Mahendras monthly magazine published this article page no 3 at first glance its hard to imagine how the proliferation of human activity upon the environment has been a major factor in climate change given that climate change alone is nothing new over two million years the earths history has seen enormous changes indeed in the last ten thousand years the warming and cooling of the earth has been on a larger scale that what we see today the climate is however very changeable these days getting the politics right has been half the fight unfortunately the right policy has been held at bay partially by having the right knowledge of whats happening to the climate the climate changes we see today are the result of only a century and a half of study peanuts in comparison the huge shifts over the earths history the recent un climate change conference sought to put in place a policy to take over the kyoto protocol at its core were some recently publicised results 1 the warming trend on the earths surface has been taking place since the early part of the twentieth century the last ten years have been the warmest of that millennium 2 there have been rapid signs of melting the arctic circle the sea ice there has fallen by around eight percent over thirty years 3 the old inconsistency in the data between the temperature rise in the atmosphere and on the planets surface seems to have levelled out they appear to rise in parallel 4 the scripps institute of oceanography in california noted that the ocean has been warming at different depths for over 65 years these results match the predictions that warming has been induced more by greenhouse gases that as a result of small changes in the suns heat output 5 there has been an observed and recorded link between the sea surface temperature and the frequency and intensity of tropical storms typhoons and hurricanes 6 the existing computer models of the change in ocean currents in particular in the north atlantic are correct there are however still some unknowns for example the solar hypothesis is now known to be a lesser contributor the miniscule changes in the suns heat output over its eleven year sunspot cycle is adding to the mix also the aerosol emissions from sulphurous fuel promote the formation of clouds and as a consequence the sunlight reflected from the earths surface increases effectively opposing the greenhouse gas effect some even argue for the benefits of global warming which include for example the opening up of new shipping lanes in the artic as the ice recedes new oil drilling opportunities and longer harvest periods in canada and russia Mahendra master in current affairs buy.
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