NASA Research on the Greenhouse Effect 34
robsimmon writes "Since it's been a theme on Slashdot recently (with collapsing ice shelves and climate models) here's another article about global warming - scientists at NASA Ames have studied the one area on Earth with a runaway greenhouse effect (the Eastern Pacific). As the ocean gets warmer more water vapor enters the atmosphere, leading to more warming, etc. Unfortunately the press release doesn't say much about why the Earth doesn't continue to heat up, but does provide several possible explanations. Before the flame wars start again, you might also want to read brief NASA summary of global warming science. (a site I work on)"
Global warming is a STUPID NAME (Score:2, Insightful)
He sincerely regrets that moniker, and (correctly) blames much of the current obstructionism for the misunderstanding that the term has created.
The real problem is that modification of the earth's albedo and atmospheric composition changes the way that energy from the sun is absorbed. If you can't understand that, go out in the parking lot on a sunny day and check out the difference in surface temperature on differently colored cars. Kapisch? If you put more carbon in the atmosphere, it absorbs more energy, and blocks some from directly reaching the ground. The differential between heat absorbed directly by the Earth's surface from solar irradiation and that absorbed indirectly from the atmosphere has been changed. If you strip out ozone from the upper atmosphere, you change the frequencies of light that are reaching the surface, with similar (but not entirely opposite) effects.
If you are saying to yourself right now, "this is horseshit with no basis in reality" you can stop reading soon - God wants you to go up to the roof and jump off. Really, don't worry, your faith will take you directly to heaven. Honest, I'm a Republican preacher so you know you can trust me. Go do it now, Jesus is waiting for you!
Now that we've weeded out the know-nothings and wishful thinkers, back to the subject: If you change the environment in this way, the easiest way to measure the progress of the changes (NOT the most accurate way, but the easiest way) is to look at global average temperature. This DOES NOT mean that your neighborhood gets warmer - in fact, your neighborhood may get significantly colder!! What this means is that the total energy absorbed by the Earth, rather than reflected, has increased. This gives us a crude measure of how rapidly we are fucking up the weather patterns by feeding more energy into an already chaotic system.
So the next time some idiot (such as those already referenced above) tells you that "global warming isn't happening" you know they are morons with no understanding of the issue - or they wouldn't even use the term "global warming" as a basis for argument. If some other needledick tells you that "global warming isn't a problem, because we'll be able to grow more wheat in Canada and only the equatorial nations will get screwed" you'll know they are a bugfucker because global warming does not mean predictable increases in temperature in any specific area.
One thing we can definitely expect: As we continue to modify our atmosphere, we will cause more violent weather due to more energy entering the system, and we will cause more species to go extinct as their operating parameters are exceeded. That's science and not wishful thinking by politically motivated pinheads.
Flame away, Reaganistas!