Climate Change

Is climate change really

happening? What the public thinks

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Perception of Climate Change

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PO S ITIVE PR O O F
So what exactly is climate
change?
What is the difference between…
climate vs. weather
 “Climate is what we
expect,
weather is what we get.”

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

(a.k.a. Mark Twain, 1835-
1910)
 Technically…

Weather Climate
the fluctuating state of the the average weather and
atmosphere around us, its variability over a
characterized by certain time-span (usually
temperature, wind, at least 30 years) and a
precipitation, clouds and specified area.
other weather elements, over
a period of hours or days.
Weather
=
Climate =
30 yrs
(at least)
 So, what is climate
change?
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)

• Any significant change in • A change of climate which

measures of climate (such
as temperature or
precipitation) lasting for
an extended period of
time (typically decades)
is attributed directly or
indirectly to human activity
that alters the composition
of the global atmosphere
and that is in addition to
natural climate variability
observed over comparable
time periods.
How does human
activity cause
climate change?
 GH
(Anthropogenic GHG
emissions)
 A greenhouse gas is any gaseous
compound in the atmosphere
that is capable of absorbing
infrared radiation, thereby
trapping and holding heat in the
atmosphere.
1859
JOHN TYNDALL
British engineer

greenhouse effect
-refers to how certain gases in the
atmosphere trap the heat of the sun
ENHANCED GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Now, what are
these GHGs?
 GHGS AND GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL
Common Name Chemical Sources
Formula

Carbon dioxide CO2 Fossil fuels (for electricity production, transportation, food production,
processing of agricultural products), industries
Methane CH4 Natural gas systems, landfills, coal mining, manure management,
petroleum systems, waster water treatment, forests, rice cultivation, other
agricultural activities

Nitrous oxide N2O Agricultural soil management, mobile combustion, nitric acid production,
manure management, wastewater treatment, forest, composting

Hydro HFC Automobile air conditioning and refrigeration, substitute to ozone-

fluorocarbons depleting substances for industrial, commercial and consumer products

Sulfur hexafluoride SF6 Electrical products

Adapted from IPC C AR4, Working Group 1- Errata, 2012 and EPA
 Let’s take a look at CO2
and the so-called Carbon
Cycle…
Storage pools Carbon Cycle
Net carbon sink

What’s the

PROBLEM
?
CO2-eq Waste IPCC AR4, 2007
and
wastewater,
2.8
Forestry, 17.4%
% Energy supply,
25.9%
Agriculture
, 13.5%

Transport
,
Industry, 19.4% Residential 13.1%
and
commercial
buildings, 7.9%
Share of different sectors in total anthropogenic GHG emissions in
2004 in terms of CO2-eq. (Forestry includes deforestation.)
 IPCC AR4, 2007

Global annual emissions of anthropogenic GHGs from 1970 to 2004.

Ok, so
what?
How does GHG emissions relate to
global warming and ultimately climate
 Greenhouse
gases The link between
cause
greenhouse GHG, greenhouse
effect
effect, global
warming and climate
Human change

Enhanced Global
activity greenhous warming is
e effect one of
causes the
global causes of
warming climate
change
 So are there
OTHER causes of
climate change?
Other natural factors that can affect
Earth’s climate
Volcanoes

Can we blame
volcanic eruptions
for today’s climate
change? NO
.
Other natural factors that can affect
Earth’s climate
The
sun

Can we blame
the sun for
today’s climate NO
change? .
Other natural factors that can affect
Earth’s climate

Earth’s
orbit

Can we blame
the earth’s orbit
for today’s
climate change? NO
.
1970s
MILUTIN MILANKOVITCH
Slovak scientist and metereologist

Milankovitch theory
states that as the Earth travels through space
around the sun, cyclical variations in 3
elements of the Earth-Sun geometry combine
to produce variations in the amount of solar
energy that reaches the Earth.
 What about the
natural geologic
processes? Are we
not in the
interglacial age?
 Yes, we are in the interglacial
age…

Source: EPA's Climate Change Indicators (2010) and Petit et al.

(2001).
There is a distinct spike in CO2 since the
1700s…
Starting around
1750

Source: EPA's Climate Change Indicators

(2010)
As well as in average global temperature!
Forest and Climate Change, Forest Management Bureau, DENR 23 Nov. 2016
 So
…

Climate change is here and the

rate that it is changing has
been
driven primarily by us.
So
what?
Climate change could
have a greater
potential to change
life in our planet than
anything else except
a nuclear war.
The 11 Signs of Climate Change
(EPA)
Changing Changes in
Less
rain and animal
snow
snow migration
and ice
patterns and life
cycles
Higher More
temperature droughts Thawing
Stronge and more and
r permafros
heat waves wildfires t
storms

Damaged Rising sea Warmer

corals level oceans Changes in
plant life
Ice-free Arctic Floods

Dead Corals Drought

Kilimanjaro
19931976

20002006

Philippe Rekacewicz,
IPCC AR4 UNEP/GRID-Arend
, 2007 l, 2005

a
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS
ON THE PHILIPPINES
In the last 50 years the sea level has increased more than 80 centimetres,
according to our map. In ten or twenty years coastal areas around the city,
home to millions of people, will be permanently underwater, according to
research by the University of the Philippines
MANILA has seen the
biggest sea level rise of
anywhere in the world
The Philippines is
highly vulnerable
to extreme
weather events.
 Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), September 2009
(photo courtesy European Pressphoto Agency)
 Super Typhoon Pablo
(photo courtesy The Travel Teller) 2012
Tropical Cyclone Sendong (Washi),
December 2011 (photo courtesy AP)
Super Typhoon Yolanda (2013)
Typhoon Ompong (2018)