Monthly Archives: February 2015

Answers to Team Question Session 3

1. It is because the energy leaving the earth surface is mostly retained in the atmosphere, or in other words, this is called greenhouse gas effect, therefore not all of the energy lost to space. Greenhouse gas effect is commonly caused by intense human activities, such as burning fossil fuels.

2. No, the cartoon is not justified. It only shows a part of the Earth that is snowing heavily. Other parts of the Earth that are experiencing different things such as a drought are not showed in the cartoon. Furthermore, effect of global warming is not simply the earth warming up. One of the effects is climate change, where extreme weathers are experienced. In this cartoon, the extreme weather experienced could be an increase in snowing during winter. Hence, extreme winter conditions should not eliminate the concerns of global warming. Instead, it should be a vital issue of concern, as there is climate extremities experienced, which could be due to global warming.

3. The microwave radiation needs to be of a specific resonant frequency in order to cause vibration in water molecules. The water molecules contain 3 atoms allowing it to vibrate in a number of different ways. Hence, calculating its resonant frequency is rather difficult. As such, perhaps the microwave radiation used in the radar during World War II did not met the resonant frequency of the water molecules. Furthermore, early radar devices operated on lower frequencies and will only be absorbed by the water molecules weakly resulting in no rotation of water molecules.

4. In short run, air quality will pose the most serious problem. This is so as it has immediate effect on human health, which can increase incidents of illness due to the air quality.

In long run, global warming will pose the most serious problem. Many different parts of the ecosystems are being affected such as the plants and animals. The chances of them adapting is rather low thereby putting them into endangerment and slowly, perhaps, into extinction. Even the chemical composition of water can be affected. With global warming, the amount of oxygen in water declines leaving pollution and salinity levels to increase. Given that water is an essential resource that plays a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem viability, a change in chemical composition of water may affect the overall being of the ecosystem.