This document discusses global warming and its causes and effects. It states that global warming is caused by both natural phenomena like methane gas releases as well as human activities such as burning fossil fuels. Some of the documented effects of global warming include rising sea levels which threaten coastal communities, melting glaciers and permafrost, more frequent and severe storms, widespread species extinction by 2050, disappearance of coral reefs, spread of diseases, economic consequences, more wildfires, and increased air pollution and smog.

1. CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF
ECUADOR
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE
AUTHORS: JONATHAN
SALGUERO
PAUL TIBANTA
COURSE: 4TH SEMESTER
SEPTEMBER 2012

3. GLOBAL WARMING
 Climate change is any substantial change in Earth’s
climate that lasts for an extended period of time. Global
warming refers to climate change that causes an increase
in the average temperature of the lower
atmosphere. Global warming can have many different
causes, but it is most commonly associated with human
interference, specifically the release of excessive amounts
of greenhouse gase

4. CAUSES
 Global Warming is caused by many things. The causes are split up
into two groups, man-made or anthropogenic causes, and natural causes.
Natural Causes Man-made Causes

5. NATURAL CAUSES
Natural causes are causes created by nature. One
natural cause is a release of methane gas from arctic
tundra and wetlands. Methane is a greenhouse gas. A
greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the earth's
atmosphere. Another natural cause is that the earth goes
through a cycle of climate change. This climate change
usually lasts about 40,000 years.

6. Man-made causes probably do the most damage. There
are many man-made causes. Pollution is one of the biggest
man-made problems. Pollution comes in many shapes and
sizes. Burning fossil fuels is one thing that causes
pollution. Fossil fuels are fuels made of organic matter
such as coal, or oil.

7. When fossil fuels are burned they give off a green
house gas called CO2. Also mining coal and oil allows
methane to escape. How does it escape? Methane is
naturally in the ground. When coal or oil is mined you
have to dig up the earth a little. When you dig up the fossil
fuels you dig up the methane as well.

8.  The effects of global warming are the ecological and social
changes caused by the rise in global temperatures. Evidence of
climate change includes the instrumental temperature
record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the Northern
Hemisphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), most of the observed increase in global
average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due
to the observed increase in human greenhouse gas
concentrations..

9. SEA LEVEL IS RISING .
 During the 20th century, sea level rose about 15 cm (6 inches)
due to melting glacier ice and expansion of warmer seawater.
Models predict that sea level may rise as much as 59 cm (23
inches) during the 21st Century, threatening coastal
communities, wetlands, and coral reefs.

10. Arctic sea ice is melting. The summer thickness
of sea ice is about half of what it was in 1950.
Melting ice may lead to changes in ocean
circulation. Plus melting sea ice is speeding up
warming in the Arctic.

11. Glaciers and permafrost are melting. Over the past
100 years, mountain glaciers in all areas of the world
have decreased in size and so has the amount of
permafrost in the Arctic. Greenland's ice sheet is
melting faster too.

12. Global Warming Effect: Massive crop
failures
 According to recent research, there is a 90% chance that 3 billion
people worldwide will have to choose between moving their families to
milder climes and going hungry due to climate change within 100 years.
 “Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water
supplies. “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production,
reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems.
It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts.”" – Guardian:
Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year

13. Global Warming Effect: More killer
storms
 The severity of storms such as hurricanes and cyclones is increasing,
and research published in Nature found:
 “Scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global
warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme
storms worldwide. The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical
cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research
published in Nature this week. And the upward trend, thought to be
driven by rising ocean temperatures, is unlikely to stop at any time soon.”

14. Global Warming Effect: Widespread
extinction of species
According to research published in Nature, by 2050, rising
temperatures could lead to the extinction of more than a million
species. And because we can‟t exist without a diverse population of
species on Earth, this is scary news for humans.
“Climate change now represents at least as great a threat to the
number of species surviving on Earth as habitat-destruction and
modification.

15. Global Warming Effect:
Disappearance of coral reefs
 A report on coral reefs from WWF says that in a worst case
scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 due to increased
temperatures and ocean acidification. The „bleaching‟ of coralsfrom
small but prolonged rises in sea temperature is a severe danger for
ocean ecosystems, and many other species in the oceans rely on coral
reefs for their survival.

16. Spread of disease
As northern countries warm, disease carrying
insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease
with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in
some countries, thanks to global warming, malaria
has not been fully eradicated.

17. Economic consequences
Most of the effects of anthropogenic global
warming won‟t be good. And these effects spell one
thing for the countries of the world: economic
consequences. Hurricanes cause billions of dollars
in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control
and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

18. Fires and wildfires
 As the planet continues to warm, dry areas of land that are
already susceptible to wildfires are likely to be ravaged by even
more frequent and destructive episodes. In 2007, more than
3,000 fires brought destruction to Southeastern Europe thanks
to a long summer that created arid and parched conditions – a
situation that would become normal as a consequence of the
greenhouse effects

19. Death by smog
A powerful combination of vehicular
fumes, ground-level ozone, airborne industrial
pollution and the stagnant hot air associated with
heat waves, smog represents an immediate and
chronic health threat to those living in built-up
urban areas.