What is Global Warming?

The surface temperature of each of the planets in our solar system depends on a process called the heat budget. This budget, like any other type of budget, remains balanced if the amount (of energy) coming in equals the amount going out. If the energy balance is disrupted, then the result would be a change in temperature. Ice ages occur when the energy going out exceeds incoming solar energy; global warming occurs when the incoming solar energy is greater than the energy going out.

An indication of global warming would be a gradual increase in the earth's average surface temperature. Locally, annual temperatures might fluctuate due to differences in weather systems from one year to the next. On a global scale, however, those local fluctuations are canceled out and the earth's average temperature should remain the same. But this average temperature, currently 57 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius), has risen almost 1 degree over the last century. Then in 1995, the hottest year on record, global temperatures went up about half of a degree more. Some scientists predict that temperatures will rise another 2 to 6 degrees over the next century!!

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