Global warming impacts and climate change mitigation strategies

Global Warming is inherently a natural process caused by the trapping of gases in the Earth's atmosphere: a process known as the greenhouse effect. However, global warming has been hastened by factory and automobile emissions and other factors related to human activity since the Industrial Revolution. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "there is no scientific debate on this point. Pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide (prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution) were about 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv), and current levels are greater than 380 ppmv and increasing at a rate of 1.9 ppm yr-1 since 2000." Global surface temperatures have risen considerably as a result, but temperatures do not rise uniformly across the globe. In fact, global warming is a misleading term in that it ignores the fact that some regions of the globe might experienced more intensely cold winters due to shifting weather patterns. The phrase climate change is more appropriate than global warming to refer to the collection of weather and climate effects associated with increased concentrations of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. Global warming affects a wide range of climactic events ranging from the Gulf Stream to evaporation. Another main effect of climate change is the melting of glacial caps and ice pack in the Arctic and Antarctic, leading to rises in sea levels. The results of rising sea levels on human and animal populations could be catastrophic.