10-08-2021

Unit-3
Course: Environment and Climate Change (CE-12101)
Instructor- Dr. Shambhavi Mishra
Assistant Professor, CED
MNNIT Allahabad
Mob. 8958048560, email- [email protected]

Contents

• Climate change

• Causes and impacts of climate change

• Mitigation measures of climate change

• Technological interventions for mitigation of climate change

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• Atmosphere: It is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in place
by the gravity of that body. The atmosphere of Earth is composed of nitrogen (about 78%), oxygen
(about 21%), argon (about 0.9%), carbon dioxide (0.04%) and other gases in trace amounts. Oxygen
is used by most organisms for respiration; nitrogen is fixed by bacteria and lightning to produce
ammonia used in the construction of nucleotides and amino acids; and carbon dioxide is used by
plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis. The atmosphere helps to protect living
organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation, solar wind and cosmic rays.

• Ecosphere: The part of the atmosphere/hydrosphere/Lithosphere in which it is possible to breathe

normally without aid: the portion of the troposphere from sea level to an altitude of about 13,000
feet (4000 meters). The part of the earth's crust, waters, and atmosphere that supports life.

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Weather, Climate and Climate Change

Weather?

• Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time.

• Weather is the state of atmospheric conditions (i.e., hot/cold, wet/dry, calm/stormy, sunny/cloudy) that exist
over relatively short periods of time (hours to a couple of days).

WEATHER is what’s happening outside your window right now

WEATHER IS:

• Short term

• Limited area

• Can change rapidly

• Difficult to predict

Climate?

• Climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time. Climate is the aggregated
pattern of weather (the average of many years of weather observation).

Climate change?

• The Earth is very old. It has changed often during its long life, and it is still changing. Millions of years ago,
when dinosaurs were alive, the Earth was much warmer. There was very little ice on the land or on the
sea, even in the very north or the very south of the world. And the sea was much higher than it is today.
There have been many changes since that time, sometimes to a warmer climate, sometimes to a colder
one. About 20,000 years ago, for example, a time called an Ice Age began. There have been at least five
documented major ice ages during the 4.6 billion years since the Earth was formed. There was ice over
much of the world, and it was 3 kilometers deep over much of North America and Europe. And the sea
was not as high as it is today. Our climate has changed many times, and it will change again.

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• 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).

• In the year 1900, the Earth was 0.7°C colder than it was in 2000, just one hundred years later. This
change did not happen because of the Earth’s orbit - it happened because of us. Some people think
that this is a small change. But think about this. A change of just 5 to 7°C can start or finish an Ice
Age.

• In 1896 a Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, was the first person to measure the effect of CO2, on
the climate.

• From 1300 to 1850, the climate of Europe was much colder than it is today, but when Arrhenius was
writing, the climate was changing. Europe was coming out of the ‘Little Ice Age’.

• Arrhenius was interested in this, and he thought that it was because of CO2, in the atmosphere. If
there is less CO2, Arrhenius said, the atmosphere will become colder, and if there is more CO2, it will
become warmer.

• At the time, people in Europe were building more factories. The factories were burning coal and
sending more CO2 into the atmosphere. Arrhenius made new measurements. If there is 100 per
cent more CO2, he said, the atmosphere will become 5°C warmer.

• Arrhenius was nearly right. Today most scientists think that if there is 100 per cent more CO2, the
atmosphere will become 1.5 to 4.5 °C warmer.

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• But Arrhenius thought that this would happen in 2,000 years’ time - and scientists today think that it
will happen in the next fifty years!

• In 1958 a scientist called Charles Keeling decided to measure the CO2 in our atmosphere. He needed
a place that was far from towns and factories so that variations in level is minimum. He went to
Hawaii - to the top of a mountain called Mauna Loa - and he started to measure CO2. His
measurements showed that every year there is more CO2.

• Scientists can now measure the Earth ’s atmosphere many thousands of years ago. To do this they
cut deep holes into the ice of Antarctica and Greenland, and they take out a long, thin piece of ice.
This is called an ice core. The ice at the bottom of the ice core is made from snow that fell a long
time ago. When the snow froze and became ice, air stayed inside the snow. Scientists can measure
the CO2 inside this air in the ice.

• The oldest ice comes from a hole (at a place called ‘Dome C’ in Antarctica) that is 3,270 metres deep.
The ice at the bottom of this hole came from snow that fell more than 8,00,000 years ago! From this
ice core, we know that there is more CO2, in our atmosphere today than at any time in the last
8,00,000 years. And we know that, in the last 100 years, the CO2, in our atmosphere has increased
by more than 30 per cent.

• But some of the biggest and most important changes are happening in the Arctic.

• Winters in Alaska and the west of Canada are nearly 4°C warmer than in the 1950s. And in the
summer the change is even bigger.

• In the summer of 2007, there was 20 per cent less ice covering the Arctic than in the 1970s - in other
words, the Arctic has lost a piece of ice as big as the country of Egypt (1 million km²).

• Less ice covers both the land and the sea, and the ice on the sea is now less thick than it used to be
— by nearly 40 per cent.

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• The Earth is getting warmer and much of the Earth’s ice is melting. This new water is going into the
sea, and the sea level is getting higher.

• These changes are happening now, and they will bring many problems for the future. But other
changes are happening that bring immediate danger to people all over the world.

• Changes are happening to the world’s rain — where rain falls (or does not fall), and how much rain
falls. Too much rain means a danger of floods; too little rain means a danger of droughts. And when
there is a flood or a drought, there is less clean water to drink, and people die.

• In the past, when the climate was less warm, the monsoon rains were not so heavy. But now, with a
warmer climate, there are more very heavy storms in each monsoon. Scientists think that the
monsoon rains will increase by more than 10 per cent during the twenty-first century.

• The Sahel region of Africa is south of the great, dry Sahara Desert. In this region, there is less rain
than before and one of the biggest lakes in the world has nearly disappeared. Lake Chad has lost 95
per cent of its water - and this has happened in only forty years.

• When it is hot, it is going to be hotter than before. When the wind blows, the wind will be stronger.
When it rains, the rain will be heavier.

• In France, during the month of August 2003, nearly 15,000 people died because of the hot weather.
The problem was not just that it was hot, but that it was so hot for so long. Weather like this is called
a heat wave. In Paris the temperature during the day was above 35°C for nine days. And on 25
August the temperature during the night did not fall below 25°C.

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• In 2004 - the year after the heat wave in France — there were a lot of hurricanes. Japan had ten, and
the United States had five. For both countries, this was the largest number of big storms in one year.

• But the following year, 2005, was the year that got into newspapers around the world. This was the
year of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people and destroyed hundreds of homes in
New Orleans in southern USA.

• There are five categories of hurricane, from a Category 1 hurricane, which moves at 120 kilometres
per hour, to a Category 5 hurricane at more than 250 kilometres per hour. Katrina and Wilma were
both Category 5 hurricanes. Since 1970 we have had about the same number of hurricanes every
year, but the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased from 20 per cent to 35 per cent.
Hurricanes are getting stronger!

• Think about this: what happens when you try to push a car along a road? If the road is flat, you can push the car
slowly along the road. If the road goes down a hill, you push the car and it runs away faster and faster. Soon,
you do not need to push the car at all - it keeps getting faster, and you cannot stop it. Many scientists think that
we have now arrived at the top of a hill. We have changed the climate and the car is starting to go down the hill.
It will be difficult to stop.

• Sudden change can happen in many ways. Here is one example. There is a lot of ice in Greenland, and it is
melting. If lots of cold fresh water comes into the North Atlantic, it will slow down the Gulf Stream. And when
this happens, the Gulf Stream will stop carrying heat to Europe. This has happened before, a long time ago. If it
happens again, it could mean very low temperatures for Europe — the opposite of a heat wave. We could see
frozen rivers and icy streets in Europe, and it could happen quite soon.

• The Gulf Stream is a strong ocean current that brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico into the
Atlantic Ocean.

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• Climate change is a global problem. All the world’s governments need to work together to find
answers to the problem. But they must first look at three important questions:

1. What is happening, and why?

2. What can we do about the changes that are happening - now and in the future?

3. What can we do to put less CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) into the atmsphere?

• Climate change means altered patterns weather.

• Small temperature changes → big changes in the patterns.

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Causes of Climate Change

NATURAL CAUSES
• Solar Variation- The change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun. The solar cycle or solar
magnetic activity cycle is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity.

• Our Sun is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas. This charged gas moves, generating a powerful magnetic
field. The Sun's magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle.

• Every 11 years or so, the Sun's magnetic field completely flips. This means that the Sun's north and south poles
switch places. Then it takes about another 11 years for the Sun’s north and south poles to flip back again.

• The solar cycle affects activity on the surface of the Sun, such as sunspots which are caused by the Sun's
magnetic fields. As the magnetic fields change, so does the amount of activity on the Sun's surface.

• One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots. The beginning of a solar cycle is a solar
minimum, or when the Sun has the least sunspots. Over time, solar activity—and the number of sunspots—
increases. The middle of the solar cycle is the solar maximum, or when the Sun has the most sunspots. As the
cycle ends, it fades back to the solar minimum and then a new cycle begins.

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Volcanic Activity -

• Overall, volcanoes release less than 2 percent of the equivalent amount of CO2 released by human
activities. However, about once every 20 years there is a volcanic eruption (e.g., Mount Pinatubo)
that throws out a tremendous number of particles and other gases.

• When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines June 15, 1991, an estimated 20 million tons of
sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12 miles (20 km) high into the atmosphere.

• Volcanic activity can influence climate in a number of ways at different timescales. Individual
volcanic eruptions can release large quantities of sulphur dioxide and other aerosols into the
stratosphere, reducing atmospheric transparency and thus the amount of solar radiation reaching
Earth’s surface and troposphere.

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Earth orbital changes-

• Orbital eccentricity - Changes in orbital eccentricity affect the Earth-sun distance. Currently, a difference of only
3 percent (5 million kilometers) exists between closest approach (perihelion), and furthest departure
(aphelion). This difference in distance amounts to about a 6 percent increase in incoming solar radiation
(insolation) from perihelion to aphelion.

• The shape of the Earth’s orbit changes from being elliptical (high eccentricity) to being nearly circular (low
eccentricity) in a cycle that takes between 90,000 and 100,000 years. When the orbit is highly elliptical, the
amount of insolation received at perihelion would be on the order of 20 to 30 percent greater than at aphelion,
resulting in a substantially different climate.

Obliquity (change in axial tilt) - As the axial tilt increases, the seasonal contrast increases so that winters are
colder and summers are warmer in both hemispheres. Today, the Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees from the
plane of its orbit around the sun. But this tilt changes. During a cycle that averages about 40,000 years, the tilt of
the axis varies between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. Because this tilt changes, the seasons as we know them can
become exaggerated. More tilt means more severe seasons—warmer summers and colder winters; less tilt
means less severe seasons—cooler summers and milder winters. It's the cool summers that are thought to allow
snow and ice to last from year-to-year in high latitudes, eventually building up into massive ice sheets.

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• Tectonic Activity - Tectonic movements of Earth’s crust have had profound effects on climate at
timescales of millions of years. These movements have changed the shape, size, position, and
elevation of the continental masses as well as the bathymetry of the oceans. For example, the uplift
of the Tibetan Plateau during the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago) affected atmospheric
circulation patterns, creating the South Asian monsoon and influencing climate over much of the
rest of Asia and neighboring regions.

• Ocean currents - A famous example is the Gulf Stream . In the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream carries
warm water northeast from the Gulf of Mexico to Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. The Gulf Stream
brings heat to Europe; it carries fifty times more heat than all the factories in the world! When the
water of the Gulf Stream gets to Iceland in the north, the water becomes cold. Cold water is heavier
than warm water, so the cold water goes down under the warm water, and it goes back south.

Anthropogenic Causes (Man-made or Human causes)

• Green house gases- Gas molecules that have property of absorbing infrared radiation (heat energy). When the
Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed
and re-radiated by greenhouse gases, thus contributing to phenomenon called green house effect.

• Greenhouse gases include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and some artificial
chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

• The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the Earth’s
temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise be, allowing life on Earth to exist.

• The problem we now face is that human activities – particularly burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas),
agriculture and land clearing – are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases. This is the enhanced
greenhouse effect, which is contributing to warming of the Earth.

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Deforestation - Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change. It comes in many forms:
wildfire, agricultural clearcutting, livestock ranching, and logging for timber. Forests are nature's atmospheric
carbon sink; plants take in atmospheric carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and convert the carbon into sugars
and plant materials through the process of photosynthesis. The carbon is stored within the trees, vegetation, and
soil of the forests. Examples of large forests that have a significant impact on the balance of carbon include the
Amazonian and the Central African rainforests.

Burning or cutting down trees reverses the effects of carbon sequestration and releases greenhouse gases
(including carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere. Furthermore, deforestation changes the landscape and
reflectivity of earth's surface, i.e. decreasing albedo. This results in an increase in the absorption of light energy
from the sun in the form of heat, enhancing global warming.

Coal mining-

• Coal is the single biggest contributor to anthropogenic climate change. The burning of coal is responsible for
46% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide and accounts for 72% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
from the electricity sector.

• Coal mining releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Methane is the naturally occurring product of the
decay of organic matter as coal deposits are formed with increasing depths of burial, rising temperatures, and
rising pressure over geological time. A portion of the methane produced is absorbed by the coal and later
released from the coal seam (and surrounding disturbed strata) during the mining process. Coal and coal
waste products (including fly ash, bottom ash and boiler slag) release approximately 20 toxic-release
chemicals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, nickel, vanadium, beryllium, cadmium, barium, chromium, copper,
molybdenum, zinc, selenium and radium, which are dangerous if released into the environment.

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Burning of fossil fuels

• When fossil fuels are burned, they release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the air.
Greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has
found that emissions from fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global warming. In 2018, 89% of global CO2
emissions came from fossil fuels and industry.

Industrial processes

• The Industry sector produces the goods and raw materials we use every day. The greenhouse gases emitted
during industrial production are split into two categories: direct emissions that are produced at the facility,
and indirect emissions that occur off site, but are associated with the facility's use of electricity.

• Direct emissions are produced by burning fuel for power or heat, through chemical reactions, and from leaks
from industrial processes or equipment. Most direct emissions come from the consumption of fossil fuels for
energy. A smaller amount of direct emissions, roughly one third, come from leaks from natural gas and
petroleum systems, the use of fuels in production (e.g., petroleum products used to make plastics), and
chemical reactions during the production of chemicals, iron and steel, and cement.

• Indirect emissions are produced by burning fossil fuel at a power plant to make electricity, which is then used
by an industrial facility to power industrial buildings and machinery.

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Agriculture

• Various management practices on agricultural soils can lead to increased availability of nitrogen in the soil and result in
emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O). Specific activities that contribute to N2O emissions from agricultural lands include
the application of synthetic and organic fertilizers, the growth of nitrogen-fixing crops, the drainage of organic soil, and
irrigation practices. Management of agricultural soils accounts for almost half of the emissions from the Agriculture
economic sector.

• Livestock, especially ruminants such as cattle, produce methane (CH4) as part of their normal digestive processes. This
process is called enteric fermentation, and it represents almost one third of the emissions from the Agriculture
economic sector.

• The way in which manure from livestock is managed also contributes to CH4 and N2O emissions. Different manure
treatment and storage methods affect how much of these greenhouse gases are produced. Manure management
accounts for about 14 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the Agriculture economic sector in the
United States.

• Smaller sources of agricultural emissions include CO2 from liming and urea application, CH4 from rice cultivation, and
burning crop residues, which produces CH4 and N2O.

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Facts of GHG Emission:

• The scientific consensus on climatic changes related to global warming is that the average temperature of the
Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8°C over the past 100 years (1906-2005) and the rate of temperature
increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years.
• Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate carrying out global warming research have recently
predicted that average global temperatures could increase between 1.4 and 5.8°C by the year 2100.
• The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels,
land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global
warming that has occurred over the past 50 years.
• Since the Industrial Revolution began in about 1750, carbon dioxide levels have increased nearly 38 percent as
of 2009 and methane levels have increased 148 percent.
• The rate at which carbon dioxide is being dumped in to the environment is 1000 tons per second until the
2011 records.
• The carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century have been highest in 650,000 years. Till 1950, the levels rose by
11% and recently the levels have risen by 40%.
• Human activities release around 37 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
• Sea levels have risen about 7 inches in the last 100 years, which is more than the previous 2000 years
combined. The rising sea levels due to global warming could threaten the lives of people living along the
coastal areas.

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