Political Issues: Climate Change / Global Warming

Summary

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth. It can be caused by recurring, often cyclical climate patterns such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or come in the form of more singular events such as the Dust Bowl.
In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as "global warming" or "anthropogenic global warming" (AGW).
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) between the start and the end of the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century was caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. The IPCC also concludes that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiation and volcanism had a small cooling effect after 1950. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

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Important Climate Change / Global Warming Issues

Climate Change/Global Warming - Climate Ark Portal and search engine dedicated to promoting public policy that addresses global climate change.

Climate Change/Globabl Warming - Global Climate Change: Research Explorer Guide from the Exploratorium allowing one to explore scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and their living organisms.
Climate Change/Global Warming - Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research Studies physical, biological and social processes of the Arctic that interact with the Earth system, and their relationship to global change.

External Links to Climate Change / Global Warming

Climate Change/Global Warming - Global climate change is a change in the long-term weather patterns that characterize the regions of the world.

Climate Change/Global Warming - Global Climate Change: Research Explorer Guide from the Exploratorium allowing one to explore scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and their living organisms. www.exploratorium.edu/climate Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the U.S. Looks at how ecosystems are already responding to climate change and what we can expect from future changes in the Earth's climate. Prepared by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Climate Change/Globabl Warming - Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research Studies physical, biological and social processes of the Arctic that interact with the Earth system, and their relationship to global change. www.cgc.uaf.edu Spotlight on: Climate Change Provides information on climate change and policy. From the U.S. Department of State.

References

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming