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Great Ways to Save Energy at Home
| About Climate Change |
The terms "Global warming" or "Climate Change" are shorthand for a set of complex chemical and ecological processes resulting in the warming of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. It occurs as a result of energy from the sun being trapped by gases in the atmosphere, primarily CO2 and methane. Carbon Cycle
Normally, the natural presence of some heat-trapping gases in the Earth's atmosphere allows life to flourish by insulating us from the absolute cold of space. Carbon dioxide, methane, and other "greenhouse gases" are released and absorbed naturally in what is known as the carbon cycle, which plays a central role in the maintenance of life on the planet. Of course, this process has been going on for eons. Ice core data from Antarctica provides a pulse-like record of increases and decreases of gases and temperature over hundreds of thousands of years, influenced by the sun, Earth's orbit, volcanism, and many other things. Carbon Dioxide and
Temperature
What is clear from this record is that the Earth's temperature and atmospheric carbon are linked: when one is high, so is the other. Since the Industrial Revolution - in about the last 150 years - humans have changed this natural pulse. We have done this primarily by digging up long-buried carbon in the form of coal, then oil and natural gas, and burning these "fossil fuels" - thus releasing this eons-old carbon into the atmosphere. Also, as our population has increased, methane from waste and agriculture has increased dramatically. The result is that we have increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to the point where we are warming the globe and causing our climate to change. Want to know more?
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