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[ "Snow Snow pertains to frozen crystalline water throughout its life cycle , starting when it precipitates from clouds and accumulates on surfaces , then metamorphoses in place , and ultimately melts , slides or sublimates away . Snowstorms organize and develop by feeding on sources of atmospheric moisture and cold air . Snowflakes nucleate around particles in the atmosphere by attracting supercooled water droplets , which freeze in hexagonal-shaped crystals . Snowflakes take on a variety of shapes , basic among these are platelets , needles , columns and rime . As snow accumulates into a snowpack , it may blow into drifts . Over time , accumulated snow metamorphoses , by sintering , sublimation and freeze-thaw . Where the climate is cold enough for year-to-year accumulation , a glacier may form . Otherwise , snow typically melts seasonally , causing runoff into streams and rivers and recharging groundwater . Major snow-prone areas include the polar regions , the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere and mountainous regions worldwide with sufficient moisture and cold temperatures . In the Southern Hemisphere , snow is confined primarily to mountainous areas , apart from Antarctica . Snow affects such human activities as transportation : creating the need for keeping roadways , wings , and windows clear ; agriculture : providing water to crops and safeguarding livestock ; such sports as skiing , snowboarding , snowmachine travel ; and warfare : impairing target acquisition , degrading the performance of combatants and materiel , and impeding mobility . Snow affects ecosystems , as well , by providing an insulating layer during winter under which plants and animals are able to survive the cold .", "Season creep In phenology , season creep is observed changes in the timing of the seasons , such as earlier indications of spring widely observed in temperate areas across the Northern Hemisphere . Phenological records analyzed by climate scientists have shown significant temporal trends in the observed time of seasonal events , from the end of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century . In Europe , season creep has been associated with the arrival of spring moving up by approximately one week in a recent 30-year period . Other studies have put the rate of season creep measured by plant phenology in the range of 2 -- 3 days per decade advancement in spring , and 0.3 -- 1.6 days per decade delay in autumn , over the past 30 -- 80 years . Observable changes in nature related to season creep include birds laying their eggs earlier and buds appearing on some trees in late winter . In addition to advanced budding , flowering trees have been blooming earlier , for example the culturally important cherry blossoms in Japan , and Washington , D.C. Northern hardwood forests have been trending toward leafing out sooner , and retaining their green canopies longer . The agricultural growing season has also expanded by 10 -- 20 days over the last few decades . The effects of season creep have been noted by non-scientists as well , including gardeners who have advanced their spring planting times , and experimented with plantings of less hardy warmer climate varieties of non-native plants . While summer growing seasons are expanding , winters are getting warmer and shorter , resulting in reduced winter ice cover on bodies of water , earlier ice-out , earlier melt water flows , and earlier spring lake level peaks . Some spring events , or `` phenophases '' , have become intermittent or unobservable ; for example , bodies of water that once froze regularly most winters now freeze less frequently , and formerly migratory birds are now seen year-round in some areas .", "Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe ( -LSB- ˈtɑːhoʊ -RSB- ) is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States . Lying at 6225 ft , it straddles the border between California and Nevada , west of Carson City . Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America , and at 122160280 acre.ft trails only the five Great Lakes as the largest by volume in the United States . Its depth is 1645 ft , making it the second deepest in the United States after Crater Lake in Oregon ( 1945 ft ) . The lake was formed about 2 million years ago as part of the Lake Tahoe Basin , with the modern extent being shaped during the ice ages . It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides . The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe , or simply Tahoe . More than 75 % of the lake 's watershed is national forest land , comprising the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the United States Forest Service . Lake Tahoe is a major tourist attraction in both Nevada and California . It is home to winter sports , summer outdoor recreation , and scenery enjoyed throughout the year . Snow and ski resorts are a significant part of the area 's economy and reputation . The Nevada side also offers large casinos , with highways providing year-round access to the entire area .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "Cryosphere The cryosphere ( from the Greek κρύος kryos , `` cold '' , `` frost '' or `` ice '' and σφαῖρα sphaira , `` globe , ball '' ) is those portions of Earth 's surface where water is in solid form , including sea ice , lake ice , river ice , snow cover , glaciers , ice caps , ice sheets , and frozen ground ( which includes permafrost ) . Thus , there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere . The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes , clouds , precipitation , hydrology , atmospheric and oceanic circulation . Through these feedback processes , the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model response to global changes . The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features . Cryology is the study of cryospheres ." ]

[ "Antecedent moisture Antecedent moisture is a term from the fields of hydrology and sewage collection and disposal that describes the relative wetness or dryness of a watershed or sanitary sewershed . Antecedent moisture conditions change continuously and can have a very significant effect on the flow responses in these systems during wet weather . The effect is evident in most hydrologic systems including stormwater runoff and sanitary sewers with inflow and infiltration . Many modeling and analysis challenges that are created by antecedent moisture conditions are evident within combined sewers and separate sanitary sewer systems .", "Warm compress A warm compress is a method of applying heat to the body . It can either be dry and warm or wet and warm . A wet and warm compress is often created by taking a washcloth and wetting it with warm water .", "Shoshoko Falls (Teton County, Wyoming) Shoshoko Falls is a cascade located in Avalanche Canyon , Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming . The cascade drops over 200 ft and is intermittent , fed by runoff from snowmelt and is near the outlet of Taggart Creek from Lake Taminah .", "Long Count See also : Mesoamerican Long Count calendar , The Long Count Fight Long Count or Slow count is a term used in boxing . When a boxer is knocked down in a fight , the referee will count over them and the boxer must rise to their feet , unaided , by the count of ten or else deemed to have been knocked out . A long count occurs when a boxer is given more than the allotted time ( a notional ten seconds ) to rise to his or her feet .", "Freestone stream In Fly fishing , a freestone stream flows seasonally , based on the water supply . In the summer and fall , freestone streams grow warm and have reduced flow because water from snow melt is less readily available . In contrast to limestone streams , which flow over limestone and dolomite , freestone streams generally flow over sandstone , shale , and crystalline rocks . Additionally , freestone streams are supplied by runoff and snowmelt , while limestone streams are usually fed by springs , providing cooler waters and a more stable pH balance .", "Wet floor effect Wet floor effect is a graphic effects technique popular in conjunction Web 2.0 style pages , particularly in logos . The effect can be done manually or an auxiliary tool can be installed to create the effect automatically . Unlike a standard `` reflection '' ( and the Java `` water '' effect popular in first-generation web graphics ) , the wet floor effect involves a gradient and often a slant in the reflection , so that the mirrored image appears to be hovering over or resting on a `` wet floor '' . The term was apparently coined by Nathan Steiner for Twinsparc in October 2005 .", "List of long term side effects of antipsychotics This is a general list of long-term side effects associated with Antipsychotic ( neuroleptic ) medication . Many patients will not develop these side effects , although there is still a significant possibility of risks associated with Antipsychotic usage . This is only a list of long term side effects , and many consumers of these drugs may experience a decline in these side effects over time if they continue to take their medicine . Some of these side effects are benign or temporary , but many remain a crucial concern for companies and healthcare professionals and substantial efforts are being encouraged to reduce the potential risks for future antipsychotics through more clinical trials and drug development .", "Floods in California All types of floods can occur in California , though 90 % are caused by riverine flooding . Such flooding generally occurs as a result of excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , excessive runoff , levee failure or a combination of these sources . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to California", "Spalding Falls (Teton County, Wyoming) Spalding Falls is a cascade located in Garnet Canyon , Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming . The cascade drops approximately 100 ft in and is highly intermittent , fed by runoff from snowmelt and the Middle Teton Glacier . The falls can be reached by way of the Garnet Canyon Trail and is approximately 2 mi further by trail than Cleft Falls .", "Weeping Wall (Montana) Weeping Wall is a geological formation found along Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park , in the U.S. state of Montana . It is a natural waterfall that seeps out from the side of the Garden Wall , and is fed by runoff from snowmelt . Category : Landforms of Glacier National Park ( U.S. ) Category : Geology of Montana Category : Waterfalls of Montana Category : Landforms of Flathead County , Montana Category : Going-to-the-Sun Road", "Swale (landform) A swale is a low tract of land , especially one that is moist or marshy . The term can refer to a natural landscape feature or a human-created one . Artificial swales are often infiltration basins designed to manage water runoff , filter pollutants , and increase rainwater infiltration . The swale concept has also been popularized as a rainwater harvesting and soil conservation strategy by Bill Mollison , Geoff Lawton and other advocates of permaculture . In this context it usually refers to a water-harvesting ditch on contour . Another term used is contour bund . Swales as used in permaculture are designed to slow and capture runoff by spreading it horizontally across the landscape ( along an elevation contour line ) , facilitating runoff infiltration into the soil . This type of swale is created by digging a ditch on contour and piling the dirt on the downhill side of the ditch to create a berm . In arid climates , vegetation ( existing or planted ) along the swale can benefit from the concentration of runoff . Trees and shrubs along the swale can provide shade which decreases water evaporation , however they increase transpiration , so their net effect on the hydrologic cycle is probably to reduce infiltration . The term swale or `` beach swale '' is also used to describe long , narrow , usually shallow troughs between ridges or sandbars on a beach , that run parallel to the shoreline .", "Wet wing A wet wing is an aerospace engineering technique where an aircraft 's wing structure is sealed and used as a fuel tank . Wet wings are also called integral fuel tanks . By eliminating the need for fuel bladders , aircraft can weigh less and the wing root bending moment caused by the lift generated by the wings in flight is decreased . This offers further reduction in weight by allowing structural components to be designed lighter as the components do not need to support larger forces . Wet wings are common among most civilian designs , from large transport aircraft , such as airliners , to small general aviation aircraft . Because the tanks are an integral part of the structure , they can not be removed , and require access panels for routine maintenance and visual inspections . A disadvantage of the wet wing is that every rivet , bolt , nut plate , hose and tube that penetrates the wing must be sealed to prevent fuel from leaking or seeping around these hardware components . This sealant must allow for expansion and contraction due to rapid temperature changes ( such as when cold fuel is pumped into a warm wing tank ) and must retain its sealing properties when submerged in fuel and when left dry for long periods of time . Working with this sealant can be difficult and replacing old sealant inside a small wing tank can be harder if the old sealant needs to be removed as well before new sealant can be applied .", "Conspiracy effect The conspiracy-effect describes the finding that mere exposure to popular conspiracy theories can have a negative impact on pro-social decision-making and acceptance of established scientific principles . The term `` conspiracy-effect '' was coined by Sander van der Linden , a social-psychologist at Cambridge University . The conspiracy-effect refers to the idea that conspiracy theories are `` sticky '' and that even brief exposure to conspiratorial thinking may be sufficient to decrease civic engagement and cooperation in real-life social dilemmas , such as charitable giving , childhood vaccinations , support for actions that help reduce global warming and intentions to vote .", "Warm Breeze Warm Breeze is a 1980 studio album by Count Basie and his orchestra . At the 25th Grammy Awards , Count Basie won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance , Big Band for Warm Breeze .", "Effects of long-term benzodiazepine use The effects of long-term benzodiazepine use include drug dependence as well as the possibility of adverse effects on cognitive function , physical health , and mental health . Benzodiazepines are generally effective when used therapeutically in the short term . Most of the problems associated with benzodiazepines result from their long-term use . There are significant physical , mental and social risks associated with the long-term use of benzodiazepines . Although anxiety can temporarily increase as a withdrawal symptom , there is evidence that a reduction or withdrawal from benzodiazepines can lead in the long run to a reduction in anxiety symptoms . Due to these increasing physical and mental symptoms from long-term use of benzodiazepines , slowly withdrawing from benzodiazepines is recommended for many long-term users . Not everyone , however , experiences problems with long-term use . Some of the symptoms that could possibly occur as a result of a withdrawal from benzodiazepines after long-term use include emotional clouding , flu-like symptoms , suicide , nausea , headaches , dizziness , irritability , lethargy , sleep problems , memory impairment , personality changes , aggression , depression , social deterioration as well as employment difficulties , while others never have any side effects from long-term benzodiazepine use . One should never abruptly stop using this medicine and should wean themself down to a lower dose under doctor supervision . While benzodiazepines are highly effective in the short term , adverse effects in some people associated with long-term use including impaired cognitive abilities , memory problems , mood swings , and overdoses when combined with other drugs may make the risk-benefit ratio unfavourable , while others experience no ill effects . In addition , benzodiazepines have reinforcing properties in some individuals and thus are considered to be addictive drugs , especially in individuals that have a `` drug-seeking '' behavior ; further , a physical dependence can develop after a few weeks or months of use . Many of these adverse effects of long-term use of benzodiazepines begin to show improvements three to six months after withdrawal . Other concerns about the effects of long-term benzodiazepine use , in some , include dose escalation , benzodiazepine abuse , tolerance and benzodiazepine dependence and benzodiazepine withdrawal problems . Both physiological tolerance and dependence can lead to a worsening of the adverse effects of benzodiazepines . Increased risk of death has been associated with long-term use of benzodiazepines in several studies ; however , other studies have not found increased mortality . Due to conflicting findings in studies regarding benzodiazepines and increased risks of death including from cancer , further research in long-term use of benzodiazepines and mortality risk has been recommended . Most of the research has been conducted in prescribed users of benzodiazepines ; even less is known about the mortality risk of illicit benzodiazepine users . The long-term use of benzodiazepines is controversial and has generated significant controversy within the medical profession . Views on the nature and severity of problems with long-term use of benzodiazepines differ from expert to expert and even from country to country ; some experts even question whether there is any problem with the long-term use of benzodiazepines .", "Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "Cleft Falls (Teton County, Wyoming) Cleft Falls is a cascade located in Garnet Canyon , Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming . The cascade drops approximately 50 ft in and is highly intermittent , fed by runoff from snowmelt and the Middle Teton Glacier . The falls can be reached by way of the Garnet Canyon Trail and is approximately 2 mi by trail east of Spalding Falls , while further downstream is Bannock Falls .", "Logistic Air Logistic Air is an airline that offers short and long-term aircraft leasing , including wet and dry leases .", "Baseball doughnut A baseball doughnut is a weighted ring that fits over the end of a baseball bat , used for warming up during a baseball game . A doughnut is thought to help increase bat speed . Doughnuts can weigh as little as 4 oz . and as much as 28 oz . Players feel baseball doughnuts increase bat velocity because after warming up with a baseball doughnut then decreasing the weight after taking the doughnut off , the swing feels faster . The heavier load of the weighted bat stimulates the neural system and increases muscle activation during lighter bat swings . Researchers have found that muscle contractions are stronger after reaching near maximal loads . One research study also found that additional weight added to the bat may strengthen the muscles of the forearms and wrists . Baseball doughnuts are based on the theory of complex training , which alternates the use of heavier and lighter weights to increase explosive power . By increasing the number of motor units recruited this training increases muscle performance . The doughnut was created by former New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard . Howard , in 1955 , was the first African-American player on the Yankees ' roster . He played catcher and the outfield during his time with the Yankees . The first team to invest in Howard 's product was the St. Louis Cardinals . This essentially got players out of the habit of swinging multiple bats to warm up . While Howard is credited with inventing the doughnut , he did not make the amount of money he had hoped due to other companies making their own versions of the batting doughnut . Howard and his supporters did not have the funds to take the companies to court . During a game , you can find the doughnut lying in the on-deck circle . The player in the on-deck circle normally swings a bat and stretches to prepare for his at-bat . The different doughnuts weigh varying amounts . The doughnut is discarded in the on-deck circle when the player moves into the batter 's box . The weight was later dubbed the `` doughnut '' and the `` iron doughnut '' . In 2011 The Wall Street Journal reported a study from the University of Hawaii that showed using a bat doughnut actually decreased a batter 's speed at the plate after warming up with a baseball doughnut . Researchers claim the use of a baseball doughnut can change the muscles recruited and therefore creates inefficient hitting mechanics . A study conducted by California State University , Fullerton found that recreational baseball players warming up with a light and normal weight bat produced faster bat velocity compared to weighted bat warm-ups . Most research studies have found that the weighted bat doughnut has a positive mental effect yet negative physical effect . The `` kinesthetic illusion '' created by the bat doughnut makes players believe they are swinging the standard bat post warm-up with the bat doughnut when the subsequent swings are in fact , slower This effect influences batters hitting mechanics and timing of swing . The length of time between warming up with a baseball doughnut and swinging at a pitch also seems to have an effect . Researchers in Japan found that post warm-up with a weighted bat doughnut , the first swing had the slowest bat velocity This may affect a baseball player 's decision of which pitch to swing at while at bat . Although baseball doughnuts are widely used among Major League Baseball players as well as high school and college players , the beneficial or detrimental short-term effects are inconclusive in research . However , long-term use of batting doughnuts increases upper body strength therefore increasing bat velocity For safety reasons , some leagues have begun to prohibit the use of baseball doughnuts . In 2012 Little League revised their Senior League rules to prohibit the use of `` traditional batting donuts '' .", "Glacier Falls (Teton County, Wyoming) Glacier Falls is a cascade located in Glacier Gulch , Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming . The cascade drops approximately 300 ft in Glacier Gulch , fed by runoff from the Teton Glacier . More than a .5 mi below Delta Lake , Glacier Falls is a highly intermittent waterfall that is usually at peak flow during late spring and early summer snowmelt .", "Health effects of alcohol Health effects of alcohol may refer to : Alcohol intoxication Short-term effects of alcohol consumption Long-term effects of alcohol consumption Health effects of wine", "Bannock Falls (Teton County, Wyoming) Bannock Falls is a cascade located at the entrance to Garnet Canyon , Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming . The cascade drops over 200 ft and is intermittent , fed by runoff from snowmelt and the Middle Teton Glacier . The falls can be reached by way of the Garnet Canyon Trail and is approximately 2 mi by trail south of Lupine Meadows . The falls can easily be seen from the Bradley Lake Trail .", "Moist county In the United States , a moist county is a county in between a `` dry county '' ( where the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited ) and a `` wet county '' ( where alcohol is sold ) . The term is typically used for any county that allows alcohol to be sold in certain situations , but has limitations on alcohol sales that a normal `` wet '' county would not have . Some historically `` dry '' counties are switching to this system to avoid losing money to businesses in other counties , but do not wish to become completely `` wet . '' The term in itself does not have any specific meaning , just that the county is not completely `` wet '' but is not `` dry '' , either . The terms are applicable in states in which each county makes its own rules on alcohol sales . A `` dry '' county that contains one or more `` wet '' cities is typically called `` moist '' .", "Air pressurized water Air pressurized water ( APW ) extinguishers are a type of fire extinguisher that use ordinary water ( H2O ) to suppress fire . The water is propelled by ordinary air ( atmosphere ) , pressurized in the extinguisher . They are also known by the slang term water can . Although only effective on Class A fires , they have the advantages of being inexpensive to build and maintain , and leaving no special chemical residue when used . Some APW extinguishers add a wetting agent to make the water penetrate the surface of materials quicker .", "Wet boxer contest The wet boxer-short contest is a form of beauty contest featuring men in their underwear , analogous to the wet t-shirt contest that features women . However , unlike a wet T-shirt contest the water used is warm instead of cold . Some feminists have disputed the comparison , claiming that the contests are degrading for women and not for men because of sexism . Wet boxer contests are also held in gay bars .", "Crank machine The crank machine was a device which turned a crank by hand which in turn forced four large cups or ladles through sand inside a drum , doing nothing useful . Male prisoners had to turn the handle 14,400 times a day , as registered on a dial . The warder could make the task harder by tightening an adjusting screw , hence the slang term `` screw '' for prison warder .", "Wet floor Wet floor may refer to : Wet floor sign Wet floor effect", "Long-term effects of cannabis The long-term effects of cannabis have been the subject of ongoing debate . Because cannabis is illegal in most countries , research presents a challenge ; as such , there remains much to be concluded .", "Navarretia capillaris Navarretia capillaris ( formerly Gilia capillaris ) is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name miniature gilia . It is native to the western United States where it grows in wet , gravel-lined habitat especially in mountains , such as snowmelt runs . It produces glandular stems coated thinly in hairs and lined with small lance-shaped or linear leaves only one or two millimeters wide . The tiny stem is topped with an inflorescence of one or more flowers each roughly a centimeter long . The calyx is an elongated pocket of fused sepals with lobes separating at the top . The fuzzy , glandular corolla is white to light blue with a yellowish throat .", "Jakarta gubernatorial election, 2017 Two rounds of a gubernatorial election were held in Jakarta on 15 February and 19 April 2017 to elect the Governor of Jakarta to a five-year term . Incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama , popularly referred to as `` Ahok '' , and his deputy Djarot Saiful Hidayat were running for re-election to a second term . Basuki , who inherited his current position from his running mate Joko Widodo when he won the 2014 Indonesian presidential election , would have become the first elected Chinese-Christian governor of Jakarta had he won . Under the constitution , if no candidate secured a majority of the votes , a runoff election would be held between the top two candidates . The results of quick counts in the first round indicated that Purnama led by a narrow 3 -- 4 % margin , and that a runoff would be held on 19 April . Quick counts for the 19 April runoff indicated that Anies Baswedan was elected as governor ; Ahok concedes defeat hours after the polls closed . The official results of the election is Anies Baswedan - Sandiaga Uno 57.96 % to Basuki Tjahaja Purnama - Djarot Saiful Hidayat 42.04 % published by the KPU in May ; however , unofficial tallies from the election commission showed that Baswedan won 58 % to Ahok 's 42 % .", "Dry for wet Dry for wet is a film technique in which smoke , colored filters , and/or lighting effects are used to simulate a character being underwater while filming on a dry stage . Fans and slow motion can be used to make hair or clothing appear to float in the current . In recent years , it has become possible to digitally add rising bubbles in post-production , heightening the realism .", "Effects of global warming on human health The effects of global warming include effects on human health . The observed and projected increased frequency and severity of climate related impacts will further exacerbate the effects on human health . This article describes some of those effects on individuals and populations ." ]

[ "Troposphere The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth 's atmosphere , and is also where nearly all weather takes place . It contains approximately 75 % of the atmosphere 's mass and 99 % of the total mass of water vapor and aerosols . The average depths of the troposphere are 20 km in the tropics , 17 km in the mid latitudes , and 7 km in the polar regions in winter . The lowest part of the troposphere , where friction with the Earth 's surface influences air flow , is the planetary boundary layer . This layer is typically a few hundred meters to 2 km deep depending on the landform and time of day . Atop the troposphere is the tropopause , which is the border between the troposphere and stratosphere . The tropopause is an inversion layer , where the air temperature ceases to decrease with height and remains constant through its thickness . The word troposphere derives from the for `` turn , turn toward , trope '' and '' - sphere '' ( as in , the Earth ) , reflecting the fact that rotational turbulent mixing plays an important role in the troposphere 's structure and behaviour . Most of the phenomena associated with day-to-day weather occur in the troposphere .", "Water on Mars Almost all water on Mars today exists as ice , though it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere and occasionally as low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil . The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap . Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate latitudes . More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars , enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters . Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface . Some liquid water may occur transiently on the Martian surface today , but only under certain conditions . No large standing bodies of liquid water exist , because the atmospheric pressure at the surface averages just 600 Pa -- about 0.6 % of Earth 's mean sea level pressure -- and because the global average temperature is far too low ( 210 K ) , leading to either rapid evaporation ( sublimation ) or rapid freezing . Before about 3.8 billion years ago , Mars may have had a denser atmosphere and higher surface temperatures , allowing vast amounts of liquid water on the surface , possibly including a large ocean that may have covered one-third of the planet . Water has also apparently flowed across the surface for short periods at various intervals more recently in Mars ' history . On December 9 , 2013 , NASA reported that , based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus , Gale Crater contained an ancient freshwater lake that could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life . Many lines of evidence indicate that water is abundant on Mars and has played a significant role in the planet 's geologic history . The present-day inventory of water on Mars can be estimated from spacecraft imagery , remote sensing techniques ( spectroscopic measurements , radar , etc. ) , and surface investigations from landers and rovers . Geologic evidence of past water includes enormous outflow channels carved by floods , ancient river valley networks , deltas , and lakebeds ; and the detection of rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water . Numerous geomorphic features suggest the presence of ground ice ( permafrost ) and the movement of ice in glaciers , both in the recent past and present . Gullies and slope lineae along cliffs and crater walls suggest that flowing water continues to shape the surface of Mars , although to a far lesser degree than in the ancient past . Although the surface of Mars was periodically wet and could have been hospitable to microbial life billions of years ago , the current environment at the surface is dry and subfreezing , probably presenting an insurmountable obstacle for living organisms . In addition , Mars lacks a thick atmosphere , ozone layer , and magnetic field , allowing solar and cosmic radiation to strike the surface unimpeded . The damaging effects of ionizing radiation on cellular structure is another one of the prime limiting factors on the survival of life on the surface . Therefore , the best potential locations for discovering life on Mars may be in subsurface environments . On November 22 , 2016 , NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice on the planet Mars -- the volume of water detected is equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior . Understanding water on Mars is vital to assess the planet 's potential for harboring life and for providing usable resources for future human exploration . For this reason , ` Follow the Water ' was the science theme of NASA 's Mars Exploration Program ( MEP ) in the first decade of the 21st century . Discoveries by the 2001 Mars Odyssey , Mars Exploration Rovers ( MERs ) , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) , and Mars Phoenix lander have been instrumental in answering key questions about water 's abundance and distribution on Mars . The ESA 's Mars Express orbiter has also provided essential data in this quest . The Mars Odyssey , Mars Express , MER Opportunity rover , MRO , and Mars Science Lander Curiosity rover are still sending back data from Mars , and discoveries continue to be made .", "Eocene The Eocene ( -LSB- pronˈiːəˌsiːn , _ ˈiːoʊ - -RSB- ) Epoch , lasting from , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch . The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C . The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure ( the `` Great Break '' in continuity ) or the Eocene -- Oligocene extinction event , which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay . As with other geologic periods , the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified , though their exact dates are slightly uncertain . The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς ( ēṓs , `` dawn '' ) and καινός ( kainós , `` new '' ) and refers to the `` dawn '' of modern ( ` new ' ) fauna that appeared during the epoch .", "Atmosphere of Venus The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''", "Snowball Earth The Snowball Earth hypothesis proposes that Earth 's surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once , sometime earlier than 650 Mya ( million years ago ) . Proponents of the hypothesis argue that it best explains sedimentary deposits generally regarded as of glacial origin at tropical palaeolatitudes , and other enigmatic features in the geological record . Opponents of the hypothesis contest the implications of the geological evidence for global glaciation and the geophysical feasibility of an ice - or slush-covered ocean , and emphasize the difficulty of escaping an all-frozen condition . A number of unanswered questions remain , including whether the Earth was a full snowball , or a `` slushball '' with a thin equatorial band of open ( or seasonally open ) water . The snowball Earth episodes occurred before the sudden radiation of multicellular bioforms , known as the Cambrian explosion . The most recent snowball episode may have triggered the evolution of multicellularity . Another , much earlier and longer snowball episode , the Huronian glaciation , which occurred 2400 to 2100 Mya , may have been triggered by the first appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere , the `` Great Oxygenation Event . ''" ]

[ "Ammonia fountain The ammonia fountain is a type of chemical demonstration . The experiment consists of introducing water through an inlet to a container filled with ammonia gas . Ammonia dissolves into the water and the pressure in the container drops . As a result , more water is forced into the container from another inlet creating a fountain effect . The demonstration introduces concepts like solubility and the gas laws at entry level . A different gas of comparable solubility in water , such as hydrogen chloride , can be used instead of ammonia . If the ammonia is replaced by a liquid vapor , such as water vapor , at a pressure higher than its room-temperature vapor pressure , a similar effect is produced . In this case , the reduction in pressure in the container is due to condensation of the vapor as the container cools to room temperature .", "Pressure-balanced valve A pressure-balanced valve provides water at nearly constant temperature to a shower or bathtub , despite pressure fluctuations in either the hot or cold supply lines . If , for example , someone flushes a toilet while the shower is in use , the fixture suddenly draws a significant amount of cold water from the common supply line , causing a pressure drop . In the absence of a compensating mechanism , the relatively higher pressure in the hot water supply line will cause the shower temperature to rise just as suddenly , possibly reaching an uncomfortable or even dangerous level . Conversely , if someone opens a hot water faucet elsewhere , the relatively higher pressure in the cold water supply line will cause the shower temperature to drop suddenly . The pressure-balanced shower valve compensates for changes in water pressure . It has a diaphragm or piston inside that reacts to relative changes in either hot or cold water pressure to maintain balanced pressure . As water pressure drops on one supply line , the valve reduces the pressure in the other supply line to match . A side effect of this is that the pressure and flow at the shower head or tub spigot will drop twice as much as if only one supply line had been affected , but without a large temperature change . There are ball bearings in the valves to regulate forces . The use of pressure-balanced valves can prevent scalding injuries , in particular to the elderly , the infirm , to children and infants . Based on that , some municipalities require by building codes to have it installed .", "Peninsula Lake (Alberta) Peninsula Lake is a lake in Alberta , Canada . The lake is located 160 km southeast of the city of Edmonton . The salinity of Peninsula Lake causes characteristics such as temperature , nutrient concentrations and plant and animal communities to contrast with those from freshwater lakes . The lake is contains high levels of sulphate , sodium and bicarbonate/carbonate concentrations which , are produced by saline groundwater in the region . In winter , the temperature of water under the ice drops to 0 ° C , extremely low , even for Alberta lakes . Although the lake contains high mineral levels , plant growth is sparse . A few planktonic invertebrates are exceptionally abundant , but there are fewer species than in freshwater lakes . There are no fish living in the lake . Category : Flagstaff County Peninsula Lake", "Cleveland open-cup method The Cleveland open-cup method is one of three main methods in chemistry for determining the flash point of a petroleum product using a Cleveland open-cup apparatus , also known as a Cleveland open-cup tester . First , the test cup of the apparatus ( usually brass ) is filled to a certain level with a portion of the product . Then , the temperature of this chemical is increased rapidly and then at a slow , constant rate as it approaches the theoretical flash point . The increase in temperature will cause the chemical to begin to produce flammable vapor in increasing quantities and density . The lowest temperature at which a small test flame passing over the surface of the liquid causes the vapor to ignite is considered the chemical 's flash point . This apparatus may also be used to determine the chemical 's fire point which is considered to have been reached when the application of the test flame produces at least five continuous seconds of ignition . The other principal methods of establishing chemical flash points are the Pensky -- Martens closed-cup test and the Tagliabue cup method ( often called simply the `` Tag method '' ) .", "Brine Brine is a solution of salt ( usually sodium chloride ) in water . In different contexts , brine may refer to salt solutions ranging from about 3.5 % ( a typical concentration of seawater , or the lower end of solutions used for brining foods ) up to about 26 % ( a typical saturated solution , depending on temperature ) . Other levels of concentration are called by different names : It is held that 0 F was initially set as the zero point in the Fahrenheit temperature scale , as it was the coldest possible temperature that Daniel G. Fahrenheit could reliably reproduce by freezing brine . By reference , seawater usually freezes at -2 C.", "Maximum parcel level The maximum parcel level ( MPL ) is the highest level in the atmosphere that a moist convectively rising air parcel will reach after ascending from the level of free convection ( LFC ) through the free convective layer ( FCL ) and reaching the equilibrium level ( EL ) , near the tropopause . As the parcel rises through the FCL it expands adiabatically causing its temperature to drop , often below the temperature of its surroundings , and eventually lose buoyancy . Because of this , the EL is approximately the region where the distinct flat tops ( called anvils ) often observed on cumulonimbus clouds form . If the air parcel ascended quickly enough then it retains momentum after it has cooled and continues rising past the EL , ceasing at the MPL ( visually represented by the overshooting top , above the anvil ) .", "Ground frost Ground frost refers to the various coverings of ice produced by the direct deposition of water vapor on objects and trees , whose surfaces have a temperature below the freezing point of water ( 0 ° C , 32 ° F ) .", "Humidity Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air . Water vapor is the gaseous state of water and is invisible to the human eye . Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation , dew , or fog . Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin . This effect is calculated in a heat index table or humidex . The amount of water vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases . As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will eventually reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass . The differences in the amount of water vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large . For example , a parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 30 ° C , but only 8 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 8 ° C. There are three main measurements of humidity : absolute , relative and specific . Absolute humidity is the water content of air expressed in gram per cubic meter . Relative humidity , expressed as a percent , measures the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum ( highest point ) for that temperature . Specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the total mass of the moist air parcel .", "Milk watcher A milk watcher , milk saver , pot watcher , pot minder , milk guard , or boil over preventer is a cooking utensil placed at the bottom of a pot to prevent boiling over of liquids , and especially the burning ( scorching ) of milk . A milk watcher is a disk with a raised rim , and is notched on one side ( see images ) . Some milk savers are designed so they can be used with the obverse or reverse side facing up , so they appear to have two notches . The interior of the disk is not level ; it slants upward toward the notched side creating a space just behind the notch where water vapor can collect . Water vapor is trapped under the Milk Saver causing the notched side to rise up , releasing the water vapor at the same time circulating liquid around the base of the pot and making a rattling noise .", "Raised shoreline A raised shoreline is an ancient shoreline exposed above current water level . These landforms are formed by a relative change in sea level due to global sea level rise , isostatic rebound , and/or tectonic uplift . These surfaces are usually exposed above modern sea level when a heavily glaciated area experiences a glacial retreat , causing water levels to rise . This area will then experience post-glacial rebound , effectively raising the shoreline surface . Examples of raised shorelines can be found along the coasts of formerly glaciated areas in Ireland and Scotland , as well as in North America . Raised shorelines are exposed at various locations around the Puget Sound of Washington State .", "Full pond Full pond is an American phrase used to describe the water level of a lake , reservoir or other body of fresh water when the level is just below the spillway , or is otherwise at a maximum , sustainable and safe level . Technically , a body of water can have a water level higher than full pond when the inflow of water into the body greatly exceeds the outflow ( such as during a heavy rain event ) , even if the body of water is not at full flood level . Most lakes and reservoirs have the ability to lower the level of the lake even when it is already significantly below full . This is used for flood prevention during periods of high ( or potentially high ) inflow to prevent flooding and to prevent water from breaching containment when it is expected the body of water will soon exceed full pond status .", "Vapor cone A vapor cone , also known as shock collar or shock egg , is a visible cloud of condensed water which can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air , for example an aircraft flying at transonic speeds . When the localized air pressure around the object drops , so does the air temperature . If the temperature drops below the saturation temperature a cloud forms . In the case of aircraft , the cloud is caused by expansion fans decreasing the air pressure , density and temperature below the dew point . Then pressure , density and temperature suddenly increase across the stern shock wave associated with a return to subsonic flow behind the aircraft . Since the local Mach number is not uniform over the aircraft , parts of the aircraft may be supersonic while others remain subsonic -- a flight regime called transonic flight . In addition to making the shock waves themselves visible , water condensation can also occur in the trough between two crests of the shock waves produced by the passing of the object . However , this effect does not necessarily coincide with the acceleration of an aircraft through the speed of sound or Mach 1 .", "Chromatic Spring Chromatic Spring is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States . It is connected to the nearby Beauty Pool . When the water level in one of the two pools rises and overflows , the water level in the other decreases . These fluctuations in water level take place over periods ranging from a few weeks to several years . During this energy shift , the temperatures can change about 10 F-change . Its temperature ranges from 164 to .", "Dome A Dome A or Dome Argus is the loftiest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau , located 1200 km inland . It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth ; scientists believe that temperatures can sometimes even drop below -102 ° C in the winter . It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica , consisting of an ice dome or eminence of 4093 m elevation above sea level . It is located near the center of East Antarctica , approximately midway between the enormous head of Lambert Glacier and the geographic South Pole , within the Australian claim .", "Bottlebrush (cave formation) Bottlebrushes are an uncommon cave formation which result from a rise in water level such that the stalactites become immersed . If the water is supersaturated with calcium carbonate the stalactite will become coated with pool spar .", "Eyes on the Earth Eyes on the Earth ( EoE ) is computer visualization software created by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) to visualize a number of NASA 's Earth orbiting spacecraft in-situ and the data they collect on the Earth itself . Originally released as a Unity web player interactive , it has undergone a number of iterations including the mobile app `` Earth Now '' . It lets users monitor earth 's vital signs , such as sea level height , atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and Antarctic ozone . Trace the movement of water around the globe using the gravity map from NASA 's GRACE satellites . Spot volcanic eruptions and forest fires using the carbon monoxide vital sign . Check out the hottest and coldest locations on Earth with the global surface temperature map.It also displays the location of all of NASA 's operating Earth-observing missions in real time and lets you compare them in size to a scientist or a school bus .", "Condensation cloud A transient condensation cloud , also called Wilson cloud , is observable at large explosions in humid air . When a nuclear weapon or a large amount of a conventional explosive is detonated in sufficiently humid air , the `` negative phase '' of the shock wave causes a rarefaction ( reduction in density ) of the air surrounding the explosion , but not contained within it . This rarefaction results in a temporary cooling of that air , which causes a condensation of some of the water vapor contained in it . When the pressure and the temperature return to normal , the Wilson cloud dissipates . Since heat does not leave the affected air mass , this change of pressure is adiabatic , with an associated change of temperature . In humid air , the drop in temperature in the most rarefied portion of the shock wave can bring the air temperature below its dew point , at which moisture condenses to form a visible cloud of microscopic water droplets . Since the pressure effect of the wave is reduced by its expansion ( the same pressure effect is spread over a larger radius ) , the vapor effect also has a limited radius . Such vapor can also be seen in low pressure regions during high -- g subsonic maneuvers of aircraft in humid conditions . Scientists observing the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946 at Bikini Atoll named that transitory cloud a `` Wilson cloud '' because of its similarity to the appearance of the inside of a Wilson cloud chamber , an instrument they would have been familiar with . ( The cloud chamber effect is caused by a temporary reduction in pressure in a closed system and marks the tracks of electrically-charged sub-atomic particles . ) Analysts of later nuclear bomb tests used the more general term condensation cloud . The shape of the shock wave , influenced by different speed in different altitudes , and the temperature and humidity of different atmospheric layers determines the appearance of the Wilson clouds . During nuclear tests , condensation rings around or above the fireball are commonly observed . Rings around the fireball may become stable and form rings around the rising stem of the mushroom cloud . The lifetime of the Wilson cloud during nuclear air bursts can be shortened by the thermal radiation from the fireball , which heats the cloud above the dew point and evaporates the droplets . The same kind of condensation cloud is sometimes seen above the wings of aircraft in a moist atmosphere . The top of a wing has a reduction of air pressure as part of the process of generating lift . This reduction in air pressure causes a cooling , just as above , and the condensation of water vapor . Hence , the small , transient clouds that appear . The vapor cone of a transonic aircraft is another example of a condensation cloud .", "Beauty Pool Beauty Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States . It is connected to the nearby Chromatic Spring . When the water level in one of the two pools rises and overflows , the water level in the other decreases . These fluctuations in water level take place over periods ranging from a few weeks to several years . During this energy shift , the temperatures can change about 10 ° F. Its temperature ranges from 164 to", "Spawning trigger Spawning triggers are environmental cues that cause fish to breed . Most commonly they involve sudden changes in the environment , such as changes in temperature , salinity , and the abundance of food . Catfish of the genus Corydoras , for example , spawn immediately after heavy rain , the specific cues being an increase in water level and a decrease in temperature . Discus , on the other hand , will breed when temperature goes up and there is an overabundance of prey such as mosquito larvae . Spawning triggers allow a species of fish to synchronise their breeding , making it more probable that individual fish will find a mate . However , many fish do not respond to specific spawning triggers and will breed either constantly ( e.g. , guppies ) ; at specific times of the year ( e.g. , grunion ) ; or only at a certain point in their life cycle ( e.g. , eels ) . Aquarists can sometimes trigger spawning by duplicating the natural conditions where fish would breed . Raising the water temperature , lowering the water level , and feeding mosquito larvae are examples of things that work for certain species . Category : Ichthyology Category : Fishkeeping Category : Fish reproduction", "Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "Fisheries and climate change Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "Fluoride volatility Fluoride volatility is the tendency of highly fluorinated molecules to vaporize at comparatively low temperatures . Heptafluorides , hexafluorides and pentafluorides have much lower boiling points than the lower-valence fluorides . Most difluorides and trifluorides have high boiling points , while most tetrafluorides and monofluorides fall in between . The term `` fluoride volatility '' is jargon used particularly in the context of separation of radionuclides .", "Volatility (chemistry) In chemistry and physics , volatility is quantified by the tendency of a substance to vaporize . Volatility is directly related to a substance 's vapor pressure . At a given temperature , a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure . The term is primarily written to be applied to liquids ; however , it may be used to describe the process of sublimation which is associated with solid substances , such as dry ice ( solid carbon dioxide ) and osmium tetroxide ( OsO4 ) , which can change directly from the solid state to a vapor , without becoming liquid .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Steam distillation Steam distillation is a special type of distillation ( a separation process ) for temperature sensitive materials like natural aromatic compounds . It once was a popular laboratory method for purification of organic compounds , but has become obsolete by vacuum distillation . Steam distillation remains important in certain industrial sectors . Many organic compounds tend to decompose at high sustained temperatures . Separation by distillation at the normal ( 1 atmosphere ) boiling points is not an option , so water or steam is introduced into the distillation apparatus . The water vapor carries small amounts of the vaporized compounds to the condensation flask , where the condensed liquid phase separates , allowing for easy collection . This process effectively allows for distillation at lower temperatures , reducing the deterioration of the desired products . If the substances to be distilled are very sensitive to heat , steam distillation may be applied under reduced pressure , thereby reducing the operating temperature further . After distillation the vapors are condensed . Usually the immediate product is a two-phase system of water and the organic distillate , allowing for separation of the components by decantation , partitioning or other suitable methods .", "Environmental issue Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "Relative humidity Relative humidity ( RH ) is the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature . Relative humidity depends on temperature and the pressure of the system of interest . It requires less water vapor to attain high relative humidity at low temperatures ; more water vapour is required to attain high relative humidity in warm or hot air .", "Angelo Battelli Angelo Battelli ( 28 March 1862 -- 11 December 1916 ) was an Italian scientist , notable for having measured temperatures and heats of fusion of non-metallic substances , metallic conductivities and thermoelectric effects in magnetic metals , and the Thomson effect . He investigated osmotic pressures , surface tensions , and physical properties of carbon disulfide ( CS2 ) , water ( H2O ) , and alcohols , especially their vapor pressures , critical points , and densities . He studied X-rays and cathode rays . He investigated the resistance of solenoids to high-frequency alternating currents .", "Copper vapor laser Copper vapor laser ( CVL ) uses vapors of copper as the lasing medium in a 3-level laser . It produces green laser light at 510.6 nm and yellow laser light at 578.2 nm . The pulse width is typically from 5 to 60 ns , and peak power from 50 to 5000 kW . Its pulse repetition frequencies can be 2 to 100 kHz . The average power of CVLs can range from 25 W to more than 2 kW . It is one of the lasers that can be home built . Lasers using pure metal vapor produced from an elemental copper source are difficult to construct because of the extremely high temperature , about 1500 degrees C , necessary to create such vapor , severely limiting the materials for the vapor containment vessel and mirrors . Copper halides , specifically copper chloride , copper bromide and copper iodide , have been substituted since they form vapors at much lower temperatures , in the range 300-600 degrees C , but operation at such temperatures remains difficult . Copper compound vapors also increase the complexity of the pump signal applied to the device . Typically , two energizing pulses in quick succession are required , the first to dissociate vapor molecules , and the second to cause the dissociated ions to lase . Operating temperature can be further reduced by the use of copper nitrate or copper acetylacetonate , whose vapors give peak laser output power at 180 and 40 degrees C , respectively . Using singly ionized species of Cu , researches have also demonstrated copper vapor lasers that are CW ( continuous-wave ) , i.e. , not pulsed , and lase at deep ultraviolet wavelengths . These lasers can provide average UV powers of several mW and are potentially useful for analytical instruments and spectroscopy . Copper vapor lasers are used in some machining and laser cutting applications . They can also be used in AVLIS isotope separation systems . In the AVLIS application the copper laser is used to excite tunable dye lasers . A review on copper-laser-pumped dye lasers is given by Webb in High Power Dye Lasers .", "Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event , or the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event , the Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event ( OAE 2 ) , and referred to in Europe as the Bonarelli Event , was one of two anoxic extinction events in the Cretaceous period . ( The other being the earlier Selli Event , or OAE 1a , in the Aptian . ) The OAE 2 occurred approximately 91.5 ± 8.6 Ma , though other estimates are given as 93-94 Ma . The event brought about the extinction of the Spinosauridae , Pliosauridae , and possibly Ichthyosauria ; although coracoids of Maastrichtian age may belong to ichthyosaurs , indicating the survival of the group until the latest Cretaceous . Other animals lost some diversity as well . Although the cause is still uncertain , the result starved the Earth 's oceans of oxygen for nearly half a million years , causing the extinction of approximately 27 percent of marine invertebrates . This global environmental disturbance increased atmospheric and oceanic temperatures . Boundary sediments show an enrichment of trace elements , and contain elevated δ13C values . One possible cause was sub-oceanic volcanism , possibly the Caribbean large igneous province , with increased activity approximately 500,000 years earlier . During that period , the rate of crustal production reached its highest level for 100 million years . This was largely caused by the widespread melting of hot mantle plumes under the oceans at the base of the lithosphere . This resulted in the thickening of the oceanic crust in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . This volcanism would have sent large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Within the oceans , the emission of SO2 , H2S , CO2 , and halogens would have increased the acidity of the water , causing the dissolution of carbonate , and a further release of carbon dioxide . When the volcanic activity declined , this run-away greenhouse effect would have likely been put into reverse . The increased CO2 content of the oceans could have increased organic productivity in the ocean surface waters . The consumption of this newly abundant organic life by aerobic bacteria would produce anoxia and mass extinction . The resulting elevated levels of carbon burial would account for the black shale deposition in the ocean basins .", "Sunken Forests of New Hampshire The Sunken Forests of New Hampshire are two large areas of tree stumps submerged off New Hampshire 's coast . They sank below sea level after the ending of the Wisconsin Glaciation and subsequent rise in temperature ; isostatic rebound has not kept pace with the rise in sea level , and former coastal forests were overtaken by the Atlantic Ocean . The trees could not thrive , even when they were in the early stages of sinking , because they can not live in salt water for very long . All that is left of the forests are stumps .", "Schottky anomaly The Schottky anomaly is an effect observed in solid-state physics where the specific heat capacity of a solid at low temperature has a peak . It is called anomalous because the heat capacity usually increases with temperature , or stays constant . It occurs in systems with a limited number of energy levels so that E ( T ) increases with sharp steps , one for each energy level that becomes available . Since Cv = ( dE/dT ) , it will experience a large peak as the temperature crosses over from one step to the next . This effect can be explained by looking at the change in entropy of the system . At zero temperature only the lowest energy level is occupied , entropy is zero , and there is very little probability of a transition to a higher energy level . As the temperature increases , there is an increase in entropy and thus the probability of a transition goes up . As the temperature approaches the difference between the energy levels there is a broad peak in the specific heat corresponding to a large change in entropy for a small change in temperature . At high temperatures all of the levels are populated evenly , so there is again little change in entropy for small changes in temperature , and thus a lower specific heat capacity . For a two level system the specific heat coming from the Schottky anomaly has the form : Where kBΔ is the energy between the two levels . This anomaly is usually seen in paramagnetic salts or even ordinary glass ( due to paramagnetic iron impurities ) at low temperature . At high temperature the paramagnetic spins have many spin states available , but at low temperatures some of the spin states are `` frozen out '' ( having too high energy due to crystal field splitting ) , and the entropy per impurity is lowered . It was named after Walter H. Schottky ." ]

[ "20th century The 20th century was a century that began on January 1 , 1901 and ended on December 31 , 2000 . It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium . It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s which began on January 1 , 1900 , and ended on December 31 , 1999 . The 20th century was dominated by a chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era : World War I and World War II , nuclear power and space exploration , nationalism and decolonization , the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts ; intergovernmental organizations and cultural homogenization through developments in emerging transportation and communications technology ; poverty reduction and world population growth , awareness of environmental degradation , ecological extinction ; and the birth of the Digital Revolution . It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life . The term `` short twentieth century '' was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991 . Global total fertility rates , sea level rise and ecological collapses increased ; the resulting competition for land and dwindling resources accelerated deforestation , water depletion . and the mass extinction of half the world 's estimated nine million unique species and wildlife population ; consequences which are now being dealt with . It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world 's population to reach 1 billion ; world population reached an estimated 2 billion in 1927 ; by late 1999 , the global population reached 6 billion . Global literacy averaged 80 % ; global lifespan-averages exceeded 40 + years for the first time in history , with over half achieving 70 + years ( three decades longer than it was a century ago ) .", "El Niño–Southern Oscillation El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Jens Jensen Summer House and Studio The Jens Jensen Summer House and Studio at 930-950 Dean Ave. in Highland Park , Illinois is associated with landscape architect Jens Jensen . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 .", "Jens Jensen Jens Jensen may refer to : Jens Jensen ( politician ) ( 1865 -- 1936 ) , Australian politician Jens Jensen ( landscape architect ) ( 1860 -- 1951 ) , Danish born landscape architect in Chicago , Illinois Jens Kristian Jensen ( 1885 -- 1956 ) , Danish gymnast and Olympic medalist ( 1890 -- 1957 ) , Danish football ( soccer ) player who played one game for the Denmark national football team Jens Jensen ( trade unionist ) ( 1859 -- 1928 ) , Danish trade unionist and Social Democratic politician Jens S. Jensen ( 1946 -- 2015 ) , Swedish photographer and writer", "Jens Nygård (sport shooter) Jens Jensen Nygård ( 7 August 1934 -- 3 September 2005 ) was a Norwegian sports shooter . He placed 69th in the 50 metre rifle , prone event at the 1972 Summer Olympics .", "Jens Billes visebog Jens Billes visebog ( ` Jens Bille 's song-book ' , Odense , Landsarkivet for Fyn , Karen Brahe E I ,2 , also called ` Jens Billes håndskrift ' and ` Jens Billes poesiebog ' and once known as ` Steen Billes Haandskrift ' ) is the second oldest major collection of Danish poetry , after the Heart Book . It was compiled in the second half of the 1550s .", "Jens Jensen (landscape architect) Jens Jensen ( September 13 , 1860 - October 1 , 1951 ) was a Danish-American landscape architect .", "Jens Kristian Jensen Jens Kristian Jensen ( 22 March 1885 -- 27 March 1956 ) was a Danish gymnast who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics . He was part of the Danish team , which won the silver medal in the gymnastics men 's team , Swedish system event .", "Japanese settlement in Kiribati Japanese presence in Kiribati dates back to the 20th century when labourers were hired to work in Kiribati 's phosphate mines . As compared to the other Micronesian countries which came under Japanese rule in the first half of the 20th century , the majority of the Japanese consisted of transient workers and only a few settled in Kiribati . Since Kiribati became independent in 1978 , a few Japanese have also taken permanent residence in Kiribati , and assumed important positions within Gilbertese society .", "Emigration from Kosovo A substantial emigration from Kosovo has been taken place in various phases during the second half of the 20th century . It is estimated that about a third of people of Kosovan descent currently live outside of Kosovo . Emigration has taken place in separate waves motivated mainly by economic reasons , but also as a result of the Kosovo War . The Kosovo diaspora is usually included in the wider Albanian diaspora with Albanians from Albania and Macedonia .", "Adolf Ellegard Jensen Adolf Ellegard Jensen ( 1 January 1899 in Kiel - 20 May 1965 in Mammolshain , Taunus ) was one of the most important German ethnologists of the first half of the 20th century . Jensen 's main research interests were myth , ritual and cult . He furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by Leo Frobenius . Jensen is mostly known for his research on religious sacrifice that led him to the introduction of the concept of Dema Deity . His best-known work is ` Myth and Cult Among Primitive Peoples ' , published in 1951 .", "Vapor-compression evaporation Vapor-compression evaporation is the evaporation method by which a blower , compressor or jet ejector is used to compress , and thus , increase the pressure of the vapor produced . Since the pressure increase of the vapor also generates an increase in the condensation temperature , the same vapor can serve as the heating medium for its `` mother '' liquid or solution being concentrated , from which the vapor was generated to begin with . If no compression was provided , the vapor would be at the same temperature as the boiling liquid/solution , and no heat transfer could take place . It is also sometimes called vapor compression distillation ( VCD ) . If compression is performed by a mechanically driven compressor or blower , this evaporation process is usually referred to as MVR ( mechanical vapor recompression ) . In case of compression performed by high pressure motive steam ejectors , the process is usually called thermocompression or steam compression .", "Major second In Western music theory , a major second ( sometimes also called whole tone ) is a second spanning two semitones . A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions ( see Interval number for more details ) . For example , the interval from C to D is a major second , as the note D lies two semitones above C , and the two notes are notated on adjacent staff positions . Diminished , minor and augmented seconds are notated on adjacent staff positions as well , but consist of a different number of semitones ( zero , one , and three ) . The major second is the interval that occurs between the first and second degrees of a major scale , the tonic and the supertonic . On a musical keyboard , a major second is the interval between two keys separated by one key , counting white and black keys alike . On a guitar string , it is the interval separated by two frets . In moveable-do solfège , it is the interval between do and re . It is considered a melodic step , as opposed to larger intervals called skips . Intervals composed of two semitones , such as the major second and the diminished third , are also called tones , whole tones , or whole steps . One source says step is `` chiefly US . '' The preferred usage has been argued since the 19th century : `` Mr. M. in teaching the Diatonic scale calls a tone a step , and a semitone a half step ; now , who ever heard of a step in music , or in sound ? Can any one suppose that a pupil will understand the meaning of tone and semitone any sooner by calling them step or half step , ... ? '' '' ... to use the term tone for a whole step is certainly objectionable ... '' In just intonation , major seconds can occur in at least two different frequency ratios : 9:8 ( about 203.9 cents ) and 10:9 ( about 182.4 cents ) . The largest ( 9:8 ) ones are called major tones or greater tones , the smallest ( 10:9 ) are called minor tones or lesser tones . Their size differs by exactly one syntonic comma ( 81:80 , or about 21.5 cents ) . Some equal temperaments , such as 15-ET and 22-ET , also distinguish between a greater and a lesser tone . The major second was historically considered one of the most dissonant intervals of the diatonic scale , although much 20th-century music saw it reimagined as a consonance . It is common in many different musical systems , including Arabic music , Turkish music and music of the Balkans , among others . It occurs in both diatonic and pentatonic scales . . Here , middle C is followed by D , which is a tone 200 cents sharper than C , and then by both tones together .", "Jens S. Jensen Jens Håkan Schleimann-Jensen , known as Jens S. Jensen ( 25 May 1946 -- 1 July 2015 ) was a Swedish photographer and writer . He is mainly known for his depictions of working class life in Gothenburg , Sweden . The works of Jens S. Jensen are in the collections of the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design and the Nordic Museum in Stockholm , the Hasselblad Centre in Gothenburg and the Museum of Modern Art in New York .", "Jens Fink-Jensen Jens Fink-Jensen ( born December 19 , 1956 ) is a Danish poet , author , photographer , composer and architect .", "Pyrotherapy Pyrotherapy ( artificial fever , therapeutic fever ) is a method of treatment by raising the body temperature or sustaining an elevated body temperature ( caused by a fever ) . In general , the body temperature was maintained at 41 ° Celsius ( 105 ° Fahrenheit ) . Many diseases were treated by this method in the first half of the 20th century . In general , it was done by exposing the patient to hot baths , warm air , or ( electric ) blankets .", "Oriental Orthodoxy in Germany Oriental Orthodoxy in Germany is part of the Oriental Orthodox Christian tradition . Before the beginning of 20th century , presence of Oriental Orthodox Christianity in Germany was minor , mainly represented by Armenian communities . It was gradually increasing in the second half of the century with immigration , mainly from the region of Middle East . Today , it is a growing community , well integrated into German society .", "History of Bangkok The history of the city of Bangkok , in Thailand , dates at least to the early 15th century , when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya . Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River , the town gradually increased in importance , and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there , on the river 's western bank . King Phutthayotfa Chulalok , who succeeded Taksin , moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782 , to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name , Krung Thep Maha Nakhon . Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes , growing rapidly , especially in the second half of the 20th century , to become the primate city of Thailand . It was the centre of Siam 's modernization in the late 19th century , subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War , and has long been the modern nation 's central political stage , with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years .", "Bom-Crioulo Bom-Crioulo : The Black Man and the Cabin Boy ( Bom-Crioulo ) is a novel by the Brazilian writer Adolfo Caminha , first published in 1895 . An English translation by E.A. Lacey was published in 1982 by Gay Sunshine . The novel was the first major literary work on homosexuality to be published in Brazil , and one of the first to have a black person as its hero . The novel caused a stir upon its publication but was almost forgotten in the first half of the 20th century . In the second half of the 20th century , the novel has been republished several times in Brazil and translated into English , Spanish , German , French and Italian .", "Holger J. Jensen Holger Jens Sophus Jensen ( 21 April 1900 -- 24 July 1966 ) was a Danish painter .", "Mormonism in the 20th century This is a timeline of major events in Mormonism in the 20th century . __ NOTOC __", "List of states of matter Classically , states of matter are distinguished by changes in specific heat capacity , pressure , and temperature . States are distinguished by a discontinuity in one of those properties : for example , raising the temperature of ice produces a clear discontinuity at 0 ° C as energy goes into phase transition , instead of temperature increase . In the 20th century , increased understanding of the more exotic properties of matter has resulted in many additional states of matter , none of which are observed in normal conditions .", "Hinduism in Wales Hinduism in Wales is of relatively recent provenance , with under half of Welsh Hindus having settled there in the second half of the 20th century . There were 10,434 Hindus in Wales in the 2011 Census , almost double the number in the 2001 census .", "W Corvi W Corvi is an eclipsing binary star system in the constellation Corvus , ranging from apparent magnitude 11.16 to 12.5 over 9 hours . Its period has increased by 1/4 second over a century . It is an unusual system in that its two stars are very close to each other yet have different surface temperatures and hence thermal transfer is not taking place as expected .", "Cobb School The Cobb School is a historic district schoolhouse at Cobb School Road and Bridgman Hill Road in Hardwick , Vermont . Built in the 1840s , it is a well-preserved example of a Greek Revival district school building . It served as a school until 1946 , aided by modernization steps taken in the early 20th century to maintain state standards . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 .", "René Burri René Burri ( 9 April 1933 -- 20 October 2014 ) was a Swiss photographer known for his photos of major political , historical and cultural events and key figures of the second half of the 20th century . Burri worked for Magnum Photos and photographed political , military and artistic figures and scenes since 1946 . He made portraits of Che Guevara and Pablo Picasso as well as iconic pictures of São Paulo and Brasília .", "Driven Crazy Driven Crazy is an Australian children 's television series , based on the short stories by author Paul Jennings . It first aired in 1998 , and was the second television series based on his works .", "Steam-powered vessels Steam-powered vessels include steamboats and steamships . Smaller steamboats were developed first . They were replaced by larger steamships which were often ocean-going . Steamships required a change in propulsion technology from sail to paddlewheel to screw to steam turbines . The latter innovation changed the design of vessels to one that could move faster through the water . Engine propulsion changed to Steam turbine in the early 20th century . In the latter part of the 20th century , these , in turn , were replaced by gas turbines . Steamship generally refers to larger steam-powered ships , usually ocean-going , capable of carrying a ( ship 's ) boat . The engine room , to the right , is a concept drawing during the construction of the ship . The term steam wheeler is archaic and rarely used . In England , `` steam packet '' , after its sailing predecessor , was the usual term ; even `` steam barge '' could be used ( Steam tonnage in Lloyd 's Register exceeded sailing ships tonnage by 1865 ) . The French transatlantic steamer was probably the last of her type to be equipped with sails , although she never used them . Steamships in turn were overtaken by diesel-driven ships in the second half of the 20th century . Most warships used steam propulsion from the 1860s until the late 20th century", "Hydroelectric power in Colombia With seventy percent of Colombia 's power generation , hydroelectric power is a very important national energy source . The total large hydropower potential for Colombia is estimated at 93GW , with an additional 25GW of small hydropower ( < 20MW ) . However , the potential for large hydropower faces difficulties , as the best sites have already been developed , also due to the escalating environmental and social costs associated with large dams , and the likely impacts of climate change and climate variability on the hydrological regime of the country ( drastic increases in surface temperature in the Andes , changes in precipitation patterns , and increases in the intensity and frequency of El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) signals driving prolonged periods of drought ) .", "Drought in Canada Prolonged , large-area droughts are among Canada 's costliest natural disasters having major impacts on a wide range of sectors including agriculture , forestry , industry , municipalities , recreation , human health , society and ecosystems . They frequently stress water availability by depleting soil moisture , reducing stream flows , lowering lake and reservoir levels , and diminishing groundwater supplies . This ultimately affects several economic activities including for example , decreased agricultural production , less hydro-electric power generation , and increased freshwater transportation costs . Droughts also create major environmental hazards such as reduced water quality , wetland loss , soil erosion and degradation , and ecological habitat destruction . Although most regions of Canada have experienced drought , many of the southern regions of the Canadian Prairies and interior British Columbia are most susceptible . During the past two centuries , at least 40 droughts have occurred in western Canada with multi-year episodes being observed in the 1890s , 1910s , 1930s , 1960s , 1980s , and the early 2000s . Droughts in southern Ontario/Quebec are usually shorter , smaller in area , less frequent , and less intense . Nonetheless , there have been some major drought occurrences there as well during the 20th century . Droughts in the Atlantic Provinces occur even less frequently . Droughts are less of a concern for northern Canada mainly due to their lower population densities . However , increased frequencies of forest fires during drought years can have serious economic impacts . Rarely has drought been as serious or extensive as the recent 1999-2004 episode . This was the worst drought for at least a hundred years in parts of the Canadian Prairies . Well below normal precipitation was reported in areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan for more than four consecutive years extending from autumn 1999 to spring 2004 . No single year on record between Medicine Hat , Kindersley , and Saskatoon was drier than in 2001 . The years 2001 and 2002 may have also brought the first coast-to-coast droughts on record , and were rare as they struck areas less accustomed to dealing with droughts including parts of Atlantic Canada and the northern agricultural prairies ( see Figure 1 ) . Canada 's Gross Domestic Product fell $ 5.8 billion for 2001 and 2002 . In addition , previously reliable water supplies such as streams , wetlands , reservoirs , and groundwater were placed under stress and often failed . For example , the number of natural Prairie ponds in May 2002 was the lowest on record while in 2001 , Great Lakes-St . Lawrence water levels plunged to their lowest point in more than 30 years , thereby significantly increasing marine transportation costs . In British Columbia and Manitoba , hydro-electric generation was curtailed , necessitating additional purchases of power from neighboring jurisdictions . In 2002 , the incidence of forest fires in Alberta increased to five times the ten-year average while in summer 2003 , populated regions of interior British Columbia were stricken by drought-enhanced fires . Long-lasting impacts include soil degradation by wind erosion and deterioration of grasslands that could take decades and longer to recover . High surface temperatures intensify droughts by enhancing evapotranspiration in summer , and increasing sublimation and melting of the snowpack during winter . During the 20th century , mean annual air temperature has increased by around 1 ° C over southern Canada with the greatest warming in the west and the largest rates during winter and spring . Over the same period , annual precipitation has significantly increased over most of southern Canada with the exception of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan . Coincident with the large increases in spring temperature , the 1980s to the present have been associated with rapid reductions in snow cover during the second half of the snow season . Over the last 30 to 50 years , average stream flow has decreased in many parts of Canada with significant reductions in the south . Great Lakes ' water levels have shown substantial variability during the 20th century with no evidence of a long-term trend . Lower levels coincided with the droughts of the 1930s , early 1960s , and the recent 1999-2001 dry period . Over the Prairies , the numbers and water levels of wetlands have shown no clear trend over the last 40 to 50 years . Indices used to measure drought show considerable decadal-scale variability with no long-term trends discernible in any portion of the country . Most southern regions of Canada , however , experienced drought conditions during the late 1990s to early 2000s . The worst and most prolonged Canadian Prairie-wide droughts during the instrumental period occurred in the early part of the 20th century ( 1920s and 1930s ) . Paleo studies over the southwestern Canadian Prairies using tree ring chronologies dating back to 1597 indicate that the 20th century lacked the prolonged droughts of the 18th and 19th Centuries when droughts were evident for decades at a time .", "Depolymerization Depolymerization ( or depolymerisation ) is the process of converting a polymer into a monomer or a mixture of monomers . All polymers depolymerize at high temperatures , a process driven by an increase in entropy .", "Wenker synthesis The Wenker synthesis is an organic reaction converting a beta amino alcohol to an aziridine with the aid of sulfuric acid . The original Wenker synthesis of aziridine itself takes place in two steps . In the first step ethanolamine is reacted with sulfuric acid at high temperatures ( 250 ° C ) to form the sulfate mono-ester . This salt is then reacted with sodium hydroxide in the second step forming aziridine . The base abstracts an amine proton enabling it to displace the sulfate group . A modification of this reaction involving lower reaction temperatures ( 140 -- 180 ° C ) and therefore reduced charring increases the yield of the intermediate . The Wenker synthesis protocol using trans-2-aminocyclooctanol , available from reaction of ammonia with the epoxide of cyclooctene , gives a mixture of cyclooctenimine ( the Wenker aziridine product ) and cyclooctanone ( a competing Hofmann elimination product ) .", "Uniflow steam engine The uniflow type of steam engine uses steam that flows in one direction only in each half of the cylinder . Thermal efficiency is increased in the compound and multiple expansion types of steam engine by separating expansion into steps in separate cylinders ; in the uniflow design , thermal efficiency is achieved by having a temperature gradient along the cylinder . Steam always enters at the hot ends of the cylinder and exhausts through ports at the cooler centre . By this means , the relative heating and cooling of the cylinder walls is reduced .", "Viggo Jensen Alexander Viggo Jensen ( 22 June 1874 -- 2 November 1930 ) was a Danish weightlifter , shooter , gymnast , and athlete . He was the first Danish Olympic champion , at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens . The first weightlifting event held was the two-handed lift , in a style now known as the clean and jerk . Jensen and Launceston Elliot of Great Britain and Ireland finished the competition tied at 111.5 kilograms , though the judges declared Jensen had performed the lift with better form and would be awarded first place . The British delegation protested , resulting in more attempts being given both lifters to improve their scores . Neither did and therefore Jensen retained first place , but he had injured his shoulder in the extra attempts . That injury hampered Jensen 's efforts in the one-handed lift , the snatch . He was able to lift only 57.0 kilograms to Elliot 's 71.0 kilograms , taking second place in the event . Jensen competed in the shot put , placing fourth . He was not among the top four in the discus throw , placing sixth . In the gymnastics competitions , Jensen entered the rope climbing event . He did not finish the climb , placing fourth behind the two Greeks who did reach the top of the 14 metre rope and Fritz Hofmann , who had gotten higher than Jensen . He was ahead of Launceston Elliot in the event . He also competed in the two rifle events . In the military rifle , Jensen placed sixth with a score of 1,640 points and 30 hits of 40 shots . The free rifle was more successful for him , as he finished third at 1,305 points on 31 hits . His scores for each string of 10 shots were 392 , 423 , 280 , and 210 ." ]

[ "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Runaway climate change Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system , after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback . This is thought to cause the climate to rapidly change until it reaches a new stable condition . These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about rapid global warming . Some astronomers use the expression runaway greenhouse effect to describe a situation where the climate deviates catastrophically and permanently from the original state -- as happened on Venus . Although these terms are rarely used in the peer-reviewed climatological literature , that literature does use the similar phrase `` runaway greenhouse effect '' , which refers specifically to climate changes that cause a planetary body 's water to boil off .", "Climate change in Europe Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "Scientific opinion on climate change The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "ExxonMobil climate change controversy The ExxonMobil climate change controversy is the controversy around ExxonMobil 's activities related to climate change , especially their promotion of climate change denial . Since the 1970s , ExxonMobil engaged in research , lobbying , advertising , and grant making , some of which were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on global warming . From the late 1970s and through the 1980s , Exxon funded internal and university collaborations , broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach . After the 1980s , the company was a leader in climate change denial , opposing regulations to curtail global warming . ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels . Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions .", "Climate governance In political ecology and environmental policy , climate governance is the diplomacy , mechanisms and response measures `` aimed at steering social systems towards preventing , mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change '' . A definitive interpretation is complicated by the wide range of political and social science traditions ( including comparative politics , political economy and multilevel governance ) that are engaged in conceiving and analysing climate governance at different levels and across different arenas . In academia , climate governance has become the concern of geographers , anthropologists , economists and business studies scholars . In the past two decades a paradox has arisen between rising awareness about the causes and consequences of climate change and an increasing concern that the issues that surround it represent an intractable problem . Initially , climate change was approached as a global issue , and climate governance sought to address it on the international stage . This took the form of Multilateral Environmental Agreements ( MEAs ) , beginning with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCC ) in 1992 . With the exception of the Kyoto Protocol , international agreements between nations have been largely ineffective in achieving legally binding emissions cuts and with the end of the Kyoto Protocol 's first commitment period in 2012 , starting from 2013 there is no legally binding Global climate regime . This inertia on the international political stage contributed to alternative political narratives that called for more flexible , cost effective and participatory approaches to addressing the multifarious problems of climate change . These narratives relate to the increasing diversity of methods that are being developed and deployed across the field of climate governance .", "4Change 4Change , formerly known as the Climate Change Coalition ( CCC ) , was an Australian political party , which was formed in 2007 with a view to accelerate action by politicians from all parties on global warming and climate change . Its position on working towards addressing climate change , stresses cooperation with big business in order to achieve significant progress on the issue . The party therefore advocates a close working relationship between environmentalists and the business community . The CCC was registered as a political party with the Australian Electoral Commission ( AEC ) on 4 September 2007 and deregistered on 25 March 2010 .", "Global warming game A global warming game , also known as a climate game or a climate change game , is a type of serious game . As a serious game , it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience . The issues particular to a global warming video game are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus counteract global warming . Global warming games also include more traditional board games , video games , as well as other varieties .", "Green paradox The green paradox , identified by German economist Hans-Werner Sinn , is the observation that an environmental policy that becomes greener with the passage of time acts like an announced expropriation for the owners of fossil fuel resources , inducing them to accelerate resource extraction and hence to accelerate global warming .", "Alan Carlin Alan Carlin ( born 1937 ) , is an American economist specializing in cost-benefit analysis and the economics of global climate change control .", "American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment The American College & University Presidents ' Climate Commitment ( ACUPCC ) is a `` high-visibility effort '' to address global warming ( global climate disruption ) by creating a network of colleges and universities that have committed to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth 's climate . Second Nature is the main supporting organization of the ACUPCC .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Drawdown (climate) Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis . Drawdown is a goal for reversing climate change , and eventually reducing global average temperatures . Project Drawdown is a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken and climate activist Amanda Joy Ravenhill . Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the `` 100 most substantive solutions to global warming . '' The list , encompassing only technologically viable , existing solutions , was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars , scientists , policymakers , business leaders and activists ; for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050 , the total and net cost to society , and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled .", "Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "Ross McKitrick Ross McKitrick is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis . He is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph , and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute . He is a member of the academic advisory boards of the John Deutsch Institute , the Global Warming Policy Foundation , and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation . He has authored works about climate change issues , including co-authoring the book Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming in 2003 . McKitrick produced a series of videos and articles for the Friends of Science in which he argued that there is a `` pause '' in global warming that reveals flaws in current climate change models . The Friends of Science argue that the sun -- not human emissions of GHG -- is the main driver of climate change .", "Hurricane Katrina and global warming The tremendous destruction caused by recent Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones , such as Hurricanes Katrina , Wilma , and Sandy caused a substantial upsurge in interest in the subject of global warming by news media and the wider public , and concerns that global climatic change may have played a significant role in those events . Time Magazine , for example , published an article titled , `` Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina ? '' -- however , the article itself addressed hurricanes in general , rather than Katrina specifically , and was inconclusive . Shortly after the hurricane , former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan wrote an op-ed piece for the Globe titled , `` Katrina 's Real Name '' , declaring that the hurricane 's `` real name is global warming . '' Gelbspan went on to assert : `` Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida , it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico . '' Gelbspan did not single out Katrina from other recent storms in that regard ; in the article he went on to attribute other major weather events over the preceding year to global warming , including a blizzard in Los Angeles , high winds in Scandinavia , wildfires in Spain , and a drought centered in Missouri . Britain 's then deputy prime minister , John Prescott , has linked Katrina with global warming , and statements made shortly after the hurricane by Germany 's environment minister , Jürgen Trittin , indicate he believes that global warming is responsible for an increase in the frequency of destructive natural events . Kerry Emanuel had recently published a paper in the journal Nature that found a good correlation between hurricane intensity and sea surface temperatures . Some journalists have claimed Emanuel 's paper concludes that the recent increase in intense Atlantic storms is due to global warming , but Emanuel stated that `` it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming '' . The Internet blog RealClimate has written that `` there is no way to prove that Katrina either was , or was not , affected by global warming '' .", "Climate change feedback Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "The Real Global Warming Disaster The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "Global warming (disambiguation) Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Land surface effects on climate Land surface effects on climate are wide-ranging and vary by region . Deforestation and exploitation of natural landscapes play a significant role . Some of these environmental changes are similar to those caused by the effects of global warming .", "Climate inertia Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "Cheap meat Cheap meat is a term used to describe relatively inexpensive meat ( e.g. fatty cuts of lamb or mutton ) or to indicate that the consumer price of meat does not include the overall costs of industrial meat production . The term cheap meat is then either related to subsidies , to hidden costs or to non-material costs ( `` moral cost '' ) of meat production . Non-material costs can be related to issues such as animal welfare ( e.g. treatment of animals , over-breeding ) . The term is used by critics of the meat industry . The meat industry is subsidized with billions of dollars by governments who support their meat industries . The OECD estimates the total `` producer support '' in OECD countries for 2012 as follows : 18bn USD for beef and veal , 7.3 bn USD for pigmeat , 6.5 bn USD for poultry and 1bn USD for sheepmeat ( provisional numbers ) . Hidden costs of meat production can be related to the environmental impact of meat production and to the effect on human health ( such as resistant antibiotics ) .", "List of glaciers in Glacier National Park (U.S.) There are at least 35 named glaciers in Glacier National Park ( U.S. ) . In 1850 , the area now comprising the national park had 150 glaciers . There are 25 active glaciers remaining in the park today . Since the ice ages stopped 10,000 years ago , there have been many slight climate shifts causing periods of glacier growth or melt-back . The glaciers are currently being studied to see the effect of global warming It is estimated that if current warming trends continue , there will be no glaciers left in the park by 2030 .", "Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity ( TEEB ) is a study led by Pavan Sukhdev . It is an international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity . Its objective is to highlight the growing cost of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to draw together expertise from the fields of science , economics and policy to enable practical actions . TEEB aims to assess , communicate and mainstream the urgency of actions through its five deliverables -- D0 : science and economic foundations , policy costs and costs of inaction , D1 : policy opportunities for national and international policy-makers , D2 : decision support for local administrators , D3 : business risks , opportunities and metrics and D4 : citizen and consumer ownership . One motive for the study was to establish an objective global standard basis for natural capital accounting . Estimates establish the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem damage expected to cost 18 % of global economic output by 2050 and currently at over US$ 2T ( for the largest 3000 companies according to Trucost ) , with some estimates as high as US$ 6T/year . The World Bank in particular has led recent efforts to include the cost of biodiversity and climate harm in national accounts . Its sponsors declare TEEB to be a `` major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity , to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation , and to draw together expertise from the fields of science , economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward . '' In October 2010 it released its report `` Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature : a synthesis of the approach , conclusions and recommendations of TEEB '' and launched the Bank of Natural Capital to communicate its findings to the general public .", "Robert Balling Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "The Great Global Warming Swindle The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film ." ]

[ "Mike Hulme Michael ` Mike ' Hulme ( born 23 July 1960 ) is Professor of Climate and Culture in the Department of Geography at King 's College London . He was formerly professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) .", "Imagism Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear , sharp language . Imagism has been described as the most influential movement in English poetry since the activity of the Pre-Raphaelites . As a poetic style it gave Modernism its start in the early 20th century , and is considered to be the first organized Modernist literary movement in the English language . Imagism is sometimes viewed as ' a succession of creative moments ' rather than any continuous or sustained period of development . René Taupin remarked that ` It is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine , nor even as a poetic school , but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles ' . The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry , in contrast to their contemporaries , the Georgian poets , who were generally content to work within that tradition . In contrast , Imagism called for a return to what were seen as more Classical values , such as directness of presentation and economy of language , as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms . Imagists use free verse . Imagist publications appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured works by many of the most prominent modernist figures , both in poetry and in other fields . The Imagist group was centered in London , with members from Great Britain , Ireland and the United States . Somewhat unusually for the time , a number of women writers were major Imagist figures . A characteristic feature of Imagism is its attempt to isolate a single image to reveal its essence . This feature mirrors contemporary developments in avant-garde art , especially Cubism . Although Imagism isolates objects through the use of what Ezra Pound called `` luminous details '' , Pound 's Ideogrammic Method of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an abstraction is similar to Cubism 's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image ." ]

[ "John Hulme John Hulme may refer to : John Hulme ( footballer ) ( 1945 -- 2008 ) , English professional footballer John Hulme ( Derbyshire cricketer ) ( 1862 -- 1940 ) , English cricketer who played for Derbyshire 1887 -- 1903 John Hulme ( Shropshire cricketer ) ( born 1950 ) , Welsh cricketer who played for Shropshire John Hulme ( author )", "Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy A Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy is named in honour of Denny Hulme , a successful racing driver from New Zealand who died in 1992 ; trophies include : Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy ( Targa Tasmania ) , awarded at the end of the Targa Tasmania rally NZ Motor Cup : Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy , awarded in the Toyota Racing Series", "Holy Trinity, Hulme Holy Trinity was an Anglican parish church built in Hulme , Manchester in 1841 to a design by George Gilbert Scott and S. Moffat . Construction cost around # 18,000 and was funded by Eleanor Atherton , the last surviving child of Edward Byrom , who had himself founded St John 's Church , Manchester . Partially damaged by bombing in World War II , it was demolished in 1953 .", "Octant projection The octant projection or octants projection , is a type of projection proposed the first time , in 1508 , by Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus . Leonardo 's authorship would be demonstrated by Christoher Tyler paper , ( '' . . For those projections dated later than 1508 , his drawings should be effectively considered the original precursors . . '' ) in fact , there is a sketch of it on a page in the Codex Atlanticus manuscripts , made from the very hand of Leonardo , being Leonardo 's sketch , the first known description of the octant projection . The same page of the Codex contains sketches of eight other projections of the globe ( those known in the late fifteenth century ) , being studied by Leonardo , ranging from the Ptolemy 's conical planisphere projection to the one proposed by Rosselli ,", "Life in the Iron Mills Life in the Iron Mills is a short story ( or novella ) written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861 , set in the factory world of the nineteenth century . It is one of the earliest American realist works , and is an important text for those who study labor and women 's issues . It was immediately recognized as an innovative work , and introduced American readers to `` the bleak lives of industrial workers in the mills and factories of the nation . '' Life in the Iron Mills was initially published in The Atlantic Monthly in April 1861 . After being published anonymously , both Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne praised the work . Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward was also greatly influenced by Davis 's Life in the Iron Mills and in 1868 published in The Atlantic Monthly `` The Tenth of January '' , based on the 1860 fire at the Pemberton Mills in Lawrence , Massachusetts . Rebecca Harding Davis was considered one of the nation 's first social historians and pioneering literary artists . She wrote to find social change for blacks , women , immigrants , and the working class throughout the Civil War . Throughout her long career , Davis challenged traditional subjects and older styles of writing . Her family lived briefly in Big Springs , Alabama , before moving in 1837 to Wheeling , Virginia ( now West Virginia ) , on the Ohio River . Its iron mills and immigrant populations inspired the setting of Life in the Iron Mills .", "Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy (Targa Tasmania) The Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy is a motorsport honour awarded to the competitor who exhibits tenacity to overcome adversity while completing the Targa Tasmania . The award was first made in 1993 . The award is named in honour of Denny Hulme , a successful New Zealand driver who died in 1992 . During that year , he lost the first Targa Tasmania by only 9 seconds to Greg Crick despite competing furiously and having to overcome a number of obstacles that lesser drivers would have baulked at . He was never to return to the event . The day before he died , he commented enthusiastically to the Targa Tasmania founder , John Large , looking forward to the next year 's event . John chose to honour the driver by naming the trophy for him and presenting it at the next Targa Tasmania . Throughout his career , Denny Hulme had earned a reputation for being a fierce competitor and rarely giving up - epitomised by his persistent attempts to claim the win during the 1992 event . So to qualify for the award , a driver must `` overcome extreme hardship and adversity throughout the entire event and must cross the finish line on the Sunday night in Hobart '' .", "William Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme William Hulme Lever , 2nd Viscount Leverhulme , DL ( 25 March 1888 -- 27 May 1949 ) was the son of William Hesketh Lever and Elizabeth Ellen , daughter of Crompton Hulme of Bolton . He was educated at Eton College and graduated from Cambridge University ( Trinity College ) in 1913 with a master 's degree in the Arts . William Hulme Lever spent his early years at Thornton Manor which he inherited after his father 's death in 1925 .", "St Michael's Church, Hulme Walfield St Michael 's Church is in Giantswood Lane , Hulme Walfield , Cheshire , England . It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Congleton , the archdeaconry of Macclesfield , and the diocese of Chester . The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building . The authors of the Buildings of England series comment that it is `` an attractive building , and one for which money must have been spent generously '' .", "Transfer paper Transfer paper is used in textiles and arts & crafts projects . Often , an ink-jet or other printer is used to print an image on the paper . Then a heat press can transfer the image onto clothing , canvas , or other surface . Transfer paper is used in creating iron-ons .", "John Hulme (Shropshire cricketer) John Hulme ( born 13 November 1950 ) was a Welsh cricketer . He was a left-handed batsman who played for Shropshire . He was born in Chirk , Denbighshire . Hulme , who represented Gloucestershire Second XI in the 1970 season , and who represented Shropshire in the Minor Counties Championship between 1979 and 1983 , made his only List A appearance in his final year at the club , against Somerset . From the opening order , he scored ten runs .", "Paraburdoo, Western Australia Paraburdoo is a town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word for ` white cockatoo ' . It is located 1,536 kilometres north of Perth and 79 kilometres southwest of Tom Price . Paraburdoo was developed in the early 1970s to support Hamersley Iron 's ( now Pilbara Iron ) local iron ore mining operations , and gazetted as a town in 1972 . Most of the town 's residents are employed by Pilbara Iron 's mining operation and the supporting services . The region is served by Paraburdoo Airport , which is situated 9 km from the town . The town provides housing to workers of the three near-by Rio Tinto mines , those being the Channar , Eastern Range and Paraburdoo mine .", "Melanie Hulme Melanie Hulme ( born 16 December 1976 ) is a New Zealand softball player . She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , where the New Zealand team placed sixth in the women 's softball tournament .", "Lock, Hulme & Co. This Pembrokeshire bank was established by a Mr Hulme , who was a bank clerk . He worked for the Carmarthen Bank before its failure in 1832 , and went into partnership with a Mr Robert Lock . They traded under the name Lock , Hulme & Co. . The Bank opened a branch in Pembroke and was subsequently purchased by the London and Provincial Bank , Ltd. ( 1864 -- 1917 ) , in 1868 . This bank was itself absorbed by the London Provincial and South Western Bank Ltd. ( 1917 -- 1918 ) , which became a constituent bank of Barclays Bank . The Bank did not issue bank notes as this had been prohibited by Act of Parliament passed prior to the Bank 's foundation .", "Hulme, Staffordshire Hulme is a hamlet on the outskirts of the city of Stoke-on-Trent , in the English county of Staffordshire . Unlike Hulme End and Upper Hulme , Hulme village is situated on the city council owned boundary of Park Hall Country Park . Category : Hamlets in Staffordshire", "Darren Hulme Darren Hulme ( born 19 July 1977 ) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton . Hulme played junior football for the Frankston Bombers , and the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup . He was recruited to the AFL with the 8th selection in the 1997 AFL Preseason Draft . Very small in stature , but tough and hard at the ball , Hulme played primarily as a midfielder and/or tagger with stints in the forward-line . His kicking was the biggest deficiency in his game , but this improved as his career progressed . When he arrived at the club , both his playing style and his hairstyle were similar to that of ten-year veteran Fraser Brown ; Brown 's nickname had been `` Dog '' , and Hulme accordingly received the nickname `` Pup '' , which stayed with him throughout his time at Carlton . Hulme played eight games in his debut season . He went on to be a solid contributor for Carlton over a career spanning eight years , including a fifth-placing in the 2003 Best and Fairest , and tying with Craig Bradley and Adrian Hickmott for the Peter Sullivan Memorial Trophy ( most votes in the Brownlow Medal by a Carlton player ) in 2001 . His career was plagued by injury : a quadriceps injury ruled him out of the 1999 finals series , a knee injury meant he could only play the first 3 games of 2002 and he missed the second half of the 2004 season with a groin injury . He was delisted at the end of 2004 . Since being delisted , Hulme has continued to play state and local football for a wide range of teams : Mansfield ( GVFL ) in 2005 ; Karingal ( MPNFL Peninsula Division ) in 2006 and 2007 ; Clayton ( SFL ) as playing coach in 2008 ; Bendigo ( VFL ) , as playing assistant coach in 2009 ; a return to Karingal in 2010 , and then back to his junior team , Frankston Bombers ( MPNFL Nepean Division ) in 2011 and 2012 .", "Hulme F1 The Hulme F1 is a proposed sports car to be manufactured by New Zealand boutique company Hulme Supercars Ltd. . Its name is taken after the 1967 Formula One World Champion , New Zealander Denny Hulme . It is powered by the 7.0 L LS7 V8 sourced from the Chevrolet Corvette C6 and produces 600 hp However , mated to a 2182.7 lb weight gives it a power-to-weight ratio of 3.6 lb per hp .", "Declan Hulme Declan Hulme is a rugby league winger who plays for Workington Town . Born in St. Helens , Hulme started his career at Widnes and made his début against Salford at the end of the 2013 Super League season . He scored his first Vikings try during the 2014 season against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats .", "Cheadle Hulme South (Stockport electoral ward) Cheadle Hulme South is an electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport . It elects three Councillors to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council using the first past the post electoral method , electing one Councillor every year without election on the fourth . It covers the southern part of Cheadle Hulme and contains Cheadle Hulme Station , as well the Cheadle Conservative and Liberal Democrat Constituency offices . The ward has Cheadle Hulme High School located on Woods Lane . Together with Bramhall North , Bramhall South , Cheadle and Gatley , Cheadle Hulme North , Heald Green and Stepping Hill Wards it makes up the Cheadle Parliamentary Constituency .", "The Eye of the Storm (novel) The Eye of the Storm is the ninth published novel by the Australian novelist and 1973 Nobel Prize-winner , Patrick White . It tells the story of Elizabeth Hunter , the powerful matriarch of her family , who still maintains a destructive iron grip on those who come to say farewell to her in her final moments upon her deathbed . It is regarded as one of White 's best novels , largely owing to the reputation it received from the Swedish Academy when they specifically named it as the book that confirmed White 's designation as a Literature Laureate .", "The Iron Mine, Port Henry, New York The Iron Mine , Port Henry , New York ( c. 1862 ) is a painting by Homer Dodge Martin in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and measures 30 1/8 x 50 in . ( 76.5 x 127.0 cm . ) . The mine was in Craig Harbor near Port Henry , New York . After being loaded into barges the ore was taken to the nearby blast furnaces of the Bay State Iron Mine Company , and made into rails for railroads . `` Painted during the Civil War , Martin 's canvas quietly asserted the primacy of the North , whose strength lay in its natural resources and manufacturing . '' The nearby hills were `` one of the largest iron deposits in the country and the home of dozens of the 19th century 's most important iron-producing communities in America . '' The Iron Center Museum in Port Henry specializes in this history . Craig Harbor 's iron ore contained `` 65.23 percent metallic iron and was `` extremely tough , and difficult to reduce to a state of sufficient fineness for the forge . '' North of this location , at Ore Bed Harbor near Essex , New York , is Split Rock Mountain , described in 1868 as containing `` the largest deposit of Magnetic Ore in the State of New York . After being lost for a number of years , The Iron Mine , Port Henry was rediscovered in an unused room at the Knoedler Galleries in New York City by then-manager Roland Knoedler . Unsure of the painting 's attribution , he enlisted the advice of artist Edward Gay who recognized it as the work of Martin . Collector William T. Evans purchased the painting for $ 5,000 to give to the Smithsonian American Art Museum ( then called the National Gallery ) and Knoedler shared some of the profits with Homer Martin 's widow .", "Cheadle Hulme railway station Cheadle Hulme railway station is an open triangular station in Cheadle Hulme , Greater Manchester , England . It is on the West Coast Main Line and is operated by Northern . Cheadle Hulme 's first railway station opened in 1842 , when the Manchester and Birmingham Railway to Crewe was completed . With the extension of the line to Macclesfield , and later Stoke-on-Trent , a new station opened in 1845 which has served the area since . The railway transformed it from a collection of small hamlets into a suburb of over 29,000 people . 2011 saw the construction of pedestrian bridges linking all four platforms and lifts enabling disabled access .", "Symphony No. 37 (Haydn) The Symphony No. 37 in C major , Hob . I/37 , is a symphony by Joseph Haydn . The numbering is misleading , as it is one of Haydn 's earliest symphonies . A copy of the score at Český Krumlov is dated 1758 .", "Hulme End railway station Hulme End railway station is a disused railway station in Staffordshire , England . The station was the terminus of the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway which ran 8 +1 / 4 mi from where it made a connection with the standard gauge Waterhouses branch line of the North Staffordshire Railway . Opened in 1904 , the station had a single platform and a small goods yard with two sidings laid out for the use of transporter wagons , with a section of standard gauge track at the end of each siding . The station was also the servicing and storage point for the line 's locomotives and coaching stock with both a locomotive shed and a carriage shed being provided . The line became part of the London , Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 but the finances of the line were poor and the line closed in 1934 . After closure , the route 's right of way was acquired by Staffordshire County Council and the station site at Hulme End became a car park . The station building was retained and , now restored , is used as a visitor information centre .", "Commuter newspaper A commuter newspaper is a class of newspapers that are often free daily newspapers and `` part of a lifestyle of commuting into work . They represent a ` fast read ' for those with busy lifestyles , and tend to be rack-selected take-ones . '' The first commuter newspapers included Vancouver 's Georgia Strait , the Montreal Mirror , and New York City 's The Village Voice . In keeping with the newspaper 's intention to provide brief and direct accounts of the day 's news , the paper 's writing is more simplistic , intended to give readers the facts and news they desire succinctly . Accordingly , there are fewer sections in Metro than a traditional paper , and each section is much thinner . Instead of relying on subscriptions these papers are usually supported by advertising revenue .", "Gabriel graph In mathematics , the Gabriel graph of a set S of points in the Euclidean plane expresses one notion of proximity or nearness of those points . Formally , it is the graph with vertex set S in which any points P and Q in S are adjacent precisely if they are distinct and the closed disc of which line segment PQ is a diameter contains no other elements of S. Gabriel graphs naturally generalize to higher dimensions , with the empty disks replaced by empty closed balls . Gabriel graphs are named after K. R. Gabriel , who introduced them in a paper with R. R. Sokal in 1969 .", "Everything (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks album) Everything is a compilation album by Teenage Jesus and the Jerks , released on July 18 , 1995 by Atavistic Records . Despite its misleading title , it 's actually just a reissue of side one of Lydia Lunch 's ` Hysterie ' compilation album .", "Stark's ink Stark 's ink is one of a number of types of homemade inks whose recipes were widely available in the 19th century . People often made their own ink before commercially available ink was inexpensively and easily obtainable . Dr. James Stark was a chemist during the 19th century who experimented with ink recipes for 23 years . He tested 229 recipes for their durability on various kinds of paper to find the most stable iron gall ink recipe . He submitted his findings in 1855 to the Society of Arts in Edinburgh , Scotland . This recipe was the one he personally used .", "Wound Medal (Independent State of Croatia) Wound Medal is established `` in honor of those who , as homeland defenders , were wounded or injured during combat with the enemy '' . A golden wound medal was rewarded to those who had 61 % ( or more ) of physical disability and killed , until iron wound medal was rewarded to those who had to 60 % of physical disability . The number of injuries was marked with one , two or three blue stripes , and for those who had more than three injuries , oak leaves were awarded .", "Bouverie Street Bouverie Street is a street in the City of London , off Fleet Street , which once was the home of some of Britain 's most widely circulated newspapers as well as the Whitefriars Priory . The offices of the News Chronicle , a British daily paper , were based there until it ceased publication on 17 October 1960 after being absorbed into the Daily Mail . The News of the World had its offices at No. 30 until the paper 's closure in 2011 ; its sister paper The Sun is still based there . It was also home to the offices of Punch magazine until the 1990s and for some decades of Lutterworth Press , one of Britain 's oldest independent publishers celebrated for Boy 's Own Paper and its sister Girl 's Own Paper . The street 's name comes from the landlords of the area , the Pleydell-Bouveries , Earls of Radnor .", "Edward Richardson (priest) Edward Shaw Richardson ( 1862 -- 1921 ) was Archdeacon of Blackburn from 1920 to 1921 . He was educated at Rossall School and Trinity College , Cambridge and ordained in 1867 . He began his ecclesiastical career with curacies in Poulton-le-Fylde , Corbridge , Kersal and Ancoats . He was then successively Rector of St Paul 's , Hulme ; Vicar of St Matthew 's , Bolton ; Rector of St George 's , Hulme ; and a Canon Residentiary of Manchesterbefore his Archdeacon 's appointment . He died on 15 November 1921 .", "Valinor Valinor ( Land of the Valar ) is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien 's legendarium , the realm of the Valar in Aman . It was also known as the Undying Lands , along with Tol Eressëa and the outliers of Aman . This latter name is somewhat misleading ; the land itself , while blessed , did not cause mortals to live forever . However , only immortal beings were generally allowed to reside there . Exceptionally the surviving bearers of the One Ring were allowed to dwell there for a time -- Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee -- and perhaps Gimli son of Glóin who , it is said , accompanied his friend Legolas to Valinor .", "The New European The New European is a British pro-EU weekly newspaper owned by Archant that began publication on 8 July 2016 . Launched as a response to the United Kingdom 's 2016 EU referendum , its readership is aimed at those who voted to remain within the European Union , with the newspaper 's tagline being `` The New Pop-up Paper for the 48 % '' . It is edited by Matt Kelly , who formerly worked at the Daily Mirror and Local World . The newspaper 's owners stated that The New European was to have an initial lifespan of just four issues , beyond which publication would be reviewed on a week-by-week basis . By the eve of the third edition the paper revealed it had broken even and sold around 40,000 copies . It continued to publish beyond its fourth issue , and is currently still publishing . The circulation was reported in November 2016 to be `` about 25,000 '' and , in February 2017 , to be 20,000 . On 30 September 2016 , the newspaper won the serial rights to the fifth volume of Alastair Campbell 's diaries about the Blair government , which it serialised over three weeks . Subsequently in March 2017 the newspaper announced that it had appointed Campbell as editor-at-large . The paper received a mainly positive reception from UK media critics ." ]

[ "Effects of global warming on human health The effects of global warming include effects on human health . The observed and projected increased frequency and severity of climate related impacts will further exacerbate the effects on human health . This article describes some of those effects on individuals and populations ." ]

[ "List of introduced species A complete list of introduced species for even quite small areas of the world would be dauntingly long . Humans have introduced more different species to new environments than any single document can hope to record . This list is generally for established species with truly wild populations -- not kept domestically -- that have been seen numerous times , and have breeding populations . While most introduced species can cause negative impact to new environments they reach , some can have positive impact , just for conservation purpose .", "Polarity symbols Many electrical devices use direct current ( DC ) power , often provided by an AC ( alternating current ) to DC adapter , also known as a `` wall wart '' or `` power brick '' . The adapter typically supplies power to the device through a thin electrical cord which terminates in a coaxial power connector often referred to as a `` barrel plug '' ( so-named because of its cylindrical shape ) . The polarity of the adapter cord and plug must match the polarity of the device , meaning that the positive contact of the plug must mate with the positive contact in the receptacle , and the negative plug contact must mate with the negative receptacle contact . Since there is no standardization of these plugs , a polarity symbol is printed on the case indicating which type of plug is needed . The commonly used symbol denoting the polarity of a device or adapter consists of a black dot with a line leading to the right and a broken circle ( like the letter `` C '' ) surrounding the dot and with a line leading to the left . At the ends of the lines leading right and left are found a plus sign , meaning positive , and a minus sign , meaning negative . The symbol connected to the dot ( usually the symbol found to the right ) denotes the polarity of the device or adapter . Thus a device with a plus sign at the end of the line leading from the center dot is said to have `` positive polarity '' and requires an adapter that has positive polarity . A device with a minus sign at the end of the line leading from the center dot has `` negative polarity '' and requires an adapter of negative polarity .", "Vibrio parahaemolyticus Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a curved , rod-shaped , Gram-negative bacterium found in brackish saltwater , which , when ingested , causes gastrointestinal illness in humans . V. parahaemolyticus is oxidase positive , facultatively aerobic , and does not form spores . Like other members of the genus Vibrio , this species is motile , with a single , polar flagellum .", "Terminal (electronics) A terminal is the point at which a conductor from an electrical component , device or network comes to an end and provides a point of connection to external circuits . A terminal may simply be the end of a wire or it may be fitted with a connector or fastener . In network analysis , terminal means a point at which connections can be made to a network in theory and does not necessarily refer to any real physical object . In this context , especially in older documents , it is sometimes called a pole . The connection may be temporary , as seen in portable equipment , may require a tool for assembly and removal , or may be a permanent electrical joint between two wires or devices . All electric cells have two terminals . The first is the positive terminal and the second is the negative terminal . The positive terminal looks like a metal cap and the negative terminal looks like a metal disc . The current flows from the positive terminal , and out through the negative terminal , replicative of current flow ( positive to negative flow ) .", "Norge (airship) The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out the first verified trip of any kind to the North Pole and likely the first verified overflight on 12 May 1926 . It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America . The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen , the airship 's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth , who along with the Aero Club of Norway , financed the trip which was known as the Amundsen-Ellsworth 1926 Transpolar Flight .", "Electrical polarity Electrical polarity ( positive and negative ) is the direction of current flow in an electrical circuit . Current flows from the positive pole ( terminal ) to the negative pole . Electrons flow from negative to positive . In a direct current ( DC ) circuit , current flows in one direction only , and one pole is always negative and the other pole is always positive . In an alternating current ( AC ) circuit the two poles alternate between negative and positive and the direction of the current ( electron flow ) reverses periodically .", "Red-capped robin The red-capped robin ( Petroica goodenovii ) is a small passerine bird native to Australia . Found in drier regions across much of the continent , it inhabits scrub and open woodland . Like many brightly coloured robins of the family Petroicidae , it is sexually dimorphic . Measuring 10.5 -- 12.5 cm ( 4 -- 5 in ) in length , the robin has a small thin black bill , and dark brown eyes and legs . The male has a distinctive red cap and red breast , black upperparts , and a black tail with white tips . The underparts and shoulders are white . The female is an undistinguished grey-brown . This species uses a variety of songs , and males generally sing to advertise territories and attract females . Birds are encountered in pairs or small groups , but the social behaviour has been little studied . The position of the red-capped robin is unclear ; it and its relatives are unrelated to European or American robins but appear to be an early offshoot of the songbird infraorder Passerida . The red-capped robin is a predominantly ground-feeding bird and its prey consists of insects and spiders . Although widespread , it is uncommon in much of its range and has receded in some areas from human activity .", "Legionella nagasakiensis Legionella nagasakiensis is a Gram-negative bacterium from the genus Legionella which was isolated from a sample of hot spring water in Aomori in Japan and from human lung tissue . It is catalase-positive and rod-shaped , with a single polar flagellum .", "Essential health benefits In the context of health care in the United States , essential health benefits ( EHBs ) are a set of benefits that certain health insurance plans are required to cover for patients . Essential health benefits must be offered by health plans in individual and small group markets , both inside and outside of the Health Insurance Marketplace . Large-group health plans , self-insured ERISA plans , and ERISA-governed multiemployer welfare arrangements not subject to state insurance law are exempt from the EHB requirement .", "Religion and health More than 3000 empirical studies have examined relationships between religion and health , including more than 1200 in the 20th century , and more than 2000 additional studies between 2000 and 2009 . Various other reviews of the religion/spirituality and health literature have been published . These include two reviews from an NIH-organized expert panel that appeared in a 4-article special section of American Psychologist . Several chapters in edited academic books have also reviewed the empirical literature . Having a religious belief may have both positive and negative impacts on health and morbidity .", "Outline of Mars The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Mars : Mars -- fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System , after Mercury . Named after the Roman god of war , it is often referred to as the `` Red Planet '' because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance . Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere , having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys , deserts , and polar ice caps of Earth .", "Surprise (emotion) Surprise is a brief mental and physiological state , a startle response experienced by animals and humans as the result of an unexpected event . Surprise can have any valence ; that is , it can be neutral/moderate , pleasant , unpleasant , positive , or negative . Surprise can occur in varying levels of intensity ranging from very-surprised , which may induce the fight-or-flight response , or little-surprise that elicits a less intense response to the stimuli .", "Ecological Building Ecological Building is both a design process and the structure that is a result of such a design process . The Ecological Building design process is a modern architecture variant of permaculture design . An Ecological Building is a structure that is designed to create and sustain mutually beneficial relationships with all of the elements of its local ecology . A building 's local ecology , or environment , is made up of particular physical and biological elements and their interactions . The abiotic , or physical elements are defined by the local geology and the local climate . The local geology is defined by the soil type , substrata , local land use , and water patterns of the site and its surroundings . The local climate is made up of the weather patterns , wind patterns , solar patterns , and pollution patterns for the site and its surroundings . The biotic or living elements are all of the local species and local ecosystems - including humans and urban ecologies - that interact with the site . This concept is distinctly different from green building , or sustainable architecture where the goal is to `` minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings '' . Ecological building is a positive design goal that sets out to increase beneficial interactions , whereas green building is a negative design outlook that seeks only the reduction of negative interactions . Inherent in green building is the assumption that any human interaction with a site is unavoidably negative , and that mitigating these negative impacts is the best that is possible . With Ecological Building , the designer acknowledges that humans can play an integral , beneficial role in improving and sustaining the health and vitality of their local ecology .", "Scientific opinion on climate change The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "Swiss cheese features Swiss cheese features ( SCFs ) are curious pits in the south polar ice cap of Mars ( Mare Australe quadrangle ) named from their similarity to the holes in Swiss cheese . They were first seen in 2000 using Mars Orbiter Camera imagery . They are typically a few hundred meters across and 8 metres deep , with a flat base and steep sides . They tend to have similar bean-like shapes with a cusp pointing towards the south pole , indicating that insolation is involved in their formation . The angle of the Sun probably contributes to their roundness . Near the Martian summer solstice , the Sun can remain continuously just above the horizon ; as a result the walls of a round depression will receive more intense sunlight , and sublimate much more rapidly than the floor . The walls sublimate and recede , while the floor remains the same . As the seasonal frost disappears , the pit walls appear to darken considerably relative to the surrounding terrain . The SCFs have been observed to grow in size , year by year , at an average rate of 1 to 3 meters , suggesting that they are formed in a thin layer ( 8m ) of carbon dioxide ice lying on top of water ice . Later research with HiRISE showed that the pits are in a 1-10 meter thick layer of dry ice that is sitting on a much larger water ice cap . Pits have been observed to begin with small areas along faint fractures . The circular pits have steep walls that work to focus sunlight , thereby increasing erosion . For a pit to develop , a steep wall of about 10 cm and a length of over 5 meters in necessary .", "Administration of federal assistance in the United States In the United States , federal assistance , also known as federal aid , federal benefits , or federal funds , is defined as any federal program , project , service , or activity provided by the federal government that directly assists domestic governments , organizations , or individuals in the areas of education , health , public safety , public welfare , and public works , among others . The assistance , which can reach to over $ 400 billion annually , is provided and administered by federal government agencies , such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , through special programs to recipients .", "Animal welfare and rights in Ethiopia Animal welfare and rights in Ethiopia is about the treatment of and laws concerning non-human animals in Ethiopia . Ethiopia has highly limited animal welfare regulations by international standards , and appears to have little animal activism .", "United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services The Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services ( formerly the Under Secretary of Health , Education , and Welfare , 1953 -- 1979 , and the Under Secretary of Health and Human Services , 1979 -- 1990 ) is the chief operating officer of the United States Department of Health and Human Services . The Deputy Secretary oversees all operations within the Department , including oversees Medicare , Medicaid , public health , medical research , food and drug safety , welfare , child and family services , disease prevention , Indian health , and mental health services . The incumbent Acting Deputy Secretary is Colleen Barros . The Deputy Secretary is also the Regulatory Policy Officer for the Department , overseeing the development and approval of all HHS regulations and significant guidance . In addition , the Deputy Secretary leads a number of initiatives at the Department , including implementing the President 's Management Agenda , combating bio-terrorism , and public health emergency preparedness . He also represents Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts . The Deputy Secretary is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate . The Deputy Secretary is paid at level II of the Executive Schedule , meaning he or she receives a basic annual salary of $ 162,000 . The Deputy Secretary is assisted by a Principal Associate Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services , two Associate Deputy Secretaries , and three Staff Assistants . The position of Deputy Secretary was originally held by an Under Secretary until the position was retitled in August 1990 . The position of Under Secretary had been in existence since the creation of the Department of Health , Education , and Welfare in 1953 .", "Affirmative and negative In linguistics and grammar , affirmative and negative ( abbreviated respectively and ) are terms of opposite meaning which may be applied to statements , verb phrases , clauses , or other utterances . Essentially an affirmative ( positive ) form is used to express the validity or truth of a basic assertion , while a negative form expresses its falsity . Examples are the sentences `` Jane is here '' and `` Jane is not here '' ; the first is affirmative , while the second is negative . The grammatical category associated with affirmative and negative is called polarity . This means that a sentence , verb phrase , etc. may be said to have either affirmative or negative polarity ( its polarity may be either affirmative or negative ) . Affirmative is typically the unmarked polarity , whereas a negative statement is marked in some way , whether by a negating word or particle such as English not , an affix such as Japanese - nai , or by other means , which reverses the meaning of the predicate . The process of converting affirmative to negative is called negation -- the grammatical rules for negation vary from language to language , and a given language may have more than one method of doing so . Affirmative and negative responses ( especially , though not exclusively , to questions ) are often expressed using particles or words such as yes and no , where yes is the affirmative and no the negative particle .", "Under-occupancy penalty The under-occupancy penalty ( also known as the under occupation penalty , under-occupancy charge , under-occupation charge or size criteria ) is a reform contained in the British Welfare Reform Act 2012 whereby public-housing ( also called council or social housing ) tenants with rooms deemed to be `` spare '' face a reduction in Housing Benefit , resulting in them being obliged to fund this reduction from their incomes or face rent arrears and potential eviction by their landlord ( be that the local authority or a housing association ) . The under-occupancy penalty has been widely branded the Bedroom Tax , especially by critics of the changes who argue that they amount to a tax because of the lack of social housing ( or in some areas , any rented accommodation ) for affected tenants to downsize to ( and the refusal to accept the risk of taking lodgers in ) . The penalties are also criticised as having a disproportionate impact on disabled people . In 2016 it was announced that the penalty would be extended to old people despite the government promising to protect the elderly from benefit cuts . Caroline Abrahams of Age UK , said : `` Imposing the cap on older tenants will not only cause them anxiety and distress , it is also pointless given the lack of affordable housing options available to them . '' Supporters of the changes have referred to the unreformed system as a `` spare room subsidy '' whereby tax-payers are said to be subsidising social housing tenants living in houses larger than their needs require . The stated intention of the under-occupancy penalty policy is to reduce these costs and ease housing shortages and overcrowding . A similar policy was enacted over a decade beforehand in private sector housing , as the Local Housing Allowance , without attracting controversy , and this policy essentially represents an equalisation of treatment of benefit claimaints , regardless of whether they live in private tenancies or social housing . The reforms were one part of the 2010-2015 Coalition Government 's wide-ranging welfare reform agenda which included the introduction of Universal Credit , the introduction of a cap on the total size of the welfare bill ( see Welfare Cap ) , reform of Council Tax and reform of disability benefits ( see Personal Independence Payment ) .", "Responsible tourism in Thailand Responsible tourism is a relatively modern concept in the Kingdom of Thailand , that took root in the late-1990s . It is underpinned by the belief that tourism should develop in a manner that minimizes negative impacts on local communities , and wherever possible ensures that a positive symbiosis exist between hosts and visitors . Responsible travel promotes a respect for indigenous culture , the minimization of the negative environmental impacts of tourism , active participation in volunteering to assist local communities , and the structuring of businesses to benefit the final service provider rather than an international agent .", "Value-Based Insurance Design Value-Based Insurance Design ( a.k.a. V-BID , VBID , Evidence-Based Benefit Design , or Value-Based Benefit Design ) is a demand-side approach to health policy reform . V-BID generally refers to health insurers ' efforts to structure enrollee cost-sharing and other health plan design elements to encourage enrollees to consume high-value clinical services -- those that have the greatest potential to positively impact enrollee health . V-BID also discourages the use of low-value clinical services -- when benefits do not justify the cost . V-BID aims to increase health care quality and decrease costs by using financial incentives to promote cost efficient health care services and consumer choices . V-BID health insurance plans are designed with the tenets of `` clinical nuance '' in mind . These tenets recognize that medical services differ in the amount of health produced , and the clinical benefit derived from a specific service depends on the consumer using it , as well as when and where the service is provided . The basic V-BID premise is to align patients ' out-of-pocket costs , such as copayments and premiums , with the value of health services . By reducing barriers to high-value treatments ( through lower costs to patients ) and discouraging low-value treatments ( through higher costs to patients ) , V-BID plans may achieve improved health outcomes at any level of health care expenditure . Studies have shown that when barriers are reduced , significant increases in patient compliance with recommended treatments and potential cost savings result .", "Polarity (physics) In physics , polarity is an attribute with two possible values . Polarity is a basic feature of the universe . An electric charge can have either positive or negative polarity . A voltage or potential difference between two points of an electric circuit has a polarity , describing which of the two points has the higher electric potential . A magnet has a polarity , in that it has two poles described as `` north '' and `` south '' pole . More generally , the polarity of an electric or magnetic field can be viewed as the sign of the vectors describing the field . The spin of an entity in quantum mechanics can have a polarity -- parallel or anti-parallel to a given direction .", "Montanile v. Board of Trustees of Nat. Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan Montanile v. Board of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan , 577 U.S. ___ ( 2016 ) was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States clarified subrogation procedures under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ( `` ERISA '' ) . The Court held that healthcare plan fiduciaries can not demand reimbursement for medical benefits from a plan member 's general assets if the beneficiary 's general assets can not be traced back to the original payment from the fiduciary . Although some scholars suggested that the court 's ruling would have little impact , others suggested the case places `` significant restrictions '' on the rights of ERISA benefit plan providers .", "Depolarization In biology , depolarization is a change within a cell , during which the cell undergoes a shift in electric charge distribution , resulting in less negative charge inside the cell . Depolarization is essential to the function of many cells , communication between cells , and the overall physiology of an organism . Most cells in higher organisms maintain an internal environment that is negatively charged relative to the cell 's exterior . This difference in charge is called the cell 's membrane potential . In the process of depolarization , the negative internal charge of the cell temporarily becomes more positive ( less negative ) . This shift from a negative to a more positive membrane potential occurs during several processes , including an action potential . During an action potential , the depolarization is so large that the potential difference across the cell membrane briefly reverses polarity , with the inside of the cell becoming positively charged . The change in charge typically occurs due to an influx of sodium ions into a cell , although it can be mediated by an influx of any kind of cation or efflux of any kind of anion . The opposite of a depolarization is called a hyperpolarization . Usage of the term `` depolarization '' in biology differs from its use in physics . In physics it refers instead to situations in which any form of polarity changes to a value of zero . Depolarization is sometimes referred to as `` Hypopolarization '' .", "Argentière Glacier The Argentière Glacier is a glacier in the French Alps . It is one of the larger glaciers found within the Mont Blanc massif , and is situated above the village of Argentière . It lies perpendicular to the Chamonix valley and falls within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region . From its source to the valley of Chamonix , the Argentière Glacier is nine kilometers long . Like many glaciers in the region , the Argentière has receded significantly . Between 1870 and 1967 , the glacier shrunk 1000 meters . In recent years , it has receded to a position atop a steep slope . The glacier 's rapid retreat has been linked to a continuous negative mass balance . A five-year study started in 2004 showed that the glacier had lost an average of 1.5 m between 2004 and 2009 , and that there was a 10 -- 11 m loss in average ice thickness from the glacier .", "Welfare department Welfare department may refer to : United States Department of Health , Education , and Welfare Department of Social Welfare and Development ( Philippines ) Health , Welfare and Food Bureau of Hong Kong Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare , former name of Pennsylvania Department of Human Services", "Staphylococcus xylosus Staphylococcus xylosus is a species of bacteria belonging to the genus Staphylococcus . It is a Gram-positive bacterium that forms clusters of cells . Like most staphylococcal species , it is coagulase-negative and exists as a commensal on the skin of humans and animals and in the environment . It appears to be far more common in animals than in humans . S. xylosus has very occasionally been identified as a cause of human infection , but in some cases it may have been misidentified .", "Health and Welfare Canada Health and Welfare Canada is a former Canadian federal department established in 1944 and split into two separate departments , Health Canada and Human Resources and Labour Canada , in June 1993 by Prime Minister Kim Campbell . Within a few months a new government was elected and Human Resources and Labour Canada became known as Human Resources Development Canada .", "Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services ( KEPHIS ) is a regulatory service to protect Kenya 's agriculture from pests and diseases that could impact upon the environment , economy and human health . It was formed under Plant Protection Act , ( Cap 324 ) and its mission is to assure quality Of agricultural inputs and produce to promote food security and sustainable development", "Limnobacter Limnobacter is a genus of Gram-negative , nonspore-forming , aerobic , oxidase - and catalase-positive , motile bacteria with a single polar flagellum , of the family Burkholderiaceae and class Betaproteobacteria . Limnobacter '' species have the ability to oxidize thiosulfate .", "Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food The Secretary for Health , Welfare and Food was a ministerial position in the Hong Kong Government , who headed the former Health , Welfare and Food Bureau ( HWFB ) . It was replaced by Secretary for Food and Health on July 1 , 2007 . The position was politically appointed , and its term expired when the Chief Executive left office . The secretary was also a member of the Executive Council ( ExCo ) ." ]

[ "Water Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth 's streams , lakes , and oceans , and the fluids of most living organisms . Its chemical formula is H2O , meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms , that are connected by covalent bonds . Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance , that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure ; but it often refers also to its solid state ( ice ) or its gaseous state ( steam or water vapor ) . It also occurs in nature as snow , glaciers , ice packs and icebergs , clouds , fog , dew , aquifers , and atmospheric humidity . Water covers 71 % of the Earth 's surface . It is vital for all known forms of life . On Earth , 96.5 % of the planet 's crust water is found in seas and oceans , 1.7 % in groundwater , 1.7 % in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland , a small fraction in other large water bodies , and 0.001 % in the air as vapor , clouds ( formed of ice and liquid water suspended in air ) , and precipitation . Only 2.5 % of this water is freshwater , and 98.8 % of that water is in ice ( excepting ice in clouds ) and groundwater . Less than 0.3 % of all freshwater is in rivers , lakes , and the atmosphere , and an even smaller amount of the Earth 's freshwater ( 0.003 % ) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products . A greater quantity of water is found in the earth 's interior . Water on Earth moves continually through the water cycle of evaporation and transpiration ( evapotranspiration ) , condensation , precipitation , and runoff , usually reaching the sea . Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land . Large amounts of water are also chemically combined or adsorbed in hydrated minerals . Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other lifeforms even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients . Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world , but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation . There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and gross domestic product per capita . However , some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability . A report , issued in November 2009 , suggests that by 2030 , in some developing regions of the world , water demand will exceed supply by 50 % . Water plays an important role in the world economy . Approximately 70 % of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture . Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a major source of food for many parts of the world . Much of long-distance trade of commodities ( such as oil and natural gas ) and manufactured products is transported by boats through seas , rivers , lakes , and canals . Large quantities of water , ice , and steam are used for cooling and heating , in industry and homes . Water is an excellent solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances ; as such it is widely used in industrial processes , and in cooking and washing . Water is also central to many sports and other forms of entertainment , such as swimming , pleasure boating , boat racing , surfing , sport fishing , and diving .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Guard cell Guard cells are specialized cells in the epidermis of leaves , stems and other organs that are used to control gas exchange . They are produced in pairs with a gap between them that forms a stomatal pore . The stomatal pores are largest when water is freely available and the guard cells turgid , and closed when water availability is critically low and the guard cells become flaccid . Photosynthesis depends on the diffusion of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the air through the stomata into the mesophyll tissues . Oxygen ( O2 ) , produced as a byproduct of photosynthesis , exits the plant via the stomata . When the stomata are open , water is lost by evaporation and must be replaced via the transpiration stream , with water taken up by the roots . Plants must balance the amount of CO2 absorbed from the air with the water loss through the stomatal pores , and this is achieved by both active and passive control of guard cell turgor and stomatal pore size .", "Recycled fuel Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "Chromatium okenii Chromatium okenii is a Gram-negative bacterium found in water . It belongs to the Purple sulfur bacteria . These bacteria are capable of photosynthesis and use Hydrogen sulfide ( H2S ) as an electron donor for CO2 reduction and so do not produce oxygen . This type of photosynthesis is called anoxygenic photosynthesis . Chromatium okenii is anaerobic and the cells are slightly curved or straight rods .", "Spinodal decomposition Spinodal decomposition is a mechanism for the rapid unmixing of a mixture of liquids or solids from one thermodynamic phase , to form two coexisting phases . As an example , consider a hot mixture of water and an oil . At high temperatures the oil and the water may mix to form a single thermodynamic phase in which water molecules are surrounded by oil molecules and vice versa . The mixture is then suddenly cooled to a temperature at which thermodynamic equilibrium favours an oil-rich phase coexisting with a water-rich phase . Spinodal decomposition then occurs when the mixture is such that there is essentially no barrier to nucleation of the new oil-rich and water-rich phases . In other words , the oil and water molecules immediately start to cluster together into microscopic water-rich and oil-rich clusters throughout the liquid . These clusters then rapidly grow and coalesce until there is a single macroscopic oil-rich cluster , the oil-rich phase , and a single water-rich cluster , the water-rich phase . Spinodal decomposition can be contrasted with nucleation and growth . There the initial formation of the microscopic clusters involves a large free energy barrier , and so can be very slow , and may occur as little as once in the initial phase , not throughout the phase , as happens in spinodal decomposition . Spinodal decomposition is of interest for two primary reasons . In the first place , it is one of the few phase transition in solids for which there is a complete quantitative theory . The reason for this is the inherent simplicity of the reaction . Since there is no thermodynamic barrier to the reaction inside of the spinodal region , the decomposition is determined solely by diffusion . Thus , it can be treated purely as a diffusional problem , and many of the characteristics of the decomposition can be described by an approximate analytical solution to the general diffusion equation . In contrast , theories of nucleation and growth have to invoke the thermodynamics of fluctuations . And the diffusional problem involved in the growth of the nucleus is far more difficult to solve , because it is unrealistic to linearize the diffusion equation . From a more practical standpoint , spinodal decomposition provides a means of producing a very finely dispersed microstructure that can significantly enhance the physical properties of the material .", "TEA laser A TEA laser is a gas laser energized by a high voltage electrical discharge in a gas mixture generally at or above atmospheric pressure . The most common types are CO2 lasers and Excimer lasers , both used extensively in industry and research . The acronym `` TEA '' stands for Transversely Excited Atmospheric .", "Pneumatocyst In phycology , a pneumatocyst is a floating structure that contains gas found on brown seaweed . A seaweed 's thallus may have more than one . They provide buoyancy to lift the blades toward the surface , allowing them to receive more sunlight for photosynthesis . The proportion of gases in the pneumatocysts varies depending on the physiological status of the alga and the partial pressure of gases in the surrounding air or water . The pneumatocyst can hold O2 , CO2 , N2 , and CO. .", "Compensation point The ( light ) compensation point is the amount of light intensity on the light curve where the rate of photosynthesis exactly matches the rate of respiration . At this point , the uptake of CO2 through photosynthetic pathways is exactly matched to the respiratory release of carbon dioxide , and the uptake of O2 by respiration is exactly matched to the photosynthetic release of oxygen . In assimilation terms , at compensation point , the net carbon dioxide assimilation is zero . Leaves release CO2 by photorespiration and day respiration , but CO2 is also converted into carbohydrate by photosynthesis . Assimilation is therefore the difference in the rate of these processes . At a normal partial pressure of CO2 ( 0.343 hPa in 1980 ) , there is an irradiation at which the net assimilation of CO2 is zero . For instance , in the early morning and late evenings , the compensation point may be reached as photosynthetic activity decreases and respiration increases . Therefore , the partial pressure of CO2 at the compensation point , also known as gamma , is a function of irradiation . The irradiation dependence of the compensation point is explained by the RuBP ( ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate ) concentration . When the acceptor RuBP is in saturated concentration , gamma is independent of irradiation . However at low irradiation , only a small fraction of the sites on RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase enzyme ( Rubisco ) have the electron acceptor RuBP . This decreases the photosynthetic activity and therefore affects gamma . The intracellular concentration of CO2 affects the rates of photosynthesis and photo respiration . At higher carbon dioxide concentrations , the photosynthesis rate is higher , while at low CO2 concentrations , photo respiration is higher .", "Integrated fluorometer An integrated fluorometer is a system that measures the light reaction and the dark reaction of photosynthesis . Software allows combined operation of gas exchange measurement and chlorophyll fluorescence measurement of a leaf . These parameters are used to non-destructively measure the photosynthetic efficiency of plants . The use of an integrated chlorophyll fluorometer provides the opportunity to measure additional measuring parameters that allow for a more exact measurement of photosynthesis than with gas exchange alone . Advanced gas exchange instrumentation , by itself , is capable of measuring A/Ci curves , commonly used for plant characterization . `` A '' is the term for photosynthetic rate ( rate of CO2 exchange in the leaf chamber ) , and Ci is Sub-stomatal CO2 concentration or intracellular CO2 level within the leaf . When measured over a range of CO2 levels above and below ambient conditions , A/Ci curves become possible . With the addition of an integrated chlorophyll fluorometer , it becomes possible to measure more accurate A/CC curves , or photosynthetic rate at the site of carboxylation in chloroplasts . The integrated fluorometer allows measurement of mesophyll conductance , or the opposite of the resistance to CO2 transfer from intracellular air spaces to the site of carboxylation in chloroplasts . Various integrated chlorophyll fluorometer measuring protocols , such as the Laisk Protocol , the Kok protocol and the Yin Protocol are used to measure or estimate gm or mesophyll conductance . For example : the Laisk protocol allows the measurement of Γ * or compensation point , and Rd or respiration in the dark . Both values are required to calculate gm or mesophyll conductance and CC or CO2 at the site of carboxylation . Parameters typically measured by the gas exchange portion of the system include : `` A '' or photosynthetic rate , `` gs '' or stomatal conductance , `` Ci '' or sub stomatal CO2 concentration , and `` E '' or transpiration .", "Thomas D. Sharkey (plant biochemist) Thomas D. Sharkey is a plant biochemist who studies gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere . His research has covered ( 1 ) carbon metabolism of photosynthesis from carbon dioxide uptake to carbon export from the Calvin-Benson Cycle , ( 2 ) isoprene emission from plants , and ( 3 ) abiotic stress tolerance . Four guiding questions are : ( 1 ) how leaf photosynthesis affects plant yield , ( 2 ) does some carbon fixation follow an oxidative pathway that reduces sugar output but stabilizes photosynthesis , ( 3 ) why plants make isoprene , and ( 4 ) how plants cope with high temperature .", "Black-oil equations The black-oil equations are a set of partial differential equations that describe fluid flow in a petroleum reservoir , constituting the mathematical framework for a black-oil reservoir simulator . The term black-oil refers to the fluid model , in which water is modeled explicitly together with two hydrocarbon components , one ( pseudo ) oil phase and one ( pseudo - ) gas phase . This is in contrast with a compositional formulation , in which each hydrocarbon component ( arbitrary number ) is handled separately The equations of an extended black-oil model are where is a porosity of the porous medium , is a water saturation , are saturations of liquid ( `` oil '' ) and vapor ( `` gas '' ) phases in the reservoir , are Darcy velocities of the liquid phase , water phase and vapor phase in the reservoir . The oil and gas at the surface ( standard conditions ) could be produced from both liquid and vapor phases existing at high pressure and temperature of reservoir conditions . This is characterized by the following quantities : is an oil formation volume factor ( ratio of some volume of reservoir liquid to the volume of oil at standard conditions obtained from the same volume of reservoir liquid ) , is a water formation volume factor ( ratio of volume of water at reservoir conditions to volume of water at standard conditions ) , is a gas formation volume factor ( ratio of some volume of reservoir vapor to the volume of gas at standard conditions obtained from the same volume of reservoir vapor ) , is a solution of gas in oil phase ( ratio of volume of gas to the volume of oil at standard conditions obtained from some amount of liquid phase at reservoir conditions ) , is a vaporized oil in gas phase ( ratio of volume of oil to the volume of gas at standard conditions obtained from some amount of vapor phase at reservoir conditions ) .", "Seaweed fuel Seaweed fuel or seaweed oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses seaweed as its source of energy-rich oils . Like fossil fuel , seaweed fuel releases when burnt , but unlike fossil fuel , algae fuel and other biofuels only release recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the seaweed or plant grew . Unlike algae , seaweed does not require fresh water and can as such be grown in the sea .", "Perthite Perthite is used to describe an intergrowth of two feldspars : a host grain of potassium-rich alkali feldspar ( near K-feldspar , KAlSi3O8 , in composition ) includes exsolved lamellae or irregular intergrowths of sodic alkali feldspar ( near albite , NaAlSi3O8 , in composition ) . Typically the host grain is orthoclase or microcline , and the lamellae are albite . If sodic feldspar is the dominant phase , the result is an antiperthite . The intergrowth forms by exsolution due to cooling of a grain of alkali feldspar with a composition intermediate between K-feldspar and albite . There is complete solid solution between albite and K-feldspar at temperatures near 700 ° C and pressures like those within the crust of the Earth , but a miscibility gap is present at lower temperatures . If an alkali feldspar grain with an intermediate composition cools slowly enough , K-rich and more Na-rich feldspar domains separate from one another . In the presence of water , the process occurs quickly . When megascopically developed , the texture may consist of distinct pink and white lamellae representing exsolved white albite ( NaAlSi3O8 ) in pink microcline . The intergrowths in perthite have a great variety of shapes . If cooling is sufficiently slow , the alkali feldspar may exsolve to form separate grains with near-endmember albite and K-feldspar compositions . The largest documented single crystal of perthite was found in Hugo Mine in South Dakota and measured about 10.7 m x 4.6 m x 1.8 m. The gem varieties of potassium feldspar , amazonite and moonstone are variant colored perthites .", "Vapor In physics a vapor ( American ) or vapour ( British ) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature , which means that the vapor can be condensed to a liquid by increasing the pressure on it without reducing the temperature . A vapor is different from an aerosol . An aerosol is a suspension of tiny particles of liquid , solid , or both within a gas . For example , water has a critical temperature of 647 K , which is the highest temperature at which liquid water can exist . In the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures , therefore , gaseous water ( known as water vapor ) will condense into a liquid if its partial pressure is increased sufficiently . A vapor may co-exist with a liquid ( or a solid ) . When this is true , the two phases will be in equilibrium , and the gas-partial pressure will be equal to the equilibrium vapor pressure of the liquid ( or solid ) .", "Solar radiation management Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "Estuarine acidification Estuarine acidification is a decrease in the pH of coastal marine ecosystems , specifically those of estuaries . pH change in estuaries is more complicated than in the open ocean due to direct impacts from land run-off and coastal current dynamics . Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere ( 0.1 units over the last century ) . The ocean absorbs 30-40 % of all CO2 emitted to the atmosphere ; this increase in aqueous carbon dioxide causes a decline in the pH of the ocean surface . As carbon dioxide combines with water , it releases protons ( hydrogen ions ) , based on the following equation : CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3 ↔ HCO3 + H + ↔ CO3 + 2 H +", "Ethanol from coal Ethanol from coal is the ethanol produced using coal as its carbon source . The anaerobic bacterium Clostridium ljungdahlii produces ethanol and acetic acid from CO , CO2 , and H2 in synthesis gas . Early studies with C. ljungdahlii showed that relatively high concentrations of ethanol were produced . This process involves three main steps : Gasification : Thermal gasification at temperatures of up to 2,200 ° F in a reducing , very low oxygen atmosphere transforms organic materials into simple CO , CO2 and H2 gases . Fermentation : The acetogenic C. ljungdahlii convert the carbon monoxide into ethanol . Distillation : Ethanol is separated from hydrogen and water .", "Calcium reactor __ NOTOC __ In marine and reef aquariums , a calcium reactor creates a balance of alkalinity . An acidic solution is produced by injecting carbon dioxide into a chamber with salt water and calcium rich media . The carbon dioxide lowers the pH by producing a solution high in carbonic acid , and dissolves calcium . The effluent is returned to the reef aquarium where the calcium is consumed by organisms , primarily corals when building skeletons . A calcium reactor is an efficient method to supply calcium to a reef aquarium . Reactors may be used in elaborate freshwater and brackish aquariums where freshwater clams and other invertebrates need a constant supply of calcium . The reactor dissolves the calcium-laden media to provide bicarbonates HCO3 − ( alkalinity ) and calcium ( Ca + + ) ions at the sames rate as consumed during calcification . Effectively dissolving the media requires an acidic pH. Saltwater may have a pH of 7.8 or higher , so to reduce the pH carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) is used . The reaction formula is : CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 < -- -- > Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − Inside the reaction chamber , a calcium rich media ( aragonite ) , mainly CaCO3 , is forced into contact with water injected with carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in order to create carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This increases the solubility of the calcium carbonate . The reaction frees the calcium and carbonate , supplying the aquarium with water rich in Ca2 + and CO32 − , important for maintaining alkalinity and calcium levels . The bubble counter measures carbon dioxide . The flow rate of carbon dioxide is monitored so that the dissolved gas goes into the solution , with a minimum unconsumed . A needle valve or solenoid valve regulates the CO2 bubble rate . Valves with precise adjustment abilities improve bubble control . The feed pump controls the volume of water exchange . This is important because a high rate of water flow into the reactor reduces its efficiency , thus resulting in underproduction and a waste of CO2 . Some reactors siphon water into the input of the reactor 's re-circulation pump . A potential complication is the medium in the reactor becoming compacted , increasing back pressure onto the pump and reducing water into the reactor . Placing a gate or needle valve on the reactor 's outlet side will improve flow characteristics compared to control from the inlet side . A peristaltic pumps are effective operating against pressure , capable of supplying an adjustable and continuous flow over flow rates with minimal maintenance . The pH control is connected to a probe in the reactor and adjusts the rate at which the calcium media dissolves . This probe monitors the pH level in the calcium reactor . The pH range for the typical calcium reactor is 6.5 - 6.8 . When the pH rises above a certain level , a valve opens , allowing carbon dioxide to enter the reactor . The control closes the valve as the pH falls below this level . Some pH controllers have an interface for an air pump . This air pump is connected to an airstone in the sump or main tank . If the probe detects a low pH level , the pump activates . The bubbles raise the pH by dissipating the CO2 gas .", "Dole effect The Dole effect , named after Malcolm Dole , describes an inequality in the ratio of the heavy isotope 18O ( a `` standard '' oxygen atom with two additional neutrons ) to the lighter 16O , measured in the atmosphere and seawater . This ratio is usually denoted δ18O . It was noticed in 1935 that air contained more 18O than seawater ; this was quantified in 1975 to 23.5 ‰ , but later refined as 23.88 ‰ in 2005 . The imbalance arises mainly as a result of respiration in plants and in animals . Due to thermodynamics of isotope reactions , respiration removes the lighter -- hence more reactive -- 16O in preference to 18O , increasing the relative amount of 18O in the atmosphere . The inequality is balanced by photosynthesis . Photosynthesis emits oxygen with the same isotopic composition ( i.e. the ratio between 18O and 16O ) as the water ( H2O ) used in the reaction , which is independent of the atmospheric ratio . Thus when atmospheric 18O levels are high enough , photosynthesis will act as a reducing factor . However , as a complicating factor , the degree of fractionation ( i.e. change in isotope ratio ) occurring due to photosynthesis is not entirely dependent on the water drawn up by the plant , as fractionation can occur as a result of preferential evaporation of and other small but significant processes .", "Sudarsky's gas giant classification Sudarsky 's classification gas giants for the purpose of predicting their appearance based on their temperature was outlined by David Sudarsky and colleagues in the paper Albedo and Reflection Spectra of Extrasolar Giant Planets and expanded on in Theoretical Spectra and Atmospheres of Extrasolar Giant Planets , published before any successful direct or indirect observation of an extrasolar planet atmosphere was made . It is a broad classification system with the goal of bringing some order to the likely rich variety of extrasolar gas-giant atmospheres . Gas giants are split into five classes ( numbered using Roman numerals ) according to their modeled physical atmospheric properties . In the Solar System only Jupiter and Saturn are within the Sudarsky classification , and both are Class I. The appearance of planets that are not gas giants can not be predicted by the Sudarsky system , for example terrestrial planets such as Earth , HD 85512 b ( 3.6 Earth masses ) and OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb ( 5.5 Earth masses ) , or ice giants such as Uranus ( 14 Earth masses ) and Neptune ( 17 Earth masses ) .", "Homoiohydry Homoiohydry is the capacity of plants to regulate , or achieve homeostasis of , cell and tissue water content . Homoiohydry evolved in land plants to a lesser or greater degree during their transition to land more than 500 million years ago , and is most highly developed in the vascular plants . It is the consequence of a suite of morphological innovations and strategies that enable plant shoots exploring aerial environments to conserve water by internalising the gas exchange surfaces , enclosing them in a waterproof membrane and providing a variable aperture control mechanism , the stomatal guard cells , which regulate the rates of water transpiration and CO2 exchange . In vascular plants , water is acquired from the soil by roots and transported via the xylem to aerial portions of the plant . Water evaporation from the aerial surfaces of the plant is controlled by a waterproof covering of cuticle . Gas exchange with the atmosphere is controlled by stomata , which can open and close to control water loss , and diffusion of carbon dioxide to the chloroplasts takes place in intercellular spaces between chlorenchyma cells in the stem or in the mesophyll tissue of the leaf . The antonym of homoiohydry is poikilohydry , a condition in which plant water content is passively reduced or increased in equilibrium with environmental water status .", "Limescale Limescale is the hard , off-white , chalky deposit found in kettles , hot-water boilers and the inside of inadequately maintained hot-water central heating systems . It is also often found as a similar deposit on the inner surface of old pipe and other surfaces where `` hard water '' has evaporated . In addition to being unsightly and hard to clean , limescale seriously impairs the operation or damages various components . The type found deposited on the heating elements of water heaters has a main component of calcium carbonate . Hard water contains calcium ( and often magnesium ) bicarbonate or similar ions . Calcium salts , such as calcium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate are both more soluble in hot water than cold water . Thus , heating water does not cause calcium carbonate to precipitate per se . However , there is an equilibrium between dissolved calcium bicarbonate and dissolved calcium carbonate : Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − ⇋ Ca2 + + CO32 − + CO2 + H2O where the equilibrium is driven by the carbonate/bicarbonate , not the calcium . Note that the CO2 is dissolved in the water . There is also an equilibrium of carbon dioxide between dissolved in water ( dis ) and the gaseous state ( g ) : CO2 ( dis ) ⇋ CO2 ( g ) The equilibrium of CO2 also moves to the right towards gaseous CO2 when the water temperature rises . When water that contains dissolved calcium carbonate is warmed , CO2 is removed from the water as gas causing the equilibrium of bicarbonate and carbonate to shift to the right , increasing the concentration of dissolved carbonate . As the concentration of carbonate increases , calcium carbonate precipitates as the salt : Ca2 + + CO32 − ⇋ CaCO3 . As new cold water with dissolved calcium carbonate/bicarbonate is added and heated , CO2 gas is removed , carbonate concentration increases , and more calcium carbonate precipitates . Descaling agents are used to remove scale . Prevention of scale build-up relies on the technologies of water softening .", "Lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate ) to produce the form of lime called quicklime ( calcium oxide ) . The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction takes place at 900 ° C ( 1650 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere ) , but a temperature around 1000 ° C ( 1800 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres ) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly . Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive , `` dead-burned '' lime . Slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide ) can be formed by mixing water with quicklime .", "Photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms ' activities ( energy transformation ) . This chemical energy is stored in carbohydrate molecules , such as sugars , which are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water -- hence the name photosynthesis , from the Greek φῶς , phōs , `` light '' , and σύνθεσις , synthesis , `` putting together '' . In most cases , oxygen is also released as a waste product . Most plants , most algae , and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis ; such organisms are called photoautotrophs . Photosynthesis is largely responsible for producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth 's atmosphere , and supplies all of the organic compounds and most of the energy necessary for life on Earth . Although photosynthesis is performed differently by different species , the process always begins when energy from light is absorbed by proteins called reaction centres that contain green chlorophyll pigments . In plants , these proteins are held inside organelles called chloroplasts , which are most abundant in leaf cells , while in bacteria they are embedded in the plasma membrane . In these light-dependent reactions , some energy is used to strip electrons from suitable substances , such as water , producing oxygen gas . The hydrogen freed by the splitting of water is used in the creation of two further compounds that act as an immediate energy storage means : reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate ( NADPH ) and adenosine triphosphate ( ATP ) , the `` energy currency '' of cells . In plants , algae and cyanobacteria , long-term energy storage in the form of sugars is produced by a subsequent sequence of reactions called the Calvin cycle ; some bacteria use different mechanisms , such as the reverse Krebs cycle , to achieve the same end . In the Calvin cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is incorporated into already existing organic carbon compounds , such as ribulose bisphosphate ( RuBP ) . Using the ATP and NADPH produced by the light-dependent reactions , the resulting compounds are then reduced and removed to form further carbohydrates , such as glucose . The first photosynthetic organisms probably evolved early in the evolutionary history of life and most likely used reducing agents such as hydrogen or hydrogen sulfide , rather than water , as sources of electrons . Cyanobacteria appeared later ; the excess oxygen they produced contributed directly to the oxygenation of the Earth , which rendered the evolution of complex life possible . Today , the average rate of energy capture by photosynthesis globally is approximately 130 terawatts , which is about three times the current power consumption of human civilization . Photosynthetic organisms also convert around 100 -- 115 thousand million metric tonnes of carbon into biomass per year .", "Pumice Pumice ( -LSB- pronˈpʌmᵻs -RSB- ) , called pumicite in its powdered or dust form , is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough textured volcanic glass , which may or may not contain crystals . It is typically light colored . Scoria is another vesicular volcanic rock that differs from pumice in having larger vesicles , thicker vesicle walls and being dark colored and denser . Pumice is created when super-heated , highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano . The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization . The depressurization creates bubbles by lowering the solubility of gases ( including water and CO2 ) that are dissolved in the lava , causing the gases to rapidly exsolve ( like the bubbles of CO2 that appear when a carbonated drink is opened ) . The simultaneous cooling and depressurization freezes the bubbles in a matrix . Eruptions under water are rapidly cooled and the large volume of pumice created can be a shipping hazard for cargo ships .", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "Hydrocarbon dew point The hydrocarbon dew point is the temperature ( at a given pressure ) at which the hydrocarbon components of any hydrocarbon-rich gas mixture , such as natural gas , will start to condense out of the gaseous phase . It is often also referred to as the HDP or the HCDP . The maximum temperature at which such condensation takes place is called the cricondentherm . The hydrocarbon dew point is a function of the gas composition as well as the pressure . The hydrocarbon dew point is universally used in the natural gas industry as an important quality parameter , stipulated in contractual specifications and enforced throughout the natural gas supply chain , from producers through processing , transmission and distribution companies to final end users . The hydrocarbon dew point of a gas is a different concept from the water dew point , the latter being the temperature ( at a given pressure ) at which water vapor present in a gas mixture will condense out of the gas .", "Air sensitivity Air sensitivity is a term used , particularly in chemistry , to denote the reactivity of chemical compounds with some constituent of air . Most often , reactions occur with atmospheric oxygen ( O2 ) or water vapor ( H2O ) , although reactions with the other constituents of air such as carbon monoxide ( CO ) , carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and nitrogen ( N2 ) are also possible . The range of methods used to work with air-sensitive compounds are known as air-free techniques . Two main methods exist -- gloveboxes and Schlenk lines . Gloveboxes are sealed cabinets filled with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen . Normal laboratory equipment can be set up and manipulated through the use of the gloves . A Schlenk line is a vacuum and inert-gas dual-manifold that allows glassware to be evacuated and refilled with inert gas .", "Wetland methane emissions As one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane , wetlands remain a major area of concern with respect to climate change . Wetlands are characterized by water-logged soils and distinctive communities of plant and animal species that have evolved and adapted to the constant presence of water . Due to this high level of water saturation as well as warm weather , wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane . Most methanogenesis , or methane production , occurs in oxygen-poor environments . Because the microbes that live in warm , moist environments consume oxygen more rapidly than it can diffuse in from the atmosphere , wetlands are the ideal anaerobic , or oxygen poor , environments for fermentation . Fermentation is a process used by certain kinds of microorganisms to break down essential nutrients . In a process called acetoclastic methanogenesis , microorganisms from the classification domain archaea produce methane by fermenting acetate and H2-CO2 into methane and carbon dioxide . H3C-COOH → CH4 + CO2 Depending on the wetland and type of archaea , hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis , another process that yields methane , can also occur . This process occurs as a result of archaea oxidizing hydrogen with carbon dioxide to yield methane and water . 4H2 + CO2 → CH4 + 2H2O", "Mars aircraft A Mars aircraft is a vehicle for flying in the atmosphere of Mars . So far , Mars lander entry , descent , and landing systems have passed through the atmosphere . Aircraft may provide in situ measurements of the atmosphere of Mars , as well as additional observations over extended areas . A long-term goal is to develop piloted Mars aircraft . Compared to Earth , the air is thinner at the surface ( less than 1 % ) but the gravity is lower ( less than 40 % ) . Also , the major component of Mars air , CO2 gas , is denser than Earth air for a given pressure .", "Fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a power station which burns fossil fuel such as coal , natural gas , or petroleum to produce electricity . Central station fossil fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation . In many countries , such plants provide most of the electrical energy used . Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy , which then operates an electrical generator . The prime mover may be a steam turbine , a gas turbine or , in small plants , a reciprocating internal combustion engine . All plants use the energy extracted from expanding gas , either steam or combustion gases . Very few MHD generators have been built which directly convert the energy of hot , moving water into electricity . MHD means Magnetohydrodynamics , which is the study of the magnetic properties of electrically conducting fluids . Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas , liquid metals , salt water and electrolytes . By-products of thermal power plant operation must be considered in their design and operation . Waste heat energy , which remains due to the finite efficiency of the Carnot , Rankine , or Diesel power cycle , is released directly to the atmosphere or river/lake water , or indirectly to the atmosphere using a cooling tower with river or lake water used as a cooling medium . The flue gas from combustion of the fossil fuels is discharged to the air . This gas contains carbon dioxide and water vapor , as well as other substances such as nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur oxides ( SOx ) , mercury , traces of other metals , and , for coal-fired plants , fly ash . Solid waste ash from coal-fired boilers must also be removed . Some coal ash can be recycled for building materials . Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , a greenhouse gas which according to a consensus opinion of scientific organisations is a contributor to global warming . The results of a recent study show that the net income available to shareholders of large companies could see a significant reduction from the greenhouse gas emissions liability related to only natural disasters in the U.S. from a single coal-fired power plant . However , as of 2015 , no such cases have awarded damages in the U.S. Per unit of electric energy , brown coal emits nearly two times as much CO2 as natural gas , and black coal emits somewhat less than brown . Carbon capture and storage of emissions is not currently available .", "Molecular vapor deposition Molecular vapor deposition is the gas-phase reaction between surface reactive chemicals and an appropriately receptive surface . Often bi-functional silanes are used in which one termination of the molecule is reactive . For example , a functional chlorosilane ( R-Si-Cl3 ) can react with surface hydroxyl groups ( - OH ) resulting a radicalized ( R ) deposition on the surface . The advantage of a gas phase reaction over a comparable liquid phase process is the control of moisture from the ambient environment , which often results in cross polymerization of the silane leading to particulates on the treated surface . Often a heated sub-atmospheric vacuum chamber is used to allow precise control of the reactants and water content . Additionally the gas phase process allows for easy treatment of complex parts since the coverage of the reactant is generally diffusion limited . Microelectromechanical Systems ( MEMS ) sensors often use molecular vapor deposition as a technique to address stiction and other parasitic issues relative to surface-to-surface interactions ." ]

[ "Global dimming Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth 's surface that was observed for several decades after the start of systematic measurements in the 1950s . The effect varies by location , but worldwide it has been estimated to be of the order of a 4 % reduction over the three decades from 1960 -- 1990 . However , after discounting an anomaly caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , a very slight reversal in the overall trend has been observed . Global dimming is thought to have been caused by an increase in particulates such as sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere due to human action . It has interfered with the hydrological cycle by reducing evaporation and may have reduced rainfall in some areas . Global dimming also creates a cooling effect that may have partially counteracted the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming .", "Particulates Atmospheric particulate matter -- also known as particulate matter ( PM ) or particulates -- are microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in the Earth 's atmosphere . The term aerosol commonly refers to the particulate/air mixture , as opposed to the particulate matter alone . Sources of particulate matter can be man-made or natural . They have impacts on climate and precipitation that adversely affect human health . Subtypes of atmospheric particulate matter include suspended particulate matter ( SPM ) , thoracic and respirable particles , inhalable coarse particles , which are -LSB- coarse -RSB- particles with a diameter between 2.5 and 10 micrometers ( μm ) ( PM10 ) , fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less ( PM2 .5 ) , ultrafine particles , and soot The IARC and WHO designate airborne particulates a Group 1 carcinogen . Particulates are the deadliest form of air pollution due to their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and blood streams unfiltered , causing permanent DNA mutations , heart attacks , and premature death . In 2013 , a study involving 312,944 people in nine European countries revealed that there was no safe level of particulates and that for every increase of 10 μg / m3 in PM10 , the lung cancer rate rose 22 % . The smaller PM2 .5 were particularly deadly , with a 36 % increase in lung cancer per 10 μg / m3 as it can penetrate deeper into the lungs .", "Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Plankton , Aerosol , Cloud , ocean Ecosystem ( PACE ) is a NASA ocean color satellite mission that will continue and advance observations of ocean biology , biogeochemistry , and ecology , as well as aerosols and clouds . PACE data will be used to identify the extent and duration of harmful algal blooms and improve understanding of air quality . These and other uses of PACE data will benefit the economy and society , especially sectors that rely on water quality , fisheries and food security . PACE will also measure atmospheric particles and clouds that scatter and absorb sunlight . Improved characterization of aerosol particles , in particular , will enable quantifying their impact on ocean biology and chemistry as well as Earth 's energy budget . The PACE project is managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center . The main instrument and bus are being designed and built at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center . The satellite is planned for launch in 2022 .", "Sea salt aerosol Sea salt aerosol , which originally comes from sea spray , is one of the most widely distributed natural aerosols . Sea salt aerosols are characterized as non-light-absorbing , highly hygroscopic , and having coarse particle size . Some sea salt dominated aerosols could have a single scattering albedo as large as ~ 0.97 . Due to the hygroscopy , a sea salt particle can serve as a very efficient cloud condensation nuclei ( CCN ) , altering cloud reflectivity , lifetime , and precipitation process . According to the IPCC report , the total sea salt flux from ocean to atmosphere is ~ 3300 Tg/yr .", "Atmospheric Research Atmospheric Research is a scientific journal dealing with the part of the atmosphere where meteorological events occur ; intended for atmospheric scientists ( such as meteorologists and climatologists ) , aerosol scientists , and hydrologists . It is a highly international journal with attention given to all processes extending from the earth surface to the tropopause , but special emphasis continues to be devoted to the physics of clouds and precipitation , i.e. atmospheric aerosols ; microphysical processes ; cloud dynamics and thermodynamics ; numerical simulation of cloud processes ; clouds and radiation ; meso - and macrostructure of clouds and cloud systems , and weather modification .", "Robert Jay Charlson Robert Jay Charlson is an American atmospheric scientist , climate scientist , pioneer in the fields of climate forcing and climate change , and coauthor of the CLAW hypothesis . He is professor of Atmospheric Sciences , chemistry , and geophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle , Washington . Charlson earned his PhD from the University of Washington . He is a world expert in atmospheric chemistry , aerosol physics , aerosol/cloud/climate interaction , aerosol and cloud instrumentation .", "TanSat TanSat , also known as CarbonSat , is a Chinese Earth observation satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . It is generally classified as a minisatellite , and is the first dedicated carbon mission of the Chinese space program . The mission was formally proposed in 2010 , and work began in January 2011 . It is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOST ) and was built by the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem And Information Technology ( SIMIT ) . TanSat carries two instruments : the Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer and the Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager . The Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer ( CDS ) , also called CarbonSpec , is a high-resolution grating spectrometer which measures absorption at 1.61 µm and 2.06 µm , and absorption in reflected sunlight at 0.76 µm . The Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager ( CAPI ) is a wide-field , moderate-resolution , imaging spectrometer which works in concert with CDS by compensating for measurement errors caused by clouds and aerosols . It makes observations in ultraviolet ( 0.38 µm ) , visible ( 0.67 µm ) , and near infrared ( 0.87 µm , 1.375 µm , and 1.64 µm ) .", "Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "Stratospheric sulfur aerosols Stratospheric sulfur aerosols are sulfur-rich particles which exist in the stratosphere region of the Earth 's atmosphere . The layer of the atmosphere in which they exist is known as the Junge layer , or simply the stratospheric aerosol layer . These particles consist of a mixture of sulfuric acid and water . They are created naturally , such as by photochemical decomposition of sulfur-containing gases , e.g. carbonyl sulfide . When present in high levels , e.g. after a strong volcanic eruption such as Mount Pinatubo , they produce a cooling effect , by reflecting sunlight , and by modifying clouds as they fall out of the stratosphere . This cooling may persist for a few years before the particles fall out . An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas . The sulfate particles or sulfuric acid droplets in the atmosphere are about 0.1 to 1.0 micrometer ( a millionth of a meter ) in diameter . Sulfur aerosols are common in the troposphere as a result of pollution with sulfur dioxide from burning coal , and from natural processes . Volcanos are a major source of particles in the stratosphere as the force of the volcanic eruption propels sulfur-containing gases into the stratosphere . The relative influence of volcanoes on the Junge layer varies considerably according to the number and size of eruptions in any given time period , and also of quantities of sulfur compounds released . Only stratovolcanoes containing primarily granitic rocks are responsible for these fluxes , as basaltic rock erupted in shield volcanoes does n't result in plumes which reach the stratosphere . Creating stratospheric sulfur aerosols deliberately is a proposed geoengineering technique which offers a possible solution to some of the problems caused by global warming . However , this will not be without side effects and it has been suggested that the cure may be worse than the disease .", "Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment ( SAGE ) is a series of remote sensing satellite instruments used to study the chemical composition of earth 's atmosphere . Specifically , SAGE has been used to study the Earth 's ozone layer and aerosols at the troposphere through the stratosphere . The SAGE instruments use solar occultation measurement technique to determine chemical concentrations in the atmosphere . Solar occultation measurement technique measures sunlight through the atmosphere and ratios that measurement with a sunlight measurement without atmospheric attenuation . This is achieved by observing sunrises and sunsets during a satellite orbit . Physically , the SAGE instruments measure ultraviolet/visible energy and this is converted via algorithms to determine chemical concentrations . SAGE data has been used to study the atmospheres aerosols , ozone , water vapor , and other trace gases .", "Closure (atmospheric science) A closure experiment in atmospheric science is a combination of different measurement techniques to describe the current state of the investigated system as fully as possible , and to find inaccuracies in one or some of the methods involved . The comparison of different types of measurement often involves model calculations , which may also be tested in this process . A common example for closure experiments are aerosol studies . Aerosols can be studied from space , from aircraft , and from the surface . The different properties of aerosols ( chemical composition , particle size , particle number concentration , optical absorptivity , thermal emissivity , index of refraction , pattern of light scattering , etc. ) require very different kinds of measurement techniques . Different instruments have been developed to perform each technique , and researchers usually specialize in one or a few of them . Due to the logistic efforts required to bring different groups of researchers with different measurement techniques together , such experiments stand out among routine experiments that are more focused on one or a few techniques and have fewer participants . An aerosol closure experiment might look like this : Individual aerosol particles are sampled , and their size and shape are determined under an electron microscope ; A lidar emits a laser beam into the aerosol plume and detects the backscatter signal ; An aerosol flow is led through optical detectors that record the size distribution of the particles ; The sunlight attenuated by the aerosol is measured by a sun photometer , yielding the optical depth of the aerosol layer ; the spectral absorption of sunlight , as well as the scattering properties of the aerosol are measured by spectrometers ; The extent and total reflectivity of the aerosol plume are observed by a satellite radiometer . Additionally , measurements can be performed within the plume or outside , by means of remote sensing , from the surface , from aircraft , and from satellites in space . Different viewing geometries again introduce complexity , which can be assessed in closure experiments . Algorithms exist , for example , to predict the optical properties from a given particle shape , size distribution , and index of refraction . Closure is achieved if the predictions of such an algorithm agree ( within the limits of measurement uncertainty ) with the optical properties that have been derived from the independent radiation measurements ; if the lidar information about the vertical distribution of the aerosol sums up to the total optical depth determined by the sun photometer ; etc. .", "Ceilometer A ceilometer is a device that uses a laser or other light source to determine the height of a cloud base . Ceilometers can also be used to measure the aerosol concentration within the atmosphere .", "Peter V. Hobbs Peter Victor Hobbs ( 1936 -- 2005 ) was a British-born professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Director of the Cloud and Aerosol Research Group at the University of Washington . His research interests were in the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere , focusing on the roles played by aerosols , clouds , and precipitation . He authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers , authored four books , and edited three books . He is the coauthor with John Michael Wallace of what is generally considered the standard introductory textbook in the field : Atmospheric Science : An Introductory Survey .", "CLOUD experiment Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets or CLOUD is an experiment being run at CERN by a group of researchers led by Jasper Kirkby to investigate the microphysics between galactic cosmic rays ( GCRs ) and aerosols under controlled conditions . The experiment began operation in November 2009 . The primary goal is to understand the influence of galactic cosmic rays ( GCRs ) on aerosols and clouds , and their implications for climate . Although its design is optimised to address the cosmic ray question , ( as posed by Henrik Svensmark and colleagues in 1997 ) CLOUD allows as well to measure aerosol nucleation and growth under controlled laboratory conditions . Atmospheric aerosols and their effect on clouds are recognised by the IPCC as main source of uncertainty in present radiative forcing and climate models .", "Sulfate aerosol The term sulfate aerosols is used for a suspension of fine solid particles of a sulfate or tiny droplets of a solution of a sulfate or of sulfuric acid ( which is not technically a sulfate ) . They are produced by chemical reactions in the atmosphere from gaseous precursors ( with the exception of sea salt sulfate and gypsum dust particles ) . The two main sulfuric acid precursors are sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) from anthropogenic sources and volcanoes , and dimethyl sulfide ( DMS ) from biogenic sources , especially marine plankton . These aerosols can cause a cooling effect on earth . However the UNFCCC has noted that sulfate aerosols remain in the atmosphere for only a short amount of time in comparison to other greenhouse gases , and therefore their cooling is localized and temporary . Other side effects of sulfate aerosols in the environment include poor air quality .", "Angstrom exponent Ångström exponent is the name of the exponent in the formula that is usually used to describe the dependency of the aerosol optical thickness , or aerosol extinction coefficient on wavelength . Depending on particle size distribution , the spectral dependence of the aerosol optical thickness is given approximately by where is the optical thickness at wavelength , and is the optical thickness at the reference wavelength . In principle , if the optical thickness at one wavelength and the Ångström exponent are known , the optical thickness can be computed at a different wavelength . In practice , measurements are made of the optical thickness of an aerosol layer at two different wavelengths , and the Ångström exponent is estimated from these measurements using this formula . The aerosol optical thickness can then be derived at all other wavelengths , within the range of validity of this formula . For measurements of optical thickness and taken at two different wavelengths and respectively , the Ångström exponent is given by The Ångström exponent is inversely related to the average size of the particles in the aerosol : the smaller the particles , the larger the exponent . Thus , Ångström exponent is a useful quantity to assess the particle size of atmospheric aerosols or clouds , and the wavelength dependence of the aerosol/cloud optical properties . For example , cloud droplet , usually with large sizes and thus very smaller Ångström exponent ( nearly zero ) , is spectrally neutral , which means , e.g. , the optical depth does not change with wavelength . This exponent is now routinely estimated by analyzing radiation measurements acquired on Earth Observation platforms , such as AErosol RObotic NETwork , or AERONET .", "Noctilucent cloud Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere . They are visible in a deep twilight . They are made of ice crystals . Noctilucent roughly means night shining in Latin . They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50 ° and 70 ° north and south of the equator . These clouds can be observed only during local summer months and when the Sun is below the horizon for the observer , but while the clouds are still in sunlight . They are the highest clouds in Earth 's atmosphere , located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to . They are too faint to be seen during daylight , and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth 's shadow . Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently discovered meteorological phenomenon ; there is no confirmed record of their observation before 1885 , although they may have been observed a few decades earlier by Thomas Romney Robinson in Armagh . Doubts now surround Robinson 's out-of-season records , following observations , from several points around high northern latitudes , of NLC-like phenomena following the Chelyabinsk bolide entry in February 2013 ( outside the NLC season ) that were in fact stratospheric dust reflections visible after sunset . Noctilucent clouds can form only under very restricted conditions during local summer ; their occurrence can be used as a sensitive guide to changes in the upper atmosphere . They are a relatively recent classification . The occurrence of noctilucent clouds appears to be increasing in frequency , brightness and extent .", "Cloud Aerosol Transport System The Cloud Aerosol Transport System ( CATS ) is a light detection and ranging remote sensing instrument designed to measure the location , composition and distribution of pollution , dust , smoke , aerosols and other particulates in the atmosphere . CATS is to be installed on the Kibo module of the International Space Station and is expected to run for at least six months , and up to three years . It was launched in January 2015 aboard the SpaceX CRS-5 resupply mission . CATS will use a laser operating at three wavelengths ( 1064 , 532 , and 355 nm ) to determine cloud layer height , thickness , and depth . Some of the applications of the data gathered will be to develop and refine climate models as well as providing insight for future examinations of the atmospheres of Mars , Jupiter , and other extraterrestrial atmospheres .", "Earth's energy budget Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "Manipulation of atoms by optical field When a group of atoms is super-cooled to temperatures near absolute zero , they form a Bose -- Einstein condensate , a state of matter where quantum effects can be observed in the macroscopic system . In this state , the trajectories of the atoms can be manipulated using light . If a super-cooled atomic gas is placed in a standing light wave produced by two counter-propagating lasers of certain frequency , the atoms are diffracted in different order . A cold atom absorbs a photon from one of the laser beams and emits a photon in the other beam receiving a net momentum of in the direction of the absorbed photon . Here is the magnitude of the wave vector of the laser . This is called two-photon recoil process . In such situation , a BEC cloud sitting at the center of a trap is split into two identical clouds . The clouds then travel in opposite directions with a velocity , in the direction of the photon .", "Black carbon Chemically , black carbon ( BC ) is a component of fine particulate matter ( PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter ) . Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms . It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels , biofuel , and biomass , and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot . Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality . In climatology , black carbon is a climate forcing agent . Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice ( direct effects ) and indirectly by interaction with clouds , with the total forcing of 1.1 W/m2 . Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks , whereas carbon dioxide has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years . The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology , referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires . Especially in the tropics , black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients .", "Volcanic impacts on the oceans Explosive volcanic eruptions affect the global climate mainly through injecting sulfur bearing gases into the stratosphere , which oxidize to form sulfate aerosols . Stratospheric sulfur aerosols spread around the globe by the atmospheric circulation , producing surface cooling by scattering solar radiation back to space . This cooling effect on the ocean surface usually lasts for several years as the lifetime of sulfate aerosols is about 2 -- 3 years . However , in the subsurface ocean the cooling signal may persist for a longer time and may have impacts on some decadal variabilities , such as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation ( AMOC ) .", "Atmospheric lidar Atmospheric lidar is a class of instruments that uses laser light to study atmospheric properties from the ground up to the top of the atmosphere . Such instruments have been used to study , among other , atmospheric gases , aerosols , clouds , and temperature .", "Aerosol burn An aerosol burn is an injury to the skin caused by the pressurized gas within an aerosol spray cooling quickly , with the sudden drop in temperature sufficient to cause frostbite to the applied area . Medical studies have noted an increase of this practice , known as `` frosting '' , in pediatric and teenage patients . Adiabatic expansion causes the gas ( with a low boiling temperature ) to rapidly cool on exit from the aerosol applier . According to controlled laboratory experiments , the gas from a typical deodorant spray can reduce skin temperature by up to sixty degrees Celsius . The form of injury is freezing of the skin , a type of frostbite . It is highly advised for those who suffer from frostbite to seek medical attention . In rare cases aerosol-induced burns can be severe enough to necessitate skin grafting .", "Belt of Venus The Belt of Venus or Venus 's Girdle or Twilight Wedge is an atmospheric phenomenon seen shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset . The observer is , or is very nearly , surrounded by a pinkish glow ( or anti-twilight arch ) that extends roughly 10 ° -- 20 ° above the horizon . Like alpenglow , backscattering of reddened sunlight also creates the Belt of Venus . Unlike the Belt of Venus , the direct illumination of clouds and aerosols that create the afterglow which characterizes alpenglow hover low in the atmosphere and create a red horizontal band visible just after sunset or before sunrise . Unlike alpenglow , the sunlight refracted in the fine dust particles that create the rosy pinkish arch of the Belt of Venus hover high in the atmosphere and perpetuate it long after sunset or long before sunrise . In a way , the Belt of Venus is a true alpenglow visible at twilight near the anti-solar point . Often , the glow is separated from the horizon by a dark layer , the Earth 's shadow or `` dark segment . '' The arch 's light pink color is due to backscattering of reddened light from the rising or setting Sun . A very similar effect can be seen during a total solar eclipse . The zodiacal light , which is caused by reflection of sunlight from the interplanetary dust in the solar system , is also a similar phenomenon . The name of the phenomenon alludes to the cestus , a girdle or breast-band , of the Ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite , customarily equated with the Roman goddess Venus .", "Extraterrestrial atmosphere The study of extraterrestrial atmospheres is an active field of research , both as an aspect of astronomy and to gain insight into Earth 's atmosphere . In addition to Earth , many of the other astronomical objects in the Solar System have atmospheres . These include all the gas giants , as well as Mars , Venus , and Pluto . Several moons and other bodies also have atmospheres , as do comets and the Sun . There is evidence that extrasolar planets can have an atmosphere . Comparisons of these atmospheres to one another and to Earth 's atmosphere broaden our basic understanding of atmospheric processes such as the greenhouse effect , aerosol and cloud physics , and atmospheric chemistry and dynamics .", "False sunset A false sunset can refer to one of two related atmospheric optical phenomena , where either 1 ) the sun appears to be setting below the horizon , while in reality it is still some distance above it , or 2 ) the sun has already set , but still appears to be on or above the horizon ( thus representing the reverse of a false sunrise ) . Depending on circumstances , these phenomena can give the impression of an actual sunset . There are several atmospheric conditions which may cause the effect , most commonly a type of halo , caused by the reflection and refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals in the atmosphere , often in the form of cirrus or cirrostratus clouds . Depending on which variety of `` false sunset '' is meant , the halo has to appear either above the sun ( which itself is hidden below the horizon ) or below it ( in which case the real sun is obstructed from view , e.g. by clouds or other objects ) , making the upper and lower tangent arc , upper and lower sun pillars and the subsun the most likely candidates . Similarly to a false sunrise , other atmospheric circumstances may be responsible for the effect as well , such as simple reflection of the sunlight off the bottom of the clouds , or a type of mirage like the Novaya Zemlya effect .", "AERONET AERONET - the AERONET ( AErosol RObotic NETwork ) is a network of ground-based sun photometers which measure atmospheric aerosol properties . The measurement system is a solar-powered CIMEL Electronique 318A spectral radiometer that measures Sun and sky radiances at a number of fixed wavelengths within the visible and near-infrared spectrum . There is one sea-based reading location aboard the E/V Nautilus , the exploration vessel operated by Dr. Robert Ballard and the Sea Research Foundation . Two readings per day are taken aboard the ship while it is in operation . AERONET provides continuous cloud-screened observations of spectral aerosol optical depth ( AOD ) , precipitable water , and inversion aerosol products in diverse aerosol regimes . Inversion products are retrieved from almucantar scans of radiance as a function of scattering angle and include products such as aerosol volume size distribution , aerosol complex refractive index , optical absorption ( single scattering albedo ) and the aerosol scattering phase function . All these products represent an average of the total aerosol column within the atmosphere . The aerosol properties are retrieved via an inversion algorithm developed by Dubovik and King ( 2000 ) . Further algorithms were developed , for example , by Dubovik et al. ( 2006 ) to take into account non-spherical shapes of aerosol particles such as mineral dust . AERONET is an observing system in the NOAA Observing System Architecture .", "Subsidence (atmosphere) Subsidence in the Earth 's atmosphere is most commonly caused by low temperatures : as air cools , it becomes denser and moves towards the ground , just as warm air becomes less dense and moves upwards . Cool subsiding air is subject to adiabatic warming which tends to cause the evaporation of any clouds that might be present . Subsidence generally causes high barometric pressure as more air moves into the same space : the polar highs are areas of almost constant subsidence , as are the horse latitudes , and these areas of subsidence are the sources of much of the world 's prevailing wind . Subsidence also causes many smaller-scale weather phenomena , such as morning fog . An extreme form of subsidence is a downburst , which can result in damage similar to that produced by a tornado . A milder form of subsidence is referred to as downdraft . Category : Atmosphere Category : Basic meteorological concepts and phenomena", "Jasper Kirkby Jasper Kirkby is a British experimental particle physicist currently with CERN . He originated the idea for the Tau-Charm Factory , an accelerator now under construction as BEPC II in Beijing . He has led several large particle accelerator experiments at SPEAR ; the Paul Scherrer Institute ; and most recently , the CLOUD experiment at CERN . The CLOUD experiment is investigating possible physical mechanisms for solar/cosmic ray forcing - a theory whereby cloud nucleation is affected by cosmic rays and the cosmic rays are affected by solar activity . The main purpose of the CLOUD experiment is to simulate the conditions under which clouds form in earth 's atmosphere -- specifically , the process by which cloud condensation nuclei form from aerosols in the atmosphere . Kirkby et al. published the results of CLOUD 's first experiment in the journal Nature in 2011 , reporting that cosmic rays `` seemed to enhance the production of nanometre-sized particles from the gaseous atmosphere by more than a factor of ten . '' He added , however , that the particles in question are far too small to serve as cloud condensation nuclei , adding , `` At the moment , it actually says nothing about a possible cosmic-ray effect on clouds and climate , but it 's a very important first step . ''", "Crown flash Crown flash is a rare but observed phenomenon involving `` The brightening of a thunderhead crown followed by the appearance of aurora-like streamers emanating into the clear atmosphere '' . The current hypothesis is that sunlight is reflecting off or refracting through tiny ice crystals above the crown of a cumulonimbus cloud . These ice crystals are aligned by the strong electro-magnetic effects around the cloud , so the effect may appear as a tall streamer or pillar of light . When the electro-magnetic field is disturbed by lightning flashes within the cloud , the ice crystals are re-orientated causing the light pattern to shift very rapidly and appear to ` dance ' in a strikingly mechanical fashion . The effect may also sometimes known as a `` leaping sundog '' . As with sundogs , the observer would have to be in a specific position to see the effect , which is not a self-generated light such as seen in a lightning strike , but rather a changing reflection/refraction of the sunlight . Mentioned in Nature in 1971 and in a letter to Nature slightly earlier in the same year , this phenomenon is regarded as rare and not well documented . Recently several YouTube videos have emerged that appear to document this phenomenon .", "Cloud physics Cloud physics is the study of the physical processes that lead to the formation , growth and precipitation of atmospheric clouds . These aerosols are found in the troposphere , stratosphere , and mesosphere , which collectively make up the greatest part of the homosphere . Clouds consist of microscopic droplets of liquid water ( warm clouds ) , tiny crystals of ice ( cold clouds ) , or both ( mixed phase clouds ) . Cloud droplets initially form by the condensation of water vapor onto condensation nuclei when the supersaturation of air exceeds a critical value according to Köhler theory . Cloud condensation nuclei are necessary for cloud droplets formation because of the Kelvin effect , which describes the change in saturation vapor pressure due to a curved surface . At small radii , the amount of supersaturation needed for condensation to occur is so large , that it does not happen naturally . Raoult 's Law describes how the vapor pressure is dependent on the amount of solute in a solution . At high concentrations , when the cloud droplets are small , the supersaturation required is smaller than without the presence of a nucleus . In warm clouds , larger cloud droplets fall at a higher terminal velocity ; because at a given velocity , the drag force per unit of droplet weight on smaller droplets is larger than on large droplets . The large droplets can then collide with small droplets and combine to form even larger drops . When the drops become large enough that their downward velocity ( relative to the surrounding air ) is greater than the upward velocity ( relative to the earth ) of the surrounding air , the drops can fall to the earth as precipitation . The collision and coalescence is not as important in mixed phase clouds where the Bergeron process dominates . Other important processes that form precipitation are riming , when a supercooled liquid drop collides with a solid snowflake , and aggregation , when two solid snowflakes collide and combine . The precise mechanics of how a cloud forms and grows is not completely understood , but scientists have developed theories explaining the structure of clouds by studying the microphysics of individual droplets . Advances in weather radar and satellite technology have also allowed the precise study of clouds on a large scale .", "Capping inversion A capping inversion is an elevated inversion layer that caps a convective boundary layer . The boundary layer is the part of the atmosphere which is closest to the ground . Normally , the sun heats the ground , which in turn heats the air just above it . Thermals form when this warm air rises into the cold air ( warm air is less dense than cold air ) , a process described by convection . A convective layer such as this has the potential for cloud formation , since condensation occurs as the warm air rises and cools . An inversion occurs when the normal temperature ( warm air below , cold air above ) profile is reversed , creating a stable configuration of dense , cold air sitting below lighter , warm air . An elevated inversion layer is thus a region of warm air above a region of cold air , but higher in the atmosphere ( generally not touching the surface ) . A capping inversion occurs when there is a boundary layer with a normal temperature profile ( warm air rising into cooler air ) and the layer above that is an inversion layer ( cooler air below warm air ) . Cloud formation from the lower layer is `` capped '' by the inversion layer . If the capping inversion layer or `` cap '' is too strong ( too close to the surface ) , it will prevent thunderstorms from developing . A strong cap can result in foggy conditions . However , if the air at the surface is unstable enough , strong updrafts can be forced through the capping inversion . This selective process of only allowing the strongest updrafts to form thunderstorms often results in outbreaks of severe weather .", "Morning Glory cloud The Morning Glory cloud is a rare meteorological phenomenon consisting of a low-level atmospheric solitary wave and associated cloud , occasionally observed in different locations around the world . The wave often occurs as an amplitude-ordered series of waves forming bands of roll clouds . The southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia is the only known location where it can be predicted and observed on a more or less regular basis due to the configuration of land and sea in the area ." ]

[ "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories ." ]

[ "Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Climate change feedback Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "Orbital forcing Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth 's axis and shape of the orbit ( see Milankovitch cycles ) . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25 % at mid-latitudes ( from 400 to 500 Wm − 2 at latitudes of 60 degrees ) . In this context , the term `` forcing '' signifies a physical process that affects the Earth 's climate . This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles . A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a `` sudden '' ice age ( rapid being anything under a century or two ) , since the fastest orbital period is about 20,000 years . The timing of past glacial periods coincides very well with the predictions of the Milankovitch theory , and these effects can be calculated into the future .", "Proxy (climate) In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "Cloud feedback Cloud feedback is the coupling between cloudiness and surface air temperature where a surface air temperature change leads to a change in clouds , which could then amplify or diminish the initial temperature perturbation . Cloud feedbacks can affect the magnitude of internally generated climate variability or they can affect the magnitude of climate change resulting from external radiative forcings . Global warming is expected to change the distribution and type of clouds . Seen from below , clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface , and so exert a warming effect ; seen from above , clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space , and so exert a cooling effect . Cloud representations vary among global climate models , and small changes in cloud cover have a large impact on the climate . Differences in planetary boundary layer cloud modeling schemes can lead to large differences in derived values of climate sensitivity . A model that decreases boundary layer clouds in response to global warming has a climate sensitivity twice that of a model that does not include this feedback . However , satellite data show that cloud optical thickness actually increases with increasing temperature . Whether the net effect is warming or cooling depends on details such as the type and altitude of the cloud ; details that are difficult to represent in climate models .", "Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "Pseudoproxy A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "Geologic temperature record The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "Homogenization (climate) Homogenization in climate research means the removal of non-climatic changes . Next to changes in the climate itself , raw climate records also contain non-climatic jumps and changes for example due to relocations or changes in instrumentation . The most used principle to remove these inhomogeneities is the relative homogenization approach in which a candidate stations is compared to a reference time series based on one or more neighboring stations . The candidate and reference station ( s ) experience about the same climate , non-climatic changes that happen only in one station can thus be identified and removed .", "Climate state Climate state describes a state of climate on Earth and similar terrestrial planets based on a thermal energy budget , such as the greenhouse or icehouse climate state . The main climate state change is between periodical glacial and interglacial cycles in Earth history , studied from climate proxies . The climate system is responding to the current climate forcing and adjusts following climate sensitivity to reach a climate equilibrium , Earth 's energy balance . Model simulations suggest that the current interglacial climate state will continue for at least another 100,000 years , due to emissions - including complete deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere .", "Abrupt climate change An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Tipping points in the climate system A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "Climate change policy of the United States Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Coral in non-tropical regions The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "Climate change in Nevada Climate change in Nevada has been measured over the last century , with the average temperature in Elko , Nevada increasing by 0.6 F-change , and precipitation increasing by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future .", "Paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology ( in British spelling , palaeoclimatology ) is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth . It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within things such as rocks , sediments , ice sheets , tree rings , corals , shells and microfossils . It then uses the records to determine the past states of the Earth 's various climate regions and its atmospheric system . Studies of past changes in the environment and biodiversity often reflect on the current situation , specifically the impact of climate on mass extinctions and biotic recovery .", "Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project The Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project is a project , somewhat along the lines of AMIP or CMIP , to coordinate and encourage the systematic study of atmospheric general circulation models ( AGCMs ) and to assess their ability to simulate large climate changes such as those that occurred in the distant past . Project goals include identifying common responses of AGCMs to imposed paleoclimate `` boundary conditions , '' understanding the differences in model responses , comparing model results with paleoclimate data , and providing AGCM results for use in helping in the analysis and interpretation of paleoclimate data . PMIP is initially focussing on the mid-Holocene ( 6,000 years before present ) and the Last Glacial Maximum ( 21,000 yr BP ) because climatic conditions were remarkably different at those times , and because relatively large amounts of paleoclimate data exist for these periods . The major `` forcing '' factors are also relatively well known at these times . Some of the paleoclimate features simulated by models in previous studies seem consistent with paleoclimatic data , but others do not . One of the goals of PMIP is to determine which results are model-dependent . The PMIP experiments are limited to studying the equilibrium response of the atmosphere ( and such surface characteristics as snow cover ) to changes in boundary conditions ( e.g. , insolation , ice-sheet distribution , CO2 concentration , etc. . )", "List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "Historical climatology Historical climatology is the study of historical changes in climate and their effect on human history and development . This differs from paleoclimatology which encompasses climate change over the entire history of Earth . The study seeks to define periods in human history where temperature or precipitation varied from what is observed in the present day . The primary sources include written records such as sagas , chronicles , maps and local history literature as well as pictorial representations such as paintings , drawings and even rock art . The archaeological record is equally important in establishing evidence of settlement , water and land usage .", "Milutin Milanković Milutin Milanković ( Милутин Миланковић , pronounced -LSB- milǔtin milǎːnkɔʋitɕ -RSB- 28 May 1879 -- 12 December 1958 ) was a Serbian mathematician , astronomer , climatologist , geophysicist , civil engineer , doctor of technology , university professor and popularizer of science . Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global science . The first contribution is the `` Canon of the Earth 's Insolation '' , which characterizes the climates of all the planets of the Solar system . The second contribution is the explanation of Earth 's long-term climate changes caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun , now known as Milankovitch cycles . This explained the ice ages occurring in the geological past of the Earth , as well as the climate changes on the Earth which can be expected in the future . He founded planetary climatology by calculating temperatures of the upper layers of the Earth 's atmosphere as well as the temperature conditions on planets of the inner Solar system , Mercury , Venus , Mars , and the Moon , as well as the depth of the atmosphere of the outer planets . He demonstrated the interrelatedness of celestial mechanics and the Earth sciences , and enabled consistent transition from celestial mechanics to the Earth sciences and transformation of descriptive sciences into exact ones .", "Ecological forecasting Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "Radiative forcing Radiative forcing or climate forcing is the difference between insolation ( sunlight ) absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space . Typically , radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter of the Earth 's surface . Positive forcing ( incoming energy exceeding outgoing energy ) warms the system , while negative forcing ( outgoing energy exceeding incoming energy ) cools it . Causes of radiative forcing include changes in insolation and the concentrations of radiatively active gases , commonly known as greenhouse gases and aerosols .", "Climate oscillation A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Gas duster Gas duster , also known as canned air or compressed air , is a product used for cleaning or dusting electronic equipment and other sensitive devices that can not be cleaned using water . The products are most often a can that , when a trigger is pressed , blasts a stream of compressed gas through a nozzle . Despite the name `` canned air '' , the cans actually contain gases that are compressable into liquids . Air on the contrary , can not be compressed into liquid at any pressure since the critical temperatures of air components ( -146.9 C for nitrogen ; -118.6 C for oxygen ) are much beyond normal handling temperatures . Duster gases are such as 1,1-difluoroethane , 1,1,1-trifluoroethane , or 1,1,1,2 - tetrafluoroethane . Hydrocarbons , like butane , were often used in the past , but their flammable nature forced manufacturers to use fluorocarbons . When inhaled , gas duster fumes may produce psychoactive effects and may be harmful to health .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming" ]

[ "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification ." ]

[ "Keeling Curve The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "Carbon rift Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "Carbon cycle re-balancing The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the four reservoirs of carbon : the biosphere , the earth , the air and water . Exchanges take place in several ways , including respiration , transpiration , combustion , and decomposition . The carbon balance , or carbon budget , is the balance of exchange between the four reservoirs . Debate about 're - balancing the carbon cycle ' arises from a concern that use of fossil fuels , which has accelerated since the start of the industrial revolution , has caused carbon to accumulate in the atmosphere . Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are estimated to have risen from 280 ppm to almost 400 ppm since 1800 and this is linked to global warming . It is therefore argued that the carbon cycle should be re-balanced by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . ` Carbon cycle re-balancing ' is a useful name for a group of environmental policies listed below . The name gives a specific reason for adopting these policies . Related names , including pleas for sustainable development and participation in the green movement are politics-based rather than science-based . Carbon offset - for example by photosynthesis ( e.g. in new forests ) Carbon capture and storage - extraction of CO2 and placing it underground or underwater Carbon capture and transformation - extraction of CO2 and reacting it with hydrogen via renewable energy electrolysis to create methane as an energy store/carrier . Low to neutral cycle Sustainable energy - a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power Nuclear power - as an alternative to fossil fuels Sustainable design - to reduce inputs and outputs of energy Sustainable transport - to reduce reliance on fossil fuels Burning domestic refuse to generate power can be promoted as a recycling , and therefore sustainable , policy . But from a carbon cycle re-balancing standpoint it is better to compost as much domestic refuse as possible .", "Fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a power station which burns fossil fuel such as coal , natural gas , or petroleum to produce electricity . Central station fossil fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation . In many countries , such plants provide most of the electrical energy used . Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy , which then operates an electrical generator . The prime mover may be a steam turbine , a gas turbine or , in small plants , a reciprocating internal combustion engine . All plants use the energy extracted from expanding gas , either steam or combustion gases . Very few MHD generators have been built which directly convert the energy of hot , moving water into electricity . MHD means Magnetohydrodynamics , which is the study of the magnetic properties of electrically conducting fluids . Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas , liquid metals , salt water and electrolytes . By-products of thermal power plant operation must be considered in their design and operation . Waste heat energy , which remains due to the finite efficiency of the Carnot , Rankine , or Diesel power cycle , is released directly to the atmosphere or river/lake water , or indirectly to the atmosphere using a cooling tower with river or lake water used as a cooling medium . The flue gas from combustion of the fossil fuels is discharged to the air . This gas contains carbon dioxide and water vapor , as well as other substances such as nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur oxides ( SOx ) , mercury , traces of other metals , and , for coal-fired plants , fly ash . Solid waste ash from coal-fired boilers must also be removed . Some coal ash can be recycled for building materials . Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , a greenhouse gas which according to a consensus opinion of scientific organisations is a contributor to global warming . The results of a recent study show that the net income available to shareholders of large companies could see a significant reduction from the greenhouse gas emissions liability related to only natural disasters in the U.S. from a single coal-fired power plant . However , as of 2015 , no such cases have awarded damages in the U.S. Per unit of electric energy , brown coal emits nearly two times as much CO2 as natural gas , and black coal emits somewhat less than brown . Carbon capture and storage of emissions is not currently available .", "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "Recycled fuel Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "Deforestation and climate change Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Fossil Fuel Beta Fossil Fuel Beta ( FFß ) measures the percent change in excess , i.e. , market-adjusted , stock returns for every 1 percent increase in fossil fuel prices . If , for example , a company ( or industry ) has an FFß of -- 0.20 , then a 1 percent increase in fossil fuel prices should produce , on average , a 0.2 % decline in the firm 's stock price over and above the impact arising from fossil fuel price swing on the stock market as a whole . ( Conversely , a 1 percent decrease in fossil fuel prices should produce , on average , an equivalent increase in stock price . ) Converting the FFß into a hypothetical ` EPS-equivalent , ' based on , say , a 10 percent change in fossil fuel prices , it is possible to compare earnings-at-risk for individual companies with their competitors , or even industries with each other .", "David Archer (scientist) David Archer is a computational ocean chemist , and has been a professor at the Geophysical Sciences department at the University of Chicago since 1993 . He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor . He has worked on the history of atmospheric CO2 concentration , the expectation of fossil fuel CO2 over geologic time scales in the future , and the impact of CO2 on future ice age cycles , ocean methane hydrate decomposition , and coral reefs . He is a contributor to the RealClimate blog .", "List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "Reasonable doubt Reasonable doubt is a term used in jurisdiction of Anglo-Saxon countries . Evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems . Generally , prosecutors bear the burden of proof and are required to prove their version of events to this standard . This means that the proposition being presented by the prosecution must be proven to the extent that there could be no `` reasonable doubt '' in the mind of a `` reasonable person '' that the defendant is guilty . There can still be a doubt , but only to the extent that it would not affect a reasonable person 's belief regarding whether or not the defendant is guilty . Beyond `` the shadow of a doubt '' is sometimes used interchangeably with beyond reasonable doubt , but this extends beyond the latter , to the extent that it may be considered an impossible standard . The term `` reasonable doubt '' is therefore used . If doubt does affect a `` reasonable person 's '' belief that the defendant is guilty , the jury is not satisfied beyond `` reasonable doubt '' . The precise meaning of words such as `` reasonable '' and `` doubt '' are usually defined within jurisprudence of the applicable country . A related idea is Blackstone 's formulation `` It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer '' . Beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest burden of proof in any court in the United States . Criminal cases must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt .", "The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels is a 2014 book by American energy theorist Alex Epstein , in which Epstein argues that , although sometimes labeled as `` immoral , '' the use of fossil fuels dramatically improves the overall progress of humanity , and improves life expectancy and income . The book was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller .", "History of sustainability The history of sustainability traces human-dominated ecological systems from the earliest civilizations to the present . This history is characterized by the increased regional success of a particular society , followed by crises that were either resolved , producing sustainability , or not , leading to decline . In early human history , the use of fire and desire for specific foods may have altered the natural composition of plant and animal communities . Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago , agrarian communities emerged which depended largely on their environment and the creation of a `` structure of permanence '' . The Western industrial revolution of the 18th to 19th centuries tapped into the vast growth potential of the energy in fossil fuels . Coal was used to power ever more efficient engines and later to generate electricity . Modern sanitation systems and advances in medicine protected large populations from disease . In the mid-20th century , a gathering environmental movement pointed out that there were environmental costs associated with the many material benefits that were now being enjoyed . In the late 20th century , environmental problems became global in scale . The 1973 and 1979 energy crises demonstrated the extent to which the global community had become dependent on non-renewable energy resources . In the 21st century , there is increasing global awareness of the threat posed by the human-induced enhanced greenhouse effect , produced largely by forest clearing and the burning of fossil fuels .", "Cap and Share Cap and Share was originally developed by Feasta ( the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability ) and is a regulatory and economic framework for controlling the use of fossil fuels in relation to climate stabilisation . Accepting that climate change is a global problem and that there is a need to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally , the philosophy of Cap and Share maintains that the earth 's atmosphere is a fundamental common resource . Consequently , it is argued , each individual should get an equal share of the benefits from the limited amount of fossil fuels that will have to be burned and their emissions released into the atmosphere in the period until the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has been stabilised at a safe level .", "Phenalene Phenalene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ( PAH ) . Like many PAHs , it is an atmospheric pollutant formed during the combustion of fossil fuels .", "Direct carbon fuel cell A Direct Carbon Fuel Cell ( DCFC ) is a fuel cell that uses a carbon rich material as a fuel such as bio-mass or coal . The cell produces energy by combining carbon and oxygen , which releases carbon dioxide as a by-product . It also called coal fuel cells ( CFCs ) , carbon-air fuel cells ( CAFCs ) , direct carbon/coal fuel cells ( DCFCs ) , and DC-SOFC . The total reaction of the cell is C + O2 → CO2 . The process in half cell notation : Anode : C + 2 O2 − → CO2 + 4 e − Cathode : O2 + 4 e − → 2 O2 − Despite this release of carbon dioxide , the direct carbon fuel cell is more environmentally friendly than traditional carbon burning techniques . Due to its higher efficiency , it requires less carbon to produce the same amount of energy . Also , because pure carbon dioxide is emitted , carbon capture techniques are much cheaper than for conventional power stations . Utilized carbon can be in the form of coal , coke , char , or a non-fossilized source of carbon . At least four types of DCFC exist : The first one is based on the Solid oxide fuel cell ( SOFC ) concept . Overall reaction in the solid oxide electrolyte based DCFC C + O2 → CO2 . Anode reaction <Direct electrochemical oxidation path> C + 2O2 − → CO2 + 4e − C + O2 − → CO + 2e − <Indirect electrochemical oxidation path> CO + O2 − → CO2 + 2e − <Boudouard reaction:indirect chemical reaction path> C + CO2 → 2CO Cathode reaction O2 + 4e − → 2O2 − The second one is molten hydroxides fuel cell . William W. Jacques obtained an US Patent 555,511 in this type of fuel cell in 1896 . Prototypes have been demonstrated by the research group , SARA , Inc. . The third one is based on the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell ( MCFC ) concept . William W. Jacques obtained a Canadian patent in this type of fuel cell in 1897 . It has been developed further at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory . The fourth is a molten tin anode solid oxide fuel cell design , which utilizes molten tin and tin oxide as an inter stage reaction between oxidation of the carbon dissolving in the anode and reduction of oxygen at the solid oxide cathode .", "Fossil fuel phase-out Fossil fuel phase out refers to the discontinuation of the use of fossil fuels , through the decommissioning of operating fossil fuel-fired power plants , the prevention of the construction of new ones , and the use of Alternative energy to replace the role of fossil fuels . The purpose of fossil fuel phase-out is to reduce the negative externalities that use of fossil fuels cause . Negative externalities refer to the costs a certain activity has over people who did not choose to incur in them . A direct negative externality from fossil fuels ' use is air pollution , and an indirect negative externality are mining accidents , that happen as a consequence of the extraction of fossil fuels . Fossil fuel burning contributes to climate change , as it releases greenhouse gas emissions .", "Carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "Project Vulcan Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large . Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 . The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .", "Suess effect The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "Air Pollution in Canada Air pollution in Canada arises from the increasing airborne chemicals , matter and biological materials in the air . These factors cause harm to human health , the environment and to the economy . In the Canadian context , the main contributor of air pollution stems from burning fossil fuels for power and energy . Fossil fuels continue to be the main source of fuel for Canadians , even though the government is aware of the negative effects that it has on the environment and human health . Air pollution in Canada continues to be an issue due to the pressures with climate change , increased urbanization and continued reliance on vehicles as the primary source of transportation . A major contributor to the problem of Canadian air pollution are the Alberta Oil Sands . Though they are not closely related to major Canadian Metropolitan Areas , the quality of mostly rural Northern Alberta is poorer than areas of similar population densities in Canada . Toronto and other Canadian municipalities face environmental problems associated with air pollution due to industrial chemicals . Air pollution is Canada continues to negatively affect the environment , leading to an increase in health problems for Canadians , especially regarding leukemia . Air pollution has increased the rate of hospital visits per year and is currently causing premature deaths . There are current policy responses to combat the increasing rate of air pollution in Canada . The agreement is a response to Canada 's transportation and energy production infrastructure as they contribute to the problem of Air Pollution . The Canadian and United States federal governments have required each other to reduce air pollution by specific amounts annually through detailed reporting .", "Combustion Combustion -LSB- kəmˈbʌs.tʃən -RSB- or burning is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel ( the reductant ) and an oxidant , usually atmospheric oxygen , that produces oxidized , often gaseous products , in a mixture termed as smoke . Combustion in a fire produces a flame , and the heat produced can make combustion self-sustaining . Combustion is often a complicated sequence of elementary radical reactions . Solid fuels , such as wood , first undergo endothermic pyrolysis to produce gaseous fuels whose combustion then supplies the heat required to produce more of them . Combustion is often hot enough that light in the form of either glowing or a flame is produced . A simple example can be seen in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen into water vapor , a reaction commonly used to fuel rocket engines . This reaction releases 242 kJ/mol of heat and reduces the enthalpy accordingly ( at constant temperature and pressure ) : 2 ( g ) + ( g ) → 2 ( g ) Combustion of an organic fuel in air is always exothermic because the double bond in O2 is much weaker than other double bonds or pairs of single bonds , and therefore the formation of the stronger bonds in the combustion products CO2 and H2O results in the release of energy . The bond energies in the fuel play only a minor role , since they are similar to those in the combustion products ; e.g. , the sum of the bond energies of CH4 is nearly the same as that of CO2 . The heat of combustion is approximately -418 kJ per mole of O2 used up in the combustion reaction , and can be estimated from the elemental composition of the fuel . Uncatalyzed combustion in air requires fairly high temperatures . Complete combustion is stoichiometric with respect to the fuel , where there is no remaining fuel , and ideally , no remaining oxidant . Thermodynamically , the chemical equilibrium of combustion in air is overwhelmingly on the side of the products . However , complete combustion is almost impossible to achieve , since the chemical equilibrium is not necessarily reached , or may contain unburnt products such as carbon monoxide , hydrogen and even carbon ( soot or ash ) . Thus , the produced smoke is usually toxic and contains unburned or partially oxidized products . Any combustion at high temperatures in atmospheric air , which is 78 percent nitrogen , will also create small amounts of several nitrogen oxides , commonly referred to as , since the combustion of nitrogen is thermodynamically favored at high , but not low temperatures . Since combustion is rarely clean , flue gas cleaning or catalytic converters may be required by law . Fires occur naturally , ignited by lightning strikes or by volcanic products . Combustion ( fire ) was the first controlled chemical reaction discovered by humans , in the form of campfires and bonfires , and continues to be the main method to produce energy for humanity . Usually , the fuel is carbon , hydrocarbons or more complicated mixtures such as wood that contains partially oxidized hydrocarbons . The thermal energy produced from combustion of either fossil fuels such as coal or oil , or from renewable fuels such as firewood , is harvested for diverse uses such as cooking , production of electricity or industrial or domestic heating . Combustion is also currently the only reaction used to power rockets . Combustion is also used to destroy ( incinerate ) waste , both nonhazardous and hazardous . Oxidants for combustion have high oxidation potential and include atmospheric or pure oxygen , chlorine , fluorine , chlorine trifluoride , nitrous oxide and nitric acid . For instance , hydrogen burns in chlorine to form hydrogen chloride with the liberation of heat and light characteristic of combustion . Although usually not catalyzed , combustion can be catalyzed by platinum or vanadium , as in the contact process .", "Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion refers to the combustion-product gas resulting from the burning of fossil fuels . Most fossil fuels are combusted with ambient air ( as differentiated from combustion with pure oxygen ) . Since ambient air contains about 79 volume percent gaseous nitrogen ( N2 ) , which is essentially non-combustible , the largest part of the flue gas from most fossil-fuel combustion is uncombusted nitrogen . Carbon dioxide , the next largest part of flue gas , can be as much as 10 − 25 volume percent or more of the flue gas . This is closely followed in volume by water vapor ( H2O ) created by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel with atmospheric oxygen . Much of the ` smoke ' seen pouring from flue gas stacks is this water vapor forming a cloud as it contacts cool air . A typical flue gas from the combustion of fossil fuels contains very small amounts of nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) and particulate matter . The nitrogen oxides are derived from the nitrogen in the ambient air as well as from any nitrogen-containing compounds in the fossil fuel . The sulfur dioxide is derived from any sulfur-containing compounds in the fuels . The particulate matter is composed of very small particles of solid materials and very small liquid droplets which give flue gases their smoky appearance . The steam generators in large power plants and the process furnaces in large refineries , petrochemical and chemical plants , and incinerators burn considerable amounts of fossil fuels and therefore emit large amounts of flue gas to the ambient atmosphere . The table below presents the total amounts of flue gas typically generated by the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas , fuel oil and coal . The data were obtained by stoichiometric calculations . It is of interest to note that the total amount of flue gas generated by coal combustion is only 10 percent higher than the flue gas generated by natural-gas combustion . Note : m ³ are standard cubic meters at 0 ° C and 101.325 kPa , and scf is standard cubic feet at 60 ° F and 14.696 psia .", "Coal pollution mitigation Coal pollution mitigation , often referred to by the public relations term clean coal , is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the pollution and other environmental effects normally associated with the burning ( though not the mining or processing ) of coal , which is widely regarded as the dirtiest of the common fuels for industrial processes and power generation . The preferred industry term `` clean coal '' has been described as `` Orwellian '' , an oxymoron , and a myth . Approaches attempt to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and other greenhouse gases , and radioactive materials , that arise from the use of coal , mainly for electrical power generation , using various technologies . Historical efforts to reduce coal pollution focused on flue-gas desulfurization starting in the 1850s and clean burn technologies . More recent developments include carbon capture and storage , which pumps and stores CO2 emissions underground , and integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) involve coal gasification , which provides a basis for increased efficiency and lower cost in capturing CO2 emissions . There are seven technologies deployed or proposed for deployment in the United States : carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) , flue-gas desulfurization , fluidized-bed combustion , integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) , low nitrogen oxide burners , selective catalytic reduction ( SCR ) , and electrostatic precipitators . Of the 22 demonstration projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy since 2003 , none are in operation as of February 2017 , having been abandoned or delayed due to capital budget overruns or discontinued because of excessive operating expenses .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Katsuko Saruhashi was a geochemist who made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout .", "Australian Local Government Fossil Fuel Divestment In Australia , fossil fuel divestment is being led by Universities and Local Councils . In 2015 , the number of Australian councils with divestment commitments increased dramatically from 2 to 17 . On 15 September 2016 , the status of Australian council divestment was : Fossil free investment funds held by Australian Local Councils : $ 6,181,195,620 Number of Local Councils with fossil free divestment commitments : 27 Most Australian councils can not invest in shares , meaning they have no investments directly in climate-change-contributing fossil fuel companies . However , most councils have exposure to fossil fuels via their term deposit accounts with the big Australian banks whom in turn are financing billions of dollars worth of coal and gas projects across the country . Many councils have been identifying their exposure to ` fossil ' banks and have found that the majority of Australian banks ( particularly banks other than the ` big four ' ) do not provide finance for the fossil fuel industry . Research on which banks fund the fossil fuel industry , and those that do not , has been completed and is routinely updated by Market Forces an independent research organisation . Although there have been some public commitments indicating the Australian ` big four ' banks will not invest in certain fossil fuel related projects , at 30 June 2016 , the ` big four ' remain heavily invested in fossil fuel .", "FUTBOLIN FUTBOLIN ( FUll Transfer By Optimized LINe-by-line methods ) : Multi-level multiple scattering radiative transfer model for the calculation of line-by-line atmospheric emission/transmission spectra in planetary atmospheres . It has been developed by Javier Martin-Torres ( AS&M . Inc , NASA/Langley Research Center , Hampton , VA , USA ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena , CA ; Now at IACT ( CSIC-URG ) , Granada , SPAIN ) . It allows generating high-resolution synthetic spectra in the 0.3-1000 micrometre spectral range . The code can handle spherical or plane-parallel atmospheres . It reads spectral lines in HITRAN or GEISA format and can handle CO2 line mixing and continuum absorption from H2O , O2 , N2 and CO2 . It also takes into account the Non Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium ( NLTE ) effects on the rotational , electronic and vibrational populations of the atmospheric species and allows to specify any combinations of clouds , coverage and spectral albedo . It has been used to model the Earth 's atmosphere , and the atmospheres of Mars , Venus , and Titan . The code can calculate reflection , transmission , absorption , infrared cooling rate , and flux spectra .", "Climate change mitigation scenarios Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "Seaweed fuel Seaweed fuel or seaweed oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses seaweed as its source of energy-rich oils . Like fossil fuel , seaweed fuel releases when burnt , but unlike fossil fuel , algae fuel and other biofuels only release recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the seaweed or plant grew . Unlike algae , seaweed does not require fresh water and can as such be grown in the sea .", "Tejo Power Station operations The basic operation of a thermoelectric power station is quite simple : burning fuel to release heat that transforms water from a liquid state into steam . The steam is then responsible for driving a turbine activating the machine that generates electric power . However , the aspects involved in electric power production in the old Tejo Power Station were n't that simple because , among other things , a large and complex internal air and water system was required , as well as treating fossil fuels , which in the old power station 's case was coal ." ]

[ "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "World energy consumption World energy consumption is the total energy used by the entire human civilization . Typically measured per year , it involves all energy harnessed from every energy source applied towards humanity 's endeavours across every single industrial and technological sector , across every country . It does not include energy from food , and the extent to which direct biomass burning has been accounted for is poorly documented . Being the power source metric of civilization , World Energy Consumption has deep implications for humanity 's socio-economic-political sphere . Institutions such as the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) , the U.S. Energy Information Administration ( EIA ) , and the European Environment Agency record and publish energy data periodically . Improved data and understanding of World Energy Consumption may reveal systemic trends and patterns , which could help frame current energy issues and encourage movement towards collectively useful solutions . Closely related to energy consumption is the concept of total primary energy supply ( TPES ) , which - on a global level - is the sum of energy production minus storage changes . Since changes of energy storage over the year are minor , TPES values can be used as an estimator for energy consumption . However , TPES ignores conversion efficiency , overstating forms of energy with poor conversion efficiency ( e.g. coal , gas and nuclear ) and understating forms already accounted for in converted forms ( e.g. photovoltaic or hydroelectricity ) . The IEA estimates that , in 2013 , total primary energy supply ( TPES ) was 1.575 × 1017 Wh ( = 157.5 PWh , 5.67 × 1020 joules , or 13,541 Mtoe ) . From 2000 -- 2012 coal was the source of energy with the largest growth . The use of oil and natural gas also had considerable growth , followed by hydropower and renewable energy . Renewable energy grew at a rate faster than any other time in history during this period . The demand for nuclear energy decreased , in part due to nuclear disasters ( e.g. Three Mile Island 1979 , Chernobyl 1986 , and Fukushima 2011 ) . In 2011 , expenditures on energy totalled over 6 trillion USD , or about 10 % of the world gross domestic product ( GDP ) . Europe spends close to one-quarter of the world 's energy expenditures , North America close to 20 % , and Japan 6 % ." ]

[ "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "Compensation point The ( light ) compensation point is the amount of light intensity on the light curve where the rate of photosynthesis exactly matches the rate of respiration . At this point , the uptake of CO2 through photosynthetic pathways is exactly matched to the respiratory release of carbon dioxide , and the uptake of O2 by respiration is exactly matched to the photosynthetic release of oxygen . In assimilation terms , at compensation point , the net carbon dioxide assimilation is zero . Leaves release CO2 by photorespiration and day respiration , but CO2 is also converted into carbohydrate by photosynthesis . Assimilation is therefore the difference in the rate of these processes . At a normal partial pressure of CO2 ( 0.343 hPa in 1980 ) , there is an irradiation at which the net assimilation of CO2 is zero . For instance , in the early morning and late evenings , the compensation point may be reached as photosynthetic activity decreases and respiration increases . Therefore , the partial pressure of CO2 at the compensation point , also known as gamma , is a function of irradiation . The irradiation dependence of the compensation point is explained by the RuBP ( ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate ) concentration . When the acceptor RuBP is in saturated concentration , gamma is independent of irradiation . However at low irradiation , only a small fraction of the sites on RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase enzyme ( Rubisco ) have the electron acceptor RuBP . This decreases the photosynthetic activity and therefore affects gamma . The intracellular concentration of CO2 affects the rates of photosynthesis and photo respiration . At higher carbon dioxide concentrations , the photosynthesis rate is higher , while at low CO2 concentrations , photo respiration is higher .", "Soil respiration Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna . Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration . The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures . Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth . Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .", "Climate change mitigation scenarios Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Estuarine acidification Estuarine acidification is a decrease in the pH of coastal marine ecosystems , specifically those of estuaries . pH change in estuaries is more complicated than in the open ocean due to direct impacts from land run-off and coastal current dynamics . Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere ( 0.1 units over the last century ) . The ocean absorbs 30-40 % of all CO2 emitted to the atmosphere ; this increase in aqueous carbon dioxide causes a decline in the pH of the ocean surface . As carbon dioxide combines with water , it releases protons ( hydrogen ions ) , based on the following equation : CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3 ↔ HCO3 + H + ↔ CO3 + 2 H +", "Respiratory acidosis Respiratory acidosis is a medical emergency in which decreased ventilation ( hypoventilation ) increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood and decreases the blood 's pH ( a condition generally called acidosis ) . Carbon dioxide is produced continuously as the body 's cells respire , and this CO2 will accumulate rapidly if the lungs do not adequately expel it through alveolar ventilation . Alveolar hypoventilation thus leads to an increased PaCO2 ( a condition called hypercapnia ) . The increase in PaCO2 in turn decreases the HCO3 − / PaCO2 ratio and decreases pH.", "Fink effect The Fink effect , also known as `` diffusion anoxia '' , `` diffusion hypoxia '' , or the `` third gas effect '' , is a factor that influences the pO2 ( partial pressure of oxygen ) within the alveolus . When soluble gases ( e.g. nitrous oxide , N2O ) are breathed in large quantities they can be dissolved in body fluids rapidly . This can lead to a temporary increase in the concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the alveolus , causing an increase in their respective partial pressures . The effect is named for Bernard Raymond Fink ( 1914 -- 2000 ) , whose 1955 paper first explained it . When a patient is recovering from N2O anaesthesia , large quantities of this gas cross from the blood into the alveolus ( down its concentration gradient ) and so for a short period of time , the O2 and CO2 in the alveolus are diluted by this gas . This could cause the partial pressure of oxygen to decrease and could temporarily lead to hypoxia . The decrease in CO2 could also potentiate this effect as ventilation would be suppressed , leading to potential hypoxaemia . Nonetheless , this effect would only last a couple of minutes and hypoxia can be avoided by increasing the fractional inspired oxygen concentration when recovering from N2O anaesthesia .", "350.org 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "Sustainable Silicon Valley Sustainable Silicon Valley ( SSV ) is a collaboration of businesses , governments , and non-governmental organizations that are identifying and addressing environmental and resource pressures in Silicon Valley . As its first initiative , SSV engaged Valley organizations , who are the SSV Partners , to work towards a goal of reducing regional carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions 20 % below 1990 levels by 2010 . The SSV approach to reaching this goal is to facilitate strategies to reduce CO2 emissions through increased energy and fuel efficiency and through the use of renewable sources of energy .", "Disinflation Disinflation is a decrease in the rate of inflation -- a slowdown in the rate of increase of the general price level of goods and services in a nation 's gross domestic product over time . It is the opposite of reflation . Disinflation occurs when the increase in the `` consumer price level '' slows down from the previous period when the prices were rising . If the inflation rate is not very high to start with , disinflation can lead to deflation -- decreases in the general price level of goods and services . For example , if the annual inflation rate for the month of January is 5 % and it is 4 % in the month of February , the prices disinflated by 1 % but are still increasing at a 4 % annual rate . Again if the current rate is 1 % and it is -- 2 % for the following month , prices disinflated by 3 % i.e. -LSB- 1 % -- ( -2 ) % -RSB- and are decreasing at a 2 % annual rate .", "Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "Electricity sector in Italy The electricity sector in Italy describes the production , sale , and use of electrical power in Italy . The country 's total electricity consumption was 297.3 TWh in 2013 , of which 278.8 TWh ( 93.7 % ) was produced domestically ( the remaining 6.3 % was imported ) . According to its national energy plan , Italy plans to increase renewable power generation from all renewable sources to 26 % of all electricity produced by 2020 , covering 17 % of its total energy consumption . In 2014 , 38.2 % of the national electric energy consumption came from renewable sources ( in 2005 this value was 15.4 % ) , covering 16.2 % of the total energy consumption of the country ( 5.3 % in 2005 ) . Solar energy production alone accounted for almost 9 % of the total electric consumption in the country in 2014 , making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world . Italy has abandoned nuclear power following a referendum in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster , and nuclear power in Italy has never been greater than a few percent of total power generation . Italy has a high share of electricity in the total final energy consumption . The share of primary energy dedicated to electricity production is above 35 % , and grew steadily since the 1970s . Emissions of carbon dioxide per capita in 2007 were 7.4 tons , below the EU27 average of 7.9 tons CO2 . Emission change 1990/2007 was 10 % increase .", "List of terms of lung size and activity Following are terms that specify a type of lung size and/or activity . More specific definitions may be found in individual articles . Eupnea - normal breathing Apnea - absence of breathing Bradypnea - decreased breathing rate Dyspnea or shortness of breath - sensation of respiratory distress Hyperaeration/Hyperinflation - increased lung volume Hyperpnea - fast and deep breathing Hyperventilation - increased breathing that causes CO2 loss Hypopnea - slow and shallow breathing Hypoventilation - decreased breathing that causes CO2 gain Labored breathing - physical presentation of respiratory distress Tachypnea - increased breathing rate Orthopnea - Breathlessness in lying down position relieved by sitting up or standing Platypnea - Breathlessness when seated or standing , relieved by lying flat Trepopnea - Breathlessness when lying flat relieved by lying in a lateral position Ponopnea - Painful breathing", "Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment , society and economy . Tourism can involve primary transportation to the general location , local transportation , accommodations , entertainment , recreation , nourishment and shopping . It can be related to travel for leisure , business and what is called VFR ( visiting friends and relatives ) . There is now broad consensus that tourism development should be sustainable ; however , the question of how to achieve this remains an object of debate . Without travel there is no tourism , so the concept of sustainable tourism is tightly linked to a concept of sustainable mobility . Two relevant considerations are tourism 's reliance on fossil fuels and tourism 's effect on climate change . 72 percent of tourism 's CO2 emissions come from transportation , 24 percent from accommodations , and 4 percent from local activities . Aviation accounts for 55 % of those transportation CO2 emissions ( or 40 % of tourism 's total ) . However , when considering the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and that aviation emissions are made at high altitude where their effect on climate is amplified , aviation alone accounts for 75 % of tourism 's climate impact . The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) considers an annual increase in aviation fuel efficiency of 2 percent per year through 2050 to be realistic . However , both Airbus and Boeing expect the passenger-kilometers of air transport to increase by about 5 percent yearly through at least 2020 , overwhelming any efficiency gains . By 2050 , with other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions , tourism is likely to be generating 40 percent of global carbon emissions . The main cause is an increase in the average distance travelled by tourists , which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken . `` Sustainable transportation is now established as the critical issue confronting a global tourism industry that is palpably unsustainable , and aviation lies at the heart of this issue ( Gossling et al. , 2010 ) . ''", "Wind-assisted propulsion Wind assisted propulsion is the practice of decreasing the fuel consumption of a merchant vessel through the use of sails or some other wind capture device . Sails used to be the primary means of propelling ships , but with the advent of the steam engine and the diesel engine , sails came to be used for recreational sailing only . In recent years with increasing fuel costs and an increased focus on reducing emissions , there has been increased interest in harnessing the power of the wind to propel commercial ships .", "Environmental impact of aviation The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "Keith E. Idso Keith E. Idso is a botanist and vice president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change . He is the brother of Craig D. Idso and son of Sherwood B. Idso . He received his B.S. in Agriculture with a major in Plant Sciences from the University of Arizona and his M.S. from the same institution with a major in Agronomy and Plant Genetics . He completed his Ph.D. in Botany at Arizona State University . In 1994 , Idso , along with his father , published a review paper on the topic of increased CO2 levels and their effects on plant growth . The paper concluded that not only did other factors not diminish the ability of CO2 to increase plant growth rates , that `` the data show the relative growth-enhancing effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment to be greatest when resource limitations and environmental stresses are most severe . '' As of 1999 , he was teaching biology in the Maricopa County Community College District as an adjunct professor , a post to which he was appointed in 1996 . In 1998 , Idso spoke at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness ' annual meeting in Scottsdale , Arizona . His talk was entitled `` Direct Biological Effects of Increasing Levels of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide . '' In 1999 , Idso was appointed by the Arizona Speaker of the House of Representatives to serve on the Arizona Advisory Council on Environmental Education .", "Lysocline The lysocline is the depth in the ocean below which the rate of dissolution of calcite increases dramatically . Shallow marine waters are generally supersaturated in calcite , CaCO3 , so as marine organisms ( which often have shells made of calcite or its polymorph , aragonite ) die , they will tend to fall downwards without dissolving . As depth and pressure increases within the water column , the corresponding calcite saturation of seawater decreases and the shells start to dissolve . The reaction involved , though more complex , can be thought of as : CaCO3 ( s ) + H2O + CO2 → Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 − ( aq ) . At the lysocline , the rate of dissolution increases dramatically . Below this , there exists a depth known as the carbonate compensation depth ( CCD ) below which the rate of supply of calcite equals the rate of dissolution , such that no calcite is deposited . This depth is the equivalent of a marine snow-line , and averages about 4,500 meters below sea level . Hence , the lysocline and CCD are not equivalent . The lysocline and compensation depth occur at greater depths in the Atlantic ( 5000-6000 m ) than in the Pacific ( 4000 - 5000 m ) , and at greater depths in equatorial regions than in polar regions . The depth of the CCD varies as a function of the chemical composition of the seawater and its temperature . Specifically , it is the deep waters that are undersaturated with calcium carbonate primarily because its solubility increases strongly with increasing pressure and salinity and decreasing temperature . Furthermore , it is not constant over time , having been globally much shallower in the Cretaceous through to Eocene . If the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide continues to increase , the CCD can be expected to rise , along with the ocean 's acidity .", "Limescale Limescale is the hard , off-white , chalky deposit found in kettles , hot-water boilers and the inside of inadequately maintained hot-water central heating systems . It is also often found as a similar deposit on the inner surface of old pipe and other surfaces where `` hard water '' has evaporated . In addition to being unsightly and hard to clean , limescale seriously impairs the operation or damages various components . The type found deposited on the heating elements of water heaters has a main component of calcium carbonate . Hard water contains calcium ( and often magnesium ) bicarbonate or similar ions . Calcium salts , such as calcium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate are both more soluble in hot water than cold water . Thus , heating water does not cause calcium carbonate to precipitate per se . However , there is an equilibrium between dissolved calcium bicarbonate and dissolved calcium carbonate : Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − ⇋ Ca2 + + CO32 − + CO2 + H2O where the equilibrium is driven by the carbonate/bicarbonate , not the calcium . Note that the CO2 is dissolved in the water . There is also an equilibrium of carbon dioxide between dissolved in water ( dis ) and the gaseous state ( g ) : CO2 ( dis ) ⇋ CO2 ( g ) The equilibrium of CO2 also moves to the right towards gaseous CO2 when the water temperature rises . When water that contains dissolved calcium carbonate is warmed , CO2 is removed from the water as gas causing the equilibrium of bicarbonate and carbonate to shift to the right , increasing the concentration of dissolved carbonate . As the concentration of carbonate increases , calcium carbonate precipitates as the salt : Ca2 + + CO32 − ⇋ CaCO3 . As new cold water with dissolved calcium carbonate/bicarbonate is added and heated , CO2 gas is removed , carbonate concentration increases , and more calcium carbonate precipitates . Descaling agents are used to remove scale . Prevention of scale build-up relies on the technologies of water softening .", "Cattle urine patches Urine patches in cattle pastures generate large concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide through nitrification and denitrification processes in urine-contaminated soils . Over the past few decades , the cattle population has increased more rapidly than the human population . Between the years 2000 and 2050 , the cattle population is expected to increase from 1.5 billion to 2.6 billion . When large populations of cattle are packed into pastures , excessive amounts of urine soak into soils . This increases the rate at which nitrification and denitrification occur and produce nitrous oxide . Currently , nitrous oxide is one of the single most important ozone-depleting emissions and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century .", "Ethanol from coal Ethanol from coal is the ethanol produced using coal as its carbon source . The anaerobic bacterium Clostridium ljungdahlii produces ethanol and acetic acid from CO , CO2 , and H2 in synthesis gas . Early studies with C. ljungdahlii showed that relatively high concentrations of ethanol were produced . This process involves three main steps : Gasification : Thermal gasification at temperatures of up to 2,200 ° F in a reducing , very low oxygen atmosphere transforms organic materials into simple CO , CO2 and H2 gases . Fermentation : The acetogenic C. ljungdahlii convert the carbon monoxide into ethanol . Distillation : Ethanol is separated from hydrogen and water .", "Carbon price Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "Air pollution in Germany Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "Ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Seawater is slightly basic ( meaning pH > 7 ) , and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions ( pH < 7 ) . Ocean alkalinity is not changed by the process , or may increase over long time periods due to carbonate dissolution . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes . To achieve chemical equilibrium , some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid . Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion , thus increasing ocean acidity ( H + ion concentration ) . Between 1751 and 1996 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 , representing an increase of almost 35 % in H + ion concentration in the world 's oceans . Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogues and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean . Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms , such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms , and causing coral bleaching . By increasing the presence of free hydrogen ions , each molecule of carbonic acid that forms in the oceans ultimately results in the conversion of two carbonate ions into bicarbonate ions . This net decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available makes it more difficult for marine calcifying organisms , such as coral and some plankton , to form biogenic calcium carbonate , and such structures become vulnerable to dissolution . Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans . As members of the InterAcademy Panel , 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050 , global emissions be reduced by at least 50 % compared to the 1990 level . While ongoing ocean acidification is anthropogenic in origin , it has occurred previously in Earth 's history . The most notable example is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , which occurred approximately 56 million years ago . For reasons that are currently uncertain , massive amounts of carbon entered the ocean and atmosphere , and led to the dissolution of carbonate sediments in all ocean basins . Ocean acidification has been called the `` evil twin of global warming '' and `` the other problem '' .", "Supply shock A supply shock is an event that suddenly increases or decreases the supply of a commodity or service , or of commodities and services in general . This sudden change affects the equilibrium price of the good or service or the economy 's general price level . In the short run , an economy-wide negative supply shock will shift the aggregate supply curve leftward , decreasing the output and increasing the price level . For example , the imposition of an embargo on trade in oil would cause an adverse supply shock , since oil is a key factor of production for a wide variety of goods . A supply shock can cause stagflation due to a combination of rising prices and falling output . In the short run , an economy-wide positive supply shock will shift the aggregate supply curve rightward , increasing output and decreasing the price level . A positive supply shock could be an advance in technology ( a technology shock ) which makes production more efficient , thus increasing output .", "Bohr effect The Bohr effect is a physiological phenomenon first described in 1904 by the Danish physiologist Christian Bohr , stating that haemoglobin 's oxygen binding affinity ( see Oxygen -- haemoglobin dissociation curve ) is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide . Since carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid , an increase in CO2 results in a decrease in blood pH , resulting in hemoglobin proteins releasing their load of oxygen . Conversely , a decrease in carbon dioxide provokes an increase in pH , which results in hemoglobin picking up more oxygen .", "Concentration cell A concentration cell is a limited form of a galvanic cell that has two equivalent half-cells of the same composition differing only in concentrations . One can calculate the potential developed by such a cell using the Nernst Equation . A concentration cell produces a small voltage as it attempts to reach chemical equilibrium , which occurs when the concentration of reactant in both half-cells are equal . Because an order of magnitude concentration difference produces less than 60 millivolts at room temperature , concentration cells are not typically used for energy storage . A concentration cell generates electricity from the reduction in the thermodynamic free energy of the electrochemical system as the difference in the chemical concentrations in the two half-cells is reduced . The same reaction occurs in the half-cells but in opposite directions , increasing the lower and decreasing the higher concentration . The energy is generated from thermal energy that the cell absorbs as heat , as the electricity flows . This generation of electricity from ambient thermal energy , without a temperature gradient , is possible because the convergence of the chemical concentrations in the two half-cells increases entropy , and this increase more than compensates for the entropy decrease when heat is converted into electrical energy . Concentration cell methods of chemical analysis compare a solution of known concentration with an unknown , determining the concentration of the unknown via the Nernst Equation or comparison tables against a group of standards . Concentration cell corrosion occurs when two or more areas of a metal surface are in contact with different concentrations of the same solution . There are three general types of concentration cells ." ]

[ "James Hansen James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming ." ]

[ "Sagenocrinites Sagenocrinites is an extinct genus of crinoid from the Silurian period . During the Silurian period , a sea-covered Britain that was shallower in the south and deeper in the north lay south of the equator with a tropical to sub-tropical climate . Therefore , in the United Kingdom , amongst Silurian fossils , such as brachiopods , trilobites and graptolites , coral-like organisms like sagenocrinites can be found . Because this species belongs to a genre of crinoids which is very sensitive concerning the environmental influences their petrified remains can therefore be viewed as indicators of the climate conditions . By using a geological world map , these fossils will help to create a complex climate model , tracing back more than 400 million years to the ancient Earth . With a high accuracy it will be possible to reconstruct the climate history of our planet .", "Land Surface Model (LSM version 1.0) The Land Surface Model ( LSM ) is a unidimensional computational model developed by Gordon Bonan that describes ecological processes joined in many ecosystem models , hydrological processes found in hydrological models and flow of surface common in surface models using atmospheric models . In this way , the model examines interactions especially biogeophysics ( sensible and latent heat , momentum , albedo , emission of long waves ) and biogeochemistry ( CO2 ) of the land-atmosphere the effect of surface of the land in the climate and composition of the atmosphere . This model has a simplified treatment of the surface flows that reproduce at the very least computational cost the essential characteristics of the important interactions of the land-atmosphere for climatic simulations . As the types of surface vegetated for some species are several , have a standardization of types of covering being enclosed surfaces covered with water as lakes ( amongst others ) ; thus the model wheel for each point of independent form , with the same average of the atmospheric interactions . The model functions in a space grating that can vary of a point until global .", "Polar forests of the Cretaceous Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Orthonitrate Orthonitrate is a tetrahedral oxoanion of nitrogen with the formula . It was first identified in 1977 and is currently known in only two compounds , sodium orthonitrate ( Na3NO4 ) and potassium orthonitrate ( K3NO4 ) . These can be prepared by fusion of the nitrate and metal oxide under high temperatures and ideally high pressures ( several GPa ) . NaNO3 + Na2O → Na3NO4 ( 300 ° C for 3 days ) The resulting orthonitrates are white solids which are extremely moisture and CO2 sensitive , decomposing within minutes to carbonate and hydroxide upon exposure to air . Na3NO4 + CO2 → NaNO3 + Na2CO3 Na3NO4 + H2O → NaNO3 + 2NaOH The orthonitrate ion is tetrahedral with N -- O bond lengths of 139 pm , which is unexpectedly short , indicating that polar interactions are shortening the bond as dπ orbitals are too high in energy to be involved . This short bond length parallels that of oxoanions containing third-row elements like PO43 − and SO42 − , for which pπ-dπ bonding was previously proposed as the explanation for the short bond length and thus , argues against the importance of this explanation for these heavier anions . ( See the article on hypervalence for a discussion of bonding models )", "Rendition: Guantanamo Rendition : Guantanamo was a video game being developed by T-Enterprise , a software company in Scotland . It had been scheduled for release in late 2009 , but was ultimately cancelled . The promotional material used the slogan , `` It 's time to fight back . '' Company director Zarrar Chishti , quoted in Scotland 's Sunday Mail said in 2009 : `` It 's been in production for a year and two months . The player start the game with the orange boiler suit , cuffs and ear muffs . There are certain rules we ca n't break after meeting politicians so we are not making the game too extreme . We have had a lot of hate mail about this , mainly from America , saying things like , ` Do n't dare put out a game that shows them killing our soldiers . ' But no US or British soldiers get killed in it . The only ones being killed are mercenaries . We have set it in January 2010 because that 's when we think the camp will be closed . We are making a statement . We did not want Guantanamo to be forgotten . ''", "Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ( GFDL ) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . The current director is Dr. Venkatachalam Ramaswamy . It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories ( RLs ) . GFDL is engaged in comprehensive long lead-time research to expand the scientific understanding of the physical processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems . These systems can then be modeled mathematically and their phenomenology can be studied by computer simulation methods . GFDL 's accomplishments include the development of the first climate models to study global warming , the first comprehensive ocean prediction codes , and the first dynamical models with significant skill in hurricane track and intensity predictions . Much current research within the laboratory is focused around the development of Earth System Models for assessment of natural and human-induced climate change .", "Debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation This article documents the debate over China 's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation and mitigation of climate change in China . Both internationally and within the People 's Republic of China , there has been an ongoing debate over China 's responsibilities , particularly since 2006 , when China surpassed the US as the country with the highest emissions rate for the main atmospheric gas in global warming , carbon dioxide ( CO2 )", "1875 State of the Union Address The 1875 State of the Union Address was given by Ulysses S. Grant , the 18th President of the United States on December 7 , 1875 . It was written by him , but not presented to the United States Congress by him . He said , `` In submitting my seventh annual message to Congress , in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people , it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies , one hundred years ago . We were then a people numbering only 3,000,000 . Now we number more than 40,000,000 . Then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil . Now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country . '' The Industrial Revolution had begun .", "Human visual system model A human visual system model ( HVS model ) is used by image processing , video processing and computer vision experts to deal with biological and psychological processes that are not yet fully understood . Such a model is used to simplify the behaviours of what is a very complex system . As our knowledge of the true visual system improves , the model is updated . It is common to think of `` taking advantage '' of the HVS model to produce desired effects . Examples of taking advantage of an HVS model include colour television . Originally it was thought that colour television required too high a bandwidth for the then available technology . Then it was noticed that the colour resolution of the HVS was much lower than the brightness resolution ; this allowed colour to be squeezed into the signal by chroma subsampling . Another example is image compression , like JPEG . Our HVS model says that we can not see high frequency detail so in JPEG we can quantise these components without a perceptible loss of quality . Similar concepts are applied in audio compression , where sound frequencies inaudible to humans are bandstop filtered . Several HVS features are derived from evolution , when we needed to defend ourselves or hunt for food . We often see demonstrations of HVS features when we are looking at optical illusions .", "Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "Sunsets Farewell Tour The Sunsets Farewell Tour was a 2010 concert tour of Australian rock band Powderfinger . It was their last concert tour following the announcement on 9 April 2010 that they would be breaking up after the tour , saying it would be their last ever as the band had musically said everything they wanted to say . It coincided with the release of their final album , Golden Rule , on 13 November 2009 . In a statement read by Bernard Fanning , the band said : `` With the completion of our last album , Golden Rule , we feel that we have said all that we want to say as a musical group . We firmly believe that it is our most complete and satisfying album and ca n't think of a better way to farewell our fans than with music that we all believe in and also with , hopefully , our best tour to date . '' The band also stated , regarding the set list , that their first album Parables for Wooden Ears probably would n't feature so much ; Fanning laughed while saying , `` we 're going to play that in its entirety . '' Most of the songs performed were from their most successful albums -- Internationalist , Odyssey Number Five and Vulture Street -- as well as singles `` These Days '' and `` Bless My Soul '' .", "A Box of Birds A Box of Birds is the twelfth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church , released in September 1999 . It consists of cover versions of tracks by artists who were influential on the group 's music . The album was released after the band 's decision to abandon an already-complete live album and was recorded and mixed in 10 days . Guitarist Marty Willson-Piper said the band had played several covers in its gigs over the years , including `` The Porpoise Song '' , `` It 's All Too Much '' and `` Cortez the Killer '' -- `` and we thought , why not put them on a record . So we came along with our own ideas . Tim wanted to do an Iggy Pop number , Peter wanted `` Cortez '' , Steve wanted Kevin Ayers and I wanted to do Alex Harvey . We had to pick 10 after an initial list of about 40 . ''", "Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "North American Carbon Program The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "1973 State of the Union Address The 1973 State of the Union Address was given to Congress on February 2 , 1973 , by Richard Nixon , the 37th United States President . He said , `` America continues to provide a better and more abundant life for more of its people than any other nation in the world . We have passed through one of the most difficult periods in our history without surrendering to despair and without dishonoring our ideals as a people . Looking back , there is a lesson in all this for all of us . The lesson is one that we sometimes had to learn the hard way over the past few years . But we did learn it . That lesson is that even potentially destructive forces can be converted into positive forces when we know how to channel them , and when we use common sense and common decency to create a climate of mutual respect and goodwill . By working together and harnessing the forces of nature , Americans have unlocked some of the great mysteries of the universe . ''", "Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "GD 362 GD 362 is a white dwarf approximately 150 light years from Earth . In 2004 , spectroscopic observations showed that it had a relatively high concentration of metals in its atmosphere . Since the high gravitational field of white dwarfs quickly forces heavy elements to settle towards the bottom of the atmosphere , this meant that the atmosphere was being polluted by an external source . In 2005 , infrared photometric observations suggested that it was surrounded by a ring of dust with size comparable to the rings of Saturn , providing an explanation for this pollution . In 2006 , Benjamin Zuckerman , Michael Jura and other astronomers used the Keck telescope to obtain high-resolution spectra of GD 362 which showed that heavy elements in the star 's atmosphere occurred in concentrations similar to those in the Earth-Moon system . The group concluded that a possible origin for GD 362 's dust ring and atmospheric pollutants was that a rocky asteroid about 200 km in diameter was disintegrated by tidal effects between 100,000 and 1 million years ago . If this was the origin , the spectra indicate that the asteroid should have had composition similar to the Earth 's crust , suggesting that the star might have had an Earth-like planet before it entered its red giant phase . GD 362 has been a white dwarf for approximately 900 million years .", "Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "Mars general circulation model The Mars general circulation model ( MGCM ) is the result of a research project by NASA to understand the nature of the general circulation of the atmosphere of Mars , how that circulation is driven and how it affects the climate of Mars in the long term .", "Clinton Doctrine The Clinton Doctrine is not a clear statement in the way that many other United States Presidential doctrines were . However , in a February 26 , 1999 , speech , President Bill Clinton said the following , which was generally considered to summarize the Clinton Doctrine : It 's easy ... to say that we really have no interests in who lives in this or that valley in Bosnia , or who owns a strip of brushland in the Horn of Africa , or some piece of parched earth by the Jordan River . But the true measure of our interests lies not in how small or distant these places are , or in whether we have trouble pronouncing their names . The question we must ask is , what are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread . We can not , indeed , we should not , do everything or be everywhere . But where our values and our interests are at stake , and where we can make a difference , we must be prepared to do so . Clinton later made statements that augmented the doctrine of interventionism : `` Genocide is in and of itself a national interest where we should act '' and `` we can say to the people of the world , whether you live in Africa , or Central Europe , or any other place , if somebody comes after innocent civilians and tries to kill them en masse because of their race , their ethnic background or their religion , and it 's within our power to stop it , we will stop it . '' The Clinton Doctrine was used to justify the American involvement in the Yugoslav Wars . President Clinton was criticized for not intervening to stop the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 . Other observers viewed Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia as a mistake .", "Recycled fuel Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "Biosphere model In climate science , a biosphere model , is used to model the biosphere of Earth , and can be coupled with atmospheric general circulation models ( GCMs ) for modelling the entire climate system .", "Atmospheric thermodynamics Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations ( and their reverse ) that take place in the earth 's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics , to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air , the formation of clouds , atmospheric convection , boundary layer meteorology , and vertical instabilities in the atmosphere . Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development . Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection parameterizations used in numerical weather models and is used in many climate considerations , including convective-equilibrium climate models .", "Parametrization (atmospheric modeling) Parameterization in a weather or climate model within numerical weather prediction is a method of replacing processes that are too small-scale or complex to be physically represented in the model by a simplified process . This can be contrasted with other processes -- e.g. , large-scale flow of the atmosphere -- that are explicitly resolved within the models . Associated with these parameterizations are various parameters used in the simplified processes . Examples include the descent rate of raindrops , convective clouds , simplifications of the atmospheric radiative transfer on the basis of atmospheric radiative transfer codes , and cloud microphysics . Radiative parameterizations are important to both atmospheric and oceanic modeling alike . Atmospheric emissions from different sources within individual grid boxes also need to be parameterized to determine their impact on air quality .", "Wetland methane emissions As one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane , wetlands remain a major area of concern with respect to climate change . Wetlands are characterized by water-logged soils and distinctive communities of plant and animal species that have evolved and adapted to the constant presence of water . Due to this high level of water saturation as well as warm weather , wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane . Most methanogenesis , or methane production , occurs in oxygen-poor environments . Because the microbes that live in warm , moist environments consume oxygen more rapidly than it can diffuse in from the atmosphere , wetlands are the ideal anaerobic , or oxygen poor , environments for fermentation . Fermentation is a process used by certain kinds of microorganisms to break down essential nutrients . In a process called acetoclastic methanogenesis , microorganisms from the classification domain archaea produce methane by fermenting acetate and H2-CO2 into methane and carbon dioxide . H3C-COOH → CH4 + CO2 Depending on the wetland and type of archaea , hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis , another process that yields methane , can also occur . This process occurs as a result of archaea oxidizing hydrogen with carbon dioxide to yield methane and water . 4H2 + CO2 → CH4 + 2H2O", "An Inconvenient Truth (book) An Inconvenient Truth : The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 book by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth . It is published by Rodale Press in Emmaus , Pennsylvania , in the United States . Based on Gore 's lecture tour on the topic of global warming this book elaborates upon points offered in the film . The publisher of the text states that the book , `` brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world ; photographs , charts , and other illustrations ; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming . '' Michiko Kakutani argues in the New York Times that the book 's `` roots as a slide show are very much in evidence . It does not pretend to grapple with climate change with the sort of minute detail and analysis '' given by other books on the topic `` and yet as a user-friendly introduction to global warming and a succinct summary of many of the central arguments laid out in those other volumes , `` An Inconvenient Truth '' is lucid , harrowing and bluntly effective . '' In a section called `` The Politicization of Global Warming '' , Al Gore said this statement : As for why so many people still resist what the facts clearly show , I think , in part , the reason is that the truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives . A highlighted statement separated from the main writing in that section was : The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives . In 2009 , the audiobook version , narrated by Beau Bridges , Cynthia Nixon , and Blair Underwood , won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album .", "Hecates Tholus Hecates Tholus is a Martian volcano , notable for results from the European Space Agency 's Mars Express mission which indicate a major eruption took place 350 million years ago . The eruption created a caldera 10 km in diameter . It has been suggested that glacial deposits later partly filled the caldera and an adjacent depression . Crater counts indicate this happened as recently as 5 to 20 million years ago . However climate models show that ice is not stable at Hecates Tholus today , pointing to climate change since the glaciers were active . It has been shown that the age of the glaciers correspond to a period of increased obliquity of Mars ' rotational axis . The volcano is at location 32.12 ° N 150.24 ° E , in the volcanic province Elysium , and has a diameter of 182 km . It is the northernmost of the Elysium volcanoes ; the others are Elysium Mons and Albor Tholus .", "Si*Sé (album) Si * Sé is the self-titled debut album by Si * Sé . Band Review from http://www.luakabop.com/sise/info.html: `` Formed two years ago by singer Carol C and programmer/DJ U.F.LOW , Si * Sé bring together the atmospheric vibes of electronica with the crackle of live instruments . The results are electric : `` It 's about mixing stuff up that 's not usually mixed together , '' says Carol C. `` We 're a band from New York City and we try and combine all of its musical traditions including hip-hop beats , Latin rhythms and down-tempo electronic music because that 's what we hear everyday of our lives . It 's a prelude to the future . ''", "Catholic Church in Rwanda The Catholic Church in Rwanda is part of the Catholic Church . There are just over five million Catholics in Rwanda -- about half of the total population . The country is divided into nine dioceses including one archdiocese . The Rwandan government reported on November 1 , 2006 , that 56.5 % of the Rwanda 's population is Roman Catholic . On November 20th 2016 , the Catholic Church in Rwanda released a statement apologizing for the role of its members in the genocide in 1994 . `` We apologize for all the wrongs the church committed . We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed . We regret that church members violated ( their ) oath of allegiance to God 's commandments . Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity . We did n't show that we are one family but instead killed each other , '' said a statement signed by the nine bishops constituting the Catholic Episcopal Conference of Rwanda .", "Carbon dioxide removal Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "Climate Code Red Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated . The book argues that we are facing a `` sustainability emergency '' that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics . The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon . Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists , including James E. Hansen . The key themes of Climate Code Red are : `` Our goal is a safe-climate future -- we have no right to bargain away species or human lives . '' `` We are facing rapid warming impacts : the danger is immediate , not just in the future . '' `` For a safe climate future , we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth . '' `` Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society . '' `` Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency , because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual '' . Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman , climate-policy analyst , and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network . Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network . The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria , Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne , Victoria , on July 17 , 2008 ." ]

[ "Urban heat island An urban heat island ( UHI ) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities . The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day , and is most apparent when winds are weak . UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter . The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces . Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor . As a population center grows , it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature . The less-used term heat island refers to any area , populated or not , which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area . Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities , partially due to the UHI . Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons , and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes . The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone , and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems . Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island . Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas , which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat . There are concerns raised about possible contribution from urban heat islands to global warming . Research on China and India indicates that urban heat island effect contributes to climate warming by about 30 % . On the other hand , one 1999 comparison between urban and rural areas proposed that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends . Many studies reveal increases in the severity of the effect with the progress of climate change .", "Sahara The Sahara ( الصحراء الكبرى , , ` the Greatest Desert ' ) is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic . Its area of 9200000 km2 is comparable to the area of the United States . The desert comprises much of North Africa , excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast , the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb , and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan . It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west , where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains . To the south , it is bounded by the Sahel , a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa . The Sahara can be divided into several regions including : the western Sahara , the central Ahaggar Mountains , the Tibesti Mountains , the Aïr Mountains , the Ténéré desert , and the Libyan Desert . The name ` Sahara ' is derived from ( , pronounced -LSB- / / ˈSaHa : ra : -RSB- ) , the plural of the Arabic word for `` desert '' .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Aviation Environment Federation The Aviation Environment Federation ( AEF ) is the principal UK non-profit making organisation concerned with the environmental effects of aviation . These range from aviation noise issues associated with small airstrips or helipads to the contribution of airline emissions to global warming and climate change . The AEF is widely quoted in international media as a source of research and analysis on issues related to aviation and the environment . The AEF was established in 1975 and its members include community and environmental groups , local authorities , parish councils , and individuals . AEF is a member of AirportWatch , a UK-wide network of conservation and residents ' groups , Transport and Environment , which campaigns for smarter , greener transport in Europe , and the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation .", "Not Evil Just Wrong Not Evil Just Wrong is a 2009 documentary film by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer that challenges Al Gore 's An Inconvenient Truth by suggesting that the evidence of global warming is inconclusive and that the impact global warming legislation will have on industry is much more harmful to humans than beneficial . The movie was filmed in 2008 and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and at the RightOnline conference in 2009 . Despite earlier screenings at conservative political conferences , filmmakers promoted a `` premiere '' on October 18 , 2009 . The film attempted to break a World Record for largest simultaneous premiere , which is currently held by the documentary The Age of Stupid , another global warming documentary . The film 's website claims that there were 6,500 U.S. screenings and 1,500 foreign screenings and reached 400,000 people .", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Cornwall Alliance The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation is a conservative Christian public policy group that promotes a free-market approach to care for the environment that is critical of much of the current environmental movement . In particular , the Cornwall Alliance rejects claims of detrimental global warming . Originally called the `` Interfaith Stewardship Alliance '' it was founded in 2005 in reaction to the efforts of evangelical leaders ( such as Rick Warren ) to fight global warming . The name Cornwall come from the 2000 Cornwall Declaration . The organization 's views on the environment have been strongly influenced by the wise use movement of the 1980s and 1990s .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Hot Cities Hot Cities is an environmental documentary series broadcast in Autumn 2009 by BBC World News . It highlighted the effects of global warming and climate change on the world 's most populous cities .", "Foot Fella Foot Fella is a fictional character from the fictional planet named Marchoon . He appears in an educational figure for children learning about environmental and social issues such as global warming , lack of access to clean water , and world peace .", "Milorad Bojic Milorad Bojic ( often Milorad Bojić , from Serbian Cyrillic : Милорад Бојић ) . Numerous articles published in world 's most respected journals in the area of energy management make professor Milorad Bojic one of the top scientists and lecturers in his area of expertise . Professor Bojic has rich research experience in various fields including energy recovery , thermal comfort , finite-time thermodynamics , Integration , thermo economy , Global warming , air conditioning engineering , etc. .", "W. W. Greener W.W. Greener is a sporting shotgun and rifle manufacturer from England . The company produced its first firearm in 1829 and is still in business , with a fifth generation Greener serving on its board of directors .", "Exodus (Bertagna novel) Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 . Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith . The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .", "United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection The United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection was one of six subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works during the 110th Congress . The subcommittee 's jurisdiction included : Global warming Fisheries and wildlife , including the Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act ( ESA ) National Wildlife Refuges The subcommittee was formerly known as the Subcommittee on Fisheries , Wildlife , and Water , but was renamed during committee organization of the 110th Congress when global warming was added to its oversight responsibilities . It served as a counterpart to the new Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , and Children 's Health Protection . The subcommittee was chaired by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut , and the ranking member was Senator John Warner of Virginia .", "Greener Greener is a surname . Notable people with the surname include : Bob Greener ( 1899 -- 1970 ) , English professional footballer Christopher Greener ( born 1943 ) , United Kingdom 's tallest human Matthew Greener , British musician Richard Theodore Greener ( 1844 -- 1922 ) , American diplomat William Greener ( 1806 -- 1869 ) , English inventor and gunsmith", "Echo Planet Echo Planet is a 2012 Thai 3D animation film distributed by Kantana Group directed by Kompin Keamkumned . It is the story of the adventures of three young men from two of the world 's metropolis , New State Trinity Capital and Karen village in Northern Thailand . To help save the world from disaster recovery due to global warming .", "Ecological debt Ecological debt is the level of resource consumption and waste discharge by a population in excess of locally sustainable natural production and assimilative capacity . The term has been used since 1992 by some environmental organizations from the Global south . The first one to use this term was the Instituto de Ecologia Politica from Chile . J.M. Borrero , from Colombia , a lawyer , wrote a book on the ecological debt in 1994 . This referred to the environmental liabilities of Northern countries for the excessive per capita production of greenhouse gases , historically and at present . Campaigns on the Ecological Debt were launched since 1997 by Accion Ecologica of Ecuador and Friends of the Earth . Ecofeminist scholar Ariel Salleh explains how the capitalist processes at work in the global North exploit nature and people simultaneously , ultimately sustaining a large ecological debt in her article , `` Ecological Debt : Embodied Debt '' . At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit , politicians and corporate leaders from the global North introduced the supposed solution for the foreign debt crisis in the global South . They proposed ` debt for nature swaps ' , which essentially means that those countries that possess abundant biodiversity and environmental resources would give them up to the global North in return for the World Bank reducing their debt . Feminist environmentalists , indigenous activists , and peasants from the global South , primarily in Ecuador , exposed how the global North is much more indebted to the global South . Salleh justifies this by explaining how the 500-year-long colonialisation process involving the extraction of resources has caused immense damage and destruction to the ecosystem of the global South . In fact , scientists at the US National Academy for Sciences state that in the time period of 1961 -- 2000 , analyzing the cost of greenhouse gas emissions created by the rich ( the global North ) alone , it has become apparent that the rich have imposed climate changes on the poor that greatly outweigh the poor 's foreign debt . All of this environmental degradation amounts to ecological debt , seizing the people 's livelihood resources in the global South . The ecological debt manifested in the destruction of the environment and associated climate change the North has created is made possible through the process of modernization and capitalism . There is a disassociation between the wealthy capitalists in the North and the environment . Men in particular through industrialization have viewed themselves as separate from nature , and further , they view nature as a tool to profit from , and continually use and abuse without consequences . The notion of humans being embedded in the ecosystem that they live in is crucial to the discipline of political ecology . In political ecology , which reconnects nature and the economy , ecological debt is crucial because it recognizes that colonialisation has not only resulted in a loss of culture , way of life , and language for Indigenous peoples , but it has shaped the world economy into one that monetizes and commodifies the environment . For example , when the colonialisation of South America occurred over 500 years ago , Western Europeans brought with them their eurocentric values , seeing themselves as better than and therefore entitled to the indigenous people 's knowledge and the land they lived on . In a perceived post colonial world , large corporations and Western governments tend to present solutions to global warming by commodifying nature and hoping to make a profit . This better-than-thou attitude has created the conditions for global warming to occur , making the North 's ecological footprint soar , while also constructing an ecological debt so large as to completely rid the entire global South of their financial debt .", "Precipitation In meteorology , precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity . The main forms of precipitation include drizzle , rain , sleet , snow , graupel and hail . Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor , so that the water condenses and `` precipitates '' . Thus , fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions , because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate . Two processes , possibly acting together , can lead to air becoming saturated : cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air . Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud . Short , intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called `` showers . '' Moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain . This process is typically active when freezing rain is occurring . A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain and serves as the foci for forcing and rising air . Provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content , the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds , namely stratus and cumulonimbus . Eventually , the cloud droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops and descend toward the Earth where they will freeze on contact with exposed objects . Where relatively warm water bodies are present , for example due to water evaporation from lakes , lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones . Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy . Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone 's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands . In mountainous areas , heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation . On the leeward side of mountains , desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating . The movement of the monsoon trough , or intertropical convergence zone , brings rainy seasons to savannah climes . Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle , and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet . Approximately 505000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year ; 398000 km3 of it over the oceans and 107000 km3 over land . Given the Earth 's surface area , that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 mm , but over land it is only 715 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes . Precipitation may occur on other celestial bodies , e.g. when it gets cold , Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost , rather than rain or snow .", "Discover Worlds Discover Worlds is a completely student-run global nonprofit organization founded in 2005 with the purpose of creating and raising awareness within youth about issues facing humanity . Discover Worlds is a 501 ( c ) 3 nonprofit whose main endeavors include fundraising to support relief efforts around the world , internal fundraising , presenting to businesses , student groups , educational administrators , classes , service organizations , and other nonprofits about problems of global proportion , and acting through service and funding to make a difference in the lives of people around the world . The issues covered by Discover Worlds presentations cover a wide range of subject matter , including Genocide in Darfur , Sudan and the Congo , Famine , Extreme Poverty , Global Warming , Gang Warfare , HIV/AIDS , Human Trafficking , how students can tangibly change the world , and even conquering the fear of public speaking . These presentations are given around the world and every year , thousands of students are given the tools they need to effect positive change in their family , their community , their country , and even the world .", "Barkskins Barkskins is a 2016 novel by American writer Annie Proulx . It tells the story of two immigrants to New France , René Sel and Charles Duquet , and of their descendants . It spans over 300 years and witnesses the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming .", "List of Always Greener episodes The following is a list of episodes of Always Greener .", "Peter Taylor (environmentalist) Peter Taylor ( b. 24 Jan 1948 ) is a UK environmentalist with a long track record of public activism and scholarship on issues ranging from nuclear safety , ocean pollution , biodiversity strategies , renewable energy and climate change . His recent work on global warming has been questioned by environmentalists . His 2009 book Chill : a reassessment of global warming theory argued that most of the recent documented warming is caused by peaking natural cycles , that there is also a potential for global cooling and that adaptation not mitigation should be a priority . His views received widespread coverage in the media -- with front page on the Daily Express , and articles in the online versions of The Mail , The Times and an Al Jazeera video .", "Costa Cálida The Costa Cálida ( -LSB- ˈkosta ˈkaliða -RSB- , `` Warm Coast '' ) is the approximately 250 km stretch of Mediterranean coastline of the Spanish province of Murcia . This region has a micro-climate which features comparatively hot mean annual temperatures ( and hence its name , `` Warm Coast '' ) and a relative degree of aridity ( precipitation averaging less than 34 cm annually ) .", "Make Room! Make Room! Make Room ! Make Room ! is a 1966 science fiction novel written by Harry Harrison exploring the consequences of unchecked population growth on society . It was originally serialized in Impulse magazine . Set in a future August 1999 , the novel explores trends in the proportion of world resources used by the United States and other countries compared to population growth , depicting a world where the global population is seven billion , subject to overcrowding , resource shortages and a crumbling infrastructure . The plot jumps from character to character , recounting the lives of people in various walks of life in New York City ( population around 35 million ) . The novel was the basis of the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green , although the film changed much of the plot and theme and introduced cannibalism as a solution to feeding people .", "United States House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was a select committee of the United States House of Representatives . It was established March 8 , 2007 through adoption of a resolution by a 269 -- 150 vote of the full House . The committee existed from 2007 to 2011 , and was not renewed when the Republicans gained control of the House for the 112th Congress .", "Climatic regions of Argentina Due to its vast size and range of altitudes , Argentina possesses a wide variety of climatic regions , ranging from the hot subtropical region in the north to the cold subantarctic in the far south . Lying between those is the Pampas region , featuring a mild and humid climate . Many regions have different , often contrasting , microclimates . In general , Argentina has four main climate types : warm , moderate , arid , and cold in which the relief features , and the latitudinal extent of the country , determine the different varieties within the main climate types . Northern parts of the country are characterized by hot , humid summers with mild , drier winters , and highly seasonal precipitation . Mesopotamia , located in northeast Argentina , has a subtropical climate with no dry season and is characterized by high temperatures and abundant rainfall because of exposure to moist easterly winds from the Atlantic Ocean throughout the year . The Chaco region in the center-north , despite being relatively homogeneous in terms of precipitation and temperature , is the warmest region in Argentina , and one of the few natural areas in the world located between tropical and temperate latitudes that is not a desert . Precipitation decreases from east to west in the Chaco region because eastern areas are more influenced by moist air from the Atlantic Ocean than the west , resulting in the vegetation transitioning from forests and marshes to shrubs . Northwest Argentina is predominantly dry , hot , and subtropical although its rugged topography results in a diverse climate . Central Argentina , which includes the Pampas to the east , and the Cuyo region to the west , has a temperate climate with hot summers and cool , drier winters . In the Cuyo region , the Andes obstruct the path of rain-bearing clouds from the Pacific Ocean ; moreover , its latitude coincides with the subtropical high . Both factors render the region dry . With a wide range of altitudes , the Cuyo region is climatically diverse , with icy conditions persisting at altitudes higher than 4,000 m . The Pampas is mostly flat and receives more precipitation , averaging 500 mm in the western parts to 1200 mm in the eastern parts . The weather in the Pampas is variable due to the contrasting air masses and frontal storms that impact the region . These can generate thunderstorms with intense hailstorms and precipitation , and are known to have the most frequent lightning , and highest convective cloud tops , in the world . Patagonia , in the south , is mostly arid or semi -- arid except in the extreme west where abundant precipitation supports dense forest coverage , glaciers , and permanent snowfields . Its climate is classified as temperate to cool temperate with the surrounding oceans moderating temperatures on the coast . Away from the coast , areas on the plateaus have large daily and annual temperature ranges . The influence of the Andes , in conjunction with general circulation patterns , generates one of the strongest precipitation gradients ( rate of change in mean annual precipitation in relation to a particular location ) in the world , decreasing rapidly to the east . In much of Patagonia precipitation is concentrated in winter with snowfall occurring occasionally , particularly in the mountainous west and south ; precipitation is more evenly distributed in the east and south . One defining characteristic is the strong winds from the west which blow year-round , lowering the perception of temperature ( wind chill ) , while being a factor in keeping the region arid by favouring evaporation .", "An Inconsistent Truth An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written , produced , and featuring , nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards . Valentine , a skeptic of global warming theory , interviewed scientists about the validity of Al Gore 's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within . What he is told by the scientists he interviews is that there is no consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change . The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label , basing their argument on what Valentine says is shaky scientific ground ." ]

[ "Greenland Greenland ( -LSB- ˈɡriːnlənd -RSB- Kalaallit Nunaat -LSB- kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt -RSB- Grønland -LSB- ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ -RSB- ) is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Greenland is the world 's largest island ( Australia , although larger , is generally considered to be a continental landmass rather than an island ) . Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of about 56,480 ( 2013 ) , it is the least densely populated country in the world . The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland , connecting the various cities and settlements . Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada . Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century , and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century . The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century . Soon after their demise , beginning in 1499 , the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island , naming it Terra do Lavrador ( later applied to Labrador in Canada ) . In the early 18th century , Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again . To strengthen trading and power , Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island . Denmark -- Norway claimed Greenland for centuries . Greenland was settled by Vikings ( of Norwegian origin ) more than a thousand years ago , who had previously settled Iceland to escape persecution from the King of Norway and his central government . Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland , encountering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean islands . They attempted to colonize land . Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians , Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262 . The Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century . Norway was dramatically hit with a larger death toll than Denmark by the Black Death , forcing Norway to accept a union in which the central government , university and other fundamental institutions were located in Copenhagen . Thus , the two kingdoms ' resources were directed at creating Copenhagen . Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved . Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814 , and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark . In 1973 , Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark . However , in a referendum in 1982 , a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985 . Greenland contains the world 's largest and most northernly national park , Northeast Greenland National Park ( Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq ) . Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988 , it protects 972001 km2 of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world . Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq , Kujalleq , Qaasuitsup , and Qeqqata . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . At 70 % , Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world , mostly coming from hydropower .", "Sahara The Sahara ( الصحراء الكبرى , , ` the Greatest Desert ' ) is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic . Its area of 9200000 km2 is comparable to the area of the United States . The desert comprises much of North Africa , excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast , the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb , and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan . It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west , where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains . To the south , it is bounded by the Sahel , a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa . The Sahara can be divided into several regions including : the western Sahara , the central Ahaggar Mountains , the Tibesti Mountains , the Aïr Mountains , the Ténéré desert , and the Libyan Desert . The name ` Sahara ' is derived from ( , pronounced -LSB- / / ˈSaHa : ra : -RSB- ) , the plural of the Arabic word for `` desert '' .", "Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap .", "Reforestation Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted , usually through deforestation . Reforestation can be used to rectify or improve the quality of human life by soaking up pollution and dust from the air , rebuild natural habitats and ecosystems , mitigate global warming since forests facilitate biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , and harvest for resources , particularly timber , but also non-timber forest products . The term reforestation is similar to afforestation , the process of restoring and recreating areas of woodlands or forests that may have existed long ago but were deforested or otherwise removed at some point in the past . Sometimes the term re-afforestation is used to distinguish between the original forest cover and the later re-growth of forest to an area . Forestation is the establishment of forest growth on areas that either had forest or lacked it . Special tools , e.g. tree planting bars , are used to make planting of trees easier and faster ." ]

[ "Air Greenland destinations Air Greenland domestic airport network includes all 13 civilian airports within Greenland . Two international airports capable of serving large airliners − Kangerlussuaq Airport and Narsarsuaq Airport − were formerly used as U.S. Air Force military bases , and have been used for transatlantic flights . All other regional airports are STOL-capable , and are served with Bombardier Dash 8 Q200 fixed-wing aircraft . Outside Greenland , the airline operates transatlantic flights to Keflavík International Airport in Iceland , and to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark . Smaller communities are served by settlement flights from the local helicopter hubs in Upernavik Airport in the Upernavik Archipelago in northwestern Greenland , in Uummannaq Heliport in the Uummannaq Fjord region in northwestern Greenland , Ilulissat Airport and Aasiaat Airport in the Disko Bay region in western Greenland , in Qaqortoq Heliport and Nanortalik Heliport in southern Greenland , and in Tasiilaq Heliport in southeastern Greenland . Out of 45 heliports served , 8 are primary , the remainder are helistops . The following is a list of destinations served by Air Greenland as at April 2015 .", "Danish exonyms thumb | Bilingual town sign of Flensburg , Germany Danish language exonyms for non-Danish speaking locations exist , primarily in Europe , but many of these are not commonly used anymore , with a few notable exceptions . Rom ( Rome ) , Lissabon ( Lisboa ( Lisbon ) ) , Sankt Petersborg ( St Petersburg ) and Prag ( Prague ) are still compulsory , while e.g. Venedig is more common than Venezia ( Venice ) . In the decades following World War II , there has been a strong tendency towards replacing Danish exonyms with the native equivalent used in the foreign country itself . Possibly this is because many of these Danish forms ( e.g. for names in Belgium , Italy and Eastern Europe ) were imported from German . Until recently , it was official Danish policy to use Danish exonyms on road signs if Danish forms were commonly used and known . This has , however , been changed following a change in international agreements . Currently , one can still see Danish road signs pointing towards Flensborg and Hamborg across the border , however signs with Nibøl have been replaced for the sake of Niebüll . Signs leading to the Sound Bridge usually have Malmø with Danish spelling . In Southern Schleswig , the region south of the Danish-German border , a set of original ( or , in some cases , reconstructed ) Danish placenames exists alongside the German names , just like most North Slesvig placenames have German counterparts dating from the period under Prussian rule ( 1864 -- 1920 ) . The Danish placenames in Southern Schleswig are used by the local Danish minority and their media , while some in Denmark may avoid their usage for political reasons . The usage of German placenames in North Slesvig is similarly preferred by the local German minority ( when speaking and writing German ) , but traditionally shunned by many Danes in the region . From 2008 , municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein have been allowed to double their town signs with the official minority languages : Danish , Frisian and Low German . So far , the city of Flensburg has been the only municipality to introduce bilingual German/Danish signs . Danish placenames dating from the colonial era exist for almost all major settlements in Greenland . Some of the places in question were founded as settlements under a Danish name , while others were originally Greenlandic toponyms . Very frequently , the Danish and Greenlandic names have different etymologies ; while the former are often named after settlers or explorers , the latter usually describe geographical features . In 1983 , a Danish law officially transferred the naming authority to the Greenlandic Home Rule . During the years before and after that , a complete set of Greenlandic placenames have ousted the former traditional Danish names . Danish names in Greenland are now mostly known or used by older-generation Danish-speakers or by Danes living in Greenland . Until recently , Greenland was still - both officially and de facto - bilingual , but Greenlandic has assumed the status of sole official language in Greenland , following the island 's recent change from `` hjemmestyre '' ( home rule ) to `` selvstyre '' ( autonomy ) . Faroese placenames were Danicised in an era when no Faroese orthography existed , but the Danish names were replaced by Faroese ones during the first half of the 20th century ( somewhat later on maps ) . Today only Thorshavn is commonly used ( alongside the Faroese Tórshavn and the hybrid Torshavn ) . An example of radical use of Danish exonyms can be found in a great number of street names on the island of Amager , a part of Copenhagen . The city expanded greatly during the first half of the 20th century . Dozens of streets in the district were named after European cities or regions . It was deemed suitable for practical reasons that street names were adapted to Danish spelling rules , resulting in names such as Nyrnborggade and Lyneborggade . Due to historical reasons , the list also includes the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean , as these islands were a Danish colony until 1917 .", "The Grass Is Greener (disambiguation) The Grass Is Greener may refer to : The Grass is Greener ( play ) , a 1956 play written by Hugh and Margaret Williams The Grass Is Greener , a 1960 film starring Cary Grant `` The Grass Is Greener '' ( song ) , a 1963 song by Brenda Lee The Grass Is Greener ( album ) , a 1970 album recorded by Colosseum", "The grass is always greener Grass is greener , grass is always greener , or the grass is always greener on the other side may refer to : The Grass is Greener ( play ) , 1956 comedy written by Hugh Williams and Margaret Williams The Grass Is Greener , 1960 comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Cary Grant The Grass Is Greener ( album ) , album by Colosseum , released in April 1970 The Grass Is Always Greener , 2006 album by Barbara Morgenstern The Other Man 's Grass Is Always Greener ( album ) , 1968 album by Petula Clark The Other Man 's Grass Is Always Greener , 1967 single by Petula Clark `` The Grass is Always Greener '' , episode 24 of The Brady Bunch `` Beddy Bye/The Grass is Greener '' , episode 33 of The Fairly OddParents", "Ikerasak (disambiguation) Ikerasak may refer to the following locations in Greenland : Ikerasak , a settlement on Ikerasak Island in the Uummannaq Fjord region in northwestern Greenland Ikerasak Island , an island in the Uummannaq Fjord region in northwestern Greenland Ikerasak Fjord , a tributary fjord of Uummannaq Fjord in northwestern Greenland Ikerasak Strait , a strait in Upernavik Archipelago in northwestern Greenland", "Richard Theodore Greener Richard Theodore Greener ( January 30 , 1844 -- May 2 , 1922 ) was the first African-American graduate of Harvard College and dean of the Howard University School of Law .", "Greener Greener is a surname . Notable people with the surname include : Bob Greener ( 1899 -- 1970 ) , English professional footballer Christopher Greener ( born 1943 ) , United Kingdom 's tallest human Matthew Greener , British musician Richard Theodore Greener ( 1844 -- 1922 ) , American diplomat William Greener ( 1806 -- 1869 ) , English inventor and gunsmith", "Arcticodactylus Arcticodactylus is a genus of basal pterosaur living during the Late Triassic in the area of present Greenland . Its only species was previously attributed to Eudimorphodon , and its closest relatives may have been Eudimorphodon or Austriadraco .", "Greenland national football team The Greenland national football team represents Greenland in international football . It is controlled by the Football Association of Greenland . Although it has the same status as the Faroe Islands within the Kingdom of Denmark , Greenland is not , like the Faroe Islands national football team , a member of FIFA nor of any continental confederation and therefore is not eligible to enter the World Cup or other sanctioned tournaments . Most of the matches they have played have been against the Faroe Islands and Iceland , but neither of the two consider those games full internationals .", "Unpuncliegut The Unpuncliegut , also known as the Hunzpunzliegut , were a Native American people who lived along the southern part of the Texas coast ; their settlements are known to have been along the mainland shore of the Laguna Madre in the region of today 's Cameron and Willacy counties . They are believed to have spoken Coahuiltecan .", "Sisimiut Sisimiut , formerly Holsteinsborg , is the capital and largest city of the Qeqqata municipality , and the second-largest city in Greenland.The term ` city ' is loosely used to describe any populated area in Greenland , given that the most populated place is Nuuk , the capital , with 16,454 inhabitants . It is located in central-western Greenland , on the coast of Davis Strait , approximately 320 km north of Nuuk . Although now a place-name , Sisimiut literally means `` the people at the fox burrows '' . The site has been inhabited for the last 4,500 years , first by the Inuit peoples of the Saqqaq culture , Dorset culture , and then the Thule people , whose descendants form the majority of the current population . Artifacts from the early settlement era can be found throughout the region , favored in the past for its plentiful fauna , particularly the marine mammals providing subsistence for the early hunting societies . The population of modern Greenlanders in Sisimiut is a mix of the Inuit and Danish peoples , who first settled in the area in the 1720s , under the leadership of the Danish missionary , Hans Egede . Today , Sisimiut is the largest business center north of the national capital of Nuuk and is one of the fastest growing cities in Greenland . Fishing is the principal industry in Sisimiut , although the town has a growing industrial base . KNI and its subsidiary Pilersuisoq , a state-owned chain of all-purpose general stores in Greenland , have their base in Sisimiut . Architecturally , Sisimiut is a mix of traditional , single-family houses , and communal housing , with apartment blocks raised in the 1960s during a period of town expansion in Greenland . Sisimiut is still expanding , with the area north of the port , on the shore of the small Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay reserved for a modern suburb-style housing slated for construction in the 2010s . Several professional and general schools are based in Sisimiut , providing education to the inhabitants of the city and to those from smaller settlements in the region . The new Taseralik Culture Center is the second cultural center to be established in Greenland , after Katuaq in Nuuk . The city has its own bus line , and is the northernmost year-round ice-free port in the country , a shipping base for western and northwestern Greenland . Supply ships head from the commercial port towards smaller settlements in more remote regions of Uummannaq Fjord , Upernavik Archipelago , and as far as Qaanaaq in northern Greenland . The town airport is served by Air Greenland , providing connections to other towns on the western coast of Greenland , and through Kangerlussuaq Airport , to Europe .", "Greenlandic general election, 1987 General elections were held in Greenland on 26 May 1987 . Siumut and Solidarity both won 11 seats in the 26-seat Parliament .", "Nordic Seas The Nordic Seas are located north of Iceland and south of Svalbard . They have also been defined as the region located north of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge and south of the Fram Strait-Spitsbergen-Norway intersection . Known to connect the North Pacific and the North Atlantic waters , this region is also known as having some of the densest waters , creating the densest region found in the North Atlantic Deep Water . The deepest waters of the Arctic Ocean are connected to the worlds other oceans through Nordic Seas and Fram Straight . There are three seas within the Nordic Sea : Greenland Sea , Norwegian Sea , and Iceland Sea . The Nordic Seas only make up about 0.75 % of the World 's Oceans . This region is known as having diverse features in such a small topographic area , such as the mid oceanic ridge systems . Some locations have shallow shelves , while others have deep slopes and basins . This region , because of the atmosphere-ocean transfer of energy and gases , has varying seasonal climate . During the winter , sea ice is formed in the western and northern regions of the Nordic Seas , whereas during the summer months , the majority of the region remains free of ice . Several water masses are found interacting in the Nordic Sea . These water masses are present due to subduction , deep convective mixing , surface/frontal mixing , and entrainment of water from low and high latitudes . Interaction from multiple water sources can lead to varying conditions . New primary production is higher in this region , usually exceeding regenerated primary production . New production is higher in regions where water interacts with Atlantic Water , which has nutrient-rich waters . When looking at carbon flux from the atmosphere to the ocean , this region is considered one of the highest in the world 's oceans . This region is also known as being one of the few bodies of water that take up large quantities of carbon dioxide yearly , ranging from 20-85 g C m − 2y − 1 , which is considered high in comparison the carbon dioxide flux in the world 's oceans . The Nordic Seas include the Greenland Sea , the Norwegian Sea , and the Iceland Sea . The Greenland and the Norwegian Sea are separately distinguished by Mohn 's Ridge . The Greenland and Iceland Sea are separated by the Jan Mayen fracture zone , and the Norwegian and Iceland Seas have the Aegir Ridge between them . The Nordic Seas have varying and diverse features as a result of each sea having separate water mass structures and circulation patterns . The Greenland Sea produces dense waters because of its high salinity and cooler temperatures from winter cooling . Higher salinity is present as a result of the Greenland Sea 's close proximity to the salinity inflow that occurs from the Atlantic Ocean . Another dense water source comes from the Arctic waters that also flow into the Greenland Sea . These water source mixtures are important because they play a role in the overflows that occur in the North Atlantic . The water that overflows from the Greenland ridge becomes the North Atlantic Deep Water dense water , even though this body of water does not make up the deep waters of the Nordic Sea .", "Pachaimalai Hills The Pachaimalai Hills , ( Tamil : பச்சைமலை ) , also known as the Pachais , are low mountain range in the Eastern Ghats System . They are located in Tamil Nadu state , southeastern India . In the Tamil language , Pachai means green . The range 's vegetation is greener than some of the other hills in the region . The Tamil Nadu Government is planning to develop the Pachais as a tourist destination .", "Anoplotheriidae Anoplotheriidae is an extinct family of even-toed ungulates ( order Artiodactyla ) . They were endemic to Western Europe during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs about 48 -- 23 million years ago ( Mya ) , existing for about 25 million years . They disappeared at the end of the Oligocene , leaving no survivors today . Its name is derived from the ἂνοπλος ( `` unarmed '' ) and θήριον ( `` beast '' ) , translating as `` unarmed beast '' . They were most likely mid-sized terrestrial herbivores not too distantly related to camels , but smaller and low-slung with long and thick tails , and rather generalistic . The climate during their time was warmer than today , and their habitats were probably subtropical or even tropical , with plentiful rainfall and abundant vegetation . Tropical rainforest may at least initially have occurred all over the Anoplotheriidae 's range . Ecologically , they may have resembled a large duiker of our time ( e.g. the similarly sized yellow-backed duiker Cephalophus silvicultor ) , foraging in dense growth where their low builds would have been advantageous .", "Greenland Current Greenland Current may refer to : West Greenland Current East Greenland Current", "List of Always Greener episodes The following is a list of episodes of Always Greener .", "Minister for Greenland Minister of Greenland was a cabinet post for affairs with the Danish Arctic territory . Tom Høyem was Minister from 1982 and served till 1987 briefly ( succeeded by Mimi Jakobsen ) . In September 1987 the post were laid down , and responsibility transferred to the Prime ministers office . Since 1979 , Greenland has been governed locally or Home Rule with a parliament .", "Lecanora muralis Lecanora muralis is a waxy looking , pale yellowish green crustose lichen that usually grows in rosettes radiating from a center ( placoidiod ) filled with disc-like yellowish-tan fruiting bodies ( apothecia ) . It grows all over the world . It is extremely variable in its characteristics as a single taxon , and may represent a complex of species . The fruiting body parts have rims of tissue similar to that of the main nonfruiting body ( thallus ) , which is called being lecanorine . It is paler and greener than L. mellea , and more yellow than L. sierrae . In California , it may be the most common member of the Lecanora genus found growing on rocks ( saxicolous ) .", "Arcticoceras Arcticoceras is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod genus from the late Middle Jurassic belonging to the ammonite family Cardioceratidae , more commonly found to high northern latitudes . The Arcticoceras shell is involute , inner whorls sharply ribbed , outer ones becoming smooth . The suture , following the description of the Sephanocerataceae , is complex , ammonitic , with a dominant 1st lateral lobe and well-developed umbilical lobe . May be derived from Arctocephalites . Arcticoceras is found in northern Alaska , arctic Canada , Greenland , northern and central Russia , as well as in Wyoming , North Dakota , and Utah . Part of the fauna that lived in high latitude ( arctic and subarctic ) marine waters during the second half of the Middle Jurassic . Arcticoceras kochi and A ishmanae have been found in the boreal Bathonian stage of central East Greenland . Arcticoceras and Arctocephalites are found the Volga River Basin , Sartov Region , and Arctocephalites in the Pechora River Basin indicating an earlier and deeper penetration of arctic water into European Russia than previously thought .", "Bahodir Nasimov Bakhodir Odimdjonovich Nasimov ( Баҳодир Насимов born 2 May 1987 ) is an Uzbek footballer who currently plays for K League Challenge club Ansan Greeners as a forward , having previously played for Dinamo Samarqand , Bunyodkor , Rubin Kazan , Neftchi Baku , Padideh , and Bunyodkor .", "Yanesha' language Yanesha ' ( Yaneshac̈h / Yanešač̣ ; literally ` we the people ' ) , also called Amuesha or Amoesha is a language spoken by the Amuesha people of Peru in central and eastern Pasco Region . Due to the influence and domination of the Inca Empire , Yanesha ' has many loanwords from Quechua , including some core vocabulary . Yanesha ' may also have been influenced by Quechua 's vowel system so that , today , it has a three-vowel system rather than a four-vowel one that is typical of related Arawakan languages .", "Christopher Greener Christopher Paul Greener ( 21 November 1943 , New Brighton , Wallasey , Cheshire -- 11 February 2015 , Bromley , Kent ) was a British actor and basketball player . He was at one point the tallest man in the United Kingdom and at the time of his death was the 4th tallest British-born man ( after Giant Bradley , Neil Fingleton and Paul Sturgess ) at 7 ft in height . His weight ranged from 20-30 stone ( 127-190 kg ) during his adulthood . Greener , from a very young age , had a tumour at the base of his pituitary gland , which controls the release of human growth hormone . The tumour caused Greener 's pituitary to grow to several times the size of that of an average person , and he would not have stopped growing had the tumour not been surgically removed when he was in his late 20s . Amazingly , his condition , pituitary gigantism , was not diagnosed until 1970 , when Greener was 27 years old , already at his maximum height and the record-holder as the tallest man in Britain . He held the record for 40 years . In the late 1960s and early 1970s , Greener was an international basketball player for the Great Britain team , and was often at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre . Greener worked as an actor , often serving in various comedy roles focused on his great height . He played the circus giant in David Lynch 's The Elephant Man . He appeared in several documentaries chronicling the lives of the very tall , including the World 's Tallest People television special on The Learning Channel in the United States and Superhuman : Giants on the UK 's ITV . On 14 February 2011 he appeared on an episode of The Gadget Show on Five in the UK to test out phones by dropping them .", "Military of Greenland The government of Greenland does not have control of Greenland 's military or foreign affairs . The defence of Greenland is the responsibility of Denmark . However , following the November 2008 referendum on increased autonomy , which attracted significant popular support ( 72 % turnout , 75 % vote in favor ) , the governments of Greenland and Denmark have agreed to a 30-point package that will begin to give Greenland greater powers over defence and foreign affairs .", "Belemnitina Belemnitina is a suborder of belemnites , an extinct group of cephalopods . They have been identified as the oldest of all the belemnites and are likely the stockgroup for them . They were extant from the early Jurassic to the early Cretaceous . Their geographic distribution was mostly limited to Europe , although specimens have been described in Japan suggesting they may have been more widespread than previously thought .", "W. W. Greener W.W. Greener is a sporting shotgun and rifle manufacturer from England . The company produced its first firearm in 1829 and is still in business , with a fifth generation Greener serving on its board of directors .", "The Grass Is Always Greener The Grass is Always Greener is a 2006 album by Barbara Morgenstern .", "Jonathan Petersen Jonathan Petersen ( 7 May 1881 -- 22 August 1961 ) was a Greenlandic songwriter . He composed the music to the national anthem of Greenland , Nunarput utoqqarsuanngoravit ( Our Country , Who 's Become So Old in English ) . The lyrics were written by the Greenlandic pastor Henrik Lund , and the song was adopted as the national anthem in 1916 .", "Elections in Greenland Greenland elects on national level a legislature . The Greenlandic Parliament ( Inatsisartut in Greenlandic ) has 31 members of parliament , elected for a four-year term by proportional representation . Greenland have a multi-party system ( disputing on independence and unionism as well as left and right ) , with numerous parties in which a single party normally does not have a chance of gaining power alone , and therefore the parties must work together in order to form a coalition government .", "William Wellington Greener William Wellington Greener ( 1834 -- 1921 ) was an innovative English gunsmith , the founder of the W. W. Greener company . He was also an author of books on guns , many of which went through multiple editions , most notably The Gun and Its Development ( first published 1881 ; 9th edition 1910 ; subsequently reprinted 1972 , 1989 , 2002 ) . He was the son of the gunsmith William Greener ( 1806-1869 ) .", "List of Greenlandic artists This is a list of Greenlandic artists who were born in or who live in Greenland .", "Aramis, Ethiopia Aramis is a village and archaeological site in north-eastern Ethiopia , where remains of Australopithecus and Ardipithecus ( Ardipithecus ramidus ) have been found . The village is located in Administrative Zone 3 of the Afar Region with a latitude and longitude of , and is part of the Gewane woreda . The Central Statistical Agency did not mention this village in their 2005 population report . Archeologists include the find site near the village as part of the Middle Awash region . Taphonological and palynological studies have uncovered evidence of a rich fossil flora and fauna including many Canthium seeds , a genus found mainly in African woodlands and forests . Additionally , fossil medium-sized colobine monkeys and kudas suggest that pre-historic Aramis may have been wet , closed , and wooded , whereas today the Middle Awash is one of the dryest , hottest , and uninhabitable regions of the world . In 1992 and 1993 a team led by Tim White found in total 17 specimens of hominid fossils at Aramis . These fossils were dated at 4.4 million years , 500,000 years earlier than the oldest afarensis fossils found in the eastern Middle Awash . This discovery was published on the front page of New York Times , and later a new genus and species of hominids was proposed , Ardipithecus ramidus ." ]

[ "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Hockey stick controversy In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "Afghanistan–China relations Afghanistan -- People 's Republic of China relations were mostly warm and friendly during most of the 20th Century but after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 , relations severely deteriorated . In the 21st century relations have improved significantly .", "Greek legislative election, 1920 Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 1 November 1920 . They were possibly the most crucial elections in the modern history of Greece , influencing not only the few years afterwards , including the country 's defeat by Kemal Atatürk 's reformed Turkish army in 1922 , but setting the stage for Greece 's political landscape for most of the rest of the 20th century . It had been nearly five years since the last election , a period during which all democratic procedures were suspended due to the National Schism , when Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos announced that the elections would take place on 25 October . However , after the unexpected death of King Alexander , who had assumed the throne after the exile of his father , King Constantine I , the elections were postponed until 1 November . The result was a victory for the United Opposition , which won 251 of the 369 seats .", "Swizzle stick A swizzle stick is a small stick used to hold fruit garnishes or stir drinks . The original swizzle sticks were created in the 18th century at a rum plantation in the West Indies . They were used to stir up Bermudian cocktails called Rum Swizzles and were made from the branch of a plant . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , stir sticks made of glass were created to shake out the bubbles from champagne , whose carbonation caused indigestion for some drinkers .", "Doryanthes Doryanthes is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Doryanthaceae . The genus consists of two species , D. excelsa and D. palmeri , both native to the coast of Eastern Australia . Plants grow in a rosette form , only flowering after more than 10 years . They enjoy a warm environment , good soil , and much water during the warmest time of the year .", "List of MAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player The MAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player was an annual award given out at the conclusion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men 's ice hockey tournament to the most valuable player in the championship as voted by the coaches of each MAAC team . The award was discontinued after 2003 when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved and all remaining programs reformed in Atlantic Hockey .", "2010 in film In the year 2010 , there was a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking after the success of Avatar in the format , with releases such as Alice in Wonderland , Clash of the Titans , Jackass 3D , all animated films , with numerous other titles being released in 3D formats . 20th Century Fox celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010 .", "List of MAAC Awards The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ( MAAC ) gave out several conference awards to ice hockey players and coaches while it operated a hockey conference from 1998-99 thru 2002-03 . For five seasons the MAAC named players to three all-conference teams ( First Team , Second Team and Rookie Team ) and bestowed six of seven individual awards at the conclusion of the regular season . The seventh award ( Tournament MVP ) was conferred after the conference tournament was completed . All Awards were voted for by the head coaches of each MAAC member team . All Awards were discontinued after the conclusion of the 2002-03 season when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved due to Fairfield and Iona discontinuing their Division I programs . All remaining schools formed Atlantic Hockey which began play the following year .", "Baptist Mid-Missions Baptist Mid-Missions is an independent Baptist mission agency based in Cleveland , Ohio , that supports nearly 1000 missionaries in more than 55 countries around the world , in all six inhabited continents . Originally named The General Council of Co-operating Baptist Missions of North America , Inc. , it was established October 15 , 1920 . Its first ministry was located in French Equatorial Africa in the 1920s . Baptist Mid-Missions ' focus is on church planting , which is supported by ministries such as Bible translation/literacy , seminaries , camps , broadcasting , publishing , and disaster relief . Category : Religious organizations established in 1920 Category : Baptist organizations established in the 20th century", "List of MAAC Coach of the Year The MAAC Coach of the Year was an annual award given out at the conclusion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season to the coach of a men 's ice hockey team in the conference as voted by the coaches of each MAAC team . The award was discontinued after 2002-03 when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved and all remaining programs reformed in Atlantic Hockey .", "Irving Kristol Irving Kristol ( January 22 , 1920 -- September 18 , 2009 ) was an American columnist , journalist , and writer who was dubbed the `` godfather of neo-conservatism . '' As the founder , editor , and contributor to various magazines , he played an influential role in the intellectual and political culture of the last half-century ; after his death he was described by The Daily Telegraph as being `` perhaps the most consequential public intellectual of the latter half of the 20th century . ''", "List of MAAC Defensive Rookie of the Year The MAAC Defensive Rookie of the Year was an annual award given out at the conclusion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season to the best defensive men 's ice hockey freshman in the conference as voted by the coaches of each MAAC team . The award was discontinued after 2002-03 when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved and all remaining programs reformed in Atlantic Hockey .", "List of MAAC Goaltender of the Year The MAAC Defensive Player of the Year was an annual award given out at the conclusion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season to the best defensive men 's ice hockey player in the conference as voted by the coaches of each MAAC team . The award was discontinued after 2002-03 when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved and all remaining programs reformed in Atlantic Hockey .", "List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "Golden Hockey Stick The Golden Hockey Stick ( Zlatá hokejka ) is an award given to the top Czech ice hockey player . It was originally awarded to the top player in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League , beginning in the 1968 -- 69 season . After the Czech Republic and Slovakia became separate countries in 1993 , it was awarded to the top Czech player anywhere in the world . Jaromír Jágr has won this award 12 times , more than any other player . Dominik Hašek won it five times .", "Chamois grip Chamois grip or Shammy is popularly used by field hockey players to enhance the grip on their hockey stick . Chamois grips are `` overgrips '' which means they do not have adhesives on them , instead they are merely wrapped around the hockey stick handle . They are very good at preventing the hands from slipping off the stick and are especially useful when wet , this is because they are designed to absorb moisture . Most internationals will use chamois grips over their existing grips for extra feel and grip in the wet . The chamois grip for field hockey gets its name from the chamois leather but is not related to it now . Most of the grips available are now produced in Pakistan and India , not in the original town in France .", "Jonchets Jonchets or onchets is a pick-up sticks game from France played with carved sticks . References to the game date back as far as the 17th century , and it was quite popular at the start of the 20th century . The sticks were originally made of rush , but later also from wood , bone or ivory . Jonchets can be played by 2 to 4 players , with 30 to 40 sticks at a length of 10 cm . The sticks are thrown on a table , and the rules of play are likely similar to jackstraws . In jonchets , some sticks may have carved heads that denote different point values . Mikado ( game ) is a simplified variation that may have been directly inspired by jonchets . `` Jonchets '' were also the name of a stick abacus calcus form in France with Asian background . Category : Games of physical skill", "List of MAAC Offensive Player of the Year The MAAC Offensive Player of the Year was an annual award given out at the conclusion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season to the best offensive men 's ice hockey player in the conference as voted by the coaches of each MAAC team . The award was discontinued after 2002-03 when the MAAC ice hockey conference was dissolved and all remaining programs reformed in Atlantic Hockey .", "Hipparchus of Euboea Hipparchus or Hipparch of Euboea ( Ἵππαρχος fl . 4th century BC ) was one of the warmest partisans of Philip of Macedon , who rewarded him for his zeal by appointing him , together with Automedon and Cleitarchus , to be rulers , or , as Demosthenes calls them , tyrants of Eretria , supported by a force of mercenary troops . From an anecdote mentioned by Plutarch , it appears that Philip entertained for him feelings of warm personal regard .", "Hugh Laing Hugh Laing ( 6 June 191110 May 1988 ) was one of the most significant dramatic ballet dancers of the 20th-century . He was the partner of choreographer Antony Tudor .", "History of women's ice hockey in the United States The history of women 's ice hockey in the United States can be traced back to the early 20th century . In the 1920s , the Seattle Vamps competed in various hockey tournaments . In 1916 , the United States hosted an international hockey tournament in Cleveland , Ohio , that featured Canadian and American women 's hockey teams .", "Toronto Young Rangers The Toronto Young Rangers were a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1937 -- 38 until the conclusion of the 1947 -- 48 season . While most teams in the league had an affiliation with a National Hockey League club , the Young Rangers did not . They were owned , operated and coached by Ed Wildey ( November 22 , 1875 -- July 19 , 1964 ) , a Toronto sportsman who worked out an arrangement with Conn Smythe that saw the team practise early mornings at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto . During the 1940 -- 41 season , Wildey was able to secure sponsorship and the team was known as the `` Bowles Rangers . '' The team took a one year hiatus for the 1942 -- 43 season . For his contributions to junior hockey , in 1962 , Ed Wildey was awarded the Gold Stick , an order of merit in hockey awarded by the OHA for outstanding service to the game other than as a player . Such outstanding service must have been for a period of not less than 10 years continuous duration .", "John Eastaugh John Richard Gordon Eastaugh ( 11 March 1920-16 February 1990 ) was an Anglican bishop in the last third of the 20th century . He was born on 11 March 1920 and educated at the University of Leeds and ordained in 1944 . He began his career with a curacy at All Saints ' Poplar and then held incumbencies at Hackney and Heston before being collated Archdeacon of Middlesex in 1966 . He was ordained to the episcopate as Bishop of Hereford in 1973 and died in post 17 years later on 16 February 1990 , aged 69 .", "North Report The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "Johnstown Chiefs The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown , Pennsylvania , that played in the ECHL . The team was founded in 1987 in the All-American Hockey League , and moved to the East Coast Hockey League ( now `` ECHL '' ) when that league was formed . The Chiefs lasted for 22 years in Johnstown , and was the last of the founding ECHL teams playing under its original name and in its original city . The Chiefs relocated to Greenville , South Carolina , following the completion of the 2010 season .", "Christy (surname) Christy is an Irish name meaning of Christ , in reference to Jesus . Due to emigration to the United States , Christy has also been used as an Americanization of Scandinavian last names such as the Danish Christiansen ) . As a result , a small number of Danes with the last name Christy are descendants of a family which emigrated to the US in the early 20th century . However , most of the children returned to Denmark in the 1920s . For this reason , a large majority of Danish citizens with the last name Christy are related by blood .", "Andrew Montford Andrew William Montford is an English writer and editor who is the owner of the Bishop Hill blog and describes himself as '' ... one of the UK 's best-known critics of the so-called global warming consensus . '' He is the author of The Hockey Stick Illusion ( 2010 ) .", "Stacey Michelsen Stacey Michelsen ( born 18 February 1991 ) is a New Zealand field hockey player . She has competed for the New Zealand women 's national field hockey team ( the Black Sticks Women ) , including for the team at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 Summer Olympics . Michelsen was first selected for the Black Sticks Women in June 2009 , along with ten other players as the Black Sticks squad was overhauled following its last place finish at the 2008 Beijing Olympics . In February 2012 , she was named the 2011 women 's Young Player of the Year in the International Hockey Federation 's ( FIH ) Player of the Year Awards . Born in Whangarei , Michelsen attended Kamo Intermediate and Kamo High School in Whangarei and St Cuthbert 's College in Auckland . She studies law and business at the University of Auckland .", "Cumberland Market Cumberland Market was a London market between Regent 's Park and Euston railway station . It was built in the early 19th century and was London 's hay and straw market for a hundred years until the late 1920s . An arm of the Regent 's Canal was built to the market . The market was surrounded by modest housing , and in the early 20th century became an artistic community . The original houses were demolished during and after the Second World War and it is now a housing estate , known as Regent 's Park Estate .", "Raspoutine (2011 film) Raspoutine or ( -LSB- Распутин , Rasputin -RSB- ) is a Franco-Russian historical film about the last year of the life of one of the most enigmatic figures of Russian history of the 20th century - Grigori Rasputin .", "Melody of the year (Bulgaria) Melody of the year was the biggest annual national TV contest in Bulgaria in the 20th century . The competition is conducted in The dramatic theater `` Konstantin Kisimov '' in Veliko Tarnovo . The show was led by Inna Simeonova . The parent label were Balkanton ." ]

[ "Earth Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "Future of Earth The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences . These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface , the rate of cooling of the planet 's interior , the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System , and a steady increase in the Sun 's luminosity . An uncertain factor in this extrapolation is the ongoing influence of technology introduced by humans , such as climate engineering , which could cause significant changes to the planet . The current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology and the effects may last for up to five million years . In turn , technology may result in the extinction of humanity , leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes . Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years , random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere , which can result in mass extinctions . These include impacts by comets or asteroids with diameters of 5 -- or more , and the possibility of a massive stellar explosion , called a supernova , within a 100-light-year radius of the Sun , called a Near-Earth supernova . Other large-scale geological events are more predictable . If the long-term effects of global warming are disregarded , Milankovitch theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end . These periods are caused by variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit . As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle , plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250 -- 350 million years . Some time in the next 1.5 -- 4.5 billion years , the axial tilt of the Earth may begin to undergo chaotic variations , with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90 ° . During the next four billion years , the luminosity of the Sun will steadily increase , resulting in a rise in the solar radiation reaching the Earth . This will result in a higher rate of weathering of silicate minerals , which will cause a decrease in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In about 600 million years from now , the level of CO2 will fall below the level needed to sustain C3 carbon fixation photosynthesis used by trees . Some plants use the C4 carbon fixation method , allowing them to persist at concentrations as low as 10 parts per million . However , the long-term trend is for plant life to die off altogether . The extinction of plants will be the demise of almost all animal life , since plants are the base of the food chain on Earth . In about one billion years , the solar luminosity will be 10 % higher than at present . This will cause the atmosphere to become a `` moist greenhouse '' , resulting in a runaway evaporation of the oceans . As a likely consequence , plate tectonics will come to an end , and with them the entire carbon cycle . Following this event , in about 2 − 3 billion years , the planet 's magnetic dynamo may cease , causing the magnetosphere to decay and leading to an accelerated loss of volatiles from the outer atmosphere . Four billion years from now , the increase in the Earth 's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect , heating the surface enough to melt it . By that point , all life on the Earth will be extinct . The most probable fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years , after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded to cross the planet 's current orbit .", "Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "Climate model Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "Coriolis force In physics , the Coriolis force is an inertial force that acts on objects that are in motion relative to a rotating reference frame . In a reference frame with clockwise rotation , the force acts to the left of the motion of the object . In one with anticlockwise rotation , the force acts to the right . Deflection of an object due to the Coriolis force is called the Coriolis effect . Though recognized previously by others , the mathematical expression for the Coriolis force appeared in an 1835 paper by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis , in connection with the theory of water wheels . Early in the 20th century , the term Coriolis force began to be used in connection with meteorology . Newton 's laws of motion describe the motion of an object in an inertial ( non-accelerating ) frame of reference . When Newton 's laws are transformed to a rotating frame of reference , the Coriolis force and centrifugal force appear . Both forces are proportional to the mass of the object . The Coriolis force is proportional to the rotation rate and the centrifugal force is proportional to its square . The Coriolis force acts in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis and to the velocity of the body in the rotating frame and is proportional to the object 's speed in the rotating frame ( more precisely , to the component of its velocity that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation ) . The centrifugal force acts outwards in the radial direction and is proportional to the distance of the body from the axis of the rotating frame . These additional forces are termed inertial forces , fictitious forces or pseudo forces . They allow the application of Newton 's laws to a rotating system . They are correction factors that do not exist in a non-accelerating or inertial reference frame . In popular ( non-technical ) usage of the term `` Coriolis effect '' , the rotating reference frame implied is almost always the Earth . Because the Earth spins , Earth-bound observers need to account for the Coriolis force to correctly analyze the motion of objects . The Earth completes only one rotation per day , so for motions of everyday objects the Coriolis force is usually quite small compared to other forces ; its effects generally become noticeable only for motions occurring over large distances and long periods of time , such as large-scale movement of air in the atmosphere or water in the ocean . Such motions are constrained by the surface of the Earth , so only the horizontal component of the Coriolis force is generally important . This force causes moving objects on the surface of the Earth to be deflected to the right ( with respect to the direction of travel ) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere . The horizontal deflection effect is greater near the poles , since the effective rotation rate about a local vertical axis is largest there , and decreases to zero at the equator . Rather than flowing directly from areas of high pressure to low pressure , as they would in a non-rotating system , winds and currents tend to flow to the right of this direction north of the equator and to the left of this direction south of it . This effect is responsible for the rotation of large cyclones ( see Coriolis effects in meteorology ) . For an intuitive explanation of the origin of the Coriolis force , consider an object moving northward in the northern hemisphere . Viewed from outer space , the object does not appear to go due north , but has an eastward motion ( it rotates around toward the right along with the surface of the Earth ) . The further north you go , the smaller the `` horizontal diameter '' of the Earth , and so the slower the eastward motion of its surface . As the object moves north , to higher latitudes , it has a tendency to maintain the eastward speed it started with ( rather than slowing down to match the reduced eastward speed of local objects on the Earth 's surface ) , so it veers east ( i.e. to the right of its initial motion ) . Though not obvious from this example , which considers northward motion , the horizontal deflection occurs equally for objects moving east or west ( or any other direction ) ." ]

[ "Geophysical fluid dynamics Geophysical fluid dynamics is the study of naturally occurring , large-scale flows on Earth and other planets . It is applied to the motion of fluids in the ocean and outer core , and to gases in the atmosphere of Earth and other planets . Two features that are common to many of the phenomena studied in geophysical fluid dynamics are rotation of the fluid due to the planetary rotation and stratification ( layering ) . The applications of geophysical fluid dynamics do not generally include the circulation of the mantle , which is the subject of geodynamics , or fluid phenomena in the magnetosphere . Flows of smaller scale that are relatively unaffected by Earth 's rotation or latitude or substantial layering are not part of GFD .", "Gliese 581d Gliese 581d -LSB- ˈɡliːzə -RSB- ( often shortened to Gl 581d or GJ 581d ) is a possible extrasolar planet orbiting within the Gliese 581 planetary system , approximately 20.4 light-years away in the Libra constellation . It is the third planet claimed in the system and ( assuming a six-planet model ) the fifth in order from the star . Though not confirmed to be a terrestrial planet and significantly more massive than Earth ( at 6.98 Earth masses ) , the Super-Earth is the first exoplanet of terrestrial mass proposed to orbit within the habitable zone of its parent star . Assuming its existence , computer climate simulations have confirmed the possibility of the existence of surface water and these factors combine to a relatively high measure of planetary habitability .", "Ice-sheet model In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "Living Earth Simulator Project The living Earth simulator is a proposed massive computer simulation system intended to simulate the interactions of all aspects of life , human economic activity , climate , and other physical processes on the planet Earth as part of the FuturICT project , in response to the European FP7 `` Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship '' initiative . There are over 300 international teams seeking ~ $ 1 billion for the 10-year Future and Emerging Technologies ` flagship ' competition . The Earth Simulator was not selected since the two winners have been announced as of March 2013 . The winners were Graphene and Human Brain .", "Milutin Milanković Milutin Milanković ( Милутин Миланковић , pronounced -LSB- milǔtin milǎːnkɔʋitɕ -RSB- 28 May 1879 -- 12 December 1958 ) was a Serbian mathematician , astronomer , climatologist , geophysicist , civil engineer , doctor of technology , university professor and popularizer of science . Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global science . The first contribution is the `` Canon of the Earth 's Insolation '' , which characterizes the climates of all the planets of the Solar system . The second contribution is the explanation of Earth 's long-term climate changes caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun , now known as Milankovitch cycles . This explained the ice ages occurring in the geological past of the Earth , as well as the climate changes on the Earth which can be expected in the future . He founded planetary climatology by calculating temperatures of the upper layers of the Earth 's atmosphere as well as the temperature conditions on planets of the inner Solar system , Mercury , Venus , Mars , and the Moon , as well as the depth of the atmosphere of the outer planets . He demonstrated the interrelatedness of celestial mechanics and the Earth sciences , and enabled consistent transition from celestial mechanics to the Earth sciences and transformation of descriptive sciences into exact ones .", "Are We Changing Planet Earth? Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics The National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics , or NCED , is an NSF Science and Technology Center - a collaborative partnership among educational , research , and public/private entities that aims to create new knowledge of significant benefit to society . Its mission is to understand the dynamics of the coupled processes that shape the Earth 's surface -- physical , biological , geochemical , and anthropogenic -- and how they will respond to climate , land use , and management change . NCED is headquartered at the University of Minnesota 's Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory .", "Planet Earth Planet Earth may refer to Earth , the third planet from the sun . It may also refer to :", "NASA Earth Science NASA Earth Science , formerly called the NASA Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) , formerly called Mission To Planet Earth ( MTPE ) , is a NASA research program `` to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes to enable improved prediction of climate , weather , and natural hazards for present and future generations '' .", "Richard A. Betts Richard A. Betts is Head of the Climate Impacts strategic area at the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter , United Kingdom . He is also Chair in Climate Impacts at the University of Exeter and the Principal Investigator of the EU FP7 project HELIX ( High-End cLimate Impacts and eXtremes ) . He was a lead author for Working Group I and a contributing author for Working Group II of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He was a lead author for Working Group II of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report . He is an editor for the International Journal of Global Warming , the Journal of Environmental Investing , and for Earth System Dynamics . After studying physics at the University of Bristol , Betts switched to meteorology at the University of Birmingham and then studied for a doctorate in meteorology at the University of Reading . He is noted for engaging with critics of climate science on Twitter and was selected by TIME as one of the 140 best Twitter feeds of 2012 .", "Artists' Project Earth Artists ' Project Earth is a UK registered charity which recruits internationally known musicians and artists through albums , concerts , art exhibitions and art related projects to raise awareness of climate change and funds for campaigns and disaster relief .", "Earth system science Earth system science ( ESS ) is the application of systems science to the Earth sciences . In particular , it considers interactions between the Earth 's `` spheres '' -- atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , geosphere , pedosphere , biosphere , and , even , the magnetosphere -- as well as the impact of human societies on these components . At its broadest scale , Earth system science brings together researchers across both the natural and social sciences , from fields including ecology , economics , geology , glaciology , meteorology , oceanography , paleontology , sociology , and space science . Like the broader subject of systems science , Earth system science assumes a holistic view of the dynamic interaction between the Earth 's spheres and their many constituent subsystems , the resulting organization and time evolution of these systems , and their stability or instability . Subsets of Earth system science include systems geology and systems ecology , and many aspects of Earth system science are fundamental to the subjects of physical geography and climate science .", "Dan Falzon Dan Falzon ( born 24 November 1972 ) is an Australian actor of Maltese descent , best known for his role as Rick Alessi on the television soap opera Neighbours . He also appeared in the Channel Nine drama The Alice , as a park ranger . He also formed the short-lived pop group Milk with his brother , releasing the single `` Seventeen '' in 1997 . Currently he is employed by St John Ambulance ( NT ) Inc. as a paramedic in Alice Springs , along with his two brothers , Tom and Ben , who also run an eco-tourism business together , Milikom . He is involved in Project Bluestar 2000 -- 12 , a communications , research and development project established to build awareness on climate change and Extra Dimensional activity on the planet Earth . He uses the YouTube username federationphantom to broadcast a personal diary from Earth Sanctuary .", "Earth (Noon Universe) In the Noon Universe created by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky Earth is one of the planets populated by humans as well as their assumed origin . It is identical to the modern Earth except for the fact that it is set in the 22nd century . Earth is particularly described in Noon : 22nd Century , the first ( chronologically and published ) book of Noon Universe series .", "Kepler-22b Kepler-22b , also known by its Kepler object of interest designation KOI-087 .01 , is an extrasolar planet orbiting within the empirical habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22 . It is located about 600 ly from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus . It was discovered by NASA 's Kepler Space Telescope in December 2011 and was the first known transiting planet to orbit within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star . Kepler-22 is too dim to be seen with the naked eye . Kepler-22b 's size is roughly twice that of Earth . Its mass and surface composition are unknown . An Earth-like composition for the planet has been ruled out . It is likely to have a volatile-rich composition with a liquid or gaseous outer shell . The only parameters of the planet 's orbit that are currently available are its orbital period , which is about , and its inclination , which is approximately 90 ° . Evidence suggests that the planet has a moderate surface temperature , assuming that the surface is not subject to extreme greenhouse heating . In the absence of an atmosphere , its equilibrium temperature ( assuming an Earth-like albedo ) would be approximately 262 K. The planet 's first transit was observed on 12 May 2009 . Confirmation of the existence of Kepler-22b was announced on 5 December 2011 .", "Geology Geology ( from the Ancient Greek γῆ , gē , i.e. `` earth '' and - λoγία , - logia , i.e. `` study of , discourse '' ) is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth , the rocks of which it is composed , and the processes by which they change over time . Geology can also refer generally to the study of the solid features of any terrestrial planet ( such as the geology of the Moon or Mars ) . Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the primary evidence for plate tectonics , the evolutionary history of life , and past climates . Geology is important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation , evaluating water resources , understanding of natural hazards , the remediation of environmental problems , and for providing insights into past climate change . Geology also plays a role in geotechnical engineering and is a major academic discipline .", "Earth 2150 Earth 2150 also known as Earth 2150 : Escape from the Blue Planet is a real-time strategy game , originally published in 2000 by SSI and the Polish developer Reality Pump and a sequel to the largely unknown Earth 2140 . It was one of the first commercial full-3D games of its kind . A sequel to Earth 2150 , Earth 2160 , was published in August 2005 . The game also has two stand-alone expansion packs : Earth 2150 : The Moon Project , and Earth 2150 : Lost Souls .", "Paleogeoscience Paleogeosciences are those associated with the past states or processes associated with Earth science or geoscience . Earth science or geoscience is an all-embracing term referring to the fields of science dealing with planet Earth . These studies of earth 's history encompass the Biosphere , Cryosphere , Hydrosphere , Atmosphere , and Lithosphere ; the Geosphere . One of the most socially prominent facets of the paleogeosciences would be their applications to our changing climate system .", "Earth System Dynamics Earth System Dynamics is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union . The journal publishes articles describing original research on the geology , climate change , and atmospheric science . According to the 2016 Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 4.589 . The editors-in-chief are Somnath Baidya Roy , Alex Kleidon , Valerio Lucarini , and Ning Zeng .", "Planet Earth (1986 series) Planet Earth is a seven-episode 1986 PBS television documentary series focusing on the Earth , narrated by Richard Kiley . Planet Earth explores geoscience and how discoveries of the early and mid-1980s were revolutionizing mankind 's understanding of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It also highlights scientific discoveries not yet fully understood and still under study in the mid-1980s . The series explores the Earth 's origins , history , and structure ; the forces that operate continually to alter its surface ; its oceans ; its climate ; its natural resources ; its biosphere and the effects of life on the physical world ; its relationship to the Sun and other bodies in the solar system ; and its possible future in the face of pressures the growing human population places on the natural world . The BBC used the same title for its 2006 series , but the two series are completely unrelated and quite different in focus and content .", "Orbital effects on climate There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth 's climate . These effects usually occur in cycles , and primarily include how Earth 's obliquity , the eccentricity of Earth 's orbit , and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth 's climate . In addition to these effects , there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth 's climate . These other factors include how sun activity affects climate and how celestial phenomena , such as meteors , affect Earth 's climate . Some of these factors are n't yet well understood , for instance the ice ages occur on 100,000 year cycles , and it 's not completely understood why the various effects with this periodicity have such a strong effect on glaciation ( see the 100,000-year problem ) .", "Planetary engineering Planetary engineering is the application of technology for the purpose of influencing the global environments of a planet . Its objectives usually involve increasing the habitability of other worlds or mitigating decreases in habitability to Earth . Perhaps the best-known type of planetary engineering is terraforming , by which a planet 's surface conditions are altered to be more like those of Earth . Planetary engineering is largely the realm of science fiction at present , although recent climate change on Earth shows that human technology can cause change on a global scale .", "General circulation model A general circulation model ( GCM ) is a type of climate model . It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean . It uses the Navier -- Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ( radiation , latent heat ) . These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth 's atmosphere or oceans . Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs ( AGCM and OGCM ) are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components . GCMs and global climate models are used for weather forecasting , understanding the climate and forecasting climate change . Versions designed for decade to century time scale climate applications were originally created by Syukuro Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton , New Jersey . These models are based on the integration of a variety of fluid dynamical , chemical and sometimes biological equations .", "A Planet for the President A Planet for the President ( 2004 ) is a novel by Alistair Beaton . Set in the not-too-distant future , it satirically ponders the question of what action the President of the United States might take if he finally realized that global climate change is converting the earth into an increasingly uninhabitable planet , also for Americans . Eventually persuaded by his aides to `` think the unthinkable '' , the President in the novel , Fletcher J. Fletcher , greenlights drastic measures to stop environmental destruction and to secure for himself a place in history as the saviour of the earth . A biting political satire , A Planet for the President is a ( deliberately ) thinly disguised take on George W. Bush and his administration . The book has been hailed by the Daily Mail , a British tabloid , as `` Dr Strangelove for the Eco generation '' .", "GFD GFD may refer to : Gluten-free diet , a diet that excludes gluten Geophysical fluid dynamics , the study of naturally occurring , large-scale flows on Earth and other planets General Film Distributors , a defunct British film distribution company", "Navigator Program The Navigator Program is a long term NASA project charged with over-seeing all missions related to the detection and characterization of Earth-like planets . It also seeks to further understand how galaxies , stars and planets form . Navigator , with a 25-year time window , is essentially an umbrella program for more specific current and proposed projects which seek out Earth analogues and possible extraterrestrial life . The main components of Navigator include two ground-based and two space based missions . On Earth : The Keck Interferometer . Initial interferometeric work began in 2005 . The Large Binocular Telescope . Operational since 2005 . And in space : The SIM Planetquest . Expected launch in 2015 . The Terrestrial Planet Finder . First phase is projected to launch 2014 . The Navigator Program is itself an element of even larger decades long project of NASA : the Origins Program , addressing the origins of the universe , astronomical bodies , and life . Category : NASA programs", "Planet Forward Planet Forward , a project of the Center for Innovative Media at The George Washington University 's School of Media and Public Affairs , is an online public forum where experts , engaged citizens and students weigh in on energy , climate and sustainability . The most inventive and creative ideas are featured online and on television .", "List of climate research satellites The invention of climate research through the use of satellite remote telemetry began in the 1960s through development of space probes to study other planets . During the U.S. economic decline in 1977 , with much of NASA 's money going toward the Shuttle program , the Reagan Administration proposed to reduce spending on planetary exploration . During this time , new scientific evidence emerged from ice and sediment cores that Earth 's climate had experienced rapid changes in temperature , running contrary to the previously held belief that the climate changed on a geological time scale . These changes increased political interest in gathering remote-sensing data on the Earth itself and stimulated the science of climatology .", "Community Earth System Model The Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric , ocean , ice , land surface , carbon cycle , and other components . CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simulations of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It is the successor of the Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) , specifically version 4 ( CCSMv4 ) , which provided the initial atmospheric component for CESM . Strong ensemble forecasting capabilities , CESM-LE ( CESM-Large Scale ) , were developed at the onset to control for error and biases across different model runs ( realizations ) . Simulations from the Earth 's surface through the thermosphere are generated utilizing the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model ( WACCM ) . CESM1 was released in 2010 with primary development by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division ( CGD ) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , and significant funding by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the Department of Energy ( DoE ) .", "PlanetQuest PlanetQuest is a grid computing project for discovering new planets and classifying stars from Earth-based observatories ' images .", "(444004) 2004 AS1 ( also written 2004 AS1 ) , also known by the temporary name AL00667 , is an Apollo-class near-Earth asteroid , first discovered on January 13 , 2004 , by the LINEAR project . Based on the asteroids brightness and assumed proximity to Earth , the asteroid was originally estimated to be only 30 meters in diameter . Although rather ordinary , it caused some controversy in astronomical circles due to initial projections posted on the web by the Minor Planet Center ( MPC ) suggesting an imminent collision with Earth on or about January 15 with a likelihood of 1:4 . These projections came from very early observations , and turned out to be inaccurate ( which is an ordinary occurrence in astronomy , as new observations refine the projected path of an object ) . In fact , the poster at the MPC had not realised that the data he had posted was essentially an impact prediction . The general media did not get hold of the story at the time . The asteroid passed Earth on 16 February 2004 at a distance of 0.08539 AU ( or 33 times the distance from Earth to the Moon ) , posing no threat . It is an Apollo asteroid , with perihelion at 0.88 AU , a rather low eccentricity of 0.17 , an inclination of 17 ° and an orbital period of 1.11 years . With an absolute magnitude ( H ) of 20.5 , the asteroid is now known to be around 210 - 470 m in diameter , depending on the albedo ( the amount of light it reflects ) .", "Terrestrial Analogue Sites Terrestrial Analogue Sites ( also called `` Space Analogues '' ) are places on Earth with assumed past or present geological , environmental or biological conditions of a celestial body such as the Moon or Mars . Analogue sites are used in the frame of space exploration to either study geological or biological processes observed on other planets , or to prepare astronauts for surface Extra-vehicular activity ." ]

[ "Human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments , biodiversity , and other resources . The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity . The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov , and was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities . The atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term `` Anthropocene '' in the mid-1970s . The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Non-renewable resource A non-renewable resource ( also called a finite resource ) is a resource that does not renew itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction in meaningful human time-frames . An example is carbon-based , organically-derived fuel . The original organic material , with the aid of heat and pressure , becomes a fuel such as oil or gas . Earth minerals and metal ores , fossil fuels ( coal , petroleum , natural gas ) and groundwater in certain aquifers are all considered non-renewable resources , though individual elements are almost always conserved . In contrast , resources such as timber ( when harvested sustainably ) and wind ( used to power energy conversion systems ) are considered renewable resources , largely because their localized replenishment can occur within time frames meaningful to humans ." ]

[ "Overpeck, Ohio Overpeck ( other names : Overpeck Station , Overpecks , Overpecks Station ) is an unincorporated community in central St. Clair Township , Butler County , Ohio , United States . Although it is unincorporated , it has a post office , with the ZIP code of 45055 . It lies between New Miami and Trenton . Overpeck is a part of the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington , OH-KY-IN Combined Statistical Area . A post office called Overpecks Station was established in 1860 , and the name was changed to Overpeck in 1882 . The community has the name of Isaac Overpeck , an early resident .", "Overpeck County Park Overpeck County Park is an 811 acre county park in Bergen County , New Jersey , with major sections in Leonia , Palisades Park , Ridgefield Park , and Teaneck , surrounding Overpeck Creek , a tributary of the Hackensack River . The Overpeck Creek flows to the west of the Henry Hoebel Area and the South Area of the park .", "Overpeck Overpeck may refer to : People : Lem Overpeck ( 1911 -- 2003 ) , the 29th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota from 1965 to 1969 Settlements : Overpeck Township , New Jersey , former township in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States , from 1897 to 1938 Overpeck , Ohio , unincorporated community in central St. Clair Township , Butler County , Ohio , United States Geography : Overpeck Creek , tributary of the Hackensack River in Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey in the United States Overpeck County Park , 811 acre ( 3.28 km2 ) county park in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States de : Overpeck vo : Overpeck", "Fossil fuel phase-out Fossil fuel phase out refers to the discontinuation of the use of fossil fuels , through the decommissioning of operating fossil fuel-fired power plants , the prevention of the construction of new ones , and the use of Alternative energy to replace the role of fossil fuels . The purpose of fossil fuel phase-out is to reduce the negative externalities that use of fossil fuels cause . Negative externalities refer to the costs a certain activity has over people who did not choose to incur in them . A direct negative externality from fossil fuels ' use is air pollution , and an indirect negative externality are mining accidents , that happen as a consequence of the extraction of fossil fuels . Fossil fuel burning contributes to climate change , as it releases greenhouse gas emissions .", "Lem Overpeck Lem Overpeck ( September 18 , 1911 -- April 10 , 2003 ) was the 29th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota from 1965 to 1969 serving under Governor Nils Boe . He was a member of the Republican Party .", "Overpeck Township, New Jersey Overpeck Township was a township that existed in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States , from 1897 to 1938 . The township was incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23 , 1897 , and was formed coextensively with Ridgefield Park from portions of Ridgefield Township . On May 3 , 1921 , Overpeck Township acquired portions of both Bogota and Teaneck . On June 1 , 1926 , additional territories were acquired from Teaneck . On May 31 , 1938 , Overpeck Township was renamed to Ridgefield Park Township . With the creation of Ridgefield Park Township , Overpeck Township was dissolved .", "Carversville Historic District Carversville Historic District is a national historic district located at Carversville , Solebury Township , Bucks County , Pennsylvania . The district includes 57 contributing buildings in the village of Carversville . The buildings include notable examples of the Late Victorian and Federal styles . Notable buildings are the Overpeck Homestead ( c. 1703-1716 ) , Fred Clark Art Museum ( 1873 ) , and Carversville Christian Church ( 1866 ) . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 .", "Bergen Generating Station Bergen Generating Station is a power plant owned and operated by Public Service Electric and Gas Company ( PSE&G ) . It located on the banks of Overpeck Creek near its confluence with the Hackensack River in Ridgefield in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States . Within the New Jersey Meadowlands District , it is adjacent to the Little Ferry Yard . The plant supplies electricity to New Jersey and via the Hudson Project to New York City . In 2012 the plant was the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the state .", "List of power stations in Denmark This is a list of fuel-burn power stations in Denmark ; fuel types are fossil or biomass .", "Chafing fuel Chafing fuel is a fuel used for heating food , typically placed under a chafing dish . It is usually sold in a small canister and burned directly within that canister , with or without a wick . The fuel often contains methanol , ethanol , or diethylene glycol , as these may be burned safely indoors , and produce minimal soot or odor . These fuels are also used for emergency heating , outdoor cooking , and fondue .", "Airborne fraction The airborne fraction is a scaling factor defined as the ratio of the annual increase in atmospheric to the emissions from anthropogenic sources . It represents the proportion of human emitted that remains in the atmosphere . The fraction averages about 45 % , meaning that approximately half the human-emitted is absorbed by ocean and land surfaces . There is some evidence for a recent increase in airborne fraction , which would imply a faster increase in atmospheric for a given rate of human fossil-fuel burning . However , other sources suggest that the `` fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades '' . Changes in carbon sinks can affect the airborne fraction .", "Teaneck Creek Conservancy The Teaneck Creek Conservancy is an 46 acre eco-art park located in Bergen County , New Jersey . It is part of the Bergen County Park system independently managed by the member-supported , non-profit incorporation of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy . The park contains 1.4 miles of groomed trails and exhibits both permanent and ephemeral eco-art throughout the year . The conservancy operates art and environmental programs for the local community . The namesake of the Conservancy is the Teaneck Creek , which flows through the park and into the Overpeck Creek .", "Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion refers to the combustion-product gas resulting from the burning of fossil fuels . Most fossil fuels are combusted with ambient air ( as differentiated from combustion with pure oxygen ) . Since ambient air contains about 79 volume percent gaseous nitrogen ( N2 ) , which is essentially non-combustible , the largest part of the flue gas from most fossil-fuel combustion is uncombusted nitrogen . Carbon dioxide , the next largest part of flue gas , can be as much as 10 − 25 volume percent or more of the flue gas . This is closely followed in volume by water vapor ( H2O ) created by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel with atmospheric oxygen . Much of the ` smoke ' seen pouring from flue gas stacks is this water vapor forming a cloud as it contacts cool air . A typical flue gas from the combustion of fossil fuels contains very small amounts of nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) and particulate matter . The nitrogen oxides are derived from the nitrogen in the ambient air as well as from any nitrogen-containing compounds in the fossil fuel . The sulfur dioxide is derived from any sulfur-containing compounds in the fuels . The particulate matter is composed of very small particles of solid materials and very small liquid droplets which give flue gases their smoky appearance . The steam generators in large power plants and the process furnaces in large refineries , petrochemical and chemical plants , and incinerators burn considerable amounts of fossil fuels and therefore emit large amounts of flue gas to the ambient atmosphere . The table below presents the total amounts of flue gas typically generated by the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas , fuel oil and coal . The data were obtained by stoichiometric calculations . It is of interest to note that the total amount of flue gas generated by coal combustion is only 10 percent higher than the flue gas generated by natural-gas combustion . Note : m ³ are standard cubic meters at 0 ° C and 101.325 kPa , and scf is standard cubic feet at 60 ° F and 14.696 psia .", "List of coal fired power stations in Australia These fossil fuel power stations burn coal to power steam turbines that generate some or all of the electricity they produce .", "Kenya Ceramic Jiko The Kenya Ceramic Jiko is a portable , charcoal-burning stove used for cooking , found primarily in urban homes in Kenya . It was developed through the collaboration of both local and international groups , to reduce fuel consumption .", "Overpeck Creek Overpeck Creek is a tributary of the Hackensack River , approximately 8 miles ( 13 km ) long , in Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey in the United States . The lower broad mouth of the creek is part of the extended tidal estuary of the lower Hackensack and of the adjacent wetland region known as the New Jersey Meadowlands . The upper creek flows through suburban communities west of New York City . The creek rises in Tenafly , on the west side of the Palisades , approximately 1 mile ( 1.6 km ) from the Hudson River . It flows south-southwest through Englewood , past Teaneck , Leonia , and Palisades Park , where it flows past the Overpeck County Park . It joins the Hackensack on the south side of Ridgefield Park and the east side of Little Ferry . Although the creek is theoretically navigable , the mouth of the creek is blocked by the two bridges of the CSX River Line and NYS&W railroads . Federal law requires that these bridges be opened to water traffic on 24 hours notice . The NYS&W bridge can still be opened manually , but the CSX bridge has been inoperable since being rebuilt in 2002 , rendering the owning railroad liable to a fine of $ 25,000 per incident . In colonial times , the creek was called `` Tantaqua '' and was the site of a Hackensack ( Native Americans ) village . An attempted European settlement , Achter Col , in 1642 was aborted after Lenape retaliations for the Pavonia Massacre . Later 17th and 18th century settlements were collectively known as the English Neighborhood . The creek lay along the main land route west of the Hudson and provided a consistently difficult barrier for transportation in the area until the construction of modern roads and bridges in the 19th century . Development of the region was facilitated by the West Shore Railroad and the Northern Branch , latter of which partially runs parallel to the creek . Restoration of rail service is the object of the Northern Branch Corridor Project . Like the other tributaries of the Hackensack in the Meadowlands , the creek has suffered from severe pollution in the 20th century during the era of heavy industrialization . During the 1950s , tide gates were installed on the creek that largely cut off the tidal flow into the surrounding wetlands . The restoration of the surrounding wetlands has been an ongoing project of several state and private agencies .", "Clean-burning stove A clean-burning stove is a stove with reduced toxic emissions . The term commonly refers to wood-burning stoves for domestic heating , although it is also applied to cooking stoves . It is distinct from a clean-burning-fuel stove , which typically burns clean fuels such as ethanol , biogas , LPG , or kerosene . Studies into clean-burning stoves have shown that they reduce the emissions of dangerous particulates and carbon monoxide significantly , use less fuel than regular stoves , and result in fewer burn injuries . However , the emissions they produce are still much greater than the safe limits , and they do not appear to be effective at reducing illnesses such as pneumonia induced by breathing polluted air , which may have many sources .", "Jonathan Cook Jonathan Cook ( born 1965 ) is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth , Israel , who writes about the Middle East , and more specifically , the Israeli -- Palestinian conflict .", "Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States . as of the 2010 United States Census , the village 's population was 12,729 , reflecting a decline of 144 ( -1.1 % ) from the 12,873 counted in the 2000 Census , which had in turn increased by 419 ( +3.4 % ) from the 12,454 counted in the 1990 Census . Of 565 municipalities statewide , Ridgefield Park is one of only four with a village type of government in New Jersey , though it operates a Walsh Act ( City Commission ) form of government . Of the four New Jersey villages , only Loch Arbour had retained the village form of government , while Ridgewood operates under the Council-Manager form and the Township of South Orange Village operates under a Special Charter form with many characteristics of village government . Ridgefield Park was formed as a village on June 15 , 1892 , within Ridgefield Township , based on the results of a referendum passed on June 6 , 1892 . Overpeck Township was formed on March 23 , 1897 , to be coextensive with Ridgefield Park village , and was created within Ridgefield Township for the purpose of administering a Board of Education . Portions of the village gained in both 1921 and 1926 were taken from Bogota and Teaneck . On May 31 , 1938 , Overpeck Township became Ridgefield Park Township . The village was named for the area 's terrain . The village 's Fourth of July Parade , first established in 1894 , is said to be the longest continuously celebrated such event in New Jersey and one of the oldest in the country . The village eliminated its July 4 fireworks in 2009 , citing the $ 50,000 cost in the face of the difficult economy , but committed to retain its parade .", "Stove A stove is an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating , either to heat the space in which the stove is situated , or to heat the stove itself and items placed on it . This article is principally concerned with enclosed stoves burning solid fuels for room heating . A kitchen stove is used to cook food . A wood-burning stove or a coal stove is typically used for heating a dwelling . Enclosed stoves are more efficient and prevents air from being sucked from the room into the chimney . Due to concerns about air pollution , efforts have been made to improve stove design . Pellet stoves , for example are a type of clean-burning stove . Air-tight stoves more completely combust wood and eliminate polluting combustion products . In the U.S. since 1992 , all wood stoves being manufactured must limit particulate emission .", "Coal (disambiguation) Coal 's primary meaning is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of carbon and used as a fossil fuel . It may also refer to :", "Fossil Fuel Levy The Fossil Fuel Levy ( FFL ) is a levy paid by suppliers of electricity from non-renewable energy sources in the United Kingdom . The costs are shared by the suppliers and consumers , as a proportion of the cost is passed on to consumers in the cost of the electricity supplied . The Fossil Fuel Levy was imposed to fund the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation .", "Rocket stove A rocket stove is an efficient and hot burning stove using small-diameter wood fuel . Fuel is burned in a simple combustion chamber containing an insulated vertical chimney , which ensures almost complete combustion prior to the flames ' reaching the cooking surface . It uses the same principle as the Dakota fire pit . Rocket stove designs are most often used for portable stoves for cooking but the design is also used to make rocket mass heaters for heating . Like the beverage-can stove , it is made from found materials , but generally uses wood rather than alcohol . In field tests in India , rocket stoves used 18 to 35 per cent less fuel compared to the traditional stoves and reduced fuel used 39-47 per cent compared to the three-stone fire , as well as a large reduction in emissions . A precursor of the rocket stove was the Argand lamp . The idea has been commercialized as the Kelly Kettle and the InStove .", "Ancient filipino diet and health Ancient diet is mainly determined by food 's accessibility which involves location , geography and climate while ancient health is affected by food consumption apart from external factors such as diseases and plagues . There are still a lot of doubt about this ancient diet due to lack of evidence . Similar to what Anthropologist Amanda Henry has said , there are a lot of time periods in the human history but there are only theories to answer questions on what people actually ate back then . Only recently have they discovered traces in what was left of these people .", "Thermoelectric battery A thermoelectric battery stores energy when charged by converting heat into chemical energy and produces electricity when discharged . Such systems potentially offer an alternative means of disposing of waste heat from plants that burn fossil fuels and/or nuclear energy .", "Tire-derived fuel Tire-derived fuel ( TDF ) is composed of shredded scrap tires . Tires may be mixed with coal or other fuels , such as wood or chemical wastes , to be burned in concrete kilns , power plants , or paper mills . An EPA test program concluded that , with the exception of zinc emissions , potential emissions from TDF are not expected to be very much different from other conventional fossil fuels , as long as combustion occurs in a well-designed , well-operated and well-maintained combustion device .", "Peak fossil fuel Peak fossil fuel may refer to : Peak fossil fuel production ; see Hubbert peak theory #Hubbert curve . Peak coal . Peak gas . Peak oil .", "Oil (disambiguation) Oil is any of a number of nonpolar , hydrophobic , and viscous liquids . Oil most often refers to : Petroleum ( crude oil ) , naturally occurring liquid found beneath the Earth 's surface , or a derived product : Fuel oil , liquid fuel burned for heat or power Heating oil , liquid fuel used for building furnaces or boilers Lubricant , a substance that reduces friction between surfaces Lubrication , the process of using a lubricant to reduce friction between surfaces Motor oil , any of various lubricants used in internal combustion engines Cooking oil , a fat used in cooking , baking , and other food preparation Big Oil , a name used to collectively describe major oil corporations", "Field Station: Dinosaurs Field Station : Dinosaurs is an outdoor prehistoric theme park located in Overpeck County Park in Leonia , New Jersey . Opened in 2012 , the park was previously located on Snake Hill in Secaucus , New Jersey . The park is designed for families with children between the ages of three and eleven . The exhibition features a walking tour with 32 full-size animatronic dinosaurs , along with interactive exhibits and live shows designed to educate children about dinosaurs within the context of the local ecosystem . It opened in 2012 under president and chief executive producer , Guy Gsell , a lifelong dinosaur enthusiast . In 2012 it was named Best Local Theme Park by Time Out New York and in 2013 Field Station : Dinosaurs was named the second best dinosaur theme park in the world . Fodor 's named Field Station : Dinosaurs one of the World 's Best Spots for Dinosaur Lovers on March 6 , 2014 .", "The Planet of Doubt `` The Planet of Doubt '' is a science fiction short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum that was first published in the October 1935 issue of Astounding Stories . It is Weinbaum 's third story featuring Hamilton Hammond and Patricia Burlingame , a sequel to `` Parasite Planet '' and `` The Lotus Eaters '' .", "Fuel poverty A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members can not afford to keep adequately warm at reasonable cost , given their income . The term is mainly used in the UK , Ireland and New Zealand , although discussions on fuel poverty are increasing across Europe , and the concept also applies everywhere in the world where poverty may be present .", "Jonathan Oppenheim (film editor) Jonathan Louis Oppenheim ( born November 10 , 1952 ) is an American film and television editor and producer . The son of Judy Holliday , an actress , and David Oppenheim , a clarinetist and television producer , he has mainly been employed on documentary films . Oppenheim is noted for his work on The Oath ( 2010 ) and Paris Is Burning ( 1990 ) ." ]

[ "Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world 's five major oceans . The International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) recognizes it as an ocean , although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea , classifying it a mediterranean sea or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . Alternatively , the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean . Located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere , the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America . It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter . The Arctic Ocean 's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes ; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans , due to low evaporation , heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams , and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities . The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50 % . The US National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years .", "Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "Antarctica Antarctica ( UK English -LSB- ænˈtɑːktɪkə -RSB- or -LSB- ænˈtɑːtɪkə -RSB- , US English -LSB- æntˈɑːrktɪkə -RSB- ) is Earth 's southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At 14000000 km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctica , on average , is the coldest , driest , and windiest continent , and has the highest average elevation of all the continents . Antarctica is a desert , with annual precipitation of only 200 mm ( 8 in ) along the coast and far less inland . The temperature in Antarctica has reached − 89.2 ° C ( − 128.6 ° F ) , though the average for the third quarter ( the coldest part of the year ) is − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent . Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae , bacteria , fungi , plants , protista , and certain animals , such as mites , nematodes , penguins , seals and tardigrades . Vegetation , where it occurs , is tundra . Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ( `` Southern Land '' ) date back to antiquity , Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered and colonised by humans , being only first sighted in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny , who sighted the Fimbul ice shelf . The continent , however , remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment , lack of easily accessible resources , and isolation . In 1895 , the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians . Antarctica is a de facto condominium , governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status . Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 , and thirty-eight have signed it since then . The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining , prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal , supports scientific research , and protects the continent 's ecozone . Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations .", "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity . The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer , reaches a minimum around mid-September , then increases during fall and winter . Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50 % of winter cover . Some of the ice survives from one year to the next . Currently 28 % of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice , thicker than seasonal ice : up to 3 - thick over large areas , with ridges up to 20 m thick . As well as the regular seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades ." ]

[ "Arctic The Arctic ( -LSB- ˈɑrktɪk -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɑrtɪk -RSB- ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth . The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ) , Canada , Finland , Greenland ( Denmark ) , Iceland , Norway , Russia and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places . The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth 's ecosystems . For example , the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions . In recent years , Arctic sea ice decline has been caused by global warming . Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice , zooplankton and phytoplankton , fish and marine mammals , birds , land animals , plants and human societies . Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic .", "Antarctic ice sheet The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "Arctic resources race The Arctic resources race refers to the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources in the Arctic . As the ice in the Arctic melts at a record rate and the sea ice extent continues to decrease due to global climate change , the Arctic waters become more navigable and Arctic resources -- such as oil and gas , minerals , fish , as well as tourism and new trade routes -- are becoming more accessible . Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea , five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic 's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones : Canada , Russia , Denmark , Norway , and the United States ( though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty , it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it ) . The Arctic region and its resources have recently been at the center of controversy and pose potential conflicts between nations that have differing opinions of how to manage the area , including conflicting territorial claims . In addition , the Arctic region is home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people . If the ice continues to melt at the current rate , then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced . The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole : melting ice releases methane , ice reflects incoming solar radiation , and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation ( albedo effect ) , heating up the water causing more ocean acidification , and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level .", "Drift ice Drift ice is any sea ice other than fast ice , the latter being attached ( `` fastened '' ) to the shoreline or other fixed objects ( shoals , grounded icebergs , etc. ) . Drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents , hence its name . When drift ice is driven together into a large single mass ( > 70 % coverage ) , it is called pack ice . Wind and currents can pile up that ice to form ridges up to several metres in height . These represent a challenge for icebreakers and offshore structures operating in cold oceans and seas . Drift ice consists of floes , individual pieces of sea ice 20 m or more across . There are names for various floe sizes : small -- 20 m to 100 m ; medium -- 100 m to 500 m ; big -- 500 m to 2000 m ; vast -- 2 km to 10 km ; and giant -- more than 10 km . Seasonal ice drift in the Sea of Okhotsk by the northern coast of Hokkaidō , Japan has become a tourist attraction of this area with harsh climate , and is one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan . The Sea of Okhotsk is the southernmost area in the Northern hemisphere where drift ice may be observed . Drift ice affects : Security of navigation Climatic impact ( see Polar ice packs ) Geological impact Biosphere influence ( see Ecology of sea ice ) The two major ice packs are the Arctic ice pack and the Antarctic ice pack . The most important areas of pack ice are the polar ice packs formed from seawater in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs significantly change their size during seasonal changes of the year . Because of vast amounts of water added to or removed from the oceans and atmosphere , the behavior of polar ice packs has a significant impact on global changes in climate .", "Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "Ice-albedo feedback Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "Ice age An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "Antarctic oscillation The Antarctic oscillation ( AAO , to distinguish it from the Arctic oscillation or AO ) is a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere . It is also known as the Southern Annular Mode ( SAM ) . It is defined as a belt of westerly winds or low pressure surrounding Antarctica which moves north or south as its mode of variability . In its positive phase , the westerly wind belt contracts towards Antarctica , while its negative phase involves this belt moving towards the Equator . In 2014 , Dr Nerilie Abram used a network of temperature-sensitive ice core and tree growth records to reconstruct a 1000-year history of the Southern Annular Mode . This work suggests that the Southern Annular Mode is currently in its most extreme positive phase over at least the last 1000 years , and that recent positive trends in the SAM are attributed to increasing greenhouse gas levels and later stratospheric ozone depletion .", "Polar ice pack Polar ice pack may refer to : Arctic ice pack Antarctic sea ice Drift ice", "Wiesław Masłowski Wiesław Masłowski is a research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey , California since 2009 . He obtained his MS from the University of Gdańsk in 1987 , and his PhD from the University of Alaska , Fairbanks in 1994 with a dissertation entitled `` Numerical modeling study of the circulation of the Greenland Sea '' . He became well known in 2007 for stating that the Arctic Ocean might be nearly ice free in the summer as early as 2013 , based on projection of the declining ice volume trend . While later revised to 2016 + / - 3 years based on computer modeling , this prediction became controversial when the Arctic was not sea-ice free in 2013 , having increased from the record low set in 2012 .", "Antarctic Cold Reversal The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "Polaribacter franzmannii Polaribacter franzmannii is a species of gas vacuolate polar marine bacteria . It was first isolated from sea ice and water from the Arctic and the Antarctic . Its type strain is ATCC 700399 .", "Icing (nautical) Icing on ships is a serious hazard where cold temperatures ( below about -10 C ) combined with high wind speed ( typically force 8 or above on the Beaufort scale ) result in spray blown off the sea freezing immediately on contact with the ship . If not frequently knocked off , the ice can soon build up on the ship 's superstructure to a sufficient weight to cause the ship to capsize . It is typically a problem in Arctic and Antarctic seas , but can also occur in other seas such as the Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the Sea of Japan , the Baltic Sea , and very rarely , the North Sea .", "Polaribacter filamentus Polaribacter filamentus is a species of gas vacuolate polar marine bacteria . It was first isolated from sea ice and water from the Arctic and the Antarctic . Its type strain is ATCC 700397 .", "Polaribacter irgensii Polaribacter irgensii is a species of gas vacuolate polar marine bacteria . It was first isolated from sea ice and water from the Arctic and the Antarctic . Its type strain is ATCC 700398 .", "Transpolar Sea Route The Transpolar Sea Route ( TSR ) is a future Arctic shipping route running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across the center of the Arctic Ocean . The route is also sometimes called Trans-Arctic Route . In contrast to the Northeast Passage ( including the Northern Sea Route ) and the North-West Passage it largely avoids the territorial waters of Arctic states and lies in international high seas . The route is currently only navigable by heavy icebreakers . However , due to the increasing decline of Arctic sea ice extent , the route is slated to emerge as the predominant Arctic shipping route by 2030 . The TSR is about 2100 nmi long and offers significant distance savings between Europe and Asia . It is the shortest of the Arctic shipping routes . In contrast to the Northern Sea Route and the North-West Passage , which are both coastal routes , the TSR is a mid-ocean route and passes close to the North Pole . Due to high seasonal variability of ice conditions throughout the entire Arctic basin , the TSR will not exist as one fixed shipping lane , but will follow a number of navigational routes . The TSR passes outside the exclusive economic zones of Arctic coastal states making it of special geopolitical importance to countries looking towards to Arctic as a future trade route . While a number of legal disagreement and uncertainties revolve around both the North-West Passage and the Northern Sea Route , the TSR lies outside the territorial jurisdiction of any state . The Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon was one of the first major vessels to utilize the route during its 2012 journey through the Arctic Ocean .", "Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment The Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group ( PAME ) is a subdivision of the Arctic Council . It is one of the six working groups that comprises the Council . PAME was founded as part of the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and its work continued by the 1996 Ottawa Charter that also established the Arctic Council . PAME 's headquarters are located in Akureyri , Iceland . PAME deals with all Arctic Council activities that are related to the sustainable development of the Arctic region and the protection of the environment . It monitors the evolution of global and regional policies concerning the Arctic and the growth of traffic in the region . Where necessary , it makes recommendations for improvements . PAME works on projects that are approved every two years by the Arctic Council . These include polar action programmes and guidelines to make companies and nations worldwide aware of the possible consequences of their land or sea-based activities on the vulnerable Arctic marine environment . In 2009 the working group released a major report on Arctic marine shipping , the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment , which analyses current and future trends in Arctic transport . PAME was asked to conduct this research after the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment had concluded that `` Reduced sea ice is very likely to increase marine transport and access to resources '' . PAME 's objectives were outlined in a 2009 meeting : Improve knowledge and respond to emerging knowledge of the Arctic Marine Environment . Determine the adequacy of applicable international/regional commitments and promote their implementation and compliance . Facilitate partnerships , programme and technical cooperation and support communication , reporting and outreach both within and outside the Arctic Council .", "Arctic geoengineering Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "Ice shelf An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "Late Glacial The Late Glacial ( c. 13,000 -- 10,000 years ago ) , or Tardiglacial ( `` Late Glacial '' ) , is defined primarily by the beginning of the modern warm period , in which climates in the Northern Hemisphere warmed substantially , causing a process of accelerated deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum ( c. 25,000 -- 13,000 years ago ) . At this time , human populations , previously forced into refuge areas as a result of Last Glacial Maximum climatic conditions , gradually begin to repopulate the Northern Hemisphere 's Eurasian landmass and eventually populate North America via Beringia for the first time . Evidence for its occurrence stems from two main types of analysis . The first is the use of oxygen isotope stages ( OIS ) gathered from stratified deep-sea sediment cores . Samples are gathered and measured for change in isotope levels to determine temperature fluctuation for given periods of time . The second is a proxy measurement , the observation of certain reappearing fauna and flora fossils that can survive only in temperate climates , thus indicating warming trends for a given geographic area . Archaeological evidence of settlement and resettlement in certain areas by humans also serve as proxy measurements . Towards the end of OIS 2 in which the Late Glacial Maximum occurs , the deep-sea sediment cores indicate a gradually warming climate , and the reappearance of certain warm-weather flora and fauna remains throughout the Northern Hemisphere correlate with that trend . A period of relatively brief cold oscillation , referred to as the Younger Dryas , is detected during OIS 2 , as can be inferred from an increase in isotope weight .", "Jezek Glacier Jezek Glacier is a glacier on the southeast side of Platform Spur , flowing northeast into Emmanuel Glacier in the Royal Society Range of Victoria Land , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1992 after Kenneth C. Jezek , a geophysicist with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , 1983 -- 89 ; in 12 visits to the Arctic and Antarctic he conducted geophysical surveys using remote sensing techniques on measurement and properties of terrestrial ice and sea ice with work at Dome Charlie , the Ross Ice Shelf and the Weddell Sea . From 1989 he was Director of the Byrd Polar Research Center .", "Circumpolar Circumpolar may refer to : Antarctic region Antarctic Circle the Antarctic Circumpolar Current Subantarctic List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands Antarctic Convergence Antarctic Circumpolar Wave Antarctic Ocean Arctic region Arctic Circle Subarctic Circumpolar peoples Arctic Cooperation and Politics Arctic Ocean List of islands in the Arctic Ocean Circumpolar star , stars that never rise or set from the perspective of a given latitude on Earth . Polar front in meteorology . circumpolar navigation , a global circumnavigation which traverses both poles", "Ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean , also known as the Antarctic Ocean or the Austral Ocean , comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean , generally taken to be south of 60 ° S latitude and encircling Antarctica . As such , it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions : smaller than the Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean . This ocean zone is where cold , northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters . By way of his voyages in the 1770s , Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe . Since then , geographers have disagreed on the Southern Ocean 's northern boundary or even existence , considering the waters part of the Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans , instead . This remains the current official policy of the International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) , since a 2000 revision of its definitions including the Southern Ocean as the waters south of the 60th parallel has not yet been adopted . Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary .", "Arctic dipole anomaly The Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America , and a low pressure on the Eurasia region . This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation . It was observed for the first time in the first decade of 2000s and is perhaps linked to recent climate change . The Arctic dipole lets more southern winds into the Arctic ocean resulting in more ice melting . The summer 2007 event played an important role in the record low sea ice extent which was recorded in September . The Arctic dipole has also been linked to changes in arctic circulation patterns that cause drier winters in Northern Europe , but much wetter winters in Southern Europe and colder winters in East Asia , Europe and the eastern half of North America .", "Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre . Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula . The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast , Queen Maud Land . To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea . Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent , massive ice shelf field , the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ( not pack ice ) . The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentina , ( Argentine Antarctica ) and Britain ( British Antarctic Territory ) , and also resides partially within the territorial claim of Chile ( Antarctic Chilean Territory ) . At its widest the sea is around 2,000 km across , and its area is around 2.8 e6km2 . Various ice shelves , including the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf , fringe the Weddell sea . Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula , which formerly covered roughly 3900 sqmi of the Weddell Sea , had completely disappeared by 2002 ; see . Whilst a dramatic event , the area that disappeared was far smaller than the total area of ice shelf that remains . The Weddell Sea has been deemed by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea . Dutch researchers from the German Alfred Wegener Institute , on finding a Secchi disc visible at a depth of 262 ft on 13 October 1986 , ascertained that the clarity corresponded to that of distilled water . In his 1950 book The White Continent , historian Thomas R. Henry writes : He continues for an entire chapter , relating myths of the green-haired merman sighted in the sea 's icy waters , the inability of crews to navigate a path to the coast until 1949 , and treacherous `` flash freezes '' that left ships , such as Ernest Shackleton 's Endurance , at the mercy of the ice floes .", "Fast ice Fast ice ( also called land-fast ice , landfast ice , and shore-fast ice ) is sea ice that is `` fastened '' to the coastline , to the sea floor along shoals or to grounded icebergs . Fast ice may either grow in place from the sea water or by freezing pieces of drifting ice to the shore or other anchor sites . Unlike drift ( or pack ) ice , fast ice does not move with currents and winds . The width ( and the presence ) of this ice zone is usually seasonal and depends on ice thickness , topography of the sea floor and islands . It ranges from a few meters to several hundred kilometers . Seaward expansion is a function of a number of factors , notably water depth , shoreline protection , time of year and pressure from the pack ice . The topography of the fast ice varies from smooth and level to rugged ( when submitted to large pressures ) . The ice foot refers to ice that has formed at the shoreline , through multiple freezing of water between ebb tides , and is separated by the remainder of the fast ice surface by tidal cracks . Further away from the coastline , the ice may become anchored to the sea bottom -- it is then referred to as bottomfast ice . Fast ice can survive one or more melting seasons ( i.e. summer ) , in which case it can be designated following the usual age-based categories : first-year , second-year , multiyear . The fast ice boundary is the limit between fast ice and drift ( or pack ) ice -- in places , this boundary may coincide with a shear ridge . Fast ice may be delimited or enclose pressure ridges which extend sufficiently downward so as to be grounded -- these features are known as stamukhi .", "Ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state . Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air , it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color . In the Solar System , ice is abundant and occurs naturally from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far away as the Oort cloud objects . Beyond the Solar System , it occurs as interstellar ice . It is abundant on Earth 's surfaceparticularly in the polar regions and above the snow lineand , as a common form of precipitation and deposition , plays a key role in Earth 's water cycle and climate . It falls as snowflakes and hail or occurs as frost , icicles or ice spikes . Ice molecules can exhibit seventeen or more different phases ( packing geometries ) that depend on temperature and pressure . When water is cooled rapidly ( quenching ) , up to three different types of amorphous ice can form depending on the history of its pressure and temperature . When cooled slowly correlated proton tunneling occurs below 20 K giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena . Virtually all the ice on Earth 's surface and in its atmosphere is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice I ( spoken as `` ice one h '' ) with minute traces of cubic ice denoted as ice I . The most common phase transition to ice I occurs when liquid water is cooled below at standard atmospheric pressure . It may also be deposited directly by water vapor , as happens in the formation of frost . The transition from ice to water is melting and from ice directly to water vapor is sublimation . Ice is used in a variety of ways , including cooling , winter sports and ice sculpture .", "Sea ice thickness Sea ice thickness spatial extent , and open water within ice packs can vary rapidly in response to weather and climate . Sea ice concentration are measured by satellites , with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder ( SSMIS ) , and the European Space Agency 's Cryosat-2 satellite to map the thickness and shape of the Earth 's polar ice cover . The sea ice volume is calculated with the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System ( PIOMAS ) , which blends satellite-observed data , such as sea ice concentrations into model calculations to estimate sea ice thickness and volume . Sea ice thickness determines a number of important fluxes such as heat flux between the air and ocean surface -- see below -- as well as salt and fresh water fluxes between the ocean since saline water ejects much of its salt content when frozen -- see sea ice growth processes . It is also important for navigators on icebreakers since there is an upper limit to the thickness of ice any ship can sail through .", "Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute , or AARI ( Арктический и антарктический научно-исследовательский институт , abbreviated as ААНИИ ) is the oldest and largest Russian research institute in the field of comprehensive studies of Arctic and Antarctica . It is located in Saint Petersburg . The AARI was founded on 3 March 1920 as the Northern Research and Trade Expedition under the Scientific and Technical Department of the All-Union Council of State Economy . In 1925 , the expedition was reorganized into the Institute of Northern Studies and five years later - into the All-Union Arctic Institute . In 1932 , the institute was integrated into the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route . In 1948 , they established the Arctic Geology Research Institute ( Научно-исследовательский институт геологии Арктики , or НИИГА ) on the basis of the geology department of the All-Union Arctic Institute , which would subordinate to the Ministry of Geology of the USSR . In 1958 , the All-Union Arctic Institute was renamed Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute . In 1963 , the AARI was incorporated into the Chief Administration of the Hydrometeorological Service under the Council of Ministers of the USSR ( now Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia ) . Throughout its history , the AARI has organized more than a thousand Arctic expeditions , including dozens of high-latitude aerial expeditions , which transported 34 manned drifting ice stations Severniy Polyus ( '' Северный полюс '' , or North Pole ) to Central Arctic . In 1955 , the AARI participated in the organization of Antarctic research . In 1958 , it began to organize and lead all of the Soviet Antarctic expeditions , which would later make many geographic discoveries . In 1968 , the institute engaged in research of the areas of the Atlantic Ocean contiguous to the Arctic and Antarctica . The AARI has numerous departments , such as those of oceanography , glaciology , meteorology , hydrology or Arctic river mouths and water resources , geophysics , polar geography , and others . It also has its own computer center , ice research laboratory , experimental workshops , and a museum ( the Arctic and Antarctic Museum ) . Scientists , such as Alexander Karpinsky , Alexander Fersman , Yuly Shokalsky , Nikolai Knipovich , Lev Berg , Otto Schmidt , Rudolf Samoylovich , Vladimir Vize , Nikolai Zubov , Pyotr Shirshov , Nikolai Urvantsev , and Yakov Gakkel have all made their valuable contributions to the work of the AARI . In 1967 , AARI was awarded the Order of Lenin .", "Deglaciation Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "Geography of Antarctica The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery ." ]

[ "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "Runaway greenhouse effect A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement ( Accord de Paris ) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation , adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020 . The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015 . It was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) at a ceremony in New York . As of May 2017 , 195 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty , 147 of which have ratified it . After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016 , there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world 's greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force . The agreement went into effect on 4 November 2016 . The head of the Paris Conference , France 's foreign minister Laurent Fabius , said this `` ambitious and balanced '' plan is a `` historic turning point '' in the goal of reducing global warming . One year on , the ratification of the Paris Agreement was celebrated by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo by illuminating the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe , Paris ' most iconic monuments , in green .", "Tipping points in the climate system A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Living in the Hothouse Living in the Hothouse : How Global Warming Affects Australia is a 2005 book by Professor Ian Lowe which is a sequel to his Living in the Greenhouse ( 1989 ) . The book presents a detailed analysis of climate change science and the likely impact of climate change in Australia . Living in the Hothouse also offers a critical overview of the Howard government 's policy response to climate change in Australia . Ian Lowe , AO , is a scientist , environmental policy analyst , and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation , who has served on many federal , state and local government committees . Other books by Ian Lowe include Reaction Time and A Big Fix .", "Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Orbital effects on climate There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth 's climate . These effects usually occur in cycles , and primarily include how Earth 's obliquity , the eccentricity of Earth 's orbit , and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth 's climate . In addition to these effects , there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth 's climate . These other factors include how sun activity affects climate and how celestial phenomena , such as meteors , affect Earth 's climate . Some of these factors are n't yet well understood , for instance the ice ages occur on 100,000 year cycles , and it 's not completely understood why the various effects with this periodicity have such a strong effect on glaciation ( see the 100,000-year problem ) .", "Domino effect A domino effect or chain reaction is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a chain of similar events . The term is best known as a mechanical effect , and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes . It typically refers to a linked sequence of events where the time between successive events is relatively small . It can be used literally ( an observed series of actual collisions ) or metaphorically ( causal linkages within systems such as global finance or politics ) .", "Orbital forcing Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth 's axis and shape of the orbit ( see Milankovitch cycles ) . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25 % at mid-latitudes ( from 400 to 500 Wm − 2 at latitudes of 60 degrees ) . In this context , the term `` forcing '' signifies a physical process that affects the Earth 's climate . This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles . A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a `` sudden '' ice age ( rapid being anything under a century or two ) , since the fastest orbital period is about 20,000 years . The timing of past glacial periods coincides very well with the predictions of the Milankovitch theory , and these effects can be calculated into the future .", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "Effect of Sun angle on climate The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "Hothouse Hothouse or Hot House or Hot house may refer to : A heated greenhouse", "Effects of climate change on wine production Climate change in recent times has become a major issue and talking point globally because of its effects on the environment and the repercussions this could be having or possibly have . The effects of climate change on Viniculture ( wine production ) are described in this article .", "Domino Effect (disambiguation) The domino effect is a type of chain reaction . Domino Effect may also refer to : The domino theory , a political theory about the spread of communism Revolutionary wave Domino Effect ( The Blizzards album ) , 2008 Domino Effect ( Gotthard album ) , 2007 `` Domino Effect '' ( Addictive song ) , 2009 `` Domino Effect '' , a song by Ozma , from their album Rock and Roll Part Three The Domino Effect ( novel ) , a 2003 Doctor Who novel An episode of Sex and the City , see List of Sex and the City episodes The Domino Effect ( concert ) , a 2009 tribute concert to Fats Domino The Domino Effect , an album by Zerra One , see Gavin Harrison", "Climate engineering Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "Cirrus cloud thinning Cirrus cloud thinning is a proposed form of climate engineering . Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that , like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However , they differ from other types of clouds in that , on average , infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection , resulting in a net warming effect on the climate . Therefore , thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity , resulting in a cooling effect on Earth 's climate . This could be a potential tool to reduce anthropogenic global warming . Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering , in addition to solar radiation management and greenhouse gas removal .", "HotHouse (jazz club) The HotHouse is a celebrated cultural center last located in the South Loop , Chicago , United States , and known for its program of innovative jazz and world music concerts and as a central meeting place for a variety of community groups . The club on Balbo Avenue closed in July 2007 and the current board organizes programming around the region while building a new permanent site for operations . The Center for International Performance and Exhibition ( colloquially called HotHouse ) , was founded by Marguerite Horberg in 1987 at 1565 N. Milwaukee Ave , Chicago . In 1995 , following the gentrification of the locality , Wicker Park , the venue , with support from the MacArthur Foundation , moved to a 9000 sqft second floor space at 31 E. Balbo Ave. The venue had a large main room with booths and dance floor with a room for catered events and art shows and put on a varied and inclusive programme of music . Performers at the Hothouse included Roscoe Mitchell , Gil Scott-Heron , Maria Rita , Henry Threadgill , Susie Ibarra , Savina Yannatou , Dewey Redman and Olu Dara . Since 2007 , HotHouse has organized over 100 programs as itinerant presenters and has produced a number of year - long thematic and multi-disciplinary events such as the WPA 2.0 , A Brand New Deal , The African Jubilee and Old and New Dreams . HotHouse has been awarded with many of the top honors in the Arts and Culture industry including : Best of Chicago , Chicagoan of the Year , and The Abbey . The HotHouse is also a forum for social issues and would host a benefit or offer support on issues such as the rights of undocumented workers or hurricane Katrina .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming", "Deterministic system (philosophy) A deterministic system is a conceptual model of the philosophical doctrine of determinism applied to a system for understanding everything that has and will occur in the system , based on the physical outcomes of causality . In a deterministic system , every action , or cause , produces a reaction , or effect , and every reaction , in turn , becomes the cause of subsequent reactions . The totality of these cascading events can theoretically show exactly how the system will exist at any moment in time . To understand this concept , start with a fairly small system . Visualize a set of three dominoes lined up in a row with each domino less than a domino 's length away from its neighbors . Once the first domino has toppled , the third domino will topple because the second will topple upon being contacted by the first domino . Small deterministic systems are easy to visualize , but are necessarily linked to the rest of reality by an initial cause and/or final effect . To go back to the dominoes , something outside the system has to cause the first domino to topple . The last domino falling might cause something else outside the system to happen . And the system itself must be considered in isolation -- if external forces such as hurricanes , earthquakes or the hands of nearby people were taken into consideration , the final domino toppling might not be a predetermined outcome . Complete isolation of a system is unrealistic , but useful for understanding what would normally happen to a system when the possibility of external influences is negligible . Complex physical systems are necessarily built using simpler ones , and using isolated systems as a starting model can help bridge the gap and aid in understanding . The domino example is developed in the Petri net computational model . This example assumes that dominoes toppling into each other behave deterministically . Even the above-mentioned external forces which might interrupt the system are causes which the system did not consider , but which could be explained by cause and effect in a larger deterministic system .", "Effects of climate change on island nations Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "William D. Sellers William D. Sellers ( 18 August 1928 -- 27 August 2014 ) was an American meteorologist , climate scientist , and pioneer of climate modelling . He created one the earliest climate models and was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere on the earth 's climate . He published the textbook `` Physical Climatology '' .", "Hothouse (novel) Hothouse is a 1962 science fantasy novel by Brian Aldiss , composed of five novelettes that were originally serialised in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1961 . In the US , an abridged version was published as The Long Afternoon of Earth ; the full version was not published there until 1976 . In 2009 , IDW Publishing repackaged the novel with a new introduction by Clifford Meth .", "Effects of global warming on South Asia ", "Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "Effects of global warming on humans Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "Global catastrophic risk A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 . Worldwide , various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection . First celebrated in 1970 , Earth Day events in more than 193 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network . On Earth Day 2016 , the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States , China , and some 120 other countries . This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris . In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco , peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace , to first be celebrated on March 21 , 1970 , the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere . This day of nature 's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations . A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22 , 1970 . Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work . While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States , an organization launched by Denis Hayes , who was the original national coordinator in 1970 , took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations . Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week , an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces . In 2017 , the March for Science occurred on Earth day ( April 22 , 2017 ) and will be followed by the People 's Climate Mobilization ( April 29 , 2017 ) .", "Timeline of the far future While predictions of the future can never be absolutely certain , present understanding in various fields allows for the prediction of far-future events , if only in the broadest outline . These fields include astrophysics , which has revealed how planets and stars form , interact , and die ; particle physics , which has revealed how matter behaves at the smallest scales ; evolutionary biology , which predicts how life will evolve over time ; and plate tectonics , which shows how continents shift over millennia . All projections of the future of the Earth , the Solar System , and the Universe must account for the second law of thermodynamics , which states that entropy , or a loss of the energy available to do work , must increase over time . Stars will eventually exhaust their supply of hydrogen fuel and burn out . Close encounters gravitationally fling planets from their star systems , and star systems from galaxies . Eventually , matter itself is expected to come under the influence of radioactive decay , as even the most stable materials break apart into subatomic particles . Current data suggest that the universe has a flat geometry ( or very close to flat ) , and thus , will not collapse in on itself after a finite time , and the infinite future potentially allows for the occurrence of a number of massively improbable events , such as the formation of a Boltzmann brain . The timelines displayed here cover events from the beginning of the 11th millennium to the furthest reaches of future time . A number of alternate future events are listed to account for questions still unresolved , such as whether humans will become extinct , whether protons decay , or whether Earth will survive the Sun 's expansion into a red giant .", "A Friend of the Earth T. Coraghessan Boyle 's novel A Friend of the Earth ( 2000 ) is a story of environmental destruction . The novel is set in 2025 ; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect , the climate has drastically changed , and , accordingly , biodiversity is a thing of the past .", "Atmospheric circulation Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air , and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth . The Earth 's atmospheric circulation varies from year to year , but the large scale structure of its circulation remains fairly constant . The smaller scale weather systems -- mid-latitude depressions , or tropical convective cells -- occur `` randomly '' , and long range weather predictions of those can not be made beyond ten days in practice , or a month in theory ( see Chaos theory and Butterfly effect ) . The Earth 's weather is a consequence of its illumination by the Sun , and the laws of thermodynamics . The atmospheric circulation can be viewed as a heat engine driven by the Sun 's energy , and whose energy sink , ultimately , is the blackness of space . The work produced by that engine causes the motion of the masses of air and in that process it redistributes the energy absorbed by the Earth 's surface near the tropics to space and incidentally to the latitudes nearer the poles . The large scale atmospheric circulation `` cells '' shift polewards in warmer periods ( for example , interglacials compared to glacials ) , but remain largely constant as they are , fundamentally , a property of the Earth 's size , rotation rate , heating and atmospheric depth , all of which change little . Over very long time periods ( hundreds of millions of years ) , a tectonic uplift can significantly alter their major elements , such as the jet stream , and plate tectonics may shift ocean currents . During the extremely hot climates of the Mesozoic , a third desert belt may have existed at the Equator .", "Earth Changes The phrase `` Earth Changes '' was coined by the American psychic Edgar Cayce ( 1877-1945 ) to refer to the belief that the world would soon enter on a series of cataclysmic events causing major alterations in human life on the planet . This includes `` natural events '' ( such as major earthquakes , the melting of the polar ice caps , a pole shift of the planetary axis , major weather events , solar flares and so on ) as well as huge changes of the local and global social , economical and political systems .", "Nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust or nuclear apocalypse is a theoretical scenario involving widespread destruction and radioactive fallout causing the collapse of civilization , through the use of nuclear weapons . Under such a scenario , some of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear warfare in future world wars . Besides the obvious direct destruction of cities by nuclear blasts , the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms , a nuclear winter , widespread radiation sickness from fallout , and/or the temporary loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses . Some scientists , such as Alan Robock , have speculated that a thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on Earth , in part due to a long-lasting nuclear winter . In one model , temperatures following a full thermonuclear war fall for several years by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius on average . The accuracy of such models are often the subject of partisan dispute . Early Cold War-era studies suggested that billions of humans would nonetheless survive the immediate effects of nuclear blasts and radiation following a global thermonuclear war . Some scholars argue that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects , including environmental consequences , societal breakdown , and economic collapse . Additionally , it has been argued that even a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima yield weapons , could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people . Since 1947 , the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has visualized how close the world is from a nuclear war . The threat of a nuclear holocaust plays an important role in the popular perception of nuclear weapons . It features in the security concept of mutually assured destruction ( MAD ) and is a common scenario in survivalism . Nuclear holocaust is a common feature in literature and film , especially in speculative genres such as science fiction , dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction .", "Earth Trust Centre Earth Trust Centre , formerly known as Project Timescape , is Earth Trust 's visitor and education centre near the Wittenham Clumps , Little Wittenham , Oxfordshire , England . The centre 's aim is to educate and engage people in their local landscape and inspire them to take action to protect it . It includes a café , the Fison Barn and the Timescape Exhibition . Visitors can learn about the archaeology of the Wittenham Clumps , geology of the South Oxfordshire area , wildlife on the Little Wittenham Nature Reserve , the Trust 's conservation farm and the effects climate change will have on our landscape in the future . The Earth Trust Centre is open to school groups and the general public for special events .", "Hartmut Heinrich Hartmut Heinrich ( born March 5 , 1952 in Northeim , Lower Saxony ) is a German marine geologist and climatologist . Dr. Heinrich is Head of the Physics Department at the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency ( BSH ) in Hamburg . He is actively involved in GOOS ( Global Ocean Observing System ) . In 1988 he described the suddenly occurring climate changes in the history of the earth , which have since been named after him , Heinrich events . Heinrich studied geology at the University of Göttingen and attained a doctorate at the University of Kiel in marine geology . The discovery which was named for him , Heinrich events -- periods of substantial ice output of the continental ice sheets , by which the global climate is strongly affected -- were subsequently confirmed by investigations of ice core samples from the Greenland ice sheet by the Greenland ice core project ( GRIP ) . Dr. Heinrich warns of the global warming consequences which could occur precipitously and of far larger effects on navigation and population ." ]

[ "Peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work ( peers ) . It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field . Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality , improve performance , and provide credibility . In academia , scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper 's suitability for publication . Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs , e.g. , medical peer review ." ]

[ "U.S. Government peer review policies Most federal regulatory agencies in the United States government must comply with specific peer review requirements before the agencies publicly disseminate certain scientific information . These requirements were published in a Peer Review Bulletin issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget ( OMB ) , which establishes `` government-wide standards concerning when peer review is required and , if required , what type of per review processes are appropriate . ''", "Peer critique Peer critique , a specialized form of critique , is the common practice of writers reviewing and providing constructive criticism of each other 's work . Most fiction writers use some form of peer critique as part of their process of writing .", "Peer jury process The peer jury process is often used in the arts to assess applications for grants , proposals for exhibitions made in response to an open call for submissions and art competitions . Like the practice of peer review used in the academic sphere , a peer jury brings to an evaluation process expertise that an organization or agency awarding grants or sponsoring a competition might not itself have . A peer jury in the arts context is generally composed of artists selected to be representative of those working in a relevant discipline or area . While jurors are expected to have independence , anonymity is less of a concern than in academic peer review , in part because the jury 's task is not to catch errors or offer criticism but to only to select . For example , in Canada , agencies that award grants typically publish lists of jurors or make lists available on request . In principle the peer jury process is an effective way for arts councils and other agencies to be responsive to and engaged with the constituencies they serve , and in touch with the latest developments in contemporary art .", "Graduate student journal A graduate student journal is an academic journal which is run by graduate students . These students are involved in the production , editing and peer review processes for the journal . On the whole , graduate student journals have a poor reputation , and limited funding and training can result in poor production values and editorial practices . Despite this , some graduate student journals , such as the Harvard Educational Review , are highly regarded , and peer review can be performed to a higher standard in student-run journals than in more mainstream journals .", "Retracted article on dopaminergic neurotoxicity of MDMA `` Severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine ( MDMA ) is the chemical name for the psychotropic drug commonly known as `` ecstasy '' . ( `` ecstasy '' ) '' , was a paper by Dr. George Ricaurte which was published in the leading journal Science , and later retracted . The reason was that instead of using MDMA , methamphetamine had been used in the test . The retraction of the paper led to questions over its publication . It has also been asserted that this questions the peer review process . Many have also argued that the failings in the paper ( use of materials other than those specified ) could not have been caught by peer review ; and that the scientific process did work successfully in the end , in that the article was ultimately retracted . The paper was published in the 27 September 2002 issue of Science ( volume 297 , pages 2260-3 ) . The article had been submitted to Science on 29 May 2002 and was accepted for publication on 14 August 2002 . Neither the time required for peer review nor the time between acceptance for publication and actual date of publication were unusual .", "Molecular Endocrinology Molecular Endocrinology is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on the molecular processes of hormones .", "Information Processing and Management Information Processing and Management ( IPM ) is a peer-reviewed academic journal , published by Elsevier .", "Biology Direct Biology Direct is an online open access scientific journal that publishes original , peer-reviewed research papers , reviews , hypotheses , comments and discovery notes in biology . The journal is published by BioMed Central . The journal follows a peer review system which is different from the traditional peer review system , which aims to give more responsibility to authors , and reduce sources of bias . Published articles include signed reviewer reports , and responses to the reports from the authors , to provide readers with an additional guide to the article . Based on the information presented on their website : `` Biology Direct 's key aim is to provide authors and readers with an alternative to the traditional model of peer review . This includes making the author responsible for selecting potentially suitable reviewers for their manuscript , from the journal 's Editorial Board ; making the peer review process open rather than anonymous ; and making the reviewers ' reports public , thus increasing the responsibility of the referees and eliminating sources of abuse in the refereeing process . ''", "Molecular Biology Reports Molecular Biology Reports is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on normal and pathological molecular processes .", "Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research within Earth science .", "Journal of Food Processing and Preservation The Journal of Food Processing and Preservation is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research into food processing and preservation . It is published by Wiley-Blackwell . The journal moved to online-only publication in 2011 .", "Stochastic Processes and their Applications Stochastic Processes and their Applications is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier for the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability . The editor-in-chief is H. Dehling . The principal focus of this journal is theory and applications of stochastic processes . It was established in 1973 .", "Geoscientific Model Development Geoscientific Model Development is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union . It covers the description , development , and evaluation of numerical models of the Earth system and its components . The journal has a two-stage publication process . In the first stage , papers that pass a rapid access peer-review are immediately published on the Geoscientific Model Development Discussions website . They are then subject to interactive public discussion , during which the referees ' comments ( anonymous or attributed ) , additional short comments by other members of the scientific community ( attributed ) , and the authors ' replies are published . In the second stage , the peer-review process is completed and , if accepted , the final revised papers are published in Geoscientific Model Development .", "Replication crisis The replication crisis ( or replicability crisis ) refers to a methodological crisis in science in which scientists have found that the results of many scientific experiments are difficult or impossible to replicate on subsequent investigation , either by independent researchers or by the original researchers themselves . While the crisis has long-standing roots , the phrase was coined in the early 2010s as part of a growing awareness of the problem . Since the reproducibility of experiments is an essential part of the scientific method , the inability to replicate the studies of others has potentially grave consequences for many fields of science in which significant theories are grounded on unreproduceable experimental work . The replication crisis has been particularly widely discussed in the field of psychology ( and in particular , social psychology ) and in medicine , where a number of efforts have been made to re-investigate classic results , and to attempt to determine both the validity of the results , and , if invalid , the reasons for the failure of replication .", "Institutional review board An institutional review board ( IRB ) , also known as an ` independent ethics committee ' ( ` IEC ' ) , ` ethical review board ' ( ` ERB ' ) , or ` research ethics board ' ( ` REB ' ) , is a type of committee used in research in the United States that has been formally designated to approve , monitor , and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans . They often conduct some form of risk-benefit analysis in an attempt to determine whether or not research should be completed . The purpose of the IRB is to assure that appropriate steps are taken to protect the rights and welfare of humans participating as subjects in a research study .", "Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology The Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology is a peer-reviewed biweekly journal publishes papers and mini-reviews of new and emerging products , processes and technologies in the area of prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells , relevant enzymes and proteins ; applied genetics and molecular biotechnology ; genomics and proteomics ; applied microbial and cell physiology ; environmental biotechnology ; process and products and more .", "Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act, 1988 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act of 1988 ( CLIA 88 ) was passed in the USA subsequent to the publication of an article in November 1987 in the Wall Street Journal entitled `` Lax Laboratories : The Pap Test Misses Much Cervical Cancer Through Labs Errors '' , which alerted the public to the fact that a pap smear may be falsely negative . The article implied that false negative tests resulted largely from the carelessness of doctors . Subsequent to this , claims involving pap smears showed an alarming growth . The Act aimed at a comprehensive regulation of gynecologic cytology laboratories .", "Center for Scientific Review The Center for Scientific Review ( CSR ) is the portal for United States National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) grant applications and their review for scientific merit . The CSR organizes the peer review groups or study sections that evaluate the majority ( 70 % ) of the research grant applications sent to NIH . It also receives all grant applications for NIH , as well as for some other components of the United States Department of Health and Human Services ( DHHS ) . Since 1946 , its mission has remained clear and timely : to see that NIH grant applications receive fair , independent , expert , and timely reviews -- free from inappropriate influences -- so NIH can fund the most promising research . CSR receives nearly 80,000 applications a year and recruits over 18,000 external experts to review its portion of them in its study sections , which often meet three times during the year . Additional scientists serve on other NIH advisory councils , which provide a second level of peer review and make funding recommendations based on priorities set by the United States Congress , DHHS , and the public .", "Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers legal aspects of toxicological and pharmacological regulations . It is published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology . The current editor-in-chief is Gio Batta Gori . The journal is financed in part by the tobacco , pharmaceutical , and chemical industries . In 2002 , a group of 45 academics wrote a letter accusing the journal of a concealed pro-industry bias , saying that it `` reads like an industry trade publication , but it 's masked as a peer-reviewed journal '' and that it lacked any `` credible peer-review process '' . The scientists criticized the journal for failing to disclose conflicts of interest on the part of article authors and editors , citing a case in which Gori was paid $ 30,000 by the Tobacco Institute to publish an article in the journal dismissing the health risks of secondhand smoke . The journal has been accused of being `` broker of junk science '' by the Center for Public Integrity .", "African Peer Review Mechanism The African Peer Review Mechanism ( APRM ) is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the member states of the African Union ( AU ) as a self-monitoring mechanism . It was founded in 2003 . The mandate of the APRM is to encourage conformity in regard to political , economic and corporate governance values , codes and standards , among African countries and the objectives in socio-economic development within the New Partnership for Africa 's Development .", "Nature Methods Nature Methods is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering new scientific techniques . It was established in 2004 and is published by the Nature Publishing Group . Like other Nature journals , there is no external editorial board and editorial decisions are made by an in-house team , although peer review by external experts forms a part of the review process . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal had a 2015 impact factor of 25.328 , ranking it first in the category `` Biochemical Research Methods '' .", "Review of Market Integration Review of Market Integration is a peer-reviewed journals that provides a forum to discuss issues related to market integration as part of the developmental process of emerging economies . It is published three times in a year by SAGE Publications in association with Foundation .", "Journal of Food Process Engineering The Journal of Food Process Engineering is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research on applications of engineering to food and food processing . It was established in 1977 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell . The journal moved to online-only publication in 2011 .", "Software inspection Inspection in software engineering , refers to peer review of any work product by trained individuals who look for defects using a well defined process . An inspection might also be referred to as a Fagan inspection after Michael Fagan , the creator of a very popular software inspection process .", "Independent reviewer The US Food and Drug Administration requires that developers of medical device follow a system of design controls . A key part of this system is design review , defined in 21CFR820 .3 section ( h ) as `` a documented , comprehensive , systematic examination of the design to evaluate the adequacy of the design requirements , to evaluate the capability of the design to meet these requirements , and to identify problems . '' In 21CFR820 .30 section ( e ) , it is stated that an independent reviewer is required for any design review . An independent reviewer is an individual who does not have direct professional responsibility for the design stage under review , assuring an independent and objective review . Within the context of formal design reviews , the practical solution is simply to ensure a fresh perspective , based on the principle that those who are too close to the design may overlook design errors . Thus , reviewers should not have been significantly involved in the activities under review .", "Scientific misconduct Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research . A Lancet review on Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countries provides the following sample definitions : ( reproduced in The COPE report 1999 . ) Danish definition : `` Intention or gross negligence leading to fabrication of the scientific message or a false credit or emphasis given to a scientist '' Swedish definition : `` Intention -LSB- al -RSB- distortion of the research process by fabrication of data , text , hypothesis , or methods from another researcher 's manuscript form or publication ; or distortion of the research process in other ways . '' The consequences of scientific misconduct can be damaging for both perpetrators and any individual who exposes it . In addition there are public health implications attached to the promotion of medical or other interventions based on dubious research findings .", "Digital Signal Processing (journal) Digital Signal Processing is a monthly peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering all areas of signal processing . It as established in 1991 and published by Academic Press , now Elsevier . The editor-in-chief is Ercan E. Kuruoglu ( ISTI-CNR , Pisa , Italy ) .", "Panetta Review The Panetta Review was a secret internal review conducted by Leon Panetta , then the Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency , of the CIA 's torture of detainees during the administration of George W. Bush . The review led to a series of memoranda that , as of March 2014 , remained classified . According to The New York Times , the memoranda `` cast a particularly harsh light '' on the Bush-era interrogation program , and people who have read them have said parts of the memos are `` particularly scorching '' of techniques such as waterboarding , which the memos describe as providing little valuable intelligence . The existence of the review was revealed by Sen. Mark Udall ( D-CO ) during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on December 17 , 2013 . Udall said that the report was consistent with a highly critical report generated by the Intelligence Committee and conflicted with the CIA 's official response . A 525-page summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee 's report was made public on December 9 , 2014 .", "PubPeer PubPeer is a website that allows users to discuss and review scientific research . The site is one of many allowing academics to engage in post-publication peer review , and has highlighted shortcomings in several high-profile papers , in some cases leading to retractions and to accusations of scientific fraud , as noted by Retraction Watch . Accusations of libel have been levelled at some of PubPeer 's users ; correspondingly PubPeer comments are required to use only facts that can be publicly verified .", "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking `` Scientific Integrity in Policymaking : An Investigation into the Bush Administration 's Misuse of Science '' is the title of a report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in February , 2004 . The report was the culmination of an investigation of the Bush administration 's objectivity in science , and ultimately a criticism thereof . ( After it was published , the report 's existence was fairly well-publicized by the United States ' mass media . )", "ExOrdo Ex Ordo is an abstract and paper management system for research or academic conference and symposia . Their web application automates the process of collecting and peer reviewing abstracts and papers . The tool is cloud-based , offering an online platform to allow all the persons involved in the conference to get involved directly . The conference management system uses an built-in intelligence , creating automated tasks for each user involved in a conference -- organisers , authors and reviewers -- to guide them through the process of submitting , reviewing and accepting papers and abstracts .", "Information Processing Letters Information Processing Letters is a peer reviewed scientific journal in the field of computer science , published by Elsevier . The aim of the journal is to enable fast dissemination of results in the field of information processing in the form of short papers . Submissions are limited to nine double-spaced pages . Both theoretical and experimental research is covered ." ]

[ "Drowning Drowning is defined as respiratory impairment from being in or under a liquid . It is further classified by outcome into : death , ongoing health problems , and no ongoing health problems . Drowning itself is quick and silent , although it may be preceded by distress which is more visible . Generally , in the early stages of drowning , very little water enters the lungs : a small amount of water entering the trachea causes a muscular spasm that seals the airway and prevents the passage of both air and water until unconsciousness occurs . This means a person drowning is unable to shout or call for help , or seek attention , as they can not obtain enough air . The instinctive drowning response is the final set of autonomic reactions in the 20 -- 60 seconds before sinking underwater , and to the untrained eye can look similar to calm safe behavior . Lifeguards and other persons trained in rescue learn to recognize drowning people by watching for these movements . If the process is not interrupted , loss of consciousness due to hypoxia is followed rapidly by cardiac arrest . At this stage , the process is still usually reversible by prompt and effective rescue and first aid . Survival rates depend strongly on the duration of immersion . In 2013 , there were about 1.7 million cases of drowning . Unintentional drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury resulting in death worldwide . In 2013 , it was estimated to have resulted in 368,000 deaths , down from 545,000 deaths in 1990 . Of these deaths , 82,000 occurred in children less than five years old . It accounts for 7 % of all injury related deaths ( excluding those due to natural disasters ) , with 91 % of these deaths occurring in low-income and middle-income countries . Drowning occurs more frequently in males and the young . The rate of drowning in populations around the world varies widely according to their access to water , the climate and the national swimming culture . Most drownings are preventable .", "Hypothermia Hypothermia is reduced body temperature that happens when a body dissipates more heat than it absorbs . In humans , it is defined as a body core temperature below 35.0 C. Symptoms depend on the temperature . In mild hypothermia there is shivering and mental confusion . In moderate hypothermia shivering stops and confusion increases . In severe hypothermia there may be paradoxical undressing , in which a person removes his or her clothing , as well as an increased risk of the heart stopping . Hypothermia has two main types of causes . It classically occurs from exposure to extreme cold . It may also occur from any condition that decreases heat production or increases heat loss . Commonly this includes alcohol intoxication but may also include low blood sugar , anorexia , and advanced age , among others . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of 36.5 -- through thermoregulation . Efforts to increase body temperature involve shivering , increased voluntary activity , and putting on warmer clothing . Hypothermia may be diagnosed based on either a person 's symptoms in the presence of risk factors or by measuring a person 's core temperature . The treatment of mild hypothermia involves warm drinks , warm clothing and physical activity . In those with moderate hypothermia heating blankets and warmed intravenous fluids are recommended . People with moderate or severe hypothermia should be moved gently . In severe hypothermia extracorporeal membrane oxygenation ( ECMO ) or cardiopulmonary bypass may be useful . In those without a pulse cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR ) is indicated along with the above measures . Rewarming is typically continued until a person 's temperature is greater than 32 C . If there is no improvement at this point or the blood potassium level is greater than 12 mmol/liter at any time resuscitation may be discontinued . Hypothermia is the cause of at least 1500 deaths a year in the United States . It is more common in older people and males . One of the lowest documented body temperatures from which someone with accidental hypothermia has survived is 13.0 C in a near-drowning of a 7-year-old girl in Sweden . Survival after more than six hours of CPR has been described . In those in whom ECMO or bypass is used survival is around 50 % . Deaths due to hypothermia have played an important role in many wars . The term is from Greek ὑπο , ypo , meaning `` under '' , and θερμία , thermía , meaning `` heat '' . The opposite of hypothermia is hyperthermia , an increased body temperature due to failed thermoregulation .", "Underwater diving Underwater diving is the practice of descending below the water 's surface to conduct underwater activities . In ambient pressure diving , the diver is exposed to the pressure of the surrounding water , and uses breathing apparatus for scuba diving or surface supplied diving , or when freediving , will breath-hold . The saturation diving technique reduces the risk of decompression sickness after long duration deep dives . Atmospheric diving suits may be used to isolate the diver from the effects of high ambient pressure . Although not usually considered to be diving , crewed submersibles can extend depth range , while remotely controlled or robotic diving machines can reduce the risk to human divers . The diving environment exposes the diver to a wide range of hazards , and though the risks are largely controlled by appropriate diving skills , training , types of equipment and breathing gases used depending on the mode , depth and purpose of diving , it remains a relatively dangerous activity . Diving activities are restricted to relatively shallow depths ranging from around 40 m ( 130 ft. ) maximum for recreational Scuba diving to commercial saturation diving maximum around 534 metres ( 1,752 ft ) and 610 metres ( 2,000 ft ) wearing atmospheric diving suits . Diving is also restricted to conditions which are not excessively hazardous , though the level of risk acceptable to the diver can vary considerably . Occasionally diving may be done in liquids other than water . Recreational diving , sometimes called sport diving or subaquatics , is a popular leisure activity . Technical diving is a form of recreational diving that achieves greater depths or endurance in more challenging conditions . Professional diving ( commercial diving , diving for scientific research purposes or diving for financial gain ) takes a range of diving activities to the underwater work site . Public safety diving is the underwater work done by law enforcement , fire rescue , and search & rescue/recovery dive teams , and may be done by professionals or volunteers . Military diving includes combat diving , clearance diving and ship 's husbandry diving . Underwater sports is a group of competitive sports using either free-diving , snorkeling or scuba technique , or a combination of these techniques . The term `` deep sea diving '' refers to underwater diving , usually with surface supplied equipment , and often refers specifically to the use of standard diving dress with the traditional copper helmet . `` Hard hat '' diving is any form of diving with a helmet , including the standard copper helmet , and other forms of free-flow and lightweight demand helmets .", "Cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease ( CVD ) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels . Cardiovascular disease includes coronary artery diseases ( CAD ) such as angina and myocardial infarction ( commonly known as a heart attack ) . Other CVDs include stroke , heart failure , hypertensive heart disease , rheumatic heart disease , cardiomyopathy , heart arrhythmia , congenital heart disease , valvular heart disease , carditis , aortic aneurysms , peripheral artery disease , thromboembolic disease , and venous thrombosis . The underlying mechanisms vary depending on the disease in question . Coronary artery disease , stroke , and peripheral artery disease involve atherosclerosis . This may be caused by high blood pressure , smoking , diabetes , lack of exercise , obesity , high blood cholesterol , poor diet , and excessive alcohol consumption , among others . High blood pressure results in 13 % of CVD deaths , while tobacco results in 9 % , diabetes 6 % , lack of exercise 6 % and obesity 5 % . Rheumatic heart disease may follow untreated strep throat . It is estimated that 90 % of CVD is preventable . Prevention of atherosclerosis involves improving risk factors through : healthy eating , exercise , avoidance of tobacco smoke and limiting alcohol intake . Treating risk factors , such as high blood pressure , blood lipids and diabetes is also beneficial . Treating people who have strep throat with antibiotics can decrease the risk of rheumatic heart disease . The effect of the use of aspirin in people who are otherwise healthy is of unclear benefit . Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally . This is true in all areas of the world except Africa . Together they resulted in 17.9 million deaths ( 32.1 % ) in 2015 up from 12.3 million ( 25.8 % ) in 1990 . Deaths , at a given age , from CVD are more common and have been increasing in much of the developing world , while rates have declined in most of the developed world since the 1970s . Coronary artery disease and stroke account for 80 % of CVD deaths in males and 75 % of CVD deaths in females . Most cardiovascular disease affects older adults . In the United States 11 % of people between 20 and 40 have CVD , while 37 % between 40 and 60 , 71 % of people between 60 and 80 , and 85 % of people over 80 have CVD . The average age of death from coronary artery disease in the developed world is around 80 while it is around 68 in the developing world . Disease onset is typically seven to ten years earlier in men as compared to women .", "Shock (circulatory) Circulatory shock , commonly known as shock , is a life-threatening medical condition of low blood perfusion to tissues resulting in cellular injury and inadequate tissue function . The typical signs of shock are low blood pressure , rapid heart rate , signs of poor end-organ perfusion ( i.e. : low urine output , confusion , or loss of consciousness ) , and weak pulses . The shock index ( SI ) , defined as heart rate divided by systolic blood pressure , is an accurate diagnostic measure that is more useful than hypotension and tachycardia in isolation . Under normal conditions , a number between 0.5 and 0.8 is typically seen . Should that number increase , so does suspicion of an underlying state of shock . Blood pressure alone may not be a reliable sign for shock , as there are times when a person is in circulatory shock but has a stable blood pressure . Circulatory shock is not related to the emotional state of shock . Circulatory shock is a life-threatening medical emergency and one of the most common causes of death for critically ill people . Shock can have a variety of effects , all with similar outcomes , but all relate to a problem with the body 's circulatory system . For example , shock may lead to hypoxemia ( a lack of oxygen in arterial blood ) or cardiac and/or respiratory arrest . One of the key dangers of shock is that it progresses by a positive feedback mechanism . Poor blood supply leads to cellular damage , which results in an inflammatory response to increase blood flow to the affected area . This is normally very useful to match up supply with tissue demand for nutrients . However , if enough tissue causes this , it will deprive vital nutrients from other parts of the body . Additionally , the ability of the circulatory system to meet this increase in demand causes saturation , a major result of which is that other parts of the body begin to respond in a similar way , thus exacerbating the problem . Due to this chain of events , immediate treatment of shock is critical to survival ." ]

[ "Butterflies in the stomach Butterflies in the stomach is the physical sensation in humans of a `` fluttery '' feeling in the stomach , caused by a reduction of blood flow to the organ . This is as a result of the release of adrenaline in the fight-or-flight response , which causes increased heart rate and blood pressure , consequently sending more blood to the muscles . It is a sign of social anxiety disorder .", "Bayliss effect Bayliss effect or Bayliss myogenic response is a special manifestation of the myogenic tone in the vasculature . The Bayliss effect in vascular smooth muscles cells is a response to stretch . This is especially relevant in arterioles of the body . When blood pressure is increased in the blood vessels and the blood vessels distend , they react with a constriction ; this is the Bayliss effect . Stretch of the muscle membrane opens a stretch-activated ion channel . The cells then become depolarized and this results in a Ca2 + signal and triggers muscle contraction . It is important to understand that no action potential is necessary here ; the level of entered calcium affects the level of contraction proportionally and causes tonic contraction . The contracted state of the smooth muscle depends on the grade of stretch and plays an important part in the regulation of blood flow . Increased contraction increases the total peripheral resistance ( TPR ) and this further increases the mean arterial pressure ( MAP ) . This is explained by the following equation : where CO is the cardiac output which is the volume of blood pumped by the heart in one minute . This effect is independent of nervous mechanisms and that is how we differentiate it from the myogenic tone , which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system . The overall effect of the myogenic response ( Bayliss effect ) is to decrease blood flow across a vessel after an increase in blood pressure .", "Baroreflex The baroreflex or baroreceptor reflex is one of the body 's homeostatic mechanisms that helps to maintain blood pressure at nearly constant levels . The baroreflex provides a rapid negative feedback loop in which an elevated blood pressure reflexively causes the heart rate to decrease and also causes blood pressure to decrease . Decreased blood pressure decreases baroreflex activation and causes heart rate to increase and to restore blood pressure levels . The baroreflex can begin to act in less than the duration of a cardiac cycle ( fractions of a second ) and thus baroreflex adjustments are key factors in dealing with postural hypotension , the tendency for blood pressure to decrease on standing due to gravity . The system relies on specialized neurons , known as baroreceptors , in the aortic arch , carotid sinuses , and elsewhere to monitor changes in blood pressure and relay them to the Medulla . Baroreceptors are stretch receptors and respond to the pressure induced stretching of the blood vessel in which they are found . Baroreflex induced changes in blood pressure are mediated by both branches of the autonomic nervous system -- that is the parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves . Baroreceptors are active even at normal blood pressures so that their activity informs the brain about both increases and decreases in blood pressure . The body contains two other , slower acting systems to regulate blood pressure : the heart releases atrial natriuretic peptide when blood pressure is too high , and the kidneys sense and correct low blood pressure with the renin-angiotensin system .", "High pressure receptor zones In physiology high pressure receptor zones are the places baroreceptors are found within the aortic arch and carotid sinus . They are only sensitive to blood pressures above 60 mmHg . When these receptors are activated they elicit a depressor response ; which decreases the heart rate and causes a general vasodilation . An increase in arterial blood pressure reflexly elicits an increase in vagal neuronal activity to the heart ( i.e. the resulting decreased heart rate ) . The afferent nerves from the baroreceptors are called buffer nerves .", "Medullary ischemic reflex The medullary ischemic reflex is a big response to a drop in blood pressure in the brain particularly in the medulla , where the lack of oxygen due to decreased perfusion triggers an autonomic response from the cardiac and vasomotor centers . The cardiac and vasomotor centers respond to the decrease in blood pressure with sympathetic outflow to the heart and blood vessels . This outflow causes increased heart rate and force of contraction , as well as bodywide vasoconstriction . Together these responses increase blood pressure and perfusion rate to the brain , ending the feedback loop .", "Hemodynamics Hemodynamics or hæmodynamics is the dynamics of blood flow . The circulatory system is controlled by homeostatic mechanisms , much as hydraulic circuits are controlled by control systems . Hemodynamic response continuously monitors and adjusts to conditions in the body and its environment . Thus hemodynamics explains the physical laws that govern the flow of blood in the blood vessels . Blood flow ensures the transportation of nutrients , hormones , metabolic wastes , O2 and CO2 throughout the body to maintain cell-level metabolism , the regulation of the pH , osmotic pressure and temperature of the whole body , and the protection from microbial and mechanical harms . Blood is a non-Newtonian fluid , best studied using rheology rather than hydrodynamics . Blood vessels are not rigid tubes , so classic hydrodynamics and fluids mechanics based on the use of classical viscometers are not capable of explaining hemodynamics .", "Surface Chemistry of Microvasculature Microvasculature is defined as vessels ( venules or capillaries ) with a maximum average diameter of 0.3 millimeters . As the vessels decrease in size , they increase their surface-area-to-volume ratio . This allows surface properties to play a significant role in the function of the vessel . Diffusion occurs through the walls of the vessels due to a concentration gradient , allowing the necessary exchange of ions , molecules , or blood cells . The permeability of a capillary wall is determined by the type of capillary and the surface of the endothelial cells . A continuous , tightly spaced endothelial cell lining only permits the diffusion of small molecules . Larger molecules and blood cells require adequate space between cells or holes in the lining . The high resistivity of a cellular membrane prevents the diffusion of ions without a membrane transport protein . The hydrophobicity of an endothelial cell surface determines whether water or lipophilic molecules will diffuse through the capillary lining . The blood brain barrier restricts diffusion to small hydrophobic molecules , making drug diffusion difficult to achieve . Blood flow is directly influenced by the thermodynamics of the body . Changes in temperature affect the viscosity and surface tension of the blood , altering the minimum blood flow rate . At high temperatures the minimum flow rate will decrease and the capillary will expand . This allows heat transfer through the increased surface area of the inner capillary lining and through increased blood flow . At low temperatures the minimum flow rate will increase and the capillary will constrict . This restricts blood flow and decreases the surface area of the capillary , reducing heat transfer . Fluid mechanics are primarily affected by pressure , temperature , heat transfer , and electrokinetics . An increase in pressure increases the flow rate given by the Starling equation . An increase in temperature increases the wettability of the surface , promoting fluid flow . Heat also decreases the viscosity of the lumen . Heat transfer is monitored by thermoreceptors which regulate the amount of capillary beds open for heat dissipation . The surface chemistry of the endothelial cell lining also dictates fluid flow . A charged surface will acquire a layer of stagnant diffuse ions that hinder the flow of ions in the lumen . This decreases the lumen velocity and promotes the exchange of molecules through the capillary lining .", "Coronary artery ectasia Coronary artery ectasia is a rare disease that occurs in only 0.3-4 .9 % of people in North America . Coronary artery ectasia is characterized by the enlargement of a coronary artery to 1.5 times or more than its normal diameter . The disease is commonly asymptomatic and is normally discovered when performing tests for other conditions such as coronary artery disease , stable angina and other acute coronary syndromes . Coronary artery ectasia occurs 4 times more frequently in males than in females and in people who have risk factors for heart disease such as smokers . While the disease is commonly found in patients with atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease , it can occur by itself and in both cases it can cause health problems . The disease can cause the heart tissue to be deprived of blood and die due to decreased blood flow , and blockages due to blood clots or spasms of the blood vessel . This blood flow disruption can cause permanent damage to the muscle if the deprivation is prolonged . Coronary artery ectasia also increases the chance of developing large weak spots in the affected coronary arteries , or aneurysms that can rupture and result in death . The damage can result in angina which is pain in the chest and is a common complaint in these patients .", "Coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart . This blood clot restricts blood flow within the heart . It is associated with narrowing of blood vessels subsequent to clotting . The condition is considered as a type of ischaemic heart disease , also known as a heart attack or myocardial infarction . Thrombosis in the heart can lead to a myocardial infarction . Coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction are sometimes used as synonyms , although this is technically inaccurate as the thrombosis refers to the blocking of blood vessels , while the infarction refers to the tissue death due to the consequent loss of blood flow to the heart tissue . The heart contains many connecting blood vessels , and depending upon the location of the thrombosis , the infarction may cause no symptoms . Coronary thrombosis is caused by atherosclerosis.This is when there is build up of cholesterol and fats in the artery walls . So the blood will clot because there is n't enough room for it to flow . The main causes of coronary thrombosis are stress , smoking , high blood pressure , and lack of exercise . Symptoms are sharp pains around the chest area , breathing difficulties , dizziness , and fainting . This is treated by taking Aspirin , Nitrates , or Beta Blockers . Coronary thrombosis can be a complication associated with drug-eluting stents .", "Pulsus paradoxus Pulsus paradoxus ( PP ) , also paradoxic pulse or paradoxical pulse , is an abnormally large decrease in systolic blood pressure and pulse wave amplitude during inspiration . The normal fall in pressure is less than 10 mmHg . When the drop is more than 10 mmHg , it is referred to as pulsus paradoxus . Pulsus paradoxus is not related to pulse rate or heart rate and it is not a paradoxical rise in systolic pressure . The normal variation of blood pressure during breathing/respiration is a decline in blood pressure during inhalation and an increase during exhalation . Pulsus paradoxus is a sign that is indicative of several conditions , including cardiac tamponade , constrictive pericarditis , chronic sleep apnea , croup , and obstructive lung disease ( e.g. asthma , COPD ) . The paradox in pulsus paradoxus is that , on clinical examination , one can detect beats on cardiac auscultation during inspiration that can not be palpated at the radial pulse . It results from an accentuated decrease of the blood pressure , which leads to the ( radial ) pulse not being palpable and may be accompanied by an increase in the jugular venous pressure height ( Kussmaul 's sign ) . As is usual with inspiration , the heart rate is slightly increased , due to decreased left ventricular output .", "Sepsis Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body 's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs . Common signs and symptoms include fever , increased heart rate , increased breathing rate , and confusion . There also may be symptoms related to a specific infection , such as a cough with pneumonia , or painful urination with a kidney infection . In the very young , old , and people with a weakened immune system , there may be no symptoms of a specific infection and the body temperature may be low or normal , rather than high . Severe sepsis is sepsis causing poor organ function or insufficient blood flow . Insufficient blood flow may be evident by low blood pressure , high blood lactate , or low urine output . Septic shock is low blood pressure due to sepsis that does not improve after reasonable amounts of intravenous fluids are given . Sepsis is caused by an immune response triggered by an infection . Most commonly , the infection is bacterial , but it may also be from fungi , viruses , or parasites . Common locations for the primary infection include lungs , brain , urinary tract , skin , and abdominal organs . Risk factors include young or old age , a weakened immune system from conditions such as cancer or diabetes , major trauma , or burns . An older method of diagnosis was based on meeting at least two systemic inflammatory response syndrome ( SIRS ) criteria due to a presumed infection . In 2016 , SIRS was replaced with qSOFA which is two of the following three : increased breathing rate , change in level of consciousness , and low blood pressure . Blood cultures are recommended preferably before antibiotics are started , however , infection of the blood is not required for the diagnosis . Medical imaging should be used to look for the possible location of infection . Other potential causes of similar signs and symptoms include anaphylaxis , adrenal insufficiency , low blood volume , heart failure , and pulmonary embolism , among others . Sepsis usually is treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics . Typically , antibiotics are given as soon as possible . Often , ongoing care is performed in an intensive care unit . If fluid replacement is not enough to maintain blood pressure , medications that raise blood pressure may be used . Mechanical ventilation and dialysis may be needed to support the function of the lungs and kidneys , respectively . To guide treatment , a central venous catheter and an arterial catheter may be placed for access to the bloodstream . Other measurements such as cardiac output and superior vena cava oxygen saturation may be used . People with sepsis need preventive measures for deep vein thrombosis , stress ulcers and pressure ulcers , unless other conditions prevent such interventions . Some might benefit from tight control of blood sugar levels with insulin . The use of corticosteroids is controversial . Activated drotrecogin alfa , originally marketed for severe sepsis , has not been found to be helpful , and was withdrawn from sale in 2011 . Disease severity partly determines the outcome . The risk of death from sepsis is as high as 30 % , from severe sepsis as high as 50 % , and from septic shock as high as 80 % . The number of cases worldwide is unknown as there is little data from the developing world . Estimates suggest sepsis affects millions of people a year . In the developed world approximately 0.2 to 3 people per 1000 are affected by sepsis yearly , resulting in about a million cases per year in the United States . Rates of disease have been increasing . Sepsis is more common among males than females . The medical condition has been described since the time of Hippocrates . Septicemia and blood poisoning are terms that referred to the microorganisms or their toxins in the blood and are no longer commonly used .", "Heart failure cell Heart failure cells are siderophages ( hemosiderin-containing macrophages ) generated in the alveoli of patients with left heart failure or chronic pulmonary edema , when the high pulmonary blood pressure causes red cells to pass through the vascular wall . Siderophages are not specific of heart failure . They are present wherever red blood cells encounter macrophages . In left heart failure , the left ventricle can not keep pace with the incoming blood from the pulmonary veins . The resulting backup causes increased pressure on the alveolar capillaries , and red blood cells leak out . Alveolar macrophages ( dust cells ) engulf the red blood cells , and become engorged with brownish hemosiderin . In chronic pulmonary edema , alveolar septa become thick and fibrous , again increasing pressure on alveolar capillaries and resulting in leakage of red blood cells which undergo phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages .", "Cardiovascular centre The cardiovascular centre is a part of the human brain responsible for the regulation of the rate at which the heart beats through the nervous and endocrine systems . It is found in the medulla oblongata . Normally , the heart beats without nervous control , but in some situations ( e.g. , exercise , body trauma ) , the cardiovascular centre is responsible for altering the rate at which the heart beats . It also mediates respiratory sinus arrhythmia . When a change of blood pH is detected by central chemoreceptors or a change of blood pressure is detected by peripheral chemoreceptors in aortic bodies and in carotid bodies , the cardiovascular centre affects changes to the heart rate by sending a nerve impulse to the cardiac pacemaker ( or SA node ) via sympathetic fibres ( to cause faster and stronger cardiac muscle contraction ) and the vagus nerve ( to cause slower and less strong cardiac muscle contraction ) . The cardiovascular centre also increases the stroke volume of the heart ( that is , the amount of blood it pumps ) . These two changes help to regulate the cardiac output , so that a sufficient amount of blood reaches tissue . Hormones like epinephrine and norepinephrine can affect the cardiovascular centre and cause it to increase the rate of impulses sent to the sinoatrial node , or pacemaker , resulting in faster and stronger cardiac muscle contraction and thus increasing the heart rate .", "Abdominal aortic aneurysm Abdominal aortic aneurysm ( AAA or triple A ) is a localized enlargement of the abdominal aorta such that the diameter is greater than 3 cm or more than 50 % larger than normal diameter . They usually cause no symptoms except when ruptured . Occasionally , abdominal , back , or leg pain may occur . Large aneurysms can sometimes be felt by pushing on the abdomen . Rupture may result in pain in the abdomen or back , low blood pressure , or loss of consciousness , and often results in death . AAAs occur most commonly in those over 50 years old , in men , and among those with a family history . Additional risk factors include smoking , high blood pressure , and other heart or blood vessel diseases . Genetic conditions with an increased risk include Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome . AAAs are the most common form of aortic aneurysm . About 85 % occur below the kidneys with the rest either at the level of or above the kidneys . In the United States , screening with ultrasound is recommended for males between 65 and 75 years of age with a history of smoking . In the United Kingdom , screening all men over 65 is recommended . Once an aneurysm is found , further ultrasounds are typically done on a regular basis . Not smoking is the single best way to prevent the disease . Other methods of prevention include treating high blood pressure , treating high blood cholesterol and not being overweight . Surgery is usually recommended when an AAA 's diameter grows to > 5.5 cm in males and > 5.0 cm in females . Other reasons for repair include the presence of symptoms and a rapid increase in size ( more than one centimeter per year ) . Repair may be either by open surgery or endovascular aneurysm repair ( EVAR ) . As compared to open surgery , EVAR has a lower risk of death in the short term and a shorter hospital stay , but may not always be an option . There does not appear to be a difference in longer term outcomes between the two . With EVAR there is a higher need for repeat procedures . AAAs affect between 2 and 8 % of males over the age of 65 . Rates among women are one-fourth as high . In those with an aneurysm less than 5.5 cm the risk of rupture in the next year is less than 1 % . Among those with an aneurysm between 5.5 and 7 cm , the risk is about 10 % , while for those with an aneurysm greater than 7 cm the risk is about 33 % . Mortality if ruptured is 85 % to 90 % . During 2013 , aortic aneurysms resulted in 168,200 deaths , up from 100,000 in 1990 . In the United States AAAs resulted in between 10,000 and 18,000 deaths in 2009 .", "Myogenic mechanism The myogenic mechanism is how arteries and arterioles react to an increase or decrease of blood pressure to keep the blood flow within the blood vessel constant . The smooth muscle of the blood vessels reacts to the stretching of the muscle by opening ion channels , which cause the muscle to depolarize , leading to muscle contraction . This significantly reduces the volume of blood able to pass through the lumen , which reduces blood flow through the blood vessel . Alternatively when the smooth muscle in the blood vessel relaxes , the ion channels close , resulting in vasodilation of the blood vessel ; this increases the rate of flow through the lumen . This system is especially significant in the kidneys , where the glomerular filtration rate ( the rate of blood filtration by the nephron ) is particularly sensitive to changes in blood pressure . However , with the aid of the myogenic mechanism , the glomerular filtration rate remains very insensitive to changes in human blood pressure . Myogenic mechanisms in the kidney are part of the autoregulation mechanism which maintains a constant renal blood flow at varying arterial pressure . Concomitant autoregulation of glomerular pressure and filtration indicates regulation of preglomerular resistance . Model and experimental studies were performed to evaluate two mechanisms in the kidney , myogenic response and tubuloglomerular feedback . A mathematical model showed good autoregulation through a myogenic response , aimed at maintaining a constant wall tension in each segment of the preglomerular vessels . Tubuloglomerular feedback gave rather poor autoregulation . The myogenic mechanism showed ` descending ' resistance changes , starting in the larger arteries , and successively affecting downstream preglomerular vessels at increasing arterial pressures . This finding was supported by micropuncture measurements of pressure in the terminal interlobular arteries . Evidence that the mechanism was myogenic was obtained by exposing the kidney to a subatmospheric pressure of 40 mmHg ; this led to an immediate increase in renal resistance , which could not be prevented by denervation or various blocking agents .", "Thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries , even when the surrounding temperature is very different . A thermoconforming organism , by contrast , simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature , thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation . The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis : a state of dynamic stability in an organism 's internal conditions , maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment ( the study of such processes in zoology has been called physiological ecology ) . If the body is unable to maintain a normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal , a condition known as hyperthermia occurs . For humans , this occurs when the body is exposed to constant temperatures of approximately 55 ° C , and with prolonged exposure ( longer than a few hours ) at this temperature and up to around 75 ° C death is almost inevitable . Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above 35 ° C for six hours . The opposite condition , when body temperature decreases below normal levels , is known as hypothermia . It results when the homeostatic control mechanisms of heat within the body malfunction , causing the body to lose heat faster than producing it . Normal body temperature is around 37 ° C , and hypothermia sets in when the core body temperature gets lower than 35 ° C. Usually caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures , hypothermia is usually treated by methods that attempt to raise the body temperature back to a normal range . It was not until the introduction of thermometers that any exact data on the temperature of animals could be obtained . It was then found that local differences were present , since heat production and heat loss vary considerably in different parts of the body , although the circulation of the blood tends to bring about a mean temperature of the internal parts . Hence it is important to identify the parts of the body that most closely reflect the temperature of the internal organs . Also , for such results to be comparable , the measurements must be conducted under comparable conditions . The rectum has traditionally been considered to reflect most accurately the temperature of internal parts , or in some cases of sex or species , the vagina , uterus or bladder . Occasionally the temperature of the urine as it leaves the urethra may be of use in measuring body temperature . More often the temperature is taken in the mouth , axilla , ear or groin . Some animals undergo one of various forms of dormancy where the thermoregulation process temporarily allows the body temperature to drop , thereby conserving energy . Examples include hibernating bears and torpor in bats .", "Arteriole An arteriole -LSB- ɑrˈtɪəri.oʊl -RSB- is a small-diameter blood vessel in the microcirculation that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries . Arterioles have muscular walls ( usually only one to two layers of smooth muscle ) and are the primary site of vascular resistance . The greatest change in blood pressure and velocity of blood flow occurs at the transition of arterioles to capillaries . The decreased velocity of flow in the capillaries increases the blood pressure , due to Bernoulli 's principle . This induces gas and nutrients to move from the blood to the cells , due to the lower osmotic pressure outside of the capillary . The opposite process occurs when the blood leaves the capillaries and enters the venules , where the blood pressure drops due to an increase in flow rate . Arterioles receive autonomic nervous system innervation and respond to various circulating hormones in order to regulate their diameter . Retinal vessels lack a functional sympathetic innervation . Further local responses to stretch , carbon dioxide , pH , and oxygen also influence arteriolar tone . Generally , norepinephrine and epinephrine ( hormones produced by sympathetic nerves and the adrenal gland medulla ) are vasoconstrictive acting on alpha 1-adrenergic receptors . However , the arterioles of skeletal muscle , cardiac muscle , and pulmonary circulation vasodilate in response to these hormones when they act on beta-adrenergic receptors . Generally , stretch and high oxygen tension increase tone , and carbon dioxide and low pH promote vasodilation . Pulmonary arterioles are a noteworthy exception as they vasodilate in response to high oxygen . Brain arterioles are particularly sensitive to pH with reduced pH promoting vasodilation . A number of hormones influence arteriole tone such as angiotensin II ( vasoconstrictive ) , endothelin ( vasoconstrictive ) , bradykinin ( vasodilation ) , atrial natruretic peptide ( vasodilation ) , and prostacyclin ( vasodilation ) . Blood pressure in the arteries supplying the body is a result of the work needed to pump the cardiac output ( the flow of blood pumped by the heart ) through the vascular resistance , usually termed total peripheral resistance by physicians and researchers . An increase in the media to lumenal diameter ratio has been observed in hypertensive arterioles ( arteriolosclerosis ) as the vascular wall thickens and/or lumenal diameter decreases .", "Constriction Constriction is a method used by various snake species to kill their prey . Although some species of venomous and mildly venomous snakes do use constriction to subdue their prey , most snakes which use constriction lack venom . The snake initially strikes at its prey and holds on , pulling the prey into its coils or , in the case of very large prey , pulling itself onto the prey . The snake will then wrap one or two coils around the prey . The snake will monitor the prey 's heartbeat to ascertain when it is dead . Contrary to myth , the snake does not crush the prey , or break its bones . Also , contrary to previous belief , the snake does not cause suffocation by constricting the victim . Instead , a study of death caused by boa constrictors , showed that constriction `` shuts off '' blood flow ( and therefore oxygen ) needed by vital organs such as the heart and brain , which would lead to unconsciousness and death very quickly -- in seconds -- in other words , constriction can interrupt blood flow and overwhelm the prey 's usual blood pressure and circulation . Artery pressure drops , vein pressure increases , and blood vessels begin to close . The heart does not have enough strength to pump against the pressure and blood flow stops . Internal organs with high metabolic rates , including the brain , liver , and the heart begin to stop and die due to ischemia , a loss of oxygen and glucose . There is evidence that boa constrictors have more difficulty killing ectotherms , animals like lizards and snakes that rely on external heat to regulate their body temperatures . A boa constrictor was observed attacking a spinytail iguana for an hour , and the iguana survived . As this is comparatively recent research ( 2015 ) , it is possible that other constrictors kill in other ways . It had previously been accepted that constrictors used their body to hold the prey tight and prevent the prey from drawing air into its lungs , resulting in death from asphyxia , or that the pressure of constriction causes a rise in the pressure in the prey 's body cavity greater than the heart can counter , resulting in immediate cardiac arrest ; data from earlier studies had also indicated that snakes can exert enough pressure for these to be plausible . Certain groups of snakes have characteristic patterns of constriction , including the number of coils they use and the orientation of the coils . Venomous snakes that also use constriction include the mussuranas ( ophiophagous South American mildly venomous rear-fanged colubrids which use constriction to subdue snakes including pit vipers ) , the western terrestrial garter snake ( North American colubrid which is an inefficient constrictor and , like most Thamnophis garter snakes , mildly venomous ) , some species of Boiga snakes ( Asian and Australian rear-fanged colubrids ) including the brown tree snake ( Boiga irregularis ) , some species of Australian elapids ( including some of the venomous Pseudonaja brown snakes and one Australian coral snake Simoselaps ) , and a few Australian colubrids .", "Acute Local Blood Flow Regulation Acute local blood flow regulation refers to the rapid control of arterial vasomotion usually based on the metabolic needs of the surrounding cells . Although cardiac output may remain the same , blood flow to individual cells is chiefly dependent on the cells ' need for nutrients . For example , during exercise such as running , the metabolic needs of the active leg skeletal muscles increase significantly . The muscle cells are in much more demand for nutrients such as oxygen . However , the body `` reserves '' as much blood as possible to the active tissues ( in this case skeletal muscle ) . Therefore , during exercise more blood will flow to-and-from the muscle than it will in inactive tissue , such as the hand muscles . It should also be pointed out that an increase in the diameter of a blood vessel will also increase the volume of blood flow that passes through . More blood flow would also result in a higher concentration of nutrients . There are currently two major theories of the mechanism behind local control of blood flow . They include the vasodilator theory and the oxygen lack theory .", "Capacitance of blood vessels The capacitance of blood vessels describes the distensibility of blood vessels located within the body ; it is inversely proportional to elasticity . Therefore , the greater the amount of elastic tissue in a blood vessel , the greater the elasticity , and the smaller the compliance . This ultimately describes how volume changes in response to a change in pressure within the blood vessel at hand . C = ∆ V / ∆ P where , C = capacitance , or compliance ( mL/mmHg ) ∆ V = change in volume ( mL ) ∆ P = change in pressure ( mmHg ) The relationship between vascular capacitance , pressure , and flow rate is Q = C ( dP/dt ) Q = flow rate ( cm ^ 3/sec ) Category : Blood Distensibility in the left heart blood circulation shows decreased values due to constant exposure to high pressure and high elastin content .", "Aprotinin The drug aprotinin ( Trasylol , previously Bayer and now Nordic Group pharmaceuticals ) , is the small protein bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor ( BPTI ) , an antifibrinolytic molecule that inhibits trypsin and related proteolytic enzymes . Under the trade name Trasylol , aprotinin was used as a medication administered by injection to reduce bleeding during complex surgery , such as heart and liver surgery . Its main effect is the slowing down of fibrinolysis , the process that leads to the breakdown of blood clots . The aim in its use was to decrease the need for blood transfusions during surgery , as well as end-organ damage due to hypotension ( low blood pressure ) as a result of marked blood loss . The drug was temporarily withdrawn worldwide in 2007 after studies suggested that its use increased the risk of complications or death ; this was confirmed by follow-up studies . Trasylol sales were suspended in May 2008 , except for very restricted research use . In February 2012 the European Medicines Agency ( EMA ) scientific committee reverted its previous standpoint regarding aprotinin , and has recommended that the suspension be lifted . Nordic became distributor of aprotinin in 2012 .", "Patent ductus arteriosus Patent ductus arteriosus ( PDA ) is a condition wherein the ductus arteriosus fails to close after birth . Early symptoms are uncommon , but in the first year of life include increased ` work of breathing ' and poor weight gain . An uncorrected PDA may lead to congestive heart failure with increasing age . The ductus arteriosus is a fetal blood vessel that closes soon after birth . In a PDA , the vessel does not close and remains `` patent '' ( open ) , resulting in irregular transmission of blood between the aorta and the pulmonary artery . PDA is common in newborns with persistent respiratory problems such as hypoxia , and has a high occurrence in premature newborns . Premature newborns are more likely to be hypoxic and have PDA due to underdevelopment of the heart and lungs . A PDA allows a portion of the oxygenated blood from the left heart to flow back to the lungs by flowing from the aorta ( which has higher pressure ) to the pulmonary artery . If this shunt is substantial , the neonate becomes short of breath : the additional fluid returning to the lungs increases lung pressure , which in turn increases the energy required to inflate the lungs . This uses more calories than normal and often interferes with feeding in infancy . This condition , as a constellation of findings , is called congestive heart failure . In some congenital heart defects ( such as in transposition of the great vessels ) a PDA may need to remain open , as it is the only way that oxygenated blood can mix with deoxygenated blood . In these cases , prostaglandins are used to keep the DA open until surgical correction of the heart defect is completed .", "Permissive hypotension Permissive hypotension or hypotensive resuscitation is the use of restrictive fluid therapy , specifically in the trauma patient , that increases systemic blood pressure without reaching normotension ( normal blood pressures ) . The goal blood pressure for these patients is a mean arterial pressure of 40-50mmHg or a systolic blood pressure less than or equal to 80 . This goes along with certain clinical criteria . Following traumatic injury some patients experience hypotension ( low blood pressure ) that is usually due to blood loss ( hemorrhage ) but can be due to other causes as well ( for example , blood leaking around an abdominal aortic aneurysms ) . In the past , physicians were very aggressive with fluid resuscitation ( giving fluids such as normal saline or lactated Ringer 's through the vein ) to try to bring the blood pressure to normal values . Recent studies have found that there is some benefit to allowing specific patients to experience some degree of hypotension in certain settings . This concept does not exclude therapy by means of i.v. fluid , inotropes or vasopressors , the only restriction is to avoid completely normalizing blood pressure in a context where blood loss may be enhanced . When a person starts to bleed ( big or small ) the body starts a natural coagulation process that eventually stops the bleed . Issues with fluid resuscitation without control of bleeding is thought to be secondary to dislodgement of the thrombus ( blood clot ) that is helping to control further bleeding . Thrombus dislodgement was found to occur at a systolic pressure greater than 80mm Hg . In addition , fluid resuscitation will dilute coagulation factors that help form and stabilize a clot , hence making it harder for the body to use its natural mechanisms to stop the bleeding . These factors are aggravated by hypothermia ( if fluids are administered without being warmed first it will cause body temperature to drop ) . It is becoming common in hemorrhaging patients without traumatic brain injury . Due to the lack of controlled clinical trials in this field , the growing evidence that hypotensive resuscitation results in improved long-term survival mainly stems from experimental studies in animals . Numerous animal models of uncontrolled hemorrhagic shock have demonstrated improved outcomes when a lower than normal blood pressure ( mean arterial pressure of 60 to 70 mmHg ) is taken as the target for fluid administration during active hemorrhage . The first published study in humans , in victims of penetrating torso trauma , has demonstrated a significant reduction in mortality when fluid resuscitation was restricted in the prehospital period . However , it is important to note that the objective of that study was the comparison between standard prehospital and trauma center fluid resuscitation versus delayed onset of fluid resuscitation ( fluid not administered until patients reached the operating room ) . A more recent study ( 2011 ) performed by the Baylor group on patients who required emergency surgery secondary to hemorrhagic shock was randomized to a mean arterial pressure ( MAP ) of 50mmHg versus 65mm Hg . The lower MAP group was found to need less total IV fluids , used less blood products , had lower early mortality ( within the first 24 hours - which accounts for a large portion of mortality in trauma patients ) and trend towards lower 30-day mortality and less postoperative coagulation , concluding that permissive hypotension is safe . Two large human trials of this technique have been conducted , which demonstrated the safety of this approach relative to the conventional target ( greater than 100 mmHg ) , and suggested various benefits , including shorter duration of hemorrhage and reduced mortality . Johns Hopkins group performed a retrospective cohort review from National Trauma Data Bank that found a statistically significant difference in mortality for patients treated with pre-hospital intravenous fluids . Clinical data from well controlled , prospective trials applying the concept of permissive hypotension in trauma patients are still missing .", "Mitral valve The mitral valve , also known as the bicuspid valve or left atrioventricular valve , is a dual-flap valve in the heart that lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle . The mitral valve ( not to be confused with the congenital bicuspid aortic valve ) and the tricuspid valve are known collectively as the atrioventricular valves because they lie between the atria and the ventricles of the heart and control the flow of blood . During diastole , a normally-functioning mitral valve opens as a result of increased pressure from the left atrium as it fills with blood ( preloading ) . As atrial pressure increases above that of the left ventricle , the mitral valve opens . Opening facilitates the passive flow of blood into the left ventricle . Diastole ends with atrial contraction , which ejects the final 20 % of blood that is transferred from the left atrium to the left ventricle . This amount of blood is known as end-diastolic volume , and the mitral valve closes at the end of atrial contraction to prevent a reversal of blood flow .", "Clozapine Clozapine , sold under the brand name Clozaril among others , is an atypical antipsychotic medication . It is mainly used for schizophrenia that does not improve following the use of other antipsychotic medications . In those with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder it may decrease the rate of suicidal behavior . It is possibly more effective than typical antipsychotics and in those who are treatment resistant . It is taken by mouth . Clozapine is associated with a relatively high risk of low white blood cells which may result in death . To decrease this risk it is recommended that the blood be regularly monitored . Other serious risks include seizures , inflammation of the heart , high blood sugar levels , and in older people with psychosis as a result of dementia an increased risk of death . Common side effects include drowsiness , dry mouth , low blood pressure , trouble seeing , and dizziness . The potentially permanent movement disorder tardive dyskinesia occurs in about 5 % of people . Its mechanism of action is not entirely clear . Clozapine was first made in 1958 and sold commercially in 1972 . It was the first atypical antipsychotic . It is on the World Health Organization 's List of Essential Medicines , the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system . It is available as a generic medication . The wholesale cost in the developing world is between 0.05 and 2.10 USD per day as of 2014 .", "Lymphocytosis Lymphocytosis is an increase in the number of lymphocytes in the blood . In adults , lymphocytosis is present when the lymphocyte count is greater than 4000 per microliter ( 4.0 x 10 ( 9 ) / L ) , in older children greater than 7000 per microliter and in infants greater than 9000 per microliter . Lymphocytes normally represent 20 to 40 % of circulating white blood cells . Lymphocytosis is usually detected when a complete blood count is obtained . If not provided the lymphocyte count can be calculated by multiplying the total white blood cell ( WBC ) count by the percentage of lymphocytes found in the differential count . The lymphocyte count can also be directly measured by flow cytometry .", "Atrial volume receptors Atrial volume receptors are low pressure baroreceptors that are found in the atria of the heart and carotid arteries . When these receptors detect a blood volume decrease in the atria , a signal is transmitted from the receptors to the hypothalamus in the brain . The hypothalamus , in turn , increases the production of vasopressin ( ADH , AVP , or arginine vasopressin ) . These receptors also cause a renal vasodilation , resulting in increase of the water amount in the glomerular filtrate which , combined with the increased production of vasopressin by the hypothalamus , will cause water retention in urine . This increases the blood volume , resulting in the increase of blood pressure .", "Training effect Training effect refers to specific changes in muscular , cardiovascular , and neurohumoral systems that lead to improvement in functional capacity and strength due to regular endurance or resistance training . It has also been defined as a reaction to the adaptive responses of the body created by a training program or as `` an elevation of metabolism produced by exercise '' . Kenneth H. Cooper for the United States Air Force discovered this effect in the late 1960s and coined the term . The measured effects were that muscles of respiration were strengthened , the heart was strengthened , blood pressure was sometimes lowered and the total amount of blood and number of red blood cells increased , making the blood a more efficient carrier of oxygen . VO2 Max was increased .", "Zones of the lung The zones of the lung divide the lung into four vertical regions , based upon the relationship between the pressure in the alveoli ( PA ) , in the arteries ( Pa ) , in the veins ( Pv ) and the pulmonary interstitial pressure ( Pi ) : Zone 1 : PA > Pa > Pv Zone 2 : Pa > PA > Pv Zone 3 : Pa > Pv > PA Zone 4 : Pa > Pi > Pv > PA This concept is generally attributed to an article by West et al. in 1964 , but was actually proposed two years earlier by Permutt et al. . In this article , Permutt suggests `` The pressure in the pulmonary arteries and veins is less at the top than at the bottom of the lung . It is quite likely that there is a portion of the lung toward the top in an upright subject in which the pressure in the pulmonary arteries is less than alveolar pressure . '' The concept is as follows : Alveolar pressure ( PA ) at end expiration is equal to atmospheric pressure ( 0 cm H20 differential pressure , at zero flow ) , plus or minus 2 cm H2O ( 1.5 mmHg ) throughout the lung . On the other hand , gravity causes a gradient in blood pressure between the top and bottom of the lung of 20 mmHg in the erect position ( roughly half of that in the supine position ) . Overall , mean pulmonary venous pressure is ~ 5 mmHg . Local venous pressure falls to -5 at the apexes and rises to +15 mmHg at the bases , again for the erect lung . Pulmonary blood pressure is typically in the range 25 -- 10 mmHg with a mean pressure of 15 mmHg . Regional arterial blood pressure is typically in the range 5 mmHg near the apex of the lung to 25 mmHg at the base . Zone 1 is not observed in the normal healthy human lung . In normal health pulmonary arterial ( Pa ) pressure exceeds alveolar pressure ( PA ) in all parts of the lung . It is generally only observed when a person is ventilated with positive pressure or hemorrhage . In these circumstances , blood vessels can become completely collapsed by alveolar pressure ( PA ) and blood does not flow through these regions . They become alveolar dead space Zone 2 is the part of the lungs about 3 cm above the heart . In this region blood flows in pulses . At first there is no flow because of obstruction at the venous end of the capillary bed . Pressure from the arterial side builds up until it exceeds alveolar pressure and flow resumes . This dissipates the capillary pressure and returns to the start of the cycle . Flow here is sometimes compared to a starling resistor or waterfall effect . Zone 3 comprises the majority of the lungs in health . There is no external resistance to blood flow and blood flow is continuous throughout the cardiac cycle . Flow is determined by the Ppa-Ppv difference ( Ppa - Ppv ) , which is constant down this portion of the lung . However , transmural pressure across the wall of the blood vessels increases down this zone due to gravity . Consequently the vessels wall are more stretched so the caliber of the vessels increases causing an increase in flow due to lower resistance . Zone 4 can be seen at the lung bases at low lung volumes or in pulmonary oedema . Pulmonary interstitial pressure ( Pi ) rises as lung volume decreases due to reduced radial tethering of the lung parenchyma . Pi is highest at the base of the lung due to the weight of the above lung tissue . Pi can also rise due to an increased volume of ` leaked ' fluid from the pulmonary vasculature ( pulmonary oedema ) . An increase in Pi causes extraalveolar blood vessels to reduce in caliber , in turn causing blood flow to decrease ( extraalveolar blood vessels are those blood vessels outside alveoli ) . Intraalveolar blood vessels ( pulmonary capillaries ) are thin walled vessels adjacent to alveoli which are subject to the pressure changes described by zones 1-3 . Flow in zone 4 is governed by the arteriointerstitial pressure difference ( Pa − Pi ) . This is because as Pi rises , the arterial caliber is reduced , thereby increasing resistance to flow . The Pa/Pv difference remains unchanged since Pi is applied over both vessels . The ventilation/perfusion ratio is higher in zone # 1 ( the apex of lung ) when a person is standing than it is in zone # 3 ( the base of lung ) because perfusion is nearly absent . However , ventilation and perfusion are highest in base of the lung , resulting in a comparatively lower V/Q ratio .", "Warm-blooded Warm-blooded animal species can maintain a body temperature higher than their environment . In particular , homeothermic species maintain a stable body temperature by regulating metabolic processes . The only known homeotherms are birds , mammals and the Opah fish . Other species have various degrees of thermoregulation . Animal body temperature control varies by species , so the terms `` warm-blooded '' and `` cold-blooded '' ( though still in everyday use ) suggest a false idea of there being only two categories of body temperature control , and are no longer used scientifically .", "Pre-eclampsia Pre-eclampsia ( PE ) is a disorder of pregnancy characterized by the onset of high blood pressure and often a significant amount of protein in the urine . The condition begins after 20 weeks of pregnancy . In severe disease there may be red blood cell breakdown , a low blood platelet count , impaired liver function , kidney dysfunction , swelling , shortness of breath due to fluid in the lungs , or visual disturbances . Pre-eclampsia increases the risk of poor outcomes for both the mother and the baby . If left untreated , it may result in seizures at which point it is known as eclampsia . Risk factors for pre-eclampsia include obesity , prior hypertension , older age , and diabetes mellitus . It is also more frequent in a woman 's first pregnancy and if she is carrying twins . The underlying mechanism involves abnormal formation of blood vessels in the placenta amongst other factors . Most cases are diagnosed before delivery . Rarely , pre-eclampsia may begin in the period after delivery . While historically both high blood pressure and protein in the urine were required to make the diagnosis , some definitions also include those with hypertension and any associated organ dysfunction . Blood pressure is defined as high when it is greater than 140 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic at two separate times , more than four hours apart in a woman after twenty weeks of pregnancy . Pre-eclampsia is routinely screened for during prenatal care . Recommendations for prevention include : aspirin in those at high risk , calcium supplementation in areas with low intake , and treatment of prior hypertension with medications . In those with pre-eclampsia delivery of the baby and placenta is an effective treatment . When delivery becomes recommended depends on how severe the pre-eclampsia and how far along in pregnancy a person is . Blood pressure medication , such as labetalol and methyldopa , may be used to improve the mother 's condition before delivery . Magnesium sulfate may be used to prevent eclampsia in those with severe disease . Bedrest and salt intake have not been found to be useful for either treatment or prevention . Pre-eclampsia affects 2 -- 8 % of pregnancies worldwide . Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy ( which include pre-eclampsia ) are one of the most common causes of death due to pregnancy . They resulted in 46,900 deaths in 2015 . Pre-eclampsia usually occurs after 32 weeks ; however , if it occurs earlier it is associated with worse outcomes . Women who have had pre-eclampsia are at increased risk of heart disease and stroke later in life . The word eclampsia is from the Greek term for lightning . The first known description of the condition was by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC .", "Central venous pressure Central venous pressure ( CVP ) is the blood pressure in the venae cavae , near the right atrium of the heart . CVP reflects the amount of blood returning to the heart and the ability of the heart to pump the blood back into the arterial system . CVP is often a good approximation of right atrial pressure ( RAP ) , although the two terms are not identical , as a pressure differential can sometimes exist between the venae cavae and the right atrium . CVP and RAP can differ when arterial tone is altered . This can be graphically depicted as changes in the slope of the venous return plotted against right atrial pressure ( where central venous pressure increases , but right atrial pressure stays the same ; VR = CVP − RAP ) . CVP has been , and often still is , used as a surrogate for preload , and changes in CVP in response to infusions of intravenous fluid have been used to predict volume-responsiveness ( i.e. whether more fluid will improve cardiac output ) . However , there is increasing evidence that CVP , whether as an absolute value or in terms of changes in response to fluid , does not correlate with ventricular volume ( i.e. preload ) or volume-responsiveness , and so should not be used to guide intravenous fluid therapy . Nevertheless , CVP monitoring is a useful tool to guide hemodynamic therapy . The cardiopulmonary baroreflex responds to an increase in CVP by decreasing systemic vascular resistance while increasing heart rate and ventricular contractility in dogs ." ]

[ "List of climate scientists This list of climate scientists contains famous or otherwise notable persons who have contributed to the study of climate science . The list is compiled manually so will not be complete or up to date . See also : Category : Climatologists and List of authors of Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis . The list includes scientists from several specialities or disciplines .", "Greenland Greenland ( -LSB- ˈɡriːnlənd -RSB- Kalaallit Nunaat -LSB- kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt -RSB- Grønland -LSB- ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ -RSB- ) is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Greenland is the world 's largest island ( Australia , although larger , is generally considered to be a continental landmass rather than an island ) . Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of about 56,480 ( 2013 ) , it is the least densely populated country in the world . The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland , connecting the various cities and settlements . Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada . Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century , and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century . The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century . Soon after their demise , beginning in 1499 , the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island , naming it Terra do Lavrador ( later applied to Labrador in Canada ) . In the early 18th century , Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again . To strengthen trading and power , Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island . Denmark -- Norway claimed Greenland for centuries . Greenland was settled by Vikings ( of Norwegian origin ) more than a thousand years ago , who had previously settled Iceland to escape persecution from the King of Norway and his central government . Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland , encountering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean islands . They attempted to colonize land . Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians , Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262 . The Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century . Norway was dramatically hit with a larger death toll than Denmark by the Black Death , forcing Norway to accept a union in which the central government , university and other fundamental institutions were located in Copenhagen . Thus , the two kingdoms ' resources were directed at creating Copenhagen . Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved . Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814 , and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark . In 1973 , Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark . However , in a referendum in 1982 , a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985 . Greenland contains the world 's largest and most northernly national park , Northeast Greenland National Park ( Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq ) . Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988 , it protects 972001 km2 of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world . Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq , Kujalleq , Qaasuitsup , and Qeqqata . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . At 70 % , Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world , mostly coming from hydropower .", "Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research is a climate research centre in Bergen , Norway . The centre has a special focus on Northern Europe and the Polar regions . The centre was started in 2000 and is a co-operation between University of Bergen , Institute of Marine Research , the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and Uni Research . The centre was part of Research Council of Norway 's Centre of Excellence program from 2003 to 2013 . Eystein Jansen headed the centre from 2000 to 2013 , while Tore Furevik has been director since 2014 . Researchers from the Bjerknes Centre have taken part in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports ; Eystein Jansen as one of the lead authors in the fourth report and upcoming fifth report . It is named after Vilhelm Bjerknes and his son Jacob Bjerknes ." ]

[ "PRECIS PRECIS ( Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies , pronounced pray-sea ) is developed at the Hadley Centre at the UK Met Office , PRECIS is a regional climate modelling system designed to run on a Linux based PC . PRECIS can be applied to any area of the globe to generate detailed climate change projections .", "Western Norway Research Institute The Western Norway Research Institute ( WRNI , Vestlandsforsking in Norwegian ) , is an assignment based research foundation founded by the county municipality of Sogn og Fjordane . Located in the Fosshaugane Campus , of the Sogn og Fjordane University College in Sogndal , the Institute is independent of the University and conducts research and development studies commissioned by research councils , industry and , the public sector . Though international in nature the institute maintains strong regional ties particularly in the fields of climate adaptation and rural tourism . Its special areas of expertise include ; information communication , technology systems , organizational research , environmental research , sustainable tourism , environmental policy and energy production and use and , climate change social impacts , evaluation and adaptation .", "Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Climatic Research Unit The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research The Oeschger Centre for Climate and Climate Change Research ( OCCR ) , is the interdisciplinary centre of excellence for climate research of the University of Bern .", "Climate Change Research Centre The Climate Change Research Centre ( abbreviated CCRC ) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales . The foundation Directors of the CCRC were the Australian Research Council ( ARC ) Federation Fellow Professor Matthew England , who established the Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in 2005 , and Professor Andrew Pitman , the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science . The current Director is Professor Steven Sherwood ( an ARC Laureate Fellow ) . The Centre 's research falls into ten broad categories : Climate Oceanography Atmospheric Science Ecosystems Carbon Cycle Terrestrial Processes Climate Impacts Energy Policy Climate Model Evaluation Palaeoclimatology The CCRC is the University of New South Wales lead of the Australian Research Council 's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science ( 2011 -- 2018 ) .", "Climate change feedback Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change The Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change ( CMCC ) is an Italian research centre dedicated to climate and climate related research , including climate variability , its causes and consequences , carried out through numerical models ranging from Global Earth System to Regional models within the Euro-Mediterranean area .", "World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "Climate resilience Climate resilience can be generally defined as the capacity for a socio-ecological system to : ( 1 ) absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and ( 2 ) adapt , reorganize , and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system , leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts . With the rising awareness of climate change impacts by both national and international bodies , building climate resilience has become a major goal for these institutions . The key focus of climate resilience efforts is to address the vulnerability that communities , states , and countries currently have with regards to the environmental consequences of climate change . Currently , climate resilience efforts encompass social , economic , technological , and political strategies that are being implemented at all scales of society . From local community action to global treaties , addressing climate resilience is becoming a priority , although it could be argued that a significant amount of the theory has yet to be translated into practice . Despite this , there is a robust and ever-growing movement fueled by local and national bodies alike geared towards building and improving climate resilience .", "Jonathan M. Gregory Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change -- named in honour of George Hadley -- is one of the United Kingdom 's leading centres for the study of scientific issues associated with climate change . It is part of , and based at the headquarters of the Met Office in Exeter .", "International Arctic Research Center The International Arctic Research Center , or IARC , established in 1999 , is a research institution focused on integrating and coordinating study of climate change in the Arctic . The primary partners in IARC are Japan and the United States . Participants include organizations from Canada , China , Denmark , Germany , Japan , Norway , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The Center is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks , in the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building . The Keith B. Mather Library is the science library housed in the Akasofu Building , serving IARC and the Geophysical Institute of UAF . The building also houses the UAF atmospheric sciences department , the Center for Global Change and the Fairbanks forecast office of the National Weather Service . Study projects are focused within four major themes : Arctic ocean models and observation Arctic atmosphere : feedbacks , radiation , and weather analysis Permafrost/Frozen soil models and observations Arctic biota/vegetation ( ecosystem models ) IARC is devoting specific effort to answering the following three questions : To what extent is climate change due to natural vs man-made causes ? What parameters , processes and interactions are needed to understand and predict future climate change ? What are the likely impacts of climate change ?", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "CliSAP The `` Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction '' ( CliSAP ) Cluster of Excellence is a research association of the Universität Hamburg , the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology ( MPI-M ) , the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht ( Centre for Materials and Coastal Research , HZG ) , and the German Climate Computing Center ( DKRZ ) . The Cluster of Excellence started in 2007 as part of the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research . It is therefore funded by the German Research Foundation ( DFG ) . CliSAP conducts fundamental research on climate and climate change in the fields of natural , economic and social sciences .", "Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ( GFDL ) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . The current director is Dr. Venkatachalam Ramaswamy . It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories ( RLs ) . GFDL is engaged in comprehensive long lead-time research to expand the scientific understanding of the physical processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems . These systems can then be modeled mathematically and their phenomenology can be studied by computer simulation methods . GFDL 's accomplishments include the development of the first climate models to study global warming , the first comprehensive ocean prediction codes , and the first dynamical models with significant skill in hurricane track and intensity predictions . Much current research within the laboratory is focused around the development of Earth System Models for assessment of natural and human-induced climate change .", "Climate change adaptation in Nepal Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "Piers Forster Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "German Climate Computing Centre The German Climate Computing Centre ( Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum , DKRZ ) is a central service center for the German climate research and Earth system research . It operates high performance computing for applied and basic research in climate science and related disciplines . The main task of the DKRZ is to provide computing power and technical support for models and simulations of climate research .", "David A. Jones David Arfon Jones is a senior climatologist at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology . He initially studied mathematics and chemistry at university but changed to atmospheric studies . Jones obtained his PhD in Earth Science from the University of Melbourne , Australia in 1995 . He subsequently completed the postgraduate diploma in weather forecasting in 1995 at the Bureau of Meteorology . In 1995 Jones commenced work in the Climate Analysis Section of the Australian National Climate Centre , focusing on the automation of climate monitoring using objective analysis techniques . Subsequently he moved to the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre in 1997 undertaking research on the variability and change of Australia 's climate . Jones became the supervisor of Climate Analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology in 2002 . In this role he has promoted the automation of analysis , monitoring and forecasting products and the introduction of a range of innovative climate monitoring activities , with a focus on encouraging the interpretation of climate variability in the context of a rapidly changing climate . Owing to the continued misrepresentation of climate change in the Australian media Jones has written a number of public pieces correcting or explaining climate change including in The Age , and in articles for the Australian Science Media Centre . In 2006 Jones was awarded the National Australia Day Council Achievement Medallion .", "Academy of Climate Change Education and Research The Academy of Climate Change Education and Research ( ACCER ) is an institution established by Kerala Agricultural University in 2010 to study about climate change under the faculty of agriculture . The campus is situated at Vellanikara , Thrissur , Kerala , India , and has a five-year course on M.Sc . ( Integrated ) Climate Change Adaptation .", "Climate risk Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "Global Climate Network The Global Climate Network ( GCN ) is an alliance of influential think tanks and research institutes in different countries that collaborate on research into climate change policy and whose stated aim is to help address the political blockages to ambitious action to tackle global warming . The Network has members in nine countries worldwide , including the USA , China , India , UK , Australia , Brazil , Norway , South Africa and Nigeria . Its Secretariat is housed at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London , UK . GCN members are engaged jointly in a programme of research projects , the results of which each member feeds into policy making at the domestic and international levels . Collectively , members of the Global Climate Network are committed to a vision of a prosperous and secure world in which greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to a level that is no longer harmful to the climate system . Working together , the Network construct a narrative for action on climate change that is concerned with human and economic progress as well as environmental wellbeing . The Network 's patrons are Dr Rajendra Pachauri , chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and director-general of the Energy and Resources Institute in India ; John Podesta , former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton and director of Center for American Progress , and Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes , former European Commissioner for External Affairs .", "CCCma CCCma ( Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ) is part of the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada and is located at the University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia . Its purpose is to develop and apply climate models to improve understanding of climate change and make quantitative projections of future climate in Canada and globally . Its seasonal forecasting system provides climate forecasts over Canada on timescales of months to years .", "Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change The Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change ( MCC ) conducts research and fosters dialogue about how the global commons , such as the atmosphere and the oceans , might be used and shared by many yet nevertheless be protected . A main theme is the compatibility of economic growth with sustainable development and climate protection .", "Climate Action Network Climate Action Network -- International ( CAN ) is an umbrella group of environmental non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) active on the issue of climate change . It is most active at meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where it publishes a daily newsletter `` ECO '' , presenting the views of the Environmental NGO community . The Climate Action Network-International is a worldwide network of over 1100 non-governmental organizations in 120 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels . CAN members work to achieve this goal through the coordination of information exchange and NGO strategy on international , regional and national climate issues . CAN has formal regional networks which coordinate these efforts in Africa , Central and Eastern Europe , Europe , Latin America , North America , South Asia , Southeast Asia , and Japan . CAN also has members in China , the Pacific and the Middle East . CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that `` meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs '' ( Brundtland Commission ) . Climate Action Network 's vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide .", "Peter Thorne (climatologist) Peter William Thorne is a climatologist and professor of physical geography in the Department of Geography , Maynooth University . He graduated with a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia in 1998 , and a PhD from the School of Environmental Sciences in 2001 . He previously worked at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and the National Climatic Data Center , and he was a senior scientist at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center , Bergen , Norway . He is the chair of the International Surface Temperature Initiative which consists of an interdisciplinary effort to create a suite of improved Land Surface Air Temperature products to meet science needs and societal expectations in the era of climate services . Thorne is co-chair of the GCOS Working Group on the Global Climate Observing System Reference Upper Air Network ( GRUAN ) , and he is also the project lead on the Horizon 2020 GAIA-CLIM project which aims to use such measurements to better characterise satellite measurements . He is a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is a research institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science founded in May 2008 . The centre is a partner of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College and acts as an umbrella body for LSE 's overall research contributions to the field of climate change and its impact on the environment . Furthermore , the institute oversees the activities of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy ( CCCEP ) , a partnership between LSE and the University of Leeds . Both Grantham research centres are sponsored through the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment , established by Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham in 1997 . The combined investments totalling approximately # 24 million is recognised as one of the largest private contributions to climate change research . CCCEP is funded independently by the ESRC . The institute is currently chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford , former Chief Economist of the World Bank and author of the widely known Stern Review . The purpose of the Institute is to increase knowledge and understanding on climate change and the environment ; promote better informed decision-making ; and educate and train new generations of researchers through its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes . The institute 's main research activities are divided into five different areas : 1 . Global response strategies 2 . Green growth 3 . Practical aspects of climate policy 4 . Adaptation and development 5 . Resource security The research of the institute is characterised by its interdisciplinary nature and brings together international expertise on economics , finance , geography , the environment , international development and political economy , as the centre 's academic staff comprise a broad range of disciplines , including physicists , climatologists , economists , statisticians , political scientists and various other social scientists . In September 2015 , the institute hosted the Open Energy Modelling Initiative workshop .", "Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate ( SPARC ) is a core project of the World Climate Research Programme . Founded in 1992 , SPARC has coordinated high-level research activities related to understanding Earth system processes for over two decades . More specifically , SPARC promotes and facilitates cutting-edge international research activities on how chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere interact with climate and climate change .", "Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment The Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment ( formerly Grantham Institute for Climate Change ) is one of five Global Institutes at Imperial College London and one of three Grantham sponsored centres in the UK . The Institute was founded in 2007 with a # 12m donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment , an organisation set up by Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham . The Institute brings together climate and global environmental change expertise from across the College for climate change related research and translation into real world impact . Their aim is to improve the interaction between researchers and decision makers in business and governments , communicating research to help ensure that choices are based on the best understanding of the science and evidence available .", "Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy ( CCCEP ) is a climate change research centre in England . It is hosted jointly by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science ( LSE ) . CCCEP is part of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment , which is chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford , former Chief Economist of the World Bank and author of the widely known Stern Review . CCCEP was established in 2008 , and is funded by the ESRC . Its mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous , innovative research . In pursuit of its mission , CCCEP has five research themes in its phase 2 programme : Understanding green growth and climate-compatible development Advancing climate finance and investment Evaluating the performance of climate policies Managing climate risks and uncertainties and strengthening climate services Enabling rapid transitions in mitigation and adaptation In October 2016 , The Daily mail reported allegations that CCCEP had fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from UK taxpayers by claiming credit for research they did not produce . The organization responded to the claims saying that the alleged fraud was an overreaction to a clerical error ." ]

[ "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "Hurricane dynamics and cloud microphysics Tropical convective clouds play an important part in the Earth 's climate system . Convection and release of latent heat transports energy from the surface into the upper atmosphere . Clouds have a higher albedo than the underlying ocean , which causes more incoming solar radiation to be reflected back to space . Since the tops of tropical systems are much cooler than the surface of the Earth , the presence of high convective clouds cools the climate system . The most recognizable cloud system in the tropics is the hurricane . In addition to the important climatic effects of tropical weather systems , hurricanes possess enough energy to cause massive death and destruction . Therefore , their accurate prediction is of utmost importance . Cloud microphysics describe the structure and properties of clouds on the microscopic scale .", "Climate change in Idaho Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "Stratospheric aerosol injection (climate engineering) The ability of stratospheric sulfate aerosols to create a global dimming effect has made them a possible candidate for use in solar radiation management climate engineering projects to limit the effect and impact of climate change due to rising levels of greenhouse gases . Delivery of precursor sulfide gases such as sulfuric acid , hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide by artillery , aircraft and balloons has been proposed . It presently appears that this proposed method could counter most climatic changes , take effect rapidly , have very low direct implementation costs , and be reversible in its direct climatic effects . One study calculated the impact of injecting sulfate particles , or aerosols , every one to four years into the stratosphere in amounts equal to those lofted by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , but did not address the many technical and political challenges involved in potential solar radiation management efforts . If found to be economically , environmentally and technologically viable , such injections could provide a `` grace period '' of up to 20 years before major cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions would be required , the study concludes . It has been suggested that the direct delivery of precursors could be achieved using sulfide gases such as dimethyl sulfide , sulfur dioxide , carbonyl sulfide , or hydrogen sulfide . These compounds would be delivered using artillery , aircraft ( such as the high-flying F-15C ) or balloons , and result in the formation of compounds with the sulfate anion SO42 − . According to estimates , `` one kilogram of well placed sulfur in the stratosphere would roughly offset the warming effect of several hundred thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide . ''", "Climate change in Wyoming On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "Regional climate change initiatives in the United States Twenty-eight states have climate action plans and nine have statewide emission targets . The states of California and New Mexico have committed most recently to emission reductions targets , joining New Jersey , Maine , Massachusetts , Connecticut , New York , Washington and Oregon . Regional initiatives can be more efficient than programs at the state level , as they encompass a broader geographical area , eliminate duplication of work , and create more uniform regulatory environments . Over the past few years , a number of regional initiatives have begun developing systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants , increase renewable energy generation , track renewable energy credits , and research and establish baselines for carbon sequestration .", "James Hansen James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Climate change in West Virginia Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "Carbon leakage Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment ( SORCE ) is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that measures incoming X-ray , ultraviolet , visible , near-infrared , and total solar radiation . These measurements specifically address long-term climate change , natural variability and enhanced climate prediction , and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation . These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun , its effect on our Earth system and its influence on humankind . The SORCE spacecraft launched on January 25 , 2003 on a Pegasus XL launch vehicle to provide NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) with precise measurements of solar radiation . SORCE measures the Sun 's output using radiometers , spectrometers , photodiodes , detectors , and bolometers mounted on a satellite observatory . The SORCE satellite orbits the Earth accumulating solar data . Spectral measurements identify the irradiance of the Sun by characterizing the Sun 's energy and emissions in the form of color that can then be translated into quantities and elements of matter . Data obtained by the SORCE experiment can be used to model the Sun 's output and to explain and predict the effect of the Sun 's radiation on the Earth 's atmosphere and climate . Flying in a 645 km , 40 degree orbit , SORCE is operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) at the University of Colorado at Boulder , Colorado . It will continue the precise measurements of total solar irradiance that began with the ERB instrument in 1979 and has continued to the present with the ACRIM series of measurements . SORCE will also provide the measurements of the solar spectral irradiance from 1 nm to 2000 nm , accounting for 95 % of the spectral contribution to the total solar irradiance . SORCE carries four instruments including the Total Irradiance Monitor ( TIM ) , Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment ( SOLSTICE ) , Spectral Irradiance Monitor ( SIM ) , and the XUV Photometer System ( XPS ) .", "Climate change and gender Climate change and gender is concerned with gender differences in the context of climate change and the complex and intersecting power relations arising from it . By altering the ecosystems of the planet , climate change , and more specifically global warming , directly impacts the human race . These effects vary for different segments of the population , specifically for people of different genders . In many cases , women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because of their lower social status in most countries . Many impoverished women , especially those in the developing world , are farmers and depend on the natural environment for subsistence and income . By further limiting their already constrained access to physical , social , political , and fiscal resources , climate change often burdens women more than men . Locally and globally , both governments and non-governmental organizations respond to climate change . Some of these efforts focus on mitigating the effects of climate change while others aid societies in adapting their lifestyles to changes in their environment . Most policy responses in the late 20th and early 21st century either did not focus on the social effects of climate change or did not consider gender in these efforts . Analysis of gender in climate change , however , not only means applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change .", "Effects of climate change on plant biodiversity Environmental conditions play a key role in defining the function and distribution of plants , in combination with other factors . Changes in long term environmental conditions that can be collectively coined climate change are known to have had enormous impacts on current plant diversity patterns ; further impacts are expected in the future . It is predicted that climate change will remain one of the major drivers of biodiversity patterns in the future .", "Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "CLIVAR CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "Climate-friendly gardening Climate-friendly gardening is gardening in ways which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming . To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it and the impact they have on land use and climate . It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere .", "Cirrus cloud thinning Cirrus cloud thinning is a proposed form of climate engineering . Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that , like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However , they differ from other types of clouds in that , on average , infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection , resulting in a net warming effect on the climate . Therefore , thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity , resulting in a cooling effect on Earth 's climate . This could be a potential tool to reduce anthropogenic global warming . Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering , in addition to solar radiation management and greenhouse gas removal .", "Paul Ingrassia Paul Ingrassia ( born c. 1950 ) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and retired Managing Editor for Reuters , a division of Thomson Reuters , headquartered in New York City . In June 2016 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Loeb Foundation for accomplishments in business and financial journalism . Ingrassia drew media attention in 2013 when David Fogarty , climate change reporter at Reuters for nearly 20 years , resigned and later told the press of Ingrassia 's suspected climate change denial . Ingrassia had allegedly told Fogarty in 2012 that he was a ` climate change skeptic ' who wanted to see more evidence mankind was changing the global climate . Following what Fogarty claims to be a time of heavy climate change censorship he described as a ` Climate of Fear ' in Reuters , Ingrassia supposedly denounced climate change coverage in early 2013 and abolished Fogarty 's role , triggering his resignation . However , that allegation notwithstanding , `` Reuters led the pack in climate change coverage '' in 2013 , reported The Daily Climate , an independent , foundation-funded news service that has aggregated climate coverage since 2007 . Reuters ' total of nearly 1,100 stories on the topic during that year outstripped the Associated Press , the Guardian and The New York Times . Even during the period of supposed `` suppression '' of climate coverage , from mid-April to mid-October 2012 , Reuters ran an average of nearly two stories a day on the topic . While the number of Reuters stories on climate issues did drop during 2011 , it also dropped at The New York Times , the Guardian and virtually every other major publication -- partly because carbon-emissions trading failed to evolve into a broad market , as had once seemed likely .", "Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "Climate change in Australia Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "Debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation This article documents the debate over China 's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation and mitigation of climate change in China . Both internationally and within the People 's Republic of China , there has been an ongoing debate over China 's responsibilities , particularly since 2006 , when China surpassed the US as the country with the highest emissions rate for the main atmospheric gas in global warming , carbon dioxide ( CO2 )", "Individual action on climate change Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "Seasonal year The seasonal year is the time between successive recurrences of a seasonal event such as the flooding of a river , the migration of a species of bird , or the flowering of a species of plant . The need for farmers to predict seasonal events led to the development of calendars . However , the variability from year to year of seasonal events ( allegedly due to climate change or just random variation ) makes the seasonal year very hard to measure . This means that calendars are based on astronomical years ( which are regular enough to be easily measured ) as surrogates for the seasonal year . For example , the ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius to predict the flooding of the Nile . A study of temperature records over the past 300 years suggests that the seasonal year is governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year . This suggestion is surprising because the seasons have been thought to be governed by the tilt of the Earth 's axis ( see Effect of sun angle on climate ) . The two types of years differ by a mere 4 days over 300 years , so Thompson 's result may not be significant . However , the result is not unreasonable . The seasons can be considered to be an oscillating system driven by two inputs with slightly different frequencies : the total input of energy from the sun varies with the anomalistic year , while the distribution of this energy between the hemispheres varies with the tropical year . In other physical situations , oscillating systems driven by two similar frequencies can latch onto either one . One point that must be considered is that the oscillation arising from the tilt of the axis is much greater than that arising from the distance of the sun .", "Milankovitch cycles Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "Christopher Field Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "Road-effect zone The Road-effect zone is the area in which effects on the natural environment extend outward from a road . Such effects are substance emissions like carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , particulate matter , nitrogen oxide , volatile organic compounds , biological matter , rubber , or salt , intangible emissions like noise or light , and changes of the micro climate like alterations of wind , water flows , temperature or moisture .", "Land use, land-use change and forestry Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "Solar radiation management Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "Michael Schlesinger Dr. Michael Earl Schlesinger ( born February 23 , 1943 ) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He received his Ph.D. ( meteorology ) in 1976 from the University of California , Los Angeles . Michael Schlesinger is an expert in the modeling , simulation and analysis of climate and climate change , with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols . He has been instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models , which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum . His research currently focuses on : ( 1 ) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet ; ( 2 ) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system , including the influences of the Sun - both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation - and volcanoes ; ( 3 ) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks ; and ( 4 ) performing integrative assessment of climate change , including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change . He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system , on estimating the climate sensitivity , and on seasonal climate change . He has edited four books , most recently Human-induced climate change : An interdisciplinary assessment . He regularly appears in the media .", "2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 23 to November 1 , 2002 , in New Delhi , India . The conference included the 8th Conference of the Parties ( COP8 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that , amongst others , called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries . It is also approved the New Delhi work programme on Article 6 of the Convention . The COP8 was marked by Russia 's hesitation , stating that it needed more time to think it over . The Kyoto Protocol could enter into force once it was ratified by 55 countries , including countries responsible for 55 per cent of the developed world 's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions . With the United States ( 36.1 per cent share of developed-world carbon dioxide ) and Australia refusing ratification , Russia 's agreement ( 17 % of global emissions in 1990 ) was required to meet the ratification criteria and therefore Russia could delay the process ." ]

[ "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Climate across Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary The climate across the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg or formerly the K -- T boundary ) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event . Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid , volcanism , or sea level changes . While the mass extinction is well documented , there is much debate about the immediate and long-term climatic and environmental changes caused by the event . The terrestrial climates at this time are poorly known , which limits the understanding of environmentally driven changes in biodiversity that occurred before the Chicxulub crater impact . Oxygen isotopes across the K -- T boundary suggest that oceanic temperatures fluctuated in the Late Cretaceous and through the boundary itself . Carbon isotope measurements of benthic foramifinera at the K -- T boundary suggest rapid , repeated fluctuations in oceanic productivity in the 3 million years before the final extinction , and that productivity and ocean circulation ended abruptly for at least tens of thousands of years just after the boundary , indicating devastation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems . Some researchers suggest that climate change is the main connection between the impact and the extinction . The impact perturbed the climate system with long-term effects that were much worse than the immediate , direct consequences of the impact .", "Effects of global warming on humans Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "Hockham Mere The Hockham Mere pollen data shows the rates of change in levels of vegetation using pollen samples from within the Holocene period . Hockham Mere is the site of a former lake , > 400 metres diameter , in Norfolk , East Anglia . Its biogenic sediments contain a late-Devensian & Holocene pollen record . This data can be analysed using temperature proxies to help determine climate change in the area at that time . These proxies can be the amount of pollen found in the sample , as more pollen would indicate higher flora productivity which would suggest a warmer climate . The same can be seen if data shows negligible amounts of pollen which would suggest a cooler climate . These are proxies for temperature , and not an accurate record as there are many variances that can not be monitored easily .", "Pollen count Pollen count is the measurement of the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air . High pollen counts can sometimes lead to increased rates of an allergic reaction for those with allergic disorders . Usually , the counts are announced for specific plants such as grass , ash , or olive . These are tailored to common plants in the measured areas . Mild winters with warmer days lead to an increase in pollen counts while colder winters lead to delayed pollen release . In the UK , the public announcement of the pollen count was popularised by Dr. William Frankland , an immunologist . According to a study by Leonard Bielory , M.D. that was presented to the American College of Allergy , Asthma & Immunology , climate changes are expected to cause pollen counts to more than double by 2040 .", "Barents Sea Opening The Barents Sea Opening ( BSO ) is an oceanographic term for the Western Barents Sea , the sea area between Bear Island in the south of Svalbard and the northern extremity of Norway through which a water mass of Atlantic origin flows into the Arctic Ocean . The inflow of relative warm water into the Arctic Ocean occurs not only through the Barents Sea Opening , but also through Fram Strait which is much deeper . The internal energy entering the colder waters has an influence on the atmosphere and the sea ice above and therefore possibly on the global climate .", "List of climate research satellites The invention of climate research through the use of satellite remote telemetry began in the 1960s through development of space probes to study other planets . During the U.S. economic decline in 1977 , with much of NASA 's money going toward the Shuttle program , the Reagan Administration proposed to reduce spending on planetary exploration . During this time , new scientific evidence emerged from ice and sediment cores that Earth 's climate had experienced rapid changes in temperature , running contrary to the previously held belief that the climate changed on a geological time scale . These changes increased political interest in gathering remote-sensing data on the Earth itself and stimulated the science of climatology .", "Vashon Glaciation The Vashon Glaciation or Vashon Stade was the most recent period of very cold climate in which glaciers existed at elevations at and near sea level in the western part of present-day Washington state . It occurred during a colder than present part of the current ice age . The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 - 16,000 BP ( Before Present - present defined as January 1 , 1950 for this scale ) . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada . During the Vashon Glaciation , the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced into the Puget Sound region .", "Bamboo coral Bamboo coral , family Isididae , is a family of mostly deep-sea coral of the phylum Cnidaria , class Anthozoa , and subclass Octocorallia . It is a commonly recognized inhabitant of the deep sea , due to the clearly articulated skeletons of the species . Deep water coral species such as this are especially affected by the practice of bottom trawling . These organisms may be an important environmental indicator in the study of long term climate change , as some specimens of bamboo coral have been discovered that are 4,000 years old .", "Mountain A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area , usually in the form of a peak . A mountain is generally steeper than a hill . Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism . These forces can locally raise the surface of the earth . Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers , weather conditions , and glaciers . A few mountains are isolated summits , but most occur in huge mountain ranges . High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level . These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains : different elevations have different plants and animals . Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate , mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation , such as mountain climbing . The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia , whose summit is 8850 m above mean sea level . The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21171 m.", "Genyornis Genyornis newtoni was a large , flightless bird that lived in Australia . Over two metres in height , they were likely either omnivorous or herbivorous . They became extinct 30 ± 5 thousand years ago . Many other species became extinct in Australia around that time , coinciding with the arrival of humans . Their closest living relatives are fowl . Two main theories propose a cause for megafauna extinction - human impact and climate change . A study has been performed in which more than 700 Genyornis eggshell fragments were dated . Through this , it was determined that Genyornis declined and became extinct over a short period -- too short for it to be plausibly explained by climate change . The authors considered this to be a very good indication that the entire mass extinction event in Australia was due to human activity , rather than climate change . A 2015 study collected egg shell fragments of Genyornis from around 200 sites that show burn marks . Analysis of amino acids in the egg shells showed a thermal gradient consistent with the egg being placed on an ember fire . The egg shells were dated to between 53.9 and 43.4 thousand years before present , suggesting that humans were collecting and cooking Genyornis eggs in the thousands of years before their extinction . A later study , however , suggests that the eggs actually belogned to Progura , a genus of giant megapodes . In May 2010 , archaeologists announced the rediscovery of an Aboriginal rock art painting , possibly 40,000 years old , at the Nawarla Gabarnmung rock art site in the Northern Territory , that depicts two of the birds in detail . Late survival of Genyornis in temperate south west Victoria has also recently been suggested , based on dateable Aboriginal traditions .", "Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen The Geophysical Institute , University of Bergen ( Geofysisk institutt , UiB ) is a marine research facility located in Bergen , Norway . Founded in 1917 by Bjørn Helland-Hansen , the institute studies the field of oceanography dealing with the patterns of the weather in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norway . Within recent years , focus has been increasingly on geophysics and environmental research . The research activities at the institute span from small scale measurement of turbulence up to studies of the large scale ocean currents , from local air and noise pollution up to studies of global scale climate change . Areas of research focus on the Norwegian Current , the West Spitsbergen Current and the Norwegian Sea . Shifts and fluctuations in these currents are monitored , as they are thought to be indicators for climate change . Research has included sequestration and related matters dealing with Carbon capture and storage.The director of the institute is Dr. Peter M. Haugan . The Bergen School of Meteorology , which led to modern weather forecasting , was developed at the Geophysical Institute by Vilhelm Bjerknes and collaborators ( including Carl-Gustaf Rossby ) beginning in 1917 .", "Colin Laverty Dr Colin Robert Andrew Laverty ( 26 May 1937 -- 9 February 2013 ) was an Australian medical practitioner and was the first to confirm ( using electronmicroscopy ) that the human papillomavirus was much more common in the cervix than previously thought and in 1978 he suggested that this virus be considered as possibly involved in the causation of cervical cancer . He was also a prolific art collector .", "Denmark Strait cataract The Denmark Strait cataract , also called the North Atlantic Circulation Pump or the Greenland Pump , is an underwater waterfall found on the western side of the Denmark Strait in the Atlantic Ocean . It is the world 's highest underwater waterfall , with water falling almost 3,505 metres ( 11,500 feet ) . It is formed by the temperature differential between the water masses either side of the Denmark Strait , the eastern side being much colder than the western . Due to the different densities in the masses caused by this temperature difference , when the two masses meet along the top ridge of the strait , the colder , denser water flows downwards and underneath the warmer , lighter water , thus creating a downward flow of water , or waterfall . It is thought that the Denmark Strait cataract has a flow rate exceeding 175 million cubic feet ( 5.0 million cubic meters ) per second , making it 350 times as voluminous as the extinct Guaíra Falls on the border of Brazil and Paraguay , which was once thought to be the most voluminous waterfall on Earth , which was 12 times more voluminous than Victoria Falls .", "Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "Effects of climate change on island nations Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "Arctic dipole anomaly The Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America , and a low pressure on the Eurasia region . This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation . It was observed for the first time in the first decade of 2000s and is perhaps linked to recent climate change . The Arctic dipole lets more southern winds into the Arctic ocean resulting in more ice melting . The summer 2007 event played an important role in the record low sea ice extent which was recorded in September . The Arctic dipole has also been linked to changes in arctic circulation patterns that cause drier winters in Northern Europe , but much wetter winters in Southern Europe and colder winters in East Asia , Europe and the eastern half of North America .", "Accelerating change In futures studies and the history of technology , accelerating change is a perceived increase in the rate of technological change throughout history , which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change .", "Glacier mass balance Crucial to the survival of a glacier is its mass balance or surface mass balance ( SMB ) , the difference between accumulation and ablation ( sublimation and melting ) . Climate change may cause variations in both temperature and snowfall , causing changes in the surface mass balance . Changes in mass balance control a glacier 's long-term behavior and are the most sensitive climate indicators on a glacier . From 1980 -- 2012 the mean cumulative mass loss of glaciers reporting mass balance to the World Glacier Monitoring Service is − 16 m . This includes 23 consecutive years of negative mass balances . A glacier with a sustained negative balance is out of equilibrium and will retreat , while one with a sustained positive balance is out of equilibrium and will advance . Glacier retreat results in the loss of the low elevation region of the glacier . Since higher elevations are cooler than lower ones , the disappearance of the lowest portion of the glacier reduces overall ablation , thereby increasing mass balance and potentially reestablishing equilibrium . However , if the mass balance of a significant portion of the accumulation zone of the glacier is negative , it is in disequilibrium with the local climate . Such a glacier will melt away with a continuation of this local climate . The key symptom of a glacier in disequilibrium is thinning along the entire length of the glacier . For example , Easton Glacier ( pictured below ) will likely shrink to half its size , but at a slowing rate of reduction , and stabilize at that size , despite the warmer temperature , over a few decades . However , the Grinnell Glacier ( pictured below ) will shrink at an increasing rate until it disappears . The difference is that the upper section of Easton Glacier remains healthy and snow-covered , while even the upper section of the Grinnell Glacier is bare , melting and has thinned . Small glaciers with shallow slopes such as Grinnell Glacier are most likely to fall into disequilibrium if there is a change in the local climate . In the case of positive mass balance , the glacier will continue to advance expanding its low elevation area , resulting in more melting . If this still does not create an equilibrium balance the glacier will continue to advance . If a glacier is near a large body of water , especially an ocean , the glacier may advance until iceberg calving losses bring about equilibrium .", "PRECIS PRECIS ( Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies , pronounced pray-sea ) is developed at the Hadley Centre at the UK Met Office , PRECIS is a regional climate modelling system designed to run on a Linux based PC . PRECIS can be applied to any area of the globe to generate detailed climate change projections .", "Christopher Field Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "Brillanceausuchus Brillanceausuchus is an extinct genus of atoposaurid crocodylomorph . Fossils have been found in Early Cretaceous -- age rocks of Cameroon . The genus is notable for the position of the secondary choana within its palate . Parts of the pterygoid bones make up the rostral margin of the choana and thus separate it from the palatines , a feature also seen in the more advanced neosuchian suborder Eusuchia . This characteristic was once thought to be characteristic of Eusuchia , but its presence in Brillanceausuchus suggests that the trait is homoplasic , thus making the evolution of the position of the choana within crocodilians more complex than previously thought .", "Sakhalin Island taiga The Sakhalin Island taiga ecoregion ( WWF ID : PA0607 ) covers most of Sakhalin Island , the largest island in Russia , and which lies in the Pacific Ocean separated only by Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan . The region is one of taiga ( coniferous and mixed broad leaf forest landscape , with mixed larch forests at the lower elevations and shrubs at higher elevations . ) The vegetation is heavily influenced by a maritime climate that is relatively warmer than the colder continental taiga in Siberia to the west . A long , thin island ( 1,000 km by 200 km ) , Sakhalin is connected to the mainland by ice bridges in the winter , so it shares certain flora and fauna species . It is in the Palearctic ecozone , and mostly in the Boreal forests/taiga ecoregion with a Humid continental climate , cool summer climate . It covers 403504 km2 .", "Coral in non-tropical regions The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "Climate of Georgia (U.S. state) The climate of Georgia is typical of a humid subtropical climate with most of the state having mild winters and hot summers . The Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of Georgia and the hill country in the north impact the state 's climate . Also , the Chattahoochee River divides Georgia into separate climatic regions with the mountain region to the northwest being colder than the rest of the state , the average temperatures for that region in January and July being 39 F and 78 F respectively . Winter in Georgia is characterized by mild temperatures and little snowfall around the state , with colder , snowier , and icier weather more likely across northern and central Georgia . Summer daytime temperatures in Georgia often exceed 90 ° F . The state experiences widespread precipitation . Tornadoes and tropical cyclones are common .", "Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment Initiative The Indigenous Peoples ' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative ( IPCCA ) is an international indigenous research initiative arising out of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues , where it was noted : '' . . cultures that support TK -LSB- Traditional Knowledge -RSB- around the world are often living in marginal ecosystems , such as the Arctic , mountains , deserts and small islands . . -LSB- which are -RSB- . . often the sources of key ecosystem services ... . most vulnerable to climate change '' At the Seventh Session of the Permanent Forum , held from 21 April to 2 May 2008 , it was recommended that : '' . . the United Nations University -- Institute of Advanced Studies , university research centres and relevant United Nations agencies conduct further studies on the impacts of climate change and climate change responses on indigenous peoples who are living in highly fragile ecosystems '' . From this recommendation , a formal Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment Initiative was formed between the United Nations University 's Institute of Advanced Studies and a number of non-United Nations partners ; with an indigenous led steering committee coordinated by a secretariat housed within the Association for Nature and Sustainable Development ( ANDES ) , Peru ; and an objective : `` To empower indigenous peoples to develop and use indigenous frameworks to assess the impact of climate change on their communities and ecosystems and to develop and implement strategies for building indigenous resilience and adaptive strategies to mitigate impacts while enhancing biocultural diversity for food sovereignty and self determined development or `` Buen Vivir . '' ''", "Indicators of spatial association Indicators of spatial association are statistics that evaluate the existence of clusters in the spatial arrangement of a given variable . For instance if we are studying cancer rates among census tracts in a given city local clusters in the rates mean that there are areas that have higher or lower rates than is to be expected by chance alone ; that is , the values occurring are above or below those of a random distribution in space .", "Climate gap The climate gap refers to a body of data indicating disparities in how climate change impacts various racial , ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States . The data show that low socioeconomic status groups and racial and ethnic minorities will experience more negative health and economic impacts from the results of climate change than other populations in the United States . This term , climate gap , was first used in the May 2009 report , `` The Climate Gap : Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap '' , as well as in a concurrent paper published in the journal , Environmental Justice , by Seth B. Shonkoff , Rachel Morello-Frosch and colleagues entitled , `` Minding the Climate Gap : Implications of Environmental Health Inequities for Mitigation Policies in California '' .", "Climate change feedback Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "Glacial period A glacial period ( alternatively glacial or glaciation ) is an interval of time ( thousands of years ) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances . Interglacials , on the other hand , are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods . The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago . < ref name = `` Severinghaus1999 '' > </ref> The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial . A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state .", "Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "I2hub i2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students . The program was created by Wayne Chang , a student at University of Massachusetts , Amherst . Wayne Chang had previously worked at the original Napster while attending high school in Haverhill , Massachusetts . i2hub used Internet2 , which was a special network that connected universities around the world . It allows for data transfer rates much faster than typical Internet connections . Because of this , download speeds through i2hub were usually much faster than through other peer-to-peer networks .", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability ." ]

[ "Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Carbon emission label A carbon emission label or carbon label describes the carbon dioxide emissions created as a by-product of manufacturing , transporting , or disposing of a consumer product . This information is important to consumers wishing to minimize their ecological footprint and contribution to global warming made by their purchases .", "Carbon shifting Carbon shifting is the tendency for an individual to increase carbon dioxide emissions in one area of their lifestyle as a result of reducing emissions elsewhere . ` Carbon shifting ' might more accurately be termed ` domestic carbon shifting ' to distinguish it from carbon leakage which has occasionally also been called carbon shifting . Many attempts to encourage people to change aspects of their lifestyle and so reduce their carbon dioxide emissions make a virtue of the financial savings . In the United Kingdom the Energy Saving Trust lists various ways of saving energy , e.g. `` Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and can save you # 9 per year in electricity ( and 38 kilograms of ) or # 100 over the bulbs lifetime . '' However , whether or not carbon dioxide emissions are ultimately reduced will depend on how that saved money is spent . If the amount of money saved through walking to work is eventually spent on an extra city break involving air travel the net emissions may well increase . The problem of carbon shifting may undermine many voluntary piecemeal attempts at reducing carbon dioxide emissions . However , carbon shifting is not inherently negative . If a person can be persuaded to avoid activities that produce a high level of emissions for a given financial outlay then they may shift to activities that produce lower emissions for that same amount of money . Positive carbon shifting might be encouraged through the use of a carbon tax or the implementation of a Personal carbon trading scheme . The phenomenon of carbon shifting also suggests that for some comparative purposes the most appropriate measure of emissions would be emissions per unit of currency rather than total emissions . An activity that produces slightly lower emissions at a significantly lower cost may not necessarily be the best activity to promote as it leaves the individual with more money to spend on other emitting activities . Similarly , if two passengers are traveling on the same aircraft they might be deemed to be emitting the same total amount of carbon dioxide . However , if one of them paid a lower fare then , by this measure , they would be deemed to be damaging the environment more .", "Mitigation of global warming in Australia Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "Center for Negative Carbon Emissions The Center for Negative Carbon Emissions ( CNCE ) is led by Director Klaus S. Lackner , and was founded in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment ( SSEBE ) at Arizona State University in 2014 . CNCE is advancing carbon management technologies that can capture carbon dioxide directly from ambient air in an outdoor operating environment . CNCE aims to demonstrate systems that over time increase in scope , reliability and efficiency while lowering the cost of carbon dioxide capture from air .", "Environmentalism in motorsport The issue of environmentalism in motorsport surrounds the whole of auto racing to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions contributing to global warming .", "Carbon leakage Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "Carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "Carbon rift Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "Carbon price Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "Carbon credit A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the mass of another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide equivalent ( tCO2e ) equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide . Carbon credits and carbon markets are a component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . One carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide , or in some markets , carbon dioxide equivalent gases . Carbon trading is an application of an emissions trading approach . Greenhouse gas emissions are capped and then markets are used to allocate the emissions among the group of regulated sources . The goal is to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low emissions or less carbon intensive approaches than those used when there is no cost to emitting carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the atmosphere . Since GHG mitigation projects generate credits , this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world . There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis . These carbon offsetters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects . Buyers and sellers can also use an exchange platform to trade , which is like a stock exchange for carbon credits . The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project . This is reflected in their price ; voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously validated Clean Development Mechanism .", "Carbon emission trading Carbon emissions trading is a form of emissions trading that specifically targets carbon dioxide ( calculated in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or tCO2e ) and it currently constitutes the bulk of emissions trading . This form of permit trading is a common method countries utilize in order to meet their obligations specified by the Kyoto Protocol ; namely the reduction of carbon emissions in an attempt to reduce ( mitigate ) future climate change . Under Carbon trading , a country having more emissions of carbon is able to purchase the right to emit more and the country having less emission trades the right to emit carbon to other countries . More carbon emitting countries , by this way try to keep the limit of carbon emission specified to them .", "Clean Energy Act 2011 The Clean Energy Act 2011 is the main Act in a package of legislation that established an Australian emissions trading scheme , to be preceded by a three-year period of fixed carbon pricing designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit global warming . The package was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in February 2011 and repealed on 17 July 2014 by the Abbott Government .", "Flick Off FLICK OFF ( flick off ) is a Canadian advertising campaign launched by Key Gordon Communications . It is a movement to fight climate change by getting Canadians to use less energy . Its sponsors include MuchMusic , Roots Canada , Environmental Defence Canada and the Government of Ontario . Some view this program as a continuation of the scrapped program One-Tonne Challenge in global perspective . The motivation for the campaign is both to reduce energy consumption for its own sake and also with the aim of reducing carbon emissions to ultimately combat global warming . The website associated with the campaign is aimed specifically at young Canadians . The website contains educational material about causes and consequences of global warming and strategies for reducing carbon emissions , and includes a `` carbon calculator '' called One Less Tonne to measure individual carbon dioxide emissions . The website was launched by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten in Toronto on April 25 , 2007 . According to the official website , the campaign is now in `` hibernation '' .", "Contribution to global warming by Australia Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "Biosequestration Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "Continuous emissions monitoring system Continuous emission monitoring systems ( CEMS ) were historically used as a tool to monitor flue gas for oxygen , carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide to provide information for combustion control in industrial settings . They are currently used as a means to comply with air emission standards such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency 's Acid Rain Program , other federal emission programs , or state permitted emission standards . Facilities employ the use of CEMS to continuously collect , record and report the required emissions data . The standard CEM system consists of a sample probe , filter , sample line ( umbilical ) , gas conditioning system , calibration gas system , and a series of gas analyzers which reflect the parameters being monitored . Typical monitored emissions include : sulfur dioxide , nitrogen oxides , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , hydrogen chloride , airborne particulate matter , mercury , volatile organic compounds , and oxygen . CEM systems can also measure air flow , flue gas opacity and moisture . In the U.S. , the EPA requires a data acquisition and handling system to collect and report the data . emissions must be measured in pounds per hour using both an pollutant concentration monitor and a volumetric flow monitor . For NOx , both a NOx pollutant concentration monitor and a diluent gas monitor are required to determine the emissions rate ( lbs/mmBtu ) . Opacity must also be monitored . NOx measuring is not a current requirement , however if monitored , a or oxygen monitor plus a flow monitor should be used . In monitoring these emissions , the system must be in continuous operation and must be able to sample , analyze , and record data at least every 15 minutes and then averaged hourly .", "Airborne fraction The airborne fraction is a scaling factor defined as the ratio of the annual increase in atmospheric to the emissions from anthropogenic sources . It represents the proportion of human emitted that remains in the atmosphere . The fraction averages about 45 % , meaning that approximately half the human-emitted is absorbed by ocean and land surfaces . There is some evidence for a recent increase in airborne fraction , which would imply a faster increase in atmospheric for a given rate of human fossil-fuel burning . However , other sources suggest that the `` fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades '' . Changes in carbon sinks can affect the airborne fraction .", "Environmental impact of transport The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth's atmosphere The following articles relate to Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth 's atmosphere : Carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere Global warming Greenhouse effect", "Carbon profiling Carbon profiling is a mathematical process that calculates how much carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere per m2 of space in a building over one year . The analysis is in two parts which are then added together to produce an overall figure which is termed the ` Carbon Profile ' : operational carbon emissions embodied carbon emissions . Embodied carbon emissions relate to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from creating and maintaining the materials that form the building e.g. the carbon dioxide released from the baking of bricks or smelting or iron . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured as Embodied Carbon Efficiency ( ECE ) , measured as kg of CO2/m2/year . Occupational Carbon Emissions relate to the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the direct use of energy to run the building e.g. the heating or electricity used by the building over the year . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured in BER 's ( Building Emission Rate ) in kg of / m2/year . The BER is a United Kingdom government accepted unit of measurement that comes from an approved calculation process called sBEM ( Simplified Building Emission Model ) The purpose of Carbon Profiling is to provide a method of analyzing and comparing both operational and embodied carbon emissions at the same time . With this information it is then possible to allocate a projects resources in such a way to minimize the total amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through the use of a given piece of space . A secondary benefit is that having quantified the Carbon Profiling of different buildings it is then possible to make comparisons and rank buildings in term of their performance . This allows investors and occupiers to identify which building are good and bad carbon investments . Simon Sturgis and Gareth Roberts of Sturgis Associates in the United Kingdom originally developed ` Carbon Profiling ' in December 2007 .", "Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "Carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "Debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation This article documents the debate over China 's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation and mitigation of climate change in China . Both internationally and within the People 's Republic of China , there has been an ongoing debate over China 's responsibilities , particularly since 2006 , when China surpassed the US as the country with the highest emissions rate for the main atmospheric gas in global warming , carbon dioxide ( CO2 )", "350.org 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "Assigned amount units An Assigned Amount Unit ( AAU ) is a tradable ` Kyoto unit ' or ` carbon credit ' representing an allowance to emit greenhouse gases comprising one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents calculated using their Global Warming Potential . Assigned Amount Units are issued up to the level of initial `` assigned amount '' of an Annex 1 Party to the Kyoto Protocol . The `` assigned amounts '' are the Kyoto Protocol Annex B emission targets ( or `` quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives '' ) expressed as levels of allowed emissions over the 2008-2012 commitment period .", "Climate change in Australia Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "List of U.S. states by carbon dioxide emissions This is a list of U.S. states by carbon dioxide emissions due to human activity . The data presented below from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Energy Information Administration corresponds to emissions in 2014 . Interactive bar charts ( showing state rankings for total and per-capita emissions ) and interactive maps ( for both total emissions and per capita emissions ) for the 2014 data are available on Tableau Public . __ TOC __", "Carbon dioxide reforming Carbon dioxide reformation ( also known as dry reformation ) is a method of producing synthesis gas ( mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane . Synthesis gas is conventionally produced via the steam reforming reaction . In recent years , increased concerns on the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming have increased interest in the replacement of steam as reactant with carbon dioxide . The dry reforming reaction may be represented by : CO2 + CH4 → 2 H2 + 2 CO Thus , two greenhouse gases are consumed and useful chemical building blocks , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , are produced . A challenge to the commercialization of this process is that the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide . For example , the following reaction typically proceeds with a lower activation energy than the dry reforming reaction itself : CO2 + H2 → H2O + CO Typical catalysts are noble metals , Ni or Ni alloys . In addition , a group of researchers in China investigated the use of activated carbon as an alternative catalyst .", "Politics of global warming The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "Carbon dioxide equivalent Carbon dioxide equivalent ( CDE ) and equivalent carbon dioxide ( e and eq ) are two related but distinct measures for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause , using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide as the reference ." ]

[ "Met Office The Met Office ( officially the Meteorological Office until 2000 ) is the United Kingdom 's national weather service . It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business , Energy and Industrial Strategy led by CEO , Rob Varley and chief scientist , Professor Stephen Belcher . The Met Office makes meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change .", "Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "Chaos theory Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focused on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions . ` Chaos ' is an interdisciplinary theory stating that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems , there are underlying patterns , constant feedback loops , repetition , self-similarity , fractals , self-organization , and reliance on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions . The butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state , e.g. a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas . Small differences in initial conditions ( such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation ) yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems -- a response popularly referred to as the butterfly effect - rendering long-term prediction of their behavior impossible in general . This happens even though these systems are deterministic , meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions , with no random elements involved . In other words , the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable . This behavior is known as deterministic chaos , or simply chaos . The theory was summarized by Edward Lorenz as : Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems , such as weather and climate . It also occurs spontaneously in some systems with artificial components , such as road traffic . This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model , or through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and Poincaré maps . Chaos theory has applications in several disciplines , including meteorology , sociology , physics , environmental science , computer science , engineering , economics , biology , ecology , and philosophy . The theory formed the basis for such fields of study as complex dynamical systems , edge of chaos theory , self-assembly process .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts , ECMWF , is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by most of the nations of Europe and is based at Shinfield Park , Reading , United Kingdom . It operates one of the largest supercomputer complexes in Europe and the world 's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data . The Centre is considering an offer from the Italian Government to move ECMWF 's data centre to Bologna , Italy . The new site , a former tobacco factory , would be redesigned by the architecture firm gmp ." ]

[ "Climate ensemble A climate ensemble involves slightly different models of the climate system . There are at least four different types , to be described below . For the equivalent in numerical weather prediction , see ensemble forecasting .", "Climate Forecast System __ NOTOC __ The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .", "Numerical weather prediction Numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions . Though first attempted in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of computer simulation in the 1950s that numerical weather predictions produced realistic results . A number of global and regional forecast models are run in different countries worldwide , using current weather observations relayed from radiosondes , weather satellites and other observing systems as inputs . Mathematical models based on the same physical principles can be used to generate either short-term weather forecasts or longer-term climate predictions ; the latter are widely applied for understanding and projecting climate change . The improvements made to regional models have allowed for significant improvements in tropical cyclone track and air quality forecasts ; however , atmospheric models perform poorly at handling processes that occur in a relatively constricted area , such as wildfires . Manipulating the vast datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to modern numerical weather prediction requires some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models extends to only about six days . Factors affecting the accuracy of numerical predictions include the density and quality of observations used as input to the forecasts , along with deficiencies in the numerical models themselves . Post-processing techniques such as model output statistics ( MOS ) have been developed to improve the handling of errors in numerical predictions . A more fundamental problem lies in the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations that govern the atmosphere . It is impossible to solve these equations exactly , and small errors grow with time ( doubling about every five days ) . Present understanding is that this chaotic behavior limits accurate forecasts to about 14 days even with perfectly accurate input data and a flawless model . In addition , the partial differential equations used in the model need to be supplemented with parameterizations for solar radiation , moist processes ( clouds and precipitation ) , heat exchange , soil , vegetation , surface water , and the effects of terrain . In an effort to quantify the large amount of inherent uncertainty remaining in numerical predictions , ensemble forecasts have been used since the 1990s to help gauge the confidence in the forecast , and to obtain useful results farther into the future than otherwise possible . This approach analyzes multiple forecasts created with an individual forecast model or multiple models .", "Climate Prediction Center The Climate Prediction Center ( CPC ) is one of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction , which are a part of NOAA 's National Weather Service . It is located in College Park , Maryland . Its roots trace back to the late 18th century , with the United States Army Signal Corp taking over responsibility of the climate program in the late 19th century . Once it became part of the United States Weather Bureau , it was known as the Weather Bureau Climate and Crop Services . From 1957 through 1966 , the United States Weather Bureau 's Office of Climatology , located in Washington , D.C. and then Suitland , Maryland , published the Mariners Weather Log publication . Late in the 20th century , it was known as the Climate Analysis Center for a time , before evolving into CPC in 1995 . CPC issues climate forecasts valid weeks and months in advance .", "National Centers for Environmental Prediction The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) delivers national and global weather , water , climate and space weather guidance , forecasts , warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities . These products and services are based on a service-science legacy and respond to user needs to protect life and property , enhance that nation 's economy and support the nation 's growing need for environmental information . The centers form part of the National Weather Service . There are nine centers : Aviation Weather Center provides aviation warnings and forecasts of hazardous flight conditions at all levels within domestic and international air space . Climate Prediction Center monitors and forecasts short-term climate fluctuations and provides information on the effects climate patterns can have on the nation . Environmental Modeling Center develops and improves numerical weather , climate , hydrological and ocean prediction through a broad program in partnership with the research community . National Hurricane Center provides forecasts of the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues watches and warnings for the North Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific Ocean . NCEP Central Operations sustains and executes the operational suite of numerical analyses and forecast models and prepares NCEP products for dissemination . Ocean Prediction Center issues weather warnings and forecasts out to five days for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of 30 degrees North . Space Weather Prediction Center provides space weather alerts and warnings for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on earth . Storm Prediction Center provides tornado and severe weather watches for the contiguous United States along with a suite of hazardous weather forecasts . Weather Prediction Center provides nationwide analysis and forecast guidance products out through seven days .", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Meteorological Service Singapore Meteorological Service Singapore ( MSS ) is a division of the National Environment Agency , Singapore . MSS 's mission is to observe and understand the weather and climate affecting Singapore and to provide services in support of national needs and international co-operation . It collects and maintain reliable long-term national weather records , provides reliable weather and climate services . It also conducts research to advance understanding and prediction of the weather and climate of Singapore and the region . It does risk and impact assessment of natural environmental hazards .", "Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos ( CPTEC ) is the numerical weather prediction agency of Brazil , part of INPE ( National Institute for Space Research ) . Its mission is to provide the country with weather and climate forecasts . CPTEC is the most advanced center for numerical weather prediction and climate in Latin America , providing forecasts for short and medium-term climate and high precision , since the beginning of 1995 . CPTEC uses supercomputers and knowledge of its staff to achieve the same level as forecasting centers in more developed countries .", "Parametrization (atmospheric modeling) Parameterization in a weather or climate model within numerical weather prediction is a method of replacing processes that are too small-scale or complex to be physically represented in the model by a simplified process . This can be contrasted with other processes -- e.g. , large-scale flow of the atmosphere -- that are explicitly resolved within the models . Associated with these parameterizations are various parameters used in the simplified processes . Examples include the descent rate of raindrops , convective clouds , simplifications of the atmospheric radiative transfer on the basis of atmospheric radiative transfer codes , and cloud microphysics . Radiative parameterizations are important to both atmospheric and oceanic modeling alike . Atmospheric emissions from different sources within individual grid boxes also need to be parameterized to determine their impact on air quality .", "Climate (disambiguation) Climate refers to the weather of a region according to periodic norms . Climate may also refer to : Clime , a notion of dividing the Earth into zones in Classical Antiquity based on their inclination or latitude a tympan or climate , an interchangeable part of an astrolabe , corresponding to each clime Climates ( film ) , a 2006 film by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan Social climate , in sociology Organisation climate Political climate , in politics Climates ( band ) , a British melodic hardcore band formed in 2011 de : Klima ( Begriffsklärung )", "Tim Palmer (physicist) Timothy Noel Palmer CBE FRS ( born 31 December 1952 ) is a mathematical physicist by training . He has spent most of his career working on the dynamics and predictability of weather and climate . Amongst various research achievements , he pioneered the development of probabilistic ensemble forecasting techniques for weather and climate prediction ( at the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ) . These techniques are now standard in operational weather and climate prediction around the world , and are central for reliable decision making for many commercial and humanitarian applications .", "Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction , also known as RAMA , is a system of moored observation buoys in the Indian Ocean that collects meteorological and oceanographic data . The data collected by RAMA will greatly enhance the ability of scientists to understand climatic events and predict monsoon events . Climatic and oceanic events in the Indian Ocean affect weather and climate throughout the rest of the world ( such as El Niño , hurricanes , and United States weather ) , so RAMA will support weather forecasting and climate research worldwide . Although widely supported internationally , the system has only been partially implemented due to pirate activity off the coast of Somalia .", "The Signal and the Noise The Signal and the Noise : Why Most Predictions Fail -- but Some Do n't ( alternatively stylized as The Signal and the Noise : Why So Many Predictions Fail -- but Some Do n't ) is a 2012 book by Nate Silver detailing the art of using probability and statistics as applied to real-world circumstances . The book includes richly detailed case studies from baseball , elections , climate change , the financial crash , poker , and weather forecasting .", "Climate graph A climate graph is a chart that shows average weather for a certain period of time , for a certain location . The precipitation is usually shown using a bar graph and the temperature is usually shown as a line graph .", "Atmospheric thermodynamics Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations ( and their reverse ) that take place in the earth 's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics , to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air , the formation of clouds , atmospheric convection , boundary layer meteorology , and vertical instabilities in the atmosphere . Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development . Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection parameterizations used in numerical weather models and is used in many climate considerations , including convective-equilibrium climate models .", "Alpine climate Alpine climate is the average weather ( climate ) for the regions above the tree line . This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate .", "Weather and climate effects on Lyme disease exposure Lyme disease is spread to humans through the bite of infected ticks . The tick population is affected by weather and climate . Many factors determine tick population densities as well as diseased population densities of ticks so that no single factor can determine likelihood of exposure to tick-borne disease . Overall climate and primary host population determine the localities where ticks will thrive . However , studies have been conducted which correlate tick population to climate change and their behavior to weather patterns . Ticks are parasites which carry a myriad of infectious diseases that depend on the species of tick . Overall climate is more determinate of tick population and daily weather has a subtle effect on the spread of tick-borne disease . Being mindful of daily weather patterns and vigilantly avoiding exposure to ticks reduces human exposure to Lyme disease .", "MetVUW Metvuw Weather and Climate service is run by James McGregor . Much of the weather content and forecast material is available directly from the website , free . A range of different weather information is available , as different pages , under the following headings .", "Deutscher Wetterdienst The Deutscher Wetterdienst , -LSB- ˌdɔʏ̯ʧɐ ˈvɛtɐdiːnst -RSB- , or DWD for short , is the German Meteorological Office , based in Offenbach am Main , Germany , which monitors weather and meteorological conditions over Germany and provides weather services for the general public and for nautical , aviational or agricultural purposes . It is attached to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure . The DWDs principal tasks include warning against weather-related dangers and monitoring and rating climate changes affecting Germany . The organization runs atmospheric models on their supercomputer for precise weather forecasting . The DWD also manages the national climate archive and one of the largest specialized libraries on weather and climate worldwide .", "David H. Bromwich David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography , The Ohio State University . His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability . He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin , Madison . In 1979 he joined Ohio State 's Byrd Polar Research Center as a research scientist . His research has focused on the variability of precipitation over Antarctica , Greenland , and the Arctic Ocean , thus contributing to the understanding of climate and potential sea level changes . He has made contributions to defining aspects of U.S. science policy . Having helped identify the need to improve numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) for the Antarctic , Bromwich has been influential in the development and evaluation of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System ( AMPS ) . In April 2001 AMPS was one of four weather models used to predict a window of opportunity for the emergency medical evacuation of Ronald Shemenski from the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station . Flights to the base are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness . But the airlift was successfully completed and pilot Sean Loutitt confirmed the reliance on the forecasts , stating `` The weather was the biggest concern '' .", "Probabilistic forecasting Probabilistic forecasting summarizes what is known about , or opinions about , future events . In contrast to single-valued forecasts ( such as forecasting that the maximum temperature at given site on a given day will be 23 degrees Celsius , or that the result in a given football match will be a no-score draw ) , probabilistic forecasts assign a probability to each of a number of different outcomes , and the complete set of probabilities represents a probability forecast . Thus , probabilistic forecasting is a type of probabilistic classification . Weather forecasting represents a service in which probability forecasts are sometimes published for public consumption , although it may also be used by weather forecasters as the basis of a simpler type of forecast . For example forecasters may combine their own experience together with computer-generated probability forecasts to construct a forecast of the type `` we expect heavy rainfall '' . Sports betting is another field of application where probabilistic forecasting can play a role . The pre-race odds published for a horse race can be considered to correspond to a summary of bettors ' opinions about the likely outcome of a race , although this needs to be tempered with caution as bookmakers ' profits needs to be taken into account . In sports betting , probability forecasts may not be published as such , but may underlie bookmakers ' activities in setting pay-off rates , etc. .", "Marine weather forecasting Marine weather forecasting is the process by which mariners and meteorological organizations have attempted to forecast future weather conditions over the Earth 's oceans . Mariners have had rules of thumb regarding the navigation around tropical cyclones for many years , dividing a storm into halves and sailing through the normally weaker and more navigable half of their circulation . Marine weather forecasts by various weather organizations can be traced back to the sinking of the Royal Charter in 1859 and the RMS Titanic in 1912 . The wind is the driving force of weather at sea , as wind generates local wind waves , long ocean swells , and its flow around the subtropical ridge helps maintain warm water currents such as the Gulf Stream . The importance of weather over the ocean during World War II led to delayed or secret weather reports , in order to maintain a competitive advantage . Weather ships were established by various nations during World War II for forecasting purposes , and were maintained through 1985 to help with transoceanic plane navigation . Voluntary observations from ships , weather buoys , weather satellites , and numerical weather prediction have been used to diagnose and help forecast weather over the Earth 's ocean areas . Since the 1960s , numerical weather prediction 's role over the Earth 's seas has taken a greater role in the forecast process . Weather elements such as sea state , surface winds , tide levels , and sea surface temperature are tackled by organizations tasked with forecasting weather over open oceans and seas . Currently , the Japan Meteorological Agency , the United States National Weather Service , and the United Kingdom Met Office create marine weather forecasts for the Northern Hemisphere .", "Climate of San Diego The climate of San Diego , California is categorized as a semi-arid Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ) . It enjoys mild , sunny weather throughout the year .", "Weather media in the United States The weather media in the United States includes coverage of weather and weather forecasting by farmers ' almanacs , newspapers , radio , television stations , and the internet . Farmers ' Almanacs have taken a stab at forecasting for the following year or so for around two centuries . At first , weather media included reporting on past events , with forecasting playing a role from the late 19th century onward . Weather-related information proliferated to near real-time after the invention of the telegraph . Radio and satellite broadcasts made weather-related communication ever quicker , with the World Wide Web making broadcasting and reporting nearly instantaneous . By the 1990s , sensationalism played a role in weather coverage .", "National Weather Center The National Weather Center ( NWC ) , located on the campus of the University of Oklahoma , is a confederation of federal , state , and academic organizations that work together in partnership to improve understanding of events occurring in Earth 's atmosphere over a wide range of time and space scales . The NWC partners give equal attention to applying that understanding to the development of improved observation , analysis , assimilation , display , and prediction systems . The National Weather Center also has expertise in local and regional climate , numerical modeling , hydrology , and weather radar . Members of the NWC work with a wide range of federal , state , and local government agencies to help reduce loss of life and property to hazardous weather , ensure wise use of water resources , and enhance agricultural production . They also work with private sector partners to develop new applications of weather and regional climate information that provide competitive advantage in the marketplace .", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Climate of Albania Albania has a variety of climate systems . With its coastline facing the Adriatic and Ionian seas , its highlands backed upon the elevated Balkan landmass , and the entire country lying at a latitude subject to a variety of weather patterns during the winter and summer seasons , Albania has a high number of climatic regions for such a small area . The coastal lowlands have typically mediterranean climate ; the highlands have a continental climate . In both the lowlands and the interior , the weather varies markedly from north to south . Under the Köppen climate classification , the country has Hot Mediterranean climate , Warm Mediterranean climate , Subtropical climate , Oceanic climate , Continental climate and Subartic climate .", "Climate pattern A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "Earth's energy budget Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "Meteorological Service of Canada The Meteorological Service of Canada ( MSC ) is a division of Environment and Climate Change Canada , which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings of severe weather and other environmental hazards . MSC also monitors and conducts research on climate , atmospheric science , air quality , water quantities , ice and other environmental issues . MSC operates a network of radio stations throughout Canada transmitting weather and environmental information 24 hours per day called Weatheradio Canada . There are currently five public weather forecast offices : Pacific and Yukon Storm Prediction Centre in Vancouver , British Columbia Prairie and Arctic Storm Prediction Centre , split between an office in Edmonton , Alberta and Winnipeg , Manitoba Ontario Storm Prediction Centre ( Downsview , Ontario ) Quebec Storm Prediction Centre ( Montreal , Quebec ) Atlantic Storm Prediction Centre ( Dartmouth , Nova Scotia ) . The Atlantic Storm Prediction Centre also houses the Canadian Hurricane Centre plus manages the Newfoundland and Labrador Weather Office Gander , Newfoundland and Labrador . There are two centres dedicated to aviation weather forecasting : Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre-East , located in Montreal , and Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre-West , located in Edmonton . MSC also operates the Canadian Meteorological Centre , which is tasked with providing forecast guidance , and the Canadian Ice Service , which provides ice observations and forecasts for mariners . In support of Canada 's military , some MSC meteorologists are seconded to the Department of National Defence ( Canada ) . The Meteorological Service of Canada was ISO9001 :2000 Certified .", "Weather and Forecasting Weather and Forecasting is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society . Articles on forecasting and analysis techniques , forecast verification studies , and case studies useful to forecasters . In addition , submissions that report on changes to the suite of operational numerical models and statistical post-processing techniques , and articles that demonstrate the transfer of research results to the forecasting community .", "Sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Ice2sea Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "Raised shoreline A raised shoreline is an ancient shoreline exposed above current water level . These landforms are formed by a relative change in sea level due to global sea level rise , isostatic rebound , and/or tectonic uplift . These surfaces are usually exposed above modern sea level when a heavily glaciated area experiences a glacial retreat , causing water levels to rise . This area will then experience post-glacial rebound , effectively raising the shoreline surface . Examples of raised shorelines can be found along the coasts of formerly glaciated areas in Ireland and Scotland , as well as in North America . Raised shorelines are exposed at various locations around the Puget Sound of Washington State .", "Sea level Mean sea level ( MSL ) ( abbreviated simply sea level ) is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth 's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured . MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised geodetic reference pointthat is used , for example , as a chart datum in cartography and marine navigation , or , in aviation , as the standard sea level at which atmospheric pressure is measured in order to calibrate altitude and , consequently , aircraft flight levels . A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a mean low and mean high tide at a particular location . Sea levels can be affected by many factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales . The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change , and sea level rise has been widely quoted as evidence of ongoing global warming . The term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level ( AMSL ) .", "James O'Brien (oceanographer) James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "Marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "Past sea level Global or eustatic sea level has fluctuated significantly over the Earth 's history . The main factors affecting sea level are the amount and volume of available water and the shape and volume of the ocean basins . The primary influences on water volume are the temperature of the seawater , which affects density , and the amounts of water retained in other reservoirs like rivers , aquifers , lakes , glaciers , polar ice caps and sea ice . Over geological timescales , changes in the shape of the oceanic basins and in land/sea distribution affect sea level . In addition to eustatic changes , local changes in sea level are caused by tectonic uplift and subsidence . Over geologic time sea level has fluctuated by hundreds of meters . Today 's interglacial level is near historic highs and is 130 meters above the low level reached during the Last Glacial Maximum 19,000 -- 20,000 years ago . Observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century . Over this last million years , whereas it was higher most of the time before then , sea level was lower than today .", "Nils-Axel Mörner Nils-Axel Mörner ( born 1938 ) , is the former head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics department at Stockholm University . He retired in 2005 . He was president of the International Union for Quaternary Research ( INQUA ) Commission on Neotectonics ( 1981 -- 1989 ) . He headed the INTAS ( International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union ) Project on Geomagnetism and Climate ( 1997 -- 2003 ) . He is a critic of the IPCC and the notion that the global sea level is rising . He was formerly the Chairman of INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution , and led the Maldives Sea Level Project .", "Meltwater pulse 1A Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "Josh Willis Joshua `` Josh '' K. Willis is an oceanographer at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . His area of expertise is current sea level rise , as well as measuring ocean temperatures . When sea level fell from 2010 to 2011 , Willis stated that this was due to an unusually large La Niña transferring more rainfall over land rather than over the ocean as usually happens . In addition , Willis is the project scientist for Jason-3 .", "Managed retreat In the context of coastal erosion , managed retreat ( also managed realignment ) allows an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by the sea to become flooded by removing coastal protection . This process is usually in low-lying estuarine areas and almost always involves flooding of land that has at some point in the past been claimed from the sea . In the UK , managed retreat is often a response to sea level rise exacerbated by local subsidence of the land surface due to post-glacial isostatic rebound in the north .", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Environmental skepticism Environmental skepticism is the belief that claims by environmentalists , and the environmental scientists who support them , are false or exaggerated . The term is also applied to those who are critical of environmentalism in general . Environmental skepticism is closely linked with anti-environmentalism and climate change denial . Environmental skeptics have argued that the extent of harm coming from human activities is less certain than some scientists and scientific bodies claim , or that it is too soon to be introducing curbs in these activities on the basis of existing evidence , or that further discussion is needed regarding who should pay for such environmental initiatives . One of the focus themes in the environmental skeptics movement is the idea that environmentalism is a growing threat to social and economic progress and the civil liberties . The popularity of the term was enhanced by Bjørn Lomborg 's book The Skeptical Environmentalist . Lomborg approached environmental claims from a statistical and economic standpoint , and concluded that often the claims made by environmentalists were overstated . Lomborg argued , on the basis of cost -- benefit analysis , that few environmentalist claims warranted serious concern . However , in 2010 , Lomborg stated that he believes in the need for `` tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change '' and declared global warming to be `` undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today '' and `` a challenge humanity must confront '' . He summarized his position , saying `` Global warming is real - it is man-made and it is an important problem . But it is not the end of the world . ''", "Antarctica cooling controversy An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "Global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "Gjesværstappan Gjesværstappan is a group of high , steep-sided , grass-covered islands which are located north of the village of Gjesvær in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county , Norway . The three main islands are Storstappen , Kjerkestappen , and Bukkstappen . Storstappan rises to a height of 283 m above sea level and has a peninsula called Stauren that rises to 165 m. Kjerkestappen rises to an elevation of 166 m above sea level and Bukkstappen rises to 92 m above sea level . Historically , there were people that lived on the islands and there was a church on Kjerkestappen .", "Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "Sea-level curve The sea-level curve is the representation of the changes of the sea level throughout the geological history . The first such curve is the Vail curve or Exxon curve . The names of the curve refer to the fact that in 1977 a team of Exxon geologists from Esso Production Research headed by Peter Vail published a monograph on global eustatic sea-level changes . Their sea-level curve was based on seismic and biostratigraphic data accumulated during petroleum exploration . The Vail curve ( and the monograph itself ) was the subject of debate among geologists , because it was based on undisclosed commercially confidential stratigraphic data , and hence not independently verifiable . Because of this , there were later efforts to establish a sea-level curve based on non-commercial data . In 1987 -- 1988 a revised eustatic sea-level curve for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras was published , now known as the Haq sea-level curve , in reference to the Pakistani-American Oceanographer Bilal Haq .", "Ieodo Ocean Research Station Ieodo Ocean Research Station is an ocean platform constructed by South Korea and placed on the submerged Socotra Rock in the East China Sea . The stated purpose of the platform is the collection of meteorological data , provision for maritime safety , and fisheries monitoring . However , as South Korea and China both claim that Socotra Rock lies in their respective Exclusive Economic Zones , the platform does have strategic implications . The platform was officially opened in June 2003 . The platform has a helipad a couple of lower decks for equipment and workspace . Although the station has residential facilities that can comfortably accommodate 8 people for 15 days , the station is typically uninhabited and operated remotely . While Socotra Rock rises to a maximum of 4.6 m below sea level , the platform is founded on a portion of the rock that is substantially deeper at 40m below sea level . As a result , the platform is approximately 700m from the rock 's `` peak . '' The platform rises approximately 36m from sea level .", "Expanding Earth The expanding Earth or growing Earth hypothesis asserts that the position and relative movement of continents is at least partially due to the volume of Earth increasing . Conversely , geophysical global cooling was the hypothesis that various features could be explained by Earth contracting . Although it was suggested historically , since the recognition of plate tectonics in the 1970s , scientific consensus has rejected any significant expansion or contraction of Earth .", "Campbell Plateau The Campbell Plateau is a large oceanic plateau south of New Zealand and the Chatham Rise . It originated in the Gondwanan breakup and is part of Zealandia , a largely submerged continent . The above sea level parts of the plateau -- the Bounty Islands , Antipodes Islands , Auckland Islands and Campbell Island -- form part of the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1998 . Large parts of the Campbell Plateau lies less than 1000 m below sea level . It rises to 500 m at the Pukaki Rise and emerges above sea level at the Auckland and Campbell Islands . Covering an area of 800000 km2 , the Campbell Plateau has a gently undulating bathymetry with major rises trending east-west : Campbell Island Rise , Pukaki Rise , and Bounty Island Ridge . There are two near-parallel rises on the western margin : Stewart Island -- Snare Island Rise and Auckland Island platform . The continental slopes are steep on western and southern margins while the northern margin slowly falls into the Bounty Trough .", "Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "Global warming in Tuvalu Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "Argyrodes chionus Argyrodes chionus is a species of tangle-web spider that is endemic to Aldabra in the Seychelles . It is found in dry shrubland at sea level . It is threatened by habitat deterioration due to sea level rise .", "Duncan Wingham Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "Jaegyu Knoll Jaegyu Knoll is an undersea knoll ( a submarine volcano ) 5.5 nmi northwest of Rosamel Island in the Antarctic Sound . It rises c. 700 m above the sea floor to c. 200 m below sea level . It was first mapped by swath bathymetry during a United States Antarctic Program cruise by Nathaniel B. Palmer , in January 2007 ( Eugene Domack , chief scientist ; M. Terminal , ship 's master ) . Named by the US-Advisory Committee for Undersea Features in 2007 after Jeon Jaegyu , a young scientist at King Sejong Station on King George Island , with the Korean Antarctic Program during the 2003 field season . He participated in a rescue attempt for an overturned boat in Maxwell Bay but was himself thrown into the sea by heavy seas , and succumbed to hypothermia while making his way along the shore toward Marsh Station .", "I'm not a scientist `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "Jonathan M. Gregory Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth . The times and amplitude of tides at any given locale are influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon , by the pattern of tides in the deep ocean , by the amphidromic systems of the oceans , and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry ( see Timing ) . Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide -- two nearly equal high and low tides each day . Other locations experience a diurnal tide -- only one high and low tide each day . A `` mixed tide '' -- two uneven tides a day , or one high and one low -- is also possible . Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors . To make accurate records , tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time . Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes . These data are compared to the reference ( or datum ) level usually called mean sea level . While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level fluctuations , sea levels are also subject to forces such as wind and barometric pressure changes , resulting in storm surges , especially in shallow seas and near coasts . Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans , but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present . For example , the solid part of the Earth is affected by tides , though this is not as easily seen as the water tidal movements .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Global warming conspiracy theory A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "Deglaciation Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "Coastal management Coastal management is defense against flooding and erosion , and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands . Coastal zones occupy less than 15 % of the Earth 's land area , while they host more than 40 % of the world population . Nearly 1.2 billion people live within 100 km of a shoreline and 100 m of sea level , with an average density nearly 3 times higher than the global average for population . With three-quarters of the world population expected to reside in the coastal zone by 2025 , human activities originating from this small land area will impose heavy pressure on coasts . Coastal zones contain rich resources to produce goods and services and are home to most commercial and industrial activities . In the European Union , almost half of the population lives within 50 kilometres of the sea and coastal resources produce much of the Union 's economic wealth . The fishing , shipping and tourism industries all compete for space along Europe 's estimated 89,000 km of coastline and coastal zones contain some of Europe 's most fragile and valuable natural habitats . Protection against sea level rise in the 21st century will be especially important , as sea level rise accelerates . Changes in sea level damage beaches and coastal systems . Coastal sediments are disturbed and suspended by wave and tide energy ." ]

[ "Carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) ( or carbon capture and sequestration ) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from large point sources , such as fossil fuel power plants , transporting it to a storage site , and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere , normally an underground geological formation . The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of into the atmosphere ( from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries ) . It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification . Although has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes , including enhanced oil recovery , the long term storage of is a relatively new concept . The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000 . Other examples include SaskPower 's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power 's Kemper Project . ` CCS ' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of from ambient air as a climate engineering technique . An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall , to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency . CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80 -- 90 % compared to a plant without CCS . The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100 . Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption ( or carbon scrubbing ) , membrane gas separation , or adsorption technologies . Amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology . Capturing and compressing may increase the energy needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25 -- 40 % . These and other system costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21 -- 91 % for fossil fuel power plants . Applying the technology to existing plants would be more expensive , especially if they are far from a sequestration site . A 2005 industry report suggests that with successful research , development and deployment ( RD&D ) , sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 may cost less than unsequestered coal-based electricity generation today . Storage of the is envisaged either in deep geological formations , or in the form of mineral carbonates . Deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification . Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites . The National Energy Technology Laboratory ( NETL ) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates . A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain , and there is still the risk that might leak into the atmosphere .", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories ." ]

[ "Dilatometer A dilatometer is a scientific instrument that measures volume changes caused by a physical or chemical process . A familiar application of a dilatometer is the mercury-in-glass thermometer , in which the change in volume of the liquid column is read from a graduated scale . Because mercury has a fairly constant rate of expansion over ambient temperature ranges , the volume changes are directly related to temperature .", "Fundamental thermodynamic relation In thermodynamics , the fundamental thermodynamic relation is generally expressed as an microscopic change in internal energy in terms of microscopic changes in entropy , and volume for a closed system in thermal equilibrium in the following way . Here , U is internal energy , T is absolute temperature , S is entropy , P is pressure , and V is volume . This relation applies to a reversible change , or to a change in a closed system of uniform temperature and pressure at constant composition . This is only one expression of the fundamental thermodynamic relation . It may be expressed in other ways , using different variables ( e.g. using thermodynamic potentials ) . For example , the fundamental relation may be expressed in terms of the enthalpy as in terms of the Helmholtz free energy ( F ) as and in terms of the Gibbs free energy ( G ) as .", "Lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate ) to produce the form of lime called quicklime ( calcium oxide ) . The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction takes place at 900 ° C ( 1650 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere ) , but a temperature around 1000 ° C ( 1800 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres ) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly . Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive , `` dead-burned '' lime . Slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide ) can be formed by mixing water with quicklime .", "Temperature (disambiguation) Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold . Closely related are : Thermodynamic temperature Color temperature Effective temperature Normal human body temperature The term may also refer to : Noise temperature , a measure of the noise of an electronic component . Temperature ( game theory ) , a measure of the value of a game to its players . Temperature ( meat ) , or doneness , a description of how thoroughly cooked a cut of meat is Fever , pyrexia , or having a temperature , the elevation of the body temperature .", "Clausius–Clapeyron relation The Clausius -- Clapeyron relation , named after Rudolf Clausius and Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron , is a way of characterizing a discontinuous phase transition between two phases of matter of a single constituent . On a pressure -- temperature ( P -- T ) diagram , the line separating the two phases is known as the coexistence curve . The Clausius -- Clapeyron relation gives the slope of the tangents to this curve . Mathematically , where is the slope of the tangent to the coexistence curve at any point , is the specific latent heat , is the temperature , is the specific volume change of the phase transition , and is the specific entropy change of the phase transition .", "Shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products . Shortening is used in pastries that should not be elastic , such as cake . Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry , the term `` shortening '' seldom refers to butter , but is more closely related to margarine .", "Archaeoglobus profundus Archaeoglobus profundus is a sulphate-reducing archaea . Archaeoglobus can be found in high-temperature oil fields where it may contribute to oil field souring . A. profundus grows lithotrophically , and while it needs acetate and CO2 for biosynthesis it is heterotrophic .", "Time–temperature superposition The time -- temperature superposition principle is a concept in polymer physics and in the physics of glass-forming liquids . This superposition principle is used to determine temperature-dependent mechanical properties of linear viscoelastic materials from known properties at a reference temperature . The elastic moduli of typical amorphous polymers increase with loading rate but decrease when the temperature is increased . Fortunately , curves of the instantaneous modulus as a function of time do not change shape as the temperature is changed but appear only to shift left or right . This implies that a master curve at a given temperature can be used as the reference to predict curves at various temperatures by applying a shift operation . The time-temperature superposition principle of linear viscoelasticity is based on the above observation . The application of the principle typically involves the following steps : experimental determination of frequency-dependent curves of isothermal viscoelastic mechanical properties at several temperatures and for a small range of frequencies computation of a translation factor to correlate these properties for the temperature and frequency range experimental determination of a master curve showing the effect of frequency for a wide range of frequencies application of the translation factor to determine temperature-dependent moduli over the whole range of frequencies in the master curve . The translation factor is often computed using an empirical relation first established by Malcolm L. Williams , Robert F. Landel and John D. Ferry ( also called the Williams-Landel-Ferry or WLF model ) . An alternative model suggested by Arrhenius is also used . The WLF model is related to macroscopic motion of the bulk material , while the Arrhenius model considers local motion of polymer chains . Some materials , polymers in particular , show a strong dependence of viscoelastic properties on the temperature at which they are measured . If you plot the elastic modulus of a noncrystallizing crosslinked polymer against the temperature at which you measured it , you will get a curve which can be divided up into distinct regions of physical behavior . At very low temperatures , the polymer will behave like a glass and exhibit a high modulus . As you increase the temperature , the polymer will undergo a transition from a hard `` glassy '' state to a soft `` rubbery '' state in which the modulus can be several orders of magnitude lower than it was in the glassy state . The transition from glassy to rubbery behavior is continuous and the transition zone is often referred to as the leathery zone . The onset temperature of the transition zone , moving from glassy to rubbery , is known as the glass transition temperature , or Tg . In the 1940s Andrews and Tobolsky showed that there was a simple relationship between temperature and time for the mechanical response of a polymer . Modulus measurements are made by stretching or compressing a sample at a prescribed rate of deformation . For polymers , changing the rate of deformation will cause the curve described above to be shifted along the temperature axis . Increasing the rate of deformation will shift the curve to higher temperatures so that the transition from a glassy to a rubbery state will happen at higher temperatures . It has been shown experimentally that the elastic modulus ( E ) of a polymer is influenced by the load and the response time . Time -- temperature superposition implies that the response time function of the elastic modulus at a certain temperature resembles the shape of the same functions of adjacent temperatures . Curves of E vs. log ( response time ) at one temperature can be shifted to overlap with adjacent curves , as long as the data sets did not suffer from ageing effects during the test time ( see Williams-Landel-Ferry equation ) . The Deborah number is closely related to the concept of Time-Temperature Superposition .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Schuetze reagent Schuetze reagent also written as Schütze reagent is made up of Iodine pentoxide I2O5 on granular silica gel . It is used to convert Carbon monoxide CO into Carbon dioxide CO2 at room temperature .", "Recycled fuel Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "Temperature coefficient A temperature coefficient describes the relative change of a physical property that is associated with a given change in temperature . For a property R that changes by dR when the temperature changes by dT , the temperature coefficient α is defined by Here α has the dimension of an inverse temperature and can be expressed e.g. in 1/K or K − 1 . If the temperature coefficient itself does not vary too much with temperature , a linear approximation can be used to determine the value R of a property at a temperature T , given its value R0 at a reference temperature T0 : where ΔT is the difference between T and T0 . For strongly temperature-dependent α , this approximation is only useful for small temperature differences ΔT . Temperature coefficients are specified for various applications , including electric and magnetic properties of materials as well as reactivity . The temperature coefficient of most of the reactions lies between - 2 & 3", "Exergonic reaction An exergonic reaction is a chemical reaction where the change in the free energy is negative ( there is a net release of free energy ) , indicating a spontaneous reaction . For processes that take place under constant pressure and temperature conditions , the Gibbs free energy is used whereas the Helmholtz energy is used for processes that take place under constant volume and temperature conditions . Symbolically , the release of free energy , G , in an exergonic reaction ( at constant pressure and temperature ) is denoted as Although exergonic reactions are said to occur spontaneously , this does not imply that the reaction will take place at an observable rate . For instance , the disproportionation of hydrogen peroxide is very slow in the absence of a suitable catalyst . It has been suggested that eager would be a more intuitive term in this context . More generally , the terms exergonic and endergonic relate to the free energy change in any process , not just chemical reactions . An example of an exergonic reaction is cellular respiration . This relates to the degrees of freedom as a consequence of entropy , the temperature , and the difference in heat released or absorbed . By contrast , the terms exothermic and endothermic relate to the overall exchange of heat during a process .", "Incubator (culture) In biology , an incubator is a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures . The incubator maintains optimal temperature , humidity and other conditions such as the carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and oxygen content of the atmosphere inside . Incubators are essential for a lot of experimental work in cell biology , microbiology and molecular biology and are used to culture both bacterial as well as eukaryotic cells . Louis Pasteur used the small opening underneath his staircase as an incubator . Incubators are also used in the poultry industry to act as a substitute for hens . This often results in higher hatch rates due to the ability to control both temperature and humidity . Various brands of incubators are commercially available to breeders . The simplest incubators are insulated boxes with an adjustable heater , typically going up to 60 to 65 ° C ( 140 to 150 ° F ) , though some can go slightly higher ( generally to no more than 100 ° C ) . The most commonly used temperature both for bacteria such as the frequently used E. coli as well as for mammalian cells is approximately 37 ° C , as these organisms grow well under such conditions . For other organisms used in biological experiments , such as the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae , a growth temperature of 30 ° C is optimal . More elaborate incubators can also include the ability to lower the temperature ( via refrigeration ) , or the ability to control humidity or CO2 levels . This is important in the cultivation of mammalian cells , where the relative humidity is typically > 80 % to prevent evaporation and a slightly acidic pH is achieved by maintaining a CO2 level of 5 % .", "Absolute temperature scale Absolute temperature scale can refer to : Kelvin scale , an absolute-temperature scale related to the Celsius scale Rankine scale , an absolute-temperature scale related to the Fahrenheit scale For a type of measuring system that begins at an absolute minimum ( not necessarily a temperature scale ) see : Absolute scale", "Total inorganic carbon The total inorganic carbon ( CT , or TIC ) or dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) is the sum of inorganic carbon species in a solution . The inorganic carbon species include carbon dioxide , carbonic acid , bicarbonate anion , and carbonate . It is customary to express carbon dioxide and carbonic acid simultaneously as CO2 * . CT is a key parameter when making measurements related to the pH of natural aqueous systems , and carbon dioxide flux estimates . CT = -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- + -LSB- HCO3 − -RSB- + -LSB- CO32 − -RSB- where , CT is the total inorganic carbon -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- is the sum of carbon dioxide and carbonic acid concentrations ( -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- = -LSB- CO2 -RSB- + -LSB- H2CO3 -RSB- ) -LSB- HCO3 − -RSB- is the bicarbonate concentration -LSB- CO32 − -RSB- is the carbonate concentration Each of these species are related by the following pH-driven chemical equilibria : CO2 + H2O H2CO3 H + + HCO3 − 2H + + CO32 − The concentrations of the different species of DIC ( and which species is dominant ) depends on the pH of the solution , as shown by a Bjerrum plot . Total inorganic carbon is typically measured by the acidification of the sample which drives the equilibria to CO2 . This gas is then sparged from solution and trapped , and the quantity trapped is then measured , usually by infrared spectroscopy .", "Viscosity index Viscosity index ( VI ) is an arbitrary measure for the change of viscosity with variations in temperature . The lower the VI , the greater the change of viscosity of the oil with temperature and vice versa . It is used to characterize viscosity changes with relation to temperature in lubricating oil . The viscosity of liquids decreases as temperature increases . The viscosity of a lubricant is closely related to its ability to reduce friction . Generally , the least viscous lubricant which still forces the two moving surfaces apart is desired . If the lubricant is too viscous , it will require a large amount of energy to move ( as in honey ) ; if it is too thin , the surfaces will come in contact and friction will increase . Many lubricant applications require the lubricant to perform across a wide range of conditions , for example , automotive lubricants are required to reduce friction between engine components when the engine is started from cold ( relative to the engine 's operating temperatures ) up to 200 ° C when it is running . The best oils with the highest VI will remain stable and not vary much in viscosity over the temperature range . This allows for consistent engine performance within the normal working conditions . The VI scale was set up by the Society of Automotive Engineers ( SAE ) . The temperatures chosen arbitrarily for reference are 100 and . The original scale only stretched between 0 ( lowest VI oil , naphthenic ) and 100 ( best oil , paraffinnic ) but since the conception of the scale better oils have also been produced , leading to VIs greater than 100 ( see below ) . VI improving additives and higher quality base oils are widely used nowadays which increase the VIs attainable beyond the value of 100 . The Viscosity Index of synthetic oils ranges from 80 to over 400 . The viscosity index can be calculated using the following formula : where U is the oil 's kinematic viscosity at 40 ° C , and L and H are values based on the oil 's kinematic viscosity at 100 ° C. L and H are the values of viscosity at 40 ° C for oils of VI 0 and 100 respectively , having the same viscosity at 100 ° C as the oil whose VI we are trying to determine . These L and H values can be found in ASTM D2270 .", "Scale of temperature Scale of temperature is a way to measure temperature quantitatively . Empirical scales measure the quantity of heat in a system in relation to a fixed parameter , a thermometer . They are not absolute measures , that is why scales vary . Absolute temperature is thermodynamic temperature because it is directly related to thermodynamics . It is the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics that leads to a formal definition of thermodynamic temperature .", "Temperature lag Temperature lag is when change in temperature lags change in radiation ( heating or cooling ) . Meteorological examples include : Diurnal temperature variation -- e.g. , peak daily temperature typically occurs after noon Seasonal lag -- e.g. , peak annual temperature typically occurs after the summer solstice", "Bulk temperature In thermofluids dynamics , the bulk temperature , or the average bulk temperature in the thermal fluid , is a convenient reference point for evaluating properties related to convective heat transfer , particularly in applications related to flow in pipes and ducts . The concept of the bulk temperature is that adiabatic mixing of the fluid from a given cross section of the duct will result in some equilibrium temperature that accurately reflects the average temperature of the moving fluid , more so than a simple average like the film temperature .", "Degree (temperature) The term degree is used in several scales of temperature . The symbol ° is usually used , followed by the initial letter of the unit , for example `` ° C '' for degree ( s ) Celsius . A degree can be defined as a set change in temperature measured against a given scale , for example , one degree Celsius is one hundredth of the temperature change between the point at which water starts to change state from solid to liquid state and the point at which it starts to change from its gaseous state to liquid .", "Antiferroelectricity Antiferroelectricity is a physical property of certain materials . It is closely related to ferroelectricity ; the relation between antiferroelectricity and ferroelectricity is analogous to the relation between antiferromagnetism and ferromagnetism . An antiferroelectric material consists of an ordered ( crystalline ) array of electric dipoles ( from the ions and electrons in the material ) , but with adjacent dipoles oriented in opposite ( antiparallel ) directions ( the dipoles of each orientation form interpenetrating sublattices , loosely analogous to a checkerboard pattern ) . This can be contrasted with a ferroelectric , in which the dipoles all point in the same direction . In an antiferroelectric , unlike a ferroelectric , the total , macroscopic spontaneous polarization is zero , since the adjacent dipoles cancel each other out . Antiferroelectricity is a property of a material , and it can appear or disappear ( more generally , strengthen or weaken ) depending on temperature , pressure , external electric field , growth method , and other parameters . In particular , at a high enough temperature , antiferroelectricity disappears ; this temperature is called the antiferroelectric Curie point , even though in the analogous antiferromagnetism this transition occurs at the Neel temperature", "Adiabatic flame temperature In the study of combustion , there are two types of adiabatic flame temperature depending on how the process is completed , constant volume and constant pressure , describing the temperature , the combustion products theoretically reach if no energy is lost to the outside environment . The constant volume adiabatic flame temperature is the temperature that results from a complete combustion process that occurs without any work , heat transfer or changes in kinetic or potential energy . The constant pressure adiabatic flame temperature is the temperature that results from a complete combustion process that occurs without any heat transfer or changes in kinetic or potential energy . Its temperature is lower than the constant volume process because some of the energy is utilized to change the volume of the system ( i.e. , generate work ) .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "Kramers' opacity law Kramers ' opacity law describes the opacity of a medium in terms of the ambient density and temperature , assuming that the opacity is dominated by bound-free absorption ( the absorption of light during ionization of a bound electron ) or free-free absorption ( the absorption of light when scattering a free ion , also called bremsstrahlung ) . It is often used to model radiative transfer , particularly in stellar atmospheres . The relation is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Kramers , who first derived the form in 1923 . The general functional form of the opacity law is where is the resulting average opacity , is the density and the temperature of the medium . Often the overall opacity is inferred from observations , and this form of the relation describes how changes in the density or temperature will affect the opacity .", "Fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity Fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity is the change in reactivity of the nuclear fuel per degree change in the fuel temperature . The coefficient quantifies the amount of neutrons that the nuclear fuel ( uranium-238 ) absorbs from the fission process as the fuel temperature increases . It is a measure of the stability of the reactor operations . This coefficient is also known as the Doppler coefficient .", "Loss on ignition Loss on ignition is a test used in inorganic analytical chemistry , particularly in the analysis of minerals . It consists of strongly heating ( `` igniting '' ) a sample of the material at a specified temperature , allowing volatile substances to escape , until its mass ceases to change . This may be done in air , or in some other reactive or inert atmosphere . The simple test typically consists of placing a few grams of the material in a tared , pre-ignited crucible and determining its mass , placing it in a temperature-controlled furnace for a set time , cooling it in a controlled ( e.g. water-free , CO2-free ) atmosphere , and redetermining the mass . The process may be repeated to show that mass-change is complete . A variant of the test in which mass-change is continually monitored as temperature is changed , is thermogravimetry . The loss on ignition is reported as part of an elemental or oxide analysis of a mineral . The volatile materials lost usually consist of `` combined water '' ( hydrates and labile hydroxy-compounds ) and carbon dioxide from carbonates . It may be used as a quality test , commonly carried out for minerals such as iron ore . For example , the loss on ignition of a fly ash consists of contaminant unburnt fuel . In pyroprocessing industries such as lime , calcined bauxite , refractories or cement manufacture , the loss on ignition of the raw material is roughly equivalent to the loss in mass that it will undergo in a kiln . Similarly for minerals the loss on ignition represents the actual material lost during smelting or refining in a furnace or smelter . The loss on ignition of the product indicates the extent to which the pyroprocessing was incomplete . ASTM tests are defined for limestone and lime and cement among others .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "United States temperature extremes For the United States , the extremes are 134 F in Death Valley , California in 1913 and -79.8 F recorded in Prospect Creek , Alaska in 1971 . The largest recorded temperature change in one place over a 24-hour period occurred on January 15 , 1972 in Loma , Montana , when the temperature rose from -54 to . The most dramatic temperature changes occur in North American climates susceptible to Chinook winds . For example , the largest 2-minute temperature change of 49 F-change occurred in Spearfish , South Dakota , a rise from -4 to .", "Transition temperature Transition temperature is the temperature at which a material changes from one crystal state ( allotrope ) to another . For example , when rhombic sulfur is heated above 95.6 ° C it changes form into monoclinic sulfur . When cooled below 95.6 ° C it reverts to rhombic sulfur . In the case of ferroelectric or ferromagnetic crystals a transition temperature may be known as the Curie temperature .", "Desulfobacter hydrogenophilus Desulfobacter hydrogenophilus is a strictly anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacterium . It was isolated and characterized in 1987 by Friedrich Widdel of the University of Konstanz ( Germany ) . Like most sulfate-reducing bacteria ( SRB ) , D. hydrogenophilus is capable of completely oxidizing organic compounds ( specifically acetate , pyruvate and ethanol ) to CO2 , and therefore plays a key role in biomineralization in anaerobic marine environments . However , unlike many SRB , D. hydrogenophilus is a facultative lithoautotroph , and can grow using H2 as an electron donor and CO2 as a carbon source . D. hydrogenophilus is also unique because it is psychrophilic ( and has been shown to grow at temperatures as low as 0 C ) . It is also diazotrophic , or capable of fixing nitrogen .", "Melting temperature Melting temperature may refer to : Melting point , the temperature at which a substance changes from solid to liquid state Melting temperature , the temperature at which a DNA double helix dissociates into single strands ( see Nucleic acid thermodynamics )" ]

[ "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore ." ]

[ "International Conference on Climate Change The International Conference on Climate Change is a conference series organized and sponsored by The Heartland Institute which aims to bring together global warming skeptics who `` dispute that the science is settled on the causes , consequences , and policy implications of climate change . '' The first conference took place in 2008 . As at 2017 there have been twelve conferences . Most of the events have been held in the United States , but there has been one in Australia and two in Germany .", "Climate ethics Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "Political economy of climate change Political economy of climate change is an approach that applies the political economy thinking of collective or political processes to study the critical issues surrounding the decision-making on climate change . As the issue of climate change reaching the top of international agenda , the complexity of the environmental problems in combination with various other social political challenges have put great pressures on the scholars to explore a better understanding of the multiple actors and influencing factors that affect the climate change negotiation and to seek more effective solutions to tackle climate change . Analyzing these issues from a political economy perspective helps to explain the complex interactions between different stakeholders in respond to climate change impacts and provides broader opportunities to achieve better implementation of climate change policies .", "Scott Denning A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "Alliance for Climate Education Alliance for Climate Education , or ACE , educates young people on the science of climate change and empowers them to take action . ACE is a 501 ( c ) 3 nonprofit that provides educational resources on climate science and justice , as well training for young climate leaders . Since 2008 , ACE has reached more than 2,000,000 students nationwide .", "Woods Hole Research Center The Woods Hole Research Center ( WHRC ) is a scientific research organization that studies climate change , land use change , soils , wetlands , and forests . WHRC was named the world 's top climate change think tank for 2013 , 2014 , and 2015 by the International Center for Climate Governance . The Center conducts research throughout the Amazon , the Arctic , central Africa , and North America . WHRC collaborates with a wide variety of partners to understand the causes and impacts of climate change and to implement more science-based policies .", "Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement The Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement ( LSCE , Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory ) is a laboratory for the study of climate and in particular climate change . It plays a very important role within the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , which involves many of its researchers . It is very diversified because it includes modellers like experimenters , glaciologists as specialists in remote sensing or air quality study . The climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte is involved in the laboratory .", "Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change The Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change ( or CSCCC ) is an entity that maintains a website and describes itself as a global group of non-profit organizations with a mission of `` seek -LSB- ing -RSB- to educate the public about the science and economics of climate change in an impartial manner . '' The Coalition identifies its membership as including 60 independent nonprofit organisations from 40 countries `` who share a commitment to improving public understanding about a range of public policy issues . '' It calls itself `` a free-market alternative to mainstream environmentalism . '' An Indian news media report states that it was founded by the International Policy Network , a London-based organization that receives support from Exxon Mobil . The group publishes background papers and opinion editorials on the science and economics of climate change and maintains a blog . Its Civil Society Report on Climate Change was published in 2007 , shortly before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali . CSCCC experts make media appearances , such as Julian Morris 's 2007 feature on Larry King Live and his televised debate in 2008 with IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri . This IPN in the UK has Julian Morris as Executive Director . It is actually a part of the Atlas Group/Network ( aka Atlas Economic Research Institute ) which was founded by UK factory-chicken king , Sir Antony Fisher ( one of PM Margaret Thatcher 's economic gurus ) and American Loctite millionaire Richard Krieble . They had funding support from Krieble , Richard Mellon Scaife , and Philip Morris . Fisher is reputed to have had a primary hand in establishing up to 150 libertarian think-tanks around the world . Fisher 's daughter , Linda Whetstone , now works for the ( Fisher-founded ) Adam Smith Institute . She is also the chairperson of the International Policy Network , and is on the Boards of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society , the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Atlas Group in the USA . Coalitions and networks of this kind a common with Atlas Group think-tanks , and many of their key staff and directors serve on many different organisations . This faux-multiplicity amplifies the apparent strength of the public attacks on climate-change science . See also the Stockholm Network . and", "Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand Climate Change Denial : Heads in the Sand is a non-fiction book about climate change denial , coauthored by Haydn Washington and John Cook , with a foreword by Naomi Oreskes . Washington had a background in environmental science prior to authoring the work , and Cook was educated in physics and founded the website Skeptical Science which compiles peer-reviewed evidence of global warming . The book was first published in hardcover and paperback formats in 2011 by Earthscan , a division of Routledge . The book presents an in-depth analysis and refutation of climate change denial , going over several arguments point-by-point and disproving them with peer-reviewed evidence from the scientific consensus for climate change . The authors assert that those denying climate change engage in tactics including cherry picking data purported to support their specific viewpoints , and attacking the integrity of climate scientists . They use social science theory to examine the phenomenon of climate change denial in the wider public , and call this phenomenon a form of pathology . The book traces financial support for climate change denial to the fossil fuel industry , asserting these companies have attempted to influence public opinion on the matter . Washington and Cook write that politicians have a tendency to use weasel words as part of a propaganda tactic through use of spin , as a way to deflect public interest away from climate change and remain passive on the issue . The authors conclude that if the public ceased engaging in denial , the problem of climate change could be realistically addressed . For his research on the book , and efforts in communicating the essence of climate change science to the general public , John Cook won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge . Climate Change Denial received a positive reception in reviews from publications including : The Ecologist , ECOS magazine , academic journal Natures Sciences Sociétés , the journal Education published by the New South Wales Teachers Federation , . An article in The New American was critical , describing the labels of `` deniers '' and `` denialists '' as cruel and forms of character assassination .", "United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "Joseph J. Romm Joseph J. Romm ( born June 27 , 1960 ) is an American author , blogger , physicist and climate expert who advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency , green energy technologies and green transportation technologies . Romm is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . In 2009 , Rolling Stone magazine named Romm to its list of `` 100 People Who Are Changing America '' , and Time magazine named him one of its `` Heroes of the Environment ( 2009 ) '' , calling him `` The Web 's most influential climate-change blogger '' . Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress , where he founded their climate blog , Climate Progress , part of their Think Progress website . In 2008 , Time magazine named Romm 's blog one of the `` Top 15 Green Websites '' . In 2009 , Thomas L. Friedman , in The New York Times , called Climate Progress `` the indispensable blog '' , and in 2010 , Time included it in a list of the 25 `` Best Blogs of 2010 '' . Romm has also written for other energy and news sources . In the 1990s , Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy . He has published several books on global warming and energy technology . His 2006 book , Hell and High Water summarized observations and forecasts of climate change , discussed technology and policy solutions , and criticized political disinformation used to undermine climate science . Romm 's 2012 book , Language Intelligence , concerns persuasion and the effective use of rhetoric . He is the Chief Science Advisor for documentary series Years of Living Dangerously , which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series . His 2015 book , Climate Change : What Everyone Needs to Know , covers basic climate science in a Q&A format .", "Climatic Change (journal) Climatic Change is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science + Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability . It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief are Michael Oppenheimer ( Princeton University ) and Gary Yohe ( Wesleyan University ) .", "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Economists' Statement on Climate Change The Economists ' Statement on Climate Change was published in 1997 , prior to the Kyoto Protocol negotiated that same year , to promote market-based solutions to climate change . It was signed by more than 2,600 economists , including 18 Nobel Prize laureates , and remains the largest public statement in the history of the economics profession . The statement was coordinated by Redefining Progress , an environmental economics think tank founded by Ted Halstead .", "Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration The Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration was created as part of the Clear Skies Initiative in February 2002 by George W. Bush , as a Cabinet-level effort to coordinate climate change science and technology research . The White House says : `` The Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Energy will lead the effort , in close coordination with the President 's Science Advisor . The research effort will continue to be coordinated through the National Science and Technology Council in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . ''", "Global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "Judith Curry Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology . Her research interests include hurricanes , remote sensing , atmospheric modeling , polar climates , air-sea interactions , and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research . She is a member of the National Research Council 's Climate Research Committee . As of 2017 , she has retired from academia . Curry is the co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans ( 1999 ) , and co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences ( 2002 ) , as well as over 140 scientific papers . Among her awards is the Henry G. Houghton Research Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1992 . Regarding climate change , she thinks that the IPCC reports typically neglect what she calls the `` Uncertainty Monster '' in projecting future climate trends , which she calls a `` wicked problem . '' Curry also hosts a popular science blog in which she writes on topics related to climate science and the science-policy interface .", "Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency was an Australian Government department . Its role was to serve the people of Australia by developing a more prosperous and sustainable Australia by leading and coordinating the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions , promotion of energy efficiency , adaptation to climate change and shaping of global solutions . The Department was led by its Secretary , Blair Comley PSM who was responsible to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency , the Honourable Greg Combet AM MP . The minister was assisted by the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency , the Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP . On 25 March 2013 , responsibility for Climate Change passed to the newly formed Department of Industry , Innovation , Climate Change , Science , Research and Tertiary Education .", "Global warming conspiracy theory A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "Climate Change Science Program The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "George Marshall (environmentalist) George Marshall ( born 1964 ) is a British environmental campaigner , communications specialist and writer . He is the founder of Climate Outreach and is a specialist in climate change communications . He is the author of Carbon Detox ( 2007 ) and Do n't Even Think About It : Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change ( 2014 ) . He lives in mid-Wales .", "Cape Farewell, UK Cape Farewell is an artist led organisation that works to create an urgent cultural response to climate change . Launched by David Buckland in 2001 with a series of ground-breaking artist and scientist manned expeditions to the Arctic , Cape Farewell has become an international not-for-profit programme based at the University of the Arts London : Chelsea . Cape Farewell aims to change the way people think about climate change , and to widely communicate , educate and inspire action on the need for urgent , and achievable , change . Cape Farewell engages with our greatest creative , scientific and visionary minds to work together with clean technology entrepreneurs , sociologists and universities to achieve the non-carbon society we must all aspire to . In 15 years Cape Farewell have supported over 300 artists in the research and creation of artworks . For example , Marcus Coates ' ` The Sound of Others ' opened the Manchester Science Festival in partnership with The Museum of Science and Industry ( MOSI ) in 2014 ; Guy Martin installed Forcey 's Tower , Dorset , 2014 ; Sabrina Mahfouz completed her poetry residency with performances at the London School of Economics and the Southbank Centre ; and SWITCH showcased young climate poets in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company , Stratford . Cape Farewell is a partner organisation , working with major cultural institutions -- such as the Natural History Museum , Science Museum , Tidal Lagoon Swansea , Tate , Eden Project , Royal Academy , Maritime Museum and Southbank Centre - to create new and challenging artworks that explore and highlight the urgency of climate change and bring the vital conversation around environmental sustainability into the public domain .", "Views on the Kyoto Protocol This article is about certain views on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . A 2007 study by Gupta et al. assessed the literature on climate change policy which showed no authoritative assessments of the UNFCCC or its Protocol , that assert these agreements have , or will , succeed in fully solving the climate problem . It was assumed that the UNFCCC or its Protocol would not be changed . The Framework Convention and its Protocol , include provisions for future policy actions to be taken . Some environmentalists have supported the Kyoto Protocol because it is `` the only game in town , '' and possibly because they expect that future emission reduction commitments may demand more stringent emission reductions ( Aldy et al. . , 2003 , p. 9 ) . Some environmentalists and scientists have criticized the existing commitments for being too weak ( Grubb , 2000 , p. 5 ) . On the other hand , many economists think that the commitments are stronger than is justified . Particularly in the US , many economists have also been critical of the failure to include quantified commitments for developing countries ( Grubb , 2000 , p. 31 ) .", "Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education The Department of Industry , Innovation , Climate Change , Science , Research and Tertiary Education ( DIICSRTE ) was a department of the Australian Government charged with further developing growth in Australian industries and advancements in science and research .", "Environmental skepticism Environmental skepticism is the belief that claims by environmentalists , and the environmental scientists who support them , are false or exaggerated . The term is also applied to those who are critical of environmentalism in general . Environmental skepticism is closely linked with anti-environmentalism and climate change denial . Environmental skeptics have argued that the extent of harm coming from human activities is less certain than some scientists and scientific bodies claim , or that it is too soon to be introducing curbs in these activities on the basis of existing evidence , or that further discussion is needed regarding who should pay for such environmental initiatives . One of the focus themes in the environmental skeptics movement is the idea that environmentalism is a growing threat to social and economic progress and the civil liberties . The popularity of the term was enhanced by Bjørn Lomborg 's book The Skeptical Environmentalist . Lomborg approached environmental claims from a statistical and economic standpoint , and concluded that often the claims made by environmentalists were overstated . Lomborg argued , on the basis of cost -- benefit analysis , that few environmentalist claims warranted serious concern . However , in 2010 , Lomborg stated that he believes in the need for `` tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change '' and declared global warming to be `` undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today '' and `` a challenge humanity must confront '' . He summarized his position , saying `` Global warming is real - it is man-made and it is an important problem . But it is not the end of the world . ''", "Andrew Dessler Andrew Emory Dessler ( born 1964 ) is a climate scientist and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University . His research subject areas are atmospheric chemistry , climate change and climate change policy .", "Antarctica cooling controversy An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "Climate change opinion by country Climate change opinion is the aggregate of public opinion held by the adult population . Cost constraints often restrict surveys to sample only one or two countries from each continent or focus on only one region . Because of differences among questions , wording , and methods -- it is difficult to reliably compare results or to generalize them to opinions held worldwide . In 2007 -- 2008 , the Gallup Poll surveyed individuals from 128 countries in the first comprehensive study of global opinions . The Gallup Organization aggregated opinion from the adult population fifteen years of age and older , either through the telephone or personal interviews , and in both rural and urban areas except in areas where the safety of interviewer was threatened and in scarcely populated islands . Personal interviews were stratified by population size or geography and cluster sampling was achieved through one or more stages . Although error bounds vary , they were all below ± 6 % with 95 % confidence . Weighting countries to a 2008 World Bank population estimate , sixty-one percent of individuals worldwide were aware of global warming , developed countries more aware than developing , with Africa the least aware . The median of people perceiving it as a threat was 47 % . Latin America and developed countries in Asia led the belief that climate change was a result of human activities , while Africa , parts of Asia and the Middle East , and countries from the Former Soviet Union led in the opposite . Awareness often translates to concern , although of those aware , individuals in Europe and developed countries in Asia perceived global warming as a greater threat than others .", "Migration and global environmental change (Report) Migration and Global Environmental Change was a report about the influence of climate change on patterns of human migration and displacement published in 2011 . The report was produced by the Foresight unit at the UK 's Government Office of Science . It became known colloquially as ` The Foresight Report ' among people working in the field of climate-linked migration . The report was led by Professor Richard Black of Sussex University . The report was one of the first assessments of all the existing evidence and research on the connections between climate change and migration . The report authors also commissioned a number of new peer reviewed articles on migration and climate change , significant adding to the evidence base of the topic . The report attracted significant media attention on its release . The report was critical of previous predictions of the number of people who could be forced to move by climate change . It argued that making such numerical predictions was impossible because attributing climate change as the sole cause of someone 's migration was difficult . The report popularized the idea of trapped populations . The report argued that as well as being forced to move by climate change impacts , people might also be forced to stay where they are . The report drew on evidence showing that as people become poorer as a result of a degraded environment , they become less able to migrate . The idea of trapped populations had been present in the academic literature for sometime , however the media attention results from the release of the report brought the idea to a wider public for the first time . The report also popularized the idea of migration as climate change adaptation . Again , the authors drew on existing academic literature on the topic . They made the case that migration should be seen as a legitimate and empowering way for some people to adapt to the impacts of climate change .", "Arctic Climate Impact Assessment The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment ( ACIA ) is a study describing the ongoing climate change in the Arctic and its consequences : rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , unprecedented melting of the Greenland ice sheet , and many impacts on ecosystems , animals , and people . The ACIA is the first comprehensively researched , fully referenced , and independently reviewed evaluation of Arctic climate change and its impacts for the region and for the world . The project was guided by the intergovernmental Arctic Council and the non-governmental International Arctic Science Committee . Three hundred scientists participated in the study over a span of three years . The 140-page synthesis report Impacts of a Warming Arctic was released in November 2004 , and the scientific report later in 2005 . The ACIA Secretariat is located at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks .", "Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "An Appeal to Reason An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson ." ]

[ "Antarctica Antarctica ( UK English -LSB- ænˈtɑːktɪkə -RSB- or -LSB- ænˈtɑːtɪkə -RSB- , US English -LSB- æntˈɑːrktɪkə -RSB- ) is Earth 's southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At 14000000 km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctica , on average , is the coldest , driest , and windiest continent , and has the highest average elevation of all the continents . Antarctica is a desert , with annual precipitation of only 200 mm ( 8 in ) along the coast and far less inland . The temperature in Antarctica has reached − 89.2 ° C ( − 128.6 ° F ) , though the average for the third quarter ( the coldest part of the year ) is − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent . Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae , bacteria , fungi , plants , protista , and certain animals , such as mites , nematodes , penguins , seals and tardigrades . Vegetation , where it occurs , is tundra . Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ( `` Southern Land '' ) date back to antiquity , Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered and colonised by humans , being only first sighted in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny , who sighted the Fimbul ice shelf . The continent , however , remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment , lack of easily accessible resources , and isolation . In 1895 , the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians . Antarctica is a de facto condominium , governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status . Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 , and thirty-eight have signed it since then . The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining , prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal , supports scientific research , and protects the continent 's ecozone . Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations ." ]

[ "Golden Lion (novel) Golden Lion is a 2015 novel by Wilbur Smith ad Giles Kristian . It is part of the Courtney series of novels . It was the first of six novels Smith did with a co-writer . Smith says he sketched out the storyline and characters but another person wrote it . He said , `` I have a particular way of writing , and they have their way . I take their sentences or chapters and I put the Wilbur Smith gloss on them ... It 's spelled m. . . a. . . g. . . i. . . c. Magic ! Everyone has their own magic and I have my particular magic that I have developed very carefully over the past 50 years . ''", "Taj Mahal Bangladesh Taj Mahal Bangladesh is a scaled copy of the original Taj Mahal ( a Mughal mausoleum located in Agra , India ) located 10 miles east of the Bangladeshi capital , Dhaka in Sonargaon . Unlike the original , work on the building took only five years . Ahsanullah Moni , a wealthy Bangladeshi film-maker , announced his ` Copycat version of Taj Mahal ' project in December 2008 . The project cost about USD$ 56 Million , and was built 20 miles northeast of Capital Dhaka . Moni has explained that he built a replica of the Taj Mahal so that the poor of his nation can realise their dream of seeing neighbouring India 's famed monument . This caused complaints from Indian officials , `` You ca n't just go and copy historical monuments '' an official of Indian High Commission in Dhaka told press . Construction began in 2003 , but Mr Moni says that he came up with the idea in 1980 when he first visited the real Taj in Agra , India . He said that his homage had been built because most people living in Bangladesh - where nearly half of the population exist below the poverty line - can not afford to travel to India to see the real thing . `` Everyone dreams about seeing the Taj Mahal but very few Bangladeshis can make the trip because it 's too expensive for them , '' he said . Mr Moni first visited the original in 1980 and has made six return trips . So enamoured was he of the site that he hired a group of architects and sent them to India to measure it . He said : `` I used the same marble and stone as in the original Taj . We used machinery , which is why it took less time . Otherwise it would have taken 20 years and 22,000 workers to complete it . '' Last night Mr Mittal , at the Indian High Commission , did concede that the replica was unlikely to detract from the magnificence of the original . He also admitted that visitors were unlikely to mix up one with the other . `` A copy is a form of flattery , I suppose , '' he said .", "Bhringi According to Hindu mythology , Bhringi was an ancient sage ( rishi ) , and a great devotee of Shiva , the Hindu God of destruction and rejuvenation . According to mythology , all the rishis paid homage to both Shiva and Parvati , consort of Shiva , but Bhringi would not worship Parvati and dedicated himself solely to Shiva . The story goes that Bhringi one day , came to Mount Kailash , the abode of Shiva , and expressed his desire to go around Shiva . As he was going around , Shiva 's consort , Shakti , said , `` You can not just go around him . You have to go around me too . We are two halves of the same truth . '' Bhringi , however , was so focussed on Shiva that he had no desire to go around Shakti . Seeing this , Shakti sat on Shiva 's lap making it difficult for Bhringi to go around Shiva alone . Bhringi , determined to go around Shiva took the form of a Bhring ( Black Bee ) and tried to slip in between the two . Amused by this , Shiva made Shakti one half of his body -- the famous Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva . This was God whose one half is the Goddess . But Bhringi was adamant . He would go around Shiva alone . So he took the form of a rat , some say a bee , and tried to gnaw his way between the two . This annoyed the Goddess so much that she said , `` May Bhringi lose all parts of the body that come from the mother . '' In Tantra , the Indian school of alchemy , it is believed that the tough and rigid parts of the body such as nerves and bones come from the father while the soft and fluid parts of the body such as flesh and blood come from the mother . Instantly , Bhringi lost all flesh and blood and he became a bag of bones . He collapsed on the floor , unable to get up . Bhringi realized his folly . Shiva and Shakti make up the whole . They are not independent entities . One can not exist without the other . Without either there is neither . He apologized . So the world never forgets this lesson . Bhringi was denied flesh and blood forever . To enable him to stand upright he was given a third leg , so that his legs served as a tripod .", "Drive (charity) In charitable organizations , a drive is a collection of items for people who need them , such as clothing , used items , books , canned food , cars , etc. . Some drives are that people go through their inventory , bag the items up , and put them in a giveaway bin , or charitable organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters , The Salvation Army come to the house and pick them up . They then put the items in their thrift stores or , if they do n't have any , sell them to thrift stores to raise money for their organization .", "Street Dreams (film) Street Dreams is an American film directed by Chris Zamoscianyk , produced by Rob Dyrdek , Jason Bergh and Sal Masekela and written by Elisa Delson , Rob Dyrdek , and Nino Scalia . Derrick Cabrera ( Paul Rodriguez ) has a dream of being sponsored and one day going pro . He is an up-and-coming street skateboarder from Chicago with all the talent but has the world against him . Parents , friends and schoolmates ca n't understand how Derrick has so much passion for something that has no future in their eyes . As everyone pushes him around , including his own father , girlfriend , and even one of his closest friends , he does n't give up on both achieving his dreams , and proving everyone wrong ." ]

[ "Rain Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated -- that is , become heavy enough to fall under gravity . Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth . It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems , as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation . The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts . If enough moisture and upward motion is present , precipitation falls from convective clouds ( those with strong upward vertical motion ) such as cumulonimbus ( thunder clouds ) which can organize into narrow rainbands . In mountainous areas , heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains . On the leeward side of mountains , desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass . The movement of the monsoon trough , or intertropical convergence zone , brings rainy seasons to savannah climes . The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall , both in amounts and intensity , downwind of cities . Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally , including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics . Antarctica is the driest continent . The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm , but over the whole Earth it is much higher at 990 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes . Rainfall is measured using rain gauges . Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar . Rain is also known or suspected on other planets , where it may be composed of methane , neon , sulfuric acid , or even iron rather than water .", "Supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone : a deep , persistently rotating updraft . For this reason , these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms . Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( supercell , squall line , multi-cell , and single-cell ) , supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe . Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms , and can dominate the local weather up to 32 km away . Supercells are often put into three classification types : Classic , Low-precipitation ( LP ) , and High-precipitation ( HP ) . LP supercells are usually found in climates that are more arid , such as the high plains of the United States , and HP supercells are most often found in moist climates . Supercells can occur anywhere in the world under the right pre-existing weather conditions , but they are most common in the Great Plains of the United States in an area known as Tornado Alley and in the Tornado Corridor of Argentina , Uruguay and southern Brazil .", "Tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center , a closed low-level atmospheric circulation , strong winds , and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain . Depending on its location and strength , a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane ( -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkən -RSB- or -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkeɪn -RSB- ) , typhoon -LSB- taɪ ` fuːn -RSB- , tropical storm , cyclonic storm , tropical depression , and simply cyclone . A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean , a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean , and a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean . Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water . They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface , which ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation . This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms , such as nor'easter s and European windstorms , which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts . The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of angular momentum imparted by the Earth 's rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation . As a result , they rarely form within 5 ° of the equator . Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and in diameter . Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems , which form almost exclusively over tropical seas . Cyclone refers to their cyclonic nature , with wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere . The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect . In addition to strong winds and rain , tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves , damaging storm surge , and tornadoes . They typically weaken rapidly over land where they are cut off from their primary energy source . For this reason , coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions . Heavy rains , however , can cause significant flooding inland , and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 km from the coastline . Though their effects on human populations are often devastating , tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions . They also carry heat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes , which may play an important role in modulating regional and global climate .", "Climate of India The climate of India comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a vast geographic scale and varied topography , making generalisations difficult . Based on the Köppen system , India hosts six major climatic subtypes , ranging from arid desert in the west , alpine tundra and glaciers in the north , and humid tropical regions supporting rainforests in the southwest and the island territories . Many regions have starkly different microclimates . The nation has four seasons : winter ( December , January and February ) , summer ( March , April and May ) , a monsoon rainy season ( June to September ) , and a post-monsoon period ( October to November ) . India 's geography and geology are climatically pivotal : the Thar Desert in the northwest and the Himalayas in the north work in tandem to effect a culturally and economically important monsoonal regime . As Earth 's highest and most massive mountain range , the Himalayas bar the influx of frigid katabatic winds from the icy Tibetan Plateau and northerly Central Asia . Most of North India is thus kept warm or is only mildly chilly or cold during winter ; the same thermal dam keeps most regions in India hot in summer . Though the Tropic of Cancer -- the boundary between the tropics and subtropics -- passes through the middle of India , the bulk of the country can be regarded as climatically tropical . As in much of the tropics , monsoonal and other weather patterns in India can be wildly unstable : epochal droughts , floods , cyclones , and other natural disasters are sporadic , but have displaced or ended millions of human lives . There is one scientific opinion which states that in South Asia such climatic events are likely to change in unpredictability , frequency , and severity . Ongoing and future vegetative changes and current sea level rises and the attendant inundation of India 's low-lying coastal areas are other impacts , current or predicted , that are attributable to global warming .", "Uruguay Uruguay ( -LSB- ˈjʊərəɡwaɪ -RSB- -LSB- uɾuˈɣwai̯ -RSB- ) , officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( República Oriental del Uruguay ) , is a sovereign State in the southeastern region of South America . It borders Argentina to its west and Brazil to its north and east , with the Río de la Plata ( River of Silver ) to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast . Uruguay is home to an estimated 3.42 million people , of whom 1.8 million live in the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city , Montevideo . With an area of approximately 176000 km2 , Uruguay is geographically the second-smallest nation in South America , only larger in size than Suriname . Uruguay was inhabited by the Charrúa people for approximately 4000 years before the Portuguese established Colonia del Sacramento , one of the oldest European settlements in the region , in 1680 . Montevideo was founded as a military stronghold by the Spanish in the early 18th century , signifying the competing claims over the region . Uruguay won its independence between 1811 and 1828 , following a four-way struggle between Spain , Portugal , Argentina and Brazil . It remained subject to foreign influence and intervention throughout the 19th century , with the military playing a recurring role in domestic politics until the late 20th century . Modern Uruguay is a democratic constitutional republic , with a president who serves as both head of state and head of government . Uruguay is ranked first in Latin America in democracy , peace , lack of corruption , e-government , and is first in South America when it comes to press freedom , size of the middle class and prosperity . On a per-capita basis , Uruguay contributes more troops to United Nations peace-keeping missions than any other country . It ranks second in the region on economic freedom , income equality , per-capita income and inflows of FDI . Uruguay is the third-best country on the continent in terms of HDI , GDP growth , innovation and infrastructure . It is regarded as a high-income country ( top group ) by the UN . Uruguay is also the third-best ranked in the world in e-Participation . Uruguay is an important global exporter of combed wool , rice , soybeans , frozen beef , malt and milk . Nearly 95 % of Uruguay 's electricity comes from renewable energy , mostly hydroelectric facilities and wind parks . The Economist named Uruguay `` country of the year '' in 2013 , acknowledging the innovative policy of legalizing the production , sale and consumption of cannabis . Same-sex marriage and abortion are also legal , leading Uruguay to be regarded as one of the most progressive nations in the world , and one of the most socially developed , outstanding regionally , and ranking highly on global measures of personal rights , tolerance , and inclusion issues ." ]

[ "European Severe Storms Laboratory The European Severe Storms Laboratory ( ESSL ) started as an informal network of European scientists with the goal to advance research on severe convective storms and extreme weather events on a European level and can be seen as the European equivalent to the National Severe Storms Laboratory . Severe weather includes extreme local meteorological events like tornados , heavy precipitation events and avalanches . The ESSL focuses on research questions concerning convective storms and other extreme weather phenomena which can be treated more efficiently on a pan-European scale .", "Extreme value theory Extreme value theory or extreme value analysis ( EVA ) is a branch of statistics dealing with the extreme deviations from the median of probability distributions . It seeks to assess , from a given ordered sample of a given random variable , the probability of events that are more extreme than any previously observed . Extreme value analysis is widely used in many disciplines , such as structural engineering , finance , earth sciences , traffic prediction , and geological engineering . For example , EVA might be used in the field of hydrology to estimate the probability of an unusually large flooding event , such as the 100-year flood . Similarly , for the design of a breakwater , a coastal engineer would seek to estimate the 50-year wave and design the structure accordingly .", "Proarrhythmia Proarrhythmia is a new or more frequent occurrence of pre-existing arrhythmias , paradoxically precipitated by antiarrhythmic therapy , which means it is a side effect associated with the administration of some existing antiarrhythmic drugs , as well as drugs for other indications . In other words , it is a tendency of antiarrhythmic drugs to facilitate emergence of new arrhythmias .", "Tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories `` Aw '' and `` As '' . Tropical savanna climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 ° C in every month of the year and typically a pronounced dry season , with the driest month having precipitation less than 60 mm and also less than 100 -- -LSB- total annual precipitation -LCB- mm -RCB- / 25 -RSB- of precipitation . This latter fact is in direct contrast to a tropical monsoon climate , whose driest month sees less than 60 mm of precipitation but has more than 100 -- -LSB- total annual precipitation -LCB- mm -RCB- / 25 -RSB- of precipitation . In essence , a tropical savanna climate tends to either see less rainfall than a tropical monsoon climate or have more pronounced dry seasons . There are generally four types of tropical savanna climate : 1 . Distinct wet and dry seasons of relatively equal duration . Most of the region 's annual rainfall is experienced during the wet season and very little precipitation falls during the dry season . 2 . A lengthy dry season and a relatively short wet season . This version features seven or more dry season months and five or less wet season months . There are variations within this version : On one extreme , the region receives just enough precipitation during the short wet season to preclude it from a semi-arid climate classification . This drier variation of the tropical savanna climate is typically found adjacent to regions with semi-arid climates . On the other extreme , the climate features a lengthy dry season followed by a short but extremely rainy wet season . However , regions with this variation of the climate do not experience enough rainfall during the wet season to qualify as a tropical monsoon climate . 3 . A lengthy wet season and a relatively short dry season . This version features seven or more wet season months and five or less dry season months . This version 's precipitation pattern is similar to precipitation patterns observed in some tropical monsoon climates , but does not experience enough rainfall during the wet season to be classified as such . 4 . A dry season with a noticeable amount of rainfall followed by a rainy wet season . In essence , this version mimics the precipitation patterns more commonly found in a tropical monsoon climate , but do not receive enough precipitation during either the dry season or the year to be classified as such .", "Palindromic rheumatism Palindromic rheumatism ( PR ) consists of sudden and rapidly developing attacks of arthritis . There is acute pain , redness , swelling , and disability of one ( usually ) or multiple joints . The interval between recurrent attacks is extremely variable and how long the attack lasts is also variable . Attacks may last from few hours to days . Attacks may become more frequent with time . There is no joint damage after attacks .", "Ossifying fibromyxoid tumour An ossifying fibromyxoid tumour is a type of myxoma . It presents in the extremities more frequently than the trunk . It is derived from mesenchyme . Appearance in the head and neck is rare , but has been reported . Their malignancy has been characterized as `` intermediate '' .", "Warming center A warming center is a short-term emergency shelter that operates when temperatures or a combination of precipitation , wind chill , wind and temperature become dangerously inclement . Their paramount purpose is the prevention of death and injury from exposure to the elements . This may include acute trauma from falling objects such as trees , or injury to extremities due to frostbite . A more prevalent emergency which warming centers seek to prevent is hypothermia , the risk for which is aggravated by factors such as age , alcohol consumption , and homelessness .", "Climate of south-west England The climate of south-west England is classed as oceanic ( Cfb ) according to the Köppen climate classification . The oceanic climate is typified by cool winters with warmer summers and precipitation all year round , with more experienced in winter . Annual rainfall is about 1000 mm and up to 2000 mm on higher ground . Summer maxima averages range from 18 ° C to 22 ° C and winter minima averages range from 1 ° C to 4 ° C across the south-west . It is the second windiest area of the United Kingdom , the majority of winds coming from the south-west and north-east . Government organisations predict the area will experience a rise in temperature and become the hottest region in the United Kingdom . Inland areas of low altitude experience the least amount of precipitation . They have the highest summer maxima temperatures , but winter minima are lower than those of the coast . Snowfalls are more frequent in comparison to the coast , but less so in comparison to higher ground . They experience the lowest wind speeds and the total sunshine hours are between those of the coast and the moors . This typical climate of inland areas is more noticeable the further north-east into the region . In comparison to inland areas , the coast experiences high minimum temperatures , especially in winter , and slightly lower maximum temperatures during the summer . Rainfall is lowest at the coast and snowfall there is rarer than the rest of the region . Coastal areas are the windiest parts of the peninsula and they receive the most sunshine . The general coastal climate becomes more prevalent further south-west into the region . The south-west has areas of moorland inland such as Bodmin Moor , Dartmoor and Exmoor . Because of their high altitude they experience lower temperatures and more precipitation than the rest of the south west ( approximately twice as much rainfall as lowland areas ) . Both of these factors also result in the highest levels of snowfall and the lowest levels of sunshine . Exposed areas of the moors are windier than the lowlands and can be almost as windy as the coast .", "Precipitated silica Precipitated silica is a silica ( SiO2 ) produced by precipitation from a solution containing silicate salts . In 1999 , more than 1M tons/y were produced , mainly for use in tires and shoe soles .", "Polycoria Polycoria is a pathological condition of the eye characterized by more than one pupillary opening in the iris . It may be congenital or result from a disease affecting the iris . Polycoria is extremely rare , and other conditions are frequently mistaken for it .", "Boiling chip A boiling chip , boiling stone , or anti-bumping granule is a tiny , unevenly shaped piece of substance added to liquids to make them boil more calmly . Boiling chips are frequently employed in distillation and heating . When a liquid becomes superheated , a particle of dust or a stirring rod can cause flash boiling . This very rapid boiling can be extremely violent and cause reagents to splatter , possibly causing severe burns , ruining experiments , and damaging equipment . Boiling chips work by providing nucleation sites so the liquid boils smoothly without becoming superheated or bumping .", "Absolute democracy Absolute democracy is an extreme form of a collective perception of order . It should not to be confused with `` power democracy '' as found in the Swiss political system ( in which elective activities for the adjustment of social/political matters are more frequent than in other democracies ) .", "Protein precipitation Protein Precipitation is widely used in downstream processing of biological products in order to concentrate proteins and purify them from various contaminants . For example , in the biotechnology industry protein precipitation is used to eliminate contaminants commonly contained in blood . The underlying mechanism of precipitation is to alter the solvation potential of the solvent , more specifically , by lowering the solubility of the solute by addition of a reagent .", "Optical rogue waves Optical rogue waves are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves . The term optical rogue waves was coined to describe rare pulses of broadband light arising during the process of supercontinuum generation -- a noise-sensitive nonlinear process in which extremely broadband radiation is generated from a narrowband input waveform -- in nonlinear optical fiber . In this context , optical rogue waves are characterized by an anomalous surplus in energy at particular wavelengths ( e.g. , those shifted to the red of the input waveform ) and/or an unexpected peak power . These anomalous events have been shown to follow heavy-tailed statistics , also known as L-shaped statistics , fat-tailed statistics , or extreme-value statistics . These probability distributions are characterized by long tails : large outliers occur rarely , yet much more frequently than expected from Gaussian statistics and intuition . Such distributions also describe the probabilities of freak ocean waves and various phenomena in both the man-made and natural worlds . Despite their infrequency , rare events wield significant influence in many systems . Aside from the statistical similarities , light waves traveling in optical fibers are known to obey the similar mathematics as water waves traveling in the open ocean ( the nonlinear Schrödinger equation ) , supporting the analogy between oceanic rogue waves and their optical counterparts . More generally , research has exposed a number of different analogies between extreme events in optics and hydrodynamic systems . A key practical difference is that most optical experiments can be done with a table-top apparatus , offer a high degree of experimental control , and allow data to be acquired extremely rapidly . Consequently , optical rogue waves are attractive for experimental and theoretical research and have become a highly studied phenomenon . The particulars of the analogy between extreme waves in optics and hydrodynamics may vary depending on the context , but the existence of rare events and extreme statistics in wave-related phenomena are common ground .", "Historic desertification Historic desertification is the study of the desert-forming process from a historic perspective . It was presumed in the past that the main causes of desertification lay in overuse of the land resulting in impoverishment of the soil , reduced vegetation cover , increased risk of drought and the resulting wind erosion . However recent projects to regreen deserts have not met with the success envisaged , and cast doubts on this theory . Research suggests that it is extreme events rather than drought caused by low annual prcipitation , that do the most damage . Heavy downpours resulting in flash floods wash away sediment and there seems to have been an increased number of extreme events in the Levant at the end of the Byzantine period . The decline of settlements in the desert belt at this time may have been caused by these extreme events rather than a reduction in annual precipitation .", "Mountains of Tlemcen The mountains of Tlemcen are a mountain range of Algeria located in the north-west of the country in the wilaya of Tlemcen . The Tlemcen Mountains are a chain of the Tellian Atlas situated at its western extremity to the south of the Tlemcen basin . The massif is relatively well watered with precipitation greater than 600 mm / year . It is more forested than the Trara massif , especially in the south-western part . The northern part of the mountains is included in the Tlemcen National Park which overlooks the town of Tlemcen .", "Peptization Peptization is the process responsible for the formation of stable dispersion of colloidal particles in dispersion medium . In other words it may be defined as a process of converting a precipitate into colloidal sol by shaking it with dispersion medium in the presence of small amount of electrolyte . The electrolyte used in this process is called as peptizing agent . This is particularly important in colloid chemistry or for precipitation reactions in an aqueous solution . When colloidal particles bear a same sign electric charge , they mutually repel each other and can not aggregate together . Freshly precipitated aluminium or iron hydroxide is extremely difficult to filter because the very fine colloidal particles directly pass through a paper filter . To facilitate the filtration , the colloidal suspension must be first flocculated by adding a concentrated solution of salt to the system . Multivalent cations are more efficient flocculants than monovalent cations : AlCl3 > CaCl2 > NaCl . The electrical charges present at the surface of the particles are so `` neutralised '' and disappear . More correctly speaking , the electrical double layer existing at the surface of the particles is compressed by the added electrolyte and collapses at high ionic strength . The electrical repulsion no longer hinders the aggregation of particles and they can then coalesce to form a flocculent precipitate that is easy to filter . If the precipitate is washed with an excessive volume of deionised water , the electrical double layer present at the surface of the particles expands again and the electrical repulsion reappears : the precipitate peptizes and the particles pass again through the filter . Peptization is also used in nanoparticle synthesis to make a large grouping of particles split into many primary particles . This is done by changing the surface properties , applying a charge , or by adding a surfactant . In the synthesis of titania ( titanium dioxide ) nanoparticles , peptization involves adsorption of quaternary ammonium cation on the titania surface . This causes the surface to become positively charged . Electrostatic repulsion of the primary particles in the agglomerated titania breaks up the agglomerate into primary particles .", "Prostatic congestion Prostatic congestion is a medical condition of the prostate gland ( prostatosis ) that happens when the prostate becomes swollen by excess fluid . The condition often results in a sufferer feeling the urge to urinate frequently . Some physicians recommend reducing congestion in the prostate by ejaculating more frequently or by massaging the prostate regularly .", "Partisan sorting Partisan sorting or geographic sorting is an effect in politics in which voters with specific viewpoints migrate to specific areas , becoming much more concentrated in them than in the wider electorate . This effect may create or contribute to an effect of polarisation , in which separate areas become dominated by political movements much more extreme than might be expected given the `` average '' political views of voters . In 2008 , The Economist commented that in American politics sorting was making `` the culture war more bitter and politics harder . '' A 2016 study finds no evidence that partisans move to more politically compatible communities .", "Cortes (surname) Cortés ( Castilian , Galician , Valencian ) , Cortês ( Portuguese ) , Cortès ( Catalan ) is a surname of Spanish and Portuguese origin , respectively . The surname derived from the Old French corteis or curteis , meaning `` courteous '' or `` polite '' and is related to the English Curtis , although the English form has become more widely used as a given name . The surname has become more frequent among Romani people in Spain than among the general Spanish population .", "Iterative aspect The iterative aspect ( abbreviated ) , also called `` semelfactive '' , `` event-internal pluractionality '' , or `` multiplicative '' , is a grammatical aspect that expresses the repetition of an event observable on one single occasion , as in ` he knocked on the door ' , ` he coughed ' , ` she is drumming ' , etc. . It is not to be confused with frequentative aspect and habitual aspect , which both signal repetition over more than one occasion . Other authors have reserve the term `` semelfactive '' for this mono-occasional repetition , and defined iterative aspect as denoting ` several ' repetitions over more than one occasion , as opposed to the ` frequent ' repetitions conveyed by frequentative aspect .", "Boxing at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Heavyweight The heavyweight class in the boxing at the 1964 Summer Olympics competition was the heaviest class . Heavyweights included all boxers weighing in at more than 81 kilograms .", "Climate change in Wyoming On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "Foothill woodland Foothill woodland is a California vegetation type characterized by an overstory of broadleaf and coniferous trees , generally found in areas of higher elevations and more precipitation than grasslands and oak savannah , and at lower elevations and less precipitation than mixed coniferous .", "Travertine Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs , especially hot springs . Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white , tan , cream-colored , and even rusty varieties . It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate , often at the mouth of a hot spring or in a limestone cave . In the latter , it can form stalactites , stalagmites , and other speleothems . It is frequently used in Italy and elsewhere as a building material . Travertine is a terrestrial sedimentary rock , formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals from solution in ground and surface waters , and/or geothermally heated hot-springs . Similar ( but softer and extremely porous ) deposits formed from ambient-temperature water are known as tufa .", "Computers in the classroom Computers in the classroom include any digital technology used to enhance , supplement , or replace a traditional educational curriculum . As computers have become more accessible , inexpensive , and powerful , the demand for this technology has increased , leading to more frequent use of computer resources within classes , and a decrease in the student-to-computer ratio within schools .", "Young Gods (film) Young Gods ( Finnish title : Hymypoika ) , is a 2003 film from Finland . The film centres on a group of Finnish teenagers who begin to make videos of themselves and others having sex . Their adventures become more and more extreme , eventually leading to tragic consequences . It was directed by Jukka-Pekka Siili and stars Jussi Nikkilä . The movie is available in the USA from Picture This ! Entertainment .", "The Weather of the Future The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "Woodwardia unigemmata Woodwardia unigemmata is a species of fern native to Eastern Asia and provides a large area of undergrowth , requiring more than average precipitation .", "Nitrofural Nitrofural ( INN , trade name Furacin ) is a bactericidal compound used as an antibiotic most commonly in the form of ointments . Its use in medicine has become less frequent as safer and more effective products have become available , and it has been discontinued in the US . The substance is pale yellow and crystalline . Other names include nitrofurazone and furacilin .", "Extreme sport Extreme sports are recreational activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk . These activities often involve speed , height , a high level of physical exertion , and highly specialized gear . The definition of an extreme sport is not exact and the origin of the term is unclear , but it gained popularity in the 1990s when it was picked up by marketing companies to promote the X Games and when the Extreme Sports Channel and Extreme.com launched . More recently , the commonly used definition from research is `` a competitive ( comparison or self-evaluative ) activity within which the participant is subjected to natural or unusual physical and mental challenges such as speed , height , depth or natural forces and where fast and accurate cognitive perceptual processing may be required for a successful outcome '' by Dr. Rhonda Cohen ( 2012 ) . While use of the term `` extreme sport '' has spread far and wide to describe a multitude of different activities , exactly which sports are considered ` extreme ' is debatable . There are , however , several characteristics common to most extreme sports . While not the exclusive domain of youth , extreme sports tend to have a younger-than-average target demographic . Extreme sports are rarely sanctioned by schools . Extreme sports tend to be more solitary than traditional sports ( rafting and paintballing are notable exceptions , as they are done in teams ) . In addition , beginning extreme athletes tend to work on their craft without the guidance of a coach ( though some may hire a coach later ) . Activities categorized by media as extreme sports differ from traditional sports due to the higher number of inherently uncontrollable variables . These environmental variables are frequently weather and terrain related , including wind , snow , water and mountains . Because these natural phenomena can not be controlled , they inevitably affect the outcome of the given activity or event . In a traditional sporting event , athletes compete against each other under controlled circumstances . While it is possible to create a controlled sporting event such as X Games , there are environmental variables that can not be held constant for all athletes . Examples include changing snow conditions for snowboarders , rock and ice quality for climbers , and wave height and shape for surfers . Whilst traditional sporting judgment criteria may be adopted when assessing performance ( distance , time , score , etc. ) , extreme sports performers are often evaluated on more subjective and aesthetic criteria . This results in a tendency to reject unified judging methods , with different sports employing their own ideals and indeed having the ability to evolve their assessment standards with new trends or developments in the sports .", "Climatic regions of Argentina Due to its vast size and range of altitudes , Argentina possesses a wide variety of climatic regions , ranging from the hot subtropical region in the north to the cold subantarctic in the far south . Lying between those is the Pampas region , featuring a mild and humid climate . Many regions have different , often contrasting , microclimates . In general , Argentina has four main climate types : warm , moderate , arid , and cold in which the relief features , and the latitudinal extent of the country , determine the different varieties within the main climate types . Northern parts of the country are characterized by hot , humid summers with mild , drier winters , and highly seasonal precipitation . Mesopotamia , located in northeast Argentina , has a subtropical climate with no dry season and is characterized by high temperatures and abundant rainfall because of exposure to moist easterly winds from the Atlantic Ocean throughout the year . The Chaco region in the center-north , despite being relatively homogeneous in terms of precipitation and temperature , is the warmest region in Argentina , and one of the few natural areas in the world located between tropical and temperate latitudes that is not a desert . Precipitation decreases from east to west in the Chaco region because eastern areas are more influenced by moist air from the Atlantic Ocean than the west , resulting in the vegetation transitioning from forests and marshes to shrubs . Northwest Argentina is predominantly dry , hot , and subtropical although its rugged topography results in a diverse climate . Central Argentina , which includes the Pampas to the east , and the Cuyo region to the west , has a temperate climate with hot summers and cool , drier winters . In the Cuyo region , the Andes obstruct the path of rain-bearing clouds from the Pacific Ocean ; moreover , its latitude coincides with the subtropical high . Both factors render the region dry . With a wide range of altitudes , the Cuyo region is climatically diverse , with icy conditions persisting at altitudes higher than 4,000 m . The Pampas is mostly flat and receives more precipitation , averaging 500 mm in the western parts to 1200 mm in the eastern parts . The weather in the Pampas is variable due to the contrasting air masses and frontal storms that impact the region . These can generate thunderstorms with intense hailstorms and precipitation , and are known to have the most frequent lightning , and highest convective cloud tops , in the world . Patagonia , in the south , is mostly arid or semi -- arid except in the extreme west where abundant precipitation supports dense forest coverage , glaciers , and permanent snowfields . Its climate is classified as temperate to cool temperate with the surrounding oceans moderating temperatures on the coast . Away from the coast , areas on the plateaus have large daily and annual temperature ranges . The influence of the Andes , in conjunction with general circulation patterns , generates one of the strongest precipitation gradients ( rate of change in mean annual precipitation in relation to a particular location ) in the world , decreasing rapidly to the east . In much of Patagonia precipitation is concentrated in winter with snowfall occurring occasionally , particularly in the mountainous west and south ; precipitation is more evenly distributed in the east and south . One defining characteristic is the strong winds from the west which blow year-round , lowering the perception of temperature ( wind chill ) , while being a factor in keeping the region arid by favouring evaporation ." ]

[ "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "Deforestation and climate change Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "Global dimming Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth 's surface that was observed for several decades after the start of systematic measurements in the 1950s . The effect varies by location , but worldwide it has been estimated to be of the order of a 4 % reduction over the three decades from 1960 -- 1990 . However , after discounting an anomaly caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , a very slight reversal in the overall trend has been observed . Global dimming is thought to have been caused by an increase in particulates such as sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere due to human action . It has interfered with the hydrological cycle by reducing evaporation and may have reduced rainfall in some areas . Global dimming also creates a cooling effect that may have partially counteracted the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming .", "Low-carbon economy A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "GHG footprint The GHG footprint , or greenhouse gas footprint , refers to the amount of GHG that are emitted during the creation of products or services . It is more comprehensive than the commonly used carbon footprint , which measures only carbon dioxide , one of many greenhouse gases . The GHG footprint differs from the ecological footprint in that the former is expressed in units of GHG warming potential ( GGWP ) and is generated by products or services , whereas the latter is expressed in units of land area and is generated by whole societies .", "Runaway greenhouse effect A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "Landfill gas Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill . Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide . Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder ( < 1 % ) . These trace gases include a large array of species , mainly simple hydrocarbons . Landfill gases have an influence on climate change . The major components are CO2 and methane , both of which are greenhouse gas . In terms of global warming potential , methane is over 25 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide . Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US .", "Greenhouse gas removal Greenhouse gas removal projects are a type of climate engineering that seek to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere , and thus they tackle the root cause of global warming . These techniques either directly remove greenhouse gases , or alternatively seek to influence natural processes to remove greenhouse gases indirectly . The discipline overlaps with carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration , and some projects listed may not be considered to be geoengineering by all commentators , instead being described as mitigation .", "Radiative forcing Radiative forcing or climate forcing is the difference between insolation ( sunlight ) absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space . Typically , radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter of the Earth 's surface . Positive forcing ( incoming energy exceeding outgoing energy ) warms the system , while negative forcing ( outgoing energy exceeding incoming energy ) cools it . Causes of radiative forcing include changes in insolation and the concentrations of radiatively active gases , commonly known as greenhouse gases and aerosols .", "Emission Reduction Unit The emission reduction unit ( ERU ) is an emissions unit issued under a Joint Implementation project in terms of the Kyoto Protocol . An ERU represents a reduction of greenhouse gases under the Joint Implementation mechanism , where it represents one tonne of equivalent reduced . To allow comparison between the different effects of gases on the environment , scientists have defined multipliers for gases that compare their greenhouse potency ( global warming potential ) relative to that of carbon dioxide . One example of a Joint Implementation project resulting in an emission reduction unit , is the production of biogases by landfill sites . These gases consist of mainly methane which escapes to the atmosphere if it is not collected . The main reason for dealing with methane is that it has a 100-year global warming potential multiplier of 25 compared to carbon dioxide ( i.e. has 25 times the greenhouse potency ) . Collection of methane is usually accompanied by its combustion . Burning one tonne of methane produces nearly 3 tonnes of , thus reducing its greenhouse effect by ( 25-3 = 22 ) ERU . In December 2012 , ERU prices crashed to a low of 15 euro cents before recovering to 23c after news that EU 's Climate Change Committee was to vote on a ban of ERUs from countries that have not signed up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol . In January 2013 , Bloomberg reported that emission reduction unit prices declined 89 percent in 2012", "GWG GWG is a three letter acronym that can stand for : Girls with guns Girls with glasses Game-winning goal , in sports Global warming gases ( greenhouse gases ) Games with Gold , an Xbox Live promotion Goodwill Gang", "Simon Tett Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "Economics of global warming The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "Total equivalent warming impact Total equivalent warming impact or TEWI is besides global warming potential measure used to express contributions to global warming . It is defined as sum of the direct emissions ( chemical ) and indirect emissions ( energy use ) of greenhouse gases .", "Atmospheric carbon cycle The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "Ozone depletion and climate change Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "IPCC list of greenhouse gases This is a list of LLGHG ( long-lived greenhouse gases ) greenhouse gases as used by the IPCC TAR .", "Global temperature record The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "Mitigation of global warming in Australia Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "Regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act The United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) began regulating greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) under the Clean Air Act ( `` CAA '' or `` Act '' ) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution for the first time on January 2 , 2011 . Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA , and GHGs from stationary sources are currently controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act . The basis for regulations was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June 2012 .", "Carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Methane Methane ( -LSB- ˈmɛθeɪn -RSB- or -LSB- ˈmiːθeɪn -RSB- ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula ( one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen ) . It is a group 14 hydride and the simplest alkane , and is the main constituent of natural gas . The relative abundance of methane on Earth makes it an attractive fuel , though capturing and storing it poses challenges due to its gaseous state under normal conditions for temperature and pressure . Natural methane is found both below ground and under the sea floor . When it reaches the surface and the atmosphere , it is known as atmospheric methane . The Earth 's atmospheric methane concentration has increased by about 150 % since 1750 , and it accounts for 20 % of the total radiative forcing from all of the long-lived and globally mixed greenhouse gases ( these gases do n't include water vapor which is by far the largest component of the greenhouse effect ) .", "Global warming potential Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "Atmospheric methane Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "Climate change in the United States Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "ExxonMobil climate change controversy The ExxonMobil climate change controversy is the controversy around ExxonMobil 's activities related to climate change , especially their promotion of climate change denial . Since the 1970s , ExxonMobil engaged in research , lobbying , advertising , and grant making , some of which were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on global warming . From the late 1970s and through the 1980s , Exxon funded internal and university collaborations , broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach . After the 1980s , the company was a leader in climate change denial , opposing regulations to curtail global warming . ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels . Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions .", "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February ." ]

[ "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore ." ]

[ "Reto Knutti Reto Knutti ( born 1973 ) is a Swiss climate scientist and professor of climate physics at ETH Zurich 's Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science . He is known for his research involving climate models , and has been a key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "The Real Global Warming Disaster The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Climate risk Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "Human Rights and Climate Change Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "Piers Forster Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "Peter A. Stott Peter A. Stott is a climate scientist who leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research at the Met Office in Exeter , UK . He is an expert on anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change . He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report , chapter 9 , for the AR4 released in 2007 and is an editor of the Journal of Climate . Peter has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Durham University and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge . He was awarded a PhD by Imperial College London for work on atmospheric modelling of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster . After his PhD he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh on stratospheric ozone depletion .", "United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "Dennis Tirpak Dennis Tirpak is an expert on Climate Change . He is a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute . He was the director of Global Climate Change Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency for ten years . He was the Coordinator of Science and Technology at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for nine years . He was the head of the climate change unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) for three years . He has also worked on the Montreal Protocol and held positions in industry with Texaco and Alcoa . He is one of the coordinating lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore . He advises national governments and industry as an associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada and a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute in Washington , D.C. He was the Chairman of The International Scientific Steering Committee for Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations which took place at the invitation of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005 . In 1989 he co-authored the first report to Congress , The Potential Effects Of Global Climate Change on the United States , and has written a scientific and policy history on climate change and contributed to many publications including the New York Times in an op-ed titled `` How Green is My Taxi '' .", "World Climate Change Conference, Moscow The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "Climate change acronyms The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .", "Venkatachalam Ramaswamy Venkatachalam Ramaswamy ( V. `` Ram '' Ramaswamy ) is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) , studying climate modeling and climate change . `` A leading climate scientist '' , his work is cited as supporting evidence for significant stratospheric climate change . He focuses in particular on radiative transfer models and the hydrologic cycle in the atmosphere . He has actively supported the development of supercomputing approaches that enable researchers to achieve higher resolution and greater complexity in climate models . As a lead author involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Ramaswamy 's contributions ( along with the contributions of many scientists ) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "International Conference on Climate Change The International Conference on Climate Change is a conference series organized and sponsored by The Heartland Institute which aims to bring together global warming skeptics who `` dispute that the science is settled on the causes , consequences , and policy implications of climate change . '' The first conference took place in 2008 . As at 2017 there have been twelve conferences . Most of the events have been held in the United States , but there has been one in Australia and two in Germany .", "IPCC Third Assessment Report The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "The Deniers The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .", "David Wratt David Stuart Wratt QSO is the Chief Scientist ( Climate ) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) and is responsible for NIWA 's National Climate Centre . He has a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury . He has worked in the USA and Australia as well as New Zealand . His expertise includes climate and meteorology , climate change science and impacts , mountain meteorology , and air quality . He is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He chairs the Climate Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and he is a Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1 , which assesses the physical science of climate change . He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the `` Australia and New Zealand '' chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . After gaining a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois , he worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service . In 1992 he and other climate researchers transferred to NIWA . Wratt has stated : `` There 's a strong scientific case for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions . We need a combination of reducing our emissions in New Zealand and being part of international negotiations to reduce emissions globally in order to forestall the worst effects . '' Wratt was made a Companion of the Queen 's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours , for services to science .", "Leipzig Declaration The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "Global warming conspiracy theory A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "Indur M. Goklany Indur M. Goklany is a science and technology policy analyst for the United States Department of the Interior , where he holds the position of Assistant Director of Programs , Science and Technology Policy . He has represented the United States at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and during the negotiations that led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . He was a rapporteur for the Resource Use and Management Subgroup of Working Group III of the IPCC First Assessment Report in 1990 , and is the author of Clearing the Air ( 1999 ) , The Precautionary Principle ( 2001 ) , and The Improving State of the World ( 2007 ) .", "Vicky Pope Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand Climate Change Denial : Heads in the Sand is a non-fiction book about climate change denial , coauthored by Haydn Washington and John Cook , with a foreword by Naomi Oreskes . Washington had a background in environmental science prior to authoring the work , and Cook was educated in physics and founded the website Skeptical Science which compiles peer-reviewed evidence of global warming . The book was first published in hardcover and paperback formats in 2011 by Earthscan , a division of Routledge . The book presents an in-depth analysis and refutation of climate change denial , going over several arguments point-by-point and disproving them with peer-reviewed evidence from the scientific consensus for climate change . The authors assert that those denying climate change engage in tactics including cherry picking data purported to support their specific viewpoints , and attacking the integrity of climate scientists . They use social science theory to examine the phenomenon of climate change denial in the wider public , and call this phenomenon a form of pathology . The book traces financial support for climate change denial to the fossil fuel industry , asserting these companies have attempted to influence public opinion on the matter . Washington and Cook write that politicians have a tendency to use weasel words as part of a propaganda tactic through use of spin , as a way to deflect public interest away from climate change and remain passive on the issue . The authors conclude that if the public ceased engaging in denial , the problem of climate change could be realistically addressed . For his research on the book , and efforts in communicating the essence of climate change science to the general public , John Cook won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge . Climate Change Denial received a positive reception in reviews from publications including : The Ecologist , ECOS magazine , academic journal Natures Sciences Sociétés , the journal Education published by the New South Wales Teachers Federation , . An article in The New American was critical , describing the labels of `` deniers '' and `` denialists '' as cruel and forms of character assassination .", "World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "The Skeptical Environmentalist The Skeptical Environmentalist : Measuring the Real State of the World ( Verdens sande tilstand , literal translation : The True State of the World ) is a book by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg , controversial for its claims that overpopulation , declining energy resources , deforestation , species loss , water shortages , certain aspects of global warming , and an assortment of other global environmental issues are unsupported by analysis of the relevant data . It was first published in Danish in 1998 , while the English edition was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001 . Due to the scope of the project , comprising the range of topics addressed , the diversity of data and sources employed , and the many types of conclusions and comments advanced , The Skeptical Environmentalist does not fit easily into a particular scientific discipline or methodology . Although published by the social sciences division of Cambridge University Press , the findings and conclusions were widely challenged on the basis of natural science . This interpretation of The Skeptical Environmentalist as a work of environmental science generated much of the controversy and debate that surrounded the book .", "2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in two equal parts , between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and Al Gore `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' .", "New Zealand Climate Science Coalition The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is an organisation based in New Zealand which has the aim of refuting what it claims are unfounded claims about anthropogenic global warming .", "Land use, land-use change and forestry Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "IPCC Second Assessment Report The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "Media coverage of climate change Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "Climate change opinion by country Climate change opinion is the aggregate of public opinion held by the adult population . Cost constraints often restrict surveys to sample only one or two countries from each continent or focus on only one region . Because of differences among questions , wording , and methods -- it is difficult to reliably compare results or to generalize them to opinions held worldwide . In 2007 -- 2008 , the Gallup Poll surveyed individuals from 128 countries in the first comprehensive study of global opinions . The Gallup Organization aggregated opinion from the adult population fifteen years of age and older , either through the telephone or personal interviews , and in both rural and urban areas except in areas where the safety of interviewer was threatened and in scarcely populated islands . Personal interviews were stratified by population size or geography and cluster sampling was achieved through one or more stages . Although error bounds vary , they were all below ± 6 % with 95 % confidence . Weighting countries to a 2008 World Bank population estimate , sixty-one percent of individuals worldwide were aware of global warming , developed countries more aware than developing , with Africa the least aware . The median of people perceiving it as a threat was 47 % . Latin America and developed countries in Asia led the belief that climate change was a result of human activities , while Africa , parts of Asia and the Middle East , and countries from the Former Soviet Union led in the opposite . Awareness often translates to concern , although of those aware , individuals in Europe and developed countries in Asia perceived global warming as a greater threat than others ." ]

[ "Biodiversity Biodiversity a portmanteau of `` biological diversity , '' generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic , the species , and the ecosystem level . Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator , which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity . Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth , and is richest in the tropics . These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earth 's surface , and contain about 90 percent of the world 's species . Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific , where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans . There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity . Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots , and has been increasing through time , but will be likely to slow in the future . Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions . More than 99.9 percent of all species , amounting to over five billion species , that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct . Estimates on the number of Earth 's current species range from 10 million to 14 million , of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described . More recently , in May 2016 , scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described . The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes . In comparison , the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC ( trillion tons of carbon ) . In July 2016 , scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor ( LUCA ) of all organisms living on Earth . The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old . The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago , during the Eoarchean Era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon . There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia . Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland . More recently , in 2015 , `` remains of biotic life '' were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia . According to one of the researchers , `` If life arose relatively quickly on Earth . . then it could be common in the universe . '' Since life began on Earth , five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity . The Phanerozoic eon ( the last 540 million years ) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion -- a period during which the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared . The next 400 million years included repeated , massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events . In the Carboniferous , rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life . The Permian -- Triassic extinction event , 251 million years ago , was the worst ; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years . The most recent , the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , occurred 65 million years ago and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs . The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity . Named the Holocene extinction , the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts , particularly habitat destruction . Conversely , biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways , both positively and negatively . The United Nations designated 2011 -- 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity .", "United Nations Ocean Conference The 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference was a United Nations conference that took place on June 5th-9th 2017 which sought to mobilize action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.The Earth's waters are said to be \"under threat as never before\", with pollution, overfishing, and the effects of climate change severely damaging the health of our oceans. For instance as oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, biodiversity is becoming reduced and changing currents will cause more frequent storms and droughts. Every year around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste leak into the ocean and make it into the circular ocean currents. This causes contamination of sediments at the sea-bottom and causes plastic waste to be embedded in the aquatic food chain. It could lead to oceans containing more plastics than fish by 2050 if nothing is done. Key habitats such as coral reefs are at risk and noise pollution are a threat to whales, dolphins, and other species. Furthermore almost 90 percent of fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited which cost more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues.UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that decisive, coordinated global action can solve the problems created by Humanity. Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly, highlighted the conference's significance, saying \"if we want a secure future for our species on this planet, we have to act now on the health of the ocean and on climate change\".The conference sought to find ways and urge for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Its theme is \"Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14\". It also asked governments, UN bodies, and civil society groups to make voluntary commitments for action to improve the health of the oceans with over 1,000 commitments − such as on managing protected areas − being made.", "Sea A sea is a large body of salt water that is surrounded in whole or in part by land . More broadly , `` the sea '' is the interconnected system of Earth 's salty , oceanic waters -- considered as one global ocean or as several principal oceanic divisions . The sea moderates Earth 's climate and has important roles in the water cycle , carbon cycle , and nitrogen cycle . Although the sea has been traveled and explored since prehistory , the modern scientific study of the sea -- oceanography -- dates broadly to the British Challenger expedition of the 1870s . The sea is conventionally divided into up to five large oceanic sections -- including the International Hydrographic Organization 's four named oceans ( the Atlantic , Pacific , Indian , and Arctic ) and the Southern Ocean ; smaller , second-order sections , such as the Mediterranean , are known as seas . Owing to the present state of continental drift , the Northern Hemisphere is now fairly equally divided between land and sea ( a ratio of about 2:3 ) but the South is overwhelmingly oceanic ( 1:4.7 ) . Salinity in the open ocean is generally in a narrow band around 3.5 % by mass , although this can vary in more landlocked waters , near the mouths of large rivers , or at great depths . About 85 % of the solids in the open sea are sodium chloride . Deep-sea currents are produced by differences in salinity and temperature . Surface currents are formed by the friction of waves produced by the wind and by tides , the changes in local sea level produced by the gravity of the Moon and Sun . The direction of all of these is governed by surface and submarine land masses and by the rotation of the Earth ( the Coriolis effect ) . Former changes in sea levels have left continental shelves , shallow areas in the sea close to land . These nutrient-rich waters teem with life , which provide humans with substantial supplies of food -- mainly fish , but also shellfish , mammals , and seaweed -- which are both harvested in the wild and farmed . The most diverse areas surround great tropical coral reefs . Whaling in the deep sea was once common but whales ' dwindling numbers prompted international conservation efforts and finally a moratorium on most commercial hunting . Oceanography has established that not all life is restricted to the sunlit surface waters : even under enormous depths and pressures , nutrients streaming from hydrothermal vents support their own unique ecosystem . Life may have started there and aquatic microbial mats are generally credited with the oxygenation of Earth 's atmosphere ; both plants and animals first evolved in the sea . The sea is an essential aspect of human trade , travel , mineral extraction , and power generation . This has also made it essential to warfare and left major cities exposed to earthquakes and volcanoes from nearby faults ; powerful tsunami waves ; and hurricanes , typhoons , and cyclones produced in the tropics . This importance and duality has affected human culture , from early sea gods to the epic poetry of Homer to the changes induced by the Columbian Exchange , from burial at sea to Basho 's haikus to hyperrealist marine art , and inspiring music ranging from the shanties in The Complaynt of Scotland to Rimsky-Korsakov 's `` The Sea and Sinbad 's Ship '' to A-mei 's `` Listen to the Sea '' . It is the scene of leisure activities including swimming , diving , surfing , and sailing . However , population growth , industrialization , and intensive farming have all contributed to present-day marine pollution . Atmospheric carbon dioxide is being absorbed in increasing amounts , lowering its pH in a process known as ocean acidification . The shared nature of the sea has made overfishing an increasing problem .", "Fisheries and climate change Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture ." ]

[ "Oceanic carbon cycle The oceans contain around 36,000 gigatons of carbon , mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion ( over 90 % , with most of the remainder being carbonate ) . At the surface of the oceans towards the poles , seawater becomes cooler and more carbonic acid is formed as CO2 becomes more soluble . This is coupled to the ocean 's thermohaline circulation which transports dense surface water into the ocean 's interior ( see the entry on the solubility pump ) . Although the deep ocean contains much more dissolved inorganic carbon than the surface ocean , the concentration is only 15 % higher in the deep ocean as compared to the surface ocean due to the higher volume of the deep ocean . In upper ocean areas of high biological productivity , organisms convert reduced carbon to tissues , or carbonates to hard body parts such as shells and tests . These are , respectively , oxidized ( soft-tissue pump ) and redissolved ( carbonate pump ) at lower average levels of the ocean than those at which they formed , resulting in a downward flow of carbon ( see entry on the biological pump ) . The flux or absorption of carbon dioxide into the world 's oceans is influenced by the presence of widespread viruses within ocean water , that infect many species of bacteria . The resulting bacterial deaths spawn a sequence of events that lead to greatly enlarged respiration of carbon dioxide , enhancing the role of the oceans as a carbon sink . The balance of dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) : dissolved organic carbon ( DOC ) : particle organic carbon is about 2000:38:1 . The CaCO3 counter pump increases the partial pressure of CO2 in the ocean , thus leading to higher outgasing of carbon dioxide . Higher ocean temperatures lead to stronger layering , thus less mixing and less capacity for thermohaline circulation to bring carbon into lower ocean layers . The weathering of silicate rock ( see carbonate-silicate cycle ) . Carbonic acid reacts with weathered rock to produce bicarbonate ions . The bicarbonate ions produced are carried to the ocean , where they are used to make marine carbonates . Unlike dissolved CO2 in equilibrium or tissues , which decay , weathering does not move the carbon into a reservoir from which it can readily return to the atmosphere . Much remains to be learned about the cycling of carbon in the deep ocean . For example , a recent discovery is that larvacean mucus houses ( commonly known as `` sinkers '' ) are created in such large numbers that they can deliver as much carbon to the deep ocean as has been previously detected by sediment traps . Because of their size and composition , these houses are rarely collected in such traps , so most biogeochemical analyses have erroneously ignored them . The amount of dissolved inorganic carbon in the ocean is significantly higher in the deep layer ( below 300 m depth ) . This is caused by the solubility pump and the biological pump .", "Ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Seawater is slightly basic ( meaning pH > 7 ) , and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions ( pH < 7 ) . Ocean alkalinity is not changed by the process , or may increase over long time periods due to carbonate dissolution . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes . To achieve chemical equilibrium , some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid . Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion , thus increasing ocean acidity ( H + ion concentration ) . Between 1751 and 1996 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 , representing an increase of almost 35 % in H + ion concentration in the world 's oceans . Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogues and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean . Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms , such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms , and causing coral bleaching . By increasing the presence of free hydrogen ions , each molecule of carbonic acid that forms in the oceans ultimately results in the conversion of two carbonate ions into bicarbonate ions . This net decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available makes it more difficult for marine calcifying organisms , such as coral and some plankton , to form biogenic calcium carbonate , and such structures become vulnerable to dissolution . Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans . As members of the InterAcademy Panel , 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050 , global emissions be reduced by at least 50 % compared to the 1990 level . While ongoing ocean acidification is anthropogenic in origin , it has occurred previously in Earth 's history . The most notable example is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , which occurred approximately 56 million years ago . For reasons that are currently uncertain , massive amounts of carbon entered the ocean and atmosphere , and led to the dissolution of carbonate sediments in all ocean basins . Ocean acidification has been called the `` evil twin of global warming '' and `` the other problem '' .", "PIPES PIPES is the common name for piperazine-N , N ′ - bis ( 2-ethanesulfonic acid ) , and frequently used buffering agent in biochemistry . It is an ethanesulfonic acid buffer developed by Good et al. in the 1960s .", "Mola (fish) A sunfish ( or mola ) is any fish in the Mola genus ( family Molidae ) . The fishes develop their truncated , bullet-like shape because the back fin , with which they are born , never grows . Instead , it folds into itself as the creature matures , creating a rounded rudder called a clavus . Mola in Latin means `` millstone '' and describes the ocean sunfish 's somewhat circular shape . They are a silvery color and have a rough skin texture . The mola is the heaviest of all the bony fish , with large specimens reaching 14 ft vertically and 10 ft horizontally and weighing nearly 5000 lb . Sharks and rays can be heavier , but they are cartilaginous fish . Mola are found in temperate and tropical oceans around the world . They are frequently seen basking in the sun near the surface and are often mistaken for sharks when their huge dorsal fins emerge above the water . Their teeth are fused into a beak-like structure , and they are unable to fully close their relatively small mouths . Ocean sunfish can become so infested with skin parasites , they will often invite small fish or even birds to feast on them . Sunfish will even breach the surface up to 10 ft in the air , in an attempt to shake the parasites . They are clumsy swimmers , waggling their large dorsal and anal fins to move , and steering with their clavus . Their food of choice is jellyfish , though they will eat small fish and huge amounts of zooplankton and algae , as well . They are harmless to people , but can be very curious and will often approach divers . Their population is considered stable , though they frequently are snagged in drift gill nets and can suffocate on sea trash , like plastic bags ( which resemble jellyfish ) .", "Ural Ocean The Ural Ocean ( also called the Uralic Ocean ) was a small , ancient ocean that was situated between Siberia and Baltica . The ocean formed in the Late Ordovician epoch , when large islands from Siberia collided with Baltica , which was now part of a minor supercontinent of Euramerica . The islands also caused Ural Ocean 's precursor , Khanty Ocean to close . By the Devonian Period , however , Ural Ocean begins to shrink because the Siberian continent and Kazakhstania microcontinent were closing in to Baltica . In the Latest Devonian to Mississippian periods , Ural Ocean became a seaway . Until the three collided in the Carboniferous , it created the Ural Mountains , completely closing the ocean , and forming the Pangaea supercontinent .", "Indian Ocean Dipole The Indian Ocean Dipole ( IOD ) , also known as the Indian Niño , is an irregular oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean . Monsoon in India is generally affected by the temperature between bay of Bangal in the east and The Arabian sea in the west", "Iapetus Ocean The Iapetus Ocean was an ocean that existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale ( between 600 and 400 million years ago ) . The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the southern hemisphere , between the paleocontinents of Laurentia , Baltica and Avalonia . The ocean disappeared with the Acadian , Caledonian and Taconic orogenies , when these three continents joined to form one big landmass called Euramerica . The `` southern '' Iapetus Ocean has been proposed to have closed with the Famatinian and Taconic orogenies , meaning a collision between Western Gondwana and Laurentia . Because the Iapetus Ocean was positioned between continental masses that would at a much later time roughly form the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean , it can be seen as a sort of precursor of the Atlantic . The Iapetus Ocean was therefore named for the titan Iapetus , who in Greek mythology was the father of Atlas , after whom the Atlantic Ocean was named .", "List of countries bordering on two or more oceans This is a list of countries which border two or more oceans , including both sovereign states and dependencies , provided the same contiguous territory borders on more than one of the five named oceans , the Pacific , Atlantic , Indian , Southern , and Arctic . Countries which border on multiple oceans because of discontiguous regions are excluded here but included in the list of transcontinental countries .", "Sonic characteristics of marine species Sonic characteristics of marine species - Noise in the ocean is of utmost importance for ocean explorations , oceanographic as well as fisheries studies , sonar operations , etc. . The wide range of systems for ocean research demands the need for characterizing the noise sources in the ocean . The ambient noise in the ocean is composite in nature , with components emanating from a variety of noise sources . The problem of identification of noise sources in the ocean is of prime importance because of its diverse practical applications . In view of the importance of the area of identification of noise sources , there is a need and requirement for characterizing the noise sources in the ocean which are of both man made and biological in origin . Category : Marine biology", "John Fairfax (rower) John Fairfax ( 21 May 1937 -- 8 February 2012 ) was a British ocean rower and adventurer who , in 1969 , became the first person to row solo across an ocean . He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean ( with Sylvia Cook ) in 1971/2 .", "Time to Move On (album) Time to Move On is the eighth studio album by R&B singer Billy Ocean , released in 1993 . It would be Ocean 's last studio album until 2009 's Because I Love You .", "Ridge push Ridge push or sliding plate force is a proposed mechanism for plate motion in plate tectonics . Because mid-ocean ridges lie at a higher elevation than the rest of the ocean floor , gravity causes the ridge to push on the lithosphere that lies farther from the ridge . As molten magma rises at a mid-ocean ridge it heats the rocks around it . The heat expelled by the magma expands the lithosphere and asthenosphere at the ridge , pushing them above the surrounding ocean floor . As time passes , the heated rocks cool and their density increases . When this happens gravity pulls the weighty lithosphere away from the mid-ocean ridge , down the sloping asthenosphere , which , in turn , allows new molten magma to well up . This fresh magma will eventually become new lithosphere . The cooling rock exerts a force on spreading lithospheric plates , helping to drive their movements . The force is called ridge push . It can be calculated by the principle of isostasy , making a balance between the mid-ocean ridge and the old ocean floor . Notably , in such a calculation , the force depends only on the temperature of the asthenosphere at the ridge ( the same in all ` normal ' ridges , though higher at hotspots , and not on the spreading rate of the ridge . Another force , that for some plates exceeds ridge-push , is slab pull , where the weight of a subducting slab pulls the plate at the surface along .", "Ocean View, Delaware Ocean View is a town in Sussex County , Delaware , in the United States . The population was 1,882 at the 2010 census , an increase of 87.1 % over the previous decade . It is part of the Salisbury , Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area and lies in Baltimore Hundred . Ocean View is fast becoming a bedroom community for the neighboring summer resort of Bethany Beach .", "Tropical Storm Colin The name Colin has been used for two tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and two in the Southern Hemisphere . In the Atlantic Ocean : Tropical Storm Colin ( 2010 ) , moved across the Atlantic , fluctuating between tropical depression and tropical storm status . Dissipated before reaching Bermuda . Tropical Storm Colin ( 2016 ) , earliest third-storm formation in the Atlantic Ocean since record-keeping began , beating the previous record set in 1887 by 7 days . Made landfall in Florida causing significant damage . In the Southwest Pacific Ocean : Cyclone Colin ( 1976 ) , moved parallel to the Australian coast without making landfall . In the Southwest Indian Ocean : Cyclone Colin ( 2014 ) , churned through the open ocean , never threatened land . Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages", "Tropical Storm Atang The name Atang has been used in the Philippines by PAGASA for four tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific . Typhoon Hester ( 1966 ) ( T6601 , 01W , Atang ) Typhoon Nancy ( 1970 ) ( T7001 , 01W , Atang ) Tropical Storm Wanda ( 1974 ) ( T7401 , 01W , Atang ) Typhoon Olive ( 1978 ) ( T7802 , 02W , Atang ) The name Atang was retired because of its destruction in the Philippines in 1978 . The name was also used in the southwestern Indian Ocean . Tropical Depression Atang ( 2002 ) , never classified as a tropical storm by Meteo France or Mauritius , but was named because it posed a threat to the island of Agalega Category : Pacific typhoon disambiguation pages Category : South-West Indian Ocean cyclone disambiguation pages", "Histioteuthis reversa Histioteuthis reversa , commonly known as the reverse jewel squid or the elongate jewel squid , is a species of cock-eyed squid , so called because the eyes are dissimilar . It occurs at moderate depths in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea and is also known from the Indian Ocean .", "Ocean City, Maryland Ocean City ( OC or OCMD ) , officially the Town of Ocean City , is an Atlantic resort town in Worcester County , Maryland . Ocean City is widely known in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is a frequent destination for vacationers in that area . The population was 7,102 at the 2010 U.S. Census , although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers , and up to 8 million visitors annually . During the summer , Ocean City becomes the second most populated municipality in Maryland , after Baltimore . It is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area .", "Tropical Storm Philippe The name Philippe has been used for two tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean . Hurricane Philippe ( 2005 ) , a short-lived Category 1 hurricane that stayed out in Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Philippe ( 2011 ) , a Category 1 hurricane that never impacted any land Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages", "List of ancient oceans This is a list of former oceans that disappeared due to tectonic movements and other geographical and climatic changes . In alphabetic order : Bridge River Ocean , the ocean between the ancient Insular Islands ( i.e. Stikinia ) and North America Iapetus Ocean , the southern hemisphere ocean between Baltica and Avalonia Mezcalera Ocean , the ocean between the Guerrero terrane and Laurentia Mirovia , the ocean that surrounded the Rodinia supercontinent Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean , the early Mesozoic ocean between the North China and Siberia cratons Oimyakon Ocean , the northernmost part of the Mesozoic Panthalassa Ocean Paleo-Tethys Ocean , the ocean between Gondwana and the Hunic terranes Pan-African Ocean , the ocean that surrounded the Pannotia supercontinent Panthalassa , the vast world ocean that surrounded the Pangaea supercontinent , also referred to as the Paleo-Pacific Ocean Poseidon Ocean , Mesoproterozoic Pontus Ocean , the western part of the early Mesozoic Panthalassa Ocean Proto-Tethys Ocean , NeoProterozoic Rheic Ocean , the Paleozoic ocean between Baltica and Laurentia ( North America ) Slide Mountain Ocean , the Mesozoic ocean between the ancient Intermontane Islands ( i.e. Wrangellia ) and North America Superocean , the ocean that surrounds a global supercontinent Tethys Ocean , the ocean between the ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia Thalassa Ocean , the eastern part of the early Mesozoic Panthalassa Ocean Ural Ocean , the Paleozoic ocean between Siberia and Baltica ancient oceans ancient oceans", "Bottled Ocean Bottled Ocean was an exhibition of work by New Zealand artists of Pacific Island descent that was shown at a number of metropolitan art galleries in New Zealand in 1994-1995 . It featured the work artists who have become notable figures in New Zealand and internationally .", "Tropical Storm Hazel The name Hazel has been used for two tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean , three in the eastern Pacific Ocean , one in the western Pacific , and one in the Indian Ocean . It was used in all basins before formal naming systems were instituted . It has not been used since the six-year lists began ; the name will never again be used in the Atlantic or East Pacific as it was retired in both basins . North Atlantic : Hurricane Hazel ( 1953 ) Hurricane Hazel ( 1954 ) -- killed over 1000 people in Haiti , caused damage and death from South Carolina to Ontario Northeast Pacific : Tropical Depression Hazel ( 1963 ) -- was downgraded after the fact ; it never warranted a name . Tropical Storm Hazel ( 1965 ) Northwest Pacific : Typhoon Hazel ( 1948 ) ( T4819 ) Southwest Indian Ocean : Cyclone Hazel ( 1965 ) -- southwest Indian Ocean Southwest Pacific Ocean : Cyclone Hazel ( 1964 ) Cyclone Hazel ( 1979 ) Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Pacific hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Pacific typhoon disambiguation pages Category : South-West Indian Ocean cyclone disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages", "RFA Ocean Salvor (A492) RFA Ocean Salvor ( A492 ) was a salvage vessel of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary . ASV Ocean Salvor was handed to Risdon Beazley Ltd. on delivery ; they managed this ship and 29 other Admiralty Salvage Vessels until the end of the war when 25 were handed to the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service and three returned to the USA ; two were war losses . They were never prefixed HMS as they were civilian manned .", "Tropical Storm Franklin The name Franklin has been used for two tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean . Tropical Storm Franklin ( 2005 ) - Formed over the Bahamas , then moved erratically in the open ocean . Brushed Newfoundland before dissipating . Tropical Storm Franklin ( 2011 ) - Never threatened land . Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages", "Benson raft The Benson raft was a huge seagoing log raft designed to reliably transport millions of board feet of timber at one time through the open ocean . Held together with giant logging chains , their cargo of logs and often finished lumber goods went from the outlet of the Columbia River in the United States into the Pacific Ocean and south 1100 miles to San Diego , California . Once there the logs were sawn into lumber by the Benson Logging and Lumber Company for sale in Southern California .", "Acanthastrea echinata Acanthastrea echinata is a species of corals in the family Lobophylliidae known commonly as the starry cup coral . It is a wide-ranging species found from the western Indian Ocean , throughout the Pacific Ocean , and eastward to the southeastern Atlantic Ocean . It can inhabit any reef habitat to depths of 50 m . This species , which may become threatened with the global decline of coral reefs , is a popular coral used in aquariums .", "Circumpolar Circumpolar may refer to : Antarctic region Antarctic Circle the Antarctic Circumpolar Current Subantarctic List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands Antarctic Convergence Antarctic Circumpolar Wave Antarctic Ocean Arctic region Arctic Circle Subarctic Circumpolar peoples Arctic Cooperation and Politics Arctic Ocean List of islands in the Arctic Ocean Circumpolar star , stars that never rise or set from the perspective of a given latitude on Earth . Polar front in meteorology . circumpolar navigation , a global circumnavigation which traverses both poles", "Obduction Obduction was originally defined by Coleman to mean the overthrusting of oceanic lithosphere onto continental lithosphere at a convergent plate boundary where continental lithosphere is being subducted beneath oceanic lithosphere . Subsequently , this definition has been broadened to mean the emplacement of continental lithosphere by oceanic lithosphere at a convergent plate boundary , such as closing of an ocean or a mountain building episode . This process is uncommon because the denser oceanic lithosphere usually subducts underneath the less dense continental plate . Obduction occurs where a fragment of continental crust is caught in a subduction zone with resulting overthrusting of oceanic mafic and ultramafic rocks from the mantle onto the continental crust . Obduction may occur where a small tectonic plate is caught between two larger plates , with the lithosphere ( both island arc and oceanic ) welding onto an adjacent continent as a new terrane . When two continental plates collide , obduction of the oceanic lithosphere between them is often a part of the resulting orogeny . Most obductions appear to have initiated at back-arc basins above the subduction zones during the closing of an ocean or an orogeny .", "Waves and shallow water When waves travel into areas of shallow water , they begin to be affected by the ocean bottom . The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted , and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position . As the water becomes shallower , the swell becomes higher and steeper , ultimately assuming the familiar sharp-crested wave shape . After the wave breaks , it becomes a wave of translation and erosion of the ocean bottom intensifies .", "Ocean Terminal Ocean Terminal may refer to : Ocean Terminal , Edinburgh Ocean Terminal , now demolished , at Southampton docks Ocean Terminal , Greenock Ocean Terminal , Hong Kong Ocean Terminal ( film ) , a British Transport Film", "SS Amerika SS Amerika may refer to : , launched in 1905 as SS Amerika by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the Hamburg America Line of Germany as a passenger ocean liner , before becoming USS America in 1917 , ocean liner renamed in 1893 as SS Amerika by Thingvalla Line of Copenhagen", "42nd parallel south The 42nd parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 42 degrees south of the Earth 's equatorial plane . It crosses the Atlantic Ocean , the Indian Ocean , Australasia , the Pacific Ocean and South America . At this latitude the sun is visible for 15 hours , 15 minutes during the December solstice and 9 hours , 7 minutes during the June solstice . The alcohol brand 42 Below was named in part because the 42nd parallel South passes through New Zealand .", "Tropical Storm Lisa The name Lisa has been used for four tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean , one in the Western Pacific Ocean , one in the Southwest Indian Ocean and three in the Southwest Pacific Ocean . Lisa is used on the six-year lists in the Atlantic . Lisa is not to be confused with Liza , which was used in the Pacific Ocean . Hurricane Lisa ( 1998 ) -- travelled north in the central Atlantic without approaching land . Hurricane Lisa ( 2004 ) -- formed off Cape Verde , a named cyclone in the central Atlantic for a record 11 days before reaching hurricane strength . Never affected land . Hurricane Lisa ( 2010 ) -- travelled in eastern Atlantic near Cape Verde . Tropical Storm Lisa ( 2016 ) -- formed in eastern Atlantic in close proximity to Cape Verde , churned in the open ocean without threatening land . Lisa was also used on the old typhoon name list : Tropical Storm Lisa ( 1996 ) ( T9611 , 14W ) -- Made a landfall in Southern China . Lisa was also used for one tropical cyclone in the Southwest Indian Ocean : Cyclone Lisa ( 1981 ) Lisa was also used for three tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific Ocean : Cyclone Lisa ( 1966 ) Cyclone Lisa ( 1982 ) Cyclone Lisa ( 1991 ) Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Pacific typhoon disambiguation pages Category : South-West Indian Ocean cyclone disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages" ]

[ "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "Space and survival Space and survival refers to the idea that the long-term survival of the human species and civilization requires proper use of the resources of outer space and the need for space colonization and space science . The concept posits that inaction could lead to human extinction . A related observation is that limited time and resources may be available for the colonization of space . Various scenarios for human survival have been discussed in science and popular culture , particularly humanity 's prospects after catastrophic events in the solar system and factors that could help or hinder survival . The earliest appearance of a connection between space exploration and human survival appears in Louis J. Halle 's 1980 article in Foreign Affairs , in which he stated colonization of space will keep humanity safe should global nuclear warfare occur . This idea has received more attention in recent years as advancing technology makes cheap space travel more feasible .", "Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies . The International Astronomical Union , the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature , specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects , but uses mixed `` Solar System '' and `` solar system '' in their naming guidelines document . The name is commonly rendered in lower case ( `` solar system '' ) , as , for example , in the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster 's 11th Collegiate Dictionary . is the gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it , either directly or indirectly.The natural satellites ( moons ) orbiting the Solar System 's planets are an example of the latter . Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly , the largest eight are the planets , Historically , several other bodies were once considered planets , including , from its discovery in 1930 until 2006 , Pluto . See Former planets . with the remainder being significantly smaller objects , such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies . Of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly , the moons , two are larger than the smallest planet , Mercury.The two moons larger than Mercury are Ganymede , which orbits Jupiter , and Titan , which orbits Saturn . Although bigger than Mercury , both moons have less than half the mass of Mercury . The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud . The vast majority of the system 's mass is in the Sun , with the majority of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter . The four smaller inner planets , Mercury , Venus , Earth and Mars , are terrestrial planets , being primarily composed of rock and metal . The four outer planets are giant planets , being substantially more massive than the terrestrials . The two largest , Jupiter and Saturn , are gas giants , being composed mainly of hydrogen and helium ; the two outermost planets , Uranus and Neptune , are ice giants , being composed mostly of substances with relatively high melting points compared with hydrogen and helium , called volatiles , such as water , ammonia and methane . All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic . The Solar System also contains smaller objects . The asteroid belt , which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter , mostly contains objects composed , like the terrestrial planets , of rock and metal . Beyond Neptune 's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc , which are populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices , and beyond them a newly discovered population of sednoids . Within these populations are several dozen to possibly tens of thousands of objects large enough that they have been rounded by their own gravity . Such objects are categorized as dwarf planets . Identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris . In addition to these two regions , various other small-body populations , including comets , centaurs and interplanetary dust clouds , freely travel between regions . Six of the planets , at least four of the dwarf planets , and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural satellites , See List of natural satellites of the Solar System for the full list of natural satellites of the eight planets and first five dwarf planets usually termed `` moons '' after the Moon . Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects . The solar wind , a stream of charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun , creates a bubble-like region in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere . The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of the interstellar medium ; it extends out to the edge of the scattered disc . The Oort cloud , which is thought to be the source for long-period comets , may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere . The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm , 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way ." ]

[ "Miss Earth 2005 Miss Earth 2005 , the 5th edition of Miss Earth pageant , took place on 23 October 2005 in Quezon City , Philippines . A total of 80 candidates from around the globe took part in the event . At the conclusion of the pageant , Alexandra Braun of Venezuela was crowned Miss Earth 2005 by outgoing titleholder , Miss Earth 2004 , Priscilla Meirelles of Brazil . Like Brazil , Venezuela made history by becoming the second country to win all the Big Four international beauty pageants .", "Matureivavao Matureivavao , or Maturei-vavao is an uninhabited atoll in the Acteon Group in the southeastern part of the Tuamotu Islands . It is the largest atoll within the Acteon Group , and like others in this group , is administratively part of the commune of the Gambier Islands .", "Kahouanne Kahouanne is a part of Guadeloupe , in the commune of Saint-François . It is located at the very tip of Grande-Terre , close to Chassaing . The Islet of Kahouanne is part of Guadeloupe to the north of Basse-Terre , administratively belonging to Deshaies and 1.5 km from the coast to the northwest of the town . The island is about 0.541 km ² in area and is a protected site . The island is uninhabited but in 2014 some sailors were shipwrecked there . Like its neighbor Tête à l'Anglais , it is home to an endemic species , the Anolis kahouannensis .", "Søren Norby Islands Søren Norby Islands ( Søren Norbyes Øer ) , named after Søren Norby , is an uninhabited archipelago close to the shores of Eastern Greenland . Administratively it is part of the Sermersooq municipality .", "WR 104 WR 104 is part of a triple star system located about 7,500 light years from Earth . The primary is a Wolf-Rayet star , abbreviated as WR , with a B0 .5 main sequence star in close orbit with another more distant fainter companion . The WR star is surrounded by a distinctive Wolf -- Rayet nebula , often referred to as the Pinwheel Nebula , and is now considered among a new object class of so-called pinwheel nebulae . The rotational axis of the binary system , and likely of the two closest stars , is directed approximately towards Earth . Within the next few hundred thousand years , the Wolf-Rayet star is predicted to probably become a core-collapse-supernova with a small chance of producing a long duration gamma-ray burst .", "Io (island) Io , is an uninhabited Greek islet , close to the coast of Lasithi , eastern Crete , and in the Libyan Sea . It is part of the Lefki municipality .", "Pontikaki Pontikaki ( Ποντικάκι , `` little mouse '' ) is an uninhabited islet off the coast of western Crete that is close to the islet of Pondikonisi . Administratively , it is part of the municipality Kissamos , in Chania regional unit .", "2017 AG13 is an Aten asteroid that made a close approach of 0.54 lunar distances from Earth on January 9 , 2017 . It was the largest asteroid to pass less than 1 lunar distance from Earth since on August 28 , 2016 . The Catalina Sky Survey discovered it on January 7 , 2017 , only two days before its closest approach . At its brightest , reached apparent magnitude 14.8 . Shortly after , it moved too close to the Sun to be seen by telescopes . The asteroid frequently makes close approaches to Earth , possibly passing as close as 127000 km to Earth on January 9 , 2069 , however it will most likely pass much further away . is most likely 13 -- 41 meters across , assuming a typical asteroid albedo of between 0.05 and 0.3 .", "Hope Island (Ontario) Hope Island is the northern of three islands in south eastern Georgian Bay , of Lake Huron , in the Canadian province of Ontario . It has an elevation of 187 meters ( 613 feet ) above sea level and is currently uninhabited and not presently slated for development . It was named by Henry Bayfield after he surveyed it in the 19th century . Like its neighbours , Beckwith Island and Christian Island , the uninhabited island is part of an Ojibwa reserve .", "Ewing Island, New Zealand Ewing Island is an uninhabited island , part of the Auckland Islands group , a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands . It lies in the north-east of the group , close to the mouth of Port Ross , immediately to the south of the larger Enderby Island and off the north-eastern tip of the main Auckland Island .", "Civilization: Beyond Earth Sid Meier 's Civilization : Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy , 4X video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games , published by 2K Games and released for Microsoft Windows on October 24 , 2014 , the Mac App Store on November 27 , 2014 and for Linux on December 18 , 2014 . A spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri , Beyond Earth shares much of that game 's development team , as well as some concepts which were introduced in the 1999 title . The game 's setting is unique to the Civilization series in that it takes place in the future , with mankind traveling through space and founding colonies on extraterrestrial planets after Earth becomes uninhabitable due to an undescribed disaster known as `` the Great Mistake '' . An expansion pack , titled Rising Tide , was released on October 9 , 2015 .", "1221 Amor 1221 Amor is the namesake of the Amor asteroids , a group of near-Earth asteroids whose orbits range between those of Earth and Mars . Amors are often Mars-crossers but they are not Earth-crossers . Eugène Joseph Delporte photographed Amor as it approached Earth to within 16 million kilometers ( about 40 times the distance from Earth to the moon ) ; this was the first time that an asteroid was seen to approach Earth so closely . A month later , 1862 Apollo was seen to cross Earth 's orbit , and the scientific community suddenly realised the potential threat these flying mountains presented . Amor is named after the Roman god of love , better known as Cupid . See also 763 Cupido and 433 Eros , which is named after Cupid 's Greek counterpart . Coincidentally , 433 Eros , like 1221 Amor , makes close approaches to Earth . It is a Mars-crosser as well .", "Kavaloi Kefali redirects here ; Kefali may also refer to a former village on the island of Kalamos Kavaloi , is a group of three uninhabited Greek islets , close to the coast of Lasithi , eastern Crete . The close group comprises the islets Anavatis ( Αναβάτης `` rider '' ) , Kavallos , and Kefali ( Κεφαλή `` head '' ) . Administratively the islets are part of the municipal unit Lefki .", "Round Rock, British Virgin Islands Round Rock is an uninhabited island in the British Virgin Islands , to the south of Virgin Gorda , close to Fallen Jerusalem Island . Category : Islands of the British Virgin Islands Category : Uninhabited islands of the British Virgin Islands", "Gliese 1132 b Gliese 1132 b ( often shortened to GJ 1132 b ) is an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star ( Gliese 1132 ) 39 light years ( 12 parsecs ) from Earth , in the constellation Vela . The planet is considered uninhabitable but cool enough to possess an atmosphere . Gliese 1132 b was discovered by the MEarth-South array in Chile . It has been called `` one of the most important planets ever discovered beyond the Solar System '' : Due to its relative proximity to Earth , telescopes should be able to determine the composition of its atmosphere , the speed of its winds and the color of its sunsets . This is due in part to the small diameter of its parent star ( 21 % that of the Sun ) , which increases the effect on the star 's light of its transits . The planet 's diameter is approximately 20 % larger than that of the Earth and its mass is estimated at 1.6 times that of Earth , implying that it has an Earth-like rocky composition . Gliese 1132 b orbits its star every 1.6 days at a distance of 1.4 million miles . The planet receives 19 times more stellar radiation than Earth . The temperature of the top of its atmosphere is estimated at 500 F . The planet is estimated to be hotter than Venus , as higher temperatures may prevail near the surface . ( cf. Atmosphere of Venus , Colonization of Venus ) It is possible that one side of the planet is cooler , because it is presumed to be tidally locked due to its proximity to its star ; however , under most circumstances where an atmosphere is thick , it would be able to transfer heat to the far side . In April 2017 , an atmosphere was confirmed around Gliese 1132 b . It is the most Earth-like exoplanet to date that is known to have an atmosphere .", "Shui Cham Tsui Pai Shui Cham Tsui Pai is an uninhabited island in North District , Hong Kong . It is located in Starling Inlet , within the Frontier Closed Area . Category : Uninhabited islands of Hong Kong Category : North District , Hong Kong", "Daskaleia Daskaleia , is an uninhabited Greek islet , in the Aegean Sea , close to the northeastern coast of Crete . The small islet lies close to the island of Kyriamadi . Administratively it lies within the Itanos municipality of Lasithi .", "Polloc Polloc Island is an uninhabited island in the province of Romblon in the Philippines . It is part of barangay Yabawon in the municipality of Banton . Category : Islands of Romblon Category : Uninhabited islands of the Philippines", "Veliki Brijun Veliki Brijun ( literally meaning Great Brijun , Brioni Grande ) is an uninhabited island in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea . It is located off the west coast of Istria in northern Adriatic and is the largest island in the Brijuni Islands ( also known as the Brioni or the Brionian Islands ) archipelago . Like most of the archipelago , Veliki Brijun is part of the Brijuni National Park , established in 1983 .", "Görecek Island Görecek Island is an Aegean island of Turkey . The island is a part of Bodrum ilçe ( district ) of Muğla Province at . It is more or less a rectangular island where the longest dimension ( north to south is over 1 km . Its area is 750000 m2 . It is quite close to the mainland ( Anatolia ) . The nearest point on the mainland is as close as 250 m . The uninhabited island is a private property .", "Exiles on Asperus Exiles on Asperus ( ISBN 0-340-24046-6 ) is a collection of science fiction short stories by John Wyndham , writing as John Benyon , published in 1979 after his death by Coronet Books . The collection contains : Exiles on Asperus ( 1933 ) No Place Like Earth ( 1951 ) The Venus Adventure ( 1932 ) Exiles tells the story of a human crew who are transporting a group of Martian dissidents to a penal colony only for the captives to revolt leading to the crew , prisoners , and the survivors of a previous crash becoming embroiled in a battle for survival against the indigenous life form of the planet Asperus . No Place Like Earth sees a survivor of the Earth 's destruction facing a slow , quiet life on Mars or becoming part of the efforts to keep humanity alive on Venus , and the repercussions of his decision . The Venus Adventure tells of an early flight to Venus and the surprising world the crew of the Fyra discover . Not only are there intelligent indigenous lifeforms , and a breathable atmosphere , there are also fellow humans . Category :1979 short story collections Category : Short story collections by John Wyndham Category : Books published posthumously", "4581 Asclepius 4581 Asclepius , provisional designation , is a sub-kilometer-sized asteroid , classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group that makes close orbital passes with Earth . Discovered on 31 March 1989 , by American astronomers Henry Holt and Norman Thomas at Palomar Observatory , Asclepius is named after the Greek demigod of medicine and healing . Asclepius passed by Earth on 22 March 1989 , at a distance of 0.00457 AU . Although this exceeds the Moon 's orbital radius , the close pass received attention at that time , especially since the asteroid passed through the exact position of Earth only six hours earlier . `` On the cosmic scale of things , that was a close call , '' said Dr. Henry Holt . Geophysicists estimate that collision with Asclepius would release energy comparable to the explosion of a 600 megaton atomic bomb . The asteroid was discovered 31 March 1989 , nine days after its closest approach to the Earth . Subsequent discoveries revealed that a whole class of such objects exists . Close approaches by objects the size of Asclepius pass by every two or three years , undetected until the start of computerized near-Earth object searches . On 24 March 2051 , the asteroid will pass 0.0123 AU from the Earth . It will be the eighth pass of less than 30 Gm in this century . JPL shows that the uncertainty region of the asteroid will cause it to mostly likely pass from 0.02 AU to 0.17 AU from the Earth in 2135 .", "List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2011 Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2011 .", "Sugar Loaf Island (Grenada) Sugar Loaf Island is a small , privately owned island that is located a few hundred metres off the coast of the northeast corner of Grenada , near Levera National Park . It is part of a small archipelago and is in close proximity to Green Island and Sandy Island , which are both uninhabited . A cottage is located at the southwest end of the island .", "List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2015 Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2015 .", "List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2017 Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2017 .", "28P/Neujmin 28P/Neujmin , also known as Neujmin 1 , is a large periodic comet in the Solar System . With a perihelion distance ( closest approach to the Sun ) of 1.5 AU , this comet does not make close approaches to the Earth . The comet nucleus is estimated to be 21.4 kilometers in diameter with a low albedo of 0.025 . Since 28P has such a large nucleus , it will become brighter than the 20th magnitude in early 2019 , roughly 2 years before coming to perihelion . When it comes to opposition in May 2020 , when it is still 3.5 AU from the Sun , it will likely have an apparent magnitude around 16.9 . But during the 2021 perihelion passage the comet will be on the opposite side of the Sun as the Earth . The comet is not known for bright outbursts of activity .", "List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2013 Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2013 .", "List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2009 Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2009 .", "Lower Horse Lower Horse is an uninhabited island off the English coast , lying in the Thames Estuary between Canvey Island and Stanford-le-Hope , close to . Consisting mainly of marshland it is part of the group of islands ( five of which later re-clustered to form Canvey Island ) that broke away from the English coastline in the medieval period . Administratively it is part of Thurrock unitary authority ; the border with Essex running between it and Canvey Island .", "2009 VA 2009 VA is an asteroid that came within 14000 km of Earth on November 6 , 2009 making it the 3rd closest non-impacting approach of a cataloged asteroid . With a diameter of only 7 m , scientists think that even if it had been on a direct collision course with Earth , it would have likely burned up in the atmosphere . The space rock made its pass by Earth just fifteen hours after its discovery . The asteroid was first discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona . It was determined that the object would make a pass well within the orbit of the Moon , but would not strike Earth . The object passed so close to Earth that its orbit was modified by Earth 's gravity .", "Maclean Island The Maclean Island , part of the Waterhouse Island Group , is a 1.11 ha uninhabited granite islet , situated in Banks Strait , part of Bass Strait , lying close to the north-eastern coast of Tasmania , Australia . Other islands in the Waterhouse Group include Ninth , Tenth , Waterhouse , Little Waterhouse , Baynes , St Helens , Foster , Swan , Little Swan , Cygnet and Paddys islands and Bird Rock and George Rocks islets ." ]

[ "Waste heat Waste heat is by necessity produced both by machines that do work and in other processes that use energy , for example in a refrigerator warming the room air or a combustion engine releasing heat into the environment . The need for many systems to reject heat as a by-product of their operation is fundamental to the laws of thermodynamics . Waste heat has lower utility ( or in thermodynamics lexicon a lower exergy or higher entropy ) than the original energy source . Sources of waste heat include all manner of human activities , natural systems , and all organisms . Instead of being `` wasted '' by release into the ambient environment , sometimes waste heat ( or cold ) can be utilized by another process ( such as using hot engine coolant to heat a vehicle ) , or a portion of heat that would otherwise be wasted can be reused in the same process if make-up heat is added to the system ( as with heat recovery ventilation in a building ) . Thermal energy storage , which includes technologies both for short - and long-term retention of heat or cold , can create or improve the utility of waste heat ( or cold ) . One example is waste heat from air conditioning machinery stored in a buffer tank to aid in night time heating . Another is seasonal thermal energy storage ( STES ) at a foundry in Sweden . The heat is stored in the bedrock surrounding a cluster of heat exchanger equipped boreholes , and is used for space heating in an adjacent factory as needed , even months later . An example of using STES to utilize natural waste heat is the Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta , Canada , which , by using a cluster of boreholes in bedrock for interseasonal heat storage , obtains 97 percent of its year-round heat from solar thermal collectors on the garage roofs . Another STES application is storing winter cold underground , for summer air conditioning . On a biological scale , all organisms reject waste heat as part of their metabolic processes , and will die if the ambient temperature is too high to allow this . Anthropogenic waste heat is thought by some to contribute to the urban heat island effect . The biggest point sources of waste heat originate from machines ( such as electrical generators or industrial processes , such as steel or glass production ) and heat loss through building envelopes . The burning of transport fuels is a major contribution to waste heat ." ]

[ "Urban heat island An urban heat island ( UHI ) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities . The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day , and is most apparent when winds are weak . UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter . The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces . Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor . As a population center grows , it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature . The less-used term heat island refers to any area , populated or not , which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area . Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities , partially due to the UHI . Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons , and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes . The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone , and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems . Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island . Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas , which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat . There are concerns raised about possible contribution from urban heat islands to global warming . Research on China and India indicates that urban heat island effect contributes to climate warming by about 30 % . On the other hand , one 1999 comparison between urban and rural areas proposed that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends . Many studies reveal increases in the severity of the effect with the progress of climate change .", "Waste-to-energy Waste-to-energy ( WtE ) or energy-from-waste ( EfW ) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste . WtE is a form of energy recovery . Most WtE processes produce electricity and/or heat directly through combustion , or produce a combustible fuel commodity , such as methane , methanol , ethanol or synthetic fuels .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Biodrying Biodrying is the process by which biodegradable waste is rapidly heated through initial stages of composting to remove moisture from a waste stream and hence reduce its overall weight . In biodrying processes , the drying rates are augmented by biological heat in addition to forced aeration . The major portion of biological heat , naturally available through the aerobic degradation of organic matter , is utilized to evaporate surface and bound water associated with the mixed sludge . This heat generation assists in reducing the moisture content of the biomass without the need for supplementary fossil fuels , and with minimal electricity consumption . It can take as little as 8 days to dry waste in this manner . This enables reduced costs of disposal if landfill is charged on a cost per tonne basis . Biodrying may be used as part of the production process for refuse-derived fuels . Biodrying does not however greatly affect the biodegradability of the waste and hence is not stabilised . Biodried waste will still break down in a landfill to produce landfill gas and hence potentially contribute to climate change . In the UK this waste will still impact upon councils LATS allowances . Whilst biodrying is increasingly applied within commercial mechanical biological treatment ( MBT ) plants , it is also still subject to on-going research and development .", "Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "John Zillman John W. Zillman AO ( born 28 July 1939 ) is an Australian meteorologist , and former President of the World Meteorological Organization and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering ( ATSE ) . He was born and was educated in Brisbane , Queensland . Through his leadership in professional organizations and advisory groups , Zillman has contributed to shaping science and innovation policy in Australia . More widely , he has contributed to raising awareness to the consequences of global climate change through involvement in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) .", "Heat transfer coefficient The heat transfer coefficient or film coefficient , or film effectiveness , in thermodynamics and in mechanics is the proportionality constant between the heat flux and the thermodynamic driving force for the flow of heat ( i.e. , the temperature difference , ΔT ) : where : q : amount of heat transferred ( heat flux ) , W/m2 i.e. , thermal power per unit area , q = d/dA h : heat transfer coefficient , W / ( m2 • K ) ΔT : difference in temperature between the solid surface and surrounding fluid area , K. It is used in calculating the heat transfer , typically by convection or phase transition between a fluid and a solid . The heat transfer coefficient has SI units in watts per squared meter kelvin : W / ( m2K ) . The heat transfer coefficient is the reciprocal of thermal insulance . This is used for building materials ( R-value ) and for clothing insulation . There are numerous methods for calculating the heat transfer coefficient in different heat transfer modes , different fluids , flow regimes , and under different thermohydraulic conditions . Often it can be estimated by dividing the thermal conductivity of the convection fluid by a length scale . The heat transfer coefficient is often calculated from the Nusselt number ( a dimensionless number ) . There are also online calculators available specifically for heat transfer fluid applications . Experimental assessment of the heat transfer coefficient poses some challenges especially when small fluxes are to be measured ( e.g. ) .", "Climate change feedback Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "0W 0W ( zero W ) or 0-W may refer to : 0W , zero west , or 0 ° W , coordinate of the prime meridian 0W or ZW , or zero width , a non-printing character used in computer typesetting of some complex scripts Zero-width joiner Zero-width non-joiner Zero-width space Zero-width non-breaking space Zero waste , an environmental concept", "Waste heat recovery unit A waste heat recovery unit ( WHRU ) is an energy recovery heat exchanger that recovers heat from hot streams with potential high energy content , such as hot flue gases from a diesel generator or steam from cooling towers or even waste water from different cooling processes such as in steel cooling .", "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Global Climate Observing System As an outcome of the Second World Climate Conference , the Global Climate Observing System ( GCOS ) was established in 1992 to ensure that the observations and information needed to address climate-related issues are obtained and made available to all potential users . The GCOS is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) , the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission ( IOC ) of UNESCO , the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and the International Council for Science ( ICSU ) . In order to assess and monitor the adequacy of in-situ observation networks as well as satellite-based observing systems , GCOS regularly reports on the adequacy of the current climate observing system to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , and thereby identifies the needs of the current climate observing system . The Global Climate Observing System ( GCOS ) is a system that comprises the climate-relevant components of many contributing observing systems and networks . The mission of the GCOS programme is to help ensure that these contributing systems , taken as a whole , provide the comprehensive information on the global climate system that is required by users , including individuals , national and international organizations , institutions and agencies . The programme promotes the sustained provision and availability of reliable physical , chemical and biological observations and data records for the total climate system - across the atmospheric , oceanic and terrestrial domains , including the Hydrological cycle , the Carbon cycle and the Cryosphere .", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "Breeding for heat stress tolerance Plant breeding is process of development of new cultivars . Plant breeding involves development of varieties for different environmental conditions -- some of them are not favorable . Among them , heat stress is one of such factor that reduces the production and quality significantly . So breeding against heat is a very important criterion for breeding for current as well as future environments produced by global climate change ( e.g. global warming ) .", "Kirk Bryan (oceanographer) Kirk Bryan ( Jr. ) ( born 1929 , son of Kirk Bryan , Sr. ( geologist,1888-1950 ) is an American oceanographer who is considered to be the founder of numerical ocean modeling . Starting in the 1960s at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , then located in Washington , D.C. , Bryan worked with a series of colleagues to develop numerical schemes for solving the equations of motion describing flow on a sphere . His work on these schemes led to the so-called `` Bryan-Cox code '' with which many early simulations were made , and which led to the Modular Ocean Model currently used by many numerical oceanographers and climate scientists . In addition to his important contributions in developing numerical codes , Bryan was also involved in early efforts to apply them to understanding the global climate system . In 1967 , he published , with Michael Cox , the first model of the 3-dimensional circulation of the ocean , forced by both winds and thermodynamic forcing . In 1969 , a paper with Syukoro Manabe was the first to present integrations of a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean model , demonstrating the importance of ocean heat transport to the climate . This work was recently named one of the top ten breakthroughs in the history of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration . Bryan 's 1971 paper with the noted dynamicist Adrian Gill demonstrated the important role played by bottom topography in setting the structure of the global ocean circulation , and played a major role in suggesting links between changes in continental topography and climate , continuing a long-term interest in the role of oceanic heat transport in determining global climate . Dr. Bryan was a lead author of the `` Transient Climate Change '' section of the 1989 scientific assessment report to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Bryan has been awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal of the American Geophysical Union for his contributions to the field of ocean science .", "Christopher Field Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "Global warming in Russia Global warming in Russia describes the global warming related issues in Russia . This includes climate politics , contribution to global warming and the influence of global warming on Russia . In 2009 Russia was ready to reduce emissions 20 -- 25 % from its 1990 emission levels by the year 2020 .", "Aquifer thermal energy storage Aquifer thermal energy storage ( ATES ) is the storage and recovery of thermal energy in the subsurface . ATES is applied to provide heating and cooling to buildings . Storage and recovery of thermal energy is achieved by extraction and injection of groundwater from aquifers using groundwater wells . Systems commonly operate in a seasonal mode . The groundwater that is extracted in summer , is used for cooling by transferring heat from the building to the groundwater by means of a heat exchanger . Subsequently , the heated groundwater is injected back into the aquifer , which creates a storage of heated groundwater . In wintertime , the flow direction is reversed such that the heated groundwater is extracted and can be used for heating ( often in combination with a heat pump ) . Therefore , operating an ATES system uses the subsurface as a temporal storage to buffer seasonal variations in heating and cooling demand . When replacing traditional fossil fuel dependent heating and cooling systems , ATES can serve as a cost-effective technology to reduce the primary energy consumption of a building and the associated CO2 emissions . In 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen , Denmark , many countries and regions have made targets for global climate protection . The European Union also set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , increase use of sustainable energy and improve energy efficiency . For this target , ATES can actually contribute significantly , as about 40 % of global energy consumption is done by buildings , and is mainly for heating and cooling . Therefore , the development of ATES has been paid a lot of attention and the number of ATES has increased dramatically , especially in Europe . For example , in the Netherlands , it was estimated that about 20,000 ATES systems could be achieved by 2020 . This can yield a CO2 emission reduction of about 11 % , for the target of the Netherlands . Besides the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Turkey , and Sweden are also increasing the application of ATES . ATES can be applied worldwide , as long as the climatic conditions and geohydrological conditions are right . As ATES systems cumulate in urban areas optimisation of subsurface space requires attention in areas with suitable conditions .", "Global climate regime A global climate regime is a global framework that aims at regulating the interaction of human activity with the global climate system , to mitigate global climate change .", "UTC Climate, Controls & Security UTC Climate , Controls & Security is a global provider of building technologies offering fire safety , security , building automation , heating , ventilating , air-conditioning and refrigeration systems and services . A wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation , UTC Climate , Controls & Security is a $ 16.7 billion company with 55,000 employees serving customers in more than 180 countries .", "Energy mix The energy mix is the group of different primary energy sources from which secondary energy for direct use - usually electricity - is produced . Primary energy in the form of fossil fuels is nowadays still mostly used directly for motor-driven vehicles , i.e. transport . Further energy conversion of the co-produced waste heat after burning is not possible . In 2009 , the global primary energy use corresponded to 12.5 e6t oil equivalent corresponding to 145,375 GWh ) . According to the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) 13,6 % of that was used by the EU . Within the EU , 75.9 % came from fossil fuels , 14.1 % from nuclear energy , 7 % from biofuels , 2.9 from renewable energy resources . Overall primary energy consumption in the U.S. in 2015 relied most on petroleum ( 35 e15BTU ) , natural gas ( 29 e15BTU ) and coal ( 16 e15BTU ) . Renewables contributed 9 e15BTU and nuclear power 8 e15BTU . In the same year , about 4 million GWh of electricity were generated in the U.S. , 67 % of which was generated from fossil fuels ( coal , natural gas , and < 1 % petroleum ) , 20 % from nuclear power , 6 % hydropower and 7 % other renewables . While the rise of global energy consumption with the global population growth can not immediately be counteracted , the sustainability of growth can partially be improved by changing the energy mix towards renewables . The main forces in this process are national and transnational energy policy and the energy industry together with their lobbyists .", "Cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power ( CHP ) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time . Trigeneration or combined cooling , heat and power ( CCHP ) refers to the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heating and cooling from the combustion of a fuel or a solar heat collector . Cogeneration is more thermally efficient use of fuel than electricity generation alone . In separate production of electricity some energy must be rejected as waste heat , but in cogeneration this thermal energy is put to good use . Combined heat and power ( CHP ) plants recover otherwise wasted thermal energy for heating . This is also called combined heat and power district heating ( CHPDH ) . Small CHP plants are an example of decentralized energy . By-product heat at moderate temperatures ( 100 -- 180 ° C , 212 -- 356 ° F ) can also be used in absorption refrigerators for cooling . The supply of high-temperature heat first drives a gas or steam turbine-powered generator . The resulting low-temperature waste heat is then used for water or space heating . At smaller scales ( typically below 1 MW ) a gas engine or diesel engine may be used . Trigeneration differs from cogeneration in that the waste heat is used for both heating and cooling , typically in an absorption refrigerator . CCHP systems can attain higher overall efficiencies than cogeneration or traditional power plants . In the United States , the application of trigeneration in buildings is called building cooling , heating and power ( BCHP ) . Heating and cooling output may operate concurrently or alternately depending on need and system construction . Cogeneration was practiced in some of the earliest installations of electrical generation . Before central stations distributed power , industries generating their own power used exhaust steam for process heating . Large office and apartment buildings , hotels and stores commonly generated their own power and used waste steam for building heat . Due to the high cost of early purchased power , these CHP operations continued for many years after utility electricity became available .", "Global Change Observation Mission GCOM ( Global Change Observation Mission ) , is a series of JAXA Earth observation satellites as a successor to the ill-fated ADEOS 2 satellite and to the Aqua Mission . GCOM is , together with the GPM Mission , Japan 's contribution to the GEOSS ( Global Earth Observation System of Systems ) . To increase security and scientific output , JAXA made the decision to split the original ADEOS 2 mission into two models of smaller satellites , GCOM-W for water observation and GCOM-C for climate observation . It is planned to launch three satellites for each mission during the next decade , with each subsequent satellite overlapping to provide continuous coverage .", "Heat flux Heat flux or thermal flux is the rate of heat energy transfer through a given surface per unit time . The SI derived unit of heat rate is joule per second , or watt . Heat flux density is the heat rate per unit area . In SI units , heat flux density is measured in -LSB- W/m2 -RSB- . The dimensional unit is . Heat rate is a scalar quantity , while heat flux is a vectorial quantity . To define the heat flux at a certain point in space , one takes the limiting case where the size of the surface becomes infinitesimally small . Heat flux is often denoted , the subscript q specifying heat rate , as opposed to mass or momentum rate . Fourier 's law is an important application of these concepts .", "Climatic Research Unit The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "Green Zone Community Climate Action Green Zone Community Climate Action is a charitable unincorporated association formed in November 2016 . Based in Broomfield , Essex , this organisation delivers climate change awareness at a grass roots level to improve public understanding of Global warming and promote individual actions that can help to address this . The charity works with Marks & Spencer through the project Neighbourly among other retailers to reduce food waste and share unsold food within the community . The charity also supports climate education for primary school children through clubs . The charity took part in the worldwide 24 Hours of Reality campaign broadcast by The Climate Reality Project . Working alongside additional community charities Green Zone Community Climate Action is one of many new projects created to assist the UK in meeting the United Nations global Sustainable Development Goals", "Global Underground 028: Shanghai Global Underground 028 : Nick Warren , Shanghai is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series , compiled and mixed by Nick Warren . The album peaked at # 14 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums . Though Warren was inspired by the Shanghai scene , the album 's music came from producers of thirteen different nationalities . Warren 's 2003 Reykjavik mix was supposed to be his last for Global Underground . Disillusioned with the non-stop DJing treadmill , he had planned to settle in the studio and focus on his Way Out West production work , yet was constantly being asked when his next GU instalment would appear . He was also frustrated by the lack of a platform for some of the unsigned music he was regularly being given by new producers from around the world , so he agreed to do `` one more '' GU mix , with the focus on showcasing new talent and a wider range of music than his Icelandic mix .", "Lucia Liljegren Lucia Liljegren is an American mechanical engineer who has worked at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( on projects related to remediation and storage of radioactive waste ) and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University . She is best known ( as Lucia ) for her global warming/climate change blog The Blackboard ( Where Climate Talk Gets Hot ! ) , online since 2007 . Professor Judith Curry , a climatologist at Georgia Tech , calls Lucia `` probably the least controversial person in the climate blogosphere , because of her cheerfulness and sense of humor , honesty , and open mindedness . '' In the climate change debate , Lucia classifies herself as a `` lukewarmer '' : a person who recognizes global warming , but doubts the severity of the problem , and the certainty of climate science predictions . The Blackboard was one of the first sites to post some of the CRU emails leaked in the 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy .", "Black carbon Chemically , black carbon ( BC ) is a component of fine particulate matter ( PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter ) . Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms . It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels , biofuel , and biomass , and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot . Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality . In climatology , black carbon is a climate forcing agent . Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice ( direct effects ) and indirectly by interaction with clouds , with the total forcing of 1.1 W/m2 . Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks , whereas carbon dioxide has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years . The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology , referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires . Especially in the tropics , black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients .", "Renewable thermal energy Renewable thermal energy is the technology of gathering thermal energy from a renewable energy source for immediate use or for storage in a thermal battery for later use . An example of Renewable Thermal is a Geothermal Heat Pump ( GHP ) system , where excess thermal energy due to solar heating from the sun is removed from the structure via the heating and cooling system and stored in the ground , and that same energy is then extracted from the ground to later heat the same building in another season . This example system is `` renewable '' because the source of excess heat energy is a reliably recurring process that occurs each summer season ; in this case it is even a natural renewable energy source .", "Heat current A heat current is a kinetic exchange rate between molecules , relative to the material in which the kinesis occurs . It is defined as , where is heat and is time . For conduction , heat current is defined by Fourier 's law as where is the amount of heat transferred per unit time -LSB- W -RSB- and is an oriented surface area element -LSB- m2 -RSB- The above differential equation , when integrated for a homogeneous material of 1-D geometry between two endpoints at constant temperature , gives the heat flow rate as : where A is the cross-sectional surface area , is the temperature difference between the ends , is the distance between the ends . For thermal radiation , heat current is defined as where the constant of proportionality is the Stefan -- Boltzmann constant , is the radiating surface area , and is temperature . Heat current can also be thought of as the total phonon distribution multiplied by the energy of one phonon , times the group velocity of the phonons . The phonon distribution of a particular phonon mode is given by the Bose-Einstein factor , which is dependent on temperature and phonon energy ." ]

[ "Philadelphia Philadelphia ( -LSB- ˌfɪləˈdɛlfi.ə -RSB- ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States , with an estimated population of 1,567,872 and more than 6 million in the seventh-largest metropolitan statistical area , . Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valleya region located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers with 7.2 million people residing in the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States . In 1682 , William Penn , an English Quaker , founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony . Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States , who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787 . Several other key Philadelphia events during the Revolution include the First and Second Continental Congress , the preservation of the Liberty Bell , the Battle of Germantown , the Siege of Fort Mifflin , and the Philadelphia Convention . Philadelphia was one of the nation 's capitals in the Revolutionary War , and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington , D.C. , was under construction . In the 19th century , Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants . The majority of European immigrants have come from Ireland , Italy and Germany -- the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city . The city became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration of the 20th century , as well as Puerto Ricans , surpassing two million occupants by 1950 . The area 's many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination , as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub . With a gross domestic product of $ 388 billion , Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation . Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies . The Philadelphia skyline is growing , with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several nationally prominent skyscrapers . The city is known for its arts , culture , and rich history , attracting over 41 million domestic tourists alone in 2015 . Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city . Fairmount Park , when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed , is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States . The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $ 10 billion generated by tourism . Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps , and is also the home of many U.S. firsts , including the first library ( 1731 ) , first hospital ( 1751 ) and medical school ( 1765 ) , first Capital ( 1777 ) , first stock exchange ( 1790 ) , first zoo ( 1874 ) , and first business school ( 1881 ) . Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States .", "Ozone depletion Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s : a steady decline of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth 's stratosphere ( the ozone layer ) , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth 's polar regions . The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole . In addition to these well-known stratospheric phenomena , there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events . The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of mid-latitude thinning but the most important process in both is catalytic destruction of ozone by atomic halogens . The main source of these halogen atoms in the stratosphere is photodissociation of man-made halocarbon refrigerants , solvents , propellants , and foam-blowing agents ( chlorofluorocarbon ( CFCs ) , HCFCs , freons , halons ) . These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by winds after being emitted at the surface . Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halocarbons increased . CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as ozone-depleting substances ( ODS ) . Since the ozone layer prevents most harmful UVB wavelengths ( 280 -- 315 nm ) of ultraviolet light ( UV light ) from passing through the Earth 's atmosphere , observed and projected decreases in ozone generated worldwide concern , leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol that bans the production of CFCs , halons , and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethane . It is suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in sunburn , skin cancer , cataracts , damage to plants , and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean 's photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Dobson unit The Dobson unit ( DU ) is a unit of measurement of the amount of a trace gas in a vertical column through the Earth 's atmosphere . It originated , and continues to be primarily used in respect to , atmospheric ozone , whose total column amount , usually termed `` total ozone '' , and sometimes `` column abundance '' , is dominated by the high concentrations of ozone in the stratospheric ozone layer . One Dobson unit is equal to the number of ozone molecules needed to create a pure layer of ozone 0.01 millimeters thick at STP - standard conditions for temperature and pressure . The Dobson Unit is defined as the thickness ( in units of 10 µm ) of that layer of pure gas which would be formed by the total column amount at STP . This is sometimes referred to as a ` milli-atmo-centimeter . ' A typical column amount of 300 DU of atmospheric ozone therefore would form a 3 mm layer of pure gas at the surface of the Earth if its temperature and pressure conformed to STP . The Dobson unit is named after Gordon Dobson , a researcher at the University of Oxford who in the 1920s built the first instrument to measure total ozone from the ground , making use of a double prism monochromator to measure the differential absorption of different bands of solar ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer . This instrument , called the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer , has formed the backbone of the global network for monitoring atmospheric ozone and was the source of the discovery in 1984 of the Antarctic ozone hole .", "Ozone Ozone -LSB- ˈoʊzoʊn -RSB- ( systematically named 1λ1 ,3 λ1-trioxidane and catena-trioxygen ) , or trioxygen , is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell . It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lower atmosphere to or dioxygen . Ozone is formed from dioxygen by the action of ultraviolet light and also atmospheric electrical discharges , and is present in low concentrations throughout the Earth 's atmosphere ( stratosphere ) . In total , ozone makes up only of the atmosphere . Ozone 's odour is sharp , reminiscent of chlorine , and detectable by many people at concentrations of as little as in air . Ozone 's O3 structure was determined in 1865 . The molecule was later proven to have a bent structure and to be diamagnetic . In standard conditions , ozone is a pale blue gas that condenses at progressively cryogenic temperatures to a dark blue liquid and finally a violet-black solid . Ozone 's instability with regard to more common dioxygen is such that both concentrated gas and liquid ozone may decompose explosively at elevated temperatures or fast warming to the boiling point . It is therefore used commercially only in low concentrations . Ozone is a powerful oxidant ( far more so than dioxygen ) and has many industrial and consumer applications related to oxidation . This same high oxidising potential , however , causes ozone to damage mucous and respiratory tissues in animals , and also tissues in plants , above concentrations of about . This makes ozone a potent respiratory hazard and pollutant near ground level . However , the ozone layer ( a portion of the stratosphere with a higher concentration of ozone , from two to eight ppm ) is beneficial , preventing damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the Earth 's surface , to the benefit of both plants and animals .", "Cyclic ozone Cyclic ozone is a theoretically predicted form of ozone . Like ordinary ozone ( O3 ) , it would have three oxygen atoms . It would differ from ordinary ozone in how those three oxygen atoms are arranged . In ordinary ozone , the atoms are arranged in a bent line ; in cyclic ozone , they would form an equilateral triangle . Some of properties of cyclic ozone have been predicted theoretically . It should have more energy than ordinary ozone . There is evidence that tiny quantities of cyclic ozone exist at the surface of magnesium oxide crystals in air . Cyclic ozone has not been made in bulk , although at least one researcher has attempted to do so using lasers . Another possibility to stabilize this form of oxygen is to produce it inside confined spaces , e.g. , fullerene . It has been speculated that , if cyclic ozone could be made in bulk , and if it proved to have good stability properties , it could be added to liquid oxygen to improve the specific impulse of rocket fuel . Currently , the possibility of cyclic ozone is confirmed within diverse theoretical approaches .", "Dennis L. Hartmann Dennis L Hartmann is an American atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington . He has done research on ozone depletion and climate change . In 2016 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .", "Photoinitiator A photoinitiator is a molecule that creates reactive species ( free radicals , cations or anions ) when exposed to radiation ( UV or visible ) . Synthetic photoinitiators are key components in photopolymers ( i.e. photo-curable coatings , adhesives and dental restoratives ) . Some small molecules in the atmosphere can also act as photoinitiators by decomposing to give free radicals ( in photochemical smog ) . For instance , nitrogen dioxide is produced in large quantities by gasoline-burning internal combustion engines . NO2 in the troposphere gives smog its brown coloration and catalyzes production of toxic ground-level ozone . Molecular oxygen ( O2 ) also serves as a photoinitiator in the stratosphere , breaking down into atomic oxygen and combining with O2 in order to form the ozone in the ozone layer .", "Jon Shanklin Jonathan Shanklin is a meteorologist who has worked at the British Antarctic Survey since 1977 . Together with Joe Farman and Brian G. Gardiner he discovered the `` Ozone Hole '' in the 1980s . Shanklin has described his role at the BAS as being that of a `` general dogsbody '' at the time of the discovery of the `` ozone hole '' . He calibrated an instrument called the Dobson Ozone Spectrophotometer which provided data on atmospheric ozone . In an article discussing the discovery , the BBC quotes him as saying Perhaps the most startling lesson from the ozone hole is just how quickly our planet can change . Given the speed with which humankind can affect it , following the precautionary principle is likely to be the safest road to future prosperity . Jon maintains the ozone pages at BAS . He plays cricket , is a bell-ringer , an active local naturalist and is a keen amateur astronomer , being Director of the British Astronomical Association 's Comet Section .", "SBUV/2 The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer , or SBUV/2 , is a series of operational remote sensors on NOAA weather satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits which have been providing global measurements of stratospheric total ozone , as well as ozone profiles , since March 1985 . The SBUV/2 instruments were developed from the SBUV experiment flown on the Nimbus-7 spacecraft which improved on the design of the original BUV instrument on Nimbus-4 . These are nadir viewing radiometric instruments operating at mid to near UV wavelengths . SBUV/2 data sets overlap with data from SBUV and TOMS instruments on the Nimbus-7 spacecraft . These extensive data sets ( January 1979 to the present ) measure the density and vertical distribution of ozone in the Earth 's atmosphere from six to 30 miles . SBUV/2 looks down at the Earth 's atmosphere and the reflected sunlight at wavelengths characteristic of ozone . The SBUV/2 wavelength `` channels '' range from 252 nanometer ( nm ) to 340 nm . Ozone is measured as a ratio of sunlight incident on the atmosphere to the amount of sunlight scattered back into space . From this information , the total ozone between the instrument and the ground can be calculated . The SBUV/2 measures solar irradiance and Earth radiance ( backscattered solar energy ) in the near ultraviolet spectrum ( 160 to 400 nm ) . The SBUV is capable of determining the global ozone concentration in the stratosphere to an absolute accuracy of 1 percent ; the vertical distribution of atmospheric ozone to an absolute accuracy of 5 percent ; the long-term solar spectral irradiance from 160 to 400 nm Photochemical process and the influence of `` trace '' constituents on the ozone layer . The Ball Aerospace-built SBUV/2 helped to discover the ozone hole over Antarctica in 1987 , and continues to monitor this phenomenon . Atmospheric ozone absorbs the sun 's ultraviolet rays , which are believed to cause gene mutations , skin cancer , and cataracts in humans . Ultraviolet rays may also damage crops and aquatic ecosystems . The first SBUV/2 instrument was launched on NOAA-9 in December 1984 and the last instrument in this series was launched in February 2009 aboard the NOAA-19 spacecraft .", "MOZART (model) MOZART ( Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers ) is a chemistry transport model ( CTM ) developed jointly by the ( US ) National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ( GFDL ) , and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology ( MPI-Met ) to simulate changes in ozone concentrations in the Earth 's atmosphere . MOZART was designed to simulate tropospheric chemical and transport processes , but has been extended into the stratosphere and mesosphere . It can be driven by standard meteorological fields from , e.g. , the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office ( DMAO ) or by fields generated from general circulation models .", "Chlorine monoxide Chlorine monoxide is a chemical radical with the chemical formula ClO . It plays an important role in the process of ozone depletion . In the stratosphere , chlorine atoms react with ozone molecules to form chlorine monoxide and oxygen . Cl · + → ClO · + This reaction causes the depletion of the ozone layer . This reaction can go on and the ClO · radicals can go on to react as such : ClO · + O · → Cl · + regenerating the chlorine radical . In this way , the overall reaction for the decomposition of ozone is catalyzed by chlorine , as ultimately chlorine remains unchanged . The overall reaction is : O · + → + 2 This has been a significant impact of the use of CFCs on the upper stratosphere , however many countries have agreed to ban the use of CFCs . The nonreactive nature of CFC 's allows them to pass into the stratosphere , where they undergo photo-dissociation to form Cl radicals . These then readily form chlorine monoxide , and this cycle can continue until two radicals react to form dichlorine monoxide , terminating the radical reaction . Because the concentration of CFCs in atmosphere is very low , the probability of a terminating reaction is exceedingly low , meaning each radical can decompose many thousands of molecules of ozone . Even though the use of CFCs was banned in many countries , CFCs can stay in the atmosphere for about 50-500 years . This cause many chlorine radicals to be produced and hence a significant amount of ozone molecules are decomposed before the chlorine radicals are able to react with chlorine monoxide to form Dichlorine monoxide .", "Tropospheric ozone depletion events During springtime in the polar regions , unique photochemistry converts inert halide salt ions ( e.g. Br − ) into reactive halogen species ( e.g. Br atoms and BrO ) that episodically deplete ozone in the atmospheric boundary layer to near zero levels . Since their discovery in the late 1980s , research on these ozone depletion events ( ODEs ) has shown the central role of bromine photochemistry . Due to the autocatalytic nature of the reaction mechanism , it has been called bromine explosion . It 's still not fully understood how salts are transported from the ocean and oxidized to become reactive halogen species in the air . Other halogens ( chlorine and iodine ) are also activated through mechanisms coupled to bromine chemistry . The main consequence of halogen activation is chemical destruction of ozone , which removes the primary precursor of atmospheric oxidation , and generation of reactive halogen atoms/oxides that become the primary oxidizing species . The different reactivity of halogens as compared to OH and ozone has broad impacts on atmospheric chemistry , including near complete removal and deposition of mercury , alteration of oxidation fates for organic gases , and export of bromine into the free troposphere . Recent changes in the climate of the Arctic and state of the Arctic sea ice cover are likely to have strong effects on halogen activation and ODEs .", "Peroxyacetyl nitrate Peroxyacetyl nitrate is a peroxyacyl nitrate . It is a secondary pollutant present in photochemical smog . It is thermally unstable and decomposes into peroxyethanoyl radicals and nitrogen dioxide gas . It is a lachrymatory substance . Peroxyacetyl nitrate , or PAN , is an oxidant that is more stable than ozone . Hence , it is more capable of long-range transport than ozone . It serves as a carrier for oxides of nitrogen ( NOx ) into rural regions and causes ozone formation in the global troposphere .", "Smog Watch Smog Watch , also known as the Anti-Idling Sign , is a voluntary government protocol to prevent the Seattle , Washington , region from exceeding the federal health standards in relation to ozone . It aims at protection of public health during summers , where ozone levels are often found to be the highest . At certain times during the summer , agency meteorologists will issue a smog watch for 48 hours when there are elevated smog levels . During this 48-hour period , citizens of the Seattle district are encouraged to lower smog levels by taking steps to decrease pollution , including by : driving less , refueling when it is cool , refraining from using lawn mowers , partaking in pollution-free recreation , turning off car engines while idling , and volunteering for environmental sustainability programs .", "Ozone Falls Ozone Falls is a waterfall located in Cumberland County , Tennessee in the Ozone Falls State Natural Area and Cumberland Trail State Park . Ozone Falls is situated along Fall Creek , which drains a short section of the Cumberland Plateau between the Crab Orchard Mountains to the west and Walden Ridge to the east . The creek flows down from its source high in the Crab Orchard Mountains for a mile or so before steadying briefly as it enters the community of Ozone . Fall Creek enters the state natural area just after it passes under U.S. Route 70 , which runs perpendicular to it . The creek spills over Ozone Falls a few hundred meters south of US-70 . The trailhead is located along US-70 .", "Umkehr effect The Umkehr is the time variation of the ratio of the scattered intensity at two different wavelengths . The word means ` reversal ' in German . The Umkehr effect is observed when measurements are made with ultraviolet spectrophotometer of the ratio of the zenith sky light intensities of two wavelengths in the solar ultraviolet when the sun is near the horizon . The shorter of two wavelengths ( intensity I ) is strongly absorbed and other ( intensity I ' ) is weakly absorbed . If the value of log ( I/I ' ) is plotted against the sun 's zenith angle , it is observed that this log-intensity ratio decreases as the zenith angle increases until a minimum is reached for a zenith angle of about 80 ( when the wavelengths are 3114 and 3324 A0 ) . This effect was first noticed by Götz in 1930 . The Umkehr measurement is known as customarily N-value and is given by the logarithm base 10 of the ratio of cloudless zenith sky intensitities at two different wavelengths scaled by a multiplicative factor 100 plus a constant which depends on instruments and extraterrestrial radiation . Methods for deriving vertical distribution from the umkehr measurements were developed by Götz , Dobson and Meetham in 1934 , using the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer developed by Gordon Dobson . In 1964 Carlton Mateer provided analysis on information content in umkehr measurements . Considering light which is scattered only once in the atmosphere , the light received by the instrument at surface is contributed by light scattered downward from all the levels in the atmosphere . The amount of light contributed by scattering at any particular level depends on ( a ) the number of air molecules at that level and ( b ) the absorption by ozone and scattering by air moleculaes both before and after scattering . As the height increases contribution of effect ( a ) decreases and contribution of effect ( b ) increases . For a given zenith angle , the scattered light contribution comes from well defined layer of atmosphere , which can be termed as an effective scattering height . The effective scattering height depends on the ozone absorption coefficient and on the solar zenith angle , increasing as with each of these . The effective scattering height will always be higher for shorter wavelength which is more strongly absorbed . As the sun approaches the horizon , the two intensities decreases , but intensity I decreasing more rapidly than I ' . However , when the effective scattering height for the short wavelength is above the ozone maximum , I decreases more slowly than I ' , because the ozone absorption occurs mostly in the shorter vertical path after the scattering event , and the ratio I/I '' ' increases until the effective scattering height for I ' '' is also above the ozone maximum . This reversal ( Umkehr ) or inversion implies the existence of maximum of ozone concentration at some level in the atmosphere . The resulting ozone profile derived from reduction of these measurements is quite dependent on the algorithm used . The most current algorithm is I. Petropavlovskikh and P.K. Bhartia ( 2004 ) . Current description can be found here : http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/research/umkehr/", "Ozone therapy Ozone therapy is a form of alternative medicine treatment that purports to increase the amount of oxygen in the body through the introduction of ozone . Various techniques have been suggested , with purported benefits including the treatment of cancer , AIDS , and multiple sclerosis , among others . There is no credible , peer reviewed evidence to support the use of ozone as a type of medical therapy . Ozone therapy is sold as an alternative treatment for various illnesses . Beginning in 1991 the FDA has prosecuted and sent to jail several people presenting themselves as medical doctors and selling ozone therapy products as a medical cure or operating medical clinics using ozone therapy for healing human illness . Arrests following similar activity have been made in other countries as well . At least 10 deaths have been related to ozone therapy or its lack of usefullness , in nine cases there had been investigation and in eight it was discovered that the practitioners had used false credentials .", "Ozone Monitoring Instrument The Ozone Monitoring Instrument ( OMI ) is on board the NASA Aura . OMI can distinguish between aerosol types , such as smoke , dust , and sulfates , and can measure cloud pressure and coverage , which provide data to derive tropospheric ozone . OMI follows in the heritage of TOMS , SBUV , GOME , SCIAMACHY , and GOMOS . It is a wide-field-imaging spectrometer with a 114 ° across-track viewing angle range that provides a 2600 km wide swath , enabling measurements with a daily global coverage . OMI is continuing the TOMS record for total ozone and other atmospheric parameters related to ozone chemistry and climate . The OMI project is a cooperation between the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes ( NIVR ) , the Finnish Meteorological Institute ( FMI ) and the National Aeronatautics and Space Agency ( NASA ) . The OMI project was carried out under the direction of the NIVR and financed by the Ministries of Economic Affairs , Transport and Public Works and the Ministry of Education and Science . The instrument was built by Dutch Space in co-operation with Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research Science and Industry and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research . The Finnish industry supplied the electronics . The scientific part of the OMI project is managed by KNMI ( principal investigator Prof. Dr. P.F. Levelt ) , in close co-operation with NASA and the Finnish Meteorological Institute .", "Atmospheric chemistry Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the chemistry of the Earth 's atmosphere and that of other planets is studied . It is a multidisciplinary approach of research and draws on environmental chemistry , physics , meteorology , computer modeling , oceanography , geology and volcanology and other disciplines . Research is increasingly connected with other arenas of study such as climatology . The composition and chemistry of the Earth 's atmosphere is of importance for several reasons , but primarily because of the interactions between the atmosphere and living organisms . The composition of the Earth 's atmosphere changes as result of natural processes such as volcano emissions , lightning and bombardment by solar particles from corona . It has also been changed by human activity and some of these changes are harmful to human health , crops and ecosystems . Examples of problems which have been addressed by atmospheric chemistry include acid rain , ozone depletion , photochemical smog , greenhouse gases and global warming . Atmospheric chemists seek to understand the causes of these problems , and by obtaining a theoretical understanding of them , allow possible solutions to be tested and the effects of changes in government policy evaluated .", "Lost in the Ozone Lost in the Ozone is the debut album by the Country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen . The album contains their hit cover version of `` Hot Rod Lincoln '' as well as the band 's live staples , `` Lost in the Ozone '' and `` Seeds and Stems ( Again ) . '' The song `` Lost in the Ozone '' gave its name to Ozone House , an organization dealing with runaways and the needs of at-risk youth .", "Ozone House Ozone House , based in Ann Arbor , Michigan , is a 501 ( c ) 3 non-profit organization that works to `` meet the needs of runaway , homeless , and high-risk youth and their families . '' Ozone House addresses these objectives through a variety of services and venues , including a 24-hour youth crisis hotline , emergency youth shelter , transitional living programs , a drop-in center , and street outreach . It is a state-licensed Child Caring Institution and a Substance Abuse Prevention provider . Ozone Houses offers support throughout the state of Michigan , but is focused more directly in the surrounding Washtenaw County area . The organization takes its name from the Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen song , `` Lost in the Ozone '' owing to its roots as a drug-counseling program . Historically , it is among the first-generation alternative service providers that emerged in the 1960s dealing with runaways and the needs of at-risk youth .", "Hiroshi Kanzawa Hiroshi Kanzawa ( b. January 1953 in Maebashi , Gunma Prefecture , Japan ) is a Japanese meteorologist , environmental scientist and the dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at the University of Nagoya . He is perhaps best known for his onsite atmospheric work in Antarctica and the papers he has co-authored on Ozone depletion , including : `` Large stratospheric sudden warming in Antarctic late winter and shallow ozone hole in 1988 '' ( with Sadao Kamaguchi ) and `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japanese colleague Seita Emori and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) . Kanzawa also sits on the board of Councilors of the Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center at the University of Nagoya .", "John H. Seinfeld John H. Seinfeld is an expert in the causes and modelling of tropospheric pollution . He grew up in Elmira , NY and attended the University of Rochester , where he received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering , and Princeton University , where he received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering . His doctoral dissertation was concerned with the theory of control and optimization of distributed-parameter systems , that is , systems governed by partial differential equations . He joined the California Institute of Technology ( Caltech ) as Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1967 . Shortly after joining Caltech , he became intrigued with Los Angeles 's historic smog , which , at that time , was near record highs . Caltech biology professor Ari Haagen-Smit had , in the early 1950s , surmised that ozone , the principal gaseous component of smog , results from reactions involving volatile hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen ( NOx ) . Seinfeld realized that modeling the formation of smog over an urban area like Los Angeles would involve describing mathematically the three-dimensional transport , mixing , and chemical reactions in the atmosphere . A key component was describing the chemistry of the sunlight-driven hydrocarbon - NOx system . At the time of Haagen-Smit 's classic papers , the actual mechanism of the underlying chemistry was unknown . The essential role of the hydroxyl ( OH ) radical in tropospheric chemistry was not established until about 1970 . Seinfeld and his group formulated a chemical mechanism for ozone formation and in 1973 developed the first urban-scale atmospheric chemical-transport model , which was applied to the Los Angeles basin . This work , published in three papers in the journal , Atmospheric Environment , initiated what emerged as an entire field of scientific endeavor devoted to the modeling of tropospheric pollution . Although he continued to conduct research on optimization for several years , in the early 1970s he formed a major research group on atmospheric chemistry , aerosols , and atmospheric modeling . As of 2009 , he has served as mentor to 73 PhD graduates , about half of whom occupy faculty positions in major universities .", "Ozon Ozon may refer to : François Ozon , a French film director and screenwriter ozon.ru , a Russian online retailer Ozon Radio ( disambiguation ) , various radio stations Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego , a Polish political party Titus Ozon a Romanian soccer player of the second half of 20th century Ozon , Ardèche , a commune in the department of Ardèche , France Ozon , Hautes-Pyrénées , a commune in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées , France", "Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "Hofmann Spur Hofmann Spur is an ice-covered spur between Allison Glacier and Dale Glacier on the west side of the Royal Society Range , Victoria Land , Antarctica . It was named after David J. Hofmann of the University of Wyoming and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , who has conducted upper atmospheric research through high-altitude ballooning in Antarctica for over 15 years , contributing greatly to the understanding of the ozone hole .", "Polar stratospheric cloud Polar stratospheric clouds or PSCs , also known as nacreous clouds ( -LSB- ˈneɪkriː.əs -RSB- , from nacre , or mother of pearl , due to its iridescence ) , are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15000 - . They are best observed during civil twilight when the sun is between 1 and 6 degrees below the horizon as well as in winter and in more northerly latitudes . They are implicated in the formation of ozone holes . The effects on ozone depletion arise because they support chemical reactions that produce active chlorine which catalyzes ozone destruction , and also because they remove gaseous nitric acid , perturbing nitrogen and chlorine cycles in a way which increases ozone destruction .", "Montreal Protocol The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer ( a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer ) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion . It was agreed on 16 September 1987 , and entered into force on 01 January 1989 , followed by a first meeting in Helsinki , May 1989 . Since then , it has undergone eight revisions , in 1990 ( London ) , 1991 ( Nairobi ) , 1992 ( Copenhagen ) , 1993 ( Bangkok ) , 1995 ( Vienna ) , 1997 ( Montreal ) , 1998 ( Australia ) , 1999 ( Beijing ) and 2016 ( Kigali , adopted , but not in force ) . As a result of the international agreement , the ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly recovering . Climate projections indicate that the ozone layer will return to 1980 levels between 2050 and 2070 . Due to its widespread adoption and implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international co-operation , with Kofi Annan quoted as saying that `` perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol '' . In comparison , effective burden sharing and solution proposals mitigating regional conflicts of interest have been among the success factors for the ozone depletion challenge , where global regulation based on the Kyoto Protocol has failed to do so . In this case of the ozone depletion challenge , there was global regulation already being installed before a scientific consensus was established . Also , overall public opinion was convinced of possible imminent risks . The two ozone treaties have been ratified by 197 parties , which includes 196 states and the European Union , making them the first universally ratified treaties in United Nations history . These truly universal treaties have also been remarkable in the expedience of the policy making process at the global scale , where only 14 years lapsed between a basic scientific research discovery ( 1973 ) and the international agreement signed ( 1985 & 1987 ) .", "Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars ( GOMOS ) , is an instrument on board the European satellite Envisat launched 1 March 2002 . It is the first space instrument dedicated to the study of the atmosphere of the Earth by the technique of stellar occultation . The spectrum of stars in the ultraviolet , visible and the near infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum is observed . It is aimed to use GOMOS to build a climatology of ozone and related species in the middle atmosphere ( 15 to 100 km ) .", "Ozone, Arkansas Ozone is an unincorporated community in Johnson County , Arkansas , United States . Ozone is located on Arkansas Highway 21 11.5 mi north of Clarksville . Ozone has a post office with ZIP code 72854 . Ozone has been noted for its unusual place name .", "Oliver Reynolds Wulf Oliver Reynolds Wulf ( 22 April 1897 , Norwich , Connecticut -- 11 January 1987 ) was a chemist , physicist , and meteorologist , known for his research on nitrogen fixation , ozone , atmospheric dynamics , and ions and winds in the ionosphere .", "Ozone monitor An ozone monitor is electronic equipment that monitors for ozone concentrations in the air . The instrument may be used to monitor ozone values for industrial applications or to determine the amount of ambient ozone at ground level and determine whether these values violate National Ambient Air Quality Standards ( NAAQS ) . The ozone molecule absorbs ultraviolet radiation , and most ozone monitors utilized in regulatory applications use ultraviolet absorption to accurately quantify ozone levels . An ozone monitor of this type operates by pulling an air sample from the atmosphere into the machine with an air pump . During one cycle , the ozone monitor will take one air sample through the air inlet , and scrub the ozone from the air ; for the next cycle , an air sample bypasses the scrubber and the ozone value calculated . The solenoid valve is electronically activated to shift the air flow either through the scrubber or to bypass it on a timed sequence . The difference between the two sampled values determines the actual ozone value at that time . The monitor may also have options to account for air pressure and air temperature to calculate the value of ozone . The concentration of ozone is determined using the Beer-Lambert Law that basically says that the absorption of light is proportional to the concentration . For ozone , a 254 nanometer wavelength of light created by a mercury lamp is shined through a specific length of tubing with reflective mirrors . A photodiode at the other end of the tube detects the changes of brightness from the light . The onboard electronics process the values obtained and display the value on the screen and can also output an electrical signal in volts or a 4-20 mA current that can be read by an electronic data logger . Other options for output are RS232 serial port or ethernet or internal data storage on flash memory .", "F. Sherwood Rowland Frank Sherwood `` Sherry '' Rowland ( June 28 , 1927 -- March 10 , 2012 ) was an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California , Irvine . His research was on atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics . His best-known work was the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion .", "UARS UARS may refer to : Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite , an orbital observatory whose mission was to study the Earth 's atmosphere , particularly the protective ozone layer , and which crashed on Earth in 2011 Upper airway resistance syndrome , a sleep disorder characterized by airway resistance to breathing during sleep" ]

[ "Fossil fuel Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms , containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis . The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years , and sometimes exceeds 650 million years . Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum , coal , and natural gas . Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane . Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon to hydrogen ratios like methane , to liquids like petroleum , to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon , like anthracite coal . Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone , associated with oil , or in the form of methane clathrates . The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth 's crust over millions of years was first introduced by Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century . The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0 % , coal 27.4 % , natural gas 23.0 % , amounting to an 86.4 % share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world . Non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8.5 % , hydroelectric 6.3 % , and others ( geothermal , solar , tidal , wind , wood , waste ) amounting to 0.9 % . World energy consumption was growing about 2.3 % per year . Although fossil fuels are continually being formed via natural processes , they are generally considered to be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made . The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns . The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes ( 21.3 gigatonnes ) of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) per year . It is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount , so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year . Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming . A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification ." ]

[ "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "Refined coal Refined coal is the product of the application of a coal upgrading technology that removes moisture and certain pollutants from lower-rank coals such as sub-bituminous and lignite ( brown ) coals and raising their calorific values . Coal refining or upgrading technologies are typically pre-combustion treatments and/or processes that alter the characteristics of a coal before it is burned . The goals of pre-combustion coal upgrading technologies are to increase efficiency and reduce emissions when coal is burned . Depending on the situation , pre-combustion technology can be used in place of or as a supplement to post-combustion technologies to control emissions from coal-fueled boilers . A primary benefit of refined coal is the capacity to reduce the net volume of carbon emissions that is currently emitted from power generators and would reduce the amount of emissions that is proposed to be managed via emerging carbon sequestration methodologies . Refined coal technologies have primarily been developed in the United States , several similar technologies have been researched , developed and tested in Victoria , Australia , including the Densified coal technology ( Coldry Process ) developed to alter the chemical bonds of brown coal to create a product that is cleaner , stable ( not prone to spontaneous combustion ) , exportable and of sufficiently high calorific value to be a black coal equivalent .", "Climate change in China The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "Global Carbon Project The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "Lasing threshold The lasing threshold is the lowest excitation level at which a laser 's output is dominated by stimulated emission rather than by spontaneous emission . Below the threshold , the laser 's output power rises slowly with increasing excitation . Above threshold , the slope of power vs. excitation is orders of magnitude greater . The linewidth of the laser 's emission also becomes orders of magnitude smaller above the threshold than it is below . Above the threshold , the laser is said to be lasing . The term `` lasing '' is a back formation from `` laser , '' which is an acronym , not an agent noun .", "Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "Carbon pricing in Australia A carbon pricing scheme in Australia , commonly dubbed by its critics as a `` carbon tax '' , was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in 2011 as the Clean Energy Act 2011 which came into effect on 1 July 2012 . It was in operation until it was repealed on 17 July 2014 , and backdated to 1 July 2014 . In its place the Abbott Government set up the Emission Reduction Fund in December 2014 . As a result of being in place for such a short time , regulated organisations responded in a rather tepid and informal manner , with very few investments in emissions reductions being made . The 2011 scheme required entities which emit over 25,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases and which were not in the transport or agriculture sectors to obtain emissions permits , called carbon units . Carbon units were either purchased from the government or issued free as part of industry assistance measures . The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency stated that in June 2013 only 260 entities were subject to the scheme , of which approximately 185 were liable to pay for carbon units under the carbon price scheme . The carbon price was part of a broad energy reform package called the Clean Energy Futures Plan , which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia by 5 % below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 % below 2000 levels by 2050 . The plan set out to achieve these targets by encouraging Australia 's largest emitters to increase energy efficiency and invest in sustainable energy . The scheme was administered by the Clean Energy Regulator . Compensation to industry and households was funded by the revenue derived from the charge . As part of the scheme , personal income tax was reduced for those earning less than $ 80,000 per year and the tax-free threshold was increased from $ 6,000 to $ 18,200 . Initially the price of a permit for one tonne of carbon was fixed at $ 23 for the 2012 -- 13 financial year , with unlimited permits being available from the government . The fixed price rose to $ 24.15 for 2013 -- 14 . The government had announced that the scheme was part of a transition to an emissions trading scheme in 2014 -- 15 , where the available permits will be limited in line with a pollution cap . The scheme primarily applied to electricity generators and industrial sectors . It did not apply to road transport and agriculture . Domestic aviation did not face the carbon price scheme per se , but was subject to an additional fuel excise levy of approximately 6 cents per litre . In February 2012 , the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Clean Energy Future carbon price scheme had not deterred new investment in the coal industry , as spending on exploration had increased by 62 % in 2010-2011 , more than any other mineral commodity . The government agency Geoscience Australia reported that investment in coal prospecting reached $ 520 million in 2010-2011 . Falls in carbon emissions were observed following implementation of this policy . It was noted that emissions from sectors subject to the pricing mechanism were 1.0 % lower and nine months after the introduction of the pricing scheme , Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation had fallen to a 10-year low , with coal generation down 11 % from 2008 to 2009 . However , attribution of these trends to carbon pricing have been disputed , with Frontier Economics claiming trends are largely explained by factors unrelated to the carbon tax . Electricity demand had been falling and in 2012 was at the lowest level seen since 2006 in the National Electricity Market .", "Energy policy of Australia The energy policy of Australia is subject to the regulatory and fiscal influence of all three levels of government in Australia , although only the State and Federal levels determine policy for primary industries such as coal . As of 2016 , Federal energy policies continue to support the coal mining and natural gas industries through subsidies for fossil fuel use and production as the exports by those industries contribute significantly to the earnings of foreign exchange and government revenues . Australia is one of the most coal-dependent countries in the world . Coal and natural gas , along with oil-based products , are currently the primary sources of Australian energy usage and the coal industry produces approximately 38 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions . In 2015 Federal policy reverted to a pro-coal economy with cuts to alternate and renewable energy government offices , targets and subsidies Federal climate change policy changed following the election of the Labor Rudd Government in December 2007 , which committed to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010 , and to expand the mandatory renewable energy target to ensure 20 % of electricity supply in Australia was from renewable sources by 2020 . After a contentious political debate , a carbon pricing mechanism entered force on 1 July 2012 under Prime Minister Julia Gillard , but was repealed by the Abbott Government in 2014 . In June 2015 the Abbott Government downgraded the renewable energy target from 41,000 GWh per year to 33,000 GWh . As of 2013 , Australia was now only the 12th highest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita in the world , and 16th ( behind China , Russia . the US , Germany , the UK , Japan , India and other major developed nations ) , in total CO2 emissions ( kt per year ) . Renewable energy commercialisation in Australia is an area of growing activity . Australia 's renewable energy industries are diverse , covering numerous energy sources and scales of operation , and currently contribute about 8 -- 10 % of Australia 's total energy supply . The major area where renewable energy is growing is in electricity generation following the introduction of government Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets . The two most populous states , New South Wales and Victoria have renewable energy targets of 20 % and 25 % respectively by 2020 .", "German response to Kyoto Protocol Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "Chicago Climate Exchange The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil . CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent . CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .", "Coles Together Coles Together is a non-profit economic development organization for Coles County , Illinois . It was founded in 1988 by a partnership between the public and private sectors to provide full-time economic development support for new and existing industry in Coles County . Coles Together provides the industrial sector with resources and services needed to locate or expand a development within the community . This includes marketing , finance , and project packaging . The organization actively pursued and was selected as the host site for FutureGen , a public-private partnership to build the world 's first near-zero-emissions coal-based power plant in Mattoon , Illinois . The plant would have been the first near-zero-emissions coal-fired power plant built in the United States . The president of Coles Together is Angela Griffin . In 2009 , the America 's Power Factuality Tour interviewed Angela Griffin to report on FutureGen 's potential impact on the local economy and its role in generating electricity in the United States .", "Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "Mongstad Power Station Mongstad Power Station is a natural gas-fired thermal power plant under construction at the industrial site of Mongstad in Norway . The station is owned by a consortium of Statoil and DONG Energy , and will be operated by the latter . Construction costs are estimated at NOK 4 billion . The power station will have an installed effect of 280 MW in electricity production and 350 MW in heat . The energy will be used to operate the Mongstad Refinery as well to supply the Troll Gas Field with power . The plant will use 0.7 billion normal cubic meter ( BCM ) of gas per year . Emissions of carbon dioxide will be 1.2 million tonnes . The power station has been subject to controversy in Norway , based upon the potential increase in emission of greenhouse gases . Statoil has entered into an implementation agreement in cooperation with Gassnova which representing the Norwegian government in matters relating to Carbon capture and storage , to develop solutions for carbon dioxide capture at Mongstad . Early in 2009 , Statoil delivered a master plan for full scale CO2 capture at Mongstad .", "War on coal In the United States , the war on coal is a phrase used by the coal industry and its supporters to describe what they claim is an effort by the Obama administration to impose stringent regulations on coal power in the United States and thereby make such power uneconomical . Proponents of this phrase also often identify the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the chief entities waging this putative war , although Michael Grunwald has claimed that the war on coal , although real , does not primarily happen at the national level but at the state and local level , and that the `` boots on the ground '' in the war are lawyers from the Sierra Club 's Beyond Coal campaign . The Obama administration has denied that they are waging a war on coal , noting that it may be possible to upgrade older power plants with more efficient turbines , and also pointing to the possibility of carbon sequestration techniques . On March 28 , 2017 , in announcing an executive order aimed at revoking various rules regarding carbon emissions enacted during the Obama administration , President Donald Trump stated that `` Our administration is putting an end to the war on coal . ''", "UK Emissions Trading Scheme The UK Emissions Trading Scheme was a voluntary emissions trading system created as a pilot prior to the mandatory European Union Emissions Trading Scheme which it now runs in parallel with . It ran from 2002 and it closed to new entrants in 2009 . Management of the scheme transferred to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2008 . At the time , the scheme was a novel economic approach , being the first multi-industry carbon trading system in the world . ( Denmark ran a pilot greenhouse gas trading scheme between 2001 and 2003 but this only involved eight electricity companies ) . It took note of the emerging international consensus on the benefits of carbon trading that were being proposed in the mandatory Kyoto Protocol , which had not been ratified at that time , and allowed government and corporate early movers and to gain experience in the auction process and the trading system that the later schemes have entailed . It ran in parallel to a tax on energy use , the Climate Change Levy , introduced in April 2001 , but companies could get a discount on the tax if they elected to make reductions through participation in the trading scheme . The voluntary trading scheme recruited 34 participants from UK industries and organisations who promised to make reductions in their carbon emissions , this has since expanded to 54 sectors of the UK economy . In return they received a share of a # 215 million `` incentive fund '' from the Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA ) . Each agreed to hold sufficient allowances to cover its actual emissions for that year , and participate in a cap and trade system , with an annually reducing cap . Each participant could then decide to take action to manage its emissions to exactly meet its target , or reduce its actual emissions below its target ( thereby releasing allowances that it could sell on , or save for use in future years ) , or buy allowances from other participants to cover any excess . From March 2002 , DEFRA ran an auction of emission allowances to perform allocations to participants , after the start of the mandatory EU scheme .", "Tjeldbergodden Reserve Power Station Tjeldbergodden Reserve Power Station is a natural gas-fired thermal power plant located at the industrial site Tjeldbergodden in the northeastern part of the municipality of Aure in Møre og Romsdal county , Norway . It is operated by Statnett . The station has installed one gas turbine with 150 MW effect . The power station was installed in 2006 , but by 2015 it had not been in use . Together with the similar power plant at Nyhamna , they cost 2.1 billion NOK . A new power line has made them unnecessary . The power station is only to be operated when there is acute need for extra effect , to hinder having to ration electricity . Statnett must receive permission from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate every time the station is to be used . Due to the mobility of the power station , its emissions of carbon dioxide exceed that of a coal powered station .", "Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment , society and economy . Tourism can involve primary transportation to the general location , local transportation , accommodations , entertainment , recreation , nourishment and shopping . It can be related to travel for leisure , business and what is called VFR ( visiting friends and relatives ) . There is now broad consensus that tourism development should be sustainable ; however , the question of how to achieve this remains an object of debate . Without travel there is no tourism , so the concept of sustainable tourism is tightly linked to a concept of sustainable mobility . Two relevant considerations are tourism 's reliance on fossil fuels and tourism 's effect on climate change . 72 percent of tourism 's CO2 emissions come from transportation , 24 percent from accommodations , and 4 percent from local activities . Aviation accounts for 55 % of those transportation CO2 emissions ( or 40 % of tourism 's total ) . However , when considering the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and that aviation emissions are made at high altitude where their effect on climate is amplified , aviation alone accounts for 75 % of tourism 's climate impact . The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) considers an annual increase in aviation fuel efficiency of 2 percent per year through 2050 to be realistic . However , both Airbus and Boeing expect the passenger-kilometers of air transport to increase by about 5 percent yearly through at least 2020 , overwhelming any efficiency gains . By 2050 , with other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions , tourism is likely to be generating 40 percent of global carbon emissions . The main cause is an increase in the average distance travelled by tourists , which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken . `` Sustainable transportation is now established as the critical issue confronting a global tourism industry that is palpably unsustainable , and aviation lies at the heart of this issue ( Gossling et al. , 2010 ) . ''", "Coal industry in Wales The coal industry in Wales has played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Wales . Coal mining expanded in the eighteenth century to provide fuel for the blast furnaces of the iron and copper industries that were expanding in South Wales . The industry had reached large proportions by the end of that century , and then further expanded to supply steam-coal for the steam vessels that were beginning to trade around the world . The Cardiff Coal Exchange set the world price for steam-coal and Cardiff became a major coal-exporting port . The South Wales Coalfield was at its peak in 1913 and was one of the largest coalfields in the world . It remained the largest coalfield in Britain until 1925 . The supply of coal dwindled , and pits closed in spite of a UK-wide strike against closures . The last deep mine in Wales , Tower Colliery , closed in 2008 , after thirteen years as a co-operative owned by its miners . The South Wales Coalfield was not the only coal mining area of the country . There was a sizeable industry in Flintshire and Denbighshire in northeast Wales , and coal was also mined in Anglesey .", "Joint Implementation Joint implementation ( JI ) is one of three flexibility mechanisms set out in the Kyoto Protocol to help countries with binding greenhouse gas emissions targets ( the Annex I countries ) meet their obligations . JI is described in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol . Under Article 6 , any Annex I country can invest in an emission reduction project ( referred to as a `` Joint Implementation Project '' ) in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically . In this way countries can lower the costs of complying with their Kyoto targets by investing in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an Annex I country where reducing emissions may be cheaper , and then using the resulting Emission Reduction Units ( ERUs ) towards their commitment goal . A JI project might involve , for example , replacing a coal-fired power plant with a more efficient combined heat and power plant . Most JI projects are expected to take place in the economies in transition ( the EIT Parties ) noted in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol . Currently Russia and Ukraine are slated to host the greatest number of JI projects . Unlike the case of the Clean Development Mechanism , the JI has caused less concern of spurious emission reductions , as the JI project , in contrast to the CDM project , takes place in a country which has a commitment to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol . The process of receiving credit for JI projects is somewhat complex . Emission reduction projects are awarded credits called Emission Reduction Units ( ERUs ) , which represents an emission reduction equivalent to one tonne of CO2 equivalent . The ERUs come from the host country 's pool of assigned emissions credits , known as Assigned Amount Units , or AAUs . Each Annex I party has a predetermined amount of AAUs , calculated on the basis of its 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels . By requiring JI credits to come from a host country 's pool of AAUs , the Kyoto Protocol ensures that the total amount of emissions credits among Annex I parties does not change for the duration of the Kyoto Protocol 's first commitment period .", "End Use Energy Demand Centres The End Use Energy Demand ( EUED ) Centres carry out interdisciplinary research and advise policy on reducing energy demand to help achieve the UK government 's CO2 emissions targets . The Centres are a # 30m investment of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme ( with additional funding from industrial partners ) that run from 2013-2018 . The six large centres are based across 25 institutions and encompass over 200 researchers .", "List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "Kedzierzyn Zero-Emission Plant The Kędzierzyn Zero-Emission Power and Chemical Complex is a proposed facility in Kędzierzyn-Koźle , Poland . It will combine power and heat generation with that of chemical products and carbon capture and storage . The project is proposed by a consortium of chemicals producer Zakłady Azotowe Kędzierzyn and electricity company Południowy Koncern Energetyczny . The plant will produce synthesis gas by gasification of hard coal . The produced gas will be used for power and heat generation or for production of chemicals . The plant will capture produced carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , which will be stored in natural geological reservoirs or used as a raw material for production of synthesis fuels , fertilisers or plastics . The project is now dead for lack of funding , due in part to the low carbon price , which generally provide scant incentives for CCS investments , so this low-carbon type of investments is dead for the time being .", "Emissions Trading Scheme in South Korea South Korea 's Emissions Trading Scheme ( KETS ) is the second largest in scale after the European Union Emission Trading Scheme and was launched on January 1 , 2015 . South Korea is the second country in Asia to initiate a nation-wide carbon market after Kazakhstan . Complying to the country 's pledge made at the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 , the South Korean government aims to reduce its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by 30 % below its business as usual scenario by 2020 . They have officially employed the cap-and-trade system and the operation applies to over 525 companies which are accountable for approximately 68 % of the nation 's GHG output . The operation is divided up into three periods . The first and second phases consist of 3 years each , 2015 to 2017 and 2018 to 2020 . The final phase will spread out over the next 5 years from 2021 to 2025 . The cap-and-trade system is a tool of carbon pricing that has been adapted by several countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through a market mechanism . It entails a market open to the transaction of trade permits , which allow participating businesses or countries to emit a given amount of greenhouse gases . A cap is set by the government which defines the maximum level of total emissions permitted during a certain time period . The South Korean government had set the emissions cap for the first year of implementation ( 2015 ) as 573 MtCO2e . The major objectives of the KETS is to place South Korea at the forefront of the global effort in reducing GHG emissions and to develop its market competitiveness in the clean energy sector . As one of the top 10 largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and a nation with the highest growth rate in GHG emissions , South Korea 's awareness of its carbon footprint has increased over the years . The country grows more vulnerable to climate change as the average temperature has risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius causing frequent natural disasters . Furthermore , the South Korean government aims to cut back its reliance on imported fossil fuel energy which accounts for roughly 97 % of its primary energy consumption . Lastly , by implementing the emissions trading scheme , the government has prospects of developing its green industries and increase its global share of the clean energy market .", "Fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a power station which burns fossil fuel such as coal , natural gas , or petroleum to produce electricity . Central station fossil fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation . In many countries , such plants provide most of the electrical energy used . Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy , which then operates an electrical generator . The prime mover may be a steam turbine , a gas turbine or , in small plants , a reciprocating internal combustion engine . All plants use the energy extracted from expanding gas , either steam or combustion gases . Very few MHD generators have been built which directly convert the energy of hot , moving water into electricity . MHD means Magnetohydrodynamics , which is the study of the magnetic properties of electrically conducting fluids . Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas , liquid metals , salt water and electrolytes . By-products of thermal power plant operation must be considered in their design and operation . Waste heat energy , which remains due to the finite efficiency of the Carnot , Rankine , or Diesel power cycle , is released directly to the atmosphere or river/lake water , or indirectly to the atmosphere using a cooling tower with river or lake water used as a cooling medium . The flue gas from combustion of the fossil fuels is discharged to the air . This gas contains carbon dioxide and water vapor , as well as other substances such as nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur oxides ( SOx ) , mercury , traces of other metals , and , for coal-fired plants , fly ash . Solid waste ash from coal-fired boilers must also be removed . Some coal ash can be recycled for building materials . Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , a greenhouse gas which according to a consensus opinion of scientific organisations is a contributor to global warming . The results of a recent study show that the net income available to shareholders of large companies could see a significant reduction from the greenhouse gas emissions liability related to only natural disasters in the U.S. from a single coal-fired power plant . However , as of 2015 , no such cases have awarded damages in the U.S. Per unit of electric energy , brown coal emits nearly two times as much CO2 as natural gas , and black coal emits somewhat less than brown . Carbon capture and storage of emissions is not currently available .", "Fugitive emissions Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "Certified Emission Reduction Certified Emission Reductions ( CERs ) are a type of emissions unit ( or carbon credits ) issued by the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) Executive Board for emission reductions achieved by CDM projects and verified by a DOE ( Designated Operational Entity ) under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol . CERs can be used by Annex 1 countries in order to comply with their emission limitation targets or by operators of installations covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) in order to comply with their obligations to surrender EU Allowances , CERs or Emission Reduction Units ( ERUs ) for the emissions of their installations . CERs can be held by governmental and private entities on electronic accounts with the UN . CERs can be purchased from the primary market ( purchased from an original party that makes the reduction ) or secondary market ( resold from a marketplace ) . At present , most of the approved CERs are recorded in CDM Registry accounts only . It is only when the CER is actually sitting in an operator 's trading account that its value can be monetized through being traded . The UNFCCC 's International Transaction Log has already validated and transferred CERs into the accounts of some national climate registries , although European operators are waiting for the European Commission to facilitate the transfer of their units into the registries of their Member States . Temporary CERs and Long CERs are special types of CERs issued for forestry projects . They are two ways of accounting for non-permanence in forestry CDM project activities . Temporary CER or tCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity under the CDM which expires at the end of the commitment period following the one during which it was issued . Long-term CER or lCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity which expires at the end of its crediting period . In August 2008 prices for CERS were $ 20 a tonne . By September 2012 , prices for CERS had collapsed to below $ 5 . This was in response to the Eurozone debt crisis reducing industrial activity and the over-allocation of emission allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme . The Economist described the Clean Development Mechanism as a `` complete disaster in the making '' and `` in need of a radical overhaul '' . The Guardian also reported the prolonged downward trend in the price of CERs , which had been traded for as much as $ 20 ( # 12.50 ) a tonne before the global financial crisis to less than $ 3 . In October 2012 , CER prices fell to a new low of 1.36 euros a tonne on the London ICE Futures Europe exchange . In October 2012 Thomson Reuters Point Carbon calculated that the oversupply of units from the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation would be 1,400 million units for the period up to 2020 . Point Carbon predicted that CER prices would to drop from $ 2 to 50 cents . On 12 December 2012 CER prices reached another record low of 31 cents .", "Contribution to global warming by Australia Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "Zero-emissions vehicle A zero-emissions vehicle , or ZEV , is a vehicle that emits no tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power . Harmful pollutants to the health and the environment include particulates ( soot ) , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , ozone , lead , and various oxides of nitrogen . Although not considered emission pollutants by the original California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) definitions , the most recent common use of the term also includes volatile organic compounds , several air toxics ( most notably 1,3-Butadiene ) , and global pollutants such as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases . Examples of zero emission vehicles include muscle-powered vehicles such as bicycles ; gravity racers ; battery electric vehicles , which typically shift emissions to the location where the electricity is generated e.g. coal or natural gas power plant ; and fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen , which typically shift emissions to the location where the hydrogen is generated . Hydrogen-powered vehicles are not strictly zero-emissions , as they do emit water or water vapor , although they are still usually included in this category . Emissions from the manufacturing process are ignored in this definition , although the emissions that are created during manufacture are of an order of magnitude that is comparable to the one of the emissions that are created during a vehicle 's operating lifetime .", "European Union Emission Trading Scheme The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels ." ]

[ "Hockey stick controversy In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore ." ]

[ "Ergograph An ergograph is a graph that shows a relation between human activities , or agricultural/climate factors , and a seasonal year . The name was coined by Dr. Arthur Geddes of the University of Edinburgh . It can either be a polar coördinate ( circular ) or a cartesian coördinate ( rectangular ) graph , and either a line graph or a bar graph . In cartesian form , the X axis is marked for the months of the year , and the Y axis is marked with the scale ( s ) of the activity/activities . For example , in the ergograph to the right , the Y axis is marked with both temperature and rainfall/sunshine scales . In polar form , the months of the year are marked around the circumference , forming 30 ° sectors . Concentric lines display the proportions of time ( in hours per day ) devoted to each of the activities . The time scale , ranging from 0 to 24 hours per day , is along the radius of the circle , and is a square root scale . This form of an ergograph is also known as a polar line graph or ( because the data form `` bands '' on the graph ) a polar strata graph or polar layer graph , the `` polar '' denoting the system of polar coordinates used on the graph . Ergographs can record human activities or agricultural/climate information , such as rainfall , temperature , humidity , crop types , and crop acreage .", "Metamorphic facies A metamorphic facies is a set of metamorphic mineral assemblages that were formed under similar pressures and temperatures . The assemblage is typical of what is formed in conditions corresponding to an area on the two dimensional graph of temperature vs. pressure ( See diagram at right ) . Rocks which contain certain minerals can therefore be linked to certain tectonic settings , times and places in the geological history of the area . The boundaries between facies ( and corresponding areas on the temperature v. pressure graph ) are wide because they are gradational and approximate . The area on the graph corresponding to rock formation at the lowest values of temperature and pressure is the range of formation of sedimentary rocks , as opposed to metamorphic rocks , in a process called diagenesis .", "Time temperature indicator A time temperature indicator ( TTI ) is a device or smart label that shows the accumulated time-temperature history of a product . Time temperature indicators are commonly used on food , pharmaceutical , and medical products to indicate exposure to excessive temperature ( and time at temperature ) . In contrast , a Temperature data logger measures and records the temperatures for a specified time period . The digital data can be downloaded and analyzed .", "Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Hertzsprung–Russell diagram The Hertzsprung -- Russell diagram , abbreviated H -- R diagram or HRD , is a scatter plot of stars showing the relationship between the stars ' absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their stellar classifications or effective temperatures . More simply , it plots each star on a graph measuring the star 's brightness against its temperature ( color ) . It does not map any locations of stars . The diagram was created circa 1910 by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell and represents a major step towards an understanding of stellar evolution or `` the way in which stars undergo sequences of dynamic and radical changes over time '' .", "Persistent data Persistent Data denotes information that is infrequently accessed and not likely to be modified . The opposite of this is dynamic data ( also known as transactional data ) where information is asynchronously changed as further updates to the information become available . Updates to dynamic data may come at any time , with periods of inactivity in between .", "Steve McIntyre Steven McIntyre ( born c. 1947 ) is a Canadian mining exploration company director , a former minerals prospector and semi-retired mining consultant whose work has included statistical analysis . He is best known as the founder and editor of Climate Audit , a blog devoted to the analysis and discussion of climate data . He is most prominent as a critic of the temperature record of the past 1000 years and the data quality of NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies . He is known in particular for his statistical critique , with economist Ross McKitrick , of the hockey stick graph which appears to show that the increase in late 20th century global temperatures is unprecedented in the past 1,000 years .", "Meurs Challenger Meurs Challenger is an online graph visualization program , with data analysis and browsing . The software supports several graph layout algorithms , and allows the user to interact with the nodes . The displayed data can be filtered using textual search , node and edge type , or based on the graph distance between nodes . Written in ActionScript , the program runs on Windows , Linux , macOS and other platforms that support the Adobe Flash Player . Meurs Challenger was the winner at the 2011 edition of the International Symposium on Graph Drawing , in the large graph category . It is publicly available as a Facebook application , which displays the network graph of the user 's friends .", "FlexPro FlexPro is a software package for analysis and presentation of scientific and technical data , produced by Weisang GmbH . It runs on Microsoft Windows and is available in English , German and Japanese languages . FlexPro has its roots in the test and measurement domain and supports different binary file formats of data acquisition instruments and software . FlexPro has a built-in programming language , FPScript , which is optimized for data analysis and supports direct operations on non-scalar objects such as vectors and matrices as well as composed data structures like signals , signal series or surfaces . All operations can be executed either graphically ( through menus or dialog boxes ) or programmatically . Programmatic access is provided through an Automation Object Model and the built-in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Development Environment ( VBA ) . All data , analyses and presentations are stored in an object database whose size is not limited by the computer 's RAM . The structure of the database is similar to a file system on a hard drive . A whole FlexPro database can be stored in one file . Huge datasets are processed disk-to-disk to prevent memory overruns . FlexPro provides wizards to create different 2D and 3D graphs as well as tables for data presentation . Typical graphs are line , scatter , bar , contour , waterfall , surface and polar plots . Data can be analyzed either graphically using cursors in 2D or 3D graphs or mathematically using analysis objects or FPScript formulas . Each analysis object represents one result , e. g. a spectrum of a time series . The underlying algorithm can be parameterized through a property sheet any time . Raw data , analysis objects and presentation objects like graphs , tables and documents form a dynamic network which can be updated after new data has been imported . FlexPro supports time and frequency domain signal analysis , linear and non-linear curve fitting , descriptive and inductive statistics , acoustics , FIR and IIR filtering as well as ( Rainflow ) - counting . FlexPro can export publication-quality graphs and reports to a number of file formats , including HTML , JPEG , PNG , and WMF .", "Thomas Stocker Thomas Stocker ( born 1959 ) is a Swiss climate scientist . Born in Zürich , Stocker obtained a degree in physics at the ETH Zurich . He was active in research at the University College London , at McGill University in Montreal and at Columbia University in New York . Since 1993 , he is professor and head of the department of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern . The focus of Stocker 's research is the development of models of climate change based on , among other , the analysis of ice cores from the polar regions . He significantly contributed to creating the `` hockey stick graph '' that shows a growing increase of global mean temperatures in recent times . Since 1998 , he contributes to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and is co-chairman of the IPCC Working Group I ( assessing scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change ) from 2008 to 2015 . In 1993 , Stocker was awarded the Swiss National Science Foundation 's National Latsis Prize , and 2009 the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a member of the Academia Europaea and the American Meteorological Society . Stocker is featured in the film Taking Earth 's Temperature : Delving into Climate 's Past . On February 18 , 2015 , the Swiss government announced it would nominate Dr. Stocker as a candidate for the next chair of the IPCC to succeed Dr. Pachauri .", "DataScene DataScene is a scientific graphing , animation , data analysis , and real-time data monitoring software package . It was developed with the Common Language Infrastructure technology and the GDI + graphics library . With the two Common Language Runtime engines - the . Net and Mono frameworks - DataScene runs on all major operating systems . With DataScene , the user can plot 39 types 2D & 3D graphs ( e.g. , Area graph , Bar graph , Boxplot graph , Pie graph , Line graph , Histogram graph , Surface graph , Polar graph , Water Fall graph , etc. ) , manipulate , print , and export graphs to various formats ( e.g. , Bitmap , WMF/EMF , JPEG , PNG , GIF , TIFF , PostScript , and PDF ) , analyze data with different mathematical methods ( fitting curves , calculating statics , FFT , etc. ) , create chart animations for presentations ( e.g. with Powerpoint ) , classes , and web pages , and monitor and chart real-time data .", "Temperature data logger A temperature data logger , also called temperature monitor , is a portable measurement instrument that is capable of autonomously recording temperature over a defined period of time . The digital data can be retrieved , viewed and evaluated after it has been recorded . A data logger is commonly used to monitor shipments in a cold chain and to gather temperature data from diverse field conditions .", "Williams–Landel–Ferry equation The Williams -- Landel -- Ferry Equation ( or WLF Equation ) is an empirical equation associated with time -- temperature superposition . The WLF equation has the form where T is the temperature , Tr is a reference temperature chosen to construct the compliance master curve and C1 , C2 are empirical constants adjusted to fit the values of the superposition parameter aT . The equation can be used to fit ( regress ) discrete values of the shift factor aT vs. temperature . Here , values of shift factor aT are obtained by horizontal shift log ( aT ) of creep compliance data plotted vs. time or frequency in double logarithmic scale so that a data set obtained experimentally at temperature T superposes with the data set at temperature Tr . A minimum of three values of aT are needed to obtain C1 , C2 , and typically more than three are used . Once constructed , the WLF equation allows for the estimation of the temperature shift factor for temperatures other than those for which the material was tested . In this way , the master curve can be applied to other temperatures . However , when the constants are obtained with data at temperatures above the glass transition temperature ( Tg ) , the WLF equation is applicable to temperatures at or above Tg only ; the constants are positive and represent Arrhenius behavior . Extrapolation to temperatures below Tg is erroneous . When the constants are obtained with data at temperatures below Tg , negative values of C1 , C2 are obtained , which are not applicable above Tg and do not represent Arrhenius behavior . Therefore , the constants obtained above Tg are not useful for predicting the response of the polymer for structural applications , which necessarily must operate at temperatures below Tg . The WLF equation is a consequence of time -- temperature superposition ( TTSP ) , which mathematically is an application of Boltzmann 's superposition principle . It is TTSP , not WLF , that allows the assembly of a compliance master curve that spans more time , or frequency , than afforded by the time available for experimentation or the frequency range of the instrumentation , such as dynamic mechanical analyzer ( DMA ) . While the time span of a TTSP master curve is broad , according to Struik , it is valid only if the data sets did not suffer from ageing effects during the test time . Even then , the master curve represents a hypothetical material that does not age . Effective Time Theory . needs to be used to obtain useful prediction for long term time . Having data above Tg , it is possible to predict the behavior ( compliance , storage modulus , etc. ) of viscoelastic materials for temperatures T > Tg , and/or for times/frequencies longer/slower than the time available for experimentation . With the master curve and associated WLF equation it is possible to predict the mechanical properties of the polymer out of time scale of the machine ( typically to Hz ) , thus extrapolating the results of multi-frequency analysis to a broader range , out of measurement range of machine .", "Time domain Time domain is the analysis of mathematical functions , physical signals or time series of economic or environmental data , with respect to time . In the time domain , the signal or function 's value is known for all real numbers , for the case of continuous time , or at various separate instants in the case of discrete time . An oscilloscope is a tool commonly used to visualize real-world signals in the time domain . A time-domain graph shows how a signal changes with time , whereas a frequency-domain graph shows how much of the signal lies within each given frequency band over a range of frequencies .", "Online machine learning In computer science , online machine learning is a method of machine learning in which data becomes available in a sequential order and is used to update our best predictor for future data at each step , as opposed to batch learning techniques which generate the best predictor by learning on the entire training data set at once . Online learning is a common technique used in areas of machine learning where it is computationally infeasible to train over the entire dataset , requiring the need of out-of-core algorithms . It is also used in situations where it is necessary for the algorithm to dynamically adapt to new patterns in the data , or when the data itself is generated as a function of time , e.g. stock price prediction . Online learning algorithms may be prone to catastrophic interference . This problem is tackled by incremental learning approaches .", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Load profile In electrical engineering , a load profile is a graph of the variation in the electrical load versus time . A load profile will vary according to customer type ( typical examples include residential , commercial and industrial ) , temperature and holiday seasons . Power producers use this information to plan how much electricity they will need to make available at any given time . Teletraffic engineering uses a similar load curve .", "Graph paper Graph paper , coordinate paper , grid paper , or squared paper is writing paper that is printed with fine lines making up a regular grid . The lines are often used as guides for plotting mathematical functions or experimental data and drawing two-dimensional graphs . It is commonly found in mathematics and engineering education settings and in laboratory notebooks . Graph paper is available either as loose leaf paper or bound in notebooks .", "Graphical representations of two-way-contest opinion polling data from the United States presidential election, 2008 This article provides line graphs and bar charts of scientific , nationwide public opinion polls that have been conducted relating to the United States presidential election , 2008 . All graph data is taken from Nationwide opinion polling for the United States presidential election , 2008 and Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election , 2008 . This page was last updated on November 8 , 2008 .", "Incremental decision tree An incremental decision tree algorithm is an online machine learning algorithm that outputs a decision tree . Many decision tree methods , such as C4 .5 , construct a tree using a complete dataset . Incremental decision tree methods allow an existing tree to be updated using only new individual data instances , without having to re-process past instances . This may be useful in situations where the entire dataset is not available when the tree is updated ( i.e. the data was not stored ) , the original data set is too large to process or the characteristics of the data change over time .", "Future Graph Future Graph , Inc. also known as Futuregraph was a publisher of math and science educational software which was used in hundreds of secondary schools and universities . They are best known for f ( g ) Scholar , a data analysis program that featured a scientific calculator , graphing , and spreadsheet .", "Misleading graph In statistics , a misleading graph , also known as a distorted graph , is a graph that misrepresents data , constituting a misuse of statistics and with the result that an incorrect conclusion may be derived from it . Graphs may be misleading through being excessively complex or poorly constructed . Even when constructed to accurately display the characteristics of their data , graphs can be subject to different interpretation . Misleading graphs may be created intentionally to hinder the proper interpretation of data or accidentally due to unfamiliarity with graphing software , misinterpretation of data , or because data can not be accurately conveyed . Misleading graphs are often used in false advertising . One of the first authors to write about misleading graphs was Darrell Huff , publisher of the 1954 book How to Lie with Statistics . The field of data visualization describes ways to present information that avoids creating misleading graphs .", "PERSIANN PERSIANN , `` Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks '' , is a satellite-based precipitation retrieval algorithm that provides near real-time rainfall information . The algorithm uses infrared ( IR ) satellite data from global geosynchronous satellites as the primary source of precipitation information . Precipitation from IR images is based on statistical relationship between cloud top temperature and precipitation rates . The IR-based precipitation estimates are then calibrated using satellite microwave data available from low Earth orbit satellites ( e.g. , Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager , Special Sensor Microwave Imager , Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer‐Earth observing system ) . The calibration technique relies on an adaptive training algorithm that updates the retrieval parameters when microwave observations become available ( approximately at 3 hours intervals ) . The PERSIANN satellite precipitation data sets have been validated with ground-based observations and other satellite data products . The PERSIANN data has been used in a wide variety of studies including hydrologic modeling , drought monitoring , soil moisture analysis , and flood forecasting . The PERSIANN data are freely available to the public .", "Earth System Grid The Earth System Grid ( ESG ) is a data distribution portal whose development is funded mainly by the -LSB- United States Department of Energy -RSB- . It is the portal through which the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is distributing data for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and the 2014 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "GraphStream GraphStream is a graph handling Java library that focuses on the dynamics aspects of graphs . Its main focus is on the modeling of dynamic interaction networks of various sizes . The goal of the library is to provide a way to represent graphs and work on it . To this end , GraphStream proposes several graph classes that allow to model directed and undirected graphs , 1-graphs or p-graphs ( a.k.a. multigraphs , that are graphs that can have several edges between two nodes ) . GraphStream allows to store any kind of data attribute on the graph elements : numbers , strings , or any object . Moreover , in addition , GraphStream provides a way to handle the graph evolution in time . This means handling the way nodes and edges are added and removed , and the way data attributes may appear , disappear and evolve .", "Casio BASIC Casio BASIC is a programming language used in the Casio calculators such as the Classpad , fx-9860G Series , and CFX graphing calculators . The language is a linear structured , BASIC-based programming language . It was devised to allow users to program in commonly performed calculations , such as the Pythagorean theorem and complex trigonometric calculations . Output from the program can be in the form of scrolling or located text , graphs , or by writing data to lists in the calculator memory . Casio also makes label printers which can be used with rolls of paper for the Casio BASIC calculators , and programmes , variables , data , and other items can be exchanged from one calculator to another and to and from a computer via the same kind of cable and audio-type plug used by the TI graphing calculators and/or the same type of cable and mini-USB plug used on HP calculators from the HP48 and many cellular telephones ; several models of Casio graphing calculators have both ports The Casio calculators , as with those of many of the other big three manufacturers ' machines , can acquire data from instruments via a data logger to which probes for temperature , light intensity , pH , sound intensity ( dBA ) , voltage and other electrical parameters , as well as other readings , and custom probes to attach to the data logger can be built and configured for use with the data logger and calculator . Existing instruments can also be modified to interface with the calculator-data logger , in order to collect such data including such things as weather instruments and means of collecting data such as pulse , blood pressure , galvanic skin resistance , EKG and so on . Numerical data can be stored in the lists and matrices available on Casio calculators . This data can be used to create sprites for non-text programs . In this way , the language can also be used to create games , such as Pong , Monopoly and role-playing games .", "Bar chart A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents grouped data with rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values that they represent . The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally . A vertical bar chart is sometimes called a Line graph . A bar graph is a chart that uses either horizontal or vertical bars to show comparisons among categories . One axis of the chart shows the specific categories being compared , and the other axis represents a discrete value . Some bar graphs present bars clustered in groups of more than one .", "Tree traversal In computer science , tree traversal ( also known as tree search ) is a form of graph traversal and refers to the process of visiting ( checking and/or updating ) each node in a tree data structure , exactly once . Such traversals are classified by the order in which the nodes are visited . The following algorithms are described for a binary tree , but they may be generalized to other trees as well .", "CISL Research Data Archive NCAR Research Data Archive archives data for atmospheric and geosciences research . The archive is maintained by the Data Support Section of the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory -RSB- ( CISL ) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) in Boulder , Colorado . The archive acquires , curates , preserves and disseminates an extensive list of over 700 data sets . Registration is free and open to the general public . Nearly all of the datasets are free to all registered users ; a few are restricted to certain users ( e.g. university researchers ) . In addition , the catalog shows data sets available in these categories : atmospheric , oceanographic , geophysical , hydrology , gridded analysis and MM5 model input data . The archive also maintains climate model output products for use in assessment and impact studies . Model outputs came directly from the modellers or from the IPCC Data Distribution Center The archive also stores a number of source codes for the efficient handling and analysis of data . NCAR RDA also provides data rescue services for any discipline for a fee .", "Graph (abstract data type) In computer science , a graph is an abstract data type that is meant to implement the undirected graph and directed graph concepts from mathematics , specifically the field of graph theory . A graph data structure consists of a finite ( and possibly mutable ) set of vertices or nodes or points , together with a set of unordered pairs of these vertices for an undirected graph or a set of ordered pairs for a directed graph . These pairs are known as edges , arcs , or lines for an undirected graph and as arrows , directed edges , directed arcs , or directed lines for a directed graph . The vertices may be part of the graph structure , or may be external entities represented by integer indices or references . A graph data structure may also associate to each edge some edge value , such as a symbolic label or a numeric attribute ( cost , capacity , length , etc. ) .", "Temporal Raster Plot A Temporal Raster Plot is a graphic representation of occurrences in a certain temporal relation . Temporal Raster Plots are also sometimes referred to as carpet plots . Each occurrence is registered in a Cartesian coordinate system , in which both axes show time , have different time resolutions : one axis shows slices of data , the other some sensible interval . A common example would be that one axis shows hours in a day , the other days in a year . In a 2D plot , the value to be plotted is coded with an intensity or a color . In the 3D variant of the plot , it is often coded as a height . When visualized , particularly the color-coded variant of the plot may easily show a carpet-like pattern . Temporal Raster Plots make it easy to show time-based relations within a large sets of time-interval data and often make it easy to recognize local maxima and minima . Assuming the chosen time division is related to the events , it is also easy to recognize global and local patterns , such as recurrent events . In the following example , the data is one year 's worth of measurements of the outdoor temperatures in Augsburg , with four samples taken per hour . In the according carpet diagram , each column represents a day in the year and contains the values for that day ( from 0:00 until 23:45 ) . Despite the high number of measure points ( about 35000 ) it is easy to distinguish local and global patterns . Note the similarity to beat graphs as described by Werner Van Belle .", "Give Me My Data Give Me My Data was a web application for Facebook users to export their Facebook data to reuse in data visualization , archives , or digital storytelling . Export data formats include comma-separated values ( CSV ) , Extensible Markup Language ( XML ) , and JavaScript Object Notation ( JSON ) and graph drawing formats used in Graphviz and similar applications . Owen Mundy launched the application in November 2009 . In May 2010 , The New York Times and other technology-oriented news outlets covered its use by Facebook subscribers to retrieve data lost during a Facebook interface update . It has since received international coverage for its technology and as Internet art . The application was discontinued in 2015 after being blocked by Facebook ." ]

[ "Spain Spain ( España -LSB- esˈpaɲa -RSB- ) , officially the Kingdom of Spain ( -LSB- Reino de España , links = no -RSB- ) , is a sovereign state located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe , with two large archipelagoes , the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast , two cities Ceuta and Melilla in the North African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the Moroccan coast . Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar ; to the north and northeast by France , Andorra , and the Bay of Biscay ; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean . It is the only European country to have a border with an African country ( Morocco ) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5 % of its population , mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla . With an area of 505990 km2 , Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe , the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union , and the fourth largest country in the European continent . By population , Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union . Spain 's capital and largest city is Madrid ; other major urban areas include Barcelona , Valencia , Seville , Bilbao and Málaga . Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago . Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician , Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE , after which the region was named Hispania , based on the earlier Phoenician name Span or Spania . In the Middle Ages , the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors . Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century , following the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs and the completion of the eight centuries-long reconquest , or Reconquista from the Moors in 1492 . In the early modern period , Spain became one of history 's first global colonial empires , leaving a vast cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 500 million Spanish speakers , making Spanish the world 's second most spoken first language , after Mandarin Chinese . Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy . It is a middle power and a major developed country with the world 's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity . It is a member of the United Nations ( UN ) , the European Union ( EU ) , the Eurozone , the Council of Europe ( CoE ) , the Organization of Ibero-American States ( OEI ) , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) , the World Trade Organization ( WTO ) and many other international organisations .", "California California ( -LSB- kælᵻˈfɔːrnjə , _ - ni.ə -RSB- , ) is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area . Located on the western ( Pacific Ocean ) coast of the U.S. , California is bordered by the other U.S. states of Oregon , Nevada , and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California . The state capital is Sacramento . Los Angeles is California 's most populous city , and the country 's second largest after New York City . The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation 's second - and fifth-most populous urban regions , respectively . California also has the nation 's most populous county , Los Angeles County , and its largest county by area , San Bernardino County . California 's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east ; and from the redwood -- Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast . The Central Valley , a major agricultural area , dominates the state 's center . Though California is well-known for its warm Mediterranean climate , the large size of the state means it can vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north , to arid desert in the interior , as well as snowy alpine in the mountains . What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries . The Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony . The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence , but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican -- American War . The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California , and admitted as the 31st state on September 9 , 1850 . The California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes , with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom . If it were a country , California would be the 6th largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous . It is also regarded as a global trendsetter in both popular culture and politics , and is the origin of the film industry , the hippie counterculture , the Internet , and the personal computer , among others . Fifty-eight percent of the state 's economy is centered on finance , government , real estate services , technology , and professional , scientific and technical business services . The San Francisco Bay Area has the nation 's highest median household income by metropolitan area , and is the headquarters of three of the world 's largest 40 firms by revenue , Chevron , Apple , and McKesson . Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the state 's economy , California 's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state .", "United States The United States of America ( USA ) , commonly known as the United States ( U.S. ) or America , is a constitutional federal republic composed of 50 states , a federal district , five major self-governing territories , and various possessions . Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico . The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America , bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west . The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean . The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea . Nine time zones are covered . The geography , climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse . At 3.8 million square miles ( 9.8 million km2 ) and with over 324 million people , the United States is the world 's third - or fourth-largest country by total area , third-largest by land area , and the third-most populous . It is one of the world 's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations , and is home to the world 's largest immigrant population . The capital is Washington , D.C. , and the largest city is New York City ; nine other major metropolitan areas -- each with at least 4.5 million inhabitants and the largest having more than 13 million people -- are Los Angeles , Chicago , Dallas , Houston , Philadelphia , Miami , Atlanta , Boston , and San Francisco . Paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago . European colonization began in the 16th century . The United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast . Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the Seven Years ' War led to the American Revolution , which began in 1775 . On July 4 , 1776 , during the course of the American Revolutionary War , the colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence . The war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain , representing the first successful war of independence against a European power . The current constitution was adopted in 1788 , after the Articles of Confederation , adopted in 1781 , were felt to have provided inadequate federal powers . The first ten amendments , collectively named the Bill of Rights , were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties . The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century , displacing Native American tribes , acquiring new territories , and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848 . During the second half of the 19th century , the American Civil War led to the end of legal slavery in the country . By the end of that century , the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean , and its economy , driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution , began to soar . The Spanish -- American War and confirmed the country 's status as a global military power . The United States emerged from as a global superpower , the first country to develop nuclear weapons , the only country to use them in warfare , and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council . The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world 's sole superpower . The U.S. is a founding member of the United Nations , World Bank , International Monetary Fund , Organization of American States ( OAS ) , and other international organizations . The United States is a highly developed country , with the world 's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP . Though its population is only 4.3 % of the world total , Americans hold nearly 40 % of the total wealth in the world . The United States ranks among the highest in several measures of socioeconomic performance , including average wage , human development , per capita GDP , and productivity per person . While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial , characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy , the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world . Accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP and a third of global military spending , the United States is the world 's foremost economic and military power . The United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally , and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations ." ]

[ "Unrestricted Hartree–Fock Unrestricted Hartree -- Fock ( UHF ) theory is the most common molecular orbital method for open shell molecules where the number of electrons of each spin are not equal . While restricted Hartree -- Fock theory uses a single molecular orbital twice , one multiplied by the α spin function and the other multiplied by the β spin function in the Slater determinant , unrestricted Hartree -- Fock theory uses different molecular orbitals for the α and β electrons . This has been called a different orbitals for different spins ( DODS ) method . The result is a pair of coupled Roothaan equations , known as the Pople -- Nesbet -- Berthier equations . Where and are the Fock matrices for the and orbitals , and are the matrices of coefficients for the and orbitals , is the overlap matrix of the basis functions , and and are the ( diagonal , by convention ) matrices of orbital energies for the and orbitals . The pair of equations are coupled because the Fock matrix elements of one spin contains coefficients of both spin as the orbital has to be optimized in the average field of all other electrons . The final result is a set of molecular orbitals and orbital energies for the α spin electrons and a set of molecular orbitals and orbital energies for the β electrons . This method has one drawback . A single Slater determinant of different orbitals for different spins is not a satisfactory eigenfunction of the total spin operator - . The ground state is contaminated by excited states . If there is one more electron of α spin than β spin , the ground state is a doublet . The average value of , written , should be but will actually be rather more than this value as the doublet state is contaminated by a quadruplet state . A triplet state with two excess α electrons should have = 1 ( 1 + 1 ) = 2 , but it will be larger as the triplet is contaminated by a quintuplet state . When carrying out unrestricted Hartree -- Fock calculations , it is always necessary to check this contamination . For example , with a doublet state , if = 0.8 or less , it is probably satisfactory . If it is 1.0 or so , it is certainly not satisfactory and the calculation should be rejected and a different approach taken . It requires experience to make this judgment . Even singlet states can suffer from spin-contamination , for example the H2 dissociation curve is discontinuous at the point when spin-contamination states ( known as the Coulson -- Fischer point ) . Despite this drawback , the unrestricted Hartree -- Fock method is used frequently , and in preference to the restricted open-shell Hartree -- Fock ( ROHF ) method , because UHF is simpler to code , easier to develop post-Hartree -- Fock methods with , and returns unique functions unlike ROHF where different Fock operators can give the same final wave function . Unrestricted Hartree -- Fock theory was discovered by Gaston Berthier and subsequently developed by John Pople ; it is found in almost all ab initio programs .", "Bildad Bildad ( Bildaḏ , `` Bel has loved '' ) , the Shuhite , was one of Job 's three friends who visited the patriarch in the Hebrew Bible 's Book of Job . He was a descendant of Shuah , son of Abraham and Keturah ( Genesis 25:1 - 25:2 ) , whose family lived in the deserts of Arabia , or a resident of the district . In speaking with Job , his intent was consolation , but he became an accuser , asking Job what he has done to deserve God 's wrath .", "HTC One Mini 2 The HTC One Mini 2 is an Android smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC . The One Mini 2 is a mid-range variant of HTC 's 2014 flagship high-end smartphone , the HTC One . As such , the One Mini 2 was designed to provide an overall experience as similar to its high-end counterpart as possible , while still being competitively priced in comparison to other smartphones in its range . Officially unveiled on 15 May 2014 , the One Mini 2 was expected to be released mid-June in Europe , the Middle East and Asia , with no official date for other regions . On Verizon Wireless , the model is branded as the HTC One Remix . The Remix differs from the One Mini 2 in that it has 1.5 GB of RAM .", "Takayuki Kishi Takayuki Kishi ( 岸 孝之 , born December 4 , 1984 , in Taihaku-ku , Sendai , Japan ) is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan 's Nippon Professional Baseball . He was the 2008 Japan Series MVP . In his first three seasons as a professional , Kishi has recorded at least 10 wins every season , thrown at least 2 complete games every season , and has multiple shutouts in two of his first three seasons . With an overhand delivery Kishi throws a four-seam fastball in high-80s ( tops out at 93 mph ) , changeup , slider and a solid-average curveball around 70 mph .", "Marian Bondrea Marian Bondrea ( born 2 November 1950 in Craiova ) is a Romanian football manager and former footballer . His last managerial job was performed at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț .", "M82 X-2 M82 X-2 is an X-ray pulsar located in the galaxy Messier 82 , approximately 12 million light-years from Earth . It is exceptionally luminous , radiating energy equivalent to approximately ten million Suns . This object is part of a binary system : If the pulsar is of an average size , , then its companion is at least . On average , the pulsar rotates every 1.37 seconds , and revolves around its more massive companion every 2.5 days . M82 X-2 is an ultraluminous X-ray source ( ULX ) , shining about 100 times brighter than theory suggests something of its mass should be able to . Its brightness is many times higher than the Eddington limit , a basic physics guideline that sets an upper limit on the brightness that an object of a given mass should be able to achieve . Possible explanations for violations of the Eddington limit include geometrical effects arising from the funneling of in-falling material along magnetic field lines . While M82 X-2 was previously known as an X-ray source , it was not until an observation campaign to study the newly discovered supernova SN 2014J in January 2014 that X-2 's true nature was uncovered . Scientists looking at data from the NuSTAR spacecraft noticed a pulsing in the X-ray spectrum coming from near the supernova in Messier 82 . Data from the Chandra and Swift spacecraft was used to verify the NuSTAR findings and provide the necessary spatial resolution to determine the exact source . After combining the NuSTAR and Chandra data , scientists were able to discern that M82 X-2 emitted both an X-ray beam and continuous broad X-ray radiation ." ]

[ "Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams . The harder forms , such as anthracite coal , can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure . Coal is composed primarily of carbon , along with variable quantities of other elements , chiefly hydrogen , sulfur , oxygen , and nitrogen . A fossil fuel , coal forms when dead plant matter is converted into peat , which in turn is converted into lignite , then sub-bituminous coal , after that bituminous coal , and lastly anthracite . This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time . Throughout human history , coal has been used as an energy resource , primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat , and is also used for industrial purposes , such as refining metals . Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide , as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide releases . The extraction of coal , its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change . Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining . Since 1983 , the world 's top coal producer has been China . In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal -- 47.7 % of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production . In 2015 other large producers were United States ( 813 million tonnes ) , India ( 678 ) , European Union ( 539 ) and Australia ( 503 ) . In 2010 the largest exporters were Australia with 328 million tonnes ( 27.1 % of world coal export ) and Indonesia with 316 million tonnes ( 26.1 % ) , while the largest importers were Japan with 207 million tonnes ( 17.5 % of world coal import ) , China with 195 million tonnes ( 16.6 % ) and South Korea with 126 million tonnes ( 10.7 % ) .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Natural gas Natural gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane , but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes , and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide , nitrogen , hydrogen sulfide , or helium . It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years . The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas . Natural gas is a fossil fuel used as a source of energy for heating , cooking , and electricity generation . It is also used as fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals . Fossil fuel based natural gas is a non-renewable resource . Natural gas is found in deep underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon reservoirs in coal beds and as methane clathrates . Petroleum is another resource and fossil fuel found in close proximity to and with natural gas . Most natural gas was created over time by two mechanisms : biogenic and thermogenic . Biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes , bogs , landfills , and shallow sediments . Deeper in the earth , at greater temperature and pressure , thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material . In petroleum production gas is often burnt as flare gas . The World Bank estimates that over 150 cubic kilometers of natural gas are flared or vented annually . Before natural gas can be used as a fuel , most , but not all , must be processed to remove impurities , including water , to meet the specifications of marketable natural gas . The by-products of this processing include : ethane , propane , butanes , pentanes , and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons , hydrogen sulfide ( which may be converted into pure sulfur ) , carbon dioxide , water vapor , and sometimes helium and nitrogen . Natural gas is often informally referred to simply as `` gas '' , especially when compared to other energy sources such as oil or coal . However , it is not to be confused with gasoline , especially in North America , where the term gasoline is often shortened in colloquial usage to gas . Natural gas was used by the Chinese in about 500 BCE ( possibly even 1000 BCE ) . They discovered a way to transport gas seeping from the ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to boil salt water to extract the salt , in the Ziliujing District of Sichuan . The world 's first industrial extraction of natural gas started at Fredonia , New York , United States in 1825 . By 2009 , 66 000 km ³ ( or 8 % ) had been used out of the total 850 000 km ³ of estimated remaining recoverable reserves of natural gas . Based on an estimated 2015 world consumption rate of about 3400 km ³ of gas per year , the total estimated remaining economically recoverable reserves of natural gas would last 250 years at current consumption rates . An annual increase in usage of 2 -- 3 % could result in currently recoverable reserves lasting significantly less , perhaps as few as 80 to 100 years .", "Shale gas Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations . Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century , and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world . In 2000 shale gas provided only 1 % of U.S. natural gas production ; by 2010 it was over 20 % and the U.S. government 's Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2035 , 46 % of the United States ' natural gas supply will come from shale gas . Some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply . China is estimated to have the world 's largest shale gas reserves . The Obama administration believed that increased shale gas development would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions . In 2012 , US carbon dioxide emissions dropped to a 20-year low . A 2013 review by the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change noted that most studies of the subject have estimated that life-cycle greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions from shale gas are similar to those of conventional natural gas , and are much less than those from coal , usually about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal ; the noted exception was a 2011 study by Howarth and others of Cornell University , which concluded that shale GHG emissions were as high as those of coal . More recent studies have also concluded that life-cycle shale gas GHG emissions are much less than those of coal , among them , studies by Natural Resources Canada ( 2012 ) , and a consortium formed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory with a number of universities ( 2012 ) . Some 2011 studies pointed to high rates of decline of some shale gas wells as an indication that shale gas production may ultimately be much lower than is currently projected . But shale-gas discoveries are also opening up substantial new resources of tight oil / `` shale oil '' ." ]

[ "Refracktion Refracktion is a British group concerned with the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing ( fracking ) for gas on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire , England . They believe fracking will have inevitable negative effects on the local environment and its amenity value . Refracktion referred the fracking company Cuadrilla Resources to the Advertising Standards Authority over a brochure published by the company that claimed fracking was safe . Six of 18 specific complaints were upheld , however , 11 of the 18 controversial passages were deemed to be acceptable .", "Hydraulic fracturing in New Zealand Hydraulic fracturing ( fracking ) has been carried out in New Zealand for over 27 years , mostly in Taranaki and also in coal seams in Waikato and Southland . Concerns have been raised about its negative effects and some local government jurisdictions have called for a moratorium on fracking but this has been rejected by the government . The environmental effects of fracking are regulated by the Resource Management Act ( RMA ) through the requirement for resource consents .", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "Coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system . Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities . Coal gas contains a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen , carbon monoxide , methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen . Prior to the development of natural gas supply and transmissionduring the 1940s and 1950s in the United States and during the late 1960s and 1970s in Great Britainvirtually all gas for fuel and lighting was manufactured from coal . Town gas was supplied to households via municipally-owned piped distribution systems . Originally created as a by-product of the coking process , its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the industrial revolution and urbanization . By-products from the production process included coal tars and ammonia , which were important chemical feedstock for the dye and chemical industry with a wide range of artificial dyes being made from coal gas and coal tar . Facilities where the gas was produced were often known as a manufactured gas plant ( MGP ) or a gasworks . The discovery of large reserves of natural gas in the North Sea off the Scottish coast during the early 1960s led to the expensive conversion or replacement of most of the UK 's gas cookers and gas heaters , except in Northern Ireland , from the late 1960s onwards . The production process is distinct , both physically and chemically , from that used to create a range of gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas , syngas , hygas , Dowson gas , and producer gas . These gases are made by partial combustion of a wide variety of feed stocks in some mixture of air , oxygen , or steam , to reduce the latter to hydrogen and carbon dioxide although some destructive distillation may also occur .", "Frack Frack may refer to : Frack , to use hydraulic fracturing , a method for extracting oil and natural gas Frack , former spelling of Frak ( expletive ) , a profanity from Battlestar Galactica Frack , a character in `` The Eclipse '' , an episode of the American sci-fi TV series Heroes `` Frack '' , nickname for Hans Rudolf Mauch ( 1919 -- 1979 ) , one of the ice skating duo Frick and Frack Frack , a German word for frock coat , a Russian ship sunk in 1915 by a German submarine", "FrackNation FrackNation is a feature documentary created by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney , the directors of Not Evil Just Wrong and Mine Your Own Business , and Magdalena Segieda , that aims to address what the filmmakers say is misinformation about the process of hydraulic fracturing , commonly called fracking . The film looks at the process of fracking for natural gas and seeks to address the concerns surrounding the process that were highlighted in the fracking-critical film Gasland . The film interviews many individuals directly affected by fracking , most of whom support the process .", "Coal mining in Wyoming Coal mining in Wyoming has long been a significant part of the state 's economy . Wyoming has been the largest producer of coal in the United States since 1988 . In 2013 , there were 17 active coal mines in Wyoming , which produced 388 million short tons , 39 percent of all the coal mined in the US , and more than three times the production of second-place West Virginia . Market forces , including the low price of natural gas from the fracking boom -- coal 's main competition -- contributed to the steep drop in coal production in the 2000s as electricity generation switched from coal to gas .", "Desalination facilities Estimates vary widely between 15,000 -- 20,000 desalination plants producing more than 20,000 m3/day . Micro desalination plants operate near almost every natural gas or fracking facility in the United States .", "Dayne Pratzky Dayne Pratzky is an Australian anti-fracking activist known colloquially as the Frackman . He is also the subject of a 2015 feature-length documentary film of the same name produced by Smith & Nasht . A former tunnel-digger and resident of Sydney , Pratzky moved to Queensland in his thirties . He describes himself as an `` accidental '' activist who only started campaigning against fracking after seeing the encroachment of the coal seam gas industry on rural farming communities . Pratsky is not affiliated with any political party and has said that he will work with anyone who gets results . Pratzky believes that the unconventional gas industry puts clean air and water resources in Australia at risk , and argues that exporting gas puts upwards pressure on domestic gas prices . He also believes that employment opportunities have been overstated by the industry and by Government and that payments made to landholders have not been equitable , given that affected properties have in some cases been rendered unsaleable .", "Hydraulic fracturing and radionuclides Hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer by pressurized fluid . Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking , commonly known as fracking , is a technique used to release petroleum , natural gas ( including shale gas , tight gas and coal seam gas ) , or other substances for extraction . Radionuclides are associated with hydraulic fracturing in two main ways . Injection of man-made radioactive tracers , along with the other substances in hydraulic-fracturing fluid , is often used to determine the injection profile and location of fractures created by hydraulic fracturing . In addition , hydraulic fracturing releases naturally occurring heavy metals and radioactive materials from shale deposits , and these substances return to the surface with flowback , also referred to as wastewater .", "Coalbed methane Coalbed methane ( CBM or coal-bed methane ) , coalbed gas , coal seam gas ( CSG ) , or coal-mine methane ( CMM ) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds . In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States , Canada , Australia , and other countries . The term refers to methane adsorbed into the solid matrix of the coal . It is called ` sweet gas ' because of its lack of hydrogen sulfide . The presence of this gas is well known from its occurrence in underground coal mining , where it presents a serious safety risk . Coalbed methane is distinct from a typical sandstone or other conventional gas reservoir , as the methane is stored within the coal by a process called adsorption . The methane is in a near-liquid state , lining the inside of pores within the coal ( called the matrix ) . The open fractures in the coal ( called the cleats ) can also contain free gas or can be saturated with water . Unlike much natural gas from conventional reservoirs , coalbed methane contains very little heavier hydrocarbons such as propane or butane , and no natural-gas condensate . It often contains up to a few percent carbon dioxide .", "Kate Richard Katherine ` Kate ' Taaffe Richard is an American businesswoman who specializes in investing in energy assets , particularly upstream oil and gas . In 2010 , she founded Warwick Energy Group , an energy and infrastructure focused private equity firm with more than $ 1.5 billion in managed assets and interests in more than 5,000 energy wells in 13 states . Richard was dubbed `` Miss Fracking '' by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung for her industry leadership in advocating for natural gas as a solution to U.S. energy independence . `` Energy is still an industry of old men , especially the oil and gas industry . This is changing - thanks to people like Richard ... She is one of the most important experts on gas promotion in America - yes , also for controversial fracking . She is one of the youngest bosses of an oil and gas company with a value of more than 750 million dollars . ''", "Shale gas in the United Kingdom Shale gas in the United Kingdom has attracted increasing attention since 2007 , when onshore shale gas production was proposed . The first shale gas well in England was drilled in 1875 . A number of wells have been drilled , and favourable tax treatment has been offered to shale gas producers . In July 2013 UK Prime Minister David Cameron had claimed that , `` fracking has real potential to drive energy bills down '' . However , in November 2013 representatives from industry and government , such as former BP Chief Executive and government advisor Lord Browne , Energy Secretary Ed Davey and economist Lord Stern said that fracking in the UK alone will not lower prices as the UK is part of a well connected European market . , there has been no commercial production of shale gas in the UK .", "Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming , about 120 mi east to west and 200 mi north to south , known for its coal deposits . The region supplies about 40 percent of coal in the United States . It is both a topographic drainage and geologic structural basin . The basin is so named because it is drained by the Powder River , although it is also drained in part by the Cheyenne River , Tongue River , Bighorn River , Little Missouri River , Platte River , and their tributaries . While the Powder River Basin is unified geologically , residents of areas distant from the Powder River proper do not think of themselves as living in a single geographic region . For example , residents of the Crow Reservation in the Big Horn River watershed , or of Sheridan in the Tongue River watershed , would locate the Powder River Basin as the region east of the Big Horn Mountains , using a definition based on watershed and topography . Major cities in the area include Gillette and Sheridan , Wyoming and Miles City , Montana . Outside of these main towns , the area is very sparsely populated and is known for its rolling grasslands and semiarid climate . It is the single largest source of coal mined in the United States , and contains one of the largest deposits of coal in the world . Most of the active coal mining in the Powder River Basin actually takes place in drainages of the Cheyenne River . Because of the Powder River Basin , Wyoming has been the top coal-producing state in the United States since 1988 . In 2007 , the Powder River Basin alone produced 436 million short tons ( 396 million tonnes ) of coal , more than twice the production of second-place West Virginia , and more than the entire Appalachian region . The Powder River Basin is the largest coal producing region in the United States . The Black Thunder Coal Mine is one of the most productive coal mines in the United States ; in 2006 this single mine produced 84 million metric tons of coal , more than any state except Wyoming , West Virginia , and Kentucky . The region is also a major producer of natural gas , both conventional natural gas and coal-bed methane .", "Fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a power station which burns fossil fuel such as coal , natural gas , or petroleum to produce electricity . Central station fossil fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation . In many countries , such plants provide most of the electrical energy used . Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy , which then operates an electrical generator . The prime mover may be a steam turbine , a gas turbine or , in small plants , a reciprocating internal combustion engine . All plants use the energy extracted from expanding gas , either steam or combustion gases . Very few MHD generators have been built which directly convert the energy of hot , moving water into electricity . MHD means Magnetohydrodynamics , which is the study of the magnetic properties of electrically conducting fluids . Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas , liquid metals , salt water and electrolytes . By-products of thermal power plant operation must be considered in their design and operation . Waste heat energy , which remains due to the finite efficiency of the Carnot , Rankine , or Diesel power cycle , is released directly to the atmosphere or river/lake water , or indirectly to the atmosphere using a cooling tower with river or lake water used as a cooling medium . The flue gas from combustion of the fossil fuels is discharged to the air . This gas contains carbon dioxide and water vapor , as well as other substances such as nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur oxides ( SOx ) , mercury , traces of other metals , and , for coal-fired plants , fly ash . Solid waste ash from coal-fired boilers must also be removed . Some coal ash can be recycled for building materials . Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , a greenhouse gas which according to a consensus opinion of scientific organisations is a contributor to global warming . The results of a recent study show that the net income available to shareholders of large companies could see a significant reduction from the greenhouse gas emissions liability related to only natural disasters in the U.S. from a single coal-fired power plant . However , as of 2015 , no such cases have awarded damages in the U.S. Per unit of electric energy , brown coal emits nearly two times as much CO2 as natural gas , and black coal emits somewhat less than brown . Carbon capture and storage of emissions is not currently available .", "Coal in Australia Coal in Australia is mined primarily in Queensland , New South Wales and Victoria . Coal is used to generate electricity and most of the coal mined in Australia is exported , mostly to eastern Asia . In fiscal year 2013/14 , 430.9 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 375.1 million tonnes was exported . Coal provides about 69 % of Australia 's electricity production . In fiscal year 2008/09 , 487 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 261 million tonnes was exported . In 2013 , Australia was the world 's fifth-largest coal producer , after China , the United States , India , and Indonesia . However , in terms of proportion of production exported , Australia was the world 's second largest coal exporter , with exports accounting for roughly 73 % of coal production . Indonesia exports about 87 % of its coal production . Coal mining in Australia has been criticised by members of the environmental movement , due to carbon dioxide emissions during combustion . This criticism is primarily directed at thermal coal , for its connection to coal-fired power stations as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions , and the link to climate change and the effects of global warming on Australia . The burning of coal for electricity produces 29 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions , based on 2013-2014 Clean Energy Regulator data . Both Greenpeace Australia Pacific ( Energy -LSB- R -RSB- evolution ) and Beyond Zero Emissions ( Zero Carbon Australia 2020 ) have produced reports claiming a transition can be made to renewable energy and Greenpeace has called for a just transition for coal based communities , but others argue at present there is no strong evidence of a viable alternative for the vast majority of Australia 's electricity generation , or for the significant economic and social benefits coal mining delivers to regional communities . Many of these arguments specifically ignore the differentiation between thermal and metallurgical coal , and the different application they play in modern society . Coal Seam Gas , methane-based gas associated with deposits of coal has historically been flared , however over the past 10 years has been recovered and used to generate further electricity . The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme , which followed the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review , has placed a price on carbon emissions through a reducing cap and trade emissions trading scheme and this would be likely to impact most heavily on brown coal usage within Australia ( particularly in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria ) for power generation .", "Consol Energy Consol Energy Inc. . -LSB- konˈsɒl -RSB- is an American energy company with interests in coal and natural gas production headquartered in the suburb of Cecil Township , in the Southpointe complex , just outside Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . In April 2017 , Consol Energy had divested all of its coal operations , except for the Pennsylvania mine which it was in the process of spinning off into an independent company . In 2010 Consol was the leading producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States and the U.S. 's largest underground coal mining company . The company has natural gas reserves totaling 3.7 trillion cu . ft. as of 2011 and employs more than 8,800 people .", "Walter Energy Walter Energy , Inc. , with its corporate and U.S. headquarters in Birmingham , Alabama , and its Canadian & UK headquarters in Vancouver , British Columbia , is the world 's leading , publicly traded `` pure play '' metallurgical coal producer for the global steel industry . The Company also produces natural gas , steam coal and industrial coal , anthracite , metallurgical coke , and coal bed methane gas .", "Energy in Australia Energy in Australia includes energy and electricity production , consumption and export in Australia . Energy policy of Australia describes the politics of Australia as it relates to energy . Australia is a net energy exporter , and was the fourth-highest coal producer in the world in 2009 . Historically -- and until recent times -- energy in Australia was sourced largely from coal and natural gas , however due to the increasing effects of global warming and human-induced climate change on the global environment , there has been a greater shift towards renewable energy such as solar power and wind power both in Australia and abroad . This in turn has led to a decrease in the demand of coal worldwide .", "Shale gas in Romania Shale gas in Romania has been prospected , licenses were given to several companies , but no exploitation has yet started . The current government led by Victor Ponta supports extraction of shale gas through fracking , but there have been protests against it . Romgaz discovered non-conventional gas resources ( including shale gas ) in 1994-1995 in Transylvania ; however , they were only accidentally exploited .", "R (Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association) v West Sussex CC R ( Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association ) v West Sussex CC -LSB- 2014 -RSB- EWHC 4108 ( Admin ) is a UK enterprise law case , concerning oil and gas . It held that advice to a council , granting permission to explore an existing hydrocarbon lateral borehole , was not wrong .", "21st-century fossil fuel regulations in the United States Fossil fuel regulations are part of the energy policy in the United States and have gained major significance with the strong dependence on fossil fuel based energy . Regulatory processes are established at the federal and state level due to the immense economic , socio-political and environmental impact of fossil fuel extraction and production . Over 80 % of the United States ' energy comes from fossil fuels such as coal , natural gas , and oil . The Bush administration was marked by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 , which provided a monetary incentive for renewable energy adoption and addressed the issue of climate change . The Obama administration was made up of advocates for renewable energy and natural gas , while Donald Trump built his campaign on promises to revive the coal industry . Oil , gas , and coal companies have been at odds with policy makers who have supported a wider implementation of renewable energy , with the former often spending millions of dollars to lobby against cleaner energy . The Washington Post reported on February 22 , 2017 Scott Pruitt 's potential special interests with the fossil fuel industry as he began his term as the appointed head of the EPA under the Trump administration . Fossil fuel emission disproportionately affects working class , poor and minority populations . The people most adversely affected also have the least political influence and least access to health care .", "Producer gas Producer gas is fuel gas that is manufactured from material such as coal , as opposed to natural gas . In this respect it is similar to other types of `` manufactured '' gas , such as coal gas , coke oven gas , water gas and carburetted water gas . Producer gas was used primarily as an industrial fuel for iron and steel manufacturing , such as firing coke ovens and blast furnaces , cement and ceramic kilns , or for mechanical power through gas engines . It was characteristically low in heating value but cheap to make , so that large amounts could be made and burnt . In the USA , producer gas may be wood gas produced in a gasifier and used to power cars , town gas , originally produced from coal , for sale to consumers , and syngas , used as a fuel source or as an intermediate for the production of other chemicals . In the United Kingdom , producer gas , also called suction gas , specifically means a fuel gas made from coke , anthracite or other carbonaceous material . Air is passed over the red-hot carbonaceous fuel and carbon monoxide is produced . The reaction is exothermic and proceeds as follows : 2C + O2 + 3.73 N2 → 2CO + 3.73 N2 The nitrogen in the air remains unchanged and dilutes the gas , giving it a very low calorific value . The concentration of carbon monoxide in the `` ideal '' producer gas was considered to be 34.7 % carbon monoxide ( carbonic oxide ) and 65.3 % nitrogen . After `` scrubbing '' , to remove tar , the gas may be used to power gas turbines ( which are well-suited to fuels of low calorific value ) , spark ignited engines ( where 100 % petrol fuel replacement is possible ) or diesel internal combustion engines ( where 15 % to 40 % of the original diesel fuel requirement is still used to ignite the gas ) . During World War II in Britain , plants were built in the form of trailers for towing behind commercial vehicles , especially buses , to supply gas as a replacement for petrol ( gasoline ) fuel . A range of about 80 miles for every charge of anthracite was achieved . In old movies and stories , when describing suicide by `` turning on the gas '' and leaving an oven door open without lighting the flame , the reference was to coal gas or town gas . As this gas contained a significant amount of carbon monoxide , it was quite toxic . Most town gas was also odorized , if it did not have its own odor . Modern ` natural gas ' used in homes is far less toxic , and has a gassy odor added to it for identifying leaks .", "Dakota Gasification Company The Dakota Gasification Company is a synthetic natural gas producing company founded in 1984 in Beulah , North Dakota , United States . It is an operator of the Great Plains Synfuels Plant . The plant is located at . The plant uses lignite coal to produce synthetic natural gas utilizing a coal gasification process . The plant processes 16 thousand tons of coal daily . Coal is oxidized to coal gas , which is then converted from a mixture of carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane , by hydrogenation over a nickel catalyst . The synthetic natural gas ( 95 % methane , 975 BTU per cubic foot ) is pipelined to the Northern Border Pipeline which transports gas from Canada , Montana and North Dakota to the Ventura , Iowa area , where the pipeline interconnects with many pipelines supplying the eastern United States . The Dakota Gasification Company is a subsidiary of the Basin Electric Power Cooperative which is located in Bismarck , North Dakota . The company ships generated byproduct carbon dioxide via a high pressure pipeline to an oilfield in Saskatchewan in Canada where it is used for enhanced oil recovery from the Weyburn oil field near Weyburn , Saskatchewan ( Canada ) . The plant also produces ammonium sulfate , anhydrous ammonia , phenol , cresylic acid , methanol , and naphtha . These materials are by-products of coal gasification . The plant also produces liquid nitrogen , krypton and xenon as a by-product of liquid oxygen production . Oxygen is utilized in the initial oxidation of coal .", "The Climate Reality Project The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change . The project was established in July 2011 after the joining of two environmental groups , The Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project , which were both founded in 2006 by Al Gore . Among its activities , The Climate Reality Project hosts an annual event called 24 Hours of Reality and , in 2013 , launched Reality Drop , a social media tool .", "Ozone depletion and climate change Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "Carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing Hydraulic fracturing has the potential to cause fugitive methane emissions , air emissions , water contamination , and noise pollution . Water and air pollution are the biggest risks to human health from hydraulic fracturing . Research is underway to determine if human health has been affected , and adherence to regulation and safety procedures is required to avoid negative impacts . Hydraulic fracturing fluids include proppants and other substances , which may include toxic chemicals . In the United States , such additives may be treated as trade secrets by companies who use them . Lack of knowledge about specific chemicals has complicated efforts to develop risk management policies and to study health effects . In other jurisdictions , such as the United Kingdom , these chemicals must be made public and their applications are required to be nonhazardous . Water usage by hydraulic fracturing can be a problem in areas that experience water shortage . Surface water may be contaminated through spillage and improperly built and maintained waste pits , in jurisdictions where these are permitted . Further , ground water can be contaminated if fluid is able to escape during fracking . Produced water , the water that returns to the surface after fracking , is managed by underground injection , municipal and commercial wastewater treatment , and reuse in future wells . There is potential for methane to leak into ground water and the air , though escape of methane is a bigger problem in older wells than in those built under more recent legislation . Hydraulic fracturing causes induced seismicity called microseismic events or microearthquakes . The magnitude of these events is too small to be detected at the surface , being of magnitude M-3 to M-1 usually . However , fluid disposal wells ( which are often used in the US to dispose of polluted waste from several industries ) have been responsible for earthquakes up to 5.6 M in Oklahoma and other states . Governments worldwide are developing regulatory frameworks to assess and manage environmental and associated health risks , working under pressure from industry on the one hand , and from anti-fracking groups on the other . In some countries like France a precautionary approach has been favored and hydraulic fracturing has been banned . Some countries such as the United States have adopted the approach of identifying risks before regulating . The United Kingdom 's regulatory framework is based on the conclusion that the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing are manageable if carried out under effective regulation and if operational best practices are implemented .", "Syngas Syngas , or synthesis gas , is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen , carbon monoxide , and very often some carbon dioxide . The name comes from its use as intermediates in creating synthetic natural gas ( SNG ) and for producing ammonia or methanol . Syngas is usually a product of gasification and the main application is electricity generation . Syngas is combustible and often used as a fuel of internal combustion engines . It has less than half the energy density of natural gas . Syngas can be produced from many sources , including natural gas , coal , biomass , or virtually any hydrocarbon feedstock , by reaction with steam ( steam reforming ) , carbon dioxide ( dry reforming ) or oxygen ( partial oxidation ) . Syngas is a crucial intermediate resource for production of hydrogen , ammonia , methanol , and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels . Syngas is also used as an intermediate in producing synthetic petroleum for use as a fuel or lubricant via the Fischer -- Tropsch process and previously the Mobil methanol to gasoline process . Production methods include steam reforming of natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen , the gasification of coal , biomass , and in some types of waste-to-energy gasification facilities .", "Liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) is natural gas ( predominantly methane , CH4 , with some mixture of ethane C2H6 ) that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage or transport . It takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state . It is odorless , colorless , non-toxic and non-corrosive . Hazards include flammability after vaporization into a gaseous state , freezing and asphyxia . The liquefaction process involves removal of certain components , such as dust , acid gases , helium , water , and heavy hydrocarbons , which could cause difficulty downstream . The natural gas is then condensed into a liquid at close to atmospheric pressure by cooling it to approximately -162 ° C ; maximum transport pressure is set at around 25 kPa . LNG achieves a higher reduction in volume than compressed natural gas ( CNG ) so that the ( volumetric ) energy density of LNG is 2.4 times greater than that of CNG or 60 percent that of diesel fuel . This makes LNG cost efficient to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist . Specially designed cryogenic sea vessels ( LNG carriers ) or cryogenic road tankers are used for its transport . LNG is principally used for transporting natural gas to markets , where it is regasified and distributed as pipeline natural gas . It can be used in natural gas vehicles , although it is more common to design vehicles to use compressed natural gas . Its relatively high cost of production and the need to store it in expensive cryogenic tanks have hindered widespread commercial use . Despite these drawbacks , on energy basis LNG production is expected to hit 10 % of the global crude production by 2020 . ( see LNG Trade )", "Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa is an energy creation strategy in early stages of development using high-pressure drilling techniques to release natural gas trapped in shale rock . After initially imposing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ( also known as `` fracking '' ) in April 2011 , the South African government lifted the moratorium in September 2012 after an initial investigation by an interdepartmental task team . Several energy companies were subsequently granted exploration licenses . Fracking in South Africa is a current topic of debate , with proponents pointing to substantial economic and energy benefits and opponents voicing concerns about potentially adverse environmental impacts .", "Coke (fuel) Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content , usually made from coal . It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash , low-sulphur bituminous coal . Cokes made from coal are grey , hard , and porous . While coke can be formed naturally , the commonly used form is man-made . The form known as petroleum coke , or pet coke , is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes . Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of carbon monoxide ( CO ) and nitrogen ( N2 ) . Producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke . Coke is also used to manufacture water gas ." ]

[ "Earth Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "Ice age An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "Natural environment The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally , meaning in this case not artificial . The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth . This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species , climate , weather , and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity . The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components : Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention , including all vegetation , microorganisms , soil , rocks , atmosphere , and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate , as well as energy , radiation , electric charge , and magnetism , not originating from civilized human activity In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment . In such areas where man has fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion , the natural environment is greatly modified into a simplified human environment . Even acts which seem less extreme , such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert , modify the natural environment into an artificial one . Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves , they are not human , hence beaver dams and the works of Mound-building termites are thought of as natural . People seldom find absolutely natural environments on Earth , and naturalness usually varies in a continuum , from 100 % natural in one extreme to 0 % natural in the other . More precisely , we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment , and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform . If , for instance , in an agricultural field , the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil , but the structure is quite different . Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat . For instance , when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna .", "John D. Hamaker John D. Hamaker ( 1914 -- 1994 ) , was an American mechanical engineer , ecologist , agronomist and science writer in the fields of soil regeneration , rock dusting , mineral cycles , climate cycles and glaciology ." ]

[ "Milutin Milanković Milutin Milanković ( Милутин Миланковић , pronounced -LSB- milǔtin milǎːnkɔʋitɕ -RSB- 28 May 1879 -- 12 December 1958 ) was a Serbian mathematician , astronomer , climatologist , geophysicist , civil engineer , doctor of technology , university professor and popularizer of science . Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global science . The first contribution is the `` Canon of the Earth 's Insolation '' , which characterizes the climates of all the planets of the Solar system . The second contribution is the explanation of Earth 's long-term climate changes caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun , now known as Milankovitch cycles . This explained the ice ages occurring in the geological past of the Earth , as well as the climate changes on the Earth which can be expected in the future . He founded planetary climatology by calculating temperatures of the upper layers of the Earth 's atmosphere as well as the temperature conditions on planets of the inner Solar system , Mercury , Venus , Mars , and the Moon , as well as the depth of the atmosphere of the outer planets . He demonstrated the interrelatedness of celestial mechanics and the Earth sciences , and enabled consistent transition from celestial mechanics to the Earth sciences and transformation of descriptive sciences into exact ones .", "Clinton Doctrine The Clinton Doctrine is not a clear statement in the way that many other United States Presidential doctrines were . However , in a February 26 , 1999 , speech , President Bill Clinton said the following , which was generally considered to summarize the Clinton Doctrine : It 's easy ... to say that we really have no interests in who lives in this or that valley in Bosnia , or who owns a strip of brushland in the Horn of Africa , or some piece of parched earth by the Jordan River . But the true measure of our interests lies not in how small or distant these places are , or in whether we have trouble pronouncing their names . The question we must ask is , what are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread . We can not , indeed , we should not , do everything or be everywhere . But where our values and our interests are at stake , and where we can make a difference , we must be prepared to do so . Clinton later made statements that augmented the doctrine of interventionism : `` Genocide is in and of itself a national interest where we should act '' and `` we can say to the people of the world , whether you live in Africa , or Central Europe , or any other place , if somebody comes after innocent civilians and tries to kill them en masse because of their race , their ethnic background or their religion , and it 's within our power to stop it , we will stop it . '' The Clinton Doctrine was used to justify the American involvement in the Yugoslav Wars . President Clinton was criticized for not intervening to stop the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 . Other observers viewed Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia as a mistake .", "North African climate cycles North African climate cycles have a unique history that can be traced back millions of years . The cyclic climate pattern of the Sahara is characterized by significant shifts in the strength of the North African Monsoon . When the North African Monsoon is at its strongest annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase , resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the `` green Sahara '' . For a relatively weak North African Monsoon the opposite is true , with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the `` desert Sahara '' . Variations in the climate of the Sahara region can at the simplest level be attributed to the changes in insolation due to slow shifts in Earth 's orbital parameters . These parameters include the precession of the equinoxes , obliquity , and eccentricity as put forth by Milankovitch theory . The precession of the equinoxes is regarded as the most important orbital parameter in the formation of the `` green Sahara '' and `` desert Sahara '' cycle .", "Berkeley Earth Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST . Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . '' Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish . The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .", "Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "Nothing Can Stop Us (album) Nothing Can Stop Us is a compilation album by Robert Wyatt released in 1982 .", "Do Not Say We Have Nothing Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 . It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home .", "Climate Code Red Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated . The book argues that we are facing a `` sustainability emergency '' that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics . The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon . Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists , including James E. Hansen . The key themes of Climate Code Red are : `` Our goal is a safe-climate future -- we have no right to bargain away species or human lives . '' `` We are facing rapid warming impacts : the danger is immediate , not just in the future . '' `` For a safe climate future , we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth . '' `` Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society . '' `` Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency , because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual '' . Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman , climate-policy analyst , and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network . Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network . The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria , Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne , Victoria , on July 17 , 2008 .", "Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "Chemical oceanography Chemical oceanography is the study of ocean chemistry : the behavior of the chemical elements within the Earth 's oceans . The ocean is unique in that it contains - in greater or lesser quantities - nearly every element in the periodic table . Much of chemical oceanography describes the cycling of these elements both within the ocean and with the other spheres of the Earth system ( see biogeochemical cycle ) . These cycles are usually characterised as quantitative fluxes between constituent reservoirs defined within the ocean system and as residence times within the ocean . Of particular global and climatic significance are the cycles of the biologically active elements such as carbon , nitrogen , and phosphorus as well as those of some important trace elements such as iron . Another important area of study in chemical oceanography is the behaviour of isotopes ( see isotope geochemistry ) and how they can be used as tracers of past and present oceanographic and climatic processes . For example , the incidence of 18O ( the heavy isotope of oxygen ) can be used as an indicator of polar ice sheet extent , and boron isotopes are key indicators of the pH and CO2 content of oceans in the geologic past .", "Ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state . Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air , it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color . In the Solar System , ice is abundant and occurs naturally from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far away as the Oort cloud objects . Beyond the Solar System , it occurs as interstellar ice . It is abundant on Earth 's surfaceparticularly in the polar regions and above the snow lineand , as a common form of precipitation and deposition , plays a key role in Earth 's water cycle and climate . It falls as snowflakes and hail or occurs as frost , icicles or ice spikes . Ice molecules can exhibit seventeen or more different phases ( packing geometries ) that depend on temperature and pressure . When water is cooled rapidly ( quenching ) , up to three different types of amorphous ice can form depending on the history of its pressure and temperature . When cooled slowly correlated proton tunneling occurs below 20 K giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena . Virtually all the ice on Earth 's surface and in its atmosphere is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice I ( spoken as `` ice one h '' ) with minute traces of cubic ice denoted as ice I . The most common phase transition to ice I occurs when liquid water is cooled below at standard atmospheric pressure . It may also be deposited directly by water vapor , as happens in the formation of frost . The transition from ice to water is melting and from ice directly to water vapor is sublimation . Ice is used in a variety of ways , including cooling , winter sports and ice sculpture .", "NZ Climate Party The NZ Climate Party is an unregistered political party in New Zealand . The party is focused on highlighting and addressing the threat of climate change . The party was launched in August 2014 , and is led by Peter Whitmore . The party did not register to contest the party vote in the 2014 election , but stood two electorate candidates , in Auckland Central and Rongotai . A representative from the party , Aaron Carter , attended a candidates meeting in Newtown , Wellington dressed in an elephant costume and bearing a sign which said `` climate change '' . His main messages were : `` Do n't vote for me , vote thinking about the climate '' , `` It 's all rearranging furniture on the Titanic as it 's sinking '' , and `` Learn to swim '' . Whitmore and Carter received 50 and 66 electoral votes respectively . Climate Party member Rob Painting contested the 2015 Northland by-election with the stated goal of `` raising awareness of climate and coastal issues affecting the Far North '' . He received 39 votes ( 0.13 % of votes cast ) . The party is opposed to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme , arguing that it is doing nothing to stop New Zealand 's emissions from increasing .", "Solar eclipse of October 24, 2098 A partial solar eclipse will occur on October 24 , 2098 . A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun , thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth . A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon 's shadow misses the Earth . This minor eclipse is the first solar eclipse of Saros cycle 164 .", "Milankovitch cycles Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "Ice Warrior Project The Ice Warrior Project is an organisation founded in 2001 by the explorer Jim McNeill . Its remit is to develop people from all walks of life and echelons of society into modern-day explorers ; to discover change in the world 's most remote regions under the guidance of partner leading scientific authorities ; and deliver these discoveries in an engaging , human manner to audiences around the globe . The organisation provides raw , scientific data for others to go on and interpret . Its rationale for doing so is that if we do not monitor these regions , which were described by Nobel peace prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier as `` clearly one of the most important regions when it comes to climate change . '' , then how will we know that any action to mitigate the human impact on our Earth is actually working ? The project 's founder Jim McNeill maintains that without such knowledge how can we be true guardians of the planet on which we live ? And if we are not , then this ultimately affects our chances of survival as a species . As an organisation it has an altruistic project side which relies on corporate sponsorship and involves charitable work and also an underpinning commercial side .", "Environmental philosophy Environmental philosophy is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the natural environment and humans ' place within it . It asks crucial questions about human environmental relations such as `` What do we mean when we talk about nature ? '' `` What is the value of the natural , that is non-human environment to us , or in itself ? '' `` How should we respond to environmental challenges such as environmental degradation , pollution and climate change ? '' `` How can we best understand the relationship between the natural world and human technology and development ? '' and `` What is our place in the natural world ? '' As such , it uniquely positions itself as a field set to deal with the challenges of the 21st Century . Environmental philosophy includes environmental ethics , environmental aesthetics , ecofeminism , environmental hermeneutics , and environmental theology . Some of the main areas of interest for environmental philosophers are : Defining environment and nature How to value the environment Moral status of animals and plants Endangered species Environmentalism and Deep Ecology Aesthetic value of nature Restoration of nature Consideration of future generations", "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut! `` Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut ! '' is a two-issue Spider-Man story arc written by Roger Stern with art by John Romita , Jr. . and published by Marvel Comics . The arc appears in The Amazing Spider-Man # 229 -- 230 .", "We Can Do It (disambiguation) We Can Do It ! is a World War II inspirational artwork by J. Howard Miller . We Can Do It may also refer to : `` We Can Do It '' ( Carboo song ) , covered by September `` We Can Do It '' ( Liverpool F.C. song ) , 1977 `` Kaya Natin Ito ! '' or `` We Can Do It ! '' , a song by Ogie Alcasid `` We Can Do It '' , a song from the musical The Producers We Can Do It ( album ) , an album by The Rubettes", "Examples of refugia The northern and southern hemispheres of the earth have a dynamic history of advancing and retreating ice sheets . The glacial and interglacial periods are linked to regular eccentricities in the Earth 's orbit and correspond to approximately 100 kyr cycles . The advancing , or glacial periods can cause a massive displacement of flora and fauna as it drives them away from the poles , with the most recent glacial maximum having occurred about 20,000 years ago. ,", "James Hays James D. Hays is a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University 's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory . Hays founded and led the CLIMAP project , which collected sea floor sediment data to study surface sea temperatures and paleoclimatological conditions 18,000 years ago . Hays is probably best known as a co-author of the 1976 paper in Science , `` Variations in the Earth 's orbit : Pacemaker of the ice ages . '' Using ocean sediment cores , the Science paper verified the theories of Milutin Milanković that oscillations in climate can be correlated with Earth 's orbital variations of eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession around the Sun ( see Milankovitch cycles ) .", "Solar eclipse of November 9, 1855 A partial solar eclipse occurred on November 9 , 1855 during spring . A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun , thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth . A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon 's shadow misses the Earth . It was the eighth solar saros 150 cycle of eclipses", "Community Earth System Model The Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric , ocean , ice , land surface , carbon cycle , and other components . CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simulations of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It is the successor of the Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) , specifically version 4 ( CCSMv4 ) , which provided the initial atmospheric component for CESM . Strong ensemble forecasting capabilities , CESM-LE ( CESM-Large Scale ) , were developed at the onset to control for error and biases across different model runs ( realizations ) . Simulations from the Earth 's surface through the thermosphere are generated utilizing the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model ( WACCM ) . CESM1 was released in 2010 with primary development by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division ( CGD ) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , and significant funding by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the Department of Energy ( DoE ) .", "We Don't Stop `` We Do n't Stop '' is a song and second single by South Korean girl group , Fiestar . The single was released on November 9 , 2012 by LOEN Entertainment .", "We Were Dancing We Were Dancing is a short comic play in two scenes by Noël Coward . It concerns a married woman who falls in love with another man at a dance on a south Pacific island . They plan to go to Australia , but in the cold light of morning , they realise that they have nothing in common . It is one of ten short plays that make up Tonight at 8:30 , a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays across three evenings . In the introduction to a published edition of the plays , Coward explained that the cycle was an attempt to revive the popularity of short plays : `` A short play , having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding , deserves a better fate , and if , by careful writing , acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride , I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions . '' Four of the plays in the cycle , including We Were Dancing , `` break into spontaneous song ... in the most unexpected places '' . We Were Dancing includes a song of the same name . The piece was first produced in Manchester in 1935 and then played in London ( 1936 ) , New York ( 1936 -- 1937 ) and Canada ( 1938 ) . The Manchester Guardian described the play as `` a witty little piece '' , and it was later seen as one of the more durable of the Tonight at 8:30 cycle . It has enjoyed several major revivals .", "Explorers We Explorers We is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick . First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine , January 1959 . In this story some aliens come to Earth as perfect replicas of a group of astronauts who died during a mission to Mars . The astronauts seem to be utterly convinced they are humans and they do not understand why the FBI chases them after they have ` come back ' to Earth . Humans only know that these astronauts are not the same as those who originally left for Mars , and nothing more . The original astronauts could have been saved and/or cloned by the aliens . The disguise could be a way to try to communicate more easily with the earthlings . Still other factors could explain these perfect copies of human beings , but the earthlings have no intention of investigating them . Above all , the possible threat must be eliminated , and only then questions can be asked . At the end of the story , Wilks , an FBI agent , poses the central question raised by the story : `` If it was up to me , Wilks asked himself , what would I do ? Try to find out what they want ? Anything that looks so human , behaves in such a human way , must feel human ... and if they - whatever they are - feel human , might they not become human , in time ? '' After this brief meditation Wilks goes on to kill the last of the six astronauts , but he soon realizes that he did it only because he was afraid of an alien invasion : `` That 's what we are told ... they are plotting against us , are inhuman , and will never be more than that '' . He also realizes that the cycle will only continue . At the end of Explorers We the beginning is repeated . Another spaceship with the same six astronauts aboard lands on Earth . Explorers We is a thematic precursor to A Little Something For Us Tempunauts , and was reprinted as a limited edition booklet to commemorate Dick 's appearance at the Second International Festival of Science Fiction at Metz , France , September 1977 . It was written in 1958 , one of only two short stories that Dick wrote in the seven years between 1956 and 1962 .", "Earth materials Earth materials is a general term that includes minerals , rocks , soil and water . These are the naturally occurring materials found on Earth that constitute the raw materials upon which our global society exists . Earth materials are vital resources that provide the basic components for life , agriculture and industry . Earth materials can also include metals and precious rocks .", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now Nothing 's Gon na Stop Me Now may refer to : `` Nothing 's Gon na Stop Me Now '' ( Samantha Fox song ) , 1987 `` Nothing 's Gon na Stop Me Now '' ( Perfect Strangers song ) , the theme song of Perfect Strangers , U.S. TV series , sung by David Pomeranz `` Nothing 's Gon na Stop Me Now '' , interlude from P. Diddy 's album , The Saga Continues ... , featuring Faith Evans and Mario Winans", "Earth Trust Centre Earth Trust Centre , formerly known as Project Timescape , is Earth Trust 's visitor and education centre near the Wittenham Clumps , Little Wittenham , Oxfordshire , England . The centre 's aim is to educate and engage people in their local landscape and inspire them to take action to protect it . It includes a café , the Fison Barn and the Timescape Exhibition . Visitors can learn about the archaeology of the Wittenham Clumps , geology of the South Oxfordshire area , wildlife on the Little Wittenham Nature Reserve , the Trust 's conservation farm and the effects climate change will have on our landscape in the future . The Earth Trust Centre is open to school groups and the general public for special events .", "NASA Earth Science NASA Earth Science , formerly called the NASA Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) , formerly called Mission To Planet Earth ( MTPE ) , is a NASA research program `` to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes to enable improved prediction of climate , weather , and natural hazards for present and future generations '' .", "List of environmental protests This is a list of notable environmental protests and campaigns : 2010 Xinfa aluminum plant protest Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival Camp for Climate Action Campaign against Climate Change Climate Rush Earth Day ( continuing from 1970 ) Earth First ! Earthlife Africa Global Day of Action Gurindji Strike Hands off our Forest Homes before Roads Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Love Canal protests March Against Monsanto March for Science ( 2017 ) March for Science Portland Nevada Desert Experience People 's Climate March ( 2014 ) People 's Climate March ( 2017 ) ( planned ) Plane Mad Plane Stupid Qidong protest Roșia Montană protests Save Manapouri Campaign Say Yes demonstrations Shifang protest Stop Climate Chaos Standing Rock Indian Reservation vs. DAPL", "We Can Do Anything We Can Do Anything is the ninth studio album by Violent Femmes , that was released March 4 , 2016 . It is the band 's first studio album since 2000 's Freak Magnet .", "The Big Splash (book) The Big Splash ( subtitled A Scientific Discovery That Revolutionizes the Way We View the Origin of Life , the Water We Drink , the Death of the Dinosaurs , the Creation of the Oceans , the Nature of the Cosmos , and the Very Future of the Earth Itself ) is a 1990 book written by Louis A. Frank with Patrick Huyghe . In the book , Frank claims to have found scientific evidence that every year , millions of small comets ( made of ice and water ) strike the Earth 's atmosphere , and that these comets created Earth 's lakes , rivers and oceans . While many scientists disputed Frank 's hypothesis , he continued to argue that there are tests which can be performed which would either rule it out or confirm it ." ]

[ "2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP17 ) was held in Durban , South Africa , from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions . A treaty was not established , but the conference agreed to establish a legally binding deal comprising all countries by 2015 , which was to take effect in 2020 . There was also progress regarding the creation of a Green Climate Fund for which a management framework was adopted . The fund is to distribute US$ 100 billion per year to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts . While the president of the conference , Maite Nkoana-Mashabane , declared it a success , scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 ° C as more urgent action is needed .", "Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 . Worldwide , various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection . First celebrated in 1970 , Earth Day events in more than 193 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network . On Earth Day 2016 , the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States , China , and some 120 other countries . This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris . In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco , peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace , to first be celebrated on March 21 , 1970 , the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere . This day of nature 's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations . A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22 , 1970 . Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work . While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States , an organization launched by Denis Hayes , who was the original national coordinator in 1970 , took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations . Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week , an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces . In 2017 , the March for Science occurred on Earth day ( April 22 , 2017 ) and will be followed by the People 's Climate Mobilization ( April 29 , 2017 ) .", "Intended Nationally Determined Contributions Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs ) is a term used under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that all countries that signed the UNFCCC were asked to publish in the lead up to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris , France in December 2015 . These intended contributions were determined without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions . The term was intended as a compromise between `` quantified emissions limitation and reduction objective '' ( QUELROs ) and `` nationally appropriate mitigation actions '' ( NAMAs ) that the Kyoto Protocol used to describe the different legal obligations of developed and developing countries . Under the Paris Agreement , adopted in December 2015 , the INDC will become the first Nationally Determined Contribution when a country ratifies the agreement , unless they decide to submit a new NDC at the same time . Once the Paris Agreement is ratified , the NDC will become the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that applied equally to both developed and developing countries . On 3 August 2016 China and US ratified 2015 agreement on INDC . Together they both constitute 38 % of total global emission , with China 's alone emitting total of 20 % . India that has a Global share of GHGs emission at 4.1 % of that of world ratified Paris climate agreement on October 2 , 2016 by depositing the Instrument of ratification with the United nations .", "Action/2015 action/2015 was a global coalition of more than 2200 organisations and networks from over 150 countries , united by the belief that 2015 was a critical year for progress in the fight against climate change , poverty and inequality . Throughout the year , this coalition engaged and mobilised the public at critical decision-making points to call on leaders to commit to strong goals and agreements at two crucial UN summits in 2015 - the UN General Assembly and the UN Climate Change Conference . Throughout the year millions of activists came together through action/2015 to ensure world leaders would feel the pressure to seize the opportunity to tackle poverty , inequality and climate change . With 31 million campaign actions taken in 157 countries , action/2015 was a massive global movement for change -- the biggest-ever of its kind .", "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "Climate change adaptation Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming and climate change , that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming . Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon , global warming and its effects will last many years , and adaptation will be necessary to the resulting changes in climate . Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming . That is , the capacity and potential for humans to adapt ( called adaptive capacity ) is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations , and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt ( Schneider et al. , 2007 ) . Furthermore , the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues . Therefore , adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts . Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development ( IPCC , 2007 ) . The economic costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to cost billions of dollars annually for the next several decades , though the amount of money needed is unknown . Donor countries promised an annual $ 100 billion by 2020 through the Green Climate Fund for developing countries to adapt to climate change . However , while the fund was set up during COP16 in Cancún , concrete pledges by developed countries have not been forthcoming . The adaptation challenge grows with the magnitude and the rate of climate change . Another response to climate change , known as climate change mitigation ( Verbruggen , 2007 ) is to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere ( through carbon sinks ) . Even the most effective reductions in emissions , however , would not prevent further climate change impacts , making the need for adaptation unavoidable ( Klein et al. , 2007 ) . In a literature assessment , Klein et al. ( 2007 ) assessed options for adaptation . They concluded , with very high confidence , that in the absence of mitigation efforts , the effects of climate change would reach such a magnitude as to make adaptation impossible for some natural ecosystems . Others are concerned that climate adaptation programs might interfere with the existing development programs and thus lead to unintended consequences for vulnerable groups . For human systems , the economic and social costs of unmitigated climate change would be very high .", "Climate change mitigation scenarios Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference was an international meeting of political leaders and activists to discuss environmental issues . It was held in Marrakech , Morocco from November 7 to 18 . The conference incorporated the twenty-second Conference of the Parties ( COP22 ) , the twelfth meeting of the parties for the Kyoto Protocol ( CMP12 ) , and the first meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement ( CMA1 ) . The purpose of the conference was to discuss and implement plans about combatting climate change and to '' -LSB- demonstrate -RSB- to the world that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is underway '' . Participants work together to come up with global solutions to climate change . The conference was presided over by Salaheddine Mezouar , the Moroccan Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation . Approximately 20,000 participants were expected to attend . On 2 May 2016 , events firm GL Events signed the service contract . The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also lent its support to the preparation for COP 22 '' .", "Climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "Climate Vulnerable Forum The Climate Vulnerable Forum ( CVF ) is a global partnership of countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming . The forum addresses the negative effects of global warming as a result of heightened socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities . These countries actively seek a firm and urgent resolution to the current intensification of climate change , domestically and internationally . The CVF was formed to increase the accountability of industrialized nations for the consequences of global climate change . It also aims to exert additional pressure for action to tackle the challenge , which includes local action by countries considered susceptible . Political leaders involved in this partnership are `` using their status as those most vulnerable to climate change to punch far above their weight at the negotiating table '' . The governments which founded the CVF agree to national commitments to pursue low-carbon development and carbon neutrality . Ethiopia became the first African Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the CVF High-Level Climate Policy Forum held in the Senate of the Philippines on 15 August 2016 . The Philippines was the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris ( COP21 ) and oversaw the adoption of the body 's Manila-Paris Declaration at the Third High-Level Meeting of the Forum on 30 November 2015 . The Manila-Paris Declaration articulated the common concerns and commitments of vulnerable countries and urged the strengthening of the UNFCCC goal of limiting warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels . During this meeting the membership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum expanded to include 23 new members . In 2015 , the twenty member countries in a forum chaired by the Philippines launched the official bloc of the forum , the ` V20 ' or ` Vulnerable Twenty ' , consisting of the top 20 nations from all over the world that are most affected by the catastrophes rooted from climate change . The members of the bloc are Afghanistan , Bangladesh , Barbados , Bhutan , Costa Rica , Ethiopia , Ghana , Kenya , Kiribati , Madagascar , Maldives , Nepal , Philippines , Rwanda , Saint Lucia , Tanzania , Timor-Leste , Tuvalu , Vanuatu and Vietnam . During the 2nd V20 Ministerial Dialogue in April 2016 in Washington DC , the V20 recognized the 23 new members that joined the CVF in 2015 as incoming members in the V20 initiative . These countries are currently and diversely affected by various climate change problems such as super storms , storm surges , tsunamis , droughts , famine due to climate factors , food shortage as by-product of climate change , power cutting , flash floods , mud slides , desertification , heatwaves , reduction of fresh water sources , and other effects of climate change . Climate change is globally believed and scientifically proven to have incurred from the economic activities of developed and developing nations and regions such as China , the United States , and Europe .", "Climate debt Climate debt is a theoretical concept which has been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by over fifty countries including Bolivia , Bhutan , Malaysia , Micronesia , Sri Lanka , Paraguay , Venezuela and the Group of Least Developed countries , representing 49 of the world 's poorest and most vulnerable countries .", "Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and Their Habitats The Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and Their Habitats , also known as the Gorilla Agreement , is a Multilateral Environmental Agreement that binds the Parties to conserve gorillas in their territories . It was concluded 2007 under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals ( CMS ) , also known as the `` Bonn Convention '' , with scientific support from the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences and GRASP . The Gorilla Agreement covers 10 range States ( Angola , Cameroon , Central African Republic , Congo Republic , Democratic Republic of Congo , Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , Nigeria , Rwanda and Uganda ) and entered into force in June 2008 .", "Nature Climate Change Nature Climate Change is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group covering all aspects of research on global warming , especially its effects . It was established in 2011 . Its first editor-in-chief was Olive Heffernan and the journal 's current editor-in-chief is Bronwyn Wake . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal had a 2015 impact factor of 17.184 .", "Effects of climate change on island nations Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "Effects of global warming on Australia Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "Global Climate March The Global Climate March took place in various cities around the world on 29 November 2015 , the day before the opening of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The march was organized by a huge coalition of climate groups and global activists ( such as Avaaz and the international environmental organization 350 . org ) , and involved more than 2,000 events around the globe , in 175 different countries . An estimated number of 785,000 people took part at the marches . Follow-on marches scheduled in 2017 include the March for Science on 22 April 2017 ) and the People 's Climate Mobilization scheduled 29 April 2017 .", "Global climate regime A global climate regime is a global framework that aims at regulating the interaction of human activity with the global climate system , to mitigate global climate change .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Paris Peace Conference Paris Peace Conference may refer to : Congress of Paris ( 1856 ) , negotiations ending the Crimean War Paris Peace Conference , 1919 , negotiations ending World War I Paris Peace Treaties , 1947 , which ended World War II for most nations Paris Peace Accords , 1973 treaty ending American involvement in the Vietnam War The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Paris and led to the Paris Agreement to fight global warming", "Marrakech Accords The Marrakech Accords is a set of agreements reached at the 7th Conference of the Parties ( COP7 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , held in 2001 , on the rules of meeting the targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol . The separate Marrakech Declaration of 15 April 1994 , manifesting the Uruguay Round trade agreements and establishing the World Trade Organization , was also concluded and signed in Marrakech , Morocco .", "Human Rights and Climate Change Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming", "Global Relief Model ", "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "The Adaptation Fund The Adaptation Fund is an international fund that finances projects and programs aimed at helping developing countries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change . It is set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .", "Climate change and gender Climate change and gender is concerned with gender differences in the context of climate change and the complex and intersecting power relations arising from it . By altering the ecosystems of the planet , climate change , and more specifically global warming , directly impacts the human race . These effects vary for different segments of the population , specifically for people of different genders . In many cases , women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because of their lower social status in most countries . Many impoverished women , especially those in the developing world , are farmers and depend on the natural environment for subsistence and income . By further limiting their already constrained access to physical , social , political , and fiscal resources , climate change often burdens women more than men . Locally and globally , both governments and non-governmental organizations respond to climate change . Some of these efforts focus on mitigating the effects of climate change while others aid societies in adapting their lifestyles to changes in their environment . Most policy responses in the late 20th and early 21st century either did not focus on the social effects of climate change or did not consider gender in these efforts . Analysis of gender in climate change , however , not only means applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change .", "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "United Nations Climate Change conference The United Nations Climate Change Conferences are yearly conferences held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC Parties ( Conference of the Parties , COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change , and beginning in the mid-1990s , to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions . From 2005 the Conferences have also served as the `` Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol '' ( CMP ) ; also parties to the Convention that are not parties to the Protocol can participate in Protocol-related meetings as observers . From 2011 the meetings have also been used to negotiate the Paris Agreement as part of the Durban platform activities until its conclusion in 2015 , which created a general path towards climate action . The first UN Climate Change Conference was held in 1995 in Berlin .", "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields ." ]

[ "The Great Global Warming Swindle The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "Fred Singer Siegfried Fred Singer ( born September 27 , 1924 ) is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia . Singer trained as an atmospheric physicist and is known for his work in space research , atmospheric pollution , rocket and satellite technology , his questioning of the link between UV-B and melanoma rates , and that between CFCs and stratospheric ozone loss , his public downplaying of the health risks of passive smoking , and as an advocate for climate change denial . He is the author or editor of several books including Global Effects of Environmental Pollution ( 1970 ) , The Ocean in Human Affairs ( 1989 ) , Global Climate Change ( 1989 ) , The Greenhouse Debate Continued ( 1992 ) , and Hot Talk , Cold Science ( 1997 ) . He has also co-authored Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years ( 2007 ) with Dennis Avery , and Climate Change Reconsidered ( 2009 ) with Craig Idso . Singer has had a varied career , serving in the armed forces , government , and academia . He designed mines for the U.S. Navy during World War II , before obtaining his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1948 and working as a scientific liaison officer in the U.S. Embassy in London . He became a leading figure in early space research , was involved in the development of earth observation satellites , and in 1962 established the National Weather Bureau 's Satellite Service Center . He was the founding dean of the University of Miami School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences in 1964 , and held several government positions , including deputy assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency , and chief scientist for the Department of Transportation . He held a professorship with the University of Virginia from 1971 until 1994 , and with George Mason University until 2000 . In 1990 Singer founded the Science & Environmental Policy Project , and in 2006 was named by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as one of a minority of scientists said to be creating a stand-off on a consensus on climate change . Singer argues there is no evidence that global warming is attributable to human-caused increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide , and that humanity would benefit if temperatures do rise . He is an opponent of the Kyoto Protocol , and has claimed that climate models are neither based on reality nor evidence . Singer has been accused of rejecting peer-reviewed and independently confirmed scientific evidence in his claims concerning public health and environmental issues ." ]

[ "Science & Environmental Policy Project The Science & Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) is a research and advocacy group financed by private contributions based in Arlington , Virginia in the United States . It was founded in 1990 by atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer . SEPP disputes the prevailing scientific views of climate change and ozone depletion . SEPP also questioned the science used to establish the dangers of secondhand smoke , arguing the risks are overstated . SEPP 's former Chairman of the Board of Directors is listed as Rockefeller University president emeritus Frederick Seitz , a former president of the National Academy of Sciences , now deceased .", "Edwardo Rhodes Edwardo Lao Rhodes ( born 1946 ) is an American management science scholar and author . An Emeritus Professor at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs , Rhodes is best known for his seminal work in data envelopment analysis , as well as his applications of management science to policy analysis and environmental policy .", "Peter Richerson Peter James Richerson ( born October 11 , 1943 ) is an American biologist . He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California , Davis .", "Seymour Jonathan Singer Seymour Jonathan Singer ( May 23 , 1924 -- February 2 , 2017 ) was an American cell biologist and professor of biology , emeritus , at the University of California , San Diego .", "Tim O'Riordan Tim O'Riordan OBE DL FBA ( born ) is a British geographer who is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) and a prominent British environmental writer and thinker .", "Edgar A. Singer, Jr. Edgar Arthur Singer , Jr. ( November 13 , 1873 -- April 4 , 1954 ) was an American philosopher , professor at the University of Pennsylvania , and proponent of experimentalism .", "Michael Laughton Professor Michael Arthur Laughton FREng ( born 18 December 1934 ) is Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary , University of London , and currently Visiting Professor at the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at Imperial College .", "Shigeaki Uno is a political scientist ; Professor Emeritus of Seikei University ; Honorary President and Professor Emeritus of University of Shimane . Majored in International Relations ( Modern Chinese History , Study on Northeast Asian Region ) . Shigeaki Uno was born in Kanazawa City , Ishikawa Prefecture ; His wife , Mieko Uno is Educator and Professor Emeritus of Ferris University . Shigeki Uno , Political Scientist and Professor of Research Institute for Social Science , University of Tokyo is a son of Mr. & Mrs. Uno .", "Valerius Geist Valerius ( Val ) Geist is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science , Faculty of Environmental Design , University of Calgary . He is a specialist on the biology , behavior , and social dynamics of North American large mammals ( elk , moose , bighorn sheep and other wild ungulates ) .", "Colin A. Russell Colin Archibald Russell was Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology at the Open University and was a research scholar affiliated to the History and Philosophy of Science Department , Cambridge University . His chief research interests were in the fields of the history of chemistry , environmental history and history of science and religion .", "Joseph W. Singer Joseph William Singer is an American legal theorist , specializing in property law . He received his legal degree and master 's degree in Political Science from Harvard . He is the Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard University , where he has been teaching since 1992 . Previously , he taught at Boston University School of Law and practiced law in Boston . He also served as a law clerk in the Supreme Court of New Jersey . Singer has authored an extensive body of work , including Entitlement : The Paradoxes of Property ( Yale University Press , 2000 ) , The Edges of the Field : Lessons on the Obligations of Ownership ( Beacon Press , 2000 ) , and No Freedom without Regulation : The Hidden Lesson of the Subprime Crisis ( Yale University Press , 2015 ) . In addition to his books on property law and federal Native American law , he as written more than 70 law review articles . In 2015 , Singer was awarded the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize from the College of William and Mary School of Law for his contributions to the advancement of private property rights .", "Kent Monroe Kent Monroe is an American economist , focusing in information value of price to consumers , currently the John M. Jones Distinguished Professor of Marketing Emeritus at University of Illinois and previously the Robert O. Goodykoontz Professor at Virginia Tech and Virginia State University , and is an Elected Fellow of Decision Sciences Institute .", "Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer , AC ( born 6 July 1946 ) is an Australian moral philosopher . He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University , and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne . He specializes in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular , utilitarian perspective . He is known in particular for his book Animal Liberation ( 1975 ) , in which he argues in favor of vegetarianism , and his essay `` Famine , Affluence , and Morality , '' in which he argues in favor of donating to help the global poor . For most of his career , he was a preference utilitarian , but he announced in The Point of View of the Universe ( 2014 ) that he had become a hedonistic utilitarian . On two occasions , Singer served as chair of the philosophy department at Monash University , where he founded its Centre for Human Bioethics . In 1996 he stood unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate for the Australian Senate . In 2004 Singer was recognized as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies , and in 2006 he was voted one of Australia 's ten most influential public intellectuals . Singer is a cofounder of Animals Australia and the founder of The Life You Can Save .", "Robert C. Paehlke Robert C. Paehlke ( born 1941 ) is an American/Canadian political scientist , environmentalist , Emeritus Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies and Political Science at the Trent University , Canada , and author , best known for his work on environmentalism and progressive politics .", "Jerome E. Singer Jerome Everett Singer ( 1934 -- 2010 ) was the founding chair of the Medical and Clinical Psychology Department at Uniformed Services University . He is best known for his contributions to the two-factor theory of emotion . He also served as one of the fourteen members on the National Research Council ( NRC ) committee on human performance in 1985 . Singer played a role in the cognitive revival of modern psychology . His main area of expertise was the psychological and physiological effects of various types of stress .", "Merrill Singer Merrill Singer ( b. October 6 , 1950 McKeesport , PA , USA ) is a medical anthropologist and professor in Anthropology at The University of Connecticut and in Community Medicine at The University of Connecticut Health Center . He is a prolific writer and best known for his research on substance abuse , HIV/AIDS , syndemics , health disparities , and minority health .", "Alfred Singer Alfred Singer ( born December 10 , 1946 ) is an American immunologist who works at the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) , where he is the Chief of the Experimental Immunology Branch of the National Cancer Institute ( NCI ) Center for Cancer Research . He is best known for his work regarding lymphocyte development , particularly the differentiation of immature CD4 +8 + ( double positive ) thymocytes into mature T cells . Singer 's work is foundational in the understanding of T cells and MHC-restricted antigen recognition . Singer 's work explores the mechanisms with which a body identifies what is self and what is not self . At a time when many researchers understood that T cells recognize self through identification of the major histocompatibility complex ( MHC ) it was not understood how T cells acquire that capability . Using a unique approach to thymus transplantation , Singer showed that it is the thymus that educates self-recognition specificity in T cells . A series of later studies in Singer 's lab demonstrated that the property of self-recognition in T cells is acquired during development in the thymus rather than predetermined prior to development or genetically encoded in the genome .", "Rolf Singer Rolf Singer ( June 23 , 1906 -- January 18 , 1994 ) was a German-born mycologist and one of the most important taxonomists of gilled mushrooms ( agarics ) in the 20th century . After receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in 1931 he worked in Munich . By 1933 , however , Singer was forced to flee Nazi Germany to Vienna . There he met his wife , Martha Singer . From Vienna , Singer and his wife went to Barcelona , Spain , where Singer was appointed Assistant Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona . Persecution by the Spanish authorities on behalf of the German government forced Singer to leave Spain for France in 1934 . After a fellowship at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris , Singer again moved , this time to Leningrad , where he was Senior Scientific Expert at the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR . During his time at the Academy , Singer made many expeditions to Siberia , the Altai Mountains , and Karelia . In 1941 , Singer emigrated to the United States . He was offered a position at the Farlow Herbarium as a research associate , then as Assistant Curator , then as acting Curator following the death of Dr. David Linder . He spent a total of seven years at the Farlow . During this time , Singer also received a Guggenheim Fellowship for studies in Florida , and taught at the Mountain Lake Biological Station of the University of Virginia . In 1948 , Singer left Harvard to become professor at the Universidad Nacional de Tucuman in Argentina . Later , in 1961 , Singer became professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires . During his time in South America , Singer , his wife , and his daughter Heidi collected extensively . Singer 's last faculty appointment was at the University of Illinois at Chicago , from 1968 to 1977 . Singer was a prolific writer , with more than 400 publications to his name . He was also known for his eagerness to aid other botanists , whether they were professionals or amateurs . He wrote major books like `` The Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy '' . He fled to various countries during the Nazi period , pursuing mycology in far-flung places like the Soviet Union , Argentina , and finally the United States , as mycologist at the Field Museum in Chicago .", "Arun G. Phadke Arun Phadke is a University Distinguished Professor emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech .", "Brian Lees (geographer) Brian Lees ( born Scotland , 1944 ; Educated Royal High School , Edinburgh ) is an Australian geographer and was the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Geographical Information Science . Lees started off as Regional Editor for the Western Pacific in 1997 and took over as Editor-in-Chief in 2007 . He handed over to Professor May Yuan in January 2017 . He is an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales , School of Physical , Environmental & Mathematical Sciences , where he was appointed professor of geography in February 2006 .", "Mark Singer Dr. Mark Singer MD , is an American doctor who is best known for inventing , with speech pathologist Eric Blom , while working at Methodist Hospital , Indianapolis , a type of voice prosthesis that allows victims of laryngeal cancer ( cancer of the larynx ) to talk .", "William Moomaw William R. Moomaw is the Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School , Tufts University . Moomaw has worked at the intersection of science and policy , advocating for international sustainable development . His activities have included being a long-time contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "University of Virginia School of Architecture The University of Virginia School of Architecture is the university 's architecture school . The school confers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in architecture , landscape architecture , architectural history , and urban and environmental planning . Additionally , the school offers a certificate in historic preservation . The Ph.D program in architectural history was once maintained at the School of Architecture but has since been transferred to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences . The School 's current dean is Ila Berman .", "Isadore Singer Isadore Manuel Singer ( born May 3 , 1924 ) is an Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He is noted for his work with Michael Atiyah proving the Atiyah -- Singer index theorem in 1962 , which paved the way for new interactions between pure mathematics and theoretical physics .", "Herman Daly Herman Edward Daly ( born July 21 , 1938 ) is an American ecological and Georgist economist and emeritus professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland , College Park in the United States .", "Vamık Volkan Vamık D. Volkan ( born 1932 in Lefkoşa , Cyprus ) is a Turkish Cypriot Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia , Charlottesville , Virginia , the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Erikson Institute of Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center , Stockbridge , Massachusetts , and an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute , Washington , D.C. . He is the President Emeritus of International Dialogue Initiative ( IDI ) .", "Tony McDonnell (space scientist) Tony McDonnell is a Professor ( Emeritus ) of Planetary and Space Sciences . Specialising in space science and a recognised authority in cosmic dust , he was Professor of Space Sciences at the University of Kent and Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University .", "Dennis C. Pirages Dennis Clark Pirages ( born July 30 , 1942 ) is an American political scientist , environmentalist and former Harrison Professor of International Environmental Politics at the University of Maryland , College Park , known for his work on the environment and sustainability questions .", "Victor Adenuga Oyenuga Victor Adenuga Oyenuga , CFR ( April 9 , 1917 - April 10 , 2010 ) was a Nigerian Professor Emeritus of Agricultural science and pioneer President of the Nigerian Academy of Science . He was the first Emeritus Professor of the University of Ibadan and the first African Professor of Agricultural science .", "Vijaya Melnick Vijaya Lakshmi Melnick ( born November 19 , 1937 ) is an India-born American academic specializing in biological and environmental sciences and immunology . She is Professor Emeritus of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia . She was the First Vice President and then Co-President of the International Health Awareness Network , an affiliate of the United Nations . She holds memberships on the boards and executive committees of national and international organizations related to either health and education or both . She has written several research papers and books .", "André Vítor Singer André Vítor Singer ( born 1958 ) is a political sciences professor at the University of São Paulo and the former press secretary of the Lula administration . He is known for his description of lulism as a political phenomenon and as one of the theorists of the Brasília Consensus . Born in São Paulo , Singer graduated in social sciences in 1980 and in journalism 1986 , both by the Universidade of São Paulo . He earned his Master 's ( 1993 ) , Doctoral ( 1998 ) and docent ( 2011 ) degrees in social sciences all by the same university . He was press secretary of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo ( 1987 -- 88 ) , Secretary of Media of the Palácio do Planalto ( 2005 -- 2007 ) and spokesperson of the president of Brazil in the first term of Lula 's government ( 2003 -- 2007 ) .", "Irving Singer Irving Singer ( December 24 , 1925 -- February 1 , 2015 ) was an American professor of philosophy who was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 55 years and wrote over 20 books . He was the author of books on various topics , including cinema , love , sexuality , and the philosophy of George Santayana . He also wrote on the subject of film , including writings about the work of film directors Ingmar Bergman , Alfred Hitchcock ," ]

[ "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Suess effect The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "Soil respiration Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna . Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration . The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures . Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth . Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .", "Clumped isotopes Clumped isotopes are heavy isotopes that are bonded to other heavy isotopes . The carbonate clumped-isotope thermometer , or `` 13C -- 18O order/disorder carbonate thermometer '' , is a new approach for paleoclimate reconstruction , basing on the temperature dependence of the clumping of 13C and 18O into bonds within the carbonate mineral lattice . This approach has the advantage that the 18O ratio in water is not necessary ( different from the δ18O approach ) , but for precise paleotemperature estimation , it also needs very large and uncontaminated samples , long analytical runs , and extensive replication . Commonly used sample sources for paleoclimatological work include corals , otoliths , bivalves , and foraminifera . Results are usually expressed as Δ47 ( said as `` cap 47 '' ) , which is the deviation of the ratio of isotopologues of CO2 with a molecular weight of 47 to those with a weight of 44 from the ratio expected if they were randomly distributed .", "Isotope fractionation Isotope fractionation describes processes that affect the relative abundance of isotopes , often used in isotope geochemistry . Normally , the focus is on stable isotopes of the same element . Isotopic fractionation in the natural environment can be measured by isotope analysis , using isotope-ratio mass spectrometry , to separate different element isotopes on the basis of their mass-to-charge ratio , an important tool to understand natural systems . For example , in biochemistry processes cause a fluctuation in the amount of isotopes of carbon ratios incorporated into a biological being . The difference between the true amount of carbon and the amount in the plant is known as isotope fractionation .", "Estuarine acidification Estuarine acidification is a decrease in the pH of coastal marine ecosystems , specifically those of estuaries . pH change in estuaries is more complicated than in the open ocean due to direct impacts from land run-off and coastal current dynamics . Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere ( 0.1 units over the last century ) . The ocean absorbs 30-40 % of all CO2 emitted to the atmosphere ; this increase in aqueous carbon dioxide causes a decline in the pH of the ocean surface . As carbon dioxide combines with water , it releases protons ( hydrogen ions ) , based on the following equation : CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3 ↔ HCO3 + H + ↔ CO3 + 2 H +", "Kinetic fractionation Kinetic fractionation is an isotopic fractionation process that separates stable isotopes from each other by their mass during unidirectional processes . Biological processes are generally unidirectional and are very good examples of `` kinetic '' isotope reactions . All organisms preferentially use lighter isotopic species , because `` energy costs '' are lower , resulting in a significant fractionation between the substrate ( heavier ) and the biologically mediated product ( lighter ) . As an example , photosynthesis preferentially takes up the light isotope of carbon 12C during assimilation of an atmospheric CO2 molecule . This kinetic isotope fractionation explains why plant material ( and thus fossil fuels , which are derived from plants ) is typically depleted in 13C by 25 per mil ( 2.5 per cent ) relative to most inorganic carbon on Earth . A naturally occurring example of non-biological kinetic fractionation occurs during the evaporation of seawater to form clouds under conditions in which some part of the transport is unidirectional , such as evaporation into very dry air . In this instance , isotopically lighter water molecules ( i.e. , those with 16O ) will evaporate slightly more easily than will the isotopically heavier water molecules with 18O , and this difference will be greater than it would be if the evaporation was taking place under equilibrium conditions ( with bidirectional transport ) . During this process the oxygen isotopes are fractionated : the clouds become enriched with 16O , and the seawater becomes enriched in 18O . Whereas equilibrium fractionation makes the vapor about 10 per mil ( 1 % ) depleted in 18O relative to the liquid water , kinetic fractionation enhances this fractionation and often makes vapor that is about 15 per mil ( 1.5 % ) depleted . Condensation occurs almost exclusively by equilibrium processes , and so it enriches cloud droplets somewhat less than evaporation depletes the vapor . This explains part of the reason why rainwater is observed to be isotopically lighter than seawater . The isotope of hydrogen in water , deuterium , is much less sensitive to kinetic fractionation than oxygen isotopes , relative to the very large equilibrium fractionation of deuterium . For this reason kinetic fractionation does not deplete deuterium nearly as much , in a relative sense , as 18O . This gives rise to an excess of deuterium in vapor and rainfall , relative to seawater . The value of this `` deuterium excess '' , as it is called , is about +10 per mil ( 1 % ) in most meteoric waters and its non-zero value is a direct manifestation of kinetic isotope fractionation . A generalized treatment of kinetic isotopic effects is via the GEBIK and GEBIF equations describing transient kinetic isotope effects .", "The Greening of Planet Earth The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "Katsuko Saruhashi was a geochemist who made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout .", "FUTBOLIN FUTBOLIN ( FUll Transfer By Optimized LINe-by-line methods ) : Multi-level multiple scattering radiative transfer model for the calculation of line-by-line atmospheric emission/transmission spectra in planetary atmospheres . It has been developed by Javier Martin-Torres ( AS&M . Inc , NASA/Langley Research Center , Hampton , VA , USA ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena , CA ; Now at IACT ( CSIC-URG ) , Granada , SPAIN ) . It allows generating high-resolution synthetic spectra in the 0.3-1000 micrometre spectral range . The code can handle spherical or plane-parallel atmospheres . It reads spectral lines in HITRAN or GEISA format and can handle CO2 line mixing and continuum absorption from H2O , O2 , N2 and CO2 . It also takes into account the Non Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium ( NLTE ) effects on the rotational , electronic and vibrational populations of the atmospheric species and allows to specify any combinations of clouds , coverage and spectral albedo . It has been used to model the Earth 's atmosphere , and the atmospheres of Mars , Venus , and Titan . The code can calculate reflection , transmission , absorption , infrared cooling rate , and flux spectra .", "CO2 fertilization effect The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "Isotopes of aluminium Aluminium ( 13Al ) has 22 known isotopes from 21Al to 42Al and 4 known isomers . Only 27Al ( stable isotope ) and 26Al ( radioactive isotope , t1/2 = 7.2 × 105 y ) occur naturally , however 27Al has a natural abundance of 99.9 + % . Other than 26Al , all radioisotopes have half-lives under 7 minutes , most under a second . The standard atomic weight is . 26Al is produced from argon in the atmosphere by spallation caused by cosmic-ray protons . Aluminium isotopes have found practical application in dating marine sediments , manganese nodules , glacial ice , quartz in rock exposures , and meteorites . The ratio of 26Al to 10Be has been used to study the role of sediment transport , deposition , and storage , as well as burial times , and erosion , on 105 to 106 year time scales . Cosmogenic aluminium-26 was first applied in studies of the Moon and meteorites . Meteorite fragments , after departure from their parent bodies , are exposed to intense cosmic-ray bombardment during their travel through space , causing substantial 26Al production . After falling to Earth , atmospheric shielding protects the meteorite fragments from further 26Al production , and its decay can then be used to determine the meteorite 's terrestrial age . Meteorite research has also shown that 26Al was relatively abundant at the time of formation of our planetary system . Most meteoriticists believe that the energy released by the decay of 26Al was responsible for the melting and differentiation of some asteroids after their formation 4.55 billion years ago .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Mazuku In geology , a mazuku ( Swahili : evil wind ) is a pocket of carbon dioxide-rich air that can be lethal to any human or animal life inside . Mazuku are created when carbon dioxide accumulates in pockets low to the ground . CO2 is heavier than air , which causes it to stay close to the ground , and is also undetectable by human olfactory or visual senses in most conditions . Mazuku can be related to volcanic activity or to a natural disaster known as a limnic eruption . In the first case , noxious gases are released from the Earth 's crust into the atmosphere , whereas in the second case the gases originate deep in a lake and boil rapidly to the surface . Because of their nature as sporadic and subtle events , few mazuku have been recorded , but there is a growing understanding of them based on historical and fossil evidence .", "Lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate ) to produce the form of lime called quicklime ( calcium oxide ) . The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction takes place at 900 ° C ( 1650 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere ) , but a temperature around 1000 ° C ( 1800 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres ) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly . Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive , `` dead-burned '' lime . Slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide ) can be formed by mixing water with quicklime .", "Recycled fuel Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "Ifood (isotopic food) iFood ( isotopic food ) contains nutritients in which some atoms are replaced with their heavier non-radioactive isotopes ( such as 13C and 2H , derived from C4-plants ) . Biomolecules that incorporate heavier isotopes give rise to more stable molecular structures with increased resistance to damages associated with ageing . The inclusion of heavy isotopes might be either active ( selection for heavier isotopes ) or passive ( incorporation reflecting the existing abundance ) . Consumption of foods relatively rich in heavy isotopes , especially at the early stages of the organism 's development , is linked , so far hypothetically , with enhanced longevity . Consumed with food , some biomolecules ( e.g. , essential amino acids ) become building material for the human cells . Molecules that contain heavier isotopes are less prone to destructive effect of free radicals ( which is the key point of the free-radical theory of ageing ) . After publication in scientific literature , the concept of isotopic food moved on to popular science publications and even became a hot topic in mass media where the anti-ageing properties were often mistakenly attributed to heavy water .", "Art Spivack Arthur J. Spivack ( July 9 , 1956 - Queens , New York ) , or Art , is an American geochemist . He is currently a professor at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography . Spivack 's research interest is the geochemistry of the oceans , atmosphere , and crust . He developed the use of boron isotopes for determining the pH of ancient oceans . This approach provides a principal basis for estimating atmospheric CO2 concentrations of the last several tens of million years . He led the investigation of the 2015 Salty Brine Beach explosion . He has also contributed to scientific understanding of geochemical fluxes in mid-ocean-ridge hydrothermal systems and subduction zones and understanding of subseafloor life . Spivack received his bachelor 's degree ( 1980 ) in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ( 1986 ) .", "On Your Knees Cave On Your Knees Cave ( 49-PET-408 ) is an archaeological site located in southeastern Alaska ( Prince of Wales Island ) . Human remains were found at the site in 1996 that dated between 9,730 ± 60 and 9,880 ± 50 radiocarbon YBP ( Years Before Present ) or a calendrical date of 10,300 YBP . In addition to human skeletal remains , stone tools and animal bones were discovered . DNA analyses performed on the human skeletal remains document the presence of mitochondrial haplogroup D which occurs widely in the Americas . Isotopic analysis indicated that the individual had a primarily marine based diet .", "Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion The Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion ( SPICE ) was a geological event which occurred about 500 million years ago at the end of the Cambrian Period . The SPICE event was a sudden reversal of the anoxia ( lack of oxygen ) that had steadily spread throughout the oceans during the Cambrian which also affected the atmosphere . After the SPICE event , oxygen levels recovered and levels in the atmosphere may have risen as high as 30 % , higher than the 21 % of the atmosphere that prevails today . The sudden increase in oxygen led to an explosion of life across the globe .", "Carbon rift Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "Dole effect The Dole effect , named after Malcolm Dole , describes an inequality in the ratio of the heavy isotope 18O ( a `` standard '' oxygen atom with two additional neutrons ) to the lighter 16O , measured in the atmosphere and seawater . This ratio is usually denoted δ18O . It was noticed in 1935 that air contained more 18O than seawater ; this was quantified in 1975 to 23.5 ‰ , but later refined as 23.88 ‰ in 2005 . The imbalance arises mainly as a result of respiration in plants and in animals . Due to thermodynamics of isotope reactions , respiration removes the lighter -- hence more reactive -- 16O in preference to 18O , increasing the relative amount of 18O in the atmosphere . The inequality is balanced by photosynthesis . Photosynthesis emits oxygen with the same isotopic composition ( i.e. the ratio between 18O and 16O ) as the water ( H2O ) used in the reaction , which is independent of the atmospheric ratio . Thus when atmospheric 18O levels are high enough , photosynthesis will act as a reducing factor . However , as a complicating factor , the degree of fractionation ( i.e. change in isotope ratio ) occurring due to photosynthesis is not entirely dependent on the water drawn up by the plant , as fractionation can occur as a result of preferential evaporation of and other small but significant processes .", "TEA laser A TEA laser is a gas laser energized by a high voltage electrical discharge in a gas mixture generally at or above atmospheric pressure . The most common types are CO2 lasers and Excimer lasers , both used extensively in industry and research . The acronym `` TEA '' stands for Transversely Excited Atmospheric .", "Atmosphere of Titan The atmosphere of Titan is the layer of gases surrounding Titan , the largest moon of Saturn . It is the only thick atmosphere of a natural satellite in the Solar System . The presence of a significant atmosphere was first suspected by Spanish astronomer Josep Comas i Solà , who observed distinct limb darkening on Titan in 1903 , and confirmed by Gerard P. Kuiper in 1944 using a spectroscopic technique that yielded an estimate of an atmospheric partial pressure of methane of the order of 100 millibars ( 10 kPa ) . Subsequent observations in the 1970s showed that Kuiper 's figures had been significant underestimates ; methane abundances in Titan 's atmosphere were ten times higher , and the surface pressure was at least double what he had predicted . The high surface pressure meant that methane could only form a small fraction of Titan 's atmosphere . In 1980 , Voyager 1 made the first detailed observations of Titan 's atmosphere , revealing that its surface pressure was higher than Earth 's , at 1.5 bars . On June 23 , 2014 , a NASA/ESA said its isotopic abundances were evidence that the nitrogen in the atmosphere of Titan came from materials in the Oort cloud , associated with comets , and not from the materials that formed Saturn in earlier times .", "Giovanni (meteorology) Giovanni ( meteorology ) - Web interface that allows users to analyze NASA 's gridded data from various satellite and surface observations . Giovanni provides researchers with the capability to examine data on atmospheric chemistry , atmospheric temperature , water vapor and clouds , atmospheric aerosols , precipitation , and ocean chlorophyll and surface temperature . The primary data consist of global gridded data sets with reduced spatial resolution . Basic analytical functions performed by Giovanni currently are carried out by the Grid Analysis and Display System ( GrADS ) . The GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure ( Giovanni ) allows to explore satellite data using sophisticated analyses and visualizations . Giovanni allows access to data from multiple remote sites , supports multiple data formats including Hierarchical Data Format ( HDF ) , HDF-EOS , network Common Data Form ( netCDF ) , GRIdded Binary ( GRIB ) , and binary , and multiple plot types including area , time , Hovmoller , and image animation .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "David Archer (scientist) David Archer is a computational ocean chemist , and has been a professor at the Geophysical Sciences department at the University of Chicago since 1993 . He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor . He has worked on the history of atmospheric CO2 concentration , the expectation of fossil fuel CO2 over geologic time scales in the future , and the impact of CO2 on future ice age cycles , ocean methane hydrate decomposition , and coral reefs . He is a contributor to the RealClimate blog .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Meteoritics Meteoritics is a science that deals with meteoritesA meteorite is a solid rock which has landed on Earth after originating in space . It should not be confused with a meteor ( a shooting star , caused by an incoming object burning up in the Earth 's atmosphere ) or a meteoroid ( a small body orbiting within the Solar System ) . and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of the origin and history of the Solar System . It is closely connected to cosmochemistry , mineralogy and geochemistry . A specialist who studies meteoritics is known as a meteoriticist . Scientific research in meteoritics includes the collection , identification and classification of meteorites , and the analysis of samples taken from them in a laboratory . Typical analyses include investigation of the minerals that make up the meteorite , their relative locations , orientations and chemical compositions , analysis of isotope ratios and radiometric dating . These techniques are used to determine the age , formation process and subsequent history of the material forming the meteorite . This provides information on the history of the Solar System , how it formed and evolved , and the process of planet formation .", "Proxy (climate) In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "Anthropogenic cloud An anthropogenic or artificial cloud , is a cloud induced by human activity . Although generally clouds covering the sky have only a natural origin , from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , the use of fossil fuels and water vapor and other gases emitted by nuclear , thermal and geothermal power plants yield significant alterations of the local weather conditions . These new atmospheric conditions can thus enhance cloud formation . Homogenitus is the term used to designate the origin of clouds produced by human activities . Various methods have been proposed for creating and utilizing this weather phenomenon . Experiments have also been carried out for various studies . For example , Russian scientists have been studying artificial clouds for more than 50 years . But by far the greatest number of anthropogenic clouds are airplane contrails ( condensation trails ) and rocket trails .", "NYC: Tornado Terror NYC : Tornado Terror is a 2008 Canadian made for TV disaster film . It stars Nicole de Boer , Sebastian Spence , and Jerry Wasserman . It premiered on Syfy on October 4 , 2008 , and is directed by Tibor Takács . The film is about global warming which causes the upper and lower atmosphere to separate so that their different movements generate huge electrical charges which causes huge electrical tornadoes to drop on New York City causing destruction and loss of life . Dr. Cassie Lawrence tries to stop the twisters as chaos ensues . NASA ignores the mayor who recommends following Dr. Lawrence 's advice and use silver iodide on the atmosphere instead , which makes things worse , so it is down to our heroes to use a rebel scientist with his own makeshift rockets to use dry ice ( frozen CO2 ) . The problem is solved , but before the film ends , the same storm effects begin in Paris .", "Isotopes of sulfur Sulfur ( 16S ) has 24 known isotopes with mass numbers ranging from 26 to 49 , four of which are stable : 32S ( 95.02 % ) , 33S ( 0.75 % ) , 34S ( 4.21 % ) , and 36S ( 0.02 % ) . The preponderance of sulfur-32 is explained by its production from carbon-12 plus successive fusion capture of five helium nuclei , in the so-called alpha process of exploding type II supernovae ( see silicon burning ) . Other than 35S , the radioactive isotopes of sulfur are all comparatively short-lived . 35S is formed from cosmic ray spallation of 40Ar in the atmosphere . It has a half-life of 87 days . The next longest-lived radioisotope is sulfur-38 , with a half-life of 17 minutes . The shortest-lived is 49S , with a half-life shorter than 200 nanoseconds . When sulfide minerals are precipitated , isotopic equilibration among solids and liquid may cause small differences in the δS-64 values of co-genetic minerals . The differences between minerals can be used to estimate the temperature of equilibration . The δC-13 and δS-34 of coexisting carbonates and sulfides can be used to determine the pH and oxygen fugacity of the ore-bearing fluid during ore formation . In most forest ecosystems , sulfate is derived mostly from the atmosphere ; weathering of ore minerals and evaporites also contribute some sulfur . Sulfur with a distinctive isotopic composition has been used to identify pollution sources , and enriched sulfur has been added as a tracer in hydrologic studies . Differences in the natural abundances can also be used in systems where there is sufficient variation in the 34S of ecosystem components . Rocky Mountain lakes thought to be dominated by atmospheric sources of sulfate have been found to have different δS-34 values from oceans believed to be dominated by watershed sources of sulfate ." ]

[ "Earth Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "Ordovician The Ordovician ( -LSB- pronɔrdəˈvɪʃən -RSB- ) is a geologic period and system , the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era . The Ordovician spans 41.2 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago ( Mya ) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya . The Ordovician , named after the Celtic tribe of the Ordovices , was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison , who were placing the same rock beds in northern Wales into the Cambrian and Silurian periods , respectively . Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian periods , and placed them in a period of their own . It received international sanction in 1960 , when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress . Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it did in the earlier Cambrian period , although the end of the period was marked by the Ordovician -- Silurian extinction event . Invertebrates , namely molluscs and arthropods , dominated the oceans . The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event considerably increased the diversity of life . Fish , the world 's first true vertebrates , continued to evolve , and those with jaws may have first appeared late in the period . Life had yet to diversify on land . About 100 times as many meteorites struck the Earth during the Ordovician compared with today .", "Devonian The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic , spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian , million years ago ( Mya ) , to the beginning of the Carboniferous , Mya . It is named after Devon , England , where rocks from this period were first studied . The first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian . Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land , forming extensive forests which covered the continents . By the middle of the Devonian , several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots , and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared . Various terrestrial arthropods also became well-established . Fish reached substantial diversity during this time , leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the `` Age of Fish '' . The first ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish appeared , while the placodermi began dominating almost every known aquatic environment . The ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates ( tetrapods ) began adapting to walking on land , as their strong pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into legs . In the oceans , primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician . The first ammonites , species of molluscs , appeared . Trilobites , the mollusk-like brachiopods and the great coral reefs , were still common . The Late Devonian extinction which started about 375 million years ago severely affected marine life , killing off all placodermi , and all trilobites , save for a few species of the order Proetida . The palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent of Gondwana to the south , the continent of Siberia to the north , and the early formation of the small continent of Euramerica in between ." ]

[ "Future of Earth The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences . These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface , the rate of cooling of the planet 's interior , the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System , and a steady increase in the Sun 's luminosity . An uncertain factor in this extrapolation is the ongoing influence of technology introduced by humans , such as climate engineering , which could cause significant changes to the planet . The current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology and the effects may last for up to five million years . In turn , technology may result in the extinction of humanity , leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes . Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years , random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere , which can result in mass extinctions . These include impacts by comets or asteroids with diameters of 5 -- or more , and the possibility of a massive stellar explosion , called a supernova , within a 100-light-year radius of the Sun , called a Near-Earth supernova . Other large-scale geological events are more predictable . If the long-term effects of global warming are disregarded , Milankovitch theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end . These periods are caused by variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit . As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle , plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250 -- 350 million years . Some time in the next 1.5 -- 4.5 billion years , the axial tilt of the Earth may begin to undergo chaotic variations , with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90 ° . During the next four billion years , the luminosity of the Sun will steadily increase , resulting in a rise in the solar radiation reaching the Earth . This will result in a higher rate of weathering of silicate minerals , which will cause a decrease in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In about 600 million years from now , the level of CO2 will fall below the level needed to sustain C3 carbon fixation photosynthesis used by trees . Some plants use the C4 carbon fixation method , allowing them to persist at concentrations as low as 10 parts per million . However , the long-term trend is for plant life to die off altogether . The extinction of plants will be the demise of almost all animal life , since plants are the base of the food chain on Earth . In about one billion years , the solar luminosity will be 10 % higher than at present . This will cause the atmosphere to become a `` moist greenhouse '' , resulting in a runaway evaporation of the oceans . As a likely consequence , plate tectonics will come to an end , and with them the entire carbon cycle . Following this event , in about 2 − 3 billion years , the planet 's magnetic dynamo may cease , causing the magnetosphere to decay and leading to an accelerated loss of volatiles from the outer atmosphere . Four billion years from now , the increase in the Earth 's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect , heating the surface enough to melt it . By that point , all life on the Earth will be extinct . The most probable fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years , after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded to cross the planet 's current orbit .", "Antiscia In astrology , the antiscion ( pl . antiscia ) is considered to be the mirror image , or shadow , of a planet based upon a line of reference , which is the axis of 0 Cancer/0 Capricorn . These antiscia are also known as the `` solstice points '' . The corresponding antiscia sign placements are as follows : - Aries antiscia is Virgo and vice versa . Taurus antiscia is Leo and vice versa . Gemini antiscia is Cancer and vice versa . Libra antiscia is Pisces and vice versa . Scorpio antiscia is Aquarius and vice versa . Sagittarius antiscia is Capricorn and vice versa . A planet 's antiscion is the shadow of that planet . A planet can receive a transit , progression , or direction from another planet , and this is said to bring about covert kinds of events -- backroom meetings , secret doings , discreet happenings . In order to calculate an antisca point , one must take the degree of the planet that he wants to locate the antiscia for and subtract it from 30 degrees . For example , if a person 's sun is 10 degrees 51 minutes Aquarius then his antiscia will be as follows : - 29 degrees 60 minutes minus 10 degrees 51 minutes Aquarius -------------------------------------- equals 19 degrees 09 minutes Scorpio Therefore , the antiscia of 10 degrees 51 minutes Aquarius is 19 degrees 9 minutes Scorpio . Whenever a planet 's antiscion is aspected by transit or progression , it indicates that something that is hidden or working behind the scenes will occur in the life of the native . It is important , therefore , that one should look at the antiscia points whenever reading a horoscope because it will reveal things about the native that will not be readily apparent . Category : Technical factors of astrology", "Legends of Skyfall The Legends of Skyfall was a series of four adventure gamebooks written by David Tant and published by Armada in 1985 . They were written to cash in on the explosive popularity of such books , spawned by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone 's Fighting Fantasy and later Joe Dever 's Lone Wolf series . The books allow the reader to become a lone adventurer on a planet called Skyfall which was colonized by humans who were fugitives from a dying planet . Although the population of humans on the planet has grown over an undisclosed period of time ( hinted at being a few hundred years ) to the point where they now outnumber indigenous races , the planet remains largely untamed . The humans themselves are largely hemmed in to a small Kingdom known as Delta . The series ' major deviation from others of the genre was a unique system for organizing combat . Whereas most gamebooks and Role-Playing Games involve the use of dice to create randomness , the Skyfall series adopted a system of coin tosses .", "Yod (astrology) Yod is a rare astrological aspect that involves any three planets or points in the horoscope that form an isosceles triangle . This phenomenon occurs when two planets are sextile ( 60 ° aspect ) to each other , and both are then quincunx ( 150 ° aspect ) to a third . The Yod is formed when the two planets make a sextile aspect and the third planet is opposite their mid-point . That third planet must make angles of 150 degrees with the other two . If you drew lines on the chart connecting the planets , you would get a Y-shaped formation that seems to point to one part of the horoscope . That 150 degree angle is called a quincunx ,", "Ocean An ocean ( , the sea of classical antiquity ) is a body of saline water that composes much of a planet 's hydrosphere . On Earth , an ocean is one of the major conventional divisions of the World Ocean , which covers almost 71 % of its surface . These are , in descending order by area , the Pacific , Atlantic , Indian , Southern ( Antarctic ) , and Arctic Oceans . The word sea is often used interchangeably with `` ocean '' in American English but , strictly speaking , a sea is a body of saline water ( generally a division of the world ocean ) partly or fully enclosed by land . Saline water covers approximately 72 % of the planet 's surface ( ~ 3.6 km2 ) and is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas , with the ocean covering approximately 71 % of Earth 's surface and 90 % of the Earth 's biosphere . The ocean contains 97 % of Earth 's water , and oceanographers have stated that less than 5 % of the World Ocean has been explored . The total volume is approximately 1.35 billion cubic kilometers ( 320 million cu mi ) with an average depth of nearly 3700 m. As the world ocean is the principal component of Earth 's hydrosphere , it is integral to all known life , forms part of the carbon cycle , and influences climate and weather patterns . The world ocean is the habitat of 230,000 known species , but because much of it is unexplored , the number of species that exist is much larger , possibly over two million . The origin of Earth 's oceans remains unknown ; oceans are thought to have formed in the Hadean period and may have been the impetus for the emergence of life . Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water or other elements and compounds . The only confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan , although there is evidence for the existence of oceans elsewhere in the Solar System . Early in their geologic histories , Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans . The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water , and a runaway greenhouse effect may have boiled away the global ocean of Venus . Compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine or convecting ice . Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface of many dwarf planets and natural satellites ; notably , the ocean of Europa is estimated to have over twice the water volume of Earth . The Solar System 's giant planets are also thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions . Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons , including surface oceans of liquid water within a circumstellar habitable zone . Ocean planets are a hypothetical type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid .", "Planet of the Drums Founded during the summer of 2000 , the Planet of the Drums is the alliance of four of America 's most popular drum and bass DJ 's : AK1200 ( Dave Minner , Orlando , Florida ) , DJ Dara ( Darragh Guilfoyle , Brooklyn , New York ) , Dieselboy ( Damian Higgins , Brooklyn , New York ) , and MC Messinian ( James Fiorella , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) . The alliance was created to move drum and bass out of siderooms and onto the main stages of electronic dance music events . In fall 2009 the Planet of the Drums embarked on their Tenth Anniversary Tour . The Planet of the Drums is the longest-running annual national electronic dance music tour of any genre . In 2010 The Planet of the Drums switched to performing one-offs , the first played at U Street Music Hall in Washington , DC in December 2010 .", "Rebel Space Rebel Space was the second play-by-email game offered as part of a major commercial online service . It ran on Prodigy from 1992 to 1995 . The game was developed by Stormfront Studios , designed by Don Daglow and programmed by Mark Buchignani . Rebel Space was offered by Prodigy online service in the summer of 1992 as a combination PBEM ( play by email ) strategy game and posting board system . Games were numbered with letters and numbers to denote when they began , the first game being AA01 . Prodigy had three game speeds of varying number of required turns per week , the fastest paced being five moves per week ( one each Monday through Friday ) and the slowest being one move per week . The original tagline in advertisements for the game was `` The Empire fell , now what ? '' The premise being that a galaxy spanning Empire was in terminal decline , and forty commanders of Empire Fleets were the seeds of possible new empires . Rebel Space was an online community as well as a game . The posting boards were populated by thousands of players and many of them were regulars at such virtual hangouts as `` Wits End '' and `` Top of the Galaxy '' . The social aspect of the game was of great interest to some , and utterly uninteresting to others , but it added a dramatic counterpoint to the game movements to those who got involved there . For several years , groups of friends from Rebel Space had get togethers all over the USA so players could meet . The game itself was fairly simple : Each commander had four Starships under his control and these starships could be upgraded with MODS ( modules ) that would increase the ships capabilities . To add a MOD to a ship the ship had to end its turn 's movement on a friendly Starbase , i.e. a Starbase owned by that commander or a Starbase belonging to the same faction as that commander . Every ship started with one Engine Mod and one Scan Mod to give it the minimum movement distance ( four squares ) and minimum scanning range ( the square passed through plus one adjoining square for the flight path of the ship ) . The list of MODS included : TLU - Tactical Laser Unit , an offensive weapon . SHD - Shields or defensive protection for the Starship . DEF - Defense Mods added to the defensive protection of a planet owned by that commander . ENV - Environmental Mods added one or more levels to an owned planet 's Environmental Level if the Starship ended its turn there . TCH - Technological Mods added one or more levels to an owned planet 's Technological Level if the Starship ended its turn there . SCN - Scan Mods added one additional square of range to the scanning range of a ship . A max of three Scan Mods could be on a ship . ENG - Engine Mods added two additional squares of range to the ships movement . Ships started with one ENG Mod ( a range of four ) and could have a max of three ENG Mods , so ship range could be four , six , or eight squares of movement . The game was laid out on a grid numbered row 1 to 99 north to south and A to O east to west . The center of the galaxy , H50 , was a Starbase held by the Empire , and all forty commanders started there . Two spaces `` North '' and `` South '' of this Starbase were Jump Points . If a ship left the Starbase and moved North two squares it would land on a Jump Point and jump to the next Jump Point in that direction of travel . Movement from H50 to the next Starbase at H40 could be done by moving North , North ( Jumps ) , North , North . A common strategy was to move North or South several Starbases building up the Mods on the Starships each turn until the center of the galaxy was left behind . Like the Starbases all planets were owned by the Empire , but unlike Starbases the planets were not defended . When a player found an area with planets they would start capturing ( colonizing ) them to build their own empire . Initially all the commanders were of the same alliance : Empire . At some point , generally in the first third of the game , commanders would rebel from the Empire by choosing one of three factions ( Environmentalist , Militarist , or Scientist ) they preferred . Each faction had certain advantages . Environmentalists developed their colonized worlds in Environmental level without any special actions taken . This gave them more rapid advancement of Tech level also . Scientists advanced Tech levels most rapidly without special actions taken , even on worlds with lower Environment level the Tech levels would still advance faster . Militarists had the advantage of more firepower from offensive weapons and stronger defenses to better protect planets . The Empire and the Rogue factions had no special abilities . After joining the rebellion all Empire planets and ships were enemies as well as planets and ships of the two other factions not chosen . Ending movement on an enemy planet resulted in combat with that planet . If enemy ships were also at that planet a battle would first happen with the enemy ships present and then with the planet after the ship to ship battles were decided if all enemy ships were eliminated . If a planets defenses were destroyed , the planet would then be captured and added to that commander 's list of controlled planets . Later in the game , a commander could also elect to become `` Rogue '' which meant all other players would be enemy regardless of which faction they belonged to . This was a useful ability to enable the taking of planets from another player of the same faction . In addition to ownership ( which commander owned it ) and faction ( which of the three factions that planet belonged to ) planets had the additional properties of Environmental Level and Technological Level . These levels ranged from 1-5 with 5 being the highest . Technological Level would independently progress on all worlds that joined the rebellion , and would slowly decline on worlds that stayed under Empire control . The higher the Environmental Level of a planet caused Technological Level progression occur faster . Higher Technology Levels made a planet worth more points in the standings of the commanders . When a planet reached the highest Technological Level it became a Starbase . At the end of each game the top half of the commanders score list received a promotion , the bottom half did not . The top player in each game was named the Rebel Lord and received a fabric patch and free start to the next game from Prodigy . This gaming system initially put a big premium on efficiently searching and colonizing planets quickly . Early alliances in Rebel Space were typified by groups such as The Crimson Knights , and The Q Alliance which were rapid colonizer groups that acted in coordinated fashion with one another to insure frictionless colonization . These early large but relatively undefended empires begged the evolution of predatory alliances , such as the dreaded * M * E * V * alliance , which would locate areas of dense colonization and devour them . Later groups such as the Destruction Team ( DT ) carried this predation to ever greater levels of efficiency . Additionally , some other main alliances were the Sensix Alliance , and the Flur De Lis . Some factions warred against others and even had different members playing different factions ( Environmentalist , Scientist , Militarist ) or Rogues in concert with each other . Doing this required a great deal of coordination and there were even spies who were double agents . Overall , it was a complex and advanced gaming community for its day . Many players participated in Rebel Space , but most noteworthy were those who reached the top of the ranking lists . This rank was called Star Marshall , and three of the many Star Marshalls of Rebel Space were Thor ( Crimson Knights ) , Race Pilsner ( * M * E * V * ) , and Klaatu ( DT ) .", "New Washington New Washington is the name of several places : United States : New Washington , Indiana New Washington , Ohio New Washington , Pennsylvania A former name of Morgan 's Point , Texas during the early 19th century Philippines : New Washington , Aklan In fiction : See Planets and habitats of the Night 's Dawn trilogy as to a planet in Peter F. Hamilton 's The Night 's Dawn Trilogy", "Jay Ingram Jay Ingram CM , BSc , MSc ( born March 20 , 1945 ) is a Canadian author and broadcaster . He was host of the television show Daily Planet ( originally titled @discovery . ca ) , which airs on Discovery Channel Canada , since the channel 's inception in 1995 . Ingram 's last episode of Daily Planet aired on June 5 , 2011 . Ingram announced his retirement but stated he will make guest appearances on Daily Planet . He was succeeded by Dan Riskin . His book The End of Memory : A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer 's is forthcoming from St. Martin 's Press in 2015 .", "Planets beyond Neptune Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846 , there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit . The search began in the mid-19th century and culminated at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell 's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets , particularly Uranus and Neptune , speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities . Clyde Tombaugh 's discovery of Pluto in 1930 appeared to validate Lowell 's hypothesis , and Pluto was officially named the ninth planet . In 1978 , Pluto was conclusively determined to be too small for its gravity to affect the giant planets , resulting in a brief search for a tenth planet . The search was largely abandoned in the early 1990s , when a study of measurements made by the Voyager 2 spacecraft found that the irregularities observed in Uranus 's orbit were due to a slight overestimation of Neptune 's mass . After 1992 , the discovery of numerous small icy objects with similar or even wider orbits than Pluto led to a debate over whether Pluto should remain a planet , or whether it and its neighbours should , like the asteroids , be given their own separate classification . Although a number of the larger members of this group were initially described as planets , in 2006 the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto and its largest neighbours as dwarf planets , leaving Neptune the farthest known planet in the Solar System . While the astronomical community widely agrees that Planet X , as originally envisioned , does not exist , the concept of an as-yet-unobserved planet has been revived by a number of astronomers to explain other anomalies observed in the outer Solar System . As of March 2014 , observations with the WISE telescope have ruled out the possibility of a Saturn-sized object ( 95 Earth mass ) out to 10,000 AU , and a Jupiter-sized ( ~ 318 Earth mass ) or larger object out to 26,000 AU . In 2014 , based on similarities of the orbits of a group of recently discovered extreme trans-Neptunian objects , astronomers hypothesized the existence of a super-Earth planet , 2 to 15 times the mass of the Earth and beyond 200 AU with possibly a high inclined orbit at some 1500 AU . In 2016 further work showed this unknown distant planet is likely on an inclined , eccentric orbit that goes no closer than about 200 AU and no further than about 1600 AU from the Sun . The orbit is predicted to be anti-aligned to the clustered extreme trans-Neptunian objects . Because Pluto is no longer considered a planet by the International Astronomical Union , this new hypothetical object has become known as Planet Nine .", "FateLords FateLords was one of the first browser based on massively multiplayer online , real-time strategy video games . It was played for 6 years since 2002 , until officially closed in June 2008 . During that time , it won a Golden Web Awards ( 2002 , 2003 , 2004 ) , a Canadian Web award ( 2002 ) , GameSpotter award , KTU Technorama and it was announced as the best Lithuanian product of information and communications technology in 2002 . The game was created by Zygimantas Berziunas and later sold for Dokeda company , which supported the game until the year of 2008 . Shortly after the official close of the game , the domain name fatelords.com has been dropped and purchased by a third party . Dokeda has no plans to continue hosting the game in future . The game had many players from Lithuania , the Netherlands , the Britain and the United States , as well as other countries . Rules The game was played in a round base system which lasted from the start of the month till the end . In this time players had numerous methods to gain points such as capturing enemy planets and destroying enemy ships . Planets with higher defenses were worth more points depending on the defense . Planets with no defense were only worth 10 points and were mostly captured out of spite . At the end of the round there would be a top 25 placement system and the player who earned the most points were ranked top . Staff Gato was the last admin of FateLords and made very few enhancements to the game . The last one being the addition of the Power I-Trader which could instantly transport small ships anywhere in the game for a fairly high resource fee . He had a planetary system located in deep space , a very vast and nearly endless section of the FateLords universe . This is a system that was only known to few veteran players . Towards the end of the games life the system was discovered by Mikdugal1 an ex-veteran who was long retired . He contacted Inubis another ex-veteran who rounded up his own `` Clan '' ( AEF ) and launched the final massive attack the game has ever seen . The planets were guarded by unreleased nearly invincible battle cruisers and after days of relentless attacks they managed to destroy one . Clans It is debatable as to which was the best clan in FateLords however there are many notable ones . To start DUF ( Dutch United Forces ) and Darkside being two of the longest running veteran clans in the top 5 . LoS ( Lord of Shadows ) another veteran clan that despite their skill only operated as a support clan . AEF ( American Elite Forces ) was the first successful faction of American players and the first alliance to claim First and Second place from Darkside in several years .", "Astronomical naming conventions In ancient times , only the Sun and Moon , a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names . Over the last few hundred years , the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion , and more are discovered every year . Astronomers need to be able to assign systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects , and at the same time give names to the most interesting objects and , where relevant , features of those objects . The International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) is the officially recognized authority in astronomy for assigning designations to celestial bodies such as stars , planets , and minor planets , including any surface features on them . In response to the need for unambiguous names for astronomical objects , it has created a number of systematic naming systems for objects of various sorts .", "Bleep and Booster Bleep and Booster is a children 's cartoon series by William Timym ( pronounced Tim ) originally shown on the BBC 's Blue Peter . 313 five minute episodes were released between 1964 and 1977 . Bleep is an alien from the planet Miron/Myron with a spaceship , whilst Booster is a young human who travels with Bleep performing galactic missions for Bleep 's moustached father . The planet Miron/Myron is portrayed as being built almost entirely out of chrome , with its capital at Miron/Myron City . The inhabitants are portrayed as robot-like creatures with flexible arms and legs like rubber hoses . Their feet are cupped and they have antennae and a third eye in the centre of their foreheads . Two episodes of the series , The Giant Brain and Solaron were released in 1993 on VHS in the UK by PolyGram Video . Since then , there have been no other episodes released . The cartoons were animatic animation , still pictures which were slowly panned , with narration . The voices were by Peter Hawkins .", "Essential dignity Essential dignity , in astrology , refers to the relative strength or weakness of a planet or point 's zodiac position by sign and degree , or its essence -- what the pre-eminent 17th-century astrologer William Lilly called `` the strength , fortitude or debility of the Planets -LSB- or -RSB- significators . '' In other words , essential dignity seeks to view the strengths of a planet or point as though it were isolated from other factors in the sky of the natal chart . By comparison , accidental dignity indicates how much strength a planet or point derives from its position in a natal chart , such as its relation to the other factors in the chart : for example , its proximity to other planets , or to the four angles of the chart , or to stars , as well as the aspects ( or symmetrical angular connections ) it forms with other planets or points in the chart . For example , the essential dignity of Mars , if located at 27 degrees of Capricorn would take into account the fact that Mars is exalted in Capricorn , and also that it is the bounds ruler of the 27th degree of Capricorn and also the face ruler of the 27th degree of Capricorn . This is a considerably dignified Mars . If that Mars were located in the twelfth house of a natal chart Mars 's accidental dignity would be poor , since it would be located in a weak or malevolent cadent house . Were Mars to also be squared to a malevolent planet , such as Saturn , and would be receiving a dexter square aspect from malefic Saturn , ruler of Capricorn , this would further hinder Mars 's strength and ability to operate benevolently . These accidental dignity factors would tend to weaken a Mars which is otherwise strong in essential dignity . Traditionally the five essential dignities are : Domicile ( rulership or house ) + detriment Exaltation + fall Triplicity Terms ( or `` bounds '' ) Face ( or `` decan '' ) For post-Classical astrologers , such as Bonatti or Lilly , the dignities had a hierarchy . The most important dignity was domicile rulership ; slightly less important was exaltation . Triplicity rulerships were still fairly important in medieval astrology , but nowhere near as vital as they were for Hellenistic astrologers such as Ptolemy . Terms or bounds rulerships became very much diminished in importance , and face rulers were almost entirely ignored . ( Lilly said that the only function face rulers served was to keep a planet from being entirely peregrine -- that is , without any essential dignity whatever -- which was considered a malefic condition . ) However , Hellenistic astrologers had a very different view of the dignities . To earlier astrologers , such as Ptolemy and Vettius Valens , domicile rulership , exaltation , triplicity rulership and bounds rulership were all of equal strength in influence . Many modern astrologers take little heed of essential dignities , with the exception of domicile rulerships ( see article on ruling planets . ) This is most likely the result of the simplification of astrological technique that occurred when astrology lost popularity beginning in the eighteenth century ( see History of astrology . )", "Xanthu Xanthu is a fictional planet in the 30th century . Xanthu is a modern world with full membership in the United Planets . Xanthu is the homeworld of Legionnaire Thom Kallor a.k.a. `` Star Boy '' and later a.k.a. Justice Society of America member `` Starman '' . He was actually born on an orbiting station above the planet , and his mass-induction abilities are not shared by the natives of his homeworld . Pre-Zero Hour , Xanthu was also home to the super-hero Atmos , who took the role as the primary super-hero on the world given Star Boy being away most of the time . When Atmos went missing , Xanthu attempted to force Star Boy to return full-time as their protector . Post-Zero Hour , Xanthu was home to a superhero team called the Uncanny Amazers , of which Star Boy and both Kid Quantums were former members . Several of them were killed during a crossover that occurred in Starman # 50 , at which time Star Boy learned that he was destined to go back in time and become the 21st century Starman . Xanthu was one of the first planets to leave the United Planets in the belief that the Affiliated Planets offered more protection . Following the revelation that the Affiliated Planets was a front for the Dark Circle , Xanthu remained with the reformed group . Xanthu was a beachhead of an invasion of United Planets space by a robot army named `` Robotica '' . It has not been seen since the latest Legion reboot . Category : Legion of Super-Heroes", "Magnetic pole Magnetic pole may refer to : One of the two ends of a magnet Magnetic monopole , a hypothetical elementary particle The magnetic poles of astronomical bodies , a special case of magnets , especially : The North Magnetic Pole of planet Earth , a point where the north end of a compass points downward The South Magnetic Pole of planet Earth , a point where the south end of a compass points downward", "Diurnal arc In astrology , a diurnal arc is the time , expressed in right ascension , it takes a planet , point , or degree to move from its rising point to its setting point . This takes place in many celestial bodies such as the Sun and Moon . Category : Technical factors of astrology", "Planet A planet is an astronomical body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity , is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion , and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.This definition is drawn from two separate IAU declarations ; a formal definition agreed by the IAU in 2006 , and an informal working definition established by the IAU in 2001/2003 for objects outside of the Solar System . The official 2006 definition applies only to the Solar System , whereas the 2003 definition applies to planets around other stars . The extrasolar planet issue was deemed too complex to resolve at the 2006 IAU conference . The term planet is ancient , with ties to history , astrology , science , mythology , and religion . Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye . These were regarded by many early cultures as divine , or as emissaries of deities . As scientific knowledge advanced , human perception of the planets changed , incorporating a number of disparate objects . In 2006 , the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System . This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects of planetary mass based on where or what they orbit . Although eight of the planetary bodies discovered before 1950 remain `` planets '' under the modern definition , some celestial bodies , such as Ceres , Pallas , Juno and Vesta ( each an object in the solar asteroid belt ) , and Pluto ( the first trans-Neptunian object discovered ) , that were once considered planets by the scientific community , are no longer viewed as such . The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit Earth in deferent and epicycle motions . Although the idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times , it was not until the 17th century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic astronomical observations , performed by Galileo Galilei . At about the same time , by careful analysis of pre-telescopic observation data collected by Tycho Brahe , Johannes Kepler found the planets ' orbits were not circular but elliptical . As observational tools improved , astronomers saw that , like Earth , the planets rotated around tilted axes , and some shared such features as ice caps and seasons . Since the dawn of the Space Age , close observation by space probes has found that Earth and the other planets share characteristics such as volcanism , hurricanes , tectonics , and even hydrology . Planets are generally divided into two main types : large low-density giant planets , and smaller rocky terrestrials . Under IAU definitions , there are eight planets in the Solar System . In order of increasing distance from the Sun , they are the four terrestrials , Mercury , Venus , Earth , and Mars , then the four giant planets , Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune . Six of the planets are orbited by one or more natural satellites . Several thousands of planets around other stars ( `` extrasolar planets '' or `` exoplanets '' ) have been discovered in the Milky Way . As of , known extrasolar planets in planetary systems ( including multiple planetary systems ) , ranging in size from just above the size of the Moon to gas giants about twice as large as Jupiter have been discovered , out of which more than 100 planets are the same size as Earth , nine of which are at the same relative distance from their star as Earth from the Sun , i.e. in the habitable zone . On December 20 , 2011 , the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first Earth-sized extrasolar planets , Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f , orbiting a Sun-like star , Kepler-20 . A 2012 study , analyzing gravitational microlensing data , estimates an average of at least 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way . Around one in five Sun-like stars is thought to have an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone .", "Tin Planet Tin Planet is the second album by English band Space , released on 9 March 1998 . Recorded in late 1997 following a tumultuous year for the group , Tin Planet was a continuation of the eclectic blend of musical styles explored on their debut album Spiders . However , it was noted that the more abrasive aspects of their sound were toned down considerably from their debut , with the songs being more melodic with a prominent cabaret and easy listening influence . Keyboardist Franny Griffiths ' love of techno and electronic music was also brought to the fore , culminating in three tracks that were primarily dance-orientated . The album was the first Space record to feature long-time collaborator David `` Yorkie '' Palmer as full-time bassist , and the last to feature founding member Andy Parle on drums ( though he was not credited in the album 's liner notes ) , with Leon Caffrey taking his place shortly afterwards . Tin Planet peaked at # 3 in the UK charts , two places higher than Spiders . It was their first album to enter the Australian ARIA top 100 albums chart , debuting on 24 May 1998 and peaking at # 74 the following week . The album peaked at # 11 in New Zealand in May 1998 . The songs `` Avenging Angels '' , `` The Ballad of Tom Jones '' ( a duet with Cerys Matthews of the band Catatonia ) , `` Begin Again '' and `` Bad Days '' were released as singles , all hitting the UK top 40 .", "Generational planet In the field of astrology , generational planets are planets that affect an entire generation of people . The generational planets are the outer planets Uranus , Neptune , Pluto , Sedna , and Quaoar . Uranus was discovered by amateur astronomer William Herschel on 13 March 1781 . Uranus exhibits the ideals of the 18th century , where people such as Benjamin Franklin endeavoured to use their inventive mind to move man into a more enlightened era . It has an orbit of 84 years , staying in each sign of the zodiac for approximately 7 years . Uranus is considered to be a higher octave of Mercury , which means that as people develop within their selves , their character and means of communication will exhibit more influences of the sign and house of Uranus . In essence , Uranus can be seen as a person 's higher self . Because it takes Uranus 84 years to travel through the zodiac , transiting Uranus just might conjoin the natal Uranus within a person 's lifetime . Neptune was discovered on 23 September 1846 . Neptune is a 19th-century planet in that it heralded in many of the varied assortment of Protestant religions , as well as spiritualism , took hold . Visionaries such as Edgar Cayce and Rudolf Steiner were born in the second half of the 19th century , and their psychic abilities are indicative of the Neptunian themes of this time . It has an orbit of 165 years , which is approximately twice the time of Uranus . Neptune is considered to be the higher octave of Venus because both planet 's are gaseous and both strive to achieve the higher ideals of mankind ; Venus through the adoption of beauty and Neptune through unconditional love . Because Neptune has such a long orbit , an individual may see transiting Neptune form an opposition to their natal Neptune . Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh on 18 February 1930 . When Pluto was first discovered , it was initially known as Planet X. Astronomers had been searching for another planet past Neptune , hoping to solve the dilemma of its rather irregular orbit . It is now known , however , that the perceived irregular orbit of Neptune was the result of a mathematical error because Pluto , being a planetoid smaller than our own Moon , was far too small to affect any type of gravitational pull on the gas giant . Pluto is very much a 20th-century planet and refers to the two world wars , and weapons of mass destruction , nuclear power , and a desire to totally control the world we live in . It is a planet that reveals to us the extremes we are capable of if we do not set necessary boundaries in our lives . This planet governs the compulsions in our life : those things we are compelled to do but know we should not , such as murder , rape , drug addiction , and even overeating if it is of such an extent that it threatens our health . Pluto is considered to be a higher octave of Mars , and this is evidenced by the fact that both planets co-rule Scorpio . Pluto , circling the Sun in 248 years , has a rather elliptical orbit , which means that it stays in the sign it rules , Scorpio , for a mere 9 years , and the sign of its fall , Taurus for 30 ! With this in mind , some astrologers believe that Pluto should rightfully rule Taurus , but for the time being it still rules Scorpio . As other trans-Neptunian object planets are discovered , however , this placement just might have to be reconsidered . Quaoar was discovered on 4 June 2002 and is considered to be a trans-Neptunian object . Although a planetoid , it is considered by many to be more of a planet than Pluto because its orbit is more circular in nature , being 286 years . When a person is around 71 years old , transiting Quaoar will form a square aspect to his natal placement . Since this is a recently discovered object , not much is yet known about its astrological significance and what part it plays in the universe . Sedna was discovered by a team using the Samuel Oschin telescope on 14 November 2003 and is a trans-Neptunian object . It has an orbit of 11,250 years , so stays in a sign for approximately a millennium . Because this planet has recently been discovered , not much is yet known about it .", "2014 LPGA Tour The 2014 LPGA Tour was a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world . The Tour began at Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island in The Bahamas on January 23 and ended on November 23 at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando , Florida . The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based Ladies Professional Golf Association ( LPGA ) . The most significant addition to the Tour in 2014 was a new team event , the International Crown . To be held each even-numbered year ( those in which the Solheim Cup is not held ) , the event involved four-woman teams from eight countries competing in a four-day match play format . The eight qualifying countries were those whose four top players are cumulatively ranked highest in the Women 's World Golf Rankings as of the end of the preceding LPGA season . The individual participants from each qualified country were determined by the rankings immediately prior to the Kraft Nabisco Championship . Qualification for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship changed for 2014 and a $ 1 million bonus was added . Previously , the top three finishers in each tournament , not previously qualified , earned entry to the tournament . The field in 2014 was determined by a season-long points race , the `` Race to the CME Globe '' . All players making the cut in a tournament earned points with 500 points going to the winner . The five major champions had a higher points distribution with 625 points to the winner . No-cut tournaments only awarded points to the top 40 finishers ( top 20 for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational ) . Only LPGA members were eligible to earn points . The top 72 players on the points list gained entry into the Tour Championship as well as any tournament winners , whether or not an LPGA member , not in the top 72 . Points were reset before the tournament such that only the top three players were guaranteed to win the Race by winning the tournament and only the top nine had a mathematical chance of winning the Race . The winner of the points race received a $ 1 million bonus that did not count on the official money list . The Race is similar to the PGA Tour 's FedEx Cup and the European Tour 's Race to Dubai .", "Orange Drive Miami Beach Music Festival Orange Drive Miami Beach Music Festival is a three-day outdoor music festival that occurs on New Year 's weekend in South Beach , on Ocean Drive between 5th-14th streets . A state of the art amphitheater is constructed on the beach . Revelers party on the sand and under the stars in average temperatures of 70 degrees during that time period . Orange Drive is positioned to be the biggest and coolest New Year 's celebration on the planet !", "Shadow Raiders Disambiguation : Shadow Raiders is also the title of the first book in the Dragon Brigade series . Shadow Raiders is a Canadian animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment ( now known as Rainmaker Entertainment ) and syndicated by the The Summit Media Group , that aired from September 16 , 1998 to June 23 , 1999 . The show was loosely based on the Trendmasters toy line , War Planets . The original character designs were created by ReBoot designer , Brendan McCarthy . Although the show ended after its second season , a proposed third would have answered major questions , like the origin of the Beast Planet . The series focused on the four warring planets of a solar system called the Cluster as they were forced to set aside their differences and form a coalition against the menace of the Beast Planet .", "Twin Cities Daily Planet The Twin Cities Daily Planet is an independent website specializing in news events in the Minneapolis -- Saint Paul metropolitan area . The Twin Cities Daily Planet is an edited news source produced by professional journalists working in collaboration with citizen journalists from the local community . It publishes original reported news articles , articles republished from other local and ethnic media partners , and some content ( Free Speech Zone articles , blog entries , comments ) that is moderated but not edited , including posts published by affiliated local and neighborhood blogs . The Daily Planet describes itself as a purveyor of `` hyperlocal journalism . '' In 2009 , the Daily Planet won overall Minnesota honors as the `` best independent online news website '' in the annual list of Page One honors bestowed by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists . In August and September 2015 , the Daily Planet went through a massive restructuring in which almost all staff were laid off as part of the newspaper 's conversion into a mouthpiece for issues journalism . Some members of the Daily Planet staff went on to found the Twin Cities Arts Reader . This restructure including eliminating the vast majority of the paper 's substantial and award-winning performing arts coverage , and ceasing to write critical reviews .", "Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies . The International Astronomical Union , the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature , specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects , but uses mixed `` Solar System '' and `` solar system '' in their naming guidelines document . The name is commonly rendered in lower case ( `` solar system '' ) , as , for example , in the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster 's 11th Collegiate Dictionary . is the gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it , either directly or indirectly.The natural satellites ( moons ) orbiting the Solar System 's planets are an example of the latter . Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly , the largest eight are the planets , Historically , several other bodies were once considered planets , including , from its discovery in 1930 until 2006 , Pluto . See Former planets . with the remainder being significantly smaller objects , such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies . Of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly , the moons , two are larger than the smallest planet , Mercury.The two moons larger than Mercury are Ganymede , which orbits Jupiter , and Titan , which orbits Saturn . Although bigger than Mercury , both moons have less than half the mass of Mercury . The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud . The vast majority of the system 's mass is in the Sun , with the majority of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter . The four smaller inner planets , Mercury , Venus , Earth and Mars , are terrestrial planets , being primarily composed of rock and metal . The four outer planets are giant planets , being substantially more massive than the terrestrials . The two largest , Jupiter and Saturn , are gas giants , being composed mainly of hydrogen and helium ; the two outermost planets , Uranus and Neptune , are ice giants , being composed mostly of substances with relatively high melting points compared with hydrogen and helium , called volatiles , such as water , ammonia and methane . All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic . The Solar System also contains smaller objects . The asteroid belt , which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter , mostly contains objects composed , like the terrestrial planets , of rock and metal . Beyond Neptune 's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc , which are populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices , and beyond them a newly discovered population of sednoids . Within these populations are several dozen to possibly tens of thousands of objects large enough that they have been rounded by their own gravity . Such objects are categorized as dwarf planets . Identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris . In addition to these two regions , various other small-body populations , including comets , centaurs and interplanetary dust clouds , freely travel between regions . Six of the planets , at least four of the dwarf planets , and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural satellites , See List of natural satellites of the Solar System for the full list of natural satellites of the eight planets and first five dwarf planets usually termed `` moons '' after the Moon . Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects . The solar wind , a stream of charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun , creates a bubble-like region in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere . The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of the interstellar medium ; it extends out to the edge of the scattered disc . The Oort cloud , which is thought to be the source for long-period comets , may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere . The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm , 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way .", "HAT-P-13c HAT-P-13c is a substellar object orbiting the star HAT-P-13 located 698 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major . A search for transits was negative , however only 72 % of the possible transit configurations could be ruled out . With a mass at least 15.2 times that of Jupiter , it may be a massive planet or a small brown dwarf . The gravitational effect of this object on the inner transiting planet HAT-P-13b may allow a precise determination of the inner planet 's internal structure .", "Planet FunFun Planet FunFun was an indoor amusement park located in Kerava , Finland . Originally the park was called Fanfaari but soon after the opening , new owners took over and renamed the park Planet FunFun . Among others the Hollywood director Renny Harlin was one of the new owners . The new name came partly as a pun from the old name ( Fanfaari pronounced in Finnish sounds similar as FunFun in English ) , but partly it was influenced by the other business ventures of the new owners , especially Harlin 's . At the time , Harlin was running a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Helsinki , so naming the amusement park Planet FunFun was also influenced by the name of the restaurant . After few years of operation , it was clear to the new owners too that Planet FunFun was not going to be commercially successful . This happened despite the fact that Harlin was one of the most followed Finnish celebrities at the time , and he brought lots of `` Hollywood things '' to the park , such as film props from his films . In addition , he and the producer Markus Selin started the Finnish version of the television show American Gladiators , called Gladiaattorit , which was shot in the Planet FunFun . All of these efforts were short-lived and did n't do much to attract people to the park . So in 1995 the park was closed for good and the rides were sold other parks . Planet Hollywood restaurant was also closed and Gladiaattorit television show was cancelled , both around the same time that Planet FunFun closed . Today not much remains of the Planet FunFun , except for the rides which were sold and relocated . Planet FunFun 's only roller coaster is nowadays in Fort Fun Abenteuerland , Germany and its new name is Devil 's Mine . Many people still recognize the name `` Planet FunFun '' and remember it having been a park run by Renny Harlin - the original park name Fanfaari and previous ownership is not as well remembered , because of Harlin 's `` celebrity gossip '' influence . The building that housed the park was an old Nokia rubber factory building that was renovated to amusement purposes . The building is known today as Klondyke-house . After the park was closed , the building was once again suited for new purposes . Today it houses Kerava Art Museum , and parts of the building are used as restaurant space , floorball arena , conference and exhibition space , etc. .", "Rassilon Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . In the backstory of the programme , he was the founder of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey and its first leader , as Lord High President . After the original television series ended in 1989 , Rassilon 's character and history were developed in books and other media .", "Meanings of minor planet names This is a list of minor planets which have been officially named by the Minor Planet Center ( MPC ) . The list consists of partial pages , each covering a number range of 1000 bodies citing the source after each minor planet was named for . An overview of all existing partial pages is given in section . Among the hundreds of thousands numbered minor planets only a small fraction have received a name so far . As of 2017 , there are more than 20,000 named minor planets out of a total of half a million numbered ones . Most of these bodies are named for people , in particular astronomers , as well as figures from mythology and fiction . Many minor planets are also named after places such cities , towns and villages , mountains and volcanoes ; after rivers , observatories , as well as organizations , clubs and astronomical societies . Some are named after animals and plants . A few minor planets are named after exotic entities such as supercomputers or have an unknown origin . The first few thousand minor planets have all been named , with the Jupiter trojan currently being the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet . The first 3 pages in the below table contain 1,000 named entries each . The first 13 and 33 pages contain at least 500 and 100 named entries each , respectively . The first range to contain no entires is . There are also several name conflicts with other astronomical objects , mostly with planetary satellites and among themselves . Following a proposal of the discovering astronomer , new minor planet names are published in MPC 's Minor Planet Circulars on a monthly basis . The MPC applies a set of rules for naming minor planets . These range from syntax restrictions to non-offensive meanings . Over the years the rules have changed several times . In the beginning , for example , minor planets were named exclusively after female characters from mythology .", "List of endangered languages in North America An endangered language is a language that it is at risk of falling out of use , generally because it has few surviving speakers . If it loses all of its native speakers , it becomes an extinct language . UNESCO defines four levels of language endangerment between `` safe '' ( not endangered ) and `` extinct '' : Vulnerable Definitely endangered Severely endangered Critically endangered North America is a continent in the Earth 's northern hemisphere and ( chiefly ) western hemisphere . It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean , on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean , on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea , and on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean ; South America lies to the southeast . It covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers ( 9,540,000 sq mi ) , about 4.8 % of the planet 's surface or about 16.5 % of its land area . As of July 2007 , its population was estimated at nearly 524 million people . Today , North America only has a total of 256 living languages . However , out of those 256 languages , 238 are in the realm of extinction . That is , 92 % of languages that are dying . The United States has the highest number of dying languages , 143 out of 219 languages , then Canada with 75 dying out of its 94 languages , and lastly , Greenland has the smallest amount , 0 out of its two spoken languages .", "Daft Planet Daft Planet is a Canadian cartoon , first airing on Teletoon . The first episode ran on September 2 , 2002 and the show continued to run for almost two years even though only 13 episodes were produced . Its main claim to fame is that it was the first cartoon in the world that was animated entirely in Flash and appeared on a national television network . The show met with some success but was taken off the air when funding ran out due to cuts to the CTF program . The show was born from a 10-minute pilot written and animated by Brent Donnelly and Derry Smith and produced by Valis Video ( Toronto ) . The pilot can be viewed on YouTube along with some aired episodes of Daft Planet .", "Traian Stoianovich Traian Stoianovich ( 20 July 1921 -- December 21 , 2005 ) was an American historian and a professor of history at Rutgers University . He specialized in the history of the Balkans . __ NOTOC __ Born Trajan Stojanović in Gradešnica , then part of the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes ( now part of R. Macedonia ) , his family moved to Rochester , New York , where he was brought up . At a time when it was difficult for working-class people and immigrants to achieve higher education , he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester . After serving in the United States Army during World War II ( 1942 -- 45 ) , he took a masters degree at New York University and received a doctorate from Université de Paris in 1952 , where he became a major figure in the internationally influential Annales School of history.His doctoral mentor was Fernand Braudel . Stoianovich was for four decades a teacher of European and world history at Rutgers University . He has also taught at New York University , University of California , Berkeley , Stanford University , and Sir George Williams University ( renamed Concordia University ) in Montreal , Canada . He taught at the University of Thessaloniki , Greece , 1958-1959 , on a Fulbright grant . He applied his education to the study of the Balkans , publishing `` A Study of Balkan Civilization '' ( 1967 ) which is regarded as both a classic and a major educational text . After his retirement he published a four volume collection of articles and essays , `` Between East and West , the Balkan and Mediterranean Worlds '' ( 1992 -- 1995 ) and also `` Balkan Worlds : The First and Last Europe '' ( 1994 ) rich in its insights and understanding for both the Balkans and European civilization . Many of his works were translated into Serbian and published in the former Yugoslavia , as well as other major languages . Dr. Norman Markowitz , JRI Director , Professor of History , Rutgers University , remembers him well : He was a member of the Jasenovac Research Institute 's Advisory Board . He continued to work as a scholar right up to his death on December 21 , 2005 in New Brunswick , New Jersey , after a long struggle with cancer ." ]

[ "Holocene extinction The Holocene extinction , otherwise referred to as the Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction , is the ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch , mainly due to human activity . The large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals , including mammals , birds , amphibians , reptiles and arthropods . With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforest , as well as other areas , the vast majority of these extinctions is thought to be undocumented . According to the species-area theory , and based on upper-bound estimating , the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year , making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna , starting at the end of the last Ice Age . Megafauna outside of the African continent , which did not evolve alongside humans , proved highly sensitive to the introduction of new predation , and many died out shortly after early humans began spreading and hunting across the Earth ( additionally , many African species have also gone extinct in the Holocene ) . These extinctions , occurring near the Pleistocene -- Holocene boundary , are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event . The arrival of humans on different continents coincides with megafaunal extinction . The most popular theory is that human overhunting of species added to existing stress conditions . Although there is debate regarding how much human predation affected their decline , certain population declines have been directly correlated with human activity , such as the extinction events of New Zealand and Hawaii . Aside from humans , climate change may have been a driving factor in the megafaunal extinctions , especially at the end of the Quaternary . The ecology of humanity has been noted as being that of an unprecedented `` global superpredator '' that regularly preys on the adults of other apex predators and has worldwide effects on food webs . Extinctions of species have occurred on every land mass and ocean , with many famous examples within Africa , Asia , Europe , Australia , North and South America , and on smaller islands . Overall , the Holocene extinction can be characterized by the human impact on the environment . The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century , with meat consumption , overfishing , ocean acidification and the amphibian crisis being a few broader examples of an almost universal , cosmopolitan decline in biodiversity . A ballooning human population along with profligate consumption are considered to be the primary drivers of this rapid decline .", "Human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments , biodiversity , and other resources . The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity . The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov , and was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities . The atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term `` Anthropocene '' in the mid-1970s . The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment .", "Human Modern humans ( Homo sapiens , primarily ssp . Homo sapiens sapiens ) are the only extant members of Hominina tribe ( or human tribe ) , a branch of the tribe Hominini belonging to the family of great apes . They are characterized by erect posture and bipedal locomotion ; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to other animals ; and a general trend toward larger , more complex brains and societies . Early hominins -- particularly the australopithecines , whose brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to ancestral non-human apes -- are less often referred to as `` human '' than hominins of the genus Homo . Several of these hominins used fire , occupied much of Eurasia , and gave rise to anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 200,000 years ago . They began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago . In several waves of migration , anatomically modern humans ventured out of Africa and populated most of the world . The spread of humans and their large and increasing population has had a profound impact on large areas of the environment and millions of native species worldwide . Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a relatively larger brain with a particularly well-developed neocortex , prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes , which enable high levels of abstract reasoning , language , problem solving , sociality , and culture through social learning . Humans use tools to a much higher degree than any other animal , are the only extant species known to build fires and cook their food , and are the only extant species to clothe themselves and create and use numerous other technologies and arts . Humans are uniquely adept at utilizing systems of symbolic communication ( such as language and art ) for self-expression and the exchange of ideas , and for organizing themselves into purposeful groups . Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups , from families and kinship networks to political states . Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of values , social norms , and rituals , which together form the basis of human society . Curiosity and the human desire to understand and influence the environment and to explain and manipulate phenomena ( or events ) has provided the foundation for developing science , philosophy , mythology , religion , anthropology , and numerous other fields of knowledge . Though most of human existence has been sustained by hunting and gathering in band societies , increasing numbers of human societies began to practice sedentary agriculture approximately some 10,000 years ago , domesticating plants and animals , thus allowing for the growth of civilization . These human societies subsequently expanded in size , establishing various forms of government , religion , and culture around the world , unifying people within regions to form states and empires . The rapid advancement of scientific and medical understanding in the 19th and 20th centuries led to the development of fuel-driven technologies and increased lifespans , causing the human population to rise exponentially . Today the global human population is estimated by the United Nations to be near billion .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Climate risk Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming", "The Cloud Mystery The Cloud Mystery is a documentary by Danish director Lars Oxfeldt Mortensen . It explores the published theory by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark on how galactic cosmic rays and solar activity affects cloud cover , and how this influences the earth 's climate . Also known as Klimamysteriet in Danish . This documentary presents the work done to develop the theory that cloud cover change is caused by variations in cosmic rays as the major originator of global climate variation . It also mentions that these scientist to not subscribe to the view that human influence and the effect of greenhouse gases as significant drivers of climate . However , the focus is on the work they have done and not on other climate theories like anthropogenic global warming for instance .", "Public opinion on climate change Public opinion on climate change is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning the science , economics , and politics of global warming . It is affected by media coverage of climate change .", "Climatic Research Unit documents Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "Historical impacts of climate change Climate has affected human life and civilization from the emergence of hominins to the present day . These historical impacts of climate change can improve human life and cause societies to flourish , or can be instrumental in civilization 's societal collapse .", "International Human Dimensions Programme The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change ( IHDP ) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of global change . IHDP aimed to frame , develop and integrate social science research on global change , and promote the application of its key findings . It strived to develop research approaches that put societies at the center of the debate , looking at then-current global environmental problems as social and societal challenges . IHDP 's work brought together groups of multi-disciplinary and multi-national researchers to work on long-term collaborative science . Its former role within the scientific field provided leadership in the selection and development of themes for focused research and in stimulating scientific communities to coordinate their efforts on these themes within the framework of its projects . IHDP research was conducted through ten projects . Its six core projects , focused on how humans affect and are affected by climate change , with specific topics including human security , urbanization , industrial transformation and environmental governance as they relate to global change . Two of its six core projects were also core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ( IGBP ) and focused specifically on coupled human-environment systems such as land use , and coastal zones . It also had four joint projects on the Earth 's carbon cycle , water systems , human health and food systems with the other three global change research programmes ( ESSP ) .", "Effects of global warming on marine mammals The effect of global warming on marine mammals is a growing concern . Many of the effects of climate change are currently unknown due to its unpredictability , but many are becoming increasingly evident today . Some effects are very direct such as loss of habitat , temperature stress , and exposure to severe weather . Other effects are more indirect such as changes in host pathogen associations , changes in body condition because of predator -- prey interaction , changed in exposure to toxins , and increased human interactions . These are just a few examples of what marine mammals are dealing with as a result of rapid climate change . There are a number of marine mammals that have been affected by climate change including walruses , seals , penguins , and polar bears .", "Global Land Project The Global Land Project -LSB- changed to Global Land Programme in 2016 -RSB- is a research initiative of Future Earth ( originally the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ( IGBP ) and the International Human Dimensions Programme ( IHDP ) ) . It aims to understand the changes of the land systems given the prospects of rapid and massive global environmental change . The goal of GLP is `` to measure , model and understand the coupled human-environment system '' . The Global Land Project Science Plan describes the scientific questions that the land systems research community considers to be crucial for the next decade . GLP has three objectives that determine the research framework : To identify the agents , structures and nature of change in coupled human-environment systems on land , and to quantify their effects on the coupled system ; To assess how the provision of ecosystem services is affected by the changes in ( i ) above ; and To identify the character and dynamics of vulnerable and sustainable coupled human-environment systems to interacting perturbations , including climate change .", "Representations of the atmospheric boundary layer in global climate models Representations of the atmospheric boundary layer in global climate models play a role in simulations of past , present , and future climates . Representing the atmospheric boundary layer ( ABL ) within global climate models ( GCMs ) are difficult due to differences in surface type , scale mismatch between physical processes affecting the ABL and scales at which GCMs are run , and difficulties in measuring different physical processes within the ABL . Various parameterization techniques described below attempt to address the difficulty in ABL representations within GCMs .", "Effects of global warming on human health The effects of global warming include effects on human health . The observed and projected increased frequency and severity of climate related impacts will further exacerbate the effects on human health . This article describes some of those effects on individuals and populations .", "Climate Refugees (film) Climate Refugees ( aka : C.R. ) is a 2010 American documentary film , directed and produced by Michael P. Nash . The documentary attempts to cover the human impact of climate change by considering those who could most be affected by it .", "Climate Vulnerability Monitor The Climate Vulnerability Monitor ( CVM ) is an independent global assessment of the effect of climate change on the world 's populations brought together by panels of key international authorities . The Monitor was launched in December 2010 in London and Cancun to coincide with the UN Cancun Summit on climate change ( COP-16 ) . Developed by DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum , the report is meant to serve as a new tool to assess global vulnerability to various effects of climate change within different nations . The report distills leading science and research for a clearer explanation of how and where populations are being affected by climate change today ( 2010 ) and in the near future ( 2030 ) , while pointing to key actions that reduce these impacts . DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum launched the 2nd edition of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor on 26 September 2012 at the Asia Society , New York .", "Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "Solar activity and climate Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .", "Ecological forecasting Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "Cloud feedback Cloud feedback is the coupling between cloudiness and surface air temperature where a surface air temperature change leads to a change in clouds , which could then amplify or diminish the initial temperature perturbation . Cloud feedbacks can affect the magnitude of internally generated climate variability or they can affect the magnitude of climate change resulting from external radiative forcings . Global warming is expected to change the distribution and type of clouds . Seen from below , clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface , and so exert a warming effect ; seen from above , clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space , and so exert a cooling effect . Cloud representations vary among global climate models , and small changes in cloud cover have a large impact on the climate . Differences in planetary boundary layer cloud modeling schemes can lead to large differences in derived values of climate sensitivity . A model that decreases boundary layer clouds in response to global warming has a climate sensitivity twice that of a model that does not include this feedback . However , satellite data show that cloud optical thickness actually increases with increasing temperature . Whether the net effect is warming or cooling depends on details such as the type and altitude of the cloud ; details that are difficult to represent in climate models .", "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Climate change education (CCE) Climate Change Education ( CCE ) is learning geared toward helping people address and develop effective responses to climate change . It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change , prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles . CCE helps policy-makers understand the urgency and importance of putting mechanisms into place to combat climate change on a national and global scale . Communities learn about how climate change will affect them , what they can do to protect themselves from negative consequences , and how they can reduce their own climate footprint . In particular , CCE helps increase the resilience of already vulnerable communities who are the most likely to be adversely affected by climate change . CCE is rooted in Education for Sustainable Development ( ESD ) .", "Planetary management Planetary management is intentional global-scale management of Earth 's biological , chemical and physical processes and cycles ( water , carbon , nitrogen , sulfur , phosphorus , and others ) . Planetary management also includes managing humanity 's influence on planetary-scale processes . Effective planetary management aims to prevent destabilisation of Earth 's climate , protect biodiversity and maintain or improve human well-being . More specifically , it aims to benefit society and the global economy , and safeguard the ecosystem services upon which humanity depends -- global climate , freshwater supply , food , energy , clean air , fertile soil , pollinators , and so on . Because of the sheer complexity and enormous scope of the task , it remains to be seen whether planetary management is a feasible paradigm for maintaining global sustainability . The concept currently has defenders and critics on both sides : environmentalist David W. Orr questions whether such a task can be accomplished with human help and technology or without first examining the underlying human causes , while geographer Vaclav Smil acknowledges that `` the idea of planetary management may seem preposterous to many , but at this time in history there is no rational alternative '' .", "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project ( UGEC ) is one of the core research projects of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change ( IHDP ) . UGEC aims to understand the bi-directional interactions between urbanization and global environmental change . The UGEC International Project Office is located at Arizona State University . According to its Science Plan , UGEC aims to provide a better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between global environmental change and urbanization at the local , regional , and global scales . UGEC pursues four areas of research : Processes within urban systems that contribute to global environmental change ( e.g. , the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions ; the effects of urban land cover change on biodiversity and habitat ) . Pathways through which specific global environmental changes affect urban systems ( e.g. , climate change impacts on urban areas ; decline in ecosystem services on urban climate regulation ) . Urban responses to global environmental change ( e.g. , urban strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation ) . Consequences of urban responses to global environmental change . Additionally , the goals of UGEC include : creating multidimensional integrative perspectives ; promoting parallel and comparative analysis across regions and themes ; utilizing cross-temporal and cross-spatial scale approaches ; and outreaching and communicating UGEC-related scientific information to policy makers and the public .", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Global Day of Action Global Day of Action is a direct action protest format . Environmentalism initiatives begun to use it in 2005 in connection with Global Climate Campaign . They aimed to focus world attention on the anthropogenic effect that humans are having on global warming . Its main objective is to spearhead demands that elected representatives of their respective governments honor commitments set forth by the Kyoto Protocol , by conducting in unison peaceful demonstrations around the world . The demonstration , or rallies , are intended to coincide with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , a meeting of world leaders from 189 nations , that meet annually to discuss climate change .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "Sustainability and environmental management At the global scale sustainability and environmental management involves managing the oceans , freshwater systems , land and atmosphere , according to sustainability principles . Land use change is fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative proportions of land dedicated to urbanisation , agriculture , forest , woodland , grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water , carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles . Management of the Earth 's atmosphere involves assessment of all aspects of the carbon cycle to identify opportunities to address human-induced climate change and this has become a major focus of scientific research because of the potential catastrophic effects on biodiversity and human communities . Ocean circulation patterns have a strong influence on climate and weather and , in turn , the food supply of both humans and other organisms .", "Integrated Global System Model The Integrated Global System Model ( IGSM ) is an Integrated Assessment Model ( IAM ) developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change . The IGSM couples an Earth system model of intermediate complexity to a human activity model that represents the world 's economy . It has been used to understand the interactions between humans and the global climate system .", "Climate change and poverty In an ever-progressing world with an increasing demand for energy and animal agriculture , it is difficult to avoid climate change and its impacts on societies both locally and globally . Climate change affects social development factors , such as , poverty , infrastructure , technology , security , and economics across the globe . Although climate change affects everything we see around us , the interrelation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident in impoverished communities . In particular , impoverished communities experience reductions in safe drinking water as well as food security as a result of climate change ( OECD 2013 ) . These typically rural , isolated communities do not exhibit sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage the risks associated with climate change ( climate risk ) ( Skoufias 2012 ) . Energy development and policy alteration could adjust the severity of climate change impacts ; this is being tested now , as renewable energy sources develop .", "Alter-globalization Alter-globalization ( also known as alternative globalization , alter-mundialization -- from the French `` alter-mondialisation '' -- or the global justice movement ) is the name of a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and interaction , but oppose what they describe as the negative effects of economic globalization , considering that it often works to the detriment of , or does not adequately promote , human values such as environmental and climate protection , economic justice , labor protection , protection of indigenous cultures , peace , and civil liberties . The name may have been derived from a popular slogan of the movement : ` Another world is possible ' , which came out of the World Social Forum . `` The alter-globalization movement is a cooperative movement designed to protest the direction and perceived negative economic , political , social , cultural and ecological consequences of neoliberal globalization '' . Many alter-globalists seek to avoid the `` disestablishment of local economies and disastrous humanitarian consequences '' . Most members of this movement shun the label `` anti-globalization '' as pejorative and incorrect since they actively support human activity on a global scale and do not oppose economic globalization per se . Instead they see their movement as an alternative to what they term neo-liberal globalization in which international institutions ( World Trade Organisation , World Bank , International Monetary Fund etc. ) and major corporations devote themselves to enriching the developed world while giving little or no attention to the detrimental effects of their actions on the people and environments of less developed countries , countries whose governments are often too weak or too corrupt to resist or regulate them . This is not to be confused with proletarian internationalism as put forth by communists in that alter-globalists do not necessarily oppose the free market , but a subset of free-market practices characterized by certain business attitudes and political policies that often lead to violations of human rights ." ]

[ "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ; pronounced -LSB- ˈnoʊ.ə -RSB- , like `` Noah '' ) is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere . NOAA warns of dangerous weather , charts seas , guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources , and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment . In addition to its civilian employees , over 11,000 as of 2015 , NOAA research and operations are supported by 379 uniformed service members who make up the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps . NOAA traces its history to the Coast Survey established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 . In its present form , it combined several scientific agencies in 1970 . The Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at the Department of Commerce and the agency 's interim administrator has been Benjamin Friedman since the end of the Obama administration on January 20 , 2017 ." ]

[ "Global Ocean Data Analysis Project The Global Ocean Data Analysis Project ( GLODAP ) is a synthesis project bringing together oceanographic data collected during the 1990s by research cruises on the World Ocean Circulation Experiment ( WOCE ) , Joint Global Ocean Flux Study ( JGOFS ) and Ocean-Atmosphere Exchange Study ( OACES ) programmes . The central goal of GLODAP is to generate a global climatology of the World Ocean 's carbon cycle for use in studies of both its natural and anthropogenically-forced states . GLODAP is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) , and the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) .", "National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service The National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) to operate and manage the United States environmental satellite programs , and manage the data gathered by the National Weather Service and other government agencies and departments .", "Arctic Research Office The Arctic Research Office ( ARO ) a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) run under the auspices of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . ARO is the focal point for NOAA 's research in the Arctic , Bering Sea , North Pacific and North Atlantic regions . In 1996 , the Congress of the United States appropriated one million USD to support an Arctic Research Initiative within NOAA . In cooperation with the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research , NOAA 's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research used those funds to support research projects in two principal areas : natural variability of the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem , and anthropogenic influences on the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem . Support for the Arctic Research Initiative is ongoing . The office administers the funds from the Arctic Research Initiative . It represents NOAA on the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee , leads U.S. involvement in the Arctic Monitoring & Assessment Programme , and provides a point of contact between NOAA and the Cooperative Institute and Assessment Program and the International Arctic Research Center .", "Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ( GFDL ) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . The current director is Dr. Venkatachalam Ramaswamy . It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories ( RLs ) . GFDL is engaged in comprehensive long lead-time research to expand the scientific understanding of the physical processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems . These systems can then be modeled mathematically and their phenomenology can be studied by computer simulation methods . GFDL 's accomplishments include the development of the first climate models to study global warming , the first comprehensive ocean prediction codes , and the first dynamical models with significant skill in hurricane track and intensity predictions . Much current research within the laboratory is focused around the development of Earth System Models for assessment of natural and human-induced climate change .", "Joint Polar Satellite System Joint Polar Satellite System ( JPSS ) is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting , non-geosynchronous , environmental satellites . JPSS will provide the global environmental data used in numerical weather prediction models for forecasts , and scientific data used for climate monitoring . JPSS will aid in fulfilling the mission of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , an agency of the Department of Commerce . Data and imagery obtained from the JPSS will increase timeliness and accuracy of public warnings and forecasts of climate and weather events , thus reducing the potential loss of human life and property and advancing the national economy . The JPSS is developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , who is responsible for operation of JPSS . Two satellites are planned for the JPSS constellation of satellites . JPSS satellites will be flown and the scientific data from JPSS will be processed by the JPSS - Common Ground System ( JPSS-CGS ) .", "Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "NOAAS Ferdinand R. Hassler (R 250) NOAAS Ferdinand R. Hassler ( R 250 ) is a coastal mapping vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Commissioned on 8 June 2012 , Ferdinand R. Hassler is one of the newest additions to the NOAA hydrographic charting fleet . Operating from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico , the ship 's primary mission is hydrographic survey in support of NOAA 's nautical charting mission . The ship 's home port is New Castle , New Hampshire .", "Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere ( CIRA ) is a scientific research institution at Colorado State University ( CSU ) that operates under a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) and the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) . Atmospheric research at CIRA focuses on augmenting operational meteorology with advanced techniques in satellite observations and retrievals , numerical modeling and computational techniques , and data analysis , visualization , and storage . Along with NOAA , CIRA also partners with the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) , the National Park Service ( NPS ) , and the Department of Defense ( DoD ) . It is one of 16 NOAA Cooperative Institutes ( CIs ) . Specific research themes at CIRA include : Satellite algorithm development , training and education Regional to global scale modeling systems Data assimilation Climate-weather processes Data distribution Societal and economic impacts of weather and climate Education and public outreach on climate systems The CIRA campus is located on the Foothills Campus of Colorado State University , in Fort Collins .", "Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research The Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research ( CICOR ) formalizes a major collaborative relationship between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ( WHOI ) . CICOR provides a framework at WHOI for coordinating NOAA-funded research and for developing cooperative NOAA-funded research at academic institutions in the northeastern United States . CICOR also provides NOAA investigators with access to WHOI facilities , including 4 ships and 2 submersibles , and the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility . The CICOR research themes are : The coastal ocean and near shore processes The ocean 's participation in climate and climate variability Marine ecosystem processes analysis .", "National Data Buoy Center The National Data Buoy Center ( NDBC ) is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's ( NOAA ) National Weather Service ( NWS ) . NDBC designs , develops , operates , and maintains a network of data collecting buoys and coastal stations . The NBDC is located in southern Mississippi as a tenant at the John C. Stennis Space Center , a National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) facility .", "List of U.S. states by coastline This is a list of U.S. states ranked by their coastline length . States with no coastline are not included . Two separate measurements are used : method 1 only includes states with ocean coastline and excludes tidal inlets ; method 2 includes Great Lake coastline and the extra length from tidal inlets . For example , method 2 counts the Great Bay as part of New Hampshire 's coastline , but method 1 does not . The figures suffer from the inaccuracy inherent in all attempts at measuring coastlines but are nevertheless useful for comparison . The data for method 1 were retrieved from a CRS Report for Congress using data from U.S. Department of Commerce , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , The Coastline of the United States , 1975 . This is based on measurements made using large-scale nautical charts . The figure for Connecticut was arrived at separately and may not reflect the correct comparative distance . These numbers exclude the Great Lakes coastlines . The data for method 2 are from a list maintained by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . The state coastline lengths were computed by an unspecified method that includes tidal areas not included in the first method . These numbers also include the Great Lakes coastlines . __ TOC __", "Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research The Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research ( CILER ) fosters research collaborations between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory ( GLERL ) , Michigan State University ( MSU ) , and the University of Michigan ( UM ) . It is one of 16 NOAA Cooperative Institutes ( CIs ) . The CILER research themes are : Climate and Large Lake Dynamics Coastal and Nearshore Processes Large Lake Ecosystem Structure and Function Remote Sensing of Large Lake and Coastal Ocean Dynamics Marine Environmental Engineering", "NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps , known informally as the NOAA Corps , is one of seven federal uniformed services of the United States , and operates under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , a scientific agency overseen by the Department of Commerce . The NOAA Corps is made up of scientifically and technically trained officers and is the smallest of the U.S. uniformed services . It is one of only two -- -- the other being the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps -- -- that consists only of commissioned officers , with no enlisted or warrant officer ranks . Established in 1970 , the NOAA Corps is the successor to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps ( 1917 -- 1965 ) , and the United States Environmental Science Services Administration Commissioned Officer Corps ( ESSA Corps ) ( 1965 -- 1970 ) .", "NOAA Administrator's Award The NOAA Administrator 's Award is an award of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . The award is granted by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere who serves concurrently as the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . The award , which may go to an individual or a group , is presented in recognition of significant contributions to NOAA programs . The award is presented to civilian employees of NOAA as a plaque and as a medal set to members of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps . Individual recipients of the award receive a monetary award of $ 5,000 . Recipients of group awards split the monetary award evenly . Administrator 's Award recipients are formally recognized at an award ceremony held annually .", "NOAA Central Library The NOAA Central Library is the flagship library of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's ( NOAA ) network of over 20 research libraries . It is also a selective federal depository library for United States federal government publications . -LSB- 6 -RSB-", "Monthly Climatic Data for the World Monthly Climatic Data for the World ( MCDW ) is a monthly publication of the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) division of the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) of the United States . According to the website , each monthly issue `` contains monthly mean temperature , pressure , precipitation , vapor pressure , and sunshine for approximately 2,000 surface data collection stations worldwide and monthly mean upper air temperatures , dew point depressions , and wind velocities for approximately 500 observing sites . This is the final quality controlled copy and generally has a 4 - 6 month time lag . '' The issues are available for download in portable document format .", "Awards and decorations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps ( or `` NOAA Corps '' ) , one of the seven uniformed services of the United States , has the authority to issue various awards and commendations to its members . These include individual honor awards , unit honor awards , service awards , training ribbons and qualification insignia . NOAA Corps awards and decorations include :", "Egregious Category : Temporary maintenance holdings", "National Undersea Research Program The National Undersea Research Program ( NURP ) is a U.S. government program that operates six facilities for undersea research , including the world 's only permanent undersea research facility , Aquarius . The program is operated under the auspices of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . Each center is funded by a grant from NOAA . Projects are chosen based upon peer review .", "Environmental Science Services Administration The Environmental Science Services Administration ( ESSA ) was a United States Federal executive agency created in 1965 as part of a reorganization of the United States Department of Commerce . Its mission was to unify and oversee the meteorological , climatological , hydrographic , and geodesic operations of the United States . It operated until 1970 , when it was replaced by the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . The first U.S. Government organization with the word `` environment '' in its title , ESSA was the first such organization chartered to study the global natural environment as whole , bringing together the study of the oceans with that of the both the lower atmosphere and the ionosphere . This allowed the U.S Government for the first time to take a comprehensive approach to studying the oceans and the atmosphere , also bringing together various technologies -- ships , aircraft , satellites , radar , and communications systems -- that could operate together in gathering data for scientific study .", "Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions Coupling , Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions ( `` CEDAR '' ) is a US NSF funded program targeting understanding of middle and upper atmospheric dynamics . CEDAR is of relevance to space weather , space physics , and global change . CEDAR involves researchers from institutions within and without the United States , although the funding is almost exclusively directed to US projects . Researchers are funded for observational , theoretical , and simulation work . There is a significant focus on student activities and CEDAR has been tremendously effective at involving a large number of graduate students in front-line research . CEDAR programs produce a significant amount of data which is accessible via the `` CEDAR Data Base '' , a number of Virtual Observatories ( VOs ) , and the web pages of principal investigators ( PIs ) . CEDAR has produced important scientific results in a number of inter-related research fields . Category : Atmosphere", "Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks to correct and add new information about past North Atlantic hurricanes . It was started around 2000 to update HURDAT , the official hurricane database for the Atlantic Basin , which has become outdated since its creation due to various systematic errors introduced into the database over time . This effort has involved reanalyses of ship observations from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set ( ICOADS ) as well as reanalyses done by other researchers over the years . It has been ongoing as of 2016 , and should last another four years .", "NOAAS Thomas Jefferson (S 222) NOAAS Thomas Jefferson ( S 222 ) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) hydrographic survey vessel in service since 2003 .", "Earth System Research Laboratory The Earth System Research Laboratory ( ESRL ) is a laboratory in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories ( RLs ) and is located in Boulder , Colorado . ESRL combines six separate NOAA labs under one organization with four Divisions - Global Monitoring , Physical Sciences , Chemical Sciences , and Global Systems . The former labs falling into ESRL are the Aeronomy Laboratory , the Climate Diagnostics Center , the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory , the Environmental Technology Laboratory , the Forecast Systems Laboratory , and the Surface Radiation Research Branch of the Air Resources Laboratory .", "Depth sounding Depth sounding refers to the act of measuring depth . It is often referred to simply as sounding . Data taken from soundings are used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water , and were traditionally shown on nautical charts in fathoms and feet . The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the agency responsible for bathymetric data in the United States , still uses fathoms and feet on nautical charts . In other countries , the International System of Units ( metres ) has become the standard for measuring depth .", "Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition ", "NOAAS Chapman (R 446) NOAAS Chapman ( R 446 ) was an American fisheries research vessel that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) fleet from 1980 to 1998 . After the conclusion of her NOAA career , she spent several years operating as the University of Puerto Rico marine research vessel R/V Chapman . More recently , she has become the Curaçao-based mothership for the deep-diving submarine Curasub .", "Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act of 2014 The Tsunami Warning , Education , and Research Act of 2014 is a bill that would authorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) to spend $ 27 million a year for three years on their on-going tsunami warning and research programs . The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress .", "Cooperative Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Terrestrial Applications The Cooperative Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Terrestrial Applications ( CIASTA ) formalizes a major collaborative relationship between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) and the Desert Research Institute ( DRI ) . CIASTA serves as a focal point for the interaction between NOAA and the Intermountain West research community for research activities related to NOAA 's tasks and responsibilities in that region . The research is focussed on four general areas : weather , climate , air quality , and terrestrial ecosystems and climate .", "Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2013 The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2013 is a U.S. public law that reauthorizes and modifies the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 and would authorize the appropriation of $ 20.5 million annually through 2018 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) to mitigate the harmful effects of algal blooms and hypoxia . The bill was introduced into the United States Senate during the 113th United States Congress .", "Michael S. Devany Michael S. Devany is a former vice admiral in the NOAA Corps who last served as the Deputy Under Secretary for Operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from January 2 , 2014 to April 2016 . He previously served as director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps from August 13 , 2012 to January 1 , 2014 , succeeding RADM Jonathan W. Bailey . As Deputy Under Secretary for Operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , he was NOAA 's chief operating officer . VADM Devany was responsible for the day-to-day management of NOAA 's national and international operations for oceanic and atmospheric services , research , and coastal and marine stewardship . He is a key advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere/NOAA Administrator on NOAA program and policy issues . Devany was the first NOAA Corps officer to achieve the rank of vice admiral since VADM Henry A. Karo in 1965 , and the second NOAA Corps officer overall . Devany retired from NOAA in April 2016 after over 30 years of combined uniformed service .", "NOAA-19 NOAA-19 , designated NOAA-N ' ( NOAA-N Prime ) prior to launch , is the last of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's POES series of weather satellites ( which was scheduled to be replaced by the next-generation NPOESS series before the NPOESS project was cancelled ) . NOAA-19 was launched on February 6 , 2009 ." ]

[ "Energy industry The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy , including fuel extraction , manufacturing , refining and distribution . Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel , and the energy industry is a crucial part of the infrastructure and maintenance of society in almost all countries . In particular , the energy industry comprises : the petroleum industry , including oil companies , petroleum refiners , fuel transport and end-user sales at gas stations the gas industry , including natural gas extraction , and coal gas manufacture , as well as distribution and sales the electrical power industry , including electricity generation , electric power distribution and sales the coal industry the nuclear power industry the renewable energy industry , comprising alternative energy and sustainable energy companies , including those involved in hydroelectric power , wind power , and solar power generation , and the manufacture , distribution and sale of alternative fuels traditional energy industry based on the collection and distribution of firewood , the use of which , for cooking and heating , is particularly common in poorer countries", "Human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments , biodiversity , and other resources . The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity . The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov , and was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities . The atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term `` Anthropocene '' in the mid-1970s . The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment .", "Fossil fuel Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms , containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis . The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years , and sometimes exceeds 650 million years . Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum , coal , and natural gas . Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane . Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon to hydrogen ratios like methane , to liquids like petroleum , to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon , like anthracite coal . Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone , associated with oil , or in the form of methane clathrates . The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth 's crust over millions of years was first introduced by Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century . The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0 % , coal 27.4 % , natural gas 23.0 % , amounting to an 86.4 % share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world . Non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8.5 % , hydroelectric 6.3 % , and others ( geothermal , solar , tidal , wind , wood , waste ) amounting to 0.9 % . World energy consumption was growing about 2.3 % per year . Although fossil fuels are continually being formed via natural processes , they are generally considered to be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made . The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns . The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes ( 21.3 gigatonnes ) of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) per year . It is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount , so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year . Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming . A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions ." ]

[ "Environmental impact of transport in Australia The environmental impact of transport in Australia is considerable . Australia subsidizes fossil fuel energy , keeping prices artificially low and raising greenhouse gas emissions due to the increased use of fossil fuels as a result of the subsidies . The Australian Energy Regulator and state agencies such as the New South Wales ' Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal set and regulate electricity prices , thereby lowering production and consumer cost . According to a report by The Institute for Sustainable Futures ( ISF ) at University of Technology Sydney , titled : `` Energy and Transport Subsidies in Australia '' , roughly 70 % of the country 's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the energy and transport industries . The uptake of renewable energy in these sectors is slow because of subsidies to fossil fuels and the high cost of acquiring the sophisticated technology required to produce cleaner fuels . Furthermore , fossil fuels are easier to transport and use , compared to renewable energy , which often require sophisticated instruments to acquire and store . The report revealed that for the 2005 -- 2006 financial year , transport subsidies were measured to reach up to $ 10.1 billion , of which 74 % related to transport , 18 % to electricity and 4 % to renewable and efficient energy . These subsidies help energy generation companies increase their profits , therefore encouraging the building of additional coal-fuel power plants . Investing in other , more sustainable , types of electricity generation plants would have cost less than continuing to subsidize the building of these power plants . On a positive note , alternative transport fuels such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas are excused from fuel excise/tax . Tax calculated for the use of a company car is calculated as such : the further the person drives the car , the higher the business use and the lower the personal use . Since tax is calculated based on personal use , drivers tend to drive longer distances to lessen the amount of tax that they have to pay . This leads to a higher consumption of vehicular fossil fuels and , subsequently , higher greenhouse gas emissions . Dr Hal Turton , the Group Leader of the Energy Economics Group at Swiss research establishment , the Paul Scherrer Institute , discussed in his report for Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute titled : `` The Aluminium Smelting Industry : Structure , Market Power , Subsidies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' , that the yearly electrical use subsidy for the use of the six aluminium smelters in Australia is at least A$ 210 million . According to the report , Australia 's aluminium smelting industry is party to one of the most subsidized electricity charges as compared to other similar establishments . The ISF report found that removing electrical subsidies would bring up electricity prices by 3.9 % , which would lead to a fall in demand of electricity by 1.4 % in the long run . Reducing transport subsidies would increase prices by 32 % , which would lead to a fall in demand worth 18 % . It suggests that subsidies should be removed gradually so as not to hurt drivers who have no choice but to use petrol ( due to the lack of alternatives ) , and that taxpayer 's funds be channeled to subsidize the sustainable energy industry instead . The National Roads and Motorists ' Association ( NRMA ) is pushing for Australian petrol consumption to be reduced by 50 % by 2050 . It is advocating a move towards greener transport , and has called for a reduction of the A$ 10 billion subsidies given to the nation 's fossil fuel industry .", "Co-benefits of climate change mitigation Co-benefits of climate change mitigation as defined in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are the positive benefits related to the reduction of greenhouse gases . Examples of such climate mitigation policies include improved energy efficiency of plants , renewable energy uptake and fuel switching which might enable a range of co-benefits such as air-pollution impacts , technological innovation , energy-supply security through increased energy diversity , reduced fuel cost and employment possibilities .", "Copper in renewable energy Renewable energy sources such as solar , wind , tidal , hydro , biomass , and geothermal have become significant sectors of the energy market . The rapid growth of these sources in the 21st century has been prompted by increasing costs of fossil fuels as well as their negative environmental impacts . While the average capacity of renewable energy sources was only 7 % globally in 2010 , most installation of new capacity has been with renewables . Few new installations were from fossil fuel-based power plants . The trend towards new power capacity by renewables is expected to continue through 2020 . Since renewable energy supplies offset the amount of fossil fuels that need to be combusted in power plants , the use of renewables indirectly helps to reduce CO2 emissions . Hence , renewable energy supplies enable societies to progress towards lower-carbon-based economies . Copper plays an important role in renewable energy systems . Since copper is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor among the engineering metals ( second only to silver ) , power systems that utilize copper generate and transmit energy with high efficiency and with minimum environmental impacts . By using copper instead of other lower electrical energy-efficient metal conductors , less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy a given power demand . This article discusses the role of copper in various renewable energy generation systems .", "Renewable energy in the Philippines Renewable energy accounts for 26.44 % of the total electrical energy needs in the Philippines , according to a 2013 survey . Renewable energy sources provided 19,903 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy out of a total need of 75,266 gigawatt-hours in 2013 . There are five main types of renewable energy used in the Philippines , hydropower , geothermal power , wind power , solar power and biomass power . There has been pressure to increase the Philippines ' usage of renewable energy sources in recent years due to the negative effects of fossil fuels -- such as pollution , accelerated climate change and fluctuating prices . A number of laws have been passed by the Philippine Congress to support the use of renewable energy including the Electric Power Industry Reform Act ( 2001 ) , which promotes the use of local and sustainable energy sources to replace imported fossil fuel sources ; the Biofuels Act ( 2006 ) , which encourages the use of biomass fuels ; the Renewable Energy Act ( 2008 ) ; and the Climate Change Act ( 2009 ) , which provides a legal basis for the tackling of climate change through sustainable development . The laws enacted by Congress have resulted in a significant degree of cooperation from private companies producing renewable energy , many of which have contracts with the Philippine Government .", "Algae fuel Algae fuel , algal biofuel , or algal oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses algae as its source of energy-rich oils . Also , algae fuels are an alternative to common known biofuel sources , such as corn and sugarcane . Several companies and government agencies are funding efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and make algae fuel production commercially viable . Like fossil fuel , algae fuel releases when burnt , but unlike fossil fuel , algae fuel and other biofuels only release recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the algae or plant grew . The energy crisis and the world food crisis have ignited interest in algaculture ( farming algae ) for making biodiesel and other biofuels using land unsuitable for agriculture . Among algal fuels ' attractive characteristics are that they can be grown with minimal impact on fresh water resources , can be produced using saline and wastewater , have a high flash point , and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled . Algae cost more per unit mass than other second-generation biofuel crops due to high capital and operating costs , but are claimed to yield between 10 and 100 times more fuel per unit area . The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States , it would require 15000 sqmi , which is only 0.42 % of the U.S. map , or about half of the land area of Maine . This is less than the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000 . According to the head of the Algal Biomass Organization , algae fuel can reach price parity with oil in 2018 if granted production tax credits . However , in 2013 , Exxon Mobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson said that after committing to spend up to $ 600 million over 10 years on development in a joint venture with J. Craig Venter 's Synthetic Genomics in 2009 , Exxon pulled back after four years ( and $ 100 million ) when it realized that algae fuel is `` probably further '' than 25 years away from commercial viability . On the other hand , Solazyme , Sapphire Energy , and Algenol , among others have begun commercial sale of algal biofuel in 2012 and 2013 , and 2015 , respectively .", "Renewable energy in developing countries Renewable energy technology has sometimes been seen as a costly luxury item by critics , and affordable only in the affluent developed world . This erroneous view has persisted for many years , but 2015 was the first year when investment in non-hydro renewables , was higher in developing countries , with $ 156 billion invested , mainly in China , India , and Brazil . Most developing countries have abundant renewable energy resources , including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these . By developing such energy sources developing countries can reduce their dependence on oil and natural gas , creating energy portfolios that are less vulnerable to price rises . In many circumstances , these investments can be less expensive than fossil fuel energy systems . In isolated rural areas , electricity grid extensions are often not economical . Off‐grid renewable technologies provide a sustainable and cost‐effective alternative to the diesel generators that would be otherwise be deployed in such areas . Renewable technologies can also help to displace other unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene lamps and traditional biomass . Kenya is the world leader in the number of solar power systems installed per capita ( but not the number of watts added ) . More than 30,000 small solar panels , each producing 12 to 30 watts , are sold in Kenya annually . Kenya was the first African country to use geothermal power , and still has the largest installed capacity of geothermal power in Africa at 200 MW , with a potential of up to 10 GW .", "Carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) ( or carbon capture and sequestration ) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from large point sources , such as fossil fuel power plants , transporting it to a storage site , and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere , normally an underground geological formation . The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of into the atmosphere ( from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries ) . It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification . Although has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes , including enhanced oil recovery , the long term storage of is a relatively new concept . The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000 . Other examples include SaskPower 's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power 's Kemper Project . ` CCS ' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of from ambient air as a climate engineering technique . An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall , to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency . CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80 -- 90 % compared to a plant without CCS . The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100 . Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption ( or carbon scrubbing ) , membrane gas separation , or adsorption technologies . Amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology . Capturing and compressing may increase the energy needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25 -- 40 % . These and other system costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21 -- 91 % for fossil fuel power plants . Applying the technology to existing plants would be more expensive , especially if they are far from a sequestration site . A 2005 industry report suggests that with successful research , development and deployment ( RD&D ) , sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 may cost less than unsequestered coal-based electricity generation today . Storage of the is envisaged either in deep geological formations , or in the form of mineral carbonates . Deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification . Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites . The National Energy Technology Laboratory ( NETL ) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates . A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain , and there is still the risk that might leak into the atmosphere .", "Hydrogen highway A hydrogen highway is a chain of hydrogen-equipped filling stations and other hydrogen infrastructure along a road or highway which would allow hydrogen powered cars to travel . It is an element of the hydrogen infrastructure that is generally assumed to be a pre-requisite for mass utilization of hydrogen cars . For instance , William Clay Ford Jr. has stated that infrastructure is one of three factors ( also including costs and manufacturability in high volumes ) that hold back the marketability of fuel cell cars ( some commentators , such as Amory Lovins in Natural Capitalism , have argued that such infrastructure may not be necessary ) . Hence , there are plans and proposals to develop hydrogen highways through private and public funds . The use of hydrogen cars has been proposed as a means to reduce local air pollution and carbon emissions because hydrogen fuel cell cars emit clean exhaust . Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas , coal and renewable energy . However , as long as the majority of hydrogen continues to be produced by burning fossil fuels and transported in trucks , pollution is emitted by the hydrogen manufacturing process .", "Molten carbonate fuel cell Molten-carbonate fuel cells ( MCFCs ) are high-temperature fuel cells that operate at temperatures of 600 ° C and above . Molten carbonate fuel cells ( MCFCs ) are currently being developed for natural gas , biogas ( produced as a result of anaerobic digestion or biomass gasification ) , and coal-based power plants for electrical utility , industrial , and military applications . MCFCs are high-temperature fuel cells that use an electrolyte composed of a molten carbonate salt mixture suspended in a porous , chemically inert ceramic matrix of beta-alumina solid electrolyte ( BASE ) . Since they operate at extremely high temperatures of 650 ° C ( roughly 1,200 ° F ) and above , non-precious metals can be used as catalysts at the anode and cathode , reducing costs . Improved efficiency is another reason MCFCs offer significant cost reductions over phosphoric acid fuel cells ( PAFCs ) . Molten carbonate fuel cells can reach efficiencies approaching 60 % , considerably higher than the 37 -- 42 % efficiencies of a phosphoric acid fuel cell plant . When the waste heat is captured and used , overall fuel efficiencies can be as high as 85 % . Unlike alkaline , phosphoric acid , and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells , MCFCs do n't require an external reformer to convert more energy-dense fuels to hydrogen . Due to the high temperatures at which MCFCs operate , these fuels are converted to hydrogen within the fuel cell itself by a process called internal reforming , which also reduces cost . Molten carbonate fuel cells are not prone to poisoning by carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide -- they can even use carbon oxides as fuel -- making them more attractive for fueling with gases made from coal . Because they are more resistant to impurities than other fuel cell types , scientists believe that they could even be capable of internal reforming of coal , assuming they can be made resistant to impurities such as sulfur and particulates that result from converting coal , a dirtier fossil fuel source than many others , into hydrogen . Alternatively , because MCFCs require CO2 be delivered to the cathode along with the oxidizer , they can be used to electrochemically separate carbon dioxide from the flue gas of other fossil fuel power plants for sequestration . The primary disadvantage of current MCFC technology is durability . The high temperatures at which these cells operate and the corrosive electrolyte used accelerate component breakdown and corrosion , decreasing cell life . Scientists are currently exploring corrosion-resistant materials for components as well as fuel cell designs that increase cell life without decreasing performance .", "Air Pollution in Canada Air pollution in Canada arises from the increasing airborne chemicals , matter and biological materials in the air . These factors cause harm to human health , the environment and to the economy . In the Canadian context , the main contributor of air pollution stems from burning fossil fuels for power and energy . Fossil fuels continue to be the main source of fuel for Canadians , even though the government is aware of the negative effects that it has on the environment and human health . Air pollution in Canada continues to be an issue due to the pressures with climate change , increased urbanization and continued reliance on vehicles as the primary source of transportation . A major contributor to the problem of Canadian air pollution are the Alberta Oil Sands . Though they are not closely related to major Canadian Metropolitan Areas , the quality of mostly rural Northern Alberta is poorer than areas of similar population densities in Canada . Toronto and other Canadian municipalities face environmental problems associated with air pollution due to industrial chemicals . Air pollution is Canada continues to negatively affect the environment , leading to an increase in health problems for Canadians , especially regarding leukemia . Air pollution has increased the rate of hospital visits per year and is currently causing premature deaths . There are current policy responses to combat the increasing rate of air pollution in Canada . The agreement is a response to Canada 's transportation and energy production infrastructure as they contribute to the problem of Air Pollution . The Canadian and United States federal governments have required each other to reduce air pollution by specific amounts annually through detailed reporting .", "Sustainable transport Sustainable transport refers to the broad subject of transport that is sustainable in the senses of social , environmental and climate impacts and the ability to , in the global scope , supply the source energy indefinitely . Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road , water or air transport ; the source of energy ; and the infrastructure used to accommodate the transport ( roads , railways , airways , waterways , canals and terminals ) . Another component for evaluation is pipelines for transporting liquid or gas materials . Transport operations and logistics as well as transit-oriented development are also involved in evaluation . Transportation sustainability is largely being measured by transportation system effectiveness and efficiency as well as the environmental and climate impacts of the system . Short-term activity often promotes incremental improvement in fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions controls while long-term goals include migrating transportation from fossil-based energy to other alternatives such as renewable energy and use of other renewable resources . The entire life cycle of transport systems is subject to sustainability measurement and optimization . Sustainable transport systems make a positive contribution to the environmental , social and economic sustainability of the communities they serve . Transport systems exist to provide social and economic connections , and people quickly take up the opportunities offered by increased mobility , with poor households benefiting greatly from low carbon transport options . The advantages of increased mobility need to be weighed against the environmental , social and economic costs that transport systems pose . Transport systems have significant impacts on the environment , accounting for between 20 % and 25 % of world energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions . The majority of the emissions , almost 97 % , came from direct burning of fossil fuels . Greenhouse gas emissions from transport are increasing at a faster rate than any other energy using sector . Road transport is also a major contributor to local air pollution and smog . The United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) estimates that each year 2.4 million premature deaths from outdoor air pollution could be avoided . Particularly hazardous for health are emissions of black carbon , a component of particulate matter , which is a known cause of respiratory and carcinogenic diseases and a significant contributor to global climate change . The links between greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter make low carbon transport an increasingly sustainable investment at local level -- both by reducing emission levels and thus mitigating climate change ; and by improving public health through better air quality . The social costs of transport include road crashes , air pollution , physical inactivity , time taken away from the family while commuting and vulnerability to fuel price increases . Many of these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars . Traffic congestion imposes economic costs by wasting people 's time and by slowing the delivery of goods and services . Traditional transport planning aims to improve mobility , especially for vehicles , and may fail to adequately consider wider impacts . But the real purpose of transport is access - to work , education , goods and services , friends and family - and there are proven techniques to improve access while simultaneously reducing environmental and social impacts , and managing traffic congestion . Communities which are successfully improving the sustainability of their transport networks are doing so as part of a wider programme of creating more vibrant , livable , sustainable cities .", "Oxy-fuel combustion process Oxy-fuel combustion is the process of burning a fuel using pure oxygen instead of air as the primary oxidant . Since the nitrogen component of air is not heated , fuel consumption is reduced , and higher flame temperatures are possible . Historically , the primary use of oxy-fuel combustion has been in welding and cutting of metals , especially steel , since oxy-fuel allows for higher flame temperatures than can be achieved with an air-fuel flame . There is currently research being done in firing fossil-fueled power plants with an oxygen-enriched gas mix instead of air . Almost all of the nitrogen is removed from input air , yielding a stream that is approximately 95 % oxygen . Firing with pure oxygen would result in too high a flame temperature , so the mixture is diluted by mixing with recycled flue gas , or staged combustion . The recycled flue gas can also be used to carry fuel into the boiler and ensure adequate convective heat transfer to all boiler areas . Oxy-fuel combustion produces approximately 75 % less flue gas than air fueled combustion and produces exhaust consisting primarily of CO2 and H2O ( see figure ) . The justification for using oxy-fuel is to produce a CO2 rich flue gas ready for sequestration . Oxy-fuel combustion has significant advantages over traditional air-fired plants . Among these are : The mass and volume of the flue gas are reduced by approximately 75 % . Because the flue gas volume is reduced , less heat is lost in the flue gas . The size of the flue gas treatment equipment can be reduced by 75 % . The flue gas is primarily CO2 , suitable for sequestration . The concentration of pollutants in the flue gas is higher , making separation easier . Most of the flue gases are condensable ; this makes compression separation possible . Heat of condensation can be captured and reused rather than lost in the flue gas . Because nitrogen from air is absent , nitrogen oxide production is greatly reduced . Economically speaking this method costs more than a traditional air-fired plant . The main problem has been separating oxygen from the air . This process needs lots of energy , nearly 15 % of production by a coal-fired power station can be consumed for this process . However , a new technology which is not yet practical called chemical looping combustion can be used to reduce this cost . In chemical looping combustion , the oxygen required to burn the coal is produced internally by oxidation and reduction reactions , as opposed to using more expensive methods of generating oxygen by separating it from air . At present in the absence of any need to reduce CO2 emissions , oxy-fuel is not competitive . However , oxy-fuel is a viable alternative to removing CO2 from the flue gas from a conventional air-fired fossil fuel plant . However , an oxygen concentrator might be able to help , as it simply removes nitrogen . In industries other than power generation , oxy-fuel combustion can be competitive due to higher sensible heat availability . Oxy-fuel combustion is common in various aspects of metal production . The glass industry has been converting to oxy-fuel since the early 1990s because glass furnaces require a temperature of approximately 2800 degrees F , which is not attainable at adiabatic flame temperatures for air-fuel combustion unless heat is regenerated between the flue stream and the incoming air stream . Historically , glass furnace regenerators were large and expensive high temperature brick ducts filled with brick arranged in a checkerboard pattern to capture heat as flue gas exits the furnace . When the flue duct is thoroughly heated , air flow is reversed and the flue duct becomes the air inlet , releasing its heat into the incoming air , and allowing for higher furnace temperatures than can be attained with air-fuel only . Two sets of regenerative flue ducts allowed for the air flow to be reversed at regular intervals , and thus maintain a high temperature in the incoming air . By allowing new furnaces to be built without the expense of regenerators , and especially with the added benefit of nitrogen oxide reduction , which allows glass plants to meet emission restrictions , oxy-fuel is cost effective without the need to reduce CO2 emissions . Oxy-fuel combustion also reduces CO2 release at the glass plant location , although this may be offset by CO2 production due to electric power generation which is necessary to produce oxygen for the combustion process . Oxy-fuel combustion may also be cost effective in the incineration of low BTU value hazardous waste fuels . Oxy-fuel combustion is often combined with staged combustion for nitrogen oxide reduction , since pure oxygen can stabilize combustion characteristics of a flame .", "The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen The Phoenix Project : Shifting from Oil To Hydrogen is a 360-page book authored by Harry Braun that provides a plan for the USA to shift from oil and other fossil and nuclear fuels to wind powered hydrogen production systems by 2020 . From a technology perspective , wind machines are no more difficult to manufacture than automobiles , which is why they could have been mass-produced for large-scale hydrogen production in the 1920s . Making hydrogen from the wind and water is the `` silver bullet '' that can make the USA energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels . Indeed , it is the only energy option that is pollution-free , carbon-free and can displace all fossil and nuclear fuels worldwide forever because it is completely renewable . Every green plant on the earth is a solar hydrogen machine that extracts hydrogen from water ( H20 ) with the energy of the sun . Rather than waiting for fuel cells or hybrid vehicles , the Phoenix Project advocates simply modifying every existing vehicle ( and power plant ) to use hydrogen . Category : Hydrogen economy Category : Environmental non-fiction books", "Renewable energy in China China is the world 's leading country in electricity production from renewable energy sources , with over double the generation of the second-ranking country , the United States . China 's renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity . In 2013 the country had a total capacity of 378 GW of renewable power , mainly from hydroelectric and wind power . Although China currently has the world 's largest installations of hydro , solar and wind power , its energy needs are so large that in 2013 renewables provided just a little over 20 % of its power generation , with most of the remainder provided by traditional coal power facilities . Nevertheless , the share of renewables in the energy mix had been gradually rising from 2013 and targets from 2015 onwards have represented a step change in ambition . China sees renewables as a source of energy security and not just only to reduce carbon emission . China 's Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution issued by China 's State Council in September 2013 , illustrates the government 's desire to increase the share of renewables in China 's energy mix . Unlike oil , coal and gas , the supplies of which are finite and subject to geopolitical tensions , renewable energy systems can be built and used wherever there is sufficient water , wind , and sun . From 2005 to 2014 , production of solar cells in China has expanded 100-fold . As Chinese renewable manufacturing has grown , the costs of renewable energy technologies have dropped dramatically . Innovation has helped , but the main driver of reduced costs has been market expansion . In 2015 China became the world 's largest producer of photovoltaic power , with 43 GW of total installed capacity .", "Australian Local Government Fossil Fuel Divestment In Australia , fossil fuel divestment is being led by Universities and Local Councils . In 2015 , the number of Australian councils with divestment commitments increased dramatically from 2 to 17 . On 15 September 2016 , the status of Australian council divestment was : Fossil free investment funds held by Australian Local Councils : $ 6,181,195,620 Number of Local Councils with fossil free divestment commitments : 27 Most Australian councils can not invest in shares , meaning they have no investments directly in climate-change-contributing fossil fuel companies . However , most councils have exposure to fossil fuels via their term deposit accounts with the big Australian banks whom in turn are financing billions of dollars worth of coal and gas projects across the country . Many councils have been identifying their exposure to ` fossil ' banks and have found that the majority of Australian banks ( particularly banks other than the ` big four ' ) do not provide finance for the fossil fuel industry . Research on which banks fund the fossil fuel industry , and those that do not , has been completed and is routinely updated by Market Forces an independent research organisation . Although there have been some public commitments indicating the Australian ` big four ' banks will not invest in certain fossil fuel related projects , at 30 June 2016 , the ` big four ' remain heavily invested in fossil fuel .", "Seaweed fuel Seaweed fuel or seaweed oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses seaweed as its source of energy-rich oils . Like fossil fuel , seaweed fuel releases when burnt , but unlike fossil fuel , algae fuel and other biofuels only release recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the seaweed or plant grew . Unlike algae , seaweed does not require fresh water and can as such be grown in the sea .", "Zero-energy building A zero-energy building , also known as a zero net energy ( ZNE ) building , net-zero energy building ( NZEB ) , or net zero building , is a building with zero net energy consumption , meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site , or in other definitions by renewable energy sources elsewhere . These buildings consequently contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than similar non-ZNE buildings . They do at times consume non-renewable energy and produce greenhouse gases , but at other times reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas production elsewhere by the same amount . A similar concept approved and implemented by the European Union and other agreeing countries is nearly Zero Energy Building ( nZEB ) , with the goal of having all buildings in the region under nZEB standards by 2020 . Most zero net energy buildings get half or more of their energy from the grid , and return the same amount at other times . Buildings that produce a surplus of energy over the year may be called `` energy-plus buildings '' and buildings that consume slightly more energy than they produce are called `` near-zero energy buildings '' or `` ultra-low energy houses '' . Traditional buildings consume 40 % of the total fossil fuel energy in the US and European Union and are significant contributors of greenhouse gases . The zero net energy consumption principle is viewed as a means to reduce carbon emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuels and although zero-energy buildings remain uncommon even in developed countries , they are gaining importance and popularity . Most zero-energy buildings use the electrical grid for energy storage but some are independent of the grid . Energy is usually harvested on-site through energy producing technologies like solar and wind , while reducing the overall use of energy with highly efficient HVAC and lighting technologies . The zero-energy goal is becoming more practical as the costs of alternative energy technologies decrease and the costs of traditional fossil fuels increase . The development of modern zero-energy buildings became possible not only through the progress made in new energy and construction technologies and techniques , but it has also been significantly improved by academic research , which collects precise energy performance data on traditional and experimental buildings and provides performance parameters for advanced computer models to predict the efficacy of engineering designs . Zero-energy buildings can be part of a smart grid . Some advantages of these buildings are as follows : Integration of renewable energy resources Integration of plug-in electric vehicles Implementation of zero-energy concepts The net zero concept is applicable to a wide range of resources due to the many options for producing and conserving resources in buildings ( e.g. energy , water , waste ) . Energy is the first resource to be targeted because it is highly managed , expected to continually become more efficient , and the ability to distribute and allocate it will improve disaster resiliency .", "Battery electric multiple unit A battery electric multiple unit , battery electric railcar or accumulator railcar is an electrically driven multiple unit or railcar whose energy is derived from rechargeable batteries that drive its traction motors . The main advantage of these vehicles is their clean , quiet operation . They do not use fossil fuels like coal or diesel fuel , emit no exhaust gases and do not require the railway to have expensive infrastructure like electric ground rails or overhead catenary . On the down side is the weight of the batteries , which raises the vehicle weight , and their range before recharging of between 300 and 600 kilometres . Currently , battery electric units have a higher purchase price and running cost than petrol or diesel railcars , needing one or more charging stations along the routes they operate . Battery technology has greatly improved over the past 20 years broadening the scope of use of battery trains , moving away from limited niche applications . Despite higher purchase and running costs , on certain railway lines battery trains are economically viable as the very high cost and maintenance of full line electrification is eliminated . From March 2014 passenger battery trains have been in operation in Japan on a number of lines . Britain successfully trialled fare paying passenger hybrid overhead wire/lithium battery trains in January and February 2015 .", "Energy in Chile Chile 's total primary energy supply ( TPES ) was 36.10 Mtoe in 2014 . Energy in Chile is dominated by fossil fuels , with coal , oil and gas accounting for 73.4 % of the total primary energy . Biofuels and waste account for another 20.5 % of primary energy supply , with the rest sourced from hydro and other renewables . Electricity consumption was 68.90 TWh in 2014 . Main sources of electricity in Chile are hydroelectricity , gas , oil and coal . Renewable energy in the forms of wind and solar energy are also coming into use , encouraged by collaboration since 2009 with the United States Department of Energy . The electricity industry is privatized with ENDESA as the largest company in the field .", "Road Logistics Costing in South Africa Road logistics costing in South Africa amounts to anything between 7.4 % and 12.8 % of the South African gross domestic product ( GDP ) depending on the fluctuations in the annual fuel price . Road logistics consist of any road freight transported on South African primary and secondary roads . Most imports and local freight are carried on primary and secondary roads while most freight carried in the agriculture markets are done on non paved roads . Road logistics cost in South Africa account for 50.4 % of total logistics cost and is very sensitive to the crude oil price as this influences the South African fuel price . The cost of fuel as a percentage of total road logistics cost amounts to 30 % of total cost . Road logistics costing consists of fixed cost and variable cost .", "Vegetable oils as alternative energy Vegetable oils are increasingly used as a substitute for fossil fuels . Vegetable oils are the basis of biodiesel , which can be used like conventional diesel . Some vegetable oil blends are used in unmodified vehicles , but straight vegetable oil needs specially prepared vehicles which have a method of heating the oil to reduce its viscosity and surface tension . Another alternative is vegetable oil refining . The availability of biodiesel around the world is increasing , although still tiny compared to conventional fossil fuel sources . There is significant research in algaculture methods to make biofuel from algae . Concerns have been expressed about growing crops for fuel use rather than food and the environmental impacts of large-scale agriculture and land clearing required to expand the production of vegetable oil for fuel use . These effects/impacts would need to be specifically researched and evaluated , economically and ecologically , and weighed in balance with the proposed benefits of vegetable oil fuel in relation to the use of other fuel sources .", "Longview Power Plant Longview Power Plant is the cleanest , most efficient coal-fired power plant in the 13-state PJM Interconnection and one of the most efficient in the United States , producing 700 net megawatts of electric power . Located near Morgantown , West Virginia , Longview has a heat rate of 8,700 Btu/kwh , surpassing that of other comparable coal-fired power plants in the country . Longview 's advanced supercritical boiler , low cost fuel , minimal water usage and other efficiencies combine to produce the lowest cost of dispatch ( delivery of electricity ) of any coal-fired plant in the region . The Longview Power plant includes a new air pollution control system that results in emissions that are among the lowest in the nation for coal plants . In addition , Longview emits less CO2 than most other coal plants because of its fuel efficiency . The Longview Power plant is fully integrated with its fuel source , utilizing `` run-of-mine '' coal , and thus avoiding the added cost and environmental impacts of fuel preparation . Mepco , an affiliated fuel supplier , transports coal from its underground mine to Longview by a 4.5 mile conveyor that minimizes transportation costs and avoids the local impacts of trucking coal . The Longview Power project cost approximately $ 2.2 billion -- the largest private investment in West Virginia 's history . After the plant began operations in 2011 , construction defects and major changes in the power markets lead to the company 's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 . In early 2015 the company reached a comprehensive settlement of all construction claims , and two of its major contractors agreed to remediate plant defects at their own expense . As a result , Longview Power emerged from bankruptcy in April 2015 with the full remediation of the plant underway and new ownership led by private equity firms KKR , Centerbridge , Ascribe , and Third Avenue . The $ 120 million in improvements by Longview and its contractors has turned the facility into `` the most efficient coal-fired power plant in the U.S. , '' as assessed by a key industry magazine , POWER , which awarded Longview its 2016 Reinvention Award . The Wall Street Journal of January 11 , 2015 , states that coal , according to the Energy Information Administration , will still compromise around 30 % of the fuel source of U.S. electricity by 2030 . Longview and Mepco are described as exemplifying the new era in the coal and power industry . They operate at a profit in a challenging economy and provide employment for miners and power plant workers , producing electricity efficiently and using as many filters as possible to reduce carbon emissions , the article states . SNL Financial , a key trade , reported April 21 , 2016 , on Longview 's 155 days of continuous operation during which it exceeded its operational metrics , with steady environmental performance and at an affordable cost . Longview also used some of its fuel flexibility and took advantage of historically low natural gas prices and co-fired natural gas for up to 20 % of unit heat input without any additional investment . Longview said its carbon dioxide emissions are about 15 % below its peers and that it met its permit limitations despite having some of the most stringent in the nation . Longview was recently visited by Sen. Joe Manchin , D-W . Va. and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito , R-W . Va. . Manchin stated the plant was an example of a cleaner future for coal-fired power . Ernest Moniz , United States Secretary of Energy , also visited the plant .", "Carbon bubble The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production , because the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global warming are not yet taken into account in a company 's stock market valuation . Currently the price of fossil fuels companies ' shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed . An estimate made by Kepler Chevreux puts the loss in value of the fossil fuel companies due to the impact of the growing renewables industry at US$ 28 trillion over the next two decades-long . A more recent analysis made by Citi puts that figure at $ 100 trillion . Analysts in both the petroleum and financial industries are concluding that the `` age of oil '' has already reached a new stage where the excess supply that appeared in late 2014 may continue to prevail in the future . A consensus appears to be emerging that an international agreement will be reached to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 ° C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels . According to the UK 's Committee on Climate Change , overvaluing companies that produce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economy . The committee warned the British government and Bank of England of the risks of the carbon bubble in 2014 . The following year , Mark Carney , the Governor of the Bank of England , in his lecture to Lloyd 's of London , warned that limiting global warming to 2 ° C appears to require that the `` vast majority '' of fossil fuel reserves be `` stranded '' , or `` literally unburnable without expensive carbon-capture technology '' , resulting in `` potentially huge '' exposure to investors in that sector . He concluded that `` the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking '' for responding to the threat that climate change poses to financial resilience and longer-term prosperity , which he called the `` tragedy of the horizon '' . That same month , the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England issued a report discussing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the insurance industry . In his speech announcing his denial of the proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline , U.S. President Barack Obama gave as one reason for the decision '' ... ultimately , if we 're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes , we 're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground ... '' .", "Energy in Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan had a total primary energy supply ( TPES ) of 4.13 Mtoe in 2012 . Electricity consumption was 10.14 TWh . The majority of primary energy came from fossil fuels , with coal ( 25 % ) and oil products ( 38 % ) the main sources . Hydroelectricity , the only significant renewable source in the country , accounted for 8.6 % of the primary energy supply and almost all of the electricity supply .", "Substitute natural gas Substitute natural gas ( SNG ) , or synthetic natural gas , is a fuel gas that can be produced from fossil fuels such as lignite coal , oil shale , or from biofuels ( when it is named bio-SNG ) or from renewable electrical energy . The Great Plains Synfuels Plant injects approximately 4.1 million m3/day of SNG from lignite coal into the United States national gas grid . The production process of SNG at the Great Plains plant involves gasification , gas cleaning , shift , and methanation . China is constructing nearly 30 nos massive SNG production plants from coal / lignite with aggregate annual capacity of 120 billion standard cubic meters of SNG . SNG in the form of LNG or CNG can be used in road , rail , air and marine transport vehicles as a substitute for costly diesel , petrol , etc. . The carbon footprint of SNG derived from coal is comparable to petroleum products . Bio-SNG has a much smaller carbon footprint when compared to petroleum products . LPG can also be produced by synthesising SNG with partial reverse hydrogenation at high pressure and low temperature . LPG is more easily transportable than SNG , more suitable as fuel in two wheeler or smaller HP vehicles / engines and also fetches higher price in international market due to short supply . Renewable electrical energy can also be used to create SNG ( methane ) via for example electrolysis of water or via a PEM fuel cell in reverse to create hydrogen which is then reacted with from for example CSS/U Utilisation in the Sabatier reaction . + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O", "Mark Z. Jacobson Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "Electric vehicle battery An electric vehicle battery ( EVB ) or traction battery is a battery used to power the propulsion of battery electric vehicles ( BEVs ) . Vehicle batteries are usually a secondary ( rechargeable ) battery . Traction batteries are used in forklifts , electric Golf carts , riding floor scrubbers , electric motorcycles , full-size electric cars , trucks , and vans , and other electric vehicles . Electric vehicle batteries differ from starting , lighting , and ignition ( SLI ) batteries because they are designed to give power over sustained periods of time . Deep cycle batteries are used instead of SLI batteries for these applications . Traction batteries must be designed with a high ampere-hour capacity . Batteries for electric vehicles are characterized by their relatively high power-to-weight ratio , energy to weight ratio and energy density ; smaller , lighter batteries reduce the weight of the vehicle and improve its performance . Compared to liquid fuels , most current battery technologies have much lower specific energy ; and this often impacts the maximum all-electric range of the vehicles . However , metal-air batteries have high specific energy because the cathode is provided by the surrounding oxygen in the air . Rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles include lead-acid ( `` flooded '' , Deep cycle , and VRLA ) , NiCd , nickel metal hydride , lithium ion , Li-ion polymer , and , less commonly , zinc-air and molten salt batteries . The amount of electricity ( i.e. electric charge ) stored in batteries is measured in ampere hours or in coulombs , with the total energy often measured in watt hours . The battery makes up a substantial cost of BEVs , which unlike for fossil fueled cars , profoundly manifests itself as a price of range . In the case of the MiEV 2012 model , the price tag and advertised range is close to proportional between two versions with a different battery , giving the ( false ) impression that the battery makes up close to 100 % of the cost ( 95 % for the higher priced version ) . However , some of the price difference comes from extra features in the higher priced version , plus an unknown price premium , making such a retail price comparison a very bad indicator of actual cost of battery capacity , but nevertheless serves to quantify battery capacity as a premium feature . The few electric cars with over 500 km of range ( including Tesla Model S with the 85 kWh battery ) , are firmly in the luxury segment , as of 2015 . Since the late 1990s , advances in battery technology have been driven by demands for portable electronics , like laptop computers and mobile phones . The BEV marketplace has reaped the benefits of these advances . However , Mitsubishi ascribes the price reduction of its 2012 model MiEV , compared to the 2011 model , to `` a dramatic reduction in the cost of batteries '' . The cost of electric vehicle batteries has been reduced by more than 35 % from 2008 to 2014 . Rechargeable traction batteries are routinely used all day , and fast -- charged all night . Forklifts , for instance , are usually discharged and recharged every 24 hours of the work week . The predicted market for automobile traction batteries is over $ 37 billion in 2020 . On an energy basis , the price of electricity to run an EV is a small fraction of the cost of liquid fuel needed to produce an equivalent amount of energy ( energy efficiency ) . The cost of replacing the batteries dominates the operating costs .", "100% renewable energy The endeavor to use 100 % renewable energy for electricity , heating and cooling , and transport is motivated by global warming , pollution and other environmental issues , as well as economic and energy security concerns . Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system . In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that there are few fundamental technological limits to integrating a portfolio of renewable energy technologies to meet most of total global energy demand . Renewable energy use has grown much faster than even advocates anticipated . In 2014 , renewable sources such as wind , geothermal , solar , biomass , and burnt waste provided 19 % of the total energy consumed worldwide , with roughly half of that coming from traditional use of biomass . The most important sector is electricity with a renewable share of 22.8 % , most of it coming from hydropower with a share of 16.6 % , followed by wind with 3.1 % . There are many places around the world with grids that are run almost exclusively on renewable energy . At the national level , at least 30 nations already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 % of the energy supply . Professors S. Pacala and Robert H. Socolow of Princeton University have developed a series of `` Climate stabilization wedges '' that can allow us to maintain our quality of life while avoiding catastrophic climate change , and `` renewable energy sources , '' in aggregate , constitute the largest number of their `` wedges . '' Mark Z. Jacobson , professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy program , says that producing all new energy with wind power , solar power , and hydropower by 2030 is feasible , and that existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050 . Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be `` primarily social and political , not technological or economic '' . Jacobson says that energy costs today with a wind , solar , and water system should be similar to today 's energy costs from other optimally cost-effective strategies . The main obstacle against this scenario is the lack of political will . Similarly , in the United States , the independent National Research Council has noted that `` sufficient domestic renewable resources exist to allow renewable electricity to play a significant role in future electricity generation and thus help confront issues related to climate change , energy security , and the escalation of energy costs ... Renewable energy is an attractive option because renewable resources available in the United States , taken collectively , can supply significantly greater amounts of electricity than the total current or projected domestic demand . '' The main barriers to the widespread implementation of large-scale renewable energy and low-carbon energy strategies are political rather than technological . According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report , which reviewed many international studies , the key roadblocks are : climate change denial , the fossil fuels lobby , political inaction , unsustainable energy consumption , outdated energy infrastructure , and financial constraints .", "Renewable natural gas Renewable natural gas , also known as sustainable natural gas , is a biogas which has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil natural gas . A biogas is a gas methane obtained from biomass . By upgrading the quality to that of natural gas , it becomes possible to distribute the gas to customers via the existing gas grid , within existing appliances . Renewable natural gas is a subset of synthetic natural gas or substitute natural gas ( SNG ) . Renewable natural gas can be produced economically , and distributed via the existing gas grid , making it an attractive means of supplying existing premises with renewable heat and renewable gas energy , while requiring no extra capital outlay of the customer . Renewable natural gas can be converted into liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) for direct use as fuel in transport sector . LNG would fetch good price equivalent to gasoline or diesel as it can replace these fuels in transport sector . The existing gas network allows distribution of gas energy over vast distances at a minimal cost in energy . Existing networks would allow biogas to be sourced from remote markets that are rich in low-cost biomass ( Russia or Scandinavia for example ) . The UK National Grid believes that at least 15 % of all gas consumed could be made from matter such as sewage , food waste such as food thrown away by supermarkets and restaurants , and organic waste created by businesses such as breweries .", "Wind power in Iran This article discuss the development and implementation of wind power in Iran . Iran has relied primarily on a fossil fuel-based energy sector to power its country . However , in the last decade Iran has made steps to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels by investing in the renewable energy of wind power . This article discuss the process as well as the reasons for Iran 's interest in renewable energy ; the positive and negative effects as a result of the presence of wind power ; the political dynamics occurring in Iran ; and its attempt to also invest in nuclear energy as well .", "Trams in Klagenfurt The Klagenfurt Tram network operated in various forms between 1891 and 1963 , which was when diesel buses took over , reflecting lower operating costs at a time of relatively low prices for oil based fuels . In 2005 , in response to exceptional levels of particulates pollution in Klagenfurt the city authorities proposed a resumption of tram services . A feasibility study was commissioned , but concluded that the cost of the necessary investment would be prohibitive .", "Free energy suppression conspiracy theory Free energy suppression ( or new energy suppression ) is a conspiracy theory that technologically viable , pollution-free , no-cost energy sources are being suppressed by government , corporations , or advocacy groups . Devices allegedly suppressed include perpetual motion machines , cold fusion generators , torus-based generators , reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and other generally unproven , low-cost energy sources . The alleged suppression ( or weakening ) is claimed to have occurred since the mid-19th century and allegedly perpetrated by various government agencies , corporate powers , special interest groups , and fraudulent inventors . The special interest groups are usually claimed to be associated with the fossil fuel or nuclear industry , whose business model would be threatened . Claims of suppression include : The claim that the scientific community has controlled and suppressed research into alternative avenues of energy generation via the institutions of peer review and academic pressure . The claim that devices exist which are capable of extracting significant and usable power from pre-existing unconventional energy reservoirs , such as the quantum vacuum zero point energy , for little or no cost , but are being suppressed . The claim that more efficient versions of renewable energy technologies ( such as solar cells and biofuels ) and energy-consuming technologies ( such as electric vehicles ) are being suppressed . Some examples of individuals who were allegedly suppressed , harassed or killed for their research are : Thomas Henry Moray , Stanley Meyer and Eugene Mallove ." ]

[ "Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was formally launched on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state primaries, caucuses, and delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He chose Mike Pence, the sitting Governor of Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate. On November 8, 2016, Trump and Pence were elected president and vice president of the United States. Trump's populist positions in opposition to illegal immigration and various trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, earned him support especially among voters who were male, white, blue-collar, working class, and those without college degrees.Many of Trump's remarks were controversial and helped his campaign garner extensive coverage by the mainstream media, trending topics, and social media. Trump's campaign rallies attracted large crowds as well as public controversy. Some of the events were marked by incidents of violence between Trump supporters and protesters, mistreatment of some journalists, and disruption by a large group of protesters who effectively shut down a major rally in Chicago. Trump himself was accused of inciting violence at his rallies.Trump's disdain for political correctness was a staple theme of his campaign and proved popular among his supporters. Many, including some mainstream commentators and some prominent Republicans, viewed him as appealing to racism, a charge that Trump has repeatedly denied. Trump's most polarizing and widely reported proposals were about issues of immigration and border security, especially his proposed deportation of all illegal immigrants, the proposed construction of a substantial wall on the Mexico–United States border at Mexican expense, his characterizations of many illegal Mexican immigrants as \"criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc\", and a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S. (which he later modified to apply to people originating from countries which he described as having a history of terrorism against the United States or its allies).Opposition to Trump grew during his campaign among both Republicans (who viewed Trump as irrevocably damaging to the party and its chances of winning elections during and after 2016, leading to the coalescence of the Stop Trump movement) and Democrats (who decried Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies, his behavior toward critics, his treatment of the media, and his support from the ethno-nationalist alt-right). Although some prominent Republican leaders declined to endorse Trump after he won the Republican nomination, many Republican congress-members showed support for Trump and his policy positions despite major personal or political conflicts with him. Some such supporters of Trump's campaign were accused, by both conservatives and liberals, of prioritizing party loyalty and avoiding alienation of Trump supporters to ensure re-election, thereby refraining from condemning Trump's actions.On January 6, 2017, the United States government's intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 United States elections against the campaign of Hillary Clinton and in support of Trump. As president, Trump has repeatedly rejected the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence agencies.", "Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence ( born June 7 , 1959 ) is an American politician , lawyer , and the 48th and current Vice President of the United States . He previously served as the 50th Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017 . Born and raised in Columbus , Indiana , Pence graduated from Hanover College and earned a law degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law before entering private practice . After losing two bids for a U.S. congressional seat in 1988 and 1990 , he became a conservative radio and television talk show host from 1994 to 1999 . Pence was elected to the United States Congress in 2000 and represented and in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013 . He served as the chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011 . Pence positioned himself as a principled ideologue and supporter of the Tea Party movement , noting he was `` a Christian , a conservative , and a Republican , in that order . '' Upon becoming Governor of Indiana in January 2013 , Pence initiated the largest tax cut in Indiana 's history , pushed for more funding for education initiatives , and continued to increase the state 's budget surplus . Pence signed bills intended to restrict abortions , including one that prohibited abortions if the reason for the procedure was the fetus 's race , gender , or disability . Pence stirred several high-profile controversies , including with his signature of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act , for which he encountered fierce resistance from moderate members of his party , the business community , and LGBT advocates . He later signed an additional bill acting as an amendment intended to protect LGBT people . On November 8 , 2016 , Pence was elected as Vice President , after he dropped out of his gubernatorial re-election campaign in July to become the vice presidential running mate for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump , who went on to win the presidential election .", "Scott Pruitt Edward Scott Pruitt ( born May 9 , 1968 ) is an American lawyer and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma who is currently the 14th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency . Nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2016 , Pruitt was confirmed by the Senate to lead the EPA on February 17 , 2017 . Pruitt represented Tulsa and Wagoner Counties in the Oklahoma Senate from 1998 until 2006 . In 2006 , Pruitt narrowly lost to Oklahoma Speaker of the House Todd Hiett in a bid for the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma . In 2010 , Pruitt was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma . In that role , he was viewed as a proponent of federalism , supporting religious freedom laws and opposing abortion rights , same-sex marriage , the Affordable Care Act , and environmental regulations as a self-described `` leading advocate against the EPA 's activist agenda '' . He fought the agency 's efforts on climate and clear air in several lawsuits , often closely coordinating with the fossil fuel industry , which supported him with almost $ 300,000 in campaign contributions . In 2012 , Pruitt was elected as chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association , and re-elected for a second term in February 2013 . Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus that human activities are a primary contributor to climate change . He specifically rejects the stance of the scientific community , including US agencies NASA and NOAA , that carbon dioxide is the primary contributor ." ]

[ "Trump Tower wiretapping allegations On March 4 , 2017 , U.S. President Donald Trump wrote a series of posts on his Twitter account that accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping the phones of his Trump Tower office late in the 2016 presidential campaign . Trump presented no evidence for his claim but called for a congressional investigation . The Trump administration later stated that reports from various news sources supported Trump 's claim , although none of these reports explicitly gave credence to Trump 's allegation . Representative Devin Nunes , who chairs the House Intelligence Committee , vowed to investigate the claim , later stating that the committee had found no evidence for Trump 's statement . At a House Intelligence Committee open hearing on March 20 , 2017 , FBI Director James Comey stated that neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice possessed any information to support Donald Trump 's wiretapping allegations . On March 23 , it was announced that , according to Nunes , the Trump administration 's communications might have been legally monitored during the transition period as part of an `` incidental collection '' , though officials for the Obama administration denied involvement . On April 5 , 2017 , Trump made accusations without evidence related to the wiretapping allegations , saying that Obama 's former National Security Adviser Susan Rice had committed a crime by attempting to unmask the identities of Trump associates collected during surveillance by US intelligence agencies related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections . On April 12 , sources from both the Republican and Democratic parties said that the original documents cited by Nunes do not support claims that the Obama administration acted illegally or unusually .", "Don Benton Donald Mark Benton ( born April 8 , 1957 ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . He is originally from Santa Clarita , California and was a member of the Washington State Senate from 1997 until 2017 , where he represented Washington 's 17th legislative district . He served as campaign director for Donald Trump in Washington state in 2016 . After that he was appointed as a `` senior White House adviser '' at the US Environmental Protection Agency for a few weeks , but reportedly did not work well with newly-appointed agency head Scott Pruitt . In April of 2017 Benton was named by President Trump as the 13th Director of the Selective Service System .", "Trump–Tsai call The Trump -- Tsai call is a telephone conversation between the U.S President-elect Donald Trump and the President of the Republic of China ( commonly known as Taiwan ) Tsai Ing-wen which took place on December 2 , 2016 . This event marked the first time since 1979 that a U.S. President or President-elect had directly spoken with a ROC President . In the call , Tsai congratulated Trump for his victory in the presidential election . The two leaders spoke for around 10 minutes , focusing on politics , economy , and security in Asia-Pacific . Following the call , Trump publicized this on Twitter and Facebook and said thank you to `` the President of Taiwan '' . After Trump 's transition team confirmed the event , the Presidential Office of Taiwan released a statement about the content of the call . Several prominent Republicans have praised the call between the democratically elected leaders , saying that the United States needs no more pressure from the government of the People 's Republic of China ( commonly called `` China '' ) , which does n't recognize the ROC government and claims Taiwan is part of its territory . Some U.S. media outlets expressed that the call has humiliated Beijing as it seems a violation of a diplomatic practice . Other media and comments points out the weird status quo and believe Trump 's move is moral right and strategically correct for American interests . Wang Yi , the Foreign Minister of the People 's Republic of China subsequently responded that this event is only a `` small trick '' played by Taiwan and will not change the One China Policy . A spokesperson for the Presidential Office in Taipei expressed that there is no conflict between the Cross-Strait relations and the Taiwan -- U.S. relations . The Obama administration has also expressed that the U.S. will uphold the One China Policy . Trump later responded by saying that the U.S. does not have to be bound by that policy .", "Timeline of the Trump presidency, 2017 Q1 The following is a timeline of the presidency of Donald Trump during the first quarter of 2017 . Other articles relating to Donald Trump 's post-election activities are : Presidential transition of Donald Trump First 100 days of Donald Trump 's presidency List of executive actions by Donald Trump List of presidential trips made by Donald Trump ( international trips )", "Keith Kellogg Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. ( born May 12 , 1944 ) , known as Keith Kellogg , is a retired Lieutenant General in the United States Army who is currently serving as the Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council in the Trump administration . Notably , he served as National Security Advisor on an acting basis following the resignation of Michael T. Flynn . President Donald Trump put Kellogg in charge of the presidential transition agency action team for defense . He was named a foreign policy advisor to then-presidential candidate Trump in March 2016 .", "Rogue Twitter accounts Following the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of United States a ` Resist ' movement began for those in opposition to his presidency . Employees within government organisations and departments took to Twitter to anonymously voice their opposition using accounts that are typically prefixed with either Rogue or Alt . Alice Stollmeyer has dubbed this Twitter resistance movement '' #twistance '' . It 's thought that the Badlands Park Service were the first to create a ` rogue account ' in opposition to President Trump 's assertion that Climate Change was n't real .", "Donald Trump presidential campaign There have been three presidential campaigns waged by Donald Trump for President of the United States . He has additionally mused about running on several other occasions . Donald Trump presidential campaign may refer to : Donald Trump presidential campaign , 2000 ( Trump 2000 ) -LSB- unsuccessful -RSB- Donald Trump presidential campaign , 2016 ( Trump 2016 ) -LSB- successful -RSB- Donald Trump becomes the 45th U.S. President Donald Trump presidential campaign , 2020 ( Trump 2020 ) -LSB- underway -RSB- Donald Trump bids to become re-elected as U.S. President", "Donald Trump in music Donald Trump in music refers to songs , albums and bands that refer to Donald Trump and his various brands , including Trump Tower , his TV show , his hotel chain , and his casinos . Though recent songs refer to Trump 's campaign and subsequent election as president of the United States , more than 200 songs refer to Trump prior to his successful presidential campaign between 1989 and 2013 . With his victory in the 2016 presidential election , Trump 's prominence in hip-hop music has been liked to that of Ronald Reagan 's in hardcore punk during the 1980s .", "Timeline of the presidency of Donald Trump Donald Trump was elected President of the United States on November 8 , 2016 and was inaugurated on January 20 , 2017 . He is currently serving his day in office . A daily chronicle of his presidency is available for each quarter : Timeline of the Trump presidency , 2017 Q1 Timeline of the Trump presidency , 2017 Q2 * Presidency of Donald Trump Trump Trump", "David M. Friedman David Melech Friedman ( born 1958 or 1959 ) is an American bankruptcy lawyer and the United States Ambassador to Israel . He joined the law firm Kasowitz , Benson , Torres & Friedman ( then known as Kasowitz , Hoff , Benson & Torres ) in 1994 , where he met and represented Donald Trump , then chairman and president of The Trump Organization . He served as an advisor to Trump during his successful presidential campaign . In December 2016 , President-elect Trump 's transition team announced that Friedman was Trump 's nominee for ambassador . His nomination was met with support from conservative Israeli and Jewish American activist groups , and opposition from liberal advocacy organizations , particularly J Street . He was confirmed by the full Senate on March 23 , 2017 , with a 52 -- 46 vote , officially sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on March 29 and presented his credentials on May 15 .", "Anthony Senecal Anthony Senecal is the ex-butler of Donald Trump , and is currently employed as the `` in house historian '' and tour leader at Trump 's private club and part-time residence , Mar-a-Lago . He entered the public spotlight in 2016 when numerous Facebook posts he made were exposed by Mother Jones . They included calls for executing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton . Senecal endorsed Donald Trump for president . Trump called Senecal 's remarks `` disgusting '' , adding that `` Mr. Senecal is obviously a very troubled man . '' Trump 's campaign also disavowed Senecal 's views when they were made public , but Senecal was allowed to continue conducting tours at the Trump property in Florida .", "Data rescue Data Rescue is a name for both a movement among scientists , researchers and others and the processes they use to preserve primarily government-hosted data sets , often scientific in nature , to ward off their removal from publicly available websites . While the concept of preserving federal data existed before , it gained new impetus with the election in 2016 of U.S. President Donald Trump . The concept of harvesting and preserving federal web pages began as early as 2008 , at the conclusion of President George W. Bush 's second term , under the name `` End of Term Presidential Harvest . '' Soon after Trump 's election , scientists , librarians and others in the U.S. and Canada -- fearing that the administration of Trump ( who had expressed doubts about the validity of the scientific consensus on the existence of climate change ) would act to remove scientific data from government websites -- began working to preserve that data . In quick order , the concept of Data Rescue became a grassroots movement , with organized `` hackathon '' events at cities across the U.S. and elsewhere , often hosted at universities and other institutions of higher education . Among the projects involved are the DataRefuge Project and the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative .", "Michigan v. EPA Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency , , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court analyzed whether the Environmental Protection Agency must consider costs when deciding to regulate , rather than later in the process of issuing the regulation . Writing for a 5 -- 4 majority , Justice Antonin Scalia held that the EPA must consider costs and that it interpreted the Clean Air Act unreasonably when it determined that it did not need to consider costs when it issued a `` finding '' that it was `` necessary and appropriate '' to regulate . Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency praised the Court 's decision , while other commentators criticized Justice Scalia 's decision to ignore health impacts in his opinion . Some commentators suggested that the decision may derail President Barack Obama 's climate change agenda entirely .", "David Urban David Urban is a Republican operative and lobbyist . Urban joined Donald Trump 's team during the 2016 GOP primaries . In November 2016 President-elect Donald Trump was considering Dave Urban as the next chair of the Republican National Committee .", "Trump fragrances Businessman Donald Trump has produced several lines of fragrances , including Donald Trump , The Fragrance ; Success ; and Empire . The Success line was discontinued in 2015 following Trump 's negative comments on the 2016 presidential campaign trail . According to the Environmental Working Group in 2016 , the fragrances contained ingredients that were linked to various health conditions . As of November 8 , 2016 , all of Trump 's fragrances are reported to be in the process of being discontinued .", "Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections United States intelligence agencies have concluded that there was Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections . In January 2017 , a published U.S. intelligence community assessment expressed `` high confidence '' that the Russian government favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an `` influence campaign '' to denigrate Clinton and to harm her electoral chances and potential presidency . The report concluded that Russia used disinformation , data thefts , leaks , and social media `` trolls '' in an effort to give an advantage to Trump over Clinton but did not target or compromise vote tallying . These conclusions were reaffirmed by the lead intelligence officials in the Trump administration in May 2017 . Intelligence allies of the U.S. in Europe had found communications between suspected Russian agents and the Trump campaign as early as 2015 . Some media organizations have referred to this interference as `` Kremlingate '' . On October 7 , 2016 , the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ( DNI ) and the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) jointly stated that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) servers and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta 's personal email account and leaked their documents to WikiLeaks . Several cybersecurity firms stated that the cyberattacks were committed by Russian intelligence groups Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear . In October 2016 , U.S. President Barack Obama directly warned Putin to stop interfering or face `` serious consequences '' . Russian officials initially issued categorical denials of any Russian involvement in any DNC hacks or leaks . In June 2017 , however , in a shift from Russia 's previous blanket denials , Putin suggested that private `` patriotically minded '' Russian hackers could have been responsible for cyberattacks , while continuing to deny government involvement . In January 2017 , Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that Russia 's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking , and included disinformation such as the dissemination of fake news often promoted on social media . President-elect Trump initially rejected the reports of Russian interference and criticized the intelligence agencies , saying that Democrats were simply reacting to their election loss . Investigations on Russian influence , including potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials , were started by the FBI , the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee . Six federal agencies have also been investigating possible links and financial ties between the Kremlin and Trump 's associates , including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and advisers Carter Page , Paul Manafort and Roger Stone . In December 2016 , Obama ordered a report on hacking efforts aimed at U.S. elections since 2008 . On December 29 , 2016 , the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats , denied access to two Russia-owned compounds , and broadened existing sanctions on Russian entities and individuals . Russia did not retaliate . On March 20 , 2017 , FBI director James Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI had been conducting a counter-intelligence investigation about Russian interference since July 2016 , including possible coordination between associates of Trump and Russia . On May 9 , 2017 , in a move that was widely criticized as an attempt to curtail the Russian investigation by the FBI , Trump dismissed Comey . On May 17 , 2017 , Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel in the FBI 's Russian investigation .", "Residences of Donald Trump U.S. President Donald Trump currently has seven residences . During his time at the New York Military Academy , he lived on campus ; he later rented row houses in college . In 1971 , Trump moved to a studio on 75th Street in Manhattan . Since the completion of Trump Tower in 1983 , Trump has lived in a three-level penthouse on the top floors . He purchased the Seven Springs mansion in Bedford , New York in 1995 . Upon Trump 's election to the US presidency , he moved into the White House in Washington , D.C. while First Lady Melania and their son will stay at Trump Tower in Manhattan until the end of the school year before moving to the White House as well .", "Donald Trump–Russia dossier The Donald Trump -- Russia dossier is a private intelligence dossier that was written by Christopher Steele , a former British MI6 intelligence officer . It contains unverified allegations of misconduct and ties between Donald Trump , then President-elect , and the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the period preceding the election . The existence of the dossier was first reported on January 10 , 2017 . Steele went into hiding after the release of the dossier , but reappeared on March 7 , 2017 . The dossier alleges that the Russian Federal Security Service ( FSB ) has kompromat on Trump -- damaging or embarrassing material which could be used to blackmail him , including allegations about Trump 's sexual and financial activities in Russia . The dossier also states that the Russian government promoted Trump 's candidacy to create divisions in Western alliances , and that during his presidential campaign , at the heat of the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election , there was exchange of information and collusion between Russian officials and people associated with Trump 's campaign . The media and the intelligence community have stressed that accusations in the dossier have not been verified . Most experts have treated the dossier with caution , but in February , it was reported that some details related to conversations between foreign nationals had been independently corroborated , giving U.S. intelligence and law enforcement greater confidence in some aspects of the dossier as investigations continued . Trump himself has denounced the report , calling it `` fake news '' and `` phony . '' A Russian government spokesman dismissed the dossier , saying its allegations were false . Steele 's former colleagues came out in defense of his character and expertise . The dossier was produced as part of opposition research during the 2016 U.S. presidential election . The research was initially funded by Republicans who did not want Trump to be the Republican Party nominee for president . After Trump won the primaries , a Democratic client took over the funding ; and , following Trump 's election , Steele continued working on the report pro bono and passed on the information to British and American intelligence services .", "Immigration policy of Donald Trump Illegal immigration was a signature issue of US President Donald Trump 's presidential campaign , and his proposed reforms and remarks about this issue generated much publicity . A hallmark promise of his campaign was to build a substantial wall on the United States-Mexico border . Trump has also expressed support for a variety of `` limits on legal immigration and guest-worker visas '' , including a `` pause '' on granting green cards , which Trump says will `` allow record immigration levels to subside to more moderate historical averages '' . Trump 's proposals regarding H-1B visas frequently changed throughout his presidential campaign , but as of late July 2016 , he appears to oppose the H-1B visa program . Trump has questioned official estimates of the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States ( between 11 and 12 million ) , insisting the number is much higher ( between 30 and 34 million ) .", "Trump orb The Trump orb is a 2017 internet meme , based on a photograph of American president Donald Trump and other heads of state touching a glowing orb .", "Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland) Queensland 's Environmental Protection Agency ( abbreviated to EPA ) was for some time a separate department of the Queensland Government , and , following 2009 State elections , became a part of the Government 's larger Department of Environment and Resource Management . This part of the Department of Environment and Resource Management 's role is to manage climate change and protect the environment on behalf of the Queensland Government . To achieve this the section aims to provide Conservation and Environmental Services : including a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to manage the Queensland 's protected area estate ; plus Environmental Services to assist manage development , business , and industry . It aims to promote Sustainable futures : including planning for climate change ; encouraging environmental sustainability , supporting environmental innovation , and developing strategies and policies to achieve an environmentally sustainable future ; and achieve organisational performance and capability : including building a `` robust '' scientific base to government policy and decision making , and valuing people and accumulating knowledge within the organisation .", "List of Republicans who opposed the Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 This is a list of notable Republicans and conservatives who announced their opposition to the election of Donald Trump , the 2016 Republican Party nominee and eventual winner of the election , as the President of the United States . It also includes former Republicans who opposed Trump 's campaign and who left the Republican Party during the 2016 presidential election , as well as Republicans who endorsed a different candidate . It does not include Republicans who opposed Trump during the primaries but never announced opposition to Trump as the nominee .", "Donald Trump on social media Donald Trump 's use of social media has attracted attention worldwide since Trump joined Twitter in March 2009 . He has frequently used Twitter to comment on politicians and celebrities , and he relied on Twitter significantly to communicate during the 2016 United States presidential election . The attention on Trump 's Twitter activity has significantly increased since he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States and continued to post controversial opinions and statements . In May 2017 , Newsweek reported that nearly half of Trump 's 31 million followers on Twitter appear to be fake accounts or bots .", "Executive Order 13775 Executive Order 13775 is the eleventh executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump . Signed on February 9 , 2017 , the order changes the line of succession for the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) . This order specifically reverses changes made to the DOJ line of succession that former President Barack Obama made in executive order 13762 .", "Trump Ice Trump Ice , also known as Trump Natural Spring Water , is a bottled water brand owned by American businessman , investor , and President of the United States , Donald Trump . Trump Ice was initially sold in national grocery chains and at specialty food stores through the United States ; the water brand is now exclusively available at Trump-branded hotels , restaurants and golf clubs . According to Trump 's 2016 Financial Disclosure Form , which was filed with the Federal Elections Commission , his personal earnings from Trump Ice in the previous year amounted to $ 413,339 . Kelly Perdew , the winner of The Apprentice 2 , was privately appointed as Executive Vice President of Trump Ice as part of his contractual extension with The Trump Organization . Trump Ice was distributed by Mountain Spring Waters of America in the New York and New Jersey area .", "Rising Star (book) Rising Star : The Making of Barack Obama is a 2017 biography of Barack Obama by David Garrow . One section in the book is an unpublished 1991 essay cowritten by Obama and Robert Fisher that argued that black Americans should `` shift away from rights rhetoric and towards the language of opportunity . '' The essay also mentioned businessman and future president Donald Trump ; `` I may not be Donald Trump now , but just you wait ; if I do n't make it , my children will . ''", "Ben Garrison Ben Garrison is an American political cartoonist who lives in Lakeside , Montana . His political views have been described as libertarian , and his cartoons often portray President Donald Trump in a favorable light . In a 2015 interview with Breitbart News , he said he did not support any presidential candidate in the 2016 election , but also said he admires Trump for `` shaking up the neocon-controlled Republican Party . '' In May 2016 , a cartoon of his comparing Michelle Obama and Melania Trump drew national attention .", "GrabYourWallet #GrabYourWallet ( also , Grab Your Wallet ) is an organization and social media campaign that is an umbrella term for economic boycotts against companies that have any connections to President Donald Trump in response to the leak of a lewd conversation between Donald Trump and Billy Bush on the set of Access Hollywood where he infamously said `` grab them by the pussy '' . The movement has particularly targeted the ride-sharing app Uber and President Trump 's daughter Ivanka Trump 's clothing and shoe line that was notably carried by Nordstrom before being indefinitely discontinued due to poor sales as a result of the boycott .", "United States presidential election in Iowa, 2016 The 2016 United States presidential election in Iowa was held on November 8 , 2016 , as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated . Iowa voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican Party 's nominee , businessman Donald Trump , and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee , former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate , Virginia Senator Tim Kaine . Both parties ' caucuses were held on February 1 , 2016 . Donald Trump won the election in Iowa with 51.1 % of the vote . Hillary Clinton received 41.9 % of the vote . Trump carried Iowa by the largest margin of any Republican candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984 . Trump enjoyed the support of working-class whites in the agricultural industry , as well as the endorsements of Iowa 's GOP establishment . A state that voted Democratic for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 , the difference of 9.4 % points was the largest winning margin for Trump in a state that had voted for Barack Obama .", "Trump's Razor Trump 's Razor is an aphorism or heuristic coined to help explain President Donald Trump 's seemingly inexplicable behavior . Inspired by Occam 's razor , Trump 's Razor advises us to explain President Trump 's actions by `` ascertaining the stupidest possible scenario that can be reconciled with the available facts and that answer is likely correct . ''", "Family of Donald Trump The family of Donald Trump , the President of the United States , is a prominent American family active in real estate , entertainment , business , and politics . Donald Trump 's immediate family circle is the First Family of the United States . They are part of the broader Trump family originating from Germany . Donald Trump has children from three different women ; Ivana Trump , Marla Maples , and Melania Trump .", "Trump Model Management Trump Model Management is a New York City-based modeling agency owned by Donald Trump . Originally known as `` T Models '' , it was founded by Trump in 1999 . In August 2016 , former Trump models alleged that they had worked for the agency without the company having obtained proper work visas on their behalf . In April 2017 , it was announced that the agency will be closed down ." ]

[ "Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun , orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days . It has the longest rotation period ( 243 days ) of any planet in the Solar System and rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets . It has no natural satellites . It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty . It is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon , reaching an apparent magnitude of − 4.6 , bright enough to cast shadows at night and , though rare , occasionally be visible in broad daylight . Because Venus orbits within Earth 's orbit it is an inferior planet and never appears to venture far from the Sun ; its maximum angular distance from the Sun ( elongation ) is 47.8 ° . Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth 's `` sister planet '' because of their similar size , mass , proximity to the Sun , and bulk composition . It is radically different from Earth in other respects . It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets , consisting of more than 96 % carbon dioxide . The atmospheric pressure at the planet 's surface is 92 times that of Earth , or roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System , with a mean surface temperature of 735 K , even though Mercury is closer to the Sun . Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid , preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light . It may have had water oceans in the past , but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect . The water has probably photodissociated , and the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field . Venus 's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and is periodically resurfaced by volcanism . As one of the brightest objects in the sky , Venus has been a major fixture in human culture for as long as records have existed . It has been made sacred to gods of many cultures , and has been a prime inspiration for writers and poets as the `` morning star '' and `` evening star '' . Venus was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky , as early as the second millennium BC . As the closest planet to Earth , Venus has been a prime target for early interplanetary exploration . It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft ( Mariner 2 in 1962 ) , and the first to be successfully landed on ( by Venera 7 in 1970 ) . Venus 's thick clouds render observation of its surface impossible in visible light , and the first detailed maps did not emerge until the arrival of the Magellan orbiter in 1991 . Plans have been proposed for rovers or more complex missions , but they are hindered by Venus 's hostile surface conditions .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure ." ]

[ "Überbrettl Überbrettl ( -LSB- ˈʔyːbɐˌbʁɛtl̩ -RSB- super-cabaret ) was the first venue in Germany for literary cabaret , or Kabarett , founded 1901 in Berlin by Ernst von Wolzogen . The German Kabarett concept was imported from French venues like Le Chat Noir in Paris , from which it kept the characteristic atmosphere of intimacy . But the German type developed its own peculiarities , most prominently its characteristic gallows humour .", "Atmosphere of Venus The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "CERINA-Plan CERINA Plan is the abbreviation for `` CO2 Emissions and Renewable Investment Action Plan '' . It is a CO2 reduction concept developed by the German renewable energy institute IWR . The CERINA Plan proposes a technical investment approach linking a country 's CO2 emissions to its investment in renewable energy technology . Therefore , it is an alternative model to approaches like the Kyoto idea of mere cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . The model is meant to be flexible and to adapt to the special national circumstances of each country .", "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "Kepler-186e Kepler-186e ( also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation KOI-571 .04 ) is a confirmed exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star Kepler-186 , approximately 558 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus . It is near the optimistic habitable zone but probably not in it , possibly making it have a runaway greenhouse effect , like Venus . The exoplanet was found by using the transit method , in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured . Four additional planets orbiting the star ( all modestly larger than Earth ) were also discovered .", "Venera 5 Venera 5 ( Венера-5 meaning Venus 5 ) ( manufacturer 's designation : 2V ( V-69 ) ) was a space probe in the Soviet space program Venera for the exploration of Venus . Venera 5 was launched towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data . The spacecraft was very similar to Venera 4 although it was of a stronger design . The launch was conducted using a Molniya-M rocket , flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome . When the atmosphere of Venus was approached , a capsule weighing 405 kg and containing scientific instruments was jettisoned from the main spacecraft . During satellite descent towards the surface of Venus , a parachute opened to slow the rate of descent . For 53 minutes on May 16 , 1969 , while the capsule was suspended from the parachute , data from the Venusian atmosphere were returned . It landed at . The spacecraft also carried a medallion bearing the State Coat of Arms of the USSR and a bas-relief of V. I. Lenin to the night side of Venus . Given the results from Venera 4 , the Venera 5 and Venera 6 landers contained new chemical analysis experiments tuned to provide more precise measurements of the atmosphere 's components . Knowing the atmosphere was extremely dense , the parachutes were also made smaller so the capsule would reach its full crush depth before running out of power ( as Venera 4 had done ) .", "Antarctic oscillation The Antarctic oscillation ( AAO , to distinguish it from the Arctic oscillation or AO ) is a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere . It is also known as the Southern Annular Mode ( SAM ) . It is defined as a belt of westerly winds or low pressure surrounding Antarctica which moves north or south as its mode of variability . In its positive phase , the westerly wind belt contracts towards Antarctica , while its negative phase involves this belt moving towards the Equator . In 2014 , Dr Nerilie Abram used a network of temperature-sensitive ice core and tree growth records to reconstruct a 1000-year history of the Southern Annular Mode . This work suggests that the Southern Annular Mode is currently in its most extreme positive phase over at least the last 1000 years , and that recent positive trends in the SAM are attributed to increasing greenhouse gas levels and later stratospheric ozone depletion .", "Olympia Theater (Miami) The Olympia Theater is a theater located in Miami , Florida . Designed by John Eberson in his famed atmospheric style , the theater opened in 1926 . Throughout its history , the venue has served as a movie theater , concert venue and performing arts center . In 1984 , it received historical designation by the NHRP . The Olympia Theater and its sister venue , the Tampa Theatre are the only remaining atmospheric theaters in Florida .", "Kombayashi–Ingersoll limit In planetary science , the Kombayashi -- Ingersoll limit represents the maximum solar flux a planet can handle without a runaway greenhouse effect setting in . For planets with temperature-dependent sources of greenhouse gases such as liquid water and optically thin atmospheres the outgoing longwave radiation curve ( which indicates how fast energy can be radiated away by the planet ) flattens at high temperatures , reaching a horizontal asymptote -- the Kombayashi -- Ingersoll limit itself . Since the equilibrium temperature is the intersection of this curve and a horizontal line representing solar flux , for fluxes above this point the planet heats up indefinitely . Kasting estimated the limit for Earth to be 320 watts per square meter . The limit is relevant for estimating the inner edge of the circumstellar habitable zone . However , the limit also depends on the surface gravity of the planet , making heavy worlds somewhat more resistant to the runaway effect .", "Atmospheric methane Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "David Archer (scientist) David Archer is a computational ocean chemist , and has been a professor at the Geophysical Sciences department at the University of Chicago since 1993 . He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor . He has worked on the history of atmospheric CO2 concentration , the expectation of fossil fuel CO2 over geologic time scales in the future , and the impact of CO2 on future ice age cycles , ocean methane hydrate decomposition , and coral reefs . He is a contributor to the RealClimate blog .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Solar radiation management Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "Ice divide An ice divide is the boundary on an ice sheet , ice cap or glacier separating opposing flow directions of ice , analogous to a water divide . Such ice divides are important for geochronology investigations using ice cores , because such coring is typically made on top of a dome of an ice sheet to avoid interference caused by horizontal ice movement . Ice divides are used for looking at what the atmosphere was like in history . The ice is very accurate because instead of shifting horizontally like normal ice , it moves vertically downward with time trapping gases into its layers . Scientist find these ice divides and take ice cores from them , which are typically long cylinder poles of ice , and evaluate them . Once they have these ice cores , they are able to look through it and find elements that the snow and ice carried down with it during that time period such as sulfate , nitrate , and other ions . These ice cores are important in determining how our atmosphere has changed for the better or worse , and how we can fix it such as the greenhouse effect which discovered when scientist found how much more greenhouse gasses was in our atmosphere than there was in the past . Scientists from around the United States came together to find the perfect ice divide in order to go the furthest into the past . They formed the WAIS project . This project is funded by the United States National Foundation , and is run by scientists from many organizations such as National Ice Core Laboratory , Ice Drilling Design and Operations ( IDDO ) , and over fifty Universities . The WAIS project is located in West Antarctica , and the goal is to look into the past 100,000 years . WAIS is better than other ice divides because of the amount of snow it gets . This large amount of snow causes there to be a very small off-set from the ages of the ice to the air and gases trapped inside . This gives the scientists to give much more precise predictions of what the atmosphere was like in history . If the WAIS project is a success it will educate scientists around the world how the atmosphere of Earth has changed completely over 100,000 years .", "CO2 rocket CO2 rockets are a very safe and simple way to experiment with model rockets . Most CO2 rockets are very small and do not travel very high or fast . The common method of construction for a CO2 rocket is to take a CO2 canister and use it as the motor to propel the projectile , or load into the air .", "Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event , or the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event , the Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event ( OAE 2 ) , and referred to in Europe as the Bonarelli Event , was one of two anoxic extinction events in the Cretaceous period . ( The other being the earlier Selli Event , or OAE 1a , in the Aptian . ) The OAE 2 occurred approximately 91.5 ± 8.6 Ma , though other estimates are given as 93-94 Ma . The event brought about the extinction of the Spinosauridae , Pliosauridae , and possibly Ichthyosauria ; although coracoids of Maastrichtian age may belong to ichthyosaurs , indicating the survival of the group until the latest Cretaceous . Other animals lost some diversity as well . Although the cause is still uncertain , the result starved the Earth 's oceans of oxygen for nearly half a million years , causing the extinction of approximately 27 percent of marine invertebrates . This global environmental disturbance increased atmospheric and oceanic temperatures . Boundary sediments show an enrichment of trace elements , and contain elevated δ13C values . One possible cause was sub-oceanic volcanism , possibly the Caribbean large igneous province , with increased activity approximately 500,000 years earlier . During that period , the rate of crustal production reached its highest level for 100 million years . This was largely caused by the widespread melting of hot mantle plumes under the oceans at the base of the lithosphere . This resulted in the thickening of the oceanic crust in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . This volcanism would have sent large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Within the oceans , the emission of SO2 , H2S , CO2 , and halogens would have increased the acidity of the water , causing the dissolution of carbonate , and a further release of carbon dioxide . When the volcanic activity declined , this run-away greenhouse effect would have likely been put into reverse . The increased CO2 content of the oceans could have increased organic productivity in the ocean surface waters . The consumption of this newly abundant organic life by aerobic bacteria would produce anoxia and mass extinction . The resulting elevated levels of carbon burial would account for the black shale deposition in the ocean basins .", "Adivar (crater) Adivar is an impact crater on Venus , named in honor of Turkish writer and pilot Halide Edip Adıvar . The crater is located just north of the western Aphrodite highland ( 9 degrees north latitude , 76 degrees east longitude ) . Surrounding the crater rim is ejected material which appears bright in the radar image due to the presence of rough fractured rock . A much broader area has also been affected by the impact , particularly to the west of the crater . Radar-bright materials , including a jet-like streak just west of the crater , extend for over 500 km across the surrounding plains . A darker streak , in a horseshoe or paraboloidal shape , surrounds the bright area . Radar-dark ( i.e. , smooth ) paraboloidal streaks were observed around craters in earlier Magellan images , but this is a rare bright crater streak . These unusual streaks , seen only on Venus , are believed to result from the interaction of crater materials ( the meteoroid , ejecta , or both ) and high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere . The precise mechanism that produces the streaks is poorly understood , but it is clear that the dense atmosphere of Venus plays an important role in the distribution of the ejected material .", "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ` The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI , pronounced `` Reggie '' ) is the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut , Delaware , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New York , Rhode Island , and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector . RGGI compliance obligations apply to fossil-fueled power plants 25MW and larger within the nine-state region . RGGI establishes a regional cap on the amount of CO2 pollution that power plants can emit by issuing a limited number of tradable CO2 allowances . Each allowance represents an authorization for a regulated power plant to emit one short ton of CO2 . Individual CO2 budget trading programs in each RGGI state together create a regional market for CO2 allowances . The RGGI states distribute over 90 percent of allowances through quarterly auctions . These allowance auctions generate proceeds , which participating states are able to invest in strategic energy and consumer benefit programs . Programs funded through RGGI have included energy efficiency , clean and renewable energy , greenhouse gas abatement , and direct bill assistance . An initial milestone program 's development occurred in 2005 , when seven states signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) announcing an agreement to implement RGGI . The RGGI states then established individual CO2 budget trading programs , based on the RGGI Model Rule . The first pre-compliance RGGI auction took place in September 2008 , and the program became effective on January 1 , 2009 . The RGGI program is currently in its third three-year compliance period , which began January 1 , 2015 .", "The World Set Free (Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey) `` The World Set Free '' is the twelfth episode of the American documentary television series Cosmos : A Spacetime Odyssey . It premiered on June 1 , 2014 , on Fox , and aired on June 2 , 2014 , on National Geographic Channel . The episode was written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter , and directed by Brannon Braga . The episode explores global warming , humanity 's effect on the Earth 's atmosphere , and what we can do to mitigate it , including a look at alternative energy technologies . The episode also examines the planet Venus to inspect the runaway greenhouse effect . The episode 's title alludes to H.G. Wells ' novel published in 1914 , The World Set Free , where Wells predicts that humanity will develop destructive nuclear weapons , perpetuating a devastating global war and forcing the world to come to its senses to create a peaceful society that harnesses the power of atomic energy .", "Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle Runaway 2 : The Dream of the Turtle ( or Runaway : The Dream of the Turtle ) is a point and click adventure game released by Pendulo Studios in 2006 . It 's a sequel to Runaway : A Road Adventure . The French version of the game was the first available for purchase , followed shortly by the German version , both published in fall 2006 . Other versions like the original Spanish version and the English localizations were kept on hold until 2007 due to publishing issues , most notably with its homeland , Spain , where a special collector 's edition was released in order to please fans . Runaway 2 was first released on Microsoft Windows and then subsequently ported to the Nintendo DS in 2007 and Wii in 2009 . The sequel and third installment of the series is Runaway 3 : A Twist of Fate and was released on November 26 , 2009 . On October 17 , 2013 French publisher and developer Bulkypix released Runaway : The Dream of the Turtle Part 1 for iOS ( iPhone , iPod touch , iPad ) .", "FUTBOLIN FUTBOLIN ( FUll Transfer By Optimized LINe-by-line methods ) : Multi-level multiple scattering radiative transfer model for the calculation of line-by-line atmospheric emission/transmission spectra in planetary atmospheres . It has been developed by Javier Martin-Torres ( AS&M . Inc , NASA/Langley Research Center , Hampton , VA , USA ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena , CA ; Now at IACT ( CSIC-URG ) , Granada , SPAIN ) . It allows generating high-resolution synthetic spectra in the 0.3-1000 micrometre spectral range . The code can handle spherical or plane-parallel atmospheres . It reads spectral lines in HITRAN or GEISA format and can handle CO2 line mixing and continuum absorption from H2O , O2 , N2 and CO2 . It also takes into account the Non Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium ( NLTE ) effects on the rotational , electronic and vibrational populations of the atmospheric species and allows to specify any combinations of clouds , coverage and spectral albedo . It has been used to model the Earth 's atmosphere , and the atmospheres of Mars , Venus , and Titan . The code can calculate reflection , transmission , absorption , infrared cooling rate , and flux spectra .", "Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "Gliese 1132 b Gliese 1132 b ( often shortened to GJ 1132 b ) is an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star ( Gliese 1132 ) 39 light years ( 12 parsecs ) from Earth , in the constellation Vela . The planet is considered uninhabitable but cool enough to possess an atmosphere . Gliese 1132 b was discovered by the MEarth-South array in Chile . It has been called `` one of the most important planets ever discovered beyond the Solar System '' : Due to its relative proximity to Earth , telescopes should be able to determine the composition of its atmosphere , the speed of its winds and the color of its sunsets . This is due in part to the small diameter of its parent star ( 21 % that of the Sun ) , which increases the effect on the star 's light of its transits . The planet 's diameter is approximately 20 % larger than that of the Earth and its mass is estimated at 1.6 times that of Earth , implying that it has an Earth-like rocky composition . Gliese 1132 b orbits its star every 1.6 days at a distance of 1.4 million miles . The planet receives 19 times more stellar radiation than Earth . The temperature of the top of its atmosphere is estimated at 500 F . The planet is estimated to be hotter than Venus , as higher temperatures may prevail near the surface . ( cf. Atmosphere of Venus , Colonization of Venus ) It is possible that one side of the planet is cooler , because it is presumed to be tidally locked due to its proximity to its star ; however , under most circumstances where an atmosphere is thick , it would be able to transfer heat to the far side . In April 2017 , an atmosphere was confirmed around Gliese 1132 b . It is the most Earth-like exoplanet to date that is known to have an atmosphere .", "Carbon neutrality Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "Wetland methane emissions As one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane , wetlands remain a major area of concern with respect to climate change . Wetlands are characterized by water-logged soils and distinctive communities of plant and animal species that have evolved and adapted to the constant presence of water . Due to this high level of water saturation as well as warm weather , wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane . Most methanogenesis , or methane production , occurs in oxygen-poor environments . Because the microbes that live in warm , moist environments consume oxygen more rapidly than it can diffuse in from the atmosphere , wetlands are the ideal anaerobic , or oxygen poor , environments for fermentation . Fermentation is a process used by certain kinds of microorganisms to break down essential nutrients . In a process called acetoclastic methanogenesis , microorganisms from the classification domain archaea produce methane by fermenting acetate and H2-CO2 into methane and carbon dioxide . H3C-COOH → CH4 + CO2 Depending on the wetland and type of archaea , hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis , another process that yields methane , can also occur . This process occurs as a result of archaea oxidizing hydrogen with carbon dioxide to yield methane and water . 4H2 + CO2 → CH4 + 2H2O", "Metallic hydrogen Metallic hydrogen is a kind of degenerate matter , a phase of hydrogen in which it behaves like an electrical conductor . This phase was predicted in 1935 on theoretical grounds by Eugene Wigner and Hillard Bell Huntington . At high pressure and temperatures , metallic hydrogen might exist as a liquid rather than a solid , and researchers think it is present in large amounts in the hot and gravitationally compressed interiors of Jupiter , Saturn , and in some extrasolar planets . In October 2016 , there were claims that metallic hydrogen had been observed in the laboratory at a pressure of around 495 GPa . In January 2017 , scientists at Harvard University reported the first creation of metallic hydrogen in a laboratory , using a diamond anvil cell . However , several researchers in the field doubt this claim . Some observations consistent with metallic behavior had been reported earlier , such as the observation of new phases of solid hydrogen under static conditions and , in dense liquid deuterium , electrical insulator-to-conductor transitions associated with an increase in optical reflectivity .", "Atmospheric carbon cycle The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth's atmosphere The following articles relate to Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth 's atmosphere : Carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere Global warming Greenhouse effect", "Runaway electrons The term runaway electrons ( RE ) is used to denote electrons that undergo free fall acceleration into the realm of relativistic particles . REs may be classified as thermal ( lower energy ) or relativistic . The study of runaway electrons is thought to be fundamental to our understanding of High-Energy Atmospheric Physics ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "IPCC Second Assessment Report The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "Ice2sea Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "Climate risk Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "IPCC supplementary report, 1992 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "Climate change acronyms The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .", "Anders Levermann Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .", "IPCC Summary for Policymakers The Summary for policymakers ( SPM ) is a summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports intended to aid policymakers . The form is approved line by line by governments : `` Negotiations occur over wording to ensure accuracy , balance , clarity of message , and relevance to understanding and policy . ''", "Piers Forster Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "Jean Palutikof Jean Palutikof is founding Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ( NCCARF ) at Griffith University , Australia . She has held this position since 2008 . Prior to this , Professor Palutikof was based at the UK Met Office during which time she managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability ) . Professor Palutikof is among the foremost scholars of climate change adaptation and was lead author and review editor for several assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and was present in Oslo at the ceremony at which the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize .", "Calculating forecast attainment ", "Arturo Villavicencio Arturo Villavicencio is an Ecuadorian environmental researcher . He was nominated by Denmark in 1995 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and contributed to its fourth assessment report ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) .", "2028 ", "Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "Jonathan M. Gregory Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in two equal parts , between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and Al Gore `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' .", "Predictand ", "1760 __ NOTOC __", "90s BC ", "Standard Predictor ", "Vicky Pope Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "2025 ", "Long-term effects of global warming See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "Coastal squeeze ", "Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "2036 __ TOC __" ]

[ "Florida Florida -LSB- ˈflɒrᵻdə -RSB- ( Spanish for `` land of flowers '' ) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States . It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico , to the north by Alabama and Georgia , to the east by the Atlantic Ocean , and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba . Florida is the 22nd-most extensive , the 3rd-most populous , and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states . Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States . The Miami metropolitan area is Florida 's most populous urban area . The city of Tallahassee is the state capital . A peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico , the Atlantic Ocean , and the Straits of Florida , it has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States , approximately 1350 mi , and is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean . Much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil . The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south . The American alligator , American crocodile , Florida panther , and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park . Since the first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León -- who named it La Florida ( -LSB- la floˈɾiða -RSB- `` land of flowers '' ) upon landing there in the Easter season , Pascua Florida -- Florida was a challenge for the European colonial powers before it gained statehood in the United States in 1845 . It was a principal location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans , and racial segregation after the American Civil War . Today , Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth , as well as for its increasing environmental issues . The state 's economy relies mainly on tourism , agriculture , and transportation , which developed in the late 19th century . Florida is also renowned for amusement parks , orange crops , the Kennedy Space Center , and as a popular destination for retirees . Florida culture is a reflection of influences and multiple inheritance ; Native American , European American , Hispanic and Latino , and African American heritages can be found in the architecture and cuisine . Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings , Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams , and continues to attract celebrities and athletes . It is internationally known for golf , tennis , auto racing and water sports .", "Biodiversity Biodiversity a portmanteau of `` biological diversity , '' generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic , the species , and the ecosystem level . Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator , which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity . Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth , and is richest in the tropics . These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earth 's surface , and contain about 90 percent of the world 's species . Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific , where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans . There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity . Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots , and has been increasing through time , but will be likely to slow in the future . Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions . More than 99.9 percent of all species , amounting to over five billion species , that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct . Estimates on the number of Earth 's current species range from 10 million to 14 million , of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described . More recently , in May 2016 , scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described . The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes . In comparison , the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC ( trillion tons of carbon ) . In July 2016 , scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor ( LUCA ) of all organisms living on Earth . The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old . The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago , during the Eoarchean Era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon . There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia . Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland . More recently , in 2015 , `` remains of biotic life '' were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia . According to one of the researchers , `` If life arose relatively quickly on Earth . . then it could be common in the universe . '' Since life began on Earth , five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity . The Phanerozoic eon ( the last 540 million years ) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion -- a period during which the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared . The next 400 million years included repeated , massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events . In the Carboniferous , rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life . The Permian -- Triassic extinction event , 251 million years ago , was the worst ; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years . The most recent , the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , occurred 65 million years ago and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs . The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity . Named the Holocene extinction , the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts , particularly habitat destruction . Conversely , biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways , both positively and negatively . The United Nations designated 2011 -- 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity .", "Human nutrition Human nutrition refers to the provision of essential nutrients necessary to support human life and health . Generally , people can survive up to 40 days without food , a period largely depending on the amount of water consumed , stored body fat , muscle mass and genetic factors . Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty , poor nutrition understanding and practices , and deficient sanitation and food security . Malnutrition and its consequences are immense contributors to deaths and disabilities worldwide . Promoting good nutrition helps children grow , promotes human development and eradication of poverty .", "Melbourne Melbourne ( -LSB- ˈmɛlbərn -RSB- ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria , and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania . The name `` Melbourne '' refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9900 km2 , which comprises the broader metropolitan area , as well as being the common name for its city centre . The metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges , Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley . Melbourne consists of 31 municipalities . It has a population of 4,641,636 , and its inhabitants are called Melburnians . Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemen 's Land on 30 August 1835 , in what was then the colony of New South Wales , it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837 . It was named `` Melbourne '' by the Governor of New South Wales , Sir Richard Bourke , in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day , William Lamb , 2nd Viscount Melbourne . It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria , to whom Lord Melbourne was close , in 1847 , after which it became the capital of the newly founded colony of Victoria in 1851 . During the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s , it was transformed into one of the world 's largest and wealthiest cities . After the federation of Australia in 1901 , it served as the nation 's interim seat of government until 1927 . Melbourne rates highly in education , entertainment , health care , research and development , tourism and sport , making it the world 's most liveable city -- for the sixth year in a row in 2016 , according to the Economist Intelligence Unit . It is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region , and ranks among the top 30 cities in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index . Referred to as Australia 's `` cultural capital '' , it is the birthplace of Australian impressionism , Australian rules football , the Australian film and television industries , and Australian contemporary dance . It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a major centre for street art , music and theatre . It is home to many of Australia 's largest and oldest cultural institutions such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground , the National Gallery of Victoria , the State Library of Victoria and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building . It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games . The main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport ( also called Tullamarine Airport ) , the second busiest in Australia . The Port of Melbourne is Australia 's busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo . Melbourne has an extensive transport network . The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station , and the main regional train and coach terminus is Southern Cross Station . Melbourne is also home to Australia 's most extensive freeway network and has the world 's largest urban tram network .", "Hong Kong Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People 's Republic of China , is an autonomous territory on the Pearl River Delta of China . Macau lies across the delta to the west , and the province of Guangdong borders the territory to the north . With a total land area of 1,106 km2 and a population of over 7.3 million of various nationalities , it ranks as the world 's fourth most densely populated sovereign state or territory . After the First Opium War ( 1839 -- 42 ) , Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island , followed by the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898 . Hong Kong was later occupied by Japan during World War II until British control resumed in 1945 . In the early 1980s , negotiations between the United Kingdom and China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration , which paved way for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997 , when it became a special administrative region ( SAR ) of the Peoples Republic of China with a high degree of autonomy . Under the principle of `` one country , two systems '' , Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system from China . Except in military defence and foreign affairs , Hong Kong maintains its independent executive , legislative and judiciary powers . In addition , Hong Kong develops relations directly with foreign states and international organisations in a broad range of `` appropriate fields '' . Hong Kong is one of the world 's most significant financial centres , with the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranks as the world 's most competitive and freest economic entity . As the world 's 8th largest trading entity , its legal tender , the Hong Kong dollar , is the world 's 13th most traded currency . It 's also a member of the World Trade Organization ( WTO ) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC ) . Hong Kong 's tertiary sector dominated economy is characterised by simple taxation with a competitive level of corporate tax and supported by its independent judiciary system . However , while Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world , it suffers from severe income inequality . Hong Kong is renowned for its deep natural harbour , which enables ready access by international cargo ships , and its impressive skyline , with a very high density of skyscrapers ; the territory boasts the second largest number of high rises of any city in the world . It has a very high Human Development Index ranking and the world 's longest life expectancy . Over 90 % of the population makes use of well-developed public transportation . Seasonal air pollution with origins from neighbouring industrial areas of Mainland China , which adopts loose emissions standards , has resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates ." ]

[ "Prehistoric Irish battles This is a list of battles recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters , written in the 17th century , as taking place in prehistoric Ireland . Many of the battles listed are purely mythological , and none are historically reliable . Other Irish annalistic and chronicle sources differ in their chronologies .", "Alternative air source In underwater diving , an alternative air source , or more generally alternative breathing gas source , is a secondary supply of air or other breathing gas for use by the diver in an emergency . Examples include an auxiliary demand valve , a pony bottle and bailout bottle . An alternative air source may be fully redundant ( completely independent of any part of the main air supply system ) or non-redundant , if it can be compromised by any failure of the main air supply . From the diver 's point of view , air supplied by a buddy or rescue diver is fully redundant , as it is unaffected by the diver 's own air supply in any way , but a second regulator on a double cylinder valve or a secondary demand valve ( octopus ) is not redundant to the diver carrying it , as it is attached to his or her main air supply . Decompression gas can be considered an alternative gas supply only when the risk of breathing it at the current depth is acceptable . Effective use of any alternate air source requires competence in the associated skill set . The procedures for receiving air from another diver or from one 's own equipment are most effective and least likely to result in a life-threatening incident if well trained to the extent that they do not distract the diver from other essential matters . A major difference from buddy breathing is that the diver using a redundant alternative air source need not alternate breathing with the donor , which can be a substantial advantage in many circumstances . There is a further significant advantage when the alternate air source is carried by the diver using it , in that it is not necessary to locate the buddy before it is available , but this comes at the cost of extra equipment .", "Barbados Water Authority Barbados Water Authority Limited ( BWA ) , a government statutory corporation , is the sole provider of water services . Water supplied by the BWA in Barbados is pumped from wells within natural coral aquifers . The geology of Barbados is mostly composed of karst limestone which acts as a filter medium within the aquifers . The water service in Barbados is reliable and the water supply is safe and refreshing to drink , although the water source naturally of high quality ; the BWA treats the potable water supply with chlorine to comply with World Health Organization ( WHO ) standards .", "Food Race American environmental author Daniel Quinn coined the term Food Race ( by analogy to the Cold War 's `` nuclear arms race '' ) to describe an understanding of the current overpopulation emergency as a perpetually escalating crisis between growing human population and growing food production , fueled by the latter . Quinn argues that as the worldwide human population increases , the typical international response is to more intensely produce and distribute food to feed these greater numbers of people . However , assuming that population increases according to increased food availability , Quinn argues that this response only ends up leading to an even larger population and thus greater starvation in the end . Therefore , Quinn 's clear solution to the Food Race -- to stop producing so much food -- is not generally a common-sense or intuitive response ; instead , it derives from seemingly counter-intuitive or `` outside-the-box '' thinking . Quinn bases the Food Race on the premise that the total human population , like that of all other animals , is influenced by food supply . Thus , larger populations are the result of more abundant food supplies , and intensification of food cultivation in response to population growth merely leads to still more population growth . Quinn compared this to the arms race in the Cold War , noting that any increase in food supply is met with a corresponding increase in population . Like Garrett Hardin , then , Quinn sees the only possible conclusions to the Food Race as either abandonment ( of such a `` race '' ) or catastrophe . The superficial similarities between this concept and a Malthusian catastrophe are obvious , but Quinn himself notes certain key differences . The primary problem in a Malthusian catastrophe is a population growing larger than its food supply can support ; in Quinn 's view , this is impossible , as population is a function of food supply , and not merely some independent variable . The problem for Quinn is not the chaos caused by a scarcity of food during a time of overpopulation , but , rather , the chaos of overpopulation itself . So , in some ways , Quinn 's `` Food Race '' is in fact the opposite of the Malthusian problem , which Quinn characterizes as `` How are we going to FEED all these people ? '' in contrast to the Quinnian problem : `` How are we going to stop PRODUCING all these people ? '' The idea that human population is tied to food supply is contentious , however . Many biologists disagree with Quinn 's assessment . While food supply certainly imposes an upper limit on population growth , they point out that culture , living standards , human intelligence and free will can impose lower , secondary limits to population growth . Critics also point out that the most significant population growth is occurring in the Third World , where regional food production is lowest . Meanwhile , the First World , where food is most plentiful , is undergoing a decline in birth rates . Quinn has suggested this results from international food distribution and has claimed that the farms of the First World fuel population growth in the Third . United Nations projections that world population will level off sometime in the near future also contradict Quinn 's statements . In November 1998 , Daniel Quinn made a video exploring these topics with Dr. Alan Thornhill of the Society for Conservation Biology , entitled , Food Production And Population Growth . Russell Hopfenberg has written at least two papers attempting to prove Quinn 's ideas , one paper with David Pimentel entitled `` Human Population Numbers as a Function of Food Supply '' and another , `` Human Carrying Capacity is Determined by Food Availability '' . Hopfenberg has also made available a narrated slide show entitled `` World Food and Human Population Growth '' . Jason Godesky wrote an article in 2005 , entitled `` The Opposite of Malthus '' , which attempts to ground Quinn 's work in a more solid , scientific framework .", "Logistello Logistello is a computer program that plays the game Othello , also known as Reversi . Logistello was written by Michael Buro and is regarded as a strong player , having beaten the human world champion Takeshi Murakami six games to none in 1997 -- the best Othello programs are now much stronger than any human player . Logistello 's evaluation function is based on disc patterns and features over a million numerical parameters which were tuned using linear regression .", "National Agricultural Law Center The National Agricultural Law Center at the University of Arkansas is a federally funded , nonpartisan research and information center that serves as the nation 's leading source of agricultural and food law research and information . The Center is the only institution of its kind in the United States and serves the nation 's vast agricultural community , which includes attorneys , farmers , federal and state policymakers , extension personnel , academics , students , consumers , and others . The Center operates in conjunction with the United States National Agricultural Library , an entity within the USDA Agricultural Research Service . In addition , the Center enjoys an institutional cooperative partnership with the Drake Agricultural Law Center directed by Neil D. Hamilton . The Center 's website is the primary means by which it disseminates its agricultural and food law research and information products . The website is a clearinghouse for legal information that spans nearly four dozen agricultural and food law topics both in the United States and around the world . As such , the website incorporates unique components that can not be found elsewhere and provides an invaluable resource to those needing information on legal issues surrounding food and agriculture . The Center is a nonpartisan entity and takes no position on the views expressed in any articles or writings published on the website . All such articles and writings are included for their legal or practical discussions of agricultural or food law topics rather than any particular viewpoint . Furthermore , while every effort is made to supply accurate and up-to-date information , the website is not meant as a source of legal advice , nor is it a substitute for a competent legal professional . To make the vast store of information provided by this website more user-friendly , the site is divided into sections to help focus the researcher on a particular task at hand .", "List of highest-grossing Filipino films in 2012 The following are Filipino films that earned at least 50 million pesos in 2012 during their screenings . Note Box Office Mojo , a reliable third party box office revenue tracker , does not track any revenues earned during any Metro Manila Film Festival editions . So the official figures by film entries during the festival are only estimates taken from any recent updates from credible and reliable sources such as a film 's production outfit , or from any news agencies . Also , Metro Manila Development Authority ( MMDA ) did not release the official gross sales of each of the films . To verify the figures , see individual sources for the references . Color key", "Children's use of information Children 's use of information is an issue in ethics and child development . Information is learned from many different sources and source monitoring ( see also source-monitoring error ) is important in understanding how people use information and decide which information is credible . Consider the example of a parent whose child has been diagnosed with hyperactivity ; the parent searches the internet for information , reads books , participates in an online chat room with other parents in the same situation , and consults various medical professionals . Some of these sources will be credible ( contain reliable information ) , and others will not . To be well-informed , the parent must filter information according to the reliability of the source . Children learn about the world in much the same way . They are told things by numerous people ( e.g. , teachers , parents , siblings , and friends ) , see things on the television or internet , and read information in books . Can children be effective consumers of information ? At what age are they able to do this ? How do they deal with ambiguous resources ? This page will detail answers to those questions ( and others ) by drawing on peer-reviewed scientific research .", "Translink (U) Ltd Translink ( U ) Ltd , incorporated in 1991 , is today Uganda 's leading Distribution House , representing some of the world 's most distinguished Multinational Companies . With roots in Uganda stretching over 107 years , the company is very much a Ugandan entity . The group 's core business is split into 4 segments : FMCG - Food and Non-Food Tyres Electronics Mobile Phones", "Ballarat, California Ballarat is an unincorporated community in Inyo County , California . It lies at an elevation of 1079 feet ( 329 m ) . Today , Ballarat is a virtual ghost town . It was founded in 1896 as a supply point for the mines in the canyons of the Panamint Range . A quarter-mile to the south is Post Office Springs , a reliable water source used since the 1850s by prospectors and desert wanderers . George Riggins , a young immigrant from Australia , gave Ballarat its name when he proposed it should be named for Ballarat , Victoria , in the heart of Australia 's gold country .", "Regulated power supply A regulated power supply is an embedded circuit ; it converts unregulated AC into a constant DC . With the help of a rectifier it converts AC supply into DC . Its function is to supply a stable voltage ( or less often current ) , to a circuit or device that must be operated within certain power supply limits . The output from the regulated power supply may be alternating or unidirectional , but is nearly always DC ( Direct Current ) . The type of stabilization used may be restricted to ensuring that the output remains within certain limits under various load conditions , or it may also include compensation for variations in its own supply source . The latter is much more common today .", "Plague of Athens The Plague of Athens was an epidemic which devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War ( 430 BC ) when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach . It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus , the city 's port and sole source of food and supplies . Much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw outbreak of the disease , albeit with less impact . The plague returned twice more , in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC . Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as causing the plague .", "List of American sandwiches This is a list of American sandwiches . A sandwich is a food item consisting of one or more types of food placed on or between slices of bread , or more generally any dish wherein two or more pieces of bread serve as a container or wrapper for some other food . The sandwich was originally a portable food item or finger food which began its popularity primarily in the Western World , but is now found in various versions in numerous countries worldwide .", "Vittoria Coffee Vittoria Coffee is an Australian manufacturer of coffee products . Founded in Sydney in 1947 , the business was established as an importer of Continental European foods . In 1958 they began roasting small amounts of premium Arabica coffee at their food importing premises in the Sydney 's suburb of Haymarket , initially supplying Sydney 's first ` Italian cafés ' . Today , Vittoria is Australia 's largest and best known coffee company and supplies coffee to many restaurants and cafés around the country in addition to selling its coffee in supermarkets and retail outlets .", "Red and White Brand Red & White was the first store brand for grocery merchandise , food products , beverages and household supplies . The brand was first launched on cans of coffee in 1908 by Smith Michael ( S.M. ) Flickinger in Buffalo , New York to compete with A&P and its popular private brand coffee and was named after the color on the store shelves . The Red & White Wholesale Corporation that grew from S.M. Flickinger 's first store in Buffalo , supplied groceries to independent grocery stores , and during World War I , the pressure on the small stores increased as food was rationed . By this time the company was operating as its own chain of Flickinger 's retail stores , as well as the wholesale operation supplying other retailers . Today , there are thousands of Red & White products serving as the primary store brand in independent grocery stores across the United States .", "Logistics engineering Logistics engineering is a field of engineering dedicated to the scientific organization of the purchase , transport , storage , distribution , and warehousing of materials and finished goods . Logistics is generally a cost centre service activity , but provides value via improved efficiency and customer satisfaction . It can quickly lose that value if the customer becomes dissatisfied . The end customer can include another process or work center inside of the manufacturing facility , a warehouse where items are stocked or the final customer who will use the product . Another much more popular derivative and a complete of usage of the logistic term which has appeared in recent years is the supply chain . The supply chain also looks at an efficient chaining of the supply / purchase and distribution sides of an organization . While Logistics looks at single echelons with the immediate supply and distribution linked up , supply chain looks at multiple echelons/stages , right from procurement of the raw materials to the final distribution of finished goods up to the customer . It is based on the basic premise that the supply and distribution activities if integrated with the manufacturing / logistic activities , can result in better profitability for the organization . The local minimum of total cost of the manufacturing operation is getting replaced by the global minimum of total cost of the whole chain , resulting in better profitability for the chain members and hence lower costs for the products . Logistics engineering as a discipline is also a very important aspect of systems engineering that includes reliability engineering . It is the science and process whereby reliability , maintainability , and availability are designed into products or systems . It includes the supply and physical distribution considerations above as well as more fundamental engineering considerations . For example , if we want to produce a system that is 95 % reliable ( or improve a system to achieve 95 % reliability ) , a logistics engineer understands that total system reliability can be no greater than the least reliable subsystem or component . Therefore our logistics engineer must consider the reliability of all subcomponents or subsystems and modify system design accordingly . If a subsystem is only 50 % reliable , one can concentrate on improving the reliability of that subsystem , design in multiple subsystems in parallel ( 5 in this case would achieve approximately 97 % reliability of that subsystem ) , purchase and store spare subsystems for rapid change out , establish repair capability that would get a failed subsystem back in operation in the required amount of time , and/or choose any combination of those approaches to achieve the optimal cost vs. reliability solution . Then the engineer moves onto the next subsystem . Logistics engineers work with complex mathematical models that consider elements such as mean time between failures ( MTBF ) , mean time to failure ( MTTF ) , mean time to repair ( MTTR ) , failure mode and effects analysis ( FMEA ) , statistical distributions , queueing theory , and a host of other considerations . Obviously , logistics engineering is a complex science that considers trade-offs in component/system design , repair capability , training , spares inventory , demand history , storage and distribution points , transportation methods , etc. , to ensure the `` thing '' is where it 's needed , when it 's needed , and operating the way it 's needed all at an acceptable cost .", "Biological value Biological value ( BV ) is a measure of the proportion of absorbed protein from a food which becomes incorporated into the proteins of the organism 's body . It captures how readily the digested protein can be used in protein synthesis in the cells of the organism . Proteins are the major source of nitrogen in food . BV assumes protein is the only source of nitrogen and measures the proportion of this nitrogen absorbed by the body which is then excreted . The remainder must have been incorporated into the proteins of the organisms body . A ratio of nitrogen incorporated into the body over nitrogen absorbed gives a measure of protein `` usability '' -- the BV . Unlike some measures of protein usability , biological value does not take into account how readily the protein can be digested and absorbed ( largely by the small intestine ) . This is reflected in the experimental methods used to determine BV . BV uses two similar scales : The true percentage utilization ( usually shown with a percent symbol ) . The percentage utilization relative to a readily utilizable protein source , often egg ( usually shown as unitless ) . These two values will be similar but not identical . The BV of a food varies greatly , and depends on a wide variety of factors . In particular the BV value of a food varies depending on its preparation and the recent diet of the organism . This makes reliable determination of BV difficult and of limited use -- fasting prior to testing is universally required in order to ascertain reliable figures . BV is commonly used in nutrition science in many mammalian organisms , and is a relevant measure in humans . It is a popular guideline in bodybuilding in protein choice .", "Kitchen stove A kitchen stove , usually called a gas range ( especially but not only in US English ) , range , cooker , or oven is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food . Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven , used for baking . In the industrialized world , as stoves replaced open fires and braziers as a source of more efficient and reliable heating , models were developed that could also be used for cooking , and these came to be known as kitchen stoves . When homes began to be heated with central heating systems , there was less need for an appliance that served as both heat source and cooker and stand-alone cookers replaced them . Cooker and stove are often used interchangeably . The fuel-burning stove is the most basic design of kitchen stove . `` Nearly half of the people in the world ( mainly in the developing world ) , burn biomass ( wood , charcoal , crop residues , and dung ) and coal in rudimentary cookstoves or open fires to cook their food . '' More fuel efficient and environmentally sound biomass cook stoves are being developed for use there . Modern kitchen stoves may use alternative methods for heating food . Natural gas and electric stoves are the most common today in western countries . Both are equally effective and safe , and the choice between the two is largely a matter of personal preference and pre-existing utility outlets : if a house has no gas supply , adding one just to be able to run a gas stove is an expensive endeavor . In particular , professional chefs often prefer gas cooktops , for they allow them to control the heat more finely and more quickly . On the other hand , some chefs often prefer electric stoves because they tend to heat food more evenly . Today 's major brands offer both gas and electric stoves , and many also offer dual-fuel stoves combining gas and electric cooktops . Modern kitchen stoves have both burners on the top ( also known as the cooktop or stovetop in American English and as the hob in British English ) as well as an oven . A cooktop can refer to the top of a stove or burners built into a countertop . Many newer cooktops are made of glass-ceramic . A drop-in range is a combination stovetop/oven unit that installs in a kitchen 's lower cabinets flush with the countertop . Most modern stoves come in a unit with built-in extractor hoods .", "Jade production and trade in Myanmar Most of the jadeite mined in Myanmar is not cut for use in Myanmar ; instead , it is exported to other nations , primarily in Asia , for use in jewelry and other products . The jadeite deposits found in Myanmar 's northern regions are the highest quality jadeite in the world , considered precious by sources in China as far back as the 13th century . Today , it is estimated that Myanmar provides upwards of 70 percent of the world 's supply of high quality jadeite .", "Fermentek Fermentek Ltd. is a biotechnological company in the Atarot industrial zone of Jerusalem , Israel . It specializes in the research , development and manufacture of biologically active , natural products isolated from microorganisms as well as from other natural sources such as plants and algae . The main microorganisms used are nonpathogenic actinomycetes , Nocardia and Streptomycetes . The fungi used are : Penicillium , Aspergillus , Fusarium and the like . None of these is a human pathogen . Fermentek does not sell to individuals . Most of its products are marketed through major international distributors specializing in chemicals , under their own brand names . Nevertheless , Fermentek has specific impact on the biochemical market , especially in the field of mycotoxins . Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by molds in human food and farm animal feeds , thus being economically important factors . Fermentek manufactures an extensive line of pure mycotoxins used as standards in food analysis . In some cases , such as Aflatoxin M2 , Fermentek supplies the entire world 's requirements . In 2009 Fermentek announced a product family of highly standardized calibrant solutions of main mycotoxins . These are marketed under the brand name FermaSol . In 2010 it obtained ISO 13485 accreditation in connection with the production of starting materials for experimental drug production , and with manufacturing of reference standards of food contaminants . None of Fermentek 's products have been invented by it . Fermentek 's aim is to make known compounds affordable to the scientific community . Fermentek was founded by Dr Yosef Behrend in 1994 . It moved in 2004 to its new building , quadrupling its working space and greatly enlarging its manufacturing capacities .", "Strategic sourcing Strategic sourcing is an institutional procurement process that continuously improves and re-evaluates the purchasing activities of a company . In the services industry , strategic sourcing refers to a service solution , sometimes called a strategic partnership , which is specifically customized to meet the client 's individual needs . In a production environment , it is often considered one component of supply chain management . Modern supply chain management professionals have placed emphasis on defining the distinct differences between strategic sourcing and procurement . Procurement operations support tactical day-to-day transactions such as issuing Purchase Orders to suppliers , whereas strategic sourcing represents to strategic planning , supplier development , contract negotiation , supply chain infrastructure , and outsourcing models . ''", "Bacterial fruit blotch Bacterial fruit blotch ( BFB ) affects cucurbit plants around the world and can be a serious threat to farmers because it spreads through contaminated seed . BFB is the result of an infection by Gram-negative Acidovorax citrulli bacteria , which has only been recently studied in detail . Members of A. citrulli are Gram-negative rod shaped bacteria with the dimensions 0.5 × 1.7 μm . They move via polar flagella . No known reliable sources of BFB resistance exist today , so seed hygiene and thorough testing of breeding facilities are the best way to control spreading . No known control methods , however , are extremely reliable for reducing BFB infection .", "List of United States Coast Guard people The following is a list of people who served in the United States Coast Guard and have gained fame through previous or subsequent endeavors , infamy , or successes : Note : When adding a name to this list , please place the same in alphabetical order and provide a reliable verifiable source . Secondary sources such as fansites are not allowed . As a guide please see : sources . Additions that are not in alphabetical order and/or do not provide a primary reliable verifiable source will be removed .", "RAMS RAMS is an acronym for Reliability , Availability , Maintainability , and Safety . Reliability is a product 's or system 's ability to perform a specific function and may be given as design reliability or operational reliability . Availability is the ability of a system to be kept in a functioning state . Maintainability is determined by the ease with which the product or system can be repaired or maintained . Safety is the requirement not to harm people , the environment , or any other assets during a system 's life cycle .", "Continual power system A continual power system is a large-scale system for reliably supplying large amounts of uninterrupted power . Examples of a continual power system include uninterruptible power supply and an emergency power system . The need for a continual power system has risen over the last few decades because energy resources in the market are getting less and at a higher price as the industrial revolution progresses . This is due to several reasons such as the growth in global economy , depletion of energy resources , and the environmental impacts of energy production . The continual power system is one of many power systems that are being funded and used at this time because there is still no standard that exists that clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the energy provider . As the modern world continues to progress , high-tech users are expected to demand a power supply that is high in security , quality , reliability , and availability . For businesses , reliability and quality is important because they rely on electrical services to provide lighting , general power , computer hardware and communications hardware . The key in reliable power systems is to avoid power disturbances , which are concerned with deviations of the voltage or current from the ideal single-frequency sine wave of constant amplitude and frequency The desire for continuous and reliable power supply is not just within the business community . On a 2011 study done on Flemish households , the researchers found that only a relatively small share of them would be willing to switch to a lower reliability level if they would be compensated by a not too large bill discount . Computer power supplies have the AC/DC converter in which energy is lost when converted . By relying on a highly efficient dc only converter , instead of AC/DC , to store energy directly from a fuel cell the efficiency can be increased by up to 50 %", "Intelligence source and information reliability Intelligence source and information reliability rating systems are used in intelligence analysis . A system commonly employed rates the reliability of the source as well as the information . The source reliability is rated between A ( history of complete reliability ) to E ( history of invalid information ) , with F for source without sufficient history to establish reliability level . The information content is rated between 1 ( confirmed ) to 5 ( improbable ) , with 6 for information whose reliability can not be evaluated . For example , a confirmed information from a reliable source has rating A1 , an unknown-validity information from a new source without reputation is rated F6 , an inconsistent illogical information from a known liar is E5 , a confirmed information from a moderately doubtful source is C1 . The evaluation matrix as described in the Field Manual FM 2-22 .3 ( see also Admiralty code ) :", "Go continuous delivery Go or GoCD is an open source tool which is used in software development to achieve continuous delivery ( CD ) of software . It supports automating the entire build-test-release process from code check-in to deployment . It helps to keep producing valuable software in short cycles and ensure that the software can be reliably released at any time .", "Cincinnati in the American Civil War During the American Civil War , the Ohio River port city of Cincinnati , Ohio , played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army . It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio , which was charged with the defense of the region , as well as directing the army 's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee .", "Droving Droving is the practice of moving livestock over long distances by walking them `` on the hoof '' . Droving stock to market , usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs , has a very long history in the Old World . There has been droving since cities found it necessary to source food from distant supplies . Romans are said to have had drovers and their flocks following their armies to feed their soldiers .", "Voltage source A voltage source is a two terminal device which can maintain a fixed voltage . An ideal voltage source can maintain the fixed voltage independent of the load resistance or the output current . However , a real-world voltage source can not supply unlimited current . A voltage source is the dual of a current source . Real-world sources of electrical energy , such as batteries , generators , and power systems , can be modeled for analysis purposes as a combination of an ideal voltage source and additional combinations of impedance elements .", "Pulsatile flow generator This pulsatile flow generator produces a pulsating water flow by using flexible tubes , a collapsible elastic bladder and a fluid supply . This is a rare phenomenon which still is n't fully understood . What makes this phenomenon unique is the fact that it can generate a pulsatile flow without any use of difficult mechanical engines . There are existing pulsatile flow generators but none of them are as frugal and easy to build as this one . They are also expensive and none of them are based on principle of flow limitation occurring in collapsible tubes .", "Lardoglyphus zacheri Lardoglyphus zacheri is a species of mite first discovered by Dr. Zacher in a dermestid beetle culture . The genus Lardoglyphus was erected by Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans in 1927 . The species is known to be a pest to institutional as well as private dermestid beetle colonies . Lardoglyphus zacheri has been less studied than its congener L. konoi , which is occasionally called the `` fish mite '' and has been known to threaten supplies of cured fish . As a food supply threat the latter species is therefore more of a concern . However , much can be inferred about L. zacheri by studying L. konoi , the latter of which is known to thrive in humid environments . Thus Lardoglyphus species can be expected to become pests in many tropical and subtropical situations , especially where ambient conditions are humid . Some researchers have asserted that devastating L. zacheri infestations can occur in any climate when their target is a dermestid beetle colony . The high humidity levels produced in the often enclosed colonies are the likely cause of such infestations , even when said colonies are located in relatively dry climates . Scientists believe that cured fish infestations of L. zacheri are initiated by dermestid ( carrion ) beetles that carry hypopi to the fish source in the first place . For this reason , researchers interested in studying L. zacheri concomitantly study the Dermestes maculatus carrion beetle ." ]

[ "Heat wave A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather , which may be accompanied by high humidity , especially in oceanic climate countries . While definitions vary , a heat wave is measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season . Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area . The term is applied both to hot weather variations and to extraordinary spells of hot which may occur only once a century . Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures , thousands of deaths from hyperthermia , and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning . A heat wave is considered extreme weather , and a danger because heat and sunlight may overheat the human body .", "2018 British Isles heat wave The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels." ]

[ "Now We Have Something to Celebrate Now We Have Something To Celebrate is a split album by Peachcake and Less Pain Forever .", "Hispasat 1C Hispasat 1C is a Spanish communications satellite which is operated by Hispasat . It was constructed by Alcatel Space and is based on the Spacebus-3000B2 satellite bus . Launch occurred on 3 February 2000 , at 23:30 . The launch was contracted by ILS , and used an Atlas IIAS carrier rocket flying from SLC-36B at Cape Canaveral . It has a mass of 3113 kg , and an expected service life of 15 years . Following its launch and on-orbit testing , it was placed in geostationary orbit at 30 ° West , from where it provides communications services to Europe and the Americas . It is expected to remain in service until at least 2015 .", "Sound of Our Hearts Sound of Our Hearts is a song by Hungarian group Compact Disco . The song represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku , Azerbaijan . It qualified from the first semi-final into the grand final where it finished 24th of 26 entrants . `` Back in our previous years we just made song about love and relation and some easy things , you know . Now , these days we just feel that maybe we just have to make something more serious . ... If you look around what is going on in the world - not just in Hungary - the situation is just going down . And it is not so good , so ... our message is that we should look after each other . We should be more close to each other . We should take care of the relationship because if it is not working than everything is just going in a really bad way . '' - Eurovision interview with the group . Ref", "British Guiana 1c magenta The British Guiana 1c magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world 's most famous rare stamp . It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana ( now Guyana ) in 1856 , and only one specimen is now known to exist . It is the only major postage stamp ever issued that is not represented in Britain 's Royal Philatelic Collection . It is imperforate , printed in black on magenta paper , and it features a sailing ship along with the colony 's Latin motto `` Damus Petimus Que Vicissim '' ( We give and expect in return ) in the middle . Four thin lines frame the ship . The stamp 's country of issue and value in small black upper case lettering in turn surround the frame . With its $ 9,480,000 sale on 17 June 2014 to Stuart Weitzman , this item has broken the world record for a single stamp auction price each of the last four times it has been sold .", "Expectation (epistemic) In the case of uncertainty , expectation is what is considered the most likely to happen . An expectation , which is a belief that is centered on the future , may or may not be realistic . A less advantageous result gives rise to the emotion of disappointment . If something happens that is not at all expected , it is a surprise . An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person , expressed to that person , may have the nature of a strong request , or an order ; this kind of expectation is called a social norm . The degree to which something is expected to be true can be expressed using fuzzy logic .", "Start from the Dark Start from the Dark is the sixth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe . It was released on 22 September 2004 by Sanctuary Records . It was the band 's first release since reforming in 2003 , and the first original album of all-new material since 1991 's Prisoners in Paradise . Start from the Dark departs from the glam metal genre and featured a more modern sound compared to Europe 's previous albums . `` We wanted to be doing something at least that was a little bit relevant now ; bit of a dry mix , detuned a bit , '' vocalist Joey Tempest said , `` So we felt like we did n't want to do an '80s album per se , we just wanted to start like a fresh band really . '' Eventually , the album sold in excess of 600,000 copies worldwide .", "Closer to Love `` Closer to Love '' is the first single from Mat Kearney 's third album City of Black & White . It was released as a digital download on March 10 , 2009 . The song was featured in USA Today and chosen as the `` Pick of the week . '' The music video was released on March 27 , 2009 . Kearney explained to Relevant Magazine that this song is , `` about dealing with the difficulties of a tough world , or maybe about the tough world we see our friends living in , or maybe it 's something about the growing we are all a part of -- longing for something whole and perfect -- like we are just passing though this place . '' `` Closer to Love '' appears on the compilation album Now That 's What I Call Faith .", "This Is Who We Are (Run Kid Run album) This Is Who We Are is the debut album from Christian pop punk band Run Kid Run . It was released by Tooth & Nail Records on May 18 , 2006 . `` We 've Only Just Begun '' was the first single from the album . The album was produced by James Paul Wisner ( Dashboard Confessional , Further Seems Forever , New Found Glory ) . `` This Is Who We Are is about finding your true sense of self , and then holding on to that with all you have , '' says guitarist Neil Endicott , `` We want people to have something they can listen to that makes them feel better about whatever is going on in their life . ''", "Condosity The condosity of a solution is defined as the molar concentration of sodium chloride that has the same specific electrical conductance as the solution . For example , for a 2M KCl solution , we would expect the condosity to be something more than 2.0 . This is because Potassium is more metallic than sodium . We know that it will be a better conductor . Category : Solutions", "Self-realization Self-realization is an expression used in psychology , philosophy , spirituality , and Eastern religions . It is defined as the `` fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one 's character or personality . '' In one overview , Mortimer Adler defines self-realization as freedom from external coercion , including cultural expectations , political and economic freedom , and the freedom from worldly attachments and desires etc. . Paramahansa Yogananda defined Self-realization as `` the knowing -- in body , mind , and soul -- that we are one with the omnipresence of God ; that we do not have to pray that it come to us , that we are not merely near it at all times , but that God 's omnipresence is our omnipresence ; that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be . All we have to do is improve our knowing . ''", "Heatwave (magazine) Heatwave was a short-lived libertarian socialist journal launched by Charles Radcliffe . Only two issues of the journal were produced , appearing in July and September 1966 . The first issue positioned itself as an ` experimental , perhaps slightly crazed libertarian socialist journal ' , and included a statement of intent : ` HEATWAVE is not a rival to existing publications on the libertarian left , but an addition to the libertarian press and an extension of its ideology , both conscious and unconscious , into new fields . HEATWAVE wants to generate heat in every field . We believe the time is ripe for an explosion of revolutionary energy which would alter the face of the earth . HEATWAVE advocates the use of any and all means that may bring to a climax the crisis of capitalism and authoritarianism , and result in the total extinction of all forms of exploitation or authority . ' The journal 's formation was inspired by , and aspired to be the British counterpart of a similar , Chicago based publication , The Rebel Worker , which was associated with the Industrial Workers of the World .", "Tough Love (Pulled Apart by Horses album) Tough Love is the second album from the Leeds four piece Pulled Apart by Horses . It was recorded at Monnow Valley Studio in South Wales . It was released on 20 January 2012 . In an interview with NME , Bassist Rob Lee explained that `` This album is a lot more direct , we 're better musicians and songwriters now . On the first one , we were n't that good as musicians , but now we 've been touring relentlessly and we 've got to be better players . We made our debut ourselves and it was n't ambitious . This feels more like our first proper album and not just something for self-gratification . Every song on this album has its own personality and really stands on its own '' .", "Türksat 1C Türksat 1C was a Turkish communications satellite as part of a project to form an instant network with two geosynchronous satellites that is supervised by the companies Türksat A.Ş . in Turkey and Aérospatiale of France . Türksat 1C was launched by Arianespace atop an Ariane-44L H10-3 launch vehicle along with Saudi Arabian satellite Arabsat-2A in a dual-payload launch on July 9 , 1996 from ELA-2 at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou , French Guiana . It was built under the insurance terms of the turnkey system contract to replace the first Turkish satellite Türksat 1A , which was lost following a launch failure on January 24 , 1994 . The contract was modified so that the coverage area of Türksat 1C was enlarged by two big zones . Turksat 1C was successfully placed into geostationary transfer orbit and positioned at 31.3 ° E on July 10 , 1996 . Completing the orbital tests , the satellite shifted to longitude 42 ° E . After this process , which took 17 days , the broadcast traffic of the Türksat 1B was transferred to Türksat 1C . Finally , when these processes completed Türksat 1B was positioned at 31.3 ° E following similar orbital manoeuvres . Turksat 1C was designed for covering Turkey and Europe on west spot by vertical emission and Turkey and Central Asia on east spot by horizontal emission so as to serve simultaneously between Europe , Turkey and Central Asia , and to provide direct connection between Europe and Central Asia . It is based on the Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 series having an on-orbit mass of 1062 kg . The communications payload consists of 16 Ku band transponders with eight backup , nine with 36Mhz , two with 54Mhz and five 72Mhz bandwidth . On July 16 , 2008 , all traffic on Turksat 1C was transferred to Turksat 3A , which was launched on June 13 , 2008 and its television broadcast was terminated on October 3 , 2010 .", "Climate Code Red Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated . The book argues that we are facing a `` sustainability emergency '' that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics . The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon . Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists , including James E. Hansen . The key themes of Climate Code Red are : `` Our goal is a safe-climate future -- we have no right to bargain away species or human lives . '' `` We are facing rapid warming impacts : the danger is immediate , not just in the future . '' `` For a safe climate future , we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth . '' `` Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society . '' `` Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency , because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual '' . Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman , climate-policy analyst , and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network . Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network . The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria , Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne , Victoria , on July 17 , 2008 .", "Huddersfield Y.M.C.A. RUFC Huddersfield YMCA Rugby Football Club is an English rugby union team based in Huddersfield , West Yorkshire . The club runs four senior sides and a full set of junior teams . The first XV currently plays in National League 3 North , having been promoted from North 1 East the previous season . Junior Rugby at the YMCA The 2012/13 season marked our 40th anniversary of developing and promoting junior rugby for every age group -- from U6s through to colts and seniors . This is very clearly reflected in the large number of home-grown players that now make up our First XV . We have a great group RFU qualified coaches that are CRB-checked and ready to take your children from Tag rugby , through mini rugby and onto the senior game . If you 're new to the area , the game or just want to try something different then come and try rugby union in a warm and friendly environment .", "Got to Have Faith `` Got to Have Faith '' is a 2004 single released by the Swedish heavy metal band Europe . It was released on September 15 , 2004 , and was the first single from the album Start from the Dark . `` Got to Have Faith '' was co-written by vocalist Joey Tempest and guitarist John Norum , and was the first song written for Start from the Dark . `` We wanted to make something modern , heavy and something that would be relevant now , '' Tempest said , `` So John sent me some riffs to my hometown in London and I just started putting things together , writing lyrics and when I felt I had something , I sent it off to the other guys . They were all like , ` This is great ! ' ... Hence the heavier riffs , the D-tuning and everything because that 's the way John likes to do it . '' The song 's music video features the band performing in a garage interspersed with clips taken from the Ghost Rider motorcycle stunt films . In an interlude , the video shows brief , distorted clips of the band taken from the 1980s . Ghost Rider , touching speeds over 300 km/h , zooms past Upplands Väsby , the Swedish suburb where the band was formed , at the end of the video .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "All That We Have Now All That We Have Now is the second studio album by post-hardcore band Fear , and Loathing in Las Vegas , released on August 8 , 2012 . `` Just Awake '' , originally recorded in Japanese , was later released with an English version . This is the last release to feature Ma $ hu as the bass guitarist . He left the band in 2013 , and was later replaced by Kei .", "2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe were a series of severe supercell storms affecting western Europe which followed a heatwave in early June 2014 , resulting from a Spanish plume synoptic weather pattern . The weekend saw repeated convective storm development across an arc from southwest France towards Paris and on towards Belgium and northwest Germany , where warm air masses interacted with the cooler air brought in by an area of low pressure moving towards the continent from the Atlantic . Outbreaks of severe weather were reported from these storm developments with the worst damages occurring over the German state of on 9 June , where the storm was described as one of the most violent in decades by the German weather service ( Deutscher Wetterdienst ) , this storm is also referred to as low pressure area `` Ela '' in some German media .", "Spock's Beard (album) Spock 's Beard is the eponymous ninth studio album by American progressive rock band Spock 's Beard . On September 21 , 2006 , Dave Meros added the tentative track list to the band 's website , and said the following regarding the album 's title : `` As you probably know by now , we 're calling our ninth studio release simply Spock 's Beard . No big heavy reasoning behind that , really , it just seemed like a cool thing to do . ( Of course , you are more than welcome to help us invent some heavy philosophical or hidden meaning so we 'll have something interesting to say in interviews ... There are a few cool song titles that could have become the CD title ... but we 've done that a lot before . Then there is the obvious ` SB9 ' and its variations , or the clever play on words thing , like ` nein ' or ` asinine ' or something like that . '' Like its predecessors `` A Guy Named Sid '' ( from Feel Euphoria ) and `` A Flash Before My Eyes '' ( from Octane ) , the individual sections of `` As Far as the Mind Can See '' are divided into separate tracks on the album .", "1C Company 1C Company ( Russian : Фирма `` 1С '' ) is an independent Russian software developers and publishers . Its headquarters are in Moscow , Russia . It is best known outside Russia as a video game developer whose presence has come to dominate events like the KRI , and whose products have begun to show up for international platforms like the Xbox . On the internal Russian market , 1C is considered a leader in business software as well . 1C 's comprehensive business software suite 1C : Предприятие ( 1C : Predpriyatiye , 1C : Enterprise ) has held an overwhelming market share for over a decade . 1C is also a leader in localizing and publishing Russian-language versions of international software . For instance , more than half of popular Western video games are licensed and published by 1C . The company has over 700 employees , 10,000 business partners , 4,500 authorized retailers , 1,200 training centers , 200 authorized certification locations and over 280 stores in 100 cities .", "Something Is Expected Something Is Expected is Theresa Sokyrka 's second album . It was released on August 29 , 2006 .", "Blood/Candy Blood/Candy is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band The Posies , released on September 28 , 2010 , by Rykodisc . It is the band 's first new album release in five years following Every Kind of Light . The Posies say this is something totally different from what they 've tried before . `` We subscribe to the ` evolve or perish ' philosophy , '' co-founder Jon Auer says in a statement . `` We directed ourselves to new places with this recording and tried not to travel down familiar paths when it could be avoided . Expect the unexpected '' `` One of the things I was hoping to do on this record , '' says Auer , `` was go back to the idea of Ken and me writing most of the songs , versus the last recording we did , where we kind of cobbled things together in the studio with everyone . I just felt like we needed to have that time to prepare and actually sit down and write . '' As a result , Stringfellow says , `` I would say that I feel the songs on this one a bit deeper ... there 's stuff from way down in there that I think gives it a little more soul . ''", "Australia West Express Australia West Express is a planned submarine cable linking Western Australia and Djibouti with en route landings at Diego Garcia . It is expected to create the fastest latency link between Europe and Australia , avoiding the Malaysian/Indonesia choke point . Australia West Express is planned to have landings at Djibouti where it can interconnect with other submarine cables EIG , SEACOM , EASSy , SEA-ME-WE 3 and soon AAE-1 and SEA-ME-WE 5 .", "We Just Be Dreamin' `` We Just Be Dreamin ' '' is a song by ten piece hip-hop group Blazin ' Squad , released as the lead single from their second studio album , Now or Never .", "Their / They're / There Their / They 're / There is an indie rock band from Chicago , Illinois . All three members are prominent figures in the Chicago indie scene , having each been a part of numerous noteworthy projects based in the area . The group released their first two EPs , Their / They 're / There and Analog Weekend in 2013 . Frontman Evan Weiss said of the band 's sound `` people have these expectations like it 's gon na sound like something we 've already done , but it does n't -LSB- ... -RSB- but I think , listening to the songs , you can tell that the three of us wrote them . ''", "Stick to Me Stick to Me is the title of the third album by rock and roll singer-songwriter Graham Parker and his first group , the Rumour . Critical opinion of Stick to Me generally ranks it below their first two albums , Howlin ' Wind and Heat Treatment . An undeniable shortcoming is the sound : the sessions suffered from a production mishap . The original recording was ruined , and all the songs needed to be rerecorded hastily . Parker , interviewed by Steve Hammer , recalled the making of the album : '' ... for `` Stick to Me , '' we had an 80-piece string section playing . But the whole album had to be scrapped because the master tape was leaking oxide or something . The producer , again , did n't seem to spot it . We saw this black stuff coming off the tapes but he did n't notice it . When we came to mix it , it was un-mixable . The hi-hat was leaking through all the tracks . It was a nightmare , because we had a tour coming up . In those days I had a manager , and managers are always saying , `` We have to play in Sweden now , '' like that 's the most important thing to do . So we re-made the record in a week with Nick Lowe . It 's not what I wanted at all . It 's a very intense , grungy-sounding record , but I kind of like it now for that reason . I think people are trying to get that sound now , and have been since the late '80s , when we finally got rid of that Phil Collins drum sound and got real again . If a band made a record like that now , it would be hailed as a great low-fi record . But in those days , of course , the American press panned it . They thought I should sound like Boston or Journey or something . They thought I should have a slicker sound . But they had a point . ''", "Warm River (story) `` Warm River '' is short love story by Erskine Caldwell , included in the collection We Are the Living ( 1933 ) .", "DARPA Robotics Challenge The DARPA Robotics Challenge ( DRC ) was a prize competition funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . Held from 2012 to 2015 , it aimed to develop semi-autonomous ground robots that could do `` complex tasks in dangerous , degraded , human-engineered environments . '' The DRC followed the DARPA Grand Challenge and DARPA Urban Challenge . It began in October 2012 and was to run for about 33 months with three competitions : a Virtual Robotics Challenge ( VRC ) that took place in June 2013 ; and two live hardware challenges , the DRC Trials in December 2013 and the DRC Finals in June 2015 . Besides spurring development of semi-autonomous robots , the DRC also sought to make robotic software and systems development more accessible beyond the end of the program . To that end , the DRC funded the adaptation of the GAZEBO robot simulator by the Open Source Robotics Foundation ( OSRF ) for DRC purposes and the construction of six Boston Dynamics ATLAS robots that were given to the teams that performed best in the VRC . Dr. Gill Pratt , Program Manager DARPA Robotics Challenge described DARPA and its goals with the Robotics Challenge : DARPA 's role is to spur innovation . And we do it by focused , short term efforts . We pick things that are not impossible , but also not very low risk . So we take very high risk gambles , and those risks have tremendous payoffs . So if we 're successful it means that these robots are actually going to be able to make a difference . In particular , in disaster scenarios making society more resilient . The lesson of the original challenge -LSB- DARPA Grand Challenge - driverless cars -RSB- is that persistence pays . It 's important if you know the technology is almost there and you can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel , a little bit of persistence will pay off . What I 'm hoping for in the trials is that some of the teams will score some points . I do n't think that any team is going to score all the points that there are . Maybe no teams will even score half the points that there are . But I think some teams will do moderately well . My expectation is that the robots are going to be slow . What we 're looking for right now is for the teams to just do as well as roughly that one year old child . If we can get there , then we think that we have good reason to believe that some of these teams with continued persistence for another year will actually be able to demonstrate robots that show the utility that these things might have in a real disaster scenario . DARPA is in the innovation business , not in the development business . So , what we do is we wait for technology to be almost ready for something big to happen , and then we add a focused effort to catalyze the something . It does n't mean that we take it all the way into a system that 's deployed or to the marketplace . We rely on the commercial sector to do that . But we provide the impetus , the extra push the technology needs to do that .", "Heatwave in Berlin Heatwave in Berlin ( 1961 ) is a novel by Australian writer Dymphna Cusack .", "Diamond Mine (King Creosote & Jon Hopkins album) Diamond Mine is a collaborative studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter King Creosote and English electronica musician Jon Hopkins , released on 28 March 2011 through Domino Records . Inspired by the East Neuk of Fife , the album combines Creosote 's songs with field recordings by Hopkins . Upon release , Creosote stated : `` I really do n't know what to do next , because , in some ways , I 'm at that peak . I do n't know where to go from here . '' The album was subsequently followed by the EP , Honest Words in September 2011 , and the double a-side single , `` John Taylor 's Month Away '' / `` Missionary '' in February 2012 . Diamond Mine was nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize , with Creosote noting , `` I was n't expecting it at all . -LSB- ... -RSB- There 's been a lot of people in the media nailing their colours to the mast with this record , and that 's quite encouraging -- to know that we 've got supporters , and a lot of them . I 'm not expecting to win , but just to be on that list . This is something I 've been on the outside of forever , and now here we are . It 's all good . It makes up for not selling records , anyway ! '' The album sold 25,000 copies in 2011 .", "Good Fortune (78 Saab album) Good Fortune is the fourth and final album by Australian rock band 78 Saab , released in 2010 . The album came three years after its predecessor , The Bells Line , during which time frontman Ben Nash said the band had been drifting and procrastinating . The catalyst for a return to songwriting and recording was the death of a photographer friend in 2008 , which inspired the song `` Warm Jets '' . Nash told Beat magazine : `` We were going through a difficult time as a band anyway . We did n't really talk about things , we just internalised a lot of stuff lyrically , maybe that 's why the album is a bit darker than usual . But when you have a close friend that passes away or issues on the home front , it makes you realise how fleeting life can be and how important it is to grab those opportunities . You just may not be here next month . As soon as that hit home for us , we realised we still had a purpose as a band and we 'd been coasting around for too long . We knew we were capable of walking into the rehearsal room and punching out a couple of good songs - so we decided to do that and concentrate completely . '' Nash said `` Warm Jets '' was built around the friend who died and his love of photography , `` but the trick was to write this song about a mate passing away , though without sounding too heavy-handed . In the end I was happy with the way the message is conveyed -- it 's still uplifting at the same time as touching . '' He said the album 's title was a recognition that the band had `` really had good fortune in that we are still mates with a good body of work behind us as a band . From day one the philosophy has always been that you 're in charge of your own destiny . It 's amazing when you think that we started out in Canberra back in 1996 after winning a band competition . Once the band managed to find its own identity and its true sound - that was the most exciting experience ever . When you start putting together quality songs you realise that this is no longer an illusion , you 're a real band . It 's that moment of , ` wow , we 're really onto something here . ' ''" ]

[ "University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst ( abbreviated UMass Amherst and colloquially referred to as UMass or Massachusetts ) is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst , Massachusetts , United States , and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system . With approximately 1,300 faculty members and more than 29,000 students , UMass Amherst is the largest public university in New England and is ranked as tied for the 27th best public university in the nation . The university offers bachelor 's degrees , master 's degrees , and doctoral degrees in 111 undergraduate , 75 master 's and 47 doctoral programs in nine schools and colleges . The main campus is situated north of downtown Amherst . In a 2009 article for MSN.com , Amherst was ranked first in Best College Towns in the United States . In 2012 , U.S. News and World Report ranked Amherst among the Top 10 Great College Towns in America . It is also a member of the Five College Consortium . The University of Massachusetts Amherst is categorized as a Research University with Highest research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching . In fiscal year 2014 , UMass Amherst had research expenditures exceeding $ 200 million . UMass Amherst sports teams are called the Minutemen and Minutewomen , the colors being maroon , black , and white ; the school mascot is Sam the Minuteman . All teams participate in NCAA Division I . The university is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference , while playing ice hockey in Hockey East and football as an FBS Independent .", "Emissions trading Emissions trading or cap and trade is a government-mandated , market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants . In contrast to command-and-control environmental regulations such as best available technology ( BAT ) standards and government subsidies , cap and trade ( CAT ) schemes are a type of flexible environmental regulation that allows organizations to decide how best to meet policy targets . Various countries , states and groups of companies have adopted such trading systems , notably for mitigating climate change . A central authority ( usually a governmental body ) allocates or sells a limited number of permits to discharge specific quantities of a specific pollutant per time period . Polluters are required to hold permits in amount equal to their emissions . Polluters that want to increase their emissions must buy permits from others willing to sell them . Financial derivatives of permits can also be traded on secondary markets . In theory , polluters who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so , achieving the emission reduction at the lowest cost to society . Cap and trade is meant to provide the private sector with the flexibility required to reduce emissions while stimulating technological innovation and economic growth . There are active trading programs in several air pollutants . For greenhouse gases , which cause climate change , permit units are often called carbon credits . The largest greenhouse gases trading program is the European Union Emission Trading Scheme , which trades primarily in European Union Allowances ( EUAs ) ; the Californian scheme trades in California Carbon Allowances , the New Zealand scheme in New Zealand Units and the Australian scheme in Australian Units . The United States has a national market to reduce acid rain and several regional markets in nitrogen oxides .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "1946 Massachusetts State Aggies football team The 1946 Massachusetts State Aggies football team represented Massachusetts State College in the 1946 college football season . The team was coached by Walter Hargesheimer and played its home games at Alumni Field in Amherst , Massachusetts . The 1946 season was the team 's last as an Independent , as they would form the Yankee Conference with the other New England land-grant universities in 1947 . It was also their last as the Mass State Aggies , as they would begin play in 1947 as the University of Massachusetts Redmen . Mass State finished the season with a record of 6 -- 2 .", "Air pollution in Germany Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "Louis W. Ross Louis Ross redirects here . For those of similar name , see Lewis Ross ( disambiguation ) Louis Warren Ross ( July 18 , 1893 -- September 8 , 1966 ) was an American architect from Boston , Massachusetts , perhaps best known for his work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst , where he designed over thirty of the campus buildings there . Ross was born in Arlington , Massachusetts on July 18 , 1893 , the third of the five children of Louis Hall Ross and Mable Louisa Rawson . He was the grandson of agriculturalist Warren Winn Rawson and Helen Maria Mair . Graduating from Arlington High School in June 1913 , he entered the Massachusetts Agricultural College ( presently the University of Massachusetts Amherst ) as a pomology major in the fall of that same year . During his time at the college he was notably active in college sports , having played on the football , baseball , and hockey teams , serving as captain of the latter . He was also a member of the campus `` mandolin club '' and the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity . Ross graduated in 1917 , entering the army soon after . He would serve as an infantry lieutenant in the 166th Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division , better known as the `` Rainbow Division '' , in France during the First World War . By the end of the war he had been awarded a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster . After the war , Ross entered the Harvard Graduate School of Architecture in 1921 , graduating four years later in 1925 . He would spend the next ten years working as a draftsman for prominent Boston architect , Edward T. P. Graham before starting his own firm in 1935 . One of his first independent projects , Thatcher House , was designed for his alma mater as the first dorm of the Northeast Residential Complex and the oldest dormitory still in use on campus today . His first design was seen as such a success by the university ( by known this time known as Massachusetts State College ) that he was given a gold medal at the 1938 commencement for his design and oversight of the building 's construction . This would be the first of over 20 dormitories that he would design for the university , among other buildings . Although not as widely known as his campus work , Ross would also design a variety of buildings in the towns of Amherst , Northampton , Winchester , Needham and Newton . Ross moved to Newton in the early 1920s where he met Dorothy M. Pickett ; the couple were wed on October 8 , 1928 . They had two children , a son , Warren R. Ross , and a daughter , Sally L. Pestalozzi . In the last 10 years of his life Ross spent his summers in Rockport , and continued his work up until the age of 72 , only a year prior to his death . After what was described as `` a brief illness '' , Louis Warren Ross died on Thursday , September 8 , 1966 . Although his namesake is confined to the Builder 's Association plaques of the many university buildings , never before , or since , has the Amherst campus been shaped so thoroughly by any single individual as Ross had done in his 30 years of service to the institution . It may be said that entire sections of the campus , encompass his legacy .", "Robert M. Kingdon Robert M. Kingdon ( December 29 , 1927 -- December 3 , 2010 ) was an American historian of the Protestant Reformation . `` Bob '' Kingdon was born in Chicago and spent many of his early years in Hawaii . He completed his undergraduate education at Oberlin College before moving on to Columbia University where he earned a doctorate under the noted Tudor historian Garrett Mattingly . He taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Iowa before settling at the University of Wisconsin in 1965 , where he would remain until his retirement . Along with his path breaking works on the Reformation in Geneva and the spread of the Reformed tradition in France , Kingdon had an enormous influence on early modern studies through his efforts to found the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference and the Sixteenth Century Journal . During his tenure at Wisconsin , he ushered through a large cohort of graduate students in early modern studies , many of whom have become leading figures in the field .", "Commonwealth College Commonwealth College can refer to several institutions . Association of Commonwealth Universities in the Commonwealth of Nations In the United States : Commonwealth College ( Arkansas ) Columbia Pacific University , formerly known as Columbia Commonwealth University , in California Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Commonwealth System of Higher Education in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Campus of the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Medical College in Pennsylvania Virginia Commonwealth University", "Campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst The campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is located nearly entirely in Amherst , Massachusetts , United States , with a portion located in Hadley . Founded on 310 acres in rural Western Massachusetts , the campus has grown to nearly 1,450 acres .", "Climate change in Idaho Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing The University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing is a nursing college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst .", "List of Chancellors of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellors of the University of Massachusetts Amherst are individuals who serve in the top position of the university . The office , originally known as `` President , '' was changed to `` Chancellor '' in 1970 following Lederle 's resignation and the opening of UMass Boston five years earlier . The title `` President of the University of Massachusetts '' now refers to the president of the entire five-campus University of Massachusetts system . The current Chancellor of the Amherst campus is Kumble R. Subbaswamy . The Chancellor resides in Hillside , the campus residence for chancellors .", "Quinsigamond Community College Quinsigamond Community College ( colloq : QCC , Quinsig ) is a public , two-year academic institution in Worcester , Massachusetts , United States . A commuter school , the college has an enrollment of over 8,000 students in its Associate 's degree and certification programs . A number of students are enrolled in transfer programs with the intent of continuing on to a four-year college or university , often the University of Massachusetts Amherst or Worcester State University through guaranteed-acceptance programs .", "Amherst station (Massachusetts) Amherst is a closed intercity rail station in Amherst , Massachusetts formerly served by the Amtrak Vermonter . It is located at 13 Railroad Street off Main Street , and served the downtown area along with Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst . The station was closed on December 28 , 2014 , after which the Vermonter was rerouted to the faster Conn River Line several miles to the west .", "University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts The University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts is a school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst .", "List of University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni The University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni number is around 243,628 worldwide .", "William M. Cashin House The William M. Cashin House , also known as Cashin Hall , is a dormitory in Amherst , Massachusetts named for William M. Cashin , original Trustee member for the UMass Building Authority from 1949-1969 . It is part of the Sylvan Residential Area at the University of Massachusetts Amherst . The building is designed in the modernist architecture style , and is covered with brick . In 1980 , the building was home to the first signs of the impending campus water shortage . The first signs of trouble came the next morning when a resident of Cashin on the northern end of campus called the school 's maintenance to report low water levels . A plumber was dispatched and after checking that the filters were n't clogged , determined it was a supply problem .", "UMass Softball Complex The UMass Softball Complex softball field located on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst , Massachusetts . It has served as the home of the University of Massachusetts Minutewoman softball team since the spring of 2000 . The field officially opened on April 1 , 2000 , when UMass posted a 5-2 victory over Princeton . Among the facilities available at the UMass Softball Complex are two batting cages , a bullpen that can accommodate three pitchers , heated dugouts , lockers in the UMass dugout and dugout restrooms . The surface also features a state-of-the-art drainage system which can accommodate six inches of rain per hour . Each year the complex typically hosts the NCAA National Softball Tournament Amherst Regional .", "Robert Bagg Robert Bagg ( born 1935 , New Jersey ) is an American poet and translator . He has published several volumes of poetry and has authored critical studies of Sappho and Catallus . In addition to his other literary work , Bagg taught English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst ( 1965 -- 1996 ) , serving as Department Chair ( 1986 -- 92 ) .", "Julie Choffel Julie Choffel was born and raised in Austin , studied geography at Texas State , and graduated from the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts -- Amherst . She teaches creative writing at the University of Connecticut and lives in Connecticut with her husband and their daughter .", "Richard M. Freeland Richard Middleton Freeland ( born May 13 , 1941 in Orange , New Jersey ) was President of Northeastern University from 1996 to 2006 and served as the Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts from 2008 until 2015 . Freedland grew up in Mountain Lakes , New Jersey and was granted a bachelor 's degree in American Studies from Amherst College and a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania . Freeland is married to Elsa Nunez , and has two children . During Freeland 's tenure , Northeastern University went through major institutional changes , including becoming a more selective institution , moving to semesters from quarters , and the opening of over $ 400 million worth of new facilities .", "New Africa House The New Africa House , formerly known as Mills House , is an academic building and former dormitory of the University of Massachusetts Amherst built in the Georgian revival style with art deco accents . It is part of the Central Residential Area at the University of Massachusetts Amherst . It was designed by Louis Ross , who designed many of the dormitories on campus as well as the Student Union . It was named after former modern languages and literary professor George Franklin Mills , who also served as a dean of the Massachusetts Agricultural College ; the building 's name was changed however following a black student takeover of the dorm in the spring of 1970 . After negotiations with university officials , an agreement was made that the dorm would be renamed `` New Africa '' and the newly formed African-American studies department would relocate its offices there . It still serves as the classroom and office space of that department to this day , and also features the Augusta Savage Art Gallery and the university 's Everywoman 's Center .", "UMass Minutemen baseball For information on all University of Massachusetts Amherst sports , see UMass Minutemen The UMass Minutemen baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst , Massachusetts , United States . The team is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference , which is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association 's Division I. Massachusetts ' first baseball team was fielded in 1877 . The team plays its home games at Earl Lorden Field in Amherst , Massachusetts . The Minutemen are coached by Matt Reynolds .", "Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "University of Massachusetts Amherst Student Government Association The University of Massachusetts Amherst Student Government Association is a student-run government set up to provide a voice for students when dealing with administration of the University of Massachusetts Amherst ( UMass Amherst ) . The SGA has three branches , executive , legislative and judicial , and also a constitution . UMass ' SGA , along with the four other campuses in the University of Massachusetts System student governments sends one members to a meeting to the Board of Trustees .", "Robert Carothers Robert L. Carothers ( born September 3 , 1942 ) served as the tenth president of the University of Rhode Island from 1991 to 2009 . He received his B.A. degree from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania in 1965 . He joined Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity and was elected the President of the Fraternity twice . Carothers earned a Ph.D. degree at Kent State University in 1969 . He also obtained a J.D. degree from the McDowell School of Law , University of Akron in 1980 . Carothers retired in May 2009 . David M. Dooley , former Provost at the Montana State University , took over as the University 's 11th President .", "Robert Mallary Robert W. Mallary ( 2 December 1917 - 10 February 1997 ) was an American artist . He was a prominent American sculptor in the 1950s and 1960s , creating Neo-Dada or junk art from found materials . He was also an early exponent of the use of plastics and computers in art . He became less well known in later life , and was a teacher of art at the University of Massachusetts for nearly 30 years . Mallary was born in Toledo , Ohio , and grew up in Berkeley , California . He was interested in art from his youth , and went to Mexico City to study at the Escuela de Las Artes Del Libro ( now the Escuela Nacional de Artes Gráficas ) in 1938-39 and then at the Academy of San Carlos in 1942-43 , where he was inspired by José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros . He also studied at the Painters Workshop School in Boston , Massachusetts in 1941 . He started to work with plastics in the 1930s , and exhibited paintings made from liquid polyester at the Urban Gallery in New York City in 1954 . He worked in advertising in California in 1945-48 , He taught art at the California School of Art in Los Angeles in 1949-50 , at the Hollywood Art Center from 1950 to 1954 , and then at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from 1955 to 1959 . He moved to New York City in 1959 to teach at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn . He was a teacher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , Massachusetts from 1967 until his retirement in 1996 . He arranged found objects - discarded cardboard or fabrics - which he covered with polyester resin to create abstract relief sculptures and assemblages . He also produced words using sand and straw hardened with polyester resin . He was selected for a $ 1,000 preliminary award in the US national section of the Guggenheim International Award in 1960 , and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964 . Examples of his works were included in the `` Sculpture U.S.A. '' and `` Sixteen Americans '' exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1959 , and then at its `` Art of Assemblage '' exhibition in 1961 . He did not have a gallery show in New York City for nearly 30 years , from 1966 to 1993 . A retrospective show was held at the State University of New York in Potsdam , New York , in 1968 . He exhibited sculptures designed using computers at the `` Cybernetic Serendipity '' exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1968 , assembling stacked layers of shapes cut out of plywood designed using a bespoke computer graphics program , TRAN2 . He suffered from liver problems in later life , attributable to the toxicity of liquid polyester . He lived at Conway , Massachusetts , and died of leukaemia at Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton , Massachusetts . He was survived by his wife Margot , three children , and two siblings .", "Vic Fusia Victor M. Fusia ( November 21 , 1916 -- January 18 , 1991 ) was an American football player and coach . He served as the head coach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1961 to 1970 . He compiled an 59 -- 32 -- 2 overall record and won five Yankee Conference championships . Born in Wilkinsburg , Pennsylvania , Fusia was a 1938 graduate of Manhattan College and a Navy veteran of World War II . He coached five years in the Pennsylvania high school system in the 1950s and was an assistant coach at Brown and the Pittsburgh before becoming the head coach at Massachusetts .", "The Daily Collegian (disambiguation) The Daily Collegian could refer to : The Daily Collegian , the paper at Penn State University The Massachusetts Daily Collegian , the student paper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst", "Rick Alley Rick Alley is an American poet . He is the author of the book , Talking Book of July ( Eastern Washington Press , 1997 ) He is also the author of August Machine , a chapbook of lyrical poems . . He grew up in Virginia Beach , Virginia and studied at both the Old Dominion University and at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst , Massachusetts . He has held editorial positions with Associated Writing Programs and Marquee . He lives in Norfolk , Virginia , where he teaches creative writing . His poetry has also appeared in the book `` The Next Generation , American Poets Under 40 '' ( Carnegie Mellon Press ) ." ]

[ "Svante Arrhenius Svante August Arrhenius ( 19 February 1859 -- 2 October 1927 ) was a Nobel-Prize winning Swedish scientist , originally a physicist , but often referred to as a chemist , and one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry . He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903 , becoming the first Swedish Nobel laureate , and in 1905 became director of the Nobel Institute where he remained until his death . His lasting contributions to science are exemplified and memorialized by the Arrhenius equation , Arrhenius definition of an acid , lunar crater Arrhenius , the mountain of Arrheniusfjellet and the Arrhenius Labs at Stockholm University , all named after him . He was the first to use basic principles of physical chemistry to calculate estimates of the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide increase Earth 's surface temperature through the Arrhenius effect , leading Keeling to conclude that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are large enough to cause global warming .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Terraforming of Venus The terraforming of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in such a way as to make it suitable for human habitation . Terraforming Venus was first seriously proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961 , although fictional treatments , such as The Big Rain by Poul Anderson , preceded it . Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet . These three changes are closely interrelated , because Venus 's extreme temperature is due to the greenhouse effect caused by its dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere : Reducing Venus 's surface temperature of 462 C. Eliminating most of the planet 's dense 9.2 MPa carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere , via removal or conversion to some other form . Addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Effect of radiation on perceived temperature The `` radiation effect '' results from radiation heat exchange between human bodies and surrounding surfaces , such as walls and ceilings . It may lead to phenomena such as houses feeling cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer at the same temperature . For example , in a room in which air temperature is maintained at 22 ° Celsius at all times , but in which the inner surfaces of the house is estimated to be an average temperature of 10 ° Celsius in the winter or 25 ° Celsius in the summer , heat transfer from the surfaces to the individual will occur , resulting in a difference in the perceived temperature . We can observe and compare the rate of radiation heat transfer between a person and the surrounding surfaces if we first make a few simplifying assumptions : The heat exchange in the environment is in a `` steady state '' , meaning that there is a constant flow of heat either into or out of the house . The person is completely surrounded by the interior surfaces of the room . Heat transfer by convection is not considered . The walls , ceiling , and floor are all at the same temperature . For an average person , the outer surface area is 1.4 m ² , the surface temperature is 30 ° Celsius , and the emissivity is 0.95 . Emissivity is the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature . We will be using the following equation to find out how much heat is lost by a person standing in the same room in summertime as compared to the winter , at exactly the same thermostat reading temperature : Q ̇ = εσA_s ( T_s ^ 4-T_surr ^ 4 ) Where Q ̇ is the rate of heat loss ( W ) , ε is the emissivity ( or the ability of an objects surface to emit energy by radiation ) of a person , σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ( 5.670 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) W/m2 ∙ K4 ) , As is the surface area of a person , Ts is the surface temperature of a person ( K ) , and Tsurr is the surface temperature of the walls , ceiling , and floor ( K ) . Please note that this equation is only valid for an object standing in a completely enclosed room , box , etc. . In the winter , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 10 degrees Celsius , was found to be 152 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 10 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 152 ) ̇ In the summer , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 25 degrees Celsius , was found to be 40.9 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 25 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 40.9 ) ̇ Thermal radiation is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of their temperature . It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays , gamma rays , microwaves , radio waves , and television rays that are not related to temperature . Scientists have found that all bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation . People are constantly radiating their body heat , but at different rates . From these values , the rate of heat loss from a person is almost four times as large in the winter than in the summer , which explains the `` chill '' we feel in the winter even if the thermostat setting is kept the same .", "Polar forests of the Cretaceous Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "Cold inflation pressure Cold inflation pressure is the inflation pressure of tires before the car is driven and the tires warmed up . Recommended cold inflation pressure is displayed on the owner 's manual and on the placard ( or sticker ) attached to the vehicle door edge , pillar , glovebox door or fuel filler flap . Drivers are encouraged to make sure their tires are adequately inflated , as suboptimal tire pressure can greatly reduce fuel economy , increase emissions , increased wear on the edges of the tire surface , and can lead to premature failure of the tire . Excessive pressure , on the other hand , may lead to impact-breaks , decrease braking performance , and cause uneven wear ( i.e. greater wear on the center part of the tire surface ) . Tire pressure is commonly measured in psi in the imperial and US customary systems , bar , which is deprecated but accepted for use with SI or the kilopascal ( kPa ) , which is an SI unit . Ambient temperature affects the cold tire pressure . Absolute cold tire pressure ( gauge pressure plus atmospheric pressure ) varies directly with the absolute temperature , measured in kelvins . From physics , the ideal gas law states that PV = nRT where P is absolute pressure , T is absolute temperature ( Kelvin ) , V is the volume ( assumed to be relatively constant in the case of a tire ) , and nR is constant for a given number of molecules of gas . To understand this , assume the tire was filled when it was 300 kelvin ( 80 degrees Fahrenheit ) . If the temperature varies 10 % , i.e. by 30 kelvin ( also 30 Celsius degrees or 54 Fahrenheit degrees ) , the pressure varies 10 % . So if the tire was filled at 80F to 32 psi ( or 47 psi absolute when we add atmospheric pressure ) , the change would be 4.7 psi for this 30 Celsius degree change , or .16 psi per Celsius degree or .1 psi per Fahrenheit degree or 1 psi for every 10 Fahrenheit degrees . Using SI units , that would be 1.1 kPa per kelvin . Hence , for a tire filled to 32 psi , the approximation usually made is that within the range of normal atmospheric temperatures and pressures : Tire pressure increases 1 psi for each 10 Fahrenheit degree increase in temperature , or conversely decreases 1 psi for each 10 Fahrenheit degree decrease in temperature and in SI units , tire pressure increases 1.1 kPa for each 1 Celsius degree increase in temperature , or conversely decreases 1.1 kPa for each 1 Celsius degree decrease in temperature . For tires that need inflation greater than 32psi it might be easier to use a Rule of Thumb of 2 % pressure change for a change of 10 degrees Fahrenheit . From the table below , one can see that these are only approximations .", "Carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "Life on Venus The speculation of life currently existing on Venus decreased significantly since the early 1960s , when spacecraft began studying Venus and it became clear that the conditions on Venus are extreme compared to those on Earth . The fact that Venus is located closer to the Sun than Earth , raising temperatures on the surface to nearly 735 K , the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth , and the extreme impact of the greenhouse effect , make water-based life as we know it unlikely on the surface of the planet . However , a few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the lower-temperature , acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere .", "Tropical peat Areas of tropical peat are found mostly in South East Asia ( about 70 % by area ) although are also found in Africa , Central and South America and elsewhere around the Pacific Ocean . Tropical peatlands are significant carbon sinks and store large amounts of carbon and their destruction can significantly impact on the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Tropical peatlands are vulnerable to destabilisation through human and climate induced changes . Estimates of the area ( and hence volume ) of tropical peatland vary but a reasonable estimate is in the region of 380,000 square kilometres . Although tropical peatlands only cover about 0.25 % of the Earth 's land surface they contain 50,000-70 ,000 million tonnes of carbon ( about 3 % global soil carbon ) . In addition , tropical peatlands support diverse ecosystems and are home to a number of endangered species including the orang utan . The native peat swamp forests contain a number of valuable timber-producing trees plus a range of other products of value to local communities , such as bark , resins and latex . Land-use changes and fire , mainly associated with plantation development and logging ( deforestation and drainage ) , are reducing this carbon store and contributing to greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The problems that result from development of tropical peatland stem mainly from a lack of understanding of the complexities of this ecosystem and the fragility of the relationship between peat and forest . Once the forest is removed and the peat is drained , the surface peat oxidises and loses stored carbon rapidly to the atmosphere ( as carbon dioxide ) . This results in progressive loss of the peat surface , leading to local flooding and , due to the large areas involved , global climate change . Failure to account for such emissions results in underestimates of the rate of increase in atmospheric GHGs and the extent of human induced climate change .", "Silver oxalate Silver oxalate is commonly employed in experimental petrology to add carbon dioxide to experiments as it will break down to silver ( Ag ) and carbon dioxide under geologic conditions . It is also a precursor to the production of silver nanoparticles . It is explosive upon heating around 140 degrees Celsius , shock or friction .", "350.org 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "D. James Baker D. James Baker ( born March 23 , 1937 ) is an American scientist who was trained as a physicist , practiced as an oceanographer , and has held science and management positions in academia , non-profit institutions , and government agencies . He a former Under Secretary of Commerce for Atmosphere and Oceans and Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , and currently Director , Global Carbon Measurement Program , William J. Clinton Foundation working with forestry programs in developing countries with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and at the same time helping alleviate poverty .", "Controlled atmosphere A controlled atmosphere is an agricultural storage method in which the concentrations of oxygen , carbon dioxide and nitrogen , as well as the temperature and humidity of a storage room are regulated . Both dry commodities and fresh fruit and vegetables can be stored in controlled atmospheres .", "Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "Deforestation and climate change Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "Bosch reaction The Bosch reaction is a chemical reaction between carbon dioxide and hydrogen that produces elemental carbon ( graphite ) , water , and a 10 % return of invested heat . It is named after the German chemist Carl Bosch . This reaction requires the introduction of iron as a catalyst and requires a temperature level of 530-730 degrees Celsius . The overall reaction is as follows : CO2 ( g ) + 2 H2 ( g ) → C ( s ) + 2 H2O ( g ) The above reaction is actually the result of two reactions . The first reaction , the reverse water gas shift reaction , is a fast one : CO2 + H2 → CO + H2O The second reaction controls the reaction rate : CO + H2 → C + H2O The overall reaction produces 2.3 × 103 joules for every gram of carbon dioxide reacted at 650 ° C. Reaction temperatures are in the range of 450 to 600 ° C. The reaction can be accelerated in the presence of an iron , cobalt or nickel catalyst . Ruthenium also serves to speed up the reaction . Together with the Sabatier reaction , the Bosch reaction is studied as a way to remove carbon dioxide and to generate clean water aboard a space station . The reaction is also used to produce graphite for radiocarbon dating with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry . The Bosch reaction is being investigated for use in maintaining space station life support . Though the Bosch reaction would present a completely closed hydrogen and oxygen cycle which only produces atomic carbon as waste , difficulties in maintaining its higher required temperature and properly handling carbon deposits mean that significantly more research will be required before a Bosch reactor can become a reality . One problem is that the production of elemental carbon tends to foul the catalyst 's surface , which is detrimental to the reaction 's efficiency .", "Charles David Keeling Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "NGC 40 NGC 40 ( also known as the Bow-Tie Nebula and Caldwell 2 ) is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel on November 25 , 1788 , and is composed of hot gas around a dying star . The star has ejected its outer layer which has left behind a smaller , hot star with a temperature on the surface of about 50,000 degrees Celsius . Radiation from the star causes the shed outer layer to heat to about 10,000 degrees Celsius , and is about one light-year across . About 30,000 years from now , scientists theorize that NGC 40 will fade away , leaving only a white dwarf star approximately the size of Earth .", "DAOY (biology) DAOY is a widely used human primary medulloblastoma cell line . It has epithelial morphology and was obtained from a 4-year-old Caucasian boy in 1985 . It can be obtained from the American Type Culture Collection ( ATCC ) where it is known by the accession number HTB-186 . Its proteome and phenotype have been investigated in many publications . DAOY is most commonly grown in Eagle 's minimal essential medium with 10 % FBS and antibiotics . It is incubated at 37 degrees Celsius in a 5 % carbon dioxide atmosphere .", "Guy Stewart Callendar Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "Thermally Advantaged Chassis A Thermally Advantaged Chassis ( TAC ) is a computer enclosure that complies with the Thermally Advantaged Chassis specifications created by Intel . It is capable of maintaining an internal ambient temperature below 38 degrees Celsius when functioning with Intel 's Pentium 4 and Celeron D processors based on 90 nm process technology , and an ambient temperature below 39 degrees Celsius when using a Pentium D processor . Intel maintains that using a thermally advantaged chassis is the absolute minimum requirement for using Pentium 4 ( Prescott ) , Pentium D , and Celeron D , processors .", "Thomas D. Sharkey (plant biochemist) Thomas D. Sharkey is a plant biochemist who studies gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere . His research has covered ( 1 ) carbon metabolism of photosynthesis from carbon dioxide uptake to carbon export from the Calvin-Benson Cycle , ( 2 ) isoprene emission from plants , and ( 3 ) abiotic stress tolerance . Four guiding questions are : ( 1 ) how leaf photosynthesis affects plant yield , ( 2 ) does some carbon fixation follow an oxidative pathway that reduces sugar output but stabilizes photosynthesis , ( 3 ) why plants make isoprene , and ( 4 ) how plants cope with high temperature .", "Carbothermic reaction Carbothermic reactions involve the reduction of substances , often metal oxides , using carbon as the reducing agent . These chemical reactions are usually conducted at temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius . Such processes are applied for production of the elemental forms of many elements . Carbothermic reactions are not useful for some metal oxides , such as those of sodium and potassium . The ability of metals to participate in carbothermic reactions can be predicted from Ellingham diagrams . Carbothermal reactions produce carbon monoxide and sometimes carbon dioxide . The facility of these conversions is attributable to the entropy of reaction : two solids , the metal oxide and carbon , are converted to a new solid ( metal ) and a gas ( CO ) , the latter having high entropy . Heat is required for carbothermic reactions because diffusion of the reacting solids is otherwise slow .", "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "Carbon suboxide Carbon suboxide , or tricarbon dioxide , is an oxide of carbon with chemical formula C3O2 or O = C = C = C =O . Its four cumulative double bonds make it a cumulene . It is one of the stable members of the series of linear oxocarbons O = Cn =O , which also includes carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and pentacarbon dioxide ( C5O2 ) . Although if carefully purified it can exist at room temperature in the dark without decomposing , it will polymerize under certain conditions . The substance was discovered in 1873 by Benjamin Brodie by subjecting carbon monoxide to an electric current . He claimed that the product was part of a series of `` oxycarbons '' with formulas Cx +1 Ox , namely C , C2O , C3O2 , C4O3 , C5O4 , ... , and to have identified the last two ; however only C3O2 is known . In 1891 Marcellin Berthelot observed that heating pure carbon monoxide at about 550 ° C created small amounts of carbon dioxide but no trace of carbon , and assumed that a carbon-rich oxide was created instead , which he named `` sub-oxide '' . He assumed it was the same product obtained by electric discharge and proposed the formula C2O . Otto Diels later stated that the more organic names dicarbonylmethane and dioxallene were also correct . It is commonly described as an oily liquid or gas at room temperature with an extremely noxious odor .", "Atmospheric thermometer A atmospheric thermometer is a device that measures the temperature of the indoor or outdoor atmosphere . The most common type consists of a long tube that contains mercury or colored alcohol at the base , although there are also other kinds , such as spring and digital thermometers . When the atmospheric temperature rises , it causes the material inside the air thermometer to expand . Conversely , when the air gets colder , the material contracts and travels back down.Thermometers use temperature scales either Fahrenheit , Celsius , Kelvin , to provide a measure of heat in degrees . Category : Thermometers", "Millisecond furnace A Millisecond Furnace is a device used for cracking naphtha into ethylene , by extremely short ( 50 to 100 millisecond ) exposure to temperatures of about 900 degrees Celsius , followed by a rapid quenching below 750 degrees Celsius . It was developed by M W Kellogg and Idemitsu in the 1970s .", "Shuang River Cave Group Shuang River Cave Group , is the longest cave in China , the second longest in Asia , and 20th longest in the world . It is located near the town of Wenquan in Suiyang County , Guizhou Province . This gypsum and dolomite cave has carbon dioxide levels of approximately 400ppm , with a constant temperature of about 13 degrees Celsius year round . The cave contains numerous waterfalls , and at least three underground rivers , some of which contain cave shrimp , and fish weighing several pounds . Also found , have been tadpoles , frogs , insects , spiders , bats , leeches , blind fish , and mushrooms . Since 1987 , at least 5 expeditions from France and Japan have explored the cave .", "RTTOV (radiative transfer code) RTTOV - the fast radiative transfer model for calculations of radiances for satellite infrared or microwave nadir scanning radiometers ( see push broom scanner ) . Given an atmospheric profile of temperature , variable gas concentrations , cloud and surface properties RTTOV calculates radiances and brightness temperatures . The only mandatory input is water vapour . Optionally ozone , carbon dioxide , nitrous oxide , methane and carbon monoxide can be variable with all other constituents assumed to be constant . The range of temperatures and water vapour concentrations over which the optical depth computations are valid depends on the training datasets which were used . The spectral range of the RTTOV9 .1 model is 3-20 micrometres ( 500 -- 3000 cm-1 ) in the infrared . RTTOV contains forward , tangent linear , adjoint and K ( full Jacobian matrices ) versions of the model ; the latter three modules for variational assimilation or retrieval applications . One of several applications of RTTOV are retrievals of brightness temperature and sea surface temperature from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor .", "V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics The V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics is a Russian research organisation based in Tomsk . Its purpose is to study the atmosphere . The Laboratory of Optical Signals Propagation gathers satellite data on aerosols , ozone , and Earth reflectivity over Siberia . The Laboratory of Aerosol Optics collects information on temperature , humidity , soot , and atmospheric scattering at Tomsk . The TOR Station measures gas constituents in the atmosphere , in cluding carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , sulfur dioxide , ozone , nitrogen oxides , methane and hydrogen sulfide at two locations . The Siberian lidar station can measure the temperature in the stratosphere and troposphere . Aerosol particle size is measured by using six different wavelengths for the laser . The institute was founded in 1969 by Vladimir Yevseyevich Zuev who became its director . The parent organisation was the Laboratory of Infrared Radiations of the Siberian Physical-Technical Institute of the Tomsk State University . A journal is published called Atmospheric and Oceanic Optics .", "Carbon dioxide clathrate Carbon dioxide hydrate is a snow-like crystalline substance composed of water ice and carbon dioxide . It normally is a Type I gas clathrate . However , there has been some experimental evidence for the development of a metastable Type II phase at A temperature near the ice melting point . The clathrate can exist below 283K ( 10 ° C ) at a range of pressures of carbon dioxide . It is quite likely to be important on Mars due to the presence of carbon dioxide and ice at low temperatures .", "Airborne fraction The airborne fraction is a scaling factor defined as the ratio of the annual increase in atmospheric to the emissions from anthropogenic sources . It represents the proportion of human emitted that remains in the atmosphere . The fraction averages about 45 % , meaning that approximately half the human-emitted is absorbed by ocean and land surfaces . There is some evidence for a recent increase in airborne fraction , which would imply a faster increase in atmospheric for a given rate of human fossil-fuel burning . However , other sources suggest that the `` fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades '' . Changes in carbon sinks can affect the airborne fraction .", "Celsius Celsius , also known as centigrade , is a metric scale and unit of measurement for temperature . As an SI derived unit , it is used by most countries in the world . It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius ( 1701 -- 1744 ) , who developed a similar temperature scale . The degree Celsius ( ° C ) can refer to a specific temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature interval , a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty . Before being renamed to honour Anders Celsius in 1948 , the unit was called centigrade , from the Latin centum , which means 100 , and gradus , which means steps . The current scale is based on 0 ° for the freezing point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point of water at 1 atm pressure following a change introduced by Jean-Pierre Christin to reverse the Celsius thermometer scale ( from water boiling at 0 degrees and ice melting at 100 degrees ) . This scale is widely taught in schools today . By international agreement the unit `` degree Celsius '' and the Celsius scale are currently defined by two different temperatures : absolute zero , and the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water ( VSMOW ) , a specially purified water . This definition also precisely relates the Celsius scale to the Kelvin scale , which defines the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature with symbol K. Absolute zero , the lowest temperature possible , is defined as being precisely 0 K and − 273.15 ° C . The temperature of the triple point of water is defined as exactly 273.16 K at 611.657 Pa pressure . Thus , the magnitude of one degree Celsius and that of one kelvin are exactly the same and the difference between the two scales ' null points is precisely 273.15 degrees ( and ) ." ]

[ "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Eocene The Eocene ( -LSB- pronˈiːəˌsiːn , _ ˈiːoʊ - -RSB- ) Epoch , lasting from , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch . The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C . The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure ( the `` Great Break '' in continuity ) or the Eocene -- Oligocene extinction event , which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay . As with other geologic periods , the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified , though their exact dates are slightly uncertain . The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς ( ēṓs , `` dawn '' ) and καινός ( kainós , `` new '' ) and refers to the `` dawn '' of modern ( ` new ' ) fauna that appeared during the epoch .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Thermal runaway Thermal runaway occurs in situations where an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature , often leading to a destructive result . It is a kind of uncontrolled positive feedback . In other words , `` thermal runaway '' describes a process which is accelerated by increased temperature , in turn releasing energy that further increases temperature . In chemistry ( and chemical engineering ) , it is associated with strongly exothermic reactions that are accelerated by temperature rise . In electrical engineering , thermal runaway is typically associated with increased current flow and power dissipation , although exothermic chemical reactions can be of concern here too . Thermal runaway can occur in civil engineering , notably when the heat released by large amounts of curing concrete is not controlled -LCB- Citation needed -RCB- . In astrophysics , runaway nuclear fusion reactions in stars can lead to nova and several types of supernova explosions , and also occur as a less dramatic event in the normal evolution of solar mass stars , the `` helium flash '' . There are also concerns regarding global warming that a global average increase of 3 -- 4 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial baseline could lead to a further unchecked increase in surface temperatures . For example , releases of methane , a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2 , from wetlands , melting permafrost and continental margin seabed clathrate deposits could be subject to positive feedback .", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Stratopause The stratopause ( formerly Mesopeak ) is the level of the atmosphere which is the boundary between two layers : the stratosphere and the mesosphere . In the stratosphere the temperature increases with altitude , and the stratopause is the region where a maximum in the temperature occurs . This atmospheric feature is not only associated with Earth : it occurs on any other planet or moon that has an atmosphere as well . On Earth , the stratopause is 50 to high above the Earth 's surface . The atmospheric pressure is around 1/1000 of the pressure at sea level . The temperature in the stratopause is -15 degrees Celsius ( 5 degrees Fahrenheit ) .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "Law of supply The law of supply is a fundamental principle of economic theory which states that , all else equal , an increase in price results in an increase in quantity supplied . In other words , there is a direct relationship between price and quantity : quantities respond in the same direction as price changes . This means that producers are willing to offer more products for sale on the market at higher prices by increasing production as a way of increasing profits . In short , Law of Supply is a positive relationship between quantity supplied and price and is the reason for the upward slope of the supply curve . When the supply goes down , the price increases", "Density altitude Density altitude is the altitude relative to the standard atmosphere conditions ( ISA ) at which the air density would be equal to the indicated air density at the place of observation . In other words , density altitude is air density given as a height above mean sea level . `` Density altitude '' can also be considered to be the pressure altitude adjusted for non-standard temperature . Both an increase in temperature , decrease in atmospheric pressure , and , to a much lesser degree , increase in humidity will cause an increase in density altitude . In hot and humid conditions , the density altitude at a particular location may be significantly higher than the true altitude . In aviation , the density altitude is used to assess the aircraft 's aerodynamic performance under certain weather conditions . The lift generated by the aircraft 's airfoils and the relation between indicated and true airspeed are also subject to air density changes . Furthermore , the power delivered by the aircraft 's engine is affected by the air density and air composition .", "Keeling Curve The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "Lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate ) to produce the form of lime called quicklime ( calcium oxide ) . The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction takes place at 900 ° C ( 1650 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere ) , but a temperature around 1000 ° C ( 1800 ° F ; at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres ) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly . Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive , `` dead-burned '' lime . Slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide ) can be formed by mixing water with quicklime .", "Permissive temperature The permissive temperature is the temperature at which a temperature sensitive mutant gene product takes on a normal , functional phenotype . When a temperature sensitive mutant is grown in a permissive condition , the mutated gene product behaves normally ( meaning that the phenotype is n't observed ) , even if there is a mutant allele present . This results in the survival of the cell or organism , as if it were a wild type strain . In contrast , the nonpermissive temperature or restrictive temperature is the temperature at which the mutant phenotype is observed . Most temperature sensitive mutations affect proteins , and are recessive and cause loss of protein function at the non-permissive temperature . The permissive temperature is one at which the protein typically can fold properly , or remain properly folded .", "Hawthorne effect The Hawthorne effect ( also referred to as the observer effect ) is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed . The original research at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero , Illinois , on lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times was originally interpreted by Elton Mayo and others to mean that paying attention to overall worker needs would improve productivity . Later interpretations such as that done by Landsberger suggested that the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers ' productivity . This interpretation was dubbed `` the Hawthorne effect '' .", "Atmosphere of Triton The atmosphere of Triton is the layer of gases surrounding Triton . The surface pressure is only 14 microbars , 1/70 ,000 th of the surface pressure on Earth , and it is composed of nitrogen , similar to those of Titan and Earth . It extends 800 kilometers above its surface . Recent observations have shown an increase in temperature .", "Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event , or the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event , the Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event ( OAE 2 ) , and referred to in Europe as the Bonarelli Event , was one of two anoxic extinction events in the Cretaceous period . ( The other being the earlier Selli Event , or OAE 1a , in the Aptian . ) The OAE 2 occurred approximately 91.5 ± 8.6 Ma , though other estimates are given as 93-94 Ma . The event brought about the extinction of the Spinosauridae , Pliosauridae , and possibly Ichthyosauria ; although coracoids of Maastrichtian age may belong to ichthyosaurs , indicating the survival of the group until the latest Cretaceous . Other animals lost some diversity as well . Although the cause is still uncertain , the result starved the Earth 's oceans of oxygen for nearly half a million years , causing the extinction of approximately 27 percent of marine invertebrates . This global environmental disturbance increased atmospheric and oceanic temperatures . Boundary sediments show an enrichment of trace elements , and contain elevated δ13C values . One possible cause was sub-oceanic volcanism , possibly the Caribbean large igneous province , with increased activity approximately 500,000 years earlier . During that period , the rate of crustal production reached its highest level for 100 million years . This was largely caused by the widespread melting of hot mantle plumes under the oceans at the base of the lithosphere . This resulted in the thickening of the oceanic crust in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . This volcanism would have sent large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Within the oceans , the emission of SO2 , H2S , CO2 , and halogens would have increased the acidity of the water , causing the dissolution of carbonate , and a further release of carbon dioxide . When the volcanic activity declined , this run-away greenhouse effect would have likely been put into reverse . The increased CO2 content of the oceans could have increased organic productivity in the ocean surface waters . The consumption of this newly abundant organic life by aerobic bacteria would produce anoxia and mass extinction . The resulting elevated levels of carbon burial would account for the black shale deposition in the ocean basins .", "Atmospheric refraction Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height . This refraction is due to the velocity of light through air decreasing ( the index of refraction increases ) with increased density . Atmospheric refraction near the ground produces mirages and can make distant objects appear to shimmer or ripple , elevated or lowered , stretched or shortened with no mirage involved . The term also applies to the refraction of sound . Atmospheric refraction is considered in measuring the position of both astronomical and terrestrial objects . Astronomical or celestial refraction causes astronomical objects to appear higher in the sky than they are in reality . Terrestrial refraction usually causes terrestrial objects to appear higher than they really are , although in the afternoon when the air near the ground is heated , the rays can curve upward making objects appear lower than they really are . Refraction not only affects lightrays but all electromagnetic radiation , although in varying degrees ( see dispersion in optics ) . For example , in visible light , blue is more affected than red . This may cause astronomical objects to be spread out into a spectrum in high-resolution images . Whenever possible , astronomers will schedule their observations around the time of culmination of an object when it is highest in the sky . Likewise sailors will never shoot a star which is not at least 20 ° or more above the horizon . If observations close to the horizon can not be avoided , it is possible to equip a telescope with control systems to compensate for the shift caused by the refraction . If the dispersion is a problem too , ( in case of broadband high-resolution observations ) atmospheric refraction correctors can be employed as well ( made from pairs of rotating glass prisms ) . But as the amount of atmospheric refraction is a function of the temperature gradient , the temperature , pressure , and humidity ( the amount of water vapour is especially important at mid-infrared wavelengths ) the amount of effort needed for a successful compensation can be prohibitive . Surveyors , on the other hand , will often schedule their observations in the afternoon when the magnitude of refraction is minimum . Atmospheric refraction becomes more severe when there are strong temperature gradients , and refraction is not uniform when the atmosphere is inhomogeneous , as when there is turbulence in the air . This is the cause of twinkling of the stars and various deformations of the shape of the sun at sunset and sunrise .", "Carbon rift Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "Repressuring Repressuring is the method by which the pressure inside a crude oil well is increased so as to increase the output of the well . Pumping crude oil from a reservoir causes its pressure to drop , which further reduces pumpability . Returning the natural gas or other inert gases to the oil well increases the pumpability of the crude present inside the well by decreasing its viscosity and density . In one instance , slower rate of oil production and recycling of natural gas at 9.6 MPa enabled a net recovery of 70 % of the oil originally present . Although recovery can be increased even by repressuring with air , air is seldom used because it causes an inferior quality of product . Instead carbon dioxide or natural gas itself is used so as to not only increase the recovery from the oil well but also to maintain the high quality of the product .", "Soil respiration Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna . Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration . The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures . Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth . Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .", "Gas reinjection Gas reinjection is the reinjection of natural gas into an underground reservoir , typically one already containing both natural gas and crude oil , in order to increase the pressure within the reservoir and thus induce the flow of crude oil or else sequester gas that can not be exported . This is not to be confused with gas lift , where gas is injected into the annulus of the well rather than the reservoir . After the crude has been pumped out , the natural gas is once again recovered . Since many of the wells found around the world contain heavy crude , this process increases their production . The basic difference between light crude and heavy crude is its viscosity and pumpability - the lighter the crude the easier it is to pump . Recovery of hydrocarbons in a well is generally limited to 50 % ( heavy crudes ) and 75-80 % ( light crudes ) . Recycling of natural gas or other inert gases causes the pressure to rise in the well , thus causing more gas molecules to dissolve in the oil lowering its viscosity and thereby increasing the well 's output . Air is not suitable for repressuring wells because it tends to cause deterioration of the oil , thus carbon dioxide or natural gas is used to repressure the well . The term ` gas-reinjection ' is also sometimes referred to as repressuring -- the term being used only to imply that the pressure inside the well is being increased to aid recovery . Injection or reinjection of carbon dioxide also takes place in order to reduce the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere , a form of carbon sequestration . This has been proposed as a method to combat climate change , allowing mass storage of CO2 over a geological timescale . Reinjection of carbon dioxide in the Norwegian Sleipner gas field saves the operators 1 million Norwegian Kroners per day in national carbon taxes .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Vapor pressure Vapor pressure or equilibrium vapor pressure is defined as the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases ( solid or liquid ) at a given temperature in a closed system . The equilibrium vapor pressure is an indication of a liquid 's evaporation rate . It relates to the tendency of particles to escape from the liquid ( or a solid ) . A substance with a high vapor pressure at normal temperatures is often referred to as volatile . The pressure exhibited by vapor present above a liquid surface is known as vapor pressure . As the temperature of a liquid increases , the kinetic energy of its molecules also increases . As the kinetic energy of the molecules increases , the number of molecules transitioning into a vapor also increases , thereby increasing the vapor pressure . The vapor pressure of any substance increases non-linearly with temperature according to the Clausius -- Clapeyron relation . The atmospheric pressure boiling point of a liquid ( also known as the normal boiling point ) is the temperature at which the vapor pressure equals the ambient atmospheric pressure . With any incremental increase in that temperature , the vapor pressure becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and lift the liquid to form vapor bubbles inside the bulk of the substance . Bubble formation deeper in the liquid requires a higher pressure , and therefore higher temperature , because the fluid pressure increases above the atmospheric pressure as the depth increases . More important at shallow depths is the higher temperature required to start bubble formation . The surface tension of the bubble wall leads to an overpressure in the very small , initial bubbles . Thus , thermometer calibration should not rely on the temperature in boiling water . The vapor pressure that a single component in a mixture contributes to the total pressure in the system is called partial pressure . For example , air at sea level , and saturated with water vapor at 20 ° C , has partial pressures of about 2.3 kPa of water , 78 kPa of nitrogen , 21 kPa of oxygen and 0.9 kPa of argon , totaling 102.2 kPa , making the basis for standard atmospheric pressure .", "Production (economics) Production is a process of workers combining various material inputs and immaterial inputs ( plans , know-how ) in order to make something for consumption ( the output ) . It is the act of creating output , a good or service which has value and contributes to the utility of individuals . Economic well-being is created in a production process , meaning all economic activities that aim directly or indirectly to satisfy human wants and needs . The degree to which the needs are satisfied is often accepted as a measure of economic well-being . In production there are two features which explain increasing economic well-being . They are improving quality-price-ratio of goods and services and increasing incomes from growing and more efficient market production . The most important forms of production are market production public production household production In order to understand the origin of the economic well-being we must understand these three production processes . All of them produce commodities which have value and contribute to well-being of individuals . The satisfaction of needs originates from the use of the commodities which are produced . The need satisfaction increases when the quality-price-ratio of the commodities improves and more satisfaction is achieved at less cost . Improving the quality-price-ratio of commodities is to a producer an essential way to improve the competitiveness of products but this kind of gains distributed to customers can not be measured with production data . Improving the competitiveness of products means often to the producer lower product prices and therefore losses in incomes which are to compensated with the growth of sales volume . Economic well-being also increases due to the growth of incomes that are gained from the growing and more efficient market production . Market production is the only production form which creates and distributes incomes to stakeholders . Public production and household production are financed by the incomes generated in market production . Thus market production has a double role in creating well-being , i.e. the role of producing goods and services and the role of creating income . Because of this double role market production is the `` primus motor '' of economic well-being and therefore here under review .", "Climate change mitigation scenarios Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "Allanblackia oil Allanblackia oil is a vegetable oil that comes from the seeds of the Allanblackia tree . This tree can be found in the wet tropical belt of Africa . Because of its unique blend of fatty acids , the oil from Allanblackia seeds has melting properties that make it excellent to use as structuring fat in food products , e.g. margarines . Currently , Allanblackia seeds are harvested in the wild to produce the oil , but these producers can not produce enough oil to meet market demand . Finding sustainable ways to increase production could bring many social , environmental , and economic benefits to the communities which produce Allanblackia . To ensure increased production is sustainable and benefits the communities growing the trees , a number of organizations have collaborated to develop a set of standards and methods as guidelines for increasing Allanblackia production . Other organizations are working to establish tree nurseries and other sustainable means of domesticating Allanblackia .", "Catalpol Catalpol is an iridoid glucoside . This natural product falls in the class of iridoid glycosides , which are simply monoterpenes with a glucose molecule attached . Although the pharmacological action of catalpol as well as many other iridoids has not been fully established , there is evidence that their primary function is to stimulate the production of adrenal cortical hormones , which increases the production of sex hormones . Catalpol also exhibits anti-inflammatory activity and has shown to increase the production of androgens yielded by the adrenal gland , which can lead to increases in muscle mass .", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "Differentiation (sociology) Differentiation is a term in system theory ( found in sociology . ) From the viewpoint of this theory , the principal feature of modern society is the increased process of system differentiation as a way of dealing with the complexity of its environment . This is accomplished through the creation of subsystems in an effort to copy within a system the difference between it and the environment . The differentiation process is a means of increasing the complexity of a system , since each subsystem can make different connections with other subsystems . It allows for more variation within the system in order to respond to variation in the environment . Increased variation facilitated by differentiation not only allows for better responses to the environment , but also allows for faster evolution ( or perhaps sociocultural evolution ) , which is defined sociologically as a process of selection from variation ; the more differentiation ( and thus variation ) that is available , the better the selection .", "Kappa mechanism The κ -- mechanism is the driving mechanism behind the changes in luminosity of many types of pulsating variable stars . Here , the Greek letter kappa is used to indicate the radiative opacity at any particular depth of the stellar atmosphere . In a normal star , an increase in compression of the atmosphere causes an increase in temperature and density ; this produces a decrease in the opacity of the atmosphere , allowing heat energy to escape more rapidly . The result is an equilibrium condition where temperature and pressure are maintained in a balance . However , in cases where the opacity increases with temperature , the atmosphere becomes unstable against pulsations . If a layer of a stellar atmosphere moves inward , it becomes denser and more opaque , causing heat flow to be checked . In return , this heat increase causes a build-up of pressure that pushes the layer back out again . The result is a cyclic process as the layer repeatedly moves inward and then is forced back out again . Stellar non-adiabatic pulsation resulting from the κ -- mechanism occurs in regions where hydrogen and helium are partly ionized , or where there are negative hydrogen ions . An example of such a zone is in RR Lyrae variables where the partial second ionization of helium occurs . Hydrogen ionization is most likely the cause of pulsation activity in Mira variables , rapidly oscillating Ap stars ( roAp ) and ZZ Ceti variables . In Beta Cephei variables , stellar pulsations occur at a depth where the temperature reaches approximately 200,000 K and there is an abundance of iron . The increase in the opacity of iron at this depth is known as the Z bump , where Z is the astronomical symbol for elements other than hydrogen and helium .", "Stratosphere The stratosphere ( -LSB- ˈstrætəˌsfɪər , _ - toʊ - -RSB- ) is the second major layer of Earth 's atmosphere , just above the troposphere , and below the mesosphere . About 20 % of the atmosphere 's mass is contained in the stratosphere . The stratosphere is stratified in temperature , with warmer layers higher and cooler layers closer to the Earth . The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun 's ultraviolet radiation by the ozone . This is in contrast to the troposphere , near the Earth 's surface , where temperatures decreases with altitude . The border between the troposphere and stratosphere , the tropopause , marks where this temperature inversion begins . Near the equator , the stratosphere starts at 18 km ; at mid latitudes , it starts at 10 - and ends at 50 km ; at the poles , it starts at about 8 km . Temperatures vary within the stratosphere with the seasons , in particular with the polar night ( winter ) . The greatest variation of temperature takes place over the poles in the lower stratosphere ; those variations are largely steady at lower latitudes and higher altitudes .", "Rationalization (economics) In economics , rationalization is an attempt to change a pre-existing ad hoc workflow into one that is based on a set of published rules . There is a tendency in modern times to quantify experience , knowledge , and work . Means -- end ( goal-oriented ) rationality is used to precisely calculate that which is necessary to attain a goal . Its effectiveness varies with the enthusiasm of the workers for the changes being made , the skill with which management applies the rules , and the degree to which the rules fit the job . Rationalization aims at an efficiency increase by better use of existing possibilities : A same effect can with fewer means , or with same means to be obtained . In the industry thereby frequently the replacement of manpower is designated by machines ( rationalization investment ) . It is the reasonable , appropriate organization of operational conditions under changing conditions to increase with the goal , productivity and economy . Julien Freund defines rationalization as `` the organization of life through a division and coordination of activities on the basis of exact study of men 's relations with each other , with their tools and their environment , for the purpose of achieving greater efficiency and productivity '' . The rationalization process is the practical application of knowledge to achieve a desired end . Its purpose is to bring about efficiency , coordination , and control of the natural and social environment . It is a product of `` scientific specialization and technical differentiation '' that seems to be a characteristic of Western culture . Rationalization is the guiding principle behind bureaucracy and the increasing division of labor , and has led to an increase in both the production and distribution of goods and services . It is also associated with secularization without its more positive component of humanism , with depersonalization and with oppressive routine . Increasingly , human behavior is to be guided by observation , experiment , and reason ( zweckrational ) . Change in human character is expected to be part of the process ; rationalization and bureaucratization promote efficiency , and materialism , both of which are subsumed under Weber 's concept of zweckrational .", "Sustainable product development Sustainable product development ( SPD ) is a method for product development that incorporates a Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development ( FSSD ) , also known as The Natural Step ( TNS ) framework . As the demand for products continues to increase around the world and environmental factors like climate change increasingly affect policies - and thus business - it becomes more and more of a competitive advantage for businesses to consider sustainability aspects early on in the product development process .", "Atmosphere of Earth The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "Aridification Aridification is the process of a region becoming increasingly dry . It refers to long term change rather than seasonal variation . It is often measured as the reduction of average soil moisture content . It can be caused by natural or anthropogenic means such as climate change , reduced precipitation , increased evaporation , lowering of water tables or changes in ground cover . Its major consequences include reduced agricultural production , soil degradation , ecosystem changes and decreased water catchment runoff ." ]

[ "Fossil fuel Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms , containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis . The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years , and sometimes exceeds 650 million years . Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum , coal , and natural gas . Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane . Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon to hydrogen ratios like methane , to liquids like petroleum , to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon , like anthracite coal . Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone , associated with oil , or in the form of methane clathrates . The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth 's crust over millions of years was first introduced by Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century . The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0 % , coal 27.4 % , natural gas 23.0 % , amounting to an 86.4 % share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world . Non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8.5 % , hydroelectric 6.3 % , and others ( geothermal , solar , tidal , wind , wood , waste ) amounting to 0.9 % . World energy consumption was growing about 2.3 % per year . Although fossil fuels are continually being formed via natural processes , they are generally considered to be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made . The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns . The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes ( 21.3 gigatonnes ) of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) per year . It is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount , so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year . Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming . A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions .", "Wind power Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "Wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the wind 's kinetic energy into electrical power . Wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types . The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or caravans or to power traffic warning signs . Slightly larger turbines can be used for making contributions to a domestic power supply while selling unused power back to the utility supplier via the electrical grid . Arrays of large turbines , known as wind farms , are becoming an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy and are used by many countries as part of a strategy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels .", "Petroleum Petroleum ( from petra #Greek : `` rock '' + oleum #Latin : `` oil '' . ) is a naturally occurring , yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth 's surface , which is commonly refined into various types of fuels . Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation . It consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds . The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil . A fossil fuel , petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms , usually zooplankton and algae , are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both intense heat and pressure . Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling ( natural petroleum springs are rare ) . Drilling is carried out after studies of structural geology ( at the reservoir scale ) , sedimentary basin analysis , and reservoir characterization ( mainly in terms of the porosity and permeability of geologic reservoir structures ) have been completed . It is refined and separated , most easily by distillation , into a large number of consumer products , from gasoline ( petrol ) and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals . Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials , and it is estimated that the world consumes about 95 million barrels each day . Concern over the depletion of the earth 's finite reserves of oil , and the effect this would have on a society dependent on it , is a concept known as peak oil . The use of fossil fuels , such as petroleum , will have a negative impact on Earth 's biosphere , damaging ecosystems through events such as oil spills and releasing a range of pollutants into the air including ground-level ozone and sulfur dioxide from sulfur impurities in fossil fuels . The burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming ." ]

[ "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Spoiled (film) Spoiled ( stylized as spOILed ) is a 2011 documentary film about energy myths , environmental issues with energy , the problems with alternative energy , and the global warming controversy associated with energy . Spoiled also discusses wind energy , solar energy , fossil fuels , green energy , alternative energy , and sustainable energy as a part of its renewable energy documentary scope .", "Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer , seller , installer , and servicer of wind turbines . It was founded in 1945 , and as of 2013 , it is the largest wind turbine company in the world . The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark , Germany , India , Italy , Romania , the United Kingdom , Spain , Sweden , Norway , Australia , China , and the United States , and employs more than 21,000 people globally .", "Underwood Wind Farm The Underwood Wind Farm ( Enbridge Ontario Wind Farm ) is a wind farm located in Bruce County , Ontario , near the shores of Lake Huron . It was developed by Enbridge Inc. , a Canadian corporation better known for involvement in fossil fuels and their distribution . The farm consists of 110 Vestas V82 wind turbines , each rated at 1.65 MW , for a total nameplate capacity of 181.5 MW . The project includes a substation to step up the power generated by the turbines to 230kV for transmission . The Enbridge Ontario Wind Farm is not the only energy development in the area ; Bruce County also boasts the Huron Wind wind farm , and the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station .", "Save the Climate Save The Climate ( Sauvons le Climat ) is a French association created in 2004 by Hervé Nifenecker , Roger Balian , Rémy Carle and Bernard Lerouge . In May 2012 , five associations are members and thousands of people have signed its manifesto . Its purpose is to fight against global warming and provide public information on topics fundamental to sustainable development , the environment , and energy , through eliminating the use of fossil fuels in France by maintaining the share of nuclear power generation in parallel with the use of `` heat-like '' renewable energy . The association is approved by the French government as a combination of popular education .", "Power to Save the World Power to Save the World : The Truth About Nuclear Energy ( Knopf , 2007 ) , by Gwyneth Cravens , is an introduction to the benefits of nuclear power and the science behind it . It is written for members of the lay public who want to learn more about nuclear power , environmentalists concerned about global warming due to fossil fuel combustion ; and scientists and others who work in the nuclear world .", "Henrik Stiesdal Henrik Stiesdal ( born April 14 , 1957 ) is a Danish inventor and businessman in the modern wind power industry . In 1978 , he designed one of the first wind turbines representing the so-called `` Danish Concept '' which dominated the global wind industry through the 1980s . Until 2014 , Stiesdal was the Chief Technology Officer of Siemens Wind Power . During his professional career , Stiesdal has made more than 175 inventions and has received more than 650 patents related to wind power technology .", "List of energy resources These are modes of energy production , energy storage , or energy conservation , listed alphabetically . Note that not all sources are accepted as legitimate or have been proven to be tappable . Atomic energy Banki turbine -- hydro power , like overshot or even like turbine ... Battery ( electricity ) Bioalcohol Biodiesel Biodiesel production Biofuel Biogas Biomass Bio-nano generator Bitumen Breeder reactor Bubble fusion -- a nuclear fusion reaction hypothesized to occur during sonoluminescence , an extreme form of acoustic cavitation . Coal Coal mining Cold fusion Combustion Compound turbine -- two axle , steam Compressed air energy storage Concentrated solar power Deep lake water cooling Diesel Dyson sphere Electrical grid Energy tower External combustion engine Fischer-Tropsch process Flywheel ( storage ) Fossil fuel Fossil-fuel power station Francis turbine Fuel -- a substance used as a source of energy , usually by the heat produced in combustion . Fuel cell Fuel efficiency Fusion power Gas turbine Gasohol Geothermal exchange heat pump Geothermal heating Geothermal power Grid energy storage High-altitude wind power - Energy can be captured from the wind by kites , aerostats , airfoil matrices , balloons , bladed turbines , kytoon , tethered gliders sailplanes Hydroelectricity Hydrogen economy Hydrogen storage , Underground hydrogen storage Hydropower-Energy from moving water Implosion Kaplan turbine Light crude Liquid fuel Liquid nitrogen economy Marine current power Magnetohydrodynamic , generator , MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity Methane clathrate Methanol Methanol economy Natural gas Natural gas field Natural gas vehicle Nuclear energy -- energy in the nucleus or core of atoms Nuclear fusion Nuclear reactor Nuclear reprocessing Oil drilling Oil platform Oil refinery Oil shale Oil well Osmotic power - or salinity gradient power - is the energy available from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water OTEC -- Ocean thermal energy conversion Oxidation Peat Perpetuum Mobile Petroleum Photovoltaics Piezoelectricity Pneumatics -- compressed air Products based on refined oil Propellant Pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pyrolysis Renewable energy Savonius wind turbine -- wind Small hydro Solar box cooker Solar cell Solar chimney Solar panel Solar energy Solar power satellite Solar thermal energy Solar updraft tower -- large version of the solar chimney concept Solar water heating Solid fuel Sonoluminescence -- the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound . SSTAR -- small , sealed , transportable , autonomous reactor Steam turbine Stirling engine Straight vegetable oil Stranded gas reserve Sulfur-iodine cycle Sustainable design Synfuel Syngas Tar sands Tesla turbine Thermal depolymerization Thermal power station Thorium Tidal power Transmutation Turgo turbine -- impulse water turbine designed for medium head applications Tyson turbine -- for river flow harnessing UASB Uranium Vacuum energy Vibration energy scavenging Vortex energy Water turbine Wave power Wind energy Wind farm Wind turbine Wood fuel Wood gas Zero-point energy", "The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen The Phoenix Project : Shifting from Oil To Hydrogen is a 360-page book authored by Harry Braun that provides a plan for the USA to shift from oil and other fossil and nuclear fuels to wind powered hydrogen production systems by 2020 . From a technology perspective , wind machines are no more difficult to manufacture than automobiles , which is why they could have been mass-produced for large-scale hydrogen production in the 1920s . Making hydrogen from the wind and water is the `` silver bullet '' that can make the USA energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels . Indeed , it is the only energy option that is pollution-free , carbon-free and can displace all fossil and nuclear fuels worldwide forever because it is completely renewable . Every green plant on the earth is a solar hydrogen machine that extracts hydrogen from water ( H20 ) with the energy of the sun . Rather than waiting for fuel cells or hybrid vehicles , the Phoenix Project advocates simply modifying every existing vehicle ( and power plant ) to use hydrogen . Category : Hydrogen economy Category : Environmental non-fiction books", "Hambantota Wind Farm The Hambantota Wind Farm is the first wind farm to be commissioned in Sri Lanka . The farm is located along south-eastern coast of Hambantota , and consists of five NEG Micon M1500-600 wind turbines of each . With a total installed capacity of , the wind farm generates up to approximately of power annually . The wind farm stretches about 1500 km2 in size , and cost approximately Rs .280 million ( 1999 rates ) , of which 34 % were local funds and 66 % were foreign funds . Foreign funds were raised by the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank . Studies on the project dated as early as 1988 , more than a decade before it was commissioned in 1999 . The project is now owned by the Ceylon Electricity Board .", "Wind power industry The wind power industry is involved with the design , manufacture , construction , and maintenance of wind turbines . The modern wind power industry began in 1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufacturers . The industry is currently undergoing a period of rapid globalization and consolidation .", "Energy in Germany Energy in Germany is sourced predominantly by fossil fuels , followed by nuclear power , biomass ( wood and biofuels ) , wind , hydro and solar . The German economy is large and developed , ranking fourth in the world by GDP . Because of this , Germany ranked sixth in global energy consumption between 2004 and 2007 . Germany was Europe 's largest consumer of electricity in 2002 ; electricity consumption that year totaled 512.9 terawatt-hours . In 2013 Germany 's electricity production reached 631.4 TWh . Key to Germany 's energy policies and politics is the `` Energiewende '' , meaning `` energy turnaround '' or `` energy transformation '' . Germany intends to eliminate current use of nuclear power by 2022 . Some plants have already been closed ahead of their intended retirement dates . It is presumed that fossil fuels , wind power , solar power , biofuels , and energy conservation will be enough to replace the existing capacity from nuclear power . The policy includes phasing out nuclear power , and progressive replacement of fossil fuels by renewables .", "Green paradox The green paradox , identified by German economist Hans-Werner Sinn , is the observation that an environmental policy that becomes greener with the passage of time acts like an announced expropriation for the owners of fossil fuel resources , inducing them to accelerate resource extraction and hence to accelerate global warming .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Lillgrund Wind Farm Lillgrund Wind Farm is located about 10 km off the coast of southern Sweden , just south of the Öresund Bridge , where average wind speeds are 8 to . With 48 wind turbines ( Siemens SWT-2 .3 -93 ) and a capacity of 110 megawatts ( MW ) , Lillgrund is Sweden 's largest offshore wind farm , which will meet the domestic electricity demand of more than 60,000 homes ( 5000 kWh per home ) . The farm 's turbines have a rotor diameter of 93 metres and a total height of 115 metres . A 2016 study found no significant effect on marine life .", "Wildorado Wind Ranch The Wildorado Wind Ranch , completed in 2007 , is located on approximately 16000 acre 25 mi west of Amarillo , Texas and consists of 161 MW of wind turbines ( 70 Siemens Mk II turbines each capable of generating 2.3 MW at peak wind speeds ) . These turbines have the capacity to meet the electricity demand of more than 50,000 households . The Wildorado Wind Ranch was developed by Cielo Wind Power , of Austin , Texas , in conjunction with Edison Mission Group of Irvine , California .", "Paderborn Wind Farm The Paderborn Wind Farm in Germany consists of 11 Vestas V-66 wind turbines , each 76m high with a 1.65 MW rated power , making a total installed capacity of 18.2 MW . The wind farm is sited near Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia , was initiated locally by a group of developers , and is owned by 91 shareholders . Commissioning was in November 2000 . Germany is the world 's largest user of wind power with an installed capacity of 20,621 MW in 2006 . More than 18,000 wind turbines are located in the German federal area and the country has plans to build more wind turbines .", "Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative Ltd is a community-owned Industrial and Provident Society that owns 100 % of the Westmill Wind Farm which is an onshore wind farm near the village of Watchfield in the Vale of White Horse , England . It has five 1.3 MW wind turbines erected in a line along the disused runway of the former RAF Watchfield . The wind farm has a power output of up to 6.5 MW , projected to produce as much electricity in a year as used by more than 2,500 homes . The turbines were erected in 8 days and the first fully month of generation was March 2008 . It has an open day usually in June each year . The wind energy cooperative was established in 2004 and has more than 2,000 members . The wind farm is intended to help to reduce dependence on fossil fuels whose emissions are considered to contribute to climate change . In 2007 Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative received a Schumacher Award . Westmill Wind Farm was originally developed by Adam Twine who was in the later stages assisted by Energy4All , a company founded to enable community owned renewable energy projects by Baywind Energy Co-operative . Westmill Sustainable Energy Trust ( WeSET ) is a charity formed in 2010 that receives 0.5 % of the wind farm 's revenue each year . Its objective is to encourage and promote the deployment of sustainable energy , in particular ( but not exclusively ) within a 25-mile radius from Westmill Wind Farm . Its website has educational material and details of how to visit Westmill Wind Farm . The community-owned Westmill Solar Park is located on an adjoining site . Westmill Woodland Burial Ground , a natural burial site , is also close to the wind farm .", "Warm air intake A warm air intake or WAI is a system to decrease the amount of the air going into a car for the purpose of increasing the fuel economy of the internal-combustion engine . This term may also be used to describe a short ram air intake , a totally different intake modification . All warm air intakes operate on the principle of decreasing the amount of oxygen available for combustion with fuel . Warm air from inside the engine bay is used opposed to air taken from the generally more restrictive stock intake . Warmer air is less dense , and thus contains less oxygen to burn fuel in . The car 's ECU compensates by opening the throttle wider to admit more air . This , in turn , decreases the resistance the engine must overcome to suck air in . The net effect is for the engine to intake the same amount of oxygen ( and thus burn the same amount of fuel , producing the same power ) but with less pumping losses , allowing for a gain in fuel economy , at the expense of top-end power . Opposite principle of a cold air intake ( CAI ) which significantly differs by collecting air from a colder source outside the engine . In the extreme , a warm air intake can eliminate the need for a conventional throttle and thus eliminate throttle losses .", "Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "Gunning Wind Farm The Gunning Wind Farm project is a wind farm development in the Cullerin Range , north-east of Gunning , in New South Wales . Wind turbines in the farm are visible from the Hume Highway . The Gunning Wind Farm comprises an electrical substation and operation and maintenance facilities plus 31 turbines which send power to the substation via 17km of underground cabling . A 14km-long 132kV transmission line was constructed to connect the wind farm to the 132kV Yass-Goulburn transmission line . Turbines generate electricity at 12kV which travels via underground cables to the substation where it is stepped up to 132kV to match the grid voltage . Construction began in April 2010 and created about 100 jobs , bringing significant economic activity to the Gunning region . The wind farm was completed in May 2011 . A great deal of work was done prior to development of the wind farm . Technical studies identified constraints and the best design , with independent consultants engaged to report on : flora and fauna cultural heritage traffic and transport geology and hydrology landscape and visual amenity sound The wind farm is capable of producing 46.5 MW of clean , renewable energy . Each of the 1.5 MW turbines at the Gunning Wind Farm can provide sufficient renewable energy to power approximately 750 homes and save more than 5,250 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year . The 31 turbines can power 23,250 homes and save more than 162,750 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year . ACCIONA Energy has established a Community Benefit Fund to deliver tangible benefits to the local community . This initiative will run for the life of the project ( 25 years ) . The Fund support services , events and projects which directly and indirectly benefit the community in the vicinity . ACCIONA Energy also provides sponsorship support to local groups and events .", "WinWinD WinWinD was a wind turbine manufacturer headquartered in Espoo , Finland . It manufactured and supplied wind turbines with capacity of 1 and 3 MW . The company was founded in 2000 in Oulu . In 2006 , Chinnakannan Sivasankaran 's Siva Group of India acquired majority control in WinWinD . In September 2008 , the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company ( Masdar ) invested $ 120million in WinWinD acquiring 40 % stake of the company . In addition to Siva and Masdar , the Finnish investment fund Suomen Teollisuussijoitus ( Finnish Industry Investment ) has a stake in WinWinD . WinWinD has assembly factories in Hamina , Finland , and Chennai , India . It employs more than 800 people globally . In addition to Finland , WinWinD turbines produce energy in Sweden , Estonia , France , Portugal , the Czech Republic and India .", "TUGE Energia TUGE Energia is a wind turbine manufacturer headquartered in Tallinn , Estonia . It manufactures and supplies small wind turbines with capacity of 10 kW . Development of a 50 kW unit has started in the beginning of 2016 and the company is working on a 3-5 kW wind turbine based on Hugh Piggott 's design . The company was founded in 2015 in Tallinn . At the beginning of 2017 , it has more than 20 small wind turbines installed in Estonia and Finland . Company also provides complementary solar and battery storage solutions . The company is a member of Estonian Wind Power Association , Finnish Wind Power Association and World Wind Energy Association .", "Union Pacific GTELs Union Pacific operated the largest fleet of gas turbine-electric locomotives ( GTELs ) of any railroad in the world . The prototype , UP 50 was the first in a series built by General Electric , marketed by the Alco-GE partnership until 1953 , for Union Pacific 's long-haul cargo services . The prototype was introduced in 1948 and was followed by three series of production locomotives . At one point Union Pacific said the turbines hauled more than 10 % of the railroad 's freight . Fuel economy was poor , the turbine consumed roughly twice as much fuel as an equally powerful diesel engine . This was initially not a problem , because Union Pacific 's turbines were fueled by Bunker C heavy fuel oil . This highly viscous fuel was less expensive than diesel , but difficult to handle . When cold , its consistency is similar to tar or molasses . To solve this problem , a heater was built into the fuel tanks ( and later into fuel tenders ) to heat the fuel to 200 ° F before being fed into the turbine . Eventually UP switched from Bunker C to modified No. 6 heavy fuel oil , which contained fewer pollutants and solvents . Soot buildup and blade erosion caused by corrosive ash plagued all of the turbines . Changes to the air intake systems on the production turbine locomotives improved the air quality reaching the turbine which in turn reduced the wear to the turbine blades and increased the overall running life of the turbine . They were operated into late 1969 and the final two ( #s 18 , 26 ) were stored at the Cheyenne roundhouse in operating condition until being retired in Feb 1970 .", "Carbon cycle re-balancing The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the four reservoirs of carbon : the biosphere , the earth , the air and water . Exchanges take place in several ways , including respiration , transpiration , combustion , and decomposition . The carbon balance , or carbon budget , is the balance of exchange between the four reservoirs . Debate about 're - balancing the carbon cycle ' arises from a concern that use of fossil fuels , which has accelerated since the start of the industrial revolution , has caused carbon to accumulate in the atmosphere . Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are estimated to have risen from 280 ppm to almost 400 ppm since 1800 and this is linked to global warming . It is therefore argued that the carbon cycle should be re-balanced by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . ` Carbon cycle re-balancing ' is a useful name for a group of environmental policies listed below . The name gives a specific reason for adopting these policies . Related names , including pleas for sustainable development and participation in the green movement are politics-based rather than science-based . Carbon offset - for example by photosynthesis ( e.g. in new forests ) Carbon capture and storage - extraction of CO2 and placing it underground or underwater Carbon capture and transformation - extraction of CO2 and reacting it with hydrogen via renewable energy electrolysis to create methane as an energy store/carrier . Low to neutral cycle Sustainable energy - a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power Nuclear power - as an alternative to fossil fuels Sustainable design - to reduce inputs and outputs of energy Sustainable transport - to reduce reliance on fossil fuels Burning domestic refuse to generate power can be promoted as a recycling , and therefore sustainable , policy . But from a carbon cycle re-balancing standpoint it is better to compost as much domestic refuse as possible .", "WAsP WAsP ( Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program ) is a Windows program for predicting wind climates , wind resources , and energy yields from wind turbines and wind farms . The predictions are based on wind data measured at meteorological stations in the same region , or on generalized wind climates derived from mesoscale model results . The program includes a complex terrain flow model , a roughness change model , a model for sheltering obstacles , a wind turbine wake model and a model for the average atmospheric stability conditions at the site . The software package further contains a Climate Analyst for creating the wind-climatological inputs , a Map Editor for creating and editing the topographical inputs , and a Turbine Editor for creating the wind turbine inputs to WAsP . The fundamentals of WAsP and the wind atlas methodology are described in the European Wind Atlas . WAsP is developed and distributed by the Department of Wind Energy at the Technical University of Denmark , Denmark . Current version is WAsP 11.5 . WAsP is used for : Wind farm production Wind farm efficiency Micro-siting of wind turbines Power production calculations Wind resource mapping Wind climate estimation Wind atlas generation Wind data analysis", "Hurricane Katrina and global warming The tremendous destruction caused by recent Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones , such as Hurricanes Katrina , Wilma , and Sandy caused a substantial upsurge in interest in the subject of global warming by news media and the wider public , and concerns that global climatic change may have played a significant role in those events . Time Magazine , for example , published an article titled , `` Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina ? '' -- however , the article itself addressed hurricanes in general , rather than Katrina specifically , and was inconclusive . Shortly after the hurricane , former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan wrote an op-ed piece for the Globe titled , `` Katrina 's Real Name '' , declaring that the hurricane 's `` real name is global warming . '' Gelbspan went on to assert : `` Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida , it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico . '' Gelbspan did not single out Katrina from other recent storms in that regard ; in the article he went on to attribute other major weather events over the preceding year to global warming , including a blizzard in Los Angeles , high winds in Scandinavia , wildfires in Spain , and a drought centered in Missouri . Britain 's then deputy prime minister , John Prescott , has linked Katrina with global warming , and statements made shortly after the hurricane by Germany 's environment minister , Jürgen Trittin , indicate he believes that global warming is responsible for an increase in the frequency of destructive natural events . Kerry Emanuel had recently published a paper in the journal Nature that found a good correlation between hurricane intensity and sea surface temperatures . Some journalists have claimed Emanuel 's paper concludes that the recent increase in intense Atlantic storms is due to global warming , but Emanuel stated that `` it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming '' . The Internet blog RealClimate has written that `` there is no way to prove that Katrina either was , or was not , affected by global warming '' .", "Global Wind Day Global Wind Day is a worldwide event that occurs annually on 15 June . It is organised by EWEA ( European Wind Energy Association ) and GWEC ( Global Wind Energy Council ) . It is a day when wind energy is celebrated , information is exchanged and adults and children find out about wind energy , its power and the possibilities it holds to change the world . In association with EWEA and GWEC , national wind energy associations and companies involved in wind energy production organise events in many countries around the world . In 2011 , there were events organised in 30 countries , on 4 continents . Events included visits to onshore and offshore wind farms , information campaigns , demonstration turbines being set up in cities , wind workshops and a wind parade . Many events happened on Global Wind Day ( 15 June ) itself , but there were also events on the days and weeks before and afterwards . In 2012 there were 250 events around the globe and a very popular photo competition .", "Red Hills Wind Farm The 123 megawatt ( MW ) Red Hills Wind Farm is located in Roger Mills and Custer counties , near Elk City , Oklahoma . The wind farm has 82 Acciona 1.5-MW wind turbines , and the Red Hills facility is spread across 5000 acre . Acciona Energy North America opened the wind farm in June 2009 . Red Hills Wind Farm created 15 new full-time local jobs and more than 200 people were employed during the construction phase . Long-term lease agreements have been completed with 12 local landowners or land trusts . With the exception of the small footprint made by the 82 turbines , at about 1 acre each , land use is dominated by cattle grazing which co-exists with the wind power production .", "Carbon bubble The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production , because the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global warming are not yet taken into account in a company 's stock market valuation . Currently the price of fossil fuels companies ' shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed . An estimate made by Kepler Chevreux puts the loss in value of the fossil fuel companies due to the impact of the growing renewables industry at US$ 28 trillion over the next two decades-long . A more recent analysis made by Citi puts that figure at $ 100 trillion . Analysts in both the petroleum and financial industries are concluding that the `` age of oil '' has already reached a new stage where the excess supply that appeared in late 2014 may continue to prevail in the future . A consensus appears to be emerging that an international agreement will be reached to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 ° C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels . According to the UK 's Committee on Climate Change , overvaluing companies that produce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economy . The committee warned the British government and Bank of England of the risks of the carbon bubble in 2014 . The following year , Mark Carney , the Governor of the Bank of England , in his lecture to Lloyd 's of London , warned that limiting global warming to 2 ° C appears to require that the `` vast majority '' of fossil fuel reserves be `` stranded '' , or `` literally unburnable without expensive carbon-capture technology '' , resulting in `` potentially huge '' exposure to investors in that sector . He concluded that `` the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking '' for responding to the threat that climate change poses to financial resilience and longer-term prosperity , which he called the `` tragedy of the horizon '' . That same month , the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England issued a report discussing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the insurance industry . In his speech announcing his denial of the proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline , U.S. President Barack Obama gave as one reason for the decision '' ... ultimately , if we 're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes , we 're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground ... '' .", "United States Wind Energy Policy Modern United States Wind Energy Policy coincided with the beginning of modern wind industry of the United States , which began in the early 1980s with the arrival of utility-scale wind turbines in California ( see Altamont Pass ) . Since then , the industry has had to endure the financial uncertainties caused by a highly fluctuating tax incentive program . Because these early wind projects were fueled by investment tax credits based on installation rather than performance , they were plagued with issues of low productivity and equipment reliability . Those investment tax credits expired in 1986 , which forced investors to focus on improving the reliability and efficiency of their turbines . The 1990s saw rise to a new type of tax credit , the production tax credit , which propelled technological improvements to the wind turbine even further by encouraging investors to focus on electricity output rather than installation . Wind energy policy is generally directed at three categories of constituents : Research and Development Organizations Commercial/Residential Generators Manufacturers and Producers with one of two goals : to provide incentives or require production and installation of wind turbines or production of electricity from wind , or facilitate the appropriate location of wind turbines . Historically , incentives have come in the form of production or installation tax credits , grants , and renewable portfolio standards , at the federal , state , and local levels of government . Policy facilitating appropriate location has historically come in the form of local ordinances and permitting requirements . __ TOC __", "Vertical axis wind turbine Vertical-axis wind turbines ( VAWTs ) are a type of wind turbine where the main rotor shaft is set transverse to the wind ( but not necessarily vertically ) while the main components are located at the base of the turbine . This arrangement allows the generator and gearbox to be located close to the ground , facilitating service and repair . VAWTs do not need to be pointed into the wind , which removes the need for wind-sensing and orientation mechanisms . Major drawbacks for the early designs ( Savonius , Darrieus and giromill ) included the significant torque variation or `` ripple '' during each revolution , and the large bending moments on the blades . Later designs addressed the torque ripple issue by sweeping the blades helically . A VAWT tipped sideways , with the axis perpendicular to the wind streamlines , functions similarly . A more general term that includes this option is `` transverse axis wind turbine '' or `` cross-flow wind turbine . '' For example , the original Darrieus patent , US Patent 1835018 , includes both options . Drag-type VAWTs such as the Savonius rotor typically operate at lower tipspeed ratios than lift-based VAWTs such as Darrieus rotors and cycloturbines ." ]

[ "Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands , officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( Aolepān Aorōkin M̧ajeļ ) , Pronunciations : * English : Republic of the Marshall Islands -LSB- ˈmɑrʃəl_ˈaɪləndz -RSB- * Marshallese : Aolepān Aorōkin M̧ajeļ ( -LSB- iconhahawweweylyeyPyayn_hahawwowohrhohKhuyn_mhhahahJyehlh -RSB- ) is an island country located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean , slightly west of the International Date Line . Geographically , the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia . The country 's population of 53,158 people ( at the 2011 Census ) is spread out over 29 coral atolls , comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets . The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west , Wake Island to the north , Wake Island is claimed as a territory of the Marshall Islands , but is also claimed as an unorganized , unincorporated territory of the United States , with de facto control vested in the Office of Insular Affairs ( and all military defenses managed by the United States military ) . Kiribati to the southeast , and Nauru to the south . About 27,797 of the islanders ( at the 2011 Census ) live on Majuro , which contains the capital . Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC , with inter-island navigation made possible using traditional stick charts . Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s , with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526 . Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed . The islands derive their name from British explorer John Marshall , who visited in 1788 . The islands were historically known by the inhabitants as `` jolet jen Anij '' ( Gifts from God ) . The European powers recognized Spanish sovereignty over the islands in 1874 . They had been part of the Spanish East Indies formally since 1528 . Later , Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1884 , and they became part of German New Guinea in 1885 . In World War I the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands , which in 1919 the League of Nations combined with other former German territories to form the South Pacific Mandate . In World War II , the United States conquered the islands in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign . Along with other Pacific Islands , the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the US . Self-government was achieved in 1979 , and full sovereignty in 1986 , under a Compact of Free Association with the United States . Marshall Islands has been a United Nations member state since 1991 . Politically , the Marshall Islands is a presidential republic in free association with the United States , with the US providing defense , subsidies , and access to U.S. based agencies such as the FCC and the USPS . With few natural resources , the islands ' wealth is based on a service economy , as well as some fishing and agriculture ; aid from the United States represents a large percentage of the islands ' gross domestic product . The country uses the United States dollar as its currency . The majority of the citizens of the Marshall Islands are of Marshallese descent , though there are small numbers of immigrants from the United States , China , Philippines , and other Pacific islands . The two official languages are Marshallese , which is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian languages , and English . Almost the entire population of the islands practises some religion , with three-quarters of the country either following the United Church of Christ -- Congregational in the Marshall Islands ( UCCCMI ) or the Assemblies of God .", "Hilda Heine Hilda Cathy Heine ( born April 6 , 1951 ) is a Marshallese educator and politician , currently serving as the eighth President of the Marshall Islands . Prior to assuming office , she served as the Minister of Education . She was the first individual in the Marshall Islands to earn a doctorate degree , and the founder of the women 's rights group Women United Together Marshall Islands ( WUTMI ) . Heine is the first woman to hold the presidency of the Marshall Islands . She is also the first female president of any Micronesian country , and only the fourth woman to serve as head of government for any independent Pacific nation ( following Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark of New Zealand and Julia Gillard of Australia ) . She is one of only three women currently serving in the Nitijeļā , the country 's legislature , as of January 2016 ." ]

[ "Migration and global environmental change (Report) Migration and Global Environmental Change was a report about the influence of climate change on patterns of human migration and displacement published in 2011 . The report was produced by the Foresight unit at the UK 's Government Office of Science . It became known colloquially as ` The Foresight Report ' among people working in the field of climate-linked migration . The report was led by Professor Richard Black of Sussex University . The report was one of the first assessments of all the existing evidence and research on the connections between climate change and migration . The report authors also commissioned a number of new peer reviewed articles on migration and climate change , significant adding to the evidence base of the topic . The report attracted significant media attention on its release . The report was critical of previous predictions of the number of people who could be forced to move by climate change . It argued that making such numerical predictions was impossible because attributing climate change as the sole cause of someone 's migration was difficult . The report popularized the idea of trapped populations . The report argued that as well as being forced to move by climate change impacts , people might also be forced to stay where they are . The report drew on evidence showing that as people become poorer as a result of a degraded environment , they become less able to migrate . The idea of trapped populations had been present in the academic literature for sometime , however the media attention results from the release of the report brought the idea to a wider public for the first time . The report also popularized the idea of migration as climate change adaptation . Again , the authors drew on existing academic literature on the topic . They made the case that migration should be seen as a legitimate and empowering way for some people to adapt to the impacts of climate change .", "Climate change in Grenada The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "Alliance of Small Island States Alliance of Small Island States ( AOSIS ) is an intergovernmental organization of low lying coastal and small island countries . Established in 1990 , the main purpose of the alliance is to consolidate the voices of Small Island Developing States ( SIDS ) to address global warming . AOSIS has been very active from its inception , putting forward the first draft text in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as early as 1994 . At the 2013 Warsaw climate change conference , AOSIS also pushed for the establishment of an international mechanism on loss and damages stressed by the wreckage of Supertyphoon Haiyan . As the existence of many AOSIS states are put at risk by climate change AOSIS has threatened lawsuits . The results of a recent review of the literature show that potential liability for climate change-related losses for the Alliance of Small Island States is over $ 570 trillion . Many of the member states were present at the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP15 ) . Democracy Now ! reported that members from the island state of Tuvalu interrupted a session of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference on 10 December 2009 to demand that global temperature rise be limited to 1.5 ° C instead of the proposed 2 ° C. AOSIS has a membership of 44 states , of which 39 are members of the United Nations and 5 observers from all around the world . The alliance represents 28 % of the developing countries , and 20 % of the UN 's total membership .", "Effects of global warming on Australia Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "Ministry of Education (Marshall Islands) Ministry of the Education or the MOE is one of the government branches in the Marshall Islands that controls and taking care of Education and every public schools in the Marshall Islands . The Minister of the MOE which is the head of MOE is one of the senators of the Marshall Islands and was appointed by the president of the Marshall Islands . Wilbur Heine is currently the Minister for the MOE .", "Paul Ingrassia Paul Ingrassia ( born c. 1950 ) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and retired Managing Editor for Reuters , a division of Thomson Reuters , headquartered in New York City . In June 2016 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Loeb Foundation for accomplishments in business and financial journalism . Ingrassia drew media attention in 2013 when David Fogarty , climate change reporter at Reuters for nearly 20 years , resigned and later told the press of Ingrassia 's suspected climate change denial . Ingrassia had allegedly told Fogarty in 2012 that he was a ` climate change skeptic ' who wanted to see more evidence mankind was changing the global climate . Following what Fogarty claims to be a time of heavy climate change censorship he described as a ` Climate of Fear ' in Reuters , Ingrassia supposedly denounced climate change coverage in early 2013 and abolished Fogarty 's role , triggering his resignation . However , that allegation notwithstanding , `` Reuters led the pack in climate change coverage '' in 2013 , reported The Daily Climate , an independent , foundation-funded news service that has aggregated climate coverage since 2007 . Reuters ' total of nearly 1,100 stories on the topic during that year outstripped the Associated Press , the Guardian and The New York Times . Even during the period of supposed `` suppression '' of climate coverage , from mid-April to mid-October 2012 , Reuters ran an average of nearly two stories a day on the topic . While the number of Reuters stories on climate issues did drop during 2011 , it also dropped at The New York Times , the Guardian and virtually every other major publication -- partly because carbon-emissions trading failed to evolve into a broad market , as had once seemed likely .", "Majuro Declaration The Majuro Declaration is an initiative of the Pacific Islands Forum , which was signed on 5 September 2013 at Majuro in the Marshall Islands during the 44th Pacific Islands Forum summit . At the summit the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum nations recognised the need for strengthened national systems to plan for , access , deliver , absorb and monitor climate change and for donor countries to continue to simplify and harmonise their assessment , implementation and reporting processes for financing projects directed to climate change adaptation , mitigation and risk reduction . The intention of the Majuro Declaration is to highlight the commitment of the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum nations to the reduction and phasing down of greenhouse gas pollution worldwide , with the leaders wanting to spark a `` new wave of climate leadership '' .", "Climate change in New Zealand Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "Ngedikes Olai Uludong Ngedikes `` Olai '' Uludong is a Diplomat from the Republic of Palau , currently serving as the Permanent Representative from Palau to the United Nations and the Palau Ambassador to the European Union in the Kingdom of Belgium . Prior to her role as a diplomat , Uludong was Climate Change Advisor in environmental policy and management throughout the Micronesia and Pacific region . She is an active public servant that has coordinated environment and climate change work in the Republic of Palau , Republic of the Marshall Islands , Republic of Nauru , Republic of Maldives , the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) process , and served as the Lead Negotiator for the United Nations Negotiating Bloc : The Alliance of Small Islands States ( AOSIS ) in New York City . As the Current Palau 's Ambassador to the European Union and Ambassador on Climate Change .", "National Climate Assessment The National Climate Assessment ( NCA ) is a United States government interagency ongoing effort on climate change science conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . The NCA is a major product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which coordinates a team of experts and receives input from a Federal Advisory Committee . The Fourth National Climate Assessment is being developed . For the Third National Climate Assessment , released in 2014 , USGCRP coordinated hundreds of experts and received advice from a sixty-member Federal Advisory Committee . NCA research is integrated and summarized in the mandatory ongoing National Climate Assessment Reports . The reports are `` extensively reviewed by the public and experts , including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences . The First National Climate Assessment was published in 2000 . The First National Climate Assessment Report was `` prepared by the National Assessment Synthesis Team ( NAST ) , an advisory committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help the US Global Change Research Program fulfill its mandate under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . The National Science and Technology Council forwarded the report to the President and Congress for their consideration as required by the Global Change Research Act . Administrative support for the US Global Change Research Program is provided by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research , which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation ( NCA 2000 ) . '' Between 2002 and 2009 , USGCRP previously known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) , produced twenty-one Synthesis and Assessment Products ( SAPs ) . The second NCA was published in 2009 and the third was released in 2014 . NCA 's overarching goal according to their May 20 , 2011 engagement strategy summary , `` is to enhance the ability of the U.S. to anticipate , mitigate , and adapt to changes in the global environment ( NCA 2011:2 ) . '' According to the USGCRP official website the NCA , In 2013 , the President 's Climate Action Plan released by the Executive Office of the President specifically noted the importance of the National Climate Assessments in achieving the goal of `` Using Sound Science to Manage Climate Impacts '' .", "Thomas Heine Thomas Heine is a Marshallese politician and government minister . He has had a term as Minister of Transportation and Communications , and as of 2012 he was Minister of Justice . In 2012 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Marshall Islands Legal Services Corporation , and as of 2014 he was Chairman of the Central Pacific Shipping Commission .", "Climate Disclosure Standards Board The Climate Disclosure Standards Board ( CDSB ) is a non-profit organization working to provide material information for investors and financial markets through the integration of climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting . CDSB operates on the premise that investors and financial institutions can make better and informed decisions if companies are open , transparent and analyse the risks and opportunities associated with climate change-related information . To this end , CDSB acts as a forum for collaboration on how existing standards and practices can be used to link financial and climate change-related information using its Climate Change Reporting Framework . The Framework is a standards-ready tool for companies to disclose climate change-related information in mainstream financial reports . Launched in September 2010 , the Climate Change Reporting Framework adopts and relies on relevant provisions of existing standards and practices , including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and International Financial Reporting Standards as well as reflecting regulatory and voluntary reporting and carbon trading rules . The distinctiveness of the Framework is that it references standards instead of creating a new one . The Framework also adopts relevant principles and objectives of financial reporting to complement mainstream financial reporting models .", "Climate Change Science Program The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "Jared Heine Jared Heine ( born September 6 , 1984 ) is a Marshallese swimmer , who specialized in backstroke events . He acquired a dual citizenship to participate internationally for the Marshall Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics , placing himself among the top 45 swimmers in the 100 m backstroke . Heine was one of the five athletes to mark an Olympic debut for the Marshall Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , competing in the men 's 100 m backstroke . He cleared a minute barrier to finish the opening heat with a lifetime bodysuit best of 58.86 for a third-place finish and forty-third overall on the evening prelims , failing to advance to the semifinals . Heine is an information science graduate at the Florida State University in Tallahassee , Florida , and a member and senior coach of Kamehameha Swim Club in his hometown Honolulu .", "Pan-African Media Alliance on Climate Change The Pan-African Media Alliance for Climate Change ( PAMACC ) is one of Africa 's associations of environment journalists . It was created in June 2013 at a workshop the PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance organised for African journalists . PAMACC 's aim is to support journalists to improve their reporting on climate change and has set up a website to share their stories . It has regional coordinators , who will encourage journalists to set up national bodies in each country . The coordinator for Southern Africa , Sellina Nkowani from Malawi , has also stated that she wants the alliance to encourage more women journalists to report on climate change . The other regional coordinators are Elias Ngalame from Cameroon ( for Central Africa ) , Atayi Babs Opaluwah from Nigeria ( for West Africa ) and Kizito Makoye from Tanzania ( for East Africa ) . Isaiah Esipisu from Kenya will act as the continent-wide coordinator .", "Ambo Declaration The Ambo Declaration was adopted at the Tarawa Climate Change Conference on 10 November 2010 by Australia , Brazil , China , Cuba , Fiji , Japan , Kiribati , Maldives , Marshall Islands , New Zealand , Solomon Islands and Tonga . The declaration calls for more and immediate action to be undertaken to address the causes and adverse impacts of climate change . The Ambo Declaration , named after the village in Kiribati where parliament sits , was slated to be a non-legally-binding agreement between the nations to present at the larger international climate change summit , COP16 in Cancun , Mexico . The United States , the United Kingdom and Canada , who also attended the conference , chose not to be part of the declaration by taking Observer status . The purpose of the conference was to support the initiative of the President of Kiribati , Anote Tong , to hold a consultative forum between vulnerable states and their partners with a view of creating an enabling environment for multi-party negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . The conference was a successor event to the Climate Vulnerable Forum first held in November 2009 in the Maldives , when eleven climate vulnerable countries signed the Bandos Island declaration pledging to show moral leadership and commence greening their economies by voluntarily committing to achieving carbon neutrality . Based on the lessons learned in the COP process , the TCCC proposed a more inclusive format of consultations , involving key partners among major developed and developing nations . The ultimate objective of TCCC was to reduce the number and intensity of various fault lines between parties to the COP process , explore elements of agreement between the parties and thereby to support Kiribati 's and other parties ' contribution to COP16 to be held in Cancun , Mexico , from 29 November to 10 December 2010 .", "Dennis Tirpak Dennis Tirpak is an expert on Climate Change . He is a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute . He was the director of Global Climate Change Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency for ten years . He was the Coordinator of Science and Technology at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for nine years . He was the head of the climate change unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) for three years . He has also worked on the Montreal Protocol and held positions in industry with Texaco and Alcoa . He is one of the coordinating lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore . He advises national governments and industry as an associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada and a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute in Washington , D.C. He was the Chairman of The International Scientific Steering Committee for Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations which took place at the invitation of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005 . In 1989 he co-authored the first report to Congress , The Potential Effects Of Global Climate Change on the United States , and has written a scientific and policy history on climate change and contributed to many publications including the New York Times in an op-ed titled `` How Green is My Taxi '' .", "Piers Forster Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "World Climate Report World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "List of people who have expressed views relating to overpopulation as a problem The people in this list have expressed concerns about human overpopulation .", "Forever Marshall Islands Forever Marshall Islands is the national anthem of the Marshall Islands . The music and lyrics were created by former President Amata Kabua . It was adopted in 1991 . It replaced the previous national anthem , Ij Io̧kwe Ļo̧k Aelōn̄ Eo Aō .", "Marshall Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics The Marshall Islands took part in the 2008 Summer Olympics , which were held in Beijing , China from 8 to 24 August 2008 . The 2008 Summer Olympics were the Marshall Islands ' first appearance at the Olympics . The delegation included five athletes , two in athletics , two in swimming , and one in taekwondo . The Marshall Islands failed to win an Olympic medal at these Games . Athletes representing the Marshall Islands participated in four different events . Anju Jason was the first Marshallese athlete ever to qualify for the Olympic Games . Jason was the only athlete to meet the qualification standards , the other five athletes at the Games were all wildcard entries . He represented his country in taekwondo . Jared Heine is a swimmer and competed in the 100 meter backstroke . In athletics , the nation was represented by Roman Cress who ran in the men 's 100 meters . Haley Nemra also represented the Marshall Islands running in the women 's 800 meters .", "Public opinion on climate change Public opinion on climate change is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning the science , economics , and politics of global warming . It is affected by media coverage of climate change .", "Rethinking the Weather ", "Elections in the Marshall Islands Elections in Marshall Islands gives information on election and election results in Marshall Islands . Marshall Islands elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature . The president is elected for a four-year term by the parliament . The Legislature ( Nitijela ) has 33 members , elected for a four-year term in single-seat and five multi-seat constituencies . The Legislature was last elected 17 November 2003 without the participation of parties , though part of the members could be members of the United Democratic Party . The Marshall Islands is a state in which political parties have not been active . There have been a number of local and national elections since the Republic of the Marshall Islands was founded . The United Democratic Party , running on a reform platform , won the 1999 parliamentary election , taking control of the presidency and cabinet . The new government has publicly confirmed its commitment to an independent judiciary . The first two presidents were chiefs . Kessai Note is a commoner .", "Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( CFACT ) is a Washington , D.C.-based 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues , but has increasingly turned to climate denial . For example , CFACT co-founder Craig Rucker stated that mankind faces a threat `` not from man-made global warming , but from man-made hysteria . '' At the 29 April 2017 Climate March , leaflets distributed by CFACT claimed the scientific consensus that mankind is now driving global changes in the planet 's climate are `` bogus '' , that reports of record-setting temperatures are `` the hottest lie '' being told , and `` CO2 is not the ` control knob ' of the climate '' .", "IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "Christopher Heins Christopher Heins ( died October 1689 ) was a lieutenant and interim Governor-General of The Danish West Indies during two short periods , respectively 29 June 1686 to March 1687 and from October 1688 to 1689 . Little is known about his career or personal life outside his reigns under company rule . When Gabriel Milan was appointed governor in 1684 , Heins accompanied him to the West Indies , and would succeed him in the event of his death ( after Niels Lassen who was the direct successor ) . When Milan 's rule fell into disfavor with the Danish administration in 1686 and he was removed from office , he gave the charge of the fortress to Heins . However , Mikkel Mikkelsen of the Danish party was the official governor until 29 June 1686 when official charge of the islands was given to Heins . The official reporter , Andrew Brock , said about the incidents ( in a letter to Albert Gyldensparre ) : `` May God in heaven aid him ( Heins ) oto carry on his government better than his predecessors , which I expect him to do , as he has shown himself only as an honest and upright man . '' After the initial confusion of the Milan deposement , Adolph Esmit was reinstated as governor in 1687 , leaving Heins as vice-governor . However , this rule was short , as the company quickly found that Esmit was unable to fulfill his obligations in a satisfactory manner , and he was recalled to Denmark the year after . Vice-admiral Ivar Hoppe who was taking Esmit back called the inhabitants together on 8 July 1688 and told them that he wished to know if Esmit 's statement that he held the affection of all on the island was true . `` If you want Adolph Esmit to become governor , speak now while there is yet time , '' the vice-admiral said . To this the planters all responded as with one voice , `` No ! if that should happen , we should all leave the land ! '' When asked concerning vice-governor Heins , they replied that they asked for no better governor . Heins was reinstated as governor ad interim in October of that year . This reign would be short , however , as he died only a year after .", "Green Earth Appeal ", "IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Natural environment The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally , meaning in this case not artificial . The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth . This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species , climate , weather , and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity . The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components : Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention , including all vegetation , microorganisms , soil , rocks , atmosphere , and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate , as well as energy , radiation , electric charge , and magnetism , not originating from civilized human activity In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment . In such areas where man has fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion , the natural environment is greatly modified into a simplified human environment . Even acts which seem less extreme , such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert , modify the natural environment into an artificial one . Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves , they are not human , hence beaver dams and the works of Mound-building termites are thought of as natural . People seldom find absolutely natural environments on Earth , and naturalness usually varies in a continuum , from 100 % natural in one extreme to 0 % natural in the other . More precisely , we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment , and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform . If , for instance , in an agricultural field , the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil , but the structure is quite different . Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat . For instance , when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna .", "Earth Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is the central concept in an Earth system framework proposed by a group of Earth system and environmental scientists led by Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Will Steffen from the Australian National University . In 2009 , the group proposed a framework of `` planetary boundaries '' designed to define a `` safe operating space for humanity '' for the international community , including governments at all levels , international organizations , civil society , the scientific community and the private sector , as a precondition for sustainable development . This framework is based on scientific research that indicates that since the Industrial Revolution , human actions have gradually become the main driver of global environmental change . The scientists assert that once human activity has passed certain thresholds or tipping points , defined as `` planetary boundaries '' , there is a risk of `` irreversible and abrupt environmental change '' . The group identified nine Earth system processes which have boundaries that , to the extent that they are not crossed , mark the safe zone for the planet . However , because of human activities some of these dangerous boundaries have already been crossed , while others are in imminent danger of being crossed . Rockström and Steffen collaborated with 26 leading academics , including Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen , Goddard Institute for Space Studies climate scientist James Hansen and the German Chancellor 's chief climate adviser Hans Joachim Schellnhuber . The group identified nine `` planetary life support systems '' essential for human survival , and attempted to quantify just how far seven of these systems have been pushed already . They then estimated how much further we can go before our own survival is threatened ; beyond these boundaries there is a risk of `` irreversible and abrupt environmental change '' which could make Earth less habitable . Estimates indicate that three of these boundaries -- climate change , biodiversity loss , and the biogeochemical flow boundary -- appear to have been crossed . The boundaries are `` rough , first estimates only , surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps '' that interact in ways that are complex and not well understood . Boundaries can help identify where there is room and define a `` safe space for human development '' , which is an improvement on approaches which aim at just minimizing human impacts on the planet . The 2009 report was presented to the General Assembly of the Club of Rome in Amsterdam . An edited summary of the report was subsequently published as the featured article in a special edition of Nature . Nature also published critical commentary from leading academics they invited to comment on each of the seven planetary boundaries which had been quantified , including comments from Nobel laureate Mario J. Molina and biologist Cristián Samper . In 2015 , a second paper was published in Science updating the Planetary Boundaries concept . The findings were presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos , January 2015 .", "Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change See Also : climate change mitigation , emissions trading . The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate ( MEF ) was launched on March 28 , 2009 . The MEF is intended to facilitate a candid dialogue among major developed and developing economies , help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the December UN climate change conference in Copenhagen , and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions . The 17 major economies are : Australia , Brazil , Canada , China , the European Union , France , Germany , India , Indonesia , Italy , Japan , South Korea , Mexico , Russia , South Africa , the United Kingdom , and the United States . Denmark , in its capacity as the President of the December 2009 Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change , and the United Nations have also participated in this dialogue along with Observers .", "Protoplanet A protoplanet is a large planetary embryo that originated within a protoplanetary disc and has undergone internal melting to produce a differentiated interior . Protoplanets are thought to form out of kilometer-sized planetesimals that gravitationally perturb each other 's orbits and collide , gradually coalescing into the dominant planets . In the case of the Solar System , it is thought that the collisions of planetesimals created a few hundred planetary embryos . Such embryos were similar to Ceres and Pluto with masses of about 1022 to 1023 kg and were a few thousand kilometers in diameter . Over the course of hundreds of millions of years , they collided with one another . The exact sequence whereby planetary embryos collided to assemble the planets is not known , but it is thought that initial collisions would have replaced the first `` generation '' of embryos with a second generation consisting of fewer but larger embryos . These in their turn would have collided to create a third generation of fewer but even larger embryos . Eventually , only a handful of embryos were left , which collided to complete the assembly of the planets proper . Early protoplanets had more radioactive elements , the quantity of which has been reduced over time due to radioactive decay . Heating due to radioactivity , impact , and gravitational pressure melted parts of protoplanets as they grew toward being planets . In melted zones their heavier elements sank to the center , whereas lighter elements rose to the surface . Such a process is known as planetary differentiation . The composition of some meteorites show that differentiation took place in some asteroids . According to the giant impact hypothesis the Moon formed from a colossal impact of a hypothetical protoplanet called Theia with Earth , early in the Solar System 's history . In the inner Solar System , the three protoplanets to survive more-or-less intact are the asteroids Ceres , Pallas , and Vesta . Psyche is likely the survivor of a violent hit-and-run with another object that stripped off the outer , rocky layers of a protoplanet . The asteroid Lutetia also has characteristics that resemble a protoplanet . Kuiper-belt dwarf planets have also been referred to as protoplanets . Because iron meteorites have been found on Earth , it is deemed likely that there once were other metal-cored protoplanets in the asteroid belt that since have been disrupted and that are the source of these meteorites . In February 2013 astronomers made the first direct observation of a protoplanet forming in a disk of gas and dust around a distant star .", "Climate change in South Korea In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "Effects of climate change on wine production Climate change in recent times has become a major issue and talking point globally because of its effects on the environment and the repercussions this could be having or possibly have . The effects of climate change on Viniculture ( wine production ) are described in this article .", "Environment of Hong Kong The ecology of Hong Kong is mostly affected by the results of climatic changes . Hong Kong 's climate is seasonal due to alternating wind direction between winter and summer . Hong Kong has been geologically stable for millions of years . Flora and fauna in Hong Kong are altered by climatic change , sea level alternation , and human impact .", "Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "Michael Schlesinger Dr. Michael Earl Schlesinger ( born February 23 , 1943 ) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He received his Ph.D. ( meteorology ) in 1976 from the University of California , Los Angeles . Michael Schlesinger is an expert in the modeling , simulation and analysis of climate and climate change , with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols . He has been instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models , which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum . His research currently focuses on : ( 1 ) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet ; ( 2 ) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system , including the influences of the Sun - both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation - and volcanoes ; ( 3 ) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks ; and ( 4 ) performing integrative assessment of climate change , including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change . He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system , on estimating the climate sensitivity , and on seasonal climate change . He has edited four books , most recently Human-induced climate change : An interdisciplinary assessment . He regularly appears in the media .", "Planet A planet is an astronomical body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity , is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion , and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.This definition is drawn from two separate IAU declarations ; a formal definition agreed by the IAU in 2006 , and an informal working definition established by the IAU in 2001/2003 for objects outside of the Solar System . The official 2006 definition applies only to the Solar System , whereas the 2003 definition applies to planets around other stars . The extrasolar planet issue was deemed too complex to resolve at the 2006 IAU conference . The term planet is ancient , with ties to history , astrology , science , mythology , and religion . Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye . These were regarded by many early cultures as divine , or as emissaries of deities . As scientific knowledge advanced , human perception of the planets changed , incorporating a number of disparate objects . In 2006 , the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System . This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects of planetary mass based on where or what they orbit . Although eight of the planetary bodies discovered before 1950 remain `` planets '' under the modern definition , some celestial bodies , such as Ceres , Pallas , Juno and Vesta ( each an object in the solar asteroid belt ) , and Pluto ( the first trans-Neptunian object discovered ) , that were once considered planets by the scientific community , are no longer viewed as such . The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit Earth in deferent and epicycle motions . Although the idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times , it was not until the 17th century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic astronomical observations , performed by Galileo Galilei . At about the same time , by careful analysis of pre-telescopic observation data collected by Tycho Brahe , Johannes Kepler found the planets ' orbits were not circular but elliptical . As observational tools improved , astronomers saw that , like Earth , the planets rotated around tilted axes , and some shared such features as ice caps and seasons . Since the dawn of the Space Age , close observation by space probes has found that Earth and the other planets share characteristics such as volcanism , hurricanes , tectonics , and even hydrology . Planets are generally divided into two main types : large low-density giant planets , and smaller rocky terrestrials . Under IAU definitions , there are eight planets in the Solar System . In order of increasing distance from the Sun , they are the four terrestrials , Mercury , Venus , Earth , and Mars , then the four giant planets , Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune . Six of the planets are orbited by one or more natural satellites . Several thousands of planets around other stars ( `` extrasolar planets '' or `` exoplanets '' ) have been discovered in the Milky Way . As of , known extrasolar planets in planetary systems ( including multiple planetary systems ) , ranging in size from just above the size of the Moon to gas giants about twice as large as Jupiter have been discovered , out of which more than 100 planets are the same size as Earth , nine of which are at the same relative distance from their star as Earth from the Sun , i.e. in the habitable zone . On December 20 , 2011 , the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first Earth-sized extrasolar planets , Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f , orbiting a Sun-like star , Kepler-20 . A 2012 study , analyzing gravitational microlensing data , estimates an average of at least 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way . Around one in five Sun-like stars is thought to have an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone .", "Climate legislation Climate legislation is legislation dealing with the laws and regulations of greenhouse gas emissions . Many different pieces of climate legislation have been introduced and are being considered by legislatures around the world .", "List of nearest exoplanets From the total of known exoplanets orbiting around different stars ( as of ) , only a small fraction are located in the vicinity of the Solar System . At the beginning of 2016 , the nearest 74 exoplanets were confirmed to be located within 50 ly , while some 50 other exoplanets had been proposed to exist . Among the estimated 1,400 stars located within 50 light-years , only 40 had been confirmed to have planetary systems with 14 other stars having unconfirmed exoplanet candidates . Of these 40 star systems , half are visible with the naked eye ( out of a total of about 133 visible stars located within 50 light-years ) , and only five ( Epsilon Eridani , Gliese 687 , Gliese 674 , Gliese 876 , and Gliese 832 ) are among the nearest known 100 known systems . Reports of planetary systems first came in 1996 for three stars located over 40 light-years away : 55 Cancri , Upsilon Andromedae , and 47 Ursae Majoris . Since 1999 , more planets have been reported , including a total of five planets revolving around 55 Cancri , and four planets around Gliese 876 , Upsilon Andromedae , and Mu Arae . Eight star systems have three confirmed planetary partners , five others have only two planets , while the remaining 23 systems have only one confirmed planet . A total of seven planets have been suggested to revolve around Gliese 667 C and HD 219134 , six around HD 40307 , and five planets around Tau Ceti and Gliese 163 . Among the confirmed the known planetary systems , 24 are located within 40 light-years , 14 are within 30 light-years , and only six are within 20 light-years . The closest exoplanet considered confirmed by NASA is Epsilon Eridani b , 10.5 light-years away from our Solar System , while the closest known rocky planet is Gliese 674 b , 14.8 light-years away . Planetary companions have been suggested to exist in some of the nine known star systems located within 10 light-years away , including a planetary companion in the closest system , Alpha Centauri ( 4.1 light-years away ) . Among the confirmed exoplanets within 50 light-years , more than half were found to revolve around their star closer and complete an orbit faster than Mercury does around the Sun , many of them with highly eccentric orbits . In term of their estimated minimum masses , 52 exoplanets are expected to be gas giants and the other 22 are likely Super-Earths . The smallest one , Gliese 581e , is located 20 light-years away and is estimated to have a mass at least twice that of Earth 's . Of the exoplanets within 50 light-years , three have been hypothesized to be potentially habitable ( Gliese 667 Cc , Gliese 163 c , and Gliese 832 c ) , and another three have been directly imaged ( Fomalhaut b , Ross 458 ( AB ) c , and VHS 1256-1257 b ) . The International Astronomical Union took a public survey in 2015 towards renaming some known the exoplanetary systems , including several of the nearest systems : Epsilon Eridani , Fomalhaut , Pollux , 55 Cancri , Upsilon Andromedae , Gamma Cephei , 47 Ursae Majoris , and Mu Arae .", "Economics of climate change mitigation This article is about the economics of climate change mitigation . Mitigation of climate change involves actions that are designed to limit the amount of long-term climate change ( Fisher et al. . , 2007:225 ) . Mitigation may be achieved through the reduction of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions or through the enhancement of sinks that absorb GHGs , for example forests .", "Banksia cynaroides Banksia cynaroides is a shrub endemic to Western Australia . An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that it was likely to be driven to extinction by loss of habitat by 2080 , even under mild climate change scenarios .", "Compact of Mayors The Compact of Mayors is a global coalition of city leaders addressing climate change by pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the future impacts of climate change . The Compact highlights cities ' climate impact while measuring their relative risk levels and carbon pollution . The Compact of Mayors seeks to show the importance of city climate action , both at the local level and around the world . The Compact was launched in 2014 by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , the UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change . The Compact represents a common effort from global city networks C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group ( C40 ) , ICLEI , and United Cities and Local Governments ( UCLG ) , as well as UN-Habitat , to unite against climate change . 428 global cities have committed to the Compact of Mayors . The collective member cities comprise over 376 million people and 5.19 % of the global population .", "Johannesburg Gas Works The Johannesburg Gas Works also known as Egoli Gas Works established in 1892 , is one of the most historically and architecturally significant industrial sites in Johannesburg . Not only does it have intact machinery to show the production of gas but it also has structurally sound buildings which in their entirety show the process from how gas was produced out of coal up to how it was distributed to the public . Gas production is now extinct but the buildings remain as a reminder of what used to be on the site . The Gas tanks are a major landmark in Johannesburg and make their appearance in most portraits showing Johannesburg 's skyline . The Gas Works also have a rich workers history , which exemplifies the way in which workers were segregated during apartheid .", "Banksia meganotia Banksia meganotia is a shrub endemic to Western Australia . An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that it was likely to be driven to extinction by loss of habitat by 2080 , even under mild climate change scenarios .", "Modern evolution of Esperanto Esperanto has been remarkably stable since its creation compared to other planned languages . This is due to the Declaration of Boulogne in 1905 , which made the early works of Zamenhof binding ; most attempts at change have been therefore seen as distinct language projects ( so-called esperantidos ) , and in the main the Esperanto community has ignored them . The main change in the language has been a great expansion of the vocabulary , largely driven by translations of technical jargon , which is explicitly allowed for by Boulogne . However , there have been more subtle changes to syntax and semantics as the majority of Esperanto authors shifted from native speakers of Slavic and German to other languages , such as French and English . See History of Esperanto #Evolution of the language . This article considers some of the purposeful changes to the language since Boulogne .", "Plant-for-the-Planet Plant-for-the-Planet is a children 's idea that aims to raise awareness amongst children and adults about the issues of climate change and global justice . The Initiative also works to plant trees , and considers this to be both a practical and symbolic action in efforts to reduce the effect of climate change . In 2011 , it reached a goal of planting a million trees .", "Banksia erythrocephala Banksia erythrocephala is a shrub endemic to Western Australia . An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that it was likely to be driven to extinction by loss of habitat by 2080 , even under mild climate change scenarios .", "Banksia octotriginta Banksia octotriginta is a shrub endemic to Western Australia . An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that it was likely to be driven to extinction by loss of habitat by 2080 , even under mild climate change scenarios .", "Climate change in Saskatchewan The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "HD 10180 HD 10180 is a Sun-like star in the southern constellation Hydrus that is notable for its large planetary system . Since its discovery , at least seven planets , and possibly as many as nine , have been observed orbiting it , making it the largest known exoplanetary system in terms of total confirmed planets ( significantly larger than previous record holders , Kepler-11 and 55 Cancri ) and potentially the largest of all known planetary systems , including the Solar System .", "The Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences at Rice University The Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences ( CENHS ) is an interdisciplinary research center located at Rice University whose work is focused on bringing the expertise and insights of the arts , humanities , and social sciences to bear on the urgent energy and environmental challenges facing the planet , its cultures and species . CENHS supports a community of research professors , visiting research fellows , postdoctoral fellows , artists , and graduate students who engage issues such as energy use and climate change from the perspective of disciplines such as Anthropology , Architecture , Art History , Comparative Literature , English , History , Media Studies , Philosophy , Political Theory , Religious Studies , and Sociology . CENHS 's website and blog ( culturesofenergy.com ) and annual Cultures of Energy spring research symposium are important platforms for organizing knowledge and building community in a fast-growing field known as `` energy humanities . '' What has brought this field into being is the realization that technology alone can not rescue the planet from processes like global warming , ocean acidification and species extinction . These dilemmas have been shaped and reinforced by culture , belief , understanding , worldview , ethics , habit , and institutions and to address them at their source it is thus essential to understand the social , cultural , and philosophical dimensions of how humanity uses energy while also understanding that our energy behavior is inseparable from other species and the earth 's climate . Energy humanities views itself as a cultural and intellectual response to recognition that the planet has entered a new geological era : the Anthropocene .", "Traces of a Dragon Traces of a Dragon ( ; aka Traces of a Dragon : Jackie Chan and his Lost Family ) is a 2003 documentary film directed by Mabel Cheung . The film explores the touching and history-filled background of Jackie Chan as we have never seen him before .", "GD 40 GD 40 is a white dwarf in the constellation Cetus . The star 's spectrum has been found to show traces of external of metal contamination due to disruption of an extrasolar dwarf planet or an asteroid . The disrupted object should have had roughly the same mass of the Solar System asteroid 3 Juno .", "1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place in November 1998 in Buenos Aires , Argentina . The conference included the 4th Conference of the Parties ( COP4 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . It had been expected that the remaining issues unresolved in Kyoto would be finalized at this meeting . However , the complexity and difficulty of finding agreement on these issues proved insurmountable , and instead the parties adopted a 2-year `` Plan of Action '' to advance efforts and to devise mechanisms for implementing the Kyoto Protocol , to be completed by 2000 . During the conference , Argentina and Kazakhstan expressed their commitment to take on the greenhouse gas emissions reduction obligation , the first two non-Annex countries to do so . Category :20 th-century diplomatic conferences Category : Diplomatic conferences in Argentina Category : Climate change conferences Category : History of Buenos Aires 1998 1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference , 1998 Category :1998 in the environment Category :1990 s in Buenos Aires Category :1998 in Argentina Category : November 1998 events", "Climate change litigation and the California Environmental Quality Act Litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions has become increasingly common in federal and state courts . Following adoption of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , additional pressure was placed on California public agencies to evaluate potential adverse effects to global climate change caused by GHG emissions . In particular , several lawsuits have been filed against agencies for failure to analyze GHG emissions generated by projects subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA ) . Court decisions prior to the 2010 revisions to the CEQA guidelines gave early insights as to how CEQA would be used as a vehicle to identify and mitigate GHG emissions within the state . Decisions issued after adoption of the revised guidelines are now being used to interpret CEQA 's new requirement to evaluate GHG emissions and climate change .", "Climate change in Australia Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country ." ]

[ "Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Global warming in Russia Global warming in Russia describes the global warming related issues in Russia . This includes climate politics , contribution to global warming and the influence of global warming on Russia . In 2009 Russia was ready to reduce emissions 20 -- 25 % from its 1990 emission levels by the year 2020 .", "Harold Lewis Harold ( `` Hal '' ) Warren Lewis ( born October 1 , 1923 -- May 26 , 2011 ) was an American Emeritus Professor of Physics and former department chairman at the University of California , Santa Barbara ( UCSB ) . He was chairman of the JASON Defense Advisory Group from 1966 to 1973 , and was active in US government investigations into safety of nuclear reactors . In his 1990 book Technological Risk he warned of the risks of global warming . In 2010 , after 67 years of membership , he resigned from the American Physical Society , citing what he saw as `` corruption '' from `` the money flood '' of government grants related to global warming .", "Politics of global warming The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Warming Warming may refer to : People Eugenius Warming , ( 1841 -- 1924 ) , Danish botanist Thomas Warming , ( b. 1969 ) , Danish illustrator , painter and author Other Global warming Warming up Warming Land", "Tropical Storm Chedza Severe Tropical Storm Chedza was a deadly tropical cyclone that struck Madagascar in January 2015 . It formed from the intertropical convergence zone and moved over Mozambique , After moving open waters , the system began organizing on January 14 , becoming Tropical Storm Chedza two days later . It quickly intensified over the Mozambique Channel due to warm waters and favorable conditions , and the storm attained peak 10 minute sustained winds of 100 km/h ( 65 mph ) on January 16 . That day , Chedza moved ashore western Madagascar between Belo sur Mer and Morondava , and it quickly crossed the island while weakening . The storm briefly re-intensified , passing southwest of Réunion before turning to the southeast . Chedza became extratropical on January 19 , and was last noted two days later . The formative stages of Chedza brought rainfall to an already flooded region across southeastern Africa . Weeks of heavy rainfall killed 117 people in Mozambique and 104 in neighboring Malawi , where it was the worst floods in 24 years . In Madagascar , Chedza struck after weeks of heavy rainfall , causing rivers to increase and flooding widespread areas of crop fields . In the capital city of Antananarivo , the deluge damaged the main water pump that controlled water levels in the region . The rainfall caused mudslides and damaged roads . Across the country , flooding from Chedza displaced 54,792 people , after destroying 4,430 houses and flooding another 3,442 , mostly in Vatovavy-Fitovinany in the southeastern portion . Chedza killed 80 people and caused about $ 40 million in damage ( 2015 USD ) . Later , the storm brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to the mountainous peaks of Réunion .", "National Environmental Education Act The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 is an act of Congress of the United States of America to promote environmental education . In this act , Congress found that `` threats to human health and environmental quality are increasingly complex , involving a wide range of conventional and toxic contaminants in the air and water and on the land '' and that `` there is growing evidence of international environmental problems , such as global warming , ocean pollution , and declines in species diversity , and that these problems pose serious threats to human health and the environment on a global scale '' and declared several other problems that need to be fixed or addressed by improving environmental education .", "United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection The United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection was one of six subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works during the 110th Congress . The subcommittee 's jurisdiction included : Global warming Fisheries and wildlife , including the Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act ( ESA ) National Wildlife Refuges The subcommittee was formerly known as the Subcommittee on Fisheries , Wildlife , and Water , but was renamed during committee organization of the 110th Congress when global warming was added to its oversight responsibilities . It served as a counterpart to the new Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , and Children 's Health Protection . The subcommittee was chaired by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut , and the ranking member was Senator John Warner of Virginia .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Ross Gyre The Ross Gyre is one of the two gyres that exist within the Southern Ocean . The gyre is located in the Ross Sea , and rotates clockwise . The gyre is formed by interactions between the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Antarctic Continental Shelf . Sea ice has been noted to persist in the central area of the gyre . There is some evidence that global warming has resulted in some decrease of the salinity of the waters of the Ross Gyre since the 1950s .", "Scientific opinion on climate change The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "Noah's Ark Noah 's Ark ( תיבת נח Biblical Hebrew : Tevat Noaḥ ) is the vessel in the Genesis flood narrative ( Genesis chapters 6 -- 9 ) by which God spares Noah , his family , and a remnant of all the world 's animals from the flood . According to Genesis , God gave Noah instructions for building the ark . Seven days before the deluge , God told Noah to enter the ark with his household and the animals . The story goes on to describe the ark being afloat for 150 days and then coming to rest on the Mountains of Ararat and the subsequent receding of the waters . The story is repeated , with variations , in the Quran , where the ark appears as Safina Nūḥ ( سفينة نوح `` Noah 's boat '' ) . The Genesis flood narrative is similar to numerous other flood myths from a variety of cultures . The earliest known written flood myth is the Sumerian flood myth found in the Epic of Ziusudra . Searches for Noah 's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius ( c. 275 -- 339 CE ) to the present day . There is no scientific evidence for a global flood , and despite many expeditions , no evidence of the ark has been found . The challenges associated with housing all living animal types , and even plants , would have made building the ark a practical impossibility .", "AGW AGW can refer to : Anthropogenic global warming ; see the following : Attribution of recent climate change Human impact on the environment Climate change Global warming Global warming controversy Actual gold weight , a measure used in gold bullion , coin or bar Agnew Airport , Queensland , Australia ( IATA code : AGW ) Access gateway , shorthand for multi-service access gateway ( MSAG ) , a device used in telecommunications . Kahua language ( ISO 639-3 code : agw )", "1960 It is also known as the `` Year of Africa '' because of major events -- particularly the independence of seventeen African nations -- that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism .", "Methane emissions Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .", "R-407A R-407A is a mixture of gasses used as a refrigerant . It is a zeotropic blend of difluoromethane ( HFC-32 ) , pentafluoroethane ( HFC-125 ) and 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane ( HFC-134a ) . R-407A was developed as a close match to R-22 's capacities and flow rates , making it well suited as an energy efficient retrofit for R-22 in medium and low temperature refrigeration systems for supermarket and food storage applications , but not for air conditioning systems or those with flooded evaporators . It must be used with synthetic oils . Its global warming potential is 2107 .", "Warm Springs Historic District Warm Springs Historic District is a historic district in Warm Springs , Georgia . It includes Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's Little White House and the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation , where Roosevelt indulged in its warm springs . Other buildings in the district tend to range from the 1920s and 1930s . Much of the district looks the same as it did when Roosevelt frequented the area . Evidence indicates that prehistoric man was the first to use the springs , and as when Roosevelt used the springs , the temperature was 89 ° F.", "Warm River, Idaho Warm River is a city in Fremont County , Idaho , United States . The population was 3 at the 2010 census , making it the least populous city in Idaho . It is part of the Rexburg , Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area .", "Christmas 1994 nor'easter The Christmas 1994 nor'easter was an intense cyclone along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada . It developed from an area of low pressure in the southeast Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Keys , and moved across the state of Florida . As it entered the warm waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean , it began to rapidly intensify , exhibiting traits of a tropical system , including the formation of an eye . It attained a pressure of 970 millibars on December 23 and 24 , and after moving northward , it came ashore near New York City on Christmas Eve . Because of the uncertain nature of the storm , the National Hurricane Center ( NHC ) did not classify it as a tropical cyclone . Heavy rain from the developing storm contributed to significant flooding in South Carolina . Much of the rest of the East Coast was affected by high winds , coastal flooding , and beach erosion . New York State and New England bore the brunt of the storm ; damage was extensive on Long Island , and in Connecticut , 130,000 households lost electric power during the storm . Widespread damage and power outages also occurred throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts , where the storm generated 30 ft waves along the coast . Because of the warm weather pattern that contributed to the storm 's development , precipitation was limited to rain . Two people were killed , and damage amounted to at least $ 21 million .", "United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children's Health Protection The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , Children 's Health Protection is one of the six subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . Created in 2007 , the subcommittee has general oversight jurisdiction over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as diverse issues such as global warming , children 's health protection , and the National Environmental Policy Act ( NEPA ) .", "The Greenhouse Conspiracy The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .", "Gary S. Schofield Gary Stewart Schofield is the New Zealander president of Global Concern , Inc. a nonprofitorganization with practical solutions for global warming . He is also a writer , musician , television producer and artist .", "Christopher C. Horner Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .", "2013 Colorado floods The 2013 Colorado floods was a natural disaster occurring in the U.S. state of Colorado . Starting on September 9 , 2013 , a slow-moving cold front stalled over Colorado , clashing with warm humid monsoonal air from the south . This resulted in heavy rain and catastrophic flooding along Colorado 's Front Range from Colorado Springs north to Fort Collins . The situation intensified on September 11 and 12 . Boulder County was worst hit , with 9.08 in recorded September 12 and up to 17 in of rain recorded by September 15 , which is comparable to Boulder County 's average annual precipitation ( 20.7 inches , 525 mm ) . This event has also been referred to as the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood , reflecting a more precise geographic extent in and along the Colorado Front Range mountains . The National Weather Service 's Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center stated in a document that the annual exceedance probability ( AEP ) for the entire rainfall event was as low as 1/1000 ( 0.1 % ) in places . The flood waters spread across a range of almost 200 mi from north to south , affecting 17 counties . Governor John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency on September 12 , 2013 , in 14 counties : Adams , Arapahoe , Broomfield , Boulder , Denver , El Paso , Fremont , Jefferson , Larimer , Logan , Morgan , Pueblo , Washington and Weld . By September 15 , federal emergency declarations covered those 14 counties as well as Clear Creek County .", "Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Chesapeake Climate Action Network The Chesapeake Climate Action Network ( CCAN ) is the first grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland , Virginia , and the District of Columbia . The organization 's mission is to foster a rapid societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products , joining similar efforts worldwide to address global warming .", "Half Gone Half Gone : Oil , Gas , Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis is a book by former oil geologist Jeremy Leggett about both oil depletion and global warming .", "The Dinosaur Heresies The Dinosaur Heresies : New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction is a 1986 book that was written by Robert T. Bakker . The book sums up the extant evidence which indicates that dinosaurs , rather than being cold-blooded and wholly lizard-like , were in fact warm-blooded , agile creatures more similar to modern birds than to lizards or other reptiles . Although controversial on publication in 1986 , the passage of time has proven Bakker correct in many respects , and much of Dinosaur Heresies now represents the prevalent view in paleontological circles ( although other parts have been outdated by more current research ) . The main arguments used to show that dinosaurs were warm blooded are : Almost all animals that walk upright today are warm-blooded , and dinosaurs walked upright . The hearts of warm-blooded animals can pump much more effectively than the hearts of cold-blooded animals . Therefore , the giant Brachiosaurus must have had the type of hearts associated with warm-blooded animals , in order to pump blood all the way up to its head . Dinosaurs such as Deinonychus led a very active life , which is much more compatible with a warm-blooded animal . Some dinosaurs lived in northern latitudes where it would be impossible for cold-blooded dinosaurs to keep warm . The rapid rate of speciation and evolution found in dinosaurs is typical of warm blooded animals and atypical of cold blooded animals . The predator/prey ratio of predatory dinosaurs to their prey is a signature trait of warm-blooded predators rather than cold-blooded ones . Birds are warm-blooded . Birds evolved from dinosaurs , therefore a change to a warm-blooded metabolism must have taken place at some point ; there is far more change between dinosaurs and their ancestors , the archosaurs , than between dinosaurs and birds . Warm-blooded metabolisms are evolutionary advantages for top predators and large herbivores ; if the dinosaurs had not been warm-blooded there should be fossil evidence showing mammals evolving to fill these ecological niches . No such evidence exists ; in fact mammals by the end of the Cretaceous had become smaller and smaller from their synapsid ancestors . Dinosaurs grew rapidly , evidence for which can be found by observing cross-sections of their bones .", "Exodus (Bertagna novel) Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 . Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith . The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .", "Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here `` Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here '' is a single by British rock band Enter Shikari from their 2012 album A Flash Flood of Colour . The song 's title is a re-used title from an old song played by the band in their early days ." ]

[ "Retreat of glaciers since 1850 The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "Glacier A glacier ( -LSB- pronˈɡleɪʃər -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɡlæsiə -RSB- ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight ; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation ( melting and sublimation ) over many years , often centuries . Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight , creating crevasses , seracs , and other distinguishing features . They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines . Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water . On Earth , 99 % of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions , but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent except Australia , and on a few high-latitude oceanic islands . Between 35 ° N and 35 ° S , glaciers occur only in the Himalayas , Andes , Rocky Mountains , a few high mountains in East Africa , Mexico , New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran . Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earth 's land surface . Continental glaciers cover nearly 5 e6sqmi or about 98 percent of Antarctica 's 5.1 e6sqmi , with an average thickness of 7,000 ft. Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers . Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth . Many glaciers from temperate , alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt , creating a water source that is especially important for plants , animals and human uses when other sources may be scant . Within high altitude and Antarctic environments , the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater . Because glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes , e.g. , precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level . A large piece of compressed ice , or a glacier , appears blue as large quantities of water appear blue . This is because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue . The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles . Air bubbles , which give a white color to ice , are squeezed out by pressure increasing the density of the created ice .", "Greenland Greenland ( -LSB- ˈɡriːnlənd -RSB- Kalaallit Nunaat -LSB- kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt -RSB- Grønland -LSB- ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ -RSB- ) is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Greenland is the world 's largest island ( Australia , although larger , is generally considered to be a continental landmass rather than an island ) . Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of about 56,480 ( 2013 ) , it is the least densely populated country in the world . The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland , connecting the various cities and settlements . Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada . Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century , and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century . The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century . Soon after their demise , beginning in 1499 , the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island , naming it Terra do Lavrador ( later applied to Labrador in Canada ) . In the early 18th century , Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again . To strengthen trading and power , Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island . Denmark -- Norway claimed Greenland for centuries . Greenland was settled by Vikings ( of Norwegian origin ) more than a thousand years ago , who had previously settled Iceland to escape persecution from the King of Norway and his central government . Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland , encountering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean islands . They attempted to colonize land . Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians , Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262 . The Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century . Norway was dramatically hit with a larger death toll than Denmark by the Black Death , forcing Norway to accept a union in which the central government , university and other fundamental institutions were located in Copenhagen . Thus , the two kingdoms ' resources were directed at creating Copenhagen . Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved . Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814 , and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark . In 1973 , Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark . However , in a referendum in 1982 , a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985 . Greenland contains the world 's largest and most northernly national park , Northeast Greenland National Park ( Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq ) . Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988 , it protects 972001 km2 of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world . Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq , Kujalleq , Qaasuitsup , and Qeqqata . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . At 70 % , Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world , mostly coming from hydropower .", "Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap ." ]

[ "King Oscar Glacier King Oscar Glacier ( Kong Oscar Gletscher ) is one of several glaciers that drain the north-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Melville Bay . As part of a comprehensive survey of Greenland 's glaciers that was published in 2006 , scientists documented that the mass balance -- the sum of gains through snow accumulation and losses through iceberg calving and melting -- of Kong Oscar and Greenland 's other north-western glaciers was strongly negative between 1996 and 2005 : they lost more ice than they gained . The pattern was similar to the ice sheet as a whole , which has been losing ice mass at an accelerating pace in the past decade .", "Mittivakkat Glacier The Mittivakkat Glacier is located in southeast Greenland , and is part of the largest ice field on Ammassalik Island . This glacier has been in retreat ( negative net mass balance ) throughout most of recorded history ( 1898 -- 2008 ) . Reindeer bones were recovered from the retreating glacier in 2005 , and dated to about 1200-1300 AD .", "Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west , the Svalbard archipelago to the east , Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north , and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south . The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean , sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean . However , definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary . In general usage the term `` Arctic Ocean '' would exclude the Greenland Sea . In oceanographic studies the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas , along with the Norwegian Sea . The Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and , as such , could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation . In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the `` Arctic Mediterranean Sea '' , a marginal sea of the Atlantic . The sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 ° C . It previously contained the Odden ice tongue ( or Odden ) area , which extended eastward from the main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72 -- 74 ° N during the winter and acted as a key winter ice formation area in the Arctic . The West Ice forms in winter in the Greenland Sea , north of Iceland , between Greenland and Jan Mayen island . It is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years .", "Dye 3 Dye 3 is an ice core site and previously part of the Distant Early Warning ( DEW ) line , located at ( , 2480 masl ) in Greenland . As a DEW line base , it was disbanded in years 1990/1991 . An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice that has re-crystallized and trapped air bubbles over many years . The composition of these ice cores , especially the presence of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes , provides a picture of the climate at the time . Ice cores contain an abundance of climate information . Inclusions in the snow , such as wind-blown dust , ash , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances , remain in the ice . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . Typical ice cores are removed from an ice sheet such as the ice cap internal to Greenland . Greenland is , by area , the world 's largest island . The Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km2 and contains about 2.6 million km3 of ice .", "Avannaa Avannaa , originally Nordgrønland ( `` North Greenland '' ) , was one of the three counties ( amt ) of Greenland , until 31 December 2008 . The county seat was at the main settlement , Qaanaaq . It was one of the least-densely-populated administrative divisions in the world , with 843 people living in 106,700 km ² of ice-free land for a density of 0.0079 people per square kilometre . The total land area including the land covered by the ice cap is over 500,000 km ² . North Greenland has a higher portion of ice-free land than most other areas of the country because much of the extreme north , such as Peary Land , is largely ice-free due to its low precipitation . The county was also sometimes known as Avannaarsua or Avanersuaq .", "Nioghalvfjerdsbrae Nioghalvfjerdsbrae , sometimes referred to as `` 79 N Glacier '' , is a large glacier located in northeast Greenland . It drains an area of 103,314 km2 of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux ( quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea ) of 14.3 km3 per year , as measured for 1996 .", "Economy of Greenland The economy of Greenland can be characterized as small , mixed and vulnerable . Greenland 's economy consists of a big public sector and comprehensive foreign trade , which has resulted in an economy with periods of strong growth , considerable inflation , unemployment problems and extreme dependence on capital inflow from Denmark and use of outside , mainly Danish , skilled labor . GDP per capita is similar to the average European economies but the economy is critically dependent upon substantial support from the Danish government , which supplies about half the revenues of the home rule government who in turn employs 10,307 Greenlanders out 25,620 currently in employment ( 2015 ) . Unemployment nonetheless remains high , with the rest of the economy dependent upon demand for exports of shrimp and fish .", "Mass fraction Mass fraction may refer to : Mass fraction ( chemistry ) , the ratio or percentage of one substance out of the total Propellant mass fraction ( aerospace ) , the amount of mass left behind such as the stages of rockets Payload fraction ( aerospace ) , the ratio of the mass to be transported compared to the total mass of the vehicle , including fuel de : Massenanteil", "Culture of Greenland The culture of Greenland has much in common with Greenlandic Inuit tradition , as the majority of people are descended from Inuit . Many people still go ice fishing and there are annual dog-sled races in which everyone with a team participates . However , Greenland has now become somewhat of a tourist attraction . It holds contests to attract tourists such as dog racing , ice fishing , hiking , and cross country racing .", "Mass fraction (chemistry) In chemistry , the mass fraction is the ratio of one substance with mass to the mass of the total mixture , defined as The sum of all the mass fractions is equal to 1 : Mass fraction can also be expressed , with a denominator of 100 , as percentage by mass ( in commercial contexts often called percentage by weight , abbreviated wt % ; see mass versus weight ) . It is one way of expressing the composition of a mixture in a dimensionless size ; mole fraction ( percentage by moles , mol % ) and volume fraction ( percentage by volume , vol % ) are others . For elemental analysis , mass fraction ( or `` mass percent composition '' ) can also refer to the ratio of the mass of one element to the total mass of a compound . It can be calculated for any compound using its empirical formula or its chemical formula", "Greenland ice core project The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "Propellant mass fraction In aerospace engineering , the propellant mass fraction is the portion of a vehicle 's mass which does not reach the destination , usually used as a measure of the vehicle 's performance . In other words , the propellant mass fraction is the ratio between the propellant mass and the initial mass of the vehicle . In a spacecraft , the destination is usually an orbit , while for aircraft it is their landing location . A higher mass fraction represents less weight in a design . Another related measure is the payload fraction , which is the fraction of initial weight that is payload.It can applied to a vehicle , a stage of a Vehicle or to a Rocket Propulsion System", "Flora and fauna of Greenland Although the bulk of its area is covered by ice caps inhospitable to most forms of life , Greenland 's terrain and waters support a wide variety of plant and animal species . The northeastern part of the country is the world 's largest national park . The flora and fauna of Greenland are strongly susceptible to changes associated with climate change . The image galleries below link to information related to the flora and fauna of Greenland , including Latin taxonomy , Danish translations , and links to articles in the Danish Wikipedia , which can be helpful when searching for more information .", "Bredebrae Bredebrae ( Bredebræ `` Broad Glacier '' ) , sometimes also known as `` Brede Glacier '' , is a large glacier in northeastern Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet .", "Climate of the Arctic The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long , cold winters and short , cool summers . There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter . Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice ( sea ice , glacial ice , or snow ) year-round , and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface . Average January temperatures range from about − 34 ° C to 0 ° C ( − 40 to +32 ° F ) , and winter temperatures can drop below − 50 ° C ( − 58 ° F ) over large parts of the Arctic . Average July temperatures range from about − 10 to +10 ° C ( 14 to 50 ° F ) , with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land . As such , the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water , which can never have a temperature below − 2 ° C ( 28 ° F ) . In winter , this relatively warm water , even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic . In summer , the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise .", "History of Canadian women The history of Canadian women covers half the population , but until recent years only comprised a tiny fraction of the historiography .", "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "Ivittuut Municipality Ivittuut , ( old spelling Ivigtût ) was a municipality ( from 1951 until 2008 ) , located on the coast of Arsuk fjord in southern Greenland . With an area of just 100 km ² ( 600 km ² according to other sources ) , it was the smallest municipality of Greenland , bordering on the former Narsaq municipality in the north , east , and south , and on the west by the Labrador Sea . It has been integrated into the new Sermersooq municipality . Due its small size , the land of the municipality is all ice free , as it does not extend inward to the ice sheet of Greenland . The town of Ivittuut is abandoned , and the only settlement of the municipality is the naval base Kangilinnguit ( Grønnedal ) which is to stay . The municipality only existed de jure and was about to be absorbed by Narsaq when the 2009 municipal reform took place . Kangilinnguit is the Danish naval headquarters of Greenland . The base was originally established to protect the important cryolite mine of Ivittuut .", "Wordie Glacier Wordie Glacier ( Wordie Gletscher ) is a glacier in northeastern Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after Scottish polar explorer James Wordie ( 1890 -- 1962 ) by the 1926 -- 27 expedition led by Lauge Koch .", "Mass-independent fractionation Mass-independent isotope fractionation or Non-mass-dependent fractionation ( NMD ) , refers to any chemical or physical process that acts to separate isotopes , where the amount of separation does not scale in proportion with the difference in the masses of the isotopes . Most isotopic fractionations ( including typical kinetic fractionations and equilibrium fractionations ) are caused by the effects of the mass of an isotope on atomic or molecular velocities , diffusivities or bond strengths . Mass-independent fractionation processes are less common , occurring mainly in photochemical and spin-forbidden reactions . Observation of mass-independently fractionated materials can therefore be used to trace these types of reactions in nature and in laboratory experiments .", "List of companies of Greenland Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . Greenland leads the world in renewable energy . 70 % of its energy is from renewable sources , particularly hydropower .", "Ice shelf An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "Outline of Greenland The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Greenland : Greenland -- autonomous Nordic nation that is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark . Greenland comprises the Island of Greenland and adjacent islands located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically and ethnically an Arctic island nation associated with the continent of North America , politically and historically Greenland is associated with Europe , specifically Iceland , Norway , and Denmark . In 1978 , Denmark granted home rule to Greenland , making it an equal member of the Danish Realm . Greenland is , by area , the world 's largest island which is not a continent in its own right .", "Fuel mass fraction In combustion physics , fuel mass fraction is the ratio of fuel mass flow to the total mass flow of a fuel mixture . If an air flow is fuel free , the fuel mass fraction is zero ; in pure fuel without trapped gases , the ratio is unity . As fuel is burned in a combustion process , the fuel mass fraction is reduced . The definition reads as where is the mass of the fuel in the mixture is the total mass of the mixture", "IC 4651 IC 4651 is an open cluster of stars located about 2,900 light years distant in the constellation Ara . It was first catalogued by John Louis Emil Dreyer in his 1895 version of the Index Catalogue . This is an intermediate age cluster that is billion years old . Compared to the Sun , the members of this cluster have a higher abundance of the chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium . The combined mass of the active stars in this cluster is about 630 times the mass of the Sun . The currently known active stars in this cluster form only about 7 % of the cluster 's original mass . Of the remainder , about 35 % of the mass consists of stars that have evolved into white dwarfs or other stellar remnants . The remainder of lost mass consists of stars that have migrated away from the main body of the cluster or have been lost completely .", "North Greenland Ice Core Project The drilling site of the North Greenland Ice Core Project ( NGRIP or NorthGRIP ) is near the center of Greenland ( 75.1 N , 42.32 W , 2917 m , ice thickness 3085 ) . Drilling began in 1999 and was completed at bedrock in 2003 . The cores are cylinders of ice 11 centimeters in diameter that were brought to the surface in 3.5-meter lengths . The NGRIP site was chosen to extract a long and undisturbed record stretching into the last glacial , and it succeeded . The site was chosen for a flat basal topography to avoid the flow distortions that render the bottom of the GRIP and GISP cores unreliable . Unusually , there is melting at the bottom of the NGRIP core - believed to be due to a high geothermal heat flux locally . This has the advantage that the bottom layers are less compressed by thinning than they would otherwise be : NGRIP annual layers at 105 kyr age are 1.1 cm thick , twice the GRIP thicknesses at equal age . The NGRIP record helps to resolve a problem with the GRIP and GISP2 records - the unreliability of the Eemian Stage portion of the record . NGRIP covers 5 kyr of the Eemian , and shows that temperatures then were roughly as stable as the pre-industrial Holocene temperatures were . This is confirmed by sediment cores , in particular MD95-2042 . In 2003 , NGRIP recovered what seem to be plant remnants nearly two miles below the surface , and they may be several million years old . `` Several of the pieces look very much like blades of grass or pine needles , '' said University of Colorado at Boulder geological sciences Professor James White , an NGRIP principal investigator . `` If confirmed , this will be the first organic material ever recovered from a deep ice-core drilling project , '' he said .", "Greenland Brewhouse Greenland Brewhouse was Greenland 's first brewery . It was located in Narsaq in Southern Greenland and was founded in December 2004 . The beer was brewed from water derived from melted icebergs . Melt water was collected from icebergs and transported to the brewery by local fishermen on their fishing boats . Greenland Brewhouse pioneered ` ice beer ' , brewed from 2000-year-old natural Arctic ice harvested from glaciers . Prior to 1954 , alcohol sales were heavily restricted in Greenland , thus home brewing presented problems .", "Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "West Greenlandic Pidgin West Greenlandic Pidgin is an extinct Greenlandic-based contact language once used between the Inuit of Greenland and European traders . The vocabulary is mostly Greenlandic . Although words from Germanic languages were incorporated over the course of contact with Europeans , most of the words that are not Inuit came from other local trade languages . West Greenlandic Pidgin has a vastly simplified grammar , and sounds that were unfamiliar to Europeans , such as r and q , were lost . For example , orsoq ` blubber ' became oksok ` bacon ' . However , other sounds have since been lost from Greenlandic , such as sh ( merged into s in modern Greenlandic ) and consonant clusters : nigsik has become nieksik ` hook ' , but in modern Greenlandic is nissik .", "Renland Renland is a peninsula in eastern Greenland . It is a part of the Sermersooq municipality . Despite its proximity to the coast Renland has an ice cap climate with cold and bitter winters and very low high temperatures in the summer .", "Nunatakassak Nunatakassak ( old spelling : Nunatakavsak ) is a nunatak ( nunataq ) in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland . It is one of several nunataks in the Melville Bay region of Greenland , where the Greenland ice sheet ( Sermersuaq ) drains into the bay alongside its entire length apart from an occasional nunatak ." ]

[ "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "Solar activity and climate Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .", "Quaternary glaciation The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling ." ]

[ "Reflation Reflation is the act of stimulating the economy by increasing the money supply or by reducing taxes , seeking to bring the economy ( specifically price level ) back up to the long-term trend , following a dip in the business cycle . It is the opposite of disinflation , which seeks to return the economy back down to the long-term trend . Reflation , which can be considered a form of inflation ( increase in the price level ) , is contrasted with inflation ( narrowly speaking ) in that `` bad '' inflation is inflation above the long-term trend line , while reflation is a recovery of the price level when it has fallen below the trend line . For example , if inflation had been running at a 3 % rate , but for one year it falls to 0 % , the following year would need 6 % inflation ( actually 6.09 % due to compounding ) to catch back up to the long-term trend . This higher than normal inflation is considered reflation , since it is a return to trend , not exceeding the long-term trend . This distinction is predicated on a theory of economic growth where there is long-term growth in the economy and price level , which is widely accepted in economics . Just as disinflation is considered an acceptable antidote to high inflation , reflation is considered to be an antidote to deflation ( which , unlike inflation , is considered bad regardless of its magnitude ) .", "Koomey's law Koomey 's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware . The number of computations per joule of energy dissipated has been doubling approximately every 1.57 years . This trend has been remarkably stable since the 1950s ( R2 of over 98 % ) and has actually been somewhat faster than Moore 's law . Jonathan Koomey articulated the trend as follows : `` at a fixed computing load , the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half . ''", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Welcommittee A welcommittee is usually a group of volunteers of an organization with the goal of reaching out to new members in a sort of Welcome Wagon-approach . The word `` welcommittee '' is a portmanteau combining the words , `` welcome '' and `` committee . '' Among some United Kingdom residents , the word is sometimes shortened to `` welco '' or `` WelCom . '' The term originated in the 1950s in science fiction fandom with the National Fantasy Fan Federation which still has an active welcommittee . Other notable fandom-based welcommitees include the Star Trek Welcommittee started by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and the British Science Fiction Association . The concept also has been adopted by many host committees of various science fiction conventions as an outreach to those new to fandom . Although the welcommittee concept has a long history in fandom , with the advent of the Internet culture , term has evolved beyond the fandom subculture . A recent trend is for the term to be adopted by various wiki communities . In fact , Wikipedia 's sister project , Wikinews has an active welcommittee .", "Slyne-Erris Trough The Slyne-Erris Trough is a geological basin off the west coast of Donegal , Ireland . In recent years it has been shown to be prospective for hydrocarbons , hosting Royal Dutch Shell Corrib gas field ( discovered by Enterprise Oil , bought by Shell ) , and several other prospects being evaluated by a number of other oil companies . Structurally , the trough is a series of NNE-SSW trending half-grabens .", "David Parker (climatologist) David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "Trend following Trend following is an investment strategy based on the technical analysis of market prices , rather than on the fundamental strengths of the companies . In financial markets , traders and investors using a trend following strategy believe that prices tend to move upwards or downwards over time . They try to take advantage of these market trends by observing the current direction and using this to decide whether to buy or sell . There are a number of different techniques , calculations and time-frames that may be used to determine the general direction of the market to generate a trade signal ( forex signals ) , these including the current market price calculation , moving averages and channel breakouts . Traders who employ this strategy do not aim to forecast or predict specific price levels ; they simply jump on the trend and ride it . Due to the different techniques and time frames employed by trend followers to identify trends , trend followers as a group are not always strongly correlated to one another . Trend following is used by commodity trading advisors ( CTAs ) as the predominant strategy of technical traders . Research done by Galen Burghardt has shown that between 2000-2009 there was a very high correlation ( .97 ) between trend following CTAs and the broader CTA index .", "List of cities whose population has fallen under a million This is a list of cities which have experienced significant population decline , otherwise known as shrinking cities or rust belt phenomenon . There are varying reasons for this , please see shrinking cities . For the purposes of inclusion in the list , we use data since 1900 , a ( city limit ) population which has fallen under a million residents , having previously been over a million , with the trend not being attributable to a temporary event rather a long term trend ( former million people cities ) . This list does not include cities which have amalgamated and/or no longer exist . Following the city name is the year of its peak population . Included are cities worldwide . Generally wars and catastrophes are a one-time event and do not constitute long term trends as populations in large cities tends to bounce back after war has ended .", "Lekhu Lekhu Lekhi Deli Lekhu Lekhu Lekhi Deli is a 2014 Oriya romance comedy-drama film produced by Sitaram Agrawal ( Sarthak Film ) . Babushan and Jhilik are in the lead roles for the second time in a romantic role after Akhire Akhire . This Film has its unique story platform where the importance of family and Love has been shown with the modern trend of the use of facebook .", "Wakefieldia Wakefieldia is a genus of two species of fungi , generally thought to belong in the Boletaceae family , but recent molecular study has shown that Wakefieldia macrospora is in fact not related to Boletales and belongs to Hymenogastraceae family .", "Teen Trends Teen Trends was a line of dolls created by Mattel . They featured only four dolls and were released in 2005 . They have most likely been discontinued . Nothing new has been released since 2007 . It is unknown if they will ever release anything new again , but during the holiday shopping season of 2007 super sized Kianna dolls were being sold at Costco . That is the most recent thing to be released in Teen Trends as of 2016 .", "MSU temperature measurements Microwave sounding unit temperature measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979 , when they were included within NOAA weather satellites . By comparison , the usable balloon ( radiosonde ) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform . Satellites do not measure temperature . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands , which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature . The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances . As a result , different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends . Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) . The satellite series is not fully homogeneous - the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation . The sensors deteriorate over time , and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit . Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites , making intercalibration difficult . To compare to the trend from the surface temperature record ( approximately +0.07 ° C/decade over the past century and +0.15 -0.16 ° C/decade since 1979 ) it is most appropriate to derive trends for the part of the atmosphere nearest the surface , i.e. , the lower troposphere . Doing this , through January 2012 : RSS v3 .3 finds a trend of +0.137 ° C/decade . UAH v5 .4 finds a trend of +0.136 ° C/decade . An alternative adjustment introduced by Fu et al. ( 2004 ) finds trends ( 1979 -- 2011 ) of +0.14 ° C/decade when applied to the RSS data set and +0.11 ° C/decade when applied to the UAH data set . Using the T2 channel ( which include significant contributions from the stratosphere , which has cooled ) , Mears et al. of Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) find ( through January 2012 ) a trend of +0.082 ° C/decade . Spencer and Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) , find a smaller trend of +0.046 ° C/decade . A no longer updated analysis of Vinnikov and Grody found +0.20 ° C/decade ( 1978 -- 2005 ) . Another satellite temperature analysis is provided by NOAA/NESDIS STAR Center for Satellite Application and Research and use simultaneous nadir overpasses ( SNO ) to remove satellite intercalibration biases yielding more accurate temperature trends . The SNO analysis finds a 1979-2011 trend of +0.128 ° C/decade for T2 channel . The satellite records have the advantage of greater spatial coverage , whereas the radiosonde record is longer . There have been complaints of data problems with both records , and difficulty reconciling climate model predictions with the observed data .", "Period (periodic table) A period in the periodic table is one of the horizontal rows , all of whose elements have the same number of electron shells . Going across a period , each element has one more proton and is less metallic than its predecessor . Arranged this way , groups of elements in the same column have similar chemical and physical properties , reflecting the periodic law . For example , the alkali metals lie in the first column ( group 1 ) and share similar properties , such as high reactivity and the tendency to lose one electron to arrive at a noble-gas electronic configuration . At the present time , the periodic table of elements has a total of 118 elements which have been discovered to date . Modern quantum mechanics explains these periodic trends in properties in terms of electron shells . As atomic number increases , shells fill with electrons in approximately the order shown at right . The filling of each shell corresponds to a row in the table . In the s-block and p-block of the periodic table , elements within the same period generally do not exhibit trends and similarities in properties ( vertical trends down groups are more significant ) . However , in the d-block , trends across periods become significant , and in the f-block elements show a high degree of similarity across periods .", "Trend analysis Trend analysis is the rampant practice of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern . In some fields of study , the term `` trend analysis '' has more formally defined meanings . Although trend analysis is often used to predict future events , it could be used to estimate uncertain events in the past , such as how many ancient kings probably ruled between two dates , based on data such as the average years which other known kings reigned .", "List of Australian music television shows This is a list of Australian produced music television shows . Early days of music television pre-dated video clips , and included variety style series , miming series , and pop series , and with the advent of music videos , shows gave way to slickly prepackaged film clips with a host compère mixing live local acts ( e.g. Countdown ) . The most recent trend has been towards near and complete compère-free shows which show music videos exclusively ( e.g. Rage and AMV ) . Talent quests and competitions are shown in the second table below .", "HD 205739 HD 205739 is a yellow-white dwarf ( spectral type F7 V ) . It is about 108 parsecs away from the Sun . A Jupiter-like planet has recently been detected in a Mercury-like eccentric orbit around this star . There is a trend in the results which may point to an additional companion further from its star .", "International volunteering International volunteering is when a volunteer volunteers their time to work for organisations or cause outside of their home country . In most cases , volunteers work in developing countries on international development programmes with local volunteer organisations that conduct activities such as health promotion , education and environmental conservation . Trends show that international volunteering has become increasingly popular across many countries over the past few decades . International volunteering is a broad term which is used to capture multi-year , skilled placements as well as short term roles , recently termed voluntourism , and a range of activities in between conducted by governments , charities and travel agents .", "Gastre Fault The Gastre Fault Zone ( GFZ ) is a NW-SE striking dextral Jurassic Gastre Fault System ( cf. Rapela & Pankhurst , 1992 ) in Central Patagonia , Argentina . From a tentative correlation of the fault zone with the similarly NW-SE trend , it was termed ` Gastre Fault Zone ' or ` Gastre-Purén Fault Zone ' to the Lanalhue Fault Zone in Chile by early works . However , in later works it is shown that this correlation is incorrect . Since the lake ` Lago Lanalhue ' , is located on the fault trace and shows a NW-SE-elongated shape , ` Lanalhue Fault Zone ( LFZ ) ' stands as appropriate name for the here discussed fault zone . The Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone is the NW-SE trending fault responsible for the alignment of Villarrica , Quetrupillán and Lanín volcanoes .", "Liberalism in Hong Kong Liberalism has a long tradition in Hong Kong as an economic philosophy and has become a major political trend since the 1980s , often represented the pro-democracy camp , apart from Chinese nationalism and conservatism which often constitutes the pro-Beijing camp .", "Everything's Cool (film) Everything 's Cool is a 2007 documentary film that examines the divide between scientists and the general populace on the topic of global warming . Director Dan Gold said of the motivation for the film that `` I 'm optimistic that finally the message that this is real , that human beings are the cause of the most recent warming trend , and that it 's an important issue , that message is actually reaching America . On the other hand ... if that message was fully understood , we would be moving a lot faster to slow this down and to reverse this course . '' The documentary was shown at the Sundance film festival in January 2007 and at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May 2007 . The directors also took Blue Vinyl , a film about plastic pollution , to Sundance in 2002 . It was shown on CBC in Canada as part of the Passionate Eye series . The New York Times called it `` a breezy polemic about the politics of global warming ... -LSB- that -RSB- adopts a cheerful comic tone to avoid scaring audiences . '' The LA Times said that `` With wit and passion , Gold and Helfand marshal a plethora of data and developments yet never lose their narrative thread . '' . The New York Sun was less favourable , calling it `` the best movie I 've ever seen about global warming for kids in junior high school , but it 's the most annoying movie about global warming I 've ever seen for adults . ''", "Geologic map A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show geological features . Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols to indicate where they are exposed at the surface . Bedding planes and structural features such as faults , folds , foliations , and lineations are shown with strike and dip or trend and plunge symbols which give these features ' three-dimensional orientations . Stratigraphic contour lines may be used to illustrate the surface of a selected stratum illustrating the subsurface topographic trends of the strata . Isopach maps detail the variations in thickness of stratigraphic units . It is not always possible to properly show this when the strata are extremely fractured , mixed , in some discontinuities , or where they are otherwise disturbed .", "Trend line (technical analysis) In finance , a trend line is a bounding line for the price movement of a security . It is formed when a diagonal line can be drawn between a minimum of three or more price pivot points . A line can be drawn between any two points , but it does not qualify as a trend line until tested . Hence the need for the third point , the test . Trend lines are commonly used to decide entry and exit timing when trading securities . They can also be referred to as a Dutch line , as the concept was first used in Holland . A support trend line is formed when a securities price decreases and then rebounds at a pivot point that aligns with at least two previous support pivot points . Similarly a resistance trend line is formed when a securities price increases and then rebounds at a pivot point that aligns with at least two previous resistance pivot points . Stock often begin or end trending because of a stock catalyst such as a product launch or change in management . Trend lines are a simple and widely used technical analysis approach to judging entry and exit investment timing . To establish a trend line historical data , typically presented in the format of a chart such as the above price chart , is required . Historically , trend lines have been drawn by hand on paper charts , but it is now more common to use charting software that enables trend lines to be drawn on computer based charts . There are some charting software that will automatically generate trend lines , however most traders prefer to draw their own trend lines . When establishing trend lines it is important to choose a chart based on a price interval period that aligns with your trading strategy . Short term traders tend to use charts based on interval periods , such as 1 minute ( i.e. the price of the security is plotted on the chart every 1 minute ) , with longer term traders using price charts based on hourly , daily , weekly and monthly interval periods . However , time periods can also be viewed in terms of years . For example , below is a chart of the S&P 500 since the earliest data point until April 2008 . While the Oracle example above uses a linear scale of price changes , long term data is more often viewed as logarithmic : e.g. the changes are really an attempt to approximate percentage changes than pure numerical value . Trend lines are typically used with price charts , however they can also be used with a range of technical analysis charts such as MACD and RSI . Trend lines can be used to identify positive and negative trending charts , whereby a positive trending chart forms an upsloping line when the support and the resistance pivots points are aligned , and a negative trending chart forms a downsloping line when the support and resistance pivot points are aligned . Trend lines are used in many ways by traders . If a stock price is moving between support and resistance trend lines , then a basic investment strategy commonly used by traders , is to buy a stock at support and sell at resistance , then short at resistance and cover the short at support . The logic behind this , is that when the price returns to an existing principal trend line it may be an opportunity to open new positions in the direction of the trend , in the belief that the trend line will hold and the trend will continue further . A second way is that when price action breaks through the principal trend line of an existing trend , it is evidence that the trend may be going to fail , and a trader may consider trading in the opposite direction to the existing trend , or exiting positions in the direction of the trend .", "Dog's fashion Dog 's fashion is a popular style or practice , especially in canine clothing and accessories . Dog fashion is a distinctive trend of the style in which people dress their canine companions . This trend dates back to the Egyptian pre-dynastic period and in recent times it has expanded due to increased consumer capitalism .", "Dealignment Dealignment , in political science , is a trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation , without developing a new one to replace it . It is contrasted with realignment . Many scholars argue that the trends in elections in the United States over the last several decades are best characterized as dealignment . It is also believed the United Kingdom has become dealigned from social class over the past three decades .", "Market trend A market trend is a perceived tendency of financial markets to move in a particular direction over time . These trends are classified as secular for long time frames , primary for medium time frames , and secondary for short time frames . Traders attempt to identify market trends using technical analysis , a framework which characterizes market trends as predictable price tendencies within the market when price reaches support and resistance levels , varying over time . A trend can only be determined in hindsight , since at any time prices in the future are not known .", "Larga Valley Larga Valley is a valley 2 nmi long , trending northeast -- southwest in the western part of Seymour Island , Antarctica . The feature was descriptively named `` Quebrada Larga '' ( long valley ) in Argentine geological reports and maps of 1978 ; the term valley has been substituted in place of `` quebrada '' in the approved name .", "Windburn Windburn is a condition whereby a sunburn obtained in cool or cloudy conditions is incorrectly attributed to the effects of the wind rather than the sun . The main reason for this is that in cool or cloudy conditions many people are unaware that they are still vulnerable to the burning effects of the sun 's UV radiation , so fail to take precautionary sun protection measures . This increases their risk of sustaining a sunburn , which they may then falsely attribute to the wind . The fact that windburn was really misattributed sunburn , rather than an actual condition in its own right , was shown as early as 1936 by English skin specialist Charles Howard White of Cambridge and American physicist William Henry Crew of New York University . Nonetheless , the accepted existence of windburn remains a popular and widely held misconception .", "Transport energy futures: long-term oil supply trends and projections Transport Energy Futures : Long-Term Oil Supply Trends and Projections is a report published by the Department of Infrastructure , Transport , Regional Development and Local Government , and prepared by the Bureau of Infrastructure , Transport and Regional Economics ( BITRE ) of Australia in 2009 , which calculate peak oil to occur in 2017 , after which oil supply is projected to decline rapidly . It is report number 117 .", "Cooling down Cooling down ( the prescribed event of which is called a cool down , cooldown , or cool-down ; or warm down , in allusion to use in combination with warm up ) is an easy exercise , done after a more intense activity , to allow the body to gradually transition to a resting or near-resting state . Depending on the intensity of the exercise , cooling down can involve a slow jog or walk . With lower intensities stretching can be used . Cooling down allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate . Anecdotally cooling down may reduce dizziness for professional or serious athletes and vocal performers after strenuous workouts . Studies are currently inconclusive as to whether the process actually reduces delayed-onset muscle soreness and muscle soreness not caused by lactate production during intense exercise . Some have shown a weak correlation : however , the majority of recent studies discount the relationship . One study has shown that athletes who perform an appropriate cool-down are less likely to become injured .", "Largest-scale trends in evolution The history of life on Earth seems to show a clear trend ; for example , it seems intuitive that there is a trend towards increasing complexity in living organisms . More recently evolved organisms , such as mammals , appear to be much more complex than organisms , such as bacteria , which have existed for a much longer period of time . However , there are theoretical and empirical problems with this claim . From a theoretical perspective , it appears that there is no reason to expect evolution to result in any largest-scale trends , although small-scale trends , limited in time and space , are expected ( Gould , 1997 ) . From an empirical perspective , it is difficult to measure complexity and , when it has been measured , the evidence does not support a largest-scale trend ( McShea , 1996 ) .", "Grey divorce Grey divorce is a term referring to the demographic trend of an increasing divorce rate for older ( `` grey-haired '' ) couples in long-lasting marriages . Former American vice-presidential couple Tipper and Al Gore 's decision to separate after over 40 years of marriage is an example of this trend .", "Trends in Amplification Trends in Amplification is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers four times a year in the field of Otorhinolaryngology . The journal 's editor is Charles J Limb . It has been in publication since 1996 and is currently published by SAGE Publications ." ]

[ "Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation ." ]

[ "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Holocene climatic optimum The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "Cool tropics paradox The cool tropics paradox refers to an apparent difference between modeled estimates of tropical temperatures during warm , ice-free periods of the Cretaceous and Eocene , and the colder temperatures which proxies suggested were present . The long-standing paradox was resolved when novel proxy derived temperatures showed significantly warmer tropics during past greenhouse climates . The low-gradient problem , i.e. the very warm polar regions with respect to present day , is still an issue for state-of-the-art climate models .", "Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas is a geological period from c. 12,900 to c. 11,700 calendar years ago ( BP ) . It is named after an indicator genus , the alpine-tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala . Leaves of Dryas octopetala are occasionally abundant in the Late Glacial , often minerogenic-rich , like the lake sediments of Scandinavian lakes . The Younger Dryas saw a sharp decline in temperature over most of the northern hemisphere , at the end of the Pleistocene epoch , immediately before the current warmer Holocene . It was the most recent and longest of several interruptions to the gradual warming of the Earth 's climate since the severe Last Glacial Maximum , c. 27,000 to 24,000 calendar years BP . The change was relatively sudden , taking place in decades , and resulted in a decline of 2 to 6 degrees Celsius , advances of glaciers and drier conditions , over much of the temperate northern hemisphere . It is thought to have been caused by a decline in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation , which transports warm water from the equator towards the North Pole , and which in turn is thought to have been caused by an influx of fresh cold water from North America into the Atlantic . The Younger Dryas was a period of climatic change , but the effects were complex and variable . In the southern hemisphere , and some areas of the north such as southeastern North America , there was a slight warming . The presence of a distinct cold period at the end of the Late Glacial interval has been known for a long time . Paleobotanical and lithostratigraphic studies of Swedish and Danish bog and lake sites , e.g. the Allerød clay pit in Denmark , first recognized and described the Younger Dryas . The Younger Dryas is the youngest and longest of three stadials that resulted from typically abrupt climatic changes that took place over the last 16,000 calendar years . Within the Blytt-Sernander classification of north European climatic phases , the prefix ` Younger ' refers to the recognition that this original ` Dryas ' period was preceded by a warmer stage , the Allerød oscillation , which in turn was preceded by the Older Dryas around 14,000 calendar years BP . This is not securely dated , and estimates vary by 400 years , but it is generally accepted that it lasted around 200 years . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and more extensive than during the Younger Dryas . The Older Dryas , in turn , is preceded by another warmer stage , the Bølling oscillation that separates it from a third and even older stadial . This stadial is often , but not always , known as the Oldest Dryas . The Oldest Dryas occurred approximately 1,770 calendar years before the Younger Dryas and lasted about 400 calendar years . According to the GISP2 ice core from Greenland , the Oldest Dryas occurred between about 15,070 and 14,670 calendar years BP . In Ireland , the Younger Dryas has also been known as the Nahanagan Stadial , while in Great Britain it has been called the Loch Lomond Stadial . In the Greenland Summit ice core chronology , the Younger Dryas corresponds to Greenland Stadial 1 ( GS-1 ) . The preceding Allerød warm period ( interstadial ) is subdivided into three events : Greenland Interstadial-1c to 1a ( GI-1c to GI-1a ) .", "Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "Pliocene climate During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "Marine isotope stage Marine isotope stages ( MIS ) , marine oxygen-isotope stages , or oxygen isotope stages ( OIS ) , are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth 's paleoclimate , deduced from oxygen isotope data reflecting changes in temperature derived from data from deep sea core samples . Working backwards from the present , which is MIS 1 in the scale , stages with even numbers have high levels of oxygen-18 and represent cold glacial periods , while the odd-numbered stages are troughs in the oxygen-18 figures , representing warm interglacial intervals . The data are derived from pollen and foraminifera ( plankton ) remains in drilled marine sediment cores , sapropels , and other data that reflect historic climate ; these are called proxies . The MIS timescale was developed from the pioneering work of Cesare Emiliani in the 1950s , and is now widely used in archaeology and other fields to express dating in the Quaternary period ( the last 2.6 million years ) , as well as providing the fullest and best data for that period for paleoclimatology or the study of the early climate of the Earth , representing `` the standard to which we correlate other Quaternary climate records '' . Emiliani 's work in turn depended on Harold Urey 's prediction in a paper of 1947 that the ratio between oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 isotopes in calcite , the main chemical component of the shells and other hard parts of a wide range of marine organisms , should vary depending on the prevailing water temperature in which the calcite was formed . Over 100 stages have been identified , going currently back some 6 million years , and the scale may in future reach back up to 15 mya . Some stages , in particular MIS 5 , are divided into sub-stages , such as `` MIS 5a '' , with 5 a , c , and e being warm and b and d cold . A numeric system for referring to `` horizons '' ( events rather than periods ) may also be used , with for example MIS 5.5 representing the peak point of MIS 5e , and 5.51 , 5.52 etc. representing the peaks and troughs of the record at a still more detailed level . For more recent periods , increasingly precise resolution of timing continues to be developed .", "Polar forests of the Cretaceous Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "Flandrian interglacial The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the name given by geologists and archaeologists in the British Isles to the first , and so far only , stage of the Holocene epoch ( the present geological period ) , covering the period from around 12,000 years ago , at the end of the last glacial period to the present day . As such , it is in practice identical in span to the Holocene . Present climatological theory ( based on analysis of Milankovitch cycles ) forecasts that the present Flandrian climate should decline in temperature towards a global climate similar to that of the ice age . Less orbital eccentricity may have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn . The Flandrian began as the relatively short-lived Younger Dryas climate downturn came to an end . This formed the last gasp of the Devensian glaciation , the final stage of the Pleistocene epoch and is traditionally seen as the latest warm interglacial in a series that has been occurring throughout the Quaternary geological period . The first part of the Flandrian , known as the Younger Atlantic , was a period of fairly rapid sea level rise , known as the Flandrian transgression and associated with the melting of the Fenno-Scandian , Scottish , Laurentide and Cordilleran glaciers . Fjords were formed during the Flandrian transgression when U-shaped glaciated valleys were inundated with water .", "Sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "Biber-Danube interglacial The Biber-Danube interglacial ( Biber-Donau-Interglazial ) or Biber-Danube warm period ( Biber-Donau-Warmzeit ) is the oldest named warm period of the Pleistocene epoch in the Alps . It falls between the Biber and Danube glaciations .", "Wibjörn Karlén Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "Climate of Moscow Moscow has a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ) with warm , sometimes hot , somewhat humid summers and long , cold winters . Typical high temperatures in the warm months of June , July and August are around 23 ° C , but during heat waves , which can occur anytime from May to September , daytime temperature highs often top 30 ° C for sometimes one or two weeks . In the winter , temperatures normally drop to approximately -10 ° C , though there can be periods of warmth with temperatures rising above 0 ° C. Summer lasts from mid-May to the beginning of September . Winter lasts from the beginning of November to the end of March .", "Deglaciation Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "March 2012 North American heat wave In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "Older Dryas The Older Dryas was a stadial ( cold ) period between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials ( warmer phases ) approximately 14,000 years ago ( BP ) , towards the end of the Pleistocene epoch . Its age is not well defined , with estimates varying by 400 years , but its duration is agreed to have been around two centuries . The gradual warming since the last glacial maximum 27-24 ,000 years BP has been interrupted by two cold spells , the Older Dryas having been followed by the Younger Dryas ( c. 12,900-11 ,650 BP ) . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and deeper during the Older than the succeeding Younger Dryas , and there is no evidence of human occupation of Britain . In north-west Europe an earlier Oldest Dryas is also recognised . They are named after an indicator genus , the arctic and alpine plant Dryas , the remains of which are found in higher concentrations in deposits from colder periods . The Older Dryas was a variable cold , dry Blytt-Sernander period , observed in climatological evidence in only some regions , depending on latitude . In regions where it is not observed , the Bølling-Allerød is considered a single interstadial ( warm ) period . Evidence of the Older Dryas is strongest in northern Eurasia , particularly part of North Europe roughly equivalent to Pollen zone Ic .", "Pliocene The Pliocene ( -LSB- pronˈplaɪəˌsiːn -RSB- also Pleiocene ) Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP . It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch . Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale , which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene , the Pliocene also included the Gelasian stage , which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago , and is now included in the Pleistocene . As with other older geologic periods , the geological strata that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain . The boundaries defining the Pliocene are not set at an easily identified worldwide event but rather at regional boundaries between the warmer Miocene and the relatively cooler Pliocene . The upper boundary was set at the start of the Pleistocene glaciations .", "Polar amplification Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "Waalian interglacial The Waalian interglacial ( Waal-Warmzeit or Waal-Interglazial ) ( Zagwijn , 1960 ) was an interglacial in northern Europe that lasted from about 1.45 million to 1.20 million years ago . It thus lies entirely within the Old Pleistocene and is thus part of the Cenozoic . Its name is derived from a major branch of the Rhine delta , the Waal . The Waal warm period could correspond temporally to the Danube-Gunz interglacial of the northern Alpine Foreland . The warm period lies wholly within the Matuyama epoch , in which the earth 's magnetic field , with a few exceptions , had a different polarity from that today : the magnetic north pole ( actually corresponding to the magnetic south ) lay near the geographic south pole .", "Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages : the Langhian and Serravallian stages . The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene . The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma ( million years ago ) . During this period , a sharp drop in global temperatures took place . This event is known as the Middle Miocene Climate Transition . For the purposes of establishing European Land Mammal Ages this sub-epoch is equivalent to the Astaracian age .", "Global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "Temperature record For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "El Niño–Southern Oscillation El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "Kumud Kumud is a tribal area in Fujairah , United Arab Emirates . Kumud is almost totally mountainous . The weather is seasonal , although it is warm most of the year . The months from October to March are generally regarded as the coolest , with daytime temperatures averaging around 25 C and rarely venturing above 30 C . The winter period also coincides with the rainy season . Rainfall is higher than the rest of the UAE because of the effect of the Hajar mountains and the easterly winds bringing with them water-laden clouds off the warm Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean . The temperatures climb above 40 C degrees in the summer .", "Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces and shorelines were the geologic result of warming and cooling periods in what is now Leon County , Florida during the Pleistocene epoch .", "Pacific decadal oscillation The Pacific Decadal Oscillation ( PDO ) is a robust , recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability centered over the mid-latitude Pacific basin . The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean , north of 20 ° N. Over the past century , the amplitude of this climate pattern has varied irregularly at interannual-to-interdecadal time scales ( meaning time periods of a few years to as much as time periods of multiple decades ) . There is evidence of reversals in the prevailing polarity ( meaning changes in cool surface waters versus warm surface waters within the region ) of the oscillation occurring around 1925 , 1947 , and 1977 ; the last two reversals corresponded with dramatic shifts in salmon production regimes in the North Pacific Ocean . This climate pattern also affects coastal sea and continental surface air temperatures from Alaska to California . During a `` warm '' , or `` positive '' , phase , the west Pacific becomes cooler and part of the eastern ocean warms ; during a `` cool '' or `` negative '' phase , the opposite pattern occurs . The Pacific Decadal Oscillation was named by Steven R. Hare , who noticed it while studying salmon production pattern results in 1997 . The Pacific Decadal Oscillation index is the leading empirical orthogonal function ( EOF ) of monthly sea surface temperature anomalies ( SST-A ) over the North Pacific ( poleward of 20 ° N ) after the global average sea surface temperature has been removed . This PDO index is the standardized principal component time series . A PDO ` signal ' has been reconstructed to 1661 through tree-ring chronologies in the Baja California area .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Global cooling (disambiguation) Global cooling was a 1970s conjecture about global climate change . Global cooling may also refer to : In general , one of the means by which Earth can undergo climate change Climate change denial , including contrarian views about global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries Cooling periods on the multimillion-year scale in the geologic temperature record Geophysical global cooling , a conjecture about the formation of natural features that was made obsolete by the theory of plate tectonics Little Ice Age , a period from the 16th to 19th centuries characterized by cooling and coincident with below average sunspots frequency", "Color temperature The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal black-body radiator that radiates light of a color comparable to that of the light source . Color temperature is a characteristic of visible light that has important applications in lighting , photography , videography , publishing , manufacturing , astrophysics , horticulture , and other fields . In practice , color temperature is meaningful only for light sources that do in fact correspond somewhat closely to the radiation of some black body , i.e. , those on a line from reddish/orange via yellow and more or less white to blueish white ; it does not make sense to speak of the color temperature of , e.g. , a green or a purple light . Color temperature is conventionally expressed in kelvins , using the symbol K , a unit of measure for absolute temperature . Color temperatures over 5000 K are called `` cool colors '' ( bluish white ) , while lower color temperatures ( 2700 -- 3000 K ) are called `` warm colors '' ( yellowish white through red ) . `` Warm '' in this context is an analogy to radiated heat flux of traditional incandescent lighting rather than temperature . The spectral peak of warm-coloured light is closer to infrared , and most natural warm-coloured light sources emit significant infrared radiation . The fact that `` warm '' lighting in this sense actually has a `` cooler '' color temperature often leads to confusion .", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise ." ]

[ "Paleolithic The Paleolithic -LSB- ˌpæliːəˈlɪθᵻk -RSB- age is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools and covers roughly 95 % of human technological prehistory . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools , probably by Homo habilis initially , 2.6 million years ago , to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP . The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic . The date of the Paleolithic -- Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years . During the Paleolithic period , humans grouped together in small societies such as bands , and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing , hunting or scavenging wild animals . The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools , although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools . Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools , including leather and vegetable fibers ; however , due to their nature , these have not been preserved to any great degree . Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths . About 50,000 years ago , there was a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts . For the first time in Africa , bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record . The first evidence of human fishing is also noted , from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . Firstly among the artifacts of Africa , archaeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories , such as projectile points , engraving tools , knife blades , and drilling and piercing tools . The new technology generated a population explosion of modern humans which is believed to have led to the extinction of the Neanderthals . Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo -- such as Homo habilis , who used simple stone tools -- into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens sapiens ) during the Paleolithic era . During the end of the Paleolithic , specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic , humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual . The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures . Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover . By BP , the first humans set foot in Australia . By BP , humans lived at 61 ° N latitude in Europe . By BP , Japan was reached , and by BP humans were present in Siberia , above the Arctic Circle . At the end of the Upper Paleolithic , a group of humans crossed Beringia and quickly expanded throughout the Americas . The term `` Paleolithic '' was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865 . It derives from Greek : παλαιός , palaios , `` old '' ; and λίθος , lithos , `` stone '' , meaning `` old age of the stone '' or `` Old Stone Age '' .", "Holocene extinction The Holocene extinction , otherwise referred to as the Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction , is the ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch , mainly due to human activity . The large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals , including mammals , birds , amphibians , reptiles and arthropods . With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforest , as well as other areas , the vast majority of these extinctions is thought to be undocumented . According to the species-area theory , and based on upper-bound estimating , the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year , making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna , starting at the end of the last Ice Age . Megafauna outside of the African continent , which did not evolve alongside humans , proved highly sensitive to the introduction of new predation , and many died out shortly after early humans began spreading and hunting across the Earth ( additionally , many African species have also gone extinct in the Holocene ) . These extinctions , occurring near the Pleistocene -- Holocene boundary , are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event . The arrival of humans on different continents coincides with megafaunal extinction . The most popular theory is that human overhunting of species added to existing stress conditions . Although there is debate regarding how much human predation affected their decline , certain population declines have been directly correlated with human activity , such as the extinction events of New Zealand and Hawaii . Aside from humans , climate change may have been a driving factor in the megafaunal extinctions , especially at the end of the Quaternary . The ecology of humanity has been noted as being that of an unprecedented `` global superpredator '' that regularly preys on the adults of other apex predators and has worldwide effects on food webs . Extinctions of species have occurred on every land mass and ocean , with many famous examples within Africa , Asia , Europe , Australia , North and South America , and on smaller islands . Overall , the Holocene extinction can be characterized by the human impact on the environment . The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century , with meat consumption , overfishing , ocean acidification and the amphibian crisis being a few broader examples of an almost universal , cosmopolitan decline in biodiversity . A ballooning human population along with profligate consumption are considered to be the primary drivers of this rapid decline .", "Quaternary extinction event The Quaternary period saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly larger , especially megafaunal , species , many of which occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch . However , this extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene , but continued , especially on isolated islands , in human-caused extinctions , although there is debate as to whether these should be considered separate events or part of the same event . Among the main causes hypothesized by paleontologists are natural climate change and overkill by humans , who appeared during the Middle Pleistocene and migrated to many regions of the world during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene . A variant of the latter possibility is the second-order predation hypothesis , which focuses more on the indirect damage caused by overcompetition with nonhuman predators . The spread of disease is also discussed as a possible reason .", "Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population ." ]

[ "Michael Schlesinger Dr. Michael Earl Schlesinger ( born February 23 , 1943 ) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He received his Ph.D. ( meteorology ) in 1976 from the University of California , Los Angeles . Michael Schlesinger is an expert in the modeling , simulation and analysis of climate and climate change , with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols . He has been instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models , which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum . His research currently focuses on : ( 1 ) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet ; ( 2 ) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system , including the influences of the Sun - both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation - and volcanoes ; ( 3 ) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks ; and ( 4 ) performing integrative assessment of climate change , including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change . He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system , on estimating the climate sensitivity , and on seasonal climate change . He has edited four books , most recently Human-induced climate change : An interdisciplinary assessment . He regularly appears in the media .", "Michael O'Connell (botanist) Michael O'Connell , Professor of Botany , National University of Ireland , Galway . O'Connell is a member of the Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit , and a member of the Environmental Protection Agency . His area of interests include past environments , past climate change , long-term human impact , as well as lat-glacial and Holocene environments .", "Climate change in Nevada Climate change in Nevada has been measured over the last century , with the average temperature in Elko , Nevada increasing by 0.6 F-change , and precipitation increasing by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future .", "Human Rights and Climate Change Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "Climate justice Climate justice is a term used for framing global warming as an ethical and political issue , rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature . This is done by relating the effects of climate change to concepts of justice , particularly environmental justice and social justice and by examining issues such as equality , human rights , collective rights , and the historical responsibilities for climate change . A fundamental proposition of climate justice is that those who are least responsible for climate change suffer its gravest consequences . Occasionally , the term is also used to mean actual legal action on climate change issues .", "Climate ethics Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "Piers Forster Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) The Copernicus Climate Change Service ( C3S ) is one of the six thematic services provided by the European Union 's Copernicus Programme . The Copernicus Programme is managed by the European Commission and the C3S is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) and is expected to become operational in 2018 . The objective of the Copernicus Climate Change Service is to build an EU knowledge base in support of mitigation and adaptation policies for Climate Change and Global Warming . The goal of the operational Climate Change service is to provide reliable information about the current and past state of the climate , the forecasts on a seasonal time scale , and the more likely projections in the coming decades for various scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions and other Climate Change contributors .", "Land change modeling Land change models ( LCMs ) describe , project , and explain changes in and the dynamics of land use and land-cover . LCMs are a means of understanding ways that humans are changing the Earth 's surface in the past , present , in forecasting land change into the future . Land change models are valuable in development policy , helping guide more appropriate decisions for resource management and the natural environment at a variety of scales ranging from a small piece of land to the entire spatial extent . Moreover , developments within land-cover , environmental and socio-economic data ( as well as within technological infrastructures ) have increased opportunities for land change modeling to help support and influence decisions that affect human-environment systems , as national and international attention increasingly focuses on issues of global climate change and sustainability .", "Journal of Climate The Journal of Climate is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society . The journal publishes articles on climate research , in particular those concerned with large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability , changes in the climate system ( including those caused by human activities ) , and climate simulation and prediction .", "Ecological forecasting Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "Valerie Masson-Delmotte Valerie Masson-Delmotte is a French climate scientist and Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission , where she works in the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory ( LSCE ) . She uses data from past climates to test models of climate change , and has contributed to several IPCC reports .", "Tom Wigley Tom Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide . He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) . He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) for his major contributions to climate and carbon cycle modeling and to climate data analysis , and because he is `` one of the world 's foremost experts on climate change and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline . '' His h-index ( August 2014 ) is 64 , one of the highest in the discipline . He contributed to many of the reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the University of Adelaide in Australia . He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993 . In 1993 he went on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994 . He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently ( 2014 ) holds a Professorial Fellowship . His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data , the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change , the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate . Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry , including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater . Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions through the use of renewable technologies alone , and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy . He has also pointed out that `` the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much , much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Gary Haq Dr. Gary Haq is a Human Ecologist and freelance author , broadcaster and a Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York . He is an expert in transport and environment , climate change , carbon footprint , behavioural change , carbon and urban air pollution management . He is author of several reports on climate change , behaviour and lifestyle Greening the Greys : Climate Change and the Over 50s , The Carbon Cost of Christmas and Growing Old in a Changing Climate : Meeting the Challenges of Climate Change and an Ageing Population . During 2006-2008 he coordinated a climate change communication campaign in Yorkshire Climate Talk in collaboration with BBC Radio and York Press . He has undertaken research and provided policy advice on air quality management in developing countries . He undertook the first comprehensive assessment of air quality management in 20 Asian Cities and developed a Strategic Framework for Air Quality Management in Asian Cities . He is author of five books : Towards Sustainable Transport Planning , World Transport Policy and Practice , Urban Air Pollution in Asian Cities , Environmentalism Since 1945 , Short Guide to Environmental Policy . He is author of the environmental blog : A Human Ecologist 's View .", "Shobhakar Dhakal Shobhakar Dhakal ( born in Nepal ) is the Head of Department of Energy , Environment and Climate Change at the Asian Institute of Technology , Thailand . His main areas of expertise are energy and climate change policies . Dhakal actively contributes to international and scientific arena . He was the Coordinating Lead Author of the Nobel Prize winning 5th Mitigation Assessment Report written by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change ( released in April 2014 ) for the Chapter on Human Settlements , Infrastructure and Spatial Planning .", "Loss and damage The term Loss and damage denotes impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes . Loss and damage can result from sudden-onset events ( climate disasters , such as cyclones ) as well as slow-onset processes ( such as sea level rise ) . Loss and damage can occur in human systems ( such as livelihoods ) as well as natural systems ( such as biodiversity ) , though the emphasis in research and policy is on human impacts . Within the realm of loss and damage to human systems , a distinction is made between economic losses and non-economic losses . The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets . At the 18th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2012 in Doha , Qatar , it took 36 hours of negotiation between 195 nations to arrive at a plan to address loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate change . A new website was launched at the conference by the Loss and Damage Vulnerable Countries Initiative . It described its aim as being `` the first dedicated site for news , resources and opinion on the issue of loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change '' . Examples of types of loss and damage include farmers who can no longer grow crops to eat , or grass to feed cattle , because their soil has become too salty , and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because rivers have dried up . In popular press , and in statements by some parties in the climate negotiations , the terms loss and damage is often associated with liability and compensation . This explains why the topic raises heated debates , and tends to widen the divide between developed countries , which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions , and developing countries that are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . For vulnerable countries , loss and damage is most of all about recognizing that past and current efforts to avoid dangerous climate change , and that there are limits and constraints to adaptation . The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed a work programme on loss and damage which aims to find ways to address the issue in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change . On 12 -- 14 September 2013 , it held a meeting in Fiji to consider how best to address loss and damage from ` slow-onset events ' . These are impacts of climate change that occur over time , such as sea-level rise , rather than in a single , destructive event . Bangladesh is already suffering from loss and damage resulting from sea-level rise , due to its flat terrain in the coastal region . At the 19th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2013 in Warsaw , Poland , the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established . At the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima , Peru ( 2014 ) , the work plan of the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism was approved . The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage , but WG2 Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints , is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage . A qualitative data analysis ( QDA ) of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries ( e.g. US , Australia or European countries ) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries ( most countries in Africa , Asia Latin America and the Pacific ) , which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . Whether or not the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will have a chapter on loss and damage has not yet been decided .", "Sägistalsee Sägistalsee is a lake in Canton of Berne , Switzerland . Its surface area is 7 ha . The lake 's sediments were studied to determine past climate and human activities .", "Regime shift In ecology , regime shifts are large , abrupt , persistent changes in the structure and function of a system . A regime is a characteristic behaviour of a system which is maintained by mutually reinforced processes or feedbacks . Regimes are considered persistent relative to the time period over which the shift occurs . The change of regimes , or the shift , usually occurs when a smooth change in an internal process ( feedback ) or a single disturbance ( external shocks ) triggers a completely different system behavior . Although such non-linear changes have been widely studied in different disciplines ranging from atoms to climate dynamics , regime shifts have gained importance in ecology because they can substantially affect the flow of ecosystem services that societies rely upon , such as provision of food , clean water or climate regulation . Moreover , regime shift occurrence is expected to increase as human influence on the planet increases -- the Anthropocene -- including current trends on human induced climate change and biodiversity loss .", "World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "Climate Rush Climate Rush is a UK organisation that campaigns on various environmental issues related to climate change . Their website states that , `` We are a diverse group of women and men who are determined to raise awareness of the biggest threat facing humanity today - that of Climate Change '' . The organisation was founded in October 2008 by a group of eleven women , including Tamsin Omond . They have organised various protests using direct action to highlight their cause . They model their actions on those of the suffragettes who campaigned a century ago to gain women the right to vote . Members of the Women 's Institute have campaigned alongside members of the organisation .", "Carbon rift Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "Thin Ice (2013 film) Thin Ice is a 2013 documentary film following geologist Simon Lamb on a search to understand the science behind climate change . This is achieved by traveling the world and meeting a range of scientists , from biologists to physicists , who are investigating the climate . The film 's conclusion emphasises the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change . The film was a joint initiative between Oxford University and Victoria University of Wellington , and premiered around the world on Earth Day 2012 , and in New Zealand in 2015 .", "U.S. Global Change Research Program The United States Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society . The program began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and was codified by Congress through the Global Change Research Act of 1990 ( P.L. 101-606 ) , which called for `` a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand , assess , predict , and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change . '' Thirteen departments and agencies participate in the USGCRP , which was known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program from 2002 through 2008 . The program is steered by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research under the Committee on Environment , Natural Resources and Sustainability , overseen by the Executive Office of the President , and facilitated by a National Coordination Office . During the past two decades , the United States , through the USGCRP , has made the world 's largest scientific investment in the areas of climate change and global change research . Since its inception , the USGCRP has supported research and observational activities in collaboration with several other national and international science programs . These activities led to major advances in several key areas including : Observing and understanding short - and long-term changes in climate , the ozone layer , and land cover ; Identifying the impacts of these changes on ecosystems and society ; Estimating future changes in the physical environment , and vulnerabilities and risks associated with those changes ; and Providing scientific information to enable effective decision making to address the threats and opportunities posed by climate and global change . These advances have been documented in numerous assessments commissioned by the program and have played prominent roles in international assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Program results and plans are documented in the program 's annual report , Our Changing Planet .", "Minister of Environment and Climate Change (Canada) The Minister of Environment and Climate Change ( Ministre de l'Environnement et du Changement Climatique ) is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government 's environment department , Environment and Climate Change Canada . The Minister is also responsible for overseeing Parks Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency . Noted environment ministers of the past have included Jack Davis , Roméo LeBlanc , Jean Charest , Stéphane Dion , Sheila Copps , David Anderson and Peter Kent . Known as the Minister of the Environment until 2015 , the position was given its current name in 2015 upon the creation of the 29th Canadian Ministry .", "Media coverage of global warming Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "Land use, land-use change and forestry Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "Phil Jones (climatologist) Philip Douglas Jones ( born April 22 , 1952 ) retired from his positions as the Director of the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) and as a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) at the end of 2016 . Jones was replaced as CRU director by Tim Osborn and has taken up a position as a Professorial Fellow at the UEA from January 2017 . His research interests include instrumental climate change , palaeoclimatology , detection of climate change and the extension of riverflow records in the UK . He has also published papers on the temperature record of the past 1000 years . He is known for maintaining a time series of the instrumental temperature record . This work was featured prominently in both the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports , where he was a contributing author to Chapter 12 , Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes , of the Third Assessment Report and a Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 3 , Observations : Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change , of the AR4 .", "Brian Clegg (writer) Brian Clegg ( born 1955 ) is an English science writer . He is the author of popular science books on topics including light , infinity , quantum entanglement and surviving the impact of climate change , and biographies of Roger Bacon and Eadweard Muybridge .", "350.org 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "Climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit ." ]

[ "Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems ." ]

[ "Hypsometry Hypsometry ( from Greek ὕψος , hupsos , `` height '' and μέτρον , metron , `` measure '' ) is the measurement of land elevation relative to sea level . Bathymetry is the underwater equivalent . A hypsometer is an instrument used in hypsometry , which estimates the elevation by boiling water -- water boils at different temperatures depending on the air pressure , and thus altitude . On Earth , the elevations can take on either positive or negative ( below sea level ) values , and are bimodal due to the contrast between the continents and oceans . On other planets within this solar system , elevations are typically unimodal , owing to the lack of oceans on those bodies .", "Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "Climate inertia Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Pressure system A pressure system is a relative peak or lull in the sea level pressure distribution . The surface pressure at sea level varies minimally , with the lowest value measured 87 kPa and the highest recorded 108.57 kPa . High - and low-pressure systems evolve due to interactions of temperature differentials in the atmosphere , temperature differences between the atmosphere and water within oceans and lakes , the influence of upper-level disturbances , as well as the amount of solar heating or radiationized cooling an area receives . Pressure systems cause weather to be experienced locally . Low-pressure systems are associated with clouds and precipitation that minimize temperature changes throughout the day , whereas high-pressure systems normally associate with dry weather and mostly clear skies with larger diurnal temperature changes due to greater radiation at night and greater sunshine during the day . Pressure systems are analyzed by those in the field of meteorology within surface weather maps .", "Fisheries and climate change Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "Effects of global warming on oceans Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry ; all of these affect the functioning of a society .", "Antarctic ice sheet The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "Ocean surface topography The ocean surface has highs and lows , similar to the hills and valleys of Earth 's land surface depicted on a topographic map . These variations , called ocean surface topography ( or sea surface topography ) , also dynamic topography , are mapped using direct ( usually satellite-based ) or indirect measurements of sea surface height relative to Earth 's geoid . Earth 's geoid is a calculated surface of equal gravitational potential energy and represents the shape the sea surface would be if the ocean were not in motion . The main purpose of measuring ocean surface topography is to understand the large-scale circulation of the ocean . On a daily basis , SSH is most obviously affected by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the Earth . Over longer timescales , SSH is influenced by ocean circulation . Typically , SSH anomalies resulting from these forces differ from the mean by less than ± 1 m at the global scale . Other influences include temperature , salinity , tides , waves , and the loading of atmospheric pressure . The slowest and largest variations are due to changes in the Earth 's gravitational field ( geoid ) due to the rearrangement of continents , formation of sea mounts and other redistribution of rock . Since the Earth 's gravitational field is relatively stable on decadal to centennial timescales , ocean circulation plays a more significant role in the observed variation of SSH . Across the seasonal cycle changes in patterns of warming , cooling and surface wind forcing affect circulation and influence SSH . Variations in SSH can be measured by satellite altimetry ( e.g. TOPEX/Poseidon ) and used to calculate determine sea level rise and properties such as ocean heat storage .", "Josh Willis Joshua `` Josh '' K. Willis is an oceanographer at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . His area of expertise is current sea level rise , as well as measuring ocean temperatures . When sea level fell from 2010 to 2011 , Willis stated that this was due to an unusually large La Niña transferring more rainfall over land rather than over the ocean as usually happens . In addition , Willis is the project scientist for Jason-3 .", "Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "Annual cycle of sea level height The annual cycle of sea level height ( or seasonal cycle or annual harmonic ) describes the variation of sea level that occurs with a period of one year . Historically , analysis of the annual cycle has been limited by locations with tide gauge records , i.e. , coastlines and some islands in the deep ocean , and by sparse records in the Southern Hemisphere . Since 1992 , satellite-based altimeters have provided near global coverage of sea level variability , allowing for a more thorough understanding of the annual cycle both in the deep ocean and in coastal margins .", "Marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "Clathrate gun hypothesis The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that increases in sea temperatures ( and/or drops in sea levels ) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and that are contained within seabed permafrost which , because methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas , leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization -- in effect initiating a runaway process as irreversible , once started , as the firing of a gun . In its original form , the hypothesis proposed that the `` clathrate gun '' could cause abrupt runaway warming on a timescale less than a human lifetime . It was thought to be responsible for warming events in and at the end of the last glacial maximum , however this is now thought to be unlikely . However , there is stronger evidence that runaway methane clathrate breakdown may have caused drastic alteration of the ocean environment ( such as ocean acidification and ocean stratification ) and of the atmosphere of earth on a number of occasions in the past , over timescales of tens of thousands of years . These events include the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago , and most notably the Permian -- Triassic extinction event , when up to 96 % of all marine species became extinct , 252 million years ago .", "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "The Greening of Planet Earth The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "CO2 is Green CO2 is Green is a non-profit organization supporting public policy on environmental issues . A main focus of the organization are federal proposals that may `` interfere with natures dependence on carbon dioxide . '' CO2 is Green does not view carbon dioxide as a pollutant and advocates for federal law and regulations to support this thinking .", "Earth's energy budget Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "Sunken Forests of New Hampshire The Sunken Forests of New Hampshire are two large areas of tree stumps submerged off New Hampshire 's coast . They sank below sea level after the ending of the Wisconsin Glaciation and subsequent rise in temperature ; isostatic rebound has not kept pace with the rise in sea level , and former coastal forests were overtaken by the Atlantic Ocean . The trees could not thrive , even when they were in the early stages of sinking , because they can not live in salt water for very long . All that is left of the forests are stumps .", "Atmospheric temperature Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth 's atmosphere . It is governed by many factors , including incoming solar radiation , humidity and altitude . When discussing surface temperature , the annual atmospheric temperature range at any geographical location depends largely upon the type of biome , as measured by the Köppen climate classification .", "Atlantic multidecadal oscillation The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) is a climate cycle that affects the sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean based on different modes on multidecadal timescales . While there is some support for this mode in models and in historical observations , controversy exists with regard to its amplitude , and in particular , the attribution of sea surface temperature change to natural or anthropogenic causes , especially in tropical Atlantic areas important for hurricane development .", "Sea level equation The sea level equation ( SLE ) is the linear , integral equation that describes the sea-level variations associated with the Glacial Isostatic Adjustement ( GIA ) . The basic idea of the SLE dates back to 1888 , when Woodward published his pioneering work on the form and position of mean sea level , and only later has been refined by Platzman and Farrell in the context of the study of the ocean tides . In the words of Wu and Peltier , the solution of the SLE yields the space -- and time -- dependent change of ocean bathymetry which is required to keep the gravitational potential of the sea surface constant for a specific deglaciation chronology and viscoelastic earth model . The SLE theory was then developed by other authors as Mitrovica & Peltier , Mitrovica et al. and Spada & Stocchi . In its simplest form , the SLE reads where is the sea -- level change , is the sea surface variation as seen from Earth 's center of mass , and is vertical displacement . In a more explicit form the SLE can be written as follow : where is colatitude and is longitude , is time , and are the densities of ice and water , respectively , is the reference surface gravity , is the sea -- level Green 's function ( dependent upon the and viscoelastic load -- deformation coefficients - LDCs ) , is the ice thickness variation , represents the eustatic term ( i.e. the ocean -- averaged value of ) , and denote spatio-temporal convolutions over the ice - and ocean-covered regions , and the overbar indicates an average over the surface of the oceans that ensures mass conservation .", "Pyrenoid Pyrenoids are sub-cellular micro-compartments found in chloroplasts of many algae , and in a single group of land plants , the hornworts . Pyrenoids are associated with the operation of a carbon-concentrating mechanism ( CCM ) . Their main function is to act as centres of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) fixation , by generating and maintaining a CO2 rich environment around the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase ( Rubisco ) . Pyrenoids therefore seem to have a role analogous to that of carboxysomes in cyanobacteria . Algae are restricted to aqueous environments , even in terrestrial habitats , and this has implications for their ability to access CO2 for photosynthesis . CO2 diffuses 10,000 times slower in water than in air , and is also slow to equilibrate . The result of this is that water , as a medium , is often easily depleted of CO2 and is slow to gain CO2 from the air . Finally , CO2 equilibrates with bicarbonate ( HCO3 − ) when dissolved in water , and does so on a pH-dependent basis . In sea water for example , the pH is such that dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) is mainly found in the form of HCO3 − . The net result of this is a low concentration of free CO2 that is barely sufficient for an algal Rubisco to run at a quarter of its maximum velocity , and thus , CO2 availability may sometimes represent a major limitation of algal photosynthesis .", "LOWERN LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate . Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator . Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature . Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it . Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool . Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows . Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation . Category : Climatology", "Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Ieodo Ocean Research Station Ieodo Ocean Research Station is an ocean platform constructed by South Korea and placed on the submerged Socotra Rock in the East China Sea . The stated purpose of the platform is the collection of meteorological data , provision for maritime safety , and fisheries monitoring . However , as South Korea and China both claim that Socotra Rock lies in their respective Exclusive Economic Zones , the platform does have strategic implications . The platform was officially opened in June 2003 . The platform has a helipad a couple of lower decks for equipment and workspace . Although the station has residential facilities that can comfortably accommodate 8 people for 15 days , the station is typically uninhabited and operated remotely . While Socotra Rock rises to a maximum of 4.6 m below sea level , the platform is founded on a portion of the rock that is substantially deeper at 40m below sea level . As a result , the platform is approximately 700m from the rock 's `` peak . '' The platform rises approximately 36m from sea level .", "David Archer (scientist) David Archer is a computational ocean chemist , and has been a professor at the Geophysical Sciences department at the University of Chicago since 1993 . He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor . He has worked on the history of atmospheric CO2 concentration , the expectation of fossil fuel CO2 over geologic time scales in the future , and the impact of CO2 on future ice age cycles , ocean methane hydrate decomposition , and coral reefs . He is a contributor to the RealClimate blog .", "Economics of global warming The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification ." ]

[ "Gaia hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis ( -LSB- ˈɡaɪ.ə -RSB- , -LSB- ˈɡeɪ.ə -RSB- ) , also known as the Gaia theory or the Gaia principle , proposes that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic self-regulating , complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet . Topics of interest include how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms affect the stability of global temperature , ocean salinity , oxygen in the atmosphere , the maintenance of a hydrosphere of liquid water and other environmental variables that affect the habitability of Earth . The hypothesis was formulated by the chemist James Lovelock and co-developed by the microbiologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s . The hypothesis was initially criticized for being teleological , and contradicting principles of natural selection , but later refinements aligned the Gaia hypothesis with ideas from fields such as Earth system science , biogeochemistry and systems ecology , with Lovelock referring to the `` geophysiology '' of the Earth . Even so , the Gaia hypothesis continues to attract criticism , and today some scientists consider it to be only weakly supported by , or at odds with , the available evidence . In 2006 , the Geological Society of London awarded Lovelock the Wollaston Medal in part for his work on the Gaia hypothesis .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Funky T. Cool T. Funky T. Cool T. is the fifth album Lester Bowie recorded for the Japanese DIW label and the second album by his `` New York Organ Ensemble '' . It was released in 1991 and features performances by Bowie , Steve Turre , Amina Claudine Myers James Carter , Phillip Wilson and Famoudou Don Moye .", "Joe Cool's Dodgem School Joe Cool 's Dodgem School is a dodgem ride for kids and is themed to the Cedar Fair kids area which is Planet Snoopy . It is located at two parks : Joe Cool 's Dodgem School at Kings Island Joe Cool 's Dodgem School at Canada 's Wonderland", "List of named minor planets: T This is a partial list containing all named minor planets starting with letter T . It is ordered in a case-insensitive , alphabetical manner and contains a total of 1,040 entries . have no article and redirect to the list of minor planets instead ( see ) .", "Class T Class T may refer to : Class-T amplifier , electronic audio amplifier by Tripath Class T , a class of brown dwarf stars A fictional classification for planets and planetoids used in Star Trek , see Class M planet", "Cool Change (film) Cool Change is a 1986 action film directed by George T. Miller . It stars Jon Blake and Lisa Armytage .", "List of Star Trek planets (T–Z) ", "Pumice Pumice ( -LSB- pronˈpʌmᵻs -RSB- ) , called pumicite in its powdered or dust form , is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough textured volcanic glass , which may or may not contain crystals . It is typically light colored . Scoria is another vesicular volcanic rock that differs from pumice in having larger vesicles , thicker vesicle walls and being dark colored and denser . Pumice is created when super-heated , highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano . The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization . The depressurization creates bubbles by lowering the solubility of gases ( including water and CO2 ) that are dissolved in the lava , causing the gases to rapidly exsolve ( like the bubbles of CO2 that appear when a carbonated drink is opened ) . The simultaneous cooling and depressurization freezes the bubbles in a matrix . Eruptions under water are rapidly cooled and the large volume of pumice created can be a shipping hazard for cargo ships .", "Wharf T&T Wharf T&T Limited , is , as of 2010 , the second largest fixed line telecommunication operator in Hong Kong . A member of The Wharf ( Holdings ) , one of the largest conglomerates in Hong Kong , it was formerly known as New T&T Limited and Wharf New T&T Limited .", "Lists of Star Trek planets The following lists of Star Trek planets are arranged alphabetically : List of Star Trek planets ( A -- B ) List of Star Trek planets ( C -- F ) List of Star Trek planets ( G -- L ) List of Star Trek planets ( M -- Q ) List of Star Trek planets ( R -- S ) List of Star Trek planets ( T -- Z ) Star Trek planets Category : Star Trek planets Star Trek Planets", "Cool Change Cool Change may refer to : Cool Change ( CSI ) , an episode of CSI : Crime Scene Investigation from 2000 `` Cool Change '' ( song ) , a 1979 hit by the Australian rock group , Little River Band Cold front , or cool change , leading edge of a cooler mass of air Cool Change ( film ) , a 1986 action film directed by George T. Miller", "SPECULOOS SPECULOOS ( Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars ) is a project in development that will consist of four Ritchey-Chretien design telescopes of 1-metre primary aperture , made by ASTELCO . Each telescope will be equipped with a NTM-1000 robotic mount , that will be installed at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to search for Earth-sized planets around 1000 ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs over the next five years . The robotic observations of each of the four telescopes will be controlled by the program ACP Expert . There is a sister project in the northern hemisphere .", "Play It Cool Play It Cool may refer to : Play It Cool ( film ) , a 1962 British musical starring Billy Fury `` Play It Cool '' ( song ) , by Super Furry Animals Play It Cool ( Wilber Pan album ) , 2007 Play It Cool ( Lea DeLaria album ) , 2001 Play It Cool ( radio show ) , a BBC Radio comedy from the 1960s `` Play It Cool '' , a song by 7L & Esoteric from The Soul Purpose `` Play It Cool '' , a song by George Jones from Grand Ole Opry 's New Star `` Play It Cool '' , a song by Grand Puba from 2000 `` Play It Cool '' , a song by Münchener Freiheit `` Play It Cool '' , a song by Ray Campi `` Play It Cool '' , a song by Gangrene featuring Samuel T. Herring and Earl Sweatshirt from Welcome to Los Santos", "One Planet One People One Planet One People is the debut studio album by the American punk rock band The Lookouts . It was released in 1987 through Lookout ! Records and was the first ever release on the label . One Planet One People is the first recording featuring Tré Cool of Green Day . Lyrical topics in their songs are religion and establishment , with some silly funny songs .", "Wright T-3 Tornado The Wright T-3 Tornado , also given the USAF designation Wright V-1950 was an American liquid-cooled aircraft piston engine , designed in the early 1920s .", "2060 Chiron 2060 Chiron , also known as 95P/Chiron , is a minor planet in the outer Solar System , orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus . Discovered in 1977 by Charles T. Kowal ( precovery images have been found as far back as 1895 ) , it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs -- bodies orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt .944 Hidalgo , discovered in 1920 , also fits this definition , but was not identified as belonging to a distinct population . Besides the four giant planets , Chiron and 10199 Chariklo , also a centaur , are the only other bodies in the Solar System known to have rings . Although it was initially called an asteroid and classified only as a minor planet with the designation `` 2060 Chiron '' , it was later found to exhibit behavior typical of a comet . Today it is classified as both a minor planet and a comet , and is accordingly also known by the cometary designation `` 95P/Chiron '' . Chiron is named after the centaur Chiron in Greek mythology . Michael Brown lists it as possibly a dwarf planet with a measured diameter of 206 km ( 128 miles ) which is near the lower limit for an icy dwarf planet ( around 200 km , or 124 miles ) .", "HD 17156 c HD 17156 c is a plausible extrasolar planet approximately 255 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia . The planet is thought to be orbiting the yellow giant star HD 17156 . This planet has a mass of 0.063 Jupiter mass ( or 20 Earth masses ) and takes about 111.314 days or 0.305 year to orbit the star , classifying the planet as a cool Neptunian planet . This put it in the distance of 0.481 astronomical units or 72.0 gigameters with a moderate eccentricity . The two planets `` exchange angular momentum in a 5:1 mean motion resonance '' . This planet was discovered on the vernal equinox of 2008 by analyzing perturbations with the inner planet HD 17156 b . The paper was submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters 20 March and revised 14 June .", "The One-T ODC ODC is the debut album from French electronic music project `` One-T & Cool-T '' . ODC ` s album music genre is mainly electro-clubbing but also targets more commercial genres closely relating to Pop music and electrodance .", "Prima Cool Prima Cool is a private Czech television station . Prima Cool is TV Prima 's second channel . It is targeted primarily at young male audiences . Prima Cool launched on April 1 , 2009 as TV Prima 's new digital channel . It is available on Czech DVB-T multiplex 2 , where it is freely broadcast ( covering up to 72 % of the population of the Czech republic , mainly in Bohemia ) . The channel is also broadcast through DVB-S on satellite ASTRA1G , and available on cable TV ( in all packages , due to the must-carry law ) . It is also known as `` Ninja Warrior ''", "A Planet Called Utopia A Planet Called Utopia is a science fiction novel written by J. T. McIntosh and first published in August , 1979 in New York by Zebra Books . This book is the last book ( as of the year 2010 ) published by the author in 31 years .", "Red Planet Red Planet is a nickname for the planet Mars , due to its surface color . It may also refer to : Red Planet ( novel ) by Robert A. Heinlein Red Planet ( miniseries ) , a 1994 animated adaptation of the novel Red Planet ( film ) , a 2000 film starring Val Kilmer Red Planet ( game ) , a BattleTech game scenario Red Planet ( band ) , San Francisco Bay area power pop quartet Red Planet Mars a 1952 film based on a 1932 play Red Planet `` Red Planet '' a composition by John Coltrane ( also known as `` Miles ' Mode '' ) ; sometimes attributed to Eric Dolphy `` Red Planet '' , a song by Little Mix featuring T-Boz from their debut album , DNA `` Red Planet '' , a song by Alvvays from their eponymous debut album", "Calix Limited Calix Limited is a multi-award-winning Australian technology company that is developing new processes and materials to solve global challenges . Their core technology is a world-first , patented `` kiln '' built in Bacchus Marsh , Victoria that produces `` mineral honeycomb '' . Calix 's technology has also been adopted overseas , where they work with some of the world 's largest companies , governments and research institutions on CO2 capture .", "TRAPPIST-1b TRAPPIST-1b , also designated as 2MASS J23062928-0502285 b , is an exoplanet orbiting around the ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 , located approximately 39 light-years ( 12 parsecs ) away in the constellation Aquarius . The planet was detected using the transit method , where a planet dims the host star 's light as it passes in front of it . It was first announced on May 2 , 2016 .", "TTK Prestige TTK Prestige limited is one of the oldest business of India , founded by T T Krishnamachari in the year 1928 .", "Francis Bitter Francis Bitter ( July 22 , 1902 -- July 26 , 1967 ) was an American physicist . Bitter invented the Bitter plate used in resistive magnets ( also called Bitter electromagnets ) . He also developed the water cooling method inherent to the design of Bitter magnets . Prior to this development , there was no way to cool electromagnets , limiting their maximum flux density .", "TW Hydrae b TW Hydrae b is a likely extrasolar planet orbiting the young T Tauri star TW Hydrae approximately 176 light-years ( 54 parsecs , or nearly km ) away in the constellation of Hydra . It is likely a Neptune-like planet orbiting at a distance of nearly 22 AU from its star .", "Magirus Mercur The Magirus Mercur is a German 5 ton truck that was built by Magirus Deutz in Germany from 1951 to 1972 . Other series from this manufacturer were also named after stars and planets , possibly because of the `` sun and planet '' gears at the rear axle . The trucks were equipped with different variations of air cooled Diesel engines , from 4R to V12 . The initially round hood was eventually changed to a square design in all wheel drive models to improve off road capabilities .", "Daily Planet (brothel) Daily Planet Elsternwick is a licensed bordello in Melbourne , Australia . The bordello has won the Australian Adult Industry Award for `` Best Brothel Overall '' and `` Best Brothel Reception & Staff '' in the years 2004 -- 2011 . The 18-room establishment is located at 7 -- 12 Horne Street , Elsternwick , a southern suburb of Melbourne . It was also mentioned in interviews and promoted by blink 182 during an Australian tour in 1998 . Daily Planet Elsternwick was founded in 1975 by John Trimble , who remains the owner . In 2003 the bordello 's operation was separated from its real estate holdings , and the real estate property trust , named The Daily Planet Ltd. , proceeded with an initial public offering . Heidi Fleiss had been hired to generate publicity . The company acquired strip club businesses in 2003 . Andrew Harris , who served as the public company 's CEO from 2002 until 2006 , stated in 2002 that the operation generated annual profits of about A$ 2 million . In 2003 the public company resolved to sell the Daily Planet building for about A$ 5.7 million . The company changed its name to Planet Platinum Limited and went on to pursue its investments in strip clubs . However , the sale of the Daily Planet building never happened and the property was taken off the market in 2006 .", "Green Power Usage Effectiveness Green Power Usage Effectiveness ( GPUE ) is a proposed measurement of both how much sustainable energy a computer data center uses , its carbon footprint per usable kilowatt hour ( kWh ) and how efficiently it uses its power ; specifically , how much of the power is actually used by the computing equipment ( in contrast to cooling and other overhead ) . It is an addition to the power usage effectiveness ( PUE ) definition and was first proposed by Greenqloud . The Green Grid has developed the Power Usage Effectiveness metric or PUE to measure a data centers ' effectiveness of getting power to IT equipment . What the PUE tells in simple terms is how much extra energy is needed for each usable kWh for the IT equipment due to the power going into cooling , power distribution loss etc. and it 's a simple formula ( in theory ) : PUE = Total Facility Power/IT Equipment Power The PUE can change depending on where measurements are made , when they are made and the timespan the measurements are made in . Data centers are subtracting factors from their PUE to lower it e.g. district heating . Some of the issues with PUE are being addressed with the PUEx definition . GPUE is a way to `` weigh '' the PUE to better see which data centers are truly green in the sense that they indirectly cause the least amount of CO2 to be emitted by their use of sustainable or unsustainable energy sources . This new metric GPUE or Green Power Usage Effectiveness is defined as : GPUE = G × PUEx ( for inline comparison of data centers ) or = G @ PUEx ( a better display and for CO2 emission calculations ) The `` G '' is the key factor here and it is a simple calculated value : G = Weighed sum of energy sources and their lifecycle KG CO2/KWh G = ∑ ( % EnergySource × ( 1 + weight ) ) Adding 1 to the weight is to `` weigh '' ( multiply ) with the PUE to get a number that is comparable to PUE . The weights taken directly from the `` lifecycle CO2/kWh for electricity generation by power source '' table above we got from the 2008 Sovacool Study e.g. the weight for unscrubbed coal is e.g. 1.050 ( kg of CO2/kWh ) while hydroelectric river generation has a weight of 0.013 . An unknown energy source or a `` mix '' will get the same as the maximum value which for now is the same as coal . Example : PUE 1.20 , 50/50 Coal/Hydro G = 0.5 * ( 1 +1.050 ) + 0.5 * ( 1 +0.013 ) G = 1.531 , GPUEx = 1.84 or 1.531@1.20 Kg CO2 per usable kWh = ( G-1 ) × PUEx = 0.64 kg", "83 Leonis 83 Leonis , abbreviated 83 Leo , is a binary star system approximately 58 light-years away in the constellation of Leo ( the Lion ) . The primary star of the system is a cool orange subgiant star , while the secondary star is an orange dwarf star . The two stars are separated by at least 515 astronomical units from each other . Both stars are presumed to be cooler than the Sun . In 2005 , an extrasolar planet was confirmed to be orbiting the secondary star within the system . In 2010 the second planet was discovered .", "L & T Mutual Fund L&T Mutual Fund is a mutual fund company in India . It caters to the investment needs of investors through various mutual fund schemes . The company claims to have sound investment management practices and a knowledgeable fund management team . The Asset Management Company ( AMC ) for all L&T Mutual Fund schemes is L&T Investment Management Limited . The sponsor for the AMC is L&T Finance Holdings Limited ( LTFH ) which is a listed company and registered with RBI as an NBFC .", "Lost (T)apes Lost ( T ) apes is a compilation album by Guano Apes . It contains previously unreleased demos , originally recorded in 1994 and 1995 . Half of the demo 's were later re-recorded for all three of Guano Apes albums whilst 6 were left completely unreleased until this album A deluxe edition , titled The Best & The Lost ( T ) apes also exists . Disc one is simply the standard edition of the Planet of the Apes compilation , and disc two is the Lost ( T ) apes album .", "WAGR T class (diesel) The T class was a class of diesel locomotives built by Tulloch Limited , Rhodes for the Western Australian Government Railways between 1967 and 1970 ." ]

[ "Ice age An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 ." ]

[ "Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "Higher than the Sun Higher than the Sun may refer to : `` Higher than the Sun '' ( song ) , a 2013 song by Keane `` Higher than the Sun '' , a 1991 song by Primal Scream from Screamadelica `` Higher than the Sun '' , a 2003 song by Natalia Druyts from This Time `` Higher than the Sun '' , a 2005 episode of Eureka Seven `` Higher than the Sun '' , a 2013 song by Peace from In Love", "Wine cooler A wine cooler is an alcoholic beverage made from wine and fruit juice , often in combination with a carbonated beverage and sugar . It is often of lower strength alcoholic content . Traditionally home-made , wine coolers have been bottled and sold by commercial distributors since the early 1980s , especially in areas where their lower alcohol content causes them to come under less restrictive laws than wine itself . Because most of the flavor in the wine is obscured by the fruit and sugar , the wine used in wine coolers tends to be of the cheapest available grade . Since January 1991 when United States Congress quintupled the excise tax on wine , most producers of wine coolers dropped wine from the mix , substituting it with cheaper malt . These malt-based coolers , while sometimes referred to as `` wine coolers '' , are in a different category of beverage -- sometimes called `` malt beverage '' , `` malternative '' , or just `` cooler '' . Bartles & Jaymes refers to their malt beverage as a `` flavored malt cooler '' . In Germany , however , wine coolers became popular in 2004 , when the German Government imposed an extra duty on alcopops ( pre-mixed spirits ) of 0.80 to 0.90 euro per bottle effective 1 August 2004 . To circumvent higher taxation , some German producers have switched to wine coolers , which are being marketed in the same way as alcopops .", "ECOnetic ECOnetic is a tradename for certain car models produced by Ford of Europe , currently consisting of one model in each of the Fiesta , the Focus and the Mondeo range , with an emphasis on higher fuel efficiency and low-CO2 emissions .", "Compensation point The ( light ) compensation point is the amount of light intensity on the light curve where the rate of photosynthesis exactly matches the rate of respiration . At this point , the uptake of CO2 through photosynthetic pathways is exactly matched to the respiratory release of carbon dioxide , and the uptake of O2 by respiration is exactly matched to the photosynthetic release of oxygen . In assimilation terms , at compensation point , the net carbon dioxide assimilation is zero . Leaves release CO2 by photorespiration and day respiration , but CO2 is also converted into carbohydrate by photosynthesis . Assimilation is therefore the difference in the rate of these processes . At a normal partial pressure of CO2 ( 0.343 hPa in 1980 ) , there is an irradiation at which the net assimilation of CO2 is zero . For instance , in the early morning and late evenings , the compensation point may be reached as photosynthetic activity decreases and respiration increases . Therefore , the partial pressure of CO2 at the compensation point , also known as gamma , is a function of irradiation . The irradiation dependence of the compensation point is explained by the RuBP ( ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate ) concentration . When the acceptor RuBP is in saturated concentration , gamma is independent of irradiation . However at low irradiation , only a small fraction of the sites on RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase enzyme ( Rubisco ) have the electron acceptor RuBP . This decreases the photosynthetic activity and therefore affects gamma . The intracellular concentration of CO2 affects the rates of photosynthesis and photo respiration . At higher carbon dioxide concentrations , the photosynthesis rate is higher , while at low CO2 concentrations , photo respiration is higher .", "Mesopause The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "Gliese 179 Gliese 179 is a 12th magnitude M-type main sequence star located approximately 40 light years away in the constellation Orion . This star is smaller , cooler , fainter , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is twice as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "Pheophorbidase Pheophorbidase ( , phedase , PPD ) is an enzyme with systematic name pheophorbide-a hydrolase . This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction pheophorbide a + H2O pyropheophorbide a + methanol + CO2 ( overall reaction ) ( 1a ) pheophorbide a + H2O C-132-carboxypyropheophorbide a + methanol ( 1b ) C-132-carboxypyropheophorbide a pyropheophorbide a + CO2 ( spontaneous ) This enzyme participates in the chlorophyll degradation in higher plants and algae .", "COROT-7 COROT-7 ( TYC 4799-1733-1 ) is a G-type main sequence star , slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun . It has an apparent magnitude 11.67 , fainter than Proxima Centauri ( mag . 11.05 ) , the nearest star to the Sun . This star is located in the Monoceros constellation .", "Hawnay Troof Hawnay Troof is the electronic indie solo project of Vice Cooler formed in late 2001 . Regardless of the band 's American punk and electronic background , many untraditional ideas have been incorporated into its sound . Combining many elements of pop , dance-punk , electronica , soul , noise music and club lyrically covering an array of subjects such as relationships , politics , death , celebration , and tragedy . In the past Cooler has cited his daily life as his main muse . According to Cooler the purpose of the band has always been to create a unity for people through music . Since the band 's inception , this has been executed by a number of live shows and records . Unifying past language barriers , the band has performed in many strange places throughout the world and put out a handful of albums to a positive response .", "HD 63765 HD 63765 is an 8th-magnitude G-type main sequence star located approximately 106 light years away in the constellation Carina . This star is smaller , cooler , dimmer , and less massive than the Sun . It has a lower iron content than our Sun , with approximately 69 % of the Sun 's iron-to-hydrogen ratio . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "HD 101930 HD 101930 is a dim 8th magnitude star located approximately 95 light years away in the constellation of Centaurus . It is an orange dwarf ( spectral class K2V ) , somewhat dimmer and cooler than our Sun .", "HD 44219 HD 44219 is an 8th magnitude G-type main sequence star located approximately 164 light years away in the constellation Monoceros . This star is larger , cooler , brighter , and about the same mass as our Sun . Also its metal content is one-fifteenth more than the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "Epilimnion The epilimnion or surface layer is the top-most layer in a thermally stratified lake , occurring above the deeper hypolimnion . It is warmer and typically has a higher pH and higher dissolved oxygen concentration than the hypolimnion . Being exposed at the surface , it typically becomes turbulently mixed as a result of surface wind-mixing . It is also free to exchange dissolved gases such as O2 and CO2 with the atmosphere . Because this layer receives the most sunlight it contains the most phytoplankton . As they grow and reproduce they absorb nutrients from the water , when they die they sink into the hypolimnion resulting in the epilimnion becoming depleted of nutrients .", "HD 6718 HD 6718 is an 8th magnitude G-type main sequence star located approximately 179 light years away in the constellation Cetus . This star is slightly larger , cooler , brighter , and more massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is seven-eighths as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "HD 93083 HD 93083 is an 8th magnitude star located approximately 91 light years away in the southern constellation of Antlia . It is an orange dwarf ( spectral class K2V ) , somewhat cooler and less luminous than our Sun .", "HD 125595 HD 125595 is a 9th magnitude K-type main sequence star located approximately 89 light years away in the constellation Centaurus . This star is smaller , cooler , dimmer , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is 4 % more than the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "HD 290327 HD 290327 is a 9th magnitude G-type subgiant star located approximately 180 light years away in the constellation Orion . This star is larger , cooler , fainter , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is seven-ninths as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "TY Coronae Australis TY Coronae Australis ( abbreviated as TY CrA ) , is a young star system around 3 million years old in the constellation Corona Australis . It is composed of a blue-white B-class star around triple the Sun 's mass and a cooler smaller companion around half its mass ( or 1.6 times that of the Sun ) . The system is an eclipsing binary with a period of 2.8 days .", "HD 103197 HD 103197 is a 9th magnitude K-type main sequence star located approximately 170 light years away in the constellation Centaurus . This star is smaller , cooler , dimmer , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is thirteen-eighths as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "HD 43197 HD 43197 is a 9th magnitude G-type main sequence or subgiant star located approximately 180 light years away in the constellation Canis Major . This star is larger , cooler , fainter , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is five halves as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "HD 28254 HD 28254 is an 8th magnitude G-type main sequence star located approximately 178 light years away in the constellation Dorado . This star is larger , cooler , brighter , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is 2.3 times as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "Laptop cooler A laptop/notebook cooler , cooler pad or chill mat is an accessory for laptop computers that helps reduce their operating temperature , which is normally used when the laptop is unable to sufficiently cool itself . Laptop coolers are intended to protect both the laptop from overheating and the user from suffering heat related discomfort . A cooling pad may house active or passive cooling methods and rests beneath the laptop . Active coolers move air or liquid to direct heat away from the laptop quickly , while passive methods may rely on thermally conductive materials or increasing passive airflow .", "HD 70642 HD 70642 is a yellow dwarf star in the constellation of Puppis located 92 light years away . This star has about the same mass and radius as the Sun , is slightly cooler and less luminous , and is richer in abundance of iron relative to hydrogen .", "Capping inversion A capping inversion is an elevated inversion layer that caps a convective boundary layer . The boundary layer is the part of the atmosphere which is closest to the ground . Normally , the sun heats the ground , which in turn heats the air just above it . Thermals form when this warm air rises into the cold air ( warm air is less dense than cold air ) , a process described by convection . A convective layer such as this has the potential for cloud formation , since condensation occurs as the warm air rises and cools . An inversion occurs when the normal temperature ( warm air below , cold air above ) profile is reversed , creating a stable configuration of dense , cold air sitting below lighter , warm air . An elevated inversion layer is thus a region of warm air above a region of cold air , but higher in the atmosphere ( generally not touching the surface ) . A capping inversion occurs when there is a boundary layer with a normal temperature profile ( warm air rising into cooler air ) and the layer above that is an inversion layer ( cooler air below warm air ) . Cloud formation from the lower layer is `` capped '' by the inversion layer . If the capping inversion layer or `` cap '' is too strong ( too close to the surface ) , it will prevent thunderstorms from developing . A strong cap can result in foggy conditions . However , if the air at the surface is unstable enough , strong updrafts can be forced through the capping inversion . This selective process of only allowing the strongest updrafts to form thunderstorms often results in outbreaks of severe weather .", "HD 104067 HD 104067 is an 8th magnitude K-type main sequence star located approximately 69 light years away in the constellation Corvus . This star is smaller , cooler , dimmer , and 80 % as massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is seven-eighths as much as the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was found in orbit around the star .", "Alpha Mensae α Mensae ( latinised as Alpha Mensae , abbreviated to α Men or Alpha Men ) is the brightest star in the constellation Mensa . At a magnitude of 5.09 , it is the dimmest lucida ( a constellation 's brightest star ) in the sky . Due to its declination , on Earth it is best visible from higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere , yet can also be seen , though low in the sky , from just north of the Equator when near its daily arc 's highest point , the culmination . This star has a stellar classification of G7 V , indicating that it is a G-type main sequence star that is generating energy by fusing hydrogen into helium at its core . It is of similar size but slightly cooler than the Sun , with 110 % of the mass , 99 % of the radius , and 83 % of the Sun 's luminosity . The effective temperature of the stellar atmosphere is 5,587 K , and it has a slightly higher ( 112 % ) proportion of elements other than hydrogen and helium -- what Astronomers call the star 's metallicity -- compared to the Sun . The estimated age of this star is 5.4 billion years , and is rotating at a relatively leisurely projected rotational velocity of 1.7 km/s . Located about 33 light years distant from the Sun , Alpha Mensae has a relatively high proper motion across the sky . An infrared excess has been detected around this star , most likely indicating the presence of a circumstellar disk at a radius of over 147 AU . The temperature of this dust is below 22 K. No planetary companions have yet been discovered around it . It has a red dwarf companion star at an angular separation of 3.05 arcseconds ; equivalent to a projected separation of roughly 30 AU .", "HD 1237 HD 1237 is a binary star system approximately 57 light-years away in the constellation of Hydrus ( the Water Snake ) . The visible star in the system , A , is considered to be a solar analog due close mass to the sun . HD 1237 differs from the sun in that HD 1237 is much younger , has high metallicity , has much cooler temperature and is in a binary system . As of 2000 , it has been confirmed that an extrasolar planet orbits the star . It is of note for being a relatively Sun-like star not very far from the Sun that is home to an extrasolar planet .", "HD 24496 HD 24496 is a 7th magnitude G-type wide binary star and M-type located approximately 67 light years away in the constellation Taurus . This star is smaller , cooler , fainter , and less massive than our Sun . Also its metal content is just 2 % greater than the Sun . In 2009 , a gas giant planet was discovered of HD 24496 A.", "Granule (solar physics) Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are caused by convection currents ( thermal columns , Bénard cells ) of plasma within the Sun 's convective zone . The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells and is called granulation . The rising part of the granules is located in the center where the plasma is hotter . The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler descending plasma . ( The terms darker and cooler are strictly by comparison to the brighter , hotter plasma . ) In addition to the visible appearance , which would be explained by convective motion , Doppler shift measurements of the light from individual granules provides evidence for the convective nature of the granules . A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,500 kilometers and lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating . At any one time , the Sun 's surface is covered by about 4 million granules . Below the photosphere is a layer of `` supergranules '' up to 30,000 kilometers in diameter with lifespans of up to 24 hours .", "39 Cygni 39 Cygni ( 39 Cyg ) is a star in the constellation Cygnus , approximately 260 light years away from Earth . It is an orange star of the spectral type K3III , meaning it has a surface temperature of 3,500 to 5,000 kelvins . It is cooler , but much larger and brighter , than the Sun .", "Pyrenoid Pyrenoids are sub-cellular micro-compartments found in chloroplasts of many algae , and in a single group of land plants , the hornworts . Pyrenoids are associated with the operation of a carbon-concentrating mechanism ( CCM ) . Their main function is to act as centres of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) fixation , by generating and maintaining a CO2 rich environment around the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase ( Rubisco ) . Pyrenoids therefore seem to have a role analogous to that of carboxysomes in cyanobacteria . Algae are restricted to aqueous environments , even in terrestrial habitats , and this has implications for their ability to access CO2 for photosynthesis . CO2 diffuses 10,000 times slower in water than in air , and is also slow to equilibrate . The result of this is that water , as a medium , is often easily depleted of CO2 and is slow to gain CO2 from the air . Finally , CO2 equilibrates with bicarbonate ( HCO3 − ) when dissolved in water , and does so on a pH-dependent basis . In sea water for example , the pH is such that dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) is mainly found in the form of HCO3 − . The net result of this is a low concentration of free CO2 that is barely sufficient for an algal Rubisco to run at a quarter of its maximum velocity , and thus , CO2 availability may sometimes represent a major limitation of algal photosynthesis ." ]

[ "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Coptodon spongotroktis Coptodon spongotroktis is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Boudouard reaction The Boudouard reaction , named after Octave Leopold Boudouard , is the redox reaction of a chemical equilibrium mixture of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide at a given temperature . It is the disproportionation of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and graphite or its reverse : 2CO + C The Boudouard Reaction to form carbon dioxide and carbon is exothermic at all temperatures . However , the standard enthalpy of the Boudouard reaction becomes less negative with increasing temperature , as shown to the side . While the formation enthalpy of is higher than that of , the formation entropy is much lower . Consequently , the standard free energy of formation of from its component elements is almost constant and independent of the temperature , while the free energy of formation of decreases with temperature . At high temperatures , the forward reaction is therefore endergonic , favoring the ( exergonic ) reverse reaction toward CO , even though the forward reaction is still exothermic . The effect of temperature on the extent of the Boudouard reaction is indicated better by the value of the equilibrium constant than by the standard free energy of reaction . The value of log10 ( Keq ) for the reaction ( valid between 500 -- ) is : has a value of zero at . The implication of the change in Keq with temperature is that a gas containing may form elemental carbon if the mixture cools below a certain temperature . The thermodynamic activity of carbon may be calculated for a / mixture by knowing the partial pressure of each species and the value of Keq . For instance , in a high temperature reducing environment , such as that created for the reduction of iron oxide in a blast furnace or the preparation of carburizing atmospheres , carbon monoxide is the stable oxide of carbon . When a gas rich in is cooled to the point where the activity of carbon exceeds one , the Boudouard Reaction can take place . Carbon monoxide then tends to disproportionate into carbon dioxide and graphite , which forms soot . In industrial catalysis , this is not just an eyesore ; sooting ( also called coking ) can cause serious and even irreversible damage to catalysts and catalyst beds . This is a problem in the catalytic reforming of petroleum and the steam reforming of natural gas . The reaction is named after the French chemist , Octave Leopold Boudouard ( 1872 -- 1923 ) , who investigated this equilibrium in 1905 .", "Coptodon imbriferna Coptodon imbriferna is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Tropical peat Areas of tropical peat are found mostly in South East Asia ( about 70 % by area ) although are also found in Africa , Central and South America and elsewhere around the Pacific Ocean . Tropical peatlands are significant carbon sinks and store large amounts of carbon and their destruction can significantly impact on the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Tropical peatlands are vulnerable to destabilisation through human and climate induced changes . Estimates of the area ( and hence volume ) of tropical peatland vary but a reasonable estimate is in the region of 380,000 square kilometres . Although tropical peatlands only cover about 0.25 % of the Earth 's land surface they contain 50,000-70 ,000 million tonnes of carbon ( about 3 % global soil carbon ) . In addition , tropical peatlands support diverse ecosystems and are home to a number of endangered species including the orang utan . The native peat swamp forests contain a number of valuable timber-producing trees plus a range of other products of value to local communities , such as bark , resins and latex . Land-use changes and fire , mainly associated with plantation development and logging ( deforestation and drainage ) , are reducing this carbon store and contributing to greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The problems that result from development of tropical peatland stem mainly from a lack of understanding of the complexities of this ecosystem and the fragility of the relationship between peat and forest . Once the forest is removed and the peat is drained , the surface peat oxidises and loses stored carbon rapidly to the atmosphere ( as carbon dioxide ) . This results in progressive loss of the peat surface , leading to local flooding and , due to the large areas involved , global climate change . Failure to account for such emissions results in underestimates of the rate of increase in atmospheric GHGs and the extent of human induced climate change .", "Coptodon gutturosa Coptodon gutturosa is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Coptodon flava Coptodon flava is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Coptodon bythobates Coptodon bythobates is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Coptodon snyderae Coptodon snyderae is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Coptodon thysi Coptodon thysi is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .", "Environmental issues in Austria The Ministry of Health and Environmental Protection of Austria , established in 1972 , is responsible for the coordination at the national level of all environmental protection efforts , addressing its efforts toward problems including waste disposal , pollution , noise , sulfur dioxide , and carbon monoxide levels , as well as emissions by the iron , steel , and ceramics industries . A toxic waste law enacted in 1984 established strict regulations for the collection , transport , and disposal of dangerous substances . The Austrian government has imposed strict regulations on gas emissions , which helped to reduce sulfur dioxide by two-thirds over an eight-year period beginning in 1980 . In 1992 Austria was among the 50 countries with the highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions , producing 56.6 million metric tons of emissions , or 7.29 m tons per capita . In 1996 , the level rose to 59.3 million metric tons . In 2000 , the total was 60.8 million metric tons .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Paser A PASER ( from the acronym of Particle Acceleration by Stimulated Emission of Radiation ) is a device that accelerates a coherent beam of electrons . This process was demonstrated for the first time in 2006 at the Brookhaven National Lab by a team of physicists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology . Relativistic electrons from a conventional particle accelerator pass through a vibrationally excited carbon dioxide medium in which the electrons undergo millions of collisions with excited carbon dioxide molecules and are accelerated in a coherent fashion . No heat is generated in this quantum energy transfer , thus all the energy transferred to the electrons is used in accelerating the electrons . The electron beam created from this process may result in electrons that are highly collimated in velocity in comparison to other acceleration methods . The vibrationally excited carbon dioxide is the same medium used in a carbon dioxide laser . This medium resonantly amplifies light with a wavelength near 10.6 or 9.4 micrometers , corresponding to a frequency of approximately 30 terahertz . In order to be accelerated , incident electrons must be microbunched at this frequency . An appropriately bunched electron beam strikes excited carbon dioxide molecules resonantly in order to efficiently stimulate energy emission .", "Konye The konye ( Konia eisentrauti ) is a critically endangered species of fish in the family Cichlidae . It is endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo , a crater lake in western Cameroon . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) . This species can reach a length of 9.3 cm TL .", "Fissi The fissi ( Sarotherodon caroli ) is a species of cichlid endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . This species can reach a length of 18.6 cm SL . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities . It is potentially also threatened by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although studies indicate that Barombo Mbo lacks excess amounts of this gas . Adults mainly feed on phytoplankton .", "Clarias maclareni Clarias maclareni is a critically endangered species of catfish in the Clariidae family . It is endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) . It is known to grow to 36 cm TL . Large individuals feed mainly on other fishes ( especially cichlids ) , while smaller mainly feed on insects .", "Talc carbonate Talc carbonates are a suite of rock and mineral compositions found in metamorphic ultramafic rocks . The term refers to the two most common end-member minerals found within ultramafic rocks which have undergone talc-carbonation or carbonation reactions , talc and the carbonate mineral magnesite . Talc carbonate mineral assemblages are controlled by temperature and pressure of metamorphism and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide within metamorphic fluids , as well as by the composition of the host rock .", "Plant factory A plant factory is a closed growing system which enables a farmer ( agrotechnician ) to achieve constant production of vegetables all year around . The facility utilizes artificial control of light , temperature , moisture , and carbon dioxide concentrations .", "Pulmonary gas pressures The factors that determine the values for alveolar pO2 and pCO2 are : The pressure of outside air The partial pressures of inspired oxygen and carbon dioxide The rates of total body oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production The rates of alveolar ventilation and perfusion Following is a list of average partial pressures ( in torr ) for a human at rest :", "John Tierney (journalist) John Marion Tierney ( born March 25 , 1953 ) is an American journalist and author who has worked for the New York Times since 1990 . A self-described contrarian , Tierney is a critic of environmentalism , the `` science establishment '' , big government , and calls for limiting emissions of carbon dioxide .", "Carbonic anhydrase II Carbonic anhydrase II ( gene name CA2 ) , is one of fourteen forms of human α carbonic anhydrases . Carbonic anhydrase catalyzes reversible hydration of carbon dioxide . Defects in this enzyme are associated with osteopetrosis and renal tubular acidosis . Renal carbonic anhydrase allows the reabsorption of bicarbonate ions in the proximal tubule .", "Kululu The kululu ( Sarotherodon steinbachi ) is a species of cichlid endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . This species can reach a length of 11.3 cm SL . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities . It is potentially also threatened by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although studies indicate that Barombo Mbo lacks excess amounts of this gas . It feeds on tiny organisms such as rotifers , diatoms and sponge spicules , and organic debris .", "Electricity sector in Luxembourg Electricity sector in Luxembourg describes electricity issues in Luxembourg . Luxembourg is a member of OECD and European Union . Luxembourg imports most of its energy . Luxembourg is the EU country with the second smallest forecast of renewables in 2020 . Luxembourg has one of the highest emissions of carbon dioxide per person in Europe .", "Polymer-based battery A polymer-based battery uses organic materials instead of bulk metals to form a battery . Organic polymers can be processed at relatively low temperatures , lowering costs . They also produce less carbon dioxide .", "Individual action on climate change Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "Energy efficiency in British housing Domestic housing in the United Kingdom presents a possible opportunity for achieving the 20 % overall cut in UK carbon dioxide emissions targeted by the Government for 2010 . However , the process of achieving that drop is proving problematic given the very wide range of age and condition of the UK housing stock .", "Mongstad Power Station Mongstad Power Station is a natural gas-fired thermal power plant under construction at the industrial site of Mongstad in Norway . The station is owned by a consortium of Statoil and DONG Energy , and will be operated by the latter . Construction costs are estimated at NOK 4 billion . The power station will have an installed effect of 280 MW in electricity production and 350 MW in heat . The energy will be used to operate the Mongstad Refinery as well to supply the Troll Gas Field with power . The plant will use 0.7 billion normal cubic meter ( BCM ) of gas per year . Emissions of carbon dioxide will be 1.2 million tonnes . The power station has been subject to controversy in Norway , based upon the potential increase in emission of greenhouse gases . Statoil has entered into an implementation agreement in cooperation with Gassnova which representing the Norwegian government in matters relating to Carbon capture and storage , to develop solutions for carbon dioxide capture at Mongstad . Early in 2009 , Statoil delivered a master plan for full scale CO2 capture at Mongstad .", "Ammonium carbamate Ammonium carbamate is the inorganic compound -RSB- -RSB- with the formula NH4 -LSB- H2NCO2 -RSB- . This salt formed by the reaction of ammonia with carbon dioxide . This compound is a white solid that is extremely soluble in water , less so in alcohol . It is unusual in degrading at room temperature ." ]

[ "Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System . It is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma , with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process . It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth . Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth , and its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth , accounting for about 99.86 % of the total mass of the Solar System . About three quarters of the Sun 's mass consists of hydrogen ( ~ 73 % ) ; the rest is mostly helium ( ~ 25 % ) , with much smaller quantities of heavier elements , including oxygen , carbon , neon , and iron . The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star ( G2V ) based on its spectral class . As such , it is informally referred to as a yellow dwarf . It formed approximately 4.6 billionAll numbers in this article are short scale . One billion is 109 , or 1,000,000,000 . years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud . Most of this matter gathered in the center , whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the Solar System . The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its core . It is thought that almost all stars form by this process . The Sun is roughly middle-aged ; it has not changed dramatically for more than four billion years , and will remain fairly stable for more than another five billion years . After hydrogen fusion in its core has diminished to the point at which it is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium , the core of the Sun will experience a marked increase in density and temperature while its outer layers expand to eventually become a red giant . It is calculated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of Mercury and Venus , and render Earth uninhabitable . The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times , and the Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a deity . The synodic rotation of Earth and its orbit around the Sun are the basis of the solar calendar , which is the predominant calendar in use today .", "Solar phenomena Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun . These phenomena take many forms , including solar wind , radio wave flux , energy bursts such as solar flares , coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions , coronal heating and sunspots . These phenomena are generated by a helical dynamo near the center of the Sun 's mass that generates strong magnetic fields and a chaotic dynamo near the surface that generates smaller magnetic field fluctuations . The total sum of all solar fluctuations is referred to as solar variation . The collective effect of all solar variations within the Sun 's gravitational field is referred to as space weather . A major weather component is the solar wind , a stream of plasma released from the Sun 's upper atmosphere . It is responsible for the aurora , natural light displays in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic . Space weather disturbances can cause solar storms on Earth , disrupting communications , as well as geomagnetic storms in Earth 's magnetosphere and sudden ionospheric disturbances in the ionosphere . Variations in solar intensity also affect Earth 's climate . These variations can explain events such as ice ages and the Great Oxygenation Event , while the Sun 's future expansion into a red giant will likely end life on Earth . Solar activity and related events have been recorded since the 8th century BCE . Babylonians inscribed and possibly predicted solar eclipses , while the earliest extant report of sunspots dates back to the Chinese Book of Changes , . The first extant description of the solar corona was in 968 , while the earliest sunspot drawing was in 1128 and a solar prominence was described in 1185 in the Russian Chronicle of Novgorod . The invention of the telescope allowed major advances in understanding , allowing the first detailed observations in the 1600s . Solar spectroscopy began in the 1800s , from which properties of the solar atmosphere could be determined , while the creation of daguerreotypy led to the first solar photographs on 2 April 1845 . Photography assisted in the study of solar prominences , granulation and spectroscopy . Early in the 20th century , interest in astrophysics surged in America . A number of new observatories were built with solar telescopes around the world . The 1931 invention of the coronagraph allowed the corona to be studied in full daylight .", "Sunspot Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear as dark spots compared with surrounding regions . They are areas of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic field flux that inhibit convection . Sunspots usually appear in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity . Their number varies according to the approximately 11-year solar cycle . Individual sunspots may endure anywhere from a few days to a few months , but eventually decay . Sunspots expand and contract as they move across the surface of the Sun with sizes ranging from 16 km to 160000 km in diameter . The larger variety are visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope . They may travel at relative speeds , or proper motions of a few hundred meters per second when they first emerge . Indicating intense magnetic activity , sunspots accompany secondary phenomena such as coronal loops ( prominences ) and reconnection events . Most solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate in magnetically active regions around visible sunspot groupings . Similar phenomena indirectly observed on stars other than the sun are commonly called starspots and both light and dark spots have been measured ." ]

[ "Solar minimum Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the sun . During this time , sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes , and often does not occur for days at a time . The date of the minimum is described by a smoothed average over 12 months of sunspot activity , so identifying the date of the solar minimum usually can only happen 6 months after the minimum takes place . Solar minima are not generally correlated with changes in climate but recent studies have shown a correlation with regional weather patterns . Solar minimum is contrasted with the solar maximum , where there may be hundreds of sunspots .", "Sunspots (economics) In economics , the term sunspots ( or sometimes `` a sunspot '' ) usually refers to an extrinsic random variable , that is , a random variable that does not affect economic fundamentals ( such as endowments , preferences , or technology ) . Sunspots can also refer to the related concept of extrinsic uncertainty , that is , economic uncertainty that does not come from variation in economic fundamentals . David Cass and Karl Shell coined the term sunspots as a suggestive and less technical way of saying `` extrinsic random variable '' .", "Sunspots (TV series) Sunspots is a Canadian travel television series which aired on CBC Television in 1974 and 1975 .", "Spörer Minimum The Spörer Minimum is a hypothesized 90-year span of low solar activity , from about 1460 until 1550 , which was identified and named by John A. Eddy in a landmark 1976 paper published in Science titled `` The Maunder Minimum '' . It occurred before sunspots had been directly observed and was discovered instead by analysis of the proportion of carbon-14 in tree rings , which is strongly correlated with solar activity . It is named for the German astronomer Gustav Spörer .", "Wilson effect In 1769 , during solar cycle 2 , a Scottish astronomer named Alexander Wilson , working at the Macfarlane Observatory , noticed that the shape of sunspots noticeably flattened as they approached the Sun 's limb due to the solar rotation . These observations showed that sunspots were features on the solar surface , as opposed to minor planets or objects above it . Moreover , he observed what is now termed the Wilson effect : the penumbra and umbra vary in the manner expected by perspective effects if the umbrae of the spots are in fact slight depressions in the surface of the photosphere . The magnitude of the depression is difficult to determine but may be as large as 1,000 km . While the surface-depression interpretation of the Wilson effect is widespread , Bray and Loughhead ( 1965 ) contended that `` the true explanation of the Wilson effect lies in the higher transparency of the spot material compared to the photosphere '' . They develop this idea on pages 93 to 99 of their book . A similar interpretation was expressed by C.H. Tong in 2005 . Sunspots result from the blockage of convective heat transport by intense magnetic fields . Sunspots are cooler than the rest of the photosphere , with effective temperatures of about 4000 ° C ( about 7000 ° F ) . Sunspot occurrence follows an approximately 11-year period known as the solar cycle , discovered by Heinrich Schwabe in the 19th century .", "List of articles related to the Sun Articles related to the Sun include : Corona Solar wind Coronal mass ejection Solar eclipse total eclipse annular eclipse hybrid eclipse partial eclipse Magnitude of eclipse Saros ( astronomy ) Sunspot , where most solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate Wolf number , counts sunspots Maunder Minimum , the period roughly spanning 1645 to 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare Solar flare Solar cycle , periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the Sun that is experienced on Earth List of solar cycles Solar maximum - large numbers of sunspots appear Solar minimum - sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes Dalton Minimum , lasting from about 1790 to 1830 Modern Maximum , period of relatively high solar activity that began circa 1900 Solar variation , change in the amount of solar radiation emitted Solar System Solar and celestial effects on climate ( Earth 's climate , that is )", "Starspot Starspots are stellar phenomena . On the Sun , they are called sunspots . Spots the size of sunspots are very hard to detect on other stars because they are too small to cause detectable fluctuations in brightness . Observed starspots are in general much larger than those on the Sun : up to about 30 % of the stellar surface may be covered , corresponding to starspots 100 times larger than those on the Sun .", "Rotational correlation time Rotational correlation time is the time it takes for a molecule to rotate one radian , on average . Rotational correlation times are in the order of picoseconds , for example 1.7 picoseconds for water or in the tens to hundreds range for small organic molecules . Rotational correlation times are employed in the measurement of microviscosity ( viscosity at the molecular level ) and in protein characterization . Rotational correlation times may be measured by rotational ( microwave ) or dielectric spectroscopy . Rotational correlation times of probe molecules in media have been measured by fluorescence lifetime or for radicals , from the linewidths of electron spin resonances .", "Ecological correlation In statistics , an ecological correlation is a correlation between two variables that are group means , in contrast to a correlation between two variables that describe individuals . For example , one might study the correlation between physical activity and weight among sixth-grade children . A study at the individual level might make use of 100 children , then measure both physical activity and weight ; the correlation between the two variables would be at the individual level . By contrast , another study might make use of 100 classes of sixth-grade students , then measure the mean physical activity and the mean weight of each of the 100 classes . A correlation between these group means would be an example of an ecological correlation . Because a correlation describes the measured strength of a relationship , correlations at the group level can be much higher than those at the individual level . Thinking both are equal is an example of ecological fallacy .", "Solar cycle 2 Solar cycle 2 was the second solar cycle since 1755 , when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began . The solar cycle lasted 9 years , beginning in June 1766 and ending in June 1775 . The maximum smoothed sunspot number ( SIDC formula ) observed during the solar cycle was 193.0 ( September 1769 ) , and the starting minimum was 18.6 . Sunspot observations by Alexander Wilson during this period established the Wilson effect .", "Coronal loop Coronal loops form the basic structure of the lower corona and transition region of the Sun . These highly structured loops are a direct consequence of the twisted solar magnetic flux within the solar body . The population of coronal loops can be directly linked with the solar cycle ; it is for this reason coronal loops are often found with sunspots at their footpoints . The upwelling magnetic flux pushes through the photosphere , exposing the cooler plasma below . The contrast between the photosphere and the solar interior gives the impression of dark spots , or sunspots .", "Sunspots (song) `` Sunspots '' is a song by the English singer-songwriter Julian Cope . It is the only single released in support of his second album Fried .", "Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth . The times and amplitude of tides at any given locale are influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon , by the pattern of tides in the deep ocean , by the amphidromic systems of the oceans , and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry ( see Timing ) . Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide -- two nearly equal high and low tides each day . Other locations experience a diurnal tide -- only one high and low tide each day . A `` mixed tide '' -- two uneven tides a day , or one high and one low -- is also possible . Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors . To make accurate records , tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time . Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes . These data are compared to the reference ( or datum ) level usually called mean sea level . While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level fluctuations , sea levels are also subject to forces such as wind and barometric pressure changes , resulting in storm surges , especially in shallow seas and near coasts . Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans , but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present . For example , the solid part of the Earth is affected by tides , though this is not as easily seen as the water tidal movements .", "METEOR METEOR ( Metric for Evaluation of Translation with Explicit ORdering ) is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output . The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall , with recall weighted higher than precision . It also has several features that are not found in other metrics , such as stemming and synonymy matching , along with the standard exact word matching . The metric was designed to fix some of the problems found in the more popular BLEU metric , and also produce good correlation with human judgement at the sentence or segment level . This differs from the BLEU metric in that BLEU seeks correlation at the corpus level . Results have been presented which give correlation of up to 0.964 with human judgement at the corpus level , compared to BLEU 's achievement of 0.817 on the same data set . At the sentence level , the maximum correlation with human judgement achieved was 0.403 .", "Solar cycle 18 Solar cycle 18 was the eighteenth solar cycle since 1755 , when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began . The solar cycle lasted 10.2 years , beginning in February 1944 and ending in April 1954 . The maximum smoothed sunspot number ( SIDC formula ) observed during the solar cycle was 218.7 ( May 1947 ) , and the starting minimum was 12.9 . During the minimum transit from solar cycle 18 to 19 , there were a total of 446 days with no sunspots . Cycle 18 was characterized by `` giant '' sunspots . The recording of the 10.7 cm ( 2800 MHz ) solar radio flux began partway during this cycle , and values of the solar flux during this cycle turned out to be particularly high .", "Religiosity and intelligence The debate on religiosity and intelligence explores the link between religiosity and issues related to intelligence and educational level ( by country and on the individual level ) . Religiosity and intelligence are both complex topics that include diverse variables , and the interactions among variables are not always well understood . For instance , intelligence is often defined differently by different researchers and also all scores from intelligence tests are only estimates of intelligence because concrete measurements , like those of mass or distance , can not be achieved given the abstract nature of the concept of `` intelligence '' . In terms of religiosity , it involves wide variations of interactions of religious beliefs , practices , behaviors , and affiliations in diverse cultures . A meta-analysis found a negative correlation between intelligence quotient ( IQ ) and religiosity for western societies . The correlation was suggested to be a result of nonconformity , more cognitive and less intuitive thinking styles among the less religious , and less of a need for religion as a coping mechanism . Some studies have shown a correlation between national average IQ and levels of atheism in society , although others have questioned whether any correlations are due to a complex range of social , economic and historical factors , which interact with religion and IQ in different ways . Others argue that any differences in national IQ and levels of atheism are not necessarily due to levels of religiosity or nonreligiosity , but are correlated with economic , educational , environmental , and social factors . Less developed and poorer countries tend to be more religious , perhaps because religions play a more active social , moral and cultural role in those countries . In terms of thinking styles , one study suggests that intuitive thinking may be one out of many sources that affect levels of religiosity and that analytical thinking may be one out of many sources that affect disbelief . However , others who have reviewed studies on analytic thinking and nonbelievers , suggest that analytical thinking does not imply better reflection on religious matters or disbelief . A global study found that some Western religious traditions and the nonreligious correlate with high levels of education . On the individual level , one study observed that education level is positively correlated with a belief in a god in African countries , and negatively correlated in Western countries . The frequency of church visits is however positively correlated with education level in English-speaking countries as well as in Protestant Europe .", "Water sky Water sky is a phenomenon that is closely related to ice blink . It forms in regions with large areas of ice and low-lying clouds and so is limited mostly to the extreme northern and southern sections of earth , in Antarctica and in the Arctic . When light hits the blue oceans or seas , some of it bounces back and enables the observer to physically see the water . However , some of the light also is reflected back up on to the bottoms of low-lying clouds and causes a dark spot to appear underneath some clouds . These clouds may be visible when the seas are not and can show alert and knowledgeable travelers the general direction of water . The dark clouds over open water have long been used by polar explorers and scientists to navigate in sea ice . For example , Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his assistant Hjalmar Johansen used the phenomenon to find lanes of water in their failed expedition to the North Pole as did Bernacchi and Sir Douglas Mawson in the Antarctica .", "Gustav Spörer Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Spörer ( 23 October 1822 -- 7 July 1895 ) was a German astronomer . He is noted for his studies of sunspots and sunspot cycles . In this regard he is often mentioned together with Edward Maunder . Spörer was the first to note a prolonged period of low sunspot activity from 1645 to 1715 . This period is known as the Maunder Minimum . Spörer was a contemporary of Richard Christopher Carrington , an English astronomer . Carrington is generally credited with discovering Spörer 's law , which governs the variation of sunspot latitudes during the course of a solar cycle . Spörer added to Carrington 's observations of sunspot drift and is sometimes credited with the discovery . The Spörer minimum was a period of low sunspot activity from roughly 1420 to 1570 .", "Water level (device) A water level is a device used for matching elevations of locations that are too far apart for a spirit level to span . The simplest water level is a section of clear tubing , partially filled with water . Water is easily procured for use , and easily discarded after use . The ends are held vertical , and the rest of the tubing lies on the ground or floor . The water level at each end of the tube will be at the same elevation , whether the two ends are adjacent or far apart . Water levels have been used for many years . The water level is lower-tech than the laser level , but it can be more accurate over long distances . To avoid error , all of the water should be at the same temperature . Other sources of error include difficulty reading due to meniscus . If the water level is used often , dye can be added to the water to make it easier to see . If the water level is used outdoors in winter , antifreeze can be added to the water . Automotive window washer fluid can also be used for antifreeze and increased visibility . Additionally it inhibits the formation of error causing bubbles .", "Solar cycle 8 Solar cycle 8 was the eighth solar cycle since 1755 , when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began . The solar cycle lasted 9.7 years , beginning in November 1833 and ending in July 1843 . The maximum smoothed sunspot number ( SIDC formula ) observed during the solar cycle was 244.9 ( March 1837 ) , and the starting minimum was 12.2 . Solar cycle # 8 ended in 1843 , the year that Heinrich Schwabe discovered the sunspot cycle .", "Joy's Law (astronomy) In astronomy , Joy 's Law describes sunspots and states that their tendency to be `` tilted '' ( with the leading spot closer to the equator than the following spots ) grows with the heliographic latitude of these regions . Joy 's Law provides observational support for the operation of the `` alpha effect '' in solar dynamo action . It is named after Alfred Harrison Joy .", "Sunspot Records Sunspot Records was a small independent record label from the Washington D.C. area that existed in the early nineties . The Sunspot roster featured bands primarily from the east coast of the U.S. . Several of these bands such as Avail , Shades Apart , 1.6 Band , and Fly ( pre Trans-Am ) went on to have successful music careers . The label was founded , owned , and operated by Bryan Wassom until it closed shop in 1994 .", "Solar cycle 23 Solar cycle 23 was the 23rd solar cycle since 1755 , when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began . The solar cycle lasted 12.3 years , beginning in August 1996 and ending in December 2008 . The maximum smoothed sunspot number ( SIDC formula ) observed during the solar cycle was 180.3 ( November 2001 ) , and the starting minimum was 11.2 . During the minimum transit from solar cycle 23 to 24 , there were a total of 817 days with no sunspots .", "Sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun , in particular infrared , visible , and ultraviolet light . On Earth , sunlight is filtered through Earth 's atmosphere , and is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon . When the direct solar radiation is not blocked by clouds , it is experienced as sunshine , a combination of bright light and radiant heat . When it is blocked by clouds or reflects off other objects , it is experienced as diffused light . The World Meteorological Organization uses the term `` sunshine duration '' to mean the cumulative time during which an area receives direct irradiance from the Sun of at least 120 watts per square meter . Other sources indicate an `` Average over the entire earth '' of `` 164 Watts per square meter over a 24 hour day '' . The ultraviolet radiation in sunlight has both positive and negative health effects , as it is both a principal source of vitamin D3 and a mutagen . Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth from the surface of the Sun . A photon starting at the center of the Sun and changing direction every time it encounters a charged particle would take between 10,000 and 170,000 years to get to the surface . Sunlight is a key factor in photosynthesis , the process used by plants and other autotrophic organisms to convert light energy , normally from the Sun , into chemical energy that can be used to fuel the organisms ' activities .", "Water vapor Water vapor , water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of water . It is one state of water within the hydrosphere . Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice . Unlike other forms of water , water vapor is invisible . Under typical atmospheric conditions , water vapor is continuously generated by evaporation and removed by condensation . It is lighter than air and triggers convection currents that can lead to clouds . Being a component of Earth 's hydrosphere and hydrologic cycle , it is particularly abundant in Earth 's atmosphere where it is also a potent greenhouse gas along with other gases such as carbon dioxide and methane . Use of water vapor , as steam , has been important to humans for cooking and as a major component in energy production and transport systems since the industrial revolution . Water vapor is a relatively common atmospheric constituent , present even in the solar atmosphere as well as every planet in the Solar System and many astronomical objects including natural satellites , comets and even large asteroids . Likewise the detection of extrasolar water vapor would indicate a similar distribution in other planetary systems . Water vapor is significant in that it can be indirect evidence supporting the presence of extraterrestrial liquid water in the case of some planetary mass objects .", "Solar cycle 4 Solar cycle 4 was the fourth solar cycle since 1755 , when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began . The solar cycle lasted 13.6 years , beginning in September 1784 and ending in April 1798 ( thus overlapping the Dalton Minimum ) . The maximum smoothed sunspot number ( SIDC formula ) observed during the solar cycle was 235.3 ( in February 1788 ) , and the starting minimum was 15.9 . There are some recent speculations that cycle 4 , the longest solar cycle since 1755 , was actually two cycles , based on the appearance of new sunspots at high solar latitudes in 1793-1796 and a reconstruction of the sunspot butterfly diagram for cycles 3 and 4 , although total sunspot numbers only show a single-peaked distribution .", "Hypsometry Hypsometry ( from Greek ὕψος , hupsos , `` height '' and μέτρον , metron , `` measure '' ) is the measurement of land elevation relative to sea level . Bathymetry is the underwater equivalent . A hypsometer is an instrument used in hypsometry , which estimates the elevation by boiling water -- water boils at different temperatures depending on the air pressure , and thus altitude . On Earth , the elevations can take on either positive or negative ( below sea level ) values , and are bimodal due to the contrast between the continents and oceans . On other planets within this solar system , elevations are typically unimodal , owing to the lack of oceans on those bodies .", "Alert correlation Alert correlation is a type of long analysis . It focuses on the process of clustering alerts ( events ) , generated by NIDS and HIDS computer systems , to form higher-level pieces of information . Example of simple alert correlation is grouping invalid login attempts to report single incident like `` 10000 invalid login attempts on host X '' .", "Maunder Minimum The Maunder Minimum , also known as the `` prolonged sunspot minimum '' , is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare , as noted by solar observers of the time . The term was introduced after John A. Eddy published a landmark 1976 paper in Science . Astronomers before Eddy had also named the period after the solar astronomers Annie Russell Maunder ( 1868 -- 1947 ) and E. Walter Maunder ( 1851 -- 1928 ) , who studied how sunspot latitudes changed with time . The period which the husband and wife team examined included the second half of the 17th century . Two papers were published in Edward Maunder 's name in 1890 and 1894 , and he cited earlier papers written by Gustav Spörer . Because Annie Maunder had not received a university degree ( due to restrictions at the time ) , her contribution was not publicly recognized . Spörer noted that , during a 28-year period ( 1672 -- 1699 ) within the Maunder Minimum , observations revealed fewer than 50 sunspots . This contrasts with the typical 40,000 -- 50,000 sunspots seen in modern times . Like the Dalton Minimum and Spörer Minimum , the Maunder Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average European temperatures .", "Sunspot (comics) Sunspot ( Roberto `` Bobby '' da Costa ) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character is most commonly associated with X-Men-related groups the New Mutants and X-Force . A Brazilian mutant , Sunspot possesses the ability to absorb and channel solar power . He is idealistic and impulsive , but is considered a close friend of many of his teammates . He was an important member of the X-Men 's 1980s-era junior team and its reincarnation X-Force . Sunspot made his cinematic debut in the 2014 feature film X-Men : Days of Future Past , played by Adan Canto .", "Extraterrestrial liquid water Extraterrestrial liquid water ( from the Latin words : extra -LSB- `` outside of , beyond '' -RSB- and terrestris -LSB- `` of or belonging to Earth '' -RSB- ) is water in its liquid state that is found beyond Earth . It is a subject of wide interest because it is recognised as one of the key prerequisites for life as we know it and thus surmised as essential for extraterrestrial life . With oceanic water covering 71 % of its surface , Earth is the only planet known to have stable bodies of liquid water on its surface , and liquid water is essential to all known life forms on Earth . The presence of water on the surface of Earth is a product of its atmospheric pressure and a stable orbit in the Sun 's circumstellar habitable zone , though the origin of Earth 's water remains unknown . The main methods currently used for confirmation are absorption spectroscopy and geochemistry . These techniques have proven effective for atmospheric water vapour and ice . However , using current methods of astronomical spectroscopy it is substantially more difficult to detect liquid water on terrestrial planets , especially in the case of subsurface water . Due to this , astronomers , astrobiologists and planetary scientists use habitable zone , gravitational and tidal theory , models of planetary differentiation and radiometry to determine potential for liquid water . Water observed in volcanic activity can provide more compelling indirect evidence , as can fluvial features and the presence of antifreeze agents , such as salts or ammonia . Using such methods , many scientists infer that liquid water once covered large areas of Mars and Venus . Water is thought to exist as liquid beneath the surface of some planetary bodies , similar to groundwater on Earth . Water vapour is sometimes considered conclusive evidence for the presence of liquid water , although atmospheric water vapour may be found to exist in many places where liquid water does not . Similar indirect evidence , however , supports the existence of liquids below the surface of several moons and dwarf planets elsewhere in the Solar System . Some are speculated to be large extraterrestrial `` oceans '' . Liquid water is thought to be common in other planetary systems , despite the lack of conclusive evidence , and there is a growing list of extrasolar candidates for liquid water .", "Sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites ." ]

[ "NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA -LSB- ˈnæsə -RSB- ) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program , as well as aeronautics and aerospace research . President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian ( rather than military ) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science . The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29 , 1958 , disestablishing NASA 's predecessor , the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ) . The new agency became operational on October 1 , 1958 . Since that time , most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA , including the Apollo Moon landing missions , the Skylab space station , and later the Space Shuttle . Currently , NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle , the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles . The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program ( LSP ) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches . NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System , advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate 's Heliophysics Research Program , exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft missions such as New Horizons , and researching astrophysics topics , such as the Big Bang , through the Great Observatories and associated programs . NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite . Since 2011 , NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency , achieving little results in return for high development costs .", "Instrumental temperature record The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets ." ]

[ "Berkeley Earth Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST . Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . '' Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish . The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .", "Gliese 581g Gliese 581g -LSB- ˈɡliːzə -RSB- , unofficially known as Zarmina ( or Zarmina 's World ) , is an unconfirmed ( and disputed ) exoplanet claimed to orbit within the Gliese 581 planetary system , twenty light-years from Earth . It was discovered by the Lick -- Carnegie Exoplanet Survey , and is the sixth planet orbiting the star ; however , its existence could not be confirmed by the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ) / High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher ( HARPS ) survey team , and its existence remains controversial . It is thought to be near the middle of the habitable zone of its star . That means it could sustain liquid water -- a necessity for all known life -- on its surface , if there are favorable atmospheric conditions on the planet . Gliese 581g was claimed to be detected by astronomers of the Lick -- Carnegie Exoplanet Survey . The authors stated that data sets from both High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer ( HIRES ) and HARPS were needed to sense the planet ; however , the ESO/HARPS survey team could not confirm its existence . The planet remained unconfirmed as consensus for its existence could not be reached . Additional reanalysis only found evidence for four planets , but the discoverer , Steven S. Vogt , did not agree with those conclusions ; another study by Guillem Anglada-Escudé later supported the planet 's existence . In 2012 , a reanalysis by Vogt supported its existence . A new study in 2014 concluded that it was a false positive ; however , in 2015 , a reanalysis of the data suggested that it could still exist . The planet is thought to be tidally locked to its star . If the planet has a dense atmosphere , it may be able to circulate heat . The actual habitability of the planet depends on the composition of its surface and the atmosphere . It is thought to have temperatures around − 37 to − 11 ° C ( − 35 to 10 ° F ) . By comparison , Earth has an average surface temperature of 15 ° C ( 59 ° F ) -- while Mars has an average surface temperatures of about − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . The planet has , according to Vogt , a `` 100 % '' chance of supporting life , but this is disputed . The supposed detection of Gliese 581g foreshadows what Vogt calls `` a second Age of Discovery '' .", "Evergreen forest Tropical evergreen forests ( or tropical rain forests ) are usually found in areas receiving more than 200 cm of rainfall and having a monthly mean temperature of 18 ° C or higher in the coldest months . They occupy about seven percent of the Earth 's land surface and harbour more than half of the planet 's terrestrial plants and animals . Tropical evergreen forests are dense , multi-layered , and harbour many types of plants and animals .", "Coastal-Marine Automated Network The Coastal-Marine Automated Network ( C-MAN ) is a meteorological observation network along the coastal United States . Consisting of about sixty stations installed on lighthouses , at capes and beaches , on near shore islands , and on offshore platforms , the stations record atmospheric pressure , wind direction , speed and gust , and air temperature ; however , some C-MAN stations are designed to also measure sea surface temperature , water level , waves , relative humidity , precipitation , and visibility . The network is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center ( NDBC ) of the National Weather Service ( NWS ) , which is part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , and data is ingested into numerical weather prediction computer models . It was created in the early 1980s to maintain observations that were about to be discontinued by other programs . Data is processed and transmitted similarly to the moored buoy system . In 2002 , C-MAN was added to the NOAA Observing System Architecture ( NOSA ) .", "Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission The Surface Water Ocean Topography ( SWOT ) Mission is a future satellite mission , jointly developed by NASA and CNES , the French space agency , to make the first global survey of Earth 's surface water and measure submesoscale ocean circulation . It is one of 15 missions that the 2007 National Research Council 's Decadal Survey of Earth Science and Applications recommends NASA implement in the coming decade . Launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is planned for April 2021 . SWOT is being developed by an international group of hydrologists and oceanographers to provide a better understanding of the world 's oceans and its terrestrial surface waters . It will give scientists their first comprehensive view of Earth 's freshwater bodies from space and more much detailed measurements of the ocean surface than ever before . SWOT is collaboration between NASA , CNES , the French space agency , and the Canadian Space Agency ( CSA ) . The NASA contributions are currently being designed and constructed at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) . It builds on the very successful 25-year partnership between the two agencies to use radar altimetry to measure the surface of the ocean that began with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission . The primary instrument on SWOT is based a new type of radar called the Ka-band Radar Interferometer ( KaRIN ) , which uses radar interferometery technology . The satellite will fly two radar antennae at either end of a 10-meter ( 33-foot ) mast , allowing it to measure the elevation of the surface along a 120 - kilometer ( 75-mile ) - wide swath below . The new radar system is smaller but similar to the one that flew on NASA 's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission , which made high-resolution measurements of Earth 's land surface in 2000 . The mission 's science goals are to Provide sea surface heights and terrestrial water heights over a 120-kilometer wide swath with a ± 10-kilometer gap at the nadir track . Over the deep oceans , provide sea surface heights within each swath with a posting every two kilometers x two kilometers , and a precision not to exceed 0.5 centimeters when averaged over the area . Over land , download the raw data for ground processing and produce a water mask able to resolve 100-meter-wide rivers and ( 250 m ) 2 lakes and reservoirs . Associated with this mask will be water level elevations with an accuracy of 10 centimeters and a slope accuracy of one centimeter/one kilometer . Cover at least 90 percent of the globe . Gaps are not to exceed 10 percent of Earth 's surface . SWOT will have a mission lifetime of three years . NASA contributions to the total mission costs are $ 755M , with additional contributions from CNES , including launch service costs slated at $ 112 million .", "NOAAS Okeanos Explorer (R 337) NOAAS Okeanos Explorer ( R 337 ) is a converted United States Navy ship ( formerly ) , now an exploratory vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , officially launched in 2010 . Starting in 2010 , NOAA entered into a five-year partnership with the San Francisco Exploratorium . The focus is on gathering scientific information about oceans for the public as well as for scientific uses . As much as 95 % of the ocean remains unexplored , NOAA officials said . The ship is equipped with cameras and will provide real-time viewing of the ocean floor for scientists and for the public . This is a pioneering use of what NOAA calls `` telepresence technology '' . The Okeanos Explorer is the only vessel owned by the U.S. government that is dedicated to exploring the seabed and ocean crust . The ship is named after Okeanos , the Ancient Greek god of the sea , from which also comes the word `` ocean '' .", "List of exoplanets discovered using the Kepler spacecraft The list of exoplanets detected by the Kepler spacecraft contains bodies with a wide variety of properties , with significant ranges in orbital distances , masses , radii , composition , habitability , and host star type . , the Kepler spacecraft and its follow-up observations have detected 2,300 confirmed planets , including hot Jupiters , super-Earths , circumbinary planets , and planets located in the circumstellar habitable zones of their host stars . In addition , Kepler has detected over 3,601 unconfirmed planet candidates and 2,165 eclipsing binary stars . In addition to detecting planets itself , Kepler has also uncovered the properties of three previously known extrasolar planets . Public Kepler data has also been used by groups independent of NASA , such as the Planet Hunters citizen-science project , to detect several planets orbiting stars collectively known as Kepler Objects of Interest . Kepler , launched on March 7 , 2009 , was designed to observe a fixed portion of the sky in visible light and measure the light curves of the various stars in its field of view , looking for planets crossing in front of their host stars via the transit method . Since the launch of the spacecraft , though , both the Kepler team at NASA and independent researchers have found new ways of detecting planets , including the use of the transit timing variation method and relativistic beaming . In addition , gravitational microlensing has been proposed as a method of using Kepler to detect compact objects , such as white dwarfs , neutron stars , and black holes . Kepler has also measured the reflected light from some planets already known , discovering planets undetectable with the transit method as well as improving knowledge of the characteristics of planets already discovered . On February 26 , 2014 , NASA announced the discovery of 715 newly verified exoplanets around 305 stars by the Kepler Space Telescope . The exoplanets were found using a statistical technique called `` verification by multiplicity '' . 95 % of the discovered exoplanets were smaller than Neptune and four , including Kepler-296f , were less than 2 1/2 the size of Earth and were in habitable zones where surface temperatures are suitable for liquid water . On May 10 , 2016 , NASA announced that Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets . Based on their size , about 550 could be rocky planets . Nine of these orbit in their stars ' habitable zone .", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Kepler-1520 Kepler-1520 ( formally known as KIC 12557548 ) is a K-type main-sequence star located in the constellation Cygnus . The star is particularly important , as measurements taken by the Kepler spacecraft indicate that the variations in the star 's light curve cover a range from about 0.2 % to 1.3 % of the star 's light being blocked . This indicates that there may be a rapidly disintegrating planet , a prediction not yet conclusively confirmed , in orbit around the star , losing mass at a rate of 1 Earth mass every billion years . The planet itself is about 0.1 Earth masses , or just twice the mass of Mercury , and is expected to disintegrate in about 100-200 million years . The planet orbits its star in just 15.7 hours , at a distance only two stellar diameters away from the star 's surface , and has an estimated effective temperature of about 2255 K . The orbital period of the planet is one of the shortest ever detected in the history of the extrasolar planet search . In 2016 , the planet was confirmed as part of a data release by the Kepler spacecraft .", "Giovanni (meteorology) Giovanni ( meteorology ) - Web interface that allows users to analyze NASA 's gridded data from various satellite and surface observations . Giovanni provides researchers with the capability to examine data on atmospheric chemistry , atmospheric temperature , water vapor and clouds , atmospheric aerosols , precipitation , and ocean chlorophyll and surface temperature . The primary data consist of global gridded data sets with reduced spatial resolution . Basic analytical functions performed by Giovanni currently are carried out by the Grid Analysis and Display System ( GrADS ) . The GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure ( Giovanni ) allows to explore satellite data using sophisticated analyses and visualizations . Giovanni allows access to data from multiple remote sites , supports multiple data formats including Hierarchical Data Format ( HDF ) , HDF-EOS , network Common Data Form ( netCDF ) , GRIdded Binary ( GRIB ) , and binary , and multiple plot types including area , time , Hovmoller , and image animation .", "Environmental Technology Laboratory The Environmental Technology Laboratory ( ETL ) was a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . ETL developed remote sensing instrumentation to allow meteorologists and oceanographers to peer inside the Earth 's atmosphere to diagnose its behavior and study its interaction with land , water , and ice surfaces . ETL 's engineering and scientific expertise help NOAA as it seeks to better monitor , observe , understand and describe the atmosphere so as to provide improved forecasts of its future state .", "SCATSAT-1 SCATSAT-1 ( Scatterometer Satellite-1 ) is a miniature satellite providing weather forecasting , cyclone prediction , and tracking services to India . It has been developed by ISRO Satellite Centre , Bangalore whereas its payload is was developed by Space Applications Centre , Ahmedabad . The satellite took the place of Oceansat-2 which became dysfunctional after its life span of four-and-a-half years . India was dependent on NASA 's ISS-RapidScat for prediction of cyclone forecasting and weather prediction . The data generated by this mini-satellite will be used by NASA , EUMETSAT and NOAA .", "Kepler-62e Kepler-62e ( also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation KOI-701 .03 ) is a super-Earth exoplanet ( extrasolar planet ) discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-62 , the second outermost of five such planets discovered by NASA 's Kepler spacecraft . Kepler-62e is located about 1200 ly from Earth in the constellation of Lyra . The exoplanet was found using the transit method , in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured . Kepler-62e may be a terrestrial or ocean-covered planet ; it lies in the inner part of its host star 's habitable zone . Kepler-62e orbits its host star every 122 days and is roughly 60 percent larger ( in diameter ) than Earth .", "Schiaparelli EDM lander Schiaparelli EDM lander -LSB- skjapaˈɾɛlːi -RSB- was the Entry , Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module ( EDM ) of the ExoMars programme -- a joint mission of the European Space Agency ( ESA ) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos . It was built in Italy and was intended to test technology for future soft landings on the surface of Mars . It also had a limited but focused science payload that would have measured atmospheric electricity on Mars and local meteorological conditions . Launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter ( TGO ) on 14 March 2016 , Schiaparelli attempted a landing on 19 October 2016 . Telemetry signals from Schiaparelli , monitored in real time by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India ( and confirmed by Mars Express ) , were lost about one minute from the surface during the final landing stages . On 21 October 2016 , NASA released an image by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing what appears to be the lander 's crash site . The telemetry data accumulated by the TGO and ESA 's Mars Express orbiters are being used to investigate the failure modes of the landing technology employed .", "Kepler-20e Kepler-20e is an exoplanet orbiting Kepler-20 . The planet is notable as it is the first planet with a smaller radius than Earth found orbiting a Sun-like star . The planet is second-closest to the star after Kepler-20b , and at 1040 K , it is far too hot to have liquid water on its surface . Along with the other four planets in the system , Kepler-20e was announced on 20 December 2011 . `` Kepler-20e is the first planet smaller than the Earth discovered to orbit a star other than the sun . A year on Kepler-20e only lasts 6 days , as it is much closer to its host star than the Earth is to the sun . The temperature at the surface of the planet , around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit , is much to hot to support life , as we know it . Kepler-20e is likely to be entirely rocky and without an atmosphere . The planet is tidally locked , always showing the same side to its host star , as the moon to the Earth , and could have large temperature differences between its permanent night and day sides . Astronomers think that the planet is likely to be geologically active , due to its own formation process and the strong gravitational interactions with its host star . In this artistic depiction , the planet is represented with active volcanoes on both the night and day sides . ''", "Hypercane A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "Landsat 5 Landsat 5 was a low Earth orbit satellite launched on March 1 , 1984 to collect imagery of the surface of Earth . A continuation of the Landsat Program , Landsat 5 was jointly managed by the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) . Data from Landsat 5 was collected and distributed from the USGS 's Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science ( EROS ) . After 29 years in space , Landsat 5 was officially decommissioned on June 5 , 2013 . Near the end of its mission , Landsat 5 's use was hampered by equipment failures , and it was largely superseded by Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 . Mission scientists anticipated the satellite will re-enter Earth 's atmosphere and disintegrate around 2034 . Recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-operating Earth-observing satellite mission in history , Landsat 5 orbited the planet more than 150,000 times while transmitting more than 2.5 million images of land surface conditions around the world , greatly outliving its original three-year design life .", "Brown ocean effect The brown ocean effect is an observed weather phenomenon where tropical cyclones , which are commonly expected to lose energy when they make landfall , instead maintain strength or intensify over land surfaces . While these systems are highly common in the United States and China , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) names Australia the most conducive environment after 30 years of research . In Australia such storm systems are called agukabams . One source of the brown ocean effect has been identified as the large amount of latent heat that can be released from extremely wet soils . A 2013 NASA study found that , from 1979-2008 , 45 of 227 tropical storms either gained or maintained strength after making landfall . The press release stated , `` The land essentially mimics the moisture-rich environment of the ocean , where the storm originated . '' Originally , countless research devoted to extratropical cyclones , storms that first derive energy from the warm ocean waters and later from the conjecture of various air masses , explained the intensification of storms after landfall . However , as research into these storms persists , Anderson and Shepherd , the two leading scientists behind the NASA study , discovered that some of these storms were not transitioning from warm-core to cold-core but were actually maintaining their warm-core dynamics , while ultimately outputting a greater measure of rainfall . In order for the brown ocean effect to take place , three land conditions must be met : `` First , the lower level of the atmosphere mimics a tropical atmosphere with minimal variation in temperature . Second , soils in the vicinity of the storms need to contain ample moisture . Finally , evaporation of the soil moisture releases latent heat , which the team found must measure at least 70 watts averaged per square meter . '' Storm systems impacted by the brown ocean effect gave rise to a new sub-category of tropical storm type called Tropical Cyclone Maintenance and Intensification Event or TCMI . Another study concluded that latent surface heat flux from land surfaces actually have the potential to be larger than from the ocean , albeit for brief periods only . Anderson and Shepherd are also examining the effects of climate change on TCMIs , looking into the potential intensification of these storms due to increase or decrease in the degree of wetness and dryness in areas susceptible to these systems .", "NSSL Doppler NOAA 's 10cm Doppler Weather Radar was a 10cm wavelength S-band Doppler Weather Radar , commonly referred to as `` NSSL Doppler '' and was used to track severe weather and related meteorological phenomena . The radar became operational soon after its donation , collecting its first data in May of 1971 . Data was collected on magnetic tapes and processed on a NASA computer post event due to the lack of real-time capability at the time .", "Atmospheric Infrared Sounder The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ( AIRS ) is one of six instruments flying on board NASA 's Aqua satellite , launched on May 4 , 2002 . The instrument is designed to support climate research and improve weather forecasting . Working in combination with its partner microwave instrument , the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit ( AMSU-A ) , AIRS observes the global water and energy cycles , climate variation and trends , and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases . AIRS uses infrared technology to create three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature , water vapor , and cloud properties . AIRS can also measure trace greenhouse gases such as ozone , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , and methane . AIRS and AMSU-A share the Aqua satellite with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , Clouds and the Earth 's Radiant Energy System ( CERES ) , and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS ( AMSR-E ) . Aqua is part of NASA 's `` A-train , '' a series of high-inclination , Sun-synchronous satellites in low Earth orbit designed to make long-term global observations of the land surface , biosphere , solid Earth , atmosphere , and ocean . AIRS data is free and available to the public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center . NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , manages AIRS for NASA 's Science Mission Directorate in Washington , D.C.", "One Percent for the Planet One Percent for the Planet is an international organization whose members contribute at least one percent of their annual sales to environmental causes . Their mission is to `` build , support and activate an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet . '' One Percent for the Planet members assist non-profit organisations that protect land , forests , rivers , oceans and also encourage sustainable methods of energy production .", "Climate of Estonia Estonia lies in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate . Because Estonia ( and all of Northern Europe ) is continuously warmed by maritime air influenced by the heat content of the northern Atlantic Ocean , it has a milder climate despite its northern latitude . The Baltic Sea causes differences between the climate of coastal and inland areas . Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length . Average temperatures range from 16.3 ° C on the Baltic islands to 18.1 ° C inland in July , the warmest month , and from -3.5 ° C on the Baltic islands to -7.6 ° C inland in February , the coldest month . The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5.2 ° C . The average temperature in February , the coldest month of the year , is -5.7 ° C . The average temperature in July , which is considered the warmest month of the year , is 16.4 ° C . The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean , the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum , which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas . Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation . The average precipitation in 1961 -- 1990 ranged from 535 to per year and was heaviest in late summer . There were between 102 and 127 rainy days a year , and average precipitation was most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands . Snow cover , which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia , usually lasts from mid-December to late March .", "Seasat Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth 's oceans and had on board the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar ( SAR ) . The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global satellite monitoring of oceanographic phenomena and to help determine the requirements for an operational ocean remote sensing satellite system . Specific objectives were to collect data on sea-surface winds , sea-surface temperatures , wave heights , internal waves , atmospheric water , sea ice features and ocean topography . Seasat was managed by NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was launched on 27 June 1978 into a nearly circular 800 km orbit with an inclination of 108 ° . Seasat operated for 106 days until 10 October 1978 , when a massive short circuit in the satellite 's electrical system ended the mission . Seasat carried five major instruments designed to return the maximum information from ocean surfaces : Radar altimeter to measure spacecraft height above the ocean surface Microwave scatterometer to measure wind speed and direction Scanning multichannel microwave radiometer to measure sea surface temperature Visible and infrared radiometer to identify cloud , land and water features Synthetic Aperture Radar ( SAR ) L-band , HH polarization , fixed look angle to monitor the global surface wave field and polar sea ice conditions -LCB- the antenna is the light parallelogram in the picture -RCB- . The SAR support structure was designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace in Carpinteria , CA . The structure deployed on orbit . Many later remote sensing missions owe their legacy to Seasat . These include imaging radars flown on NASA 's Space Shuttle , altimeters on Earth-orbiting satellites such as TOPEX/Poseidon , and scatterometers on NASA Scatterometer ( NSCAT ) , QuikSCAT , and Jason 1 .", "Solar System in fiction The Solar System and its various bodies ( planets , asteroids , moons , etc. ) were the earliest objects to be treated as fictional locations in works of science fiction . Among these , imaginary voyages to and explorations of Earth 's Moon are found in seventeenth century literature . By the early twentieth century , following the increase in scientific and technological development spurred by the Industrial Revolution , fictional journeys to ( or from ) the Solar System 's other planets had become common in fiction . Early literature regarding the Solar System , following scientific speculations dating back to the 17th century , assumed that every planet hosted its own native life forms -- often assumed to be human in form , if not in attitudes . Later literature began to accept that there were limits set by temperature , gravity , atmospheric pressure and composition , or the presence of liquids that would set bounds on the possibility of life as we know it existing on other planets . By the 19th century the Moon was given up as an airless desert , incapable of supporting life on its surface ( hopes for subsurface life continued until later ) . Jupiter and the planets beyond were too large , too cold , and had atmospheres composed of poisonous chemicals . Mercury was too close to the Sun and its surface was exposed to extremes of temperature . The asteroids were too tiny and airless . By the early 20th century , prospects for life in the Solar System focused on Venus , the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn , and especially Mars . With the onset of the Space Age , planetary probes cast increasing doubt on the likelihood of extraterrestrial life in the Solar System , at least life of any magnitude greater than organisms such as bacteria . By the mid-1960s , it was firmly established that life could have no foothold on the hostile surfaces of Mercury or Venus , and that Mars could hardly support any macroscopic life forms on its surface , much less an advanced civilization . In the 1980s it was shown that the surfaces of Jupiter 's moons were just as hostile to life . More recent fiction focused on the Solar System has thus tended to address its exploration for purposes such as terraforming , the engineering of planets for human habitation , than the possibility of any existing life .", "HAT-P-33b HAT-P-33b is a planet in the orbit of HAT-P-33 , which lies 1,367 light years away from Earth . Its discovery was reported in June 2011 , although it was suspected to be a planet as early as 2004 . The planet is about three-fourths the mass of Jupiter , but is almost eighty percent larger than Jupiter is ; this inflation has , as with the discovery of similar planets WASP-17b and HAT-P-32b , raised the question of what ( other than temperature ) causes these planets to become so large . HAT-P-33b was difficult to confirm because its star experiences high jitter , which disrupted the ability to obtain accurate measurements . As such , a greater number of radial velocity observations were collected to make the confirmation , although it was later determined that HAT-P-33b could not be determined using the radial velocity method . The planet 's confirmation came about after the planet 's light curve was collected , and the Blendanal process ruled out most false positive scenarios .", "Irrsee Irrsee is a lake in the Salzkammergut , Austria , located at . Its surface is approximately 3.5 km2 and its maximum depth is 32 metres . It is a popular tourist destination , also thanks to the warmest water temperature of all lakes in Salzkammergut . Category : Lakes of Upper Austria", "Water on Mars Almost all water on Mars today exists as ice , though it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere and occasionally as low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil . The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap . Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate latitudes . More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars , enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters . Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface . Some liquid water may occur transiently on the Martian surface today , but only under certain conditions . No large standing bodies of liquid water exist , because the atmospheric pressure at the surface averages just 600 Pa -- about 0.6 % of Earth 's mean sea level pressure -- and because the global average temperature is far too low ( 210 K ) , leading to either rapid evaporation ( sublimation ) or rapid freezing . Before about 3.8 billion years ago , Mars may have had a denser atmosphere and higher surface temperatures , allowing vast amounts of liquid water on the surface , possibly including a large ocean that may have covered one-third of the planet . Water has also apparently flowed across the surface for short periods at various intervals more recently in Mars ' history . On December 9 , 2013 , NASA reported that , based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus , Gale Crater contained an ancient freshwater lake that could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life . Many lines of evidence indicate that water is abundant on Mars and has played a significant role in the planet 's geologic history . The present-day inventory of water on Mars can be estimated from spacecraft imagery , remote sensing techniques ( spectroscopic measurements , radar , etc. ) , and surface investigations from landers and rovers . Geologic evidence of past water includes enormous outflow channels carved by floods , ancient river valley networks , deltas , and lakebeds ; and the detection of rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water . Numerous geomorphic features suggest the presence of ground ice ( permafrost ) and the movement of ice in glaciers , both in the recent past and present . Gullies and slope lineae along cliffs and crater walls suggest that flowing water continues to shape the surface of Mars , although to a far lesser degree than in the ancient past . Although the surface of Mars was periodically wet and could have been hospitable to microbial life billions of years ago , the current environment at the surface is dry and subfreezing , probably presenting an insurmountable obstacle for living organisms . In addition , Mars lacks a thick atmosphere , ozone layer , and magnetic field , allowing solar and cosmic radiation to strike the surface unimpeded . The damaging effects of ionizing radiation on cellular structure is another one of the prime limiting factors on the survival of life on the surface . Therefore , the best potential locations for discovering life on Mars may be in subsurface environments . On November 22 , 2016 , NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice on the planet Mars -- the volume of water detected is equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior . Understanding water on Mars is vital to assess the planet 's potential for harboring life and for providing usable resources for future human exploration . For this reason , ` Follow the Water ' was the science theme of NASA 's Mars Exploration Program ( MEP ) in the first decade of the 21st century . Discoveries by the 2001 Mars Odyssey , Mars Exploration Rovers ( MERs ) , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) , and Mars Phoenix lander have been instrumental in answering key questions about water 's abundance and distribution on Mars . The ESA 's Mars Express orbiter has also provided essential data in this quest . The Mars Odyssey , Mars Express , MER Opportunity rover , MRO , and Mars Science Lander Curiosity rover are still sending back data from Mars , and discoveries continue to be made .", "HD 209458 b HD 209458 b ( sometimes unofficially called Osiris ) is an exoplanet that orbits the solar analog HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus , some 150 light-years from the Solar System . The radius of the planet 's orbit is 7 million kilometres , about 0.047 astronomical units , or one eighth the radius of Mercury 's orbit . This small radius results in a year that is 3.5 Earth days long and an estimated surface temperature of about 1,000 ° C ( about 1,800 ° F ) . Its mass is 220 times that of Earth ( 0.69 Jupiter masses ) and its volume is some 2.5 times greater than that of Jupiter . The high mass and volume of HD 209458 b indicate that it is a gas giant . HD 209458 b represents a number of milestones in extraplanetary research . It was the first of many categories : a transiting extrasolar planet the first planet detected through more than one method an extrasolar planet known to have an atmosphere an extrasolar planet observed to have an evaporating hydrogen atmosphere an extrasolar planet found to have an atmosphere containing oxygen and carbon one of the first two extrasolar planets to be directly observed spectroscopically the first extrasolar gas giant to have its superstorm measured the first planet to have its orbital speed measured , determining its mass directly . Based on the application of new , theoretical models , as of April 2007 , it is alleged to be the first extrasolar planet found to have water vapor in its atmosphere . In July , 2014 , NASA announced finding very dry atmospheres on HD 209458 b and two other exoplanets ( HD 189733 b and WASP-12b ) orbiting Sun-like stars .", "Saturn in fiction The picturesque planet Saturn is featured in numerous works of science fiction . Early works of science fiction used Saturn itself as a location for stories , but modern science has shown that the planet has no solid surface on which one could land , and that its atmosphere and temperature are hostile to human life . As a result , the Saturnian system as a whole , including its planetary rings and its extensive system of moons , is a more common setting for science fiction .", "HD 25171 HD 25171 is a star in the southern constellation of Reticulum , the reticle . With an apparent visual magnitude of 7.79 , this star is too faint to be viewed with the naked eye . However , it is readily visible through a small telescope from the southern hemisphere . Parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission place it at a distance of roughly 179 ly from Earth . It has a planetary companion that was announced December 2009 . Based upon its spectrum , this is an ordinary F-type main sequence star with a stellar classification of F8 V . It is slightly larger than the Sun , with 9 % more mass and an 18 % greater radius . As such , it is radiating 189 % of the Sun 's luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 6,160 K . This gives it the yellow-white hued glow of an F-type star . It appears to be roughly the same age as the Sun ; around four billion years . The planetary companion was discovered with the HARPS instrument , which measured the radial velocity displacement caused by the gravitational perturbation of the star by the planet . This data provided an orbital period of 1,845 days and set a lower bound of the planet 's mass at 95 % of the mass of Jupiter .", "Deforestation and climate change Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere ( CIRA ) is a scientific research institution at Colorado State University ( CSU ) that operates under a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) and the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) . Atmospheric research at CIRA focuses on augmenting operational meteorology with advanced techniques in satellite observations and retrievals , numerical modeling and computational techniques , and data analysis , visualization , and storage . Along with NOAA , CIRA also partners with the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) , the National Park Service ( NPS ) , and the Department of Defense ( DoD ) . It is one of 16 NOAA Cooperative Institutes ( CIs ) . Specific research themes at CIRA include : Satellite algorithm development , training and education Regional to global scale modeling systems Data assimilation Climate-weather processes Data distribution Societal and economic impacts of weather and climate Education and public outreach on climate systems The CIRA campus is located on the Foothills Campus of Colorado State University , in Fort Collins ." ]

[ "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Greenhouse A greenhouse ( also called a glasshouse , or , if with sufficient heating , a hothouse ) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material , such as glass , in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown . These structures range in size from small sheds to industrial-sized buildings . A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame . The interior of a greenhouse exposed to sunlight becomes significantly warmer than the external ambient temperature , protecting its contents in cold weather . Many commercial glass greenhouses or hothouses are high tech production facilities for vegetables or flowers . The glass greenhouses are filled with equipment including screening installations , heating , cooling , lighting , and may be controlled by a computer to optimize conditions for plant growth . Different techniques are then used to evaluate optimality-degrees and comfort ratio of greenhouse micro-climate ( i.e. , air temperature , relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit ) in order to reduce production risk prior to cultivation of a specific crop ." ]

[ "CO2 fertilization effect The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "Carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "Biosequestration Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal ( ECCO2R ) is the removal of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the bloodstream in people who have elevated levels of carbon dioxide as a result of respiratory failure . The use of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal is currently considered experimental , but it has been studied in a number of situations , specifically severe exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in adult respiratory distress syndrome where conventional mechanical ventilation would cause excessive lung damage . It requires the insertion of a tube similar to a dialysis catheter into a large vein . Blood is pumped through a machine where the carbon dioxide is filtered out .", "Carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "Carbon dioxide reforming Carbon dioxide reformation ( also known as dry reformation ) is a method of producing synthesis gas ( mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane . Synthesis gas is conventionally produced via the steam reforming reaction . In recent years , increased concerns on the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming have increased interest in the replacement of steam as reactant with carbon dioxide . The dry reforming reaction may be represented by : CO2 + CH4 → 2 H2 + 2 CO Thus , two greenhouse gases are consumed and useful chemical building blocks , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , are produced . A challenge to the commercialization of this process is that the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide . For example , the following reaction typically proceeds with a lower activation energy than the dry reforming reaction itself : CO2 + H2 → H2O + CO Typical catalysts are noble metals , Ni or Ni alloys . In addition , a group of researchers in China investigated the use of activated carbon as an alternative catalyst .", "Calcium reactor __ NOTOC __ In marine and reef aquariums , a calcium reactor creates a balance of alkalinity . An acidic solution is produced by injecting carbon dioxide into a chamber with salt water and calcium rich media . The carbon dioxide lowers the pH by producing a solution high in carbonic acid , and dissolves calcium . The effluent is returned to the reef aquarium where the calcium is consumed by organisms , primarily corals when building skeletons . A calcium reactor is an efficient method to supply calcium to a reef aquarium . Reactors may be used in elaborate freshwater and brackish aquariums where freshwater clams and other invertebrates need a constant supply of calcium . The reactor dissolves the calcium-laden media to provide bicarbonates HCO3 − ( alkalinity ) and calcium ( Ca + + ) ions at the sames rate as consumed during calcification . Effectively dissolving the media requires an acidic pH. Saltwater may have a pH of 7.8 or higher , so to reduce the pH carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) is used . The reaction formula is : CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 < -- -- > Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − Inside the reaction chamber , a calcium rich media ( aragonite ) , mainly CaCO3 , is forced into contact with water injected with carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in order to create carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This increases the solubility of the calcium carbonate . The reaction frees the calcium and carbonate , supplying the aquarium with water rich in Ca2 + and CO32 − , important for maintaining alkalinity and calcium levels . The bubble counter measures carbon dioxide . The flow rate of carbon dioxide is monitored so that the dissolved gas goes into the solution , with a minimum unconsumed . A needle valve or solenoid valve regulates the CO2 bubble rate . Valves with precise adjustment abilities improve bubble control . The feed pump controls the volume of water exchange . This is important because a high rate of water flow into the reactor reduces its efficiency , thus resulting in underproduction and a waste of CO2 . Some reactors siphon water into the input of the reactor 's re-circulation pump . A potential complication is the medium in the reactor becoming compacted , increasing back pressure onto the pump and reducing water into the reactor . Placing a gate or needle valve on the reactor 's outlet side will improve flow characteristics compared to control from the inlet side . A peristaltic pumps are effective operating against pressure , capable of supplying an adjustable and continuous flow over flow rates with minimal maintenance . The pH control is connected to a probe in the reactor and adjusts the rate at which the calcium media dissolves . This probe monitors the pH level in the calcium reactor . The pH range for the typical calcium reactor is 6.5 - 6.8 . When the pH rises above a certain level , a valve opens , allowing carbon dioxide to enter the reactor . The control closes the valve as the pH falls below this level . Some pH controllers have an interface for an air pump . This air pump is connected to an airstone in the sump or main tank . If the probe detects a low pH level , the pump activates . The bubbles raise the pH by dissipating the CO2 gas .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "Oceanic carbon cycle The oceans contain around 36,000 gigatons of carbon , mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion ( over 90 % , with most of the remainder being carbonate ) . At the surface of the oceans towards the poles , seawater becomes cooler and more carbonic acid is formed as CO2 becomes more soluble . This is coupled to the ocean 's thermohaline circulation which transports dense surface water into the ocean 's interior ( see the entry on the solubility pump ) . Although the deep ocean contains much more dissolved inorganic carbon than the surface ocean , the concentration is only 15 % higher in the deep ocean as compared to the surface ocean due to the higher volume of the deep ocean . In upper ocean areas of high biological productivity , organisms convert reduced carbon to tissues , or carbonates to hard body parts such as shells and tests . These are , respectively , oxidized ( soft-tissue pump ) and redissolved ( carbonate pump ) at lower average levels of the ocean than those at which they formed , resulting in a downward flow of carbon ( see entry on the biological pump ) . The flux or absorption of carbon dioxide into the world 's oceans is influenced by the presence of widespread viruses within ocean water , that infect many species of bacteria . The resulting bacterial deaths spawn a sequence of events that lead to greatly enlarged respiration of carbon dioxide , enhancing the role of the oceans as a carbon sink . The balance of dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) : dissolved organic carbon ( DOC ) : particle organic carbon is about 2000:38:1 . The CaCO3 counter pump increases the partial pressure of CO2 in the ocean , thus leading to higher outgasing of carbon dioxide . Higher ocean temperatures lead to stronger layering , thus less mixing and less capacity for thermohaline circulation to bring carbon into lower ocean layers . The weathering of silicate rock ( see carbonate-silicate cycle ) . Carbonic acid reacts with weathered rock to produce bicarbonate ions . The bicarbonate ions produced are carried to the ocean , where they are used to make marine carbonates . Unlike dissolved CO2 in equilibrium or tissues , which decay , weathering does not move the carbon into a reservoir from which it can readily return to the atmosphere . Much remains to be learned about the cycling of carbon in the deep ocean . For example , a recent discovery is that larvacean mucus houses ( commonly known as `` sinkers '' ) are created in such large numbers that they can deliver as much carbon to the deep ocean as has been previously detected by sediment traps . Because of their size and composition , these houses are rarely collected in such traps , so most biogeochemical analyses have erroneously ignored them . The amount of dissolved inorganic carbon in the ocean is significantly higher in the deep layer ( below 300 m depth ) . This is caused by the solubility pump and the biological pump .", "Carboxysome Carboxysomes are bacterial organelles consisting of polyhedral protein shells filled with the enzyme Ribulose-1 ,5 - biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase ( RuBisCO ) - the predominant enzyme in carbon fixation and the rate limiting enzyme in the Calvin Cycle-and a carbonic anhydrase . Carboxysomes are thought to have evolved as a consequence of the increase in oxygen concentration in the ancient atmosphere ; this is because oxygen is a competing substrate to carbon dioxide in the RuBisCO reaction . To overcome the inefficiency of RuBisCO , carboxysomes concentrate carbon dioxide inside the shell by means of co-localized carbonic anhydrase activity , which produces carbon dioxide from the bicarbonate that diffuses into the carboxysome . The resulting production of carbon dioxide near RuBisCO decreases the proportion of ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate oxygenation and thereby avoids costly photorespiratory reactions . The surrounding shell provides a barrier to carbon dioxide loss , helping to increase its concentration around RuBisCO . The carboxysome is an essential part of the carbon-concentrating mechanism ( CCM ) . Carboxysomes are the best studied example of a bacterial microcompartment ( BMC ) , the term for functionally diverse organelles that are alike in having a protein shell .", "Seawater greenhouse A seawater greenhouse is a greenhouse structure that enables the growth of crops in arid regions , using seawater and solar energy . The technique involves pumping seawater ( or allowing it to gravitate if below sea level ) to an arid location and then subjecting it to two processes : first , it is used to humidify and cool the air , and second , it is evaporated by solar heating and distilled to produce fresh water . Finally , the remaining humidified air is expelled from the greenhouse and used to improve growing conditions for outdoor plants . The technology was introduced by British inventor Charlie Paton in the early 1990s and is being developed by his UK company Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. . The more concentrated salt water may either be further evaporated for the production of salt and other elements , or discharged back to the sea . The seawater greenhouse is a response to the global water crisis and peak water .", "Bottle garden A bottle garden is a container similar to a terrarium in which plants are grown . They usually consist of a plastic or glass bottle with a narrow neck and a small opening . Plants are grown inside the bottle with little or no exposure to the outside environment , and can be contained indefinitely inside the bottle if properly illuminated . The oldest bottle garden in existence is alleged to have been planted in 1960 , and to have remained sealed from 1972 until at least 2013 .", "Scientific glassblowing Scientific glassblowing is a specialty field of glass blowing used in industry , science , art and design used in research and production . Scientific glassblowing has been used in chemical , pharmaceutical , electronic and physics research including Galileo 's thermometer , Thomas Edison 's light bulb , and vacuum tubes used in early radio , TV and computers . More recently , the field has helped advance fiber optics , lasers , atomic and subatomic particle research , advanced communications development and semiconductors . The field combined hand skills using lathes and torches with modern computer assisted furnaces , diamond grinding and lapping machines , lasers and ultra-sonic mills .", "Bio-geoengineering Bio-geoengineering is a form of climate engineering which seeks to use or modify plants or other living things to modify the Earth 's climate . Bio-energy with carbon storage , afforestation projects , and ocean nourishment ( including iron fertilization ) could be considered examples of bio-geoengineering . Biogenic aerosols can be grown to replace those beneficial aerosols lost as the result of the death of 50 % of Earth 's boreal forests . Agricultural production of atmospheric aerosols called `` monoterpenes '' is possible if crops that are rich in monoterpenes are grown .", "Greenhouse (car) The greenhouse ( or glasshouse ) of a car comprises the windshield , rear and side windows , the pillars separating them ( designated A-pillar , B-pillar and so on , starting from the car 's front ) , and the car 's roof . The shape and position of the greenhouse have a defining influence on the looks of the car and are a prime factor in differentiating between body styles such as saloon/sedan , coupé , estate/wagon and hatchback . In the 2000s and 2010s , greenhouses have become narrower because of design trends and crash regulations . Some manufacturers incorporate trademark design features in the greenhouse that are present across several model series , one example being the BMW Hofmeister kink .", "Haldane effect The Haldane effect is a property of hemoglobin first described by John Scott Haldane . Oxygenation of blood in the lungs displaces carbon dioxide from hemoglobin which increases the removal of carbon dioxide . This property is the Haldane effect . Conversely , oxygenated blood has a reduced affinity for carbon dioxide .", "EcoBot EcoBot is short for Ecological Robot and it refers to a class of energetically autonomous robots that can remain self-sustainable by collecting their energy from material , mostly waste matter , in the environment . The only by-product from this process is carbon dioxide , which would have been produced from the natural biodegradation of the fuel regardless . This carbon dioxide production belongs to the immediate carbon cycle of our planet and does not impose to the already increasing problem of the greenhouse effect .", "Solar gain Solar gain ( also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain ) refers to the increase in temperature ( heat gain ) in a space , object or structure that results from solar radiation . The amount of solar gain increases with the strength of the sunlight , and with the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation . Objects struck by sunlight absorb the short-wave radiation from the light and reradiate the heat at longer infrared wavelengths . Certain materials and substances , such as glass , are more transparent to the shorter wavelengths than the longer ; when the sun shines through such materials , the net result is an increase in temperature -- solar gain . This effect , the greenhouse effect , so called due to the solar gain that is experienced behind the glass of a greenhouse , has since become well known in the context of global warming .", "Carbon dioxide laser The carbon dioxide laser ( CO2 laser ) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed . It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964 , and is still one of the most useful . Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power continuous wave lasers that are currently available . They are also quite efficient : the ratio of output power to pump power can be as large as 20 % . The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared light with the principal wavelength bands centering on 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers ( μm ) .", "Hypoxic drive The hypoxic drive is a form of respiratory drive in which the body uses oxygen chemoreceptors instead of carbon dioxide receptors to regulate the respiratory cycle . Normal respiration is driven mostly by the levels of carbon dioxide in the arteries , which are detected indirectly by central chemoreceptors when carbon dioxide crosses the blood -- brain barrier , forming detectable hydrogen ions , and directly by peripheral chemoreceptors , and very little by the oxygen levels . An increase in carbon dioxide will cause chemoreceptor reflexes to trigger an increase in ventilation . Hypoxic drive normally accounts for 10 % of the total drive to breathe . This increases as the PaO2 drops to 70 torr and below , while hypoxic drive is no longer active when PaO2 exceeds 170 torr . The hypoxic drive is so weak that unconsciousness will develop before respiratory distress is noted and is therefore a risk for pilots flying at high altitudes . For this reason , supplemental oxygen is required by Federal Aviation Regulations for pilots flying above an altitude of about 12,500 feet in unpressurized airplanes . In the past , it was believed that in cases where there are chronically high carbon dioxide levels in the blood such as in COPD patients , the body will begin to rely more on the oxygen receptors and less on the carbon dioxide receptors . And that in this case , when there is an increase in oxygen levels the body will decrease the rate of respiration . Recent studies have proven that COPD patients who have chronically compensated elevated levels ( known as '' Retainers '' ) are not in fact dependent on hypoxic drive to breathe . However , when in respiratory failure and put on high inspired oxygen , the in their blood may increase via three mechanisms , namely the Haldane Effect , the ventilation/perfusion mismatch ( where the regional pulmonary hypoxic vasoconstriction is released ) and by the removal or reduction of the hypoxic drive itself .", "Hypercapnia Hypercapnia , also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention , is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in the blood . Carbon dioxide is a gaseous product of the body 's metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs . Hypercapnia normally triggers a reflex which increases breathing and access to oxygen ( O2 ) , such as arousal and turning the head during sleep . A failure of this reflex can be fatal , for example as a contributory factor in sudden infant death syndrome . Hypercapnia is the opposite of hypocapnia , the state of having abnormally reduced levels of carbon dioxide in the blood . The word is from the Greek hyper = `` above '' or `` too much '' and kapnos = `` smoke '' .", "Vertical farming Vertical farming is the practice of producing food and medicine in vertically stacked layers , vertically inclined surfaces and/or integrated in other structures ( such as in a skyscraper , used warehouse , or shipping container ) . The modern ideas of vertical farming use indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture ( CEA ) technology , where all environmental factors can be controlled . These facilities utilize artificial control of light , environmental control ( humidity , temperature , gases ... ) and fertigation . Some vertical farms use techniques similar to greenhouses , where natural sunlight can be augmented with artificial lighting and metal reflectors .", "Bohr effect The Bohr effect is a physiological phenomenon first described in 1904 by the Danish physiologist Christian Bohr , stating that haemoglobin 's oxygen binding affinity ( see Oxygen -- haemoglobin dissociation curve ) is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide . Since carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid , an increase in CO2 results in a decrease in blood pH , resulting in hemoglobin proteins releasing their load of oxygen . Conversely , a decrease in carbon dioxide provokes an increase in pH , which results in hemoglobin picking up more oxygen .", "Respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system , meaning that the arterial oxygen , carbon dioxide or both can not be kept at normal levels . A drop in the oxygen carried in blood is known as hypoxemia ; a rise in arterial carbon dioxide levels is called hypercapnia . Respiratory failure is classified as either Type I or Type II , based on whether there is a high carbon dioxide level . The definition of respiratory failure in clinical trials usually includes increased respiratory rate , abnormal blood gases ( hypoxemia , hypercapnia , or both ) , and evidence of increased work of breathing . The normal partial pressure reference values are : oxygen PaO2 more than 80 mmHg , and carbon dioxide PaCO2 lesser than 45 mmHg .", "Bicarbonate indicator A bicarbonate indicator ( hydrogencarbonate indicator ) is a type of pH indicator that is sensitive enough to show a color change as the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in an aqueous solution increases . The indicator is used in photosynthesis and respiration experiments to find out whether carbon dioxide is being liberated . It is also used to test the carbon dioxide content during gaseous exchange of organisms . When the carbon dioxide content is higher than 0.04 % , the initial red color changes to yellow as the pH becomes more acidic . If the carbon dioxide content is lower than 0.04 % , it changes from red to magenta and , in relatively very low carbon dioxide concentrations , to purple . Carbon dioxide , even in the concentrations found in exhaled air , will dissolve in the indicator to form carbonic acid , a weak acid , which will lower the pH and give the characteristic colour change . A colour change to purple during photosynthesis shows a reduction in the percentage of carbon dioxide and is sometimes inferred as production of oxygen , but there is not actually any direct evidence for it . Great care must be taken to avoid acidic or alkaline contamination of the apparatus in such experiments , since the test is not directly specific to carbon dioxide .", "Carbon dioxide scrubber A carbon dioxide scrubber is a device which absorbs carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . It is used to treat exhaust gases from industrial plants or from exhaled air in life support systems such as rebreathers or in spacecraft , submersible craft or airtight chambers . Carbon dioxide scrubbers are also used in controlled atmosphere ( CA ) storage . They have also been researched for carbon capture .", "Glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble ( or parison ) , with the aid of a blowpipe ( or blow tube ) . A person who blows glass is called a glassblower , glassmith , or gaffer . A lampworker manipulates glass with the use of a torch on a smaller scale , such as in producing precision laboratory glassware out of borosilicate glass .", "Cold frame In agriculture and gardening , a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure , built low to the ground , used to protect plants from adverse weather , primarily excessive cold or wet . The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via convection that would otherwise occur , particularly at night . Essentially , a cold frame functions as a miniature greenhouse to extend the growing season . Historically , cold frames were built to be used in addition to a heated greenhouse . The name itself exemplifies the distinction between the warm greenhouse and the unheated cold frame . They were frequently built as part of the greenhouse 's foundation brickwork along the southern wall ( in northern latitudes ) . This allowed seeds to be germinated in the greenhouse and then easily moved to the attached cold frame to be `` hardened-off '' before final planting outside . Cold frames are similar to some enclosed hotbeds , also called hotboxes . The difference is in the amount of heat generated inside . This is parallel to the way that some greenhouses are called `` hothouses '' to emphasize their higher temperature , achieved either by the solar effects alone or by auxiliary heating via a heater or HVAC system of some kind . Cold frames are found in home gardens and in vegetable farming . They create microclimates that provide several degrees of air and soil temperature insulation , and shelter from wind . In cold-winter regions , these characteristics allow plants to be started earlier in the spring , and to survive longer into the fall and winter . They are most often used for growing seedlings that are later transplanted into open ground , and can also be a permanent home to cold-hardy vegetables grown for autumn and winter harvest .", "Energy efficiency in agriculture ", "Building-integrated agriculture Building-integrated agriculture ( BIA ) is of the practice of locating high performance hydroponic greenhouse farming systems on and in mixed use buildings to exploit synergies between the built environment and agriculture . Typical characteristics of BIA installations include : recirculating hydroponics , waste heat captured from a building 's heating-ventilation-air condition system ( HVAC ) , solar photovoltaics or other forms of renewable energy , rainwater catchment systems , and evaporative cooling . The earliest example of BIA may have been the Hanging Gardens of Babylon around 600 BC . Modern examples include Eli Zabar 's rooftop greenhouse , The Sun Works Center for Environmental Studies , Gotham Greens , Sky Vegetables , Top Sprouts , Cityscape Farms , Dongtan , Masdar City , AeroFarms , Solar 2 , Lufa Farms , BrightFarms , and Big Box Farms . The term building-integrated agriculture was coined by Dr. Ted Caplow in a paper delivered at the 2007 Passive and Low Energy Cooling Conference in Crete , Greece .", "Climate-friendly gardening Climate-friendly gardening is gardening in ways which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming . To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it and the impact they have on land use and climate . It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap ." ]

[ "Retrogradation Retrogradation is the landward change in position of the front of a river delta with time . This occurs when the mass balance of sediment into the delta is such that the volume of incoming sediment is less than the volume of the delta that is lost through subsidence , sea-level rise , and/or erosion . As a result , retrogradation is most common : during periods of sea-level rise which results in marine transgression . This can occur during major periods of global warming and the melting of continental ice sheets . with extremely low sediment input .", "Arctic resources race The Arctic resources race refers to the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources in the Arctic . As the ice in the Arctic melts at a record rate and the sea ice extent continues to decrease due to global climate change , the Arctic waters become more navigable and Arctic resources -- such as oil and gas , minerals , fish , as well as tourism and new trade routes -- are becoming more accessible . Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea , five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic 's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones : Canada , Russia , Denmark , Norway , and the United States ( though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty , it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it ) . The Arctic region and its resources have recently been at the center of controversy and pose potential conflicts between nations that have differing opinions of how to manage the area , including conflicting territorial claims . In addition , the Arctic region is home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people . If the ice continues to melt at the current rate , then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced . The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole : melting ice releases methane , ice reflects incoming solar radiation , and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation ( albedo effect ) , heating up the water causing more ocean acidification , and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level .", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "Climate inertia Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "Ryssberget Ryssberget is a hill in the municipality of Sölvesborg , in the southeastern Swedish province of Blekinge . Ryssberget is made up of some of the oldest stone in Blekinge , so-called metavulcanites created about 1700 million years ago . As the ice age came to an end , the ice melted away creating the Baltic Glacier lake . This covered most of what is now mainland Blekinge and Scania . The highest level of the lake can be seen on Ryssberget and is called the highest coast line . As the glaciers continued to melt , land began to rise and this created in turn what is now the Baltic Sea .", "Ice2sea Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "Tipping points in the climate system A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "Konrad Steffen Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Global warming in Tuvalu Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "Canadian Arctic Archipelago The Canadian Arctic Archipelago , also known as the Arctic Archipelago , is a group of islands north of the Canadian mainland . Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about 1424500 km2 , this group of 36,563 islands in the Arctic Sea comprises much of the territory of Northern Canada -- most of Nunavut and part of the Northwest Territories . The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is showing some effects of global warming , with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm to the rise in sea levels by 2100 .", "James O'Brien (oceanographer) James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "Ice-albedo feedback Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "Jonathan M. Gregory Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "Duncan Wingham Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "Global warming in Antarctica The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "Besh Barmag Mountain Besh Barmag ( Beş Barmaq ) literally translated as Five Finger Mountain , is in Siazan District of Azerbaijan , not far from the Caspian Sea . It rises to 382 m above the sea level overlooking the Baku-Quba Highway . The mountain is a solid rock and is one of the most famous mountains in the Caucasus , known for its mythical stories . It is a sacred place for regular visitation by pilgrims . Tide marks on the mount attest to meltwater inundation from the northern glacial ice caps and date back to the end of the last ice age . The tidelines confirm the theory of a Holocene outflow of meltwater from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea , rather than a direct incursion of sea water into the Black Sea as a result of global sea level rise . Estimates of the increase in Caspian Sea level height are between + 20 and 30 meters .", "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "Exodus (Bertagna novel) Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 . Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith . The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .", "Meltwater pulse 1A Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "Paleoflooding The phenomenon of paleoflooding is apparent in the geologic record over various spatial and temporal scales . It often occurred on a large scale , and was the result of either glacial ice melt causing large outbursts of freshwater , or high sea levels breaching bodies of freshwater . If a freshwater outflow event was large enough that the water reached the ocean system , it caused changes in salinity that potentially affected ocean circulation and global climate . Freshwater flows could also accumulate to form continental glacial lakes , and this is another indicator of large-scale flooding . In contrast , periods of high global sea level ( often during interglacials ) could cause marine water to breach natural dams and flow into bodies of freshwater . Changes in salinity of freshwater and marine bodies can be detected from the analysis of organisms that inhabited those bodies at a given time , as certain organisms are more suited to live in either fresh or saline conditions .", "Bentley Subglacial Trench Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land , West Antarctica , 80 ° S , 115 ° W . At 2,555 meters ( 8,382 ft ) below sea level , it is the lowest point on the surface of the earth not covered by ocean , although it is covered by ice . Normally , it is not counted as the lowest point on land , since the overlying ice sheet makes it essentially subterranean . ( See Extremes on Earth and Vestfold Hills ) Also , if the ice melted , the area would be under water . The trench was named in 1961 after Charles R. Bentley who was the geophysicist in charge of the scientific expeditions in West Antarctica in 1957 -- 59 that led to its discovery .", "Calvert, Queensland Calvert is a suburb of Ipswich , Queensland , Australia . At the 2011 Australian Census the suburb recorded a population of 281 . The Main Line railway passes through Calvert as does Western Creek , a tributary of the Bremer River . A 2014 flood mapping study of the Western Creek catchment has provided more reliable flood information to residents and landowners . In the northern extents elevations rise to 340 metres above sea level around Mount Grandchester No. 2 . which is part of the Little Liverpool Range . The landscape in the southern parts of Calvert is mostly used for agriculture .", "Flandrian interglacial The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the name given by geologists and archaeologists in the British Isles to the first , and so far only , stage of the Holocene epoch ( the present geological period ) , covering the period from around 12,000 years ago , at the end of the last glacial period to the present day . As such , it is in practice identical in span to the Holocene . Present climatological theory ( based on analysis of Milankovitch cycles ) forecasts that the present Flandrian climate should decline in temperature towards a global climate similar to that of the ice age . Less orbital eccentricity may have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn . The Flandrian began as the relatively short-lived Younger Dryas climate downturn came to an end . This formed the last gasp of the Devensian glaciation , the final stage of the Pleistocene epoch and is traditionally seen as the latest warm interglacial in a series that has been occurring throughout the Quaternary geological period . The first part of the Flandrian , known as the Younger Atlantic , was a period of fairly rapid sea level rise , known as the Flandrian transgression and associated with the melting of the Fenno-Scandian , Scottish , Laurentide and Cordilleran glaciers . Fjords were formed during the Flandrian transgression when U-shaped glaciated valleys were inundated with water .", "Ice rise An ice rise is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise totally flat ice shelf , typically dome-shaped and rising 100 to 200 metres above the surrounding ice shelf . An ice rise forms where the ice shelf touches the rocky seabed because of an elevation in the seabed that remains below sea level . ( In contrast , an elevation in the seabed that extends above sea level is defined as an island ) . The ice shelf flows over the seabed elevation , completely covering it with ice , thereby forming an ice rise . The resulting tension forms crevasses around the ice rise . An island within and totally covered by the ice shelf , may appear the exactly the same as an ice rise . Elaborate measurements may be required to distinguish between these two geographic features . Although ice rises are typically located within the ice shelf area , they can partially face the open sea . Ice rises are found only on the ice shelves of Antarctica . The largest ice rises exceed dimensions of 50 by 200 km , or 10 000 km ² in area . Some ice rises are incorrectly called islands , but also a few totally ice-covered islands within an ice shelf are also called ice rises . Ice rises , grouped by ice shelf , clockwise starting in East Antarctica : Brunt Ice Shelf McDonald Ice Rumples Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Lyddan Island King Baudouin Ice Shelf Derwael Ice Rise Amery Ice Shelf Budd Ice Rumples IR1 to IR5 near the ice front Shackleton Ice Shelf Green Ice Rises ( the northernmost ice rise , at 66 ° 21 'S ) Harrisson Ice Rises Ross Ice Shelf Crary Ice Rise ( the southernmost ice rise , at 82 ° 56 'S ) Crosson Ice Shelf Davis Ice Rise Bach Ice Shelf Burgess Ice Rise Dvořák Ice Rise Ives Ice Rise Landy Ice Rises George VI Ice Shelf Martin Ice Rise Wilkins Ice Shelf Petrie Ice Rises Schaus Ice Rises Vere Ice Rise Wordie Ice Shelf Coker Ice Rise Linchpin Ice Rise Miller Ice Rise Napier Ice Rise Reynolds Ice Rise Wade Ice Rise Müller Ice Shelf Humphreys Ice Rise Larsen-C Ice Shelf Bawden Ice Rise Gipps Ice Rise Tharp Ice Rise Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Berkner Island Korff Ice Rise Henry Ice Rise Fowler Ice Rise Skytrain Ice Rise Doake Ice Rumples Dott Ice Rise Fletcher Ice Rise Hemmen Ice Rise Kealey Ice Rise Kershaw Ice Rumples Henry and Korff Ice Rises are the largest ice rises , with areas of roughly 1 500 to 1 600 km ² .", "Ice sock An ice sock is a sock filled with ice , used by cyclists participating in brevets ( long-distance rides ) to avoid overheating . A white athletic sock is filled with ice , which the cyclist drapes around his/her neck . This is a low-cost and effective method to keep the cyclist 's temperature in check and prevent overheating . Other mentions of ice socks include cold weather sock products to offer feet protection against cold weather , as well as ice melt socks to prevent ice dams on roofs .", "Bann drainage The Lower River Bann flows from Lough Neagh , the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles , for 60 km ( 35 miles ) , to the Barmouth between Castlerock and Portstewart , where it discharges into the sea . From the end of the last ice age , Lough Neagh has flowed along this natural valley , but a couple of constrictions controlled the flow and led to large fluctuations in the water level along the shoreline , disrupting farming activities on a large scale . The drainage and navigation system has been significantly modified twice in the last couple of centuries to increase the reliability of farmland .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "Kame delta A kame delta ( or ice-contact delta , morainic delta ) is a glacial landform formed by a stream of melt water flowing through or around a glacier and depositing material , known as kame ( stratified sequence of sediments ) deposits . Upon entering a proglacial lake at the end ( terminus ) of a glacier , the river/stream deposit these sediments . This landform can be observed after the glacier has melted and the delta 's asymmetrical triangular shape is visible . Once the glacier melts , the edges of the delta may subside as ice under it melts . Glacial till is deposited on the lateral sides of the delta , as the glacier melts .", "Global change Global change refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system . The system consists of the land , oceans , atmosphere , polar regions , life , the planet 's natural cycles and deep Earth processes . These constituent parts influence one another . The Earth system now includes human society , so global change also refers to large-scale changes in society . More completely , the term `` global change '' encompasses : population , climate , the economy , resource use , energy development , transport , communication , land use and land cover , urbanization , globalization , atmospheric circulation , ocean circulation , the carbon cycle , the nitrogen cycle , the water cycle and other cycles , sea ice loss , sea-level rise , food webs , biological diversity , pollution , health , over fishing , and more .", "Ritacuba Blanco Ritacuba Blanco is the highest peak of Cordillera Oriental , in the Andes Mountains of Colombia . It 's also named Ritak ` uwa , an ancient name from the U'wa indigenous people that live in the lowlands of the National Park Sierra Nevada del Cocuy y Güicán , where the Ritacuba Blanco is located . The summit is accessible from the west via the town of El Cocuy , the village of Güicán and the hamlet of Las Cabañas . The hike is fairly easy , but weather is not reliable , and a glacier must be crossed . Because of global warming , its glacier is melting at very high rates , backing down 25 linear mts per year ; same is happening at amazing speeds to all other snow-covered tropical mountains in Colombia . In 1950 , Ritacuba Blanco 's glacier extended down to 4,500 m above sea level ; in January 2007 its lowest point was at 4,800 m above sea level . If this melting rate continues , the glacier is expected to disappear before 2025 .", "Nils-Axel Mörner Nils-Axel Mörner ( born 1938 ) , is the former head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics department at Stockholm University . He retired in 2005 . He was president of the International Union for Quaternary Research ( INQUA ) Commission on Neotectonics ( 1981 -- 1989 ) . He headed the INTAS ( International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union ) Project on Geomagnetism and Climate ( 1997 -- 2003 ) . He is a critic of the IPCC and the notion that the global sea level is rising . He was formerly the Chairman of INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution , and led the Maldives Sea Level Project ." ]

[ "Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world 's five major oceans . The International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) recognizes it as an ocean , although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea , classifying it a mediterranean sea or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . Alternatively , the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean . Located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere , the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America . It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter . The Arctic Ocean 's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes ; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans , due to low evaporation , heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams , and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities . The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50 % . The US National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years .", "Arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity . The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer , reaches a minimum around mid-September , then increases during fall and winter . Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50 % of winter cover . Some of the ice survives from one year to the next . Currently 28 % of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice , thicker than seasonal ice : up to 3 - thick over large areas , with ridges up to 20 m thick . As well as the regular seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades .", "Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification ." ]

[ "Antarctic sea ice Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "Arctic dipole anomaly The Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America , and a low pressure on the Eurasia region . This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation . It was observed for the first time in the first decade of 2000s and is perhaps linked to recent climate change . The Arctic dipole lets more southern winds into the Arctic ocean resulting in more ice melting . The summer 2007 event played an important role in the record low sea ice extent which was recorded in September . The Arctic dipole has also been linked to changes in arctic circulation patterns that cause drier winters in Northern Europe , but much wetter winters in Southern Europe and colder winters in East Asia , Europe and the eastern half of North America .", "Arctic The Arctic ( -LSB- ˈɑrktɪk -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɑrtɪk -RSB- ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth . The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ) , Canada , Finland , Greenland ( Denmark ) , Iceland , Norway , Russia and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places . The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth 's ecosystems . For example , the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions . In recent years , Arctic sea ice decline has been caused by global warming . Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice , zooplankton and phytoplankton , fish and marine mammals , birds , land animals , plants and human societies . Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic .", "Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 The Great Arctic Cyclone , or `` Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 , '' was an extratropical cyclone which centered on the Arctic Ocean in early August , 2012 . Such storms are rare in the Arctic summer , although common in the winter . The Great Arctic Cyclone was the strongest summer storm and the 13th strongest storm observed at any time since satellite observations began in 1979 . Although the Great Arctic Cyclone did not cause the record melting of sea ice which occurred in 2012 , turbulence resulting from the storm is believed to have contributed to melting of sea ice due to the rise of warmer saltier water from below .", "Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "2013 extreme weather events The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "Measurement of sea ice Measurement of sea ice is important for safety of navigation and for monitoring the environment , particularly the climate . Sea ice extent interacts with large climate patterns such as the North Atlantic oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation , to name just two , and influences climate in the rest of the globe . The amount of sea ice coverage in the arctic has been of interest for centuries , as the Northwest Passage was of high interest for trade and seafaring . There is a longstanding history of records and measurements of some effects of the sea ice extent , but comprehensive measurements were sparse till the 1950s and started with the satellite era in the late 1970s . Modern direct records include data about ice extent , ice area , concentration , thickness , and the age of the ice . The current trends in the records show a significant decline in Northern hemisphere sea ice and a small but statistically significant increase in the winter Southern hemisphere sea ice . Furthermore , current research comprises and establishes extensive sets of multi-century historical records of arctic and subarctic sea ice and uses , among others high-resolution paleo-proxy sea-ice records . The arctic sea ice is a dynamic climate-system component and is linked to the Atlantic multidecadal variability and the historical climate over various decades . There are circular changes of sea ice patterns but so far no clear patterns based on modeling predictions .", "Arctic resources race The Arctic resources race refers to the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources in the Arctic . As the ice in the Arctic melts at a record rate and the sea ice extent continues to decrease due to global climate change , the Arctic waters become more navigable and Arctic resources -- such as oil and gas , minerals , fish , as well as tourism and new trade routes -- are becoming more accessible . Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea , five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic 's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones : Canada , Russia , Denmark , Norway , and the United States ( though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty , it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it ) . The Arctic region and its resources have recently been at the center of controversy and pose potential conflicts between nations that have differing opinions of how to manage the area , including conflicting territorial claims . In addition , the Arctic region is home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people . If the ice continues to melt at the current rate , then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced . The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole : melting ice releases methane , ice reflects incoming solar radiation , and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation ( albedo effect ) , heating up the water causing more ocean acidification , and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level .", "Polar seas Polar seas is a collective term for the Arctic Ocean ( about 4-5 percent of Earth 's oceans ) and the southern part of the Southern Ocean ( south of Antarctic Convergence , about 10 percent of Earth 's oceans ) . In the coldest years , sea ice can cover around 13 percent of the Earth 's total surface at its maximum , but out of phase in the two hemispheres . The polar seas contain a huge biome with many organisms . Among the species that inhabit various polar seas and surrounding land areas are polar bear , penguin , reindeer ( caribou ) , muskox , wolverine , ermine , lemming , Arctic hare , Arctic ground squirrel , whale , harp seal , and walrus . These species have unique adaptations to the extreme conditions . Many might be endangered if they can not adapt to changing conditions . Contrary to popular opinion , the World Wildlife Fund studies for polar bears show that this species has prospered since 1950 , attaining five times the numbers found in 1950 . In general , Arctic ecosystems are relatively fragile and slow to recover from serious damage .", "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Arctic vegetation In the Arctic , the low tundra vegetation clothes a landscape of wide vistas , lit by the low-angle light characteristic of high latitudes . Much of the Arctic shows little impact from human activities , making it one of the few places on earth one can see intac ecosystems . Arctic plants are adapted to short , cold growing seasons . They have the ability to withstand extremely cold temperatures in the winter ( winter hardiness ) , but what is even more important is the ability to be able to function in limiting summer conditions . Arctic plants have a compressed growing season : they initiate growth rapidly in the spring , and flower and set seed much sooner than plants that grow in warmer conditions . Their peak metabolic rate also occurs at a much lower temperature than plants from farther south . Compact cushions of vegetation keep the plants close to the warm soil and shield the tender central growing shoot . The height of Arctic plants is also governed by snow depth . Plants that protrude above the snow are subject to strong winds , blowing snow , and being eaten by caribou , muskox , or ptarmigan . Mosses and lichens are common in the Arctic . These plants have the ability to stop growth at any time and resume it promptly when conditions improve . They can even survive being covered by snow and ice for over a year .", "Wiesław Masłowski Wiesław Masłowski is a research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey , California since 2009 . He obtained his MS from the University of Gdańsk in 1987 , and his PhD from the University of Alaska , Fairbanks in 1994 with a dissertation entitled `` Numerical modeling study of the circulation of the Greenland Sea '' . He became well known in 2007 for stating that the Arctic Ocean might be nearly ice free in the summer as early as 2013 , based on projection of the declining ice volume trend . While later revised to 2016 + / - 3 years based on computer modeling , this prediction became controversial when the Arctic was not sea-ice free in 2013 , having increased from the record low set in 2012 .", "Lincoln Sea Lincoln Sea is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean , stretching from Cape Columbia , Canada , in the west to Cape Morris Jesup , Greenland , in the east . The northern limit is defined as the great circle line between those two headlands . It is covered with sea ice throughout the year , the thickest sea ice in the Arctic Ocean , which can be up to 15 m thick . Water depths range from 100 m to 300 m. Water and ice from Lincoln Sea empty into Robeson Channel , the northernmost part of Nares Strait , most of the time . The sea was named after Robert Todd Lincoln , then United States Secretary of War , on Adolphus W. Greely 's 1881 -- 1884 Arctic expedition into Lady Franklin Bay . Alert , the northernmost station of Canada , is the only populated place on the shore of Lincoln Sea . The body of water to the east of Lincoln Sea ( east of Cape Morris Jesup ) is Wandel Sea .", "Ice-albedo feedback Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya ( Се́верная Земля́ ( Northern Land ) , -LSB- ˈsʲevʲɪrnəjə zʲɪˈmlʲa -RSB- ) is a 37,000 km2 archipelago in the Russian high Arctic . It lies off Siberia 's Taymyr Peninsula , separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait . This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean , the Kara Sea in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east . The largest glacier in the Russian Federation , the Academy of Sciences Glacier , is located in Severnaya Zemlya . Severnaya Zemlya was first noted in 1913 and first charted in 1930 -- 32 , making it the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be explored . Administratively , the islands form part of Russia 's Krasnoyarsk Krai federal subject . In Soviet times there were a number of research stations in different locations , but currently there are no human inhabitants in Severnaya Zemlya except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov . Severnaya Zemlya is notable in connection with the ongoing multi-year Arctic sea ice decline . Until recently , ice joined the islands to Eurasia even at its smallest extent during the late summer melt season , blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific . By the late summer of 2012 , however , the permanent ice had reached a record low extent and open water appeared to the north of the archipelago .", "Lead–lag effect A lead -- lag effect , especially in economics , describes the situation where one ( leading ) variable is cross-correlated with the values of another ( lagging ) variable at later times . In nature and climate , bigger systems often display more pronounced lag effects . The Arctic Sea Ice minimum is on September 17 , three months after the peak in daylight ( sunshine ) hours in the northern hemisphere , according to NASA . For example , economists have found that in some circumstances there is a lead-lag effect between large-capitalization and small-capitalization stock-portfolio prices . ( A loosely related concept is that of lead-lag compensators in control theory , but this is not generally referred to specifically as a `` lead-lag effect . '' )", "Ringed seals and climate change Ringed seals are the smallest and most abundant member of the seal family that live in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions . The average life span of a ringed seal is 40 years , with a diet based mainly on Arctic cod and planktonic crustaceans . Typically about 5 ft long , the ringed seal is known to be solitary with their main predator being polar bears . Recently , however , the biggest predator to ringed seals has been the changing temperature in the Arctic and the detrimental changes to sea ice that follow . With declines in snowpack and sea ice due to warming ocean and atmospheric temperatures , survival has become tougher for ringed seals in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions . Yet ringed seals are also potentially projected to thrive due to warming , considering the early extinction of their predators . Climate change is sure to change the fate of all ringed seals in the coming years for better or worse .", "Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "Drift ice Drift ice is any sea ice other than fast ice , the latter being attached ( `` fastened '' ) to the shoreline or other fixed objects ( shoals , grounded icebergs , etc. ) . Drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents , hence its name . When drift ice is driven together into a large single mass ( > 70 % coverage ) , it is called pack ice . Wind and currents can pile up that ice to form ridges up to several metres in height . These represent a challenge for icebreakers and offshore structures operating in cold oceans and seas . Drift ice consists of floes , individual pieces of sea ice 20 m or more across . There are names for various floe sizes : small -- 20 m to 100 m ; medium -- 100 m to 500 m ; big -- 500 m to 2000 m ; vast -- 2 km to 10 km ; and giant -- more than 10 km . Seasonal ice drift in the Sea of Okhotsk by the northern coast of Hokkaidō , Japan has become a tourist attraction of this area with harsh climate , and is one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan . The Sea of Okhotsk is the southernmost area in the Northern hemisphere where drift ice may be observed . Drift ice affects : Security of navigation Climatic impact ( see Polar ice packs ) Geological impact Biosphere influence ( see Ecology of sea ice ) The two major ice packs are the Arctic ice pack and the Antarctic ice pack . The most important areas of pack ice are the polar ice packs formed from seawater in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs significantly change their size during seasonal changes of the year . Because of vast amounts of water added to or removed from the oceans and atmosphere , the behavior of polar ice packs has a significant impact on global changes in climate .", "Dry Spell A dry spell is a weather condition", "Markgama Island Markgama , or Markham Island ( Остров Маркгама , literally `` Island of Markham '' ) is a small , isolated island in the southern region of the Kara Sea off the Sorevnovaniya Bay . This island has only sparse tundra vegetation and it is covered with snow most of the year . The coast of the Taymyr Peninsula is located 15 km to the southeast . The island 's length is only 2 km and its maximum width 1.5 km . The sea surrounding it is covered with pack ice with some polynias in the long winter and there are many ice floes even in the summer . Markgama belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation . It is also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve -- the largest nature reserve of Russia and one of the biggest in the world .", "North American Arctic The North American Arctic comprises the northern portions of Alaska ( USA ) , Northern Canada and Greenland . Major bodies of water include the Arctic Ocean , Hudson Bay , the Gulf of Alaska and North Atlantic Ocean . The western limit is the Seward Peninsula and the Bering Strait . The southern limit is the Arctic Circle latitude of 66 ° 33 'N , which is the approximate limit of the midnight sun and the polar night . The region is defined by environmental limits where the average temperature for the warmest month ( July ) is below 10 C . The northernmost tree line roughly follows the isotherm at the boundary of this region . The area has tundra and polar vegetation .", "Global warming taxes ", "Sea ice thickness Sea ice thickness spatial extent , and open water within ice packs can vary rapidly in response to weather and climate . Sea ice concentration are measured by satellites , with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder ( SSMIS ) , and the European Space Agency 's Cryosat-2 satellite to map the thickness and shape of the Earth 's polar ice cover . The sea ice volume is calculated with the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System ( PIOMAS ) , which blends satellite-observed data , such as sea ice concentrations into model calculations to estimate sea ice thickness and volume . Sea ice thickness determines a number of important fluxes such as heat flux between the air and ocean surface -- see below -- as well as salt and fresh water fluxes between the ocean since saline water ejects much of its salt content when frozen -- see sea ice growth processes . It is also important for navigators on icebreakers since there is an upper limit to the thickness of ice any ship can sail through .", "Baffin Bay Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut : Saknirutiak Imanga ; Avannaata Imaa Baie de Baffin ) , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland , is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean . It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea . The narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean . The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice and icebergs in the open areas . However , a polynya of about 80,000 km2 , known as the North Water , opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound . Most of the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region .", "Polar climate The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Every month in a polar climate has an average temperature of less than 10 C. Regions with polar climate cover more than 20 % of the Earth . The sun shines for long hours in the summer , and for many fewer hours in the winter . A polar climate results in treeless tundra , glaciers , or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice . It has cool summers and very cold winters .", "East Siberian Sea The East Siberian Sea ( Russian : -LSB- Восто́чно - Сиби́рское мо́ре , r = Vostochno-Sibirskoye more -RSB- ) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean . It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north , the coast of Siberia to the south , the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings , close to Chukotka , and Wrangel Island to the east . This sea borders on the Laptev Sea to the west and the Chukchi Sea to the east . This sea is one of the least studied in the Arctic area . It is characterized by severe climate , low water salinity , and a scarcity of flora , fauna and human population , as well as shallow depths ( mostly less than 50 m ) , slow sea currents , low tides ( below 25 cm ) , frequent fogs , especially in summer , and an abundance of ice fields which fully melt only in August -- September . The sea shores were inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of Yukaghirs , Chukchi and then Evens and Evenks , which were engaged in fishing , hunting and reindeer husbandry . They were then absorbed by Yakuts and later by Russians . Major industrial activities in the area are mining and navigation within the Northern Sea Route ; commercial fishing is poorly developed . The largest city and port is Pevek , the northernmost city of mainland Russia .", "Cloud albedo ", "Water sky Water sky is a phenomenon that is closely related to ice blink . It forms in regions with large areas of ice and low-lying clouds and so is limited mostly to the extreme northern and southern sections of earth , in Antarctica and in the Arctic . When light hits the blue oceans or seas , some of it bounces back and enables the observer to physically see the water . However , some of the light also is reflected back up on to the bottoms of low-lying clouds and causes a dark spot to appear underneath some clouds . These clouds may be visible when the seas are not and can show alert and knowledgeable travelers the general direction of water . The dark clouds over open water have long been used by polar explorers and scientists to navigate in sea ice . For example , Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his assistant Hjalmar Johansen used the phenomenon to find lanes of water in their failed expedition to the North Pole as did Bernacchi and Sir Douglas Mawson in the Antarctica .", "Predictand ", "Saint Peter Islands The Saint Peter Islands , also known as Saint Petra Islands or Petra Islands ( Острова Петра , Ostrova Petra ) are two islands covered with tundra vegetation , shingle and ice . These islands , as well as some other islands nearby ( Ostrova Andreia , Ostrov Pavla ) were originally named after Christian Apostles . The climate is Arctic and severe with frequent blizzards in the winter . The sea surrounding these Islands is covered with fast ice most of the year and is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer , so that these islands are merged with the mainland and animals can go across the ice . This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of Russia . None of these islands have had much historical importance , except for the fact that they are located very close to the Northern Sea Route .", "Strandflat Strandflat is the low land on the coast and the near coast bottom of sea , typical for the landscape of the Norwegian coast . This landform is created in the Quaternary Period , and it is only to be found in arctic and antarctic areas that has been or is covered by ice , for instance Greenland and Svalbard . Strandflat is a geomorphological word of Norwegian origin , and is used in geology and geography ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems ." ]

[ "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "Global Sea Level Observing System The Global Sea Level Observing System ( GLOSS ) is an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission program whose purpose is to measure sea level globally for long-term climate change studies . The program 's purpose has changed since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the program now collects realtime measurements of sea level . The project is currently upgrading the over 290 stations it currently runs , so that they can send realtime data via satellite to newly set up national tsunami centres . They are also fitting the stations with solar panels so they can continue to operate even if the mains power supply is interrupted by severe weather . The Global Sea Level Observing System does not compete with Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis as most GLOSS transducers are located close to land masses while DART 's transducers are far out in the ocean .", "Marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "Tide gauge A tide gauge ( also known as mareograph or marigraph , as well as sea-level recorder ) is a device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a datum . Sensors continuously record the height of the water level with respect to a height reference surface close to the geoid . Water enters the device by the bottom pipe ( far end of the tube , see picture ) , and electronic sensors measure its height and send the data to a tiny computer . Historical data are available for about 1,450 stations worldwide , of which about 950 provided updates to the global data center since January 2010 . At some places records cover centuries , for example in Amsterdam where data dating back to 1700 is available . When it comes to estimating the greater ocean picture , new modern tide gauges can often be improved upon by using satellite data . Tide gauges are used to measure tides and quantify the size of tsunamis . The measurements make it possible to derive the mean sea level . Using this method , sea level slopes up to several 0.1 m/1000 km and more have been detected . A tsunami can be detected when the sea level begins to rise , although warnings from seismic activity can be more useful .", "James O'Brien (oceanographer) James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "Global warming in Tuvalu Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "Meltwater pulse 1A Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "Besh Barmag Mountain Besh Barmag ( Beş Barmaq ) literally translated as Five Finger Mountain , is in Siazan District of Azerbaijan , not far from the Caspian Sea . It rises to 382 m above the sea level overlooking the Baku-Quba Highway . The mountain is a solid rock and is one of the most famous mountains in the Caucasus , known for its mythical stories . It is a sacred place for regular visitation by pilgrims . Tide marks on the mount attest to meltwater inundation from the northern glacial ice caps and date back to the end of the last ice age . The tidelines confirm the theory of a Holocene outflow of meltwater from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea , rather than a direct incursion of sea water into the Black Sea as a result of global sea level rise . Estimates of the increase in Caspian Sea level height are between + 20 and 30 meters .", "Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "Ice2sea Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "Rising Tide Rising Tide ( s ) or The Rising Tide may refer to :", "Gjesværstappan Gjesværstappan is a group of high , steep-sided , grass-covered islands which are located north of the village of Gjesvær in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county , Norway . The three main islands are Storstappen , Kjerkestappen , and Bukkstappen . Storstappan rises to a height of 283 m above sea level and has a peninsula called Stauren that rises to 165 m. Kjerkestappen rises to an elevation of 166 m above sea level and Bukkstappen rises to 92 m above sea level . Historically , there were people that lived on the islands and there was a church on Kjerkestappen .", "Raised shoreline A raised shoreline is an ancient shoreline exposed above current water level . These landforms are formed by a relative change in sea level due to global sea level rise , isostatic rebound , and/or tectonic uplift . These surfaces are usually exposed above modern sea level when a heavily glaciated area experiences a glacial retreat , causing water levels to rise . This area will then experience post-glacial rebound , effectively raising the shoreline surface . Examples of raised shorelines can be found along the coasts of formerly glaciated areas in Ireland and Scotland , as well as in North America . Raised shorelines are exposed at various locations around the Puget Sound of Washington State .", "Demographic gravitation Demographic gravitation is a concept of `` social physics '' , introduced by Princeton University astrophysicist John Quincy Stewart in 1947 . It is an attempt to use equations and notions of classical physics - such as gravity - to seek simplified insights and even laws of demographic behaviour for large numbers of human beings . A basic conception within it is that large numbers of people , in a city for example , actually behave as an attractive force for other people to migrate there , hence the notion of demographic gravitation . It has been related to W. J. Reilly 's law of retail gravitation , George Kingsley Zipf 's Demographic Energy , and to the theory of Trip distribution through gravity models Trip distribution #Gravity model . Writing in the journal Sociometry , Stewart set out an `` agenda for social physics . '' Comparing the microscopic versus macroscopic viewpoints in the methodology of formulating physical laws , he made an analogy with the social sciences : Fortunately for physics , the macroscopic approach was the commonsense one , and the early investigators - Boyle , Charles , Gay-Lussac - were able to establish the laws of gases . The situation with respect to `` social physics '' is reversed ... If Robert Boyle had taken the attitude of many social scientists , he would not have been willing to measure the pressure and volume of a sample of air until an encyclopedic history of its molecules had been compiled . Boyle did not even know that air contained argon and helium but he found a very important law . Stewart proceeded to apply Newtonian formulae of gravitation to that of `` the average interrelations of people '' on a wide geographic scale , elucidating such notions as `` the demographic force of attraction , '' demographic energy , force , potential and gradient .", "History of statistics The history of statistics can be said to start around 1749 although , over time , there have been changes to the interpretation of the word statistics . In early times , the meaning was restricted to information about states . This was later extended to include all collections of information of all types , and later still it was extended to include the analysis and interpretation of such data . In modern terms , `` statistics '' means both sets of collected information , as in national accounts and temperature records , and analytical work which requires statistical inference . Statistical activities are often associated with models expressed using probabilities , and require probability theory for them to be put on a firm theoretical basis : see History of probability . A number of statistical concepts have an important impact on a wide range of sciences . These include the design of experiments and approaches to statistical inference such as Bayesian inference , each of which can be considered to have their own sequence in the development of the ideas underlying modern statistics .", "Jonathan M. Gregory Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "Climate change in Tuvalu Global warming (recent climate change) is particularly threatening in Tuvalu. This is because the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) above sea level. Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery. Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), although the changes were not uniform, with 74% of land increasing in size and 27% of land decreasing in size. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has risen at 3.9 mm per year, which is approximately twice the global average.Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to be significantly impacted by rising sea levels. Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Research from the University of Auckland suggests that Tuvalu may remain habitable over the next century. However, as of March 2018, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga stated that Tuvalu is not expanding and has gained no additional habitable land. Sopoaga has also said that evacuating the islands is the last resort.", "Climate inertia Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "Standard sea level Standard sea level ( SSL ) ( also known as sea level standard ( SLS ) ) defines a set of conditions for physical calculations . The term `` standard sea level '' is used to indicate that values of properties are to be taken to be the same as those standard at sea level , and is done to define values for use in general calculations .", "1880 in science The year 1880 in science and technology included many events , some of which are listed here .", "Duncan Wingham Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "Meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics , with a major focus on weather forecasting . The study of meteorology dates back millennia , though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century . The 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions . Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data . It was n't until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and , more particularly , the development of the computer , allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather , in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved . Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events that are explained by the science of meteorology . Meteorological phenomena are described and quantified by the variables of Earth 's atmosphere : temperature , air pressure , water vapor , mass flow , and the variations and interactions of those variables , and how they change over time . Different spatial scales are used to describe and predict weather on local , regional , and global levels . Meteorology , climatology , atmospheric physics , and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences . Meteorology and hydrology compose the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology . The interactions between Earth 's atmosphere and its oceans are part of a coupled ocean-atmosphere system . Meteorology has application in many diverse fields such as the military , energy production , transport , agriculture , and construction . The word `` meteorology '' is from Greek μετέωρος metéōros `` lofty ; high ( in the sky ) '' ( from μετα - meta - `` above '' and ἀείρω aeiro `` I lift up '' ) and - λογία - logia '' - logy '' , i.e. `` the study of things in the air '' .", "Instrumental temperature record The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "Clinical versus statistical prediction ", "Campbell Plateau The Campbell Plateau is a large oceanic plateau south of New Zealand and the Chatham Rise . It originated in the Gondwanan breakup and is part of Zealandia , a largely submerged continent . The above sea level parts of the plateau -- the Bounty Islands , Antipodes Islands , Auckland Islands and Campbell Island -- form part of the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1998 . Large parts of the Campbell Plateau lies less than 1000 m below sea level . It rises to 500 m at the Pukaki Rise and emerges above sea level at the Auckland and Campbell Islands . Covering an area of 800000 km2 , the Campbell Plateau has a gently undulating bathymetry with major rises trending east-west : Campbell Island Rise , Pukaki Rise , and Bounty Island Ridge . There are two near-parallel rises on the western margin : Stewart Island -- Snare Island Rise and Auckland Island platform . The continental slopes are steep on western and southern margins while the northern margin slowly falls into the Bounty Trough .", "Flood geology Flood geology ( also creation geology or diluvial geology ) is the attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the global flood described in Genesis 6 -- 8 . In the early-19th century , diluvial geologists hypothesized that specific surface features were evidence of a worldwide flood which had followed earlier geological eras ; after further investigation they agreed that these features resulted from local floods or glaciers . In the 20th century , young Earth creationists revived flood geology as an overarching concept in their opposition to evolution , assuming a recent six-day Creation and cataclysmic geological changes during the Biblical Deluge , and incorporating creationist explanations of the sequence of rock strata . In the early stages of development of the science of geology , fossils were interpreted as evidence of past flooding . The `` theories of the Earth '' of the 17th century proposed mechanisms based on natural laws , within a timescale set by the biblical chronology . As modern geology developed , geologists found evidence of an ancient Earth , and evidence inconsistent with the notion that the Earth had developed in a series of cataclysms , the most recent of which could be attributed to the Genesis flood . In early 19th-century Britain , `` Diluvialism '' attributed landforms and surface features such as beds of gravel and erratic boulders to the destructive effects of this supposed global Deluge , but by 1830 geologists increasingly found that the evidence only showed relatively local floods . Attempts were made by so-called scriptural geologists to give primacy to literal Biblical explanations , but they lacked background in geology and were marginalised by the scientific community , as well as having little influence on the church . Flood geology was revived as a field of study within creation science , which is a part of young Earth creationism . Proponents hold to a literal reading of Genesis 6 -- 9 and view its passages to be historically accurate , using the Bible 's internal chronology to place the Flood and the story of Noah 's Ark within the last five thousand years . The key tenets of flood geology are refuted by scientific analysis . Flood geology contradicts the scientific consensus in geology , stratigraphy , geophysics , physics , paleontology , biology , anthropology , and archeology . Modern geology , its sub-disciplines and other scientific disciplines utilize the scientific method . In contrast , flood geology does not adhere to the scientific method , and it is , therefore , a pseudoscience .", "Before Present Before Present ( BP ) years is a time scale used mainly in geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred in the past . Because the `` present '' time changes , standard practice is to use 1 January 1950 as commencement date of the age scale , reflecting the fact that radiocarbon dating became practical in the 1950s . The abbreviation `` BP '' , with the same meaning , has also been interpreted as `` Before Physics '' ; that is , before nuclear weapons testing artificially altered the proportion of the carbon isotopes in the atmosphere , making dating after that time likely to be unreliable .", "Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory The former Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory ( POL ) is based in Brownlow Street , Liverpool , England . In April 2010 , POL merged with the National Oceanography Centre , Southampton ( NOCS ) to form the National Oceanography Centre . The Liverpool laboratory 's scientific research focuses on oceanography encompassing global sea-levels and geodesy , numerical modelling of continental shelf seas and coastal sediment processes . This research alongside activities of surveying , monitoring , data management and forecasting provides strategic support for the wider mission of the Natural Environment Research Council . A leading world centre in tidal prediction ( with related interests in earth tides and storm surges ) and a leading European centre in modelling and forecasting shelf sea dynamics , it is home to the Coastal Observatory in Liverpool Bay , the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility , the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level and the British Oceanographic Data Centre .", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "1879 in science The year 1879 in science and technology involved some significant events , listed below .", "Retrogradation Retrogradation is the landward change in position of the front of a river delta with time . This occurs when the mass balance of sediment into the delta is such that the volume of incoming sediment is less than the volume of the delta that is lost through subsidence , sea-level rise , and/or erosion . As a result , retrogradation is most common : during periods of sea-level rise which results in marine transgression . This can occur during major periods of global warming and the melting of continental ice sheets . with extremely low sediment input ." ]

[ "Smog Smog is a type of air pollutant . The word `` smog '' was coined in the early 20th century as a portmanteau of the words smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog , its opacity , and odour . The word was then intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog , a familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the mid 20th century . This kind of visible air pollution is composed of nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , ozone , smoke or particulates among others ( less visible pollutants include carbon monoxide , CFCs and radioactive sources ) . Human-made smog is derived from coal emissions , vehicular emissions , industrial emissions , forest and agricultural fires and photochemical reactions of these emissions . Modern smog , as found for example in Los Angeles , is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog . In certain other cities , such as Delhi , smog severity is often aggravated by stubble burning in neighboring agricultural areas . The atmospheric pollution levels of Los Angeles , Beijing , Delhi , Mexico City , Tehran and other cities are increased by inversion that traps pollution close to the ground . It is usually highly toxic to humans and can cause severe sickness , shortened life or death .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid ." ]

[ "Nobody Move Nobody Move is an album by Jamaican dancehall deejay Yellowman , released by Volcano Records in 1983 . It was released in a slightly altered form outside Jamaica in 1984 as Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Biotin—(acetyl-CoA-carboxylase) ligase In enzymology , a biotin - -LSB- acetyl-CoA-carboxylase -RSB- ligase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction ATP + biotin + apo - -LSB- acetyl-CoA : carbon-dioxide ligase ( ADP-forming ) -RSB- AMP + diphosphate + -LSB- acetyl-CoA : carbon-dioxide ligase ( ADP-forming ) -RSB- The 3 substrates of this enzyme are ATP , biotin , and apo - -LSB- acetyl-CoA : carbon-dioxide ligase ( ADP-forming ) -RSB- , whereas its 3 products are AMP , diphosphate , and acetyl-CoA : carbon-dioxide ligase ( ADP-forming ) . This enzyme belongs to the family of ligases , specifically those forming generic carbon-nitrogen bonds . This enzyme participates in biotin metabolism . This protein may use the morpheein model of allosteric regulation .", "Lead carbonate Lead ( II ) carbonate is the chemical compound PbCO3 . It is prepared industrially from lead ( II ) acetate and carbon dioxide . It occurs naturally as the mineral cerussite .", "Polypropylene carbonate Polypropylene carbonate ( PPC ) , a copolymer of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide , is a thermoplastic material . Catalysts like zinc glutarate are used in polymerization .", "Potassium carbonate Potassium carbonate ( K2CO3 ) is a white salt , soluble in water ( insoluble in ethanol ) which forms a strongly alkaline solution . It can be made as the product of potassium hydroxide 's absorbent reaction with carbon dioxide . It is deliquescent , often appearing a damp or wet solid . Potassium carbonate is used in the production of soap and glass .", "Methanol reformer A methanol reformer is a device used in chemical engineering , especially in the area of fuel cell technology , which can produce pure hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide by reacting a methanol and water ( steam ) mixture . Methanol is transformed into hydrogen and carbon dioxide by pressure and heat and interaction with a catalyst .", "Berry L. Cannon Berry Louis Cannon ( March 22 , 1935 -- February 17 , 1969 ) was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the U.S. Navy . Cannon died of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair SEALAB III . It was later found that his diving rig 's baralyme canister , which should have absorbed the carbon dioxide Cannon exhaled , was empty .", "Silver oxalate Silver oxalate is commonly employed in experimental petrology to add carbon dioxide to experiments as it will break down to silver ( Ag ) and carbon dioxide under geologic conditions . It is also a precursor to the production of silver nanoparticles . It is explosive upon heating around 140 degrees Celsius , shock or friction .", "Henry's law In chemistry , Henry 's law is one of the gas laws formulated by the English chemist William Henry , who studied the topic in the early 19th century . In his publication about the quantity of gases absorbed by water , he described the results of his experiments : ... `` water takes up , of gas condensed by one , two , or more additional atmospheres , a quantity which , ordinarily compressed , would be equal to twice , thrice , & c. the volume absorbed under the common pressure of the atmosphere . '' In other words , the amount of dissolved gas is proportional to its partial pressure in the gas phase . The proportionality factor is called the Henry 's law constant . An example where Henry 's law is at play is in the depth-dependent dissolution of oxygen and nitrogen in the blood of underwater divers that changes during decompression , leading to decompression sickness . An everyday example is given by one 's experience with carbonated soft drinks , which contain dissolved carbon dioxide . Before opening , the gas above the drink in its container is almost pure carbon dioxide , at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure . After the bottle is opened , this gas escapes , moving the partial pressure of carbon dioxide above the liquid to be much lower , resulting in degassing as the dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of solution .", "Metallacarboxylic acid A metallacarboxylic acid is a metal complex with the ligand CO2H . These compounds are intermediates in reactions that involve carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide , these species are intermediates in the water gas shift reaction .", "Environmental issues in Austria The Ministry of Health and Environmental Protection of Austria , established in 1972 , is responsible for the coordination at the national level of all environmental protection efforts , addressing its efforts toward problems including waste disposal , pollution , noise , sulfur dioxide , and carbon monoxide levels , as well as emissions by the iron , steel , and ceramics industries . A toxic waste law enacted in 1984 established strict regulations for the collection , transport , and disposal of dangerous substances . The Austrian government has imposed strict regulations on gas emissions , which helped to reduce sulfur dioxide by two-thirds over an eight-year period beginning in 1980 . In 1992 Austria was among the 50 countries with the highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions , producing 56.6 million metric tons of emissions , or 7.29 m tons per capita . In 1996 , the level rose to 59.3 million metric tons . In 2000 , the total was 60.8 million metric tons .", "EcoBot EcoBot is short for Ecological Robot and it refers to a class of energetically autonomous robots that can remain self-sustainable by collecting their energy from material , mostly waste matter , in the environment . The only by-product from this process is carbon dioxide , which would have been produced from the natural biodegradation of the fuel regardless . This carbon dioxide production belongs to the immediate carbon cycle of our planet and does not impose to the already increasing problem of the greenhouse effect .", "Integrated gasification combined cycle An integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) is a technology that uses a high pressure gasifier to turn coal and other carbon based fuels into pressurized gas -- synthesis gas ( syngas ) . It can then remove impurities from the syngas prior to the power generation cycle . Some of these pollutants , such as sulfur , can be turned into re-usable byproducts through the Claus process . This results in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide , particulates , mercury , and in some cases carbon dioxide . With additional process equipment , a water-gas shift reaction can increase gasification efficiency and reduce carbon monoxide emissions by converting it to carbon dioxide . The resulting carbon dioxide from the shift reaction can be separated , compressed , and stored through sequestration . Excess heat from the primary combustion and syngas fired generation is then passed to a steam cycle , similar to a combined cycle gas turbine . This process results in improved thermodynamic efficiency compared to conventional pulverized coal combustion .", "Estuarine acidification Estuarine acidification is a decrease in the pH of coastal marine ecosystems , specifically those of estuaries . pH change in estuaries is more complicated than in the open ocean due to direct impacts from land run-off and coastal current dynamics . Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere ( 0.1 units over the last century ) . The ocean absorbs 30-40 % of all CO2 emitted to the atmosphere ; this increase in aqueous carbon dioxide causes a decline in the pH of the ocean surface . As carbon dioxide combines with water , it releases protons ( hydrogen ions ) , based on the following equation : CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3 ↔ HCO3 + H + ↔ CO3 + 2 H +", "Paser A PASER ( from the acronym of Particle Acceleration by Stimulated Emission of Radiation ) is a device that accelerates a coherent beam of electrons . This process was demonstrated for the first time in 2006 at the Brookhaven National Lab by a team of physicists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology . Relativistic electrons from a conventional particle accelerator pass through a vibrationally excited carbon dioxide medium in which the electrons undergo millions of collisions with excited carbon dioxide molecules and are accelerated in a coherent fashion . No heat is generated in this quantum energy transfer , thus all the energy transferred to the electrons is used in accelerating the electrons . The electron beam created from this process may result in electrons that are highly collimated in velocity in comparison to other acceleration methods . The vibrationally excited carbon dioxide is the same medium used in a carbon dioxide laser . This medium resonantly amplifies light with a wavelength near 10.6 or 9.4 micrometers , corresponding to a frequency of approximately 30 terahertz . In order to be accelerated , incident electrons must be microbunched at this frequency . An appropriately bunched electron beam strikes excited carbon dioxide molecules resonantly in order to efficiently stimulate energy emission .", "Ammonium carbonate Ammonium carbonate is a salt with the chemical formula ( NH4 ) 2CO3 . Since it readily degrades to gaseous ammonia and carbon dioxide upon heating , it is used as a leavening agent and also as smelling salt . It is also known as baker 's ammonia and was a predecessor to the more modern leavening agents baking soda and baking powder . It is a component of what was formerly known as sal volatile and salt of hartshorn .", "Calcium bicarbonate Calcium bicarbonate , also called calcium hydrogen carbonate , has a chemical formula Ca ( HCO3 ) 2 . The term does not refer to a known solid compound ; it exists only in aqueous solution containing the calcium ( Ca2 + ) , bicarbonate ( HCO3 − ) , and carbonate ( CO32 − ) ions , together with dissolved carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . The relative concentrations of these carbon-containing species depend on the pH ; bicarbonate predominates within the range 6.36-10 .25 in fresh water . All waters in contact with the atmosphere absorb carbon dioxide , and as these waters come into contact with rocks and sediments they acquire metal ions , most commonly calcium and magnesium , so most natural waters that come from streams , lakes , and especially wells , can be regarded as dilute solutions of these bicarbonates . These hard waters tend to form carbonate scale in pipes and boilers and they react with soaps to form an undesirable scum . Attempts to prepare compounds such as calcium bicarbonate by evaporating its solution to dryness invariably yield the solid calcium carbonate , instead : Ca ( HCO3 ) 2 ( aq ) → CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) + CaCO3 ( s ) . Very few solid bicarbonates other than those of the alkali metals and ammonium ion are known to exist . The above reaction is very important to the formation of stalactites , stalagmites , columns , and other speleothems within caves , and for that matter , in the formation of the caves themselves . As water containing carbon dioxide ( including extra CO2 acquired from soil organisms ) passes through limestone or other calcium carbonate-containing minerals , it dissolves part of the calcium carbonate , hence becomes richer in bicarbonate . As the groundwater enters the cave , the excess carbon dioxide is released from the solution of the bicarbonate , causing the much less soluble calcium carbonate to be deposited . In the reverse process , dissolved carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in rainwater ( H2O ) reacts with limestone calcium carbonate ( CaCO3 ) to form soluble calcium bicarbonate ( Ca ( HCO3 ) 2 ) . This soluble compound is then washed away with the rainwater . This form of weathering is called carbonation . In medicine , calcium bicarbonate is sometimes administered intravenously to immediately correct the cardiac depressor effects of hypokalemia by increasing calcium concentration in serum , and at the same time , correcting the acid usually present .", "TanSat TanSat , also known as CarbonSat , is a Chinese Earth observation satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . It is generally classified as a minisatellite , and is the first dedicated carbon mission of the Chinese space program . The mission was formally proposed in 2010 , and work began in January 2011 . It is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOST ) and was built by the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem And Information Technology ( SIMIT ) . TanSat carries two instruments : the Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer and the Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager . The Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer ( CDS ) , also called CarbonSpec , is a high-resolution grating spectrometer which measures absorption at 1.61 µm and 2.06 µm , and absorption in reflected sunlight at 0.76 µm . The Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager ( CAPI ) is a wide-field , moderate-resolution , imaging spectrometer which works in concert with CDS by compensating for measurement errors caused by clouds and aerosols . It makes observations in ultraviolet ( 0.38 µm ) , visible ( 0.67 µm ) , and near infrared ( 0.87 µm , 1.375 µm , and 1.64 µm ) .", "Nobody Hurt No One `` Nobody Hurt No One '' was the Russian entry in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest , performed in English by Belarusian singer Natalia Podolskaya . It was written by Victor Drobysh , Jussi-Pekka Järvinen and Mary Susan Applegate , produced by Victor Drobysh and Iosif Prigozhin . The song won Russia 's national song selection , which took place in Moscow on February 25 , 2005 . On the night of the final the song was performed 20th , following Greece 's Helena Paparizou with `` My Number One '' and preceding Bosnia and Herzegovina 's Feminnem with `` Call Me '' . At the close of voting , it had received 57 points , placing 15th in a field of 24 . The song was succeeded as Russian representative by Dima Bilan with `` Never Let You Go '' .", "Hopcalite Hopcalite is a mixture of copper and manganese oxides used as catalyst to convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide when exposed to the oxygen in air . A variety of composition for are known , `` Hopcalite II '' is approximately 3:1 manganese dioxide : copper oxide . Hopcalite I is a mixture of 50 % MnO , 30 % CuO , 15 % `` Co2O3 '' , and 5 % Ag2O .", "Calcium reactor __ NOTOC __ In marine and reef aquariums , a calcium reactor creates a balance of alkalinity . An acidic solution is produced by injecting carbon dioxide into a chamber with salt water and calcium rich media . The carbon dioxide lowers the pH by producing a solution high in carbonic acid , and dissolves calcium . The effluent is returned to the reef aquarium where the calcium is consumed by organisms , primarily corals when building skeletons . A calcium reactor is an efficient method to supply calcium to a reef aquarium . Reactors may be used in elaborate freshwater and brackish aquariums where freshwater clams and other invertebrates need a constant supply of calcium . The reactor dissolves the calcium-laden media to provide bicarbonates HCO3 − ( alkalinity ) and calcium ( Ca + + ) ions at the sames rate as consumed during calcification . Effectively dissolving the media requires an acidic pH. Saltwater may have a pH of 7.8 or higher , so to reduce the pH carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) is used . The reaction formula is : CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 < -- -- > Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − Inside the reaction chamber , a calcium rich media ( aragonite ) , mainly CaCO3 , is forced into contact with water injected with carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in order to create carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This increases the solubility of the calcium carbonate . The reaction frees the calcium and carbonate , supplying the aquarium with water rich in Ca2 + and CO32 − , important for maintaining alkalinity and calcium levels . The bubble counter measures carbon dioxide . The flow rate of carbon dioxide is monitored so that the dissolved gas goes into the solution , with a minimum unconsumed . A needle valve or solenoid valve regulates the CO2 bubble rate . Valves with precise adjustment abilities improve bubble control . The feed pump controls the volume of water exchange . This is important because a high rate of water flow into the reactor reduces its efficiency , thus resulting in underproduction and a waste of CO2 . Some reactors siphon water into the input of the reactor 's re-circulation pump . A potential complication is the medium in the reactor becoming compacted , increasing back pressure onto the pump and reducing water into the reactor . Placing a gate or needle valve on the reactor 's outlet side will improve flow characteristics compared to control from the inlet side . A peristaltic pumps are effective operating against pressure , capable of supplying an adjustable and continuous flow over flow rates with minimal maintenance . The pH control is connected to a probe in the reactor and adjusts the rate at which the calcium media dissolves . This probe monitors the pH level in the calcium reactor . The pH range for the typical calcium reactor is 6.5 - 6.8 . When the pH rises above a certain level , a valve opens , allowing carbon dioxide to enter the reactor . The control closes the valve as the pH falls below this level . Some pH controllers have an interface for an air pump . This air pump is connected to an airstone in the sump or main tank . If the probe detects a low pH level , the pump activates . The bubbles raise the pH by dissipating the CO2 gas .", "List of countries by ratio of GDP to carbon dioxide emissions On 6 October 2010 , the International Energy Agency released for free download the 2008 numbers for over 140 countries/regions/economies . The list of countries below is arranged by their ratio of gross domestic product , nominal and by purchasing power parity , to carbon dioxide emissions . GDP data is for the year 2006 produced by the International Monetary Fund . Carbon dioxide emissions data is for 2006 , provided by the CDIAC for United Nations ( see List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions ) . The countries at the top of the list are the most efficient . They produce the most economic output with the least emissions . Countries at the bottom of the list produce the most emissions per unit of economic output . Including French Guiana , French Polynesia , Guadeloupe , Martinique , New Caledonia , Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Réunion Including Greenland and Faroe Islands Including Netherlands Antilles Including Taiwan and Macau , excluding Hong Kong", "Dry ice color show Dry ice color show is the formation of carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) by the reaction of dry ice , the solid form of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and water , which lower the pH to the acidic solution . By applying Universal Indicator to the solution , the changing of pH can be indicated as the color of the solution changes into the contrast color . This experiment is usually conducted as a classroom demonstration of pH and properties of carbon dioxide since the materials required are handful and prepared easily .", "Terraforming of Venus The terraforming of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in such a way as to make it suitable for human habitation . Terraforming Venus was first seriously proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961 , although fictional treatments , such as The Big Rain by Poul Anderson , preceded it . Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet . These three changes are closely interrelated , because Venus 's extreme temperature is due to the greenhouse effect caused by its dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere : Reducing Venus 's surface temperature of 462 C. Eliminating most of the planet 's dense 9.2 MPa carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere , via removal or conversion to some other form . Addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere .", "Magnesium bicarbonate Magnesium bicarbonate or magnesium hydrogen carbonate , Mg ( HCO3 ) 2 , is the bicarbonate salt of magnesium . It can be formed through the reaction of dilute solutions of carbonic acid ( such as seltzer water ) and magnesium hydroxide ( milk of magnesia ) . Magnesium bicarbonate exists only in aqueous solution . To produce it , a suspension of magnesium hydroxide is treated with pressurized carbon dioxide , producing a solution of magnesium bicarbonate : Mg ( OH ) 2 + 2 CO2 → Mg ( HCO3 ) 2 Drying the resulting solution causes the magnesium bicarbonate to decompose , yielding magnesium carbonate , carbon dioxide , and water : Mg2 + + 2 HCO3 − → MgCO3 + CO2 + H2O", "Eggshell An eggshell is the outer covering of a hard-shelled egg and of some forms of eggs with soft outer coats . Bird eggshells contain calcium carbonate and dissolve in various acids , including the vinegar used in cooking . While dissolving , the calcium carbonate in an eggshell reacts with the acid to form carbon dioxide .", "Stephen E. Schwartz Stephen E. Schwartz ( born 1941 ) is an atmospheric scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory . He served from 2004 to 2009 as the Chief Scientist of the Atmospheric Science Program of the United States Department of Energy . The program is charged with developing a comprehensive understanding of how the atmosphere processes energy related trace chemicals , such as nitrogen oxides , sulfur , aerosols and carbon dioxide . The current focus is on aerosols and carbon dioxide .", "Woikoski Oy Woikoski Ab is Finland 's oldest industrial and medical gas supplier . The company started 1882 as a carbon black factory which then evolved into the company 's current form . The company is also an importer of welding and gas equipment which they distribute along with their gas products through a network of resellers . Kt currently operates 13 plants and offices , and has over 200 agents in Finland . Their annual turnover is approx . 25 million EUR . Woikoski is also an exporter of liquid and gaseous helium , with an automated helium plant capable of recycling gaseous helium . In 2006 the company finished a carbon dioxide treatment plant capable of recovering and recycling 1-3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hour .", "Climate Dress The Climate Dress was designed in 2009 by Danish design company Diffus Design in collaboration with the Swiss embroidery company Forster-Rohner , Alexandra Institute and the Danish School of Design . The Climate Dress is laced with hundreds of light-emitting diodes ( LEDs ) that responds to the level of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in the nearby surroundings and are powered through the conductive embroidery by an Arduino Lily pad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector , resulting in patterns that range from slow pulses to rapid flashes depending on the concentration of the CO2 . The Climate Dress does not rely on wiring , soldering , or crimping , which is often the case with smart textile products . All functional elements are blended into the embroidery and exposed to the viewer . The Climate Dress was presented at the Cop 15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009 , at the `` Health Environment Climate '' exhibition . In 2011 the Climate Dress won first prize in the Design That Performs contest , hosted by Samsung .", "Phototrophic prokaryotes Phototropic prokaryotes are bacteria or archaea that obtain energy from light . phototropic prokaryotes may utilize a variety of carbon sources , depending on the metabolic pathways available to the bacterium . Most phototropic organisms are also autotrophs , obtaining carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide in a process called photosynthesis .", "Scrubbing Scrubbing may refer to : Carbon dioxide scrubbing ( disambiguation ) Data scrubbing Memory scrubbing Scrubbing ( audio ) Scrubbing Bubbles" ]

[ "Sea A sea is a large body of salt water that is surrounded in whole or in part by land . More broadly , `` the sea '' is the interconnected system of Earth 's salty , oceanic waters -- considered as one global ocean or as several principal oceanic divisions . The sea moderates Earth 's climate and has important roles in the water cycle , carbon cycle , and nitrogen cycle . Although the sea has been traveled and explored since prehistory , the modern scientific study of the sea -- oceanography -- dates broadly to the British Challenger expedition of the 1870s . The sea is conventionally divided into up to five large oceanic sections -- including the International Hydrographic Organization 's four named oceans ( the Atlantic , Pacific , Indian , and Arctic ) and the Southern Ocean ; smaller , second-order sections , such as the Mediterranean , are known as seas . Owing to the present state of continental drift , the Northern Hemisphere is now fairly equally divided between land and sea ( a ratio of about 2:3 ) but the South is overwhelmingly oceanic ( 1:4.7 ) . Salinity in the open ocean is generally in a narrow band around 3.5 % by mass , although this can vary in more landlocked waters , near the mouths of large rivers , or at great depths . About 85 % of the solids in the open sea are sodium chloride . Deep-sea currents are produced by differences in salinity and temperature . Surface currents are formed by the friction of waves produced by the wind and by tides , the changes in local sea level produced by the gravity of the Moon and Sun . The direction of all of these is governed by surface and submarine land masses and by the rotation of the Earth ( the Coriolis effect ) . Former changes in sea levels have left continental shelves , shallow areas in the sea close to land . These nutrient-rich waters teem with life , which provide humans with substantial supplies of food -- mainly fish , but also shellfish , mammals , and seaweed -- which are both harvested in the wild and farmed . The most diverse areas surround great tropical coral reefs . Whaling in the deep sea was once common but whales ' dwindling numbers prompted international conservation efforts and finally a moratorium on most commercial hunting . Oceanography has established that not all life is restricted to the sunlit surface waters : even under enormous depths and pressures , nutrients streaming from hydrothermal vents support their own unique ecosystem . Life may have started there and aquatic microbial mats are generally credited with the oxygenation of Earth 's atmosphere ; both plants and animals first evolved in the sea . The sea is an essential aspect of human trade , travel , mineral extraction , and power generation . This has also made it essential to warfare and left major cities exposed to earthquakes and volcanoes from nearby faults ; powerful tsunami waves ; and hurricanes , typhoons , and cyclones produced in the tropics . This importance and duality has affected human culture , from early sea gods to the epic poetry of Homer to the changes induced by the Columbian Exchange , from burial at sea to Basho 's haikus to hyperrealist marine art , and inspiring music ranging from the shanties in The Complaynt of Scotland to Rimsky-Korsakov 's `` The Sea and Sinbad 's Ship '' to A-mei 's `` Listen to the Sea '' . It is the scene of leisure activities including swimming , diving , surfing , and sailing . However , population growth , industrialization , and intensive farming have all contributed to present-day marine pollution . Atmospheric carbon dioxide is being absorbed in increasing amounts , lowering its pH in a process known as ocean acidification . The shared nature of the sea has made overfishing an increasing problem .", "Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "Ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Seawater is slightly basic ( meaning pH > 7 ) , and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions ( pH < 7 ) . Ocean alkalinity is not changed by the process , or may increase over long time periods due to carbonate dissolution . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes . To achieve chemical equilibrium , some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid . Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion , thus increasing ocean acidity ( H + ion concentration ) . Between 1751 and 1996 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 , representing an increase of almost 35 % in H + ion concentration in the world 's oceans . Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogues and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean . Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms , such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms , and causing coral bleaching . By increasing the presence of free hydrogen ions , each molecule of carbonic acid that forms in the oceans ultimately results in the conversion of two carbonate ions into bicarbonate ions . This net decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available makes it more difficult for marine calcifying organisms , such as coral and some plankton , to form biogenic calcium carbonate , and such structures become vulnerable to dissolution . Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans . As members of the InterAcademy Panel , 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050 , global emissions be reduced by at least 50 % compared to the 1990 level . While ongoing ocean acidification is anthropogenic in origin , it has occurred previously in Earth 's history . The most notable example is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , which occurred approximately 56 million years ago . For reasons that are currently uncertain , massive amounts of carbon entered the ocean and atmosphere , and led to the dissolution of carbonate sediments in all ocean basins . Ocean acidification has been called the `` evil twin of global warming '' and `` the other problem '' ." ]

[ "Estuarine acidification Estuarine acidification is a decrease in the pH of coastal marine ecosystems , specifically those of estuaries . pH change in estuaries is more complicated than in the open ocean due to direct impacts from land run-off and coastal current dynamics . Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere ( 0.1 units over the last century ) . The ocean absorbs 30-40 % of all CO2 emitted to the atmosphere ; this increase in aqueous carbon dioxide causes a decline in the pH of the ocean surface . As carbon dioxide combines with water , it releases protons ( hydrogen ions ) , based on the following equation : CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3 ↔ HCO3 + H + ↔ CO3 + 2 H +", "David Archer (scientist) David Archer is a computational ocean chemist , and has been a professor at the Geophysical Sciences department at the University of Chicago since 1993 . He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor . He has worked on the history of atmospheric CO2 concentration , the expectation of fossil fuel CO2 over geologic time scales in the future , and the impact of CO2 on future ice age cycles , ocean methane hydrate decomposition , and coral reefs . He is a contributor to the RealClimate blog .", "Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "Integrated fluorometer An integrated fluorometer is a system that measures the light reaction and the dark reaction of photosynthesis . Software allows combined operation of gas exchange measurement and chlorophyll fluorescence measurement of a leaf . These parameters are used to non-destructively measure the photosynthetic efficiency of plants . The use of an integrated chlorophyll fluorometer provides the opportunity to measure additional measuring parameters that allow for a more exact measurement of photosynthesis than with gas exchange alone . Advanced gas exchange instrumentation , by itself , is capable of measuring A/Ci curves , commonly used for plant characterization . `` A '' is the term for photosynthetic rate ( rate of CO2 exchange in the leaf chamber ) , and Ci is Sub-stomatal CO2 concentration or intracellular CO2 level within the leaf . When measured over a range of CO2 levels above and below ambient conditions , A/Ci curves become possible . With the addition of an integrated chlorophyll fluorometer , it becomes possible to measure more accurate A/CC curves , or photosynthetic rate at the site of carboxylation in chloroplasts . The integrated fluorometer allows measurement of mesophyll conductance , or the opposite of the resistance to CO2 transfer from intracellular air spaces to the site of carboxylation in chloroplasts . Various integrated chlorophyll fluorometer measuring protocols , such as the Laisk Protocol , the Kok protocol and the Yin Protocol are used to measure or estimate gm or mesophyll conductance . For example : the Laisk protocol allows the measurement of Γ * or compensation point , and Rd or respiration in the dark . Both values are required to calculate gm or mesophyll conductance and CC or CO2 at the site of carboxylation . Parameters typically measured by the gas exchange portion of the system include : `` A '' or photosynthetic rate , `` gs '' or stomatal conductance , `` Ci '' or sub stomatal CO2 concentration , and `` E '' or transpiration .", "Free Ocean CO2 Enrichment Free Ocean CO2 Enrichment ( FOCE ) is a technology facilitating studies of the consequences of ocean acidification for marine organisms and communities by enabling the precise control of CO2 enrichment within in situ , partially open , experimental enclosures . Current FOCE systems control experimental CO2 perturbations by real-time monitoring of differences in seawater pH between treatment ( i.e. high-CO2 ) and control ( i.e. ambient ) seawater within experimental enclosures .", "Carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "Fuel factor The fuel factor , fo , is the ratio of created CO2 to depleted oxygen in a combustion reaction , used to check the accuracy of an emission measurement system . It can be calculated using the equation fo = ( 20.9 - % O2 ) / % CO2 , Where % O2 is the percent O2 by volume , dry basis , % CO2 is the percent CO2 by volume , dry basis , and 20.9 is the percent O2 by volume in ambient air . The Fuel factor can be corrected for the amount of CO , by adding the percent CO on a dry basis to the CO2 , and subtracting half of the percent CO from the O2 .", "Total inorganic carbon The total inorganic carbon ( CT , or TIC ) or dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) is the sum of inorganic carbon species in a solution . The inorganic carbon species include carbon dioxide , carbonic acid , bicarbonate anion , and carbonate . It is customary to express carbon dioxide and carbonic acid simultaneously as CO2 * . CT is a key parameter when making measurements related to the pH of natural aqueous systems , and carbon dioxide flux estimates . CT = -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- + -LSB- HCO3 − -RSB- + -LSB- CO32 − -RSB- where , CT is the total inorganic carbon -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- is the sum of carbon dioxide and carbonic acid concentrations ( -LSB- CO2 * -RSB- = -LSB- CO2 -RSB- + -LSB- H2CO3 -RSB- ) -LSB- HCO3 − -RSB- is the bicarbonate concentration -LSB- CO32 − -RSB- is the carbonate concentration Each of these species are related by the following pH-driven chemical equilibria : CO2 + H2O H2CO3 H + + HCO3 − 2H + + CO32 − The concentrations of the different species of DIC ( and which species is dominant ) depends on the pH of the solution , as shown by a Bjerrum plot . Total inorganic carbon is typically measured by the acidification of the sample which drives the equilibria to CO2 . This gas is then sparged from solution and trapped , and the quantity trapped is then measured , usually by infrared spectroscopy .", "North American Carbon Program The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "Pyrenoid Pyrenoids are sub-cellular micro-compartments found in chloroplasts of many algae , and in a single group of land plants , the hornworts . Pyrenoids are associated with the operation of a carbon-concentrating mechanism ( CCM ) . Their main function is to act as centres of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) fixation , by generating and maintaining a CO2 rich environment around the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase ( Rubisco ) . Pyrenoids therefore seem to have a role analogous to that of carboxysomes in cyanobacteria . Algae are restricted to aqueous environments , even in terrestrial habitats , and this has implications for their ability to access CO2 for photosynthesis . CO2 diffuses 10,000 times slower in water than in air , and is also slow to equilibrate . The result of this is that water , as a medium , is often easily depleted of CO2 and is slow to gain CO2 from the air . Finally , CO2 equilibrates with bicarbonate ( HCO3 − ) when dissolved in water , and does so on a pH-dependent basis . In sea water for example , the pH is such that dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) is mainly found in the form of HCO3 − . The net result of this is a low concentration of free CO2 that is barely sufficient for an algal Rubisco to run at a quarter of its maximum velocity , and thus , CO2 availability may sometimes represent a major limitation of algal photosynthesis .", "Soil respiration Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna . Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration . The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures . Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth . Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .", "Limescale Limescale is the hard , off-white , chalky deposit found in kettles , hot-water boilers and the inside of inadequately maintained hot-water central heating systems . It is also often found as a similar deposit on the inner surface of old pipe and other surfaces where `` hard water '' has evaporated . In addition to being unsightly and hard to clean , limescale seriously impairs the operation or damages various components . The type found deposited on the heating elements of water heaters has a main component of calcium carbonate . Hard water contains calcium ( and often magnesium ) bicarbonate or similar ions . Calcium salts , such as calcium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate are both more soluble in hot water than cold water . Thus , heating water does not cause calcium carbonate to precipitate per se . However , there is an equilibrium between dissolved calcium bicarbonate and dissolved calcium carbonate : Ca2 + + 2HCO3 − ⇋ Ca2 + + CO32 − + CO2 + H2O where the equilibrium is driven by the carbonate/bicarbonate , not the calcium . Note that the CO2 is dissolved in the water . There is also an equilibrium of carbon dioxide between dissolved in water ( dis ) and the gaseous state ( g ) : CO2 ( dis ) ⇋ CO2 ( g ) The equilibrium of CO2 also moves to the right towards gaseous CO2 when the water temperature rises . When water that contains dissolved calcium carbonate is warmed , CO2 is removed from the water as gas causing the equilibrium of bicarbonate and carbonate to shift to the right , increasing the concentration of dissolved carbonate . As the concentration of carbonate increases , calcium carbonate precipitates as the salt : Ca2 + + CO32 − ⇋ CaCO3 . As new cold water with dissolved calcium carbonate/bicarbonate is added and heated , CO2 gas is removed , carbonate concentration increases , and more calcium carbonate precipitates . Descaling agents are used to remove scale . Prevention of scale build-up relies on the technologies of water softening .", "Alberta Carbon Trunk Line The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line ( ACTL ) is a 240 km pipeline in its construction stages that will collect excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the province of Alberta and transport it to various oil reservoirs around the province for enhanced oil recovery applications . Pioneered by Enhance Energy , the ACTL will source its CO2 from a fertilizer manufacturing plant in Redwater , and the North West Redwater Partnership bitumen upgrading plant using gasification . It will initially funnel the collected CO2 to Clive , a field discovered in the 1950s and currently produces about 300 barrels per day .", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Multi-component gas analyzer system A multi-component gas analyzer system ( Multi-GAS ) is an instrument package used to take real-time high-resolution measurements of volcanic gas plumes . A Multi-GAS package includes an infrared spectrometer for CO2 , two electrochemical sensors for SO2 and H2S , and pressure -- temperature -- humidity sensors , all in a weatherproof box weighing approximately 3 kg , as well as radio transmitters to transmit data to remote locations . The instrument package is portable , and its operation and data analysis are simple enough to be conducted by non-specialists . Multi-GAS instruments have been used to measure volcanic gas plumes at Mount Etna , Stromboli , Vulcano Italy , Villarrica ( volcano ) Chile , Masaya Volcano Nicaragua , Mount Yasur and Ambrym Vanuatu , Miyake-jima and Mount Asama Japan , Soufrière Hills Montserrat , with permanent installations at Etna and Stromboli . Multi-GAS measurements of CO2/SO2 ratios can allow detection of the pre-eruptive degassing of rising magmas , improving prediction of volcanic activity .", "CO2 rocket CO2 rockets are a very safe and simple way to experiment with model rockets . Most CO2 rockets are very small and do not travel very high or fast . The common method of construction for a CO2 rocket is to take a CO2 canister and use it as the motor to propel the projectile , or load into the air .", "CO2 Cashmere CO2 Cashmere is a wholesale clothing company launched in 2005 by designer Pascal Benouaiche . CO2 uses primarily 100 % Cashmere in its line , making it youthful with innovative designs and prints . CO2 incorporates casual everyday garments such as tunics and hoodies with top of the line cashmere . CO2 has several lines including cashmere and leather handbags , with styles ranging from slouchy hobo bags and satchels to classic , structured totes , as well", "CO2 (disambiguation) CO2 is the molecular formula for carbon dioxide . CO2 , Co2 or C02 may refer to :", "NiCoT family Proteins currently known to belong to the Ni2 + - Co2 + Transporter ( NiCoT ) family ( TC # 2 . A. 52 ) can be found in organisms ranging from Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria to archaea and some eukaryotes . Members of this family catalyze uptake of Ni2 + and/or Co2 + in a proton motive force-dependent process .", "The Greening of Planet Earth The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "Carbon dioxide sensor A carbon dioxide sensor or CO2 sensor is an instrument for the measurement of carbon dioxide gas . The most common principles for CO2 sensors are infrared gas sensors ( NDIR ) and chemical gas sensors . Measuring carbon dioxide is important in monitoring indoor air quality , the function of the lungs in the form of a capnograph device , and many industrial processes .", "Clarias maclareni Clarias maclareni is a critically endangered species of catfish in the Clariidae family . It is endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) . It is known to grow to 36 cm TL . Large individuals feed mainly on other fishes ( especially cichlids ) , while smaller mainly feed on insects .", "Cap carbonate Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "Severinghaus electrode The Severinghaus electrode is an electrode that measures carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . It was developed by Dr. John W. Severinghaus and his technician A. Freeman Bradley in 1958 . It utilizes a CO2-sensitive glass electrode in a surrounding film of bicarbonate solution covered by a thin plastic carbon dioxide permeable membrane , but impermeable to water and electrolytic solutes . The carbon dioxide pressure of a sample gas or liquid equilibrates through the membrane and the glass electrode measures the resulting pH of the bicarbonate solution .", "Katsuko Saruhashi was a geochemist who made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout .", "Central chemoreceptors Central chemoreceptors of the central nervous system , located on the ventrolateral medullary surface in the vicinity of the exit of the 9th and 10th cranial nerves , are sensitive to the pH of their environment . These act to detect the changes in pH of nearby cerebrospinal fluid ( CSF ) that are indicative of altered oxygen or carbon dioxide concentrations available to brain tissues . An increase in carbon dioxide causes tension of the arteries , often resulting from decreased CO2 output ( hypercapnia ) , indirectly causes the blood to become more acidic ; the cerebrospinal fluid pH is closely comparable to plasma , as carbon dioxide easily diffuses across the blood -- brain barrier . However , a change in plasma pH alone will not stimulate central chemoreceptors as H + are not able to diffuse across the blood -- brain barrier into the CSF . Only CO2 levels affect this as it can diffuse across , reacting with H2O to form carbonic acid and thus decrease pH. Central chemoreception remains , in this way , distinct from peripheral chemoreceptors . The central chemoreception system has also been shown experimentally to respond to hypercapnic hypoxia ( elevated CO2 , decreased O2 ) and aqueous sodium cyanide injection into the whole animal and in vitro slice preparation . These methods can be used to mimic some forms of hypoxic hypoxia and they are currently being studied including the detection of variation in arterial CO2 tension acting as a quick-response-system for short term ( or emergency ) regulation . This system utilizes a negative feedback system , therefore if the pH of the cerebral spinal fluid does not compare to an ideal `` set '' level , then the receptor will send an error signal to the effectors and appropriate action may be executed . Peripheral chemoreceptors ( carotid and aortic bodies ) and central chemoreceptors ( medullary neurons ) primarily function to regulate respiratory activity . This is an important mechanism for maintaining arterial blood pO2 , pCO2 , and pH within appropriate physiological ranges . For example , a fall in arterial pO2 ( hypoxemia ) or an increase in arterial pCO2 ( hypercapnia ) leads to an increase in the rate and depth of respiration through activation of the chemoreceptor reflex . Chemoreceptor activity , however , also affects cardiovascular function either directly ( by interacting with medullary vasomotor centers ) or indirectly ( via altered pulmonary stretch receptor activity ) . Respiratory arrest and circulatory shock ( these conditions decrease arterial pO2 and pH , and increase arterial pCO2 ) dramatically increase chemoreceptor activity leading to enhanced sympathetic outflow to the heart and vasculature via activation of the vasomotor center in the medulla .", "Cytochrome c oxidase subunit II Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 , also known as cytochrome c oxidase polypeptide II , is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MT-CO2 gene . Cytochrome c oxidase subunit II , abbreviated COXII , COX2 , COII , or MT-CO2 , is the second subunit of cytochrome c oxidase .", "Supercritical fluid extraction Supercritical Fluid Extraction ( SFE ) is the process of separating one component ( the extractant ) from another ( the matrix ) using supercritical fluids as the extracting solvent . Extraction is usually from a solid matrix , but can also be from liquids . SFE can be used as a sample preparation step for analytical purposes , or on a larger scale to either strip unwanted material from a product ( e.g. decaffeination ) or collect a desired product ( e.g. essential oils ) . These essential oils can include limonene and other straight solvents . Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) is the most used supercritical fluid , sometimes modified by co-solvents such as ethanol or methanol . Extraction conditions for supercritical carbon dioxide are above the critical temperature of 31 ° C and critical pressure of 74 bar . Addition of modifiers may slightly alter this . The discussion below will mainly refer to extraction with CO2 , except where specified .", "Carbon trioxide Carbon trioxide ( CO3 ) is an unstable oxide of carbon ( an oxocarbon ) . Three possible isomers of carbon trioxide , with molecular symmetry point groups Cs , D3h , and C2v , have been most studied by theoretical methods , and the C2v state has been shown to be the ground state of the molecule . Carbon trioxide should not be confused with the stable carbonate ion ( CO32 − ) . Carbon trioxide can be produced , for example , in the drift zone of a negative corona discharge by reactions between carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and the atomic oxygen ( O ) created from molecular oxygen by free electrons in the plasma . Another reported method is photolysis of ozone O3 dissolved in liquid CO2 , or in CO2/SF6 mixtures at -45 ° C , irradiated with light of 2537 Å . The formation of CO3 is inferred but it appears to decay spontaneously by the route 2CO3 → 2CO2 + O2 with a lifetime much shorter than 1 minute . Carbon trioxide can be made by blowing ozone at dry ice ( solid CO2 ) , and it has also been detected in reactions between carbon monoxide ( CO ) and molecular oxygen ( O2 ) .", "Carbonate–silicate cycle The carbonate -- silicate geochemical cycle describes the transformation of silicate rocks to carbonate rocks by weathering and sedimentation at Earth 's surface and the transformation of carbonate rocks back into silicates by metamorphism and magmatism . It plays a large part in the carbon cycle , since the equilibrium point of the carbonate-silicate cycle dictates the pace of carbon release from the lithosphere . The carbonate-silicate cycle involves several chemical reactions that occur in different environments . In the atmosphere , gaseous carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) dissolves in rainwater , forming natural carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) . This weak acid weathers silicate rocks on continents , slowly dissolving the rock and releasing aqueous minerals through the chemical reaction CaSiO3 ( s ) ( wollastonite ) + 2CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) → Ca + 2HCO ( aq ) ( bicarbonate ) + SiO2 ( aq ) ( dissolved silica ) . These dissolved minerals are eventually carried by water to the ocean , where they are used by living organisms such as foraminifera , radiolarians , coccolithopores , and diatoms to create shells of CaCO3 ( calcite ) or SiO2 ( opal ) through the reactions Ca2 + ( aq ) + 2HCO3 → CaCO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) + H2O ( l ) ( for calcite precipitation ) and SiO2 ( aq ) → SiO2 ( s ) ( for opal precipitation ) . When these organisms die , many shells are remineralized but some shells fall all the way to the sea floor and are buried . The cycle is completed when the sea floor is subducted and carbonate minerals recombine with silicate minerals under temperatures above 300 ° C to reform calcium silicates and release gaseous CO2 through volcanism ( CaCO3 ( s ) + SiO2 ( s ) → CaSiO3 ( s ) + CO2 ( g ) ) . The carbonate-silicate cycle impacts the global carbon cycle , as carbon dioxide is removed from the Earth 's surface through the burial of weathered minerals in deep ocean sediments and returned to the atmosphere through metamorphism and volcanism . However , this process is far from being a closed loop . In Earth history generally the formation of carbonates significantly outpaces the formation of silicates , effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Because carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas , the carbonate-silicate cycle is suspected to initiate ice ages by creating a negative feedback on the global temperature with a typical time scale of a few million years that is capable of countering water vapor and carbon dioxide short-term positive feedback on global temperature . The carbonate-silicate cycle equilibrium point is shifted on Venus due to surface temperatures above 300 ° C , which favor the formation of calcium silicates over weathering . Thus , Venus has a high-density carbon-dioxide atmosphere .", "Fissi The fissi ( Sarotherodon caroli ) is a species of cichlid endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . This species can reach a length of 18.6 cm SL . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities . It is potentially also threatened by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although studies indicate that Barombo Mbo lacks excess amounts of this gas . Adults mainly feed on phytoplankton .", "Compensation point The ( light ) compensation point is the amount of light intensity on the light curve where the rate of photosynthesis exactly matches the rate of respiration . At this point , the uptake of CO2 through photosynthetic pathways is exactly matched to the respiratory release of carbon dioxide , and the uptake of O2 by respiration is exactly matched to the photosynthetic release of oxygen . In assimilation terms , at compensation point , the net carbon dioxide assimilation is zero . Leaves release CO2 by photorespiration and day respiration , but CO2 is also converted into carbohydrate by photosynthesis . Assimilation is therefore the difference in the rate of these processes . At a normal partial pressure of CO2 ( 0.343 hPa in 1980 ) , there is an irradiation at which the net assimilation of CO2 is zero . For instance , in the early morning and late evenings , the compensation point may be reached as photosynthetic activity decreases and respiration increases . Therefore , the partial pressure of CO2 at the compensation point , also known as gamma , is a function of irradiation . The irradiation dependence of the compensation point is explained by the RuBP ( ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate ) concentration . When the acceptor RuBP is in saturated concentration , gamma is independent of irradiation . However at low irradiation , only a small fraction of the sites on RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase enzyme ( Rubisco ) have the electron acceptor RuBP . This decreases the photosynthetic activity and therefore affects gamma . The intracellular concentration of CO2 affects the rates of photosynthesis and photo respiration . At higher carbon dioxide concentrations , the photosynthesis rate is higher , while at low CO2 concentrations , photo respiration is higher ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems ." ]

[ "Past sea level Global or eustatic sea level has fluctuated significantly over the Earth 's history . The main factors affecting sea level are the amount and volume of available water and the shape and volume of the ocean basins . The primary influences on water volume are the temperature of the seawater , which affects density , and the amounts of water retained in other reservoirs like rivers , aquifers , lakes , glaciers , polar ice caps and sea ice . Over geological timescales , changes in the shape of the oceanic basins and in land/sea distribution affect sea level . In addition to eustatic changes , local changes in sea level are caused by tectonic uplift and subsidence . Over geologic time sea level has fluctuated by hundreds of meters . Today 's interglacial level is near historic highs and is 130 meters above the low level reached during the Last Glacial Maximum 19,000 -- 20,000 years ago . Observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century . Over this last million years , whereas it was higher most of the time before then , sea level was lower than today .", "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "Sea level Mean sea level ( MSL ) ( abbreviated simply sea level ) is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth 's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured . MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised geodetic reference pointthat is used , for example , as a chart datum in cartography and marine navigation , or , in aviation , as the standard sea level at which atmospheric pressure is measured in order to calibrate altitude and , consequently , aircraft flight levels . A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a mean low and mean high tide at a particular location . Sea levels can be affected by many factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales . The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change , and sea level rise has been widely quoted as evidence of ongoing global warming . The term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level ( AMSL ) .", "Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "Climate inertia Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "Coastal management Coastal management is defense against flooding and erosion , and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands . Coastal zones occupy less than 15 % of the Earth 's land area , while they host more than 40 % of the world population . Nearly 1.2 billion people live within 100 km of a shoreline and 100 m of sea level , with an average density nearly 3 times higher than the global average for population . With three-quarters of the world population expected to reside in the coastal zone by 2025 , human activities originating from this small land area will impose heavy pressure on coasts . Coastal zones contain rich resources to produce goods and services and are home to most commercial and industrial activities . In the European Union , almost half of the population lives within 50 kilometres of the sea and coastal resources produce much of the Union 's economic wealth . The fishing , shipping and tourism industries all compete for space along Europe 's estimated 89,000 km of coastline and coastal zones contain some of Europe 's most fragile and valuable natural habitats . Protection against sea level rise in the 21st century will be especially important , as sea level rise accelerates . Changes in sea level damage beaches and coastal systems . Coastal sediments are disturbed and suspended by wave and tide energy .", "Hundred-year wave A hundred-year wave is a statistically projected water wave , the height of which , on average , is met or exceeded once in a hundred years for a given location . The likelihood of this wave height being attained at least once in the hundred-year period is 63 % . As a projection of the most extreme wave which can be expected to occur in a given body of water , the hundred-year wave is a factor commonly taken into consideration by designers of oil platforms and other offshore structures . Periods of time other than a hundred years may also be taken into account , resulting in , for instance , a fifty-year wave . Various methods are employed to predict the possible steepness and period of these waves , in addition to their height .", "Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "History of lobbying in the United States The history of lobbying in the United States is a chronicle of the rise of paid advocacy generally by special interests seeking favor in lawmaking bodies such as the United States Congress . While lobbying has usually been understood as activity by paid professionals to try to influence key legislators and executives , it has been around since the early days of the Republic , and affects every level of government from local municipal authorities to the federal government in Washington . In the nineteenth century , lobbying was mostly conducted at the state level , but in the twentieth century , there has been a marked rise in activity , particularly at the federal level in the past thirty years . While lobbying has generally been marked by controversy , there have been numerous court rulings protecting lobbying as free speech .", "Yew Wah School of Shanghai Yew Wah School of Shanghai is located in the Changning District of Shanghai , China . It was founded in 2001 and has been offering quality international education to Chinese students since 2004 . Yew Wah is a licensed Cambridge International Examinations center , offering both IGCSE and A Level courses for high school students . By providing a fully international program with professional foreign teachers , international curriculum and advanced educational philosophies , Yew Wah has created an authentic international atmosphere and learning environment in Mainland China . The school has been growing steadily over the past decade , with an enrolment of close to 300 students for the 2012-2013 school year .", "Hurricane Alley Hurricane Alley is an area of warm water in the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the west coast of northern Africa to the east coast of Central America and Gulf Coast of the Southern United States . Many hurricanes form within this area . The sea surface temperature of the Atlantic in Hurricane Alley has been steadily growing warmer over the past decades , which most climate scientists believe accounts for the increase in hurricane activity .", "Managed retreat In the context of coastal erosion , managed retreat ( also managed realignment ) allows an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by the sea to become flooded by removing coastal protection . This process is usually in low-lying estuarine areas and almost always involves flooding of land that has at some point in the past been claimed from the sea . In the UK , managed retreat is often a response to sea level rise exacerbated by local subsidence of the land surface due to post-glacial isostatic rebound in the north .", "Phytoseiidae The Phytoseiidae are a family of mites which feed on thrips and other mite species . They are often used as a biological control agent for managing mite pests . Because of their usefulness as biological control agents , interest in phytoseiids has steadily increased over the past century . In 1950 , there were 34 known species . Today , there are 2,731 documented species .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Wage ratio In economics , the wage ratio refers to the ratio of the top salaries in a group ( company , city , country , etc. ) to the bottom salaries . It is a measure of wage dispersion . There has been a resurgence for the importance of equitable wage ratio . The amount of money paid out to executives has steadily been on the rise . `` An April 2013 study by Bloomberg finds that large public company CEOs were paid an average of 204 times the compensation of rank-and-file workers in their industries . By comparison , it is estimated that the average CEO was paid about 20 times the typical worker 's pay in the 1950s , with that multiple rising to 42-to-1 in 1980 , and to 120-to-1 in 2000 '' . While not as extreme , similar trends have been observed around the world .", "Annual cycle of sea level height The annual cycle of sea level height ( or seasonal cycle or annual harmonic ) describes the variation of sea level that occurs with a period of one year . Historically , analysis of the annual cycle has been limited by locations with tide gauge records , i.e. , coastlines and some islands in the deep ocean , and by sparse records in the Southern Hemisphere . Since 1992 , satellite-based altimeters have provided near global coverage of sea level variability , allowing for a more thorough understanding of the annual cycle both in the deep ocean and in coastal margins .", "Expanding Earth The expanding Earth or growing Earth hypothesis asserts that the position and relative movement of continents is at least partially due to the volume of Earth increasing . Conversely , geophysical global cooling was the hypothesis that various features could be explained by Earth contracting . Although it was suggested historically , since the recognition of plate tectonics in the 1970s , scientific consensus has rejected any significant expansion or contraction of Earth .", "Marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "Killincarrig Killincarrig is a village between Greystones and Delgany in north County Wicklow . It lies at the crossroads ( now a mini-roundabout ) of the R762 and the R761 roads . Like neighbouring Delgany it has been steadily built-up over the past 40 years and now forms part of the continuous urban area of Greystones . Category : Towns and villages in County Wicklow", "Acceleration due to gravity Acceleration due to gravity may refer to Gravitational acceleration , the acceleration caused by the gravitational attraction of massive bodies in general Gravity of Earth , the acceleration caused by the gravitational attraction of the Earth Standard gravity , or g , the standard value of gravitational acceleration at sea level on Earth", "Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth . The times and amplitude of tides at any given locale are influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon , by the pattern of tides in the deep ocean , by the amphidromic systems of the oceans , and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry ( see Timing ) . Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide -- two nearly equal high and low tides each day . Other locations experience a diurnal tide -- only one high and low tide each day . A `` mixed tide '' -- two uneven tides a day , or one high and one low -- is also possible . Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors . To make accurate records , tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time . Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes . These data are compared to the reference ( or datum ) level usually called mean sea level . While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level fluctuations , sea levels are also subject to forces such as wind and barometric pressure changes , resulting in storm surges , especially in shallow seas and near coasts . Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans , but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present . For example , the solid part of the Earth is affected by tides , though this is not as easily seen as the water tidal movements .", "Raised shoreline A raised shoreline is an ancient shoreline exposed above current water level . These landforms are formed by a relative change in sea level due to global sea level rise , isostatic rebound , and/or tectonic uplift . These surfaces are usually exposed above modern sea level when a heavily glaciated area experiences a glacial retreat , causing water levels to rise . This area will then experience post-glacial rebound , effectively raising the shoreline surface . Examples of raised shorelines can be found along the coasts of formerly glaciated areas in Ireland and Scotland , as well as in North America . Raised shorelines are exposed at various locations around the Puget Sound of Washington State .", "Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "Prodromos, Cyprus Prodromos is the highest village in Cyprus at 1,380 m above sea level . It is the island 's main centre for winter sport , with three ski slopes located on nearby Mount Olympus . The village is part of the Limassol District . The number of inhabitants has decreased steadily over the years ; by there were only 123 permanent residents , although there are over 240 residences that are temporarily occupied , mostly during the summer and other holidays .", "Emerging power An emerging power or rising power is a term used as recognition of the rising , primarily economic , influence of a nation -- or union of nations -- which has steadily increased their presence in global affairs . Such a power aspires to have a more powerful position or role in international relations , either regionally or globally , and possess sufficient resources and levels of development that such goals are potentially achievable . A term also used to describe such a state is `` rising power '' .", "History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "Meltwater pulse 1B Meltwater pulse 1B ( MWP1b ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of either rapid or just accelerated post-glacial sea level rise that occurred at the beginning of the Holocene and after the end of the Younger Dryas . Meltwater pulse 1B is also known as catastrophic rise event 2 ( CRE2 ) in the Caribbean Sea . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwaterpulse19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1A , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of proposed rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "Subsidence Subsidence is the motion of a surface ( usually , the earth 's surface ) as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea level . The opposite of subsidence is uplift , which results in an increase in elevation . Ground subsidence is of concern to geologists , geotechnical engineers and surveyors .", "Whakaari / White Island Whakaari / White Island is an active andesite stratovolcano , situated 48 km from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand , in the Bay of Plenty . It is New Zealand 's most active cone volcano , and has been built up by continuous volcanic activity over the past 150,000 years . The nearest mainland towns are Whakatane and Tauranga . White Island has been in a nearly continuous stage of smoking at least since it was ` discovered ' by James Cook in 1769 . The island is roughly circular , about 2 km in diameter , and rises to a height of 321 m above sea level . However this is only the peak of a much larger submarine mountain , which rises up to 1600 m above the nearby seafloor . Sulfur mining was attempted but was abandoned in 1914 after a lahar killed all 10 workers . The main activities on the island now are guided tours and scientific research .", "IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "Climate change in New Zealand Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "20th century The 20th century was a century that began on January 1 , 1901 and ended on December 31 , 2000 . It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium . It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s which began on January 1 , 1900 , and ended on December 31 , 1999 . The 20th century was dominated by a chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era : World War I and World War II , nuclear power and space exploration , nationalism and decolonization , the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts ; intergovernmental organizations and cultural homogenization through developments in emerging transportation and communications technology ; poverty reduction and world population growth , awareness of environmental degradation , ecological extinction ; and the birth of the Digital Revolution . It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life . The term `` short twentieth century '' was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991 . Global total fertility rates , sea level rise and ecological collapses increased ; the resulting competition for land and dwindling resources accelerated deforestation , water depletion . and the mass extinction of half the world 's estimated nine million unique species and wildlife population ; consequences which are now being dealt with . It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world 's population to reach 1 billion ; world population reached an estimated 2 billion in 1927 ; by late 1999 , the global population reached 6 billion . Global literacy averaged 80 % ; global lifespan-averages exceeded 40 + years for the first time in history , with over half achieving 70 + years ( three decades longer than it was a century ago ) ." ]

[ "Carbon sink A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period . The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration . Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol , which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset . There are also different strategies used to enhance this process .", "Forest A forest is a large area dominated by trees . Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world , incorporating factors such as tree density , tree height , land use , legal standing and ecological function . According to the widely used Food and Agriculture Organization definition , forests covered four billion hectares ( 15 million square miles ) or approximately 30 percent of the world 's land area in 2006 . Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth , and are distributed across the globe . Forests account for 75 % of the gross primary productivity of the Earth 's biosphere , and contain 80 % of the Earth 's plant biomass . Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones : boreal forests near the poles , tropical forests near the equator and temperate forests at mid-latitudes . Higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes , and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition . Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways . Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions . Forests can also affect people 's health . Human activities , including harvesting forest resources , can negatively affect forest ecosystems .", "Deforestation Deforestation , clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use . Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms , ranches , or urban use . The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests . About 30 % of Earth 's land surface is covered by forests . Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons : trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel , ( sometimes in the form of charcoal or timber ) , while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation . The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat , biodiversity loss and aridity . It has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Deforestation has also been used in war to deprive the enemy of vital resources and cover for its forces . Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War . As of 2005 , net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$ 4,600 . Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland . Disregard of ascribed value , lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale . In many countries , deforestation , both naturally occurring and human-induced , is an ongoing issue . Deforestation causes extinction , changes to climatic conditions , desertification , and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record . More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in tropical forests . Between 2000 and 2012 , 2.3 e6sqkm of forests around the world were cut down . As a result of deforestation , only 6.2 e6km2 remain of the original 16 e6km2 of forest that formerly covered the Earth .", "Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation , sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries ( REDD + ) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) since 2005 , with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries . Most of the key REDD + decisions were completed by 2013 , with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015 . In the last two decades , various studies estimate that land use change , including deforestation and forest degradation , accounts for 12-29 % of global greenhouse gas emissions . For this reason the inclusion of reducing emissions from land use change is considered essential to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC . During the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol , and then in particular its Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , the inclusion of tropical forest management was debated but eventually dropped due to anticipated methodological difficulties in establishing -- in particular -- additionality and leakage ( detrimental effects outside of the project area attributable to project activities ) . What remained on forestry was `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' , sectoral scope 14 of the CDM . Under this sectoral scope areas of land that had no forest cover since 1990 could be replanted with commercial or indigenous tree species . In its first eight years of operation 52 projects had been registered under the `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' scope of the CDM . The cumbersome administrative procedures and corresponding high transaction costs are often blamed for this slow uptake . Beyond the CDM , all developed countries that were parties to the Kyoto Protocol also committed to measuring and reporting on efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions from forests . The United States also measures and reports on the net greenhouse gas sequestration in its forests . In response to what many perceived to be a failure to address a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions , the Coalition for Rainforest Nations ( CfRN ) was established and in 2005 they proposed to the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC policy approaches and positive incentives for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases stemming from tropical deforestation and forest degradation as a climate change mitigation measure ." ]

[ "Opaque forest problem In computational geometry , The opaque forest problem can be stated as follows : `` Given a convex polygon C in the plane , determine the minimal forest T of closed , bounded line segments such that every line through C also intersects T '' . T is said to be the opaque forest , or barrier of C. C is said to be the coverage of T . While any forest that covers C is a barrier of C , we wish to find the one with shortest length . It may be the case that T is constrained to be strictly interior or exterior to C . In this case , we specifically refer to a barrier as interior or exterior . Otherwise , the barrier is assumed to have no constraints on its location .", "Geometric–harmonic mean In mathematics , the geometric -- harmonic mean M ( x , y ) of two positive real numbers x and y is defined as follows : we form the geometric mean of g0 = x and h0 = y and call it g1 , i.e. g1 is the square root of xy . We also form the harmonic mean of x and y and call it h1 , i.e. h1 is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of x and y . These may be done sequentially ( in any order ) or simultaneously . Now we can iterate this operation with g1 taking the place of x and h1 taking the place of y . In this way , two sequences ( gn ) and ( hn ) are defined : and Both of these sequences converge to the same number , which we call the geometric -- harmonic mean M ( x , y ) of x and y . The geometric -- harmonic mean is also designated as the harmonic -- geometric mean . ( cf. Wolfram MathWorld below . ) The existence of the limit can be proved by the means of Bolzano -- Weierstrass theorem in a manner almost identical to the proof of existence of arithmetic -- geometric mean .", "Bashan Bashan ( -LSB- ˈbeɪʃən -RSB- הַבָּשָׁן , ha-Bashan ; Basan or Basanitis ) is a biblical place first mentioned in , where Og the king of Bashan came out against the Israelites at the time of their entrance into the Promised Land , but was utterly routed . . Og Bashan extended from Gilead in the south to Hermon in the north , and from the Jordan river on the west to Salcah on the east . Along with the half of Gilead it was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh . Golan , one of its cities , became a Levitical city and a city of refuge . According to the Torah , the Israelites invaded Bashan and conquered it from the Amorites . states : `` Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan , and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei . The LORD said to me , `` Do not be afraid of him , for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land . Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites , who reigned in Heshbon . So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army . We struck them down , leaving no survivors . At that time we took all his cities . There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them -- the whole region of Argob , Og 's kingdom in Bashan . All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars , and there were also a great many unwalled villages . We completely destroyed them , as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon , destroying every city -- men , women and children . But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves . '' Argob , in Bashan , was one of Solomon 's commissariat districts . The cities of Bashan were taken by Hazael , but were soon after reconquered by Jehoash , who overcame the Syrians in three battles , according to the prophecy of Elisha ( 19 ) . From this time Bashan almost disappears from history , although we read of the wild cattle of its rich pastures , the oaks of its forests , the beauty of its extensive plains , and the rugged majesty of its mountains . Soon after the conquest , the name `` Gilead '' was given to the whole country beyond Jordan . After the Exile , Bashan was divided into four districts : Gaulonitis , or Jaulan , the most western Auranitis , the Hauran Argob or Trachonitis , now the Lejah Batanaea , now Ard-el-Bathanyeh , on the east of the Lejah , with many deserted towns almost as perfect as when they were inhabited .", "Link/cut tree A link/cut tree is a data structure for representing a forest , a set of rooted trees , and offers the following operations : Add a tree consisting of a single node to the forest . Given a node in one of the trees , disconnect it ( and its subtree ) from the tree of which it is part . Attach a node to another node as its child . Given a node , find the root of the tree to which it belongs . By doing this operation on two distinct nodes , one can check whether they belong to the same tree . The represented forest may consist of very deep trees , so if we represent the forest as a plain collection of parent pointer trees , it might take us a long time to find the root of a given node . However , if we represent each tree in the forest as a link/cut tree , we can find which tree an element belongs to in O ( log ( n ) ) amortized time . Moreover , we can quickly adjust the collection of link/cut trees to changes in the represented forest . In particular , we can adjust it to merge ( link ) and split ( cut ) in O ( log ( n ) ) amortized time . Link/cut trees divide each tree in the represented forest into vertex-disjoint paths , where each path is represented by an auxiliary data structure ( often splay trees , though the original paper predates splay trees and thus uses biased binary search trees ) . The nodes in the auxiliary data structure are ordered by their depth in the corresponding represented tree . In one variation , Naive Partitioning , the paths are determined by the most recently accessed paths and nodes , similar to Tango Trees . In Partitioning by Size paths are determined by the heaviest child ( child with the most children ) of the given node . This gives a more complicated structure , but reduces the cost of the operations from amortized O ( log n ) to worst case O ( log n ) . It has uses in solving a variety of network flow problems and to jive data sets . In the original publication , Sleator and Tarjan referred to link/cut trees as `` dynamic trees '' , or `` dynamic dyno trees '' .", "(a,b)-decomposability In graph theory , the ( a , b ) - decomposability of an undirected graph is the existence of a partition of its edges into a + 1 sets , each one of them inducing a forest , except one who induces a graph with maximum degree b . If this graph is also a forest , then we call this a F ( a , b ) - decomposition . A graph with arboricity a is ( a , 0 ) - decomposable . Every ( a , 0 ) - decomposition or ( a , 1 ) - decomposition is a F ( a , 0 ) - decomposition or a F ( a , 1 ) - decomposition respectively .", "What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood is the debut studio album by indie pop band The Mynabirds . The album and track listing were announced by Saddle Creek Records in January 2010 . The album was released on April 27 , 2010 .", "We Lived for Estonia We Lived for Estonia ( Nous Vivions Pour l'Estonie , Elasime Eestile ) is a documentary film about the Forest brothers during World War II .", "Unfolding (functions) In mathematics , an unfolding of a function is a certain family of functions . Let be a smooth manifold and consider a smooth mapping Let us assume that for given and we have . Let be a smooth - dimensional manifold , and consider the family of mappings ( parameterised by ) given by We say that is a - parameter unfolding of if for all In other words the functions and are the same : the function is contained in , or is unfolded by , the family Let be given by An example of an unfolding of would be given by As is the case with unfoldings , and are called variables and and are called parameters -- since they parameterise the unfolding . In practice we require that the unfoldings have certain nice properties . In notice that is a smooth mapping from to and so belongs to the function space As we vary the parameters of the unfolding we get different elements of the function space . Thus , the unfolding induces a function The space where denotes the group of diffeomorphisms of etc. , acts on The action is given by If lies in the orbit of under this action then there is a diffeomorphic change of coordinates in and which takes to ( and vice versa ) . One nice property that we may like to impose is that where '' '' denotes `` transverse to '' . This property ensures that as we vary the unfolding parameters we can predict -- by knowing how the orbit foliate -- how the resulting functions will vary . There is an idea of a versal unfolding . Every versal unfolding has the property that , but the converse is false . Let be local coordinates on , and let denote the ring of smooth functions . We define the Jacobian ideal of denoted by as follows : Then a basis for a versal unfolding of is given by quotient This quotient is known as the local algebra of The dimension of the local algebra is called the Milnor number of . The minimum number of unfolding parameters for a versal unfolding is equal to the Milnor number ; that is not to say that every unfolding with that many parameters will be versal ! Consider the function A calculation shows that This means that give a basis for a versal unfolding , and that is a versal unfolding . A versal unfolding with the minimum possible number of unfolding parameters is called a miniversal unfolding . Sometimes unfoldings are called deformations , versal unfoldings are called versal deformations , etc. . An important object associated to an unfolding is its bifurcation set . This set lives in the parameter space of the unfolding , and gives all parameter values for which the resulting function has degenerate singularities .", "We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow is the Black Lips ' second LP album , released in 2004 . The name is a reference to a line from the Hayao Miyazaki film Princess Mononoke .", "That Means a Lot `` That Means a Lot '' is a song written ( mainly ) by Paul McCartney , but credited to Lennon -- McCartney . It was released in 1965 by P.J. Proby . Proby 's version reached # 24 on the NME chart . Prior to the release by Proby , the Beatles recorded a version that was intended for the Help ! film and soundtrack . The Beatles were dissatisfied with the song and their version was not released until the Anthology 2 CD in 1996 . Lennon said at the time , `` This song is a ballad which Paul and I wrote for the film but we found we just could n't sing it . In fact , we made a hash of it , so we thought we 'd better give it to someone who could do it well . '' In an interview with Mark Lewisohn in 1988 , McCartney said , `` There were a few songs that we were just not as keen on , or we did n't think they were quite finished . This was one of them . ''", "What We Almost Made What We Almost Made is a 2008 mixtape by London-born entertainer Example . Similar to his previous full-length releases We Did n't Invent the Remix and What We Made , all of the songs in What We Almost Made were mainly written by Example and produced by Rusher . As the title suggests , What We Almost Made was made as a follow-up to What We Made and contains unreleased tracks that were n't included in any of his previous releases ( five of which feature various artists ) ; three of the songs , although , were originally B-sides taken from the vinyl releases of the singles `` I Do n't Want To '' , `` So Many Roads '' and `` Me & Mandy '' ( tracks 15 , 5 and 6 , respectively ) .", "DARPA Robotics Challenge The DARPA Robotics Challenge ( DRC ) was a prize competition funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . Held from 2012 to 2015 , it aimed to develop semi-autonomous ground robots that could do `` complex tasks in dangerous , degraded , human-engineered environments . '' The DRC followed the DARPA Grand Challenge and DARPA Urban Challenge . It began in October 2012 and was to run for about 33 months with three competitions : a Virtual Robotics Challenge ( VRC ) that took place in June 2013 ; and two live hardware challenges , the DRC Trials in December 2013 and the DRC Finals in June 2015 . Besides spurring development of semi-autonomous robots , the DRC also sought to make robotic software and systems development more accessible beyond the end of the program . To that end , the DRC funded the adaptation of the GAZEBO robot simulator by the Open Source Robotics Foundation ( OSRF ) for DRC purposes and the construction of six Boston Dynamics ATLAS robots that were given to the teams that performed best in the VRC . Dr. Gill Pratt , Program Manager DARPA Robotics Challenge described DARPA and its goals with the Robotics Challenge : DARPA 's role is to spur innovation . And we do it by focused , short term efforts . We pick things that are not impossible , but also not very low risk . So we take very high risk gambles , and those risks have tremendous payoffs . So if we 're successful it means that these robots are actually going to be able to make a difference . In particular , in disaster scenarios making society more resilient . The lesson of the original challenge -LSB- DARPA Grand Challenge - driverless cars -RSB- is that persistence pays . It 's important if you know the technology is almost there and you can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel , a little bit of persistence will pay off . What I 'm hoping for in the trials is that some of the teams will score some points . I do n't think that any team is going to score all the points that there are . Maybe no teams will even score half the points that there are . But I think some teams will do moderately well . My expectation is that the robots are going to be slow . What we 're looking for right now is for the teams to just do as well as roughly that one year old child . If we can get there , then we think that we have good reason to believe that some of these teams with continued persistence for another year will actually be able to demonstrate robots that show the utility that these things might have in a real disaster scenario . DARPA is in the innovation business , not in the development business . So , what we do is we wait for technology to be almost ready for something big to happen , and then we add a focused effort to catalyze the something . It does n't mean that we take it all the way into a system that 's deployed or to the marketplace . We rely on the commercial sector to do that . But we provide the impetus , the extra push the technology needs to do that .", "Inverse function In mathematics , an inverse function is a function that `` reverses '' another function : if the function applied to an input gives a result of , then applying its inverse function to gives the result , and vice versa . i.e. , if and only if . As a simple example , consider the real-valued function of a real variable given by . Thinking of this as a step-by-step procedure ( namely , take a number , multiply it by 5 , then subtract 7 from the result ) , to reverse this and get back from some output value , say , we should undo each step in reverse order . In this case that means that we should add 7 to and then divide the result by 5 . In functional notation this inverse function would be given by , With we have that and . Not all functions have inverse functions . In order for a function to have an inverse , it must have the property that for every in there must be one , and only one in so that . This property ensures that a function will exist having the necessary relationship with .", "We Tripantu We Tripantu is the Mapuche New Year fest that takes place on the June solstice which in the Southern Hemisphere is the Winter solstice . We Tripantu ( Mapudungun tr : new sunrise ) is the conclusion of the Mapuche New Year that takes place between June 21 and June 24 in the Gregorian calendar . It is the Mapuche 's equivalent to the Inti Raymi . The ancestral incertidubre stayed up throughout the year 's longest night with anxiety that the next day would not come . After three days it became clear that the winter was diminishing . The Pachamama ( Quechua tr : Mother Earth ) , Nuke Mapu ( uke ' Mapu ) begins to bloom fertilized by Sol , from the Andean heights to the southern tip . Antu ( Pillan ) , Inti ( Aymara ) , or Rapa ( rapanui ) Sol , the sun starts to come back to earth , after the longest night of the year ; it 's winter Solstice . Everything starts to bloom again .", "Josef Vágner Josef Vágner ( May 26 , 1928 -- May 6 , 2000 ) was a Czech zoologist , tropical forester , zoo director , huntsman and author whose life motto was : `` Humankind will never be able to repay animals what we owe them . ''", "We are fed up We are fed up ! ( Wir haben es satt ! ) is the theme of a series of demonstrations in Germany against industrial livestock production and for more sustainable farming . The biggest demonstrations take place every year in Berlin since 2011 and attract up to 30,000 people . Around 120 different groups which represent farmers , companies and environmental rights and animal rights activists organize and sustain the demonstrations . The protests take place parallel to the Berlin International Green Week .", "Jurrassic Exxplosion Phillipic Jurrassic Exxplosion Phillipic or The Jurrasic Explosion Philippic is the debut album by Foxygen , which `` self-produced a string of adventurous records throughout high school . '' Jonathan Rado described the album to Interview Magazine as a `` 30 track space opera . '' It was initially released in 2007 , but then a further release of a free download link was shown by Foxygen on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter . It was recorded when the band members were 15 years old . We were babies . Neither one of us had hit puberty yet . Our voices were extremely high . AL : When you played shows back when you were in High School , did you have a driver 's license , or did your parents have to drive you to shows ? Sam : Yeah . We played at the Whisky a-go-go a few times . Most of our shows were at school . It would be some class show where we would fuck around on melodica and guitar . Our early influences were Brian Jonestown Massacre . We watched Dig The Movie every day . We were into the fact that Anton `` played everything . '' We wanted to play everything . So I went on Ebay and bought every strange instrument . I would buy an accordion or a xylophone . We would bring them to shows and we could n't really play any of them . But it worked for some reason . We tried to get a sitar for a long time .", "2010 Bolivia forest fires The 2010 Bolivia forest fires led the country 's government to declare a state of emergency , as wildfires spread across the country . More than 25,000 fires are burning across 15000 km2 . These raging fires have destroyed nearly sixty homes . Bolivia is unable to combat the fires properly as it does not have enough water bombing aircraft . There was a steep jump in fire hot-spots from 17,000 on Sunday August 15 to approximately 25,000 three days later . Some of the blazes were so strong that firefighters were unable to get close enough to contain them . The head of Bolivia 's forestry service , Weimar Becerra , described the fires as `` a total disaster , it is an environmental disaster . We have six forest fires which have a height of 50 m and are growing , and as a country we do not have the capacity to put them out '' .", "Every Time We Say Goodbye Every Time We Say Goodbye may refer to :", "Ardaas Ardaas is a Balmiki ritual performed in the Ashram at the beginning of the community service called Puja . It is performed standing facing the murti of Valmiki with hands folded , and the following words are repeated ( in Punjabi ) : Oh Lord we stand before you and pray , we beg for your protection . Bless us to call upon you with every breath we take and beg you to protect us from all sins , guide us so that we always pray to you . Bless us so that we always do good deeds Oh Lord and Creator of all things . Bless us with peace of mind and infinite wisdom , show us the way of righteousness so our soul be cleansed . Bless us so that we never forget your teaching Oh Lord and that we shall sing your praises , light candles and incense , Oh Lord those who pray to you with all their heart shall go and meet you in heaven . Oh Lord those who read and listen to your holy scriptures , you are so merciful upon them . Oh Lord we beg you to show us the way so that we can be spared from evil .", "Abdi Garad Abdi Garad is the name of a Somali pirate commander . Speaking in response to the deaths of three pirates responsible for hijacking the Maersk Alabama , Garad threatened to retaliate against American interests in the region . Another pirate stated that `` We will seek out the Americans , and if we capture them , we will slaughter them , '' said a 25-year-old pirate based in the Somali port of Harardhere who gave only his first name , Ismail . `` We will target their ships because we know their flags . Last night , an American-flagged ship escaped us by a whisker . We have showered them with rocket-propelled grenades , '' said Ismail , who did not take part in the Liberty Sun attack . In the past , Garad claimed to be engaged in a legitimate nationalist struggle against toxic waste dumpings and sea resources plunderers , although he also admits that the ransoms had helped him to `` enjoy life '' .", "1945 State of the Union Address The 1945 State of the Union Address was given to the United States Congress January 3 , 1945 , by the 32nd President of the United States , Franklin D. Roosevelt . It was given in the year he died . It was given during the final year of World War II . He stated , `` In considering the State of the Union , the war and the peace that is to follow are naturally uppermost in the minds of all of us . This war must be waged -- it is being waged -- with the greatest and most persistent intensity . Everything we are and have is at stake . Everything we are and have will be given . American men , fighting far from home , have already won victories which the world will never forget . We have no question of the ultimate victory . We have no question of the cost . Our losses will be heavy . We and our allies will go on fighting together to ultimate total victory . ''", "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is a 2012 short story collection by the American writer Nathan Englander . It was first published on February 7 , 2012 through Knopf and collects eight of Englander 's short stories , including the title story `` What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank . '' The title of the collection takes influence from Raymond Carver 's 1981 short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love . It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction , losing to Adam Johnson 's The Orphan Master 's Son . Englander 's collection was awarded the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award .", "Wes (given name) Wes is a common English given name , often a diminutive for Wesley . It may refer to :", "We Gave It All Away... Now We Are Taking It Back We Gave It All Away ... Now We Are Taking It Back is the second album by Mungolian Jet Set . It is a double album mostly composed of heavily modified remixes with a handful of original tracks .", "Sleep It Off Records Sleep It Off Records is a Gainesville , Florida-based independent record label , which was started by the band Less Than Jake in 2008 . The label name was taken from a track on the band 's 2004 B-sides album , B is for B-sides . Regarding owning the label , band member JR notes that the band : could have gone with Epitaph Records or Fat Wreck Chords , but we figured we had enough experience among the five of us doing almost every facet of what it takes to run a label . Now we control everything we do . It 's kind of scary , kind of creepy and a lot of fun ; I wake up every day at , like , 9 o'clock in the morning and I work on my band . And it 's not just the music side of things ; it 's marketing , online promotion , talking to dudes at radio stations . We work really hard and try to do it as best as we can . We 're our own band , we 're going to go on tour , put out records , and go on tour . That 's it . The record label was created to re-release selections of Less Than Jake 's back catalog of albums as well as their 2008 studio album , GNV FLA. . The band was still under contract with Warner Bros. . Records for one more album , but the two parties came to a mutual agreement to end the contract early . Reissues of Goodbye Blue and White , Pezcore , Losers , Kings and Things We Do n't Understand , and the DVD The People 's History of Less Than Jake were released on March 18 , 2008 with new artwork . The CD releases also came with bonus DVDs from the band 's late-2007 string of shows in which they played each of their albums in their entirety . These shows were released on June 22 , 2011 as the 4-disc DVD `` Anthology '' . Also , on March 1 , 2011 , the band rereleased Losing Streak and Hello Rockview , initially for free in CD form on their website . The band hopes to eventually own the rights to their recorded output from their time on Fat Wreck Chords and Sire Records .", "2011 State of the Union Address The 2011 State of the Union Address was a speech given by former President Barack Obama at 9 p.m. EST on January 25 , 2011 , in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives . In this joint session Obama outlined his `` vision for an America that 's more determined , more competitive , better positioned for the future -- an America where we out-innovate , we out-educate , we out-build the rest of the world ; where we take responsibility for our deficits ; where we reform our government to meet the demands of a new age . ''", "Public.Resource.Org Public.Resource.Org is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit corporation dedicated to publishing and sharing public domain materials in the United States and internationally . It was founded by Carl Malamud and is based in Sebastopol , California . Public.Resource.Org takes particular interest in digitizing and making accessible the works of the United States Federal Government , which because of US government licensing rules for its own work are almost always in the public domain . Major projects conducted by the organization include the digitizing and sharing of large numbers of court records , US government-produced video , and laws of various places . The organization often advertises its work by saying `` Yes We Scan '' , a play on Barack Obama 's 2008 presidential campaign slogan `` Yes We Can '' . The Yes We Scan focus as of autumn 2013 is an effort to digitize and publish every available set of safety standards for every government in the world .", "Straw dog Straw dogs were used as ceremonial objects in ancient China . In one translation Chapter 5 of the Tao Te Ching begins with the lines `` Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs '' . Su Zhe 's commentary on this verse explains : `` Heaven and Earth are not partial . They do not kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness . We do the same when we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices . We dress them up and put them on the altar , but not because we love them . And when the ceremony is over , we throw them into the street , but not because we hate them . ''", "We Almost Got It Together `` We Almost Got It Together '' was the first song to be released as a single from the album The Sweet Keeper by Tanita Tikaram .", "Victory for Us Is to See You Suffer Victory for us is to see you suffer is a 2007 book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict written by Philip C. Winslow . In the book , Winslow , a former U.N. relief worker and journalist , reports on his experiences in the West Bank during the Second Intifada . Winslow explains the unusual title of the book in this passage , as follows : Ami Ayalon , a peace campaigner and member of the Knesset , was asked if he stood by his oft-quoted remark that the Palestinians and the Israelis hate each other . `` I can not say that I hate Palestinians , but I think , as a nation , as a society , yes , most Israelis hate Palestinians and most Palestinians hate Israelis ... I had a very interesting meeting in London during the intifada . A Palestinian friend approached me -LSB- and said -RSB- : ` Ami , we won . We Palestinians won . ' ... I asked him , ` Are you crazy ? What do you mean `` We won '' ? You are losing so many people ... and we are losing so many people . What is the whole essence of victory ? ' He said , ` Ami you do n't understand us . Victory for us is to see you suffer . This is all we want . Finally , after so many years , we are not the only ones to suffer in the Middle East . ' '' ... It was a double-edged sword . Aylon added , `` In a way it is the same for us . We suffer , we lost many people , and -LSB- at -RSB- a certain point we were looking for revenge . ''", "We the Ghost We The Ghost is a pop/rock band from Tulsa , Oklahoma . The band was formed in 2012 . In July 2016 We The Ghost 's long awaited label debut LP `` A Stereophonic Listening Experience '' was released through Spectra Music Group . In June 2015 , We The Ghost 's debut single `` Let Me Know '' appeared at # 4 on Billboard Magazine Hot Singles Sales Chart . In September 2014 , the band released their newest album entitled , `` The Kids Ca n't Dance '' . In November 2014 , We The Ghost won ` Musical Group of the Year ' at the 2014 LA Music Award at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood . The band was also nominated for `` Pop Album of the Year '' . In December 2014 , We The Ghost again made news as it was announced that the band had officially signed a record deal with the Spectra Music Group . In 2013 the band 's album , `` Sinking Suspicion '' ( released in October 2013 ) , won `` Rock Album of the Year '' at the LA Music Awards . The band has held the number one position on ReverbNation 's Indie Band chart for over a year . At the A.B.O.T. Awards held in Tulsa in 2012 , We The Ghost won `` Best Indie Rock Band 2012 '' , `` Song Of The Year '' . and `` Male Vocalist of The Year '' . Then again in 2013 at the A.B.O.T Awards held in Tulsa , We The Ghost won `` Album of the Year '' , `` Band of the Year '' , and `` Male Vocalist of the Year '' ." ]

[ "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 ." ]

[ "Solar hot water in Australia Solar hot water is water heated using natural energy from the sun . Solar energy heats up large panels called thermal collectors . The energy is transferred through a fluid ( often water ) to a reservoir tank for storage and subsequent use . It is then used to heat water for commercial or domestic use and also as an energy input for heating and cooling devices and for industrial ` process heat ' applications . Solar hot water systems are motivated by the desire to reduce energy consumption more specifically , to reduce a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions . In the case of Victoria , for example , converting from electric to solar hot water could save 20 % of the state 's total greenhouse gas emissions . Despite an excellent solar resource , the penetration of solar water heaters in the Australian domestic market is only about 4 % or 5 % , with new dwellings accounting for most sales . During the 1950s , Australia 's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) carried out world leading research into flat plate solar water heaters . A solar water heater manufacturing industry was subsequently established in Australia and a large proportion of the manufactured product was exported . Four of the original companies are still in business and the manufacturing base has now expanded to 24 companies . Water heating is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions from the average Australian home , accounting for around 28 per cent of home energy use ( excluding the family car ) . The Australian government estimates that installing a climate friendly hot water system can save a family $ 300 to $ 700 off electricity bills each year .", "Energy in Victoria Energy in Victoria , Australia is generated using a number of fuels or technologies , including coal , natural gas and renewable energy sources - hydro , wind and solar . Brown coal is the primary energy source in the generation of electricity in the State of Victoria , Australia . Brown coal is also one of the largest contributors to Australia 's total domestic greenhouse gas emissions and a source of huge controversy for the country . Australia is one the highest polluters of greenhouse gas per capita in the world . Brown coal is used for the generation of approximately 85 % of Victoria 's household , commercial and industrial electricity consumption .", "Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act __ NOTOC __ The Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act of the Canadian province of Alberta was the first law of its type to impose greenhouse gas cuts on large industrial facilities . Starting from July 1 , 2007 , Alberta facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year will be required to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 percent under the Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act . Companies have three ways to meet their reductions : they can make operating improvements , buy an Alberta-based credit , or contribute to the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund . The regulations apply to about 100 large facilities which emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year . Those facilities account for about 70 per cent of Alberta 's industrial greenhouse gas emissions . The annual cost of compliance is estimated to be $ 177 million - or less than one tenth of one per cent of Alberta 's nominal GDP ( $ 242 billion in 2006 ) .", "Fuel taxes in the United States The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel . The federal tax was last raised in 1993 and is not indexed to inflation , which increased by a total of 64.6 percent from 1993 until 2015 . On average , , state and local taxes and fees add 31.04 cents to gasoline and 31.01 cents to diesel , for a total US average fuel tax of 49.44 cents per gallon for gas and 55.41 cents per gallon for diesel .", "Vapour-pressure deficit Vapour-pressure deficit , or VPD , is the difference ( deficit ) between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated . Once air becomes saturated , water will condense out to form clouds , dew or films of water over leaves . It is this last instance that makes VPD important for greenhouse regulation . If a film of water forms on a plant leaf , it becomes far more susceptible to rot . On the other hand , as the VPD increases , the plant needs to draw more water from its roots . In the case of cuttings , the plant may dry out and die . For this reason the ideal range for VPD in a greenhouse is from 0.45 kPa to 1.25 kPa , ideally sitting at around 0.85 kPa . As a general rule , most plants grow well at VPDs of between 0.8 and 0.95 kPa . A series of membership functions for defining optimality degree of VPD at different light condition and growth stages of greenhouse tomato can be found in the work of Shamshiri . In ecology , it is the difference between the actual water vapour pressure and the saturation water vapour pressure at a particular temperature . Unlike relative humidity , vapour-pressure deficit has a simple nearly straight-line relationship to the rate of evapotranspiration and other measures of evaporation .", "Condensing boiler Condensing boilers are water heaters fueled by gas or oil . They achieve high efficiency ( typically greater than 90 % on the higher heating value ) by condensing water vapour in the exhaust gases and so recovering its latent heat of vaporisation , which would otherwise have been wasted . This condensed vapour leaves the system in liquid form , via a drain . In many countries , the use of condensing boilers is compulsory or encouraged with financial incentives .", "Water supply and sanitation in Russia This article was written in 2010 with partial updates as of December 2013 . In Russia , approximately 70 per cent of drinking water comes from surface water and 30 per cent from groundwater . In 2004 , water supply systems had a total capacity of 90 million cubic metres a day . The average residential water use was 248 litres per capita per day . One fourth of the world 's fresh surface and groundwater is located in Russia . The water utilities sector is one of the largest industries in Russia serving the entire Russian population .", "2010 Zambian census The 2010 Zambian census was conducted in Zambia in 2010 under the approval of the Government of Zambia , which recorded demographic data from 13 million people and 3.2 million households . The 2010 Census of Population and Housing was conducted between 16 October and 15 November 2010 , with all parts of the country covered by 30 November 2010 . It was the fifth national population census exercise of Zambia since its independence in 1964 , with the previous censuses conducted in 1969 , 1980 , 1990 and 2000 . A total of 3.2 million questionnaires were used for data collection and the processing started in April 2011 by the Central Statistical Office . Optical Mark Reading ( OMR ) and Intelligent Character Recognition ( ICR ) technology were used for data capture . The census was funded by United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA ) , the United Kingdom AID ( UKAID-formerly DFID ) , the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) and the African Development Bank ( AfDB ) , who contributed close to 60 per cent of the total expenditure and rest contributed by the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Zambia . As per the census , Zambia had a total population of 13,092,666 including 6,454,647 males ( 49.2 % ) and 6,638,019 females ( 50.8 % ) with a sex-ratio of 102.84 . The total literacy of the population above the age of five stood at 70.2 per cent . Urban population constituted 39.51 per cent and the remaining 61.49 per cent resided in rural areas . The density of population was 17.4 persons per km2 and the decadal growth of population was 2.8 per cent . There were 22 major languages spoken in Zambia of which 33.5 per cent of the population spoke Bemba , making it the largest spoken language . Out of the seven broad ethnic groups , Bemba was the most prevalent tribal group ( 21.0 % ) , followed by Tonga ( 13.6 % ) . The national average of active people stood at 55.5 per cent with 50.2 in rural areas and 65.3 per cent in urban areas . Unemployment rate was 13 per cent as of 2010 . Agriculture was the major occupation with 66.5 per cent involved in it . The proportion of people living under poverty line was 60.5 per cent , while the extremely poor formed 42.3 per cent of the total population . A Post Enumeration Survey ( PES ) was carried out to find the common issues to be considered into account for future census enumeration activities . The results of the PES indicated that 92.7 per cent of total Zambian residents were captured in the 2010 census , leaving an under count of 7.3 per cent . The undercount was more in rural areas with an estimated 9.5 per cent of the total population and 3.8 per cent in the urban areas .", "2000 Zambian census The 2000 Zambian census was conducted in Zambia in 2000 by DRS under approval of the Government of Zambia , which recorded demographic data from 13 million people and 4 million households . Planning for the project commenced in 1998 when DRS participated in a trade mission to Zambia . In May 2000 , an initial survey of 10,000 people was then conducted using DRS technology . In October 2000 the census started , with more than 30,000 workers across Zambia completing the 17 million double-sided A4 forms . The census was completed in May 2001 . The scanning was undertaken in collaboration with the Examinations Council of Zambia ( ECZ ) and published by the Central Statistical Office . The census was noted by the Milton Keynes & North Bucks Chamber of Commerce and the DRS received a special commendation for its census work in Africa . According to the census , Zambia had a total population of 9,885,591 with 4,946,298 ( 50.04 % ) males and 4,939,293 ( 49.46 % ) females and the sex ratio was 999 for every 1,000 males . The total literacy of the population above the age of five stood at 55.3 per cent . Urban population constituted 34.67 per cent and the remaining 65.33 per cent resided in rural areas . The density of population was 13.1 persons per sq. km and the decadal growth of population was 2.50 per cent . There were 22 major languages spoken in Zambia of which 30.1 per cent of the population spoke Bemba , making it the largest spoken language . Out of the seven broad ethnic groups , Bemba was the most prevalent tribal group ( 33.6 % ) , followed by Eastern Province group ( 18.2 % ) . The total labour force was 3,165,151 with a total of 55 per cent of the population being inactive in rural areas and 45 per cent in urban areas . Unemployment increased in the country by 29.9 per cent in 2000 . Agriculture was the major occupation with 71.5 per cent involved in it . The people affected by HIV or AIDS constituted 15 per cent of the population , amounting to one million , of which 60 per cent estimated were women . Only 49 per cent of the total population had access to safe water , while only 15 per cent had access to proper toilets . As per the mortality indicators in 2000 , the Infant Mortality Rate ( IMR ) stood at 110 deaths per 1,000 children born . The life expectancy at the time of birth increased from 47 in 1990 to 50 in 2000 .", "Coober Pedy Solar Power Station The Coober Pedy Solar Power Station was planned to be Australia 's largest off-grid solar power station , located at remote Coober Pedy in South Australia 's far north . The project would cost $ 7.1 million and the Australian Government promised providing $ 3.55 million under its Renewable Remote Power Generation program . When completed at the end of 2009 , the power station was to consist of 26 solar dishes , each one 14 metres high , which would track the arc of the sun . The power plant was to generate about 1860 megawatt hours a year , 13 per cent of Coober Pedy 's total electricity requirements . It would cut diesel fuel consumption by up to 520,000 litres a year , saving 1,500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions . The Government had negotiations with two proponents and failed to convince either of the viability of the project . The project never went ahead .", "United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions The United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions is established by the United States Department of Energy under the Energy Policy Act 1992 . It is administered by the Energy Information Administration through the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program . Separately , the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 commenced implementing a mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program , which applies to facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more per year .", "Hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower . In 2015 hydropower generated 16.6 % of the world 's total electricity and 70 % of all renewable electricity , and was expected to increase about 3.1 % each year for the next 25 years . Hydropower is produced in 150 countries , with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013 . China is the largest hydroelectricity producer , with 920 TWh of production in 2013 , representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use . The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low , making it a competitive source of renewable electricity . The hydro station consumes no water , unlike coal or gas plants . The average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour . With a dam and reservoir it is also a flexible source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands . Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed , the project produces no direct waste , and has a considerably lower output level of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel powered energy plants .", "Gabú Region Gabú region is the eastern-most region in Guinea-Bissau . Its capital is Gabú . The region borders Senegal to the north , Guinea to the east and south and the Guinea-Bissau regions of Tombali and Bafatá to the west . It covers an area of 9,150 km2 , making it the largest of Guinea-Bissau 's administrative regions . It is an inland region covered with Savannah or light Savannah woodland and receives an annual rainfall of more than 2000 mm . As of 2009 , the total population of the region was 205,608 , with the urban population being 51,211 and rural being 154,397 . The sex ratio of the region is 94 females for every hundred males . As of 2009 , the net activity rate was 72.44 per cent , proportion of employed labour force was 43.86 per cent , proportion of labour force was 74.48 and the proportion of potentially active population was 43.86 per cent . The absolute poverty rate , people earning less than $ 2 a day , in the region stood at 72.4 per cent , with a regional contribution of 13.6 per cent to the national poverty totals .", "Qacha's Nek District Qacha 's Nek is a district of Lesotho . Qacha 's Nek is the capital or camptown , and only town in the district . In the south , Qacha 's Nek borders on the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa , and it has a short border with KwaZulu-Natal Province in the far east . Domestically , it borders on Quthing District in southwest , Mohale 's Hoek District in west and Thaba-Tseka District in the northern direction . As of 2006 , the district had a population of 69,749 which was 3.72 per cent of the total population of the country . The total area of the district was 2,349 which was 7.74 per cent of the total area of the country . The density of population in the district was 30.00 per sq. km . As of 2008 , there were economically active people in the district . There were totally 53,126 employed people out of a total of 100,776 people in the district above 15 years of age . The total are planted in 2009 was 10,168 which formed 2.52 per cent of the total area planted in the country . The total production was 3,278 tonnes , which was 2.18 per cent of the totals in the country , with maize being the major crop .", "Alibori Department Alibori is the largest and northernmost département of Benin . The départment borders the countries of Burkina Faso , Niger , and Nigeria . The départments of Atakora and Borgou also border Alibori . The département of Alibori was created in 1999 when it was split off from Borgou Department . Since 2008 , the capital has been Kandi . Per 2013 census , the total population of the department was 867,463 with 431,357 males and 436,106 females . The proportion of women was 50.30 per cent . The total rural population was 75.70 percent , while the urban population was 24.30 per cent . The total labour force in the department was 201,622 out of which 25.40 per cent were women . The proportion of households with no level of education was 83.70 .", "Est Region (Burkina Faso) Est is one of Burkina Faso 's 13 administrative regions . It was created on 2 July 2001 . The region 's capital is Fada N'gourma . Five provinces make up the region - Gnagna , Gourma , Komondjari , Kompienga , and Tapoa . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,369,233 with 50.97 per cent females . The population in the region was 8.70 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 98 , infant mortality rate was 98 and the mortality of children under five was 186 . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 28.5 per cent , compared with a national average of 28.3 per cent . The coverage of cereal need compared with the total production of the region was 108.00 per cent .", "Kogan Creek Power Station The Kogan Creek Power Station is a 750 megawatt coal fired power station owned by CS Energy on the Darling Downs in Queensland . The $ 1.2 billion plant is situated at Brigalow , in the Surat Basin between Dalby and Chinchilla . The power station uses supercritical steam technology , which produces lower greenhouse gases emissions per energy unit delivered , and air-cooled surface condensers , which reduces water consumption . The plant consumes 90 % less water when compared to conventional power stations through the use of dry cooling technology . The plant runs at 40 per cent efficiency , and requires 42 per cent less fuel input than conventional power stations .", "Vapor In physics a vapor ( American ) or vapour ( British ) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature , which means that the vapor can be condensed to a liquid by increasing the pressure on it without reducing the temperature . A vapor is different from an aerosol . An aerosol is a suspension of tiny particles of liquid , solid , or both within a gas . For example , water has a critical temperature of 647 K , which is the highest temperature at which liquid water can exist . In the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures , therefore , gaseous water ( known as water vapor ) will condense into a liquid if its partial pressure is increased sufficiently . A vapor may co-exist with a liquid ( or a solid ) . When this is true , the two phases will be in equilibrium , and the gas-partial pressure will be equal to the equilibrium vapor pressure of the liquid ( or solid ) .", "Vapor quality In thermodynamics , vapour quality is the mass fraction in a saturated mixture that is vapour ; i.e. saturated vapour has a `` quality '' of 100 % , and saturated liquid has a `` quality '' of 0 % . Vapour quality is an intensive property which can be used in conjunction with other independent intensive properties to specify the thermodynamic state of the working fluid of a thermodynamic system . It has no meaning for substances which are not saturated mixtures ( i.e. , compressed liquids or superheated fluids ) . Quality can be calculated by dividing the mass of the vapour by the mass of the total mixture : where indicates mass . Another definition used by chemical engineers defines quality ( q ) of a fluid as the fraction that is saturated liquid . By this definition , a saturated liquid has q = 1 . A saturated vapour has q = 0 . An alternative definition is the ` equilibrium thermodynamic quality ' . It can be used only for single-component mixtures ( e.g. water with steam ) , and can take values < 0 ( for sub-cooled fluids ) and > 1 ( for super-saturated vapours ) : ; where h is the mixture specific enthalpy , defined as : . Subscripts f and g refer to saturated liquid and saturated gas respectively , and fg refers to vaporisation .", "Emirate of Abu Dhabi The Emirate of Abu Dhabi ( -LSB- ˌæbuː_ˈdɑːbi -RSB- , -LSB- ˌɑː - -RSB- , or -LSB- - ˈdæ - -RSB- إمارة أبوظبي , -LSB- ʔabuː ˈðˤɑbi -RSB- ) , is one of seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) . It is the largest emirate by area ( 67,340 km2 ) , accounting for approximately 87 percent of the total land area of the federation . Abu Dhabi also has the largest population of the seven emirates . In June 2011 , it was estimated to be 2,120,700 people , of which , 439,100 people ( less than 21 % ) were Emirati citizens , which has risen to 2.3 million in 2012 . Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the emirate , after which it is named , as well as the capital of the federation . Abu Dhabi 's Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) estimates , in 2014 , amounted to ( EUR 0.24 tril . ) AED 960 billion at current prices . Mining and quarrying ( includes crude oil and natural gas ) accounts for the largest contribution to GDP ( 58.5 per cent in 2011 ) . Construction related industries are the next largest contributor ( 10.1 per cent in 2011 ) . GDP grew to AED 911.6 billion in 2012 , or over 100,000 USD per capita . In recent times , the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has continuously contributed around 60 per cent of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates , while its population constitutes only 34 per cent of the total UAE population according to the 2005 census . In the early 1970s , two important developments helped the emirate achieve leaps on the path of development . The first was the establishment of the United Arab Emirates in December 1971 with Abu Dhabi as its political and administrative capital . The second was the sharp increase in oil prices following the October 1973 War , which accompanied a change in the relationship between the oil countries and foreign oil companies , leading to a dramatic rise in oil revenues .", "Butha-Buthe District Butha-Buthe is a district of Lesotho . Butha-Buthe is the capital or camptown , and only town in the district . In the north , Butha-Buthe borders on the Free State Province of South Africa . Domestically , it borders on Mokhotlong District in southeast and Leribe District on the south . As of 2006 , the district had a population of 110,320 which was 5.88 per cent of the total population of the country . The total area of the district was 1,767 which was 5.82 per cent of the total area of the country . As of 2008 , there were 49 per cent economically active people in the district . There were totally 71,012 employed people out of a total of 154,384 people in the district above 15 years of age . The total are planted in 2009 was 7,164 which formed 1.77 per cent of the total area planted in the country .", "Hauts-Bassins Region Hauts-Bassins is one of Burkina Faso 's thirteen administrative regions . It was created on 2 July 2001 . The region 's capital is Bobo Dioulasso . Three provinces make up the region - Houet , Kénédougou , and Tuy . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,660,910 with 50.58 per cent females . The population in the region was 10.56 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 80 , infant mortality rate was 67 and the mortality of children under five was 141 . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 160.00 per cent . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 33.4 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent .", "Nord Region (Burkina Faso) Nord is one of Burkina Faso 's 13 administrative regions . It was created on 2 July 2001 . The population of Nord was 1,182,770 in 2006 . The region 's capital is Ouahigouya . Four provinces make up the region - Loroum , Passoré , Yatenga , and Zondoma . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,306,619 with 53.43 per cent females . The population in the region was 8.31 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 88 , infant mortality rate was 72 and the mortality of children under five was 153 . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 85.00 per cent . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 27 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent .", "Corbières AOC Corbières is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée ( AOC ) for wine in the Languedoc-Roussillon , France , and it is this region 's largest AOC , responsible for 46 per cent of the region 's AOC wine production in 2005 . Red wine dominates the production in Corbières with almost 95 per cent , with 3.5 per cent rosé wine and 2 per cent white wine making up the balance . Carignan is the most common grape variety . The AOC was created in 1985 , covers 13500 ha of vineyards and produces an average of 554,000 hectoliters of wine per year , corresponding to 74 million bottles . Due to its size and geography , Corbières encompasses an enormous variety of soil types and microclimates . The wines from the region tend to be just as varied as the terroir . The region also experiences widely varied winds . The dry , Atlantic vent Cers frequently brings cold weather from the northwest while the area is normally under the influence of the warm , Mediterranean vent Marin .", "Sahel Region Sahel is one of Burkina Faso 's 13 administrative regions . It was created on 2 July 2001 . The region 's capital is Dori . Four provinces make up the region - Oudalan , Séno , Soum , and Yagha . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,086,250 with 50.30 per cent females . The population in the region was 6.91 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 132 , infant mortality rate was 119 and the mortality of children under five was 235 . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 81.00 per cent . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 18 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent .", "Carbon diet A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "Centre-Nord Region Centre-Nord is one of thirteen administrative regions of Burkina Faso , a landlocked country in Africa . The population of Centre-Nord in 2006 was 1,203,073 . The region 's capital is Kaya . Three provinces - Bam , Namentenga , and Sanmatenga , make up the region . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,334,860 with 52.97 per cent females . The population in the region was 8.49 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 55 , infant mortality rate was 64 and the mortality of children under five was 116 . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 16.6 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 70.00 per cent .", "Iida, Nagano right | thumb | 270px | Iida City Hall is a city located in southern Nagano Prefecture , in the Chūbu region of Japan . , the city had an estimated population of 101,121 and a population density of 154 persons per km ² . Its total area was 658.66 sqkm . Iida is an is a municipality designated by the Japanese government to be a model for making large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions towards the realization of a low-carbon society .", "Centre-Ouest Region Centre-Ouest is one of Burkina Faso 's 13 administrative regions . The population of Centre-Ouest was 1,348,784 in 2011 . The region 's capital is Koudougou . Four provinces ( Boulkiemdé , Sanguié , Sissili , and Ziro ) make up the region . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 1,310,644 with 53.92 per cent females . The population in the region was 8.33 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 61 , infant mortality rate was 87 and the mortality of children under five was 142 . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 28.8 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 135.00 per cent .", "Central Province, Zambia Central Province is one of Zambia 's ten provinces . The provincial capital is Kabwe , which is the home of the Mulungushi Rock of Authority . Mulungushi is the name of a river in the province and many of the historical policies , buildings and organizations are named after it . Central province has an area of 94394 km and it shares border with eight other provinces and has eleven districts . The total area of forest in the province is 9095566 ha , while it has a national park and three game management areas . As per the 2010 Zambian census , Central Province had a population of 1,307,111 , accounting to 10.05 per cent of the total Zambian population . . The literacy rate stood at 70.90 per cent against a national average of 70.2 per cent . Bemba was the most spoken language with 31.80 per cent speaking it and Lala is the majority clan in the province with 20.3 per cent of population . The total area of crops planted constituted 20.64 per cent of the total area cultivated in Zambia and the net production formed 23.85 per cent of the total agricultural production in the country with Wheat being the major crop . The Ikubi Lya Loongo festival during July and Ichibwela Mushi festival during September are the major festivals celebrated in the province . Kafue National Park , the country 's largest , shared with Southern and North-Western Provinces , Blue Lagoon National Park , Kasanka National Park , Bangweulu wetlands , South Luangwa National Park , Lunsemfwa , Lukusashi River valleys and Lukanga Swamp are the major wildlife and game areas in the province .", "Centre-Sud Region Centre-Sud is one of Burkina Faso 's 13 administrative regions . The population of Centre-Sud was 638,379 in 2006 and was estimated at 722,631 in 2011 . The region 's capital is Manga . Three provinces - Bazèga , Nahouri , and Zoundwéogo , make up the region . As of 2010 , the population of the region was 703,358 with 52.90 per cent females . The population in the region was 4.47 per cent of the total population of the country . The child mortality rate was 61 , infant mortality rate was 70 and the mortality of children under five was 127 . As of 2007 , the literacy rate in the region was 15.9 per cent , compared to a national average of 28.3 per cent . The coverage of cereal need compared to the total production of the region was 69.00 per cent .", "Multiphase heat transfer " ]

[ "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Miscanthus giganteus Miscanthus × giganteus , giant miscanthus , is a large , perennial grass hybrid of Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus . This full sun plant grows 8-12 ft ( 240 -- 360 cm ) tall each year and is best suited for hardiness Zones 5 - 9 .", "Carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients ( but not energy ) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans , typically insects and other arthropods . Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients , especially nitrogen , such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings . Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants , the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants , in 1875 . True carnivory is thought to have evolved independently nine times in five different orders of flowering plants , and is represented by more than a dozen genera . This classification includes at least 583 species that attract , trap and kill prey , absorbing the resulting available nutrients . Additionally , over 300 protocarnivorous plant species in several genera show some but not all of these characteristics ." ]

[ "Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test The Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test ( `` ISNT '' ) is a method for measuring the amount of Nitrogen in soil that is available for use by plants as a nutrient . The test predicts whether the addition of nitrogen fertilizer to agricultural land will result in increased crop yields . Nitrogen is essential for plant development . Indeed , for crops that are destined to be food for farm animal or human consumption , incorporation of nitrogen into the crop is an important goal , since this forms the basis for protein in the human diet . Nitrogen is commonly present in soils in many forms , and there are many ways to measure this nitrogen . None of these are completely satisfactory as a measure of the nitrogen that is available for use by crops . The ISNT is a new ( 2007 ) method for measuring nitrogen available for plant uptake . ISNT estimates the amount of nitrogen present in the soil as amino sugar nitrogen . With respect to corn and soybeans , the optimal range for plant growth appears to be around 225 to 240 mg/Kg . Some form of nitrogen fertilizer is needed if levels are below this range . On the other hand , if levels are above this range , addition of nitrogen fertilizer will not increase crop yield . In the corn belt , since about 1975 , the predominant method of estimating the amount of nitrogen needed for corn has been the `` yield-based '' method . A farmer first estimates the yield of corn he intends to produce . He then applies 1.1 to 1.4 lbs of nitrogen per bushel of expected yield . ISNT represents an alternative approach to managing nitrogen application . However , ISNT does not offer a simple answer as to the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that is needed , or as to the optimal form of that fertilizer . In field trials in Illinois , some fields have been found to be under-fertilized when managed according to the `` yield-based '' method , as judged by the ISNT . In the majority of trials , however , the yield-based method calls for the addition of nitrogen far in excess of the levels needed for optimal crop production . This nitrogen , which is applied by farmers at great cost , does not find its way into the crop , but is lost to the atmosphere or leaches into waterways . Within the corn belt , stalks and other crop residues are left in the field with the intention of enhancing the amount of organic material in the soil . Excessive nitrogen application , however , appears to promote the rapid decomposition of organic matter in the soil , resulting in release of carbon dioxide . As a result , the amount of organic material in soils managed according to the yield-based method in the corn belt appears to be decreasing in spite of the large amounts of crop residues left in the fields .", "Interstitial compound An interstitial compound , or interstitial alloy , is a compound that is formed when an atom with a small enough radius sits in an interstitial `` hole '' in a metal lattice . Examples of small atoms are hydrogen , boron , carbon and nitrogen . The compounds are important industrially and include some transition-metal carbides and nitrides .", "Aza- The prefix aza - is used in organic chemistry to form names of organic compounds where a carbon atom is replaced by a nitrogen atom . The related term `` deaza - '' refers to when a nitrogen is removed and , usually , a carbon atom is put in its place . Sometimes a number between hyphens is inserted before it to state which atom the nitrogen atom replaces . It arose by shortening the word azote , which is an obsolete name for nitrogen in the English language and occurs in current French usage ( L'azote ) , meaning `` Nitrogen '' . This prefix is part of the Hantzsch -- Widman nomenclature . It 's worthy to record mention of the fact that while the above fig . gives an example or 4-aza steroids , 6-aza steroids have also been developed by GSK ( cf. 5-alpha-reductase_inhibitor ) , although none of these compounds , as yet , are available for sale commercially .", "Quinuclidine Quinuclidine is an organic compound and a bicyclic amine and used as a catalyst and a chemical building block . It is a strong base with pKa of the conjugate acid of 11.0 . This is due to greater availability of the nitrogen lone pair . It can be prepared by reduction of quinuclidone . The compound is structurally related to DABCO , in which the other bridgehead is also nitrogen , and to tropane , which has a slightly different carbon frame . Quinuclidine is found as a structural component of some biomolecules including quinine .", "Maupin Carbon Dragon The Maupin Carbon Dragon is an American , high-wing , single-seat , glider that was designed by Jim Maupin and made available as plans for amateur construction . Plans are no longer available .", "Oxazepine Oxazepines are unsaturated heterocycles of seven atoms , with a nitrogen replacing a carbon at one position and with an oxygen replacing a carbon at one position .", "Electrophilic amination Electrophilic amination is a chemical process involving the formation of a carbon -- nitrogen bond through the reaction of a nucleophilic carbanion with an electrophilic source of nitrogen .", "Oxazolidine An oxazolidine is a five-membered ring compound consisting of three carbons , a nitrogen , and an oxygen . The oxygen and NH are the 1 and 3 positions , respectively . In oxazolidine derivatives , there is always a carbon between the oxygen and the nitrogen ( or it would be an isoxazolidine ) . All of the carbons in oxazolidines are reduced ( compare to oxazole and oxazoline ) . Some of their derivatives , the oxazolidinediones , are used as anticonvulsants . Oxazolidines have been around for over 100 years .", "Tsuji–Trost reaction The Tsuji -- Trost reaction ( also called the Trost allylic alkylation or allylic alkylation ) is a palladium-catalysed substitution reaction involving a substrate that contains a leaving group in an allylic position . The palladium catalyst first coordinates with the allyl group and then undergoes oxidative addition , forming the π-allyl complex . This allyl complex can then be attacked by a nucleophile , resulting in the substituted product . This work was first pioneered by Jiro Tsuji in 1965 and , later , adapted by Barry Trost in 1973 with the introduction of phosphine ligands . The scope of this reaction has been expanded to many different carbon , nitrogen , and oxygen-based nucleophiles , many different leaving groups , many different phosphorus , nitrogen , and sulfur-based ligands , and many different metals ( although palladium is still preferred ) . The introduction of phosphine ligands led to improved reactivity and numerous asymmetric allylic alkylation strategies . Many of these strategies are driven by the advent of chiral ligands , which are often able to provide high enantioselectivity and high diastereoselectivity under mild conditions . This modification greatly expands the utility of this reaction for many different synthetic applications . The ability to form carbon-carbon , carbon-nitrogen , and carbon-oxygen bonds under these conditions , makes this reaction very appealing to the fields of both medicinal chemistry and natural product synthesis .", "Azepine Azepines are unsaturated heterocycles of seven atoms , with a nitrogen replacing a carbon at one position .", "Adamanzane Adamanzanes ( abbreviated Adz ) are compounds containing four nitrogen atoms linked by carbons ( analogous to adamantane with nitrogen at the branched position ) . Often coordinated to a central ligand , the nitrogens occupy the vertices of a tetrahedron , with potentially four faces and six edges , with the carbon chains running approximately along the edges . They can have a `` bowl '' or `` cage '' structure , with varying lengths or omission of the carbon chains . In the nomenclature of Springborg et al. ( 1996 ) these can be described according to the number of chains of specified length : thus , for example , -LSB- 14.22 -RSB- adz is 1,3,6,8-tetraazatricyclo -LSB- 4.4.1.13,8 -RSB- - dodecane , a compound which contains four one-carbon chains and two two-carbon chains linking the nitrogens . 36adamanzane has found a special use in the preparation of `` inverse sodium hydride '' , a compound in which Na − and H + ions coexist , due to the ability of the adamanzane to encapsulate the H + and render it kinetically inert to react with the Na − .", "Azirine Azirines are three membered heterocyclic unsaturated ( i.e. they contain a double bond ) compounds containing a nitrogen atom and related to the saturated analogue aziridine . They are highly reactive yet have reported in a few natural products such as Dysidazirine . There are two isomers of azirine : 1H-azirines with a carbon-carbon double bond are not stable and rearrange to the tautomeric 2H-azirine , a compound with a carbon-nitrogen double bond . 2H-Azirines can be considered strained imines and are isolable .", "Lateral root Lateral roots extend horizontally from the primary root ( radicle ) and serve to anchor the plant securely into the soil . This branching of roots also contributes to water uptake , and facilitates the extraction of nutrients required for the growth and development of the plant . Many different factors are involved in the formation of lateral roots . Regulation of root formation is tightly controlled by plant hormones such as auxin , and by the precise control of aspects of the cell cycle . Such control can be particularly useful : increased auxin levels , which help to promote lateral root development , occur when young leaf primordia form and are able to synthesise the hormone . This allows coordination of root development with leaf development , enabling a balance between carbon and nitrogen metabolism to be established .", "Deoxyribonucleotide A deoxyribonucleotide is the monomer , or single unit , of DNA , or deoxyribonucleic acid . Each deoxyribonucleotide comprises three parts : a nitrogenous base , a deoxyribose sugar , and one phosphate group . The nitrogenous base is always bonded to the 1 ' carbon of the deoxyribose , which is distinguished from ribose by the presence of a proton on the 2 ' carbon rather than an - OH group . The phosphate groups bind to the 5 ' carbon of the sugar . When deoxyribonucleotides polymerize to form DNA , the phosphate group from one nucleotide will bond to the 3 ' carbon on another nucleotide , forming a phosphodiester bond via dehydration synthesis . New nucleotides are always added to the 3 ' carbon of the last nucleotide , so synthesis always proceeds from 5 ' to 3 ' .", "HMX HMX , also called octogen , is a powerful and relatively insensitive nitroamine high explosive , chemically related to RDX . Like RDX , the compound 's name is the subject of much speculation , having been variously listed as High Melting Explosive , Her Majesty 's Explosive , High-velocity Military Explosive , or High-Molecular-weight RDX . The molecular structure of HMX consists of an eight-membered ring of alternating carbon and nitrogen atoms , with a nitro group attached to each nitrogen atom . Because of its high molecular weight , it is one of the most potent chemical explosives manufactured , although a number of newer ones , including HNIW and ONC , are more powerful .", "Diazapentalene In organic chemistry , a diazapentalene is any of the heterocyclic compounds having molecular formula C6H6N2 whose structure is two fused two pentagonal rings of six carbon atoms and two nitrogen atoms . That is , it is a heteropentalene , with two nitrogens substituted in for carbons . There are several different constitutional isomers . Each diazapentalene has 10 pi electrons and shows aromaticity . Some of the diazapentalenes are mesomeric betaines , however these diazapentalenes are not mesoionic .", "Imine An imine ( -LSB- ᵻˈmiːn -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɪmɪn -RSB- ) is a functional group or chemical compound containing a carbon -- nitrogen double bond . The Nitrogen atom can be attached to a hydrogen ( H ) or an organic group ( R ) . If this group is not a hydrogen atom , then the compound can sometimes be referred to as a Schiff base . The carbon atom has two additional single bonds .", "Fixation Fixation may refer to : Fixation ( psychology ) , the state in which an individual becomes obsessed with an attachment to another human , an animal , or an inanimate object Fixation ( alchemy ) , a process in the alchemical magnum opus Fixation ( histology ) in biochemistry , histology , cell biology and pathology , the technique of preserving a specimen for microscopic study Fixation ( population genetics ) , the state when every individual in a population has the same allele at a particular locus Fixation ( surgical ) , an operative technique in orthopedics Fixation ( visual ) maintaining the gaze in a constant direction Fixation agent , a process chemical Carbon fixation , a biochemical process , usually driven by photosynthesis , whereby carbon dioxide is converted into organic compounds Nitrogen fixation , a process by which nitrogen is converted from its inert molecular form to a compound more readily available and useful to living organisms", "Azete Azete is a heterocyclic chemical compound consisting of an unsaturated four-membered ring with three carbon atoms and one nitrogen atom .", "Petroleomics Petroleomics is the identification of the totality of the constituents of naturally occurring petroleum and crude oil using high resolution mass spectrometry . In addition to mass determination , petroleomic analysis sorts the chemical compounds into heteroatom class ( nitrogen , oxygen and sulfur ) , type ( degree of unsaturation , and carbon number ) . The name is a combination of petroleum and - omics ( collective chemical characterization and quantification ) .", "ERating eRating is a certification , education , and labeling program for the passenger transportation sector developed by the Certification for Sustainable Transport ( CST ) at the University of Vermont . The eRating certification system is used by the Certification for Sustainable Transportation to rate vehicles based on criteria such as greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile , emissions , alternative fuels , purchase of carbon offsets , and any training programs that the driver has undergone that may help with energy efficient driving . If enough standards are met , the vehicle is given an eRating certification .", "Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability ( CIRS ) is located at the University of British Columbia 's ( UBC ) Point Grey Campus in Vancouver . The building is dedicated to research collaboration and outreach on urban sustainability . It was officially opened in November 2011 . The CIRS vision is to be the most innovative high performance building in North America and an internationally recognized leader in accelerating the adopt of sustainable building and urban practices . Some key features : 600 tons of carbon dioxide sequestered in the structure Campus energy consumption reduced by 275 megawatt-hours per year Water 100 % supplied by rainwater Campus carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 150 tons each year It has been certified LEED Platinum by the Canada Green Building Council .", "Glucose uptake Method of glucose uptake differs throughout tissues depending on two factors ; the metabolic needs of the tissue and availability of glucose . The two ways in which glucose uptake can take place are facilitated diffusion ( a passive process ) and secondary active transport ( an active process which depends on the ion-gradient which is established through the hydrolysis of ATP , known as primary active transport ) .", "Triazole A triazole ( Htrz ) refers to any of the heterocyclic compounds with molecular formula C2H3N3 , having a five-membered ring of two carbon atoms and three nitrogen atoms . There are two sets of isomers that differ in the relative positions of the three nitrogen atoms . Each of these has two tautomers that differ by which nitrogen has a hydrogen bonded to it : 1,2,3-Triazole 1,2,4-Triazole", "Uptake (business) Uptake is a predictive analytics SaaS platform that delivers solutions in major industries , resulting in increased productivity , reliability and safety . Leveraging partnerships with industry icons , Uptake 's platform aggregates enterprise and external data and applies cross-industry data science to produce high-value , actionable insights . Uptake 's platform is powered by a continuous feedback loop , recommending impactful actions that are then optimized by human intelligence . Uptake was co-founded by Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky in Chicago , Illinois in 2014 .", "Zinc uptake regulator The zinc uptake regulator ( Zur ) gene is a bacterial gene that codes for a transcription factor protein involved in zinc homeostasis . The protein is a member of the ferric uptake regulator family and binds zinc with high affinity . It typically functions as a repressor of zinc uptake proteins via binding to characteristic promoter DNA sequences in a dimer-of-dimers arrangement that creates strong cooperativity . Under conditions of zinc deficiency , the protein undergoes a conformational change that prevents DNA binding , thereby lifting the repression and causing zinc uptake genes such as ZinT and the ZnuABC zinc transporter to be expressed .", "CDM Gold Standard The Gold Standard is a standard for creating high-quality emission reductions projects in the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) Joint Implementation ( JI ) and Voluntary Carbon Market . It was designed to ensure that carbon credits are not only real and verifiable but that they make measurable contributions to sustainable development worldwide . Its objective is to add branding , a label to existing and new Carbon Credits generated by projects which can then be bought and traded by countries that have a binding legal commitment according to the Kyoto Protocol .", "Azonine Azonine is an unsaturated heterocycle of nine atoms , with a nitrogen replacing a carbon at one position . A variety of derivatives have been synthesised .", "Combustion analysis Combustion analysis is a method used in both organic chemistry and analytical chemistry to determine the elemental composition ( more precisely empirical formula ) of a pure organic compound by combusting the sample under conditions where the resulting combustion products can be quantitatively analyzed . Once the number of moles of each combustion product has been determined the empirical formula or a partial empirical formula of the original compound can be calculated . Applications for combustion analysis involve only the elements of carbon ( C ) , hydrogen ( H ) , nitrogen ( N ) , and sulfur ( S ) as combustion of materials containing them convert these elements to their oxidized form ( CO2 , H2O , NO or NO2 , and SO2 ) under high temperature high oxygen conditions . Notable interests for these elements involve measuring total nitrogen in food or feed to determine protein percentage , measuring sulfur in petroleum products , or measuring total organic carbon ( TOC ) in water .", "Neurotransmitter sodium symporter Members of the Neurotransmitter : Sodium Symporter ( NSS ) family ( TC # 2 . A. 22 ) catalyze uptake of a variety of neurotransmitters , amino acids , osmolytes and related nitrogenous substances by a solute : Na + symport mechanism . The NSS family is a member of the APC Superfamily . Its constituents have been found in bacteria , archaea and eukaryotes .", "Tetrazole Tetrazoles are a class of synthetic organic heterocyclic compound , consisting of a 5-member ring of four nitrogen atoms and one carbon atom . The simplest is tetrazole itself , CH2N4 . They are unknown in nature .", "Peptoid Peptoids , or poly-N-substituted glycines , are a class of peptidomimetics whose side chains are appended to the nitrogen atom of the peptide backbone , rather than to the α-carbons ( as they are in amino acids ) ." ]

[ "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore ." ]

[ "Climate change acronyms The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .", "Climate change adaptation in Nepal Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "Kevin E. Trenberth Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "CLIVAR CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos ( CPTEC ) is the numerical weather prediction agency of Brazil , part of INPE ( National Institute for Space Research ) . Its mission is to provide the country with weather and climate forecasts . CPTEC is the most advanced center for numerical weather prediction and climate in Latin America , providing forecasts for short and medium-term climate and high precision , since the beginning of 1995 . CPTEC uses supercomputers and knowledge of its staff to achieve the same level as forecasting centers in more developed countries .", "Climate Forecast System __ NOTOC __ The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .", "Planning fallacy The planning fallacy , first proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979 , is a phenomenon in which predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed . This phenomenon occurs regardless of the individual 's knowledge that past tasks of a similar nature have taken longer to complete than generally planned . The bias only affects predictions about one 's own tasks ; when outside observers predict task completion times , they show a pessimistic bias , overestimating the time needed . The planning fallacy requires that predictions of current tasks ' completion times are more optimistic than the beliefs about past completion times for similar projects and that predictions of the current tasks ' completion times are more optimistic than the actual time needed to complete the tasks . In 2003 , Lovallo and Kahneman proposed an expanded definition as the tendency to underestimate the time , costs , and risks of future actions and at the same time overestimate the benefits of the same actions . According to this definition , the planning fallacy results in not only time overruns , but also cost overruns and benefit shortfalls .", "Michael E. Mann Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Climate change education (CCE) Climate Change Education ( CCE ) is learning geared toward helping people address and develop effective responses to climate change . It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change , prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles . CCE helps policy-makers understand the urgency and importance of putting mechanisms into place to combat climate change on a national and global scale . Communities learn about how climate change will affect them , what they can do to protect themselves from negative consequences , and how they can reduce their own climate footprint . In particular , CCE helps increase the resilience of already vulnerable communities who are the most likely to be adversely affected by climate change . CCE is rooted in Education for Sustainable Development ( ESD ) .", "Climate ensemble A climate ensemble involves slightly different models of the climate system . There are at least four different types , to be described below . For the equivalent in numerical weather prediction , see ensemble forecasting .", "United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "Myles Allen Myles R. Allen is head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford 's Atmospheric , Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department . He is the Principal Investigator of the distributed computing project Climateprediction.net ( which makes use of computing resources provided voluntarily by the general public ) , and was principally responsible for starting this project . He is Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geography and the Environment , and a Fellow of Linacre College , Oxford . He has worked at the Energy Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme , the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He contributed to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Lead Author of the Chapter on detection of change and attribution of causes , and was a Review Editor for the chapter on predictions of global climate change for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research focuses on the attribution of recent climate change and assessing what these changes mean for global climate simulations of the future . In 2010 , Allen was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for `` his important contributions to the detection and attribution of human influence on climate and quantifying uncertainty in climate predictions '' . Allen also provided the technical expertise for the game Fate of the World , which is `` a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years . ''", "Prediction of crystal properties by numerical simulation The prediction of crystal properties by numerical simulation has become commonplace in the last 20 years as computers have grown more powerful and theoretical techniques more sophisticated . High accuracy prediction of elastic , electronic , transport and phase properties is possible with modern methods .", "Anders Levermann Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .", "List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis This is a list of the 620 authors contributing to Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis , which was the 996 page contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Their report describes the causes and climate consequences of global warming . This list is limited to people acknowledged as authors or editors on the report . The additional several hundred reviewers acknowledged in Annex III of the report are not included on this list . Author affiliations and nationalities are summarized from the list in Annex II of the report . Each author may have contributed to one or more sections and had one or more roles during the writing process . In the table below abbreviations are used to denote the roles and sections :", "Patrick Michaels Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 . A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .", "Pseudoproxy A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "Petr Chýlek Petr Chýlek is a researcher for Space and Remote Sensing Sciences at Los Alamos National Laboratory . Prior to becoming a government researcher in 2001 , Chýlek was a Professor at several US and Canadian universities including SUNY Albany , Purdue University , University of Oklahoma and Dalhousie University in Halifax , Canada . Chýlek has published over 100 first authored scientific papers in remote sensing , atmospheric radiation , climate change , cloud and aerosol physics , applied laser physics and ice core analysis . His work has been cited more than 4000 times . Chylek is best known for his work in remote sensing , aerosols and climate change . In 2006 , Chýlek served as Chairman , Scientific Program Committee for The Second International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age held at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Santa Fe , NM . Speakers included Venkatachalam Ramaswamy , Chris Folland , Gerald North , Roger A. Pielke , William M. Gray and Jan Veizer . The conference included a two-day workshop on climate prediction uncertainties . The papers presented at the 2006 Conference were published in a special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres in 2007 . In 2007 , Chýlek and co-authors published a peer-reviewed paper estimating climate sensitivity to doubled atmospheric CO2 to be significantly less than the IPCC estimate . Chýlek received his diploma in theoretical physics from Charles University in Prague , Czech Republic . He received his Ph.D. in physics from UC Riverside in 1970 .", "Climate gap The climate gap refers to a body of data indicating disparities in how climate change impacts various racial , ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States . The data show that low socioeconomic status groups and racial and ethnic minorities will experience more negative health and economic impacts from the results of climate change than other populations in the United States . This term , climate gap , was first used in the May 2009 report , `` The Climate Gap : Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap '' , as well as in a concurrent paper published in the journal , Environmental Justice , by Seth B. Shonkoff , Rachel Morello-Frosch and colleagues entitled , `` Minding the Climate Gap : Implications of Environmental Health Inequities for Mitigation Policies in California '' .", "Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "Jean Palutikof Jean Palutikof is founding Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ( NCCARF ) at Griffith University , Australia . She has held this position since 2008 . Prior to this , Professor Palutikof was based at the UK Met Office during which time she managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability ) . Professor Palutikof is among the foremost scholars of climate change adaptation and was lead author and review editor for several assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and was present in Oslo at the ceremony at which the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize .", "Vincent R. Gray __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "Jianping Li Dr. Jianping Li ( Chinese : 李建平 ) is a Professor of Meteorology at Institute of Atmospheric Physics ( IAP ) , Chinese Academy of Sciences ( CAS ) . He is also the Deputy Director of Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics ( LASG ) , IAP/CAS , an affiliated faculty of University of Hawaii , USA , a Fellow of Royal Meteorological Society ( RMetS ) , and a Lecture/Visiting Professor at Graduate University of CAS , Lanzhou University and Ocean University of China , and the Secretary-General of Chinese National Committee for IUGG . He earned a BS , MS and PhD , respectively , in 1991 , 1994 and 1997 from Lanzhou University . He is interested in climatic dynamics and predictability , monsoon , annular modes and their impacts , etc. . He has published more than 140 scientific papers , some books , and has won numerous awards . He is the chief scientist of two National Basic Research projects ( 973AIPO and 973ALS ) of China . The 973AIPO focuses on ocean-atmosphere interaction over Asia ( AIPO ) and its impact on the short-term climate variation in China , and 973ALS on Air-land-sea ( ALS ) interactions in Asia and their role in the global change . He serves on several academic committees such as Honours and Recognition Committee/International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics ( IUGG ) , International Commission on Climate ( ICCL ) , International Commission on Dynamical Meteorology ( ICDM ) , WWRP Monsoon Panel , Lead Author of IPCC WG II , Working Group for UN Environment Consultation ( WGUNEC ) , Chinese Association for Science and Technology ( CAST ) , International Commission on Planetary Atmospheres and their Evolution ( ICPAE ) , World Youth Earth Scientists ( YES ) , and on the responsible editor of Theoretical and Applied Climatology , Advances in Atmospheric Sciences and Chinese Journal of Atmospheric Sciences . Besides , he is the director of International Program Office of Asian Monsoon Years ( AMY 2007-2012 ) , and the co-coordinator of International Project of East Asian Climate ( EAC ) .", "Seita Emori Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "David Wratt David Stuart Wratt QSO is the Chief Scientist ( Climate ) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) and is responsible for NIWA 's National Climate Centre . He has a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury . He has worked in the USA and Australia as well as New Zealand . His expertise includes climate and meteorology , climate change science and impacts , mountain meteorology , and air quality . He is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He chairs the Climate Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and he is a Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1 , which assesses the physical science of climate change . He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the `` Australia and New Zealand '' chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . After gaining a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois , he worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service . In 1992 he and other climate researchers transferred to NIWA . Wratt has stated : `` There 's a strong scientific case for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions . We need a combination of reducing our emissions in New Zealand and being part of international negotiations to reduce emissions globally in order to forestall the worst effects . '' Wratt was made a Companion of the Queen 's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours , for services to science .", "Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "Loss and damage The term Loss and damage denotes impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes . Loss and damage can result from sudden-onset events ( climate disasters , such as cyclones ) as well as slow-onset processes ( such as sea level rise ) . Loss and damage can occur in human systems ( such as livelihoods ) as well as natural systems ( such as biodiversity ) , though the emphasis in research and policy is on human impacts . Within the realm of loss and damage to human systems , a distinction is made between economic losses and non-economic losses . The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets . At the 18th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2012 in Doha , Qatar , it took 36 hours of negotiation between 195 nations to arrive at a plan to address loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate change . A new website was launched at the conference by the Loss and Damage Vulnerable Countries Initiative . It described its aim as being `` the first dedicated site for news , resources and opinion on the issue of loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change '' . Examples of types of loss and damage include farmers who can no longer grow crops to eat , or grass to feed cattle , because their soil has become too salty , and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because rivers have dried up . In popular press , and in statements by some parties in the climate negotiations , the terms loss and damage is often associated with liability and compensation . This explains why the topic raises heated debates , and tends to widen the divide between developed countries , which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions , and developing countries that are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . For vulnerable countries , loss and damage is most of all about recognizing that past and current efforts to avoid dangerous climate change , and that there are limits and constraints to adaptation . The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed a work programme on loss and damage which aims to find ways to address the issue in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change . On 12 -- 14 September 2013 , it held a meeting in Fiji to consider how best to address loss and damage from ` slow-onset events ' . These are impacts of climate change that occur over time , such as sea-level rise , rather than in a single , destructive event . Bangladesh is already suffering from loss and damage resulting from sea-level rise , due to its flat terrain in the coastal region . At the 19th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2013 in Warsaw , Poland , the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established . At the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima , Peru ( 2014 ) , the work plan of the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism was approved . The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage , but WG2 Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints , is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage . A qualitative data analysis ( QDA ) of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries ( e.g. US , Australia or European countries ) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries ( most countries in Africa , Asia Latin America and the Pacific ) , which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . Whether or not the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will have a chapter on loss and damage has not yet been decided .", "Bert Metz Bert Metz ( born 15 August 1945 , The Hague ) is a Dutch climate policy expert . He was Co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group III on mitigation on climate change for the third and fourth assessment report of the IPCC . Currently he is a fellow at the european climate foundation . Metz obtained an Engineer 's degree in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and subsequently his Ph.D. degree at the same university . From 1976 to 1987 he worked for Dutch Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment in the fields of air pollution , external safety , noise pollution , chemical waste and the enforcement of environmental laws . From 1987 until 1992 he was Counsellor for Health and Environment at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC . In 1992 he became Deputy Director for Air and Energy of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment , with responsibility for climate policy . He led the Netherlands delegation to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention . In 1997 he moved to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency at RIVM to head the group on climate change and global sustainability and was elected as co-chairman of the Working Group on Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC for the preparation of the Third Assessment Report . In 2002 he was re-elected in that position for the 4th Assessment Report cycle . Although formally retired , Bert Metz is still very active in the climate policy arena , among others as advisor for the European Climate Foundation and as steering group member of UNEP 's annual Emissions Gap Report . In 2008 he was named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau . .", "National Centers for Environmental Prediction The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) delivers national and global weather , water , climate and space weather guidance , forecasts , warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities . These products and services are based on a service-science legacy and respond to user needs to protect life and property , enhance that nation 's economy and support the nation 's growing need for environmental information . The centers form part of the National Weather Service . There are nine centers : Aviation Weather Center provides aviation warnings and forecasts of hazardous flight conditions at all levels within domestic and international air space . Climate Prediction Center monitors and forecasts short-term climate fluctuations and provides information on the effects climate patterns can have on the nation . Environmental Modeling Center develops and improves numerical weather , climate , hydrological and ocean prediction through a broad program in partnership with the research community . National Hurricane Center provides forecasts of the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues watches and warnings for the North Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific Ocean . NCEP Central Operations sustains and executes the operational suite of numerical analyses and forecast models and prepares NCEP products for dissemination . Ocean Prediction Center issues weather warnings and forecasts out to five days for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of 30 degrees North . Space Weather Prediction Center provides space weather alerts and warnings for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on earth . Storm Prediction Center provides tornado and severe weather watches for the contiguous United States along with a suite of hazardous weather forecasts . Weather Prediction Center provides nationwide analysis and forecast guidance products out through seven days ." ]

[ "Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Carbon price Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "Methane emissions Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .", "Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "Chicago Climate Exchange The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil . CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent . CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .", "CERINA-Plan CERINA Plan is the abbreviation for `` CO2 Emissions and Renewable Investment Action Plan '' . It is a CO2 reduction concept developed by the German renewable energy institute IWR . The CERINA Plan proposes a technical investment approach linking a country 's CO2 emissions to its investment in renewable energy technology . Therefore , it is an alternative model to approaches like the Kyoto idea of mere cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . The model is meant to be flexible and to adapt to the special national circumstances of each country .", "Project Vulcan Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large . Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 . The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .", "German response to Kyoto Protocol Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "ACEA agreement The ACEA agreement refers to a voluntary agreement between the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ( ACEA ) and the European Commission to limit the amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emitted by passenger cars sold in Europe . With 18 million cars sold each year , Europe is the last major car market in the world . Signed in 1998 , the agreement sought to achieve an average of 140 g/km of CO2 by 2008 for new passenger vehicles sold by the association 's cars in Europe . This target represents a 25 % reduction from the 1995 level of 186 g/km and is equivalent to a fuel economy of 5.8 L/100 km or 5.25 L/100 km for petrol and diesel engines respectively . However , the average for the whole car market for 2008 was 153.7 g/km , so the target has not been achieved . Besides the agreement with ACEA , the European Commission also closed agreements with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association ( JAMA ) and Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association ( KAMA ) . However , for the latter two the target date is 2009 instead of 2008 and as ACEA accounts for 86.4 % of car sales in Europe , the impact of the latter two is much smaller . The ultimate EU target to which these agreements are to contribute , is to reach an average CO2 emission ( as measured according to Commission Directive 93/116/EC ) of 130 g/km for all new passenger cars by 2015 . The European Commission announced in late 2006 that it is working on a proposal for legally binding measures and limits . In February 2007 , the Commission acknowledged the failure of the voluntary agreement . Following this , a proposal of regulation was introduced by the Commission on 19 December 2007 .", "Clarias maclareni Clarias maclareni is a critically endangered species of catfish in the Clariidae family . It is endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) . It is known to grow to 36 cm TL . Large individuals feed mainly on other fishes ( especially cichlids ) , while smaller mainly feed on insects .", "Fuel factor The fuel factor , fo , is the ratio of created CO2 to depleted oxygen in a combustion reaction , used to check the accuracy of an emission measurement system . It can be calculated using the equation fo = ( 20.9 - % O2 ) / % CO2 , Where % O2 is the percent O2 by volume , dry basis , % CO2 is the percent CO2 by volume , dry basis , and 20.9 is the percent O2 by volume in ambient air . The Fuel factor can be corrected for the amount of CO , by adding the percent CO on a dry basis to the CO2 , and subtracting half of the percent CO from the O2 .", "Baptistina family The Baptistina family is an asteroid family that was probably produced by the breakup of an asteroid 170 km across 80 million years ago following an impact with a smaller body . The two largest presumed remnants of the parent asteroid are main-belt asteroids 298 Baptistina and 1696 Nurmela . The Baptistina family may consist of uncommon carbonaceous chondrite asteroids and meteoroids in similar orbits . Many mountain-sized fragments from the collision would have leaked into the inner solar system through orbital resonances with Mars and Jupiter , causing a prolonged series of asteroid impacts . Previously this collision was believed to have occurred about 160 million years ago , and many impacts between 100 and 50 million years ago were attributed to it . However , new data in 2011 from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer revised the date of the proposed collision which broke up the parent asteroid to about 80 million years ago .", "EU Allowances EU Allowances are Climate credits ( or Carbon credits ) used in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) . EU Allowances are issued by the EU Member States into Member State Registry accounts . By April 30 of each year , operators of installations covered by the EU ETS must surrender an EU Allowance for each ton of CO2 emitted in the previous year . Category : Carbon emissions in the European Union", "Volkswagen New Compact Coupé The VW New Compact Coupé ( short VW NCC ) is a close-to-production concept car of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen . The car was presented on the NAIAS 2010 in Detroit . It is equipped with a hybrid-drive and is positioned between the VW Scirocco and the VW Passat CC . The average fuel consumption is just 4.2 liters per 100 kilometers ; the emission value is 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer . In contrast , the driving values are a top speed of 227 km/h and a sprint time of 8.6 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h .", "Carbon neutrality Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "Sustainable Silicon Valley Sustainable Silicon Valley ( SSV ) is a collaboration of businesses , governments , and non-governmental organizations that are identifying and addressing environmental and resource pressures in Silicon Valley . As its first initiative , SSV engaged Valley organizations , who are the SSV Partners , to work towards a goal of reducing regional carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions 20 % below 1990 levels by 2010 . The SSV approach to reaching this goal is to facilitate strategies to reduce CO2 emissions through increased energy and fuel efficiency and through the use of renewable sources of energy .", "Carbon respiration Carbon respiration ( also called carbon emissions and carbon releases ) is used in combination with carbon fixation to gauge carbon flux ( as CO2 ) between atmospheric carbon and the global carbon cycle .", "ECOnetic ECOnetic is a tradename for certain car models produced by Ford of Europe , currently consisting of one model in each of the Fiesta , the Focus and the Mondeo range , with an emphasis on higher fuel efficiency and low-CO2 emissions .", "Energy policy of China The energy policy of China is a policy decided on by the Central Government with regard to energy and energy resources . Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949 . The country is currently the world 's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency . However , China 's per capita emissions are still far behind the developed countries . In addition , China is the world 's leading renewable energy producer . From 2010 to 2015 China reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP by 18 % , and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 20 % . Primary energy use in China was 26,250 TWh and 20 TWh per million persons in 2009 . According to IEA the primary energy use grew 40 % and electricity use 70 % from 2004 to 2009 . The energy import was three times bigger in 2009 compared to 2004 . The share of energy import of the primary energy use was 12 % in 2009 . The CO2 emissions growth in five years ( 2004-2009 ) was 44 % .", "European Union Emission Trading Scheme The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "Liaoceratops Liaoceratops , meaning `` Liao Horned Face '' , is a ceratopsian dinosaur believed to be an early relative of the horned ceratopsids . It lived in the early Cretaceous , some 130 million years ago . It was discovered in China by a team of American and Chinese scientists . Liaoceratops was much smaller than its later relatives , but offers a glimpse into the early evolution of this group of dinosaurs .", "Carbon profiling Carbon profiling is a mathematical process that calculates how much carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere per m2 of space in a building over one year . The analysis is in two parts which are then added together to produce an overall figure which is termed the ` Carbon Profile ' : operational carbon emissions embodied carbon emissions . Embodied carbon emissions relate to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from creating and maintaining the materials that form the building e.g. the carbon dioxide released from the baking of bricks or smelting or iron . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured as Embodied Carbon Efficiency ( ECE ) , measured as kg of CO2/m2/year . Occupational Carbon Emissions relate to the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the direct use of energy to run the building e.g. the heating or electricity used by the building over the year . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured in BER 's ( Building Emission Rate ) in kg of / m2/year . The BER is a United Kingdom government accepted unit of measurement that comes from an approved calculation process called sBEM ( Simplified Building Emission Model ) The purpose of Carbon Profiling is to provide a method of analyzing and comparing both operational and embodied carbon emissions at the same time . With this information it is then possible to allocate a projects resources in such a way to minimize the total amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through the use of a given piece of space . A secondary benefit is that having quantified the Carbon Profiling of different buildings it is then possible to make comparisons and rank buildings in term of their performance . This allows investors and occupiers to identify which building are good and bad carbon investments . Simon Sturgis and Gareth Roberts of Sturgis Associates in the United Kingdom originally developed ` Carbon Profiling ' in December 2007 .", "RechargeIT RechargeIT is one of five initiatives within Google.org , the charitable arm of Google , created with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions , cut oil use , and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles .", "Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project The Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project captures and stores underground one million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year . The capture unit is located at the Scotford Upgrader in Alberta , Canada , where hydrogen is produced to upgrade bitumen from oil sands into synthetic crude oil .", "Bison occidentalis Bison occidentalis is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America from about 11,000 to 5,000 years ago , spanning the end of the Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene . Likely evolving from Bison antiquus , B. occidentalis was smaller overall from its ancestor and other species such as the steppe bison . B. occidentalis had a highly variable morphology , and their horns , which pointed rearward , were much thinner and pointed than Pleistocene species of bison . Around 5,000 years ago , B. occidentalis was replaced by today 's smaller Bison bison . B. occidentalis may have declined in numbers because of competition with other grass eaters of the megafauna epoch . More recently ancient DNA studies have proven interbreeding between B. occidentalis and ancestral modern bisons , so B. occidentalis was proposed to have been a localized offshoot of B. antiquus and part of the transition from that chronospecies to modern bisons .", "Carbon dioxide generator A Carbon dioxide generator or CO2 generator is a machine used to enhance carbon dioxide levels in order to promote plant growth in greenhouses or other enclosed areas . Carbon dioxide generators have been used to help grow marijuana . They can be fueled with propane or natural gas . CO2 generators were used mostly by commercial growers until smaller and less expansive systems made the technology more widely available to hobbyists . The generators also give off heat . Using compressed CO2 is an alternative to generators .", "Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "Glacial River Warren Glacial River Warren or River Warren was a prehistoric river that drained Lake Agassiz in central North America between 11,700 and 9,400 years ago . The enormous outflow from this lake carved a mighty valley now occupied by the much smaller Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi River . A part of the uppermost portion of the river channel was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966 .", "Arthroleptis bivittatus Arthroleptis bivittatus is a species of frog in the Arthroleptidae family . It is endemic to Guinea and only known from the holotype collected from Tombo Island . Not much is known about the species that has not been observed after it was described more than 100 years ago . It is assumed to inhabit lowland forest .", "Forestle Forestle was an ecologically inspired search engine created by Christian Kroll , Wittenberg , Germany , in 2008 and discontinued in 2011 . Forestle supported rainforest conservation through donations of ad revenue and aimed to reduce CO2 emissions . It was briefly associated with Google before associating with Yahoo .", "Climate change in the United Kingdom Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "North American Carbon Program The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment , society and economy . Tourism can involve primary transportation to the general location , local transportation , accommodations , entertainment , recreation , nourishment and shopping . It can be related to travel for leisure , business and what is called VFR ( visiting friends and relatives ) . There is now broad consensus that tourism development should be sustainable ; however , the question of how to achieve this remains an object of debate . Without travel there is no tourism , so the concept of sustainable tourism is tightly linked to a concept of sustainable mobility . Two relevant considerations are tourism 's reliance on fossil fuels and tourism 's effect on climate change . 72 percent of tourism 's CO2 emissions come from transportation , 24 percent from accommodations , and 4 percent from local activities . Aviation accounts for 55 % of those transportation CO2 emissions ( or 40 % of tourism 's total ) . However , when considering the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and that aviation emissions are made at high altitude where their effect on climate is amplified , aviation alone accounts for 75 % of tourism 's climate impact . The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) considers an annual increase in aviation fuel efficiency of 2 percent per year through 2050 to be realistic . However , both Airbus and Boeing expect the passenger-kilometers of air transport to increase by about 5 percent yearly through at least 2020 , overwhelming any efficiency gains . By 2050 , with other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions , tourism is likely to be generating 40 percent of global carbon emissions . The main cause is an increase in the average distance travelled by tourists , which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken . `` Sustainable transportation is now established as the critical issue confronting a global tourism industry that is palpably unsustainable , and aviation lies at the heart of this issue ( Gossling et al. , 2010 ) . ''" ]

[ "Early 2014 North American cold wave The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "Cloud In meteorology , a cloud is an aerosol comprising a visible mass of minute liquid droplets , frozen crystals , or particles suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body . The droplets and crystals may be made of water or various chemicals . On Earth , clouds are formed as a result of saturation of the air when it is cooled to its dew point , or when it gains sufficient moisture ( usually in the form of water vapor ) from an adjacent source to raise the dew point to the ambient temperature . They are seen in the Earth 's homosphere ( which includes the troposphere , stratosphere , and mesosphere ) . Nephology is the science of clouds which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorology . There are two systems of naming clouds in their respective layers of the atmosphere ; Latin in the troposphere and mostly alpha-numeric above the troposphere . Cloud types in the troposphere , the atmospheric layer closest to Earth 's surface , have Latin names due to the universal adaptation of Luke Howard 's nomenclature . Formally proposed in 1802 , it became the basis of a modern international system that classifies clouds into five physical forms and three altitude levels ( formerly known as étages ) . These physical types , in approximate ascending order of convective activity , include stratiform sheets , cirriform wisps and patches , stratocumuliform layers ( mainly structured as rolls , ripples , and patches ) , cumuliform heaps , and very large cumulonimbiform heaps that often show complex structure . The physical forms are cross-classified by the altitude levels to produce ten basic genus-types , most of which can be divided into species , and subdivided into varieties . Two cirriform clouds that form higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere have common names for their main types , but are sub-classified alpha-numerically . They are relatively uncommon and are mostly seen in the polar regions of Earth . Clouds have been observed in the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System and beyond . However , due to their different temperature characteristics , they are often composed of other substances such as methane , ammonia , and sulfuric acid as well as water . Homospheric types determined by cross-classification of forms and levels . '' Homospheric types include the ten tropospheric genera and two additional major types above the troposphere . The cumulus genus includes three variants as defined by vertical size .", "Arctic methane emissions Arctic methane release is the release of methane from seas and soils in permafrost regions of the Arctic . While a long-term natural process , it is exacerbated by global warming . This results in a positive feedback effect , as methane is itself a powerful greenhouse gas . The Arctic region is one of the many natural sources of the greenhouse gas methane . Global warming accelerates its release , due to both release of methane from existing stores , and from methanogenesis in rotting biomass . Large quantities of methane are stored in the Arctic in natural gas deposits , permafrost , and as undersea clathrates . Permafrost and clathrates degrade on warming , thus large releases of methane from these sources may arise as a result of global warming . Other sources of methane include submarine taliks , river transport , ice complex retreat , submarine permafrost and decaying gas hydrate deposits . Concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere are higher by 8 -- 10 % than that in the Antarctic atmosphere . During cold glacier epochs , this gradient decreases to practically insignificant levels . Land ecosystems are considered the main sources of this asymmetry , although it has been suggested that `` the role of the Arctic Ocean is significantly underestimated . '' Soil temperature and moisture levels have been found to be significant variables in soil methane fluxes in tundra environments .", "Arctic The Arctic ( -LSB- ˈɑrktɪk -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɑrtɪk -RSB- ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth . The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ) , Canada , Finland , Greenland ( Denmark ) , Iceland , Norway , Russia and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places . The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth 's ecosystems . For example , the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions . In recent years , Arctic sea ice decline has been caused by global warming . Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice , zooplankton and phytoplankton , fish and marine mammals , birds , land animals , plants and human societies . Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic ." ]

[ "Polar vortex A polar vortex is an upper level low-pressure area lying near the Earth 's pole . There are two polar vortices in the Earth 's atmosphere , which overlie the North , and South Poles . Each polar vortex is a persistent , large-scale , low pressure zone that rotates counter-clockwise at the North Pole ( called a cyclone ) , and clockwise at the South Pole . The bases of the two polar vortices are located in the middle and upper troposphere and extend into the stratosphere . Beneath that lies a large mass of cold , dense arctic air . The vortices weaken and strengthen from year to year . When the vortex of the arctic is strong it is well defined , there is a single vortex and the arctic air is well contained ; when weaker , which it generally is , it will break into two or more vortices ; when very weak , the flow of arctic air becomes more disorganized and masses of cold arctic air can push equatorward , bringing with it a rapid and sharp temperature drop . The interface between the cold dry air mass of the pole and the warm moist air mass further south defines the location of the polar front . The polar front is centered , roughly at 60 ° latitude . A polar vortex strengthens in the winter and weakens in the summer due to its dependence on the temperature difference between the equator and the poles . The vortices span less than 1,000 kilometers ( 620 miles ) in diameter within which they rotate counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere , and in a clockwise fashion in the Southern Hemisphere . As with other cyclones , their rotation is driven by the Coriolis effect . When the polar vortex is strong , there is a single vortex with a jet stream that is `` well constrained '' near the polar front . When the northern vortex weakens , it separates into two or more vortices , the strongest of which are near Baffin Island , Canada and the other over northeast Siberia . The Antarctic vortex of the Southern Hemisphere is a single low pressure zone that is found near the edge of the Ross ice shelf near 160 west longitude . When the polar vortex is strong , the mid-latitude Westerlies ( winds at the surface level between 30 ° and 60 ° latitude from the west ) increase in strength and are persistent . When the polar vortex is weak , high pressure zones of the mid latitudes may push poleward , moving the polar vortex , jet stream , and polar front equatorward . The jet stream is seen to `` buckle '' and deviate south . This rapidly brings cold dry air into contact with the warm , moist air of the mid latitudes , resulting in a rapid and dramatic change of weather known as a `` cold snap '' . Ozone depletion occurs within the polar vortices -- particularly over the Southern Hemisphere -- reaching a maximum depletion in the spring .", "Stefan number The Stefan number ( St or Ste ) is defined as the ratio of sensible heat to latent heat . It is given by the formula where cp is the specific heat , cp is the specific heat of solid phase in the freezing process while cp is the specific heat of liquid phase in the melting process . ∆ T is the temperature difference between phases , L is the latent heat of melting . It is a dimensionless parameter that is useful in analyzing a Stefan problem . The parameter was developed from Josef Stefan 's calculations of the rate of phase change of water into ice on the polar ice caps .", "Polar desert Polar deserts are areas with annual precipitation less than 250 mm and a mean temperature of less than 10 C during the warmest months . Polar deserts on Earth cover nearly 5,000,000 km2 and consist primarily of hard bedrock or gravel plains . Polar deserts are one of two polar biomes : polar deserts and Arctic tundra . These biomes are located at the poles of the earth , specifically , the Arctic , northernmost North America , Europe , and Asia , and Antarctica . Polar deserts are located in the Arctic and Antarctic . Unlike the tundra that can support plant and animal life in the summer , polar deserts are barren with permanent layers of ice . However , there is evidence of life in this seemingly inhospitable environment.The thick ice contains sediments of organic and inorganic substances which create a habitable environment for microbial organisms . These organisms are closely related to cyanobacteria which have a variety of functions , particularly , fixing carbon dioxide from the melting water . Temperature changes in polar deserts frequently cross the freezing point of water . This `` freeze-thaw '' alternation forms patterned textures on the ground , as much as 5 m in diameter ( as seen in the picture on the right ) . Most of the interior of Antarctica is polar desert , despite the thick ice cover . Conversely , the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica , although they have had no ice for thousands of years due to katabatic wind , are not necessarily polar desert . Polar deserts are relatively common during ice ages , as ice ages tend to be dry . Climate scientists have voiced concerns about the effects of global warming to the ice poles in these polar biomes .", "Publications Ice Shelf Publications Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 35 nautical miles ( 60 km ) long on the south shore of Prydz Bay , between Mount Caroline Mikkelsen and Stornes Peninsula . Several glaciers , listed from southwest to northeast , nourish the ice shelf : Polar Times Glacier , Il Polo Glacier , Polarforschung Glacier , Polar Record Glacier and Polararboken Glacier . The feature was first mapped from air photos by the Lars Christensen Expedition , 1936-37 . The name `` Publication Glacier Tongues '' was applied by John H. Roscoe in 1952 following his study of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump ( 1946 -- 47 ) air photos of the area , but the term ice shelf is more descriptive . So named by Roscoe because the several glaciers in the area commemorate polar publications . Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Princess Elizabeth Land", "Ice sock An ice sock is a sock filled with ice , used by cyclists participating in brevets ( long-distance rides ) to avoid overheating . A white athletic sock is filled with ice , which the cyclist drapes around his/her neck . This is a low-cost and effective method to keep the cyclist 's temperature in check and prevent overheating . Other mentions of ice socks include cold weather sock products to offer feet protection against cold weather , as well as ice melt socks to prevent ice dams on roofs .", "Vortex ring toy A vortex ring toy is any of several toys that generate vortex rings -- rolling torus-shapes of fluid , similar in structure to smoke rings -- that move through the fluid ( most often air , and sometimes water ) . Because of the way they rotate , a vortex ring can hold itself together and travel for quite a distance . Toys that blow air vortices , like the air vortex cannon , are mainly used to tickle people or animals at a distance with an `` invisible hand '' . An interesting demonstration is to have a smoker blow a smoke cloud into the toy just before firing , to create a large smoke ring . Some toys have a built-in smoke generator for this purpose .", "Coudersport Ice Mine The Coudersport Ice Mine is an ice cave located in Sweden Township , Pennsylvania ( east of Coudersport ) that forms icicles in the spring and summer but not in the winter . Ice formations appear in the shaft during the spring of the year , continue through the hot weather , and disappear in winter . Ice appears in various shapes and forms , often as huge icicles measuring from 1 to 3 ft in thickness , and from 15 to 25 ft in length ; the ice is generally clear and sparkling . A theory about the origin of this mine states that during the winter , cold air over the hilltop sinks into rock openings in the Lock Haven Formation ( Devonian age ) and slowly expels the warm air that had penetrated these openings during the preceding summer . Ordinarily this process takes place locally , but here the interconnection of the rock crevices tends to be so arranged that the air circulation over a wide region is focused on one spot . Thus , from April or May to September , cold air comes in contact with percolating groundwater , forming ice during the hot months of the year ; from September to late spring , warm air trapped in the rocks from the preceding summer , escapes and melts the ice . Discovered in 1894 , the cave is about 40 ft deep , about 8 ft wide , and 10 ft long . The cave was open to the public for many decades The ice mine property was purchased by new owners who began a restoration in 2013 . After being closed for nearly a quarter of a century , the Coudersport Ice Mine was re-opened in 2014 .", "Cooling bath A cooling bath , in laboratory chemistry practice , is a liquid mixture which is used to maintain low temperatures , typically between 13 ° C and − 196 ° C . These low temperatures are used to collect liquids after distillation , to remove solvents using a rotary evaporator , or to perform a chemical reaction below room temperature ( see : kinetic control ) . Cooling baths are generally one of two types : ( a ) a cold fluid ( particularly liquid nitrogen , water , or even air ) -- but most commonly the term refers to ( b ) a mixture of 3 components : ( 1 ) a cooling agent ( such as dry ice or water ice ) ; ( 2 ) a liquid ` carrier ' ( such as liquid water , ethylene glycol , acetone , etc. ) , which transfers heat between the bath and the vessel ; ; and ( 3 ) an additive to depress the melting-point of the solid/liquid system . A familiar example of this is the use of an ice/rock-salt mixture to freeze ice cream . Adding salt lowers the freezing temperature of water , lowering the minimum temperature attainable with only ice .", "Chasma Boreale Chasma Boreale is a large canyon in Mars 's north polar ice cap in the Mare Boreum quadrangle of Mars at 83 ° north latitude and 47.1 ° west longitude . It is about 560 km long and was named after a classical albedo feature name . The canyon 's sides reveal layered features within the ice cap that result from seasonal melting and deposition of ice , together with dust deposits from Martian dust storms . Information about the past climate of Mars may eventually be revealed in these layers , just as tree ring patterns and ice core data do on Earth . Both polar caps also display grooved features , probably caused by wind flow patterns . The grooves are also influenced by the amount of dust . The more dust , the darker the surface . The darker the surface , the more melting as dark surfaces absorb more energy .", "Glacier A glacier ( -LSB- pronˈɡleɪʃər -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɡlæsiə -RSB- ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight ; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation ( melting and sublimation ) over many years , often centuries . Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight , creating crevasses , seracs , and other distinguishing features . They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines . Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water . On Earth , 99 % of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions , but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent except Australia , and on a few high-latitude oceanic islands . Between 35 ° N and 35 ° S , glaciers occur only in the Himalayas , Andes , Rocky Mountains , a few high mountains in East Africa , Mexico , New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran . Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earth 's land surface . Continental glaciers cover nearly 5 e6sqmi or about 98 percent of Antarctica 's 5.1 e6sqmi , with an average thickness of 7,000 ft. Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers . Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth . Many glaciers from temperate , alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt , creating a water source that is especially important for plants , animals and human uses when other sources may be scant . Within high altitude and Antarctic environments , the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater . Because glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes , e.g. , precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level . A large piece of compressed ice , or a glacier , appears blue as large quantities of water appear blue . This is because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue . The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles . Air bubbles , which give a white color to ice , are squeezed out by pressure increasing the density of the created ice .", "Ice age (disambiguation) __ NOTOC __ An ice age is a geologic period characterized by the presence of polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Periods of major glaciation ( commonly also referred to as ice ages ) are scientifically termed glacial periods . Ice Age may also refer to :", "IceMole IceMole is an autonomous ice research probe , incorporating a new type of ice-melting tip for the exploration of polar regions , glaciers , ice sheets , and extraterrestrial regions , developed by a team from the FH Aachen , a Fachhochschule ( University of Applied Sciences ) in Aachen , Germany . The advantage over previous probes is that the IceMole can change its direction and can be recovered after being used . A driving ice screw allows the probe to drill through soil layers and other contaminations in the ice .", "Drift station A drift station is a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe . During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a number of stations in the Arctic Ocean on floes such as Fletcher 's Ice Island for research and espionage , the latter of which were often little more than quickly constructed shacks . Extracting personnel from these stations proved difficult and in the case of the United States , employed early versions of the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system .", "Ryssberget Ryssberget is a hill in the municipality of Sölvesborg , in the southeastern Swedish province of Blekinge . Ryssberget is made up of some of the oldest stone in Blekinge , so-called metavulcanites created about 1700 million years ago . As the ice age came to an end , the ice melted away creating the Baltic Glacier lake . This covered most of what is now mainland Blekinge and Scania . The highest level of the lake can be seen on Ryssberget and is called the highest coast line . As the glaciers continued to melt , land began to rise and this created in turn what is now the Baltic Sea .", "ICS Vortex Simen Hestnæs , also known as I.C.S. Vortex or simply Vortex , is a Norwegian musician . He is the vocalist of the similarly named band ICS Vortex , the avant-garde metal band Arcturus , and the doom metal band Lamented Souls . He is also the vocalist and bass guitarist to the progressive black metal band Borknagar , and the former bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir .", "Glaciovolcanism Glaciovolcanism is volcanism and related phenomena associated with glacial ice . The ice commonly constrains the erupted material and melts to create meltwater . Considerable melting of glacial ice can create massive lahars and glacial outburst floods known as jökulhlaups . Three forms of glaciovolcanism are known . Subglacial eruptions occur when a volcano erupts under ice . Such activity can produce landforms such as tuyas and subglacial mounds . Ice-marginal volcanism takes place when material from a subaerial eruption makes lateral contact with ice . Ice-marginal lava flows are a product of this phenomenon . Supraglacial eruptions deposit ejecta onto the surface of an ice sheet .", "Horseshoe vortex The horseshoe vortex model is a simplified representation of the vortex system of a wing . In this model the wing vorticity is modelled by a bound vortex of constant circulation , travelling with the wing , and two trailing wingtip vortices , therefore having a shape vaguely reminiscent of a horseshoe . A starting vortex is shed as the wing begins to move through the fluid , which dissipates under the action of viscosity , as do the trailing vortices far behind the aircraft . The trailing wingtip vortices are responsible for the component of the downwash which creates induced drag . The horseshoe vortex model is unrealistic in that it implies uniform circulation ( and hence , according to the Kutta -- Joukowski theorem , uniform lift ) at all sections on the wingspan . In a more realistic model , the lifting-line theory , the vortex strength varies along the wingspan , and the loss in vortex strength is shed as a vortex sheet all along the trailing edge , rather than as a single trail at the wing-tips . Nevertheless , the simpler horseshoe vortex model used with a reduced effective wingspan but same mid-plane circulation provides an adequate model for the flows induced far from the aircraft . The term horseshoe vortex is also used in wind engineering to describe the flow pattern created by strong winds around the base of a tall building . This effect is amplified by the presence of a low-rise building just upwind . This effect was studied at the UK Building Research Establishment between 1963 and 1973 and the cause of the effect is described in contemporary wind engineering text books . In hydrodynamics , a form of horseshoe vortex forms around bluff bodies in the flowing water , for instance around bridge piers . They can cause scouring of bed materials from both upstream and downstream of the pier .", "Vortex generator A vortex generator ( VG ) is an aerodynamic device , consisting of a small vane usually attached to a lifting surface ( or airfoil , such as an aircraft wing ) or a rotor blade of a wind turbine . VGs may also be attached to some part of an aerodynamic vehicle such as an aircraft fuselage or a car . When the airfoil or the body is in motion relative to the air , the VG creates a vortex , which , by removing some part of the slow-moving boundary layer in contact with the airfoil surface , delays local flow separation and aerodynamic stalling , thereby improving the effectiveness of wings and control surfaces , such as flaps , elevators , ailerons , and rudders .", "Polar Circle Marathon The Polar Circle Marathon in Kangerlussuaq , Greenland is an annual marathon ( 42.195 km or 26.219 mi ) that has the distinction of being situated on 66 degrees northern latitude , also known as the Polar Circle . The Polar Circle Marathon is organized by Albatross Adventures and has been run every year since 2001 . The race is far more demanding than usual marathons due to the cold weather and slippery surfaces on portions of the race that go over the actual ice cap . The temperatures generally hover around -10 to -15 degrees Celsius in October when the yearly race is held . The marathon course takes the runners over the permanent , 3 km thick ice cap and through tundras , moraine landscapes , glaciers , among other outstanding nature sceneries . Marathoners often encounter musk oxen , reindeer and other animals inhabiting the arctic desert .", "Vortex Col Vortex Col is a col leading from the plateau into the south side of Wright Upper Glacier in Victoria Land . At this locality , winds carrying clouds of snow from the polar plateau are deflected by Mount Fleming and funneled down this depression . The descriptive name was given by New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( NZ-APC ) . Category : Mountain passes of Victoria Land Category : McMurdo Dry Valleys", "Vortex stretching In fluid dynamics , vortex stretching is the lengthening of vortices in three-dimensional fluid flow , associated with a corresponding increase of the component of vorticity in the stretching direction -- due to the conservation of angular momentum . Vortex stretching is associated with a particular term in the vorticity equation . For example , vorticity transport in an incompressible inviscid flow is governed by where D/Dt is the convective derivative . The source term on the right hand side is the vortex stretching term . It amplifies the vorticity when the velocity is diverging in the direction parallel to . A simple example of vortex stretching in a viscous flow is provided by the Burgers vortex . Vortex stretching is at the core of the description of the turbulence energy cascade from the large scales to the small scales in turbulence . In general , in turbulence fluid elements are more lengthened than squeezed , on average . In the end , this results in more vortex stretching than vortex squeezing . For incompressible flow -- due to volume conservation of fluid elements -- the lengthening implies thinning of the fluid elements in the directions perpendicular to the stretching direction . This reduces the radial length scale of the associated vorticity . Finally , at the small scales of the order of the Kolmogorov microscales , the turbulence kinetic energy is dissipated into heat through the action of molecular viscosity .", "Cold as Ice Cold as Ice may refer to : Cold as Ice ( album ) , an album by Charli Baltimore `` Cold as Ice '' ( Foreigner song ) , 1977 `` Cold as Ice '' , a 2001 song by No Angels on the album Elle ` ments `` Cold as Ice '' , a 2006 song by London singer Nathan `` Cold as Ice '' , a 2001 song by M.O.P. ( Mash Out Posse ) `` Cold as Ice '' ( Sarah Connor song ) , 2010 Cold as Ice ( novel ) , a 1992 science fiction novel by Charles Sheffield Cold as Ice , a novel by Anne Stuart", "Melt pond Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer . The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves . Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice . Melt ponds are usually darker than the surrounding ice , and their distribution and size is highly variable . They absorb solar radiation rather than reflecting it as ice does and , thereby , have a significant influence on Earth 's radiation balance . This differential , which had not been scientifically investigated until recently , has a large effect on the rate of ice melting and the extent of ice cover . Melt ponds can melt through to the ocean 's surface . Seawater entering the pond increases the melt rate because the salty water of the ocean is warmer than the fresh water of the pond . The increase in salinity also depresses the water 's freezing point . Water from melt ponds over land surface can run into crevasses or moulins -- tubes leading under ice sheets or glaciers -- turning into meltwater . The water may reach the underlying rock . The effect is an increase in the rate of ice flow to the oceans , as the fluid behaves like a lubricant in the basal sliding of glaciers .", "Encompassment ordering In theoretical computer science , in particular in automated theorem proving and term rewriting , the containment , or encompassment , preorder on the set of terms , is defined by s ≤ t if a subterm of t is a substitution instance of s. It is used e.g. in the Knuth -- Bendix completion algorithm .", "Polar ice pack Polar ice pack may refer to : Arctic ice pack Antarctic sea ice Drift ice", "Air vortex cannon An air vortex cannon is a device that releases doughnut-shaped air vortices -- similar to smoke rings but larger , stronger and invisible . The vortices are able to ruffle hair , disturb papers or blow out candles after travelling several metres . The design consists of a short and broad barrel with a slight taper , closed by a flexible diaphragm at the larger end . The diaphragm is internally attached to the barrel by elastic strips . The cannon is `` armed '' by pulling the diaphragm out , distending the elastic bands , and is `` fired '' by releasing the diaphragm . The diaphragm quickly pushes a quantity of air out of the open end , creating a vortex ring . An air vortex cannon can be made easily at home , from just a cardboard box . A toy commercial version , with a barrel 12 in wide and useful range of 20 ft is sold under the name Air bazooka or Airzooka . Air cannons are used in some amusement parks such as Universal Studios to spook or surprise visitors . The Wham-O Air Blaster toy introduced in 1965 could blow out a candle at 25 ft. The commercial Airzooka was developed by Brian S. Jordan who claims to have conceived it when still a boy . A feature of the Airzooka is a loose non-elastic polythene membrane , tensioned by a bungee cord , rather than elastic membranes . This allows a much greater volume of air to be displaced . A large air vortex cannon , with a 9 ft wide barrel and a displacement volume of 2873 USgal was built in March 2008 at the University of Minnesota , and was able to blow out candles at 180 ft. In 2012 a large air vortex cannon was built for Czech television show Zázraky přírody ( English : Wonders of Nature ) . It was capable of bringing down a wall of cardboard boxes from 100 m in what was claimed to be a world record .", "Ice algae Ice algae are any of the various types of algal communities found in annual and multi-year sea or terrestrial ice . On sea ice in polar regions of the oceans , ice algae communities play an important role in primary production . The timing of blooms of the algae is especially important for supporting higher trophic levels at times of the year when light is low and ice cover still exists . Sea ice algal communities are mostly concentrated in the bottom layer of the ice , but can also occur in brine channels within the ice , in melt ponds , and on the surface . Because terrestrial ice algae occur in freshwater systems , the species composition differs greatly from that of sea ice algae . These communities are significant in that they often change the color of glaciers and ice sheets , impacting the reflectivity of the ice itself .", "Central Swedish ice-edge zone The central Swedish ice-edge zone was formed when the melting of inland ice slowed down during a cold period approximately 12,000 years ago and the ice edge stood relatively still for around 800 years . This occurred during the cold part of the Younger Dryas period . The central Swedish ice-edge zone contains many terminal moraines , including moraine ridges . The zone is therefore sometimes referred to as the central Swedish terminal moraines . The area also features many sandy delta areas and other ice river deposits of stones , gravel and sand . The zone stretches from southern Norway , through Dalsland , Västergötland , Östergötland and up through Södermanland . The area then continues with terminal moraines through southern Finland ( where it is known as Salpausselkä ) and into Russia along a curve up towards the Arctic Ocean .", "Fractional vortices In a standard superconductor , described by a complex field fermionic condensate wave function ( denoted ) , vortices carry quantized magnetic fields because the condensate wave function is invariant to increments of the phase by . There a winding of the phase by creates a vortex which carries one flux quantum . See quantum vortex . The term Fractional vortex is used for two kinds of very different quantum vortices which occur when : ( i ) A physical system allows phase windings different from , i.e. non-integer or fractional phase winding . Quantum mechanics prohibits it in a uniform ordinary superconductor , but it becomes possible in an inhomogeneous system , for example , if a vortex is placed on a boundary between two superconductors which are connected only by an extremely weak link ( also called a Josephson junction ) ; such a situation also occurs in some cases in polycrystalline samples on grain boundaries etc. . At such superconducting boundaries the phase can have a discontinuous jump . Correspondingly , a vortex placed onto such a boundary acquires a fractional phase winding hence the term fractional vortex . A similar situation occurs in Spin-1 Bose condensate , where a vortex with phase winding can exist if it is combined with a domain of overturned spins . ( ii ) A different situation occurs in uniform multicomponent superconductors which allow stable vortex solutions with integer phase winding , where , which however carry arbitrarily fractionally quantized magnetic flux .", "Vortex banded mountain snail The vortex banded mountain snail or whorled mountain snail , scientific name Oreohelix vortex , is a species of air-breathing land snail , a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Oreohelicidae . This species is endemic to the United States .", "Dorsa Argentea Formation The Dorsa Argentea Formation ( DAF ) is thought to be a large system of eskers that were under an ancient ice cap in the south polar region of Mars . The ancient ice cap was at least twice the size of the present ice cap and may have been 1500-2000 meters thick . This group of ridges extends from 270 -- 100 E and 70 -- 90 S , around the south pole of Mars . It sits under the Late Amazonian South Polar Layered Deposits ( SPLD ) , in the Mare Australe quadrangle . The amount of these ridges is huge , one study studied seven different ridge systems which contained almost 4,000 ridges that had a total length 51,000 km . Most eskers are thought to be formed inside ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and under glaciers . After the retaining ice walls melted away , stream deposits remained as long winding ridges . Crater counts show that the ridges are of two different ages . One dates from Early Hesperian , while the other group dates to the Late Noachian . These dates correspond to the time when Mars had lakes and valley networks which formed from runoff , drainage and storage of liquid water on the surface of Mars . The Dorsa Argentea Formation represents a time when there was melting and drainage of meltwater from a giant ice sheet around the Martian South Pole . Various mechanisms may have caused the ice to melt . Possible mechanisms may have been a warmer atmosphere , volcanism , or increased thickness of the ice cap from accumulating snow . MARSIS radar data suggest that significant areas of layered , potentially ice-rich parts of the Dorsa Argentea Formation remain today . Twenty-one mountains are associated with this formation . Their shapes suggest they are volcanoes and that most were associated with glaciers . Some probably erupted under a sheet of ice . Some resemble volcanic land forms called tuyas and tindars . These features are common in Iceland and Antarctica .", "Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory ( CRREL ) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers , Engineer Research and Development Center research facility headquartered in Hanover , New Hampshire , that provides scientific and engineering support to the U.S. government and its military with a core emphasis on cold environments . CRREL also provides technical support to non-government customers . CRREL arose from a consolidation of three antecedent organizations whose purpose was to understand frozen ground , permafrost , snow and ice as factors which were important in strategic northern areas during the Cold War . In its first 25 years CRREL researchers contributed to the understanding of polar ice caps , permafrost , and the engineering technology for developing natural resources in cold climates , such as Alaska . More recently , CRREL researchers have made contributions to science in climate change , the understanding of wave propagation for sensor systems , the control of snow on structures and ice in navigable waterways , and the environmental remediation of military installations ." ]

[ "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( -LSB- ˈhɪləri_daɪˈæn_ˈrɒdəm_ˈklɪntən -RSB- born October 26 , 1947 ) is an American politician who was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 , U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009 , First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 , and the Democratic Party 's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election . Born in Chicago , Illinois , and raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge , Clinton graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 , and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973 . After serving as a congressional legal counsel , she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton in 1975 . In 1977 , she co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families . She was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first female partner at Rose Law Firm the following year . As First Lady of Arkansas , she led a task force whose recommendations helped reform Arkansas 's public schools . As First Lady of the United States , Clinton was an advocate for gender equality and healthcare reform . Her relationship with her husband came under public speculation during the Lewinsky scandal , forcing her to issue a statement reaffirming her commitment to the marriage . Clinton was elected in 2000 as the first female senator from New York . She was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 . Running for president in 2008 , she won far more delegates than any previous female candidate , but lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama . As Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013 , Clinton responded to the Arab Spring , during which she advocated the U.S. military intervention in Libya . She helped organize a diplomatic isolation and international sanctions regime against Iran , in an effort to force curtailment of that country 's nuclear program ; this would eventually lead to the multinational Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement in 2015 . Leaving office after Obama 's first term , she wrote her fifth book and undertook speaking engagements . Clinton made a second presidential run in 2016 . She received the most votes and primary delegates in the 2016 Democratic primaries , and formally accepted her party 's nomination for President of the United States on July 28 , 2016 with vice presidential running mate Senator Tim Kaine . She became the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party . Despite winning a plurality of the national popular vote , Clinton lost the Electoral College and the presidency to her Republican opponent Donald Trump . Following her loss , in 2017 she decided to focus on being a self-described `` activist citizen '' ." ]

[ "Long Black Veil `` Long Black Veil '' is a 1959 country ballad , written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell . A saga song , `` Long Black Veil '' is told from the point of view of an executed man falsely accused of murder . He refuses to provide an alibi , since on the night of the murder he was having an affair with his best friend 's wife , and would rather die and take their secret to his grave than admit the truth . The chorus describes the woman 's mourning visits to his grave site , wearing a long black veil and enduring a wailing wind . Another possibility , if the lyrics are considered more precisely , is that of a more sinister and haunting tale . For example , `` She walks these hills in a long , black veil . '' is the behavior of a spirit , not that of a flesh and blood woman . As a second example , if the woman were alive , she too would know the situation on that night ten years prior , but the lyrics repeat the clue , `` Nobody sees ( the woman 's spirit is invisible to others ) , nobody knows but me . '' Those clues and others ( '' ... shed not a tear ... '' ) in the song suggest that the executed person ( a very young man ) in fact murdered the woman ( he knows details about the lighting at the crime scene ) , in what was supposed to have been a murder-suicide perhaps ( we run out of clues here and the mystery endures ) , and her spirit haunts even his bones in his grave .", "2016 Western & Southern Open – Women's Singles Serena Williams was the two-time defending champion , but withdrew before the tournament began due to injury . Angelique Kerber was in contention for the world No. 1 ranking , which she would have attained had she won the title . However , by losing in the final she remained No. 2 . Karolína Plíšková won her sixth WTA singles title , defeating Kerber in the final , 6 -- 3 , 6 -- 1 . The two would play each other three weeks later , in the final of the US Open . Having already claimed the No. 1 ranking following Williams ' defeat in the semifinals , Kerber avenged her loss by beating Plíšková in three sets .", "Seven Princesses of Mediacorp The Seven Princesses of Mediacorp is made up of Jeanette Aw , Rui En , Felicia Chin , Joanne Peh , Fiona Xie , Jesseca Liu & Dawn Yeoh . They have been in acting industry for a very long time . Three out of Seven Princesses have already took the All Time Favourite Award . Jeanette Aw took the award in 2015 . Rui En took the award in 2016 and Joanne Peh took in 2017.2 out of the seven princess , Fiona Xie & Dawn Yeoh would not be eligible for Top 10 Most Popular Female Artist and would not be able to take the All Time Favourite Award . Jesseca Liu finished her contract with Mediacorp in 2010 . In 2015 , she renew her contract with Mediacorp again . Joanne Peh married actor Qi Yuwu and had suggested to move to China but soon after , Joanne Peh came back to Singapore.Felicia Chin has announced that she would continue on her studies but after that she came back to acting and would not continue on her studies .", "Witchduck station Witchduck Station was a planned Tide Light Rail station in Virginia Beach , Virginia . It was scheduled to open in 2019 , however , due to the 2016 Virginia Beach City referendum regarding light rail being a no-majority , work on light rail has been ceased as of December 2016 . The station would have served the communities along Witchduck Road . It was to be situated on former Norfolk Southern-owned track now owned by the city .", "Bibliography of Hillary Clinton This is a list of books and scholarly articles by and about Hillary Clinton , as well as columns by her . Books are broken out by point of view . Columns about Clinton are not included , as they would be too numerous to list .", "We Are Looking at You, Agnes `` We Are Looking at You , Agnes '' is short story by Erskine Caldwell , originally published 1931 , included in We Are the Living ( 1933 ) . The entire story is told as a single interior monologue of the protagonist , a young woman named Agnes . From the way that her family members ( father , mother , brother and sister ) look at her , Agnes is sure that they know her guilty secret -- but never talk about it . As the reader learns , five years before Agnes was sent to Birmingham , Alabama in order to study stenography at a business school , for which purpose her father gave her fifty dollars . Instead , however , she went to a `` beauty-culture school '' and learned to be a manicurist . Afterwards , Agnes worked as a manicurist in a series of barber shops at Birmingham , Nashville , Memphis and finally on Canal Street , New Orleans -- each of a lesser quality than the earlier . In each she found herself wanted for purposes other than as a manicurist , by men who `` put their hands down the neck of my dress and squeezed until I screamed '' and who afterwards talked to her about things which she `` never heard of at home '' . After some time , finding that she was `` making more money on the outside than at the -LSB- manicuring -RSB- table '' , Agnes left the barber shop altogether and went to live in `` a cheap hotel '' . Agnes is still coming every year to spend Christmas with her family . From the way that they look at her , and from the fact that they never ask any questions about her supposed work as a stenographer in Birmingham , she feels sure that they know how she actually earns her living -- but they never speak of it . She in fact desperately hopes that they would , whereupon she would tell the truth and then she wo n't have to come again in the following years for visits which have plainly become an ordeal . But they never do speak up , and neither does Agnes herself . Near the end , the reader learns that Agnes ' parents regard her as literally `` unclean '' : Whenever she leaves the room , her father wipes the chair she sat on with a cloth soaked in alcohol , and after meals her mother takes the dishes she had used and scalds them in the sink . Still , the parents and siblings never speak up , and the story ends as it began : with the others sitting at the other side of the parlor and looking at Agnes , silently and accusingly .", "Peto's paradox Peto 's Paradox is the observation , due to Richard Peto , that at the species level , the incidence of cancer does not appear to correlate with the number of cells in an organism . For example , the incidence of cancer in humans is much higher than the incidence of cancer in whales . This is despite the fact that a whale has many more cells than a human . If the probability of carcinogenesis were constant across cells , one would expect whales to have a higher incidence of cancer than humans .", "USS Trepang (SS-412) The first USS Trepang ( SS/AGSS -412 ) was a Balao-class submarine in the United States Navy . She was named for the trepang , a marine animal sometimes called a ` sea slug ' or a ` sea cucumber ' , having a long , tough , muscular body and found in the coral reefs of the East Indies . When the contract to build her was awarded to Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo , California , SS-412 was to be named Senorita , which would have made her the only USN ship to be named for the senorita , a brilliantly colored kelpfish found along the California coast . She was renamed Trepang on 24 September 1942 , and her keel was laid down on 25 June 1943 . She was launched on 23 March 1944 sponsored by Mrs. R. M. Davenport , the wife of the submarine 's prospective commanding officer , and commissioned on 22 May 1944 with Commander Roy Milton Davenport -- already a three-time Navy Cross winner -- in command . Following shakedown out of San Diego , California , Trepang departed the West Coast on 15 August 1944 and proceeded to Hawaii where her crew trained and prepared the ship for combat .", "Polly Barber Polly Barber ( Polly Scovill ; 25 September 1803 -- 23 February 1898 ) , was born in Lower Canada and , at various times was a teacher , farmer , and businesswoman . Polly , ( Mary by birth ) , started out as a school teacher and married Stephen Scovill Jr , a farmer from Sutton Township . They had a successful farm when her husband died leaving her a widow and pregnant at the age of 44 . She was able to carry on developing the farm , raising children , and starting a successful clothing factory . The widow Scovill was important in history because she was able to rise above the prejudices which would have been prevalent toward a woman in business at that time . She set an example that was beneficial to future women in business .", "Roberta Collins Roberta Collins ( November 17 , 1944 -- August 16 , 2008 ) was a film and television actress who was known for her attractive physique , blonde , curly hair , and Marilyn Monroe appearance . She starred in many exploitation films , including the prostitute Clara in Tobe Hooper 's Eaten Alive , and as `` Matilda the Hun : in the science fiction film Death Race 2000 . Jack Hill , who directed her in The Big Doll House , once gave her as an example of `` really great actresses who could have excellent careers but could n't get their personal lives together ... she would be fantastic one day , do everything right , and then she would be out until 4 A.M. partying and the next day she would be useless . ''", "Gráinne Murphy Gráinne Murphy is an Irish swimmer representing Ireland at international level . She qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London , though due to illness only swam the heats of the 400m Freestyle . She was forced to withdraw from the rest of the meet , including her focus event ( the 800m Freestyle ) , where she would have been in contention for a place in the final .", "Alice Caymmi (album) Alice Caymmi is the debut album by Brazilian artist of same name , released in 2012 , produced by Flávio Mendes , with Caymmi being the art director herself . She described the album as follows : `` The album has an aquatic environment , a reference to my grandfather ( Dorival Caymmi ) , to the mythic sea he created . But I like the more obscure things . I brought the more tragic side of his songs , the night sea , darker . -LSB- ... -RSB- Not that I feel I am the avant-guarde-ist , but I want out of the comfort zone . I could have made the album one would expect from the young granddaughter of Caymmi . But there would be no album , it would n't be so emotional . For this album , I wanted the noise , the noise language . I do n't think I made it , because the songs did n't have this head . But I tried to bring them to this tragic , noisy environment of sea , of night '' . Originally , the album would be entirely performed by Alice alone and would feature seven tracks . However , producer Flávio Mendes convinced her to enlarge the track list and invite more musicians . Some of the lyrics were composed during her adolescence . There are two covers in the album , `` Sargaço Mar '' and `` Unravel '' . The first was composed by her grandfather . she describes it as `` a song that is independent of harmony , just her melody already shows what it is . I then tried to acclimatize it in a scenic way . -LSB- ... -RSB- If I had it my way , it would open the album , my career , everything '' . `` Unravel '' was originally performed by Icelandic singer Björk -- about this version , the European singer supposedly said in her website that `` there 's no way of doing it better than that '' , making Alice cry for her acknowledgment .", "Underdetermination In the philosophy of science , underdetermination refers to situations where the evidence available is insufficient to identify which belief one should hold about that evidence . For example , if all that was known was that exactly $ 10 was spent on apples and oranges , and that apples cost $ 1 and oranges $ 2 , then one would know enough to eliminate some possibilities ( e.g. , 6 oranges could not have been purchased ) , but one would not have enough evidence to know which specific combination of apples and oranges was purchased . In this example , one would say that belief in what combination was purchased is underdetermined by the available evidence .", "Andharmanik River The Andharmanik River is located in Bangladesh . It is one of the larger coastal rivers of the Ganges -- Padma system , and one of the major rivers of Kalapara Upazila in Patuakhali District . In recent years the people of Kalapara have raised their concerns regarding the gradual drying up of the river . From the total length of about 40 km , at least 25 km of the river have permanently dried out due to the sedimentation and rise of new alluviums . During the 1960s , the local government constructed many dams over Andharmanik and other nearby rivers to avoid the salination of the arable lands . Mainly from this period Andharmanik began to dry up . One of the most influential of these dams is the one over the Kochupatra river which is the source of Andharmanik . Other causes of the sedimentation include the illegal occupancy of canals , unrestricted farming on river area etc. . In late 2013 , the government announced that a new sea port would be established on the bank of Andharmanik river . Since then , the river has been gaining importance and the experts have predicted it as the future economic hub of Southern Bangladesh .", "Mabel Robinson Simms Mable Robinson Simms , ( born March 29 , 1914 , Cape Charles , Virginia , died January 27 , 2005 , Boston , Massachusetts ) was an African American jazz pianist and singer , she performed with notable jazz musicians , also as Mabel Robinson , in the 1940-50 's , including Louis Jordan , Sammy Price , Skeets Tolbert , Sammy Davis Sr. , Roy Haynes , Pearl Bailey , The 4 Blackamours , and released another album on her own . She was born in Cape Charles , Virginia , raised in Norfolk and with her family , moved to Boston in 1931 . Her voice was signatory for being remarkably capable in both the jazz and blues arenas and she was a talented pianist . This would land her guest singing roles with Sammy Price , Louis Jordan and Skeets Tolbert .", "Hypothetical mood Hypothetical mood ( abbreviated ) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages ( for example Lakota ) which indicates that while a statement is not actually true , it could easily have been . For instance , in English , `` You know you should n't play with knives ! You could have hurt someone ! '' conveys a meaning that would be expressed with the hypothetical mood in Lakota .", "Spherical aromaticity In organic chemistry , spherical aromaticity is formally used to describe an unusually stable nature of some spherical compounds such as fullerenes , polyhedral boranes . In 2000 , Andreas Hirsch and coworkers in Erlangen , Germany , formulated a rule to determine when a fullerene would be aromatic . They found that if there were 2 ( n +1 ) 2 π-electrons , then the fullerene would display aromatic properties . This follows from the fact that an aromatic fullerene must have full icosahedral ( or other appropriate ) symmetry , so the molecular orbitals must be entirely filled . This is possible only if there are exactly 2 ( n +1 ) 2 electrons , where n is a nonnegative integer . In particular , for example , buckminsterfullerene , with 60 π-electrons , is non-aromatic , since 60/2 = 30 , which is not a perfect square . In 2011 , Jordi Poater and Miquel Solà , expanded the rule to determine when a fullerene species would be aromatic . They found that if there were 2n2 +2 n +1 π-electrons , then the fullerene would display aromatic properties . This follows from the fact that an spherical species having a same-spin half-filled last energy level with the whole inner levels being fully filled is also aromatic . It is similar to Baird 's rule .", "Salt fingering Salt fingering is a mixing process that occurs when relatively warm , salty water overlies relatively colder , fresher water . It is driven by the fact that heated water diffuses more readily than salty water . A small parcel of warm , salty water sinking downwards into a colder , fresher region will lose its heat before losing its salt , making the parcel of water increasingly denser than the water around it and sinking further . Likewise , a small parcel of colder , fresher water will be displaced upwards and gain heat by diffusion from surrounding water , which will then make it lighter than the surrounding waters , and cause it to rise further . Paradoxically , the fact that salinity diffuses less readily than temperature means that salinity mixes more efficiently than temperature due to the turbulence caused by salt fingers . Salt fingering was first described mathematically by Professor Melvin Stern of Florida State University in 1960 and important field measurements of the process have been made by Raymond Schmitt of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Mike Gregg and Eric Kunze of the University of Washington , Seattle . A particularly interesting area for salt fingering is found in the Caribbean Sea , where it is responsible for producing a `` staircase '' of well-mixed layers a few metres in thickness that extend for hundreds of kilometres . Pre-dating the work of Stern , a paper by the American oceanographer Henry Stommel discussed the creation of a large-scale salt finger in which a column of water would be surrounded by a membrane that would allow diffusion of temperature but not salinity . Once primed by the upward movement of the colder and fresher intermediate water , the resultant `` perpetual salt fountain '' would be able to draw energy ( heat ) from the local ocean water stratification .", "Proximate cause In the law , a proximate cause is an event sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury to be held to be the cause of that injury . There are two types of causation in the law : cause-in-fact , and proximate ( or legal ) cause . Cause-in-fact is determined by the `` but for '' test : But for the action , the result would not have happened . For example , but for running the red light , the collision would not have occurred . The action is a necessary condition , but may not be a sufficient condition , for the resulting injury . For an act to cause a harm , both tests must be met ; proximate cause is a legal limitation on cause-in-fact . The formal Latin term for `` but for '' ( cause-in-fact ) causation , is sine qua non causation .", "SS Mareeba The SS Mareeba was an Australian freighter built in 1921 and named after the town of Mareeba in Far North Queensland , Australia . She was a 3,472-ton Australasian United Steam Navigation Company vessel . The Mareeba was attacked and sunk in the Bay of Bengal on 26 June 1941 by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran . She was carrying 5000 tons of sugar from Batavia to Colombo when she picked up the Yugoslav freighter Velebit 's distress signal . Instead of immediately stopping the Mareeba radioed her position and ran for it , presumably because at 8 o'clock that morning she had spotted the British light cruiser HMS Durban , in the Ten Degree Channel . She received nine shots to her hull , several of which hit her engine-room , and , although she was slowing sinking , it took a team of German boarding party placing demolitions to sink her quickly . It would later be said that the Mareeba would have made a fine auxiliary minelayer because of her durability . All 48 of the crew of the Mareeba were captured and spirited away on the Komoran which travelled at top speed through the night and most of the following day to avoid retaliation for the sinkings .", "SPIN (cable system) SPIN ( or South Pacific Island Network ) was a submarine communications cable system that would connect the New Zealand to Tahiti and would connect several South Pacific islands along the way . The SPIN cable would be 6500 km long and will have a 64x10 Gbit/s capacity . It was planned to be in service late 2010 . It would have cable landing points at : New Zealand Norfolk Island New Caledonia Fiji Wallis and Futuna Samoa American Samoa Tahiti , French Polynesia", "Nuliajuk Nuliajuk is a goddess of the Netsilik Inuit . According to Rasmussen Nuliajuk lives on the bottom of the sea and controls sea mammals ( seals , walruses , and sea lions ) . Whenever humans neglect to observe ritual prohibitions , she imprisons the sea-mammals within the drip-basin under her lamp ( making them unavailable to hunters ) , so that shamans must conjure her so as to release them . Nuliajuk is co-wife with Isarraitaitsoq ; their husband is the sea scorpion god Kanajuk . They have an adopted baby , which they stole `` from a sleeping mother when her husband was out hunting at the breathing holes '' . Here is one of the stories of Nuliajuk from the Kivalliq Region . Nuliayuk ( Sedna ) Nuliayuk lives in the ocean for a very long time . Nuliayuk just sits on the ocean floor , her long hair flowing , moving back and forth with the tides and the currents . When you look down into the sea over the side of a boat in summer , you can see her hair , swaying back and forth . Sometimes as her hair moves with the water , it gets all disheveled and tangled up . The creatures of the sea get caught in it and no matter how hard they try they can not get out . It would be so nice if Nuliayuk can run her fingers through her hair and let all these animals out , but Nuliayuk has no fingers . You see a long time ago , when she was just a girl , Nuliayuk refused to marry ; she would take no men for a husband . It was a cruel world in which she lived . There were no animals to hunt , no caribou , seals , whales , walruses , fish , nothing . Her family was starving and could no longer feed her . If she had married she would have had a husband to support her but no she refused to marry anyone . One day Nuliayuk 's parents loaded their boat with the few things they had and headed off to another hunting place , hoping for better luck . They left Nuliayuk behind . They could no longer support a woman who had refused to marry . Nuliayuk did not want to be left behind so she swam out to the boat . Nuliayuk grabbed the gunwales and tried to climb aboard . Her father took his axe and chopped her fingers off to keep her from climbing in . Nuliayuk no longer to hold on to the gunwales of the boat , slipped down to the depths of the sea . And that is where she lives to this day . Her fingers too fell into the sea one by one and one by one they became the animals of the sea . They became whales , walruses , fishes and all the other sea creatures . But now Nuliayuk has no fingers with which to comb her hair , and when her hair is all tangled up , these poor animals get caught in and can not get out . They tickle her head and that makes her angry . She shakes her head ; she screams and flails her arms about . She makes the water boil until there are big waves . If her hair gets tangled up , there are no animals to hunt , no meat to eat , no sealskin for boats , no whale meat to feed the dogs . Even if there were animals about no one could go to sea to hunt them when Nuliayuk is angry . Nuliayuk has become the most feared creature in all the land . She has the power of life and death over all the people . The only people who can calm her down are the shamans . Now and then , they dive down to the bottom of the sea . They run their fingers through her hair and make it all neat and tidy . They free the animals . They soothe her and settle her down and the sea becomes calm and smooth again . There are seals , walruses , fish , and whales again . People can go out to hunt and have food to eat .", "Legal impossibility Legal impossibility is a traditional common law defense to a charge of an attempted crime . Legal impossibility arises when the act , if completed , would not be a crime . A person believes she is committing a crime , but the act is , in fact , lawful . For example , a person may believe she is receiving stolen goods , but the goods are in fact not stolen . A different form of legal impossibility ( Known as `` hybrid legal impossibility '' ) comes into play when an actor 's goal is illegal , but commission of the crime is impossible due to a factual mistake regarding the legal status of one of the attendant circumstances of one of the elements of the crime . For example , a man attempting to bribe someone whom he mistakenly believes is a juror is not liable for attempted bribery of a juror . On the other hand , some jurisdictions may find the actor guilty of attempt . For example , under the Model Penal Code , the defendant can be guilty of the attempted crime if the facts being the way she thought they were would indeed make it a crime ; however , she would not be guilty of the completed crime , because the crime was never completed . See also impossibility defense .", "USS Congress (ID-3698) The sixth USS Congress ( ID-3698 ) was a motor launch in commission in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1918 to 1919 . Congress was built as the private fishing vessel Congress in 1914 at Gwynn , Virginia . The U.S. Navys 5th Naval District inspected her on 17 May 1918 for possible World War I service . The Navy purchased her from A. Foster of Grimstead , Virginia , in October 1918 , having already commissioned her as USS Congress on 25 September 1918 . The Navy assigned her Identification Number ( Id . No . ) 3698 and placed her in service on 18 October 1918 . Congress carried out miscellaneous patrol duties in the 5th Naval District until 23 September 1919 , when she was stricken from the Navy List . She was sold on 23 September 1919 , then possibly resold on 8 December 1919 , ultimately being delivered to Sallie S. Thorns of West Norfolk , Virginia , on 24 December 1919 .", "Carmen Ortiz Carmen Milagros Ortiz ( born January 5 , 1956 ) is a former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts . In 2009 , she was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama . Ortiz is both the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts . She succeeded Michael Sullivan in that position , with Michael J. Loucks serving as the interim U.S. Attorney between Sullivan 's resignation and Ortiz 's confirmation . Noteworthy prosecutions by her office include those of Whitey Bulger , Tarek Mehanna , Aaron Swartz , and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev . In December 2016 , Ortiz announced that she would step down from her post in January . Her announcement was not unexpected , due to the fact that President-Elect Donald Trump would have the authority to name new U.S. Attorneys .", "Della by Starlight Della by Starlight is the seventh album by jazz singer Della Reese , and her second for RCA Victor . After her success at Jubilee Records , and a million-seller hit with `` And That Reminds Me '' , she switched to RCA , where she would go on to have her biggest hits `` Do n't You Know ? '' ( Billboard Hot 100 # 2 ) and `` Not One Minute More '' ( Billboard Hot 100 # 16 ) .", "Joseph Lofthouse Joseph Lofthouse , Senior ( 18 December 1855 -- 16 December 1933 ) was a Canadian Anglican bishop in the 20th century . Lofthouse was born on 18 December 1855 . He went to Canada in 1882 , and was ordained in 1883 and began his ministry as a missioner at Fort York . He was then Archdeacon of Moosonee before being appointed as the first Bishop of Keewatin in 1902 . The Hudson 's Bay Company had neglected the spiritual welfare of its employees and the surrounding natives . In 1882 Rev. Lofthouse was sent out to found a church in Churchill , Manitoba . After a while he wrote back to friends in England describing his adventures . He mentioned that one of the things that made it difficult to establish a proper parish was the fact that he did not have a wife . He then said , in effect , `` Do you know a girl who would like to travel 4,000 miles across the ocean , marry a man she has never seen before , live in a place where it gets to be forty degrees below zero and be the only white woman within 200 miles ? '' They wrote back saying , in effect `` Why yes , we know a girl just like that . If she says yes we 'll send her out on the next boat . '' Reverend Lofthouse wrote out a letter of proposal and put it on the boat for England . Next spring , her affirmative answer arrived on the dog sled from Winnipeg . Since he was not in Churchill , he had to walk for eight days up the coast through roadless country . When the ship arrived ( it was a month late ) , he found that the girl had missed the boat . Since the ship had no proper accommodations for a lady , she had been refused passage . There being no more sailings that year , he had to wait until next year after the ice broke up . The next year , he made another nine-day walk up the coast . The ship arrived on the last day of August and the lady ( Betsy Fallding ) was introduced to her future husband . The next day she realized something that she had not thought of before . If there was to be a wedding , there would have to be a minister and Rev. Lofthouse was the only preacher around . Since he could not conduct his own marriage ceremony , the marriage was impossible and she would have to go back to England . The captain of a Canadian government ship , which happened to be in port , pointed out that he was a magistrate , and , as such , had the power to conduct the ceremony . They were married on 4 September 1884 . Rev. and Mrs. Lofthouse built , mostly with their own hands , the Anglican church which is still in use in Churchill . Rev. Lofthouse made a number of difficult trips into the interior to preach to the Eskimos . He ended his career as Bishop of Keewatin . In 1900 Lofthouse along with James Tyrell , the Ontario Land Surveyor , and others , traveled by canoe from Artillery Lake to Clinton-Colden Lake , then to Smart and Sifton Lakes , and canoed down Hanbury River to the Thelon and eventually to Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet . Lofthouse retired in 1921 and died at Dawlish on 16 December 1933 .", "United States presidential election in Indiana, 2016 The 2016 United States presidential election in Indiana was held on November 8 , 2016 , as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated . Indiana voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican Party 's nominee , businessman Donald Trump , and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee , former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate , Virginia Senator Tim Kaine . On May 3 , 2016 , in the presidential primaries , voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic and Republican parties ' respective nominees for President . Donald Trump won the election in Indiana with 56.9 % of the vote . Hillary Clinton received 37.9 % of the vote . Indiana is the home state of Trump 's running mate Mike Pence , which was believed to have provided important assistance to the Trump campaign in what already would have been a Republican-leaning state .", "New Lusaka Stadium New Lusaka Stadium was a planned multi-purpose stadium in Lusaka , Zambia until Zambia backed out of hosting the 2011 All-Africa Games in 2009 . It would have been used mostly for football matches and hosted some events for the 2011 All-Africa Games . The stadium would have had a capacity of 70,000 people . It would have replaced the current large stadium in Lusaka , Independence Stadium . It would have been built along with new stadiums in Ndola and Livingstone .", "Yerma Yerma ( Barren ) is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca . It was written in 1934 and first performed that same year . García Lorca describes the play as `` a tragic poem . '' The play tells the story of a childless woman living in rural Spain . Her desperate desire for motherhood becomes an obsession that eventually drives her to commit a horrific crime . Because of the time she is living in , she is expected to bear children . When she can not , she is forced to measures that those in her society would view as extreme . Although critics speculate that Yerma kills her husband in the end because he is a frugal , economically driven man who has no desire to have children , the play is indeterminate on this issue . She kills him at a hermitage , a religious place with the possibility of fertility . However he has already shown no desire to have children , so there is no evidence that he would have changed his mind at the festival .", "Ishpatina Ridge Ishpatina Ridge is the highest point of land in the Canadian province of Ontario , at an estimated 693 m above sea level . Ishpatina Ridge rises approximately 300 m above the immediate area . It was only truly recognized as Ontario 's highest point after federal government topographical mapping revealed this fact in the 1970s . Before then , the more popular Maple Mountain was thought to be higher . The ridge lies in Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park . Due to its remote location , Ishpatina Ridge is a challenge to reach . The closest major highway , Highway 560 , is more than 30 km north . There are a few logging roads and trails in the remote area , but they are difficult to travel in poor weather . The most popular approach route to Ishpatina is by canoe/portage via a logging road to the south out of the town of Capreol north of Sudbury . While a northern route exists ( out of Gowganda , the nearest community ) , there are numerous portages making it particularly onerous . This route has traditionally been used for a winter-time approach by ski/snowshoe . Historically , a fire tower atop the ridge was staffed by forest workers and they would have been ferried to the site by float plane . The name `` Ishpatina '' comes from an Ojibwe language word ishpadinaa , meaning `` high place/ridge '' . The city of Ishpeming , Michigan , in Marquette County , and Spadina Avenue in Toronto , Ontario derive their names from the same word . Although the Ishpatina Ridge is the highest point in Ontario , at least one other geographic feature , Maple Mountain ( approximately 25 km to the east ) has greater prominence , 37 m higher than Ishpatina Ridge 's rise over Scarecrow Lake . An abandoned firetower , often referred to as the Ellis Tower , is still standing on the highest section of the Ridge ( left ) . The original tower was an 80 ft structure erected in 1930 . The successor , currently standing , is 100 ft high and was abandoned in the 1960s . The towerman would have resided in a cabin on the shore of Scarecrow Lake and would have hiked a 3.5 km trail daily taking approximately two hours to summit and a little over one hour to descend again . Located between Tower Peak and the North Peak , the Ishpatina Canyon is one of the deepest in Ontario . The elevation of Tower Peak is 2274 feet , the bottom of the Canyon is at 1750 feet and the North Peak at 2250 feet above sea level . The canyon is nearly twice as deep as Ouimet Canyon , often considered Ontario 's deepest . However , the more gradual descent into the canyon hides the fact . The ridge was featured on an interactive web series called The Peakbaggers .", "USS Norfolk (1798) The first USS Norfolk was a brig in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France . Norfolk was built by the city of Norfolk , Virginia for the public service at the beginning of the Quasi-War with France in 1798 . Captain Thomas Williams was appointed to the command and she was reported ready for sea , except for her other officers , on 9 September 1798 ." ]

[ "Physical impacts of climate change This article is about the physical impacts of climate change . For some of these physical impacts , their effect on social and economic systems are also described . This article refers to reports produced by the IPCC . In their usage , `` climate change '' refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties , and that persists for extended periods , typically decades or longer ( IPCC , 2007d :30 ) . The climate change referred to may be due to natural causes and/or the result of human activity .", "Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "Atmosphere of Venus The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''" ]

[ "Martian Craters There are a number of different types of craters that have been observed and studied on Mars . Many of the them are shaped by the effects of impacts into ice-rich ground .", "Tear resistance Tear resistance ( or tear strength ) is a measure of how well a material can withstand the effects of tearing . It is a useful engineering measurement for a wide variety of materials by many different test methods .", "Measures of pollutant concentration Measures of pollutant concentration are used to determine risk assessment in public health . Industry is continually synthesizing new chemicals , the regulation of which requires evaluation of the potential danger for human health and the environment . Risk assessment is nowadays considered essential for making these decisions on a scientifically sound basis . Measures or defined limits include : No effect concentration ( NEC ) , No Observed Effect Concentration ( NOEC ) , No-observed-adverse-effect level ( NOAEL ) Lowest-observed-adverse-effect level ( LOAEL ) Acceptable Operator Exposure Level ( AOEL ) ECx ( in percent )", "Outcome factorisation Outcome factorisation is a method for quantifiably comparing outcomes generated by similar activities , used in quantitative research . This process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides a fundamental and measurable connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of the quantitative relationships . It has been used in various areas of social sciences and has been the basis of many market research projects .", "Plasmaron In physics , a plasmaron is a quasiparticle arising in a system that has strong plasmon-electron interactions . It is a quasiparticle formed by quasiparticle-quasiparticle interactions , since both plasmons and electron holes are collective modes of different kinds . It has recently been observed in graphene and earlier in elemental bismuth .", "List of psychological tests by gender difference This is a list of specific psychological tests by the effect size for gender as reported in the most recent meta-analysis or norm . Only some psychological tests have been the subject of such research . The standard guidelines for interpreting effect size state that 0.2 is a small difference ; 0.5 is medium difference , one that would be noticeable to a casual observer ; 0.8 is large difference , one that would be obvious to a casual observer .", "Quantum Zeno effect The quantum Zeno effect ( also known as the Turing paradox ) is a feature of Quantum mechanics systems allowing a particle 's time evolution to be arrested by measuring it frequently enough with respect to some chosen measurement setting . Sometimes this is stated as `` a system ca n't change while you are watching it . '' One can `` freeze '' the evolution of the system by measuring it frequently enough in its known initial state . The meaning of the term has since expanded , leading to a more technical definition in which time evolution can be suppressed not only by measurement : the quantum Zeno effect is the suppression of unitary time evolution in quantum systems provided by a variety of sources : measurement , interactions with the environment , stochastic fields , and so on . As an outgrowth of study of the quantum Zeno effect , it has become clear that applying a series of sufficiently strong and fast pulses with appropriate symmetry can also decouple a system from its decohering environment . The name comes from Zeno 's arrow paradox , which states that because an arrow in flight is not seen to move during any single instant , it can not possibly be moving at all . The first rigorous and general derivation of the quantum Zeno effect was presented in 1974 by Degasperis et al. , although it had previously been described by Alan Turing . The comparison with Zeno 's paradox is due to a 1977 paper by George Sudarshan and Baidyanath Misra . According to the reduction postulate , each measurement causes the wavefunction to `` collapse '' to a pure eigenstate of the measurement basis . In the context of this effect , an `` observation '' can simply be the absorption of a particle , without an observer in any conventional sense . However , there is controversy over the interpretation of the effect , sometimes referred to as the `` measurement problem '' in traversing the interface between microscopic and macroscopic . Another crucial problem related to the effect is strictly connected to the time-energy indeterminacy relation . If one wants to make the measurement process more and more frequent , one has to correspondingly decrease the time duration of the measurement itself . But the request that the measurement last only a very short time implies that the energy spread of the state on which reduction occurs becomes increasingly large . However , the deviations from the exponential decay law for small times , is crucially related to the inverse of the energy spread so that the region in which the deviations are appreciable shrinks when one makes the measurement process duration shorter and shorter . An explicit evaluation of these two competing requests shows that it is inappropriate , without taking into account this basic fact , to deal with the actual occurrence and emergence of Zeno 's effect . Closely related ( and sometimes not distinguished from the quantum Zeno effect ) is the watchdog effect , in which the time evolution of a system is affected by its continuous coupling to the environment .", "Observer (quantum physics) In quantum mechanics , `` observation '' is synonymous with quantum measurement and `` observer '' with a measurement apparatus and `` observable '' with what can be measured . Thus the quantum mechanical observer does not have to necessarily present or solve any problems over and above the issue of measurement in quantum mechanics . The quantum mechanical observer is also intimately tied to the issue of observer effect . A number of new-age religious or philosophical interpretations of quantum mechanics , notably `` consciousness causes collapse '' , give the observer a special role , or place constraints on who or what can be an observer . However , this is not yet founded in quantum physics .", "Green Power Usage Effectiveness Green Power Usage Effectiveness ( GPUE ) is a proposed measurement of both how much sustainable energy a computer data center uses , its carbon footprint per usable kilowatt hour ( kWh ) and how efficiently it uses its power ; specifically , how much of the power is actually used by the computing equipment ( in contrast to cooling and other overhead ) . It is an addition to the power usage effectiveness ( PUE ) definition and was first proposed by Greenqloud . The Green Grid has developed the Power Usage Effectiveness metric or PUE to measure a data centers ' effectiveness of getting power to IT equipment . What the PUE tells in simple terms is how much extra energy is needed for each usable kWh for the IT equipment due to the power going into cooling , power distribution loss etc. and it 's a simple formula ( in theory ) : PUE = Total Facility Power/IT Equipment Power The PUE can change depending on where measurements are made , when they are made and the timespan the measurements are made in . Data centers are subtracting factors from their PUE to lower it e.g. district heating . Some of the issues with PUE are being addressed with the PUEx definition . GPUE is a way to `` weigh '' the PUE to better see which data centers are truly green in the sense that they indirectly cause the least amount of CO2 to be emitted by their use of sustainable or unsustainable energy sources . This new metric GPUE or Green Power Usage Effectiveness is defined as : GPUE = G × PUEx ( for inline comparison of data centers ) or = G @ PUEx ( a better display and for CO2 emission calculations ) The `` G '' is the key factor here and it is a simple calculated value : G = Weighed sum of energy sources and their lifecycle KG CO2/KWh G = ∑ ( % EnergySource × ( 1 + weight ) ) Adding 1 to the weight is to `` weigh '' ( multiply ) with the PUE to get a number that is comparable to PUE . The weights taken directly from the `` lifecycle CO2/kWh for electricity generation by power source '' table above we got from the 2008 Sovacool Study e.g. the weight for unscrubbed coal is e.g. 1.050 ( kg of CO2/kWh ) while hydroelectric river generation has a weight of 0.013 . An unknown energy source or a `` mix '' will get the same as the maximum value which for now is the same as coal . Example : PUE 1.20 , 50/50 Coal/Hydro G = 0.5 * ( 1 +1.050 ) + 0.5 * ( 1 +0.013 ) G = 1.531 , GPUEx = 1.84 or 1.531@1.20 Kg CO2 per usable kWh = ( G-1 ) × PUEx = 0.64 kg", "Difference in differences Difference-in-Difference technique ( DID or DD ) is a statistical technique used in econometrics and quantitative research in the social sciences that attempts to mimic an experimental research design using observational study data , by studying the differential effect of a treatment on a ` treatment group ' versus a ` control group ' in a natural experiment . It calculates the effect of a treatment ( i.e. , an explanatory variable or an independent variable ) on an outcome ( i.e. , a response variable or dependent variable ) by comparing the average change over time in the outcome variable for the treatment group , compared to the average change over time for the control group . Although it is intended to mitigate the effects of extraneous factors and selection bias , depending on how the treatment group is chosen , this method may still be subject to certain biases ( e.g. mean regression , reverse causality and omitted variable bias ) . In contrast to a time-series estimate of the treatment effect on subjects ( which analyzes differences over time ) or a cross-section estimate of the treatment effect ( which measures the difference between treatment and control groups ) , difference in differences uses panel data to measure the differences , between the treatment and control group , of the changes in the outcome variable that occur over time .", "Observer effect Observer effect may refer to : Hawthorne effect , a form of reactivity in which subjects modify an aspect of their behavior , in response to their knowing that they are being studied Heisenbug of computer programming , where a software bug seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it Observer effect ( information technology ) , the impact of observing a process while it is running Observer effect ( physics ) , the impact of observing a physical system Probe effect , the effect on a physical system of adding measurement devices , such as the probes of electronic test equipment Observer-expectancy effect , a form of reactivity in which a researcher 's cognitive bias causes them to unconsciously influence the participants of an experiment It may also refer to : `` Observer Effect '' ( Star Trek : Enterprise ) , an episode of Star Trek : Enterprise , named after this effect", "Music therapy for Alzheimer's disease Music therapy ( MT ) has been used as a treatment for Alzheimer 's disease ( AD ) , but its use remains mostly uninvestigated . Results of studies investigating its effectiveness are promising , but further research is needed because these studies are of poor methodological quality . Further research is needed to determine the mechanisms by which it may work , and to `` delineate the most effective techniques '' . In a 2010 study , which took place in Italy , 60 patients in five different nursing homes were observed for changes in behaviors ; after six months of music therapy , there was a noticeable reduction in disruptive behaviors , especially agitation and anxiety ( by nearly 50 % or greater ) and an increase in appetite . While current research continues to show positive effects music therapy has on behaviors and memory , further research is encouraged to measure the effects on `` quality of life '' , but it is suggested as a sufficient intervention for behavioral management .", "Social dominance orientation Social dominance orientation ( SDO ) is a personality trait which predicts social and political attitudes , and is a widely used social psychological scale . SDO is conceptualized as a measure of individual differences in levels of group-based discrimination ; that is , it is a measure of an individual 's preference for hierarchy within any social system and the domination over lower-status groups . It is a predisposition toward anti-egalitarianism within and between groups . The concept of SDO as a measurable individual difference is a product of social dominance theory . Individuals who score high in SDO desire to maintain and , in many cases , increase the differences between social statuses of different groups , as well as individual group members . Typically , they are dominant , driven , tough , and relatively uncaring seekers of power . People high in SDO also prefer hierarchical group orientations . Often , people who score high in SDO adhere strongly to belief in a `` dog-eat-dog '' world . It has also been found that men are generally higher than women in SDO measures . Studies have found that SDO has a strong positive relationship with authoritarian and racist beliefs .", "Latency (engineering) Latency is a time interval between the stimulation and response , or , from a more general point of view , a time delay between the cause and the effect of some physical change in the system being observed . Latency is physically a consequence of the limited velocity with which any physical interaction can propagate . This velocity is always lower than or equal to the speed of light . Therefore , every physical system that has spatial dimensions different from zero will experience some sort of latency , regardless of the nature of stimulation that it has been exposed to . The precise definition of latency depends on the system being observed and the nature of stimulation . In communications , the lower limit of latency is determined by the medium being used for communications . In reliable two-way communication systems , latency limits the maximum rate that information can be transmitted , as there is often a limit on the amount of information that is `` in-flight '' at any one moment . In the field of human -- machine interaction , perceptible latency has a strong effect on user satisfaction and usability .", "Effective competition Effective Competition is a concept first proposed by John Maurice Clark , then under the name of `` workable competition , '' as a `` workable '' alternative to the economic theory of perfect competition since perfect competition is seldom observed in the real world . J.M. Clark 's proposal resulted in extensive debate in the economic literature over the next several decades , in which George W. Stocking , Sr. , George Stigler , Jesse W. Markham , Joe S. Bain , and many others participated . No consensus has yet been reached over which of many potential criteria should be used to judge competition to be effective , but as an alternative to identifying specific structural criteria by which to constitute effectiveness or workability , Jesse W. Markham suggested the following definition : An industry may be judged to be workably competitive when , after the structural characteristics of its market and the dynamic forces that shaped them have been thoroughly examined , there is no clearly indicated change than can be effected through public policy measures that would result in greater social gains than social losses . Despite the lack of consensus in the literature , the concept is often used in antitrust enforcement and public policy analysis , as a method for measuring and ensuring adequate levels of competitive performance in markets which may not be ideally structured . Charles F. Phillips , Jr. notes that `` Workable or effective competition may result from conditions that are less exacting than those demanded for perfection . ''", "DI Herculis DI Herculis is an Algol-type binary star in the constellation of Hercules . The system has an apparent magnitude of about +8.5 and consists of two young blue stars of spectral type B5 and B4 . It is about two thousand light years from Earth . The orbit of the stars around their mutual centre of gravity is very elliptical , with an eccentricity of 0.49 and a semi-major axis of 0.496 astronomical units ; stellar masses of 5.15 and 4.52 solar masses lead to a theoretical precession of 4.27 degrees per century ( 1.93 degrees from classical effects and 2.34 degrees from general relativistic effects ) ; but the observed precession original measure is 1.04 degrees per century and the most recent is 1.39 degrees per century . This observation has led to extensive studies of the bright binary system in the last thirty years ; solutions discussed included new theories of gravitation such as MOND tidal forces ( perhaps due to unusual internal structure in the stars ) leading to a circularisation of the elliptical orbit a third body in the system presence of a circumstellar cloud between the two components unusual rotation axes of the stars After observations of the Rossiter -- McLaughlin effect in 2009 , it emerged that the rotation axes of the two stars lay roughly in the orbital plane of the system . When this is taken account in calculating the rate of precession , the difference between expected and observed precession disappears ; so DI Hercules is no longer a test case for a possible falsification of general relativity . However , a more recent research article shows that the 2009 study leaves many questions unanswered regarding the solution for the axes . For example , orbital effects caused by the tilting of the axes have not been observed ; also , the stars ' rotation axes themselves may also be precessing .", "Mnemonic effect The mnemonic effect or mnemotechnic effect occurs when the viewer of an advertisement is persuaded in making a buying decision that is contradictory to the intention of the advertiser . This can be observed especially in image advertising , in which case the viewer starts associating what he sees with the memories , recollections , and experience that have already been imprinted in his brain . In the end the only thing the advertisement might have reminded him of , is that he is hungry ( in case of food advertisement ) , and not that he should buy the specific food being advertised . Not much attention has been given to the study of the mnemonic effect in advertising , but that is slowly changing with companies questioning more and more the effectiveness of the costly types of advertising they are using . The only thing that is currently agreed upon is that the brain does actually group different information , and many associations are instantly created when viewing or remembering images , numbers or sounds .", "Humor research Humor research ( also humor studies ) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics , history , and literature . Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects , both positive and negative , on a person or groups of people . Research in humor has revealed many different theories of humor and many different kinds of humor including their functions and effects personally , in relationships , and in society .", "English units English units are the historical units of measurement used in England up to 1826 ( when they were replaced by Imperial units ) , which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units . Various standards have applied to English units at different times , in different places , and for different applications . The two main sets of English units were the Winchester Units , in effect from 1495 -- 1587 , as reaffirmed by King Henry VII , and the Exchequer Standards , in effect from 1588 -- 1825 , as first defined by Queen Elizabeth I. The units were replaced by Imperial Units in 1824 ( effective January 1 , 1826 ) by a Weights and Measures Act , which retained many but not all of the unit names and redefined many of the definitions . Use of the term `` English units '' is ambiguous , as it is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the Imperial units used in the UK , or to United States customary units , which retain some unit names of English Units , but has somewhat different definitions . ( The terms imperial units or imperial measurements are used in the UK to refer to the non-metric system since they were used as a standard throughout the British Empire and the Commonwealth . )", "Optimality criterion In statistics , an optimality criterion provides a measure of the fit of the data to a given hypothesis , to aid in model selection . A model is designated as the `` best '' of the candidate models if it gives the best value of an objective function measuring the degree of satisfaction of the criterion used to evaluate the alternative hypotheses . The term has been used to identify the different criteria that are used to evaluate a phylogenetic tree . For example , in order to determine the best topology between two phylogenetic trees using the maximum likelihood optimality criterion , one would calculate the maximum likelihood score of each tree and choose the one that had the better score . However , different optimality criteria can select different hypotheses . In such circumstances caution should be exercised when making strong conclusions . Many other disciplines use similar criteria or have specific measures geared toward the objectives of the field . Optimality criteria include maximum likelihood , Bayesian , maximum parsimony , sum of squared residuals , least absolute deviations , and many others . Category : Statistical hypothesis testing Category : Model selection", "Strictly standardized mean difference In statistics , the strictly standardized mean difference ( SSMD ) is a measure of effect size . SSMD is the mean divided by the standard deviation of a difference between two random values each from one of two groups . SSMD was initially proposed for quality control and hit selection in high-throughput screening ( HTS ) and has become a statistical parameter measuring effect sizes for the comparison of any two groups with random values . .", "List of cities by sunshine duration The following is a list of cities by sunshine duration . Sunshine duration is a climatological indicator , measuring duration of sunshine in given period ( usually , a day or a year ) for a given location on Earth , typically expressed as an averaged value over several years . It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location , and thus differs from insolation , which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period . Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year , or in ( average ) hours per day . The first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places , while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location . Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration and daylight duration in the observed period . An important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites , especially of health resorts . This also takes into account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being . It is often used to promote tourist destinations .", "Educator effectiveness Educator effectiveness is a K-12 school system education policy initiative that measures the quality of a educator performance in terms of improving student learning . It describes a variety of methods , such as observations , student assessments , student work samples and examples of teacher work , that education leaders use to determine the effectiveness of a K-12 educator . The drive for educator effectiveness programs stem from Race to the top where states were awarded points for meeting educational policies based on the teacher 's effectiveness . This policy was the basis of the emergence of statewide educator effectiveness programs . Educator effectiveness programs vary from state to state . Typically , an educator effectiveness program describes a cycle of observations and assessments that apply to different groups of teachers during an academic year . New teachers are evaluated more frequently , and veteran teachers are evaluated across multiple year cycles . Evaluated teachers have multiple scheduled classroom observations and conferences with the evaluator in addition to unannounced classroom observations . A controversial aspect of The purpose of evaluations is to help educators determine what is effective in their practices and provides them a medium to reflect upon and change their practice to help teachers become more effective .", "Amplitude domain reflectometry Many of the soil moisture measuring instruments are based on the principle of Amplitude Domain Reflectometry ( ADR ) . This method measures the electrical impedance . Electromagnetic waves traveling along Transmission Line ( TL ) enter in soil medium whose impedance is different from TL a part of the energy is reflected back to transmitter . The reflected wave interferes with incident wave and produces a standing wave along the TL , this changes the amplitude of wave along the TL . The impedance can be measured from difference in amplitude . The impedance has two components : electrical conductivity and dielectric constant . The effect of conductivity can be minimized by selecting an appropriate frequency .", "W Crucis W Crucis is a star system in the constellation Crux . A Beta Lyrae variable , its apparent magnitude ranges from 9.04 to 10.38 over 198 days . Its light curve has been observed to be asymmetric with subsequent maxima differing in height , which is described as the so-called O'Connell effect .", "Mixed-design analysis of variance In statistics , a mixed-design analysis of variance model ( also known as a split-plot ANOVA ) is used to test for differences between two or more independent groups whilst subjecting participants to repeated measures . Thus , in a mixed-design ANOVA model , one factor ( a fixed effects factor ) is a between-subjects variable and the other ( a random effects factor ) is a within-subjects variable . Thus , overall , the model is a type of mixed effect model . A repeated measures design is used when multiple independent variables or measures exist in a data set , but all participants have been measured on each variable .", "Elliptic flow Relativistic heavy-ion collisions produce very large numbers of subatomic particles in all directions . In such collisions , flow refers to how energy , momentum , and number of these particles varies with direction , and elliptic flow is a measure of how the flow is not uniform in all directions when viewed along the beam-line . Elliptic flow is strong evidence for the existence of quark -- gluon plasma , and has been described as one of the most important observations measured at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider ( RHIC ) . Elliptic flow describes the azimuthal momentum space anisotropy of particle emission from non-central heavy-ion collisions in the plane transverse to the beam direction , and is defined as the second harmonic coefficient of the azimuthal Fourier decomposition of the momentum distribution . Elliptic flow is a fundamental observable since it directly reflects the initial spatial anisotropy , of the nuclear overlap region in the transverse plane , directly translated into to the observed momentum distribution of identified particles . Since the spatial anisotropy is largest at the beginning of the evolution , elliptic flow is especially sensitive to the early stages of system evolution . A measurement of elliptic flow thus provides access to the fundamental thermalization time scale and many more things in the early stages of a relativistic heavy-ion collision .", "Radiation-absorbent material Radiation-absorbent material , usually known as RAM , is a material which has been specially designed and shaped to absorb incident RF radiation ( also known as non-ionising radiation ) , as effectively as possible , from as many incident directions as possible . The more effective the RAM , the lower the resulting level of reflected RF radiation . Many measurements in electromagnetic compatibility ( EMC ) and antenna radiation patterns require that spurious signals arising from the test setup , including reflections , are negligible to avoid the risk of causing measurement errors and ambiguities .", "Cognitive styles analysis Cognitive styles analysis ( CSA ) was developed by Richard J. Riding and is the most frequently used computerized measure of cognitive styles . Although CSA is not well known in North American institutions , it is quite popular among European universities and organizations . state : `` A number of different labels have been given to cognitive styles and , according to Riding , many of these are but different conceptions of the same dimensions . Riding and Cheema surveyed the various ( about 30 ) labels and , after reviewing the descriptions , correlations , methods of assessment , and effect on behavior , concluded that the styles may be grouped into two principal groups : the Wholist-Analytic and the Verbal-Imagery dimensions . It is argued that these dimensions of cognitive style are very fundamental because they develop early in life and are pervasive given their effect on social behavior , decision making , and learning . '' Unlike many other cognitive style measures , CSA has been the subject of much empirical investigation . Three experiments reported by showed the reliability of CSA to be low . Considering the theoretical strength of CSA , and unsuccessful earlier attempts to create a more reliable parallel form of it , a revised version was made to improve its validity and reliability .", "Mating preferences Mate preferences in humans refers to why one human chooses or chooses not to mate with another human and their reasoning why ( see : Evolutionary Psychology , mating ) . Men and women have been observed having different criteria as what makes a good or ideal mate ( gender differences ) . A potential mate 's socioeconomic status has also been seen as having a noticeable effect , especially in developing areas where social status is more emphasized .", "Coordinate time In the theory of relativity , it is convenient to express results in terms of a spacetime coordinate system relative to an implied observer . In many ( but not all ) coordinate systems , an event is specified by one time coordinate and three spatial coordinates . The time specified by the time coordinate is referred to as coordinate time to distinguish it from proper time . In the special case of an inertial observer in special relativity , by convention the coordinate time at an event is the same as the proper time measured by a clock that is at the same location as the event , that is stationary relative to the observer and that has been synchronised to the observer 's clock using the Einstein synchronisation convention .", "Holstein–Primakoff transformation The Holstein-Primakoff transformation in quantum mechanics is a mapping to the spin operators from boson creation and annihilation operators , effectively truncating their infinite-dimensional Fock space to finite-dimensional subspaces . One important aspect of quantum mechanics is the occurrence of -- in general -- non-commuting operators which represent observables , quantities that can be measured . A standard example of a set of such operators are the three components of the angular momentum operators , which are crucial in many quantum systems . These operators are complicated , and one would like to find a simpler representation , which can be used to generate approximate calculational schemes . The transformation was developed in 1940 by Theodore Holstein , a graduate student at the time , and Henry Primakoff . This method has found widespread applicability and has been extended in many different directions . There is a close link to other methods of boson mapping of operator algebras : in particular , the ( non-hermitian ) Dyson-Maleev technique , and to a lesser extent the Jordan -- Schwinger map . There is , furthermore , a close link to the theory of ( generalized ) coherent states in Lie algebras ." ]

[ "Science Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe . Contemporary science is typically subdivided into the natural sciences , which study the material universe ; the social sciences , which study people and societies ; and the formal sciences , which study logic and mathematics . The formal sciences are often excluded as they do not depend on empirical observations . Disciplines which use science , like engineering and medicine , may also be considered to be applied sciences . From classical antiquity through the 19th century , science as a type of knowledge was more closely linked to philosophy than it is now , and in the Western world the term `` natural philosophy '' once encompassed fields of study that are today associated with science , such as astronomy , medicine , and physics . However , during the Islamic Golden Age foundations for the scientific method were laid by Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics . While the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into air , earth , fire and water was more philosophical , medieval Middle Easterns used practical and experimental observation to classify materials . In the 17th and 18th centuries , scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws . Over the course of the 19th century , the word `` science '' became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself as a disciplined way to study the natural world . It was during this time that scientific disciplines such as biology , chemistry , and physics reached their modern shapes . That same time period also included the origin of the terms `` scientist '' and `` scientific community '' , the founding of scientific institutions , and the increasing significance of their interactions with society and other aspects of culture ." ]

[ "Degrees of Certainty Degrees of Certainty may refer to : Rudolf Carnap Bayesian analysis Confidence Interval", "Poverty in Tanzania The level of poverty in Tanzania is high . The definition of poverty is a contentious point , which differs from one country to another . There are also varying degrees of poverty . From a broader perspective , poverty is defined as `` the state of being extremely poor '' and is understood by many to mean the lack of basic necessities such as food , water , shelter , healthcare , and primary education . Unicef argues that , whilst Tanzania has made great efforts in meeting its domestic and international targets in the alleviation of child poverty especially in the areas of education and healthcare , child poverty is still an important issue for the country .", "Education for librarianship Education for librarianship is the term for the educational preparation for professional librarians . This varies widely in different countries . In the United States and Canada , it generally consists of a master 's degree program in library science . There are also bachelor 's , associate , and certificate programs in library science , which provide formal training of paraprofessional library workers , library technicians , and clerks -- as well as preparation for graduate study in library science .", "Opinio tolerata In Catholic theology , opinio tolerata refers to pious beliefs with a low degree of theological certainty , but which are tolerated by the magisterium of the Catholic Church . These are ranked less certain than sententia probabilis and hold the least degree of certainty in the hierarchy of dogmatic teachings for Catholics .", "Bachelor of Information Technology A Bachelor of Information Technology ( abbreviations BIT , BInfTech , B.Tech ( IT ) or BE ( IT ) ) is an undergraduate academic degree that generally requires three to five years of study . While the degree has a major focus on computers and technology , it differs from a Computer Science degree in that students are also expected to study management and information science , and there are reduced requirements for mathematics . A degree in computer science can be expected to concentrate on the scientific aspects of computing , while a degree in information technology can be expected to concentrate on the business and communication applications of computing . There is more emphasis on these two areas in the e-commerce , e-business and business information technology undergraduate courses . Specific names for the degrees vary across countries , and even universities within countries . This is in contrast to a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology which is a bachelor 's degree typically conferred after a period of three to four years of an undergraduate course of study in Information Technology ( IT ) . The degree itself is a Bachelor of Science with institutions conferring degrees in the fields of information technology and related fields . And some other ways to find the bachelors educations.that is a private Way that a students can prepare our own subject in at homes and they will go for exams only .", "Doctor of Nursing Science The Doctor of Nursing Science , usually abbreviated D.N.S. , or D.N.Sc. , is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world as a terminal research degree in Nursing . The title of this degree varies with the collegiate institution which grants it . Another form of this degree is a Doctor of Science in Nursing ( D.S.N. ) degree . This academic research degree is recognized by both the United States Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to be equivalent to the more commonly awarded Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. . Most universities have discontinued the degree in favor of the more recognized Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. ) degree .", "Moral certainty Moral certainty is a concept of intuitive probability . It means a very high degree of probability , sufficient for action , but short of absolute or mathematical certainty .", "List of library science schools Library science ( often termed library studies or library and information science ) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices , perspectives , and tools of management , information technology , education , and other areas to libraries ; the collection , organization , preservation , and dissemination of information resources ; and the political economy of information . Most professional library jobs require a professional post-baccalaureate degree in library science as a basic credential but this varies widely in different countries . There are also bachelor 's , associate , and certificate programs in library science , which provide formal training of paraprofessional library workers , library technicians , and clerks -- as well as preparation for graduate study in library science . A library school is an institution of higher learning specializing in the professional training of librarians . As of April 2012 there are 63 American Library Association-accredited Library science programs in Canada and the United States and as of July 2014 , 16 UK institutions offering CILIP-accredited programmes .", "Hydrate In chemistry , a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements . The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates , some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was understood .", "Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering A Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering is a kind of bachelor 's degree typically conferred after a four year undergraduate course of study in biomedical engineering ( BME ) . The degree itself is largely equivalent to a bachelor of science and many institutions conferring degrees in the fields of biomedical engineering and bioengineering do not append the field to the degree itself . Courses of study in BME are also extremely diverse as the field itself is relatively new and developing . In general , an undergraduate course of study in BME is likened to a cross between engineering and biological science with varying degrees of proportionality between the two .", "Aftertaste Aftertaste is the taste intensity of a food or beverage that is perceived immediately after that food or beverage is removed from the mouth . The aftertastes of different foods and beverages can vary by intensity and over time , but the unifying feature of aftertaste is that it is perceived after a food or beverage is either swallowed or spat out . The neurobiological mechanisms of taste ( and aftertaste ) signal transduction from the taste receptors in the mouth to the brain have not yet been fully understood . However , the primary taste processing area located in the insula has been observed to be involved in aftertaste perception .", "Manado Malay Manado Malay , or simply the Manado language , is a creole language spoken in Manado , the capital of North Sulawesi province in Indonesia , and the surrounding area . The local name of the language is Bahasa Manado , and the name Minahasa Malay is also used , after the main ethnic group speaking the language . Since Manado Malay is used only for spoken communication , there is no standard orthography . Manado Malay is a creole of the Malay language . It differs from Malay in having a large number of Portuguese and Dutch loan words as a result of colonisation and having traits such as its use of `` kita '' as a first person singular pronoun , while `` kita '' is a first person inclusive plural pronoun in Malay . Simple Manado Malay sentences can be understood by speakers of standard Malay , albeit with varying degrees of difficulty .", "Form of life (philosophy) Form of life ( Lebensform ) is a technical term used by Ludwig Wittgenstein and others in the continental philosophy and philosophy of science traditions . Wittgenstein himself used the term consistently in his works Philosophical Investigations and On Certainty , but other writers have sometimes used it in very different and often mutually incompatible ways .", "Van Arkel–Ketelaar triangle Bond triangles or van Arkel -- Ketelaar triangles ( named after Anton Eduard van Arkel and J. A. A. Ketelaar ) are triangles used to show different compounds in varying degrees of ionic , metallic and covalent bonding . The bond triangle shows that ionic , metallic and covalent bonds are not just particular bonds of a specific type . Rather , bond types are interconnected and different compounds have varying degrees of different bonding character ( for example , covalent bonds with significant ionic character are called polar covalent bonds ) . Different compounds can be placed around the triangle . On the right side ( from ionic to covalent ) should be compounds with varying difference in electronegativity , in the covalent corner compounds with equal electronegativity such as Cl2 ( chlorine ) , in the ionic corner compounds with large electronegativity difference such as NaCl ( table salt ) . The bottom side ( from metallic to covalent ) is for compounds with varying degree of directionality in the bond . At one extreme is metallic bonds with delocalized bonding and the other are covalent bonds in which the orbitals overlap in a particular direction . The left side ( from ionic to metallic ) is for delocalized bonds with varying electronegativity difference . Three species at the vertices of the triangle are : caesium ( metallic ) , fluorine ( covalent ) and caesium fluoride ( ionic ) .", "Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( Magister Artium abbreviated M.A. or MA ; also Artium Magister , abbreviated A.M. or AM ) is a person who was admitted to a type of master 's degree awarded by universities in many countries , and the degree is also named Master of Arts in colloquial speech . The degree is usually contrasted with the Master of Science degree . Those admitted to the degree typically study linguistics , history , communication studies , diplomacy , public administration , political science , or other subjects within the scope of the humanities and social sciences ; however , different universities have different conventions and may also offer the degree for fields typically considered within the natural sciences and mathematics . The degree can be conferred in respect of completing courses and passing examinations , in respect of research , or a combination of the two . The Master of Arts degree traces its origin to the teaching license , or Licentia docendi , of the University of Paris .", "Double degree A double degree program , sometimes called a dual degree , combined degree , conjoint degree , joint degree , simultaneous degree or double graduation program , involves a student 's working for two different university degrees in parallel , either at the same institution or at different institutions ( sometimes in different countries ) , completing them in less time than it would take to earn them separately . The two degrees might be in the same subject area ( especially when the course is split between countries ) , or in two different subjects .", "Natural Sciences (Cambridge) The Natural Sciences Tripos ( NST ) are several courses which form the University of Cambridge system of undergraduate teaching ( called Tripos ) . It is known for its broad range of study in the first year , in which students can not study just one discipline , but instead must choose three courses in different areas of the natural sciences and one in mathematics . As is traditional at Cambridge , the degree awarded after Part II is a BA . An MSci is available to those who take the optional Part III .", "Yaqeen Yaqeen is generally translated as `` certainty '' , and is considered the summit of the many stations by which the path of walaya ( sometimes translated as Sainthood ) is fully completed . This is the repository of liberating experience in Islam . In relation to the exoteric religious life , certainty is the sister of religious life in its perfection ( ehsân ) , that is , to say the adoration of Allah according to the visionary way ; through this channel it is the pillar of Islam in the accomplishment of its external practices , as it is the foundation of faith ( iman ) in its internal dogma . It is , in fact , ihsân which gives the external religion its true meaning and the domain of faith its real values . It occurs in the Quran about certainty , `` And worship your Lord until there comes to you the certainty '' . Certainty ( yaqeen ) comprises three degrees .", "Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science ( Latin Baccalaureus Scientia , B.S. , BS , B.Sc. , or BSc ; or , less commonly , S.B. , SB , or Sc.B. , from the equivalent Latin Scientiae Baccalaureus ) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years , or a person holding such a degree . Whether a student of a particular subject is awarded a Bachelor of Science degree or a Bachelor of Arts degree can vary between universities . For one example , an economics degree may be given as a Bachelor of Arts ( B.A. ) by one university but as a B.Sc . by another , and some universities offer the choice of either . Some liberal arts colleges in the United States offer only the BA , even in the natural sciences , while some universities offer only the BS even in non-science fields . Georgetown University 's School of Foreign Service awards Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degrees to all of its undergraduates , although many major in humanities-oriented fields such as international history and culture and politics . The London School of Economics offers B.Sc . degrees in practically all subject areas , even those normally associated with arts degrees , while the Oxbridge universities almost exclusively award arts qualifications . In both instances , there are historical and traditional reasons . Northwestern University 's School of Communication grants B.Sc . degrees in all of its programs of study , including theater , dance , and radio/television/film . University of California , Berkeley grants B.S. degree in Environmental Economics and Policy in College of Natural Resources ( CNR ) , and B.A. degree in Environmental Economics and Policy in College of Letters and Science ( L&S ) . Cornell University offers a B.S. degree in Computer Science from its College of Engineering and a B.A. degree in Computer Science from its College of Arts and Sciences . The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of London in 1860 . Prior to this , science subjects were included in the B.A. bracket , notably in the cases of mathematics , physics , physiology and botany .", "Pseudeurotiaceae The Pseudeurotiaceae are a family of fungi in the division Ascomycota . This family can not yet be taxonomically classified in any of the ascomycetous classes and orders with any degree of certainty ( incertae sedis ) .", "Statistical proof Statistical proof is the rational demonstration of degree of certainty for a proposition , hypothesis or theory that is used to convince others subsequent to a statistical test of the supporting evidence and the types of inferences that can be drawn from the test scores . Statistical methods are used to increase the understanding of the facts and the proof demonstrates the validity and logic of inference with explicit reference to a hypothesis , the experimental data , the facts , the test , and the odds . Proof has two essential aims : the first is to convince and the second is to explain the proposition through peer and public review . The burden of proof rests on the demonstrable application of the statistical method , the disclosure of the assumptions , and the relevance that the test has with respect to a genuine understanding of the data relative to the external world . There are adherents to several different statistical philosophies of inference , such as Bayes theorem versus the likelihood function , or positivism versus critical rationalism . These methods of reason have direct bearing on statistical proof and its interpretations in the broader philosophy of science . A common demarcation between science and non-science is the hypothetico-deductive proof of falsification developed by Karl Popper , which is a well-established practice in the tradition of statistics . Other modes of inference , however , may include the inductive and abductive modes of proof . Scientists do not use statistical proof as a means to attain certainty , but to falsify claims and explain theory . Science can not achieve absolute certainty nor is it a continuous march toward an objective truth as the vernacular as opposed to the scientific meaning of the term `` proof '' might imply . Statistical proof offers a kind of proof of a theory 's falsity and the means to learn heuristically through repeated statistical trials and experimental error . Statistical proof also has applications in legal matters with implications for the legal burden of proof .", "Location (geography) The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth 's surface or elsewhere . The term location generally implies a higher degree of certainty than place , which often indicates an entity with an ambiguous boundary , relying more on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry .", "Master of Science in Cyber Security A Master of Science in Cyber Security is a type of postgraduate academic master 's degree awarded by universities in many countries . This degree is typically studied for in cyber security . What is offered by many institutions is actually called a Master in Strategic Cyber Operations and Information Management ( SCOIM ) which is commonly understood to be a Master in Cybersecurity . This degree is offered by at least some universities in their Professional Studies program ( GWU for one ) so that it can be accomplished while students are employed - in other words it allows for `` distance learning '' or online attendance . Requirements for the Professional Studies program include : 3.0 or better undergrad GPA , professional recommendations letters and an essay .", "Birth aboard aircraft and ships The subject of birth aboard aircraft and ships is one with a long history in public international law . The law on the subject is complex , because various states apply differing principles of nationality , namely jus soli and jus sanguinis , to varying degrees and with varying qualifications .", "Tropical North Queensland Tropical North Queensland is the northern part of Queensland , Australia , an area from about the city of Mackay north to the tip of Cape York . The tropical region of Queensland covers 54 % of the state 's area some 934600 km2 , and includes the whole area above the latitude 23.5 degrees south , taking in an area from Rockhampton north . However , what is generally accepted as Tropical `` North '' Queensland includes the cities of Mackay , Townsville and Cairns and the Australian islands of the Torres Strait . It also includes several world heritage listed areas , such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics . Within the tourism industry , the phrase is used to mean varying areas of the tropical region of the state , usually within Far North Queensland . Different government departments also have varying definitions for what is meant by `` Tropical North Queensland '' and Tropical Australia .", "Xanthopyreniaceae The Xanthopyreniaceae are a family of fungi in the Ascomycota phylum . This family can not yet be taxonomically classified in any of the ascomycetous classes and orders with any degree of certainty ( incertae sedis ) .", "Certainty Certainty is perfect knowledge that has total security from error , or the mental state of being without doubt . Objectively defined , certainty is total continuity and validity of all foundational inquiry , to the highest degree of precision . Something is certain only if no skepticism can occur . Philosophy ( at least , historical Cartesian philosophy ) seeks this state . It is widely held that certainty about the real world is a failed historical enterprise ( that is , beyond deductive truths , tautology , etc. ) . This is in large part due to the power of David Hume 's problem of induction . Physicist Carlo Rovelli adds that certainty , in real life , is useless or often damaging ( the idea is that `` total security from error '' is impossible in practice , and a complete `` lack of doubt '' is undesirable ) .", "Doctor of law Doctor of Law or Doctor of Laws is a degree in law . The application of the term varies from country to country , and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science ( J.S.D. or S.J.D ) , Doctor juris ( Dr. iur . or Dr. jur . ) , Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. ) , Juris Doctor ( J.D. ) , and Legum Doctor ( LL.D . ) .", "Eoterfeziaceae The Eoterfeziaceae are a family of fungi in the Ascomycota phylum . This family can not yet be taxonomically classified in any of the ascomycetous classes and orders with any degree of certainty ( incertae sedis ) .", "Saccardiaceae The Saccardiaceae are a family of fungi in the Ascomycota phylum . This family can not yet be taxonomically classified in any of the ascomycetous classes and orders with any degree of certainty ( incertae sedis ) .", "Aspidotheliaceae The Aspidotheliaceae are a family of fungi in the division Ascomycota . This family can not yet be taxonomically classified in any of the ascomycetous classes and orders with any degree of certainty ( incertae sedis ) .", "British degree abbreviations Degree abbreviations are used as an alternative way to specify an academic degree instead of spelling out the title in full , such as in reference books such as Who 's Who and on business cards . Many degree titles have more than one possible abbreviation , with the abbreviation used varying between different universities . In the UK it is normal not to punctuate abbreviations for degrees with full stops ( e.g. `` BSc '' rather than `` B.Sc . '' ) , although this is done at some universities ." ]

[ "Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "Soon and Baliunas controversy The Soon and Baliunas controversy involved the publication in 2003 of a review study written by aerospace engineer Willie Soon and astronomer Sallie Baliunas in the journal Climate Research , which was quickly taken up by the G.W. Bush administration as a basis for amending the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was strongly criticized by numerous scientists for its methodology and for its misuse of data from previously published studies , prompting concerns about the peer review process of the paper . The controversy resulted in the resignation of half of the editors of the journal and in the admission by its publisher Otto Kinne that the paper should not have been published as it was .", "Hockey stick controversy In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions ." ]

[ "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "Lake Nakatsuna is a lake in Nagano Prefecture , Japan . It is one of the `` Nishina Three Lakes '' ( Lake Aoki , Lake Nakatsuna and Lake Kizaki ) . Its sediments have been studied in an effort to better understand climate change in Japan , finding evidence of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age .", "The Greenhouse Conspiracy The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .", "Trackbuster Trackbuster is an online service used to identify and remove email trackers . Email tracking is mainly used in the beginning by marketers to monitor the delivery of emails . However , new tools now allow individuals to track emails easily , and this practice is on the rise . In addition to revealing when and whether an email has been opened or not , email trackers can also reveal one 's software configuration and geographic location ( through IP geolocation ) . Trackbuster helps email users get rid of these trackers , by detecting and disabling tracking images and tracked links . At launch , Trackbuster received praise and positive press from well-known figures in the tech world , including Robert Scoble , Om Malik and Chris Messina . Trackbuster is currently compatible with Gmail and Google Apps .", "List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "Overpeck, Ohio Overpeck ( other names : Overpeck Station , Overpecks , Overpecks Station ) is an unincorporated community in central St. Clair Township , Butler County , Ohio , United States . Although it is unincorporated , it has a post office , with the ZIP code of 45055 . It lies between New Miami and Trenton . Overpeck is a part of the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington , OH-KY-IN Combined Statistical Area . A post office called Overpecks Station was established in 1860 , and the name was changed to Overpeck in 1882 . The community has the name of Isaac Overpeck , an early resident .", "We Get There When We Do We Get There When We Do , stylised as ( We Get There When We Do . ) , is a 1995 album with `` timeless intrigue '' by Suddenly , Tammy !", "Shiva Ayyadurai V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-born American scientist and entrepreneur . Ayyadurai is notable for his controversial claim to be the `` inventor of email '' . His claim is based on the electronic mail software he wrote as a New Jersey high school student in the late 1970s , which he called EMAIL . Initial reports repeating Ayyadurai 's claim -- by organizations such as The Washington Post and the Smithsonian Institution -- were followed by public retractions . These corrections were triggered by objections from historians and ARPANET pioneers who pointed out email already existed in the early 1970s . Ayyadurai is also known for two controversial reports : the first questioning the working conditions of India 's largest scientific agency ; the second questioning the safety of genetically modified soybeans . Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT , including a Ph.D. in biological engineering , and is a Fulbright grant recipient . He is a candidate in the 2018 United States Senate election in Massachusetts .", "Should We Get Married? Should We Get Married ? ( German : Soll man heiraten ? ) is a 1925 German silent film directed by Manfred Noa and starring Vilma Bánky , Angelo Ferrari and Max Landa . The film 's art direction was by Hermann Warm .", "The Medieval Review The Medieval Review , formerly the Bryn Mawr Medieval Review , is a peer-reviewed online academic journal that was established in 1993 . Originally the journal was published at the University of Washington , from 1995-2007 by Western Michigan University ; since 2007 it is published by Indiana University . The journal reviews books on Medieval issues . The editor-in-chief is Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis ( Indiana University ) . The journal operates as a moderated email distribution list and is one of the oldest electronic journals in existence .", "IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "Mind Ripper Mind Ripper , also known as The Hills Have Eyes III , The Hills Still Have Eyes , or The Outpost , is a horror film released on HBO in 1995 . It stars Lance Henriksen and Giovanni Ribisi . Although it is marketed in some areas as a sequel to the original The Hills Have Eyes and The Hills Have Eyes Part II , no actors , characters , or scenarios link it to those films . Its only connection is producer Wes Craven , who wrote and directed the other two films . His son , Jonathan Craven , is credited as a writer .", "Long-term effects of global warming See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "Miss Junk Miss Junk is a trash-hauling company Launched in 2008 by brothers Ramon and Tony Mercado . Miss Junk began as a general junk-removal service , but it quickly settled into a niche assisting banks and realtors with foreclosure cleanups and now works with over 25 major banks cleaning foreclosed homes . Ramon Mercado , co-owner of Chatsworth-based Miss Junk , hauls away junk that banks have to get rid of when they repossess homes . `` Once we take care of one job , the banks and Realtors will have us do two or three other houses , '' he said . `` I think we 're growing . '' Miss Junk has franchises in Los Angeles and Ventura county and plans on having 100 trucks working in southern California by the end of 2010 .", "Overpeck County Park Overpeck County Park is an 811 acre county park in Bergen County , New Jersey , with major sections in Leonia , Palisades Park , Ridgefield Park , and Teaneck , surrounding Overpeck Creek , a tributary of the Hackensack River . The Overpeck Creek flows to the west of the Henry Hoebel Area and the South Area of the park .", "Overpeck Overpeck may refer to : People : Lem Overpeck ( 1911 -- 2003 ) , the 29th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota from 1965 to 1969 Settlements : Overpeck Township , New Jersey , former township in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States , from 1897 to 1938 Overpeck , Ohio , unincorporated community in central St. Clair Township , Butler County , Ohio , United States Geography : Overpeck Creek , tributary of the Hackensack River in Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey in the United States Overpeck County Park , 811 acre ( 3.28 km2 ) county park in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States de : Overpeck vo : Overpeck", "One-card One-card is a shedding-type card game . The general principles put it into the crazy eights family . It is played with an ordinary poker deck and the objective is to get rid of all cards while preventing other players from getting rid of theirs . The game is commonly played in South Korea amd The Netherlands .", "Getting Rid of Bradley Getting Rid of Bradley is a contemporary romance novel written by Jennifer Crusie and first published in 1994 , with a reissue in 2008 . The book tells the story of Lucy Savage , a woman recently jilted by her husband Bradley , a suspected embezzler that Detective Zachary Warren wants to locate even more now that someone appears to be after Lucy . The novel won the 1995 RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary .", "May First/People Link May First/People Link ( MF/PL ) is a non-profit membership organization that uses mutual aid to provide Internet services , such as web hosting to progressive organizations and individuals . Founded in 1995 and based in New York City , MF/PL is one of the Internet 's oldest progressive organizations . A member of Association for Progressive Communications , MF/PL directors , leaders , and members agree upon principles of progressive use of technology , outlined by a Statement of Unity . From the MF/PL website : ... an organization that redefines the concept of `` Internet Service Provider '' in a collective , progressive and collaborative way . The members of May First/People Link are like a coop : we pay dues , buy equipment and then we all use that equipment as we need to for websites , email , email lists , and just about everything else we do on the Internet ...", "YAD06 YAD06 is a tree located in the Yamal Peninsula of Siberia . A core sample from this tree , YADO61 , provided data used to support hockey stick interpretation of global climate history . The data was originally published in 1995 a paper by Keith Briffa of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia . The paper asserted that the late Middle Ages , previously described as a `` Medieval Warm Period , '' was actually quite cold . Steve McIntyre has described this tree as possibly `` the most influential tree in the world '' , and publicly accused Briffa of cherry-picking certain tree ring records in order to get a specific result , creating what Michael E. Mann described as a `` manufactured scandal . ''", "Ecotopia Ecotopia : The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is a seminal utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach , published in 1975 . The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter . The author himself claimed that the society he depicted in the book is not a true utopia ( in the sense of a perfect society ) , but , while guided by societal intentions and values , was imperfect and in-process . Callenbach said of the story , in relation to Americans : `` It is so hard to imagine anything fundamentally different from what we have now . But without these alternate visions , we get stuck on dead center . And we 'd better get ready . We need to know where we 'd like to go . ''", "List of email scams Email scam is an unsolicited email that claims the prospect of a bargain or something for nothing . Some scam messages ask for business , others invite victims to a website with a detailed pitch . Many individuals have lost their life savings due to this type of fraud . Email scam is a form of email fraud .", "Ye Olde Fighting Cocks Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is a public house in St Albans , Hertfordshire , which is one of several that lay claim to being the oldest in England . However , as the earliest date for which it can be proved to have been licensed is 1756 - and even that date is not certain - its claim to this record is somewhat uncertain . Others such as the Ye Olde Man & Scythe in Bolton , Greater Manchester and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham may have better claims . Even in St Albans , the White Hart and the Fleur de Lys ( currently called ` The Snug ' ) have claims to have been trading as inns in the late medieval period .", "Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires is an album by the dub musician Scientist . It was originally released in 1981 . A digitally remastered version was released by Greensleeves Records as the 25th of their Reggae Classics series in 2001 .", "Get RID! Get RID ! is the second album by Robots in Disguise . Tracks include the single `` Turn It Up '' , a song composed mainly of references to other songs and , `` La Nuit '' , sung entirely in French .", "James O'Brien (oceanographer) James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "Jonathan Craven Jonathan Craven ( born March 20 , 1965 ) , son of late filmmaker of horror Wes Craven and Bonnie Broecker , is an American writer and director . He co-wrote the horror sequel The Hills Have Eyes 2 and worked on the short-lived NBC horror series Nightmare Cafe . He manages the group the Chapin Sisters . He also co-produced the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left .", "MWP MWp or MWP may refer to : Mega Watt peak , a solar power measure in photo-voltaic ( PV ) industry to describe a unit 's nominal power Medieval Warm Period , a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region Metta World Peace , a professional basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest", "Last ice age Last ice age may refer to : Quaternary glaciation , the period of the last few million years Last glacial period , the most recent glacial period of the current ice age Little Ice Age , a hundred years of relative cold in the Middle Ages after what historians term the Medieval Warm Period", "Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It Amédée , or How to Get Rid of It ( Amédée ou comment s ` en débarrasser ) is a play written by Eugène Ionesco in 1954 based on his earlier short story entitled `` Oriflamme '' .", "Overpeck Township, New Jersey Overpeck Township was a township that existed in Bergen County , New Jersey , United States , from 1897 to 1938 . The township was incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23 , 1897 , and was formed coextensively with Ridgefield Park from portions of Ridgefield Township . On May 3 , 1921 , Overpeck Township acquired portions of both Bogota and Teaneck . On June 1 , 1926 , additional territories were acquired from Teaneck . On May 31 , 1938 , Overpeck Township was renamed to Ridgefield Park Township . With the creation of Ridgefield Park Township , Overpeck Township was dissolved ." ]

[ "Renewable energy in the European Union The countries of the European Union are the number two global leaders in the development and application of renewable energy . Promoting the use of renewable energy sources is important both to the reduction of the EU 's dependence on foreign energy imports , and in meeting targets to combat global warming .", "Energy policy of the European Union Although the European Union has legislated in the area of energy policy for many years , the concept of introducing a mandatory and comprehensive European Union energy policy was only approved at the meeting of the informal European Council on 27 October 2005 at Hampton Court . The EU Treaty of Lisbon of 2007 legally includes solidarity in matters of energy supply and changes to the energy policy within the EU . Prior to the Treaty of Lisbon , EU energy legislation has been based on the EU authority in the area of the common market and environment . However , in practice many policy competencies in relation to energy remain at national member state level , and progress in policy at European level requires voluntary cooperation by members states . In 2007 , the EU was importing 82 % of its oil and 57 % of its gas , which then made it the world 's leading importer of these fuels . Only 3 % of the uranium used in European nuclear reactors was mined in Europe . Russia , Canada , Australia , Niger and Kazakhstan were the five largest suppliers of nuclear materials to the EU , supplying more than 75 % of the total needs in 2009 . In 2015 , the EU imports 53 % of the energy it consumes . In January 2014 , the EU agreed to a 40 % emissions reduction by 2030 , compared to 1990 levels , and a 27 % renewable energy target . The target is the most ambitious of any region in the world , and is expected to provide 70,000 full-time jobs and cut $ 33bn in fossil fuel imports . In 2015 , the Framework Strategy for Energy Union is launched as one of the European Commission 's 10 Priorities .", "Renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources , which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , transportation , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2016 report , renewables contributed 19.2 % to humans ' global energy consumption and 23.7 % to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015 , respectively . This energy consumption is divided as 8.9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( modern biomass , geothermal and solar heat ) , 3.9 % hydro electricity and 2.2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$ 286 billion in 2015 , with countries like China and the United States heavily investing in wind , hydro , solar and biofuels . Globally , there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries , with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer . As of 2015 worldwide , more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable . Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas , in contrast to other energy sources , which are concentrated in a limited number of countries . Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security , climate change mitigation , and economic benefits . The results of a recent review of the literature concluded that as greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change , a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies . In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power . At the national level , at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply . National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond . Some places and at least two countries , Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already , and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100 % renewable energy in the future . For example , in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply ( electricity , mobility and heating/cooling ) to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . United Nations ' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity . As most of renewables provide electricity , renewable energy deployment is often applied in conjunction with further electrification , which has several benefits : Electricity can be converted to heat ( where necessary generating higher temperatures than fossil fuels ) , can be converted into mechanical energy with high efficiency and is clean at the point of consumption . In addition to that electrification with renewable energy is much more efficient and therefore leads to a significant reduction in primary energy requirements , because most renewables do n't have a steam cycle with high losses ( fossil power plants usually have losses of 40 to 65 % ) . Renewable energy systems are rapidly becoming more efficient and cheaper . Their share of total energy consumption is increasing . Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables and natural gas ." ]

[ "Renewable energy in Spain Electricity from renewable sources in Spain represented 42.8 % of electricity demand coverage during 2014 . The country has a very large wind power capability built up over many years and is one of the world leaders in wind power generation . Initially Spain also positioned itself as a European leader in Solar power , by 2007-2010 the country was second only to Germany in installed capacity , however other countries ( Italy in particular ) have since leapfrogged Spanish development . By 2015 solar power in Spain though significant produced less than a third of that of wind power in 2015 . Spain has set the target of generating 20 % of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2020 and an additional 0.8 % may be available for other EU countries under the cooperation mechanism bringing the total to 20.8 % . By the end of 2014 Spain had reached a level of 16.2 % of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources . The story of renewable energy development in Spain is both a mixed and unfinished one . Under previous subsidies the country expanded its renewable base rapidly and helped establish a domestic industry in both wind turbine and solar energy . However , support was drastically cut back following the global financial crisis and new installations stagnated between 2012 and 2015 . The debts incurred during the boom period have led to tougher and retrospective revisions of contracts to providers of renewable energy reducing returns considerably . In being one of the first-to-market countries , Spain faces the challenge of powerful competitors from countries such as Denmark , Germany and China and ironically a cheaper and more mature renewable energy sector which Spain itself helped to pioneer . In 2015 solar power suddenly demonstrated a possible way through the impasse . The continued fall in prices for solar systems and Spain 's abundant sunshine led to prices for solar power reaching grid price parity . Suddenly there was the potential for sustained and spontaneous growth in solar installations in Spain as households and producers could produce power more economically . However the Spanish government introduced what has been dubbed the world 's first `` sun tax '' on solar installations making them economically less viable as well as draconian fines ( up to 60 million Euros ) for anyone not complying with the tax . The tax has proved highly controversial . On the one hand the government has argued that those generating their own power still rely on the national grid for power backup and so should be liable for contributing to the cost . On the other hand , the solar industry has argued that the government is simply trying to protect the centralised established power producers whose revenues would be threatened by this competitive solar threat . Environmentalists have criticised the tax for artificially blocking Spain from continuing its long standing movement to renewable energy production . Whatever the merits of both arguments , the controversy can only become more heightened as the price of solar energy continues to fall and if PV solar power installed capacity in Spain were to continue sliding down the EU league from 12th position in 2014 ( 102.9 kW per 1000 inhabitants ) . In the same year in terms of wind energy production Spain was much stronger in 3rd position ( 495 kW per 1000 inhabitants ) .", "Geothermal power in Italy Geothermal power accounts for about 1.6-1 .8 % of the total electric energy production in Italy and is about 7 % of the total renewable energy produced in 2010 . The total energy from Geothermal was 5,660 GWh in 2015 . Italy is the sixth country by geothermal installed capacity . There are 33 active geothermal plants with a total capacity of 772 MW . All the plants are in Tuscany in the provinces of Grosseto , Pisa and Siena . The province of Pisa alone contributes for more than half of the national production .", "Renewable energy in developing countries Renewable energy technology has sometimes been seen as a costly luxury item by critics , and affordable only in the affluent developed world . This erroneous view has persisted for many years , but 2015 was the first year when investment in non-hydro renewables , was higher in developing countries , with $ 156 billion invested , mainly in China , India , and Brazil . Most developing countries have abundant renewable energy resources , including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these . By developing such energy sources developing countries can reduce their dependence on oil and natural gas , creating energy portfolios that are less vulnerable to price rises . In many circumstances , these investments can be less expensive than fossil fuel energy systems . In isolated rural areas , electricity grid extensions are often not economical . Off‐grid renewable technologies provide a sustainable and cost‐effective alternative to the diesel generators that would be otherwise be deployed in such areas . Renewable technologies can also help to displace other unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene lamps and traditional biomass . Kenya is the world leader in the number of solar power systems installed per capita ( but not the number of watts added ) . More than 30,000 small solar panels , each producing 12 to 30 watts , are sold in Kenya annually . Kenya was the first African country to use geothermal power , and still has the largest installed capacity of geothermal power in Africa at 200 MW , with a potential of up to 10 GW .", "Solar power in North Carolina Solar power in North Carolina has been increasing rapidly , from less than 1 MW in 2007 to nearly 470 MW in 2013 , and in 2015 had the fourth largest installed capacity of the US states . Declining panel costs , a 30 percent federal grant known as a 1603 grant , available through December 31 , 2011 , and a 30 percent tax credit available through 2019 , declining to 10 % by 2022 . The federal tax credit is in addition to any local incentives , and pays for the cost of installation , which can be rolled over if less taxes are owed that year . The difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit is substantial , as a deduction depends on your tax rate to determine your savings , but a tax credit is directly available to repay the cost of installation . A 2012 estimate indicates that a typical 5 kW solar array will pay for itself in 6 years , and thereafter generate a substantial profit . In addition to federal incentives , the state has a Renewable Portfolio Standard of 12.5 % by 2021 and a state renewable energy tax credit , both of which have been credited with boosting solar installations . SunEdison has built a 17.2 megawatt solar farm in Davidson County . Other prominent solar contractors in North Carolina include Strata Solar , Baker Renewable Energy and FLS Energy . Source : NREL", "Renewable energy in France France has a target of producing 23 % of its total energy needs from renewable energy by 2020 under its commitment to the renewable energy directive . This figure breaks down to renewable energy providing 33 % of energy used in the heating and cooling sector , 27 % of the electricity sector and 10.5 % of the transport sector 's demand . By year end 2014 renewable energy provided France with 14.3 % of its total energy requirements , a rise from 9.6 % in 2005 . Historically the electricity sector in France has been dominated by the country 's longstanding commitment to nuclear power . However the publication of the Oct 2016 `` Programmation pluriannuelle de l'énergie '' shows a commitment to rebalancing the electricity mix towards renewables . The report underlines the fact that by 2025 more than half of Frances nuclear power capacity will come from stations that will be 40 years or older , and subject to either further work to extend their operation or closure . Renewable electricity capacity is planned to grow from 41 GW in 2014 to between 71 and 78 GW by 2023 . A key component of France 's renewable target is a commitment to greatly increase energy efficiency , particularly in the field of buildings and thermal insulation where heat wastage is targeted to be reduced by the reference scenario of 38 % in consumption by 2020 . The ambition is also to create the emergence of new trades and changes to existing trades to enable green growth to provide efficiency savings and new renewable energy services . The PPE plan targets the reduction the consumption of primary fossil energy by 22 % in 2023 from 2012 levels ( reference scenario ) or a fallback scenario of an 11 % reduction under less favourable conditions ( variant scenario ) . In terms of the reduction in primary consumption , petroleum products are targeted to fall by 23 % between 2012 and 2023 ( reference scenario ) or 9.5 % ( variant scenario ) , gas by 16 % ( 9 % variant scenario ) and coal by 37 % ( 30 % variant scenario ) . In the transport sector France has a range of initiatives designed to promote renewable energy use and increase efficiency . These include changing transport behaviour such as targeting 10 % of tele-worked days by 2030 to reduce consumption . By 2023 the country aims to have a fleet of 2.4 million rechargeable electric and hybrid vehicles , as well as a 3 % of NGV heavy duty vehicles . Biofuels blended with petrol are set for 1.8 % in 2018 and 3.4 % in 2023 , and for diesel 1 % in 2018 and 2.3 % in 2023 . By 2030 non road freight transport is targeted to reach 20 % of all goods . Initiatives to increase walking and cycling are also being undertaken . Car pooling and digital services will be promoted to increase occupancy rates to between 1.8 and 2 people by 2030 as well as experimentation with and the development of autonomous vehicles , particularly in public transport .", "China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy The China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy at Huazhong University of Science & Technology ( CE-ICARE ; ) is an education and research institute located in Wuhan , China , created in July 2010 and hosted in Huazhong University of Science and Technology . ICARE is the third Sino-European institute being created in China after the China-EU International Business School in Shanghai in 1994 ( as China-EC Management Institute ) and the China-EU School of Law in Beijing in 2008 . ICARE project has a 5-year funding from EU and Chinese government . The creation of ICARE follows an agreement signed in 2009 by European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chinese Minister for Foreign Trade GAO Hucheng in the frame of the collaboration between China and Europe for environmental protection and climate change mitigation . ICARE mission is to support China in implementing activities in management and technology in order to reduce the consumption of fossil energy and carbon emissions through renewable energies and energy efficiency .", "Renewable energy in the Netherlands Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain , the Netherlands today lags behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources . The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass , wind , solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power ( mostly from ground source and air source heat pumps ) . In 2014 , the Netherlands produced only 5.5 % of its total energy from renewables , a small rise from 3.7 % in 2010 and just 1 % in 1990 . Among the EU countries , only Malta and Luxembourg had lower percentages . The low take up of renewable energy may be partially explained by the flat and often sub-sea level landscape and subsequent limits to hydropower resources , although hydro poor resource countries such as Denmark have still managed to make renewables the focus of their energy needs . In 2015 , Dutch wind turbines had a total nameplate capacity of 3,431 MW . Wind and solar power installations had a record breaking year during 2015 and this may move the Netherlands closer to its target of 37 % of electricity production coming from renewables by 2020 . A number of large offshore windfarms have either come online recently ( Gemini wind farm ) or have been granted authorisation ( Borsellee 1 and 2 , and Borsellee 3 and 4 wind farms ) . Most of the tiny contribution made to electricity generation by hydroelectricity came from three power plants . A large part of the renewable electricity sold in the Netherlands comes from Norway , a country which generates almost all its electricity from hydropower plants . In the Netherlands , household consumers can choose to buy renewable electricity . Since 2008 , the amount of renewable energy used by household users has been increasing , rising from 38 % in 2008 to 41 % by 2009 . and up to 44 % by mid 2010 . One area in which the Netherlands is a relative leader is in the adoption of electric plug in vehicles . In 2015 PEV vehicles in the Netherlands represented 9.74 % of car sales , making it the world 's second highest share after Norway . Electric vehicles are able to run on renewable electricity with zero emissions and have the potential to provide grid power storage facilities . An interesting source of heat recovery used in the Netherlands is sourced from freshly milked milk , or warm milk . However at 0.3 % of total renewable energy production ( 2010 figures ) this source is not likely to accelerate energy transition in the country . Warm milk is still not mentioned in the EU Renewable Energy Directive , nor in international energy statistics and so is not included is gross final consumption figures . It does however provide Dutch farmers with plenty of hot water .", "Russian National Agency for Energy Saving and Renewable Energy The National Agency for Energy Saving and Renewable Energy ( NAERE ) is a Russian non-governmental and non-commercial partnership established in 2009 . It conducts projects varying from energy audits and technical solutions development to the installation and maintenance of energy efficient equipment . As of 2013 NAERE unites more than 60 Russian and foreign companies .", "Net metering in Arizona Net metering in Arizona is a public policy and political issue regarding the rates that Arizona utility companies pay solar customers sell excess energy back to the electrical grid . The issue has two political sides : utility companies that to pay solar customers the `` wholesale rate '' for their excess electricity , and solar panel installers and solar customers who want utility companies to pay the `` retail rate '' ( higher than the wholesale rate ) . Under net metering , utility customers with solar panels get a credit for the energy they send back to the grid . The credit offsets the energy that they use from the grid . According to the The Arizona Republic , `` Utilities view net metering as a subsidy because they essentially pay retail rates for power from rooftop solar panels when they could purchase wholesale power much more cheaply , even from renewable sources . '' Solar companies take the opposite view ; net metering is not a subsidy and without customers being able to get a credit for their excess energy , they would n't save money on their electric bills ( and hence , would have much less or little incentive to install solar panels in the first place ) .", "High Efficiency Video Coding tiers and levels High Efficiency Video Coding tiers and levels are constraints that define a High Efficiency Video Coding ( HEVC ) bitstream in terms of maximum bit rate , maximum luma sample rate , maximum luma picture size , minimum compression ratio , maximum number of slices allowed , and maximum number of tiles allowed . Lower tiers are more constrained than higher tiers and lower levels are more constrained than higher levels .", "Hund's rules In atomic physics , Hund 's rules refers to a set of rules that German physicist Friedrich Hund formulated around 1927 , which are used to determine the term symbol that corresponds to the ground state of a multi-electron atom . The first rule is especially important in chemistry , where it is often referred to as , simply , Hund 's Rule . The three rules are : For a given electron configuration , the term with maximum multiplicity has the lowest energy . The multiplicity is equal to , where is the total spin angular momentum for all electrons . Therefore , the term with lowest energy is also the term with maximum . For a given multiplicity , the term with the largest value of the total orbital angular momentum quantum number has the lowest energy . For a given term , in an atom with outermost subshell half-filled or less , the level with the lowest value of the total angular momentum quantum number ( for the operator ) lies lowest in energy . If the outermost shell is more than half-filled , the level with the highest value of is lowest in energy . These rules specify in a simple way how usual energy interactions dictate the ground state term . The rules assume that the repulsion between the outer electrons is much greater than the spin -- orbit interaction , which is in turn stronger than any other remaining interactions . This is referred to as the LS coupling regime . Full shells and subshells do not contribute to the quantum numbers for total , the total spin angular momentum and for , the total orbital angular momentum . It can be shown that for full orbitals and suborbitals both the residual electrostatic term ( repulsion between electrons ) and the spin -- orbit interaction can only shift all the energy levels together . Thus when determining the ordering of energy levels in general only the outer valence electrons must be considered .", "World Council for Renewable Energy The World Council for Renewable Energy defends , develops , and promotes policies on the multinational , governmental , regional and individual levels in favor of the use of natural and renewable forms of energy to replace fossil and nuclear energy . Hermann Scheer was the general chairman of the Council . He died in October 2010 .", "Institute for Sustainable Energy The Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University was established in 2001 to identify , develop , and implement the means for achieving a sustainable energy future . The Institute focuses on matters relating to energy education , energy policy , efficiency conservation and load management , renewable energy , distributed generation , protection of environmental resources , and the dissemination of useful information on energy alternatives and sustainability to users and providers of energy . The Institute adds an unbiased focus on practical applications and dissemination of information about how to improve the energy profile and sustainability of Connecticut and the region . The Institute is funded and supported by the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund through the Energy Conservation Management Board and the Department of Public Utility Control . The Institute also receives grants , conference sponsorships , donations , contracts , and payments for services from organizations , including the US EPA , US DOE , CT Office of Policy and Management , CT Department of Environmental Protection , the CT Clean Energy Fund , and the CT Green Building Council . The current director of the Institute is William Leahy . As of January 1 , 2009 , the Connecticut State Building Code shall require that any ( 1 ) building , except a residential building with no more than four units , constructed after January 1 , 2009 , that is projected to cost not less than five million dollars , and ( 2 ) renovation to any building , except a residential building with no more than four units , started after January 1 , 2010 , that is projected to cost not less than two million dollars must receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ( LEED ) Silver rating or higher . The Institute for Sustainable Energy will be the sole entity responsible for providing exemptions to this new CT Building Code requirement .", "Biofuel in Denmark Biofuels play a major part in the renewable energy strategy of Denmark . Denmark is using biofuel to achieve its target of using 100 % renewable energy for all energy uses by 2050 . Biofuels provide a large share of energy sources in Denmark when considering all sectors of energy demand . In conjunction with Denmark 's highly developed renewable energy resources in other areas , biofuels are helping Denmark meet its ambitious renewable energy targets . The main sources of biofuels in Denmark include wood and wood products , energy from waste , straw , biogas , biodiesel and bioethanol . Biofuels have the potential to provide environmental and economic benefits but they must be carefully managed to ensure that they are truly sustainable resources . There is the potential for economic and environmental damage if biofuels are not used responsibly . Biofuel use in Europe must be certified by the EU commission before biofuels can be recorded as sustainable resources and used for national renewable energy targets .", "Renewable energy in Taiwan Renewable energy in Taiwan contributed to 8.7 % of national electricity generation as of end of 2013 . The total installed capacity of renewable energy in Taiwan by the end of 2013 was 3.76 GW .", "European Union energy label EU Directive 92/75/EC established an energy consumption labelling scheme . The directive was implemented by several other directives thus most white goods , light bulb packaging and cars must have an EU Energy Label clearly displayed when offered for sale or rent . The energy efficiency of the appliance is rated in terms of a set of energy efficiency classes from A to G on the label , A being the most energy efficient , G the least efficient . The labels also give other useful information to the customer as they choose between various models . The information should also be given in catalogues and included by internet retailers on their websites . In an attempt to keep up with advances in energy efficiency , A + grades were later introduced for various products ; since 2010 , a new type of label exists that makes use of pictograms rather than words , to allow manufacturers to use a single label for products sold in different countries . Directive 92/75/EC was replaced by Directive 2010/30/EU which must be applied from 31 July 2011 .", "BeauVent BeauVent ( cooperative ) is a Belgian energy cooperative . The cooperative was established on June 21 , 2000 with the goal to : invest in production facilities for renewable energy production , and to acquire the financial means for this by a cooperative model ; promote the production and use of renewable energy sources ; unite the consumers of this energy and convince them to consume less energy . The first two wind turbines were built and operational since March 2005 , in the village of Nieuwkapelle near Diksmuide . A third wind turbine ( a turbine with rotor diameter of 70 m and 2.3 MW capacity ) was constructed in May 2007 in the village Gistel . A project with the production of rapeseed oil was not successful and had been stopped . Since 2006 the cooperative is also active with solar energy production , starting from the wish of individual cooperative members to invest in rooftop solar panels , and evolved to the installation of PV-systems to external clients . The total capacity of solar panels installed surpassed 1.5 MW in 2010 . Since 2014 the cooperative is also active in energy efficiency measures and the use of cogeneration of heat and power . The cooperative is a member of the European federation of renewable energy cooperatives REScoop.eu .", "Powerful: Energy for Everyone Powerful : Energy for Everyone is a 2010 Canadian documentary that explores different sources of renewable energy . David Chernushenko takes audiences on a global journey to discover different ways of achieving a more sustainable lifestyle.The film introduces audiences to communities , both small and large , that have managed to adapt their way of life and embrace renewable energy .", "Derating This article is about electronics . For the adjustment of engines for longer engine life see engine tuning . In electronics , derating ( or de-rating ) is the operation of a device at less than its rated maximum capability in order to prolong its life . Typical examples include operation below the maximum power rating , current rating , or voltage rating .", "California Proposition 7 (2008) California Proposition 7 , would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025 . In order to make that goal , levels of production of solar , wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9 % . It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2 % annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) requirements of 40 % in 2020 and 50 % in 2025 . Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20 % by 2010 . The 42 page measure , 7 pages of which is new law , is an initiated state statute that had qualified for the November 2008 ballot in California , and was disapproved by voters on November 4 of that year .", "Declared net capacity Declared net capacity ( DNC ) is a measure of the contribution that a power station makes to the overall capacity of a distribution grid . It is measured in megawatts ( MW ) , or in megawatts electrical ( MWe ) for a thermal power station . DNC is sometimes expanded as developed net capacity in British English ; The two expansions have exactly the same meaning . In a conventional power station , the DNC rating is simply the maximum rated output minus the power consumed onsite . It is sometimes termed the switchyard output , and takes no account of transmission losses in the grid , which may be considerable in the case of a remote hydro station for example . Most but not all quoted power station ratings are DNC ratings rather than the simple capacity of the alternators . In the case of a wind power station , the situation is more complex . The alternator of a wind turbine is normally specified to match the strongest wind in which the turbine is designed to operate . This is because most of the cost of a wind turbine is in the rotor and the tower and bearings that support it , rather than in the alternator . It makes no economic sense to restrict the size of the alternator to anything less than the maximum that the rotor will deliver . However , this means that , unlike a conventional power station , a wind turbine rarely achieves its maximum rated output while operating . While for conventional power stations , the station is only regarded as available if the full power output is achievable , for wind power stations no power at all may be available depending on the wind strength , and even if a turbine is operating it may be producing as little as a tenth of its maximum rated capacity . A typical average figure is between one-third and one-half of the maximum rated capacity . There are several suggested methods of allowing for this when quoting a DNC figure for a wind farm , but none has gained general acceptance , and the capacity quoted for a wind farm is normally a simple total of the maximum rated capacities of the turbines , sometimes termed the peak capacity . Many wind schemes now also quote their expected or actual annual output in GWh , to allow more meaningful comparisons with other forms of generation than is possible just by considering this total rated output .", "Bombard Renewable Energy Bombard Renewable Energy is an American provider of renewable energy services . Bombard 's primary services include the design , financing , construction , installation , operations and maintenance of solar photovoltaic ( `` PV '' ) energy systems . Additionally , Bombard also performs energy efficiency audits and designs and constructs mobile solar PV charging stations .", "Economy of Liechtenstein Low business taxes - the maximum tax rate is 20 % - and easy incorporation rules . The country participates in a customs union with Switzerland and uses the Swiss franc as its national currency . It imports more than 85 % of its energy requirements . Liechtenstein has been a member of the European Economic Area ( an organization serving as a bridge between European Free Trade Association ( EFTA ) and EU ) since May 1995 . The government is working to harmonize its economic policies with those of an integrated Europe .", "Solar power in Maryland Solar power in Maryland is supported by the state 's legislation regarding the Renewable Portfolio Standard and Solar Renewable Energy Credit ( SREC ) program . The target for renewable energy as of 2017 is 20 % by 2020 , including 2 % from solar power . According to the Maryland Energy Administration , Maryland is exposed to approximately 5.3 kWh per square meter of solar energy on a daily basis , and as of 2016 , the state had 508 MW installed which ranks Maryland 11th in the nation for installed solar capacity .", "80 Plus 80 Plus ( trademarked 80 PLUS ) is a voluntary certification program intended to promote efficient energy use in computer power supply units ( PSUs ) . Launched in 2004 by Ecos Consulting , it certifies products that have more than 80 % energy efficiency at 20 % , 50 % and 100 % of rated load , and a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100 % load . Such PSUs waste 20 % or less electric energy as heat at the specified load levels , reducing electricity use and bills compared to less efficient PSUs .", "Energy in Oregon The U.S. state of Oregon is the third largest renewable energy producing state in the United States . Hydroelectric power dominates the power market in Oregon , providing nearly two-thirds of the electricity generated in the state , although it accounts for less than half of the total percentage consumed when electricity imported from other states is accounted for . Coal is the second largest source of the state 's energy portfolio , with much of it being imported from Wyoming and domestic production coming from the Boardman Coal Plant , Oregon 's only coal power plant .", "Renewable energy in Colombia Colombia has 28.1 Megawatt installed capacity of renewable energy ( excluding large hydropower ) , consisting mainly of wind power . The country has significant wind and solar resources that remain largely unexploited . According to a study by the World Bank 's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program ( ESMAP ) , exploitation of the country 's significant wind potential alone could cover more than the country 's current total energy needs .", "Karapınar Renewable Energy Resource Area Karapınar Renewable Energy Resource Area ( Karapınar Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanı , YEKA ) is a proposed photovoltaic power station in Konya Province , central Turkey . To be built at the YEKA area of Karapınar district in Konya Province , the plant will have 1,000 MW installed power . With this capacity , it will be one of the world 's largest solar power plant of its kind . The project includes annual production of 500 MWp photovoltaic solar modules and a R&D Center . The tender for the construction was won on March 20 , 2017 by a consortium of Turkish Kalyon Group and South Korean Hanwha , which offered the lowest kW · h-price with 6.99 US cent valid for an energy purchase term of 15 years . The amount of the investment is expected to exceed US$ 1.3 billion . It is planned that more than 1,500 people will be employed in the project . Start of the energy production is scheduled end 2018 . When completed , the solar power station will generate annually 1,700 GW · h electrical energy , sufficient to supply 600,000 households .", "Service level Service level measures the performance of a system . Certain goals are defined and the service level gives the percentage to which those goals should be achieved . File rate is different from service level . Examples of service level : Percentage of calls answered in a call center . Percentage of customers waiting less than a given fixed time . Percentage of customers that do not experience a stockout .", "Capacity factor The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of an actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the maximum possible electrical energy output over the same amount of time . The capacity factor is defined for any electricity producing installation , i.e. a fuel consuming power plant or one using renewable energy , such as wind or the sun . The average capacity factor can also be defined for any class of such installations , and can be used to compare different types of electricity production . The maximum possible energy output of a given installation assumes its continuous operation at full nameplate capacity over the relevant period of time . The actual energy output over the same period of time and with it the capacity factor varies greatly depending on a range of factors . The capacity factor can never exceed the availability factor , or the fraction of downtime during the period . Downtime can be due to , for example , reliability issues and maintenance , both scheduled and unscheduled . Other factors include the design of the installation , its location , the type of electricity production and with it either the fuel being used or , for renewable energy , the local weather conditions . Additionally , the capacity factor can be subject to regulatory constraints and market forces , potentially affecting both its fuel purchase and its electricity sale . The capacity factor is often computed over a timescale of a year , averaging out most temporal fluctuations . However , the capacity factor can be also computed on a monthly basis to gain insight into seasonal fluctuations . Alternatively , it be computed over the lifetime of the power source , both while operational and after decommissioning .", "Energy security and renewable technology The environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies are widely recognised , but the contribution that they can make to energy security is less well known . Renewable technologies can enhance energy security in electricity generation , heat supply , and transportation .", "Jasper Solar Energy Project The Jasper Solar Energy Project ( or Jasper PV Project ) is a 96 megawatt ( MW ) photovoltaic power station , located near Kimberley , in South Africa 's Northern Cape . The project completed construction in October 2014 and is fully operational to power up to 80,000 homes . Google has a recent history of investing in wind and solar power , and since 2010 has committed to more than US$ 1 billion in renewable energy projects worldwide . Until 2013 little of this was spent on renewable energy in Africa . A new $ 12 million investment in the Jasper power project , at a project cost of approximately ZAR2 .3 billion ( $ 260 million ) signals a change in policy . It is one of the largest solar installations in Africa , comprising over 325,000 PV modules ." ]

[ "Carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "Climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors." ]

[ "Fugitive emissions Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "Environmental impact of transport The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "Orbital Corporation Orbital Corporation Limited , formerly Orbital Engine Corporation Limited pioneered by Ralph Sarich , is an Australian company based at Balcatta , Western Australia , that aims to provide clean engine technologies and alternative fuel systems with reduced environmental impact from gas emissions and improved fuel economy .", "Enteric fermentation Enteric fermentation is a digestive process by which carbohydrates are broken down by microorganisms into simple molecules for absorption into the bloodstream of an animal . It is one of the factors in increased methane emissions . Ruminant animals are those that have a rumen . A rumen is a multichambered stomach found almost exclusively among some artiodactyl mammals , such cattle , deer , and camels , enabling them to eat cellulose-enhanced tough plants and grains that monogastric ( i.e. , `` single-chambered stomached '' ) animals , such as humans , dogs , and cats , can not digest . Enteric fermentation occurs when methane ( CH4 ) is produced in the rumen as microbial fermentation takes place . Over 200 species of microorganisms are present in the rumen , although only about 10 % of these play an important role in digestion . Most of the CH4 byproduct is belched by the animal , however , a small percentage of CH4 is also produced in the large intestine and passed out as flatulence . Methane emissions are an important contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions . The IPCC reports that methane is more than twenty times as effective as CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere - though note that it is produced in substantially smaller amounts . Methane represents also a significant energy loss to the animal ranging from 2 to 12 % of gross energy intake . So , decreasing the production of enteric CH4 from ruminants without altering animal production is desirable both as a strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and as a means of improving feed conversion efficiency . In Australia ruminant animals account for over half of their green house gas contribution from methane . Australia has implemented a voluntary immunization program for cattle in order to help reduce flatulence-produced CH4 . However , in Australia there are ruminant species of the kangaroos that are able to produce 80 % less methane than cows . This is because the gut microbiota of Macropodids , rumen and others parts of their digestive system , is dominated by bacteria of the family Succinivibrionaceae . These bacteria are able to produce succinate as a final product of the lignocelluloses degradation , producing small amounts of methane as end product . Its special metabolic route allows to utilize others proton acceptors avoiding the formation of methane . Enteric fermentation is the second largest anthropogenic source of methane emissions in the United States from 2000 through 2009 . In 2007 , methane emissions from enteric fermentation were 2.5 % of net greenhouse gases produced in the United States at 139 teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalents ( Tg CO2 ) out of a total net emission of 5618 Tg CO2 . For this reason , scientists believe that , with the aid of microbial engineering , the use of microbioma to modify natural or anthropogenic processes , we could change the microbiota composition of the rumen of strong methane producers , emulating the Macropodidae microbiota . Recent studies claim that this technique is possible to perform . In one of these studies scientists analyze the changes of human microbiota by different alimentary changes . In other study , researchers introduce a human microbiota in gnotobiotic mice in order to compare the different changes for developing new ways to manipulate the properties of the microbiota so as to prevent or treat various diseases .", "List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "Cool School Challenge The Cool School Challenge is a program part of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency , designed to spread climate education and engage students and teachers in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of their schools . The program also aims to encourage student leadership and empowerment in the process . Most of the schools that have taken on the program are located in the Puget Sound area , however there are various schools from around the United States ( and one international school , the American School of Dubai ) that have done so as well . The program has reports on their website to have reduced a total of over 2.2 million pounds of carbon .", "Committee on Climate Change The Committee on Climate Change is an independent non-departmental public body , formed under the Climate Change Act ( 2008 ) to advise the UK and devolved Governments and Parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change . The Committee provides advice on setting carbon budgets ( for the UK Government carbon budgets are designed to place a limit or ceiling on the level of economy-wide emissions that can be emitted in a five-year period ) , and reports regularly to the Parliaments and Assemblies on the progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions .", "Margo T. Oge Margo T. Oge ( born 1949 ) is an American engineer and environmental regulator who served as the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency 's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air from 1990 to 1994 and Director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality from 1994 to 2012 . Beginning in 2009 , Oge lead the EPA team that authored the 2010-2016 and the 2017-2025 Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards . By 2025 , these rules require automakers to half the greenhouse gas emissions of cars and light duty trucks while doubling fuel economy . These rules were the US federal government 's first regulatory actions to reduce greenhouse gases .", "European Union Emission Trading Scheme The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "Eco-sufficiency Eco-sufficiency requires a reduction of the level of production/consumption in those parts of the world with the highest standards of living beyond reducing the use of natural resources as well as waste and emissions per unit of production/consumption ( = decoupling/delinking ) . Given a very loose relation in rich countries between material wealth , GDP and human well-being , this might be possible even without reducing the latter , while , for example , increasing leisure and non-material activities for well-being . There are potentials to reduce substantially the use of natural resources without compromising human wealth . However , many studies show that economic growth `` eats up '' these gains at least partially : if the economy grows by 2 % per annum we need an increasing resource productivity by 4 % in order to achieve a 2 % reduction of the absolute resource use . While eco-efficiency aims to improve the effectiveness of material , energy , and land use , eco-sufficiency aims at reducing negative environmental consequences through a reduction of the demand for consumer goods . Eco-sufficiency is closely related to issues of quality of life and work-life balance . It can to some extent be achieved on the individual level , e.g. through energy savings , reduction of transport and change in diets ( less meat ) . However , it also requires a change in social frameworks , provided on the national or European level , including measures such as environmental taxes , environmental planning and new concepts of labour . Eco-sufficiency is largely associated with the idea of altruism -- the sober lifestyle adopted by its advocates is a manifestation of their concern for the well-being of future generations -- and thus to date is endorsed by only a small minority of members of industrialised societies . A wide spread of eco-sufficiency will only occur , if people find the new lifestyles sufficiently attractive . It needs to be shown that less material wealth can bring increased well-being or happiness to individuals and societies . For example , it has been shown that downsizing or relocating consumers can be motivated by purely selfish reasons such as improving one 's health , avoiding stress , the nostalgia for a `` good old time '' and so on . An important aspect here is related to the so-called work-and-spend cycle . If leisure and forms of work other than employment ( incl . self-employment ) , such as caring , do it yourself and community work gain relevance , income - and therefore consumption - would be reduced .", "Landfill gas utilization Landfill gas utilization is a process of gathering , processing , and treating the methane gas emitted from decomposing garbage to produce electricity , heat , fuels , and various chemical compounds . The number of landfill gas projects , which convert the gas into power , went from 399 in 2005 to 519 in 2009 in the United Kingdom , according to the Environment Agency . These projects are popular because they control energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions . These projects collect the methane gas and treat it , so it can be used for electricity or upgraded to pipeline-grade gas . These projects power homes , buildings , and vehicles .", "Aluminium smelting Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide , alumina , generally by the Hall-Héroult process . Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery . Aluminium smelting is the 2nd most important metallurgical industry in India . This is an electrolytic process , so an aluminium smelter uses prodigious amounts of electricity ; they tend to be located very close to large power stations , often hydro-electric ones , and near ports since almost all of them use imported alumina . A large amount of carbon is also used in this process , resulting in significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions .", "Environmental impact of the oil shale industry Environmental impact of the oil shale industry includes the consideration of issues such as land use , waste management , and water and air pollution caused by the extraction and processing of oil shale . Surface mining of oil shale deposits causes the usual environmental impacts of open-pit mining . In addition , the combustion and thermal processing generate waste material , which must be disposed of , and harmful atmospheric emissions , including carbon dioxide , a major greenhouse gas . Experimental in-situ conversion processes and carbon capture and storage technologies may reduce some of these concerns in future , but may raise others , such as the pollution of groundwater .", "Ethics of belief The ethics of belief refers to a cluster of related issues that focus on standards of rational belief , intellectual excellence , and conscientious belief-formation . Among the questions addressed in the field are : Are there standards of some sort ( `` epistemic norms '' ) that ought to guide how we form beliefs and pursue intellectual aims , such as the pursuit of truth or the quest for understanding ? If so , what kind of norms ? Moral ? Purely intellectual ? Prudential ? If there are such norms , how strong are they ? Are they categorical ( i.e. , binding regardless of our desires and commitments ) or merely hypothetical ( applicable only if we have certain desires and goals ? ) Do they bind absolutely or only conditionally ? Are beliefs within our voluntary control , or do we more or less automatically believe whatever we think is best supported by the evidence ? What aims should we have as believers ? Achieving significant truth ? Avoiding significant error ? Achieving knowledge ? Pleasure ? Peace of mind ? Understanding ? Wisdom ? Must one always have sufficient evidence for one 's beliefs ( a view philosophers call `` evidentialism '' ) , or is it sometimes permissible to believe without sufficient evidence -- or perhaps without any evidence at all ? What sorts of `` intellectual virtues '' ( admirable mental traits , skills , and habits ) are necessary for intellectual excellence and high-quality critical thinking ?", "Waste hierarchy The evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption to most favourable to least favourable actions . The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based on sustainability . To be sustainable , waste management can not be solved only with technical end-of-pipe solutions and an integrated approach is necessary . The waste management hierarchy indicates an order of preference for action to reduce and manage waste , and is usually presented diagrammatically in the form of a pyramid . The hierarchy captures the progression of a material or product through successive stages of waste management , and represents the latter part of the life-cycle for each product . The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste . The proper application of the waste hierarchy can have several benefits . It can help prevent emissions of greenhouse gases , reduces pollutants , save energy , conserves resources , create jobs and stimulate the development of green technologies .", "Zero-energy building A zero-energy building , also known as a zero net energy ( ZNE ) building , net-zero energy building ( NZEB ) , or net zero building , is a building with zero net energy consumption , meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site , or in other definitions by renewable energy sources elsewhere . These buildings consequently contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than similar non-ZNE buildings . They do at times consume non-renewable energy and produce greenhouse gases , but at other times reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas production elsewhere by the same amount . A similar concept approved and implemented by the European Union and other agreeing countries is nearly Zero Energy Building ( nZEB ) , with the goal of having all buildings in the region under nZEB standards by 2020 . Most zero net energy buildings get half or more of their energy from the grid , and return the same amount at other times . Buildings that produce a surplus of energy over the year may be called `` energy-plus buildings '' and buildings that consume slightly more energy than they produce are called `` near-zero energy buildings '' or `` ultra-low energy houses '' . Traditional buildings consume 40 % of the total fossil fuel energy in the US and European Union and are significant contributors of greenhouse gases . The zero net energy consumption principle is viewed as a means to reduce carbon emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuels and although zero-energy buildings remain uncommon even in developed countries , they are gaining importance and popularity . Most zero-energy buildings use the electrical grid for energy storage but some are independent of the grid . Energy is usually harvested on-site through energy producing technologies like solar and wind , while reducing the overall use of energy with highly efficient HVAC and lighting technologies . The zero-energy goal is becoming more practical as the costs of alternative energy technologies decrease and the costs of traditional fossil fuels increase . The development of modern zero-energy buildings became possible not only through the progress made in new energy and construction technologies and techniques , but it has also been significantly improved by academic research , which collects precise energy performance data on traditional and experimental buildings and provides performance parameters for advanced computer models to predict the efficacy of engineering designs . Zero-energy buildings can be part of a smart grid . Some advantages of these buildings are as follows : Integration of renewable energy resources Integration of plug-in electric vehicles Implementation of zero-energy concepts The net zero concept is applicable to a wide range of resources due to the many options for producing and conserving resources in buildings ( e.g. energy , water , waste ) . Energy is the first resource to be targeted because it is highly managed , expected to continually become more efficient , and the ability to distribute and allocate it will improve disaster resiliency .", "Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation , sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries ( REDD + ) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) since 2005 , with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries . Most of the key REDD + decisions were completed by 2013 , with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015 . In the last two decades , various studies estimate that land use change , including deforestation and forest degradation , accounts for 12-29 % of global greenhouse gas emissions . For this reason the inclusion of reducing emissions from land use change is considered essential to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC . During the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol , and then in particular its Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , the inclusion of tropical forest management was debated but eventually dropped due to anticipated methodological difficulties in establishing -- in particular -- additionality and leakage ( detrimental effects outside of the project area attributable to project activities ) . What remained on forestry was `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' , sectoral scope 14 of the CDM . Under this sectoral scope areas of land that had no forest cover since 1990 could be replanted with commercial or indigenous tree species . In its first eight years of operation 52 projects had been registered under the `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' scope of the CDM . The cumbersome administrative procedures and corresponding high transaction costs are often blamed for this slow uptake . Beyond the CDM , all developed countries that were parties to the Kyoto Protocol also committed to measuring and reporting on efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions from forests . The United States also measures and reports on the net greenhouse gas sequestration in its forests . In response to what many perceived to be a failure to address a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions , the Coalition for Rainforest Nations ( CfRN ) was established and in 2005 they proposed to the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC policy approaches and positive incentives for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases stemming from tropical deforestation and forest degradation as a climate change mitigation measure .", "Carbon offset A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere . Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent ( CO2e ) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases : carbon dioxide , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , and sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases . There are two markets for carbon offsets . In the larger , compliance market , companies , governments , or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit . This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol , and of liable entities under the EU Emission Trading Scheme . In 2006 , about $ 5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market , representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions . In the much smaller , voluntary market , individuals , companies , or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation , electricity use , and other sources . For example , an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel . Many companies ( see list ) offer carbon offsets as an up-sell during the sales process so that customers can mitigate the emissions related with their product or service purchase ( such as offsetting emissions related to a vacation flight , car rental , hotel stay , consumer good , etc. ) . In 2008 , about $ 705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market , representing about 123.4 million metric tons of CO2e reductions . Some fuel suppliers in the UK offer fuel which has been carbon offset such as Fuel dyes . Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the short - or long-term . The most common project type is renewable energy , such as wind farms , biomass energy , or hydroelectric dams . Others include energy efficiency projects , the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts , destruction of landfill methane , and forestry projects . Some of the most popular carbon offset projects from a corporate perspective are energy efficiency and wind turbine projects . Carbon offsetting has gained some appeal and momentum mainly among consumers in western countries who have become aware and concerned about the potentially negative environmental effects of energy-intensive lifestyles and economies . The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on a marketplace . The protocol established the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , which validates and measures projects to ensure they produce authentic benefits and are genuinely `` additional '' activities that would not otherwise have been undertaken . Organizations that are unable to meet their emissions quota can offset their emissions by buying CDM-approved Certified Emissions Reductions . Emissions from burning fuel , such as red diesel , has pushed one UK fuel supplier to create a carbon offset fuel named Carbon Offset Red Diesel . Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing one 's own fossil-fuel consumption . However , some critics object to carbon offsets , and question the benefits of certain types of offsets . Due diligence is recommended to help businesses in the assessment and identification of `` good quality '' offsets to ensure offsetting provides the desired additional environmental benefits , and to avoid reputational risk associated with poor quality offsets . Offsets are viewed as an important policy tool to maintain stable economies and to improve sustainability . One of the hidden dangers of climate change policy is unequal prices of carbon in the economy , which can cause economic collateral damage if production flows to regions or industries that have a lower price of carbon -- unless carbon can be purchased from that area , which offsets effectively permit , equalizing the price .", "Air pollution in Germany Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change See Also : climate change mitigation , emissions trading . The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate ( MEF ) was launched on March 28 , 2009 . The MEF is intended to facilitate a candid dialogue among major developed and developing economies , help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the December UN climate change conference in Copenhagen , and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions . The 17 major economies are : Australia , Brazil , Canada , China , the European Union , France , Germany , India , Indonesia , Italy , Japan , South Korea , Mexico , Russia , South Africa , the United Kingdom , and the United States . Denmark , in its capacity as the President of the December 2009 Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change , and the United Nations have also participated in this dialogue along with Observers .", "One-Tonne Challenge The One-Tonne Challenge was a challenge presented by the Government of Canada in March 2004 for Canadians to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne each year . The figure represented 20 % of total greenhouse gas output by Canadians at the time and aimed to help the country reach its Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets . The Liberal Government under Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin approved over $ 45 million to fund the program from 2003 to 2006 . To promote this program , the government placed television and print ads featuring comedian Rick Mercer . In one commercial , he described Canadians as wanting to take the challenge . `` C'mon ... we 're Canadian ... we 're up for a challenge ! '' The government urged Canadians to do such things as : Take public transit more often . Idle vehicles less . Use programmable thermostats . Seal windows with caulking and weather-stripping . Compost organic kitchen waste . Support green energy . Water and energy conservation . Purchase electronics that are labelled with Energy Star logo . Recycling . The program received a lukewarm reception from the public , and has been criticized as ineffective and wasteful . This program was started by the Liberal Party of Canada . However , with the election of Stephen Harper 's Conservative Government in 2006 , the One Tonne Challenge was scrapped .", "Alternate wetting and drying ` Alternate wetting and drying ' ( AWD ) is a water management technique , practiced to cultivate irrigated lowland rice with much less water than the usual system of maintaining continuous standing water in the crop field . It is a method of controlled and intermittent irrigation . A periodic drying and re-flooding irrigation scheduling approach is followed in which the fields are allowed to dry for few days before re-irrigation , without stressing the plants . This method reduces water demand for irrigation and greenhouse gas emissions without reducing crop yields .", "German response to Kyoto Protocol Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "M864 The M864 is an US made 155 mm artillery shell . It carries a dual-purpose ICM submunition warhead and incorporates Base bleed technology to increase its range . The projectile is capable of delivering 24 M46 and 48 M42 dual-purpose anti-materiel/anti-personnel sub-munitions at ranges out to 29 kilometers . Base bleed technology was developed to reduce the amount of base drag on a projectile , thereby increasing the achieved range . The drag is reduced by a gas generator located on the base of the projectile . Once ignited , the gas generator bleeds hot gas into the projectiles wake which causes the flow of air at the base to be less turbulent . The decrease in turbulence , reduces base drag , which typically accounts for 50 percent of total drag . The amount of thrust produced by the base burner unit is negligible and does not serve the same function as the rocket motor on a rocket assisted projectile ( RAP ) . The M864 projectile is not ballistically matched to any projectile currently in the inventory , but because of the similarity of the trajectories , firing data for the M864 can be determined from the M549A1 firing data .", "Houseplant care Houseplant care is the act of growth houseplants and ensuring they have the necessary conditions for survival and continuing growth . This includes providing soil with sufficient nutrients , correct lighting conditions , air circulation and adding the right amount of water . Watering houseplants on a regular basis is necessary for the plant to remain healthy and thrive . They should not , however , be watered on a scheduled basis , because different plant species need different amounts of water and sunlight so it is important to know the specifics for the particular plants that are being grown . Houseplants sometimes also need to be cleaned of dust and greasy films that collect on the leaves when they are indoors . Dusty , grimy leaves can inhibit growth .", "Western Climate Initiative The Western Climate Initiative , or WCI , was started in February 2007 by the governors of five western U.S. states ( AZ , CA , NM , OR , and WA ) with the goal of developing a multi-sector , market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions .", "Recycled Energy Development Recycled Energy Development , LLC ( RED ) aims to profitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing and recycling waste energy , especially through cogeneration and waste heat recovery .", "EGTS EGTS is an electric taxiing system which allows aircraft to taxi and pushback without requiring the use of aircraft engines , and is designed to reduce fuel volumes used by aircraft and reduce greenhouse gas emissions during ground operations . It was developed by EGTS International , a joint venture between Honeywell Aerospace and Safran . The joint venture was announced at the 2011 Paris Air Show . EGTS technology was invented in 2003 by Delos Aerospace and since 2007 many electric taxiing systems have been explored based on the pioneering patents of Delos Aerospace . www.Delos.Aero EGTS technology enables aircraft to avoid using their main engines during taxiing and instead taxi autonomously under their own electrical power , using the Auxiliary Power Unit ( APU ) generator . The system is designed for single-aisle aircraft , such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 .", "Karen Beauchemin Karen Beauchemin , Ph.D. , is a federal scientist in Canada who is recognized internationally for her research in ruminant nutrition . She is developing nutritional knowledge and technologies that help improve the efficiency of producing meat and milk , while reducing the environmental impacts of livestock production . Her main interests are : mitigation of enteric methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from ruminants improvement of rumen ecology and fiber utilization using feed additives and enzymes reduction of ruminal acidosis ( a nutritional disorder ) in dairy cows and feedlot cattle optimization of feed digestion and utilization . Due to the work of Beauchemin and her colleagues , Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is recognized as a world leader in measuring greenhouse gases and in developing strategies to reduce emissions from agricultural activities including the cultivation of livestock . Beauchemin has been recognized with awards from the Canadian Society of Animal Science ( 1994 , 2009 , 2014 ) , American Dairy Science Association ( 2005 , 2010 ) , the Chinese Academy of Science ( 2011 -- 13 ) , and the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry in Stockholm , Sweden ( 2011 Bertebos Prize ) .", "Archer Point Wind Farm The Archer Point Wind Farm , alternatively Jalunji Wind Park or Cooktown Wind Farm , is a proposed wind farm to be located at Archer Point , about 15 km south of Cooktown , Queensland . It is expected to cost A$ 250 million to construct . The wind farm is envisioned to have 60 wind turbines in Stage 1 . The total generation capacity for Stage 1 would be 138 MW . This would be enough electricity generation to power the entire Cape York Peninsula while supplementing the electricity needs of Port Douglas and Cairns . Archer Point is recognised as one of the windiest places in Queensland . The project would generate about 400,000 MW-hr of electricity - enough electricity to power over 75,000 average Queensland homes . In addition , the wind farm would make a very significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Queensland - reducing electricity emissions by over 370,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually . This would be equivalent to taking 85,000 cars off the road . Once constructed , the wind farm would have twice the capacity of the largest renewable energy generation facility in Queensland . Towers are expected to be 80 m high . In May 2011 , it was announced that a lease agreement between the traditional land owners and National Power has been reached .", "Innovation, Development and Employment Alliance The Innovation , Development and Employment Alliance is a business coalition launched in May 2009 , aimed at securing intellectual property rights in a number of areas , including environmentally sound technology , healthcare and renewable energy . It is supported by the United States Chamber of Commerce ; members include General Electric , Microsoft and Sunrise Solar . It was created in response to developments at the United Nations post -- Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions , where developing countries such as Brazil , India and China want the ability to compulsory licence green technology , as they are currently able to do with key drugs , notably for AIDS treatment .", "Individual action on climate change Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action ." ]

[ "Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "Earth's energy budget Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components." ]

[ "Volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth 's albedo ( increasing the reflection of solar radiation ) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption . Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfur gasses into the stratosphere where they undergo a series of reactions to create sulfuric acid which can nucleate and form aerosols . Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation . The volcanic aerosols , resulting from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and others , have been shown to contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion . The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation .", "Solar activity and climate Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .", "Cyclostratigraphy Cyclostratigraphy is the study of astronomically forced climate cycles within sedimentary successions . Astronomical cycles are variations of the Earth 's orbit around the sun due to the gravitational interaction with other masses within the solar system . Due to this cyclicity solar irradiation differs through time on different hemispheres and seasonality is affected . These insolation variations have influence on Earth 's climate and so on the deposition of sedimentary rocks . The main orbital cycles are precession with at present main periods of 19 and 23 kyr , obliquity with at present main periods of 41 kyr , and 1.2 Myr , and eccentricity with at present main periods of around 100 kyr , 405 kyr , and 2.4 Myr . Cyclostratigraphic studies of rock records can lead to accurate dating of events in the geological past , to increase understanding of cause and consequences of Earth 's ( climate ) history , and to more control on depositional mechanisms of sediments and the acting of sedimentary systems .", "Volcanic impacts on the oceans Explosive volcanic eruptions affect the global climate mainly through injecting sulfur bearing gases into the stratosphere , which oxidize to form sulfate aerosols . Stratospheric sulfur aerosols spread around the globe by the atmospheric circulation , producing surface cooling by scattering solar radiation back to space . This cooling effect on the ocean surface usually lasts for several years as the lifetime of sulfate aerosols is about 2 -- 3 years . However , in the subsurface ocean the cooling signal may persist for a longer time and may have impacts on some decadal variabilities , such as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation ( AMOC ) .", "Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "Upper-atmospheric models Upper-atmospheric models are simulations of the Earth 's atmosphere between 20 and 100 km ( 65,000 and 328,000 feet ) that comprises the stratosphere , mesosphere , and the lower thermosphere . Whereas most climate models simulate a region of the Earth 's atmosphere from the surface to the stratopause , there also exist numerical models which simulate the wind , temperature and composition of the Earth 's tenuous upper atmosphere , from the mesosphere to the exosphere , including the ionosphere . This region is affected strongly by the 11 year Solar cycle through variations in solar UV/EUV/Xray radiation and solar wind leading to high latitude particle precipitation and aurora . It has been proposed that these phenomena may have an effect on the lower atmosphere , and should therefore be included in simulations of climate change . For this reason there has been a drive in recent years to create whole atmosphere models to investigate whether or not this is the case .", "Climate sensitivity Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "Stratospheric aerosol injection (climate engineering) The ability of stratospheric sulfate aerosols to create a global dimming effect has made them a possible candidate for use in solar radiation management climate engineering projects to limit the effect and impact of climate change due to rising levels of greenhouse gases . Delivery of precursor sulfide gases such as sulfuric acid , hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide by artillery , aircraft and balloons has been proposed . It presently appears that this proposed method could counter most climatic changes , take effect rapidly , have very low direct implementation costs , and be reversible in its direct climatic effects . One study calculated the impact of injecting sulfate particles , or aerosols , every one to four years into the stratosphere in amounts equal to those lofted by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , but did not address the many technical and political challenges involved in potential solar radiation management efforts . If found to be economically , environmentally and technologically viable , such injections could provide a `` grace period '' of up to 20 years before major cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions would be required , the study concludes . It has been suggested that the direct delivery of precursors could be achieved using sulfide gases such as dimethyl sulfide , sulfur dioxide , carbonyl sulfide , or hydrogen sulfide . These compounds would be delivered using artillery , aircraft ( such as the high-flying F-15C ) or balloons , and result in the formation of compounds with the sulfate anion SO42 − . According to estimates , `` one kilogram of well placed sulfur in the stratosphere would roughly offset the warming effect of several hundred thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide . ''", "Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment ( SAGE ) is a series of remote sensing satellite instruments used to study the chemical composition of earth 's atmosphere . Specifically , SAGE has been used to study the Earth 's ozone layer and aerosols at the troposphere through the stratosphere . The SAGE instruments use solar occultation measurement technique to determine chemical concentrations in the atmosphere . Solar occultation measurement technique measures sunlight through the atmosphere and ratios that measurement with a sunlight measurement without atmospheric attenuation . This is achieved by observing sunrises and sunsets during a satellite orbit . Physically , the SAGE instruments measure ultraviolet/visible energy and this is converted via algorithms to determine chemical concentrations . SAGE data has been used to study the atmospheres aerosols , ozone , water vapor , and other trace gases .", "Stratospheric sulfur aerosols Stratospheric sulfur aerosols are sulfur-rich particles which exist in the stratosphere region of the Earth 's atmosphere . The layer of the atmosphere in which they exist is known as the Junge layer , or simply the stratospheric aerosol layer . These particles consist of a mixture of sulfuric acid and water . They are created naturally , such as by photochemical decomposition of sulfur-containing gases , e.g. carbonyl sulfide . When present in high levels , e.g. after a strong volcanic eruption such as Mount Pinatubo , they produce a cooling effect , by reflecting sunlight , and by modifying clouds as they fall out of the stratosphere . This cooling may persist for a few years before the particles fall out . An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas . The sulfate particles or sulfuric acid droplets in the atmosphere are about 0.1 to 1.0 micrometer ( a millionth of a meter ) in diameter . Sulfur aerosols are common in the troposphere as a result of pollution with sulfur dioxide from burning coal , and from natural processes . Volcanos are a major source of particles in the stratosphere as the force of the volcanic eruption propels sulfur-containing gases into the stratosphere . The relative influence of volcanoes on the Junge layer varies considerably according to the number and size of eruptions in any given time period , and also of quantities of sulfur compounds released . Only stratovolcanoes containing primarily granitic rocks are responsible for these fluxes , as basaltic rock erupted in shield volcanoes does n't result in plumes which reach the stratosphere . Creating stratospheric sulfur aerosols deliberately is a proposed geoengineering technique which offers a possible solution to some of the problems caused by global warming . However , this will not be without side effects and it has been suggested that the cure may be worse than the disease .", "Solar radiation management Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "Marine cloud brightening Marine cloud brightening is a proposed solar radiation management climate engineering technique that would make clouds brighter , reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to offset anthropogenic global warming . Along with stratospheric aerosol injection , it is one of the two solar radiation management methods that may most feasibly have a substantial climate impact . The intention is that increasing the Earth 's albedo , in combination with greenhouse gas emissions reduction , carbon dioxide removal , and adaptation , would reduce climate change and its risks to people and the environment . If implemented , the cooling effect is expected to be felt rapidly and to be reversible on fairly short time scales . However , technical barriers remain to large-scale marine cloud brightening . There are also risks with such modification of complex climate systems .", "Arctic geoengineering Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "Solar variability Solar variability refers to changes in solar activity , such as : Solar variation , the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun ( see Solar radiation ) see also solar cycle , specifically for the 11-year cyclic variation in solar activity Changes in the solar wind , i.e. , charged particles ( moving much slower than the speed of light ) Category : Solar phenomena", "Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering ( SPICE ) was a United Kingdom government-funded climate engineering ( geoengineering ) research project that aimed to assess the feasibility of injecting particles into the stratosphere from a tethered balloon for the purposes of solar radiation management .", "Nuclear winter Nuclear winter is the severe global-climatic-cooling-effect , hypothesized to occur after the ignition of a number of firestorms , from nuclear bomb detonations , or wide spread bombardments . Such fires , which can inject soot into the stratosphere , have historically occurred in a number of cities , with nuclear winter researchers using both Hamburg and the less ferocious Hiroshima firestorms as the principal examples . However , as firestorms are most frequently encountered in much larger area wildfires , these latter fires are the most significant today in assessing both the initial and present-day `` nuclear winter '' computer models .", "Robert Jay Charlson Robert Jay Charlson is an American atmospheric scientist , climate scientist , pioneer in the fields of climate forcing and climate change , and coauthor of the CLAW hypothesis . He is professor of Atmospheric Sciences , chemistry , and geophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle , Washington . Charlson earned his PhD from the University of Washington . He is a world expert in atmospheric chemistry , aerosol physics , aerosol/cloud/climate interaction , aerosol and cloud instrumentation .", "Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "Climate oscillation A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "Albrecht effect The Albrecht effect describes how cloud condensation nuclei ( CCN ) , possibly from anthropogenic pollution , may increase cloud lifetime and hence increase the amount of solar radiation reflected from clouds . Because it does not directly interact with incoming or outgoing radiation , it has an indirect effect on climate . Aerosol particles act as CCNs creating more droplets of a smaller size . These take more time to coalesce to raindrop size ( > 100μm ) , reducing precipitation efficiency and hence increasing the lifetime of the cloud . The increased scattering of incoming radiation leads to a cooling of -0.3 to -1.4 Wm − 2 . This effect is not as well understood as the Twomey effect . There are many other effects , indirect and semi-direct aerosol effects resulting in a large uncertainty in the radiative forcing due to aerosols .", "Stratosphere The stratosphere ( -LSB- ˈstrætəˌsfɪər , _ - toʊ - -RSB- ) is the second major layer of Earth 's atmosphere , just above the troposphere , and below the mesosphere . About 20 % of the atmosphere 's mass is contained in the stratosphere . The stratosphere is stratified in temperature , with warmer layers higher and cooler layers closer to the Earth . The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun 's ultraviolet radiation by the ozone . This is in contrast to the troposphere , near the Earth 's surface , where temperatures decreases with altitude . The border between the troposphere and stratosphere , the tropopause , marks where this temperature inversion begins . Near the equator , the stratosphere starts at 18 km ; at mid latitudes , it starts at 10 - and ends at 50 km ; at the poles , it starts at about 8 km . Temperatures vary within the stratosphere with the seasons , in particular with the polar night ( winter ) . The greatest variation of temperature takes place over the poles in the lower stratosphere ; those variations are largely steady at lower latitudes and higher altitudes .", "Solar phenomena Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun . These phenomena take many forms , including solar wind , radio wave flux , energy bursts such as solar flares , coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions , coronal heating and sunspots . These phenomena are generated by a helical dynamo near the center of the Sun 's mass that generates strong magnetic fields and a chaotic dynamo near the surface that generates smaller magnetic field fluctuations . The total sum of all solar fluctuations is referred to as solar variation . The collective effect of all solar variations within the Sun 's gravitational field is referred to as space weather . A major weather component is the solar wind , a stream of plasma released from the Sun 's upper atmosphere . It is responsible for the aurora , natural light displays in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic . Space weather disturbances can cause solar storms on Earth , disrupting communications , as well as geomagnetic storms in Earth 's magnetosphere and sudden ionospheric disturbances in the ionosphere . Variations in solar intensity also affect Earth 's climate . These variations can explain events such as ice ages and the Great Oxygenation Event , while the Sun 's future expansion into a red giant will likely end life on Earth . Solar activity and related events have been recorded since the 8th century BCE . Babylonians inscribed and possibly predicted solar eclipses , while the earliest extant report of sunspots dates back to the Chinese Book of Changes , . The first extant description of the solar corona was in 968 , while the earliest sunspot drawing was in 1128 and a solar prominence was described in 1185 in the Russian Chronicle of Novgorod . The invention of the telescope allowed major advances in understanding , allowing the first detailed observations in the 1600s . Solar spectroscopy began in the 1800s , from which properties of the solar atmosphere could be determined , while the creation of daguerreotypy led to the first solar photographs on 2 April 1845 . Photography assisted in the study of solar prominences , granulation and spectroscopy . Early in the 20th century , interest in astrophysics surged in America . A number of new observatories were built with solar telescopes around the world . The 1931 invention of the coronagraph allowed the corona to be studied in full daylight .", "Climate engineering Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "Season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather , ecology and hours of daylight . Seasons result from the yearly orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth 's rotational axis relative to the plane of the orbit . In temperate and polar regions , the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that reaches the Earth 's surface , variations of which may cause animals to go into hibernation or to migrate , and plants to be dormant . During May , June , and July , the northern hemisphere is exposed to more direct sunlight because the hemisphere faces the sun . The same is true of the southern hemisphere in November , December , and January . It is the tilt of the Earth that causes the Sun to be higher in the sky during the summer months which increases the solar flux . However , due to seasonal lag , June , July , and August are the hottest months in the northern hemisphere and December , January , and February are the hottest months in the southern hemisphere . In temperate and subpolar regions , four calendar-based seasons are generally recognized : spring , autumn or fall , and winter . Ecologists often use a six-season model for temperate climate regions : prevernal , vernal , estival , serotinal , autumnal , and hibernal . Many tropical regions have two seasons : the rainy , wet , or monsoon season and the dry season . Some have a third cool , mild , or harmattan season . Seasons often held special significance for agrarian societies , whose lives revolved around planting and harvest times , and the change of seasons was often attended by ritual . In some parts of the world , some other `` seasons '' capture the timing of important ecological events such as hurricane season , tornado season , and wildfire season . The most historically important of these are the three seasons -- flood , growth , and low water -- which were previously defined by the former annual flooding of the Nile in Egypt .", "The Cloud Mystery The Cloud Mystery is a documentary by Danish director Lars Oxfeldt Mortensen . It explores the published theory by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark on how galactic cosmic rays and solar activity affects cloud cover , and how this influences the earth 's climate . Also known as Klimamysteriet in Danish . This documentary presents the work done to develop the theory that cloud cover change is caused by variations in cosmic rays as the major originator of global climate variation . It also mentions that these scientist to not subscribe to the view that human influence and the effect of greenhouse gases as significant drivers of climate . However , the focus is on the work they have done and not on other climate theories like anthropogenic global warming for instance .", "Climate pattern A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "Greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "Solar cycle The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun 's activity ( including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material ) and appearance ( changes in the number and size of sunspots , flares , and other manifestations ) . They have been observed ( by changes in the sun 's appearance and by changes seen on Earth , such as auroras ) for centuries . The changes on the sun cause effects in space , in the atmosphere , and on Earth 's surface . While it is the dominant variable in solar activity , aperiodic fluctuations also occur .", "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Cloud forcing Cloud forcing ( sometimes described as cloud radiative forcing or cloud radiative effect ) is , in meteorology , the difference between the radiation budget components for average cloud conditions and cloud-free conditions . Much of the interest in cloud forcing relates to its role as a feedback process in the present period of global warming .", "TOMCAT/SLIMCAT TOMCAT/SLIMCAT is an off-line chemical transport model ( CTM ) , which models the time-dependent distribution of chemical species in the troposphere and stratosphere . It can be used to study topics such as ozone depletion and tropospheric pollution , and was one of the models used the IPCC report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere . It incorporates a choice of detailed chemistry schemes for the troposphere or stratosphere , and an optional chemical data assimilation scheme . The original model code , called the Toulouse Off-line Model of Chemistry And Transport ( TOMCAT ) , was written by Martyn Chipperfield at Météo France . `` Off-line '' in this sense describes the fact that although the meteorological data ( wind components and other fields ) which are used as input to the CTM typically derive from a general circulation model ( GCM ) , the CTM is run as a separate program outside of a GCM ; this is as distinct from a chemistry simulation scheme which runs within a GCM , in which the simulated chemical distributions , e.g. of ozone , can provide feedback on the meteorology via the GCM 's radiation scheme . A version called the Single Layer Isentropic Model of Chemistry And Transport ( SLIMCAT ) was developed in 1995 . This used a level of constant potential temperature ( or equivalently , of constant specific entropy , hence isentropic ) , exploiting the fact that due to approximate conservation of energy , atmospheric motions are approximately adiabatic and hence air parcels remain on isentropic levels on short timescales . A diabatic heating scheme was later added , to allow for multiple isentropic levels with transport between them on longer timescales , although the name `` SLIMCAT '' has remained despite the multiple levels . The two programs are now maintained as a single code base , which runs in Fortran , and has been parallelised . TOMCAT has been further extended to include a detailed treatment of aerosol . GLOMAP ( Global Model of Aerosol Processes ) simulates a wide range of aerosol species including black carbon , sulfate , sea spray , soil dust , and secondary organic aerosol . The primary purpose of TOMCAT/GLOMAP is to simulate aerosol radiative forcing and the impact of aerosol on climate .", "Regional effects of global warming Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise ." ]

[ "Arctic The Arctic ( -LSB- ˈɑrktɪk -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɑrtɪk -RSB- ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth . The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ) , Canada , Finland , Greenland ( Denmark ) , Iceland , Norway , Russia and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places . The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth 's ecosystems . For example , the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions . In recent years , Arctic sea ice decline has been caused by global warming . Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice , zooplankton and phytoplankton , fish and marine mammals , birds , land animals , plants and human societies . Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic .", "Arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity . The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer , reaches a minimum around mid-September , then increases during fall and winter . Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50 % of winter cover . Some of the ice survives from one year to the next . Currently 28 % of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice , thicker than seasonal ice : up to 3 - thick over large areas , with ridges up to 20 m thick . As well as the regular seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades .", "Arctic oscillation The Arctic oscillation ( AO ) or Northern Annular Mode/Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode ( NAM ) is an index ( which varies over time with no particular periodicity ) of the dominant pattern of non-seasonal sea-level pressure variations north of 20N latitude , and it is characterized by pressure anomalies of one sign in the Arctic with the opposite anomalies centered about 37 -- 45N . The AO is believed by climatologists to be causally related to , and thus partially predictive of , weather patterns in locations many thousands of miles away , including many of the major population centers of Europe and North America . NASA climatologist Dr. James E. Hansen explained the mechanism by which the AO affects weather at points so distant from the Arctic , as follows : `` The degree to which Arctic air penetrates into middle latitudes is related to the AO index , which is defined by surface atmospheric pressure patterns . When the AO index is positive , surface pressure is low in the polar region . This helps the middle latitude jet stream to blow strongly and consistently from west to east , thus keeping cold Arctic air locked in the polar region . When the AO index is negative , there tends to be high pressure in the polar region , weaker zonal winds , and greater movement of frigid polar air into middle latitudes . '' This zonally symmetric seesaw between sea level pressures in polar and temperate latitudes was first identified by Edward Lorenz and named in 1998 by David W.J. Thompson and John Michael Wallace . The North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) is a close relative of the AO and there exist arguments about whether one or the other is more fundamentally representative of the atmosphere 's dynamics ; Ambaum et al. argue that the NAO can be identified in a more physically meaningful way . Over most of the past century , the Arctic Oscillation alternated between its positive and negative phases . Starting in the 1970s the oscillation has trended to more of a positive phase when averaged using a 60-day running mean , though it has trended to a more neutral state in the last decade . The oscillation still fluctuates stochastically between negative and positive values on daily , monthly , seasonal and annual time scales , although , despite its stochastic nature , meteorologists have attained high levels of predictive accuracy in recent times , at least for the shorter term forecasts . ( The correlation between actual observations and the 7-day mean GFS ensemble AO forecasts is approximately 0.9 , a figure at the high end for that statistic . ) The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes the effects of the AO in some detail : `` In the positive phase , higher pressure at midlatitudes drives ocean storms farther north , and changes in the circulation pattern bring wetter weather to Alaska , Scotland and Scandinavia , as well as drier conditions to the western United States and the Mediterranean . In the positive phase , frigid winter air does not extend as far into the middle of North America as it would during the negative phase of the oscillation . This keeps much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains warmer than normal , but leaves Greenland and Newfoundland colder than usual . Weather patterns in the negative phase are in general `` opposite '' to those of the positive phase . '' Climatologists are now routinely invoking the Arctic Oscillation in their official public explanations for extremes of weather . The following statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's National Climatic Data Center : State of the Climate December 2010 which uses the phrase `` negative Arctic Oscillation '' four times , is very representative of this increasing tendency : `` Cold arctic air gripped western Europe in the first three weeks of December . Two major snowstorms , icy conditions , and frigid temperatures wreaked havoc across much of the region ... The harsh winter weather was attributed to a negative Arctic Oscillation , which is a climate pattern that influences weather in the Northern Hemisphere . A very persistent , strong ridge of high pressure , or ` blocking system ' , near Greenland allowed cold Arctic air to slide south into Europe . Europe was not the only region in the Northern Hemisphere affected by the Arctic Oscillation . A large snow storm and frigid temperatures affected much of the Midwest United States on December 10 -- 13 ... '' A further , quite graphic illustration of the effects of the negative phase of the oscillation occurred in February 2010 . In that month , the Arctic Oscillation reached its most negative monthly mean value , − 4.266 , in the entire post-1950 era ( the period of accurate record-keeping ) . That month was characterized by three separate historic snowstorms that occurred in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States . The first storm dumped 25 in on Baltimore , Maryland , on February 5 -- 6 , and then a second storm dumped 19.5 in on February 9 -- 10 . In New York City , a separate storm deposited 20.9 in on February 25 -- 26 . This kind of snowstorm activity is as anomalous and extreme as the negative AO value itself . Similarly , the greatest negative value for the AO since 1950 in January was − 3.767 in 1977 , which coincided with the coldest mean January temperature in New York City , Washington , D.C. , Baltimore , and many other mid-Atlantic locations in that span of time . And though the January AO has been negative only 60.6 % of the time between 1950 and 2010 , 9 of the 10 coldest Januarys in New York City since 1950 have coincided with negative AOs . However , the correlation between sharply negative Arctic Oscillations and excessive winter cold and snow in regions vulnerable in that way to these negative AOs should not be overstated . It is by no means a simple , one-to-one equivalence . An extreme Arctic Oscillation does not necessarily mean extreme weather will occur . For example , since 1950 , eight out of the 10 coldest Januarys in New York did not coincide with the 10 lowest January AO values . And the fourth warmest January there since 1950 coincided with one of those 10 most negative AOs . So , although many climatologists believe that the Arctic Oscillation affects the probability of certain weather events occurring in certain places , the heightened chance of a phenomenon by no means assures it , nor does the lessened likelihood exclude it . Further , the precise value of the AO index only imperfectly reflects the severity of the weather associated with it ." ]

[ "Meteoric water Meteoric water is the water derived from precipitation ( snow and rain ) . This includes water from lakes , rivers , and icemelts , which all originate from precipitation indirectly . While the bulk of rainwater or meltwater from snow and ice reaches the sea through surface flow , a considerable portion of meteoric water gradually infiltrates into the ground . This infiltrating water continues its downward journey to the zone of saturation to become a part of the groundwater in aquifers .", "Arctic resources race The Arctic resources race refers to the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources in the Arctic . As the ice in the Arctic melts at a record rate and the sea ice extent continues to decrease due to global climate change , the Arctic waters become more navigable and Arctic resources -- such as oil and gas , minerals , fish , as well as tourism and new trade routes -- are becoming more accessible . Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea , five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic 's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones : Canada , Russia , Denmark , Norway , and the United States ( though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty , it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it ) . The Arctic region and its resources have recently been at the center of controversy and pose potential conflicts between nations that have differing opinions of how to manage the area , including conflicting territorial claims . In addition , the Arctic region is home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people . If the ice continues to melt at the current rate , then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced . The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole : melting ice releases methane , ice reflects incoming solar radiation , and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation ( albedo effect ) , heating up the water causing more ocean acidification , and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level .", "Vertical distribution of ice in Arctic clouds Vertical Distribution of Ice in Arctic Clouds ( VERDI ) is the name of a German research project on the topic of Arctic clouds . Measurements within this project were conducted in April and May 2012 around Inuvik , Canada , organized by the University of Leipzig . The project aims at an improvement of knowledge about the effects of clouds in the Arctic climate system . The main question within VERDI is the distribution of ice crystals and liquid water droplets within the clouds . That distribution depends on various parameters , such as temperature and the cloud 's life cycle .", "Arctic realm The Arctic realm is one of the planet 's twelve marine realms , as designated by the WWF and Nature Conservancy . It includes the coastal regions and continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas , including the Arctic Archipelago , Hudson Bay , and the Labrador Sea of northern Canada , the seas surrounding Greenland , the northern and eastern coasts of Iceland , and the eastern Bering Sea . The Arctic realm transitions to the Temperate Northern Atlantic realm in the Atlantic Basin , and the Temperate Northern Pacific realm in the Pacific Basin .", "Arctic methane emissions Arctic methane release is the release of methane from seas and soils in permafrost regions of the Arctic . While a long-term natural process , it is exacerbated by global warming . This results in a positive feedback effect , as methane is itself a powerful greenhouse gas . The Arctic region is one of the many natural sources of the greenhouse gas methane . Global warming accelerates its release , due to both release of methane from existing stores , and from methanogenesis in rotting biomass . Large quantities of methane are stored in the Arctic in natural gas deposits , permafrost , and as undersea clathrates . Permafrost and clathrates degrade on warming , thus large releases of methane from these sources may arise as a result of global warming . Other sources of methane include submarine taliks , river transport , ice complex retreat , submarine permafrost and decaying gas hydrate deposits . Concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere are higher by 8 -- 10 % than that in the Antarctic atmosphere . During cold glacier epochs , this gradient decreases to practically insignificant levels . Land ecosystems are considered the main sources of this asymmetry , although it has been suggested that `` the role of the Arctic Ocean is significantly underestimated . '' Soil temperature and moisture levels have been found to be significant variables in soil methane fluxes in tundra environments .", "Great Arctic State Nature Reserve The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in Krasnoyarsk Krai , Russia . With an area of 41692 km2 , it is the largest reserve of Russia and Eurasia , as well as one of the largest in the world .", "Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act The Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act ( 1970 , R.S.C. 1985 ) is a Government of Canada statute to prevent pollution of areas of the arctic waters adjacent to the mainland and islands of the Canadian arctic . The federal departments responsible for enforcing this Act is Natural Resources Canada , Transport Canada , Indian and Northern Affairs Canada .", "Banded gunnel The Banded Gunnel ( Pholis fasciata ) is the only species of gunnel that lives in the Arctic Ocean . Very little is known about its life cycle or reproduction .", "2015 Arctic Race of Norway The 2015 Arctic Race of Norway was a four-stage cycling stage race that took place in Norway between 13 and 16 August . It was the third edition of the Arctic Race of Norway and is rated as a 2 . HC event as part of the UCI Europe Tour . The race is the northernmost race in the 2015 men 's cycling calendar . The champion of the 2014 edition was Steven Kruijswijk , though he was not present to defend his title . The race was won by Rein Taaramäe on the final stage , ahead of Silvan Dillier and Ilnur Zakarin , after the three riders broke away from the pack on the finishing circuit . Alexander Kristoff won the first stage and the points classification , while the mountains classification was won by August Jensen ( Team Coop-Øster Hus ) . BMC won the teams classification .", "Putorana Nature Reserve Putoransky State Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the northern part of Central Siberia , located about 100 km north of the Arctic Circle in Krasnoyarsk Krai . It was established in 1987 .", "Arctic geoengineering Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "Arctic Research Office The Arctic Research Office ( ARO ) a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) run under the auspices of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . ARO is the focal point for NOAA 's research in the Arctic , Bering Sea , North Pacific and North Atlantic regions . In 1996 , the Congress of the United States appropriated one million USD to support an Arctic Research Initiative within NOAA . In cooperation with the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research , NOAA 's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research used those funds to support research projects in two principal areas : natural variability of the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem , and anthropogenic influences on the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem . Support for the Arctic Research Initiative is ongoing . The office administers the funds from the Arctic Research Initiative . It represents NOAA on the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee , leads U.S. involvement in the Arctic Monitoring & Assessment Programme , and provides a point of contact between NOAA and the Cooperative Institute and Assessment Program and the International Arctic Research Center .", "Arctic Centre, University of Lapland The Arctic Centre , University of Lapland is Finland 's national institute for Arctic expertise . It is based at the University of Lapland , the northernmost university in Finland and the EU , and is located in the Arktikum building by the Ounasjoki river in Rovaniemi near the Arctic Circle . The Centre conducts multidisciplinary and participatory research on impacts of the development and climate change in the Arctic . Besides research and science communications , it maintains a science exhibition , a library and provides education . The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law ( NIEM ) is a part of the Centre . The Centre is committed to research so as to better understand the natural and physical environment of the Arctic and its forms of life . Such research spans the arts , humanities and natural sciences and its products take many forms from scientific papers and monographs to books , exhibitions , audiovisual material , artworks and films . It is a place where researchers , planners and artists collaborate within and outside the university . The community of researchers at the centre comes with diverse scientific , national , cultural and linguistic backgrounds . The centre has strong local orientation and it provides an international research environment that allows and fosters the multidisciplinary approach . This includes participating in several IPY research projects including : CAVIAR ( Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions ) MOVE-INNOCOM ( Place , mobility and viability in INdustrial , NOrthern COmmunities ) DAMOCLES ( Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-Term Environmental Studies ) CIGSAC ( The Capability of International Governance Systems in the Arctic to Contribute to the Mitigation of Climate Change and Adjust to its Consequences ) Greening of Arctic/Application of space based technologies to land use and cover change The `` Arctic in Change '' , a science exhibition , promotes the natural beauty and the cultural richness of the Arctic , while it informs the visitors about the ongoing rapid social and environmental changes occurring in the fragile Arctic . Set up in a friendly environment , the exhibition combines multimedia shows , interactive stations , artefacts and photos . The exhibition revolves around the ongoing changes in the Arctic and illuminates the relationship between global and local issues .", "Natural cycle in vitro fertilization Natural Cycle IVF is in vitro fertilisation ( IVF ) using either of the following procedures : IVF without the use any ovarian hyperstimulation drugs . IVF using an ovarian hyperstimulation protocol with a GnRH antagonist for ovulation suppression , generally with gonadotropins as well . This procedure can be called modified natural cycle-IVF ( MNC-IVF ) . Frozen embryo transfer ; IVF using ovarian hyperstimulation , followed by embryo cryopreservation , followed by embryo transfer in a later , natural , cycle .", "Ballantyne Strait The Ballantyne Strait is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago in the Northwest Territories of Canada . It separates Prince Patrick Island ( to the south-west ) and Brock Island ( to the north-east ) . It opens into the Arctic Ocean to the north-west . Category : Straits of the Northwest Territories", "University of Copenhagen Arctic Station University of Copenhagen Arctic Station is a year-round , environmental research facility in central West Greenland . Located about 300 m northeast of Qeqertarsuaq , it faces Disko Bay and the Davis Strait on the south coast of Disko Island with the Blæsedalen valley to the north . The main building and the laboratory are within a nature sanctuary . Arctic Station is owned by the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Science . It was founded in 1906 by the botanist Morten Pedersen Porsild .", "Arctic policy of Finland Arctic Policy of Finland is Finland 's foreign relations with other Arctic countries , and Finland 's government policies on issues occurring within the geographic boundaries of `` the Arctic '' or related to the Arctic or its peoples . Since Finland is itself an Arctic nation , the Arctic Policy of Finland includes its domestic policies as regards the Finnish Arctic region . Finland was integral in the creation of the Arctic Council and remains a member . Finland has also been involved in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council since its creation in 1993 . Finland 's Strategy for the Arctic Region was released June 4 , 2010 and concentrates on seven priorities : security , environment , economy , infrastructure , indigenous peoples , institutions and the European Union . Finland emphasizes the importance of the Arctic Council as a forum for discussion and decision making . Finland suggests strengthening the Council by installing better burden-sharing and a joint budget , establishing a permanent secretariat , expanding the normative role of the Council , enhancing interaction with non-Arctic actors and creating a Communications and Outreach Strategy for the Council . Finland also offers to host a high-level Arctic Summit to discuss the environmental concerns of natural resource exploitation , the legitimacy of different actors in the Arctic and the future of the Arctic Council . Since Finland is an EU member , ( along with Sweden and Denmark ) the EU Arctic Policy will play a role in the Finnish Arctic strategy . Finland supports EU admittance as a permanent observer member of the Arctic Council . In considering Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2017-18 , Finland is calling for making the Arctic Council a more robust treaty-making organization and for hosting a meeting of leaders of the eight Arctic nations during their Chairmanship .", "Natural Cycles Natural Cycles is an app for predicting the days on which a woman is fertile and so may be used for planning pregnancy and contraception . It was developed by CERN scientist Elina Berglund who founded the company with physicist Raoul Scherwitzl .", "Svalbard in fiction Novelists , screenwriters and filmmakers have set their works in Svalbard , an archipelago in the Arctic which constitutes the northernmost part of Norway . Fictional works about Svalbard often make reference to its Arctic climate , the isolation of the archipelago and the natural beauty of its vast glaciers , mountains and fjords .", "Arctic policy of the United States The Arctic policy of the United States refers to the foreign policy of the United States in regard to the Arctic region . In addition , the United States ' domestic policy toward Alaska is part of its Arctic policy . Since March 30 , 1867 ( when the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire ) , the United States of America has been one of the eight Arctic nations and one of the five Arctic Ocean littoral countries . The United States has been a member of the Arctic Council since its inception in 1996 and assumed the Chairmanship ( from Canada ) in April 2015 . 4 of the Arctic Council 's 6 Permanent Participant indigenous organizations have representatives in Alaska . The United States is also an observer of the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region . Since 1880 , the global temperature has risen 0.8 ° C ; but the temperature in the Arctic has warmed twice as much , leading to much less sea ice coverage and greater accessibility to natural resources , transport passages and fisheries . The goals stated in the United States Arctic Policy released in NSPD-66 on January 9 , 2009 are as follows : Meet national security and homeland security needs relevant to the Arctic region ; Protect the Arctic environment and conserve its biological resources ; Ensure that natural resource management and economic development in the region are environmentally sustainable ; Strengthen institutions for cooperation among the eight Arctic nations ( the United States , Canada , Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway , the Russian Federation , and Sweden ) ; Involve the Arctic 's indigenous communities in decisions that affect them ; and Enhance scientific monitoring and research into local , regional , and global environmental issues . On May 10 , 2013 , the Obama White House released the National Strategy for the Arctic Region , emphasizing three areas : advancing U.S. security interests , pursuing responsible Arctic region stewardship , and strengthening international cooperation . Canada is the United States ' closest partner in Arctic affairs , due to geographic proximity and similar Arctic policy directives . The countries work together on scientific research , including mapping the Arctic sea floor . Two significant disagreements are the border dispute in the Beaufort Sea and the legal designation ( international or internal waters ) of the Northwest Passage .", "Ice sheet An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "Mineral cycle The mineral cycle is a biogeochemical and ecological process that regulates the flow , distribution , and migration of mineral nutrients across the Earth 's surface . Minerals are naturally occurring chemical compounds that are made up of elements . These elements undergo continual cycling within the environment and are influenced by a variety of factors . There are four main types of mineral cycle . The oxygen cycle , the water cycle , the phosphorus cycle , and the sulfur cycle .", "Arctic Tale Arctic Tale is a 2007 documentary film from the National Geographic Society about the life cycle of a walrus and her calf , and a polar bear and her cubs , in a similar vein to the 2005 hit production March of the Penguins , also from National Geographic . It was directed by Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson and is narrated by Queen Latifah . The animal characters named in the movie , `` Nanu '' the female polar bear and `` Seela '' the female walrus , are based on composites of animals in their species , as noted at the end of the film .", "Adolph Murie Adolph Murie ( September 6 , 1899 -- August 16 , 1974 ) , the first scientist to study wolves in their natural habitat , was a naturalist , author , and Wildlife biologist who pioneered field research on wolves , bears , and other mammals and birds in Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska . He was also instrumental in protecting wolves from eradication and in preserving the biological integrity of the Denali National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge .", "Hugh M. Raup Hugh Miller Raup ( February 4 , 1901 -- August 10 , 1995 ) was an American botanist , ecologist and geographer working on natural history and natural resource management in diverse regions -- from tropical and temperate to arctic .", "Arctic Institute of North America The Arctic Institute of North America is a multi-disciplinary research institute and educational organization located in the University of Calgary . It is mandated to study the North American and circumpolar Arctic in the areas of natural science , social science , arts and the humanities . In addition , it acquires , preserves and disseminates information on environmental , physical , and social conditions in the North . The institute was created in 1945 by a Canadian Act of Parliament as a non-profit membership organization , and also incorporated in the State of New York .", "Climate system Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "Deglaciation Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "Byrranga Mountains The Byrranga Mountains ( го́ры Бырра́нга Gory Byrranga ) are a mountain range in the middle of the Taymyr Peninsula , Siberia , Russia . Even though they were first explored in 1736 , the Byrranga Mountains are one of the least known areas of the Arctic . The climate is continental and harsh , with frequent blizzards in the winter . This mountain range falls into the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation and is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve , the largest nature reserve in Russia . However , the area is very remote , there is almost no population , and access is very difficult for the lack of roads and settlements .", "Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is the most northerly of the abstract five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of the Earth . It marks the northernmost point at which the noon sun is just visible on the northern winter solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun is just visible on the northern summer solstice . The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic , and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone . North of the Arctic Circle , the sun is above the horizon for twenty-four continuous hours at least once per year ( and therefore visible at midnight ) and below the horizon for twenty-four continuous hours at least once per year ( and therefore not visible at noon ) ; this is also true within the equivalent polar circle in the Southern Hemisphere , the Antarctic Circle . The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed ; as of , it runs north of the Equator . Its latitude depends on the Earth 's axial tilt , which fluctuates within a margin of 2 ° over a 40,000-year period , due to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon . Consequently , the Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about 15 m per year .", "Arctic lemming The Arctic lemming ( Dicrostonyx torquatus ) is a species of rodents in the family Cricetidae . Although generally classified as a `` least concern '' species , the Novaya Zemlya subspecies ( Dicrostonyx torquatus ungulatus ) is considered a vulnerable species under Russian nature conservation legislation ( included in Red Book of Russian Federation since 1998 ) .", "Arctic policy of Russia The Arctic policy of Russia is the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian Federation with respect to the Russian region of the Arctic . The Russian region of the Arctic is defined in the `` Russian Arctic Policy '' as all Russian possessions located north of the Arctic Circle . ( About one-fifth of Russia 's landmass is north of the Arctic Circle . ) Russia is one of five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean . In 2011 , out of 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic , roughly 2 million lived in arctic Russia , making it the largest arctic country by population . However , in recent years Russia 's Arctic population has been declining . The main goals of Russia in its Arctic policy are to utilize its natural resources , protect its ecosystems , use the seas as a transportation system in Russia 's interests , and ensure that it remains a zone of peace and cooperation . Russia currently maintains a military presence in the Arctic and has plans to improve it , as well as strengthen the Border Guard/Coast Guard presence there . Using the Arctic for economic gain has been done by Russia for centuries for shipping and fishing . Russia has plans to exploit the large offshore resource deposits in the Arctic . The Northern Sea Route is of particular importance to Russia for transportation , and the Russian Security Council is considering projects for its development . The Security Council also stated a need for increasing investment in Arctic infrastructure . Russia conducts extensive research in the Arctic region , notably the manned drifting ice stations and the Arktika 2007 expedition , which was the first to reach the seabed at the North Pole . The research is partly aimed to back up Russia 's territorial claims , in particular those related to Russia 's extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean ." ]

[ "Media coverage of global warming Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "Intelligent design Intelligent design ( ID ) is a religious argument for the existence of God . Presented by its proponents as `` an evidence-based scientific theory about life 's origins '' , it has been found to be pseudoscience . Proponents claim that `` certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause , not an undirected process such as natural selection . '' Educators , philosophers , and the scientific community have demonstrated that ID is a religious argument , a form of creationism which lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses . Proponents argue that it challenges the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science , while conceding that they have yet to produce a scientific theory . The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute , a politically conservative think tank based in the United States . Although they state that ID is not creationism and deliberately avoid assigning a personality to the designer , many of these proponents express belief that the designer is the Christian deity . ID presents two main arguments against evolutionary explanations : irreducible complexity and specified complexity . These arguments offer assertions that certain features ( biological and informational , respectively ) are too complex to be the result of natural processes . As a positive argument against evolution , ID proposes an analogy between natural systems and human artifacts , a version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God . ID proponents then conclude by analogy that the complex features , as defined by ID , are evidence of design . Detailed scientific examination has rebutted the claims that evolutionary explanations are inadequate , and this premise of intelligent design -- that evidence against evolution constitutes evidence for design -- has been criticized as a false dichotomy . Though the phrase `` intelligent design '' had featured previously in theological discussions of the design argument , the first publication of the term intelligent design in its present use as an alternative term for creationism was in Of Pandas and People , a 1989 textbook intended for high school biology classes . The term was substituted into drafts of the book after the 1987 United States Supreme Court 's Edwards v. Aguillard decision , which barred the teaching of creation science in public schools on constitutional grounds . From the mid-1990s , the intelligent design movement ( IDM ) , supported by the Discovery Institute , advocated inclusion of intelligent design in public school biology curricula . This led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial in which U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science , that it `` can not uncouple itself from its creationist , and thus religious , antecedents , '' and that the school district 's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution , often described as the `` wall of separation between church and state '' .", "Consciousness Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness , or , of being aware of an external object or something within oneself . It has been defined variously in terms of sentience , awareness , subjectivity , the ability to experience or to feel , wakefulness , having a sense of selfhood or soul , the fact that there is something `` that it is like '' to `` have '' or `` be '' it , and the executive control system of the mind , or the state or quality of awareness , or , of being aware of an external object or something within oneself . In contemporary philosophy its definition is often hinted at via the logical possibility of its absence , the philosophical zombie , which is defined as a being whose behavior and function are identical to one 's own yet there is `` no-one in there '' experiencing it . Despite the difficulty in definition , many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is . As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness : `` Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness , making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives . '' Western philosophers , since the time of Descartes and Locke , have struggled to comprehend the nature of consciousness and identify its essential properties . Issues of concern in the philosophy of consciousness include whether the concept is fundamentally coherent ; whether consciousness can ever be explained mechanistically ; whether non-human consciousness exists and if so how can it be recognized ; how consciousness relates to language ; whether consciousness can be understood in a way that does not require a dualistic distinction between mental and physical states or properties ; and whether it may ever be possible for computing machines like computers or robots to be conscious , a topic studied in the field of artificial intelligence . Thanks to developments in technology over the past few decades , consciousness has become a significant topic of interdisciplinary research in cognitive science , with significant contributions from fields such as psychology , neuropsychology and neuroscience . The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness -- that is , on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness . The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness in humans by asking subjects for a verbal report of their experiences ( e.g. , `` tell me if you notice anything when I do this '' ) . Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception , blindsight , denial of impairment , and altered states of consciousness produced by alcohol and other drugs , or spiritual or meditative techniques . In medicine , consciousness is assessed by observing a patient 's arousal and responsiveness , and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from full alertness and comprehension , through disorientation , delirium , loss of meaningful communication , and finally loss of movement in response to painful stimuli . Issues of practical concern include how the presence of consciousness can be assessed in severely ill , comatose , or anesthetized people , and how to treat conditions in which consciousness is impaired or disrupted .", "Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn ( -LSB- ˈkuːn -RSB- July 18 , 1922 -- June 17 , 1996 ) was an American physicist , historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles , introducing the term paradigm shift , which has since become an English-language idiom . Kuhn made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge : that scientific fields undergo periodic `` paradigm shifts '' rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way , and that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before ; and that the notion of scientific truth , at any given moment , can not be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community . Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable ; that is , they are competing and irreconcilable accounts of reality . Thus , our comprehension of science can never rely wholly upon `` objectivity '' alone . Science must account for subjective perspectives as well , since all objective conclusions are ultimately founded upon the subjective conditioning/worldview of its researchers and participants ." ]

[ "Balance of threat The balance of threat ( BoT ) theory was proposed by Stephen M. Walt first in an article titled `` Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power '' published in the journal International Security in 1985 and later further elaborated in his book `` The Origins of Alliances '' ( 1987 ) . The balance of threat theory modified the popular balance of power theory in the neorealist school of international relations . According to balance of threat theory , states ' alliance behavior is determined by the threat they perceive from other states . Walt contends that states will generally balance by allying against a perceived threat , although very weak states are more likely to bandwagon with the rising threat in order to protect their own security . He points to the example of the alliance patterns of European states before and during World War I and World War II , when nations with a significantly greater combined power allied against the recognized threat of German expansionism . Walt identifies four criteria states use to evaluate the threat posed by another state : its aggregate strength ( size , population , and economic capabilities ) , its geographic proximity , its offensive capabilities , and its offensive intentions . Walt argues that the more other states view a rising state as possessing these qualities , the more likely they are to view it as a threat and balance against it . Balance of threat theory modified realism ( as well as the neorealism of Kenneth Waltz ) by separating power from threat . In balance of power theory , which had previously dominated realist analyses , states balance against others whose power ( i.e. , military capabilities ) was rising -- greater power was assumed to reflect offensive intentions . Walt argues that this is not borne out by empirical evidence , and that balance of threat theory -- in which states will not balance against those who are rising in power but do not display offensive intentions -- gives a better account of the evidence . For instance , the United States was most powerful of the two superpowers during the Cold War , but , contrary to the balance of power theory , more states ( e.g. , the NATO nations ) allied with it than with the Soviet Union because the United States displayed much less aggressive intentions toward them than did the Soviet Union . The flaw of the balance of power theory became even more striking after the disappearance of the Soviet threat . With its power unbalanced , Walt argued in 2004 , the United States is still formally allied with NATO , Japan , South Korea and several other countries , and hints that the U.S. might withdraw its forces still tend to provoke requests for a continued U.S. presence . Counterbalancing coalitions predicted by the balance of power theory hardly appeared :", "Global alert Global alert is used as the global radio-communications network during times of international crises or threats to international security . Global Alerts are also issued by agencies such as the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , when there is a perceived threat of international pandemic , ( global epidemic ) , such as the threat of a SARS , ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ) , pandemic during March 2003 , due to its high contagion level which was rapidly spread by travelers sharing international flights . The global alert released by the World Health Organization regarding the SARS outbreak and its rapid contagion saved many lives : The alert about the disease , precautionary measures , and preventive measures to be taken by individuals , including specific hygiene information needed to arrest the spread of SARS was communicated instantly throughout the world .", "Experimenter's regress In science , experimenter 's regress refers to a loop of dependence between theory and evidence . In order to judge whether evidence is erroneous we must rely on theory-based expectations , and to judge the value of competing theories we rely on evidence . Cognitive bias affects experiments , and experiments determine which theory is valid . This issue is particularly important in new fields of science where there is no community consensus regarding the relative values of various competing theories , and where sources of experimental error are not well known . In a true scientific process , no consensus does exist and no consensus can exist as the process is conducted scientifically in the pursuit of knowledge . If any party involved in the process stands to personally lose or gain from the result , the process will be flawed and unscientific . In a true scientific process , a theory is formed after a scientist - amateur or professional - has observed a phenomenon and has asked `` why ? '' as a result . The theory is the answer the scientist creates using logic and reason to explain the phenomenon . The scientist then focuses on how to conduct experiments to test the theory incrementally and the theory is either proven to be true or false through repeatable and legitimate experimentation . Legitimate scientific experiments conducted by the person who formulated the theory seek to prove the theory false rather than prove it true specifically to counter the effects of bias . If experimenter 's regress acts a positive feedback system , it can be a source of pathological science . An experimenter 's strong belief in a new theory produces confirmation bias , and any biased evidence they obtain then strengthens their belief in that particular theory . Neither individual researchers nor entire scientific communities are immune to this effect ; see N-rays and Polywater . Experimenter 's regress is a typical relativistic phenomenon in the Empirical Programme of Relativism ( EPOR ) . EPOR is very much concerned with a focus on social interactions , by looking at particular ( local ) cases and controversial issues in the context in which they happen . In EPOR , all scientific knowledge is perceived to be socially constructed and is thus `` not given by nature '' . In his article Son of seven sexes : The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon , Harry Collins argued that scientific experiments are subject to what he calls `` experimenter 's regress '' . The outcome of a phenomenon that is studied for the first time is always uncertain and judgment in these situations , about what matters , requires considerable experience , tacit and practical knowledge . When a scientist runs an experiment , and a result comes out of this , he can never be sure whether this is the result he 'd expected . The result looks good because he knows the experiment he conducted was right or that the results are wrong . The scientist , in other words , has to get the right answers in order to know that the experiment is working , or to know that the experiment is working , to get the right answer . Experimenter 's regress occurs at the `` research frontier '' where the outcome of research is uncertain , for the scientist is dealing with `` novel phenomena '' . Collins puts it this way : `` usually , successful practice of an experimental skill is evident in a successful outcome to an experiment , but where the detection of a novel phenomenon is in question , it is not clear what should count as a ` successful outcome ' -- detection or non detection of the phenomenon '' ( Collins 1981 : 34 ) . In new fields of research where no paradigm has yet evolved and where no consensus exists as what counts as proper research , experimenter 's regress is a problem that often occurs . Also in situations where there is much controversy over a discovery or claim due to opposing interests , dissenters will often question experimental evidence that founds a theory . Because for Collins , all scientific knowledge is socially constructed , there are no purely cognitive reasons or objective criteria that determine whether a claim is valid or not . The regress must be broken by `` social negotiation '' between scientists in the respective field . In the case of Gravitational Radiation , Collins notices that Weber , the scientist who is said to have discovered the phenomenon , could refute all the critique and had `` a technical answer for every other point '' but he was not able to convince other scientists and in the end he was not taken seriously anymore . The problems that come with `` experimenter 's regress '' can never be fully avoided because scientific outcomes in EPOR are seen as negotiable and socially constructed . Acceptance of claims boils down to persuasion of other people in the community . Experimenter 's regress can always become a problem in a world where `` the natural world in no way constrains what is believed to be '' . Moreover , attempts to falsify a claim , by replicating an experiment , are hard and problematic for it involves tacit knowledge ( i.e. unarticulated knowledge ) , matters of time and money and replication of exact similar conditions , which is hard . Tacit knowledge can never be fully articulated or translated into a set of rules . Some commentators have argued that Collins 's `` experimenter 's regress '' is foreshadowed by Sextus Empiricus ' argument that `` if we shall judge the intellects by the senses , and the senses by the intellect , this involves circular reasoning inasmuch as it is required that the intellects should be judged first in order that the intellects may be tested -LSB- hence -RSB- we possess no means by which to judge objects '' ( quoted after Godin & Gingras 2002 : 140 ) . Others have extended Collins 's argument to the cases of theoretical practice ( `` theoretician 's regress '' ; Kennefick 2000 ) and computer simulation studies ( `` simulationist 's regress '' ; Gelfert 2011 ) .", "Search for a Method Search for a Method or The Problem of Method ( Questions de méthode ) is a 1957 essay by Jean-Paul Sartre , in which he attempts to reconcile Marxism with existentialism . The first version of the essay was published in the Polish journal Twórczość ; an adapted version appeared later that year in Les Temps modernes , and later served as an introduction for Sartre 's Critique of Dialectical Reason ( Paris , 1960 ) . Sartre argues that existentialism and Marxism are compatible , even complementary , even though Marxism 's materialism and determinism might seem to contradict the abstraction and radical freedom of existentialism .", "List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "Blood type diet The blood type diets are fad diets advocated by several authors , the most prominent of which is Peter J. D'Adamo . These diets are based on the notion that ABO blood type is the most important factor in determining a healthy diet and each recommends distinct diets for each blood type . The consensus among dietitians , physicians , and scientists is that these diets are unsupported by scientific evidence .", "Chronic bracing Chronic Bracing is the continuous tension of muscles resulting from a conscious or subconsciously perceived ongoing fear or threat . Whilst under a threat , the human 's flight or fight response alters normal body functions to improve its ability to survive a threat . These changes include the tensioning of muscles around the trunk and spine providing improved protection of vital organs from a physical threat . However , this useful reaction to a physical threat is also triggered under perceived threats that are not physical in nature . If these perceived fear or threat is ongoing , which is often the case if perceived from within the unconscious , Chronic Bracing will be one of the consequences .", "Annales Alamannici The Annales Almannici , which are also referred to as the Annals of St. Gall , provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available . They are notable for their short , cursory style and limited narrative . To the modern scholar , they might appear to be incomplete , and for that reason , of limited value . However , in recent years , historians such as Hayden White have argued that the style of the chronicles depict a worldview that is distinctly medieval where `` things happen to people rather than one in which people do things . '' For that reason , they provide insight into the medieval mind and what things the people of the Dark Ages considered important . The core text of the Annales Alamannici covers the years 709 through to 799 . Spread over several Swabian monasteries , the annals were continued independently in several places , in the Reichenau Abbey up to 939 ( continued by Hermannus Contractus ) , in St. Gallen up to 926 . The St. Gallen version was continued from 927 to 1059 as the Annales Sangallenses maiores .", "Barefoot running Barefoot running , also called `` natural running '' , is the act of running without footwear . With the advent of modern footwear , running barefoot has become less common in most parts of the world but is still practiced in parts of Africa and Latin America . In some Western countries , barefoot running has grown in popularity due to perceived health benefits . Scientific research into the practice of running barefoot has not reached a clear consensus regarding its risks or its benefits . While footwear might provide protection from cuts , bruises , impact and weather , proponents of barefoot running argue that it reduces the risk of chronic injuries ( notably repetitive stress injuries ) caused by heel striking in padded running shoes . The barefoot movement has prompted some manufacturers to introduce thin-soled and flexible shoes such as traditional moccasins and huaraches for minimalist running .", "Lessons of October Lessons of October ( Russian : Уроки Октября ) is a polemical essay of about 60 printed pages in length by Leon Trotsky , first published in Moscow in October 1924 as the preface to the third volume of his Collected Works . The essay was harshly critical of the purported revolutionary failings of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev , two key members of the collective leadership which briefly ruled Soviet Russia in the months after the death of V.I. Lenin . Publication of the essay was used as a pretext for the Soviet leadership to isolate and attack Trotsky , whom the leadership mutually perceived as a threat to accede to supreme power . In subsequent years Trotsky 's essay was reprinted several times under its own covers by the international Trotskyist movement .", "Jean de Silhon Jean de Silhon ( 1596 , Sos , Lot-et-Garonne -- February 1667 , Paris ) was a French philosopher and politician . He was a founding member , and the first to occupy seat 24 of the Académie française in 1634 . At Cardinal Richelieu 's prompting , he defended the concept of reason of state , arguing that the political necessities under which the State operates mean that it need not always follow normal laws of ethics , such as telling the truth . Reason of state was thus , he said , `` a mean between that which conscience permits and affairs require . ''", "Gene nomenclature Gene nomenclature is the scientific naming of genes , the units of heredity in living organisms . An international committee published recommendations for genetic symbols and nomenclature in 1957 . The need to develop formal guidelines for human gene names and symbols was recognized in the 1960s and full guidelines were issued in 1979 ( Edinburgh Human Genome Meeting ) . Several other genus-specific research communities ( e.g. , Drosophila fruit flies , Mus mice ) have adopted nomenclature standards , as well , and have published them on the relevant model organism websites and in scientific journals , including the Trends in Genetics Genetic Nomenclature Guide . Scientists familiar with a particular gene family may work together to revise the nomenclature for the entire set of genes when new information becomes available . For many genes and their corresponding proteins , an assortment of alternate names is in use across the scientific literature and public biological databases , posing a challenge to effective organization and exchange of biological information . Standardization of nomenclature thus tries to achieve the benefits of vocabulary control and bibliographic control , although adherence is voluntary . The advent of the information age has brought gene ontology , which in some ways is a next step of gene nomenclature , because it aims to unify the representation of gene and gene product attributes across all species . Gene nomenclature and protein nomenclature are not separate endeavors ; they are aspects of the same whole . Any name or symbol used for a protein can potentially also be used for the gene that encodes it , and vice versa . But owing to the nature of how science has developed ( with knowledge being uncovered bit by bit over decades ) , proteins and their corresponding genes have not always been discovered simultaneously ( and not always physiologically understood when discovered ) , which is the largest reason why protein and gene names do not always match , or why scientists tend to favor one symbol or name for the protein and another for the gene . Another reason is that many of the mechanisms of life are the same or very similar across species , genera , orders , and phyla , so that a given protein may be produced in many kinds of organisms ; and thus scientists naturally often use the same symbol and name for a given protein in one species ( for example , mice ) as in another species ( for example , humans ) . Regarding the first duality ( same symbol and name for gene or protein ) , the context usually makes the sense clear to scientific readers , and the nomenclatural systems also provide for some specificity by using italic for a symbol when the gene is meant and plain ( roman ) for when the protein is meant . Regarding the second duality ( a given protein is endogenous in many kinds of organisms ) , the nomenclatural systems also provide for at least human-versus-nonhuman specificity by using different capitalization , although scientists often ignore this distinction , given that it is often biologically irrelevant . Also owing to the nature of how scientific knowledge has unfolded , proteins and their corresponding genes often have several names and symbols that are synonymous . Some of the earlier ones may be deprecated in favor of newer ones , although such deprecation is voluntary . Some older names and symbols live on simply because they have been widely used in the scientific literature ( including before the newer ones were coined ) and are well established among users . Lastly , some proteins and protein complexes are built from the products of several genes ( each gene contributing a polypeptide subunit ) , which means that the protein or complex will not have the same name or symbol as any one gene .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Static interpretation of time The static interpretation of time is a view of time which arose in the early years of the 20th Century from Einstein 's Special Relativity and Hermann Minkowski 's extension of Special Relativity in which time and space were famously united in physicists ' thinking as spacetime . Essentially the universe is regarded as akin to a reel of film -- which is a wholly static physical object -- but which when played through a movie projector conjures a world of movement , color , light and change . In the static view our whole universe -- our past , present , and future are fixed parts of that reel of film , and the projector is our consciousness . But the ` happenings ' of our consciousness have no objective significance -- the objective universe does not happen , it simply exists in its entirety , albeit perceived from within as a world of changes . The alternative , and commonly assumed view , is that the world unfolds in existence , that our present has some wider physical significance , because the universe evolves in step with it . The static view is the simpler in that all that is held to exist is the physical ordering of the universe . All that there is at every time simply exists . The unfolding view requires an additional quality to the universe -- that besides the physical ordering there is some quality of coming into and out of existence . One can argue that the onus is therefore upon those who propose it , that the world unfolds , and that this additional quality they hold to ( absent from special relativity ) is indeed a physical feature of the world . There is however as yet no proof , experiment , or measurement , to show that our conscious experience of an unfolding present has any objective physical significance , or that the universe is anything other than static . The static view is however commonly rejected for psychological , not scientific reasons , because it leads to a fatalistic or `` fixed '' conclusion about human existence -- our ` past ' , ` present ' , and ` future ' being what they are -- there is no contingency in the world and no possibility of ` altering ' or creating the future through some act of will -- the future exists . It is simply that our consciousness has not yet reached it .", "Cartesian circle The Cartesian circle is a potential mistake in reasoning attributed to René Descartes . Descartes argues -- for example , in the third of his Meditations on First Philosophy -- that whatever one clearly and distinctly perceives is true : `` I now seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true . '' ( AT VII 35 ) He goes on in the same Meditation to argue for the existence of a benevolent God , in order to defeat his skeptical argument in the first Meditation that God might be a deceiver . He then says that without his knowledge of God 's existence , none of his knowledge could be certain . The Cartesian circle is a criticism of the above that takes this form : Descartes ' proof of the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions takes as a premise God 's existence as a non-deceiver . Descartes ' proofs of God 's existence presuppose the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions . Thus , Descartes ' argument is circular .", "Benefit tourism Benefit tourism is a political term coined in the 1990s and later used for the perceived threat that a huge number of citizens from eight of the ten new nations given membership in the European Union in the 2004 enlargement of the European Union would move to the existing member states to benefit from their social welfare systems rather than to work . This threat was in several countries used as a reason for creating temporary work or benefit restrictions for citizens from the eight new member states .", "Pluralist theories of truth A pluralist theory of truth is a theory of truth which posits that there may be more than one property that makes a proposition true . Most traditional theories of truth are monist : that is , they hold that there is one and only property the having of which makes a belief or proposition true . Pluralist theories of truth deny this assumption . According to pluralism , ethical propositions might be true by more than one property , for example by virtue of coherence ; propositions about the physical world might also be true by corresponding to the objects and properties they are about . Pluralism , in short , holds out the prospect that propositions might be `` true in more than one way '' . Crispin Wright is the most well-known advocate of pluralism about truth . In his 1992 book Truth and Objectivity , Wright argued that any predicate which satisfied certain platitudes about truth qualified as a truth predicate . In some discourses , Wright argued , the role of the truth predicate might be played by the notion of superassertibility . Michael Lynch ( philosopher ) has recently advocated a different type of pluralism about truth . In a series of articles and in his 2009 book Truth as One and Many Lynch argues that we should see truth as a functional property capable of being multiply manifested in distinct properties like correspondence or coherence .", "History of scientific method The history of scientific method considers changes in the methodology of scientific inquiry , as distinct from the history of science itself . The development of rules for scientific reasoning has not been straightforward ; scientific method has been the subject of intense and recurring debate throughout the history of science , and eminent natural philosophers and scientists have argued for the primacy of one or another approach to establishing scientific knowledge . Despite the disagreements about approaches , scientific method has advanced in definite steps . Rationalist explanations of nature , including atomism , appeared both in ancient Greece in the thought of Leucippus and Democritus , and in ancient India , in the Nyaya , Vaisesika and Buddhist schools , while Charvaka materialism rejected inference as a source of knowledge in favour of an empiricism that was always subject to doubt . Aristotle pioneered scientific method in ancient Greece alongside his empirical biology and his work on logic , rejecting a purely deductive framework in favour of generalisations made from observations of nature . Some of the most important debates in the history of scientific method center on : rationalism , especially as advocated by René Descartes ; inductivism , which rose to particular prominence with Isaac Newton and his followers ; and hypothetico-deductivism , which came to the fore in the early 19th century . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , a debate over realism vs. antirealism was central to discussions of scientific method as powerful scientific theories extended beyond the realm of the observable , while in the mid-20th century some prominent philosophers argued against any universal rules of science at all .", "Scientific method The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena , acquiring new knowledge , or correcting and integrating previous knowledge . To be termed scientific , a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning . The Oxford Dictionaries Online define the scientific method as `` a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century , consisting in systematic observation , measurement , and experiment , and the formulation , testing , and modification of hypotheses '' . Experiments need to be designed to test hypotheses . The most important part of the scientific method is the experiment . The scientific method is a continuous process , which usually begins with observations about the natural world . Human beings are naturally inquisitive , so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas ( hypotheses ) about why things are the way they are . The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways , including making further observations about nature . In general , the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data . Depending on how well the tests match the predictions , the original hypothesis may require refinement , alteration , expansion or even rejection . If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed . Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another , identifiable features are frequently shared in common between them . The overall process of the scientific method involves making conjectures ( hypotheses ) , deriving predictions from them as logical consequences , and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions . A hypothesis is a conjecture , based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question . The hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad . Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments . Under modern interpretations , a scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable , implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis ; otherwise , the hypothesis can not be meaningfully tested . The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis . Experiments can take place anywhere from a college lab to CERN 's Large Hadron Collider . There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method , however . Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps , it represents rather a set of general principles . Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry ( or to the same degree ) , and are not always in the same order . Some philosophers and scientists have argued that there is no scientific method , such as Lee Smolin and Paul Feyerabend ( in his Against Method ) . Nola and Sankey remark that `` For some , the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year 's debate '' .", "Perceived organizational support Perceived organizational support ( POS ) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfills socioemotional needs . POS is generally thought to be the organization 's contribution to a positive reciprocity dynamic with employees , as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate received rewards and favorable treatment . This idea bloomed from Eisenberger and Rhoades ' organizational support theory .", "Raffles and Miss Blandish `` Raffles and Miss Blandish '' is an essay by George Orwell first published in Horizon in October 1944 as `` The Ethics of the Detective Story from Raffles to Miss Blandish '' . Dwight Macdonald published the essay in politics in November 1944 . It was reprinted in Critical Essays , London , 1946 . The essay contrasts the A. J. Raffles crime stories with the novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish by the crime writer James Hadley Chase and observes the `` immense differences in moral atmosphere '' . In the semi-pornographic crime novel Orwell decries the breaking down of all taboos as the author attracts readers by violence , cruelty and sexual sadism . Orwell argues a direct connection between pornography and power worship . He refers to `` realism '' , meaning the doctrine that might is right , by writing `` The growth of ` realism ' has been the great feature of the intellectual history of our own age . It is important to notice that the cult of power tends to be mixed up with a love of cruelty and wickedness for their own sakes . ' Orwell further notes that No Orchids for Miss Blandish is written in the American language and that many people were under the impression that it was an American book . `` Evidently there are great numbers of English people who are partly Americanised in language , and one ought to add , in moral outlook . In America , both in life and fiction , the tendency to tolerate crime , even to admire the criminal so long as he is successful , is very much more marked . ''", "Caregiver burden Caregiver burden is the stress which is perceived by caregivers due to the home care situation . This subjective burden is one of the most important predictors for negative outcomes of the care situation -- for the caregivers themselves as well as for the one who requires care . Caregivers are all persons who support and help a person in need of care regularly because of personal -- not professional -- reasons . That means every kind of help and support . It does n't need to be health care in the narrow sense . The caregiver does n't need to be akin with the person they support . Often friends , neighbors or acquaintances provide support , too .", "Inventing the AIDS Virus Inventing the AIDS Virus is a 1996 book by molecular biologist Peter Duesberg , in which Duesberg argues that HIV does not cause AIDS . Duesberg contends that HIV is a harmless passenger virus and that AIDS is caused by unrelated factors such as drug abuse , antiretroviral medication , chronic malnutrition , poor sanitation , and hemophilia . The unambiguous scientific consensus is that HIV causes AIDS and that Duesberg 's claims are incorrect . Duesberg received a negative response from the scientific community for supporting AIDS denialism , misrepresenting and ignoring the scientific evidence that HIV causes AIDS , and for relying upon poor logic and manipulation . Duesberg 's book was also the subject of an authorship dispute with one of his graduate students .", "Visual temporal integration Visual temporal integration is a perceptual process of integrating a continuous , and rapid stream of information into discrete perceptual episodes or ` events ' . Arguably , integrating over small temporal windows , as opposed to sampling ` snapshots ' , allows the brain to evaluate visual information more reliably . VTI by the brain reflects an important property of the world : the closer in time two pieces of information occur , the more likely it is that they will be part of the same ` event ' . Several other factors determine the brain 's integration window . One way in which scientists are studying visual temporal integration is by investigating the differences experienced by people with unusual ways of perceiving the world , for example through schizophrenia or autism .", "Omphalos (book) Omphalos : An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot is a book by Philip Gosse , written in 1857 ( two years before Darwin 's On the Origin of Species ) , in which he argues that the fossil record is not evidence of evolution , but rather that it is an act of creation inevitably made so that the world would appear to be older than it is . The reasoning parallels the reasoning that Gosse chose to explain why Adam ( who would have had no mother ) had a navel : Though Adam would have had no need of a navel , God gave him one anyway to give him the appearance of having a human ancestry . Thus , the name of the book , Omphalos , which means ` navel ' in Greek . Darwin is mentioned several times within the book , but always with considerable respect . Gosse had attended meetings at the Royal Society where evolutionary theory was tested by Darwin before the publication of Origin -- and had even made similar observations himself about variation of species in his own studies into marine biology -- and considered Darwin 's reasoning scientifically sound .", "Pleasure Spots `` Pleasure Spots '' is an essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell . The essay considers how pleasure resorts are likely to develop in the future , consisting of artificial environments with vacuous pleasures . Orwell argues that people need peace and to be able to appreciate nature . The essay first appeared in Tribune on 11 January 1946 .", "Truth by consensus In philosophy , truth by consensus is the process of taking statements to be true simply because people generally agree upon them . Imre Lakatos characterizes it as a `` watered down '' form of provable truth propounded by some sociologists of knowledge , particularly Thomas Kuhn and Michael Polanyi . Philosopher Nigel Warburton argues that the truth by consensus process is not a reliable way of discovering truth . That there is general agreement upon something does not make it actually true . There are two main reasons for this : One reason Warburton discusses is that people are prone to wishful thinking . People can believe an assertion and espouse it as truth in the face of overwhelming evidence and facts to the contrary , simply because they wish that things were so . The other one is that people are gullible , and easily misled . Another unreliable method of determining truth is by determining the majority opinion of a popular vote . This is unreliable because on many questions the majority of people are ill-informed . Warburton gives astrology as an example of this . He states that while it may be the case that the majority of the people of the world believe that people 's destinies are wholly determined by astrological mechanisms , given that most of that majority have only sketchy and superficial knowledge of the stars in the first place , their views can not be held to be a significant factor in determining the truth of astrology . The fact that something `` is generally agreed '' or that `` most people believe '' something should be viewed critically , asking the question why that factor is considered to matter at all in an argument over truth . He states that the simple fact that a majority believes something to be true is unsatisfactory justification for believing it to be true . Warburton makes a distinction between the fallacy of truth by consensus and the process of democracy in decision-making . Democracy is preferable to other processes not because it results in truth , but because it provides for equal participation by multiple special-interest groups , and the avoidance of tyranny . Weinberger characterizes Jürgen Habermas as a proponent of a consensus theory of truth , and criticizes that theory as unacceptable on the following grounds : First , even if everyone 's opinion is in agreement , those opinions may all nonetheless be erroneous . Second , truth by consensus is conceived as a limit that is approached via an idealized process of discourse ; however , it has not been proven that discourse even tends towards such a limit , or that discourse even tends towards one single limit , and thus it is not proven that truth is the limit that is approached by ideal discourse and consensus .", "Argument from morality The argument from morality is an argument for the existence of God . Arguments from morality tend to be based on moral normativity or moral order . Arguments from moral normativity observe some aspect of morality and argue that God is the best or only explanation for this , concluding that God must exist . Argument from moral order are based on the asserted need for moral order to exist in the universe . They claim that , for this moral order to exist , God must exist to support it . The argument from morality is noteworthy in that one can not evaluate the soundness of the argument without attending to almost every important philosophical issue in metaethics . German philosopher Immanuel Kant devised an argument from morality based on practical reason . Kant argued that the goal of humanity is to achieve perfect happiness and virtue ( the summum bonum ) and believed that an afterlife must exist in order for this to be possible , and that God must exist to provide this . In his book Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis argued that `` conscience reveals to us a moral law whose source can not be found in the natural world , thus pointing to a supernatural Lawgiver . '' Lewis argued that accepting the validity of human reason as a given must include accepting the validity of practical reason , which could not be valid without reference to a higher cosmic moral order which could not exist without a God to create and/or establish it . A related argument is from conscience ; John Henry Newman argued that the conscience supports the claim that objective moral truths exist because it drives people to act morally even when it is not in their own interest . Newman argued that , because the conscience suggests the existence of objective moral truths , God must exist to give authority to these truths .", "Tornado outbreak of August 24, 2016 The Tornado outbreak of August 24 , 2016 was a six-hour tornado outbreak in which a total of 24 tornadoes touched down in Ontario , Indiana and Ohio . Several of these tornadoes were strong and caused significant damage , including a high-end EF2 that struck Windsor , Ontario , Canada and an EF3 that struck Kokomo , Indiana . This particular tornado outbreak was unusual for multiple reasons , including the fact that it was largely unexpected . The Storm Prediction Center had issued only a slight risk for severe weather that day , with the threat for a tornado or two limited to parts of Kansas , Missouri , Iowa , and Illinois . Despite this , the outbreak unfolded entirely outside of the outlined threat area as numerous supercell thunderstorms developed unexpectedly across parts of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley , producing numerous tornadoes . Tornado outbreaks of this size and intensity are also not commonly seen during the late summer months across the Ohio Valley region . Despite the damage , few injuries and no fatalities occurred .", "Enumerative induction Enumerative induction or , as the basic form of inductive inference , simply induction , reasons from particular instances to all instances , thus an unrestricted generalization . If one observes 100 swans , and all 100 were white , one might infer All swans are white . As this reasoning form 's premises , even if true , do not entail the conclusion 's truth , this is a form of inductive inference . The conclusion might be true , and might be thought probably true , yet it can be false . Questions regarding the justification and form of enumerative inductions have been central in philosophy of science , as enumerative induction has a pivotal role in the traditional model of the scientific method .", "History of science in the Renaissance During the Renaissance , great advances occurred in geography , astronomy , chemistry , physics , mathematics , manufacturing , anatomy and engineering . The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 , and the invention of printing which would democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas . But , at least in its initial period , some see the Renaissance as one of scientific backwardness . Historians like George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have criticized how the Renaissance affected science , arguing that progress was slowed for some amount of time . Humanists favored human-centered subjects like politics and history over study of natural philosophy or applied mathematics . Others have focused on the positive influence of the Renaissance , pointing to factors like the rediscovery of lost or obscure texts and the increased emphasis on the study of language and the correct reading of texts . Marie Boas Hall coined the term Scientific Renaissance to designate the early phase of the Scientific Revolution , 1450 -- 1630 . More recently , Peter Dear has argued for a two-phase model of early modern science : a Scientific Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries , focused on the restoration of the natural knowledge of the ancients ; and a Scientific Revolution of the 17th century , when scientists shifted from recovery to innovation .", "Bird collections Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts . They are a research resource for ornithology , the science of birds , and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful . These collections are archives of avian diversity and serve the diverse needs of scientific researchers , artists , and educators . Collections may include a variety of preparation types emphasizing preservation of feathers , skeletons , soft tissues , or ( increasingly ) some combination thereof . Modern collections range in size from small teaching collections , such as one might find at a nature reserve visitor center or small college , to large research collections of the world 's major natural history museums , the largest of which contain hundreds of thousands of specimens . Bird collections function much like libraries , with specimens arranged in drawers and cabinets in taxonomic order , curated by scientists who oversee the maintenance , use , and growth of collections and make them available for study through visits or loans ." ]

[ "Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Global warming in Luxembourg Global warming in Luxembourg discuss the global warming issues in Luxembourg .", "Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "Barkskins Barkskins is a 2016 novel by American writer Annie Proulx . It tells the story of two immigrants to New France , René Sel and Charles Duquet , and of their descendants . It spans over 300 years and witnesses the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming .", "Storm World In his book Storm World : Hurricanes , Politics , and the Battle over Global Warming , Chris Mooney discusses tensions between two different approaches to analyzing global warming and its effect on hurricanes .", "United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection The United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection was one of six subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works during the 110th Congress . The subcommittee 's jurisdiction included : Global warming Fisheries and wildlife , including the Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act ( ESA ) National Wildlife Refuges The subcommittee was formerly known as the Subcommittee on Fisheries , Wildlife , and Water , but was renamed during committee organization of the 110th Congress when global warming was added to its oversight responsibilities . It served as a counterpart to the new Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , and Children 's Health Protection . The subcommittee was chaired by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut , and the ranking member was Senator John Warner of Virginia .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "GWPP The initials GWPP could indicate : the Global Water Policy Project , a fresh-water conservation project headed by Sandra Postel . the Global Warming Petition Project ( AKA the Oregon Petition ) , a project devoted to discrediting global climate change ( or its previous label global warming ) , under the auspices of the non-profit organization called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine .", "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Thermal Credits Thermal credits is a new holistic concept which corresponds to the percentage of the climate impact saving obtained through mitigation and adaptation measures applied against global warming , taking as reference the global temperature rise projected in a given time scale . Thermal credits are measured in percentages of global warming reduction in a given time .", "National Centre for Contemporary Arts The National Center for Contemporary Art ( NCCA ) , Moscow , Russia , is a major museum , exhibition and research organization which primarily aims its efforts at the development of Contemporary Russian Art within the context of the global art process , at the creation and implementation of programs and projects in the sphere of contemporary art , architecture and design both in Russia and beyond its borders . The activity of the Center evolves in close cooperation with artists and independent experts in the sphere of contemporary art , art culture and various organizations , such as museums , research institutions , public organizations , both in Russia , and abroad . The activities of the National Center of Contemporary Art follow several basic lines : popularization and support of Contemporary Russian Art ; various forms of curator work helping realize exhibition and audiovisual projects , installations , performances , hold video and movie presentations , creative sessions ; analytical and information research activity in the sphere of contemporary art ; educational activities -- lectures , seminars , master classes ; work to form the collection of contemporary art , including Russian and foreign art . Today , when the efforts of the previous years are bringing fruit , the National Center for Contemporary Art continues its active work aimed at the development and popularization of the Russian contemporary art and its integration in the global art context . At present NCCA is a network institution with its branches in major cultural centers of Russia , such as St. Petersburg , Nizhny Novgorod , Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad . The National Center for Contemporary Art works under the auspices and with the constant support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography .", "Comparative cultural studies Comparative cultural studies is a contextual approach to the study of culture in a global and intercultural context . Focus is placed on the theory , method , and application of the study process ( es ) rather than on the `` what '' of the object ( s ) of study .", "Soraya Syed Soraya Syed Sanders ( born 1976 ) is an English classically trained Islamic calligrapher and artist . She uses classical Arabic calligraphy with new technologies such as holography , placing a traditional art-form into contemporary context .", "Global citizenship Global citizenship is the rights , responsibilities and duties that come with being a member of the global entity as a citizen of a particular nation or place . The idea is that one 's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are or can be derived from membership in a broader class : `` humanity '' . This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives their nationality or other , more local identities , but such identities are given `` second place '' to their membership in a global community . Extended , the idea leads to questions about the state of global society in the age of globalization . In general usage , the term may have much the same meaning as `` world citizen '' or cosmopolitan , but it also has additional , specialized meanings in differing contexts .", "Gary S. Schofield Gary Stewart Schofield is the New Zealander president of Global Concern , Inc. a nonprofitorganization with practical solutions for global warming . He is also a writer , musician , television producer and artist .", "United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children's Health Protection The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , Children 's Health Protection is one of the six subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . Created in 2007 , the subcommittee has general oversight jurisdiction over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as diverse issues such as global warming , children 's health protection , and the National Environmental Policy Act ( NEPA ) .", "Warm Mineral Springs (spring) The Warm Mineral Springs is a water-filled sinkhole located in North Port , Florida , a mile north of U.S. 41 . The primary water supply is a spring vent deep beneath the pool 's water surface . Warm Mineral Springs is the only warm water mineral spring in the State of Florida . It is an important geological and archaeological site containing Native American remnants . It functioned as a small natural spa since the 1960s . People travel from all over the world to soak in the mineral-rich waters . The waters are believed to have extraordinary healing powers and some believe it was the fountain of youth sought by Ponce de Leon . It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 28 , 1977 . The springs re-opened for swimming only on April 12 , 2014 .", "An Inconsistent Truth An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written , produced , and featuring , nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards . Valentine , a skeptic of global warming theory , interviewed scientists about the validity of Al Gore 's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within . What he is told by the scientists he interviews is that there is no consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change . The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label , basing their argument on what Valentine says is shaky scientific ground .", "The Greenhouse Conspiracy The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .", "Exodus (Bertagna novel) Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 . Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith . The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .", "Polycentric Networks A polycentric network in regards to public policy is a network of communities , municipalities , regions , nations , etc. who join together for a shared or common goal . The common goals as Kramer and Kadi express typically revolve around environmental protection policies but is not limited to the environment exclusively . The goals can be social , political , or industrial depending on the context and framework used . As it was elaborated to earlier , these networks can cross borders and create a more connected global community as Meijer claims . Scholars have found a direct relationship between connected cities and the policies they choose to implement on a micro , meso and macro scale . With globalization has come the increased interconnectedness of world cities . With this interconnectedness , Romolini and Grove argue , creates more dynamic and well-rounded policies hitting the forefront of everyday life . They can be flexible as well as adaptive to changing contemporary issues allowing the participants in the network greater output from the given policy . The synergy created through these networks allows domestic based enterprises , which can include but are not limited to international airports , big business centers , cultural centers , as well as tourist areas to form , as Hall and Pain state in their book The Polycentric Metropolis : Learning from Mega-city Regions in Europe . The following subsections will bring insight into what scholars are currently finding in regards to polycentric networks . These include the European context , the American context , the rural and urban context , micro/macro/meso levels of polycentric networks , polycentric networks in metropolitan areas and the potential future for polycentric networks in the growing globalized word . As well , other scholarly work on dynamic polycentric networks , ones where change is constantly happening , will be introduced through contemporary examples .", "Chesapeake Climate Action Network The Chesapeake Climate Action Network ( CCAN ) is the first grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland , Virginia , and the District of Columbia . The organization 's mission is to foster a rapid societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products , joining similar efforts worldwide to address global warming .", "Patrick Michaels Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 . A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .", "Institute for Business in the Global Context Institute for Business in the Global Context ( IBGC ) is an educational organization founded in 2011 , devoted to international business studies , within The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy , at Tufts University . IBGC houses the school 's Master of International Business ( MIB ) , and the think tank Council on Emerging Market Enterprises ( CEME ) .", "Hong Kong Global Geopark Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark , formerly Hong Kong National Geopark , was inaugurated on 3 November 2009 . It covers an area of 50 km2 across parts of the Eastern and Northeastern New Territories . It includes eight sites ( and combinations of sites ) . On 18 September 2011 , UNESCO listed the Geopark as part of its Global Geoparks Network . The Hong Kong Global Geopark consists of two geological regions : the widely distributed hexagonal rock columns in Sai Kung , which are of international geological significance , and the northeast New Territories region , which comprises sedimentary rocks formed in different geologic periods , showcasing the complete geological history of Hong Kong . The Geopark is made up of eight Geo-Areas distributed across the Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region and Northeast New Territories Sedimentary Rock Region .", "Duncan Wingham Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces and shorelines were the geologic result of warming and cooling periods in what is now Leon County , Florida during the Pleistocene epoch .", "Centre for Contemporary Photography The Centre for Contemporary Photography ( CCP ) , in Fitzroy , Melbourne , Victoria , is a venue for the exhibition of contemporary photo-based arts , providing a context for the enjoyment , education , understanding and appraisal of contemporary practice .", "Step It Up Step It Up can refer to : Step It Up ( song ) Step It Up 2007 , U.S. global warming campaign", "United States House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was a select committee of the United States House of Representatives . It was established March 8 , 2007 through adoption of a resolution by a 269 -- 150 vote of the full House . The committee existed from 2007 to 2011 , and was not renewed when the Republicans gained control of the House for the 112th Congress .", "Warm Springs Warm Springs may refer to : Warm Springs Apache , a subdivision of the Chiricahua Apache Warm Springs , California , in Riverside County Warm Springs , Fremont , California Warm Springs Elementary School , elementary school in Fremont , California Warm Springs , Georgia , location of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's Little White House Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation . Warm Springs ( film ) , a 2005 movie about Roosevelt 's struggle with paralytic illness Warm Springs , Montana Warm Springs , Nevada Warm Springs Natural Area Warm Springs Indian Reservation , Oregon Warm Springs , Oregon , located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation Warm Springs bands , common contemporary name of the Tenino people Warm Springs ( Utah ) , at Warm Springs Mountain , east Goshen Valley , Utah Warm Springs , Virginia An early alternative name for Berkeley Springs , West Virginia Warm Mineral Springs , Florida", "Mautodontha boraborensis Mautodontha boraborensis is a species of gastropod in the family Charopidae . It is endemic to French Polynesia . Due to global warming , this species is now classified as critically endangered .", "Raymond A. Price Raymond Alexander Price , ( born March 25 , 1933 ) is an award winning Canadian geologist . He has used his research on the structure and tectonics of North America 's lithosphere to produce extensive geological maps . He has also provided guidance for nuclear fuel waste disposal and reports on the human contribution to Global warming . Price was born in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada . He obtained his BSc in Geology from the University of Manitoba in 1955 . He completed two more degrees in geology at Princeton University ; an A.M. in 1957 and a PhD in 1958 ." ]

[ "Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "El Niño El Niño -LSB- ɛl_ˈniːnjoʊ -RSB- ( -LSB- el ˈniɲo -RSB- ) is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation ( commonly called ENSO ) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific ( between approximately the International Date Line and 120 ° W ) , including off the Pacific coast of South America . El Niño Southern Oscillation refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures , as measured by sea surface temperature , SST , of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean . El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific . The cool phase of ENSO is called `` La Niña '' with SST in the eastern Pacific below average and air pressures high in the eastern and low in western Pacific . The ENSO cycle , both El Niño and La Niña , cause global changes of both temperatures and rainfall . Developing countries that are dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are usually most affected . In American Spanish , the capitalized term `` El Niño '' refers to `` the little boy '' , so named because the pool of warm water in the Pacific near South America is often at its warmest around Christmas . The original name , `` El Niño de Navidad '' , traces its origin centuries back to Peruvian fisherman , who named the weather phenomenon in reference to the newborn Christ . `` La Niña '' , chosen as the ` opposite ' of El Niño , literally translates to `` the little girl '' .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Migration and global environmental change (Report) Migration and Global Environmental Change was a report about the influence of climate change on patterns of human migration and displacement published in 2011 . The report was produced by the Foresight unit at the UK 's Government Office of Science . It became known colloquially as ` The Foresight Report ' among people working in the field of climate-linked migration . The report was led by Professor Richard Black of Sussex University . The report was one of the first assessments of all the existing evidence and research on the connections between climate change and migration . The report authors also commissioned a number of new peer reviewed articles on migration and climate change , significant adding to the evidence base of the topic . The report attracted significant media attention on its release . The report was critical of previous predictions of the number of people who could be forced to move by climate change . It argued that making such numerical predictions was impossible because attributing climate change as the sole cause of someone 's migration was difficult . The report popularized the idea of trapped populations . The report argued that as well as being forced to move by climate change impacts , people might also be forced to stay where they are . The report drew on evidence showing that as people become poorer as a result of a degraded environment , they become less able to migrate . The idea of trapped populations had been present in the academic literature for sometime , however the media attention results from the release of the report brought the idea to a wider public for the first time . The report also popularized the idea of migration as climate change adaptation . Again , the authors drew on existing academic literature on the topic . They made the case that migration should be seen as a legitimate and empowering way for some people to adapt to the impacts of climate change .", "Venkatachalam Ramaswamy Venkatachalam Ramaswamy ( V. `` Ram '' Ramaswamy ) is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) , studying climate modeling and climate change . `` A leading climate scientist '' , his work is cited as supporting evidence for significant stratospheric climate change . He focuses in particular on radiative transfer models and the hydrologic cycle in the atmosphere . He has actively supported the development of supercomputing approaches that enable researchers to achieve higher resolution and greater complexity in climate models . As a lead author involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Ramaswamy 's contributions ( along with the contributions of many scientists ) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "Climate change and poverty In an ever-progressing world with an increasing demand for energy and animal agriculture , it is difficult to avoid climate change and its impacts on societies both locally and globally . Climate change affects social development factors , such as , poverty , infrastructure , technology , security , and economics across the globe . Although climate change affects everything we see around us , the interrelation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident in impoverished communities . In particular , impoverished communities experience reductions in safe drinking water as well as food security as a result of climate change ( OECD 2013 ) . These typically rural , isolated communities do not exhibit sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage the risks associated with climate change ( climate risk ) ( Skoufias 2012 ) . Energy development and policy alteration could adjust the severity of climate change impacts ; this is being tested now , as renewable energy sources develop .", "Natural region A natural region is a basic geographic unit . Usually it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography , geology , and climate . From the ecological point of view , the naturally occurring flora and fauna of the region are likely to be influenced by its geographical and geological factors , such as soil and water availability , in a significant manner . Thus most natural regions are homogeneous ecosystems . Human impact can be an important factor in the shaping and destiny of a particular natural region .", "Solastalgia Solastalgia is a neologism that describes a form of psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change , such as mining or climate change . Coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003 , it was formed from a combination of the Latin word solacium ( comfort ) and the Greek root - algia ( pain ) . The first article published on this concept appeared in 2005 . As opposed to nostalgia -- the melancholia or distress experienced by individuals when separated from a loved home ( or homesickness ) -- `` solastalgia '' is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment . A paper published by Albrecht and collaborators focused on two contexts where collaborative research teams found solastalgia to be evident : the experiences of persistent drought in rural New South Wales ( NSW ) and the impact of large-scale open-cut coal mining on individuals in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW . In both cases , people exposed to environmental change experienced negative affect that is exacerbated by a sense of powerlessness or lack of control over the unfolding change process . Subsequent studies have supported the existence of solastalgia , in Appalachian ( US ) communities affected by mountain-top removal coal mining practices , as well as a community affected by wildfire destruction of homes and property . In 2015 , the prestigious medical journal The Lancet included solastalgia as a contributing concept to the impact of Climate Change on Human Health and Wellbeing .", "La Voz de la Mujer La Voz de la Mujer ( Spanish : The Voice of the Woman ) was the first Anarcha-feminist and feminist newspaper in Argentina . It was published in Buenos Aires from 1896 -- 1897 and in Rosario in 1899 . In addition to proposing an anarchist feminism far removed from the reformist feminism of the period , the newspaper defended the ideals of anarchist communism . The newspaper 's motto was `` Ni dios , ni patrón , ni marido '' ( `` Neither god , nor boss , nor husband '' ) . It was first published in Buenos Aires between 1896 and 1897 . In 1899 , there is documentation that indicates it was published in Rosario , under the direction of Virginia Bolten although no copies have been found . In the 1910s , there is evidence of the intent to re-publish the newspaper in Montevideo , but the project was unsuccessful .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Myles Allen Myles R. Allen is head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford 's Atmospheric , Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department . He is the Principal Investigator of the distributed computing project Climateprediction.net ( which makes use of computing resources provided voluntarily by the general public ) , and was principally responsible for starting this project . He is Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geography and the Environment , and a Fellow of Linacre College , Oxford . He has worked at the Energy Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme , the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He contributed to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Lead Author of the Chapter on detection of change and attribution of causes , and was a Review Editor for the chapter on predictions of global climate change for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research focuses on the attribution of recent climate change and assessing what these changes mean for global climate simulations of the future . In 2010 , Allen was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for `` his important contributions to the detection and attribution of human influence on climate and quantifying uncertainty in climate predictions '' . Allen also provided the technical expertise for the game Fate of the World , which is `` a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years . ''", "Vyacheslav Baburin Vyacheslav Leonidovich Baburin ( born 31 May 1951 ) -- Soviet and Russian economic geographer and regional scientist , educator , made a significant contribution to understanding of dynamic aspects in economic geography , particularly examining innovation cycles in Russian social and economic system . One of the leading Russian researchers of interaction between society and environment ( effects of climate change on socio-economic development of countries and regions , assessment of damage from natural disasters , impact on society of time zones reduction , influence of mountain environment on economy , the cycles of forestry development , etc. . )", "Werner Kurz Werner Kurz is a Canadian research scientist at Canada 's Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria , British Columbia . He is leading the development of an accounting system to assess potential climate change known as the National Forest Carbon Accounting System for Canada . Currently , his research focuses on using forest land to its maximum carbon efficiency , reducing the impact of natural disasters , and managing forests . Kurz holds a PhD in forest ecology from the University of British Columbia . He has made significant contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the work of the IPCC ( including the contributions of many scientists ) was recognized by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize .", "Political economy of climate change Political economy of climate change is an approach that applies the political economy thinking of collective or political processes to study the critical issues surrounding the decision-making on climate change . As the issue of climate change reaching the top of international agenda , the complexity of the environmental problems in combination with various other social political challenges have put great pressures on the scholars to explore a better understanding of the multiple actors and influencing factors that affect the climate change negotiation and to seek more effective solutions to tackle climate change . Analyzing these issues from a political economy perspective helps to explain the complex interactions between different stakeholders in respond to climate change impacts and provides broader opportunities to achieve better implementation of climate change policies .", "Michael Schlesinger Dr. Michael Earl Schlesinger ( born February 23 , 1943 ) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He received his Ph.D. ( meteorology ) in 1976 from the University of California , Los Angeles . Michael Schlesinger is an expert in the modeling , simulation and analysis of climate and climate change , with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols . He has been instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models , which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum . His research currently focuses on : ( 1 ) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet ; ( 2 ) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system , including the influences of the Sun - both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation - and volcanoes ; ( 3 ) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks ; and ( 4 ) performing integrative assessment of climate change , including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change . He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system , on estimating the climate sensitivity , and on seasonal climate change . He has edited four books , most recently Human-induced climate change : An interdisciplinary assessment . He regularly appears in the media .", "Wake You Up/Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka o Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka o/Marvelous Wake You Up/Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka o Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka o/Marvelous ( 雨の日には 雨の中を 風の日には 風の中を , in the rain when it 's rainy , in the wind when it 's windy ) , is twenty-eighth single released by J-Pop singer Hitomi Shimatani . Released on June 25 , 2008 , it is only available in a CD+DVD format . It was released the same day as an additional collaboration single with Mitsuo Aida , Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka wo Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka wo , whose title and track listing differ slightly from this single 's ( and exclude the tracks Marvelous and Wake You Up ) and thus is considered a separate single . Wake You Up had been announced as the theme song for the 2008 Japanese television drama series K-tai Investigator 7 . The DVD is known to contain the music videos for all three title tracks . This information is subject to change at the moment .", "Adaptation to climate change in Jordan Adaptation to climate change in Jordan describes measures with the objective to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change . Water resources in Jordan are scarce . Besides the rapid population growth , the impacts of climate change are likely to further exacerbate the problem . Temperatures will increase and the total annual precipitation is likely to decrease , however with a fair share of uncertainty . Hence , existing and new activities with the objective to minimize the gap between water supply and demand contribute to adapt Jordan to tomorrow 's climate . This might be accompanied by activities improving Jordan 's capacity to monitor and project meteorological and hydrological data and assess its own vulnerability to climate change . This article focuses on the impacts of climate change on the Jordanian water sector .", "David Karoly David John Karoly ( born 1955 ) is an Australian atmospheric scientist . He is an expert in climate change , stratospheric ozone depletion , and climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) . Karoly has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group 2 ( on societal impacts ) and he is a member of the faculty of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne . His work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . He is member of the board of the Climate Change Authority .", "Sarah Barlondo Sarah Barlondo is a French actress . She plays the role of Aranza in the Mexican television series Un Refugio para el Amor . She also appeared in the series La Fuerza del Destino , Ni contigo ni sin ti and Esperanza del Corazón .", "Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment The Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment ( formerly Grantham Institute for Climate Change ) is one of five Global Institutes at Imperial College London and one of three Grantham sponsored centres in the UK . The Institute was founded in 2007 with a # 12m donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment , an organisation set up by Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham . The Institute brings together climate and global environmental change expertise from across the College for climate change related research and translation into real world impact . Their aim is to improve the interaction between researchers and decision makers in business and governments , communicating research to help ensure that choices are based on the best understanding of the science and evidence available .", "Climate change in Idaho Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "Christopher Field Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "Climate change education (CCE) Climate Change Education ( CCE ) is learning geared toward helping people address and develop effective responses to climate change . It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change , prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles . CCE helps policy-makers understand the urgency and importance of putting mechanisms into place to combat climate change on a national and global scale . Communities learn about how climate change will affect them , what they can do to protect themselves from negative consequences , and how they can reduce their own climate footprint . In particular , CCE helps increase the resilience of already vulnerable communities who are the most likely to be adversely affected by climate change . CCE is rooted in Education for Sustainable Development ( ESD ) .", "Tom Wigley Tom Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide . He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) . He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) for his major contributions to climate and carbon cycle modeling and to climate data analysis , and because he is `` one of the world 's foremost experts on climate change and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline . '' His h-index ( August 2014 ) is 64 , one of the highest in the discipline . He contributed to many of the reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the University of Adelaide in Australia . He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993 . In 1993 he went on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994 . He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently ( 2014 ) holds a Professorial Fellowship . His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data , the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change , the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate . Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry , including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater . Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions through the use of renewable technologies alone , and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy . He has also pointed out that `` the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much , much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "Lake Elgygytgyn Lake El ` gygytgyn ( Russian and Chukchi : Эльгыгытгын ) is an impact crater lake located in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in northeast Siberia , about 150 km southeast of Chaunskaya Bay . The word `` Elgygytgyn '' means `` white lake '' in the Chukchi language . The lake is of particular interest to scientists because it has never been covered by glaciers . This has allowed the uninterrupted build-up of 400 m of sediment at the bottom of the lake , recording information on prehistoric climate change .", "Environmental Change Institute The Environmental Change Institute was founded in 1987 in Oxford University in England `` to organize and promote interdisciplinary research on the nature , causes and impact of environmental change and to contribute to the development of management strategies for coping with future environmental change . '' This statement still embodies the ECI 's ethos of purposeful environmental research and knowledge exchange . With an annual research income of # 4.7 million in 2013/14 , a portfolio of 50 active projects , 350 partners and 60 researchers working across 40 countries , the ECI is an active and influential player in environmental change science . The ECI 's research is interdisciplinary , both in outlook and approach . ECI has a well - established track record in relation to climate , energy and ecosystems and a growing expertise in relation to food and water . ECI is a leading player in number of large research activities , including : the UK Climate Impacts Programme ( UKCIP ) which develops new tools to link climate science with stakeholders in business and government in order to create innovative adaptations to the impacts of climate change ; Climateprediction.net the world 's largest citizen science climate ensemble with 350,000 individuals running climate simulations in order to better understand regional climate patterns ; leaders of major EU consortium programmes including one on the impacts and risks of extreme climate change ( Impressions ) ; and coordinators of GEM , a global ecological monitoring programme across remote forest locations in South America , Africa and Asia . The ECI 's full portfolio of projects has led to academic papers and citations totaling over 45,000 since 2000 . The ECI is also home to the MSc in Environmental Change and Management ( ECM ) , the School 's first taught postgraduate masters ' programme , and Oxford 's most popular graduate science course . The Institute is led by Professor Jim Hall .", "Climarice Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "Climate risk Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "Climate change and agriculture -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka o Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka o `` Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka o Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka o '' ( 雨の日には 雨の中を 風の日には 風の中を , In the Rain When It 's Rainy , In the Wind When It 's Windy ) , is the twenty-eighth single and second collaboration single released by J-Pop singer Hitomi Shimatani . It is set to be released on June 25 , 2008 , and restricted to a CD-only format . It was released on the same day as a solo single from Hitomi , entitled Wake You Up/Ame no Hi ni wa Ame no Naka o Kaze no Hi ni wa Kaze no Naka o/Marvelous , which contains the tracks Wake You Up and Marvelous , which are not included on this single . However , it will not contain Amaoto , a b-side which will be included on this version of the single . This single will also contain bonus rap and duet versions of the title track , and the jacket artwork is said to be based on the book , Ame no Hi ni Wa .", "Ni Min-jan Ni Min-jan ( ; 30 April 1946 -- April 2005 ) was a Taiwanese actor and comedian . His alleged affair with actress and singer Xia Yi was suspected of causing his suicide by hanging , at age 58 or 59 , in April 2005 . Ni was friends with singer and television personality Chang Fei and singer Frankie Kao .", "International Climate Change Partnership The International Climate Change Partnership ( ICCP ) is an organization of companies and trade associations from around the world working to influence international climate change legislation .", "Anders Levermann Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .", "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "AGW AGW can refer to : Anthropogenic global warming ; see the following : Attribution of recent climate change Human impact on the environment Climate change Global warming Global warming controversy Actual gold weight , a measure used in gold bullion , coin or bar Agnew Airport , Queensland , Australia ( IATA code : AGW ) Access gateway , shorthand for multi-service access gateway ( MSAG ) , a device used in telecommunications . Kahua language ( ISO 639-3 code : agw )" ]

[ "Climate Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "Climatology Climatology ( from Greek κλίμα , klima , `` place , zone '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) or climate science is the study of climate , scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time . This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography , which is one of the Earth sciences . Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry . Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) , the North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) , the Northern Annular Mode ( NAM ) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation ( AO ) , the Northern Pacific ( NP ) Index , the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation ( IPO ) . Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate . Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere over a period of time . While Climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to indefinite period of time .", "Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned ." ]

[ "Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "An Appeal to Reason An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "Lucia Liljegren Lucia Liljegren is an American mechanical engineer who has worked at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( on projects related to remediation and storage of radioactive waste ) and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University . She is best known ( as Lucia ) for her global warming/climate change blog The Blackboard ( Where Climate Talk Gets Hot ! ) , online since 2007 . Professor Judith Curry , a climatologist at Georgia Tech , calls Lucia `` probably the least controversial person in the climate blogosphere , because of her cheerfulness and sense of humor , honesty , and open mindedness . '' In the climate change debate , Lucia classifies herself as a `` lukewarmer '' : a person who recognizes global warming , but doubts the severity of the problem , and the certainty of climate science predictions . The Blackboard was one of the first sites to post some of the CRU emails leaked in the 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy .", "John F. B. Mitchell John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "Penny Whetton Penelope Whetton ( born 5 January 1958 ) is a climatologist and an expert in regional climate change projections due to global warming and in the impacts of those changes . Her primary scientific focus has been Australia .", "Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .", "Business action on climate change Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to global warming , and to influencing political decisions on global-warming-related regulation , such as the Kyoto Protocol . Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of global warming , especially in the United States , through lobbying of government and funding of global warming skeptics . Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of global warming , through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures . ( See also individual and political action on climate change . )", "Global warming in Russia Global warming in Russia describes the global warming related issues in Russia . This includes climate politics , contribution to global warming and the influence of global warming on Russia . In 2009 Russia was ready to reduce emissions 20 -- 25 % from its 1990 emission levels by the year 2020 .", "Effects of climate change The effects of climate change may refer to : Effects of global warming , the effects of current climate change Historical impacts of climate change , during the early evolution and history of humans , prior to current global warming", "Unstoppable global warming Unstoppable global warming may refer to : Runaway climate change Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years , book by Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery", "Effects of global warming on Australia Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "New Zealand Climate Science Coalition The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is an organisation based in New Zealand which has the aim of refuting what it claims are unfounded claims about anthropogenic global warming .", "Long-term effects of global warming See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "Fate of the World Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "David Legates David Russell Legates is a Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware . He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university , and a former Delaware State Climatologist . Legates has published research papers , opinion editorials , and spoken openly in opposition to the consensus scientific opinion on climate change . More recently , he has been known for his skepticism toward the anthropogenic cause of the observed global warming patterns and the severity of its consequences at the local geographical scale . Legates viewpoint , as stated in a 2015 study that he co-authored , is that the Earth will experience about 1.0 C warming over the 2000 to 2100 period .", "An Inconsistent Truth An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written , produced , and featuring , nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards . Valentine , a skeptic of global warming theory , interviewed scientists about the validity of Al Gore 's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within . What he is told by the scientists he interviews is that there is no consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change . The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label , basing their argument on what Valentine says is shaky scientific ground .", "GWPP The initials GWPP could indicate : the Global Water Policy Project , a fresh-water conservation project headed by Sandra Postel . the Global Warming Petition Project ( AKA the Oregon Petition ) , a project devoted to discrediting global climate change ( or its previous label global warming ) , under the auspices of the non-profit organization called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine .", "James Annan James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "Global warming conspiracy theory A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "Ross McKitrick Ross McKitrick is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis . He is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph , and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute . He is a member of the academic advisory boards of the John Deutsch Institute , the Global Warming Policy Foundation , and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation . He has authored works about climate change issues , including co-authoring the book Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming in 2003 . McKitrick produced a series of videos and articles for the Friends of Science in which he argued that there is a `` pause '' in global warming that reveals flaws in current climate change models . The Friends of Science argue that the sun -- not human emissions of GHG -- is the main driver of climate change .", "Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "Geoff Jenkins (climatologist) Geoffrey ( Geoff ) Jenkins is a climatologist and former head of climate change prediction at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , part of the Met Office .", "KYOTOplus KYOTOplus is a joint campaign of a number of public interest groups in Canada to encourage and support Canadians in a call for stronger policy on Climate Change . The campaign was devised as a means to educate the Canadian public on issues related to climate change and global warming and to encourage Canadians to take a strong stance at the climate talks in Copenhagen in December 2009 . Canadian politicians are invited to indicate a strong stance against global warming by means of the KYOTOplus Pledge . The KYOTOplus Petition , which calls for a minimum 25 % decrease in greenhouse gas emission in Canada by 2020 ( in comparison to 1990 ) , is available for signing by any Canadian .", "Ecological forecasting Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "Effects of global warming on marine mammals The effect of global warming on marine mammals is a growing concern . Many of the effects of climate change are currently unknown due to its unpredictability , but many are becoming increasingly evident today . Some effects are very direct such as loss of habitat , temperature stress , and exposure to severe weather . Other effects are more indirect such as changes in host pathogen associations , changes in body condition because of predator -- prey interaction , changed in exposure to toxins , and increased human interactions . These are just a few examples of what marine mammals are dealing with as a result of rapid climate change . There are a number of marine mammals that have been affected by climate change including walruses , seals , penguins , and polar bears .", "Climate commitment Climate commitment describes the fact that climate reacts with a delay to influencing factors ( `` climate forcings '' ) such as the presence of greenhouse gases . Climate commitment studies attempt to assess the amount of future global warming that is `` committed '' under the assumption of some constant level of forcings . The constant level often used for illustrative purposes is doubling or quadrupling ; or the present level of forcing .", "Climate Data Records A Climate Data Record ( CDR ) is a specific definition of a climate data series , developed by the Committee on Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites of the National Research Council at the request of NOAA in the context of satellite records . It is defined as `` a time series of measurements of sufficient length , consistency , and continuity to determine climate variability and change . '' . Such measurements provide an objective basis for the understanding and prediction of climate and its variability , such as global warming .", "Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation ." ]

[ "Car A car ( or automobile ) is a wheeled , self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry . Most definitions of the term specify that cars are designed to run primarily on roads , to have seating for one to eight people , to typically have four wheels with tyres , and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods . The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car . In that year , German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen . Cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century . One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T , an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company . Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America , where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts , but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world . Cars are equipped with controls used for driving , parking , passenger comfort and safety , and controlling a variety of lights . Over the decades , additional features and controls have been added to vehicles , making them progressively more complex . Examples include rear reversing cameras , air conditioning , navigation systems , and in car entertainment . Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by an internal combustion engine , fueled by deflagration of gasoline ( also known as petrol ) or diesel . Both fuels cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming . Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries . Electric cars , which were invented early in the history of the car , began to become commercially available in 2008 . There are costs and benefits to car use . The costs of car usage include the cost of : acquiring the vehicle , interest payments ( if the car is financed ) , repairs and auto maintenance , fuel , depreciation , driving time , parking fees , taxes , and insurance . The costs to society of car use include : maintaining roads , land use , road congestion , air pollution , public health , health care , and disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life . Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide . The benefits may include on-demand transportation , mobility , independence , and convenience . The societal benefits may include : economic benefits , such as job and wealth creation from car production , sales and maintenance , transportation provision , society well-being derived from leisure and travel opportunities , and revenue generation from the tax opportunities . The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies . It was estimated in 2014 that the number of cars had risen to over 1.25 billion vehicles , up from the 500 million of 1986 . The numbers are increasing rapidly , especially in China , India and other newly industrialized countries .", "Electric vehicle An electric vehicle , also called an electric drive vehicle , uses one or more electric motors or traction motors for propulsion . An electric vehicle may be powered through a collector system by electricity from off-vehicle sources , or may be self-contained with a battery , solar panels or a generator to convert fuel to electricity . EVs include road and rail vehicles , surface and underwater vessels , electric aircraft and electric spacecraft . EVs first came into existence in the mid-19th century , when electricity was among the preferred methods for motor vehicle propulsion , providing a level of comfort and ease of operation that could not be achieved by the gasoline cars of the time . The internal combustion engine has been the dominant propulsion method for motor vehicles for almost 100 years , but electric power has remained commonplace in other vehicle types , such as trains and smaller vehicles of all types . In the 21st century , EVs saw a resurgence due to technological developments and an increased focus on renewable energy . Government incentives to increase adoptions were introduced , including in the United States and the European Union ." ]

[ "H-Bio H-Bio is an oil-refining processes which involves converting vegetable oil into high-quality diesel via hydrogenation . Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction , in which a substance is treated with Hydrogen , thus resulting in a new product . In H-Bio , Hydrogen is added to vegetable oil and mineral oil , making a usable diesel that is made up of diesel oil and 10 % vegetable oil . The process was first developed in 2006 by the Brazilian , state-owned and gas company , Petrobras , and was primarily established for commercial use . H-Bio can be used to power many cars that already use diesel , therefore , H-Bio can be widely sold to car owners in local fuel stations . Moreover , the process has many advantages when compared to traditional methods , but also has drawbacks . H-Bio has been tested and confirmed as a viable method to supply diesel globally .", "Mini Paceman The Mini Paceman is a subcompact , three door crossover SUV based on the crossover Mini Countryman , and built by Mini . The car was introduced as a concept car first at the 2011 North American International Auto Show . Production of the concept was confirmed in August 2011 , with the production model unveiled in September 2012 . Like the Countryman , the Paceman is offered with a choice of two or four wheel drive ( known as ALL4 ) , and with 1.6 L petrol or diesel and 2.0 L diesel Inline-four engines in various states of tune . In September 2016 , BMW confirmed that production of the Paceman would finish by the end of 2016 .", "No Worse for the Wear No Worse for the Wear is a 1994 album , the third and last by Orange County pop punk band Big Drill Car . It is the only album without their classic original line-up , featuring new members Keith Fallis and Darrin Norris . The band reached a little success through the album , if only for a short time before their 13-year break-up , from 1995 to 2008 . The release of No Worse for the Wear would also gain Big Drill Car supporting slots on national and world tours with bands such as The Offspring ( who had just released Smash to unexpected success and acclaim ) and Guttermouth . The songs `` The Shake '' , `` Nogaina '' , and `` What You Believe '' were featured , amongst other Cargo/Headhunter Records artists , in the 1997 Sega Saturn/Sony PlayStation game Courier Crisis . Like many Big Drill Car albums , No Worse for the Wear is currently out of print .", "Diesel 2000 Diesel 2000 is an FIA circuit racing classification for modified production based touring cars using turbodiesel engines . Like its counterpart , Super 2000 , the category is open to large-scale series production touring cars modified by a kit . Cars must have at least four seats and at least 2500 fully identical units must be produced within 12 consecutive months to allow homologation . However , unlike Super 2000 , Diesel 2000 allows only 4-cylinder turbocharged diesel engines with a maximum capacity of 2000cc . The category was introduced to the European Touring Car Championship for 2004 to allow turbodiesel cars to compete alongside the existing petrol engined Super 2000 vehicles . When the European Championship was upgraded to become the World Touring Car Championship in 2005 , both Diesel 2000 and Super 2000 cars were eligible to compete for the new title . Spanish manufacturer SEAT has won the manufacturers award of the World Championship in both 2008 and 2009 with their Diesel 2000 León TDI model . Factory SEAT drivers Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini have won the drivers titles with the same model in these two years respectively .", "DT1 multiple unit DT1 multiple unit is a train , developed at Torzhoksky car-building factory in Russia in 2007 . The train has electric and diesel draught , and is intended for maintenance of suburban transportations on railways of a track of with low and high passenger platforms in macroclimatic areas with a temperate climate . The diesel engine-electric train can accelerate momentum to 110 km/h . Quantity of places for sitting 370 , nominal density of population 878 peoples .", "DRC railcar The DRC ( Diesel Rail Car ) was a class of railmotor operated by the Victorian Railways on its country rail network Victoria , Australia . The cars were built by Tulloch Limited in New South Wales and featured aluminum and steel construction , air-conditioning , and twin diesel engines with hydraulic transmissions .", "Consideration Consideration is the concept of legal value in connection with contracts . It is anything of value promised to another when making a contract . For example , if A signs a contract to buy a car from B for $ 5,000 , A 's consideration is the $ 5,000 , and B 's consideration is the car . Additionally , if A signs a contract with B such that A will paint B 's house for $ 500 , A 's consideration is the service of painting B 's house , and B 's consideration is $ 500 paid to A. Further , if A signs a contract with B such that A will not repaint his own house in any other color than white , and B will pay A $ 500 per year to keep this deal up , there is also consideration . Although A did not promise to affirmatively do anything , A did promise not to do something that he was allowed to do , and so A did pass consideration . A 's consideration to B is the forbearance in painting his own house in a color other than white , and B 's consideration to A is $ 500 per year . Conversely , if A signs a contract to buy a car from B for $ 0 , B 's consideration is still the car , but A is giving no consideration , and so there is no valid contract . However , if B still gives the title to the car to A , then B can not take the car back , since , while it may not be a valid contract , it is a valid gift . In common law it is a prerequisite that both parties offer consideration before a contract can be thought of as binding . The doctrine of consideration is irrelevant in many jurisdictions , although contemporary commercial litigant relations have held the relationship between a promise and a deed is a reflection of the nature of contractual considerations . If there is no element of consideration found , there is thus no contract formed . However , even if a court decides there is no contract , there might be a possible recovery under quantum meruit ( sometimes referred to as a quasi-contract ) or promissory estoppel .", "Budd Rail Diesel Car The Budd Rail Diesel Car , RDC or Buddliner is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit ( DMU ) railcar . Between 1949 and 1962 , 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States . The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service , and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional diesel locomotive-drawn train with coaches . The cars could be used singly or several could be coupled together in train sets and controlled from the cab of the front unit . The RDC was one of the few DMU trains to achieve commercial success in North America . RDC trains were an early example of self-contained diesel multiple unit trains , an arrangement now in common use by railways all over the world .", "Combined diesel and gas Combined diesel and gas ( CODAG ) is a type of propulsion system for ships which need a maximum speed that is considerably faster than their cruise speed , particularly warships like modern frigates or corvettes . It consists of diesel engines for cruising and gas turbines that can be switched on for high-speed transits . In most cases the difference of power output from diesel engines alone to diesel and turbine power combined is too large for controllable-pitch propellers to limit the rotations so that the diesels can not continue to operate without changing the gear ratios of their transmissions . Because of that , special multi-speed gearboxes are needed . This contrasts to CODOG systems , which couple the diesels with a simple , fixed ratio gearbox to the shaft , but disengages when the turbine is switched on . For an example the new CODAG-propelled s of the Royal Norwegian Navy , the gear ratio for the diesel engine is changed from about 1:7.7 ( engine : propeller ) for diesel-only to 1:5.3 when in diesel-and-turbine mode . Some ships even have three different gear ratios for the diesel engines : one each for single diesel and double diesel cruises and the third when the gas turbine is engaged . Such a propulsion system has a smaller footprint than a diesel-only power plant with the same maximal power output , since smaller engines can be used and the gas turbine and gearbox do n't need that much additional space . Still it retains the high fuel efficiency of diesel engines when cruising , allowing greater range and lower fuel costs than with gas turbines alone . On the other hand , a more complex , heavy and troublesome gearing is needed . Typical cruising speed of CODAG warships on diesel-power is 20 kn and typical maximal speed with switched on turbine is 30 kn . CODAG has been pioneered by Germany with the .", "Diesel Power (magazine) Diesel Power is an American automotive magazine that focuses on interests in heavily modifying trucks , SUVs , and cars powered by diesel engines . The original tagline for the magazine called it `` The Voice of the Turbodiesel Enthusiast '' and it 's now `` The World 's Largest Diesel Magazine . '' As of January 2012 , the magazine has certified circulation of more than 135,000 per month according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations . Diesel Power is published in Los Angeles by The Enthusiast Network and originally debuted in 2005 as a publication of Primedia . The editor is KJ Jones and the art director is Mark Snyder .", "Steam generator (railroad) A steam generator is a type of boiler used to produce steam for climate control and potable water heating in railroad passenger cars . The output of a railroad steam generator is low pressure , saturated steam that is passed through a system of pipes and conduits throughout the length of the train . Steam generators were developed when diesel locomotives started to replace steam locomotives on passenger trains . In most cases , each passenger locomotive was fitted with a steam generator and a feedwater supply tank . The steam generator used some of the locomotive 's diesel fuel supply for combustion . When a steam generator-equipped locomotive was not available for a run , a so-called `` heating car '' fitted with one or two steam generators was inserted between the last locomotive in the consist and the rest of the train . Steam generators would also be fitted to individual cars to enable them to be heated independently of any locomotive supply . In Ireland , Córas Iompair Éireann used `` heating cars '' as standard and CIÉ diesel locomotives were not fitted with steam generators .", "Greenland ice core project The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "Prestige Diesels Prestige Diesels & Sports Limited is a UK-based used car sales company located in Portsmouth , Hampshire , England . The company was founded in 2011 by Scott Shilcock and Alexis Cassey . They have been quoted in the media several times regarding the Volkswagen emissions scandal including The Telegraph , BBC One news , Daily Mail , BuzzFeed News , and ITV news . Prestige Diesels sells various makes and models but specializes in Mercedes-Benz , BMW , Jaguar , Volvo , and MINI .", "Confirm Project CONFIRM was an ambitious IT project supposed to create a single computer reservations system/global distribution system used by airline , rental car , and hotel companies . It is often used as a case study as an example of a major failure in project management .", "Honda EV Plus The Honda EV Plus was the first battery electric vehicle from a major automaker with non-lead acid batteries . Roughly 340 EV Plus models were produced and released . The EV Plus was taken out of production in 1999 when Honda announced the release of its first hybrid electric vehicle , the Honda Insight . The EV Plus was made to learn about advanced battery use in an electric car and to meet California Air Resources Board requirements for zero-emission vehicles , the same as the new General Motors EV1 . It served as a test bed for the pancake-style motor , electronic control unit , power control unit and the Nickel -- metal hydride battery ( NiMH ) later used in Honda hybrids and developed further in the first Honda FCX Fuel Cell Vehicles made from returned ( decommissioned ) EV Plus chassis . The EV Plus featured on-board conductive charging with the Avcon connector , passive battery balancing , regenerative braking and deceleration , AC/heat-pump climate control , HID headlights , 4 seats , and electrically heated windshield . Units deployed in cold climates also had oil-fired heaters for faster cabin heating and passenger comfort . As with virtually all vehicles , range was affected by driving style : rapid acceleration , high speeds , and fast stops lowered the all-electric range significantly . United States Environmental Protection Agency rated at 81 miles ( 130 km ) , careful driving would give it a range of just over 100 miles ( 160 km ) . The EV Plus came with a 12 V battery for running normal 12 volt accessories and lighting .", "UMM Alter 4x4 1985 saw the arrival of a new UMM car , the Alter 4x4 , which featured a 2.5 litre diesel engine .", "Audi R15 TDI The Audi R15 TDI , commonly abbreviated to the R15 , is a Le Mans Prototype ( LMP ) racing car constructed by the German car manufacturer Audi AG . It is the successor to the Audi R10 TDI . Like its predecessor , the R15 TDI uses a turbocharged diesel engine , although the R15 's V10 engine is physically smaller than the R10 's V12 . The smaller engine is pushed further toward the middle of the car than in the R10 , resulting in a more neutral weight balance that gives the car better agility around the corners than its predecessor .", "TCDD MT5300 TCDD MT5300 was a series of diesel multiple units operated by the Turkish State Railways . The trains were used on intercity services , and offered higher speeds and comfort than steam powered trains . There had many similarities to the MT5200 . The motor units were built by MAN , Esslingen and Duewag with MAN Diesel engines , while the centre cars were built by Westwaggon .", "NIO Eve The NIO EVE is a concept car , with a working prototype that was unveiled in SXSW 2017 . The car is said to an autonomous vehicle , but can be manually driven if chosen . NIO says the car will be in production by 2020 . The NIO website includes a section that allows browsers to look around the car .", "Joseph Eve (politician) Joseph Eve ( 17 July 1784 -- 1 June June 1843 ) was an American politician and diplomat . He was born in Culpeper County , Virginia . As a young man he moved to Knox County , Kentucky . He married Betsey Withers Ballinger in 1811 ; they had no children . He was a lawyer in Kentucky and was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives three times . He was a colonel in the United States Army during the War of 1812 , and later served four years as a senator in the Kentucky Senate . He was a circuit court judge for a period of ten years . On 15 April 1841 , Eve was appointed to post of Chargé d'affaires for the United States mission to the Republic of Texas . He was a strong advocate of U.S. annexation of the then-independent Republic . During this time , conflict between Texas and Mexico grew , and the provisional Republic seat of government was relocated several times . Eve moved his legation to Galveston , Texas , hoping to benefit from the climate , as his tuberculosis was getting worse . However , in 1843 he was released from his assignment , succeeded by William S. Murphy on 3 April 1843 . He died soon thereafter ( 1 June ) , after which his widow relocated to their residence in Kentucky .", "Hino TH-series In May 1950 the heavy-duty Hino TH10 truck was introduced , equipped with the all-new 7-liter DS10 diesel engine . An eight-tonner , this was considerably larger than existing Japanese trucks which had rarely been built for more than 6 t payload . The model became a common sight in Japan and in Southeast Asia , its main export market , before being retired in 1968 in favor of the more modern cab over trucks which succeeded it .", "Peugeot 908 The Peugeot 908 is an auto racing car developed by Peugeot Sport in 2011 for the Le Mans Prototype category of racing . Powered by a diesel engine , it is the successor to the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP which competed since 2007 . The newer 908 features a smaller diesel than its predecessor , utilizing a 3700 cc HDi V8 engine with Honeywell Turbo Technologies turbocharger in order to meet new regulations for 2011 . The 908 has competed in all rounds of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup including the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans . The new 908 lost about 150 bhp compared to 2010 but improvements in the chassis and handling made the car much more agile . Rear tyres are now fitted on the front . The only part that has been reused from its predecessor was the windscreen wiper .", "JCB Dieselmax The JCB Dieselmax is a diesel-engined ` streamliner ' car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle . The car was built for JCB , a British multinational equipment company . As of 2014 , the car holds the world diesel-powered land speed record , having been driven to over 350 mph by Wing Commander Andy Green in 2006 .", "South Central Rockies forests The South Central Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the United States located mainly in Wyoming , Idaho , and Montana . It has a considerably drier climate than the North Central Rockies forest .", "Electronic Diesel Control Electronic Diesel Control is a diesel engine fuel injection control system for the precise metering and delivery of fuel into the combustion chamber of modern diesel engines used in trucks and cars .", "NZR DS class The New Zealand DS class is a class of 16 diesel shunting locomotives built by the Vulcan Foundry and supplied by the Drewry Car Co from 1949 -- 1955 .", "Peugeot HR1 The Peugeot HR1 is a concept car designed by Peugeot for the 2010 Paris Motor Show . It is a Supermini SUV and features an innovative hybrid powertrain . Instead of using a diesel linked to an electric motor , like in the Peugeot 3008 and Peugeot 508 , it uses a 1.2 litre petrol engine . The concept is 3.67 m long , which is shorter than the Nissan Juke , but longer than the Citroën Lacoste . The Lacoste is its sister car and also uses a hybrid engine .", "Worse is better Worse is better , also called New Jersey style , was conceived by Richard P. Gabriel in an essay `` Worse is better '' to describe the dynamics of software acceptance , but it has broader application . It is the idea that quality does not necessarily increase with functionality -- that there is a point where less functionality ( `` worse '' ) is a preferable option ( `` better '' ) in terms of practicality and usability . Software that is limited , but simple to use , may be more appealing to the user and market than the reverse . As to the oxymoronic title , Gabriel calls it a caricature , declaring the style bad in comparison with `` The Right Thing '' . However he also states that `` it has better survival characteristics than the-right-thing '' development style and is superior to the `` MIT Approach '' with which he contrasted it in the original essay .", "British railcars and diesel multiple units Diesel multiple units and railcars are trains , usually with passenger accommodation , that do not require a locomotive . Railcars can be single cars , while in multiple units cars are marshalled together with a driving position either end . , 23 percent of the rail passenger cars used on Network Rail are part of an diesel multiple unit . Some prototype steam-powered railcars appeared in the mid-19th century , and at the start of the 20th century over 100 were built . Diesel motors became powerful enough for a railway use after World War I , and the Great Western Railway built several single cars and multiple units . A 1952 report recommended the trialling of lightweight diesel multiple units , followed by plans in the 1955 Modernisation Plan for up to 4,600 diesel railcars . Most of these had a mechanical transmission , but the Southern Region had experience of DC electric multiple units , and diesel electric multiple units were introduced . In 1960 the Blue Pullman service was introduced using high-speed trainset consisting of coaches sandwiched between two power cars . This arrangement was later used for the Intercity 125 permitting a top speed of 125 mph . Initially this train was considered to be a diesel electric multiple unit , but for operational reasons the classification was changed and the power cars became identified as Class 43 locomotives .", "Worse Than Dead Worse Than Dead is the first full length album by American crossover thrash band Iron Reagan . It was released on March 20 , 2013 on A389 Recordings .", "BMW X4 The BMW X4 is a compact luxury crossover SUV introduced in 2014 , manufactured by the German automaker BMW at its United States factory in South Carolina . It was initially announced in 2013 as a concept car and was formally launched at the 2014 New York International Auto Show with sales starting in Spring 2014 . The X4 shares powertrains with the X3 , including a variety of four and six-cylinder engines in both petrol and diesel format . It is slightly larger than the X3 but smaller than the X5 .", "Mitsubishi 4N1 engine The Mitsubishi 4N1 engine is a family of all-alloy four-cylinder diesel engines developed by Mitsubishi Motors , produced at the company 's powertrain facility in Kyoto , Japan for use in Mitsubishi 's small to mid-sized global passenger cars . In June 2006 , Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced a joint development project for a new generation of clean diesel engines to be used in cars exported to Europe with a target of beginning mass production in 2010 and later announced that the engines will be gradually phased into other global markets . The preliminary version of the 1798 cc engine was first seen in the Concept-cX test car introduced in 2007 . The larger 2268 cc was first exhibited in the Concept-ZT test car introduced in the same year and later used in the Concept-RA test car introduced in 2008 . With a clean diesel emission performance in mind , all engines are designed to comply with Tier 2 Bin 5 emission regulations in the United States , Euro 5 standard in Europe and Japan 's Post New Long Term regulations . Together with Mitsubishi 's electric vehicle technology the new diesel engines are positioned as a core element in the Mitsubishi Motors Environment Initiative Program 2010 ( EIP 2010 ) announced in July 2006 . The 4N1 engine family is the world 's first to feature a variable valve timing ( intake side ) system applied to passenger car diesel engines . All engines developed within this family have aluminum cylinder block , double overhead camshaft layouts , four valves per cylinder , a common rail injection system with a variable geometry turbocharger and MIVEC variable valve timing ." ]

[ "Retreat of glaciers since 1850 The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "Climate change in the Arctic The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "Sea level rise A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems ." ]

[ "Mittivakkat Glacier The Mittivakkat Glacier is located in southeast Greenland , and is part of the largest ice field on Ammassalik Island . This glacier has been in retreat ( negative net mass balance ) throughout most of recorded history ( 1898 -- 2008 ) . Reindeer bones were recovered from the retreating glacier in 2005 , and dated to about 1200-1300 AD .", "Nioghalvfjerdsbrae Nioghalvfjerdsbrae , sometimes referred to as `` 79 N Glacier '' , is a large glacier located in northeast Greenland . It drains an area of 103,314 km2 of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux ( quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea ) of 14.3 km3 per year , as measured for 1996 .", "East Greenland Ice-Core Project The East Greenland Ice-Core Project , known as EGRIP , is a scientific project that plans to retrieve an ice core from the Northeast Greenland ice stream . The first season in the field was 2015 ; the project is expected to be drilling through to the base of the ice sheet by 2020 . Much of the camp set up for the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project ( NEEM ) was moved to the EGRIP location in 2015 . The equipment was towed by several tractors . The team ran low on fuel and had to abandon some equipment , arriving at the EGRIP location on 26 May , after nine days of towing .", "West Greenland Current The West Greenland Current is a weak cold water current that flows to the north along the west coast of Greenland . The current results from the movement of water flowing around the southernmost point of Greenland caused by the East Greenland Current . According to Lloyd et al. , 2007 , the WGC is a WARM current connected to a broader scale North Atlantic climate via the combined influences of Atlantic water from the Irminger Current ( IC ) and polar water from the East Greenland Current . Paleoclimatology records derived from foraminifera abundance show that periodic influxes of warm subsurface temperatures and near-bottom temperatures occurred throughout the Late Holocene epoch , particularly during the Holocene climatic optimum . The increased flow from the nearby East Greenland Current was associated with increased glacial iceberg calving from the large Jakobshavn Isbrae glacial outlet within the western Greenland Ice Sheet , causing rapid melting and destabilization events . Following the Neoglaciation , the Jakobshavn outlet formed a floating ice tongue around 2000 years before present .", "Future sea level The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "Gravitational acceleration In physics , gravitational acceleration is the acceleration on an object caused by the force of gravitation . Neglecting friction such as air resistance , all small bodies accelerate in a gravitational field at the same rate relative to the center of mass . This equality is true regardless of the masses or compositions of the bodies . At different points on Earth , objects fall with an acceleration between and depending on altitude and latitude , with a conventional standard value of exactly 9.80665 m/s2 ( approximately 32.174 ft/s2 ) . This does not take into account other effects , such as buoyancy or drag .", "Cryoconite Cryoconite is powdery windblown dust made of a combination of small rock particles , soot and microbes which is deposited and builds up on snow , glaciers , or ice caps . The darkening , especially from small amounts of soot , absorbs solar radiation melting the snow or ice beneath the deposit , and sometimes creating a cryoconite hole . Cryoconite may contain dust from far away continental deserts or farmland , particles from volcanic eruptions or power plant emissions , and soot . It was first described and named by Nils A. E. Nordenskiöld when he traveled on Greenland 's icecap in 1870 . During summer , cryoconite holes frequently contain liquid water and thus provide a niche for cold-adapted microorganisms like bacteria , algae and animals like rotifers and tardigrades to thrive . Cryoconite typically settles and concentrates at the bottom of these holes creating a noticeable dark mass . Soot decreases the reflectivity , or albedo of ice , increasing absorption of heat . Cryoconite is constantly being added to snow and ice formations along with snow . It is buried within the snow or ice , but as the snow or ice melts increasing amounts of dark material is exposed on the surface , accelerating melting .", "Thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Isaac Newton 's second and third laws . When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction , the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system . The force applied on a surface in a direction perpendicular or normal to the surface is called thrust . Force , and thus thrust , is measured in the International System of Units ( SI ) as the newton ( symbol : N ) , and represents the amount needed to accelerate 1 kilogram of mass at the rate of 1 meter per second per second . In mechanical engineering , force orthogonal to the main load ( such as in parallel helical gears ) is referred to as thrust .", "Pebble accretion In pebble accretion the accretion of objects ranging from cm 's up to meters in diameter onto planetesimals in a protoplanetary disk is enhanced by aerodynamic drag . The rapid growth of the planetesimals via pebble accretion allows for the formation of giant planet cores in the outer Solar System before the dispersal of the gas disk . A reduction in the size of pebbles as they lose water ice after crossing the ice line and a declining density of gas with distance from the sun slow the rates of pebble accretion in the inner Solar System resulting in smaller terrestrial planets , a small mass of Mars and a low mass asteroid belt .", "List of accelerator mass spectrometry facilities The following list of accelerator mass spectrometry facilities sets out the research centres which employ accelerator mass spectrometry ( AMS ) . Accelerator mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that uses a full-sized particle accelerator as a big mass spectrometer .", "Greenland ice core project The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "Dye 3 Dye 3 is an ice core site and previously part of the Distant Early Warning ( DEW ) line , located at ( , 2480 masl ) in Greenland . As a DEW line base , it was disbanded in years 1990/1991 . An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice that has re-crystallized and trapped air bubbles over many years . The composition of these ice cores , especially the presence of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes , provides a picture of the climate at the time . Ice cores contain an abundance of climate information . Inclusions in the snow , such as wind-blown dust , ash , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances , remain in the ice . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . Typical ice cores are removed from an ice sheet such as the ice cap internal to Greenland . Greenland is , by area , the world 's largest island . The Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km2 and contains about 2.6 million km3 of ice .", "Greenland Brewhouse Greenland Brewhouse was Greenland 's first brewery . It was located in Narsaq in Southern Greenland and was founded in December 2004 . The beer was brewed from water derived from melted icebergs . Melt water was collected from icebergs and transported to the brewery by local fishermen on their fishing boats . Greenland Brewhouse pioneered ` ice beer ' , brewed from 2000-year-old natural Arctic ice harvested from glaciers . Prior to 1954 , alcohol sales were heavily restricted in Greenland , thus home brewing presented problems .", "Konrad Steffen Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "Momentum exchange tether A momentum exchange tether is a kind of space tether that could theorically be used as a launch system , or to change spacecraft orbits . Momentum exchange tethers create a controlled force on the end-masses of the system due to the pseudo-force known as centrifugal force . While the tether system rotates , the objects on either end of the tether will experience continuous acceleration ; the magnitude of the acceleration depends on the length of the tether and the rotation rate . Momentum exchange occurs when an end body is released during the rotation . The transfer of momentum to the released object will cause the rotating tether to lose energy , and thus lose velocity and altitude . However , using electrodynamic tether thrusting , or ion propulsion the system can then re-boost itself with little or no expenditure of consumable reaction mass . A non-rotating tether is a rotating tether that rotates exactly once per orbit so that it always has a vertical orientation relative to the parent body . A spacecraft arriving at the lower end of this tether , or departing from the upper end , will take momentum from the tether , while a spacecraft departing from the lower end of the tether , or arriving at the upper end , will add momentum to the tether .", "Deglaciation Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "André E. Lalonde Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory The André E. Lalonde Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory is a accelerator mass spectrometry research facility at the University of Ottawa in Canada . It is currently the only AMS facility in Canada . The facility is named after former uOttawa Faculty of Science dean André E. Lalonde , who died of cancer in 2012 .", "Acceleration (disambiguation) Acceleration , in physics , is the rate at which the velocity of a body changes over time . Acceleration may also refer to : Acceleration ( differential geometry ) , the rate of change of velocity of a curve with respect to a given linear connection Acceleration ( human ) , in developmental biology Academic acceleration , the rapid advancement of students Cardiotocographic acceleration , an apparent abrupt increase in fetal heart rate Vehicular acceleration , usually controlled by a throttle such as an accelerator pedal in a car The sensation of a change in speed Series acceleration , in mathematics , a sequence transformation for improving the rate of convergence of a series", "Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "Rock mass rating The Rock Mass Rating ( RMR ) System is a geomechanical classification system for rocks , developed by Z. T. Bieniawski between 1972 and 1973 . It combines the most significant geologic parameters of influence and represents them with one overall comprehensive index of rock mass quality , which is used for the design and construction of excavations in rock , such as tunnels , mines , slopes and foundations .", "Abrupt climate change An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "Jakobshavn Glacier Jakobshavn Glacier , also known as Sermeq Kujalleq ( in Greenlandic ) and the Jakobshavn Isbræ ( in Danish ) , is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland . It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat ( Jakobshavn ) and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord . Jakobshavn Glacier drains 6.5 % of the Greenland ice sheet and produces around 10 % of all Greenland icebergs . Some 35 billion tonnes of icebergs calve off and pass out of the fjord every year . Icebergs breaking from the glacier are often so large ( up to a kilometer in height ) that they are too tall to float down the fjord and lie stuck on the bottom of its shallower areas , sometimes for years , until they are broken up by the force of the glacier and icebergs further up the fjord . Studied for over 250 years , Jakobshavn Glacier has helped develop our understanding of climate change and icecap glaciology . Ilulissat Icefjord ( Ilulissat Kangerlua ) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 .", "Ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "Fictitious force A fictitious force ( also called a pseudo force , d'Alembert force , or inertial force ) is an apparent force that acts on all masses whose motion is described using a non-inertial frame of reference , such as a rotating reference frame . The force F does not arise from any physical interaction between two objects , but rather from the acceleration a of the non-inertial reference frame itself . As stated by Iro : Assuming Newton 's second law in the form F = ma , fictitious forces are always proportional to the mass m. A fictitious force on an object arises when the frame of reference used to describe the object 's motion is accelerating compared to a non-accelerating frame . As a frame can accelerate in any arbitrary way , so can fictitious forces be as arbitrary ( but only in direct response to the acceleration of the frame ) . However , four fictitious forces are defined for frames accelerated in commonly occurring ways : one caused by any relative acceleration of the origin in a straight line ( rectilinear acceleration ) ; two involving rotation : centrifugal force and Coriolis force ; and a fourth , called the Euler force , caused by a variable rate of rotation , should that occur . Gravitational force would also be a fictitious force based upon a field model in which particles distort spacetime due to their mass .", "Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west , the Svalbard archipelago to the east , Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north , and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south . The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean , sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean . However , definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary . In general usage the term `` Arctic Ocean '' would exclude the Greenland Sea . In oceanographic studies the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas , along with the Norwegian Sea . The Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and , as such , could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation . In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the `` Arctic Mediterranean Sea '' , a marginal sea of the Atlantic . The sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 ° C . It previously contained the Odden ice tongue ( or Odden ) area , which extended eastward from the main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72 -- 74 ° N during the winter and acted as a key winter ice formation area in the Arctic . The West Ice forms in winter in the Greenland Sea , north of Iceland , between Greenland and Jan Mayen island . It is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years .", "Economy of Greenland The economy of Greenland can be characterized as small , mixed and vulnerable . Greenland 's economy consists of a big public sector and comprehensive foreign trade , which has resulted in an economy with periods of strong growth , considerable inflation , unemployment problems and extreme dependence on capital inflow from Denmark and use of outside , mainly Danish , skilled labor . GDP per capita is similar to the average European economies but the economy is critically dependent upon substantial support from the Danish government , which supplies about half the revenues of the home rule government who in turn employs 10,307 Greenlanders out 25,620 currently in employment ( 2015 ) . Unemployment nonetheless remains high , with the rest of the economy dependent upon demand for exports of shrimp and fish .", "Greenland in World War II In 1940 , Greenland was a Danish colony . The fall of Denmark to German invasion in April 1940 left Greenland an unoccupied territory of an occupied nation , but under threat of seizure by Britain or Canada . To forestall this , the United States acted to guarantee Greenland 's position . However , with the entrance of the United States into the war in December 1941 , Greenland became a combatant . During 1941-45 the United States established numerous and extensive facilities for air and sea traffic in Greenland , as well as radio beacons , radio stations , weather stations , ports , depots , artillery posts , and search-and-rescue stations . The U.S. Coast Guard also provided a considerable portion of the civilian resupply task up and down both coasts . Economically , Greenland traded successfully with the United States , Canada , and Portugal , which , supplemented by the cryolite exports , caused a reanimation and permanent realignment of the island 's economy .", "Particle acceleration In a compressible sound transmission medium - mainly air - air particles get an accelerated motion : the particle acceleration or sound acceleration with the symbol a in metre/second2 . In acoustics or physics , acceleration ( symbol : a ) is defined as the rate of change ( or time derivative ) of velocity . It is thus a vector quantity with dimension length/time2 . In SI units , this is m/s2 . To accelerate an object ( air particle ) is to change its velocity over a period . Acceleration is defined technically as `` the rate of change of velocity of an object with respect to time '' and is given by the equation where a is the acceleration vector v is the velocity vector expressed in m/s t is time expressed in seconds . This equation gives a the units of m / ( s · s ) , or m/s2 ( read as `` metres per second per second '' , or `` metres per second squared '' ) . An alternative equation is : where is the average acceleration ( m/s2 ) is the initial velocity ( m/s ) is the final velocity ( m/s ) is the time interval ( s ) Transverse acceleration ( perpendicular to velocity ) causes change in direction . If it is constant in magnitude and changing in direction with the velocity , we get a circular motion . For this centripetal acceleration we have One common unit of acceleration is g-force , one g being the acceleration caused by the gravity of Earth . In classical mechanics , acceleration is related to force and mass ( assumed to be constant ) by way of Newton 's second law :", "List of companies of Greenland Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . Greenland leads the world in renewable energy . 70 % of its energy is from renewable sources , particularly hydropower .", "Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator The Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator , VERA , is a particle accelerator . It is operated by the University of Vienna and is dedicated to Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ( AMS ) . It started operation in 1995 .", "Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "Iceberg An iceberg or ice mountain is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water . It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice ( one form of sea ice ) . As it drifts into shallower waters , it may come into contact with the seabed , a process referred to as seabed gouging by ice . Almost 91 % of an iceberg is below the surface of the water ." ]

[ "Type I and type II errors In statistical hypothesis testing , a type I error is the incorrect rejection of a true null hypothesis ( a `` false positive '' ) , while a type II error is incorrectly retaining a false null hypothesis ( a `` false negative '' ) . More simply stated , a type I error is detecting an effect that is not present , while a type II error is the failure to detect an effect that is present .", "Confirmation bias Confirmation bias , also called confirmatory bias or myside bias , David Perkins , a geneticist , coined the term `` myside bias '' referring to a preference for `` my '' side of an issue . is the tendency to search for , interpret , favor , and recall information in a way that confirms one 's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses . It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning . People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively , or when they interpret it in a biased way . The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs . People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position . Biased search , interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization ( when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence ) , belief perseverance ( when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false ) , the irrational primacy effect ( a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series ) and illusory correlation ( when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations ) . A series of experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs . Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way , focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives . In certain situations , this tendency can bias people 's conclusions . Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information . Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong , rather than investigating in a neutral , scientific way . Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence . Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.Tuchman ( 1984 ) described a form of confirmation bias at work in the process of justifying policies to which a government has committed itself : `` Once a policy has been adopted and implemented , all subsequent activity becomes an effort to justify it '' ( p. 245 ) . In the context of a discussion of the policy that drew the United States into war in Vietnam and kept the U.S. military engaged for 16 years despite countless evidences that it was a lost cause from the beginning , Tuchman argued : Wooden-headedness , the source of self-deception is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government . It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs . It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts . It is epitomized in a historian 's statement about Philip II of Spain , the surpassing wooden head of all sovereigns : `` no experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in essential excellence . '' ( p. 7 ) Folly , she argued , is a form of self-deception characterized by `` insistence on a rooted notion regardless of contrary evidence '' ( p. 209 )", "Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous -- Paleogene ( K -- Pg ) extinction event , also known as the Cretaceous -- Tertiary ( K -- T ) extinction , was a mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth that occurred over a geologically short period of time approximately 65 million years ago . With the exception of some ectothermic species like the leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles , no tetrapods weighing more than 25 kg survived . It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it , the entire Mesozoic Era , opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today . In the geologic record , the K -- Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K -- Pg boundary , which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks . The boundary clay shows high levels of the metal iridium , which is rare in the Earth 's crust but abundant in asteroids . As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez , it is now generally thought that the K -- Pg extinction was caused by a massive comet or asteroid impact , estimated to be 10 km wide , 66 million years ago and its catastrophic effects on the global environment , including a lingering impact winter that made it impossible for plants and plankton to carry out photosynthesis . The impact hypothesis , also known as the Alvarez hypothesis , was bolstered by the discovery of the 180 km Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1990s , which provided conclusive evidence that the K -- Pg boundary clay represented debris from an asteroid impact . The fact that the extinctions occurred at the same time as the impact provides strong situational evidence that the K -- Pg extinction was caused by the asteroid . It was possibly accelerated by the creation of the Deccan Traps . However , some scientists maintain the extinction was caused or exacerbated by other factors , such as volcanic eruptions , climate change , or sea level change , separately or together . A wide range of species perished in the K -- Pg extinction . The best-known victims are the non-avian dinosaurs . However , the extinction also destroyed a plethora of other terrestrial organisms , including certain mammals , pterosaurs , birds , lizards , insects , and plants . In the oceans , the K -- Pg extinction killed off plesiosaurs and the giant marine lizards ( Mosasauridae ) and devastated fish , sharks , mollusks ( especially ammonites , which became extinct ) and many species of plankton . It is estimated that 75 % or more of all species on Earth vanished . Yet the devastation caused by the extinction also provided evolutionary opportunities . In the wake of the extinction , many groups underwent remarkable adaptive radiations -- a sudden and prolific divergence into new forms and species within the disrupted and emptied ecological niches resulting from the event . Mammals in particular diversified in the Paleogene , producing new forms such as horses , whales , bats , and primates . Birds , fish and perhaps lizards also radiated .", "Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming ." ]

[ "Scientific method The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena , acquiring new knowledge , or correcting and integrating previous knowledge . To be termed scientific , a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning . The Oxford Dictionaries Online define the scientific method as `` a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century , consisting in systematic observation , measurement , and experiment , and the formulation , testing , and modification of hypotheses '' . Experiments need to be designed to test hypotheses . The most important part of the scientific method is the experiment . The scientific method is a continuous process , which usually begins with observations about the natural world . Human beings are naturally inquisitive , so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas ( hypotheses ) about why things are the way they are . The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways , including making further observations about nature . In general , the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data . Depending on how well the tests match the predictions , the original hypothesis may require refinement , alteration , expansion or even rejection . If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed . Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another , identifiable features are frequently shared in common between them . The overall process of the scientific method involves making conjectures ( hypotheses ) , deriving predictions from them as logical consequences , and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions . A hypothesis is a conjecture , based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question . The hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad . Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments . Under modern interpretations , a scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable , implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis ; otherwise , the hypothesis can not be meaningfully tested . The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis . Experiments can take place anywhere from a college lab to CERN 's Large Hadron Collider . There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method , however . Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps , it represents rather a set of general principles . Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry ( or to the same degree ) , and are not always in the same order . Some philosophers and scientists have argued that there is no scientific method , such as Lee Smolin and Paul Feyerabend ( in his Against Method ) . Nola and Sankey remark that `` For some , the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year 's debate '' .", "Irie Irie may refer to : Irie , a word in Jamaican Patois and Rastafarian English ( see Iyaric ) Irie Maffia , Hungarian band formed in 2005 Irie Time , American reggae band formed in the early 1990s Muroran Irie Stadium , athletic stadium in Japan", "Talatat Talatat are stone blocks of standardized size ( c. 27 by 27 by 54 cm , corresponding to by by 1 ancient Egyptian cubits ) used during the 18th dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten in the building of the Aton temples at Karnak and Akhetaten ( modern Amarna ) . The standardized size and their small weight made construction more efficient . Their use may have begun in the second year of Akhenaten 's reign . After the Amarna Period talatat construction was abandoned , apparently not having withstood the test of time .", "Exploratory research Exploratory Research is research conducted for a problem that has not been studied more clearly , establishes priorities , develops operational definitions and improve the final research design . Exploratory research helps determine the best research design , data-collection method and selection of subjects . It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution . Given its fundamental nature , exploratory research often concludes that a perceived problem does not actually exist . Exploratory research often relies on techniques such as : secondary research - such as reviewing available literature and/or data informal qualitative approaches , such as discussions with consumers , employees , management or competitors formal qualitative research through in-depth interviews , focus groups , projective methods , case studies or pilot studies The Internet allows for research methods that are more interactive in nature . For example : RSS feeds efficiently supply researchers with up-to-date information services such as Google Alerts may send major search-engine search results by email to researchers services such as Google Trends track comprehensive search results over lengthy periods of time researchers may set up websites to attract worldwide feedback on any subject When research aims to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to acquire new insight into it in order to formulate a more precise problem or to develop a hypothesis , exploratory studies ( also known as formulative research ) come in handy . If the theory happens to be too general or too specific , a hypothesis can not be formulated . Therefore , a need for an exploratory research is felt to gain experience that may help in formulating a relevant hypothesis for more definite investigation . The results of exploratory research are not usually useful for decision-making by themselves , but they can provide significant insight into a given situation . Although the results of qualitative research can give some indication as to the `` why '' , `` how '' and `` when '' something occurs , they can not reveal `` how often '' or `` how many '' . Exploratory research is not typically generalizable to the population at large . Social exploratory research `` seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question , what meanings they give to their actions , and what issues concern them . The goal is to learn ` what is going on here ? ' and to investigate social phenomena without explicit expectations . '' This methodology is also at times referred to as a grounded theory approach to qualitative research or interpretive research , and is an attempt to unearth a theory from the data itself rather than from a predisposed hypothesis . Earl Babbie identifies three purposes of social-science research : exploratory , descriptive and explanatory . Exploratory research takes place when problems are in a preliminary stage . Exploratory research is used when the topic or issue is new and when data is difficult to collect . Exploratory research is flexible and can address research questions of all types ( what , why , how ) . Exploratory research is often used to generate formal hypotheses . Shields and Tajalli link exploratory research with the conceptual framework working hypothesis . Skeptics , however , have questioned the usefulness and necessity of exploratory research in situations where prior analysis could be conducted instead .", "Music of Tonga Music of Tonga refers to music derived from the island Tonga in the islands of Polynesia . Music of Tonga today generally falls under the category of traditional music that has withstood the test of time , or into one of the two opposing genres of religious and secular music . Tongan music can be either very emotional and somewhat modern with instrumental makeup including modern brass instruments , or conversely can be very primitive and consist of only drums and voices . In this way , Tongan music is very diverse despite the fact that it is contained to a fairly small island , which means that the different cultures and styles co-exist on the small land mass together without blending ." ]

[ "Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration The environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration represents a shift from the policy priorities and goals of his predecessor , Barack Obama . During the campaign Trump often described environmental regulations as an impediment to business . He promised to roll back many regulations and end a moratorium on the leasing of federal coal reserves . Immediately upon his inauguration , the White House released an `` America First Energy Plan '' , which focused on fossil fuels and did not mention renewable energy . The plan would repeal many Obama policies including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule , and limit the Environmental Protection Agency 's mission to protecting air and water quality . Within days of taking office he signed executive orders to approve two controversial pipelines and to require federal review of the Clean Water Rule and the Clean Power Plan . He also invited American manufacturers to suggest what regulations should be eliminated ; industry leaders submitted 168 comments , of which nearly half targeted Environmental Protection Agency rules . In March 2017 he released a proposed 2018 budget which would cut funding for the EPA by 31 % . In May 2017 Congress approved a budget for the balance of the 2017-18 year which cuts the EPA 's funding by 1 % and eliminates no jobs . Trump 's appointments to key agencies dealing in energy and environmental policy reflected his commitment to deregulation , particularly of the fossil fuel industry . Several of his cabinet picks , such as Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy and Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency , were of people with a history of opposition to the agency they were named to head .", "Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. ( -LSB- ˈdʒoʊsᵻf_rɒbᵻˈnɛt_ˈbaɪdən -RSB- born November 20 , 1942 ) is an American politician who was the 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017 , having been jointly elected twice with President Barack Obama . A member of the Democratic Party , he represented Delaware as a United States Senator from 1973 until becoming Vice President in 2009 . Biden was born in Scranton , Pennsylvania , in 1942 , and lived there for ten years before moving to Delaware . He became an attorney in 1969 , and was elected to the New Castle County council in 1970 . He was first elected to the Senate in 1972 , and became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history . He was re-elected to the Senate six times , and was the fourth most senior senator at the time of his resignation to assume the Vice Presidency in 2009 . He was a long-time member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee . He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 , but advocated U.S. and NATO intervention in the Bosnian War in 1994 and 1995 . He voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002 , but opposed the surge of U.S. troops in 2007 . He has also served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , dealing with issues related to drug policy , crime prevention , and civil liberties , and led the legislative efforts for creation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act , and the Violence Against Women Act . He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas . Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and in 2008 , both times dropping out after lackluster showings . In the 2008 U.S. presidential election , Barack Obama chose Biden to be his running mate in the race , which they won . He became the first Roman Catholic , and the first Delawarean , to be Vice President of the United States . As Vice President in the Obama administration , Biden oversaw the infrastructure spending aimed at counteracting the Great Recession , and U.S. policy toward Iraq up until the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 . His ability to negotiate with congressional Republicans helped bring about legislation such as the Tax Relief , Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization , and Job Creation Act of 2010 that resolved a taxation deadlock , the Budget Control Act of 2011 that resolved that year 's debt ceiling crisis , and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 that addressed the impending `` fiscal cliff '' . In 2011 , he opposed going ahead with the military mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden . Obama and Biden were re-elected in 2012 . In October 2015 , after months of speculation , Biden chose not to run for President of the United States in 2016 . In December 2016 , he refused to rule out a potential bid for President in 2020 , but announced on January 13 , 2017 , that he would not run , only to seemingly backtrack just four days later , again refusing to rule out a potential bid . On January 12 , 2017 , Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom , with distinction . After leaving office , Biden was named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania .", "Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( -LSB- bəˈrɑːk_huːˈseɪn_oʊˈbɑːmə -RSB- ; born August 4 , 1961 ) is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017 . He is the first African American to have served as president . He previously served in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 , and in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004 . Obama was born in Honolulu , Hawaii , two years after the territory was admitted to the Union as the 50th state . Raised largely in Hawaii , Obama also spent one year of his childhood in Washington State and four years in Indonesia . After graduating from Columbia University in 1983 , he worked as a community organizer in Chicago . In 1988 Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School , where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review . After graduation , he became a civil rights attorney and professor , teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004 . Obama represented the 13th District for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 , when he ran for the U.S. Senate . Obama received national attention in 2004 , with his unexpected March primary win , his well-received July Democratic National Convention keynote address , and his landslide November election to the Senate . In 2008 , Obama was nominated for president , a year after his campaign began , and after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton . He was elected over Republican John McCain , and was inaugurated on January 20 , 2009 . Nine months later , Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate . During his first two years in office , Obama signed many landmark bills . Main reforms were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( often referred to as `` Obamacare '' ) , the Dodd -- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act , and the Do n't Ask , Do n't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 . The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Tax Relief , Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization , and Job Creation Act of 2010 served as economic stimulus amidst the Great Recession , but the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives in 2011 . After a lengthy debate over the national debt limit , Obama signed the Budget Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts . In foreign policy , Obama increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan , reduced nuclear weapons with the U.S.-Russian New START treaty , and ended military involvement in the Iraq War . He ordered military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi , and the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden . After winning re-election by defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney , Obama was sworn in for a second term in 2013 . During his second term , Obama promoted greater inclusiveness for LGBT Americans , with his administration filing briefs that urged the Supreme Court to strike down same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional ( United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges ) . Obama also advocated gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting , and issued wide-ranging executive actions concerning climate change and immigration . In foreign policy , Obama ordered military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq , continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan , promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change , initiated the sanctions against Russia following the invasion in Ukraine , brokered a nuclear deal with Iran , and normalized U.S. relations with Cuba . Obama left office in January 2017 with a 60 % approval rating . He currently resides in Washington , D.C. His presidential library will be built in Chicago ." ]

[ "Jeffrey Zients Jeffrey D. `` Jeff '' Zients ( born November 12 , 1966 ) is an American chief executive officer , management consultant and entrepreneur . From February 2014 to January 2017 , he served as Director of the United States National Economic Council and President Obama 's Economic Advisor . Zients previously served as the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget . Zients 's assumption of the role of Director of the National Economic Council was delayed by his acceptance of an assignment from President Barack Obama to fix the problems of HealthCare.gov . Zients is widely credited with salvaging HealthCare.gov , and has come to be referred to as `` Mr. Fix-It '' within the Obama Administration .", "Technological fix A technological fix , technical fix , technological shortcut or solutionism refers to the attempt of using engineering or technology to solve a problem ( often created by earlier technological interventions ) . Some references define technological fix as an `` attempt to repair the harm of a technology by modification of the system '' , that might involve modification of the machine and/or modification of the procedures for operating and maintaining it . Technological fixes are inevitable in modern technology . It has been observed that many technologies , although invented and developed to solve certain perceived problems , often create other problems in the process , known as externalities . In other words , there would be modification of the basic hardware , modification of techniques and procedures , or both . Technological fix is the idea that all problems can find solutions in better and new technologies . It now is used as a dismissive phrase to describe cheap , quick fixes by using inappropriate technologies ; these fixes often create more problems than they solve , or give people a sense that they have solved the problem .", "Constrained generalized inverse In linear algebra , a constrained generalized inverse is obtained by solving a system of linear equations with an additional constraint that the solution is in a given subspace . One also says that the problem is described by a system of constrained linear equations . In many practical problems , the solution of a linear system of equations is acceptable only when it is in a certain linear subspace of . In the following , the orthogonal projection on will be denoted by . Constrained system of linear equations has a solution if and only if the unconstrained system of equations is solvable . If the subspace is a proper subspace of , then the matrix of the unconstrained problem may be singular even if the system matrix of the constrained problem is invertible ( in that case , ) . This means that one needs to use a generalized inverse for the solution of the constrained problem . So , a generalized inverse of is also called a - constrained pseudoinverse of . An example of a pseudoinverse that can be used for the solution of a constrained problem is the Bott -- Duffin inverse of constrained to , which is defined by the equation if the inverse on the right-hand-side exists . Category : Matrices", "Job shop scheduling Job shop scheduling ( or job-shop problem ( JSP ) ) is an optimization problem in computer science and operations research in which ideal jobs are assigned to resources at particular times . The most basic version is as follows : We are given n jobs J1 , J2 , ... , Jn of varying processing times , which need to be scheduled on m machines with varying processing power , while trying to minimize the makespan . The makespan is the total length of the schedule ( that is , when all the jobs have finished processing ) . In most practical settings , the problem is presented as an online problem ( dynamic scheduling ) , that is , the decision of scheduling a job can only be made online , when the job is presented to the algorithm . This problem is one of the best known combinatorial optimization problems , and was the first problem for which competitive analysis was presented , by Graham in 1966 . Best problem instances for basic model with makespan objective are due to Taillard .", "National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan , more commonly called the National Contingency Plan or NCP , is the United States federal government 's blueprint for responding to oil spills and hazardous substance releases . It documents national response capability and is intended to promote overall coordination among the hierarchy of responders and contingency plans . The first National Contingency Plan was developed and published in 1968 in response to a massive oil spill from the oil tanker Torrey Canyon off the coast of England that occurred a year earlier . More than 37 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the water and caused massive environmental damage . To avoid the problems faced by response officials involved in the incident , U.S. officials developed a coordinated approach to cope with potential spills in U.S. waters . The 1968 plan provided the first comprehensive system of accident reporting , spill containment , and cleanup . It also established a response headquarters , a national reaction team , and regional reaction teams ( precursors to the current National Response Team and Regional Response Teams ) . Congress has broadened the scope of the National Contingency Plan over the years . As required by the Clean Water Act of 1972 , the NCP was revised the following year to include a framework for responding to hazardous substance spills as well as oil discharges . Following the passage of Superfund legislation in 1980 , the NCP was broadened to cover releases at hazardous waste sites requiring emergency removal actions . Over the years , additional revisions have been made to the NCP to keep pace with the enactment of legislation . The latest revisions to the NCP were finalized in 1994 to reflect the oil spill provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 . Under the National Contingency Plan , federal agencies should : ( 1 ) Plan for emergencies and develop procedures for addressing oil discharges and releases of hazardous substances , pollutants , or contaminants ; ( 2 ) Coordinate their planning , preparedness , and response activities with one another ; ( 3 ) Coordinate their planning , preparedness , and response activities with affected states , local governments , and private entities ; and ( 4 ) Make available those facilities or resources that may be useful in a response situation , consistent with agency authorities and capabilities . Once a response has been triggered , the USCG or USEPA `` is authorized to initiate and , in the case of a discharge posing a substantial threat to public health or welfare of the United States is required to initiate and direct , appropriate response activities when the Administrator or Secretary determines that any oil or CWA hazardous substance is discharged or there is a substantial threat of such discharge from any vessel or offshore or onshore facility into or on the navigable waters of the United States , on the adjoining shorelines to the navigable waters , into or on the waters of the exclusive economic zone , or that may affect natural resources belonging to , appertaining to , or under exclusive management authority of the United States '' . The federal On-Scene Coordinator ( OSC ) `` directs response efforts and coordinates all other efforts at the scene of a discharge or release ''", "Air Pollution in Canada Air pollution in Canada arises from the increasing airborne chemicals , matter and biological materials in the air . These factors cause harm to human health , the environment and to the economy . In the Canadian context , the main contributor of air pollution stems from burning fossil fuels for power and energy . Fossil fuels continue to be the main source of fuel for Canadians , even though the government is aware of the negative effects that it has on the environment and human health . Air pollution in Canada continues to be an issue due to the pressures with climate change , increased urbanization and continued reliance on vehicles as the primary source of transportation . A major contributor to the problem of Canadian air pollution are the Alberta Oil Sands . Though they are not closely related to major Canadian Metropolitan Areas , the quality of mostly rural Northern Alberta is poorer than areas of similar population densities in Canada . Toronto and other Canadian municipalities face environmental problems associated with air pollution due to industrial chemicals . Air pollution is Canada continues to negatively affect the environment , leading to an increase in health problems for Canadians , especially regarding leukemia . Air pollution has increased the rate of hospital visits per year and is currently causing premature deaths . There are current policy responses to combat the increasing rate of air pollution in Canada . The agreement is a response to Canada 's transportation and energy production infrastructure as they contribute to the problem of Air Pollution . The Canadian and United States federal governments have required each other to reduce air pollution by specific amounts annually through detailed reporting .", "Quadratically constrained quadratic program In mathematical optimization , a quadratically constrained quadratic program ( QCQP ) is an optimization problem in which both the objective function and the constraints are quadratic functions . It has the form where P0 , ... Pm are n-by-n matrices and x ∈ Rn is the optimization variable . If P0 , ... Pm are all positive semidefinite , then the problem is convex . If these matrices are neither positive nor negative semidefinite , the problem is non-convex . If P1 , ... Pm are all zero , then the constraints are in fact linear and the problem is a quadratic program .", "Obstacle problem The obstacle problem is a classic motivating example in the mathematical study of variational inequalities and free boundary problems . The problem is to find the equilibrium position of an elastic membrane whose boundary is held fixed , and which is constrained to lie above a given obstacle . It is deeply related to the study of minimal surfaces and the capacity of a set in potential theory as well . Applications include the study of fluid filtration in porous media , constrained heating , elasto-plasticity , optimal control , and financial mathematics . The mathematical formulation of the problem is to seek minimizers of the Dirichlet energy functional , in some domain where the functions represent the vertical displacement of the membrane . In addition to satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions corresponding to the fixed boundary of the membrane , the functions are in addition constrained to be greater than some given obstacle function . The solution breaks down into a region where the solution is equal to the obstacle function , known as the contact set , and a region where the solution is above the obstacle . The interface between the two regions is the free boundary . In general , the solution is continuous and possesses Lipschitz continuous first derivatives , but that the solution is generally discontinuous in the second derivatives across the free boundary . The free boundary is characterized as a Hölder continuous surface except at certain singular points , which reside on a smooth manifold .", "Nurse scheduling problem The nurse scheduling problem ( NSP ) , also called the nurse rostering problem ( NRP ) , is the operations research problem of finding an optimal way to assign nurses to shifts , typically with a set of hard constraints which all valid solutions must follow , and a set of soft constraints which define the relative quality of valid solutions . Solutions to the nurse scheduling problem can be applied to constrained scheduling problems in other fields . The nurse scheduling problem has been studied since before 1969 , and is known to have NP-hard complexity .", "Arthur–Merlin protocol In computational complexity theory , an Arthur -- Merlin protocol is an interactive proof system in which the verifier 's coin tosses are constrained to be public ( i.e. known to the prover too ) . This notion was introduced by . proved that all languages with interactive proofs of arbitrary length with private coins also have interactive proofs with public coins . Given two participants in the protocol called Arthur and Merlin respectively , the basic assumption is that Arthur is a standard computer ( or verifier ) equipped with a random number generating device , while Merlin is effectively an oracle with infinite computational power ( also known as a prover ) ; but Merlin is not necessarily honest , so Arthur must analyze the information provided by Merlin in response to Arthur 's queries and decide the problem itself . A problem is considered to be solvable by this protocol if whenever the answer is `` yes '' , Merlin has some series of responses which will cause Arthur to accept at least of the time , and if whenever the answer is `` no '' , Arthur will never accept more than of the time . Thus , Arthur acts as a probabilistic polynomial-time verifier , assuming it is allotted polynomial time to make its decisions and queries .", "Vaccine vial monitor A vaccine vial monitor ( VVM ) is a thermochromic label put on vials containing vaccines which gives a visual indication of whether the vaccine has been kept at a temperature which preserves its potency . The labels were designed in response to the problem of delivering vaccines to developing countries where the cold chain is difficult to preserve , and where formerly vaccines were being rendered inactive and administered ineffectively due to their having been denatured by exposure to ambient temperature .", "Readers–writers problem In computer science , the readers-writers problems are examples of a common computing problem in concurrency . There are at least three variations of the problems , which deal with situations in which many threads try to access the same shared resource at one time . Some threads may read and some may write , with the constraint that no process may access the shared resource for either reading or writing while another process is in the act of writing to it . ( In particular , it is allowed for two or more readers to access the share at the same time . ) A readers-writer lock is a data structure that solves one or more of the readers-writers problems . The basic reader-writers problem was first formulated and solved by Courtois et al. .", "NP-intermediate In computational complexity , problems that are in the complexity class NP but are neither in the class P nor NP-complete are called NP-intermediate , and the class of such problems is called NPI . Ladner 's theorem , shown in 1975 by Richard E. Ladner , is a result asserting that , if P ≠ NP , then NPI is not empty ; that is , NP contains problems that are neither in P nor NP-complete . Since the other direction is trivial , it follows that P = NP if and only if NPI is empty . Under the assumption that P ≠ NP , Ladner explicitly constructs a problem in NPI , although this problem is artificial and otherwise uninteresting . It is an open question whether any `` natural '' problem has the same property : Schaefer 's dichotomy theorem provides conditions under which classes of constrained Boolean satisfiability problems can not be in NPI . Some problems that are considered good candidates for being NP-intermediate are the graph isomorphism problem , factoring , and computing the discrete logarithm .", "Hold-up problem In economics , the hold-up problem ( or commitment problem ) is central to the theory of incomplete contracts and shows the difficulty in writing complete contracts . A hold-up problem arises when two factors are present : Parties to a future transaction must make noncontractible relationship-specific investments before the transaction takes place . The specific form of the optimal transaction ( such as quality-level specifications , time of delivery , what quantity of units ) can not be determined with certainty beforehand . The hold-up problem is a situation where two parties may be able to work most efficiently by cooperating but refrain from doing so because of concerns that they may give the other party increased bargaining power , and thereby reduce their own profits . When party A has made a prior commitment to a relationship with party B , the latter can ` hold up ' the former for the value of that commitment . The hold-up problem leads to severe economic cost and might also lead to underinvestment .", "Fixed-radius near neighbors In computational geometry , the fixed-radius near neighbor problem is a variant of the nearest neighbor search problem . In the fixed-radius near neighbor problem , one is given as input a set of points in d-dimensional Euclidean space and a fixed distance Δ . One must design a data structure that , given a query point q , efficiently reports the points of the data structure that are within distance Δ of q . The problem has long been studied ; cites a 1966 paper by Levinthal that uses this technique as part of a system for visualizing molecular structures , and it has many other applications .", "Knapsack problem The knapsack problem or rucksack problem is a problem in combinatorial optimization : Given a set of items , each with a weight and a value , determine the number of each item to include in a collection so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given limit and the total value is as large as possible . It derives its name from the problem faced by someone who is constrained by a fixed-size knapsack and must fill it with the most valuable items . The problem often arises in resource allocation where there are financial constraints and is studied in fields such as combinatorics , computer science , complexity theory , cryptography , applied mathematics , and daily fantasy sports . The knapsack problem has been studied for more than a century , with early works dating as far back as 1897 . The name `` knapsack problem '' dates back to the early works of mathematician Tobias Dantzig ( 1884 -- 1956 ) , and refers to the commonplace problem of packing your most valuable or useful items without overloading your luggage .", "Penalty method Penalty methods are a certain class of algorithms for solving constrained optimization problems . A penalty method replaces a constrained optimization problem by a series of unconstrained problems whose solutions ideally converge to the solution of the original constrained problem . The unconstrained problems are formed by adding a term , called a penalty function , to the objective function that consists of a penalty parameter multiplied by a measure of violation of the constraints . The measure of violation is nonzero when the constraints are violated and is zero in the region where constraints are not violated .", "Environmental issues in Kuwait Located in the Middle East , between Saudi Arabia and Iraq , Kuwait is a relatively small country that has been the center of many political and economic issues over the past few decades . These problems include corruption of the Kuwaiti government by many terrorist organizations and domestic violence to maintain the status quo of the oil industry elite . Stemming from these tensions , Kuwait as well as other countries in the region , including Iran , Iraq , and Qatar face threats from environmental issues . A loss of agriculture due to climate change , pollution from the country 's oil industry and Oil Fires of 1991 as well as damages to agriculture and biodiversity are just some of the common environmental issues . The Kuwaiti government has worked to mitigate and adapt to these issues through policy and the creation of agencies to research , educated and inform about environmental problems , their sources , and their effects . The general environmental issues in Kuwait include but are not limited to climate change , loss of agriculture , loss of biodiversity , air pollution and water pollution .", "Parameterized complexity In computer science , parameterized complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty with respect to multiple parameters of the input or output . The complexity of a problem is then measured as a function in those parameters . This allows the classification of NP-hard problems on a finer scale than in the classical setting , where the complexity of a problem is only measured by the number of bits in the input . The first systematic work on parameterized complexity was done by . Under the assumption that P ≠ NP , there exist many natural problems that require superpolynomial running time when complexity is measured in terms of the input size only , but that are computable in a time that is polynomial in the input size and exponential or worse in a parameter . Hence , if is fixed at a small value and the growth of the function over is relatively small then such problems can still be considered `` tractable '' despite their traditional classification as `` intractable '' . The existence of efficient , exact , and deterministic solving algorithms for NP-complete , or otherwise NP-hard , problems is considered unlikely , if input parameters are not fixed ; all known solving algorithms for these problems require time that is exponential ( or at least superpolynomial ) in the total size of the input . However , some problems can be solved by algorithms that are exponential only in the size of a fixed parameter while polynomial in the size of the input . Such an algorithm is called a fixed-parameter tractable ( fpt - ) algorithm , because the problem can be solved efficiently for small values of the fixed parameter . Problems in which some parameter is fixed are called parameterized problems . A parameterized problem that allows for such an fpt-algorithm is said to be a fixed-parameter tractable problem and belongs to the class , and the early name of the theory of parameterized complexity was fixed-parameter tractability . Many problems have the following form : given an object and a nonnegative integer , does have some property that depends on ? For instance , for the vertex cover problem , the parameter can be the number of vertices in the cover . In many applications , for example when modelling error correction , one can assume the parameter to be `` small '' compared to the total input size . Then it is interesting to see whether we can find an algorithm which is exponential only in , and not in the input size . In this way , parameterized complexity can be seen as two-dimensional complexity theory . This concept is formalized as follows : A parameterized problem is a language , where is a finite alphabet . The second component is called the parameter of the problem . A parameterized problem is fixed-parameter tractable if the question `` ? '' can be decided in running time , where is an arbitrary function depending only on . The corresponding complexity class is called FPT . For example , there is an algorithm which solves the vertex cover problem in time , where is the number of vertices and is the size of the vertex cover . This means that vertex cover is fixed-parameter tractable with the size of the solution as the parameter .", "Source separation Source separation problems in digital signal processing are those in which several signals have been mixed together into a combined signal and the objective is to recover the original component signals from the combined signal . The classical example of a source separation problem is the cocktail party problem , where a number of people are talking simultaneously in a room ( for example , at a cocktail party ) , and a listener is trying to follow one of the discussions . The human brain can handle this sort of auditory source separation problem , but it is a difficult problem in digital signal processing . This was first analyzed by Colin Cherry . Several approaches have been proposed for the solution of this problem but development is currently still very much in progress . Some of the more successful approaches are principal components analysis and independent component analysis , which work well when there are no delays or echoes present ; that is , the problem is simplified a great deal . The field of computational auditory scene analysis attempts to achieve auditory source separation using an approach that is based on human hearing . The human brain must also solve this problem in real time . In human perception this ability is commonly referred to as auditory scene analysis or the cocktail party effect .", "Suramula Suramula is a river in Khashuri Municipality , and a left tributary of the Kura River . It starts at the left slope of Likhi Range , 1200 m above sea level , and runs a length of 42 km . The basin is 719 km2 . This river is nourished by rain , snow , and groundwater . It is known to flood in the spring and in autumn , but it lacks water in winter . This river is polluted with substances like nitrite nitrogen . It once was polluted with excessive amounts of iron , although this problem has since been fixed .", "Sun-Ni law Sun-Ni 's Law ( or Sun and Ni 's Law , also known as memory-bounded speedup ) , is a memory-bounded speedup model which states that as computing power increases the corresponding increase in problem size is constrained by the system 's memory capacity . In general , as a system grows in computational power , the problems run on the system increase in size . Analogous to Amdahl 's law , which says that the problem size remains constant as system sizes grow , and Gustafson 's law , which proposes that the problem size should scale but be bound by a fixed amount of time , Sun-Ni 's Law states the problem size should scale but be bound by the memory capacity of the system . Sun-Ni 's Law was initially proposed by Xian-He Sun and Lionel Ni at the Proceedings of IEEE Supercomputing Conference 1990 . With the increasing disparity between CPU speed and memory data access latency , application execution time often depends on the memory speed of the system . As predicted by Sun and Ni , data access has become the premier performance bottleneck for high-end computing . From this fact one can see the intuition behind Sun-Ni 's Law , as system resources increase , applications are often bottlenecked by memory speed and bandwidth , thus an application can achieve a larger speedup by utilizing all the memory capacity in the system . Sun-Ni 's Law can be applied to different layers of a memory hierarchy system , from L1 cache to main memory . Through its memory-bounded function , W = G ( M ) , it reveals the trade-off between computing and memory in algorithm and system architecture design . All three speedup models , Sun-Ni , Gustafson , and Amdahl , provide a metric to analyze speedup for Parallel computing . Amdahl 's law focuses on the time reduction for a given fixed-size problem . Amdahl 's law states that the sequential portion of the problem ( algorithm ) limits the total speedup that can be achieved as system resources increase . Gustafson 's law suggests that it is beneficial to build a large-scale parallel system as the speedup can grow linearly with the system size if the problem size is scaled up to maintain a fixed execution time . Yet as memory access latency often becomes the dominant factor in an application 's execution time , applications may not scale up to meet the time bound constraint . Sun-Ni 's Law , instead of constraining the problem size by time , constrains the problem by the memory capacity of the system , or in other words bounds based on memory . Sun-Ni 's Law is a generalization of Amdahl 's Law and Gustafson 's Law . When the memory-bounded function G ( M ) = 1 , it resolves to Amdahl 's law , when the memory-bounded function G ( M ) = m , the number of processors , it resolves to Gustafson 's Law .", "Jeep problem The jeep problem , desert crossing problem or exploration problem is a mathematics problem in which a jeep must maximise the distance it can travel into a desert with a given quantity of fuel . The jeep can only carry a fixed and limited amount of fuel , but it can leave fuel and collect fuel at fuel dumps anywhere in the desert . The problem was solved by N. J. Fine in 1947 .", "Packing problems Packing problems are a class of optimization problems in mathematics that involve attempting to pack objects together into containers . The goal is to either pack a single container as densely as possible or pack all objects using as few containers as possible . Many of these problems can be related to real life packaging , storage and transportation issues . Each packing problem has a dual covering problem , which asks how many of the same objects are required to completely cover every region of the container , where objects are allowed to overlap . In a Bin packing problem , you are given : ` containers ' ( usually a single two - or three-dimensional convex region , or an infinite space ) A set of ` objects ' some or all of which must be packed into one or more containers . The set may contain different objects with their sizes specified , or a single object of a fixed dimension that can be used repeatedly . Usually the packing must be without overlaps between goods and other goods or the container walls . In some variants , the aim is to find the configuration that packs a single container with the maximal density . More commonly , the aim is to pack all the objects into as few containers as possible . In some variants the overlapping ( of objects with each other and/or with the boundary of the container ) is allowed but should be minimized .", "Reduced cost In linear programming , reduced cost , or opportunity cost , is the amount by which an objective function coefficient would have to improve ( so increase for maximization problem , decrease for minimization problem ) before it would be possible for a corresponding variable to assume a positive value in the optimal solution . It is the cost for increasing a variable by a small amount , i.e. , the first derivative from a certain point on the polyhedron that constrains the problem . When the point is a vertex in the polyhedron , the variable with the most extreme cost , negatively for minimization and positively maximization , is sometimes referred to as the steepest edge . Given a system minimize subject to , the reduced cost vector can be computed as , where is the dual cost vector . It follows directly that for a minimization problem , any non-basic variables at their lower bounds with strictly negative reduced costs are eligible to enter that basis , while any basic variables must have a reduced cost that is exactly 0 . For a maximization problem , the non-basic variables at their lower bounds that are eligible for entering the basis have a strictly positive reduced cost .", "Petroleum transport Petroleum transport is the transportation of petroleum and derivatives such as gasoline ( petrol ) . Petroleum is transported via rail cars , trucks , tanker vessels , and through pipelines . Which method is used to move this oil depends on the amount that is being moved and where it is being moved to . The biggest problems with moving this oil are pollution and the chance that the oil can spill . Petroleum oil is very hard to clean up and is very toxic to living animals .", "International Society of Doctors for the Environment The International Society of Doctors for the Environment ( ISDE ) is an NGO , founded at Cortona on 25 November 1990 , by doctors of various nationalities , in order to gather all doctors interested in medical problems related to ecological problems , spread awareness of the connection between environmental pollution and human health , start and support initiatives from local to global levels , and to reduce or eliminate sources of pollution and environmental pollution . ISDE has consultative status with the WHO and the United Nations Economic and Social Council .", "Hindsight bias Hindsight bias , also known as the knew-it-all-along effect or creeping determinism , is the inclination , after an event has occurred , to see the event as having been predictable , despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it . It is a multifaceted phenomenon that can affect different stages of designs , processes , contexts , and situations . Hindsight bias may cause memory distortion , where the recollection and reconstruction of content can lead to false theoretical outcomes . It has been suggested that the effect can cause extreme methodological problems while trying to analyze , understand , and interpret results in experimental studies . A basic example of the hindsight bias is when , after viewing the outcome of a potentially unforeseeable event , a person believes he or she `` knew it all along '' . Such examples are present in the writings of historians describing outcomes of battles , physicians recalling clinical trials , and in judicial systems trying to attribute responsibility and predictability of accidents .", "Differential evolution In evolutionary computation , differential evolution ( DE ) is a method that optimizes a problem by iteratively trying to improve a candidate solution with regard to a given measure of quality . Such methods are commonly known as metaheuristics as they make few or no assumptions about the problem being optimized and can search very large spaces of candidate solutions . However , metaheuristics such as DE do not guarantee an optimal solution is ever found . DE is used for multidimensional real-valued functions but does not use the gradient of the problem being optimized , which means DE does not require for the optimization problem to be differentiable as is required by classic optimization methods such as gradient descent and quasi-newton methods . DE can therefore also be used on optimization problems that are not even continuous , are noisy , change over time , etc. . DE optimizes a problem by maintaining a population of candidate solutions and creating new candidate solutions by combining existing ones according to its simple formulae , and then keeping whichever candidate solution has the best score or fitness on the optimization problem at hand . In this way the optimization problem is treated as a black box that merely provides a measure of quality given a candidate solution and the gradient is therefore not needed . DE is originally due to Storn and Price . Books have been published on theoretical and practical aspects of using DE in parallel computing , multiobjective optimization , constrained optimization , and the books also contain surveys of application areas . Surveys on the multi-faceted research aspects of DE can be found in journal articles .", "NP-hardness NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hard ) , in computational complexity theory , is the defining property of a class of problems that are , informally , `` at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP '' . More precisely , a problem H is NP-hard when every problem L in NP can be reduced in polynomial time to H , that is : assuming a solution for H takes 1 unit time , we can use H 's solution to solve L in polynomial time . As a consequence , finding a polynomial algorithm to solve any NP-hard problem would give polynomial algorithms for all the problems in NP , which is unlikely as many of them are considered hard . A common misconception is that the NP in `` NP-hard '' stands for `` non-polynomial '' when in fact it stands for `` Non-deterministic Polynomial acceptable problems '' . Although it is suspected that there are no polynomial-time algorithms for NP-hard problems , this has not been proven . Moreover , the class P in which all problems can be solved in polynomial time , is contained in the NP class .", "Family law in British Columbia There are two courts that handle almost all family law litigation in British Columbia , Canada : the Provincial ( Family ) Court and the Supreme Court . Each court has its own rules , its own forms , and its own process . There are two main laws that apply to family law problems in BC . A law , in this sense of the word , means a rule made by the government . These laws are the federal Divorce Act and the provincial Family Law Act . Each law deals with different issues , although they share a lot of issues in common . For some couples , both laws will apply ; for others , only one of these laws will apply , probably the Family Law Act . You do n't have to go to court , no matter how bad your problem is . The only times you must go to court are when : you need a divorce , someone is threatening to do something serious , like take the children away , there is a risk of violence , someone is threatening to hide property or money , or you just ca n't agree about how to fix the problem no matter how hard you try . If you do n't have to deal with one or more of these issues , you can always try to negotiate a way of fixing the problem , to find a solution that you both agree with . Couples who need help negotiating sometimes hire someone else to help , someone who is usually a stranger to them , called a mediator . Mediators help to guide the negotiation process and encourage people to see different ways of solving the problem . Lawyers who mediate family law problems are called family law mediators , and have special training in mediation apart from their training as lawyers . Because there are no rules in British Columbia about who can and who ca n't call themselves a mediator , you should look carefully at the mediator 's credentials before you agree to use that person as your mediator .", "Lagrangian relaxation In the field of mathematical optimization , Lagrangian relaxation is a relaxation method which approximates a difficult problem of constrained optimization by a simpler problem . A solution to the relaxed problem is an approximate solution to the original problem , and provides useful information . The method penalizes violations of inequality constraints using a Lagrange multiplier , which imposes a cost on violations . These added costs are used instead of the strict inequality constraints in the optimization . In practice , this relaxed problem can often be solved more easily than the original problem . The problem of maximizing the Lagrangian function of the dual variables ( the Lagrangian multipliers ) is the Lagrangian dual problem ." ]