Material for Greenhouse Effect
2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record, beginning in 1880.
Plot of global temperature anomally.
Note that while the greenhouse effect causes the planet to warm up overall, some
areas actually get cooler. Deniers may point to these cooler spots and extreme
winter storms to refute global warming, but both can be understood as being
caused by global warming.
Al Gore's Nobel acceptance speech.
US Department of Energy (DoE) Energy Information Agency (EIA) Webpage.
The DoE EIA is a treasure trove of solid, useful information.
Visit this site often.
DoE EIA's kids webpage.
Do not be put off by the kid-friendly graphics. This
page and ones below present good information in an
easy-to-grasp format.
Click on one of the energy sources (say, coal) and then
click on the "energy calculator". This energy calculator
is a simple but powerful tool to help compare different
energy sources.
The DoE EIA numbers for pounds of CO2 per unit volume or mass
for various fuels.
The EPA's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
The DoE EIA numbers for pounds of CO2 per unit volume or mass
for various fuels.
Temperature and Carbon Dioxide levels in the Vostok Ice Core.
I've put the entire article (published in Nature)
here. From the abstract:
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide
and methane correlate well with Antarctic air-temperature throughout the
record. Present-day atmospheric burdens of
these two important greenhouse gases seem to have been unprecedented during
the past 420,000 years.
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report is
here. From the section titled "Robust Findings" (section 6.1, page 72):
Most of the global average warming over the past 50 years is
very likely due to anthropogenic GHG increases and it is
likely that
there is a discernible human-induced warming
averaged over each continent (except Antarctica).
Atmosphere
Absorption spectrum for various greenhouse gases with spectrum of
incoming solar radiation and outgoing IR spectrum. (2 page pdf document)
Earth's atmosphere from NASA.
Absorption Spectra for various gases
here (via IA State )
Atmosphere of
Mars and
Venus and
Earth
from Wikipedia (be careful).
Earth's Climate Past
Climate of the Past from the National Center for Atmospheric Research
Energy Use
World Energy use website.
US Residential Energy use from DoE EIA
Energy Conversion Efficiency
The DoE Energy calculator gives you energy content of various
fuels, but does not factor in the efficiency of
converting that energy into something usable.
For instance, the energy calculator says
1 kg of coal contains 6.5 kW-hr of energy.
But in converting that energy to electricity, you have to pay
a cost of running a heat engine (ie Carnot efficiency)
due to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Generator efficiency costs (combustion, friction, etc).
Transmission efficiency costs (power line losses).
Before the electricity can be sent to you.
A list of efficiencies of conversion.
Global Warming Deniers
A column by George Will in the Washington Post is
here
A column in the Guardian (UK newspaper) addressing Will's column is
here
The
"Climate Change email controversy" overview by Wikipedia. This was basically a
media created issue, and the Columbia Journalism Review said about global warming
"...readers need to understand that while there is plenty of room to improve the
research and communications process, its fundamental tenets remain as solid as ever."
Amit &
Last modified: Thu Jan 13 15:57:43 EST 2011