Global Warming ResearchGlobal warming research started back in 1824, when a scientist called Joseph Fourier came up with the conclusion (based on mathematical calculations) that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. So the greenhouse effect is what keeps our planet livable, but it's a double-edged sword, since causes the global warming phenomenon. The first scientist to discover that humans can increase the greenhouse effect was the Sweedish chemist Svante Arrhenius, who stated that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas. In fact, with this discovery, Svante Arrhenius started a 100 year research that lead to our current sophisticated understanding of global warming. He even calculated that a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere would lead to a temperature rise of 4-5°C-amazingly close to the current estimates obtained with global, 3-D climate models that run on supercomputers. 60 years later, the American oceanographer Roger Revelle began monitoring atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at an observatory on Mauna Loa, on the big island of Hawaii. In the late 1950s, Revelle and a colleague, Charles Keeling, began monitoring atmospheric CO2 at an observatory on Mauna Loa, on the big island of Hawaii. The record from Mauna Loa is a dramatic sign of global change that captured the attention of the whole world because it shows that this "experiment" we are conducting is apparently having a significant effect on the global carbon cycle. The climatological consequences of this change are potentially of great importance to the future of the global population. The record from Mauna Loa which dates back from the late 1950s, show how dramatically the levels of CO2 have increased. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is measured in ppm, and the value of CO2 in Mauna Loa back in 1960 was 315 ppm, while in present days, it's above 360 ppm.
Despite all the global warming research, part of the public still doesn't know exactly what to believe. There are scientists who believe that human activity is not to blame. For some people, this is like a big conspiracy theory. Of course, Hollywood is not lagging behind and quickly began producing movies related to global warming. Those movies tend to provide a far too-sceptical perspective and this makes some people consider global warming as a joke. One thing is certain, most global warming researchers agree on the fact that global climate caused by human activity is already occurring, and that it will accelerate in the future and become even more apparent. This shift will be associated with higher temperatures and higher sea levels. Can we deny the melting of the Earth's poles? |