ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Ecology and Environment



Ecology and Environment

Ways that global warming affects local ecosystems

The phrase global warming refers to a phenomenon in which the Earth's surface temperature increases from its long-term averages generally because of an atmospheric blanket of greenhouse gases (GHGs; primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons) that serve to trap reradiated solar energy from escaping into space. This blanket of greenhouse gases is responsible for providing Earth a generally temperate, stable, and life-sustaining climate. In common parlance, global warming is often used interchangeably with climate change. In the present context, though, it is used in a more limited sense as a driver of global climate change. The duration of our current interglacial period will be determined in no small part by the extent of warming caused by the greenhouse effect. A closely related concept is albedo, a measure of the extent to which a surface reflects light from the sun. Dark-colored objects (e.g., oceans and forests) have low albedo values because they absorb a greater percentage of solar energy than do lighter-colored bodies; light-colored objects (e.g., glaciers and ice caps) have high albedo values, as they reflect a greater proportion of solar radiation (Adams, 2006).

Local and Surrounding Ecologies and Environments

Deforestation is the inescapable outcome of the present communal and financial principles being conveyed out in the title of development." from An Emergency Call to Action for the Forests and The huge crusade which directs to this call was founded on an affirmation deserving An Emergency Call to Action for the Forests and Their Peoples. This affirmation was made by the World Rainforest Movement, an association of worldwide rainforest groups. Worldwide there are customs which adopt an environmental ethic, normally amidst indigenous peoples. Most heritage, although, can barely be said to manage so; other species and the natural environment ...