Implications Of Global Warming Research Articles

Interannual variability in associations between seasonal climate, weather, and extremes: wintertime temperature over the Southwestern United States

Temperature variability in the Southwest US is investigated using skew-normal probability distribution functions (SN PDFs) fitted to observed wintertime daily maximum temperature records. These PDFs vary significantly between years, with important geographical differences in the relationship between the central tendency and tails, revealing differing linkages between weather and climate. The warmest and coldest extremes do not necessarily follow the distribution center. In some regions one tail of the distribution shows more variability than does the other. For example, in California the cold tail is more variable while the warm tail remains relatively stable, so warm years are associated with fewer cold extremes but not necessarily more warm extremes. The opposite relationship is seen in the Great Plains. Changes in temperature PDFs are conditioned by different phases of El Niño-La Niña (ENSO) and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). In the Southern Great Plains, La Niña and/or negative PDO are associated with generally warmer conditions. However, in terms of extremes, while the warm tails become thicker and longer, the cool tails are not impacted—extremely warm days become more frequent but extremely cool days are not less frequent. In contrast, in coastal California, La Niña or negative PDO bring generally cooler conditions with more/stronger cold extremes but the warm extreme probability is not significantly affected. These results could have implications for global warming. If a rigid shift of the whole range occurs, then warm years are not necessarily a good analogue for a warmer climate. If global warming instead brings regional changes more aligned with a preferred state of dominant climate variability modes, then we may see asymmetric changes in the tails of local temperature PDFs.

The Role of Heterotrophic Microbial Communities in Estuarine C Budgets and the Biogeochemical C Cycle with Implications for Global Warming: Research Opportunities and Challenges.

Estuaries are among the most productive and economically important marine ecosystems at the land-ocean interface and contribute significantly to exchange of CO2 with the atmosphere. Estuarine microbial communities are major links in the biogeochemical C cycle and flow of C in food webs from primary producers to higher consumers. Considerable attention has been given to bacteria and autotrophic eukaryotes in estuarine ecosystems, but less research has been devoted to the role of heterotrophic eukaryotic microbes. Current research is reviewed here on the role of heterotrophic eukaryotic microbes in C biogeochemistry and ecology of estuaries, with particular attention to C budgets, trophodynamics, and the metabolic fate of C in microbial communities. Some attention is given to the importance of these processes in climate change and global warming, especially in relation to sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2 , while also documenting the current paucity of research on the role of eukaryotic microbes that contribute to this larger question of C biogeochemistry and the environment. Some recommendations are made for future directions of research and opportunities of applying newer technologies and analytical approaches to a more refined analysis of the role of C in estuarine microbial community processes and the biogeochemical C cycle.

Implications of Global Warming: Two Eras

The purpose of the present paper is to attempt to gain insights into the implications of global warming that is anticipated in the future. In attempting to think about really long-term regional implications, it seems naive to look at global warming without thinking about long-standing trends in other variables that would be expected to interact with climate change over time. I envision two quite different “eras,” a first filled with considerable danger of both economic and environmental collapse. But — if humanity survives the first period — a second period of great promise for humanity and the global ecosystem is likely to take place. The periods are discussed sequentially with an emphasis on the changing interactions among global climate, global population, international trade, population ageing, income growth and technological advance.

Global Warming Implications of the Use of By-Products and Recycled Materials in Western Australia’s Housing Sector

Western Australia’s housing sector is growing rapidly and around half a million houses are expected to be built by 2030, which not only will result in increased energy and resources demand but will have socio-economic impacts. Majority of Western Australians live in detached houses made of energy intensive clay bricks, which have a high potential to generate construction and demolition (C&D) waste. Therefore, there is a need to look into the use of alternative materials and construction methods. Due to Western Australia’s temperate climate, concrete could not only offer a comfortable living space but an operational energy saving also can be achieved. This paper has assessed the global warming implications of cast in-situ concrete sandwich wall system as an alternative to clay brick walls (CBW) with partial replacement of cement in concrete with by-products such as fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), natural aggregate (NA) with recycled crushed aggregate (RCA), natural sand (NS) with manufactured sand (MS) and, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam core as a replacement to polystyrene core for construction of a typical 4 × 2 × 2 detached house in Perth. Life cycle management (LCM) approach has been used to determine global warming reduction benefits due to the use of available by-products and recycled materials in Western Australian houses.

Extreme weather: is ‘abnormal’ becoming the new ‘normal’?

Extreme weather: is ‘abnormal’ becoming the new ‘normal’?

Consumer Attitude and Perception towards Green Products

“Green Marketing” refers to holistic marketing concept wherein the production, marketing consumption and disposal of products and services happen in a manner that is less detrimental to the environment with growing awareness about the implications of global warming, non-biodegradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants etc. Both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for switch in to green products and services (Mudhassir, 2010). .Green consumers can be defined as one:-“Who is mindful of environment related issues and obligations, and is supportive of environmental causes to the extent of switching allegiance from one product or supplier to another even if it entails higher cost”. Thus the purpose of the research was to explore the concept of green marketing, or green products in relation to consumer behavior. Samples were selected through random sampling. 70 college going students of Aligarh Muslim University participated in the research. Green consumer value scale by Haws et al (2010) and sustainability endorsement scale by William A.McConochie were used to measure the consumer behaviour. For statistical analysis Pearson correlation was used.

Recent decrease in typhoon destructive potential and global warming implications.

Typhoons (tropical cyclones) severely impact the half-billion population of the Asian Pacific. Intriguingly, during the recent decade, typhoon destructive potential (Power Dissipation Index, PDI) has decreased considerably (by ∼35%). This decrease, paradoxically, has occurred despite the increase in typhoon intensity and ocean warming. Using the method proposed by Emanuel (in 2007), we show that the stronger negative contributions from typhoon frequency and duration, decrease to cancel the positive contribution from the increasing intensity, controlling the PDI. Examining the typhoons' environmental conditions, we find that although the ocean condition became more favourable (warming) in the recent decade, the atmospheric condition ‘worsened' at the same time. The ‘worsened' atmospheric condition appears to effectively overpower the ‘better' ocean conditions to suppress PDI. This stronger negative contribution from reduced typhoon frequency over the increased intensity is also present under the global warming scenario, based on analysis of the simulated typhoon data from high-resolution modelling.

Assessment of Trace Gas Emissions From Wild Fires in Different Vegetation Types in Northern Ghana: Implications for Global Warming

Biomass burning in Northern Ghana is a major cause for concern because of its potential contribution to global warming, hence climate change. This study assessed the emission of trace gases from human activities in the Guinea savanna of Northern Ghana using the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon content of biomass was determined from four different vegetation covers in the study area; namely, widely open savanna woodland, grass/herb with scattered trees, open savanna woodland and closed savanna woodland. Under each vegetation cover, five plots (1 m x 1 m) were demarcated for the estimation of above-ground biomass density. Using the combustion furnace method, emitted carbon, methane and carbon monoxide were estimated. Results showed that the emitted methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO) differed significantly (p<0.05) under all the vegetation types. The gases were in perfect correlation (r=1.00) with the quantity of above-ground biomass density and carbon released, with more CO being emitted. Emission of CH4 and CO per hectare of burnt area in the open savanna woodland category was the highest with 0.001719 ton and 0.045119 ton respectively. Over time, emission of these gases may increase their atmospheric concentration, causing major health problems. The contribution to global warming, thus climate change, may also become quite significant. This underscores the fact that existing flaws in the wild fire management policy of Ghana must be effectively dealt with and appropriately implemented with regular reviews to reduce the annual wild fires that are very rampant in Northern Ghana, especially during the dry season.

Long-Memory Effects in Linear Response Models of Earth’s Temperature and Implications for Future Global Warming

Abstract A linearized energy-balance model for global temperature is formulated, featuring a scale-invariant long-range memory (LRM) response and stochastic forcing representing the influence on the ocean heat reservoir from atmospheric weather systems. The model is parameterized by an effective response strength, the stochastic forcing strength, and the memory exponent. The instrumental global surface temperature record and the deterministic component of the forcing are used to estimate these parameters by means of the maximum-likelihood method. The residual obtained by subtracting the deterministic solution from the observed record is analyzed as a noise process and shown to be consistent with a long-memory time series model and inconsistent with a short-memory model. By decomposing the forcing record in contributions from solar, volcanic, and anthropogenic activity one can estimate the contribution of each to twentieth-century global warming. The LRM model is applied with a reconstruction of the forcing for the last millennium to predict the large-scale features of Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions, and the analysis of the residual also clearly favors the LRM model on millennium time scale. The decomposition of the forcing shows that volcanic aerosols give a considerably greater contribution to the cooling during the Little Ice Age than the reduction in solar irradiance associated with the Maunder Minimum in solar activity. The LRM model implies a transient climate response in agreement with IPCC projections, but the stronger response on longer time scales suggests replacing the notion of equilibrium climate sensitivity by a time scale–dependent sensitivity.

Electricity Governance in India

Electricity governance and planning ought to have been two important areas of administration in India right since Independence, but unabated growth in demand, chronic power cuts, nature’s limits and global warming implications all have now made them critical to the all-round development of our communities on a sustainable basis. A rational analysis at how the Electricity sector in the country has performed since independence provides a disappointing picture: there is indifference to the consumers’ needs, inequity of access, financial mismanagement, lack of professionalism and frequent non-compliance with relevant laws. These conditions indicate the need for a paradigm shift in the way the sector is governed. Electricity planning seems to be based on archaic principles, insensitive to changing customer needs and the global warming context. This article recommends that both in governance and planning, effective stakeholder participation and regular consultations with the domain experts will help to address the major issues. System-wide measures such as efficiency improvement, demand side management (DSM), energy conservation and effective use of distributed renewable energy sources (REs), supported by micro grids and smart grids, should be the way forward. A number of national and international reports focusing on Power sector reforms have advocated this approach.

African Climate Change Uncertainty in Perturbed Physics Ensembles: Implications of Global Warming to 4°C and Beyond*

Abstract The importance of investigating regional climate changes associated with degrees of global warming is increasingly being recognized, but the majority of relevant research has been based on multimodel ensembles (MMEs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). This has left two important questions unanswered: Are there plausible futures which are not represented by the models in CMIP? And, how would regional climates evolve under enhanced global warming, beyond 4°C? In this paper, two perturbed physics ensembles (PPEs) are used to address these issues with reference to African precipitation. Examination of model versions that generate warming greater than 4°C in the twenty-first century shows that changes in African precipitation are enhanced gradually, even to high global temperatures; however, there may be nonlinearities that are not incorporated here due to limited model complexity. The range of projections from the PPEs is compared to data from phases 3 and 5 of CMIP (CMIP3 and CMIP5), revealing regional differences. This is partly the result of implausible model versions, but the PPE dataset can be justifiably constrained given its size and systematic nature, highlighting an additional advantage over MMEs. After applying constraints, the PPEs still show changes that are outside the range of CMIP, most prominently strong dry signals in west equatorial Africa and the Sahel, implying that MMEs may underestimate risks for these regions. Analysis of African precipitation changes therefore demonstrates that regional assessments that rely on CMIP3 and CMIP5 may overlook uncertainties associated with model parameterizations and pronounced warming. More systematic approaches are needed for conservative estimates of danger.

Implications of Global Warming on Changing Trends in Crop Productivity - A Review

Evidence of changes in weather parameters like ambient temperature, precipitation, wind flow, etc., are prominently visible across the world. These changes have been reported to effect global crop yield. This review compiles both direct and indirect effects of climate change on global crop productivity with highlights on existing local and global scenarios. As a conclusion, it may be stated that thorough understanding of agricultural techniques and analysis of global change factors is highly essential for achieving sustainable agricultural yield over the upcoming years

Implications of Global Warming on Changing Trends in Crop Productivity - A Review

Evidence of changes in weather parameters like ambient temperature, precipitation, wind flow, etc., are prominently visible across the world. These changes have been reported to effect global crop yield. This review compiles both direct and indirect effects of climate change on global crop productivity with highlights on existing local and global scenarios. As a conclusion, it may be stated that thorough understanding of agricultural techniques and analysis of global change factors is highly essential for achieving sustainable agricultural yield over the upcoming years

Implications of global warming for commercial building retrofitting in Australian cities

Retrofit strategies for commercial buildings are generally selected with the assumption of a stationary climate, despite the fact that the building will be operating for much of its life in a climate altered by global warming. This paper presents the results of detailed energy simulations of the possible impact of climate change on the energy consumption of an archetypal commercial office building in five Australian cities, and the relative magnitude of this impact compared to other possible changes to building energy consumption. The question of whether climatic change due to global warming is an important factor when selecting optimal retrofit strategies was considered in the present study, using predictive weather files generated from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections for 2020, 2050, and 2080. In regions without a substantial heating demand an increase in total building energy consumption was found, and when a substantial heating load was present a slight increase or decrease in energy consumption was observed. Changes in total building energy consumption of between −0.6% and +8.3%, and an increase in the total design cooling equipment capacity of 9.1%–25.0% was predicted over the period 1990 to 2080 due to climate change for the different cities. It was concluded that future climate change impacts are not as significant in the design and assessment of retrofit strategies for commercial office buildings as other impacts, as changes to building construction and usage will likely impact energy consumption much more significantly.

Consumers\' perception analysis-Market awareness towards ecofriendly FMCG products-A case study of Mysore district

In recent days, environmental issues have received a great deal of discussion in the field of marketing. When the society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businessmen have begun to modify their behavior to address the society’s new concern. With the growing awareness about the implication of global warming, non-bio degradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants etc, both marketer and consumers are switching to eco-friendly products and many companies have accepted their responsibility not to harm the environment and not to waste the natural resources. The research study took place in Mysore district of Karnataka. A questionnaire is designed in order to find out the market awareness of eco-friendly products, to analyze the consumer perception towards eco-friendly products and also to find a response that how much consumers’ are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products. The result from this illustrates that whether the price and quality will affect their buying decision.

Investigation of cosmic ray–cloud connections using MISR

Numerous empirical studies have analyzed International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data and reached contradictory conclusions regarding the influence of solar‐modulated galactic cosmic rays on cloud fraction and cloud properties. The Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra satellite has been in continuous operation for 13 years and thus provides an independent (and previously unutilized) cloud data set to investigate purported solar‐cloud links. Furthermore, unlike many previous solar‐climate studies that report cloud fraction MISR measures albedo, which has clearer climatological relevance. Our long‐term analysis of MISR data finds no statistically significant correlations between cosmic rays and global albedo or globally averaged cloud height, and no evidence for any regional or lagged correlations. Moreover, epoch superposition analysis of Forbush decreases reveals no detectable albedo response to cosmic ray decreases, thereby placing an upper limit on the possible influence of cosmic ray variations on global albedo of 0.0029 per 5% decrease. The implications for recent global warming are discussed.

Implications of global warming for the climate of African rainforests

African rainforests are likely to be vulnerable to changes in temperature and precipitation, yet there has been relatively little research to suggest how the regional climate might respond to global warming. This study presents projections of temperature and precipitation indices of relevance to African rainforests, using global climate model experiments to identify local change as a function of global temperature increase. A multi-model ensemble and two perturbed physics ensembles are used, one with over 100 members. In the east of the Congo Basin, most models (92%) show a wet signal, whereas in west equatorial Africa, the majority (73%) project an increase in dry season water deficits. This drying is amplified as global temperature increases, and in over half of coupled models by greater than 3% per °C of global warming. Analysis of atmospheric dynamics in a subset of models suggests that this could be partly because of a rearrangement of zonal circulation, with enhanced convection in the Indian Ocean and anomalous subsidence over west equatorial Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and, in some seasons, the Amazon Basin. Further research to assess the plausibility of this and other mechanisms is important, given the potential implications of drying in these rainforest regions.

The effect of soil aggregate size on pore structure and its consequence on emission of greenhouse gases

Soil aggregation is an important physical property that influences the physico-chemical and biological properties of soil. Soil disturbances such as tillage can have a significant effect on soil aggregation. This study sought to examine the effect of soil aggregate size on soil pore characteristics and the subsequent effect on emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) for both sandy loam and clay loam soils. Columns of aggregates in the size ranges of 2–4mm, 1–2mm, 0.5–1mm and <0.5mm were tested along with a field structured soil (i.e. aggregates <4mm). Soil pore characteristics were quantified using X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). The average porosity in the soil columns ranged from 38.7 to 50.7%. Aggregate size influenced the total soil organic matter content with average values ranging from 7.5 to 8.6% in the clay loam soil and 2.8 to 5.2% in the sandy loam soil. CO2 and CH4 flux was significantly affected by size of aggregates. Clay loam soils emitted the most CO2 from the small sized aggregates, whereas in sandy loam soils the larger aggregates produced the maximum CO2 flux. Smaller aggregates produced higher CH4 flux in both soil textures. No significant difference between aggregate sizes and soil textures was found for N2O fluxes. Soil pore characteristics such as porosity and pore size significantly affected fluxes of GHGs such as CO2 and CH4. These results indicate that management practices such as tillage that heavily influence soil aggregation and pore characteristic development can have a direct impact on emission of greenhouse gases and subsequently have implications for global warming.

Climate change and health – what’s the problem?

The scientific consensus is that global warming is occurring and is largely the result of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. This paper examines the health implications of global warming, the current socio-political attitudes towards action on climate change and highlight the health co-benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, policy development for climate change and health should embrace health systems strengthening, commencing by incorporating climate change targets into Millennium Development Goal 7.

Changes in African temperature and precipitation associated with degrees of global warming

For almost two decades, politicians have been negotiating temperature limits to which anthropogenic global warming should be restricted, and 2 °C has emerged as benchmark for danger. However, there has been a lack of scientific research into the implications of such a change for African climate. This study aims to provide information for mitigation debates; through an examination of temperature and precipitation changes in Africa associated with 1 °C, 2 °C, 3 °C, and 4 °C of global warming. Data from Global Climate Models show little significant precipitation change at 1 °C, then larger anomalies at 2 °C which are strengthened and extended at 3 °C and 4 °C, including a wet signal in East Africa, and dry signals in Southern Africa, the Guinea Coast, and the west of the Sahel. Some of the models project changes with potential for severe societal implications. Despite the uncertainty attached to these projections, they highlight risks associated with 2 °C and beyond. Using these findings as a framework for impact assessment and evaluation, further research has the potential to uncover the implications of global warming for African regions.