Who was 2019 Time Magazines Person of the Year!!!!
Born: Jan 03, 2003 (age 17) · Stockholm, Sweden to Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg
Time said Thunberg won the award “for sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads.” The then 16-year-old Thunberg first made headlines last year with her solitary strike against climate change outside Sweden’s parliament. Since then, she’s inspired millions of supporters to rally in more than 150 countries.
In September, she scolded world leaders at the United Nations for failing to address climate change. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth,” she said, as she fought back tears. “How dare you! For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.” When asked by “CBS This Morning” in September how she found the confidence to speak so clearly, Thunberg said that “I just know what is right and I want to do what is right. I want to make sure I have done anything, everything in my power to stop this crisis from happening, to prevent it.” “I have Asperger’s, I’m on the autism spectrum, so I don’t care about social codes that way,” she added. In some cases, she said, her neurodiversity gives her an advantage. It “makes you different and makes you think differently,” she said. “Especially in a big crisis like this one, we need to think outside the box, we need to think outside our current system, we need people who think outside the box and who aren’t like everyone else.”
Greta forced me to ask my almost 60 year old self, “Is Climate Change Real?” and “what if this
16 year old is right and we cause mass distinction for the coming generations and don’t give them
a chance at life as we know it.” I am not a liberal, I’m always willing to listen and determine who might be right and research the facts and one thing Obama may have done right through his administration was released a scientific assessments on the impacts of climate change on human health. Which In a video released by the White House, President Obama’s science adviser, John P. Holdren, and EPA Advisor Gina McCarthy
discussed a significant outcome to global warming.
Is Climate Change Real? Written By: John P. Rafferty
Can We Block the Sun to Stop Climate Change
By definition, climate change is the periodic modification of Earth’s climate due to changes
in the atmosphere and interactions between the atmosphere and other geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system. All living things respond to climate and changes in the climate, even if these changes are subtle and temporary. Some of the most noticeable examples include the shedding of leaves by flowering plants when water availability is low and shelter-seeking behaviors and dormancy in animals in response to colder or drier conditions. It seems that life on Earth is adapted to tolerating a changing climate to some degree, and this is evidence that climate changes, but our own experience of climate throughout our lifetimes, along with scientific records, also proves that climate change is happening.
From a certain perspective, daily weather could be considered a type of climate change. Temperatures move up and down during the course of the day; winds change speed and direction; and rain and snow pass through different areas over the course of a day.
Although we can sense each one of these phenomena, such moment-to-moment changes
are usually set apart from the climate discussion. Weather is simply the set of atmospheric conditions at one location at one limited period of time.
Climate, however, involves the average condition of the atmosphere over a long period of time
(such as across a few decades or more) at a given location.
Every place on Earth experiences seasonal variation in climate (though the shift can be slight
in some tropical regions), and this variation is caused by seasonal changes in the amount
of sunlight (solar radiation) reaching Earth’s atmosphere and surface. Year-to-year climate changes also occur; they include droughts, floods, and other events caused by a complex array of factors and Earth system interactions—including atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns (such as El Niño, La Niña, the North Atlantic Oscillation, etc.)—that affect the paths
of storm tracks and the movements of air masses.
Climate variations also take place at timescales lasting decades, with clusters of wet, dry, cool, or warm conditions that span several years in a row for given locations. At timescales of thousands of years beyond human lifetimes, climate responds to the precession (slow rotation or “wobble”) of Earth’s axis, the planet’s tilt (obliquity), and the changes to the elliptical shape (eccentricity) of Earth’s orbit. These phenomena interact with one another to determine the amount of sunlight (and thus solar heating) different parts of Earth’s surface receive during different seasons of the year. We must also consider that the amount of radiant energy Earth receives from the Sun is slowly increasing, which adds more and more energy to the mix over time.
Is climate change real? The natural phenomena described above demonstrate that it is, but this is not the whole story. Human activities also affect climate, and a consensus of scientists are sure that the impact of these activities is playing an ever-greater role in determining what form Earth’s climate takes.
Some 97 percent of scientists involved in climate research agree that it is extremely likely that much of the warming observed since the early 1900s results from human activities. Several lines of evidence support this. One of the main strands has to do with the concept of radiative forcing—that is, the heating effect provided by different influencing factors (such as the albedo, or reflectivity, of the land and water and the concentrations of certain gases and particulates in the atmosphere). A component of radiative forcing can be positive (in that it contributes to warming) or negative (in that it has the effect of cooling Earth’s surface).
If we consider warming from an energy-budget perspective, on average about 342 watts of solar radiation strike each square meter of Earth’s surface per year, and this quantity can in turn be related to a rise or fall in Earth’s surface temperature. The influence of positive forcings (which are mainly dominated by rising concentrations of greenhouse gases [carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and other gases that absorb infrared energy released by Earth’s surface after sunset each day]) has outpaced the cooling influence of aerosols (such as sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions and industry) and other negative forcings, adding the equivalent of a little more than two watts per square meter since the middle of the 20th century.
Other lines of evidence, including decreasing Arctic sea ice coverage and rising global temperature averages (showing that many of the warmest years have occurred since 1980), support the argument that Earth’s global and regional climates are changing rapidly, very likely much faster than they would if Earth’s climate changes were purely driven by natural forces. As a result, an increasing number of scientists wonder if global and regional climates are changing too quickly for many forms of life to adapt and survive.
Global warming is a hot topic these days. The debate over global warming has been going all around the world. While few consider as its biggest challenge of all times, others consider it as a climate shift that occurred in the early 90’s and has fallen flat since then. Those who believe it has their own scientific reasons to back their claims, others have their own reasons to disregard their theory.
Understanding global warming
and its impact is important to meet the challenges posed by it.
If you want to start a lively conversation going the next time you are out among friends, ask if people think global warming is real. It is a hot button issue for many and the arguments for and against global warming can be confusing as they may appear to use
the same data to prove different results.
Here are the top 5 arguments for and against global warming.
Global Warming is Real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXQSyqNGLcI
Scientists who argue for global warming being real base most of their evidence on the interpretation of the change in the levels of gases in the atmosphere and the ocean. The actual warming of temperature is something they say they can document, but the primary evidence is drawn from detecting what precedes a temperature rise – the change, and effect of atmospheric gases on the Earth’s environment.
Argument 1 – Rise in Sea Level
Sea level is rising in many areas of the world. This is partially attributed to the melting of ice caps and glaciers, but more to the changes in the gases contained within the sea. In the past decade, the global mean sea levels have doubled compared to the 20th-century trend of 1.6 mm per year. The global sea levels rose about 6.7 inches in the last century.
Argument 2 – Rise in Earth’s Average Temperature
Global temperature rise during the past century and a half continues. Tracking global atmospheric temperatures since the 1800s, scientists point to a steady rise with a stronger period in the 70s, a lull in the 90s and a return to the rising pattern in the 2000s.
Argument 3 – Rise in Ocean Temperature
The rise in the number of vehicles and industries has resulted in greenhouse gases getting trapped in the atmosphere. The increased heat in the atmosphere has been absorbed by the oceans. There are over 50 years of documented temperature records for the oceans that have recorded a steady rise in its temperature since 1969.
Argument 4 – Shrinking Glaciers
The glaciers on several mountain ranges, particularly in Greenland and Antarctica, are decreasing in size due to the reduction in gases that help to maintain temperatures and changes in the region’s climate. Studies conducted by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 36 to 60 cubic miles of ice every year between 2000 and 2006.
Argument 5 – Ocean Acidification
Acid level in the ocean is increasing which is making the oceans of the world more acidic. This is due to the emission of more harmful gases in the atmosphere by humans which is getting absorbed by the oceans. This is resulting in an increase of algae blooms and mass fish deaths, as well as a change to the chemical composition of the water.
Global Warming isn’t Real
Many scientists make a strong case against global warming being real. They often look towards the same evidence as those in favor of proving its existence but draw different conclusions. They also look at some evidence not considered in other arguments. These scientists hold to a strict definition of global warming as being defined as a rise in atmospheric temperature, they do not consider the atmospheric precursors as valid evidence.
Argument 1 – No Significant and Prolonged Temperature Changes Since 1997
Scientists who argue against global warming say global warming isn’t real because since the 90s there hasn’t been a significant temperature change. The upswing in the temperature started from 1975, continued till 1997 and the temperature has been flat since then which clearly states that there isn’t any significant change in temperature in the last 17 years.
Argument 2 – Not Enough Historical Data Available
There is no consensus about global warming being real among scientists. Advocates also point towards the fact that a recent gathering of 31,000 scientists in the field of environmental science couldn’t reach a consensus on whether or not global warming is real. They believe that they don’t have long term historical climate data or the data they have isn’t clear.
Argument 3 – Arctic Ice Increased by 50% Since 2012
Arctic ice increased in volume of 50% in 2012 alone. Core measures of the Arctic ice show that it has increased in volume since 2012, which argues against global warming causing ice caps to melt. Few people have even predicted that global warming would cause whole Arctic ice to melt which contradicts their version.
Argument 4 – Climate Models used are Proven to be Unreliable
The climate model calculations used to predict the effect of global warming have been proven to be flawed which means that the long term predictions that they have been making are meaningless. Some scientists even argue that any increase in global temperatures could be a natural climate shift.
Argument 5 – Early Predictions About the Effects of Warming Have Been Proven Wrong
Advocates who promote arguments against global warming being real, point towards all the dates have come and gone where predictions were made about effects that never happened. For example:- Al Gore predicted that all Arctic ice would be gone by 2013.
But, on contrary Arctic ice is up by 50% since 2012.
Which Argument to Believe?
The main part of the problem lies in the two groups using different definitions of how global warming appears in the climate. This is one of the reasons that those advocating that global warming is real now use the term “climate change,” since it is more reflective of the real issue. The other problem lies in proof, and in studies that try to prove whether or not global warming is real. Contrary to public belief, the results of all scientific studies aren’t conclusive.
To be considered proof of a hypothesis, the studies have to be able to be replicated by others and produce the same results. With global warming studies, analysis of decades of weather data is often used. The first problem is that weather data from 100 years ago wasn’t kept to modern standards of evidence. The second problem is that analysis is interpretation; you can really put any spin on it. This is why some of the arguments for and against whether global warming is real can use the same data and come to different conclusions.
More from global warming:
Various global warming facts
Global warming effects
35 easy ways to stop global warming
Causes of global warming
Steps to reduce global warming
30 Myths vs. Facts on Global Warming
How global warming works?