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The Climate Change Portal Present-dayclimate change includes bothglobal warming—the ongoing increase inglobal average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth'sclimate system.Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth'sclimate. The modern-day rise in global temperatures isdriven by human activities, especiallyfossil fuel (coal,oil andnatural gas) burning since theIndustrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use,deforestation, and someagricultural and industrial practices releasegreenhouse gases. These gasesabsorb some of the heat that the Earthradiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere.Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming,has increased in concentration by about 50% since thepre-industrial era to levels not seen for millions of years. Climate change has an increasingly largeimpact on the environment.Deserts are expanding, whileheat waves andwildfires are becoming more common.Amplified warming in the Arctic has contributed to thawingpermafrost,retreat of glaciers andsea ice decline. Higher temperatures are also causingmore intense storms,droughts, and otherweather extremes. Rapid environmental change inmountains,coral reefs, andthe Arctic is forcing many species to relocate orbecome extinct. Even if efforts to minimize future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These includeocean heating,ocean acidification andsea level rise. Climate changethreatens people with increased flooding, extreme heat, increasedfood andwater scarcity, more disease, andeconomic loss.Human migration and conflict can also be a result. TheWorld Health Organization calls climate change one of the biggest threats toglobal health in the 21st century. Societies and ecosystems will experience more severe risks withoutaction to limit warming.Adapting to climate change through efforts likeflood control measures ordrought-resistant crops partially reduces climate change risks, although some limits to adaptation have already been reached. Poorer communities are responsible fora small share of global emissions, yet have the least ability to adapt and are mostvulnerable to climate change. Many climate change impacts have been observed in the first decades of the 21st century, with 2024 the warmest on record at +1.60 °C (2.88 °F) since regular tracking began in 1850. Additional warming will increase these impacts and can triggertipping points, such as melting all of theGreenland ice sheet. Under the 2015Paris Agreement, nations collectively agreed to keep warming "well under 2 °C". However, withpledges made under the Agreement, global warming would still reach about 2.8 °C (5.0 °F) by the end of the century. There is widespread support forclimate action worldwide, and most countries aim tostop emitting carbon dioxide.Fossil fuels can be phased out by stoppingsubsidising them,conserving energy and switching toenergy sources that do not produce significant carbon pollution. These energy sources includewind,solar,hydro, andnuclear power. Cleanly generated electricity can replace fossil fuels forpowering transportation,heating buildings, and running industrial processes. Carbon can also beremoved from the atmosphere, for instance byincreasing forest cover and farming with methods thatstore carbon in soil. (Full article...) Selected article –show anotherMerchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by Americanhistorians of scienceNaomi Oreskes andErik M. Conway. It identifies parallels between theglobal warming controversy and earlier controversies overtobacco smoking,acid rain,DDT, and thehole in the ozone layer. Oreskes and Conway write that, in each case, the overall strategy of those opposing action is to "keep the controversy alive" bycontinuing to spread doubt and confusion long after ascientific consensus has been reached. In particular, they show thatFred Seitz,Fred Singer, and a few othercontrarian scientists joined forces with conservativethink tanks and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on a wide variety of contemporary issues. Some of the book's subjects have been critical of the book, but most reviewers received it favorably. It was made into a film,Merchants of Doubt, directed byRobert Kenner, released in 2014. (Full article...) Selected picture –show another Credit: Robert A. Rohde An image of the collapsingLarsen B Ice Shelf and a comparison of this to the U.S. state ofRhode Island. WikiProjectsIn the news Additional News
Selected biography –show another Arrhenius in 1909 Svante August Arrhenius (/əˈriːniəs,əˈreɪniəs/ə-REE-nee-əs, -RAY-,Swedish:[ˈsvânːtɛaˈrěːnɪɵs]; 19 February 1859 – 2 October 1927) was a Swedishscientist. Originally aphysicist, but often referred to as achemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science ofphysical chemistry. In 1903, he received theNobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming the firstSwedish Nobel laureate. In 1905, he became the director of the Nobel Institute, where he remained until his death. Arrhenius was the first to use the principles ofphysical chemistry to estimate the extent to which increases in the atmosphericcarbon dioxide are responsible for the Earth's increasing surface temperature. His work played an important role in the emergence of modernclimate science. In the 1960s,Charles David Keeling reliably measured the level of carbon dioxide present in the air showing it was increasing and that, according to the greenhouse hypothesis, it was sufficient to cause significantglobal warming. TheArrhenius equation,Arrhenius acid, Arrhenius base,lunarcraterArrhenius,Martian craterArrhenius, the mountain ofArrheniusfjellet, and the Arrhenius Labs atStockholm University were so named to commemorate his contributions to science. (Full article...) General imagesThe following are images from various climate-related articles on Wikipedia.
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