Science, Technology and Society

FINALS TOPICS
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE
Not similar to weather which is constantly changing.
Refers to the long-term weather patterns prevailing over a given are of
the planet.
Comes from the Greek word klinein meaning “to slope”
Evolved into klima, connoting a zone or region of the Earth characterized
by its atmospheric conditions.
The elements in this interaction between the sun and the Earth are defined
as follows:
1. APHELION refers to the point in the orbit of the Earth farthest from the

sun.
2. PERIHELION is he point in the orbit of the Earth closest to the sun.

3. EARTH’S AXIAL TILT is the inclination angle of the Earth’s rotational axis

in relation to a line perpendicular to its orbital plane.

4. PRECESSION is the change of the orientation of the rotational axis

of the Earth.
5. EQUINOX refers to the time the sun at noon is directly over the

equator.
6. SOLSTICE happens when the sun at noon sits above the Tropic of

Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn.

7. PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES refers to the motion of the

equinoxes relative to the precession of the Earth’s axis of rotation.

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PRECESSION
OF THE
EQUINOXES

The center of the Earth’s orbital

motion is the sun but the angle
or orientation of the planet
around the sun makes all the
difference.
 MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS
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There is a growing body of data suggesting that the climate, not

just the local day-to-day weather, is changing all over the world. In
fact since the end of the 2oth century, many scientist have asked if
the Earth is headed for another Ice Age.
This concern raises the question as to what causes such
dramatic changes in the day-to-day weather and climate. It was
addressed as early as the 1930s by Slovak scientist and
meteorologist Milutin Milankovitch.
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HIS CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIST CRITIQUED HIS WORK, SAYING

THAT THE EFFECTS OF THE CHANGE IN THE RADIUS OF THE
EARTH’S ORBIT, THE CHANGE IN THE TILT OF THE SPIN OF THE
EARTH AND THE WOBBLE IN THE SPIN AXIS ( NOW CALLED THE
MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS) WHILE REAL, WERE EACH SO
SMALL THAT THEY COULD NOT ALTER THE SMALL AMOUNT
SUNLIGHT REACHING THE EARTH ENOUGH TO CAUSE A
PHENOMENON LIKE THE ICE AGE.
CONTINUATION

Over thousand
of years, the relative position of the earth
and sun changes, causing variations in the CHAOS THEORY "new
solar radiation reaching earth science" changing the
Milankovitch parameters
over long periods of
time can have a
cumulative effect
Sun-Earth relationship cause climate to
change over thousands and even millions
of years.

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● MILANKOVITCH STUDIED
WHETHER THE DIRECT
SUNLIGHT WAS THE CAUSE
OF ICE AGE.
● MILANKOVITCH THEORY
WAS RELEVANT TO THE
QUESTION OF LONG-TERM
CLIMATE CHANGE

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 GLOBAL WARMING 10

● Milankovitch parameters-part of the cause of climate

change (not the only cause)
● Average temperature of Earth's atmosphere
increased by 90% in 20th century
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TWO OPPOSING ARGUMENTS

WHETHER OR NOT GLOBAL
WARMING IS "NATURAL"
1.Nature is simply acting according to its laws with no reference to human
beings and their actions, is the main reason. Whereas global warming will
happen as naturally as the sun rises and sets.
2.Global warming is caused or greatly abutted by the actions of human beings.
It blames the actions of humanity, past and present.
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● IT SHOWS THAT THE LEVELS COULD REACH AN IRREVERSIBLE SITUATION IN

WHICH THE HEAT AND THE TEMPERATURE OF THE PLANET WILL BE UNSTABLE
AND UNPREDICTABLE.
● CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)-INDICATOR OF GLOBAL WARMING, THE ONLY
GREENHOUSE GAS TO BE CONCERNED WITH.
GREENHOUSE GASES (JOHN TYNDALL)
Greenhouse effect- refers to how certain gases
in the atmosphere trap the heat of the sun.

the atmosphere contains certain gases that

naturally capture the heat from the sun and
hold it in so the temperature of the earth's
atmosphere becomes hotter than it would be
otherwise.

Industrialization- the conversion of an agrarian

economy into an industrialized one on a large
scale. It affected the amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere which is bad
>production of electricity by means of burning
fossil fuel—usually coal—increases

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Charles David
Keeling- American
scientist in mid 20th
century, studied if
the increased
burning of fossil fuel
and the consequent
release of CO2 in the
atmosphere were
changing the global
temperature of the
atmosphere

KEELING CURVE- It shows that the carbon dioxide concentration

has gone up and the temperature has also risen. These findings are
the solid proof of global warming by the concerns of Tyndall and
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Keeling.
FUTURE ACTIONS
(What will happen to the climate of the world in the future)

The challenge is to assemble sufficient and well-established

data from all over the world to make the predictions as accurate
as possible.
Tipping points-
specifying values of meteorological parameters in which
irreversible changes will take place.

In Chaos theory, it means that the earth-atmosphere relationship

would become a chaotic region where uncertainty would exist.