Global warming: Annotated Bibliography

1. Pumping Up the Volume, EIA, Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2004, (December 2005), EIA, Annual Energy Outlook 2006: 56-57

Global warming pollution emitted in the United States reached the highest level ever recorded in 2004, according to an Energy Information Administration (EIA) report released in December. This stands in stark contrast to the White House's assertion at the Montreal global warming talks just two weeks earlier that their voluntary policies were having a significant effect on emissions. Total emissions of heat-trapping gases grew by 139 million tons from 2003 to 2004, which represents a 2 percent increase. Transportation emissions grew by 3.1 percent, the largest jump since 1990. Overall 2004 emissions were 16 percent higher than just 15 years ago. Based on current policies, the EIA projects that these trends will only continue, leading to a further 38 percent increase in emissions by 2030.

2. C. Monnett, J.S. Gleason, and L.M. Rotterman. Arctic Meltdown, Presentation at the Society for Marine Mammalogy 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals (December 2005)

A December 2005 report, drawn from aerial photographs taken in Alaska, showed that polar bears are literally drowning due to the loss of Arctic ice from global warming. Forced to swim long distances when the sea ice off the north coast of Alaska retreated a record 160 miles, at least four polar bears, and perhaps as many as 40, drowned in September 2004. Arctic ice retreat set another record in 2005, marking the fourth year in a row of record or near-record minimum Arctic sea ice extent, leading researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the University of Washington to conclude that "Arctic sea ice is likely on an accelerating, long-term decline." A comprehensive review by leading Arctic scientists concurred, finding that the Arctic is on a trajectory toward becoming ice-free in summer during this century. Permafrost on land is also melting at an alarming rate. New simulations that include permafrost dynamics in a global climate model project that with continued rapid growth of global warming pollution, two-thirds of the northern hemisphere's near-surface permafrost (to a depth of 11 feet) would melt by 2050 and more than 90 percent would melt by the end of the century.

3. B. Soden, et al., It's the Heat and the Humidity, Science 310, 841 (November 4, 2005) EIA, Annual Energy Outlook 2006: 24-26

Water vapor traps more heat than any other constituent of the atmosphere. In contrast to carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants, however, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is not significantly influenced by direct emissions from human sources. Rather, it is determined by the balance between evaporation from the earth's surface and rainfall. Recent satellite measurements confirm that this balance tends to keep global average relative humidity (the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere relative to the maximum amount it can hold) nearly constant. Because warmer air can hold more water, this implies that global warming results in an ...