Answer the following questions: The diagram given below depicts the climate change on planet Earth. The poster reads: "THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING — WHY AREN’T WE?"
Name the climate phenomenon for the increase in Earth’s temperature.
Topic: Global warming
Answer
GLOBAL WARMING (caused by the enhanced GREENHOUSE EFFECT).
Global warming is the gradual rise in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere.
THE MECHANISM: greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs and water vapour — allow the sun’s short-wave radiation to reach the earth but trap the long-wave heat radiated back. The heat is held in the atmosphere instead of escaping into space.
KEEP TWO THINGS APART, because the distinction is often tested: the GREENHOUSE EFFECT is NATURAL and necessary — without it the earth would be about 33°C colder and largely uninhabitable GLOBAL WARMING is the result of ENHANCING that effect by burning fossil fuels and clearing forests
Its consequences: melting glaciers and polar ice, rising sea levels threatening coastal cities, erratic monsoons, droughts and floods, and the loss of species unable to adapt.