Questions tagged [climate-change]
Questions about changes of the climate system, including questions about global warming.
388
questions
2
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0answers
76 views
Cooling effect from the oceans in global warming
The ocean soaks up about 90 percent of the heat of climate change, because of ocean heating. When using the formula of Svante Arrhenius to calculate forcing due to atmospheric $CO_2$
$\Delta F=\alpha\...
4
votes
3answers
80 views
Has the present rise of CO2 ppm been proved to be caused by human activity?
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen roughly from 300 to 400ppm over the last 60 years.
What are the reliable calculations showing that such a rise has been caused by human activity? I am ...
3
votes
1answer
355 views
Are we going to enter a mini ice age by 2030?
According to this article, a mini ice age could hit Earth by 2030
Mini Ice Age could hit Earth by 2030
and according to this video
NASA admits mini ice age coming faster than anticipated.
...
2
votes
1answer
30 views
What is the total mass of organic carbon on Earth?
What is the estimated total mass of organic carbon plus elemental carbon (defined here as all carbon in any chemical form, minus carbon dioxide, inorganic carbonates, and other fully oxidized carbon ...
0
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2answers
73 views
Climate change research and policy [on hold]
How impactful is climate change scientific research on climate change policy?
Are there any statistics which help to visualise the effectiveness of new scientific findings or new technology innovation ...
0
votes
1answer
75 views
The Medieval Climatic Anomaly
Trying to understand this question, posted to me by a lecturer at University:
"The Medieval Climatic Anomaly was distinctive in terms of the
prevailing climates and forcing mechanisms operating ...
3
votes
5answers
254 views
How Can Smog in Metropolitan Cities like Delhi & Beijing Be Reduced?
These two cities are facing the worst smog in Asia and I think in the world and people of these cities have no choice other than to wear masks when going outside. ...
6
votes
3answers
42 views
Impacts of high-altitude emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) compared to sea level GHG emissions
I often hear that the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by planes is particularly concerning because the emission of GHGs at high altitudes has an even higher impact on global warming than the ...
0
votes
1answer
56 views
Can aerostats be used for fine-grained control of the weather
Most of the discussed geoengineering ideas aim to change the average temperature of the earth instead of trying to control local weather.
Aerostats can be used to change the local temperature in ...
2
votes
2answers
47 views
Is there evidence to suggest that the release of methane clathrates in permafrost regions will impact climate change?
We can see that there are large buildups of methane clathrates in permafrost regions.
Climate scientist James Hansen has predicted that the release of the permafrost methane clathrates could cause ...
1
vote
1answer
94 views
Could we sequester co2 by dumping forests in deep oceans?
We know that trees are the most efficient "tool" we have to get CO2 out of the air, but the problem is that most of their fixated CO2 will naturally reenter the carbon cycle through decomposition.
...
3
votes
1answer
85 views
If today's Earth becomes warmer, how will it compare to the Earth of the Cretaceous period?
Most pessimistic scenarios about climate change predicts a global rise of temperature of several Celsius degrees over the course of the 21st century if no action is taken. While such a shift in ...
1
vote
1answer
85 views
Origin of Serious Wildfires
At a very rough estimate, what proportion of wildfires are caused by natural events like lightning? I am absolutely sure that in Europe, where there are often wildfires, the sun is never hot enough to ...
2
votes
1answer
66 views
Does depletion of Planck radiation intensity in the upper atmosphere mean that “CO2 has no impact on climate change”?
In his recent book, Rex J. Fleming asserts that "CO2 has no impact on climate change", or, as he summarizes on his website:
There are now over a dozen books available on Amazon.com that point out ...
2
votes
0answers
46 views
Why did “Glaciologist Princess Elsa” have to leave the glacier because it was too warm?
This tweet shows "Glaciologist Princess Elsa" is actually Caltech geophysics PhD student and cryoseismologist Celeste Labedz.
The BBC News article What's a 'Science Princess' doing in an ice field in ...
2
votes
4answers
127 views
Isn't a warmer climate better for energy generation?
Nowadays, everyone talks about it: climate change, and more importantly, how to stop it from happening. Although there's a lot of debate around the topic, the conscensus is that by inventing a way of ...
6
votes
3answers
242 views
Are plastics a carbon sink and how much carbon is released to the atmosphere making them?
If we were to make some technical jump to renewable fuel and renewable energy, would making plastics from oil release green house gasses, how much, and would plastic function as a carbon sink?
Sorry ...
2
votes
2answers
99 views
Why is carbon dioxide the gold standard in greenhouse emissions - and not nitrous oxide?
I admit that this is not a genuinely earth sience question, but since there is no stack exchange site genuinely devoted to general ecology, I dare to ask it here:
From a table in the German Wikipedia ...
2
votes
0answers
49 views
is it better to take minimum measure of all measures or the mean of minimum measures as a minimum measure
We have taken the measurments of temperature, humidity, net radiation and pressure in our lab so we can calculate the potential reference EvapoTranspiration. So to find out the potential reference ET ...
14
votes
4answers
802 views
How did plants adapt to $\small\sf{CO_2}$ levels past 400k years? Why won't they do it again?
(Description from climate.nasa.gov: This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric $\small\sf{...
-2
votes
1answer
69 views
What portion of global warming is caused by radioactive CO2 produced from cosmic rays?
The Earth's magentic field has been weaking recently, and the sun's magnetic field has been weaking recently, and it is a known fact that when either of these magnetic fields weaken (let alone both of ...
4
votes
1answer
64 views
How are CO2 emission effects and high altitude effects of air travel compared to each other?
The climate impact of air travel is often divided into CO2 emissions and "high altitude effects" like that of water vapour and cloud formation. The effect of the emitted CO2 is cummulative, as CO2 has ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Could Global Climate Change increase the average moisture in the air?
Given several hundred years, assuming global climate change results in the melting of the polar ice caps which leads to an increase in surface area of the oceans and an overall warming of the earth (...
5
votes
2answers
75 views
How does agriculture release so much greenhouse gas?
I recently came over some numbers of GHGs released per energy in food produced, and the result is pretty flooring. I can see how animal-based food production is quite inefficient so let's ignore that ...
26
votes
4answers
4k views
Could the extraction of energy by wind turbines be harmful to the environment?
Wind turbines work by converting some of the energy from wind to electrical energy. Is it possible to have too many turbines, leading to them removing too much energy from the wind? I'm not an ...
-1
votes
1answer
87 views
Are sand deserts the greatest natural convection heaters on Earth?
Ask any climate scientist the question: "Why are deserts so hot in the day time and so cold at night" and generally you will get the same answer, it’s all about the lack of moisture and latent heat ...
4
votes
1answer
125 views
Understood cause of sea level rise between 1850 and 1950
This question is based on the following graph from a 2018 report by J. Curry.
(I haven't found any peer-review of the report itself so I can't vouch for the validity of its claims, but that's not the ...
3
votes
0answers
52 views
Quickly breeding oysters to combat oceanic pollution?
I've been doing some wikipedia binging and it's come to my realization that it may be in the Earth's best interest to raise the world oyster population as quickly as possible. The basis for this is ...
0
votes
0answers
22 views
Calculate GWP over arbitrary time
The GWP (Global warming potential) is calculated over a given time scale $T$ (20 or 100 years usually), defined as the ratio between the energy absorbed by a pulse of 1Kg of gas during time $T$ ...
5
votes
2answers
136 views
The seriousness of global warming/ climate change? [closed]
Why is such an emphasis placed on sea level rise?? As this can be devastating in itself, it can be looked at as a great economic opportunity to put people to work preparing our coastal areas for the ...
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Can we predict the rising temperature of Earth?
Where can I find a model of Earth's past climates and future projections from combined possibilities like magnetic pole movement and other forms of global warming as a map? Without a reference it has ...
2
votes
0answers
41 views
Are there more meteorological catastrophic events due to climate change?
I was told by a sedimentologist there is no evidence of more climatic catastrophic events at the geological register previous to Pleistocene, when climate was warmer.
My question is if meteorologists ...
3
votes
1answer
90 views
Is there scientific evidence connecting the current climate in India with global warming?
Experts say up to 40 % of India might witness drought this year.
Is there scientific evidence that this is due to the global warming and climate changes?
42
votes
3answers
10k views
How do 'greenhouse gases' let heat in, but not let it out?
That honestly doesn't make any sense to me. How could heat pass through a gas one way but not the other? Its not like our upper atmostphere has a bunch of doors that can only open one way. To me, that ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
What happens when the North and South poles flip?
How long does it take the magnetic field to move once the poles start to flip?
What environmentally would change? Does the core of the Earth flip?
The magnetic poles are moving now. When will it ...
0
votes
0answers
90 views
Milankovitch cycles and what?
Observe the vertical green lines in this diagram:
Those events shows when temperature starts to sink when radiance is at top or even before that. If there was a simple connection between radiance and ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
How does a change in the tilt of the Earth effect climate? [duplicate]
Could the Earth survive if the axis was less or more of the tilt of that what it is now, and by how much? How would the Earth act if the axis was pushed to an extreme tilt or lack there of?
0
votes
1answer
42 views
Yearly changes of solar irradiation and atmospheric feedback
I think I understand the mechanism of water vapor feedback in climate change pretty well: a (theoretical) temperature increase due to some isolated factor (e.g. increase in $CO_2$ concentration) ...
1
vote
2answers
115 views
What could cause a turn from global warming to global cooling?
Except a hypothesized orbital forcing! Ice cores shows that there are several irregular sharp temperature peaks in between of the big 100,000 years glaciations. What could cause those peaks?
Almost ...
3
votes
1answer
198 views
How much energy would be required to actively reduce the temperature of the oceans of Earth by 1℃?
Is there a way to calculate the energy required to reduce the heat of oceans?
Am I wrong in thinking it is not as simple as reversing the calculation for specific heat of sea water?
2
votes
3answers
93 views
Looking for counter-arguments concerning the melting of glaciers in the alps in the context of global warming
I've recently listend to a talk of Prof. Gernot Patzelt, Austrian Geographer and High Altitude Mountain Researcher. In this talk he describes that scientists find rests of trees and moorland apearing ...
0
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0answers
28 views
Estimating Diurnal Temperature Changes for a region due to Climate change?
I am working on UHI related studies. I am wondering is it possible to estimate how diurnal temperature cycle would change for a typical day of given season.
Edit: Based on comment I am trying to add ...
3
votes
1answer
80 views
What would be the sea level rise if all fossil fuel resources are burned?
Tokarska et al. (2016), a Nature article from a team of the University of Victoria, predicted a global temperature increase of 7±2.5°C and 17.2±2.5°C at the equator and at the poles ...
10
votes
3answers
647 views
Does this paper, using neural nets, prove industrialization is irrelevant to global warming?
Recently, a paper was published by Abbot and Morahasy (2017) - see specifically Fig. 2. The thesis of the paper is to train an artificial neural network (ANN) on the temperature time series for pre-...
0
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0answers
44 views
Why doesn't vapor counts when calculating global radiative forcing?
When NOAA/ESRL calculates global radiative forcing (Table 2) there seems to be no contribution from water vapor. How come?
1
vote
1answer
58 views
What would be the extent of the feedback on climate of unattended deaths event?
Being given that decaying corpses will stop emitting digestive metane, but would release huge amount of methane during their decaying process, I was wondering if this could be considered among the ...
27
votes
6answers
6k views
How much will sea level rise if all the polar ice melts?
There are many movies about global warming, which say that melting of all polar ice would cause the whole world to suffer a huge flood. According my research (teachers, TV, Internet) people hold one ...
0
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0answers
48 views
Can extratropical cyclones force global cooling?
We are living in a historical period of global warming since about 20,000 years ago. This global warming period is one of about ten in human history. Those periods may very well be forced to start by ...
3
votes
1answer
119 views
Which greenhouse gas has the most influence over global warming?
Carbon dioxide is the gas everyone talks about because of how much we emit, but it is the most influential greenhouse gas ? I know there are a lot of other gasses are way more potent to retain heat ...
