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WHAT??
• Average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere.
• Causes:• Natural phenomenon
– Cycle of climate change
• Man-made pollution– man-made greenhouse gases, dominantly characterized by
carbon dioxide (CO2) content
Root cause of Global Warming
• The perspective of man-made pollution:– Pollution - produce greenhouse gas
• Burning fossil fuels – industrialization, technology advancements, and increased population
• Deforestation• Methane
– emissions from landfills, livestock, rice farming (which uses methane-emitting bacteria), septic processes, and fertilizers.
• Chlorofluorocarbons– used in refrigeration, cooling and manufacturing applications.
Global Warming Controversy
“Global warming was very likely (90 per cent) to have been caused by humans.” - 2007 IPCC report
Deniers has 10%.
Constant Ocean Heat Content
• The new ARGO floating temperature stations have measured little or no increase in ocean heat content since they were put in service in 2003
Measurement Technology Bias
• Improvements in our ability to accurately count or measure a phenomenon is mistaken for a real underlying change in the frequency of the phenomenon.
• The count of annual tornadoes appears to have increased over the last fifty years, but this increase is almost entirely due to Doppler radar and other technologies identifying previously unrecognized twisters.
Misrepresentation of Fact
• Individual extreme weather events are pointed to as proof of climate shifts, even when summary statistics show no such thing
Count of hurricane frequency and total energy decreasing to near all-time lows.
• “if we don’t act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year. In contrast, the costs of action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year.” – Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada