Wabash Watershed (1961-1990)
Wabash Watershed (1961-1990)
Introduction
Global warming is a resultant of Heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. The release of these gases has increased in the last 500 years since the industrial revolution. There is an expectation that global warming will result to rising sea levels, droughts, fires, heat waves, extreme storms, heavy rainfall, floods, and melting of snow and ice. These changes as envisaged would affect agriculture and general food availability with devastating consequences for existence of life on earth. In additional, life would change completely because many systems are tied to the climate. For example, temperature changes would affect breeding cycle of insect, and this has implications on pollination and food availability for humans. Although short-term weather variations are normal and expected, long-term changes are deleterious to the environment and life on earth (Houghton, 2004).
There is evidence that global warming is becoming worse primarily due to rise in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. In 1950s, the concentration of carbon dioxide was at 315 parts per million. Currently, the concentration is about 385 parts per million. To discover an increase in concentration of carbon dioxide throughout history, scientists have used bubbles of air trapped in ice and results show that the current concentration of carbon dioxide is the highest and has been, for more than 10,000 years (Maslin, 2007).
Atmospheric carbon dioxide was 280 parts per million before the industrial revolution. During the ice age, concentration was only 100 parts and 300 during warm periods. Other green houses gases such as methane and nitrous oxide have increased at the same rate as carbon dioxide since then. The rising levels of carbon dioxide and vapor in the atmosphere are projected as causing wide ranging climatic changes, in the form of heavy rainfall and droughts occurring within a few years. The...