Monday, August 23, 2010

Climate of the world is changing.

Climate is changing, carbon dioxide is increasing, and Earth is getting hotter.
by
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Mumbai floods
First it was Bombay floods, then Kosi floods, Punjab floods, Rajasthan floods, Leh floods, Jharkhand drought (all in India). Now it is Paksitan floods, China flash floods and landslides, boiling of Moscow, forest fires in Russia, Bolivia and Portugal, and there are lots more to say and write. Millions affected, thousands died, no ending disaster. Climate of the world is changing. What would you think? Yes its climate change or in other broad definition its global warming.

If we take the case of drought in Jharkhand State of India, it is very unusual. Other than some pockets of the state, Jharkhand never passed through severe droughts. Rainfall was sufficient all around the year. But from last one year rainfall pattern has changed. Farmers are still waiting for the sufficient rainfall. Agriculture scientists are worried. Monsoon Clouds have changed their way from Bay of Bengal.

Scientists feel that carbon dioxide is rising, so temperature is also rising. And they conclude that, all these disasters are the out come of Global Warming and El Nino. To larger extent it’s true. Climate is changing worldwide. Where it is use to rain heavily now passing through droughts.

All the three factors (air temperatures, air pressure and humidity) which affect weather are changing. Temperature is rising so the humidity. Humidity is the amount of moisture that is present in the air. We know that the amount of moisture in the air affects the climate and weather greatly. If there is a lot of moisture in the air, it is likely to rain.

The cloud become bigger and bigger, heavier and heavier. Finally, the water droplets become so heavy, that they fall as heavy to very heavy rain as it happened in Leh and part of Uttrakhand states in India, where hundreds died this year due to cloud brust.

Heating of Arabian Sea has resulted in the disaster floods in Mumbai, now in Rajasthan and Gujrat and in neighbouring country Pakistan.

Heavy rains have also affected Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities of India. Other than climate change, “Urban heat island effect”, may be the other cause of these heavy showers. Scientists have found that urban areas are 1 to 5.5 degree centigrade hotter than the countryside.

The summer of 2002 saw widespread flooding over much of central and western Europe, from Romania to Russia. The city that was most badly affected and was certainly most in the news was the Czech capital, Prague. In August of that year heavy rainfall from a slow-moving frontal system which also affected much of the rest of Europe. The river Vltava rose ominously, forcing the country’s president to enforce an evacuation of 40,000 people.

Scientists discovered that North America, Europe, Asia and Australia had the highest rate of warming during the 20th century. These places experienced temperature rises of between 0.5 and 0.6 degree centigrade from 1950 to 1999. Industrial activity coupled with deforestation in these parts of the world is high. Oil refineries and factories that burn fossil fuels for making electricity produce air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas, it traps heat and warms the earth’s surface.

Climate is changing, carbon dioxide is increasing, and Earth is getting hotter. We are under the threat of worst changes of nature. Scientists have found that the Earth’s temperature increased up to 0.6 degree centigrade during the 20th century. They believe that one of the main causes of this global warming is the increase in green house gases in the atmosphere. They estimate that if the amount of green house gases continues to increase, the earth’s temperature will continue to rise too, perhaps by up to 3.5 degree centigrade over the coming decades.


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