Some interesting facts about Global Warming - Part II

(Continued from the earlier part - Click here to read Part I)


Disappearing lakes:

Global warming is believed to be the reason for the disappearance of an unbelievable number of 125 lakes in the Arctic sea in last few decades. The most probable cause is thawing out of the frost underneath the lakes. This lets the water seep out, and be absorbed by the soil, and the lake just disappears.

Ice Cores:

Ice cores record annual and seasonal changes in atmospheric gases and chemicals that were sealed into the falling snow and buried to form ice. These tiny bubbles of ancient air, trapped in polar ice cores have been used to provide records of the climate in past. It helps better understand the natural fluctuations hat have occurred, largely as a result of cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The newest analysis of trace gases trapped in Antarctic ice cores now provide a reasonable view of greenhouse gas concentrations as much as 800,000 years into the past.

Cities most likely to be affected by Global Warming:

More than two-thirds of the world’s large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels. Millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms. In East Asia, such cities include Guangzhou, Seoul, and Nagoya. In South Asia, Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka is vulnerable, as are Kolkata and Chennai. Substantial parts of Mumbai, a city of around 13 million people, are already below sea level. Dozens of other cities including London and Rotterdam, Venice, and are undertaking massive engineering works to keep out the sea.

Deforestation at an alarming speed:

The world’s rain forest could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Every year, some of us are destroying 8.5 million hectares of green tropical forest. It has been calculated that every minute, an area of forest equal to that of football field is lost because of deforestation.

Acid Rain:

Acid rain is formed when oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, contained in power plant smoke, factory smoke, and car exhaust, react with the moisture in the atmosphere to make rain acidic. When rain is acidic, it affects lakes, buildings, and farmland. Acid pollution has one surprising effect that may be beneficial. Sulfates in the upper atmosphere reflect some sunlight out into the space, and thus tend to slow down global warming.

El Nino vs La Nina:

El Nino is the warming of water in the pacific Ocean, while La Nina is the cooling of water in the Pacific Ocean. If you have, one you cannot have the other at the same time. La Nina occurs only half as often as El Nino, and La Nina impacts on the world’s weather are less predictable than the effects wrought by El Nino. The development of the El Nino events is linked to the trade winds. El Nino occurs when the trade winds are weaker than normal, and vice versa for La Nina.

Ladybird summer:

In the summer of 1976, the ladybird population exploded in the UK because it was one of the hottest summers in Europe, and though drought had ruined the crops, the long hot period resulted in millions of ladybirds being hatched.

The growing Sahara:

The world’s largest hot desert, Sahara is spreading at the rate of 5Kms a year into the Sahel. The Sahel is a strip of land that divides the desert from the wetter areas. A Sahel has a steppe climate, which means rainfall varies there from year to year. It is also quiet dry, but does provide some vegetation for animals to graze.

The earliest recorded drought:

In 436 BC, thousands of starving Romans drowned themselves in the Tiber River because severe drought had created an acute shortage of food. This was one of the earliest recorded famines brought about by prolonged drought.

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