Global Warming

Over the past 100 years the mean surface air temperature of the globe has risen from 0.3° to 0.6°C. This warming has caused great international concern, even though it is still within climate pattern variability for the past few thousand years.

Scientists are suspicious that the most recent warming is due to the activity of mankind and will, therefore, exceed the natural limits that prevent the planet overheating. As a result of this anxiety nearly 200 scientists from 25 countries established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988.

At the core of the concern is the greenhouse effect caused by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide. Kept in balance by natural plant decomposition in the autumn and winter and absorption in the spring and summer by the photosynthesis of new vegetation, carbon dioxide, together with other gases, keeps Earth’s warmth in. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, with ever greater burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, scientists are concerned that an excess of carbon dioxide will upset the heat loss equation and the planet will warm to levels intolerable to life.

The message of cutting carbon dioxide production has now spread throughout the world through conferences such as the Kyoto Summit.

Also under threat is the protective ozone layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Chlorofluorocarbons produced through industrial processes are breaking a hole in this layer, which lets in cancer-causing ultra-violet rays from the sun.

All of these factors have been blamed for changing weather conditions, such as increased incidence of storms in the UK. In addition, there is a risk that the sensitive balance of current weather conditions could be changed, with unpredictable results. A warming temperature over the Atlantic, for example, could divert the Gulf Stream that keeps the UK relatively warmer than its northerly position would suggest. The country’s weather may then cool drastically.