ಶ್ರಮಭೂಮಿ- Shrama Bhoomi

Interview                  by James Tulloch ric Wolff, British Antarctic Survey: "We all take for granted that CO2 and methane levels have increased in the last 200 years. But only from ice cores can we be absolutely sure"  Three kilometers below the Antarctic’s surface Earth’s climate history is written in ice. Eric Wolff, leader of the British Antarctic Survey’s Chemistry and Past Climate team, explains how to decipher the ultimate time capsule. How important are ice cores for climate science?  There are things ice cores can tell you that nothing else can. In particular, they allow us to see the composition of the  atmosphere in the past . There is no other way of getting that information.  Ice cores are an unusually pure way of measuring the atmosphere but when it comes to climate they really only tell you about the polar climate. People have collected ice cores from mountains in the tropics but they tend to be ...

Without water vapor average temperatures would be up to 30 degrees Celsius lower (Source: Reuters) Scientists say that man-made CO2 causes the recent global warming. But climate skeptics insist that water vapor is responsible for most of the warming. Here is why both assumptions are true. Here are the perfect ingredients for a conspiracy theory: water vapor is the most important factor influencing the  greenhouse effect  but doesn’t feature on the UN’s list of greenhouse gases responsible for  anthropogenic global warming . Critics of the idea of man-made global warming love this simple fact and have turned it into one of their most potent arguments to sabotage decisive climate action. So why doesn’t the UN’s climate body the  International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  list water vapor as a greenhouse gas? It’s because water vapor does not by itself increase temperatures. It amplifies already occurring warming. Short-term effect Water vapor’s role in ...

CO2: Endless Warming Protestors dressed in CO2 molecule costumes, demonstrate in Essen, Germany, as part of the initiative 'ByeBye CO2' against carbon dioxide pollution  Carbon dioxide is the number one reason for man-made climate change. But what is carbon dioxide, actually? Where does it come from? And why are governments and businesses now scrambling to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions? Contribution to Human-Induced Climate Change: 70 percent Global Warming Potency (100 years): 1 (benchmark to other gases ) Carbon dioxide is the second most important greenhouse gas behind water vapor, but the most important contributor to anthropogenic climate change.  Methane  and ozone are more potent, but have less effect on climate change due to their smaller atmospheric concentrations. The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has been in flux throughout  the Earth’s history,  but the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) es...

Greenhouse gases trap some of the sun's energy within our atmosphere  and increase the temperature of earth's surface. This is called the greenhouse effect  Our atmosphere is but a thin layer of gas around a huge bulky planet. This gaseous outer ring and its  greenhouse effect make life on Earth possible–and could destroy life as we know it. The sun is the Earth’s primary energy source, a burning star so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. About one third of this  solar energy  is reflected back into the universe by shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces. Two thirds, however, is absorbed by the Earth, thus warming land, oceans, and the atmosphere. Much of this heat radiates back out into space, but some of it is stored in the atmosphere. This process is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth’s average temperature would be a chilly -18 degrees Celsius, despite the sun’s constant ener...