TY - ENCYC
T1 - Greenhouse Warming Research
AU - Sørensen, Bent Erik
N1 - Subscription-based web-publication
PY - 2016/10/20
Y1 - 2016/10/20
N2 - The changing greenhouse effect caused by natural and anthropogenic causes is explained and efforts to model the behavior of the near-surface constituents of the Earth's land, ocean and atmosphere are discussed. Emissions of various substances and other aspects of human activity influence the greenhouse warming, and the impacts of the warming may again impact the wellbeing of human societies. Thus physical modeling of the near-surface ocean-soil-atmosphere system cannot be carried out without an idea of the development of human activities, which is done by scenario analysis. The interactive nature of the natural and the human system calls for an extremely complex analysis, in order to predict the outcome of various proposed changes in human behavior. This includes halting activities that most influence the climate and finding workable alternatives to these activities, or adapting to climate change. More dramatic proposals call for changing the natural processes in the Earth-atmosphere system. The limitations to assessing any of these scenarios are set by foreseeable computational power in a way that will be explained.
AB - The changing greenhouse effect caused by natural and anthropogenic causes is explained and efforts to model the behavior of the near-surface constituents of the Earth's land, ocean and atmosphere are discussed. Emissions of various substances and other aspects of human activity influence the greenhouse warming, and the impacts of the warming may again impact the wellbeing of human societies. Thus physical modeling of the near-surface ocean-soil-atmosphere system cannot be carried out without an idea of the development of human activities, which is done by scenario analysis. The interactive nature of the natural and the human system calls for an extremely complex analysis, in order to predict the outcome of various proposed changes in human behavior. This includes halting activities that most influence the climate and finding workable alternatives to these activities, or adapting to climate change. More dramatic proposals call for changing the natural processes in the Earth-atmosphere system. The limitations to assessing any of these scenarios are set by foreseeable computational power in a way that will be explained.
KW - Climate science
U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.09732-3
DO - 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.09732-3
M3 - Encyclopedia chapter
BT - Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
A2 - Elias, Scott
PB - Elsevier
CY - [Place of publication not identified]
ER -