Edgardo Y.

Ursal STS
2nd yr. BSE-English Climate Change

Definition

Climate change refers to significant, long-term changes in the global climate.The global climate
is the connected system of sun, earth and oceans, wind, rain and snow, forests, deserts and
savannas, and everything people do, too.

A. Causes of Climate Change

● Natural

a. Strength of the Sun

Almost all of the energy that affects the climate on Earth originates from the Sun. The
Sun’s energy passes through space until it hits the Earth’s atmosphere. Not all of this energy
passes through to reach the Earth’s surface. The rest of the energy is reflected back into space
or absorbed by the atmosphere. The energy output of the Sun is not constant, it varies over time
and this has an impact on our climate. Only some of the solar energy intercepted at the top of
the atmosphere passes through to the Earth’s surface.

b. Quantity of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere

Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and water vapour. Water
vapour is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, but it stays in the atmosphere
for a much shorter period of time, just a few days. Methane stays in the atmosphere for about 9
years until it is removed by oxidation into CO2 and water. Carbon dioxide stays in the
atmosphere much longer, from years to centuries, contributing to longer periods of warming.
These gases trap solar radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere, making the climate warmer.

c. Ocean Currents and Carbon Dioxide Content

Changes in ocean currents

Ocean currents carry heat around the Earth. As the oceans absorb more heat from the
atmosphere, sea surface temperature increases and the ocean circulation patterns that
transport warm and cold water around the globe change. The direction of these currents can
shift so that different areas become warmer or cooler. As oceans store a large amount of heat,
even small changes in ocean currents can have a large effect on global climate. In particular,
increases in sea surface temperature can increase the amount of atmospheric water vapour
over the oceans, increasing the quantity of greenhouse gas. If the oceans are warmer they can’t
absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide content of the oceans
The oceans contain more CO2 in total than the atmosphere and exchanges in
CO2 occur between the oceans and the atmosphere. CO2 absorbed in ocean water does not
trap heat as it does in the atmosphere. The world’s oceans absorb about a quarter of the
CO2 we release into the atmosphere every year. As atmospheric CO2 levels increase so do the
ocean’s CO2 levels.

d. Plate Tectonics and Volcanic eruptions

Over very long periods, plate tectonic processes cause continents to move to different
positions on the Earth. For example, Britain was near to the equator during the Carboniferous
period, around 300 million years ago, and the climate was warmer than it is today. The
movement of the plates also causes volcanoes and mountains to form and these too can
contribute to a change in climate. Large mountain chains can influence the circulation of air
around the globe, and consequently influence the climate. For example, warm air may be
deflected to cooler regions by mountains.

Volcanoes affect the climate through the gases and particles (tephra/ash) thrown into the
atmosphere during eruptions. The effect of the volcanic gases and dust may warm or cool the
Earth’s surface, depending on how sunlight interacts with the volcanic material. During major
explosive volcanic eruptions, large amounts of volcanic gas, aerosol droplets and ash are
released. Ash falls rapidly, over periods of days and weeks, and has little long-term impact on
climate change. However, volcanic gases that are ejected into the stratosphere stay there for
much longer periods. Volcanic gases such as sulphur dioxide can cause global cooling, but
carbon dioxide has the potential to cause global warming.

e. Changes in Land Cover

On a global scale, patterns of vegetation and climate are closely correlated. Vegetation
absorbs CO2 and this can buffer some of the effects of global warming. On the other hand,
desertification amplifies global warming through the release of CO2 linked with the decrease in
vegetation cover. This decrease in vegetation cover, via deforestation for example, tends to
increase local albedo, leading to surface cooling. Albedo refers to how much light a surface
reflects rather than absorbs.

Generally, dark surfaces have a low albedo and light surfaces have a high albedo. Ice
with snow has a high albedo and reflects around 90 per cent of incoming solar radiation. Land
covered with dark-coloured vegetation is likely to have a low albedo and will absorb most of the
radiation.

f. Meteorite Impacts
 Nowadays, most of what is on the Earth stays on the Earth; very little material is added
by meteorites and cosmic dust. However, meteorite impacts have contributed to climate change
in the geological past; a good example is the Chicxulub crater, Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

Large impacts, such as Chicxulub, can cause a range of effects that include dust and
aerosols being ejected high into the atmosphere that prevent sunlight from reaching the Earth.
These materials insulate the Earth from solar radiation and cause global temperatures to fall;
the effects can last for a few years. After the dust and aerosols fall back to Earth, the
greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water and methane), caused by the interaction of the
impactor and its ‘target rocks’, remain in the atmosphere and can cause global temperatures to
increase; the effects can last decades.

● Variations in Earth’s Orbit

The three changes in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun —eccentricity, axial tilt, and
precession — are collectively called Milankovitch cycles. According to Milankovitch’s theory,
these three cycles combine to affect the amount of solar heat that reaches the Earth’s surface
and subsequently influences climatic patterns, including periods of glaciation (ice ages). The
period between these changes happen over 10s of 1000s of years (precession and axial tilt) to
more than 100s of 1000s of years (eccentricity).

a. The Earth’s orbit

The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is an ellipse, but it does change shape. Sometimes, it
is almost circular and the Earth stays approximately the same distance from the Sun throughout
its orbit. At other times, the ellipse is more pronounced so that the Earth moves closer and
further away from the Sun as it orbits. When the Earth is closer to the Sun our climate is warmer
and this cycle also affects the length of the seasons. The measure of a shape’s deviation from
being a circle, in this case the Earth’s orbit, is called its eccentricity

b. The Earth’s axial tilt

The tilt in the axis of the Earth is called its obliquity. This angle changes with time, and
over about 41 000 years it moves from 22.1 degrees to 24.5 degrees and back again. When the
angle increases the summers become warmer and the winters become colder.

c. The Earth’s precession

The Earth wobbles on its axis, much like a spinning top that is slowing down. This
‘precession’ action is caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun upon the Earth.
This means that the North Pole changes where it points to in the sky. Currently the Earth’s axis
points at Polaris, the North Star, but over thousands of years the axis moves around in a
precession circle and points at different parts of the sky. It impacts on the seasonal contrasts
between hemispheres and the timing of the seasons.
 ● Human Activities

Main Causes

a. Humanity’s increased use of fossil fuels – such as coal, oil and gas to generate
electricity, run cars and other forms of transport, and power manufacturing and industry

b. Deforestation – because living trees absorb and store carbon dioxide.

c. Increasingly intensive agriculture – which emits greenhouse gases like methane and
nitrous oxide

B. The Carbon Dioxide Theory

Only the so-called carbon dioxide theory takes account of the possibility that human
activities may have some effect on climate. This theory suggests that in the present century
man is unwittingly raising the temperature of the earth by his industrial and agricultural activities.

Even the carbon dioxide theory is not new; the basic idea was first precisely stated in
1861 by the noted British physicist John Tyndall. He attributed climatic temperature-changes to
variations in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the theory, carbon
dioxide controls temperature because the carbon dioxide molecules in the air absorb infrared
radiation. The carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere are virtually transparent to the
visible radiation that delivers the sun's energy to the earth. But the earth in turn reradiates much
of the energy in the invisible infrared region of the spectrum. This radiation is most intense at
wavelengths very close to the principal absorption band (13 to 17 microns) of the carbon dioxide
spectrum. When the carbon dioxide concentration is sufficiently high, even its weaker
absorption bands become effective, and a greater amount of infrared radiation is absorbed.

Because the carbon dioxide blanket prevents its escape into space, the trapped
radiation warms up the atmosphere.

C. Effects of Climate Change in the Society

Among the most important climate change impacts are:

● Rising Sea Levels

Climate change impacts rising sea levels. Average sea level around the world rose
about 8 inches (20 cm) in the past 100 years; climate scientists expect it to rise more and more
rapidly in the next 100 years as part of climate change impacts.

Coastal cities such as New York are already seeing an increased number of flooding
events and by 2050 many such cities may require seawalls to survive.
 Projections suggest climate change impacts within the next 100 years, if not sooner, the
world’s glaciers will have disappeared, as will the Polar ice cap, and the huge Antarctic ice shelf,
Greenland may be green again, and snow will have become a rare phenomenon at what are
now the world’s most popular ski resorts.

● Torrential Downpours and More Powerful Storms

While the specific conditions that produce rainfall will not change, climate change
impacts the amount of water in the atmosphere and will increase producing violent downpours
instead of steady showers when it does rain.

Hurricanes and typhoons will increase in power, and flooding will become more
common.

● Heatwaves and Droughts

Despite downpours in some places, droughts and prolonged heatwaves will become
common. Increasingly, however, hot, dry places will get hotter and drier, and places that were
once temperate and had regular rainfall will become much hotter and much drier. The string of
record high temperature years and the record number of global droughts of the past decade will

● Changing Ecosystems

As the world warms, entire ecosystems will move. Already rising temperatures at the
equator have pushed such staple crops as rice north into once cooler areas, many fish species
have migrated long distances to stay in waters that are the proper temperature for them.

In once colder waters, this may increase fishermen’s catches; in warmer waters, it may
eliminate fishing; in many places, such as on the East Coast of the US, it will require fishermen
to go further to reach fishing grounds.

Farmers in temperate zones are finding drier conditions difficult for crops such as corn
and wheat, and once prime growing zones are now threatened.

In California and on the East Coast, for example, climate change impacts and warming
will soon fundamentally change the forests; in Europe, hundreds of plants species will disappear
and hundreds more will move thousands of miles.

● Reduced Food Security

One of the most striking impacts of rising temperatures is felt in global agriculture,
although these impacts are felt very differently in the largely temperate developed world and in
the more tropical developing world.
 Different crops grow best at quite specific temperatures and when those temperatures
change, their productivity changes significantly.

In North America, for example, rising temperatures may reduce corn and wheat
productivity in the US mid-west, but expand production and productivity north of the border in
Canada.

At the same time, global population models suggest that developing world will add 3
billion people by 2050 and that developing world food producers must double staple food crop
production by then simply to maintain current levels of food consumption.

● Pests and Disease

Rising temperatures favor agricultural pests, diseases and disease vectors. Pest
populations are on the rise and illnesses once found only in limited, tropical areas are now
becoming endemic in much wider zones.

In Southeast Asia, for example, where malaria had been reduced to a wet season only
disease in most areas, it is again endemic almost everywhere year around.

Likewise, dengue fever, once largely confined to tropical areas, has become endemic to
the entire region.

Increased temperatures also increase the reproduction rates of microbes and insects,
speeding up the rate at which they develop resistance to control measures and drugs (a
problem already observed with malaria in Southeast Asia).

References:

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/climate-change/what-causes-the-earths-climate-to-
change/#:~:text=These%20have%20been%20caused%20by,thousands%20or%20millions
%20of%20years.

https://www.wwf.org.nz/what_we_do/climateaction/causes_of_climate_change/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-dioxide-and-climate/

https://warmheartworldwide.org/climate-change/