Seven Theories of

Climate Change

HUM
4621:
Lecture
07
Climate and Climate Change

Atmosphere – the envelope of gases surrounding the earth or

another planet.

Weather – what is happening right now in the atmosphere. It’s a

combination of Temperature, Humidity, Precipitation, Cloudiness,
Visibility, Wind and Atmospheric pressure.
Or
Weather – is the condition of the outside air or atmosphere at a
particular time and place

Climate – is the statistics of the environment over time. It can

include seasonal cycle, extreme events, year to year variations

Overall weather pattern of precipitation and air temperature in an

specific area over time.

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 Climate and Climate Change

Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of

climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an
extended period (decades or longer).

 Climate change may result from:

 natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity or slow
changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun;
 natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in
ocean circulation);
 human activities that change the atmosphere's composition
(e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g.
deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)

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Climate and Climate Change

Seven Theories of Climate Change

1. Anthropocentric Global Warning Theory

2. Bio-thermostat Theory of Climate Change
3. Cloud Formation and Albedo
4. Human Forcing Besides Greenhouse Gases
5. Ocean Current
6. Planetary Motion
7. Solar Variability
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 Climate and Climate Change

Seven Theories of Climate Change

1. Anthropocentric Global Warning Theory
2. Bio-thermostat Theory of Climate Change
Carbon Sequestration
The more CO2 there is in the air, the better plants grow and the more CO2
they remove from the air and store in their leaves, branches, trunks, and roots, as
well as in the soil beneath the plants – a suite of processes called “sequestration.”
Works for natural balance.
Carbonyl Sulfide
Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is a biologically produced sulfur gas emitted from soils.
Diffuse Light
higher levels of CO2 promote greater plant productivity, plants emit greater
amounts of gases converted into aerosols called “biosols.”

Iodocompounds + Dimethyl Sulfide + Other Aerosols

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Carbon Sequestration

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Climate and Climate Change
3. Cloud Formation and Albedo
The albedo refer to the reflectivity of a surface such as the snow, ice, sand or
the clouds which reflect up to 85 percent of the solar radiation back out into
the space.

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4. Human Forcing Besides Greenhouse Gases
transformation of Earth’s surface by clearing forests, irrigating deserts, and
building cities.
Urban Heat Islands
Cities tend to be warmer than suburbs, and suburbs warmer than rural
areas, because they have greater concentrations of energy-producing
machines and vehicles and large amounts of concrete, asphalt, and other
building and road materials that absorb solar energy and then re-emit thermal
Energy.

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Aerosols and ozone
Anthropogenic aerosols and ozone have shorter lifetimes than greenhouse
gases, and therefore their concentrations are higher in source regions and
downwind.
Deforestation
releases CO2 into the atmosphere and prevents forests from sequestering
carbon in the future. The pasture or crop land that replaces the forest lacks
the shade created by a forest canopy and tends to be warmer.

About 7,900
square kilometers
in 10 Years
Brazilian Amazon

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 Climate and Climate Change

Coastal development
Anthropogenic activities in coastal areas such as logging, agriculture,
construction, mining, drilling, dredging, and tourism all can increase or (more
rarely) decrease surface temperatures of nearby bodies of water.
Jet contrails
jets often leave trails behind them, called contrails (short for “condensation
trails”). Composed of water vapor, they precipitate the creation of low clouds
that have a net warming effect.

5. Ocean Current
When the Thermohaline Circulation (THC) is relatively weak the earth-system
typically has less net evaporation cooling and less deep ocean upwelling of cold
water. At these times, energy accumulates in the ocean’s upper mixed layer and
over a period of a decade or two the global ocean begins to warm.

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Global Ocean Current

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Ocean Current, Atlantic

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 Climate and Climate Change
6. Planetary Motion
planetary motion was first suggested by a Serbian astrophysicist, Milutin
Milankovitch, and published in 1941. Earth’s orbit around the sun takes the form of
an ellipse, not a circle.
The shape or “eccentricity” of Earth’s orbit also varies on cycles of 100,000 and
400,000 years due to the tug of other planets, specifically Jupiter and Saturn, on
Earth. Earth also spins around an axis that tilts lower and then higher during a
41,000-year cycle. More “tilt” roughly means warmer northern hemisphere in
summers and colder winters; less “tilt” means cooler summers and milder winters.

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7. Solar Variability
Active mixing of gases on the near-surface of the Sun,- changes in the number of
sunspots,- causes changes in the radiant energy emitted. Solar flares, which are
bursts of energetic particles and radiation from the surface of the Sun. These events
cause an outflowing of charged particles – called “solar wind” – that reaches Earth
and its atmosphere. Solar wind affects galactic cosmic rays, which in turn affect cloud
formation. Changes in cloud formation are linked to variations in sea surface
temperatures, wind patterns, and the oceans’ thermohaline circulation.

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Welcoming Q & A !!