Global warming and deforestation

Deforestation leads to an increase in the amount of carbondioxide in the air because the number of trees which consume carbondioxide is reduced. Human activities, thus, contribute to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.Carbon dioxide traps heat and does not allow it to escape into space.As a result, the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere is gradually increasing. This is called global warming. Global warming can cause sea levels to rise dramatically.A recent climate change report gives us only a limited time to keep the greenhouse gases at the present level. Otherwise the temperature may rise by more than 2 degree Celsius by the end of the century, a level considered dangerous. Global Warming Has Become "Normal" Climate for Most People. Global warming has been going on for so long that most people were not even born the last time the Earth was cooler than average in 1985 in a shift that is altering perceptions of a "normal" climate, scientists said. Decades of climate change bring risks that people will accept higher temperatures, with more heatwaves, downpours and droughts, as normal and complicate government plans to do more to cut emissions of greenhouse gas emission. Global warming has been going on for so long that most people were not even born the last time the Earth was cooler than average in 1985 in a shift that is altering perceptions of a "normal" climate, scientists said. Decades of climate change bring risks that people will accept higher temperatures, with more heatwaves, downpours and droughts, as normal and complicate government plans to do more to cut emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. "Because the last three decades have seen such a significant rise in global and regional temperatures, most people under the age of 30 have not lived in a world without global warming," Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told Reuters. "On human time scales the changes in our climate can seem gradual, so we will increasingly need to remind the public about just how rapid and unprecedented the changes truly are," Jarraud said. February 1985 was the last month when global temperatures were below the 20th century average, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a leading source of global temperature data. Meanwhile, the estimated median age of the world population in 2014 is 29.4 years, meaning half are older and half younger, Francois Pelletier of the U.N. Population Division told Reuters. Taken together, the NOAA and U.N. yardsticks mean the world's 7.2 billion population has shifted in recent weeks for the first time to a majority born since the last cool month. "People have to get used to continuous change in the climate," said Thomas Peterson, principal scientist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and president of the WMO Commission for Climatology. Some other weather agencies, using differing methods and baselines, estimate later dates for the most recent cold month than NOAA. The WMO, which compiles annual data, says 1985 was the last colder-than-average year. Global averages go largely unnoticed because individuals experience weather and climate locally - this past winter was bitterly cold in parts of North America, for instance. But the overall warming trend is clear. A vigorous debate is in progress over the extent and seriousness of rising surface temperatures, the effects of past and future warming on human life, and the need for action to reduce future warming and deal with its consequences. This article provides an overview of the scientific background and public policy debate related to the subject of global warming. It considers the causes of rising near-surface air temperatures, the influencing factors, the process of climate research and forecasting, the possible ecological and social impacts of rising temperatures, and the public policy developments since the mid-20th century. For a detailed description of Earth’s climate, its processes, and the responses of living things to its changing nature, see climate. For additional background on how Earth’s climate has changed throughout geologic time, see climatic variation and change. For a full description of Earth’s gaseous envelope, within which climate change and global warming occur, see atmosphere.