Having lived in a tropical country that knows warm almost all-year round, I’d surmise that the 34° Celsius indicated on the Yahoo temperature widget on my desktop makes this a typical almost-summer day. Scientists have pegged the temperature of a ‘normal’ room as anywhere between 23° and 25°, but 34° Celsius only makes me head to the malls more often for their excellent air-conditioning. I know for a fact that the temperature of a “normal” human body is 37° Celsius, but I still, however, think that 34° Celsius is just warm. It really does not cause me to panic. I know warm like the back of my hand.
Even if I have personally witnessed some very fierce typhoons, nasty flash floods, and the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, I just take them as hazards of the tropics. Besides, I have come to fully agree that flash floods in the urban areas of my country are caused by the clogging of waterways by garbage, and in the provinces by the denudation of forests by illegal loggers and weakening of the soil leading to erosion by indiscriminate and greedy mining companies.
NASA and the National Research Council report, “For the time period from 1979-1998, it is estimated that on average, over the globe, surface temperature has increased by 0.25 to 0.4 degrees C and lower to mid-tropospheric temperature has increased by 0.0 to 0.2 degrees C.”
Scientists claim that the layer of the atmosphere called “lower troposphere” or that which extends from the surface to about 5 miles up high would be warming at a slightly faster rate than the surface. NASA scientists warn that the earth’s temperature is dangerously high, and continues on an uphill climb.
The global temperature average in 2007 was 14.73° Celsius, the second warmest year on record. This is a mere 0.03° Celsius behind the 2005 maximum. January 2007 was the hottest January ever measured with a full 0.23° Celsius warmer than the previous record. August was also a record for that month, with September as the second warmest September recorded. The eight warmest years on record all occurred in the last decade.
Data maintained by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies reveal the rising pattern of global average temperature: 14.02° Celsius in the 1970s, 14.26° Celsius in the 1980s, and 14.40° Celsius in the 1990s. In the first eight years of the 21st century, the world averaged 14.64° Celsius.
Upwards of this current earth temperature, these things will occur according to the National Geographic Channel blog:
At plus 1° Celsius, hurricanes may hit the South Atlantic, rising tides could submerge the land around the Bay of Bengal, and new deserts could form in the western half of the United States.
At plus 2° Celsius, Canada’s melting tundra will give way to forests, insects may change their migration directions, the Pacific islands of Tuvalu may sink beneath the rising ocean tides, and majority of the world’s tropical coral reefs will die.
At plus 3° Celsius, repeated cycles of drought and fire may occur in the Amazon rain forest and release the carbon stored there, the snowcaps on the Alps will disappear, the Mediterranean and parts of Europe will experience terrible summer heat, superstorms and Category 6 hurricanes will occur, and thousands of species worldwide would face extinction.
At plus 4° Celsius, oceans will continue to rise and devastate countries like Bangladesh and Egypt, and cities like Venice could be totally submerged.
At plus 5° Celsius, the tens of millions of climate refugees will fight over extremely scarce resources resulting in worldwide strife.
At plus 6° Celsius, the world could resemble the Cretaceous Era, more deserts will dot the planet, natural disasters become common events, and the world’s great cities could be flooded or abandoned.
All these may sound like doomsday scenario, true. But, fact is, global temperature has risen by 0.33° Celsius since 1990. If we do not halt the rise in temperature, we can only calculate when the abovementioned scenarios will happen.
Let’s do some Math.
While it is true that not even thousands of cars can match the gases emitted by a single volcano, we have to agree that we expedited the condition behind the buzzphrase. Anyone who hasn’t added to greenhouse gases, raise your hand.
The good news is that there is still time to undo, in this lifetime, what we have done.
For starters, do the Math.
Proofs and Indicators of Global Warming
What Happens to the Earth if Temperature is Plus 1 degree Celsius
What Happens to the Earth if Temperature is Plus 2 degrees Celsius
What Happens to the Earth if Temperature is Plus 3 degrees Celsius
What Happens to the Earth if Temperature is Plus 4 degrees Celsius
What Happens to the Earth if Temperature is Plus 5 degrees Celsius
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