Archive for the ‘Global Warming’ Category
The US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement on Global Warming
When the dust settled on February 16, 2005, 141 countries had ratified the Kyoto Protocol and put it into effect. The United States was not one of those countries who saw fit to join together to stop global warming. Many citizens were disappointed, but one US Mayor decided to do something about it.
Mayor Greg Nickels was serving his second term in Seattle when the Kyoto Protocol went into effect. He was concerned that the US should do something, and, failing that, that he should do what he could. He devised a plan to enlist other US Mayors to make the changes that were needed to reduce global warming.
Mayor Nickels sent out a challenge to mayors across the country urging them to start implementing the changes that the Kyoto Protocol demanded of its member nations. The idea was that if a grassroots network could be built to prevent global warming, it would essentially do the same job that the government was shirking by not ratifying the Kyoto agreement.
A letter and an endorsement agreement were sent out. Mayors across the country had the chance to accept entrance into this group. The letter was sent out on March 30, 2005, and the acceptances soon started pouring in. Mayors, it seemed, did want to do something about global warming.
Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Global Warming than you may have first thought.
By June 13th of that year, the US Conference of Mayors met to discuss the agreement. It was passed as the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement on that date. However, the group did not close then. More mayors around the country continued, and still continue, to sign this agreement. Mayor Nickels has made a huge impact on the global warming prevention efforts of cities.
Mayor Nickels first thought of the agreement because of the United States’ contributions to the problem of global warming. The US greenhouse gas emissions make up 25% of those in the entire world. Yet, the population is nowhere near 25% of the world’s population. Mayor Nickels was outraged because he thought that the US could be such a large part of the problem and not want to be a part of the solution to global warming.
The goals of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement were based on the Kyoto Protocol. They planned to meet the Kyoto goal of 7% less greenhouse gas emissions than 1990 by 2012. Just as the Kyoto Treaty was ratified with 141 member nations, the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement had a goal of signing up 141 mayors in their first year. The number was more like 500 cities by mid-2007.
A part of the agreement is that each mayor should speak on behalf of global warming prevention to members of the government, including local, state, and federal government leaders. Another part of the plan is to make sure people have up-to-date information on global warming.
Sometimes, it is amazing what one person can do. What is even more amazing is how people from all over a large nation such as the US can come together for a single purpose. With cooperation like this, there will be great strides in preventing global warming.
That’s how things stand right now. Keep in mind that any subject can change over time, so be sure you keep up with the latest news.
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By Anders Eriksson, who just launched this great product..
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Global Warming and the Significance of Rising Water Temperatures
This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Global Warming. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Global Warming.
A part of the alarm that is being raised about global warming has to do with rising water temperatures, especially in the ocean. Scientists are studying warming waters all over the globe to determine the extent of the change.
The consequences of this global warming are far-reaching. One of the most devastating effects of global warming is that, as the ocean water warms, it impacts tropical storms. Hurricanes that would have been category 3 storms in past years are now category 4 or above. This is because they are energized when they pick up the warmer ocean water.
In fact, there has been a significant increase in these higher intensity storms in the last 35 years. This could be due to global warming. In 2005, the Atlantic was bombarded with 27 tropical storms powerful enough to receive a name. 15 of them developed into hurricanes.
Five of these storms reached the force of category 4 hurricanes. Four of them actually became worse, at category five. Hurricane Katrina made a terrible mark on history in August of 2005. It became the costliest hurricane in American history. It was also one of most lethal. Global warming has left destruction in the form of more intense hurricanes.
Most of this information comes straight from the Global Warming pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.
As global warming causes temperatures to rise in the oceans, glaciers and icecaps are melting more rapidly. One particular ice shelf in Antarctica, the northern section of the Larson B shelf, collapsed in recent years. Scientists got a rude awakening when they realized how fast the ice shelf could disintegrate.
The polar ice cap is disappearing at an astonishing rate as well. It is dissolving at 9% per decade. This aspect of global warming is a definite cause for alarm. In the last 40-50 years, the thickness of ice in the Arctic has decreased by 40%. The ice that is present on earth is beneficial to maintain the delicate balance of the environment.
Perennial sea ice in the Arctic has been receding as well. There was a record low in the square miles of this sea ice in 2005. Just two years later, in 2007, the record was broken with a half of a million square miles less perennial ice than in 2005. Global warming has truly had an impact on the sea ice of the Arctic. Some scientists predict that all the sea ice will be gone by 2040.
Global warming could also cause the sea level to rise as ice melts. When this happens, islands are lost and coastal communities are flooded. Various suggestions have been made about the levels that the water level could reach, anywhere from 10 to 23 inches by 2100.
Global warming has the potential to make the earth a very inhospitable place to live. Rising temperatures in the oceans’ waters are a clear indication that the process has begun. With the melting of ice in the glaciers, icecaps, and on the sea, it is only a matter of time before global warming has much more harmful effects. It is up to the people of the world to do what they can to make the future look brighter.
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By Anders Eriksson, who just launched this great product..
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Movies on Global Warming
It seems that people are coming from all directions to make movies about global warming. Many people are moved to educate people about the subject and want to reach the widest possible audience. Books do not hold the appeal they once did. Now, people want to sit down and watch a movie to understand subjects like global warming.
Although Al Gore has a book by the same name, most people know An Inconvenient Truth as a feature length documentary movie. The movie boils down to a power-point presentation that Gore has given many times on the subject of global warming. Al Gore simply presents facts in a low-key, personable way. The film includes some biographical information about Al Gore, too.
The 60 Minutes documentary, The Age of Warming, which aired April 1, 2007, is a must-see for those interested in global warming. In it, correspondent Scott Pelley explores Antarctica to find evidence of global warming. There, Pelley finds that the Adelie and Chinstrap penguins are being endangered by loss of habitat. He also finds glaciers that are in the process of rapid melting into lakes. It is an eye opener.
Some fictional movies have been made with the theme of global warming. One is The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. While the science may not be precisely or even nearly right, the special effects are fantastic. It is a good old-fashioned disaster flick with all kinds of natural disasters. Bring out the popcorn, but do not expect to be educated.
So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Global Warming. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.
An Earth Story, starring Ross Gelbspan and John Hutchison is another of those documentary-type movies. It tells the story about all those scary predictions of climate change due to global warming. The sub-title is An Alternative to Extinction. That alone should explain how dramatic this movie is. The solutions to global warming are equally dramatic.
Not exactly a traditional movie, Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris’ Crisis as Opportunity: Living Better on a Hotter Planet is unique. Instead of being distraught and woeful, Sahtouris views global warming as a natural evolutionary process. She sees it as a beneficial challenge that will help people learn to live together as they never have before.
Energy Crossroads: A burning need to change course, is a documentary movie about the energy crisis. It deals with the amount of oil that will be left in the future and the different ways to overcome that crisis. However, a good part of this movie is devoted to a study of how energy issues are tied to global warming. It points to global warming as one of the reasons humans need to make changes.
There is a set of movies called the Secrets of the Millennium. Probably the best of this series is the one with information on global warming. It is titled Secrets of the Millennium: Man vs. Nature: Who Will Win? It dramatically exposes humans’ desires to control earth, while letting things get out of hand environmentally at the same time.
Many celebrities have made their own movies on global warming. Some of them are not available for viewing yet, and some of them can be seen on the internet. One example is global warming films by Leonardo DiCaprio that can be viewed on his website. As the reality of global warming sets in, more movies will certainly deal with the subject.
Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Global Warming. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.
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By Anders Eriksson, still having the Free Adsense Templates available for instant download
Forestry and Global Warming
The following article presents the very latest information on Global Warming. If you have a particular interest in Global Warming, then this informative article is required reading.
The way land is used can have an affect on global warming. The kinds of plants, animals, or minerals set upon a plot of land render it different from other plots of land. It is these differences that can be explored to help you gain an understanding of global warming.
Forests are an important use of land in most countries. This is true for many reasons, but when it comes to global warming, it is particularly true. Plant life can scrub carbon dioxide from the air. Much of the very carbon dioxide that is one of the causes of global warming can be eliminated just by being in the vicinity of certain plants.
Trees are the best carbon dioxide scrubbers there are in nature. Old growth trees are especially good at removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it within their cells. For this reason, old growth trees need to be protected from the lumber jack’s blade.
While the lumber trade argues that the old growth trees can be easily replaced by new trees, this is simply not the case. New trees do not possess the abilities that old trees have of preventing global warming by trapping carbon dioxide.
Some proponents of cutting suggest that certain new trees are capable of trapping more greenhouse gases than the old trees. The truth is that, even if this is true, it is not true when you compare the new special trees to any trees that have many decades of growth. To prevent global warming, you need trees with some substance to them.
Those of you not familiar with the latest on Global Warming now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.
One law was proposed to stop logging and road building in the forest to prevent global warming. This particular law was to protect a large amount of forest-approximately 13 million acres on ancient forest. Most of this forest was so unspoiled that it did not even have any roads at all. This law would also ban clear-cutting, a practice that totally destroys acres upon acres of old growth trees.
Several studies have been done to estimate the amount potential global warming caused by the deforestation of tropical rainforests. Loggers do not just take out mature trees for lumber. People who want to clear a place to live, work, or farm in the jungle clear the forest by cutting and burning large portions of the rainforest.
As if this was not enough, other greenhouse gases are increased by deforestation. These include methane and nitrous oxide. Global warming is foreseeable when people greedily take the rainforest and other forests for their own purposes.
It seems that, by the figures in these studies, global warming prevention should focus on the green house emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels first. However, the deforestation comes in a close second in causes for global warming.
People can stop this dependence on old growth trees for lumber. There are many different building materials available to be used. It does not upset the balance of nature when you build with stone, for example. Also, furniture can be made from other materials. When people learn that forests are important in stopping global warming, they can help the situation by refusing to use lumber that comes from old growth forests and the rainforest.
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Anders Eriksson always offer the best deals on domain name registration. Visit his site for cheap domain names
Transportation Issues and Global Warming
Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Global Warming to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Global Warming experts.
There is great concern over the greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that contribute to global warming. Transportation has become a major issue. New fuels, new cars, and new types of communities are being discussed as solutions.
Gasoline-burning cars are a major contributor to global warming. In fact, they are the second largest cause of global warming pollution in the United States. It would be beneficial if the cars could be more efficient. If they could burn cleaner fuels, it would even be better.
It is predicted that Americans will continue to put gasoline-burning cars on the road at alarming rates over the next twenty years. The number estimated is around 300 million new cars. With this expectation, it is clear that cars should be made with energy efficiency in mind. Otherwise, they will cause extensive global warming.
Hybrid engines are being touted by many celebrities as a way to prevent global warming. Many celebrities prefer the Prius hybrid car. These hybrid cars do, in fact, double gas mileage. At the same time, they reduce harmful emissions that lead to global warming.
Future technologies for cars, such as fuel cells, may ease global warming even more. Fuel cells change hydrogen fuel and oxygen into electricity. Then, the electricity is used to run the vehicle. This technology has already been used by NASA and is projected to help ease global warming in the future.
Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.
Alternate fuels have been in the news for helping with reducing global warming as well. One of the most interesting fuels is bio-diesel. This type of fuel can be made from a variety of sources. Vegetable oils such as soybean and rapeseed oils have been used successfully in regular diesel vehicles.
Animal fats work, but are rarely used because they are too expensive. However, used oil from fast food restaurants can be employed to do the same thing. It is surprising that global warming can be slowed down by the use of fast food by-products.
Ethanol is being used in many countries, now including the US, to decrease pollution and dependence on foreign oil. Global warming is impacted, too. Brazil, which uses ethanol almost exclusively, makes the fuel from sugar cane. In the US, corn is the chief source of ethanol.
Some cars are flex-fuel cars which can be run on different fuel sources. They can use alcohol, gasoline, or a combination. E85 is mostly ethanol with 15% of the fuel being gasoline. This fuel performs a little better than pure ethanol, but is more conducive to cutting down on global warming than gasoline.
Another way global warming can be addressed through transportation issues is in community planning. Communities can be built so that people can spend more time walking or cycling than driving. This cuts down dramatically on greenhouse gas emissions, thereby reducing global warming.
The world, especially the US, can make some changes in the way they move about and transport their goods. If people do nothing, greenhouse gasses will surely increase drastically. However, if changes are made, global warming will be cut to a very large degree.
This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.