Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The global average air temperature near the Earth’s surface raised 0.74 ± 0.18°C during the last 100 years. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans. Increasing global temperatures will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation.
Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. There is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences.
Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The term “global warming” is a specific example of the broader term climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage, the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus identifies elevated levels of greenhouse gases due to human activity as the main influence.
This attribution is clearest for the most recent 50 years, for which the most detailed data are available. None of the effects of forcing are instantaneous. Climatic studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5°C would still occur. The effects of forcing agents on the climate are complicated by various feedback processes. Since water vapor itself acts as a greenhouse gas, this cause still more warming; the warming causes more water vapor to be evaporated, and so forth until a new dynamic equilibrium concentration of water vapor is reached with a much larger greenhouse effect than that due to CO, alone
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Changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation may result in flooding and drought. There may also be changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme warming like changes in rainfall patterns, increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, are being attributed in part to global warming. While changes are expected for overall patterns, intensity, and frequencies, it is difficult to attribute specific events to global warming.
Other expected effects include water scarcity in some regions and increased precipitation in others, changes in mountain snow pack, and adverse health effects from warmer temperatures. Increasing deaths, displacements, and economic losses projected due to extreme weather attributed to global warming may be exacerbated by growing population densities in affected areas. One study predicts 18% to 35% animal and plant species would be extinct by 2050, based on future climate projections however, few mechanistic studies have documented extinctions due to recent climate change.
It is for us to now take extreme measures to protect nature, if we have to ensure our future generations live a good and safe life. Avoiding pollution increment and carbon dioxide emissions can help in the cause. We must all work together for a better world to stay in.