Climate Change - How is PEER Involved? |
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Climate Change History |
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Global warming, by far, is the greatest issue plaguing our world. Climate change best explains any long-term significant change in weather over an appropriately significant period of time. Climate change reflects abnormal variations to the expected climate within the Earth's atmosphere and subsequent effects on other parts of the Earth, such as in the ice caps, over durations ranging from decades to millions of years. Climate change is the result of a great many factors including the dynamic processes of the Earth itself, external forces including variations in sunlight intensity, and more recently by human activities. Greenhouse gases take up a minimal amount of the atmosphere, but they act as a blanket around the earth, or like the glass roof of a greenhouse. Essentially, they trap heat and keep the planet some 30 degrees C warmer than it |
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| would be otherwise. Human activities have added to this blanket hence the natural levels of these gases are being supplemented, by emissions of carbon dioxide, from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. These changes are happening at unprecedented speed. If emissions continue to grow at current rates, it is almost certain that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide will double or triple from pre-industrial levels during the 21st century. | |
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