ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming The following graph shows...

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming The following graph shows the concentration (in parts per million, or ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO₂), the most common greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere for recent years, showing that, at least in the short run, CO₂ levels rise linearly.

This CO₂ concentration is approximated by the function where x is the number of years since 2000. The function is an estimate of the average global temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) if the CO₂ level is x.

a. Enter y₁ and y₂ into your calculator and define y₃ to be the composition so that y₃ gives the average global temperature for any x (years since 2000).

b. Turn “off” functions y₁ and y₂ and graph y₃ on the window [0, 20] by [60, 62]. Use the operation NDERIV or dy/dx to find the slope, giving the predicted temperature rise per year in the short run.

c. Use this slope to find how long it will take global temperatures to rise by 1.8 degrees. (It has been estimated that a 1.8-degree temperature rise could raise sea levels by a foot, inundating coastal areas and disrupting world food supplies.*)