Review Of Peer Reviewed Articles On Global Warming

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Global Warming
Introduction
The temperature on earth depends on the balance that exists between the incoming energy from the Sun and the energy that bounces back to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbs the heat that would have otherwise escaped from earth’s atmosphere to space. Some of the absorbed energy is transmitted back to the earth, which causes heating. A majority of CO2 emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels for energy purposes (Oliveira et al. 597). For instance, the transport sector is a major contributor to the emission of CO2 to the atmosphere. With the earth’s population increasing, the emission of CO2 has also increased, leading to the rise of global temperatures. An increase in global temperatures has adverse effects. For instance, warmer conditions cause evaporation and precipitation, which may cause some regions to become wetter while others dryer.
Further, a stronger greenhouse causes the warming of the oceans and the melting of the glaciers hence increasing the sea level. While plants and crops may respond favorably to the increase in temperatures due to global warming, other crops and plant may not withstand the change. This means that the shifting patterns may change the areas where some crops can grow. Given the adverse effects of global warming, it is critical to come up with ways of mitigating it. Since CO2 is the major contributor to global warming, individuals should work towards reducing the emission of the gas. Failure to do so will cause an increase in the concentration of CO2, which will further increase the global temperatures.
Ekwurzel, Brenda, et al. "The rise in global atmospheric CO 2, surface temperature, and sea level from emissions traced to major carbon producers." Climatic Change 144.4 (2017): 579-590.
Ekwurzel et al. (2017) studied the increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The researchers used a climate-carbon-cycle model to determine the changes in the concentrations of both CO2 and CH4. The use of climate models that depended upon reduced-complexity was critical in this study. When they are calibrated with historical observations, the climate models can offer a robust output to characterize CO2. Further, the approach was critical because it gave room for natural and anthropogenic forcing to added or removed to the test. The model used in the study was based on the impulse response function approach contained in the IPCC fifth assessment report (AR5). The parameters were consisted with the AR5 atmospheric residence times for CO2 under the current climatic conditions. In order to determine the contribution of global mean surface temperature (GMST), the researchers included CH4 data for emissions that were traced back to the Carbon producers. The changes that were observed in GMST were used to calculate the rise in global sea level (GSL) by making use of the semi-empirical modeling developed by Kopp and others (2016). The results demonstrated that the carbon producers were responsible for 57% of the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere and 29-35% of GMST. The researchers concluded by indicating the need for non-state actors like fossil fuel companies to consider the timing through which organizations should have been expected to address the issues arising from the climatic risks arising from their products.
Figure 1: Comparison of emission removed between 1880-2010 and 1980-2010.
Atmospheric CO2 (ppm) after omitting the annual emissions attributed to 90 major industrial carbon producers. The implementation of the simulations followed to estimate parameters together with historical forcing.
Williams, Richard G., et al. "Sensitivity of global warming to carbon emissions: Effects of heat and carbon uptake in a suite of Earth system models." Journal of Climate 30.23 (2017): 9343-9363.
Williams et al. (2017) indicated that surface warming rises linearly with the cumulative CO2 emitted from the pre-industrial period. The research aimed to determine how the sensitivity of surface warming to cumulative carbon emissions due to fossil fuels is controlled. Establishing the link between surface warming and cumulative carbon emissions ΔT/ΔI is critical in guiding policy makers on what to do in order to avoid dangerous climate. Despite the essence of this sensitivity, there was little information on why there was a range in its value for individual Earth systems models which prompted the researchers to carry out the study. In this case, the researchers decided to examine ΔT/ΔI utilizing the diagnostics of climate model projections. The researchers used two sets of experiments using a subset of CMIP5 models. In the first set, the Earth system models have been subjected to an annual of 1% increase in the atmospheric CO2 since the commencement of the preindustrial control. The researchers established that the ocean affects the contribution of ΔT/ΔI through sequestering heat and carbon. There is also a likelihood that long-term ΔT/ΔI is altered by the sequestering of heat and carbon that occurs in the deep ocean. Changes in the atmospheric CO2 may be affected by both physical and biogeochemical processes. In essence, the study manages to address the uncertainties in climate sensitivity and ocean heat uptake. As a result, the study makes it possible to establish the amount of CO2 that can be omitted before attaining a warming target.
Figure 2: Climate projects for atmospheric CO2 for a period of 140 years.
The assumptions is that there is an annual 1% rise in atmospheric CO2 from the 10 different Earth system models. The black plot indicates the model mean.
Solomon, Susan, et al. "Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions." Proceedings of the national academy of sciences 106.6 (2009): 1704-1709.
Solomon et al. (2009) indicate that human activities have adverse effects on the earth. The severity of the damage not only depends on the change but also on the irreversibility of the change. The researchers seek to demonstrate that climate change today is majorly due to an increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The investigators use literature analysis to undertake their research. Over the 20th Century, the researchers demonstrate that CO2 has increased in the atmosphere, mainly because of human activities. Previous research demonstrates that CO2 causes irreversible damage. As the emission of CO2 increases in the 21st Century, it will cause adverse climatic changes that would be essentially irreversible. The results of the study demonstrate the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere involves multiple processes, including the air-sea exchange. With the reductions of CO2 emissions to 2% per year, the study demonstrates that the concentrations of CO2 would fall considerably. Additionally, the research demonstrates that CO2 concentrations cause irreversible climate changes in precipitation. Here, the results demonstrate that warming is linked to changes in rainfall patterns. Such changes disrupt water for human consumption and agriculture. The other irreversible damage of global warming due to CO2 is the rise in sea level. Warming leads to the expansion of the sea, which raises the sea level. The loss of ice land due to the increasing temperatures is also responsible for the rise in the sea level. The researchers conclude by bringing to attention the risk posed by global warming due to the emission of CO2.
Figure 3: An exploration of the modeled temperature changes to the thermal equilibrium.
The figure on the left demonstrates the comparisons between the calculated warmings and the expected outcomes if temperatures remained in equilibrium with the concentrations of CO2. They cyan lines illustrate both the actual and equilibrium temperatures, while the magenta lines indicate the ratio of actual warming to the equilibrium temperatures.
Zhong, Wenyi, and Joanna D. Haigh. "The greenhouse effect and carbon dioxide." Weather 68.4 (2013): 100-105.
Zhong & Haigh (2013) seek to investigate the greenhouse effect and CO2. The investigators appreciate that research has been done to establish CO2 plays a critical role in natural greenhouse warming of the earth. However, the researchers indicate that the extent to which the increase in the concertation of CO2 might lead to warming has remained controversial over the years; hence, the researchers seek to address the issue. In order to investigate the greenhouse effect of various components of the atmosphere, the researchers calculate the top of the atmosphere (TOA) where each gas is removed in turn. The results demonstrate that CO2 has a significant greenhouse effect compared to the rest of the atmospheric components, although its absorption is confined to narrow bands. Additionally, the net effect of both water and CO2 at the top of the atmosphere is more similar than at the surface. While CO2 has concentrations of less than 0.04%, it is responsible for almost a quarter of the greenhouse trapping of heat. The researchers conclude that the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere continue to increase. As the concentration increases, there is in its absorption of radiation hence, temperatures will keep on increasing. In order to avoid a further increase in temperatures, the researchers indicate the need to reduce the emission of CO2 to the atmosphere. Hence, it is essential to put measures to aimed at reducing the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere; it will be possible to prevent further increase in surface temperatures.
Figure 4: The radioactive forcing of CO2.
In the first diagram, the red curve indicates the entire infrared region (0-3000cm-1), while the blue one covers the 550-800cm-1. The second one extends to higher Co2 mixing ratios, while the last one demonstrates the radioactive forcing against CO2 mixing ratios.
Davis, W. "The relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and global temperature for the last 425 million years." Climate 5.4 (2017): 76.
Davis (2017) assesses the impact of humans on climate and biodiversity by exploring the link between the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere with global temperatures. The author seeks to offer knowledge on the current debate regarding climate change. The 15-million cycle of CO2 concedes with the extinction of the past, which prompts the researcher to identify the relationship between CO2 and biodiversity concentration. The temperature proxies employed here include raw, non-detrended measures. These were multiplied by negative unity to enable the isotope ratios to be directly proportional to temperatures. The samples utilized in the research include measurements derived from tropical, temperate, and Arctic latitudes. Furthermore, the researcher averaged the proxies for CO2 concentration in the atmosphere during the Phanerozoic. The researcher also developed several atmospheric emission codes to compute radioactive forcing (RF). The RF from CO2 was computed using MODTRAN because it is...