Word: co2
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There is only one problem. When they escape into the atmosphere, most CFCs are murder on the environment. Each CFC molecule is 20,000 times as efficient at trapping heat as is a molecule of CO2. So CFCs increase the greenhouse effect far out of proportion to their concentration...
Hansen thus became perhaps the most prominent scientist willing to say straight out that the earth-warming effect of excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases generated by industry and agriculture had crossed the line from theory into fact. By itself, Hansen's bold assertion was dramatic enough. But the unusual string of weather-related disasters that struck the world last summer could not have been better timed to drive his point home. The heat waves, droughts, floods and hurricanes may be previews of what could happen with ever increasing frequency if the atmosphere warms 3 degrees...
Unfortunately, scientists cannot agree on how much global warming has occurred, how much more is on the way and what the climatic consequences will be, giving policymakers an excuse for delay. But no one disputes the fact that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen and continues to increase rapidly and that the human race is thus conducting a dangerous experiment on an unprecedented scale. The possible consequences are so scary that it is only prudent for governments to slow the buildup of CO2 through preventive measures, from encouraging energy conservation to developing alternatives to fossil fuels...
Ironically, the same greenhouse effect that may be so dislocating made earth hospitable to life in the first place. Without a heat-trapping blanket of naturally occurring CO2, the planet would have an average surface temperature of only 0 degrees F instead of 59 degrees F. Reason: like the glass panes of a greenhouse, CO2 molecules are transparent to visible light, allowing the sun's rays to warm the earth's surface. But when the surface gives off its excess heat, it does so not with visible light but with infrared radiation. And since CO2 absorbs infrared rays, some...
Recent research has confirmed that this is more than just theory. By drilling deep into Antarctic and Arctic ice, scientists have been able to measure the amount of CO2 in air bubbles trapped in ancient layers of snow. They have also looked at fossilized plant tissues for clues as to how warm the air was during the same period. The conclusion: CO2 levels and global temperatures have risen and fallen together, over tens of thousands of years. And there is evidence from space: Mars, which has little CO2 in its atmosphere, has a surface temperature that reaches -24 degrees...