropics . These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earth 's surface , and contain about 90 percent of the world 's species . Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific , where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans . There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity . Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots , and has been increasing through time , but will be likely to slow in the future . Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions . More than 99.9 percent of all species , amounting to over five billion species , that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct . Estimates on the number of Earth 's current species range from 10 million to 14 million , of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described . More recently , in May 2016 , scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described . The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes . In comparison , the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC ( trillion tons of carbon ) . In July 2016 , scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor ( LUCA ) of all organisms living on Earth . The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old . The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago , during the Eoarchean Era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon . There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia . Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland . More recently , in 2015 , `` remains of biotic life '' were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia . According to one of the researchers , `` If life arose relatively quickly on Earth . . then it could be common in the universe . '' Since life began on Earth , five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity . The Phanerozoic eon ( the last 540 million years ) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion -- a period during which the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared . The next 400 million years included repeated , massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events . In the Carboniferous , rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life . The Permian -- Triassic extinction event , 251 million years ago , was the worst ; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years . The most recent , the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , occurred 65 million years ago and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs . The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity . Named the Holocene extinction , the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts , particularly habitat destruction . Conversely , biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways , both positively and negatively . The United Nations designated 2011 -- 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity . |
2783 | Global_warming_controversy | The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed. | Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming . |
1038 | Rate_of_return | (Multiplying .95 by itself 15 times yields 46.3 percent.)" | Rate of return In finance , return is a profit on an investment . It comprises any change in value and interest or dividends or other such cash flows which the investor receives from the investment . It may be measured either in absolute terms ( e.g. , dollars ) or as a percentage of the amount invested . The latter is also called the holding period return . A loss instead of a profit is described as a negative return . Rate of return is a profit on an investment over a period of time , expressed as a proportion of the original investment . The time period is typically a year , in which case the rate of return is referred to as annual return . To compare returns over time periods of different lengths on an equal basis , it is useful to convert each return into an annual equivalent rate of return , or annualised return . This conversion process is called annualisation , described below . Return on investment ( ROI ) is return per dollar invested . It is a measure of investment performance , as opposed to size ( c.f. return on equity , return on assets , return on capital employed ) . |
1592 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | 97% consensus on human-caused global warming has been disproven. | Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors. |
2520 | Black_hole | According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist." | Black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing -- not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light -- can escape from inside it . The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole . The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon . Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it , no locally detectable features appear to be observed . In many ways a black hole acts like an ideal black body , as it reflects no light . Moreover , quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation , with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass . This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass , making it essentially impossible to observe . Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace . The first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916 , although its interpretation as a region of space from which nothing can escape was first published by David Finkelstein in 1958 . Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity ; it was during the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity . The discovery of neutron stars sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality . Black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle . After a black hole has formed , it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings . By absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes , supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form . There is general consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies . Despite its invisible interior , the presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light . Matter that falls onto a black hole can form an external accretion disk heated by friction , forming some of the brightest objects in the universe . If there are other stars orbiting a black hole , their orbits can be used to determine the black hole 's mass and location . Such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars . In this way , astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems , and established that the radio source known as Sagittarius A * , at the core of our own Milky Way galaxy , contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses . On 11 February 2016 , the LIGO collaboration announced the first observation of gravitational waves ; because these waves were generated from a black hole merger it was the first ever direct detection of a binary black hole merger . On 15 June 2016 , a second detection of a gravitational wave event from colliding black holes was announced . |
2396 | Climate_change_in_the_Arctic | Overall Greenland is losing ice mass at an accelerating rate. | Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 . |
1082 | Instrumental_temperature_record | "But the differences between NOAA and NASA aren't that significant, Schmidt further argued, in the context of the bigger picture. | Instrumental temperature record The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets . |
2170 | Heat_wave | Climate change isn't increasing extreme weather damage costs | Heat wave A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather , which may be accompanied by high humidity , especially in oceanic climate countries . While definitions vary , a heat wave is measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season . Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area . The term is applied both to hot weather variations and to extraordinary spells of hot which may occur only once a century . Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures , thousands of deaths from hyperthermia , and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning . A heat wave is considered extreme weather , and a danger because heat and sunlight may overheat the human body . |
1310 | 2014–16_El_Niño_event | It has occurred during the warmest year on record, which occurred in 2015, and the two most unusually mild months on Earth, which took place in January and February, respectively." | 2014–16 El Niño event The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean . |
2709 | Energy_industry | When you account for the effects which are not reflected in the market price of fossil fuels, like air pollution and health impacts, the true cost of coal and other fossil fuels is higher than the cost of most renewable energy technologies. | Energy industry The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy , including fuel extraction , manufacturing , refining and distribution . Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel , and the energy industry is a crucial part of the infrastructure and maintenance of society in almost all countries . In particular , the energy industry comprises : the petroleum industry , including oil companies , petroleum refiners , fuel transport and end-user sales at gas stations the gas industry , including natural gas extraction , and coal gas manufacture , as well as distribution and sales the electrical power industry , including electricity generation , electric power distribution and sales the coal industry the nuclear power industry the renewable energy industry , comprising alternative energy and sustainable energy companies , including those involved in hydroelectric power , wind power , and solar power generation , and the manufacture , distribution and sale of alternative fuels traditional energy industry based on the collection and distribution of firewood , the use of which , for cooking and heating , is particularly common in poorer countries |
2809 | Atlantic_Ocean | The motions of the massive oceans where heat is moved between deep layers and the surface provides variability on time scales from years to centuries. | Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world 's oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 km2 . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth 's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area . It separates the `` Old World '' from the `` New World '' . The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated , S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east , and the Americas to the west . As one component of the interconnected global ocean , it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean , to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest , the Indian Ocean in the southeast , and the Southern Ocean in the south ( other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica ) . The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean at about 8 ° N. Scientific explorations of the Atlantic include the Challenger expedition , the German Meteor expedition , Columbia University 's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the United States Navy Hydrographic Office . |
2000 | Jill_Stein | There is not a single candidate in the Republican primary that thinks we should do anything about climate change. | Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein ( born May 14 , 1950 ) is an American physician , activist , and politician . She was the Green Party 's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections . She was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010 . |
2230 | Antarctic_ice_sheet | [Ice] is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap. | Antarctic ice sheet The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves . |
2213 | Global_warming | The warming trend is the same in rural and urban areas, measured by thermometers and satellites, and by natural thermometers. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
2603 | Atmospheric_methane | While methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, there is over 200 times more CO2 in the atmosphere. | Atmospheric methane Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor . |
871 | Genetics | "As it happens, Zika may also be a good model of the second worrying effect — disease mutation. | Genetics Genetics ( from ancient Greek γένεσις , genesis ) is the study of genes , genetic variation , and heredity in living organisms . It is generally considered a field of biology , but intersects frequently with many other life sciences and is strongly linked with the study of information systems . The father of genetics is Gregor Mendel , a late 19th-century scientist and Augustinian friar . Mendel studied `` trait inheritance '' , patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring . He observed that organisms ( pea plants ) inherit traits by way of discrete `` units of inheritance '' . This term , still used today , is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene . Trait inheritance and molecular inheritance mechanisms of genes are still primary principles of genetics in the 21st century , but modern genetics has expanded beyond inheritance to studying the function and behavior of genes . Gene structure and function , variation , and distribution are studied within the context of the cell , the organism ( e.g. dominance ) , and within the context of a population . Genetics has given rise to a number of subfields , including epigenetics and population genetics . Organisms studied within the broad field span the domain of life , including bacteria , plants , animals , and humans . Genetic processes work in combination with an organism 's environment and experiences to influence development and behavior , often referred to as nature versus nurture . The intracellular or extracellular environment of a cell or organism may switch gene transcription on or off . A classic example is two seeds of genetically identical corn , one placed in a temperate climate and one in an arid climate . While the average height of the two corn stalks may be genetically determined to be equal , the one in the arid climate only grows to half the height of the one in the temperate climate due to lack of water and nutrients in its environment . |
331 | Global_cooling | But each serial adjustment has tended to make the early years colder, which increases the warming trend. | Global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century . |
200 | Earth | if we halved today's atmospheric carbon dioxide content, all life would die. | Earth Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states . |
2305 | Istanbul | Nevertheless over the last decade, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows. | Istanbul Istanbul ( -LSB- ˌɪstænˈbʊl -RSB- , -LSB- - ˈbuːl -RSB- or -LSB- - stɑːn - -RSB- İstanbul -LSB- isˈtɑnbuɫ -RSB- ) , historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium , is the most populous city in Turkey and the country 's economic , cultural , and historic center . Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia , straddling the Bosphorus strait ( which separates Europe and Asia ) between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea . Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side . The city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality ( conterminous with Istanbul Province ) , both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents . Istanbul is one of the world 's most populous cities and ranks as the world 's 7th-largest city proper and the largest European city . Founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE , the city developed to become one of the most significant in history . After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE , it served as an imperial capital for almost 16 centuries , during the Roman and Byzantine ( 330 -- 1204 and 1261 -- 1453 ) , the Latin ( 1204 -- 1261 ) , and the Ottoman ( 1453 -- 1922 ) empires . It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times , before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold and the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate . Istanbul 's strategic position on the historic Silk Road , rail networks to Europe and the Middle East , and the only sea route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean have produced a cosmopolitan populace , although less so since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 . Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the interwar period , the city has since regained much of its prominence . The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s , as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in and city limits have expanded to accommodate them . Arts , music , film , and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today . Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network . Approximately foreign visitors arrived in Istanbul in 2015 , five years after it was named a European Capital of Culture , making the city the world 's fifth most popular tourist destination . The city 's biggest attraction is its historic center , partially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and its cultural and entertainment hub can be found across the city 's natural harbor , the Golden Horn , in the Beyoğlu district . Considered a global city , Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world . It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the country 's gross domestic product . Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion , Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years . |
1553 | Winter | 2009-2010 winter saw record cold spells. | Winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates , between autumn and spring . Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun . Different cultures define different dates as the start of winter , and some use a definition based on weather . When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere , it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere , and vice versa . In many regions , winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures . The moment of winter solstice is when the sun 's elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value ( that is , the sun is at its farthest below the horizon as measured from the pole ) , meaning this day will have the shortest day and the longest night . The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates outside the polar regions differ from the date of the winter solstice , however , and these depend on latitude , due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth 's elliptical orbit ( see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset ) . |
1703 | Global_warming | Multiple lines of independent evidence indicate humidity is rising and provides positive feedback. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
2305 | Córdoba,_Argentina | Nevertheless over the last decade, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows. | Córdoba, Argentina Córdoba ( -LSB- ˈkorðoβa -RSB- ) is a city in the geographical center of Argentina , in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River , about 700 km northwest of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires . It is the capital of Córdoba Province and the second most populous city in Argentina after Buenos Aires , with about 1,330,023 inhabitants according to the 2010 census . It was founded on 6 July 1573 by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera , who named it after Córdoba , Spain . It was one of the first Spanish colonial capitals of the region that is now Argentina ( the oldest city is Santiago del Estero , founded in 1553 ) . The National University of Córdoba is the oldest university of the country and the second to be inaugurated in Latin America . It was founded in 1613 by the Jesuit Order . Because of this , Córdoba earned the nickname La Docta ( roughly translated , `` the learned one '' ) . Córdoba has many historical monuments preserved from Spanish colonial rule , especially buildings of the Roman Catholic Church . The most recognizable is perhaps the Jesuit Block ( Spanish : Manzana Jesuítica ) , declared in 2000 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO which consists of a group of buildings dating from the 17th century , including the Colegio Nacional de Monserrat and the colonial university campus . The campus belongs today to the historical museum of the National University of Córdoba , which has been the second-largest university in the country since the early 20th century ( after the University of Buenos Aires ) , in terms of the number of students , faculty , and academic programs . Córdoba is also known for its historical movements , such as Cordobazo and La Reforma del '18 ( known as University Revolution in English ) . |
3017 | East_Antarctica | Some of the regions in which GRACE claims ice loss in East Antarctica average colder than -30°C during the summer, and never, ever get above freezing. | East Antarctica East Antarctica , also called Greater Antarctica , constitutes the majority ( two-thirds ) of the Antarctic continent , lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent , separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains . It lies almost entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere and its name has been accepted for more than a century . It is generally higher than West Antarctica and includes the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in the centre . Apart from small areas of the coast , East Antarctica is permanently covered by ice . The only terrestrial plant life is lichens , mosses and algae clinging to rocks , and there are a limited range of invertebrates including nematodes , springtails , mites and midges . The coasts are the breeding ground for various seabirds and penguins , and the leopard seal , Weddell seal , elephant seal , crabeater seal and Ross seal breed on the surrounding pack ice in summer . |
1877 | Republican_Party_(United_States) | During a state House debate on a jobs and energy bill this week, Democrats offered an amendment that would put the Legislature on record saying that climate change is real and that humans are causing it. | Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party , commonly referred to as the GOP ( abbreviation for Grand Old Party ) , is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States , the other being its historic rival , the Democratic Party . The party is named after republicanism , the dominant value during the American Revolution . Founded by anti-slavery activists , modernists , ex-Whigs , and ex-Free Soilers in 1854 , the Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932 . There have been 19 Republican presidents , the most from any one party . The first was 16th president Abraham Lincoln , who served from 1861 to 1865 , when he was assassinated , and the most recent being 45th and current president Donald Trump , who took office on January 20 , 2017 . The Republican Party 's current ideology is American conservatism , which contrasts with the Democrats ' more progressive platform ( also called modern liberalism ) . Further , its platform involves support for free market capitalism , free enterprise , fiscal conservatism , a strong national defense , deregulation , and restrictions on labor unions . In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies , the Republican Party is socially conservative , and seeks to uphold traditional values based largely on Judeo-Christian ethics . The GOP was strongly committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s , when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest . Since 1952 there has been a reversal against protectionism and the party 's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South , the Great Plains , the Mountain States and rural districts in the North . as well as from conservative Catholics , Mormons , and Evangelicals nationwide . As of 2017 , the Republican Party is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928 . In addition to holding the Presidency ( via Trump and Vice President Mike Pence ) , the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress , having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate . The party also holds a majority of governorships ( 33/50 ) and state legislatures ( full control of 32/50 , split control of six others ) . |
1022 | Coral_bleaching | If water temperatures stay moderate, the damaged sections of the Great Barrier Reef may be covered with corals again in as few as 10 or 15 years | Coral bleaching Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that lives inside their tissues . Normally , coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with the algae and that relationship is crucial for the coral and hence for the health of the whole reef . Bleached corals continue to live . But as the algae provide the coral with 90 % of its energy , after expelling the algae the coral begins to starve . Above-average sea water temperatures caused by global warming have been identified as a leading cause for coral bleaching worldwide . Between 2014 and 2016 , the longest global bleaching events ever were recorded . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , these bleaching events killed coral on an unprecedented scale . In 2016 , bleaching hit 90 percent of coral on the Great Barrier Reef and killed 29 percent of the reef 's coral . In 2017 , the bleaching further expanded to areas of the park that were previously spared , such as the central one . __ TOC __ |
764 | Global_warming | […]You can think of global warming as one type of climate change. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
2549 | Climate_change_denial | "Many people think the science of climate change is settled. | Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies . |
2817 | Climate_change_denial | The Petition Project features over 31,000 scientists signing the petition stating "there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide will, in the forseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere". | Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies . |
2973 | Global_warming | Also, it's not yet clear whether changes in stratospheric water vapor are caused by a climate feedback or internal variability | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
787 | Global_warming | The warming will slow to a potentially manageable pace only when human emissions are reduced to zero. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
1056 | Effects_of_global_warming | Because oxygen in the global ocean is not evenly distributed, the 2 percent overall decline means there is a much larger decline in some areas of the ocean than others. | Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts . |
508 | Climate | Climate projections also assume that planet Earth is not dynamic | Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' . |
424 | 1906_San_Francisco_earthquake | Duffy pointed out that his chart was from a single tide gauge station, near San Francisco, and that sea levels rise at different rates around the world | 1906 San Francisco earthquake The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI ( Extreme ) . Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley , an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area . Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days . As a result , about 3,000 people died and over 80 % of the city of San Francisco was destroyed . The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States . The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California 's history and high in the lists of American urban disasters . |
2300 | Austria | "Austria is today seeing its earliest snowfall in history with 30 to 40 centimetres already predicted in the mountains. | Austria Austria ( listen ) , is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe . It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north , Hungary and Slovakia to the east , Slovenia and Italy to the south , and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west . The territory of Austria covers 83879 km2 . The terrain is highly mountainous , lying within the Alps ; only 32 % of the country is below 500 m , and its highest point is 3798 m . The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language , and Austrian German in its standard form is the country 's official language . Other local official languages are Hungarian , Burgenland Croatian , and Slovene . The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty , when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire . From the time of the Reformation , many northern German princes , resenting the authority of the Emperor , used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion . The Thirty Years War , the influence of the Kingdom of Sweden and Kingdom of France , the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia , and the Napoleonic invasions all weakened the power of the Emperor in the north of Germany , but in the south , and in non-German areas of the Empire , the Emperor and Catholicism maintained control . During the 17th and 18th centuries , Austria retained its position as one of the great powers of Europe and , in response to the coronation of Napoleon as the Emperor of the French , the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804 . Following Napoleon 's defeat , Prussia emerged as Austria 's chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany . Austria 's defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz , during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 , cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany . In 1867 , the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary . After the defeat of France in the 1870-1 Franco-Prussian War , Austria was excluded from the new German Empire , although in the following decades , its politics , and its foreign policy , increasingly converged with those of the Prussian-led Empire . During the 1914 July Crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28 , Austria-Hungary , emboldened by a pledge of German support , on July 28 declared war on Serbia because that country had not fully complied with an Austrian ultimatum . Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis , which would ultimately escalate into World War I. After the collapse of the Habsburg ( Austro-Hungarian ) Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I , Austria adopted and used the name the Republic of German-Austria ( Deutschösterreich ) , later changed to Österreich , in an attempt at union with Germany , but this was forbidden under the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ( 1919 ) . The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919 . In 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss . This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945 , after which Germany was occupied by the Allies and Austria 's former democratic constitution was restored . In 1955 , the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state , ending the occupation . In the same year , the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral . Today , Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states . The capital and largest city , with a population exceeding 1.7 million , is Vienna . Other major urban areas of Austria include Graz , Linz , Salzburg and Innsbruck . Austria is one of the richest countries in the world , with a nominal per capita GDP of $ 43,724 . The country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index . Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 , joined the European Union in 1995 , and is a founder of the OECD . Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995 , and adopted the euro currency in 1999 . |
11 | Petroleum | They tell us that we are the primary forces controlling earth temperatures by the burning of fossil fuels and releasing their carbon dioxide. | Petroleum Petroleum ( from petra #Greek : `` rock '' + oleum #Latin : `` oil '' . ) is a naturally occurring , yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth 's surface , which is commonly refined into various types of fuels . Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation . It consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds . The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil . A fossil fuel , petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms , usually zooplankton and algae , are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both intense heat and pressure . Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling ( natural petroleum springs are rare ) . Drilling is carried out after studies of structural geology ( at the reservoir scale ) , sedimentary basin analysis , and reservoir characterization ( mainly in terms of the porosity and permeability of geologic reservoir structures ) have been completed . It is refined and separated , most easily by distillation , into a large number of consumer products , from gasoline ( petrol ) and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals . Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials , and it is estimated that the world consumes about 95 million barrels each day . Concern over the depletion of the earth 's finite reserves of oil , and the effect this would have on a society dependent on it , is a concept known as peak oil . The use of fossil fuels , such as petroleum , will have a negative impact on Earth 's biosphere , damaging ecosystems through events such as oil spills and releasing a range of pollutants into the air including ground-level ozone and sulfur dioxide from sulfur impurities in fossil fuels . The burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming . |
1224 | New_Orleans | "Federal scientists have documented a sharp jump in this nuisance flooding — often called 'sunny-day flooding' — along both the East Coast and the Gulf Coast in recent years. | New Orleans New Orleans ( -LSB- nuː_ˈɔːrlᵻnz , _ - ˈɔːrli.ənz , _ - ɔːrˈliːnz -RSB- , or -LSB- ˈnɔːrlᵻnz -RSB- La Nouvelle-Orléans -LSB- la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃ -RSB- ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana . The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census . The New Orleans metropolitan area ( New Orleans -- Metairie -- Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area ) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States . The New Orleans -- Metairie -- Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area , a larger trading area , had a 2010 population of 1,452,502 . It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture , as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage . New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine , music ( particularly as the birthplace of jazz ) , and its annual celebrations and festivals , most notably Mardi Gras , dating to French colonial times . The city is often referred to as the `` most unique '' in the United States . New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana , straddling the Mississippi River . The city and Orleans Parish ( paroisse d'Orléans ) are coterminous . The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north , St. Bernard to the east , Plaquemines to the south , and Jefferson to the south and west . Lake Pontchartrain , part of which is included in the city limits , lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east . Before Hurricane Katrina , Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana . As of 2015 , it ranks third in population , trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish , and East Baton Rouge Parish . |
310 | Cloud | [data] show only slight warming, mostly at night and in winter | Cloud In meteorology , a cloud is an aerosol comprising a visible mass of minute liquid droplets , frozen crystals , or particles suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body . The droplets and crystals may be made of water or various chemicals . On Earth , clouds are formed as a result of saturation of the air when it is cooled to its dew point , or when it gains sufficient moisture ( usually in the form of water vapor ) from an adjacent source to raise the dew point to the ambient temperature . They are seen in the Earth 's homosphere ( which includes the troposphere , stratosphere , and mesosphere ) . Nephology is the science of clouds which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorology . There are two systems of naming clouds in their respective layers of the atmosphere ; Latin in the troposphere and mostly alpha-numeric above the troposphere . Cloud types in the troposphere , the atmospheric layer closest to Earth 's surface , have Latin names due to the universal adaptation of Luke Howard 's nomenclature . Formally proposed in 1802 , it became the basis of a modern international system that classifies clouds into five physical forms and three altitude levels ( formerly known as étages ) . These physical types , in approximate ascending order of convective activity , include stratiform sheets , cirriform wisps and patches , stratocumuliform layers ( mainly structured as rolls , ripples , and patches ) , cumuliform heaps , and very large cumulonimbiform heaps that often show complex structure . The physical forms are cross-classified by the altitude levels to produce ten basic genus-types , most of which can be divided into species , and subdivided into varieties . Two cirriform clouds that form higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere have common names for their main types , but are sub-classified alpha-numerically . They are relatively uncommon and are mostly seen in the polar regions of Earth . Clouds have been observed in the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System and beyond . However , due to their different temperature characteristics , they are often composed of other substances such as methane , ammonia , and sulfuric acid as well as water . Homospheric types determined by cross-classification of forms and levels . '' Homospheric types include the ten tropospheric genera and two additional major types above the troposphere . The cumulus genus includes three variants as defined by vertical size . |
392 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | a study that totally debunks the whole concept of man-made Global Warming | Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors. |
2055 | Climate | Over the past one million years climate cycles ranging from Ice Ages to warmer periods have been caused by changing levels of energy from the sun, planetary alignments and ocean currents. | Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' . |
2687 | Exoplanet | It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto." | Exoplanet An exoplanet ( -LSB- ˈɛk.səʊˌplæn.ɪt -RSB- , -LSB- ˌɛk.soʊˈplæn.ɪt -RSB- ) or extrasolar planet is a planet outside of our solar system that orbits a star . The first scientific detection of an exoplanet was in 1988 . However , the first confirmed detection came in 1992 ; since then , and as of , there have been exoplanets , in planetary systems and multiple planetary systems , confirmed detections . HARPS ( since 2004 ) has discovered about a hundred exoplanets while the Kepler space telescope ( since 2009 ) has found more than two thousand . Kepler has also detected a few thousand candidate planets , of which about 11 % may be false positives . On average , there is at least one planet per star , with a percentage having multiple planets . About 1 in 5 Sun-like starsFor the purpose of this 1 in 5 statistic , `` Sun-like '' means G-type star . Data for Sun-like stars was not available so this statistic is an extrapolation from data about K-type stars have an `` Earth-sized `` For the purpose of this 1 in 5 statistic , Earth-sized means 1 -- 2 Earth radii planet in the habitable zone.For the purpose of this 1 in 5 statistic , `` habitable zone '' means the region with 0.25 to 4 times Earth 's stellar flux ( corresponding to 0.5 -- 2 AU for the Sun ) . Assuming there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way , About 1/4 of stars are GK Sun-like stars . The number of stars in the galaxy is not accurately known , but assuming 200 billion stars in total , the Milky Way would have about 50 billion Sun-like ( GK ) stars , of which about 1 in 5 ( 22 % ) or 11 billion would be Earth-sized in the habitable zone . Including red dwarfs would increase this to 40 billion . one can hypothesize that there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way , rising to 40 billion if planets orbiting the numerous red dwarfs are included . The least massive planet known is Draugr ( also known as PSR B1257 +12 A or PSR B1257 +12 b ) , which is about twice the mass of the Moon . The most massive planet listed on the NASA Exoplanet Archive is DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b , about 29 times the mass of Jupiter , although according to some definitions of a planet , it is too massive to be a planet and may be a brown dwarf instead . There are planets that are so near to their star that they take only a few hours to orbit and there are others so far away that they take thousands of years to orbit . Some are so far out that it is difficult to tell whether they are gravitationally bound to the star . Almost all of the planets detected so far are within the Milky Way , but there have also been a few possible detections of extragalactic planets . The nearest exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b , located 4.2 light-years ( 1.3 parsecs ) from Earth and orbiting Proxima Centauri , the closest star to the Sun . The discovery of exoplanets has intensified interest in the search for extraterrestrial life . There is special interest in planets that orbit in a star 's habitable zone , where it is possible for liquid water , a prerequisite for life on Earth , to exist on the surface . The study of planetary habitability also considers a wide range of other factors in determining the suitability of a planet for hosting life . Besides exoplanets , there are also rogue planets , which do not orbit any star and which tend to be considered separately , especially if they are gas giants , in which case they are often counted , like WISE 0855 − 0714 , as sub-brown dwarfs . The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the billions ( or more ) . |
2120 | Global_warming | Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995 | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
474 | Sea_ice | Sea ice continued its declining trend, both in the Arctic and Antarctic. | Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs . |
1223 | 2013_in_science | Ice cap is disappearing far more rapidly than previously estimated, and is part of a long-term trend, new research shows | 2013 in science A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2013 , including the discovery of numerous Earthlike exoplanets , the development of viable lab-grown ears , teeth , livers and blood vessels , and the atmospheric entry of the most destructive meteor since 1908 . The year also saw successful new treatments for diseases such as HIV , Usher syndrome and leukodystrophy , and a major expansion in the use and capabilities of technologies such as 3D printing and autonomous cars . The United Nations designated 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation . |
2105 | Greenhouse_gas | Excess CO2 from human emissions has a long residence time of over 100 years | Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 . |
99 | Climate_change_and_ecosystems | Most likely the primary control knob [on climate change] is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in. | Climate change and ecosystems This article is about climate change and ecosystems . |
1052 | Lake_ecosystem | But as that upper layer warms up, the oxygen-rich waters are less likely to mix down into cooler layers of the ocean because the warm waters are less dense and do not sink as readily. | Lake ecosystem A lake ecosystem includes biotic ( living ) plants , animals and micro-organisms , as well as abiotic ( nonliving ) physical and chemical interactions . Lake ecosystems are a prime example of lentic ecosystems . Lentic refers to stationary or relatively still water , from the Latin lentus , which means sluggish . Lentic waters range from ponds to lakes to wetlands , and much of this article applies to lentic ecosystems in general . Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems , which involve flowing terrestrial waters such as rivers and streams . Together , these two fields form the more general study area of freshwater or aquatic ecology . Lentic systems are diverse , ranging from a small , temporary rainwater pool a few inches deep to Lake Baikal , which has a maximum depth of 1740 m . The general distinction between pools/ponds and lakes is vague , but Brown states that ponds and pools have their entire bottom surfaces exposed to light , while lakes do not . In addition , some lakes become seasonally stratified ( discussed in more detail below . ) Ponds and pools have two regions : the pelagic open water zone , and the benthic zone , which comprises the bottom and shore regions . Since lakes have deep bottom regions not exposed to light , these systems have an additional zone , the profundal . These three areas can have very different abiotic conditions and , hence , host species that are specifically adapted to live there . |
349 | Effects_of_global_warming_on_human_health | Nor is there evidence of an increase in floods globally. | Effects of global warming on human health The effects of global warming include effects on human health . The observed and projected increased frequency and severity of climate related impacts will further exacerbate the effects on human health . This article describes some of those effects on individuals and populations . |
14 | Coral_bleaching | The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing the most widespread bleaching ever recorded | Coral bleaching Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that lives inside their tissues . Normally , coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with the algae and that relationship is crucial for the coral and hence for the health of the whole reef . Bleached corals continue to live . But as the algae provide the coral with 90 % of its energy , after expelling the algae the coral begins to starve . Above-average sea water temperatures caused by global warming have been identified as a leading cause for coral bleaching worldwide . Between 2014 and 2016 , the longest global bleaching events ever were recorded . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , these bleaching events killed coral on an unprecedented scale . In 2016 , bleaching hit 90 percent of coral on the Great Barrier Reef and killed 29 percent of the reef 's coral . In 2017 , the bleaching further expanded to areas of the park that were previously spared , such as the central one . __ TOC __ |
2966 | Greenhouse_gas | Over the three years from 1979 to 1982 when CO2 emissions were decreasing due to the rapid increase in the price of oil that drastically reduced consumption, there was no change in the rate of increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 proving that humans were not the primary source for the increase in concentration.' | Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 . |
2209 | Tropical_cyclone | Surface temperatures can show short-term cooling when heat is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean, which has a much greater heat capacity than the air. | Tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center , a closed low-level atmospheric circulation , strong winds , and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain . Depending on its location and strength , a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane ( -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkən -RSB- or -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkeɪn -RSB- ) , typhoon -LSB- taɪ ` fuːn -RSB- , tropical storm , cyclonic storm , tropical depression , and simply cyclone . A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean , a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean , and a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean . Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water . They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface , which ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation . This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms , such as nor'easter s and European windstorms , which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts . The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of angular momentum imparted by the Earth 's rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation . As a result , they rarely form within 5 ° of the equator . Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and in diameter . Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems , which form almost exclusively over tropical seas . Cyclone refers to their cyclonic nature , with wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere . The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect . In addition to strong winds and rain , tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves , damaging storm surge , and tornadoes . They typically weaken rapidly over land where they are cut off from their primary energy source . For this reason , coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions . Heavy rains , however , can cause significant flooding inland , and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 km from the coastline . Though their effects on human populations are often devastating , tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions . They also carry heat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes , which may play an important role in modulating regional and global climate . |
1198 | Shale_gas | " 'You see, gas in America is incredibly cheap, because of fracking,' he says. | Shale gas Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations . Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century , and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world . In 2000 shale gas provided only 1 % of U.S. natural gas production ; by 2010 it was over 20 % and the U.S. government 's Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2035 , 46 % of the United States ' natural gas supply will come from shale gas . Some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply . China is estimated to have the world 's largest shale gas reserves . The Obama administration believed that increased shale gas development would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions . In 2012 , US carbon dioxide emissions dropped to a 20-year low . A 2013 review by the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change noted that most studies of the subject have estimated that life-cycle greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions from shale gas are similar to those of conventional natural gas , and are much less than those from coal , usually about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal ; the noted exception was a 2011 study by Howarth and others of Cornell University , which concluded that shale GHG emissions were as high as those of coal . More recent studies have also concluded that life-cycle shale gas GHG emissions are much less than those of coal , among them , studies by Natural Resources Canada ( 2012 ) , and a consortium formed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory with a number of universities ( 2012 ) . Some 2011 studies pointed to high rates of decline of some shale gas wells as an indication that shale gas production may ultimately be much lower than is currently projected . But shale-gas discoveries are also opening up substantial new resources of tight oil / `` shale oil '' . |
351 | Assam | And from 1940 to today, flood damage as a percentage of GDP has fallen to less than 0.05 per cent per year from about 0.2 per cent. | Assam Assam ( -LSB- langpronəˈsæm -RSB- is a state in northeastern India . Located south of the eastern Himalayas , Assam comprises the Brahmaputra Valley and the Barak Valley along with the Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts with an area of 30,285 mi2 . Assam , along with Arunachal Pradesh , Nagaland , Manipur , Mizoram , Tripura , and Meghalaya , is one of the Seven Sister States . Geographically , Assam and these states are connected to the rest of India via a 22 km strip of land in West Bengal called the Siliguri Corridor or `` Chicken 's Neck '' . Assam shares an international border with Bhutan and Bangladesh ; and its culture , people and climate are similar to those of Southeast Asia -- comprising the elements in India 's Look East policy . Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk . The first oil well in Asia was drilled here . The state has conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction , along with the wild water buffalo , pygmy hog , tiger and various species of Asiatic birds . It provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant . The Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism , centred around Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park which are World Heritage Sites . Sal tree forests are found in the state which , as a result of abundant rainfall , looks green all year round . Assam receives more rainfall compared to most parts of India . This rain feeds the Brahmaputra River , whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a hydro-geomorphic environment . |
2428 | Ice_age | It was the post war industrialization that caused the rapid rise in global CO2 emissions, but by 1945 when this began, the Earth was already in a cooling phase that started around 1942 and continued until 1975. | Ice age An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist . |
2779 | Soot | Europe and Asia emit most of the soot from burning coal, wood, dung, and diesel in open fires or without particulate filters in stoves, chimneys, smokestacks, and exhaust pipes. | Soot Soot -LSB- ˈsʊt -RSB- is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons . It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed fuel particles such as coal , cenospheres , charred wood , and petroleum coke that may become airborne during pyrolysis and that are more properly identified as cokes or chars . Soot causes cancer and lung disease , and is the second-biggest human cause of global warming . |
634 | Coral | But there is also good data showing sea levels | Coral Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria . They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps . The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton . A coral `` group '' is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps . Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length . A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening . An exoskeleton is excreted near the base . Over many generations , the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species . Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps . Corals also breed sexually by spawning : polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon . Although some corals can catch small fish and plankton using stinging cells on their tentacles , most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium that live within their tissues . These are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals . Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear , shallow water , typically at depths shallower than 60 m. Corals are major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters , such as the enormous Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland , Australia . Other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water , with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3000 m . Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds , north-west of Cape Wrath , Scotland . Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands . |
41 | Sustainability | More than 500 scientists and professionals in climate and related fields have sent a 'European Climate Declaration' to the Secretary-General of the United Nations | Sustainability In ecology , sustainability ( from sustain and ability ) is the property of biological systems to remain diverse and productive indefinite #Adjective . Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems . In more general terms , sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes . The organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development , which includes the four interconnected domains : ecology , economics , politics and culture . Sustainability science is the study of sustainable development and environmental science . Sustainability can also be defined as a socio-ecological process characterized by the pursuit of a common ideal . An ideal is by definition unattainable in a given time and space . However , by persistently and dynamically approaching it , the process results in a sustainable system . Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of humans and other organisms . Ways of reducing negative human impact are environmentally-friendly chemical engineering , environmental resources management and environmental protection . Information is gained from green chemistry , earth science , environmental science and conservation biology . Ecological economics studies the fields of academic research that aim to address human economies and natural ecosystems . Moving towards sustainability is also a social challenge that entails international and national law , urban planning and transport , local and individual lifestyles and ethical consumerism . Ways of living more sustainably can take many forms from reorganizing living conditions ( e.g. , ecovillages , eco-municipalities and sustainable cities ) , reappraising economic sectors ( permaculture , green building , sustainable agriculture ) , or work practices ( sustainable architecture ) , using science to develop new technologies ( green technologies , renewable energy and sustainable fission and fusion power ) , or designing systems in a flexible and reversible manner , and adjusting individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources . `` The term ` sustainability ' should be viewed as humanity 's target goal of human-ecosystem equilibrium ( homeostasis ) , while ` sustainable development ' refers to the holistic approach and temporal processes that lead us to the end point of sustainability . '' ( 305 ) Despite the increased popularity of the use of the term `` sustainability '' , the possibility that human societies will achieve environmental sustainability has been , and continues to be , questioned -- in light of environmental degradation , climate change , overconsumption , population growth and societies ' pursuit of unlimited economic growth in a closed system . |
203 | Greenhouse_gas | In our lifetime, there has been no correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and temperature | Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 . |
2449 | Latvia | "January 2008 capped a 12 month period of global temperature drops on all of the major well respected indicators. | Latvia Latvia ( -LSB- ˈlætviə -RSB- Latvija -LSB- ˈlatvija -RSB- ) , officially the Republic of Latvia ( -LSB- Latvijas Republika , links = no -RSB- ) , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe , one of the three Baltic states . It is bordered by Estonia to the north , Lithuania to the south , Russia to the east , and Belarus to the southeast , as well as a maritime border to the west alongside Sweden . Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64589 km2 . The country has a temperate seasonal climate . Latvia is a democratic parliamentary republic established in 1918 . The capital city is Riga , the European Capital of Culture 2014 . Latvian is the official language . Latvia is a unitary state , divided into 119 administrative divisions , of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities . Latvians and Livs are the indigenous people of Latvia . Latvian and Lithuanian are the only two surviving Baltic languages . Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries , the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language and musical traditions . Latvia and Estonia share a long common history . As a consequence of centuries of Russian rule ( 1710-1918 ) and later Soviet occupation , both countries are home to a large number of ethnic Russians ( 26.9 % in Latvia and 25.5 % in Estonia ) , some of whom ( 14.1 % of Latvian residents ) have not gained citizenship , leaving them with no citizenship at all . Until World War II , Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans and Jews . Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran , except for the Latgale region in the southeast , which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic . The Russian population has also brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians . The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918 . However , its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II . In 1940 , the country was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union , invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941 , and re-occupied by the Soviets in 1944 to form the Latvian SSR for the next fifty years . The peaceful Singing Revolution , starting in 1987 , called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule . It ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990 , and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991 . Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union , NATO , the Council of Europe , the United Nations , CBSS , the IMF , NB8 , NIB , OECD , OSCE , and WTO . For 2014 , Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and as a high income country on 1 July 2014 . It used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014 . |
1188 | Development_communication | Policy makers who want to help the residents of the Marshall Islands today should look at improving the islands' resilience | Development communication See also Communication for social change Development communication refers to the use of communication to facilitate social development . Development communication engages stakeholders and policy makers , establishes conducive environments , assesses risks and opportunities and promotes information exchanges to bring about positive social change via sustainable development . Development communication techniques include information dissemination and education , behavior change , social marketing , social mobilization , media advocacy , communication for social change and community participation . Development communication has been labeled the `` Fifth Theory of the Press , '' with `` social transformation and development , '' and `` the fulfillment of basic needs '' as its primary purposes . Jamias articulated the philosophy of development communication which is anchored on three main ideas , namely : purposive , value-laden and pragmatic . Nora C. Quebral expanded the definition , calling it `` the art and science of human communication applied to the speedy transformation of a country and the mass of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth that makes possible greater social equality and the larger fulfilment of the human potential . '' Melcote and Steeves saw it as `` emancipation communication '' , aimed at combating injustice and oppression . The term `` development communication '' is sometimes used to refer to a type of marketing and public opinion research , but that is not the topic of this article . |
2521 | Atmosphere_of_Earth | The atmosphere of the Earth is less able to absorb shortwave radiation from the Sun than thermal radiation coming from the surface. | Atmosphere of Earth The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann . |
3004 | Jupiter_trojan | "The solar system oscillates with a 60-year cycle due to the Jupiter/Saturn three-synodic cycle and to a Jupiter/Saturn beat tidal cycle... | Jupiter trojan The Jupiter trojans , commonly called Trojan asteroids or just Trojans , are a large group of asteroids that share the orbit of the planet Jupiter around the Sun . Relative to Jupiter , each Trojan librates around one of Jupiter 's two stable Lagrangian points , , lying 60 ° ahead of the planet in its orbit , and , 60 ° behind . Jupiter trojans are distributed in two elongated , curved regions around these Lagrangian points with an average semi-major axis of about 5.2 AU . The first Jupiter trojan discovered , 588 Achilles , was spotted in 1906 by German astronomer Max Wolf . A total of 6,178 Jupiter trojans have been found . By convention they are each named after a mythological figure from the Trojan War , hence the name `` Trojan '' . The total number of Jupiter trojans larger than 1 km in diameter is believed to be about , approximately equal to the number of asteroids larger than 1 km in the asteroid belt . Like main-belt asteroids , Jupiter trojans form families . Jupiter trojans are dark bodies with reddish , featureless spectra . No firm evidence of the presence of water , or any other specific compound on their surface has been obtained , but it is thought that they are coated in tholins , organic polymers formed by the Sun 's radiation . The Jupiter trojans ' densities ( as measured by studying binaries or rotational lightcurves ) vary from 0.8 to 2.5 g · cm − 3 . Jupiter trojans are thought to have been captured into their orbits during the early stages of the Solar System 's formation or slightly later , during the migration of giant planets . The term `` trojan '' has come to be used more generally to refer to other small Solar System bodies with similar relationships to larger bodies : for example , there are both Mars trojans and Neptune trojans , and Saturn has trojan moons . NASA has announced the discovery of an Earth trojan . The term `` Trojan asteroid '' is normally understood to specifically mean the Jupiter trojans because the first Trojans were discovered near Jupiter 's orbit and Jupiter currently has by far the most known Trojans . |
1426 | Coral | Many of the world's coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline. | Coral Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria . They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps . The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton . A coral `` group '' is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps . Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length . A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening . An exoskeleton is excreted near the base . Over many generations , the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species . Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps . Corals also breed sexually by spawning : polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon . Although some corals can catch small fish and plankton using stinging cells on their tentacles , most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium that live within their tissues . These are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals . Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear , shallow water , typically at depths shallower than 60 m. Corals are major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters , such as the enormous Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland , Australia . Other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water , with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3000 m . Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds , north-west of Cape Wrath , Scotland . Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands . |
181 | Breathing | Reefs need carbon dioxide; it's their basic food. | Breathing Breathing is the process that moves air in and out of the lungs , to allow the diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the external environment into and out of the blood . `` Breathing '' sometimes also refers to the equivalent process using other respiratory organs such as gills in fish and spiracles in certain arthropods . For organisms with lungs , breathing is also called ventilation , which consists of inhalation ( breathing in ) and exhalation ( breathing out ) . Breathing is one part of physiological respiration required to sustain life . Aerobic organisms ( all animals , most plants and many micro-organisms ) require oxygen at cellular level to release energy by metabolizing energy-rich molecules such as fatty acids and glucose . This is often referred to as cellular respiration . Breathing is only one of the processes that delivers oxygen to where it is needed in the body and removes excess carbon dioxide . After breathing , the next process in this chain of events is the transport of these gases throughout the body by the circulatory system , and then their uptake or release from the respiring cells . Breathing fulfills another vital function : that of regulating the pH of the extracellular fluids of the body . It is , in fact , this homeostatic function which determines the rate and depth of breathing . The medical term for normal relaxed breathing is eupnea . At the end of each exhalation the adult human lungs still contain 2.5 -- 3.0 liters of air , termed the functional residual capacity ( FRC ) . Breathing replaces only about 15 % of this volume of gas with moistened ambient air with each breath . This ensures that the composition of the FRC changes very little during the breathing cycle , and remains significantly different from the composition of the ambient air . The partial pressures of the gases in the blood flowing through the alveolar capillaries equilibrate with the partial pressures of the gases in the FRC , ensuring that the partial pressures of carbon dioxide , and oxygen of the arterial blood , and therefore its pH , remain constant . The equilibration of the gases in the alveolar blood with those in the alveolar air ( i.e. the gas exchange between the two ) occurs by passive diffusion . Breathing is used for a number of subsidiary functions , such as speech , expression of the emotions ( e.g. laughing . yawning etc. ) , self-maintenance activities ( coughing and sneezing etc. ) and , in animals that can not sweat through the skin , panting . |
2319 | Urban_heat_island | While urban areas are undoubtedly warmer than surrounding rural areas, this has had little to no impact on warming trends. | Urban heat island An urban heat island ( UHI ) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities . The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day , and is most apparent when winds are weak . UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter . The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces . Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor . As a population center grows , it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature . The less-used term heat island refers to any area , populated or not , which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area . Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities , partially due to the UHI . Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons , and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes . The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone , and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems . Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island . Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas , which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat . There are concerns raised about possible contribution from urban heat islands to global warming . Research on China and India indicates that urban heat island effect contributes to climate warming by about 30 % . On the other hand , one 1999 comparison between urban and rural areas proposed that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends . Many studies reveal increases in the severity of the effect with the progress of climate change . |
2152 | Terraforming_of_Venus | Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect | Terraforming of Venus The terraforming of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in such a way as to make it suitable for human habitation . Terraforming Venus was first seriously proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961 , although fictional treatments , such as The Big Rain by Poul Anderson , preceded it . Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet . These three changes are closely interrelated , because Venus 's extreme temperature is due to the greenhouse effect caused by its dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere : Reducing Venus 's surface temperature of 462 C. Eliminating most of the planet 's dense 9.2 MPa carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere , via removal or conversion to some other form . Addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere . |
469 | Sea_level_rise | Ocean levels have been rising for the last 20,000 years[…] No climate scientist can tell you when natural sea level rise stopped and man-made sea level rise began. | Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems . |
2076 | Snow | Snowfall is increasing in the fall and winter in the Northern Hemisphere and North America with many records being set. | Snow Snow pertains to frozen crystalline water throughout its life cycle , starting when it precipitates from clouds and accumulates on surfaces , then metamorphoses in place , and ultimately melts , slides or sublimates away . Snowstorms organize and develop by feeding on sources of atmospheric moisture and cold air . Snowflakes nucleate around particles in the atmosphere by attracting supercooled water droplets , which freeze in hexagonal-shaped crystals . Snowflakes take on a variety of shapes , basic among these are platelets , needles , columns and rime . As snow accumulates into a snowpack , it may blow into drifts . Over time , accumulated snow metamorphoses , by sintering , sublimation and freeze-thaw . Where the climate is cold enough for year-to-year accumulation , a glacier may form . Otherwise , snow typically melts seasonally , causing runoff into streams and rivers and recharging groundwater . Major snow-prone areas include the polar regions , the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere and mountainous regions worldwide with sufficient moisture and cold temperatures . In the Southern Hemisphere , snow is confined primarily to mountainous areas , apart from Antarctica . Snow affects such human activities as transportation : creating the need for keeping roadways , wings , and windows clear ; agriculture : providing water to crops and safeguarding livestock ; such sports as skiing , snowboarding , snowmachine travel ; and warfare : impairing target acquisition , degrading the performance of combatants and materiel , and impeding mobility . Snow affects ecosystems , as well , by providing an insulating layer during winter under which plants and animals are able to survive the cold . |
1980 | Joseph_Stiglitz | and three Nobel economic laureates support "direct investment in technology" rather than a carbon tax. | Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz ( born February 9 , 1943 ) is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University . He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ( 2001 ) and the John Bates Clark Medal ( 1979 ) . He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the ( US president 's ) Council of Economic Advisers . He is known for his support of Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization , of laissez-faire economists ( whom he calls `` free market fundamentalists '' ) , and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank . In 2000 , Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue ( IPD ) , a think tank on international development based at Columbia University . He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 , and received that university 's highest academic rank ( university professor ) in 2003 . He was the founding chair of the university 's Committee on Global Thought . He also chairs the University of Manchester 's Brooks World Poverty Institute . He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences . In 2009 , the President of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann , appointed Stiglitz as the chairman of the U.N. Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System , where he oversaw suggested proposals and commissioned a report on reforming the international monetary and financial system . He served as chair of the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress , appointed by President Sarkozy of France , which issued its report in 2010 , Mismeasuring our Lives : Why GDP does n't add up , and currently serves as co-chair of its successor , the High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress . From 2011 to 2014 , Stiglitz was president of the International Economic Association ( IEA ) . He presided over the organization of the IEA triennial world congress held near the Dead Sea in Jordan in June 2014 . Stiglitz has received more than 40 honorary degrees , including from Harvard , Oxford , and Cambridge Universities and been decorated by several governments including Korea , Colombia , Ecuador , and most recently France , where he was appointed a member of the Legion of Honor , order Officer . Based on academic citations , Stiglitz is the 4th most influential economist in the world today , and in 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world . Stiglitz 's work focuses on income distribution from a Georgist perspective , asset risk management , corporate governance , and international trade . He is the author of several books , the latest being The Great Divide : Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them ( 2015 ) , Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy : An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity ( 2015 ) , and Creating a Learning Society : A New Approach to Growth Development and Social Progress ( 2014 ) . |
1985 | South_Pole | The North Pole is melting "a bit" but the South Pole is getting bigger. | South Pole The South Pole , also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole , is one of the two points where the Earth 's axis of rotation intersects its surface . It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole . Situated on the continent of Antarctica , it is the site of the United States Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station , which was established in 1956 and has been permanently staffed since that year . The Geographic South Pole should not be confused with the South Magnetic Pole , which is defined based on the Earth 's magnetic field . The South Pole is at the center of the Southern Hemisphere . |
3051 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | Once natural influences, in particular the impact of El Niño and La Niña, are removed from the recent termperature record, there is no evidence of a significant change in the human contribution to climate change. | Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors. |
1960 | Photovoltaics | Solar panels drain the sun's energy. | Photovoltaics Photovoltaics ( PV ) is a term which covers the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect , a phenomenon studied in physics , photochemistry , and electrochemistry . A typical photovoltaic system employs solar panels , each comprising a number of solar cells , which generate electrical power . PV installations may be ground-mounted , rooftop mounted or wall mounted . The mount may be fixed , or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky . Solar PV has specific advantages as an energy source : its operation generates no pollution and no greenhouse gas emissions once installed , it shows simple scalability in respect of power needs and silicon has large availability in the Earth 's crust . PV systems have the major disadvantage that the power output is dependent on direct sunlight , so about 10-25 % is lost if a tracking system is not used , since the cell will not be directly facing the sun at all times . Dust , clouds , and other things in the atmosphere also diminish the power output . Another main issue is the concentration of the production in the hours corresponding to main insolation , which do n't usually match the peaks in demand in human activity cycles . Unless current societal patterns of consumption and electrical networks mutually adjust to this scenario , electricity still needs to be made up by other power sources , usually hydrocarbon . Photovoltaic systems have long been used in specialized applications , and standalone and grid-connected PV systems have been in use since the 1990s . They were first mass-produced in 2000 , when German environmentalists and the Eurosolar organization got government funding for a ten thousand roof program . Advances in technology and increased manufacturing scale have in any case reduced the cost , increased the reliability , and increased the efficiency of photovoltaic installations . Net metering and financial incentives , such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity , have supported solar PV installations in many countries . More than 100 countries now use solar PV . After hydro and wind powers , PV is the third renewable energy source in terms of globally capacity . In 2014 , worldwide installed PV capacity increased to 177 gigawatts ( GW ) , which is two percent of global electricity demand . China , followed by Japan and the United States , is the fastest growing market , while Germany remains the world 's largest producer , with solar PV providing seven percent of annual domestic electricity consumption . With current technology ( as of 2013 ) , photovoltaics recoups the energy needed to manufacture them in 1.5 years in Southern Europe and 2.5 years in Northern Europe . |
1079 | NASA | " NASA concurred with NOAA, also declaring 2016 the warmest year on record in its own data set that tracks the temperatures at the surface of the planet's land and oceans, and expressing 'greater than 95 percent certainty' in that conclusion. | NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA -LSB- ˈnæsə -RSB- ) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program , as well as aeronautics and aerospace research . President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian ( rather than military ) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science . The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29 , 1958 , disestablishing NASA 's predecessor , the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ) . The new agency became operational on October 1 , 1958 . Since that time , most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA , including the Apollo Moon landing missions , the Skylab space station , and later the Space Shuttle . Currently , NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle , the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles . The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program ( LSP ) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches . NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System , advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate 's Heliophysics Research Program , exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft missions such as New Horizons , and researching astrophysics topics , such as the Big Bang , through the Great Observatories and associated programs . NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite . Since 2011 , NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency , achieving little results in return for high development costs . |
79 | Global_warming | The rate of warming according to the data is much slower than the models used by the IPCC | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
436 | Climate_of_Australia | The unusual heat was most noteworthy in Europe, which had its warmest April on record, and Australia, which had its second-warmest. | Climate of Australia Australia 's climate is governed largely by its size and by the hot , sinking air of the subtropical high pressure belt . This moves north and south with the seasons , so that the rainfall pattern over Australia is highly seasonal . Australia 's rainfall is the lowest of all continents except Antarctica . But it is variable , with frequent droughts lasting several seasons -- thought to be caused in part by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation . The climate varies widely due to its large geographical size , but by far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid . Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil . The northern part of the country has a tropical climate , varied between tropical rainforests , grasslands and part dessert . Because Australia is a small continent , separated from polar regions by the Southern Ocean , it is not subject to the movements of frigid polar air that sweep over Northern Hemisphere continents during winter . Consequently , its winter is relatively mild , so that there is n't the great contrast between summer and winter temperatures there is in the northern continents . Yet in many parts of the country , seasonal highs and lows can be considerable : temperatures have ranged from above 50 C to well below zero . Nonetheless , minimum temperatures are moderated . The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is associated with seasonal abnormality in many areas in the world . Australia is one of the continents most affected and experiences extensive droughts alongside considerable wet periods . Occasionally a dust storm will blanket a region and there are reports of the occasional tornado . Tropical cyclones , heat waves , bushfires and frosts in the country are also associated with the Southern Oscillation . Rising levels of salinity and desertification in some areas is ravaging the landscape . Climate change in Australia is a highly contentious issue . Temperatures in the country have risen following an increasing trend of global warming between the years of 1910 to 2004 by approximately 0.7 ° C. Overnight minimum temperatures have warmed more rapidly than daytime maximum temperatures in recent years . The late-20th century warming has been largely attributed to the increased greenhouse effect . According to the Bureau of Meteorology , 80 % of the land has less than 600 mm of rainfall per year and 50 % has even less than 300 mm . As a whole , Australia has a very low annual average rainfall of 419 mm . |
1796 | Planetary_boundaries | Natural cycles superimposed on a linear warming trend can be mistaken for step changes, but the underlying warming is caused by the external radiative forcing. | Planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is the central concept in an Earth system framework proposed by a group of Earth system and environmental scientists led by Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Will Steffen from the Australian National University . In 2009 , the group proposed a framework of `` planetary boundaries '' designed to define a `` safe operating space for humanity '' for the international community , including governments at all levels , international organizations , civil society , the scientific community and the private sector , as a precondition for sustainable development . This framework is based on scientific research that indicates that since the Industrial Revolution , human actions have gradually become the main driver of global environmental change . The scientists assert that once human activity has passed certain thresholds or tipping points , defined as `` planetary boundaries '' , there is a risk of `` irreversible and abrupt environmental change '' . The group identified nine Earth system processes which have boundaries that , to the extent that they are not crossed , mark the safe zone for the planet . However , because of human activities some of these dangerous boundaries have already been crossed , while others are in imminent danger of being crossed . Rockström and Steffen collaborated with 26 leading academics , including Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen , Goddard Institute for Space Studies climate scientist James Hansen and the German Chancellor 's chief climate adviser Hans Joachim Schellnhuber . The group identified nine `` planetary life support systems '' essential for human survival , and attempted to quantify just how far seven of these systems have been pushed already . They then estimated how much further we can go before our own survival is threatened ; beyond these boundaries there is a risk of `` irreversible and abrupt environmental change '' which could make Earth less habitable . Estimates indicate that three of these boundaries -- climate change , biodiversity loss , and the biogeochemical flow boundary -- appear to have been crossed . The boundaries are `` rough , first estimates only , surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps '' that interact in ways that are complex and not well understood . Boundaries can help identify where there is room and define a `` safe space for human development '' , which is an improvement on approaches which aim at just minimizing human impacts on the planet . The 2009 report was presented to the General Assembly of the Club of Rome in Amsterdam . An edited summary of the report was subsequently published as the featured article in a special edition of Nature . Nature also published critical commentary from leading academics they invited to comment on each of the seven planetary boundaries which had been quantified , including comments from Nobel laureate Mario J. Molina and biologist Cristián Samper . In 2015 , a second paper was published in Science updating the Planetary Boundaries concept . The findings were presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos , January 2015 . |
1271 | Greenland_ice_sheet | Greenland ice sheet … would balloon sea levels by around 7m should it disintegrate | Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap . |
399 | The_Western_Journal | Climate Change 'Heat Records' Are a Huge Data Manipulation | The Western Journal The Western Journal, previously known as Western Journalism, is an American conservative news and political website based in Phoenix, Arizona. The site was founded by political consultant Floyd Brown in 2008. |
824 | 2014–16_El_Niño_event | So it's been a surprise to climate scientists that 2017 has been so remarkably warm — because the last El Niño ended a year ago. | 2014–16 El Niño event The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean . |
446 | Greenhouse_effect | It's not carbon dioxide, it's not methane… Scientists estimate that somewhere between 75% and 90% of Earth greenhouse effect is caused by water vapor in clouds." | Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure . |
1175 | Global_warming | But the observed warming as monitored by satellites (our only truly global monitoring system) has been only about half of what computerized climate models say should be happening. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
2396 | Sea_level_rise | Overall Greenland is losing ice mass at an accelerating rate. | Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems . |
1793 | Arctic_Ocean | While summer maximums have showed little trend, the annual average Arctic temperature has risen sharply in recent decades. | Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world 's five major oceans . The International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) recognizes it as an ocean , although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea , classifying it a mediterranean sea or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . Alternatively , the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean . Located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere , the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America . It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter . The Arctic Ocean 's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes ; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans , due to low evaporation , heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams , and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities . The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50 % . The US National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years . |
3093 | Microwave_oven | Sending oscillating microwaves from an antenna inside a vacuum through an electromagnetic field through a dielectric material, such as water, creates radio frequency heating at the molecular level | Microwave oven A microwave oven ( commonly referred to as a microwave ) is a kitchen appliance that heats and cooks food by exposing it to microwave radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum . This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce thermal energy in a process known as dielectric heating . Microwave ovens heat foods quickly and efficiently because excitation is fairly uniform in the outer of a homogeneous , high water content food item ; food is more evenly heated throughout ( except in heterogeneous , dense objects ) than generally occurs in other cooking techniques . Percy Spencer is generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven after World War II from radar technology developed during the war . Named the `` Radarange '' , it was first sold in 1946 . Raytheon later licensed its patents for a home-use microwave oven that was first introduced by Tappan in 1955 , but these units were still too large and expensive for general home use . The countertop microwave oven was first introduced in 1967 by the Amana Corporation , and their use has spread into commercial and residential kitchens around the world . Microwave ovens are popular for reheating previously cooked foods and cooking a variety of foods . They are also useful for rapid heating of otherwise slowly prepared cooking items , such as hot butter , fats , and chocolate . Unlike conventional ovens , microwave ovens usually do not directly brown or caramelize food , since they rarely attain the necessary temperatures to produce Maillard reactions . Exceptions occur in rare cases where the oven is used to heat frying-oil and other very oily items ( such as bacon ) , which attain far higher temperatures than that of boiling water . Microwave ovens have a limited role in professional cooking , because the boiling-range temperatures produced in especially hydrous foods impede flavors produced by the higher temperatures of frying , browning , or baking . However , additional heat sources can be added to microwave ovens , or into combination microwave ovens , to produce these other heating effects , and microwave heating may cut the overall time needed to prepare such dishes . Some modern microwave ovens are part of over-the-range units with built-in extractor hoods . |
2765 | Climate_sensitivity | "Earth's Albedo has risen in the past few years, and by doing reconstructions of the past albedo, it appears that there was a significant reduction in Earth's albedo leading up to a lull in 1997. | Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories . |
306 | Global_warming | There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying[…] droughts | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
171 | Global_warming | We'll still be facing extreme heat, but at a far more manageable level than if we'd done nothing to halt climate change. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
2187 | Eocene | Scientific analysis of past climates shows that greenhouse gasses, principally CO2, have controlled most ancient climate changes. | Eocene The Eocene ( -LSB- pronˈiːəˌsiːn , _ ˈiːoʊ - -RSB- ) Epoch , lasting from , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch . The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C . The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure ( the `` Great Break '' in continuity ) or the Eocene -- Oligocene extinction event , which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay . As with other geologic periods , the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified , though their exact dates are slightly uncertain . The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς ( ēṓs , `` dawn '' ) and καινός ( kainós , `` new '' ) and refers to the `` dawn '' of modern ( ` new ' ) fauna that appeared during the epoch . |
625 | Sea_level_rise | I note particularly that sea-level rise is not affected by the warming; it continues at the same rate, 1.8 millimeters a year, according to a 1990 review by Andrew S. Trupin and John Wahr. | Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems . |
2411 | Computer_science | Note that computer models are just concatenations of calculations you could do on a hand-held calculator, so they are theoretical and cannot be part of any evidence." | Computer science Computer science deals with the theoretical foundations of information and computation , together with practical techniques for the implementation and application of these foundations . Computer science is the study of the theory , experimentation , and engineering that form the basis for the design and use of computers . It is the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications and the systematic study of the feasibility , structure , expression , and mechanization of the methodical procedures ( or algorithms ) that underlie the acquisition , representation , processing , storage , communication of , and access to information . An alternate , more succinct definition of computer science is the study of automating algorithmic processes that scale . A computer scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems . Its fields can be divided into a variety of theoretical and practical disciplines . Some fields , such as computational complexity theory ( which explores the fundamental properties of computational and intractable problems ) , are highly abstract , while fields such as computer graphics emphasize real-world visual applications . Other fields still focus on challenges in implementing computation . For example , programming language theory considers various approaches to the description of computation , while the study of computer programming itself investigates various aspects of the use of programming language and complex systems . Human -- computer interaction considers the challenges in making computers and computations useful , usable , and universally accessible to humans . |
2583 | Physical_impacts_of_climate_change | "Each unit of CO2 you put into the atmosphere has less and less of a warming impact. | Physical impacts of climate change This article is about the physical impacts of climate change . For some of these physical impacts , their effect on social and economic systems are also described . This article refers to reports produced by the IPCC . In their usage , `` climate change '' refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties , and that persists for extended periods , typically decades or longer ( IPCC , 2007d :30 ) . The climate change referred to may be due to natural causes and/or the result of human activity . |
18 | Global_catastrophic_risk | it's not a pollutant that threatens human civilization. | Global catastrophic risk A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth . |
2263 | Hockey_stick_controversy | They all confirm the original hockey stick conclusion: the 20th century is the warmest in the last 1000 years and that warming was most dramatic after 1920. | Hockey stick controversy In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions . |
1920 | Global_warming | Melting of Arctic sea ice and polar icecaps is not occurring at unnatural rates and does not constitute evidence of a human impact on the climate. | Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned . |
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