Definition of Global Warming Word-by-Word

The best concise definition I found on the web of ‘global warming’ describes it to be a noun, with the meaning “An increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, especially a sustained increase sufficient to cause climatic change.” (http://www.answers.com)
First note that the two words “global warming” used together are considered a noun.  This is important because from this info we understand that “global warming” is some ‘thing’.  A ‘something’ that is probably a phenomenon indicating an increased temperature of the earth’s air.  Not of our hometown or region or country but the “globe” or the sphere that is our planet earth.
Next notice the phrase “An increase in the average temperature” and think about what that might mean in general.  When your local weather forecaster says the ‘average temperature of this month’s daily winter temperatures recorded at noon,” we can understand that every daily temperature of the month which was recorded at twelve o’clock noon
(1)  Has been added together and the (2) sum is divided by the number of days in the month.
Let’s take the month of December, having 31 days, 31 recorded temperatures have been added together, and their sum divided by 31 to come up with one number: the average.
The average temperature is not the mean average temperature.  The mean average temperature refers to the temperature taken at noon on December 16^th.  The mean average temperature is important but it is not the data point described in the global warming definition.  The two numbers (average temp and mean average temp) may vary significantly so the difference between the two can be quite important when trying to understand atmospheric temperatures.
When we come to “climatic change” in the definition it is preceded by the word “cause” so we can expect that if there is a cause there is an effect.  Viola!
The phenomena termed global warming is the average of temperatures recorded around the earth (in the atmosphere above both land and sea) which under the right circumstances will cause a shift in climate (climate change).

Gale E. Christianson's book, "Greenhouse  The 200 year story of Global Warming" is a great resource for people trying to understand global warming, historians, students and their professors.

Go Green! Why not fill the earth's atmosphere with greenhouse gasses?

Greenhouse gasses . . .  Let’s start at the beginning with the French savant, Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, who set the mathematical foundation for understanding the movement of heat within bodies and along the boundaries of bodies.  When Fourier started considering how the earth stayed warm enough for plants and animals to thrive on earth he realized the upper atmosphere of the earth acts like a boundary, an invisible dome, so his theory is often referred to as “the bell jar theory.”  Now-a-days we call the phenomena “the greenhouse effect.” http://su.pr/Abeaj2
Fourier asked himself, “Why is the heat generated by the sun’s rays not lost after striking and bouncing off the great oceans and landmasses of the world?”*
He hypothesized what we now know to be the physical action of heat being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.  The sun rays strike the earth; rebound back towards space, but not all travels back into space because the upper atmosphere reabsorbs much of the heat still being generated by the rebounding sun rays.  The reabsorbed energy bounces back towards the earth bathing plants and animals once again with heat.
With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution black, billowing clouds from burning coal and smelting iron darkened skies.  At first the industrialists tried to alleviate the air pollution by building higher smokestacks.  But the ‘upper dome’ described by Fourier’s hypothesis in fact is much too high to alleviate the traveling of heat back into earth’s atmosphere.
Unpredicted by anyone at the start of the Industrial Revolution was the continuing pouring of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere until the mass of manmade greenhouse gases would reach a concentration that would alter micro climates and cause climate disruptions randomly on earth’s surface because they are trapped under the outer atmospheric boundary.
The greenhouse gases include chemicals we have all smelled as air pollution:  Carbon Dioxide, CO2 (ex. from burning carbon based fuel in motor vehicles, furnaces, factories) and Methane, CH4 (ex. from the gas emitted by animals as flatulence). Others greenhouse chemicals include Fluorocarbons, CFCs (air conditioners/ refrigerator coolants) and Nitrous oxide NO (laughing gas and fertilizers).   If you would like more detail go to http://su.pr/5i9ui2 at the University of Michigan website.

HOW DO WE KNOW CO2 INCREASED WITH THE START OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?  FROM THE ADVENTURES OF DEDICATED EXPLORERS AND RESEARCHERS WHO HAVE BROUGHT US ICE CORES TO STUDY.

For more graphs, photos, links and discussions visit Big Think and add your Big Ideas!

http://bigthink.com/vickinikolaidis/greenhouses-are-good-for-plants-so-why-worry