global warming and weather?

[Kelly]

i need some really good info on global warming and weather.
i have a paper im doing for school and i need a little more information.

so if you can please help me 10points

[Scott S]

The Greenhouse Effect: Scientists are sure about the greenhouse effect. They know that greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by trapping energy in the atmosphere.

Climate Change: Climate is the long-term average of a region's weather events lumped together. For example, it's possible that a winter day in Buffalo, New York, could be sunny and mild, but the average weather – the climate – tells us that Buffalo's winters will mainly be cold and include snow and rain. Climate change represents a change in these long-term weather patterns. They can become warmer or colder. Annual amounts of rainfall or snowfall can increase or decrease.

Global Warming: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities.
Weather
Weather describes whatever is happening outdoors in a given place at a given time. Weather is what happens from minute to minute. The weather can change a lot within a very short time. For example, it may rain for an hour and then become sunny and clear. Weather is what we hear about on the television news every night. Weather includes daily changes in precipitation, barometric pressure, temperature, and wind conditions in a given location. What is your weather like today?


Climate
Climate describes the total of all weather occurring over a period of years in a given place. This includes average weather conditions, regular weather sequences (like winter, spring, summer, and fall), and special weather events (like tornadoes and floods). Climate tells us what it's usually like in the place where you live. San Diego is known as having a mild climate, New Orleans a humid climate, Buffalo a snowy climate, and Seattle a rainy climate. How would you describe the climate where you live?

Have you ever seen a greenhouse? Most greenhouses look like a small glass house. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, especially in the winter. Greenhouses work by trapping heat from the sun. The glass panels of the greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping. This causes the greenhouse to heat up, much like the inside of a car parked in sunlight, and keeps the plants warm enough to live in the winter.
The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.



(D)
The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.
It may seem hard to believe that people can actually change the Earth’s climate. But scientists think that the things people do that send greenhouse gases into the air are making our planet warmer.
Once, all climate changes occurred naturally. However, during the Industrial Revolution, we began altering our climate and environment through agricultural and industrial practices. The Industrial Revolution was a time when people began using machines to make life easier. It started more than 200 years ago and changed the way humans live. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activity released very few gases into the atmosphere, but now through population growth, fossil fuel burning, and deforestation, we are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the need for energy to run machines has steadily increased. Some energy, like the energy you need to do your homework, comes from the food you eat. But other energy, like the energy that makes cars run and much of the energy used to light and heat our homes, comes from fuels like coal and oil – fossil fuels. Burning these fuels releases greenhouse gases.

When Do You Send Greenhouse Gases into the Air?

Whenever you ...

Watch TV
Use the Air Conditioner
Turn on a Light
Use a Hair Dryer
Ride in a Car


Play a Video Game
Listen to a Stereo
Wash or Dry Clothes
Use a Dish Washer
Microwave a Meal





... you are helping to send greenhouse gas into the air.

To perform many of these functions, you need to use electricity. Electricity comes from power plants. Most power plants use coal and oil to make electricity. Burning coal and oil produces greenhouse gases.

Other things we do send greenhouse gases into the air too;

The trash that we send to landfills produces a greenhouse gas called methane. Methane is also produced by the animals we raise for dairy and meat products and when we take coal out of the ground. Whenever we drive or ride in a car, we are adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. And, when factories make the things that we buy and use everyday, they too are sending greenhouse gases into the air.

[Mike D]

global warming is bs

[candleduck]

Well first off, tell people to realise that global warming doesn't mean that it doesnt get cold. Just take Southern Ontario or Quebec for example, we have had more snow then we have ever had on record.

Anyways thats a very general question what exactly do you mean global warming and weather because they go hand in hand.

[The Masked Masala]

As the result primarily of human-caused emissions, our climate is changing. It is becoming less stable, more volatile and warmer: global average surface temperatures have increased by 0.74 degrees Celsius during the past 100 years. Seasons are arriving at different times as normal variations are increasing; glaciers are receding; sea levels are rising. It is likely that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe. Droughts, floods and heat waves are already contributing to crop failures, conflicts and a steadily increasing toll of death and human suffering. As the planet warms it is highly likely that there will be an increase in the frequency and severity of floods and droughts in many regions.I think that global warming is a real issue that should be a concern to us all now and is only going to get worse, rapidly.
However, I think that people are getting confused by the expanding population, the planets inability to support us, the wiping out of the fish stock, the extinction of flora and fauna, coral bleaching, expanding desert, arctic ice melting, third world debt, poverty and starvation, illeagal logging, multi drug resistant TB, and all the other issues facing humanity and then pushing them all together and labeling it as "global warming". Some of these issues are a result of man made climate change and some are the result of 6.6 BILLION people destroying the environment.
And then they see the problem as to big to start fixing, so, therefore there is no point to do anything about it as no one else is, etc. However all these issues can be broken down and we ,collectively, could go someway to solving them. However, unfortunately, we are human and historically, when ever there has been a time to band together for the good of all, we have choose to bomb, kill, invade, and attack and take what ever we wanted from are neighbors. *Sigh*.

Check this out its really cool and puts things into perspective. click on the now button and it will all zero.
http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldCl...

and have you watched this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVz...

And some movies.
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?sh...
(interesting)

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04...
(interesting and funny)

[Dr Jello]

If it's warmer than average, that's global warming.
If it's cooler than average, that's just weather.

Droughts, floods, earthquakes, are all global warming.
Normal is weather.

This is why "global warming" is such a big issue.

[ken]

Some good government sites that introduce the subject:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

Some good introductions (from research educational sites) to the topic:
http://www.ucar.edu/news/features/climatechange/faqs.jsp
http://earth.geology.yale.edu/~sherwood/index.cgi?page-selection=5
http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/climate_change_2008_final.pdf

The history of the science behind the theory of global warming:
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm