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Climate change can also be used more broadly to include changes to the climate that have happened throughout Earth's history. [32] Global warming—used as early as 1975 [33] —became the more popular term after NASA climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the U.S. Senate. [34] Since the 2000s, climate change has ...
Atmospheric CO 2 absorbs some of the energy radiated by the ground, but it emits itself thermal radiation: For example, in some wavelengths the atmosphere is totally opaque due to absorption by CO 2; at these wavelengths, looking at Earth from outer space one would not see the ground, but the atmospheric CO 2, and hence its thermal radiation ...
Cumulative land-use change contributions to CO 2 emissions, by region. [32]: Figure SPM.2b Local vegetation cover impacts how much of the sunlight gets reflected back into space , and how much heat is lost by evaporation. For instance, the change from a dark forest to grassland makes the surface lighter, causing it to reflect more sunlight.
Deforestation, for example, decreases the biosphere's ability to absorb carbon, thus increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. [ 24 ] As the industrial use of carbon by humans is a very new dynamic on a geologic scale, it is important to be able to track sources and sinks of carbon in the atmosphere.
Some climate change effects: wildfire caused by heat and dryness, bleached coral caused by ocean acidification and heating, environmental migration caused by desertification, and coastal flooding caused by storms and sea level rise. Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall ...
Energy flows between space, the atmosphere, and Earth's surface, with greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorbing and emitting radiant heat, affecting Earth's energy balance. Data as of 2007. Simplified models are sometimes used to support understanding of how the greenhouse effect comes about and how this affects surface temperature.
These two principles result in different totals when measuring, for example, electricity importation from one country to another, or emissions at an international airport. Time horizon of different gases: The contribution of given greenhouse gas is reported as a CO 2 equivalent. The calculation to determine this takes into account how long that ...
The Planck response is the additional thermal radiation objects emit as they get warmer. Whether Planck response is a climate change feedback depends on the context. In climate science the Planck response can be treated as an intrinsic part of warming that is separate from radiative feedbacks and carbon cycle feedbacks.