WE EXPECT WEATHER, BUT WE GET CLIMATE

Yet one year has passed into history amidst many more discoveries, developments as also many disastrous and devastation ! Probably the most ironic part of modern developments lies in the frustrating fact that almost all progressions have some or the other erosive effects on our unique planet; And now it has even blown out of the barriers of this
“ Small-World .” 

  


“ We expect weather, but we get climate.” 

           - thus spoke Mark Twin.

The 'climate' and it's inclemental influence is in culmination of the disturbances caused in the natural process of weather.

Global warming and subsequent consequences have long remained focus of controversy and debate all over the world. Once we questioned if global warming was real ? We questioned causes of climate change and if it was man made ? Should we do something? What can we do?

What is Global Warming?

Atmospheric gases (primarily water vapor but also including carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, etc.) work together to retain some of the sun’s heat so that the earth stays a comfortable climate – this is known as the greenhouse effect and is necessary for human life. Climate change – long term changes in the overall climate of a particular region – can also occur naturally. The Ice Age, for example, is thought to be a natural change in the global climate. Some believe this was caused by a change in the distance between the earth and the sun, or a change in the earth’s orbital path, while others believe this climate change may have came about because of meteorites.

According to temperature records over the past 150 years, the average global temperature has risen at least one degree overall and more than 2 degrees specifically in the arctic. Scientists have also discovered a correlation between these temperatures and the level of carbon dioxide (and more recently methane gas) in the atmosphere.

In an unstained natural world, the trees and plants balance the carbon dioxide levels in the air and a natural animal population

releases just the right amount of methane and CO2 to maintain harmony in the atmosphere and the climate.

But in our world – we’ve removed miles & miles of vegetation to make space for structures that operate on polluting fossil fuels; We degraded land by breeding huge herds of methane-emitting cattle to feed our growing population; We manufacture products using processes that create even more gases -drastically responsible for further deterioration of the atmosphere and beyond. The present-day developments have changed our normal habits which further the imbalance of the natural process of gas distribution in our atmosphere, retaining more heat than ever before, and is considered to be the man made side of global warming and the current climate change.

Whether man made or natural, no one can really deny the inclement effects of climate change being experienced around the world ! Britain’s National Academy of Science states:

“The world’s leading climate experts at the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believe that it is greater than 90 per cent likely that human activity is responsible for most of the observed warming in recent decades. That is a pretty strong consensus.”

“Global warming will intensify drought and it will intensify floods,” states Stephen Schneider, editor of the Climatic Change journal. 2007 brought some of the worst floods in history to a number of countries around the planet – including 14 African countries, the UK, Malaysia, the US midwest, and North Korea. Droughts and water shortages have been just as prominent in recent years – plaguing areas of the Middle East, the southeastern US, Spain, and Australia.

The longtime dream route between Europe and Asia, the Northwest Passage, was open and ‘fully navigable’ for the first time in its monitored history.This is perhaps the most extreme sign that the arctic is melting at an alarmingly fast rate.

Extreme summer temperatures ! The summers becoming unbearable in many regions around the world – they’re lasting longer and longer.

These unusual changes in climate have also been linked to more frequent and more intense forest fires across the world. Wildfires in the past decade have burned longer, destroyed more land, and happened more often than ever before. The US, especially the southeast and southwest, have been affected drastically by these fires. Fires are also starting in forests in the Amazon, Siberia, Greece, Indonesia, and a number of other countries around the globe.

From the extreme temperatures to the more and more frequent natural disasters, it is almost 100% likely that a big portion of this climate change is because of our own actions, habits, and lifestyles.

Arctic sea ice melting faster than expected

Arctic Ocean sea ice – one of the most visible indicators for global warming – may be headed for another record-breaking summer decline. If the pattern continues, new research suggests, its warming effect could reach up to 900 miles inland, melting permafrost and potentially altering weather patterns at lower latitudes. Preliminary data show that the vast expanse of ice at the top of the world is some 55,800 square miles smaller than it was on the same date last year, according to University of Colorado researcher Sheldon Drobot. Sea-ice melt rate

– some 3,000 square miles a day – has become more faster, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.

The ice’s seasonal shrinkage in smashed records, reaching a September minimum of 2.6 million square miles – some 23 percent smaller than the previous records. If it sets another record this year, it would mark the fifth season of record declines since 1998.

Typically, bright sea ice sends sunlight streaming back into space, keeping things relatively cool at the surface. Leftover ice at the end of the summer forms the foundation on which ice rebuilds during fall and winter. Over successive seasons, older, multi-year ice grows thicker and more resistant to a meltdown in subsequent summers than thin, single-year ice. Last year’s record decline, however, left a shaky foundation. Some 63 percent of the ice is younger than average, while only 2 percent is older than average, according to Drobot.

The prospect of more open water in the Arctic Ocean in summer would be a boon to shipping interests, greatly reducing the sailing time between Europe and Asia, for instance. Indeed, the prospect of increased shipping is a key driver for Drobot’s forecasting research. And countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are trying to stake their claim to extended territorial waters under the Law of the Sea Treaty to exploit resources believed to lie beneath the Arctic Ocean floor.

But from a climate standpoint, more open water during summer translates into warmer temperatures, since the dark seawater absorbs sunlight, stores the heat, then slowly releases it. This played a large role in preceeding year's summer melt-off, explains Don Perovich, a researcher with the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H.

Now, the BIG QUESTION is,even after all these findings, what we are doing to help arrest the slow but sure disintegretion to this unique plannet --    our 'Small-World '.....??