Help predict the future of global warming

[Black Mesa corp]

Paul Rose is a modern-day explorer. He’s spent many years in Antarctica and the Arctic, organising scientific expeditions. Now he sees evidence that the polar regions are in danger from climate change. So he decides to try and find out the truth about global warming: what's really going on with our climate, and what's it going to mean for the future?

He starts by asking how the climate has changed in the past. Are the changes we’re seeing now part of a natural cycle, or are they something we’ve brought upon ourselves? And what can Viking voyages, the freezing of the Thames and ancient Bronze Age settlements on Dartmoor tell us about how our climate is changing?

His quest comes up against a fundamental problem - a lack of computing power necessary to model what effect global warming will have in the future. But he meets a scientist with a brilliant idea. By making use of your computer - and thousands like it all over the world - we can carry out the largest climate experiment ever, and work out what is really going to happen to our climate over the next 50 years.

All you have to do is download the software, only 10.6mb, and then the program runs in the background of your computer.

To read about the experiment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/download1.shtml

To download the program/experiment:

http://bbc.cpdn.org/

 

[jverne]

Paul Rose is a modern-day explorer. He’s spent many years in Antarctica and the Arctic, organising scientific expeditions. Now he sees evidence that the polar regions are in danger from climate change. So he decides to try and find out the truth about global warming: what's really going on with our climate, and what's it going to mean for the future?

He starts by asking how the climate has changed in the past. Are the changes we’re seeing now part of a natural cycle, or are they something we’ve brought upon ourselves? And what can Viking voyages, the freezing of the Thames and ancient Bronze Age settlements on Dartmoor tell us about how our climate is changing?

His quest comes up against a fundamental problem - a lack of computing power necessary to model what effect global warming will have in the future. But he meets a scientist with a brilliant idea. By making use of your computer - and thousands like it all over the world - we can carry out the largest climate experiment ever, and work out what is really going to happen to our climate over the next 50 years.

All you have to do is download the software, only 10.6mb, and then the program runs in the background of your computer.

To read about the experiment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/download1.shtml

To download the program/experiment:

http://bbc.cpdn.org/

damn...these background calculators keep spawning like grass!

what's next...descrambling the human genome?

 

[Black Mesa corp]

ei come on, you got to admit you love em.

 

[WaterMelon34]

The werld s'agonna MELT!!

 

[hneaz]

In my theory, it is part of nature and also our fault. in the past 900,000 years, the earth has experienced several Ice Ages, each lasting about 100,00 years and then followed by warmer interglacial periods lasting 10,000 - 12,500 years. The warm interglacial period during the past 10,000 years has been a major facotr in the development of agriculture, human civilzations, and population growth.

Because we are burning more fossil fuels than we actually need to, the earth's mean surface temperature should rise 1-3.5 C between 1990 and 2100. the most likely rise in temperature before 2100 would be about 2 C if the atmospheric concentration of CO2 doubles from its preindustrial level of 280 ppm by volume to 560 ppm by volume. This may increase the temperarure by the lowest of 1 C, and the earth would be warmer than it has been for 10,000 years.

There is no perfect way of predicting the future of global warming. It is difficult to estimate the earth's temperature, because we only have about 100 years of fairly accurate data.

Some scientists say that the increase of CO2 in the atmospshere is likely to increase the rate of photosynthesis in areas with adequate amounts of water and other soil nutrients. This would remove more CO2 from the atmosphere and help slow global warming. A warmer gloabl clmate could increase food production in some areas and lower it in others.

Global warming would reduce water supplies in some areas, and it will also change the makeup and location of many of the world's forests. The sea lelves are expected to rise. Global warming would bring more heat waves. This would double or triple heat-related deaths among the elderly and people with heart disease.


Just to let you guys know, I'm in AP Environmental Science and I got all this information from the textbook.