Global warming is defined as an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere, especially a sustained increase great enough to cause changes in the global climate. The term global warming is synonymous with Enhanced green house effect, implying an increase in the amount of green house gases in the earth’s atmosphere, leading to entrapment of more and more solar radiations, and thus increasing the overall temperature of the earth. (71 words)
EFFECT OF GLOBAL WARMING ON THE EARTH’S CLIMATE
Detailed researches of climatic events of the past 150 years have revealed that the temperatures have risen all over the globe, with the warming occurring in two phases. The first phase was from 1919 to 1940, with an average temperature gain of 0.35°C, and the second phase was from 1970 to the present, exhibiting temperature gains of 0.55°C.
Records show that the past 25 years have been the warmest time of the past 5 centuries. The global warming has resulted in the warming of the oceans, rising of the sea levels, melting of glaciers, and diminished snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere.
The recent catastrophic climatic events like the massive floods in Pakistan and India, the Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the prolonged droughts in Australia, China, Pakistan, India and Texas, are all the results of increased temperatures due to global warming. During the 21st century, climatic disasters occurred five times as frequently and killed or affected seventy times as many people. Thus, the immense geological changes will continue their destruction unabated if steps to mitigate global warming are not taken.
IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON CLIMATE OF INDIA
There has been a particularly alarming effect of global warming on the climate of India. India is already a disaster prone area, with the statistics of 27 out of 35 states being disaster prone, with most disasters being water related. The process of global warming has led to an