UNIT 3

CURRENT ISSUES ARISING

FROM THE APPLICATION
OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
 LESSON 1
CLIMATE CHANGE

WORD BANK: Climate Change, Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect

DISCUSSION
The Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years,
there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the
last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era –
and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small
variations in Earth’s orbit that changing the amount of solar energy our planet receives.
 Earth is a very special planet- it orbits close enough to the sun to receive
a lot of energy, but far enough away not to be scorched. To help keep these
conditions constant, our planet is wrapped in a layer of greenhouse gases.
This layer acts as a blanket, keeping the earth warm and shielding it from
the cold of the universe.
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather
patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades
to millions of years). Global climate change has already had observable
effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is
breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are
flowering sooner.
 Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global
climate change are now occurring: global temperature rise, shrinking ice
sheets or loss of sea ice, accelerated sea-level rise and longer, more intense
heat waves, water acidification, and extreme events.

Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming

trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, and
most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public
statements endorsing this position. One manifestation of climate change is
global warming.
What is global warming?
Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the
Earth’s near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected
continuation. In common usage, the term refers to recent warming and
implies a human influence. Most of the observed increase in globally
averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the
observed increase in greenhouse gas concentration,” which leads to
warming of the surface and lower atmosphere by increasing the greenhouse
effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes
also produced the greenhouse effect.
What causes climate change?
Human activities like mining, wrong practices in agriculture, illegal
logging, burning of fossil fuel, deforestation, too much car that emits
carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and producing industrial waste are
believed to be the sources of greenhouse gasses that in the long run cause
the climate change.
The greenhouse gases and affects
Small amounts of heat-trapping gases such as water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide
(C02), ozone (O3 )methane CH nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs)play a key role in determining the earth average temperature and thus its
climates.

>Together these gases are known as greenhouse gases- They allow light, Integrated
radiation, and some ultraviolet radiation from the sun to pass through the troposphere.
The earth's surface then absorbs, much of this solar energy and degrade it to longer
wave integrated radiation, Which then rises into space, some is absorbed by molecules
of greenhouse gases, warming the air.
 The greenhouse effect first proposed by Swedish Chimish Svante
Arrhenius in 1896, has been confirmed by numerous laboratory
experiments and atmospheric measurements.
Significance: the earth would be a cold and lifeless planet with an average
surface temperature of-18°C.
Measured atmosphere levels of certain greenhouse gases-CO2, CFCs,
methane, and nitrous oxide-have risen substantially in recent decades-
caused by human activities: burning fossil, fuels, agriculture,
deforestation, and use of CFCs.
 Cause dioxide concentration-Carbon dioxide is responsible for 50-60°/.of the global
warming from greenhouse gases. The main sources as fossil fuel burning coal, oil, and
natural gas(75°/.)and land clearing and burning (25°/.)Carbon dioxide CO2 is nevertheless
the main driver of the greenhouse effect.
Chlorofluorocarbon-Contribute to global warming in the troposphere and deplete ozone
in the stratosphere. The main sources are leaking are conditioners and refrigerators,
evaporation of the industrial solvent.
Methane concentrations- methane is produced when anaerobic bacteria break down organic
matter UB moist places the lact oxygen. Then areas include swamps and other natural
wetlands, rice paddies, and landfills intestinal tract of cattle, sheep and termits.
Nitrous oxide concentrations nitrous oxide can trap heat in the troposphere and deplete
ozone in the stratosphere. It is released from nylon production burning of biomass and
nitrogen fertilizer in soil, livestock waste.