The Global Warming Debate: A Review of the State of Science
Abstract
A review of the present status of the global warming science is presented in this paper. The term global warming is now popularly used to refer to the recent reported increase in the mean surface temperature of the earth; this increase being attributed to increasing human activity and in particular to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere. Since the mid to late 1980s there has been an intense and often emotional debate on this topic. The various climate change reports (1996, 2001) prepared by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), have provided the scientific framework that ultimately led to the Kyoto protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (particularly carbon dioxide) due to the burning of fossil fuels. Numerous peer-reviewed studies reported in recent literature have attempted to verify several of the projections on climate change that have been detailed by the IPCC reports.
- Publication:
-
Pure and Applied Geophysics
- Pub Date:
- August 2005
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s00024-005-2683-x
- Bibcode:
- 2005PApGe.162.1557K
- Keywords:
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- Carbon dioxide;
- global warming;
- land use effects;
- sea level;
- extreme weather events;
- solar influence