Hey All, it's ecosumo, back with another in our series about global warming.  This series is an attempt to shed light on the topic of global warming to reveal facts and expose myths.  Today we're starting in on the topic of climate change, specifically as related to the planet's atmosphere.

Beginning around the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700's, our human manufacturing, distribution, and work behaviors have added to the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. By burning fossil fuels and biomass  - organic, living matter like vegetation - we have also contributed the emission of aerosols  that absorb and emit heat, and reflect light.

Research is showing that the addition of greenhouse gases and aerosols has changed the composition of the planet's atmosphere. These changes are said to be influencing temperature, precipitation, storms and sea level - you can read more detailed information in this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2007. We must state though that these features of the climate also change naturally and so determining what fraction of climate changes are due to natural variability versus human contributions makes the issue not so black-and-white.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are reported to have raised from 280 parts per million in pre-industrial revolution times to over 382 ppm post-industrial revolution.  That's a significant marker with most research pointing to humans as the contributors.  Add to that that methane in the atmosphere is higher than it has been in over 650,000 years with a 148% increase from pre-industrial times.  Yet, researchers do report a decrease in methane over the last few decades (check out this Wikipedia article to learn more about the methane part of the equation.)  As well, Nitrous Oxide has increased in our atmosphere 18% since the industrial revolution - whereas before that the amount of N20 was relatively steady for nearly 12,000 years.  Add to this aerosols, hydroflourocarbons, chloroflourocarbons, and the multiple other emissions we create from industrial waste and you begin to see the scope creep of the issue into regions where understanding just what is the problem can present researchers with challenges.

The last part of this review of global warming is radiative forcing which is a measurement in solar radiation entering the atmosphere and the earth's radiation going out.  Essentially, land use changes (deforestation and such), greenhouse gases and aeroslos affect the balance of radiation that gets trapped and warms up the planet.  The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index shows that radiative forcing from greenhouse gases has increased nearly 22% from 1990 to 2006.  Much of this increase (63%) is due to the contribution of C02 into the atmosphere - this contribution points to humans being that no other animal or plant on the planet has significantly increased their C02 contributions.

Check in often as we'll be expanding this section of the global warming review to include temperature changes, precipitation and storm changes, sea level changes, and ocean acidification.

You can do you part to reduce global warming by using environmentally friendly products and by reducing waste from the products you do use.  Check out all of our cleaners, kitchenware, reusable water bottles, reusable shopping bags, clothing, and more at ecosumo.com.

Peace...ecosumo

*Thanks to Shropshire for the image.