Global Warming

Global Warming

Introduction

The phrase global warming refers to a phenomenon in which the Earth's surface temperature increases from its long-term averages generally because of an atmospheric blanket of greenhouse gases (GHGs; primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons) that serve to trap reradiated solar energy from escaping into space. This blanket of greenhouse gases is responsible for providing Earth a generally temperate, stable, and life-sustaining climate. In common parlance, global warming is often used interchangeably with climate change. In the present context, though, it is used in a more limited sense as a driver of global climate change.

US And Global Warming

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is one of the 16 standing committees of the U.S. Senate. Like all other standing committees, this committee has permanent status and can create new laws and suggest changes in legislation to the Senate as a whole. The Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for dealing with a broad variety of matters related to the environment and infrastructure. This makes it one of several prominent Senate committees concerned with newsworthy issues related to science and technology (Alley 2007, 24).

This committee was originally created in 1837 by the Senate as the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds to oversee the development of the Federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 20th century, the committee jurisdiction was expanded to include more diverse issues, such as the interstate highway systems, flood control, and matters of navigation.

In 1963, the committee was granted the responsibility for creating new laws to achieve air and water pollution control, rural and community economic development, and relief from natural disasters (Bengtsson 2006, 56).

The 1970s are considered some of the most productive years for the committee, a period when it managed to advance some landmark legislation. On January 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Protection Act, which put many air pollutants under regulation. The committee's reputation became stronger after the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Water Pollution Act of 1972 were approved. The 1970 Clean Air Act helped greatly reduce automobile pollution. This legislation enacted deadlines and penalties for automobile emission standards in new cars. Many other issues that relate to the work of this committee, such as acid rain and globalwarming, have also become public and government concerns. In the 1980s, the committee was in conflict with the Reagan administration as the White House sought to cut spending and relax regulations on industry. In the 1980s and 1990s, the committee focused on issues that related to water projects, harbors, and highways. The early 1990s brought another action concerning the Clean Air Act and more attention to federal highway programs (Bernstein 2007, 145).

The committee has several subcommittees. In 2009 to 2010, these subcommittees included Children's Health; Clean Air and Nuclear Safety; Green Jobs and the New Economy; Oversight; Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health; Transportation and Infrastructure; and Water and Wildlife (Church 2006, 163).

Almost every piece of legislation that is introduced in the Senate is first sent to one of its committees for review. For instance, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works could receive a legislative proposal (bill) to enable a new Federal building to be constructed in a particular location (Forster 2007, 145).

In the process of considering a bill, the committee and its subcommittees may examine information received from outside experts, as well as request written proposals from various executive agencies and hold committee hearings. Generally, congressional hearings involve oral testimony about the issue under consideration, and members of Congress may question the witnesses. For example, the Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife might hold a hearing to review the detection of lead in drinking water and suggest both urgent actions and long-term solutions (Greer 2008, 167).

The Science

In all of our solar system, Earth is the only planet known to support life. This uniqueness derives in great part from an atmosphere that regulates the Earth's surface temperature within a range conducive to the development of living organisms, including humankind. The explanation for this phenomenon was suspected as early as 1824, when French mathematician and physicist Jean Baptiste Fourier postulated that gases in Earth's atmosphere might influence its surface temperature. In 1859, physicist John Tyndall suggested that changes in the concentrations of some atmospheric gases could result in changes to Earth's climate (Petit 1999, 162). The Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius published an article in 1896 demonstrating that the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere would significantly affect its surface temperature. Arrhenius coined the phrase greenhouse effect and predicted that a geometric (nonlinear) increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide would result in an arithmetic (linear) increase in the Earth's surface temperature.

Consequences on health of Global Warming

Although the geophysical and atmospheric drivers of global warming have been known for many years, and the consequences suspected, they were thought to be long term in nature--on the order of thousands of years (Rahmstorf 2002, 98). However, in testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1987 and 1988, climate scientist James Hansen characterized global warming as a real and present threat to the stability of Earth's climate system. He confidently stated that the Earth 20 years hence would be warmer than it had been in the past 100,000 years. Over those 20 years, four assessment reports by the IPCC have left little doubt that we are seeing undeniable evidence of that warming (Watson 2001,125).

In its Fourth Assessment Report the IPCC noted that the years 1995-2006 have ranked among the warmest since 1850 and that the linear temperature trend over the 100-year period 1906-2005 was greater than the corresponding trend over the 100-year period 1901-2000 (given in the Third Assessment Report). Overall, the number of hot days (measured by the heat index) has increased, while the number of cold days (on which frost was measured) has decreased.

At the same time we have been observing significantly warmer day- and nighttime temperatures, especially at higher Northern Hemisphere latitudes, a troubling rise in sea levels has been measured. Sea level rise is attributable to both the thermal