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428 | Second_Grinnell_expedition | Brooks added that Antarctic ice is growing. | Second Grinnell expedition The Second Grinnell expedition of 1853–1855 was an American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition. Led by Elisha Kent Kane, the team explored areas northwest of Greenland, now called Grinnell Land. While failing to determine the fate of Sir John Franklin, the expedition set a new record for northward penetration, delineated 960 miles (1,540 km) of unexplored coastline north of 82° latitude, and discovered the long-sought open Polar Sea. Kane collected valuable geographical, climate and magnetic observations before abandoning the brig Advance to the pack ice in 1855. While three members of the crew were lost, the epic journey of the survivors inspired the public as a vivid tale of Arctic survival. |
1617 | IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report | IPCC human-caused global warming attribution confidence is unfounded. | IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 . |
1279 | Earth | "Earlier this month, NASA scientists provided a visualization of a startling climate change trend — the Earth is getting greener, as viewed from space, especially in its rapidly warming northern regions. | 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 . |
1435 | Urbanization | An area of coastal ecosystems larger than New York City is destroyed every year, removing an important buffer from extreme weather for coastal communities and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. | Urbanization Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas , `` the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas '' , and the ways in which each society adapts to the change . It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas . The United Nations projected that half of the world 's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008 . It is predicted that by 2050 about 64 % of the developing world and 86 % of the developed world will be urbanized . That is equivalent to approximately 3 billion urbanites by 2050 , much of which will occur in Africa and Asia . Notably , the United Nations has also recently projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be absorbed by cities , about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 13 years . Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines , including geography , sociology , economics , urban planning and public health . The phenomenon has been closely linked to modernization , industrialization and the sociological process of rationalization . Urbanization can be seen as a specific condition at a set time ( e.g. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns ) or as an increase in that condition over time . So urbanization can be quantified either in terms of , say , the level of urban development relative to the overall population , or as the rate at which the urban proportion of the population is increasing . Urbanization creates enormous social , economic and environmental changes , which provide an opportunity for sustainability with the `` potential to use resources more efficiently , to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems . '' Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon , but a rapid and historic transformation of human social roots on a global scale , whereby predominantly rural culture is being rapidly replaced by predominantly urban culture . The first major change in settlement patterns was the accumulation of hunter-gatherers into villages many thousand years ago . Village culture is characterized by common bloodlines , intimate relationships and communal behavior whereas urban culture is characterized by distant bloodlines , unfamiliar relations and competitive behavior . This unprecedented movement of people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few decades , mushrooming cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago . Today , in Asia the urban agglomerations of Osaka , Karachi , Jakarta , Mumbai , Shanghai , Manila , Seoul and Beijing are each already home to over 20 million people , while Delhi and Tokyo are forecast to approach or exceed 40 million people each within the coming decade . Outside Asia , Mexico City , São Paulo , London , New York City , Istanbul , Lagos and Cairo are , or soon will be , home to over 10 million people . |
398 | Ice_age | nothing we can do to stop the Earth's naturally occurring climate cycles. | 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 . |
3049 | Greenhouse_effect | that atmospheric CO2 increase that we observe is a product of temperature increase, and not the other way around, meaning it is a product of natural variation... | 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 . |
1304 | The_New_York_Times | in a letter to The Times from Lord Krebs and company, essentially telling the newspaper to stop reporting less-than-negative climate stories. | The New York Times The New York Times ( sometimes abbreviated NYT and The Times ) is an American daily newspaper , founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18 , 1851 , by The New York Times Company . The New York Times has won 122 Pulitzer Prizes , more than any other newspaper . The paper 's print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation , behind The Wall Street Journal , and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the United States . The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation . Following industry trends , its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million . Nicknamed `` The Gray Lady '' , The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a national `` newspaper of record '' . It has been owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family since 1896 ; Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. , the publisher of the Times and the chairman of the New York Times Company , is the fourth generation of the family to helm the paper . The New York Times international version , formerly the International Herald Tribune , is now called the New York Times International Edition . The paper 's motto , `` All the News That 's Fit to Print '' , appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page . Since the mid-1970s , The New York Times has greatly expanded its layout and organization , adding special weekly sections on various topics supplementing the regular news , editorials , sports , and features . Since 2008 , The New York Times has been organized into the following sections : News , Editorials/Opinions-Columns/Op-Ed , New York ( metropolitan ) , Business , Sports of The Times , Arts , Science , Styles , Home , Travel , and other features . On Sunday , The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review ( formerly the Week in Review ) , The New York Times Book Review , The New York Times Magazine and T : The New York Times Style Magazine ( T is published 13 times a year ) . The New York Times stayed with the broadsheet full page set-up ( as some others have changed into a tabloid lay-out ) and an eight-column format for several years , after most papers switched to six , and was one of the last newspapers to adopt color photography , especially on the front page . |
889 | Solar_activity_and_climate | "Several of the papers note that the primary influence on warming appears to be solar activity. | Solar activity and climate Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant . |
1608 | Earth's_energy_budget | Schmittner finds low climate sensitivity. | Earth's energy budget Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response . |
1714 | Global_warming | Monckton used the IPCC equation in an inappropriate manner. | 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 . |
1655 | Earth | Ancient natural cycles are irrelevant for attributing recent global warming to humans. | 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 . |
1164 | Natural_disaster | Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and other natural disasters have yet to show any obvious long-term change." | Natural disaster A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth ; examples include floods , hurricanes , tornadoes , volcanic eruptions , earthquakes , tsunamis , and other geologic processes . A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage , and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake , the severity of which depends on the affected population 's resilience , or ability to recover and also on the infrastructure available . An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population . In a vulnerable area , however , such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake , an earthquake can have disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage , requiring years to repair . |
1462 | Arctic_sea_ice_decline | Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades. | Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification . |
2215 | Sewage_sludge | We found 68 stations located at wastewater treatment plants, where the process of waste digestion causes temperatures to be higher than in surrounding areas. | Sewage sludge Sewage sludge refers to the residual , semi-solid material that is produced as a by-product during sewage treatment of industrial or municipal wastewater . The term septage is also referring to sludge from simple wastewater treatment but is connected to simple on-site sanitation systems , such as septic tanks . When fresh sewage or wastewater enters a primary settling tank , approximately 50 % of the suspended solid matter will settle out in an hour and a half . This collection of solids is known as raw sludge or primary solids and is said to be `` fresh '' before anaerobic processes become active . The sludge will become putrescent in a short time once anaerobic bacteria take over , and must be removed from the sedimentation tank before this happens . This is accomplished in one of two ways . In an Imhoff tank , fresh sludge is passed through a slot to the lower story or digestion chamber where it is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria , resulting in liquefaction and reduced volume of the sludge . After digesting for an extended period , the result is called `` digested '' sludge and may be disposed of by drying and then landfilling . More commonly with domestic sewage , the fresh sludge is continuously extracted from the tank mechanically and passed to separate sludge digestion tanks that operate at higher temperatures than the lower story of the Imhoff tank and , as a result , digest much more rapidly and efficiently . Biosolids is a term often used in conjunction with reuse of sewage sludge after sewage sludge treatment . Biosolids can be defined as organic wastewater solids that can be reused after stabilization processes such as anaerobic digestion and composting . Opponents of sewage sludge reuse reject this term as a public relations term . |
1515 | Global_warming | no one really knows if last year 2016 was a global temperature record. | 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 . |
2983 | Global_warming | Despite the logarithmic relationship between CO2 and surface temperatures, atmospheric CO2 levels are rising so fast that unless we dramatically decrease our emissions, global warming will accelerate over the 21st Century. | 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 . |
1476 | Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system | The consensus among scientists and policy-makers is that we'll pass this point of no return if the global mean temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius. | Tipping points in the climate system A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible. |
815 | Global_warming | Evidence is growing that the comparatively cold zone within the Northern Atlantic could be due to a slowdown of this global ocean water circulation. | 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 . |
1543 | Medieval_Warm_Period | Medieval Warm Period was warmer than the climate warming today. | Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation . |
1588 | Arctic_sea_ice_decline | Melting ice isn't warming the Arctic. | Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification . |
1761 | Global_warming | Multiple lines of evidence make it very clear that the rise in atmospheric CO2 is due to human emissions. | 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 . |
1516 | San_Francisco | the U.S. is shattering high temperature records far more frequently than it is shattering low temperature records. | San Francisco San Francisco ( initials SF ) ( -LSB- sæn_frənˈsɪskoʊ -RSB- , Spanish for Saint Francis ; Spanish : -LSB- san franˈsisko -RSB- ) , officially the City and County of San Francisco , is the cultural , commercial , and financial center of Northern California . Located at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula , San Francisco is about 47.9 sqmi in area , making it the smallest county -- and the only consolidated city-county -- within the state of California . With a density of about 18,581 people per square mile ( 7,174 people per km2 ) , San Francisco is the most densely settled large city ( population greater than 200,000 ) in California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City . San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in California , after Los Angeles , San Diego , and San Jose , and the 13th-most populous city in the United States -- with a census-estimated 2016 population of 870,887 . The city and its surrounding areas are known as the San Francisco Bay Area , and are a part of the larger OMB-designated San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area , the fifth most populous in the nation with an estimated population of 8.7 million . San Francisco was founded on June 29 , 1776 , when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away , all named for St. Francis of Assisi . The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth , making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time . San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856 . After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire , San Francisco was quickly rebuilt , hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later . In World War II , San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater . It then became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945 . After the war , the confluence of returning servicemen , massive immigration , liberalizing attitudes , along with the rise of the `` hippie '' counterculture , the Sexual Revolution , the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War , and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement , cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States . Politically , the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines . A popular tourist destination , San Francisco is known for its cool summers , fog , steep rolling hills , eclectic mix of architecture , and landmarks , including the Golden Gate Bridge , cable cars , the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary , Fisherman 's Wharf , and its Chinatown district . San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. , Gap Inc. , Salesforce.com , Dropbox , Reddit , Square , Inc. , Dolby , Airbnb , Weebly , Pacific Gas and Electric Company , Yelp , Pinterest , Twitter , Uber , Lyft , Mozilla , Wikimedia Foundation , Craigslist and Weather Underground . It has several nicknames , including `` The City by the Bay '' , `` Fog City '' , `` San Fran '' , and `` Frisco '' , as well as older ones like `` The City that Knows How '' , `` Baghdad by the Bay '' , `` The Paris of the West '' , or simply `` The City '' . , San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings . |
2103 | Amazon_rainforest | IPCC were wrong about Amazon rainforests | Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest ( Portuguese : Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia ; Selva Amazónica , Amazonía or usually Amazonia ; Forêt amazonienne Amazoneregenwoud ) , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle , is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America . This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 , of which 5,500,000 km2 are covered by the rainforest . This region includes territory belonging to nine nations . The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil , with 60 % of the rainforest , followed by Peru with 13 % , Colombia with 10 % , and with minor amounts in Venezuela , Ecuador , Bolivia , Guyana , Suriname and French Guiana . States or departments in four nations contain `` Amazonas '' in their names . The Amazon represents over half of the planet 's remaining rainforests , and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world , with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species . |
909 | Biodiesel | Meeting the 2025 emissions reduction target alone could subtract $250 billion from our GDP and eliminate 2.7 million jobs. | Biodiesel Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil - or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl ( methyl , ethyl , or propyl ) esters . Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids ( e.g. , vegetable oil , soybean oil , animal fat ( tallow ) ) with an alcohol producing fatty acid esters . Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines . Biodiesel can be used alone , or blended with petrodiesel in any proportions . Biodiesel blends can also be used as heating oil . The National Biodiesel Board ( USA ) also has a technical definition of `` biodiesel '' as a mono-alkyl ester . |
2036 | Global_warming | The global surface mean temperature-change data no longer have any scientific value and are nothing more than a propaganda tool to the public. | 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 . |
1451 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. | 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. |
862 | Hypertension | In the sugarcane region of El Salvador, as much as one-fifth of the population has chronic kidney disease, including over a quarter of the men, the presumed result of dehydration from working the fields they were able to comfortably harvest as recently as two decades ago. | Hypertension Hypertension ( HTN or HT ) , also known as high blood pressure ( HBP ) , is a long term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated . High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms . Long term high blood pressure , however , is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease , stroke , heart failure , peripheral vascular disease , vision loss , and chronic kidney disease . High blood pressure is classified as either primary ( essential ) high blood pressure or secondary high blood pressure . About 90 -- 95 % of cases are primary , defined as high blood pressure due to nonspecific lifestyle and genetic factors . Lifestyle factors that increase the risk include excess salt , excess body weight , smoking , and alcohol . The remaining 5 -- 10 % of cases are categorized as secondary high blood pressure , defined as high blood pressure due to an identifiable cause , such as chronic kidney disease , narrowing of the kidney arteries , an endocrine disorder , or the use of birth control pills . Blood pressure is expressed by two measurements , the systolic and diastolic pressures , which are the maximum and minimum pressures , respectively . Normal blood pressure at rest is within the range of 100 -- 140 millimeters mercury ( mmHg ) systolic and 60 -- 90 mmHg diastolic . High blood pressure is present if the resting blood pressure is persistently at or above 140/90 mmHg for most adults . Different numbers apply to children . Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring over a 24-hour period appears more accurate than office best blood pressure measurement . Lifestyle changes and medications can lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of health complications . Lifestyle changes include weight loss , decreased salt intake , physical exercise , and a healthy diet . If lifestyle changes are not sufficient then blood pressure medications are used . Up to three medications can control blood pressure in 90 % of people . The treatment of moderately high arterial blood pressure ( defined as > 160/100 mmHg ) with medications is associated with an improved life expectancy . The effect of treatment of blood pressure between 140/90 mmHg and 160/100 mmHg is less clear , with some reviews finding benefit and others finding a lack of evidence for benefit . High blood pressure affects between 16 and 37 % of the population globally . In 2010 hypertension was believed to have been a factor in 18 % of all deaths ( 9.4 million globally ) . |
2223 | Extinction | Because current climate change is so rapid, the way species typically adapt (eg - migration) is, in most cases, simply not be possible. | Extinction In biology and ecology , extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms ( taxon ) , normally a species . The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species , although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point . Because a species ' potential range may be very large , determining this moment is difficult , and is usually done retrospectively . This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa , where a species presumed extinct abruptly `` reappears '' ( typically in the fossil record ) after a period of apparent absence . More than 99 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 . Through evolution , species arise through the process of speciation -- where new varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche -- and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition . The relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established . A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance , although some species , called living fossils , survive with virtually no morphological change for hundreds of millions of years . Mass extinctions are relatively rare events ; however , isolated extinctions are quite common . Only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions . Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented . Some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100 . A dagger symbol next to a species name is often used to indicate its extinction . |
365 | National_security | The knock-on consequences affect national security, as the scale of the challenges involved, such as pandemic disease outbreaks, are overwhelming. | National security National Security is a concept that a government , along with its parliaments , should protect the state and its citizens against all kind of `` national '' crises through a variety of power projections , such as political power , diplomacy , economic power , military might , and so on . The concept developed all in the United States after World War II . Initially focusing on military might , it now encompasses a broad range of facets , all of which impinge on the non-military or economic security of the nation and the values espoused by the national society . Accordingly , in order to possess national security , a nation needs to possess economic security , energy security , environmental security , etc. . Security threats involve not only conventional foes such as other nation-states but also non-state actors such as violent non-state actors , narcotic cartels , multinational corporations and non-governmental organisations ; some authorities include natural disasters and events causing severe environmental damage in this category . Measures taken to ensure national security include : using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats marshalling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation maintaining effective armed forces implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures ( including anti-terrorism legislation ) ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage , and to protect classified information using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats There is no single universally accepted definition of national security . The variety of definitions provide an overview of the many usages of this concept . The concept still remains ambiguous , having originated from simpler definitions which initially emphasised the freedom from military threat and political coercion to later increase in sophistication and include other forms of non-military security as suited the circumstances of the time . A typical dictionary definition , in this case from the Macmillan Dictionary ( online version ) , defines the term as `` the protection or the safety of a country 's secrets and its citizens '' emphasising the overall security of a nation and a nation state . Walter Lippmann , in 1943 , defined it in terms of war saying that `` a nation has security when it does not have to sacrifice its legitimate ínterests to avoid war , and is able , if challenged , to maintain them by war '' . A later definition by Harold Lasswell , a political scientist , in 1950 , looks at national security from almost the same aspect , that of external coercion : `` The distinctive meaning of national security means freedom from foreign dictation . '' In 1960 , Arnold Wolfers , while recognising the need to segregate the subjectivity of the conceptual idea from the objectivity , talks of threats to acquired values : `` An ambiguous symbol meaning different things to different people . National security objectively means the absence of threats to acquired values and subjectively , the absence of fear that such values will be attacked . '' The 1996 definition propagated by the National Defence College of India accretes the elements of national power : `` National security is an appropriate and aggressive blend of political resilience and maturity , human resources , economic structure and capacity , technological competence , industrial base and availability of natural resources and finally the military might . '' Harold Brown , U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981 in the Carter administration , enlarged the definition of national security by including elements such as economic and environmental security : National security then is the ability to preserve the nation 's physical integrity and territory ; to maintain its economic relations with the rest of the world on reasonable terms ; to preserve its nature , institution , and governance from disruption from outside ; and to control its borders.In 1990 , Harvard University history professor Charles Maier defined national security through the lens of national power : `` National security ... is best described as a capacity to control those domestic and foreign conditions that the public opinion of a given community believes necessary to enjoy its own self-determination or autonomy , prosperity and wellbeing . '' According to Prabhakaran Paleri , author of National Security , Imperatives and Challenges , national security may be defined as : The measurable state of the capability of a nation to overcome the multi-dimensional threats to the apparent well-being of its people and its survival as a nation-state at any given time , by balancing all instruments of state policy through governance , that can be indexed by computation , empirically or otherwise , and is extendable to global security by variables external to it . A concise working definition by Premaratne that paraphrases the aspects of the definitions of Brown , Romm and Paleri defines national security as Safeguarding the sovereignty , territorial integrity , citizenry and socioeconomic functionality of a nation from an aggressor intent on undermining a particular valued aspect of a nation through violent or unjust means |
1513 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | I would not agree that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to the global warming that we see. | 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. |
19 | Carbon_dioxide | If CO2 was so terrible for the planet, then installing a CO2 generator in a greenhouse would kill the plants. | Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid . |
1753 | El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation | Trenberth is talking about the details of energy flow, not whether global warming is happening. | El Niño–Southern Oscillation El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected . |
3110 | Global_warming | In those days you couldn't have seen across the street for all the carbon emissions and the crap coming out of the chimneys.' | 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 . |
2818 | Science,_technology,_engineering,_and_mathematics | The 30,000 scientists and science graduates listed on the OISM petition represent a tiny fraction (0.3%) of all science graduates. | Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Science , technology , engineering and mathematics ( STEM , previously SMET ) is a term that refers to the academic disciplines of science , technology , engineering and mathematics . The term is typically used when addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools to improve competitiveness in science and technology development . It has implications for workforce development , national security concerns and immigration policy . The acronym arose in common use shortly after an interagency meeting on science education held at the US National Science Foundation chaired by the then NSF director Rita Colwell . A director from the Office of Science division of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists , Peter Faletra , suggested the change from the older acronym METS to STEM . Colwell , expressing some dislike for the older acronym , responded by suggesting NSF to institute the change . One of the first NSF projects to use the acronym was STEMTEC , the Science , Technology , Engineering and Math Teacher Education Collaborative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst , which was funded in 1998 . |
856 | Tropics | as the pathbreaking work by Rosamond Naylor and David Battisti has shown, the tropics are already too hot to efficiently grow grain, and those places where grain is produced today are already at optimal growing temperature — which means even a small warming will push them down the slope of declining productivity. | Tropics The tropics are a region of the Earth surrounding the equator . They are delimited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S ; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth . The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone ( see geographical zone ) . The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun is at a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year ( which is a subsolar point ) . The tropics are distinguished from the other climatic and biomatic regions of Earth , which are the middle latitudes and the polar regions on either side of the equatorial zone . |
2664 | Global_warming | Warming causes more moisture in the air which leads to more extreme precipitation events. | 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 . |
21 | Sweden | Sea level rise has been slow and a constant, pre-dating industrialization | Sweden Sweden ( Konungariket Sverige ) , is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe . It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east , and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund . At 450295 km2 , Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area , with a total population of 10.0 million . Sweden consequently has a low population density of 22 PD/km2 , with the highest concentration in the southern half of the country . Approximately 85 % of the population lives in urban areas . Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times , emerging into history as the Geats/G ötar and Swedes/Svear and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen . Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural , while the north is heavily forested . Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia . The climate is in general very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence , that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers . Today , Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy , with a monarch as head of state . The capital city is Stockholm , which is also the most populous city in the country . Legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag . Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister . Sweden is a unitary state , currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities . Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages . In the 17th century , it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire , which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century . Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries , ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809 . The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814 , when Norway was militarily forced into personal union . Since then , Sweden has been at peace , maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs . The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905 , leading to Sweden 's current borders . Though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars , Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts , such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe . After the end of the Cold War , Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 , but declined NATO membership , as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum . It is also a member of the United Nations , the Nordic Council , Council of Europe , the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) . Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens . It has the world 's eighth-highest per capita income and ranks highly in numerous metrics of national performance , including quality of life , health , education , protection of civil liberties , economic competitiveness , equality , prosperity and human development . |
1316 | Global_warming | In pushing too hard for the case that global warming is universally bad for everything, the administration's report undermines the reasonable case for climate action. | 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 . |
2308 | Sahel_drought | "The 30 major droughts of the 20th century were likely natural in all respects; and, hence, they are "indicative of what could also happen in the future," as Narisma | Sahel drought The Sahel has long experienced a series of historic droughts , dating back to at least the 17th century . The Sahel region is a climate zone sandwiched between the African Savannah grasslands to the south and the Sahara desert to the north , across West and Central Africa . While the frequency of drought in the region is thought to have increased from the end of the 19th century , three long droughts have had dramatic environmental and societal effects upon the Sahel nations . Famine followed severe droughts in the 1910s , the 1940s , and the 1960s , 1970s and 1980s , although a partial recovery occurred from 1975-80 . The most recent drought occurred in 2012 . While at least one particularly severe drought has been confirmed each century since the 17th century , the frequency and severity of recent Sahelian droughts stands out . Famine and dislocation on a massive scale -- from 1968 to 1974 and again in the early and mid-1980s -- was blamed on two spikes in the severity of the 1960-1980s drought period . From the late 1960s to early 1980s famine killed 100,000 people , left 750,000 dependent on food aid , and affected most of the Sahel 's 50 million people . The economies , agriculture , livestock and human populations of much of Mauritania , Mali , Chad , Niger and Burkina Faso ( known as Upper Volta during the time of the drought ) were severely impacted . As disruptive as the droughts of the late 20th century were , evidence of past droughts recorded in Ghanaian lake sediments suggest that multi-decadal megadroughts were common in West Africa over the past 3,000 years and that several droughts lasted far longer and were far more severe . Since the 1980s , summer rainfall in the Sahel has been increasing ; this has been associated with an increase in vegetation , forming what has been called a ` greening ' of the Sahel . The observed increase in rainfall is accounted for by enhancements in the African easterly jet , which is known to induce wet anomalies . A 2011 study found that the positional shifts in the African easterly jet and African easterly waves accompanied the northward migration of the Sahel rainband . |
1020 | Extinction_risk_from_global_warming | "The global reef crisis does not necessarily mean extinction for coral species. | Extinction risk from global warming The extinction risk of global warming is the risk of species becoming extinct due to the effects of global warming . |
2502 | Scientific_theory | Fundamental physics and global climate models both make testable predictions as to how the global climate should change in response to anthropogenic warming. | Scientific theory A scientific theory is an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can , in accordance with the scientific method , be repeatedly tested , using a predefined protocol of observations and experiments . Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and are a comprehensive form of scientific knowledge . It is important to note that the definition of a `` scientific theory '' ( often ambiguously contracted to `` theory '' for the sake of brevity , including in this page ) as used in the disciplines of science is significantly different from the common vernacular usage of the word `` theory '' . Per NAS 2008 : `` The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word . It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence . '' In everyday non-scientific speech , `` theory '' can imply that something is an unsubstantiated and speculative guess , conjecture , idea , or , hypothesis ; such a usage is the opposite of the word `` theory '' in science . These different usages are comparable to the differing , and often opposing , usages of the term `` prediction '' in science versus `` prediction '' in vernacular speech , denoting a mere hope . The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain . As additional scientific evidence is gathered , a scientific theory may be rejected or modified if it does not fit the new empirical findings ; in such circumstances , a more accurate theory is then desired . In certain cases , the less-accurate unmodified scientific theory can still be treated as a theory if it is useful ( due to its sheer simplicity ) as an approximation under specific conditions ( e.g. , Newton 's laws of motion as an approximation to special relativity at velocities that are small relative to the speed of light ) . Scientific theories are testable and make falsifiable predictions . They describe the causal elements responsible for a particular natural phenomenon , and are used to explain and predict aspects of the physical universe or specific areas of inquiry ( e.g. , electricity , chemistry , astronomy ) . Scientists use theories as a foundation to gain further scientific knowledge , as well as to accomplish goals such as inventing technology or curing disease . As with other forms of scientific knowledge , scientific theories are both deductive and inductive in nature and aim for predictive power and explanatory capability . Paleontologist , evolutionary biologist , and science historian Stephen Jay Gould said , `` ... facts and theories are different things , not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty . Facts are the world ′ s data . Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts . '' |
1227 | River_Thames | These tidal floods are often just a foot or two deep, but they can stop traffic, swamp basements, damage cars, kill lawns and forests, and poison wells with salt. | River Thames The River Thames ( -LSB- tɛmz -RSB- ) is a river that flows through southern England , most notably through London . At 215 mi , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom , after the River Severn . It also flows through Oxford ( where it is called Isis ) , Reading , Henley-on-Thames and Windsor . The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway , derived from its long tidal reach up to Teddington Lock . It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire , and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary . The Thames drains the whole of Greater London . Its tidal section , reaching up to Teddington Lock , includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of 7 m. Running through some of the driest parts of mainland Britain and heavily abstracted for drinking water , the Thames ' discharge is low considering its length and breadth : the Severn has a discharge almost twice as large on average despite having a smaller drainage basin . In Scotland , the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60 % smaller . Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs . Its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries . The river contains over 80 islands . With its waters varying from freshwater to almost seawater , the Thames supports a variety of wildlife and has a number of adjoining Sites of Special Scientific Interest , with the largest being in the remaining parts of the North Kent Marshes and covering 5449 ha . In 2010 , the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world -- the $ 350,000 International Riverprize . |
1615 | Climate_change_adaptation | Climate change isn't increasing extreme weather damage costs. | Climate change adaptation Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming and climate change , that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming . Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon , global warming and its effects will last many years , and adaptation will be necessary to the resulting changes in climate . Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming . That is , the capacity and potential for humans to adapt ( called adaptive capacity ) is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations , and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt ( Schneider et al. , 2007 ) . Furthermore , the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues . Therefore , adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts . Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development ( IPCC , 2007 ) . The economic costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to cost billions of dollars annually for the next several decades , though the amount of money needed is unknown . Donor countries promised an annual $ 100 billion by 2020 through the Green Climate Fund for developing countries to adapt to climate change . However , while the fund was set up during COP16 in Cancún , concrete pledges by developed countries have not been forthcoming . The adaptation challenge grows with the magnitude and the rate of climate change . Another response to climate change , known as climate change mitigation ( Verbruggen , 2007 ) is to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere ( through carbon sinks ) . Even the most effective reductions in emissions , however , would not prevent further climate change impacts , making the need for adaptation unavoidable ( Klein et al. , 2007 ) . In a literature assessment , Klein et al. ( 2007 ) assessed options for adaptation . They concluded , with very high confidence , that in the absence of mitigation efforts , the effects of climate change would reach such a magnitude as to make adaptation impossible for some natural ecosystems . Others are concerned that climate adaptation programs might interfere with the existing development programs and thus lead to unintended consequences for vulnerable groups . For human systems , the economic and social costs of unmitigated climate change would be very high . |
1604 | Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere | CO2 increase is natural, not human-caused. | Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification . |
2160 | Renewable_energy | Renewable energy investment kills jobs | Renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources , which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , transportation , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2016 report , renewables contributed 19.2 % to humans ' global energy consumption and 23.7 % to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015 , respectively . This energy consumption is divided as 8.9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( modern biomass , geothermal and solar heat ) , 3.9 % hydro electricity and 2.2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$ 286 billion in 2015 , with countries like China and the United States heavily investing in wind , hydro , solar and biofuels . Globally , there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries , with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer . As of 2015 worldwide , more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable . Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas , in contrast to other energy sources , which are concentrated in a limited number of countries . Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security , climate change mitigation , and economic benefits . The results of a recent review of the literature concluded that as greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change , a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies . In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power . At the national level , at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply . National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond . Some places and at least two countries , Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already , and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100 % renewable energy in the future . For example , in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply ( electricity , mobility and heating/cooling ) to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . United Nations ' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity . As most of renewables provide electricity , renewable energy deployment is often applied in conjunction with further electrification , which has several benefits : Electricity can be converted to heat ( where necessary generating higher temperatures than fossil fuels ) , can be converted into mechanical energy with high efficiency and is clean at the point of consumption . In addition to that electrification with renewable energy is much more efficient and therefore leads to a significant reduction in primary energy requirements , because most renewables do n't have a steam cycle with high losses ( fossil power plants usually have losses of 40 to 65 % ) . Renewable energy systems are rapidly becoming more efficient and cheaper . Their share of total energy consumption is increasing . Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables and natural gas . |
3134 | Effects_of_global_warming | Over the last decade, heatwaves are five times more likely than if there had been no global warming. | 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 . |
1675 | Global_cooling | The most recent satellite data show that the earth as a whole is warming. | 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 . |
1155 | Kyoto_Protocol | But observations, such as those on our CO2 Coalition website, show that increased CO2 levels over the next century will cause modest and beneficial warming—perhaps as much as one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) | Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol . |
240 | Global_warming_controversy | In 1990 the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that temperatures would rise by 0.54F (0.3C) per decade. | 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 . |
1389 | El_Niño | If global warming caused the 2014 Queensland heat wave, why wasn't it as severe as the 1972 Queensland heat wave?" | El Niño El Niño -LSB- ɛl_ˈniːnjoʊ -RSB- ( -LSB- el ˈniɲo -RSB- ) is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation ( commonly called ENSO ) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific ( between approximately the International Date Line and 120 ° W ) , including off the Pacific coast of South America . El Niño Southern Oscillation refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures , as measured by sea surface temperature , SST , of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean . El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific . The cool phase of ENSO is called `` La Niña '' with SST in the eastern Pacific below average and air pressures high in the eastern and low in western Pacific . The ENSO cycle , both El Niño and La Niña , cause global changes of both temperatures and rainfall . Developing countries that are dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are usually most affected . In American Spanish , the capitalized term `` El Niño '' refers to `` the little boy '' , so named because the pool of warm water in the Pacific near South America is often at its warmest around Christmas . The original name , `` El Niño de Navidad '' , traces its origin centuries back to Peruvian fisherman , who named the weather phenomenon in reference to the newborn Christ . `` La Niña '' , chosen as the ` opposite ' of El Niño , literally translates to `` the little girl '' . |
1453 | Kansas_City,_Missouri | Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months. | Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri and the sixth largest city in the Midwest . According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the city had an estimated population of 481,420 in 2016 , making it the 37th largest city by population in the United States . It is the anchor city of the Kansas City metropolitan area , which straddles the Kansas -- Missouri border . Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west . On June 1 , 1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated ; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory . Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon thereafter . Sitting on Missouri 's western border , with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers , the modern city encompasses some 319.03 sqmi , making it the 23rd largest city by total area in the United States . Most of the city lies within Jackson County , but portions spill into Clay , Cass , and Platte counties . Along with Independence , it serves as one of the two county seats for Jackson County . Major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Independence and Lee 's Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park , Olathe , and Kansas City . The city is composed of several neighborhoods , including the River Market District in the north , the 18th and Vine District in the east , and the Country Club Plaza in the south . Kansas City is also known for its cuisine ( including its distinctive style of barbecue ) , its craft breweries and its major league sports teams . |
1090 | Abadan,_Iran | Extreme high temperatures were seen from India — where the city of Phalodi recorded temperatures of 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 Fahrenheit) in May, a new national record — to Iran, where a temperature of 53 degrees Celsius (127.4 F) was recorded in Delhoran on July 22. | Abadan, Iran Abadan ( آبادان Ābādān ) is a city in and the capital of Abadan County , Khuzestan Province which is located in central west of Iran . It lies on Abadan Island ( 68 km long , 3 -- 19 km or 2 -- 12 miles wide ) , the island is bounded in the west by the Arvand waterway and to the east by the Bahmanshir outlet of the Karun River ( the Shatt al-Arab ) , 53 km from the Persian Gulf , near the Iraqi-Iran border . '' ' |
2086 | Global_warming | Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming | 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 . |
2409 | Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere | Less energy is escaping to space: Carbon dioxide (CO2) acts like a blanket; adding more CO2 makes the 'blanket' thicker, and humans are adding more CO2 all the time. | Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification . |
2414 | Global_warming | Ocean and surface temperature measurements find the planet continues to accumulate heat. | 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 . |
30 | Bushfires_in_Australia | the bushfires [in Australia] were caused by arsonists and a series of lightning strikes, not 'climate change' | Bushfires in Australia Bushfires in Australia are frequent events during the warmer months of the year , due to Australia 's mostly hot , dry climate . Each year , such fires impact extensive areas . On one hand , they can cause property damage and loss of human life . On the other hand , certain native flora in Australia have evolved to rely on bushfires as a means of reproduction , and fire events are an interwoven and an essential part of the ecology of the continent . For thousands of years , Indigenous Australians have used fire to foster grasslands for hunting and to clear tracks through dense vegetation . Major firestorms that result in severe loss of life are often named based on the day on which they occur , such as Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday . Some of the most intense , extensive and deadly bushfires commonly occur during droughts and heat waves , such as the 2009 Southern Australia heat wave , which precipitated the conditions during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in which 173 people lost their lives . Other major conflagrations include the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires , the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires and the 2006 December Bushfires . Global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of bushfires . |
576 | Oxford | 'Summers keep getting hotter,' said Friederike Otto of the University of Oxford, who conducted extensive research into data from the heatwave that spread Europe in June, July and August 2017. | Oxford Oxford ( -LSB- ˈɒksfərd -RSB- ) is a city in the South East region of England and the county town of Oxfordshire . With an estimated 2015 population of 168,270 , it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom , and one of the fastest growing and most ethnically diverse . The city is situated 57 mi from London , 69 mi from Bristol , 65 mi from both Southampton and Birmingham and 25 mi from Reading . The city is known worldwide as the home of the University of Oxford , the oldest university in the English-speaking world . Buildings in Oxford demonstrate notable examples of every English architectural period since the late Saxon period . Oxford is known as the `` city of dreaming spires '' , a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold . Oxford has a broad economic base . Its industries include motor manufacturing , education , publishing and a large number of information technology and science-based businesses , some being academic offshoots . |
1163 | Global_warming | "Global warming and climate change, even if it is 100% caused by humans, is so slow that it cannot be observed by anyone in their lifetime. | 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 . |
745 | Effects_of_global_warming_on_human_health | The past shows that climate change is normal, that warmer times and more atmospheric carbon dioxide have driven biodiversity and that cold times kill." | 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 . |
2568 | Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report | "The IPCC also made false predictions on the Amazon rain forests, referenced to a non peer-reviewed paper produced by an advocacy group working with the WWF. | Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities . |
2750 | Greenhouse_gas | There is no way for us to prevent the world's CO2 emissions from doubling by 2100" | 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 . |
2664 | Effects_of_global_warming | Warming causes more moisture in the air which leads to more extreme precipitation events. | 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 . |
1980 | Leonid_Hurwicz | and three Nobel economic laureates support "direct investment in technology" rather than a carbon tax. | Leonid Hurwicz Leonid `` Leo '' Hurwicz ( August 21 , 1917 -- June 24 , 2008 ) was a Polish American economist and mathematician . He originated incentive compatibility and mechanism design , which show how desired outcomes are achieved in economics , social science and political science . Hurwicz shared the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ( with Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson ) for work on mechanism design . To date , Leonid Hurwicz is the oldest Nobel Laureate , having received the prize at the age of 90 . Hurwicz was educated and grew up in Poland , and became a refugee in the United States after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 . In 1941 , Hurwicz worked as a research assistant for Paul Samuelson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oskar Lange at the University of Chicago . He was a research associate for the Cowles Commission between 1942 and 1946 . In 1946 he became an associate professor of economics at Iowa State College . Hurwicz joined the University of Minnesota in 1951 , becoming Curtis L. Carlson Regents Professor of Economics in 1989 . He was Regents ' Professor of Economics ( Emeritus ) at the University of Minnesota when he died in 2008 . Hurwicz was among the first economists to recognize the value of game theory and was a pioneer in its application . Interactions of individuals and institutions , markets and trade are analyzed and understood today using the models Hurwicz developed . |
2809 | Global_warming | 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. | 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 . |
2163 | Climate_sensitivity | The Schmittner et al. study finds low probability of both very low and very high climate sensitivities, and its lower estimate (as compared to the IPCC) is based on a new temperature reconstruction of the Last Glacial Maximum that may or may not withstand the test of time. | 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 . |
549 | Arctic_sea_ice_decline | The extent of climate change's influence on the jet stream is an intense subject of research. | Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification . |
1523 | Attribution_of_recent_climate_change | Research has found a human influence on the climate of the past several decades ... | Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) . |
1066 | List_of_ecoregions_in_North_America_(CEC) | […] in fact this pattern is already emerging, with the conditions that create extremely warm dry years and extremely wet years both becoming more frequent. | List of ecoregions in North America (CEC) This list of ecoregions of North America provides an overview of North American ecoregions designated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation ( CEC ) in its North American Environmental Atlas . It should not be confused with Wikipedia articles based on the classification system developed by the World Wildlife Fund , such as List of ecoregions ( WWF ) and Lists of ecoregions by country . The commission was established in 1994 by the member states of Canada , Mexico , and the United States to address regional environmental concerns under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation ( NAAEC ) , the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) . The Commission 's 1997 report , Ecological Regions of North America , provides a framework that may be used by government agencies , non-governmental organizations , and academic researchers as a basis for risk analysis , resource management , and environmental study of the continent 's ecosystems . Ecoregions may be identified by similarities in geology , physiography , vegetation , climate soils , land use , wildlife distributions , and hydrology . The classification system has four levels . Only the first three levels are shown on this list . `` Level I '' divides North America into 15 broad ecoregions . `` Level II '' subdivides the continent into 52 smaller ecoregions . `` Level III '' subdivides those regions again into 182 ecoregions . `` Level IV '' is a further subdivision of Level III ecoregions . Level IV mapping is still underway but is complete across most of the United States . For an example of Level IV data , see List of ecoregions in Oregon and the associated articles . |
1842 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | A video shows Koko the gorilla spontaneously using sign language to issue a warning about 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. |
1303 | Global_warming | No one ever says it, but in many ways global warming will be a good thing | 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 . |
1227 | Wetland | These tidal floods are often just a foot or two deep, but they can stop traffic, swamp basements, damage cars, kill lawns and forests, and poison wells with salt. | Wetland A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water , either permanently or seasonally , such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem . The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants , adapted to the unique hydric soil . Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment , principally water purification , flood control , carbon sink and shoreline stability . Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems , serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life . Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica , the largest including the Amazon River basin , the West Siberian Plain , and the Pantanal in South America . The water found in wetlands can be freshwater , brackish , or saltwater . The main wetland types include swamps , marshes , bogs , and fens ; and sub-types include mangrove , carr , pocosin , and varzea . The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth . International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to inform people about wetland issues . Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff . They may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design . |
688 | Lamont–Doherty_Earth_Observatory | "The arc of global warming will be variously steep and less steep,' said Richard Seager, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. | Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory ( LDEO ) is a research unit of Columbia University located on a 157 acre campus in Palisades , N.Y. , 18 mi north of Manhattan on the Hudson River . |
3127 | Theoretical_physics | "Skeptics hope that Postma's alternative thermal model will lead to the birth of a new climatology, one that actually follows the laws of physics and properly physical modeling techniques... | Theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize , explain and predict natural phenomena . This is in contrast to experimental physics , which uses experimental tools to probe these phenomena . The advancement of science depends in general on the interplay between experimental studies and theory . In some cases , theoretical physics adheres to standards of mathematical rigor while giving little weight to experiments and observations.There is some debate as to whether or not theoretical physics uses mathematics to build intuition and illustrativeness to extract physical insight ( especially when normal experience fails ) , rather than as a tool in formalizing theories . This links to the question of it using mathematics in a less formally rigorous , and more intuitive or heuristic way than , say , mathematical physics . For example , while developing special relativity , Albert Einstein was concerned with the Lorentz transformation which left Maxwell 's equations invariant , but was apparently uninterested in the Michelson -- Morley experiment on Earth 's drift through a luminiferous ether . Conversely , Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect , previously an experimental result lacking a theoretical formulation . |
1402 | Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850 | Beginning in 2005, however, polar ice modestly receded for several years. | Retreat of glaciers since 1850 The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions . |
1647 | Heat_wave | Extreme weather events are being made more frequent and worse by global warming. | 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 . |
2916 | Indoor_air_quality | If Senator Wong was really serious about her science she would stop breathing because you inhale air that's got 385 parts per million carbon dioxide in it | Indoor air quality Indoor air quality ( IAQ ) is a term which refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures , especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants . IAQ can be affected by gases ( including carbon monoxide , radon , volatile organic compounds ) , particulates , microbial contaminants ( mold , bacteria ) , or any mass or energy stressor that can induce adverse health conditions . Source control , filtration and the use of ventilation to dilute contaminants are the primary methods for improving indoor air quality in most buildings . Residential units can further improve indoor air quality by routine cleaning of carpets and area rugs . Determination of IAQ involves the collection of air samples , monitoring human exposure to pollutants , collection of samples on building surfaces , and computer modelling of air flow inside buildings . IAQ is part of indoor environmental quality ( IEQ ) , which includes IAQ as well as other physical and psychological aspects of life indoors ( e.g. , lighting , visual quality , acoustics , and thermal comfort ) . Indoor air pollution in developing nations is a major health hazard . A major source of indoor air pollution in developing countries is the burning of biomass ( e.g. wood , charcoal , dung , or crop residue ) for heating and cooking . The resulting exposure to high levels of particulate matter resulted in between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths in 2000 . |
634 | Great_Salt_Lake | But there is also good data showing sea levels | Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake , located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah , is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere , and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world . In an average year the lake covers an area of around 1700 sqmi , but the lake 's size fluctuates substantially due to its shallowness . For instance , in 1963 it reached its lowest recorded size at 950 square miles ( 2,460 km ² ) , but in 1988 the surface area was at the historic high of 3300 sqmi . In terms of surface area , it is the largest lake in the United States that is not part of the Great Lakes region . The lake is the largest remnant of Lake Bonneville , a prehistoric pluvial lake that once covered much of western Utah . The three major tributaries to the lake , the Jordan , Weber , and Bear rivers together deposit around 1.1 million tons of minerals in the lake each year . As it is endorheic ( has no outlet besides evaporation ) , it has very high salinity , far saltier than seawater , which makes swimming similar to floating , and its mineral content is steadily increasing . Its shallow , warm waters cause frequent , sometimes heavy lake-effect snows from late fall through spring . Although it has been called `` America 's Dead Sea '' , the lake provides habitat for millions of native birds , brine shrimp , shorebirds , and waterfowl , including the largest staging population of Wilson 's phalarope in the world . |
817 | Climate | Scientists have long known about the anomalous 'warming hole' in the North Atlantic Ocean, an area immune to warming of Earth's oceans. | 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 '' . |
2192 | El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation | The data suggests solar activity is influencing the global climate causing the world to get warmer." | El Niño–Southern Oscillation El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected . |
2729 | Passive_solar_building_design | 89 percent of the stations fail to meet the National Weather Service's own siting requirements that stations must be 30 metres away from an artificial heating or radiating/reflecting heat source. | Passive solar building design In passive solar building design , windows , walls , and floors are made to collect , store , and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer . This is called passive solar design because , unlike active solar heating systems , it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices . The key to design a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate performing an accurate site analysis . Elements to be considered include window placement and size , and glazing type , thermal insulation , thermal mass , and shading . Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings , but existing buildings can be adapted or `` retrofitted '' . |
1387 | Effects_of_global_warming_on_human_health | […] Killing 30 million bats every year in response to dubious claims that global warming might once in a great while kill 100,000 bats makes no sense." | 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 . |
2298 | Florida | (2012 is now the hottest by a wide margin), but the USA only comprises 2% of the globe. | Florida Florida -LSB- ˈflɒrᵻdə -RSB- ( Spanish for `` land of flowers '' ) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States . It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico , to the north by Alabama and Georgia , to the east by the Atlantic Ocean , and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba . Florida is the 22nd-most extensive , the 3rd-most populous , and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states . Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States . The Miami metropolitan area is Florida 's most populous urban area . The city of Tallahassee is the state capital . A peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico , the Atlantic Ocean , and the Straits of Florida , it has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States , approximately 1350 mi , and is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean . Much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil . The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south . The American alligator , American crocodile , Florida panther , and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park . Since the first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León -- who named it La Florida ( -LSB- la floˈɾiða -RSB- `` land of flowers '' ) upon landing there in the Easter season , Pascua Florida -- Florida was a challenge for the European colonial powers before it gained statehood in the United States in 1845 . It was a principal location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans , and racial segregation after the American Civil War . Today , Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth , as well as for its increasing environmental issues . The state 's economy relies mainly on tourism , agriculture , and transportation , which developed in the late 19th century . Florida is also renowned for amusement parks , orange crops , the Kennedy Space Center , and as a popular destination for retirees . Florida culture is a reflection of influences and multiple inheritance ; Native American , European American , Hispanic and Latino , and African American heritages can be found in the architecture and cuisine . Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings , Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams , and continues to attract celebrities and athletes . It is internationally known for golf , tennis , auto racing and water sports . |
1066 | Physical_impacts_of_climate_change | […] in fact this pattern is already emerging, with the conditions that create extremely warm dry years and extremely wet years both becoming more frequent. | 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 . |
2547 | Network_effect | The modelers confused cause and effect, thereby getting the feedback in the wrong direction." | Network effect In economics and business , a network effect ( also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale ) is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other people . When a network effect is present , the value of a product or service is dependent on the number of others using it . The classic example is the telephone . The more people who own telephones , the more valuable the telephone is to each owner . This creates a positive externality because a user may purchase a telephone without intending to create value for other users , but does so in any case . Online social networks work in the same way , with sites like Twitter and Facebook becoming more attractive as more users join . The expression `` network effect '' is applied most commonly to positive network externalities as in the case of the telephone . Negative network externalities can also occur , where more users make a product less valuable , but are more commonly referred to as `` congestion '' ( as in traffic congestion or network congestion ) . Over time , positive network effects can create a bandwagon effect as the network becomes more valuable and more people join , in a positive feedback loop . |
2857 | Weather | Weather is chaotic because air is light, it has low friction and viscosity, it expands strongly when in contact with hot surfaces and it conducts heat poorly. | Weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere , to the degree that it is hot or cold , wet or dry , calm or stormy , clear or cloudy . Most weather phenomena occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere , the troposphere , just below the stratosphere . Weather refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity , whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time . When used without qualification , `` weather '' is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth . Weather is driven by air pressure , temperature and moisture differences between one place and another . These differences can occur due to the sun 's angle at any particular spot , which varies with latitude . The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations : the Hadley Cell , the Ferrel Cell , the Polar Cell , and the jet stream . Weather systems in the mid-latitudes , such as extratropical cyclones , are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow . Because the Earth 's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane , sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year . On Earth 's surface , temperatures usually range ± 40 ° C ( − 40 ° F to 100 ° F ) annually . Over thousands of years , changes in Earth 's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth , thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change . Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences . Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth 's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant . Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location . The Earth 's weather system is a chaotic system ; as a result , small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole . Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history , and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns . Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth . A famous landmark in the Solar System , Jupiter 's Great Red Spot , is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years . However , weather is not limited to planetary bodies . A star 's corona is constantly being lost to space , creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System . The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind . |
1246 | Arctic_ice_pack | Most people expect this year will see a record low in the Arctic's summer sea-ice cover. | Arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity . The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer , reaches a minimum around mid-September , then increases during fall and winter . Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50 % of winter cover . Some of the ice survives from one year to the next . Currently 28 % of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice , thicker than seasonal ice : up to 3 - thick over large areas , with ridges up to 20 m thick . As well as the regular seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades . |
2338 | Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change | The amount of warming caused by the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric CO2 may be one of the most misunderstood subjects in climate science. | 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. |
2704 | Agriculture | Australia accounts for 1.5 per cent of global carbon emissions. | Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the cultivation and breeding of animals , plants and fungi for food , fiber , biofuel , medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life . Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization , whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization . The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science . The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years , and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates , cultures , and technologies . Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology . Modern agronomy , plant breeding , agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers , and technological developments have in many cases sharply increased yields from cultivation , but at the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative human health effects . Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat , but have raised concerns about animal welfare and the health effects of the antibiotics , growth hormones , and other chemicals commonly used in industrial meat production . Genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture , although they are banned in several countries . Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts . Significant degradation of land and water resources , including the depletion of aquifers , has been observed in recent decades , and the effects of global warming on agriculture and of agriculture on global warming are still not fully understood . The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods , fibers , fuels , and raw materials . Specific foods include cereals ( grains ) , vegetables , fruits , oils , meats and spices . Fibers include cotton , wool , hemp , silk and flax . Raw materials include lumber and bamboo . Other useful materials are also produced by plants , such as resins , dyes , drugs , perfumes , biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants . Over one third of the world 's workers are employed in agriculture , second only to the service sector , although the percentages of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased significantly over the past several centuries . |
503 | Stratosphere | "During the sunless winter, a heatwave raised concerns that the polar vortex may be eroding. | Stratosphere The stratosphere ( -LSB- ˈstrætəˌsfɪər , _ - toʊ - -RSB- ) is the second major layer of Earth 's atmosphere , just above the troposphere , and below the mesosphere . About 20 % of the atmosphere 's mass is contained in the stratosphere . The stratosphere is stratified in temperature , with warmer layers higher and cooler layers closer to the Earth . The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun 's ultraviolet radiation by the ozone . This is in contrast to the troposphere , near the Earth 's surface , where temperatures decreases with altitude . The border between the troposphere and stratosphere , the tropopause , marks where this temperature inversion begins . Near the equator , the stratosphere starts at 18 km ; at mid latitudes , it starts at 10 - and ends at 50 km ; at the poles , it starts at about 8 km . Temperatures vary within the stratosphere with the seasons , in particular with the polar night ( winter ) . The greatest variation of temperature takes place over the poles in the lower stratosphere ; those variations are largely steady at lower latitudes and higher altitudes . |
2275 | 2003_invasion_of_Iraq | […] Constant 24-7 media coverage of every significant storm worldwide just makes it seem that way." | 2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signalled the start of the Iraq War , which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States ( prior to 19 March , the mission in Iraq was called Operation Enduring Freedom , a carryover from the War in Afghanistan ) . The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations , in which a combined force of troops from the United States , the United Kingdom , Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein . The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally fought war which included the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces with the implicit assistance of the United Kingdom alongside Australia and Poland . 160,000 troops were sent by the Coalition into Iraq , during the initial invasion phase , which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003 . About 130,000 were sent from the USA alone , with about 28,000 British soldiers , Australia ( 2,000 ) , and Poland ( 194 ) . 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath . In preparation for the invasion , 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February . The coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan . According to U.S. President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair , the coalition mission was `` to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction , to end Saddam Hussein 's support for terrorism , and to free the Iraqi people . '' Others place a much greater emphasis on the impact of the September 11 attacks , and the role this played in changing U.S. strategic calculations , and the rise of the freedom agenda . According to Blair , the trigger was Iraq 's failure to take a `` final opportunity '' to disarm itself of alleged nuclear , chemical , and biological weapons that U.S. and British officials called an immediate and intolerable threat to world peace . In a January 2003 CBS poll , 64 % of Americans had approved of military action against Iraq ; however , 63 % wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution rather than go to war , and 62 % believed the threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would increase due to war . The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U.S. allies , including the governments of France , Germany , and New Zealand . Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that invading the country was not justified in the context of UNMOVIC 's 12 February 2003 report . On 15 February 2003 , a month before the invasion , there were worldwide protests against the Iraq War , including a rally of three million people in Rome , which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally . According to the French academic Dominique Reynié , between 3 January and 12 April 2003 , 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war . The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003 . The following day , coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border . While the special forces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields , the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq , occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March . Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance . On 26 March , the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk , where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi Army to secure the northern part of the country . The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and met with little resistance . Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April . Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army , including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April , and the attack and capture of Tikrit on 15 April . Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country . On 1 May , an end of major combat operations was declared , ending the invasion period and beginning the military occupation period . |
1756 | Global_warming | Melting ice leads to more sunlight being absorbed by water, thus heating the Arctic. | 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 . |
3011 | Leap_year | A South African paper has found a 21 year cycle synchronous with the solar cycle (Alexander 2007). | Leap year A leap year ( also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year ) is a calendar year containing one additional day ( or , in the case of lunisolar calendars , a month ) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year . Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days , calendars that have the same number of days in each year drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track . By inserting ( also called intercalating ) an additional day or month into the year , the drift can be corrected . A year that is not a leap year is called a common year . For example , in the Gregorian calendar , each leap year has 366 days instead of the usual 365 , by extending February to 29 days rather than the common 28 . Similarly , in the lunisolar Hebrew calendar , Adar Aleph , a 13th lunar month , is added seven times every 19 years to the twelve lunar months in its common years to keep its calendar year from drifting through the seasons . In the Baha'i Calendar , a leap day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the vernal equinox . The name `` leap year '' probably comes from the fact that while a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar normally advances one day of the week from one year to the next , the day of the week in the 12 months following the leap day ( from March 1 through February 28 of the following year ) will advance two days due to the extra day ( thus `` leaping over '' one of the days in the week ) . For example , Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday in 2001 , Wednesday in 2002 , and Thursday in 2003 but then `` leapt '' over Friday to fall on a Saturday in 2004 . The length of a day is also occasionally changed by the insertion of leap seconds into Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC ) , owing to the variability of Earth 's rotational period . Unlike leap days , leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule , since the variability in the length of the day is not entirely predictable . |
2308 | Drought | "The 30 major droughts of the 20th century were likely natural in all respects; and, hence, they are "indicative of what could also happen in the future," as Narisma | Drought A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region , resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply , whether atmospheric , surface water or ground water . A drought can last for months or years , or may be declared after as few as 15 days . It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy . Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires . Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour . Many plant species , such as those in the family Cactaceae ( or cacti ) , have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought . Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds . Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands . Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises . Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity . The most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile ( 400 Years ) . |
2153 | Sunspot | Water levels correlate with sunspots | Sunspot Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear as dark spots compared with surrounding regions . They are areas of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic field flux that inhibit convection . Sunspots usually appear in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity . Their number varies according to the approximately 11-year solar cycle . Individual sunspots may endure anywhere from a few days to a few months , but eventually decay . Sunspots expand and contract as they move across the surface of the Sun with sizes ranging from 16 km to 160000 km in diameter . The larger variety are visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope . They may travel at relative speeds , or proper motions of a few hundred meters per second when they first emerge . Indicating intense magnetic activity , sunspots accompany secondary phenomena such as coronal loops ( prominences ) and reconnection events . Most solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate in magnetically active regions around visible sunspot groupings . Similar phenomena indirectly observed on stars other than the sun are commonly called starspots and both light and dark spots have been measured . |
216 | Cryosphere | [The 1990 IPCC report said] that the Antarctic ice sheets were stable | Cryosphere The cryosphere ( from the Greek κρύος kryos , `` cold '' , `` frost '' or `` ice '' and σφαῖρα sphaira , `` globe , ball '' ) is those portions of Earth 's surface where water is in solid form , including sea ice , lake ice , river ice , snow cover , glaciers , ice caps , ice sheets , and frozen ground ( which includes permafrost ) . Thus , there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere . The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes , clouds , precipitation , hydrology , atmospheric and oceanic circulation . Through these feedback processes , the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model response to global changes . The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features . Cryology is the study of cryospheres . |
2323 | Mars | Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. | Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System , after Mercury . Named after the Roman god of war , it is often referred to as the `` Red Planet '' because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance . Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere , having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys , deserts , and polar ice caps of Earth . The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth , as is the tilt that produces the seasons . Mars is the site of Olympus Mons , the largest volcano and second-highest known mountain in the Solar System , and of Valles Marineris , one of the largest canyons in the Solar System . The smooth Borealis basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40 % of the planet and may be a giant impact feature . Mars has two moons , Phobos and Deimos , which are small and irregularly shaped . These may be captured asteroids , similar to 5261 Eureka , a Mars trojan . There are ongoing investigations assessing the past habitability potential of Mars , as well as the possibility of extant life . Future astrobiology missions are planned , including the Mars 2020 and ExoMars rovers . Liquid water can not exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure , which is about that of the Earth 's , except at the lowest elevations for short periods . The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water . The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap , if melted , would be sufficient to cover the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 m . In November 2016 , NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars . The volume of water detected has been estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior . Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye , as can its reddish coloring . Its apparent magnitude reaches − 2.91 , which is surpassed only by Jupiter , Venus , the Moon , and the Sun . Optical ground-based telescopes are typically limited to resolving features about 300 km across when Earth and Mars are closest because of Earth 's atmosphere . |
244 | Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes | But it means a chunk of the rise is coming from elsewhere. | Rise of the Planet of the Apes Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 American science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco , Freida Pinto , John Lithgow , Brian Cox , Tom Felton , David Oyelowo , and Andy Serkis . Written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver , it is 20th Century Fox 's reboot of the Planet of the Apes series , intended to act as an origin story for a new series of films . Its premise is similar to the fourth film in the original series , Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ( 1972 ) , but it is not a direct remake of that film . Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on August 5 , 2011 , to critical and commercial success . The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects . It was also nominated for five Saturn Awards including Best Director for Wyatt and Best Writing for Jaffa and Silver , winning Best Science Fiction Film , Best Supporting Actor for Serkis and Best Special Effects . Serkis ' performance as Caesar was widely acclaimed , earning him many nominations from many associations which do not usually recognize performance capture as traditional acting . A sequel to the film , Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , was released on July 11 , 2014 , and a third film , War for the Planet of the Apes , is planned for a July 14 , 2017 release . |
1747 | Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy | An independent inquiry found CRU is a small research unit with limited resources and their rigour and honesty are not in doubt. | Climatic Research Unit email controversy The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations . |
2649 | Hockey_stick_graph | "Mike's Nature trick" has nothing to do with "hide the decline", instead refering to a technique by Michael Mann to plot instrumental temperature along with past reconstructions. | Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . 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 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . 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 components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support 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 . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions . |
1586 | Ice_sheet | Ice Sheet losses are overestimated. | Ice sheet An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet . |
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