Cycle A - Teacher as Researcher - JS

I agree and believe that humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and changing land use. The rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of the three main human-made greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – is clear from the data sets for these gases over the last 420,000 years. http://www.eoearth.org/ How do scientists know this? Most of us own automobiles; run our heaters and air conditioners, clothes driers, dish washers, etc…most of us contribute to the greenhouse effect. Also look at industries today, traffic, amount of cars owned per family, number of homes, the earth’s infrastructure, and the means to achieve all this (deforestation and destruction of grasslands and vegetation. Deforestation is occurring - as I saw logging in Northwest North America this summer from the airplane. Deforestation (changes the amount of carbon dioxide consumed or absorbed by earth’s surface); hence, deforestation brings about other effects such as land erosion, contamination, upheaval of wildlife, drought, etc….

It was noted that increases in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases strengthens the greenhouse effect http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/index.html and may contribute to global warming. Greenhouse effect meaning the sun heats the Earth and some of this heat, rather than escaping back to space, is trapped in the atmosphere by clouds and greenhouse gases, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide. The Green house effect is what makes Earth habitable. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/earthsytem/nutshell/index2.html

What gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) cause the greatest significance to the greenhouse effect? We are taking small steps to reduce the greenhouse effect (building green, recycling, conserving, but enough? What about developing countries that now want their share of energy and Americans that want to improve their standard of living? Will this intensify the greenhouse effect at an even greater accelerated rate?

It has been noted that global warming has contributed to more frequent and violent hurricanes. Recent studies have linked rising sea surface temperatures, or SSTs, in the Atlantic Ocean to climate change caused by human activities. Warmer SST's means the ocean is capable of storing more energy--energy that is converted to wind power during tropical storms. http://www.livescience.com/environment/060815_gw_hurricanes.html What was hurricane activity like 200 years ago?

Is there something else contributing to the more frequent and violent hurricanes? Because of the seasonal changes in the ice, snow, atmospheric distribution, and perhaps because of movements in the material within the earth, the geographic poles constantly change position in relation to the earth’s surface - Chandler wobble. Scientists have resolved the change into two almost circular components, the first with a radius of about 6 meters and a period of 12 months, the second with a radius of 3-15 meters and a period of about 14 months.

The sun and moon, because of their varying distances and directions in relation to the earth, constantly vary their gravitational attractions on the earth. This makes the poles wander irregularly by about + or - 9 arc seconds from its average, or mean, position. This phenomenon is known as nutation and has a period of about 18.6 years. http://library.thinkquest.org/29033/begin/earthsunmoon.htm

Records indicate a rising in sea surface temperature. Melting of polar ice and land-based glaciers is expected to contribute to the one half foot to three-feet sea level rise projected. http://www.ucsusa.org/ With the melting of polar ice, sea animals have changed their eating habits due to lack of usual food source and it has been mentioned that the Florida peninsula and costal regions could disappear.

Problem - Will global warming keep progressing at an accelerated rate? Will the earth get eventually to hot for life? How can humans stop the speed of global warming? Studies show that over next 100 years, the climate will increase (I have read different degrees).

Health, agriculture, water resources, forests, wildlife and coastal areas are vulnerable to warming temperatures. Also with the melting of polar ice, it has been mentioned that the Florida peninsula and costal regions could disappear. With raising temperatures, heat related illness and more deaths occur as noted by newscasts and news articles. I know in our cities, temperatures are several degrees hotter than outside the area in the open plains. Being in Las Vegas this summer taught me this lesson, temperatures rose to near 120 degrees.