Picture 1: Climate change

Zara Miljković III-3

LIMATE CHANGE
Medina Drnda III-2
What is climate change?

Long – term shifts in temperatures and weather

patterns
Can be natural
Human activities – main driver of climate change
Greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide and water vapour – most significant
and largest effect
Earth kept much warmer
Gases in atmosphere retain heat
Linked to glass in greenhouse
Greenhouse gases
Largest warming effect
Carbon dioxide - released by cell respiration, biomass
and fossil fuels
Removed by photosynthesis and dissolving in ocean
Water vapour – formed by evaporation and
transpiration
Removed by rainfall and snow
Other greenhouse gases
Other gases – smaller impact
Including methane and nitrogen
oxide
Methane – 3rd most significant gas
Released during extraction of fossil
fuels and ice melting
Nitrogen oxide – released by
bacteria and agriculture

Picture 2: Gases percentage

Other gases
Oxygen and nitrogen – two most abundant gases
Not greenhouse gases
Do not absorb longer wave radiation
All greenhouse gases make 1% of atmosphere
Assessing the impact of greenhouse gases

Impact of gas depends on its ability to absorb long –

wave radiation
Factors that determine impact of greenhouse gas
o how gas absorbs long - wave radiation
o concentration in atmosphere
Concentration of gas - depends on the rate at which
it is released
Long wavelength emission from earth
Warmed Earth – emits longer–wave radiation
Most of re-emitted radiation – infrared (10,000 nm)
Range of wavelengths of solar radiation (red)
Range of wavelengths emitted by Earth (blue)

Picture 3: Range of solar radiation

Wave radiation in greenhouse gases
• Short wavelengths
• Solar radiation by ozone-
• 70-75% converted to heat
• Long wavelengths captured
by greenhouse gases

• Greenhouse effect - planet

ability to use its
atmosphere to retain heat
and keep warm even when
sunlight is not hitting the
surface Picture 4: Greenhouse effect
CARBON DIOXIDE CONCENTRATIONS

• Raising of hypothesis
• Changing concentrations of CO2 = change in green house effects
and global temperature
• Global temperatures concluded from ratios of hydrogen isotopes in
H2O
Results for an 800,000 year period before the
present

Picture 6: Data from the European Project for Ice Coring

in the Antarctic Dome C ice core
CLIMATE PATTERNS

• Global temperature and climate patterns- influenced by greenhouse

gases
• Greenhouse gases rising → global temperature increasing
• Milankovitch cycles in the Earth’s orbit and variation in sunspot activity
increases in gases→ higher global temperatures→ impacts climate
• Global temperature influences other climate aspects:
- Higher temperatures → increase evaporation of water
- Higher ocean temperatures → cause tropical storms
- Consequence of rise in global temperatures- not equal
INDUSTRIALIZATION

• Correlation between CO2 in industrial revolution and average

global temperatures
• Glaciations- 180 parts per million (ppm)
• Warm interglacial period- 300 ppm
• Recent times- 400 ppm
• Until late 18th century- 260 – 280 ppm
• Combustion of coal, oil and natural gas with CO2 rise
FOSSIL FUELS

• Increasing quantities of coal- mined and burned caused CO2

emissions
• Energy from combustion of coal provided heat and power source
• Burning fossil fuels → CO2 rising
• non-renewable resources as they take millions of years to form
and once they are used up they can not be replenished.
• Their emission causes both environmental and human health
issues as they contribute in great extent to the overproduction of
greenhouse gas CO2 in Earth's atmosphere.
References
IB Biology Course Book: 2014 Edition: Oxford IB
Diploma Program
Inspire <
https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/blog/clean-en
ergy-101/what-are-greenhouse-gases
> (25.5.2022)
NOAA <
https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collectio
ns/climate/climate-change-impacts
> (25.5.2022)