The year 2005 was the warmest year in over a century, according to NASA scientists studying temperature data from around the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report projects that the Earth’s average surface temperature will increase between 2.5° and 10.4°F (1.4°-5.8°C) between 1990 and 2100 if no major efforts are undertaken to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (the “business-as-usual” scenario). This is significantly higher than what the Panel predicted in 1995 (1.8°-6.3°F, or 1.0°-3.5°C), mostly because scientists expect a reduced cooling effect from tiny particles (aerosols) in the atmosphere.
Scientists predict that even if we stopped emitting heat-trapping gases immediately, the climate would not stabilize for many decades because the gases we have already released into the atmosphere will stay there for years or even centuries. So while the warming may be lower or increase at a slower rate than predicted if we reduce emissions significantly, global temperatures cannot quickly return to today’s averages. And the faster and more the earth warms, the greater the chances are for some irreversible climate changes.
The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, and other human activities, are the primary sources of the human-induced component of warming. An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. These changes may increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornados. Other consequences include higher or lower agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming (and sea level rise due to thermal expansion) is expected to continue, since CO2 has a long average atmospheric lifetime.
The number of cars in operation around the world will double by the year 2030. The United States is responsible for 25% of the world’s CO2 emissions which equates to 7 billion tons of CO2 emissions in one year. The amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere in the next 30 years is expected to double or triple.
Deforestation is another main producer of carbon dioxide. The causes of deforestation are logging for lumber, pulpwood, and fuel wood. Also contributing to deforestation is clearing new land for farming and pastures used for animals such as cows. Forests and wooded areas are natural carbon sinks. This means that as trees absorb carbon dioxide, and release oxygen, carbon is being put into trees. This process occurs naturally by photosynthesis, which occurs less and less as we cut and burn down trees. As the abundance of trees declines, less carbon dioxide can be recycled. As we burn them down, carbon is released into the air and the carbon bonds with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, adding to the greenhouse effect. About 860 acres, the size of Central Park in New York, is destroyed every 15 minutes in the tropics.
The rate of global warming and sea level rise will be higher than previous predictions during the next century. Estimated land losses range from 0.05% for Uruguay to about 80% for all in the Marshall Islands.
A 1M (3 feet) sea-level rise would affect 6 million people in Egypt, with 12% to 15% of agricultural land lost, 13 million in Bangladesh, with 16% of national rice production lost, and 72 million in China and “tens of thousands” of hectares (1 hectare=2.47 acres) of agricultural land. This is based on new information released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of about 2,000 scientists who advise the United Nations, revised estimates of the current forecast in sea levels after conducting new studies on the west Antarctic ice sheet.
Small, low-lying island states and countries with big coastal populations such as the Marshall Islands and Bangladesh could see catastrophic damage from the rise. Global warming is at the root of the increase, say the researchers; as the earth’s climbing temperatures melt the Arctic sea ice and Antarctica.
Around the world, ice sheets and glaciers are melting at a rate unprecedented since record-keeping began. Changes in the area and volume of the two polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are intricately linked to changes in global climate and could result in sea-level changes that would severely affect the densely populated coastal regions.
Glaciers along the southeastern coast of Greenland are thinning by more than 3 feet a year — possibly because of global warming, according to a study by NASA scientists.
Researchers compared aerial surveys of the Greenland ice sheet taken in 1993 and 1994 with a similar survey taken last year. Their data indicated that parts of the ice sheet near the ocean thinned at a rate of more than 3 feet (1 meter) per year.
“Why (glaciers) are behaving like this is a mystery,” said Bill Krabill, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “But it may indicate that the coastal margins of ice sheets are capable of responding quite rapidly to external changes, such as a warming climate.” Krabill said if the higher rate of ice flowing into the ocean from Greenland “accelerates or becomes more widespread, it would begin to have a detectable impact on sea level.”
All of the scientific data and understanding now point to the critical situation we face: to slow future change we must start taking action soon. At the same time, because of our past and ongoing activities we must start to live with the likely consequences - more extreme weather, rising sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, ecological and agricultural dislocations, the spread of human disease and declining economic health around the world. In the end, failure to solve the global warming problem is not an option.
The application of the new alternative energy and agriculture technologies of Quest Innovations Research will provide the solutions of global warming. The first is an alternative type perpetual electric device that will replace gasoline or diesel engines for transportation. With better transmissions and with more aerodynamic designs, and stronger yet lighter material for chassis will allow a totally non-fuel burning automobile and truck.
More than half of America’s electricity is produced from outdated, coal-burning power plants that dump pollutants and heat-trapping gases into our atmosphere. In fact, power plants are the single largest source of CO2—one-third of the U.S. total. Quest Innovation’s solution is to replace the present power grid systems into perpetual electric units that will not pollute the air or waste natural resources. Smaller electric units will also be used for many major appliances such as clothes washers, dishwashers, water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners and boilers.
Protecting threatened forests will help halt global warming which can also save us money, increase food productivity and create new business and agriculture opportunities. Quest Innovation’s Research projects of the systematic approach to new hydroponics agriculture and the enriched soil of Terra Preta will increase food production over 800% on less land, thereby saving valuable rainforests. The new water hydration device will provide atmospheric water as an abundant source for crop irrigation. Using the force of water without creating dams will utilize turbine generated energy that will be modified for many agriculture uses in order to complete systems for providing large magnitude crop yields.
Best of all, these solutions exist now. The future is now and awaiting every individual, group, business, community, government or country ready to use new natural G-d given knowledge of technology to provide enough non-polluting energy and rich nutrient fed crops for everyone on our home planet.
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