Global Warming 101

by Bruce E. Johansen

Overview

The accelerating pace of global warming is provoking anxiety that the Earth is reaching an ominous threshold, a point of no returban. Within a decade or two, various feedbacks may take greenhouse warming past any human ability to contain or reverse it. Carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising rapidly, fed by increasing fossil-fuel use world-wide, melting permafrost, slash-and-burban agriculture in Indonesia and Brazil, increasing wildfires, as well as rapid industrialization using dirty coal in China and India. Global warming may well become the most urgent problem the world faces during the 21st Century . Natural variations are no longer the major contribution (or forcing) in Earth's climate. Human contributions became the major factor about 1950.

This book has been prepared as a reference for high-school students, but it also will be useful for anyone who wants a compact, plain-spoken basic guide to the science of global warming. Global Warming 101 begins with an examination of basic issues, followed by important controversies in the field. The book then describes scientific issues related to melting ice, rising seas, and effects on plants and animals, as well as human health. Global Warming 101 concludes with consideration of possible solutions. Global Warming 101 combines a survey of the science of global warming with reporting from around the world, from sinking Pacific islands and thawing Arctic permafrost, which indicate that significant global warming already has begun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313346910
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, LLC
Publication date:	06/30/2008
Series:	Science 101 Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	996 KB

About the Author

Bruce E. Johansen is Frederick W. Kayser Professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He has been teaching and writing in the School of Communication at UNO since 1982. Johansen writes frequently about environmental subjects, including Global Warming in the 21st century (Praeger, 3 vols., 2006), The Global Warming Desk Reference (Greenwood, 2001), The Dirty Dozen: Toxic Chemicals and the Earth's Future (Praeger, 2003), and Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues (Greenwood, 2004).

Table of Contents

Series Foreword     ix
Introduction     xi
Feedback Loops and Tipping Points     xii
Human Influences, as the Dominant Climate Change Influence     xiii
Writings About Global Warming Increase Rapidly     xiv
Outline of the Book     xv
Global Warming Science: The Basics     1
Composition of Earth's Atmosphere     1
History of the Greenhouse Effect as an Idea     2
Increasing Levels of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere     3
The Use of Energy from Fossil Fuels Continues to Increase     6
Greenhouse Gases and Wintertime Warming     8
Feedback Loops: Global Warming's "Compound Interest"     9
Soot: A "Wild Card" in Global Warming     11
The Abrupt Nature of Climate Change     11
The Sun as a Major "Driver" of Climate Change     12
Once upon a Green Venus?     13
Surface Warming, Stratospheric Cooling, and Ozone Depletion     14
Specific Issues in Global Warming Science     17
Could Europe's Heat of 2003 Become Typical?     17
Drought and Deluge     19
Drought and Deluge: Many Examples     21
Warming and Spreading Deserts     23
Global Warming andHurricanes     24
Warming and North America's Water Supplies     29
Warming and Wild Weather in Great Britain     31
An "Orderly Retreat" of Government from London?     32
Palm Trees and Banana Plants in English Gardens?     32
Wildfires, Drought, and Floods Increase in Australia     34
Japan: Heat Island Tokyo     35
Melting Ice     39
Erosion of Arctic Ice     41
Personal Stories of Climate Change     41
Surface Albedo (Reflectivity) Speeds Warming     43
"Drunken Forests"     45
Spruce Beetle Outbreaks on the Kenai Peninsula     46
Shishmaref, Alaska Is Washing into the Sea     47
Ice Melt in Greenland     48
Polar Bears under Pressure     50
Climate Contradictions in Antarctica     54
Ice Shelves Collapse     55
The Speed of Ice Melt: A Slow-motion Disaster?     57
Antarctic Warming and the Ocean Food Web     58
Mountain Glaciers in Retreat     60
Disintegration of Glaciers in the High Alps     64
Andes Glaciers' Retreat     66
Rising Seas     73
The Penetration of Warming into the Oceans     74
The Stakes of Sea Level Rise     75
Sea Level Rise: Local Examples     76
Sea Level Rise May Speed Up     78
Erosion on the Gulf of Mexico Coast     79
Increasing Floods Expected in Bangladesh     81
Warming and Possible Changes in Ocean Circulation     82
Evidence that Thermohaline Circulation May be Breaking Down     84
Thermohaline Circulation: Debating Points     85
Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels and Acidity in the Oceans May Kill Marine Life     86
Phytoplankton Depletion and Warming Seas     87
Coral Reefs "on the Edge of Disaster"     87
Plants, Animals, and Human Health     97
Mass Extinctions within a Century?     98
Mass Extinctions: What Happened 250 Million Years Ago?     98
Reduced Crop Yields     101
Warming May Reduce Rice Yields     102
Changes for Plants and Animals with Small Temperature Variations     103
Species Moving Toward the Poles     105
Warming, Deforestation, and the Devastation of Mountain Habitats     110
Frogs Threatened Worldwide     112
Warming and the Decline of Oregon's Western Toad     112
Seabirds Starve as Waters Warm     113
Bird Extinctions: Baltimore without Orioles     115
Bark Beetles Spread Across U.S. West     117
Amazon Valley: Drought, Deforestation, and Warming     118
Poison Ivy: Our Itchy Future     118
Palms in Southern Switzerland     119
Effects on Human Health     120
Global Warming and the Spread of Diseases     121
Malaria in a Warmer World     123
Deaths from Heat Waves     125
Health Benefits from Warming?     127
Solutions     133
Changing the Ways We Use Energy     133
A Moratorium on Coal-fired Electricity without Sequestration     134
Wind Power Capacity Surges     136
The New Solar Power     138
Changes in Personal Transport     140
Aviation: The Most Carbon-Inefficient Mode of Travel     142
Ethanol: The Right Way, and the Wrong Way     145
Hydrogen Fuel-Celled Transport: No Free Lunch     147
Generate Your Own "Green" Electric Power-and Sell your Surplus to the Power Company     148
Biomass: Very Basic Stuff     149
Geothermal: Energy Savings from the Earth     150
A Carbon Tax: Charging for Carbon Production     150
Farming Technology Improvements     151
Signals from Europe     152
U.S. States Act on Automobile Efficiency     153
Building Code Changes     154
Is the Kyoto Protocol a Band-Aid or a Dead Letter?     155
Tree Planting and Global Warming: Can New Forests Make Warming Worse?     156
Problems with Ocean Iron Fertilization     158
Nuclear Power as "Clean" Energy?     160
Deep-sea Injection of Carbon Dioxide: Effects on Life     161
"Creation Care:" Biblical Stewardship of the Earth     164
Glossary     171
Annotated Bibliography     177
Index     187

Editorial Reviews

…this book takes a crucial, complex scientific field and makes it readily accessible to readers. I firmly think this book ought to be required reading for everyone on teh planet, and at the very least, I think a copy shoudl be in every high school classroom in this country. Anything less would be a disservice to our educational charges.” —National Science Teachers Association

From the Publisher