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Teachers' Domain - Digital Media for the Classroom and Professional Development Search Teachers' Domain Go User: My Folders Loading... Create a new folder Upload Media My Groups No groups created yet. Create a new Group Join a Group My Profile HELP | SIGN OUT Please sign in for full access This Teachers' Domain feature requires registration, which is simple, safe, and free. Register Now Citation "1900 Air Pollution." Teachers' Domain. 26 Sep. 2003. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. .

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Signing in now will connect your and Teachers' Domain accounts, so that in the future you will automatically be signed into Teachers' Domain when you come from . 1900 Air Pollution Resource for Grades 9-12 | Citation Media Type: Document Size: 1 byte View SAVE TO FOLDER Loading... Save Cancel Share | Source: FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" Web site Resource Produced by: Collection Developed by: Collection Credits Collection Funded by: See Also: National K -12 Subject: Human Influence on Ecology Gases trapped in ice cores show the dramatic impact that human activities have had on the planet since the Industrial Revolution. This graph,from the Web site accompanying the FRONTLINE/NOVA special "What's Up with the Weather?," reveals how atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides from coal- and oil-burning power plants, cars, and other fossil-fuel-burning sources have climbed along with the world population, with as yet unknown effects on the climate system. Background Essay Few environmental issues have gotten as much attention from both scientists and the public as global warming. Debate over the extent and the causes of planet-wide climate change has pitted citizens against industry in what could only be described as a battle between David and Goliath. At issue is whether Earth's temperature is truly rising and, if so, what is causing this increase. To find out, researchers need to record temperatures at many different places around the world -- a gargantuan task given the size of Earth and the near-inaccessibility of some of its locations. What's more, temperatures change radically all the time. A drop in temperature of forty degrees or more is commonplace in some locations, as they transition from day to night or from one season to the next. To account for daily and seasonal fluctuations, and to balance out climatic anomalies, researchers collect data from as many sources as possible over a long period of time. Global temperature data from as far back as one hundred thousand years ago are particularly important because they allow scientists to compare recent observations to warming and cooling trends of the distant past. Such comparisons provide a basis from which to argue that an observed warming trend in the last century is in or out of synch with the natural rhythms of climatic change. Indeed, climate studies focused on the last hundred years show that Earth's temperature has risen about one degree Fahrenheit since the early 1900s. Other studies reaching back much further in time suggest that global climates have seldom been stable for long. Ice samples collected as part of the North Greenland Ice Core Project, which provide a snapshot of temperatures from the last hundred thousand years, tell a dramatic story. It seems Earth has been subject to recurring ten-thousand-year warm periods followed by ninety-thousand-year cold spells -- with most of the transitions between warm and cold periods being extremely abrupt. The most difficult question and, not surprisingly, the one that is the most politically charged is whether this century's global temperature changes are in or out of synch with natural climatic flux. The answer to this question would indicate, indirectly at least, whether humans are responsible for global warming. Many scientists are convinced that the changes we're seeing now are related to an increase in the industrial emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Even so, most of those scientists would admit that the extent to which human actions are affecting the global climate, and where this will all lead are questions yet to be answered. Print Background Essay Discussion Questions What do these graphs show about the changes in air pollutants in the past two centuries? Which of these changes are the result of human activity? Which are caused by natural phenomena? What might we do to counter the increase in air pollutants? Print Discussion Questions Standards About Standards | Report a Standards Mismatch About Standards | Report a Standards Mismatch About Standards | Report a Standards Mismatch   close Report a standards correlation problem To help improve this service, please report and describe any standards correlations that you find to be inaccurate. close About standards correlation Academic standards correlations on Teachers' Domain use the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) database of state and national standards, provided to NSDL projects courtesy of JES & Co. 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