Netmeeting: Future Climate Change

Hi, Try this link.

Erik

Hi Lilian, Global warming happens because there is too much of certain gases in the air. You know that we breathe oxygen and that, thankfully, there's plenty of that for all of us. But there are also many other gases in the air, and one of them is called carbon dioxide, or more often CO2. Since we humans began to burn oil and coal a couple of hundred years ago, we've been filling the air with this gas and others. The problem with that is that these gases block heat trying to escape into space, so that it gets hotter down where we live on the surface. This is global warming. Just in the last one hundred years, the temperature has gone up with a little under one degree Celsius, or roughly a degree and a half Fahrenheit. If we don't stop polluting, we fear that the temperature will rise a lot more than this. This will cause many changes, some of them very dangerous to many people.

Erik

Hi Rhiannon, Good question. Weather will indeed change with global warming. First off, global warming has already started. It has happened countless times during the ages, and it has probably been different every time. This time, though, it has been triggered by our use of fuels that contain carbon, such as coal and oil. When we burn it, we release the carbon atoms so that they can attach themselves to other atoms. The best-known combination is one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms, which together combine into CO2: carbon dioxide. When this gas is released into the air, it helps to block heat from being radiated into space. To cut a long story short, this makes it hotter here on earth. So, we're already on a track of warming. This will have an impact on weather, but it depends on where you live. If this is somewhere hot, such as in the tropics, it will of course get even hotter. If it's a dry place, chances are it will get drier. One of the worst impacts of climate change on land is that we fear that the deserts of the world will spread. On the other hand, if you live somewhere wet, it might just get even wetter. I live in one of the wettest places in Europe: Bergen on the west coast of Norway. We get roughly 2.5 metres of rain every year, but recently it's been more like 3 metres. We've also had a couple of nasty episodes with huge amounts of rain in just one day. A couple of years ago, four people got killed by a landslide when it rained heavily throughout the night. These are just a few examples of how the weather and climate will change. To get more precise predictions for your region of the world, you should check out the Met service where you live. It might not be too bad.

Erik

Hei Karl, Vi har allerede hatt en global temperaturstigning på 0,74 grader (pluss-minus 0,18 grader) mellom 1906 og 2005. Det er vanskelig å si hvor mye det har endret seg i våre område, men ta en titt på www.rimfrost.no. Hvis du velger Bergen, for eksempel, kan du med litt klikking få frem de ti varmeste årene siden 1858. Der finner du at fem av disse forekom etter år 2000. Det gjelder 2006, som var det varmeste året, 2000, 2003, 2002 og 2004. Vi har med andre ord definitivt hatt en stigning i våre områder. Sjekk andre stasjoner også for moro skyld.

Hilsen Erik

Hi Noel, Yes, I definitely do. I live in Norway, and there's not much of a choice...

Erik

Hi, Liv or Anne won't be answering questions here, and I wasn't part of the expedition. Sorry.

Erik

Hi Daniel, I don't do that very often. I assume you're really asking Liv or Anne about this, but they won't be answering questions here. Sorry.

Erik

Hi Alex, This depends a little bit on where you live. If you live somewhere cold, you keep the heat inside your home. Then you don't need to spend energy on heating. On the other hand, if it's warm, it's also good to have insulation because you don't need the air-conditioner (which also uses energy). As you see, it's win-win.

Erik

Hi Kathleen, Thanks for an interesting question! The problem is that there's so much you can do. Here's a pretty good list of actions from Al Gore's organization: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/. But probably the best thing you can do as a class project is to go after your local politicians. Force them to tell you what they do about global warming (it probably isn't much). Push them into a corner. While it's important what each and every one of us do on a personal level, it's far more important to get international programmes up and running. There is certainly some untapped potential to do more in your country. The best of luck to you!

Erik

Hi Mike, Thanks for your question. I don't know of many specific actions to help animals. I guess the only way you could help a polar bear would be to stop global warming itself. The same goes for other animals, I guess. The Arctic fox, for example, seems to be threatened by global warming because there are no easy escape routes for it as the climate warms. Read more here.

Erik

Hi Robert, Thanks for your intriguing question. First off, however, I want to make it clear that the greenhouse effect is basically a very beneficial effect for us humans. It is the common name for the processes that block heat from being radiated into space. Gases in the air, such as water vapour and CO2, are the agents that trap the heat, and without these processes it would have been too cold for us to live here on earth. What we are concerned about is the 'extra' greenhouse effect which is due to too much CO2 in the air. The only thing we can do to stop the exaggerated greenhouse effect and global warming is to make sure that the content of CO2 in the air doesn't get much higher than it is today. By far the easiest way to do this is to stop emissions of CO2 from power plants, cars, airplanes and such. With this in mind, if I could rule the world, I would make sure that each and every country in the world pulled in the same direction. To me the easiest way to do this is to make it mandatory to purchase CO2 quotas if you pollute too much. Conversely, if you release little amounts of gas into the air, you can sell quotas. This mechanism make it profitable to be energy-efficient. As for your last question, I think that big business have recently begun to realise that it will be very unprofitable to be big polluters in the future. Hopefully, this will narrow the gaps between bussiness and environmental groups; they probably have much to learn from each other. I don't think that the governments have actively contributed to any breakdown.

Erik