GSTS Climate Change notes

From https://climate.nasa.gov/

NASA is a world leader in climate studies and Earth science. While its role is not to set
climate policy or prescribe responses or solutions to climate change, its responsibility does
include providing the robust scientific data needed to understand climate change. NASA then
makes this information available to the global community – the public, policy- and decision-
makers and scientific and planning agencies around the world.

Climate Change and Global Warming

• Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit
that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

• The current warming trend is of significance because most of it is extremely likely

(greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-
20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.

• Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see
the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its
climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the
signals of a changing climate.

EVIDENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

1. GLOBAL TEMPERATURE RISE- the planets average surface temperature has

risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, a change driven largely
by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emission into the atmosphere.

2. WARMING OCEANS- The oceans have absorbed much of the increased heat, with
the top 70 meters(about 3,200 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees
Farenheit since 1969.
3. SHRINKING ICE SHEETS- The Greenland and Arctic ice sheets have descreased
the mass. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show
Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016,
while Antartica lost about 127 billion tons of ice per year during the same time period.
The rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade

4. GLACIAL RETREAT- Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world,
including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

5. DECREASED SNOW COVER- Satelite observations reveal that the amount of

spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades
and that the snow is melting earlier.

6. SEA LEVEL RISE- Global Sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate
in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is
accelerating slightly every year. Over long geological timescales, changes in the shape
of the ocean basins and in land/sea distribution affect sea level. During the past few
million years' ice age cycles, sea level has varied by more than a hundred meters.
Melting sea ice cannot raise global sea level since the ice is already floating. (Think of
an ice cube melting in a glass full of water.) However, Arctic Sea ice is thinning, and
the long-term summer average has decreased by 34 percent since 1979. Ice from
glaciers and ice sheets, which form on land, does add water to Earth's ocean when it
melts and does contribute to sea level rise.

7. DECLINIG ARCTIC SEA ICE- Both the extent and thickness of Arctic Sea ice has
declined rapidly over the last several decades.

8. EXTREME EVENTS- The number of record high temperature events in the United
States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been
decreasing, since 1950.

Earth’s water is stored in ice and snow, lakes and rivers, the atmosphere and the oceans.
One of the five fundamental processes in the water cycle, evaporation involves the
conversion of water from a liquid to a gas (or "vapor"). The main cause of evaporation
 is heat from the sun warming the Earth's surface. The water cycle is a never-ending
process of water being circulated around the planet from clouds to land, to the ocean,
and back to the clouds.

How much of Earth's surface is covered by water? Earth is often referred to as

the "Water Planet" because you can see water in all three forms as you gaze at Earth
from space. As we search for life elsewhere in the cosmos, we look for places that have
liquid water, as it seems to be the primary requirement for life as we know it. About 70
percent of Earth is covered by water, and most of that water (97 percent) is found in
our vast oceans.

9. OCEAN ACIDIFICATION- since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the

acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the
result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more
being absorbed into the oceans.

The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is
increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.

CAUSE AND EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

CAUSE EFFECT

The brightness of the sun continues to Human societies have changed adaptively in
increase as the star ages, and it passes on an response to climate variations, although
increasing amount of this energy to Earth’s evidence abounds those certain societies and
atmosphere over time. civilizations have collapsed in the face of
rapid and severe climatic change.

Fossil-fuel combustion, deforestation, rice The complex feedbacks between climate

cultivation, livestock ranching, industrial components can produced “tipping points”
production, and other human activities have in the climate system, where small, gradual
increased since the development of
 agriculture and especially since the start of changes in one component of the system can
the Industrial Revolution lead to abrupt climate change.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as The history of life has been strongly
carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor, influenced by changes in climate, some of
absorb infrared radiation emitted from the which radically altered the course of
Earth’s surface and reradiate it back, thus evolution.
contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Ice sheets, sea ice, terrestrial vegetation, The most familiar and predictable
ocean temperatures, weathering rates, ocean phenomena ate the seasonal cycles, to which
circulation, and GHG concentrations are people adjust their clothing, outdoor
influenced either directly by the atmosphere activities, thermostats and agricultural
practices.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth`s average surface temperature
over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil
fuels.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATING CLIMATE CHANGE

• Temperatures are rising world-wide due to greenhouse gases trapping more heat in
the atmosphere.

• Droughts are becoming longer and more extreme around the world.

• Tropical storms becoming more severe due to warmer ocean water temperatures.

• As temperatures rise there is less snowpack in mountain ranges and polar areas and
the snow melts faster.

• Overall, glaciers are melting at a faster rate.

• Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole is melting faster with the
warmer temperatures.
 • Permafrost is melting, releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into
the atmosphere.

• Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal communities and estuarine ecosystems.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the
observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean
have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.”13

“Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions
of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread
impacts on human and natural systems

• Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include water vapor, methane, and
nitrous oxide
• Water vapor. The most abundant greenhouse gas, but importantly, it acts as feedback
to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms, but so does the
possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important
feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect.
• Carbon dioxide (CO2). A minor but very important component of the atmosphere,
carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano
eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and
burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more
than a third since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived
"forcing" of climate change.
• Methane. A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human
activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially
rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with
domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but also one which is much less abundant in the
atmosphere.
• Nitrous oxide. A powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices,
especially the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric
acid production, and biomass burning.
 • Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in
a number of applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the
atmosphere by international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of
the ozone layer. They are also greenhouse gases.
• On Earth, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse. Over the last century
the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This happens because the coal or oil burning
process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2. To a lesser extent, the
clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased
concentrations of greenhouse gases.
• The consequences of changing the natural atmospheric greenhouse are difficult to
predict, but certain effects seem likely:
• On average, Earth will become warmer. Some regions may welcome warmer
temperatures, but others may not.
• Warmer conditions will probably lead to more evaporation and precipitation overall,
but individual regions will vary, some becoming wetter and others dryer.
• A stronger greenhouse effect will warm the oceans and partially melt glaciers and other
ice, increasing sea level. Ocean water also will expand if it warms, contributing further
to sea level rise.
• Meanwhile, some crops and other plants may respond favorably to increased
atmospheric CO2, growing more vigorously and using water more efficiently. At the
same time, higher temperatures and shifting climate patterns may change the areas
where crops grow best and affect the makeup of natural plant communities.

Responding to climate change involves a two-pronged approach:

1. Reducing emissions of and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in

the atmosphere (“mitigation”);
2. Adapting to the climate change already in the pipeline (“adaptation”).

• Mitigation – reducing climate change – involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping

greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of greenhouse
gases for example, the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or transport or
 enhancing the sinks that accumulate and store these gases (such as the oceans, forests
and soil). The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with the
climate system, and “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow
ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not
threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner”
(from the 2014 report on Mitigation of Climate Change from the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, page 4).

• Adaptation – adapting to life in a changing climate – involves adjusting to actual or

expected future climate. The goal is to reduce our vulnerability to the harmful effects
of climate change (like sea-level encroachment, more intense extreme weather events
or food insecurity). It also encompasses making the most of any potential beneficial
opportunities associated with climate change (for example, longer growing seasons or
increased yields in some regions).