The greenhouse effect is the most important cause behind global warming. In fact global warming is known as the greenhouse effect. This phenomenon leads to an increase in the Earth temperature due to certain gases like CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane. These gases trap the energy from the sun and without them the heat would go back into space and Earth would be one massive iceberg. Since these gases warm the Earth, they are known as greenhouse gases.

In the last couple of decades, people have started using glass houses to grow plants in winter and these are called greenhouses. Typically, these houses will trap the heat from the sun. The glasses in the greenhouse let the light through and at the same time prevent the heat from escaping.

As a result, the greenhouse heats up to keep the plants alive in the winter. Similarly, the greenhouse gases in the Earths atmosphere work like the glass and prevent the heat from escaping. The sunlight enters piercing through the cloud of greenhouse gases and when it reaches the Earths surface, it is absorbed by land, water, and air.

After absorption the same energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of it remains trapped in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse gases and this energy makes the Earth warmer. Since there has been an increase in CO2 emissions in the last couple of decades, more and more heat is being absorbed in the atmosphere. This is increasing the temperature of the Earth gradually and causing global warming.

Global warming is the next big impact that will bring about a change in the weather patterns. By definition, Global Warming is the increase in average temperature that gradually warms the Earth’s atmosphere. It is a phenomenon, which has been on the rise but in the last century, the increase in the levels have been alarming.

The average temperature of the atmosphere has risen by 0.74 - 0.18 degrees during the last century. According to the study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is observed that the increase in global average temperature has been caused due to an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations. This has led to an unprecedented warming of the Earth’s surface.

The other phenomenas responsible for global warming include volcanoes and solar variations. Base on some of the models by the IPCC, the prediction is that the global temperature is likely to rise by 1.1 to 6.4 degrees between 1990 and 2100. This increase in temperature will cause climatic changes and extreme weather conditions like rising sea level, change in the amount of precipitation, above average rainfall, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, storms and hurricanes.

On the worse side, it will also affect yield of crops as well as plants and animals leading to extinction of different species. Global warming will increase the spread of diseases and there will be droughts and flooding, coral reef bleaching, forest fires etc. Global warming is no more a myth but a fast approaching reality, which in the long term will bring the much feared ice age that will wipe out all living organism on Earth.

Global warming has become the rising issue as it will effect climatic changes on a global scale and make planet Earth so warm that even humans will not be able to survive the heat. It is like a race against time where some organizations are trying to prolong the effect and fight it in their own way. Some of these organizations are:

Environmental Defense: A leading national nonprofit organization, it was founded in 1967. Known as EDF, they have 500,000 members. Their mission is to protect the environmental rights of people, which includes the future generations. The rights are aimed at providing healthy food, clean air & water, and thriving ecosystems. There mission is backed by their scientific research and orientation. They promote and apply scientific evaluation of environmental problems to find solutions.

World Wildlife Fund: One of the most popular non-profit organizations that has been associated with protecting the plant, eco-systems, and wildlife. They have been protecting the future of nature for more than 45 years now. WWF has branches in 100 countries and is supported by more than 1.2 million members in the US itself, while global count has crossed the 5 million mark. The WWF working process combines reaching out to the global audience with a foundation in science that requires action at every level from rural to cosmopolitan and from local to global.

Some of the other organizations involved in saving the planet, nature, wildlife and mankind include:
1. Natural Resources Defense Council
2. Sierra Club
3. Union of Concerned Scientists
4. U.S. Public Interest Research Group
5. World Resources Institute

The causes of global warming are many and effects are far more profound. What we have really witnessed in the last couple of decades is just the tip of the iceberg.

CAUSES
The main underlying cause of Global Warming is greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2). Every tree takes CO2 from the air during its growing process. When a tree dies or the wood decays then CO2 is again returned to the atmosphere. In the last couple of decades tropical forest have borne the brunt of major felling of trees and burning of wood, which has added more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Today deforestation has reached a stage where it cannot be turned back. In 1987, a major chunk of the Amazon forest was burnt and it was of the size of Britain. This released 500 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The lesser the number of trees, the less CO2 will be absorbed.

EFFECTS
The effect of global warming will be catastrophic and if you look around you, then you will see some of the signs. If no action is taken now, then it will be too late as the greenhouse effect will slowly increase the average global temperature by 1.5 to 4.50C. This rise in temperature will affect the polar ice caps more than the tropical belt.

Winters will become warmer and the world will be hotter than what it was 100,000 years back. By the end of the next century, the temperatures would have soared very high and it will be tough for humans to survive. The last 15 years have been the ten hottest years since the 1860’s.

Global warming is hard to see unless you can see a few pictures that people think have caused it. What you are about to see are a few pictures of different environmental disasters as well as a few other pictures related to global warming.

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Here is one with the description already in the photograph from www.wunderground.com

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This one is just a polar bear. You may think his little ice world is melting but nobody can really tell. But, if his ice home does melts, he will drown like some scientists think.

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Here is a before an after photo of the Pasterze Glacier from 1875 to 2004. I can’t see the difference can you?

Before 

After

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This one is a little hard to see but it is a picture of Bejing where they built the first building that every passed the Leadership in energy and environmental design certificate

(www.managinggreen.com)

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The next post will have even more pics. I will be searching around for more. The next post will have many more than this post. I just wanted to start a series of posts that would have great random pics of global warming from the net.