CHAPTER 10: GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC CHANGE

What do we need to know?

A. Weather and Climate
B. What determines Earth's climate
C. Greenhouse gases
D. Potential effects of global warming
E. Examples of strategies to mitigate or adapt to global climate change
F. Importance of the ozone layer

Stratosphere - where ozone layer can be found

Ozone layer - layer in the atmosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet or radiation from
the sun.

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Weather
● short term, not more than week
● conditions in the atmosphere at a given place and time.
● occurs in a short period of time
● includes: temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, cloudiness, humidity and
wind.
● changes every minute, hour, day or even week.

Climate
● long term, 4 season
● long-term average of weather or conditions of atmosphere in a long period of time.
● major factors: temperature & precipitation
● other factors: latitude, elevation, distance from the ocean, geographic location, wind,
humidity, fog, cloud cover, and in some areas: lightning (Texas, Mexico, North and
South pole areas, etc.)
● occurs in several weeks, months or years
What comes to your mind when you hear the word CLIMATE CHANGE?
● unnatural occurrence of weather and climate

Global Climate Change

Climate change
● significant and long-lasting change in the Earth's climate and weather patterns.
● primary responsible: human activities

● Key factors that sustain life:

○ Solar energy, biogeochemical cycles and gravity
○ Human activities such as emissions of heat trapping greenhouse gases from
fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and land-use change, are primarily
responsible for the climate changes observed in the industrial era, especially over
the last six decades
● Causes of Climate change
● Natural causes:
○ Volcanic eruption: ashes or dust, toxic gases (CO2, Sulfur dioxide, salt crystal,
etc.)
 ● Orbital Changes
○ Earth's orbit
○ Milutin Milankovitch: Milankovitch theory.
● Carbon Dioxide theory
○ as the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the atmosphere becomes opaque
over a larger frequency interval; the outgoing radiation is trapped more effectively
near the Earth's surface and the temperature rises

Greenhouse Gases
● greenhouse gases are responsible for greenhouse effect.
● major greenhouse gases: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone,
CFCs and other halocarbons

Greenhouse effect
● no totally bad
● natural process that warms the Earth's surface
● maintains the Earth's temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius
● because of natural occurrences and human activities that contributes to greenhouse
gases that was the time that greenhouse effect will be enhance green house effect.
● causing now an enhance greenhouse effect or commonly known as global warming
● excess heat trapped in the planet earth
Green house effect process ( take note of 5 & 6)
- becomes enhance on 5 & 6

Health Effects or Risks:

● "climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year"
between 2030 and 2050.
● as global temperatures rise, so do the number of fatalities and illnesses from heat stress,
heatstroke, and cardiovascular and kidney disease.
● As air pollution worsens, so does respiratory health
● Extreme weather events, such as severe storms and flooding can lead…
● A warmer, wetter world is also a boon for insect borne diseases such as dengue fever,
West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.

● Loss of Natural Resources and Indirect Treats to life and property

 ● Changes in Natural habitats & food supply
○ RISE OF SEA LEVELS
○ ANIMAL MIGRATION
○ Beneficial effects: prolong growing season lead to different kinds of crops; free
bacteria/ disease/ plant allergies/ pest
● Changing ocean chemistry/ acidification
○ now 30 percent more acidic than they were in preindustrial times.
○ The warmer the Earth (primarily due to carbon pollution), the more acidic ocean.
○ acidification poses a serious threat to underwater life, particularly creatures with
calcified shells or skeletons like oysters, clams, and coral. It can have a
devastating impact on shellfisheries, as well as the fish, birds, and mammals that
depend on shellfish for sustenance.
○ altering the range and population of underwater species; and,
○ contributing to coral bleaching events
So what now?
● Despite of the effects of global climate change, there's nothing to debate, climate
change is a reality.
● The responsibility to reverse this worrying trend lies with us. At least 97 percent of
actively publishing climate scientists endorse the consensus position that humans are
the lead drivers of climate change.
● that's why we do have mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change.
Mitigation
● mitigate or reducing and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.
○ Reducing energy use, for example, driving less
○ Increasing efficiency, for example, by switching to hybrid cars (electronic cars,
solar cars, etc.)
○ Policies such as energy-pricing strategies (carbon taxes) and elimination of
energy subsidies
○ Planting and maintaining forests (tree planting programs and wildlife protection)
○ Carbon management - ways to separate and capture the CO2 produced during
the combustion of fossil fuels and then sequester (store) it. (filtering technology, a
carbon collector)
○ Use of technological innovations that efficiently trap CO2 from smokestacks
○ Increasing efficiency of coal-fired power plants
○ Replacing coal-fired power plants with renewable energy sources
○ Insulating buildings to reduce the need for heating in the winter and cooling in the
summer
○ Improving management of agricultural soils. (less use of pesticides or other
chemicals
Adaptation
● adapting to life in a changing climate-involves adjusting to actual or expected future
climate.
● to protect coastal land from the rising sea level
○ Construction of massive sea walls
○ People living in coastal areas could move inland
○ Rivers and canals could be channeled to prevent salt water intrusion
○ Adapt to shifting agricultural zones
○ other ways: flooded areas can build tall houses and strong foundations readiness
or preparedness during calamities..
● So classmates: are you going to adapt or mitigate? Or do both?

PROTOCOLS
1. Montreal Protocol- Phasing out of ozone depleting gases (hydrofluorocarbons)
2. Kyoto Protocol- Fight global warming and address climate change by reducing
greenhouse gases. Aimed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and presence of
greenhouse gases (GHG).
3. Philippine Environmental Jurisprudence- Locally implemented environmental laws:

Ozone Layer Depletion

● The ozone layer screens out 99% of the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The
fragile shield is created as ozone molecules form and break down in the atmosphere.
Thinning of the ozone layer will substantially increase the amount of UV radiation
received by Earth.
● Ozone depletion does not cause global warming, but both of these environmental
problems have a common cause: human activities that release pollutants into the
atmosphere altering it.
● Ozone depletion occurs when chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons (gases formerly
found in aerosol spray cans and refrigerants) are released into the atmosphere.
● UV radiation can cause health problems, from eye damage to skin cancer.
● 'ozone hole' refers to the depletion of the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere
(stratosphere) over Earth's polar regions.
● In the 1980s, scientists discovered that the ozone layer was thinning in the lower
stratosphere, with particularly dramatic ozone loss-known as the "ozone hole"-in the
Antarctic spring (September and October)
● Montreal Protocol was agreed on in the 1980s- an international commitment to phase
out ozone-depleting chemicals that was universally ratified by all countries that
participate in the UN. However, we can still observe the use of some chemicals over the
past years.
● Tiny sulfate particles (aerosols) blasted into the stratosphere by the volcanic eruption of
Mount Pinatubo in 1991 caused measurable decreases in ozone for several years
following the eruptions.
● Good thing during the year 2011 & 2018 there is reduction and healing of the ozone hole
that means there is a depletion of used of harmful chemicals.
● This 2020, because of the pandemic, accordingly the ozone layer is rapidly healing due
to the lesser pollution and lesser industrial progress or operations.
● Classmates, at the end of the day, we humans are primarily responsible le to
reverse the effect of our problems: climate change and global warming