GLOBAL WARMING

Since 1850 the world's glaciers have begun to reduce its volume and surface, except for the period 1940-1980, which was given a slight global cooling, and many glaciers recovered some of its volume. Then, from 1980 Earth temperatures have continued to rise until today and most of the world's glaciers or missing entirely or are seriously threatened. This phenomenon is called glacier retreat.

A coincidence was detected, which might be a relationship between the beginning of the process of receding glaciers and rising carbon dioxide gas emissions, which causes the increase in global temperature.

Global warming temperature in the first half of the twentieth century is attributed to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors.

Natural factors: linked to cyclical fluctuations in solar radiation.

Anthropogenic factors: increased emissions of carbon dioxide gases caused, among other things, to the use of fossil fuels and certain industrial activities.

Consequences Of Melting Glaciers

1) Freshwater scarcity: In regions whose primary source of fresh water is cyclical thawing of a glacier in summer , its disappearance would cause water shortage in agriculture , industry , the animal species and plant kingdom .

This phenomenon would particularly affect Asian and South American areas . For example , the city of Quito in Ecuador , which depends largely on the water that comes down from the glacier located in the Antozona volcano , which is increasingly being smaller. The same thing happen in the city of La Paz , capital of Bolivia . Regions also Asian countries like India, China and Nepal depend on water from different Himalayan glaciers.

2) Increase in sea water level: Between 1993 and 2003, sea level has risen 3.1 mm per year , with a margin of error of 0.7 mm . The sea level rising is not only due to melting glaciers but also to thermal expansion of the oceans.

The evolution of what happens in Antarctica and Greenland, as older ice planet surface largely determine the speed of the rising sea level. Although it can be said that it is the same situation in Greenland than in Antarctica

RISING TEMPERATURES

The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.

Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
• Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.

Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
• Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
• Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
• Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
• Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
• Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier.  Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay.  He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.

The people in the world should be more careful with this issue because this is affecting our world. The people should have a consciousness and see how this problem is affecting us, search a way and start to change our behavor and the world will be better. If the pole's doesn't had this type of problem the world could be different, could look's more beautiful than now. 

CAMPAINGS

Many organizations in the world promote campaings to make the people more sensible to enviromental issues. The most recognized is Greenpeace, the realized years ago that global warming has the potential to wipe out most of the gains the environmental movement has made in other areas. Disruptions to ecosystems will likely harm everything from minke whales to coral reefs to polar bears. Whole forests will be lost, and hundreds of thousands of species will become extinct.

But many others organizations helps that issues, the following link have a important information about organizations, campaings and many other things about global warming.