Global Warming
Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The climate system varies through natural, internal processes and in response to variations in external forcing factors including solar activity, volcanic emissions and greenhouse gases. Several eco-models predict that global temperatures are likely to increase by 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100. About three-quarters of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere during the past 20 years are due to fossil fuel burning and the rest is predominantly due to land-use change, especially deforestation. An increase in global temperatures can, in turn, cause other changes, including a rising sea level, changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Other consequences include glacier retreat, reductions in the ozone layer, increased intensity and frequency of hurricanes and extreme weather events, species extinctions etc. The broad agreement among climate scientists that global temperatures will discontinue increasing has led nations, states, corporations and individuals to implement actions to try to curtail global warming or adjust to it. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions.
Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The climate system varies through natural, internal processes and in response to variations in external forcing factors including solar activity, volcanic emissions and greenhouse gases. Several eco-models predict that global temperatures are likely to increase by 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100. About three-quarters of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere during the past 20 years are due to fossil fuel burning and the rest is predominantly due to land-use change, especially deforestation. An increase in global temperatures can, in turn, cause other changes, including a rising sea level, changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Other consequences include glacier retreat, reductions in the ozone layer, increased intensity and frequency of hurricanes and extreme weather events, species extinctions etc. The broad agreement among climate scientists that global temperatures will discontinue increasing has led nations, states, corporations and individuals to implement actions to try to curtail global warming or adjust to it. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions.