If we travel back in time to early television, we did not have color television as we have today. Early TV’s were black and white and powered by vacuum tubes. Channel 3 in Jackson, Mississippi was the hallmark of black and white television. Bob Neblett was a “Great Weather Forecaster” and he opened his weather forecast with these words: The weather the weather what’s it going to be. Will it rain or will it snow here on TV?
Now we are experiencing “Global Warming and those Beautiful White Clouds”. In all of my 78 years, I have not seen such beautiful white clouds. August was declared the hottest month on record according to NASA. Not only that, but the month tied July as the hottest month the world has seen in the last 136 years.
There is one factor that is very real: As our Sun; which is several billion years old cools and burns up its fuel, will begin to expand and will eventually engulf the Earth.
What is Global Warming?
Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels.
How Does Today’s Compare to Past Climate Change?
Earth has experienced climate change in the past without help from humanity. But the current climate warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events. In Earth’s history before the Industrial Revolution, Earth’s climate changed due to natural causes unrelated to human activity. These natural causes are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent history. Global warming is far greater than just increasing temperatures. Warming modifies rainfall patterns – amplifies costal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some areas, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of infectious diseases. Some of these changes are already occurring.
How is Global Warming today different from the Past?
The earth has experienced climate change without our help. We know about past climate changes because of the evidence left on tree rings, layers of ice in glaciers, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This evidence gives scientists information that goes back more than 800,000 years. 1
Our Sun is 4.6 billion years old. It has been generation energy this way ever sense. But there isn’t an unlimited amount of hydrogen in the core of the sun. As it uses up hydrogen it will cool and expand.
Water Vapor is a strong greenhouse gas. In fact, because of its abundance in the atmosphere, water vapor causes about two-thirds of greenhouse warming, a key factor in keeping temperatures in the habitable range on Earth. But as temperature warm, more water vapor evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, where it can temperatures to climb further.
Clouds are closely related to water vapor. Clouds cause cooling by reflecting solar energy, but they also cause warming by absorbing infrared energy (like greenhouse gases) from the surface when they are over areas that are warmer than they are. High cold clouds form in a part of the atmosphere where energy absorbing water vapor is scarce. These clouds trap energy coming from the lower, and emit little energy to space because of their frigid temperatures. In a world with high clouds, a significant amount of energy that would otherwise escape to space is captured in the atmosphere. As a result, Global Temperatures are higher than a world without high clouds.
In closing the weather isn’t the only thing global warming will impact: rising sea levels will erode coast and cause more frequent coastal flooding. Some island nations will disappear. The problem is serious because up to 10 percent of the world’s population lives in vulnerable areas less than 10 meters (about 30 feet) above sea level. For most places, global warming will result in more frequent hot days and fewer cool days, with the greatest warming occurring over land. Storms, floods, and droughts will generally be more severe as precipitation patterns change. Hurricanes may increase in intensity due to warmer ocean surface temperatures.
Eugene Hill, Kosciusko
