query: Forward projections of solar cyclicity imply the next few decades may be marked by global cooling rather than warming, despite continuing CO2 emissions.

positive: 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.

positive: 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 .

positive: 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 .

negative: 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 .

negative: Cool Earth 50 Cool Earth 50 ( also known as Cool Earth ) is a plan developed by Japan to reduce global CO2 emissions 50 % by 2050 , which was discussed at the 34th G8 summit . Cool Earth 50 is planned to be a framework that would continue towards the goals set forth in the Kyoto Protocols . This plan includes three proposals : a long-term strategy , a mid-term strategy and launching a national campaign for achieving the Kyoto Protocol Target .   The plan was first proposed on May 24 , 2007 at an international conference called Asian Future and was initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe . The program 's goal is to reduce current global green house emissions by 50 % by the year 2050 the . The goal of reduction was aimed particular towards the largest green house emitting countries The United States , China , Japan , and India . Also , for the major green house emitters to create a frame work for reduction . Cool Earth aims at reducing green house emissions by improve technology in energy fields . A large goal of Cool Earth is to promote economic prosperity through green technology and to encourage political stability domestically and internationally .

negative: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 .   At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .

negative: Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .

negative: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .

negative: Global Climate and Energy Project The Global Climate and Energy Project ( GCEP ) at Stanford University , `` seeks new solutions to one of the grand challenges of this century : supplying energy to meet the changing needs of a growing world population in a way that protects the environment . ''   Beginning in December 2002 , GCEP is a 10-year , $ 225m research project aimed at developing new energy technologies . These new energy technologies include areas of interest such as renewable energy , CO2 capture and storage , hydrogen storage and electrocatalysis . It has the support of four major companies - ExxonMobil , General Electric , Schlumberger , and Toyota . Under the heading `` Grand Challenge '' , it identifies a global warming-related need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through future energy development .

negative: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends .   The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases .   Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .

negative: Climate engineering Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation .   Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility .   Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy .   Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts .  Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .

negative: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming .   Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 .   Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases .   A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .

negative: Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions .   The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period .   Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .

negative: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 .   The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .

negative: Climate change in Pakistan Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts .  The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue .   Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .

negative: History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .   Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .

negative: Global warming in Russia Global warming in Russia describes the global warming related issues in Russia . This includes climate politics , contribution to global warming and the influence of global warming on Russia . In 2009 Russia was ready to reduce emissions 20 -- 25 % from its 1990 emission levels by the year 2020 .

negative: Environmental impact of aviation The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere .   Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 .   Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less .   There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .

negative: IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .   The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established .   Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums  Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths  Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies   Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports .   The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes :   We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it .  We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ...  Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade .  There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets .  Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more .  under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .

negative: 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 ) .

negative: Emissivity The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation . Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation and it may include both visible radiation ( light ) and infrared radiation , which is not visible to human eyes . The thermal radiation from very hot objects ( see photograph ) is easily visible to the eye . Quantitatively , emissivity is the ratio of the thermal radiation from a surface to the radiation from an ideal black surface at the same temperature as given by the Stefan -- Boltzmann law . The ratio varies from 0 to 1 . The surface of a black object emits thermal radiation at the rate of approximately 448 watts per square meter at room temperature ( 25 ° C , 298.15 K ) ; real objects with emissivities less than 1.0 emit radiation at correspondingly lower rates .   Emissivities are important in several contexts :  insulated windows . -- Warm surfaces are usually cooled directly by air , but they also cool themselves by emitting thermal radiation . This second cooling mechanism is important for simple glass windows , which have emissivities close to the maximum possible value of 1.0 . `` Low-E windows '' with transparent low emissivity coatings emit less thermal radiation than ordinary windows . In winter , these coatings can halve the rate at which a window loses heat compared to an uncoated glass window .   solar heat collectors . -- Similarly , solar heat collectors lose heat by emitting thermal radiation . Advanced solar collectors incorporate selective surfaces that have very low emissivities . These collectors waste very little of the solar energy through emission of thermal radiation .  planetary temperatures . -- The planets are solar thermal collectors on a large scale . The temperature of a planet 's surface is determined by the balance between the heat absorbed by the planet from sunlight , heat emitted from its core , and thermal radiation emitted back into space . Emissivity of a planet is determined by the nature of its surface and atmosphere .  temperature measurements . -- Pyrometers and infrared cameras are instruments used to measure the temperature of an object by using its thermal radiation ; no actual contact with the object is needed . The calibration of these instruments involves the emissivity of the surface that 's being measured .

negative: Total equivalent warming impact Total equivalent warming impact or TEWI is besides global warming potential measure used to express contributions to global warming .   It is defined as sum of the direct emissions ( chemical ) and indirect emissions ( energy use ) of greenhouse gases .

negative: Marine cloud brightening Marine cloud brightening is a proposed solar radiation management climate engineering technique that would make clouds brighter , reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to offset anthropogenic global warming . Along with stratospheric aerosol injection , it is one of the two solar radiation management methods that may most feasibly have a substantial climate impact . The intention is that increasing the Earth 's albedo , in combination with greenhouse gas emissions reduction , carbon dioxide removal , and adaptation , would reduce climate change and its risks to people and the environment . If implemented , the cooling effect is expected to be felt rapidly and to be reversible on fairly short time scales . However , technical barriers remain to large-scale marine cloud brightening . There are also risks with such modification of complex climate systems .

negative: Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods .   Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system .   Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified .   Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .

negative: Runaway greenhouse effect A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . ''   Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .

negative: Economics of global warming The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge .   One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions .   The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial .   The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) .   One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples .   Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .

negative: Global Carbon Project The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes .   The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases .   The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership .   In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' .   A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide .   On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found .   They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .

negative: Low-carbon economy A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems .   Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts .   Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .

negative: Solar radiation management Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .

negative: Mark Serreze Mark Clifford Serreze ( born 1960 ) is an American geographer and the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) , a project of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder . He officially became the NSIDC 's director in August 2009 . Serreze is primarily known for his expertise in the Arctic sea ice decline that has occurred over the last few decades due to global warming , a topic about which he has expressed serious concern .

negative: Abrupt climate change An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states .   Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .

negative: An Appeal to Reason An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .

negative: Methane emissions Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .


query: In the early 2000s, ice shelves began disintegrating in several parts of Antarctica, and scientists realized that process could greatly accelerate the demise of the vastly larger ice sheets themselves.

positive: 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 .

positive: Ice shelf An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters .   In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica .   Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss .   Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf .   The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica .   The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .

positive: Antarctica Antarctica ( UK English -LSB- ænˈtɑːktɪkə -RSB- or -LSB- ænˈtɑːtɪkə -RSB- , US English -LSB- æntˈɑːrktɪkə -RSB- ) is Earth 's southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At 14000000 km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula .   Antarctica , on average , is the coldest , driest , and windiest continent , and has the highest average elevation of all the continents . Antarctica is a desert , with annual precipitation of only 200 mm ( 8 in ) along the coast and far less inland . The temperature in Antarctica has reached − 89.2 ° C ( − 128.6 ° F ) , though the average for the third quarter ( the coldest part of the year ) is − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent . Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae , bacteria , fungi , plants , protista , and certain animals , such as mites , nematodes , penguins , seals and tardigrades . Vegetation , where it occurs , is tundra .   Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ( `` Southern Land '' ) date back to antiquity , Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered and colonised by humans , being only first sighted in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny , who sighted the Fimbul ice shelf . The continent , however , remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment , lack of easily accessible resources , and isolation . In 1895 , the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians .   Antarctica is a de facto condominium , governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status . Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 , and thirty-eight have signed it since then . The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining , prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal , supports scientific research , and protects the continent 's ecozone . Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations .

negative: List of Antarctic ice shelves This is a list of Antarctic ice shelves .   Ice shelves are attached to 44 % of the Antarctic coastline . Their total area is 1,541,700 km ² . Names are also listed in the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research , Gazetteer . The ice shelf areas are listed below , clockwise , starting in the west of East Antarctica :   † Indicates that the ice shelf has collapsed .

negative: King Oscar Glacier King Oscar Glacier ( Kong Oscar Gletscher ) is one of several glaciers that drain the north-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Melville Bay . As part of a comprehensive survey of Greenland 's glaciers that was published in 2006 , scientists documented that the mass balance -- the sum of gains through snow accumulation and losses through iceberg calving and melting -- of Kong Oscar and Greenland 's other north-western glaciers was strongly negative between 1996 and 2005 : they lost more ice than they gained . The pattern was similar to the ice sheet as a whole , which has been losing ice mass at an accelerating pace in the past decade .

negative: Geography of Antarctica The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² .   Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .

negative: List of glaciers in the Antarctic: A–H This is a list of glaciers in the Antarctic with a name starting with the letters A -- H . This list does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . This list includes outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of this list , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .

negative: List of glaciers in the Antarctic There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .

negative: Ice-sheet dynamics Ice sheet dynamics describe the motion within large bodies of ice , such those currently on Greenland and Antarctica . Ice motion is dominated by the movement of glaciers , whose gravity-driven activity is controlled by two main variable factors : the temperature and strength of their bases . A number of processes alter these two factors , resulting in cyclic surges of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity , on both hourly and centennial time scales . Ice-sheet dynamics are of interest in modelling future sea level rise .   __ TOC __

negative: Subglacial lake A subglacial lake is a lake under a glacier , typically an ice cap or ice sheet . There are many such lakes , with Lake Vostok in Antarctica being by far the largest known at present .

negative: Ice and the Sky Ice and the Sky ( La Glace et le ciel , also known as Antarctica : Ice and Sky ) is a 2015 French documentary film directed by Luc Jacquet about the work of Claude Lorius , who began studying Antarctic ice in 1957 , and , in 1965 , was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming . The film was selected to close the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .

negative: Cedar Rapids Ice Arena The Cedar Rapids Ice Arena is a 3,850-seat multipurpose arena in Cedar Rapids , Iowa , located adjacent to Veterans Memorial Stadium . The arena opened on January 8 , 2000 , and is owned by the city of Cedar Rapids . It is home to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League as well as several local youth hockey teams . The University of Iowa Hawkeyes club hockey team plays some of their home games at the facility . The arena contains separate sheets of ice for ice hockey games and for public and figure ice skating .   The arena serves as the home ice for the Eastern Iowa Figure Skating Club , a US Figure Skating club .   For the 2012 and 2013 seasons , it was the temporary home to the Cedar Rapids Titans indoor football team as the U.S. Cellular Center , where they started playing in 2014 and beyond , was being renovated .   The arena contains two sheets of ice . One sheet is Olympic regulation ( 200 by ) , and the other is NHL regulation ( 200 by ) . Public skating , youth hockey , and figure skating events take place on both sheets of ice , whereas larger events , such as RoughRider games , are held on the NHL sheet of ice .

negative: Glacier morphology Glacier morphology , or the form a glacier takes , is influenced by temperature , precipitation , topography , and other factors . Types of glaciers range from massive ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet or those in Antarctica , to small cirque glaciers perched on a mountain . Glaciers types can be grouped into two main categories , based on whether ice flow is constrained by the underlying bedrock topography .

negative: Zubchatyy Ice Shelf Zubchatyy Ice Shelf is a small ice shelf which borders the south side of Sakellari Peninsula in Enderby Land . Plotted by Russian cartographers from air photos taken by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition , 1961-62 . The Russian name means `` toothed '' and refers to the serrated nature of the ice front when viewed in plan .   Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica  Category : Landforms of Enderby Land

negative: Nansen Ice Sheet Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .

negative: 80th parallel south The 80th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 80 degrees south of the Earth 's equatorial plane .   It passes through Antarctica and Antarctic ice shelves .

negative: Thwaites Glacier Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay , part of the Amundsen Sea , east of Mount Murphy , on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land . Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line , and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy . It was named by ACAN after Fredrik T. Thwaites , a glacial geologist , geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison . Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica 's Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels .   Along with Pine Island Glacier , Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the `` weak underbelly '' of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat . This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers . In recent years , the flow of both of these glaciers have accelerated , their surfaces lowered , and the grounding lines retreated .

negative: Venable Ice Shelf Venable Ice Shelf is an ice shelf , 40 miles ( 60 km ) long and 15 miles ( 24 km ) wide , between Fletcher and Allison Peninsulas , Ellsworth Land . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1961-66 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Cdm . J. D. Venable , U.S. Navy , Ships Operations Officer , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , 1967 and 1968 .   Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica  Category : Landforms of Ellsworth Land

negative: Climate of Antarctica The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .

negative: Marietta Ice Center The Marietta Ice Center is the oldest ice skating rink in metro Atlanta , Georgia .  Located in the suburban city of Marietta , Georgia it contains two sheets of ice , a larger rink that is regulation hockey sized , and a smaller rink that is more suitable for open skate .

negative: Alison Ice Stream Alison Ice Stream is an ice stream about 8 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay south of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Alison Cook , a British Antarctic Survey computer specialist , part of the United States-UK cooperative project to compile glaciological and coastal change maps of the Antarctic Peninsula in the late 1990s and early 2000s .

negative: Joanne Johnson Joanne Johnson ( born 1977 , Birmingham , UK ) is a British geologist and prominent Antarctic scientist , currently working for British Antarctic Survey in the ` Palaeoenvironments , Ice Sheets and Climate Change ' team . Johnson joined British Antarctic Survey in 2002 . She is best known for her work on glacial retreat , and is the namesake of the Johnson Mesa in James Ross Island , Antarctica .

negative: Publications Ice Shelf Publications Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 35 nautical miles ( 60 km ) long on the south shore of Prydz Bay , between Mount Caroline Mikkelsen and Stornes Peninsula . Several glaciers , listed from southwest to northeast , nourish the ice shelf : Polar Times Glacier , Il Polo Glacier , Polarforschung Glacier , Polar Record Glacier and Polararboken Glacier . The feature was first mapped from air photos by the Lars Christensen Expedition , 1936-37 . The name `` Publication Glacier Tongues '' was applied by John H. Roscoe in 1952 following his study of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump ( 1946 -- 47 ) air photos of the area , but the term ice shelf is more descriptive . So named by Roscoe because the several glaciers in the area commemorate polar publications .   Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica  Category : Landforms of Princess Elizabeth Land

negative: South Pole–Queen Maud Land Traverse The South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse ( SPQMLT ) was a three-part scientific exploration of Antarctica undertaken by the United States in the 1960s .  The three parts , referred to individually as South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse I , II , and III ( SPQMLT-1 , -2 , and -3 ) , traveled a zigzag route across nearly 4200 km of the Antarctic Plateau in the austral summers of 1964-1965 , 1965-1966 , and 1967-1968 .  The participants included scientists from Belgium , Norway , and the United States .  Their objectives included determining the thickness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet , the elevation and slope of its surface , the rate of ice accumulation , and the subglacial topography .  Other objectives included measuring the density and temperature of the ice at depth , measuring the geomagnetic field and gravity , and obtaining snow samples and ice cores .

negative: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems .   Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind .   The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .

negative: Geology of the Netherlands The geology of the Netherlands describes the geological sequence of the Netherlands . Large parts of the Netherlands today are below sea level and have in the past been covered by the sea or flooded at regular intervals . The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers ( Rhine , Meuse , Schelde and IJssel ) and the influence of the North Sea . The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic , coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods .   Fairly all of the west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary , but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work . Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land , a polder .   In eastern Holland , remains are found of the last ice age , which ended approximately ten thousand years ago . As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north , it pushed moraine forward . The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands . After the ice age ended , the moraine remained in the form a long hill-line . The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills .

negative: Robert Bindschadler Dr. Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and has been an active field researcher in the Antarctic for over 25 years . He is a past president of the International Glaciological Society , chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative , is an editor for the Journal of Glaciology and has led 14 expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in numerous other expeditions around the world including Greenland . He has also testified before Congress and has briefed the U.S. vice president concerning ice-sheet stability and is often quoted or featured in the media . He was born in Pittsburgh and received a B.S. in astronomy and physics in 1971 from the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978 and did post doctoral work in Switzerland prior to working at NASA .   His work revolves around the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets using remote sensing technology . He has developed applications used to measure ice velocity and elevation using radar imagery which monitors the melting of ice sheets and detects changes in the volume of ice-sheets using radar altimetry . He has received numerous awards including Exceptional scientific achievement by NASA in 1994 as well as the Goddard Senior fellow in 2000 .

negative: The Ice Sheet at Ogden The Ice Sheet at Ogden , also known as the Weber County Ice Sheet , is located 35 mi north of Salt Lake City on the campus of Weber State University in Ogden . The Ice Sheet opened in 1994 as a recreational training center for curling , ice hockey , and figure skating . During the 2002 Winter Olympics the Ice Sheet hosted the curling events .

negative: John H. Mercer John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption .   Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures .   John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .

negative: Scott Glacier Scott Glacier may refer to any of these glaciers :   Scott Glacier ( Alaska ) , a glacier in the Chugach Mountains , near Cordova , Alaska  Scott Glacier ( Transantarctic Mountains ) , a major glacier flowing from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through the Queen Maud subrange of the Transantarctic Mountains into the Ross Ice Shelf  Scott Glacier ( East Antarctica ) , a glacier on the outer coast of East Antarctica

negative: Prince Gustav Channel The Prince Gustav Channel was named in 1903 after Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden ( later King Gustav V ) by Otto Nordenskiöld of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition .   The channel is bounded on the west by the Antarctic Peninsula and on the east by James Ross Island . It is about 130 km long and ranges from 6 to wide .   On 27 February 1995 , the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) reported that an ice shelf formerly blocking the channel had disintegrated . This ice shelf had spanned approximately 700 km2 prior to its disintegration .   In the area previously covered by the shelf , the channel 's water depth is between 600 to . Between February and March 2000 , scientists collected sediment cores 5 to 6 m in length from the ocean floor . Carbon dating of organic material found in the sediment layers suggested that for a period between 2,000 and 5,000 years ago , much of the channel was seasonally open water . While icebergs were able to navigate the channel , ice rafted debris was deposited within the sediment .   It appears that before and after this period , the channel remained closed . The period when the channel was open coincides with a period of local warming supported by data gathered from land-based studies of lake sediments and ancient , abandoned penguin rookeries . With the return of colder conditions about 1900 years ago , the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf reformed until its recent retreat and collapse .   Ice shelves are sensitive indicators of regional climatic change , therefore recent warming in the vicinity of the Prince Gustav Channel is exceptional for at least the past 1900 years .

negative: Charles R. Bentley Charles R. Bentley ( born 1931 , Rochester , New York ) is an American glaciologist and geophysicist . He is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison . Mount Bentley and the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica are named after him . In 1957 , he and a handful of other scientists including Mario Giovinetto set out on an expedition across West Antarctica in tracked vehicles to make the first measurements of the ice sheet .   He was awarded the Seligman Crystal by the International Glaciological Society in 1990 .

negative: Women in Antarctica There have been women in Antarctica and exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries . Oral tradition of Māori explorers reaching Antarctic waters as early as 650 CE , put women on the Antarctic map . The most celebrated `` first '' for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica 's islands . Early male explorers , such as Richard Byrd , named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state . As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier , women worked to be included in the sciences . The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the former Soviet Union , South Africa and Argentina .   Besides exploring and working as scientists , women have also played supportive roles as wives , fund-raisers , publicists , historians , curators and administrators of organizations and services that support Antarctic operations . Many early women on Antarctica were the wives of explorers . Some women worked with Antarctica from afar , crafting policies for a place they had never seen . Women who wished to have larger roles in Antarctica and on the continent itself had to `` overcome gendered assumptions about the ice and surmount bureaucratic inertia . As women began to break into fields in Antarctica , they found that it could be difficult to compete against men who already had the `` expeditioner experience '' needed for permanent science positions . Women who were qualified for expeditions or jobs in Antarctica were less likely to be selected than men , even after a 1995 study by Jane Mocellin showed that women cope better than men in the Antarctic environment .   Women working on Antarctica `` defy generalization '' and have diverse backgrounds and come from different generations . One researcher , Jenny Feast , in 2011 described women who come to Antarctica as `` independent , strong and resilient . ''

negative: Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre . Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula . The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast , Queen Maud Land . To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea . Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent , massive ice shelf field , the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ( not pack ice ) . The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentina , ( Argentine Antarctica ) and Britain ( British Antarctic Territory ) , and also resides partially within the territorial claim of Chile ( Antarctic Chilean Territory ) . At its widest the sea is around 2,000 km across , and its area is around 2.8 e6km2 .   Various ice shelves , including the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf , fringe the Weddell sea . Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula , which formerly covered roughly 3900 sqmi of the Weddell Sea , had completely disappeared by 2002 ; see . Whilst a dramatic event , the area that disappeared was far smaller than the total area of ice shelf that remains .   The Weddell Sea has been deemed by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea . Dutch researchers from the German Alfred Wegener Institute , on finding a Secchi disc visible at a depth of 262 ft on 13 October 1986 , ascertained that the clarity corresponded to that of distilled water .   In his 1950 book The White Continent , historian Thomas R. Henry writes :   He continues for an entire chapter , relating myths of the green-haired merman sighted in the sea 's icy waters , the inability of crews to navigate a path to the coast until 1949 , and treacherous `` flash freezes '' that left ships , such as Ernest Shackleton 's Endurance , at the mercy of the ice floes .

negative: Vashon Glaciation The Vashon Glaciation or Vashon Stade was the most recent period of very cold climate in which glaciers existed at elevations at and near sea level in the western part of present-day Washington state . It occurred during a colder than present part of the current ice age .   The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 - 16,000 BP ( Before Present - present defined as January 1 , 1950 for this scale ) . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada . During the Vashon Glaciation , the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced into the Puget Sound region .