About

Climate Change
Climate change is definitely a
controversial issue as many people
have different views on why it is
happening. However, despite that, it
is a critical issue that needs to be
addressed and handled immediately.
The term 'Climate Change' refers to
the changes in the worlds averaged
global temperature. Though this
fluctuates naturally, the shifts are
becoming more prolonged and
severe.

A brief overview
of the causes: Graph depicting the global

"Climate change is
temperature rise and fall

Enhanced
greenhouse effect
still arguably, the Industrialisation
most critical and Modernisation
Population
controversial issue
increase
facing the world in
the twenty-first
century.
Extract from Climate Change: A Very Short
Introduction by Mark Maslin, Professor of
Climatology, University College London.
 WHAT IS THE
Greenhouse and
The Enhanced
Causes Greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect is essentially a
'blanket' made up of greenhouse gases -
Though climate change is caused such as carbon dioxide, methane and
as a result of numerous factors, nitrous oxide - in the atmosphere that
there are two main ones. These two traps and sustains the heat on the earth.
aspects both contribute to 'The This is a naturally occurring thing, and
The second main cause of the enhanced
Enhanced Greenhouse Effect'. without it, we would all perish from the
greenhouse effect is population increase.
cold.
The global population is increasing
The first cause of the enhanced On the other hand, the ENHANCED
rapidly, leaving not enough room for
greenhouse effect is Greenhouse effect is what we should be
everyone to live and increasing the
industrialisation and modernisation. worried about. Gases such as
statistic for homeless people at an
Industrialisation is the period of chlorofluorocarbons and
alarming rate. To tackle this problem,
time which the economy undergo hydrofluorocarbons are man-made and
people have resorted to deforestation to
major changes to become a more being released into the atmosphere.
accumulate more space to build houses
modern and efficient society. This Human activity is increasing the natural
for vagabonds. However, deforestation
usually consists of factories for levels of the greenhouse gases, making
has a major impact on climate change as
manufacture purposes being made, the 'blanket' thicker. This leads to longer
a whole. Firstly, deforestation leads to
social classes and status hotter and drier spells around the world.
less biodiversity on our planet which is
increasing and instead of relying Unfortunately, the human changes to the
what we need. Secondly, forests are
on agriculture for money and planet are upsetting the natural carbon
carbon sinks. They absorb the carbon
business they focus on getting their cycle of the planet.
dioxide in the atmosphere and release
income from manufacture and
oxygen which we use. Getting rid of
trading etc. Undergoing
carbon sinks is a significant mistake we
industrialisation is a major change
have made as we will soon quickly learn
for a region and can result in a lot
in the foreseeable future.
of energy needed. Therefore,
energy productions skyrocket,
Making new houses in deforested land
leaving more carbon footprints
means new resources need to made and
which contribute to the enhanced
used. As mentioned previously, this
greenhouse effect.
leaves carbon footprints, and without
carbon sinks taking in carbon dioxide, this
makes the 'blanket' of greenhouse gases
even thicker.
Natural causes of
climate change
Now that we have looked at some
man-made causes of climate change,
we can look at some natural causes of
climate change. There are two main
emissions which are large factors to
climate change. These are volcanic
activity and solar radiation.

Volcanic activity: during an

explosion, carbon dioxide is emitted
into the atmosphere. Without
carbon sinks to absorb all the excess
carbon, it adds to the enhanced
greenhouse effect and stays in the
earths atmosphere.

Solar radiation: As there can be

fluctuations in the earths temperature
naturally, there can also be
fluctuations in solar radiation. If there
is a higher radiation emitted from the
sun, the earths temperature will also
increase due to the greenhouse effect.
Asia:
In many ways, Asia may be the most
prone continent to the risks of
climate change. With many coastal
cities exposed to flood and typhoon
risks, dramatic - and even dangerous
in some parts - increases in heat and
humidity expected across the region,
with extreme precipitation forecast
in some areas but drought
anticipated in others, Asian societies
and economies will be increasingly
vulnerable to climate risk without
adaptation and mitigation.

As mentioned previously,
industrialisation and modernisation
Area's most at risk: By 2050, parts of Asia may see increasing
are one of the main factors affecting average temperatures, lethal heat waves,
The Bay of Bengal extreme and sporadic rainfall events,
climate change. Many Asian
Eastern India severe hurricanes, drought, and changes in
countries are currently going
Bangladesh water supply. All of these combined
through urbanisation, which
increases the amount of greenhouse Myanmar impacts makes it increasing difficult for
gases in the atmosphere. Without Yemen Asia to tackle this before it's too late.
the Asian countries being able to Japan
advance, the economies and The Philippines
societies could crash, resulting in (In short mostly South
mass death. Asia)
 Africa:
Africa is definitely second most
vulnerable to the effects of climate
change. Increasing temperatures
and sea levels, changing
precipitation patterns and more
extreme weather are threatening
human health and safety, food and
water security and social and
economic development in Africa.

Again, Africa is a developing country

which means that urbanisation will
soon take place, if it already hasn't in
some areas. This will increase carbon
dioxide emissions and adding to the Area's most at Additionally, Central Africa has the
enhanced greenhouse effect.
risk: equator running through it which
Somalia means that Central Africa already had
Due to its high climate variability
Chad a high climate, getting hotter by
and rain-fed agriculture, Central
Democratic Republic of Congo climate change (in the hotter months -
Africa is expected to experience
South Sudan there will be irregular bursts of rainfall
longer and more frequent
Nigeria throughout the year).
heatwaves as well as an increase in
wet extremes. The global mean Centeral African Republic
temperature in this region is to Central Africa
increase by 1.5 °C to 2 °C.
Europe:
Europe has been warming at a faster
rate than the global average. While
all Europeans are affected by climate
change, some regions are more
vulnerable. Extreme weather events
like storms, heatwaves and flooding
accounted for 85,000 to 145,000
human fatalities across Europe, over
the past 40 years. Over 85% of those
fatalities were due to heatwaves.
These are some tell-tale signs of
climate change approaching rapidly
on us.

Weather pattern changes can lead

to adverse impacts on ecosystems,
economic sectors, human health Area's most at risk:
and well-being and agriculture.
Milan
However, a positive to climate
Venice
change inEurope is that the hotter
United Kingdom
weather means we can grow more
Ireland
diversity of crops without artificial
housing. On the flip side, the scarcity Finland
of water will make crop growing Norway
harder and long dry spells will make Greenland
crop growing almost impossible.
Australia:
Australia is experiencing higher
temperatures, more extreme
droughts, fire seasons, floods and
more extreme weather due to
climate change. Rising sea levels add
to the intensity of high-sea-level
events and threaten housing and
infrastructure.

Again, as mentioned in other

countries, agriculture will be
affected. As Australia are mass
exporters of food to their
neighbouring countries, this could
massively affect not only people in
Australia, but people in other
countries too such as China, Japan Area's most at risk:
and Korea.
Low lying coastal cities such as Sydney,
The increased droughts will lead to a Victoria Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne will all
shortage of water and therefore a New South Wales be at severe risk as the sea levels
shortage of crops. General shortages rapidly rise. These cities will be
Queensland
of water will also lead to lack of engulfed by the sea and should be
Sydney evacuated.
hygiene in communities and
dehydration which could kill off a lot Melbourne
of the population. Serious Low lying coastal
consequences could happen if cities
Australia doesn't adapt soon.
Antarctica:
Antarctica plays a crucial role in the
rising sea-levels. Unlike the Arctic
Circle, Antarctica has ice caps on
land, not in the sea like the Arctic. As
the ice caps melt in the Arctic, they
replace the water they took to create
the ice caps and glaciers. However,
02
in Antarctica, the melting ice caps
and glaciers DO NOT replace the
water as the ice was formed on land.
Subsequently, the ice adds to the
sea and increases the natural sea
levels of the oceans around the
world. This is then a knock-on effect Over the past 50 years, the west coast of
on so many other countries as the the Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the
rising sea-levels consume the low- most rapidly warming parts of the planet.
lying coastal cities (especially if it's This warming is not only restricted to the
reclaimed land from the sea). land but can also be noted in the Southern
Ocean. Upper ocean temperatures to the
Antarctica has experienced air west of the Antarctic Peninsula have
temperature increases of 3°C. increased over 1°C since 1955. Increase in
Although it may not seemlike much, ocean temperatures is another reduction of
it is 5 times the mean rate of global
a carbon sink. Cold water absorbs more
warming as reported by the
carbon than warm water, therefore colder
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
oceans absorb more carbon.
Change.
 General
Impacts
Now that we have looked at 5
location specific impacts, we
should look at more general
impacts.
These include: impacts on
agriculture, ecosystem disruption,
biodiversity loss, weather patterns
changing, trade and food supply
being affected and much more.
With unpredictable and constantly
changing weather patterns with
longer drier spells and droughts
agriculture may not be able to grow
properly and that would affect
trade and food supplies in all
countries.
With areas having extremes of hot
and cold animals and their
ecosystems will not be adapted to
the sudden weather changes. This
could result in extinction of species
and ecosystem disruption.
As mentioned previously, the
melting ice caps and glaciers in
the Antarctic add to the sea
levels which raises the overall
sea levels. This then leads to
mass erosion of coastlines,
coastal flooding which leads to
A positive of climate change inland flooding and biodiversity
is that we would have new being lost in areas where the sea
areas to grow crops. This is is going to claim land.
called a 'tundra'. For
example, Russia would thaw
out and we would have more
land.
Area's will get wetter, warmer, colder,
windier and drier. Having wetter weather
would cause more floods, hurricanes,
tornadoes etc. An example of an area
that will get wetter is South America
which is expected to have over 2mm of
rain per day. Similarly, areas are getting
warmer and drier too. Dry and hot
weather can lead to droughts and long
dry spells which lead to a number of
otehr impacts such as food shortages,
lack of water etc. An example of an area
that will get hotter and drier is North and
South Africa. These regions are expected
to get 5-10°C warmer.
What can we do?
There are many things that we can do
to mitigate and adapt for the effects of
climate change.

1. Afforestation
Afforestation is the planting of trees.
Planting trees means carbon sinks
would be restored - as we are
removing them to create more space -
and would increase the biodiversity
that would be lost by all the impacts
that were mentioned previously.
Planting trees will also bring the areas
temperature lower, due to the trees
providing shade. This would stabilise
the temperature and create a more
regular temperature for crops to grow
in.

2. Using alternative RENEWABLE

energy
Using alternative renewable energy
has many benefits. There are no waste
products of using renewable energy
and it doesn't cost anything to use
(after installed of course). Examples of
renewable energy are solar energy,
wind energy, geothermal energy and
hydropower. By not using fossil fules
we are allowing some carbon sinks to
stay as fossil fules are carbon sinks.
This could be the major thing that
helps us in the long term.
3. Recycling and reusing
Recycling and reusing materials such as
plastic is a great way to reduce the carbon
dioxide emissions. Recycling and reusing old
materials which don't break down
immediately, such as plastic and rubber,
firstly doesn't let the material go to waste as
it gets more than one life. It also means we
don't have to dig up new materials such as
oil to create new items which can be made
from recycled objects. This again allows
carbon sinks to do their job and absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

4. Decreasing food miles

If we stop getting food imported from
countries that are far away such as
Australia it would decrease the
amount of carbon being released into
the atmosphere and therefore
reducing the massive carbon footprint
left by importing food. However, some
people may be reluctant to do so as
this would be their main source of food
income OR it may be a countries main
source of income and their prominent
business.
 5. Raising Awareness
It is essential that we raise awareness
to countries that are going through
urbanisation and modernisation. We
should educate them on how to
industrialise in a more cleaner and
greener way. As many countries are
currently industrialising, the carbon
emissions are skyrocketing and
without carbon sinks to absorb the
carbon there is an increase of
greenhouse gases which contributes
to climate change.
Some countries may be reluctant to
change the way they industrialise
In my opinion, I believe it is too late to
because new ways of
mitigate the effects of climate change as the
industrialisation may not work
consequences of climate change are
immediately. People would want to
approaching us much faster than we
go with the tried methods that have
anticipated. The best thing we can do now is been proven to work - i.e kickstarting
adapt and evolve for the forthcoming years, business by making factories etc.
embracing the idea of climate change being They may not be open to the idea of
an inevitable event that nothing can stop being 'test subjects' for new
now. WE NEED TO STOP DENYING THE methods of greener modernisation.
FACTS AND ACT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO Societies must also keep their
LATE. budget in mind and greener
industrialisation may be more costly,
so they may use older methods that
are less costly.