What is Climate Change?

Long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns are referred to as climate change.

This shift in weather patterns could be natural such as variations in the solar cycle or caused by
humans. Since the 1800s, human activities have been the primary cause of climate change, owing
primarily to the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

The combustion of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas emissions, which act like a blanket wrapped
around the Earth, trapping heat from the sun and raising temperatures. Carbon dioxide and methane
are two examples of greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change.

These are caused by using gasoline to drive a car or coal to heat a building. Clearing land and forests
can also result in the release of carbon dioxide. Garbage landfills are a major source of methane
emissions. Among the major emitters are energy, industry, transportation, buildings, agriculture, and
land use. Many people believe that climate change primarily means higher temperatures. However,
the rise in temperature is only the beginning of the story. Because the Earth is a system in which
everything is interconnected, changes in one area can have an impact on all others.

Climate change is now causing severe droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels,
flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms, and declining biodiversity.

Causes of Climate Change

1) Natural Causes
• Continental Drift: For millions of years, the movement of the tectonic plates has occurred.
This causes a shift in weather patterns, which contributes to climate change over time.
• Plate Tectonics: Plate displacement is caused by the continuous change in temperature of
the core of the Earth's surface. This has an impact on the local temperature of the
environment as well as other codependent environmental elements, which causes climate
change.
• Volcanic Activity: Although a volcano's eruption lasts only a few minutes, the consequences
might last for years. A vast amount of carbon dioxide, dust particles, aerosol droplets, and
other greenhouse gases enter the earth's atmosphere when lava erupts from a volcano.
• Ocean Currents: The horizontal movement of winds opposes the natural flow of ocean
currents. As a result, it causes temperature variation, which leads to a change in the climate
of the specific geographic region.
• Variation in Earth’s Orbit: The seasonal distribution of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface is
affected by the Earth's orbit, causing an impact on geographical and seasonal variation. Thus,
contributing to climate change.

Anthropogenic Causes

• Greenhouse gases: Greenhouse gases are gases that absorb heat radiation from the sun and
cause an increase in the temperature of the Earth's surface.
• Land-use Pattern: Large scale industrial use of land results in deforestation, and changes in
agricultural patterns result in higher amounts of greenhouse gases.
• Atmospheric Aerosols: Aerosols are extremely small liquid particles that are trapped in the
Earth's atmosphere. They scatter and absorb solar and infrared radiation, causing the
temperature of atmospheric layers to fluctuate substantially.

Climate Forcings
Climate "forcings" are factors in the climate system that either increase or decrease the effects on the
climate system. Positive forcings, such as excess greenhouse gases, warm the earth, whereas negative
forcings, such as the effects of most aerosols and volcanic eruptions, actually cool the earth.
Atmospheric aerosols include volcanic dust, soot from the combustion of fossil fuels, particles from
burning forests, and mineral dust. Dark carbon-rich particles, such as diesel engine soot, absorb
sunlight and warm the atmosphere. Exhaust from high-sulfur coal or oil, on the other hand, produces
light aerosols that reflect sunlight back into space, producing a cooling effect. Aerosols formed
naturally during volcanic eruptions cool the atmosphere. Large volcanic eruptions can eject enough
ash into the atmosphere to lower temperatures for a year or more until the sulphate particles settle
out of the atmosphere.

Types of Forcings

Modifying the Energy Balance: The ability of a process to change the climate is measured by its
"radiative forcing," or the change in the Earth's energy balance caused by the process. Some climate
forcings are positive, resulting in global warming, while others are negative, resulting in cooling. Some,
such as increased CO2 concentration, are well understood; others, such as aerosols, are less certain.

• Natural Forcings: Changes in the amount of energy emitted by the Sun, very slow variations in
the Earth's orbit, and volcanic eruptions are examples of natural forcings. Since the beginning
of the industrial revolution, the only long-term natural forcing has been a small increase in
solar energy reaching Earth. However, this change is insufficient to account for the current
warming.
• Forcings Induced by Humans: Human activities can also cause climate forcing. These activities
include greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels, as well as
land surface modifications such as deforestation.
• Greenhouse Gases Emitted by Humans: Greenhouse gases are a positive climate forcing,
which means they warm the planet. Carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel combustion is
currently the most powerful single climate forcing agent, accounting for more than half of total
positive forcing since 1750.
• Aerosols Produced by Humans: The combustion of fossil fuels emits aerosols into the
atmosphere. Aerosols are tiny particles in the atmosphere made up of a variety of substances
such as water, ice, ash, mineral dust, or acidic droplets.
• Aerosols can deflect solar energy and influence cloud formation and lifetime. Aerosols are a
negative forcing, which means they cool the environment.

Global Warming Potential

The global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere
expressed as a multiple of the heat absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (CO2). The global
warming potential of each gas describes its impact on global warming. In terms of climate impact, the
two most important characteristics of a GHG are: how well the gas absorbs energy (preventing it from
immediately escaping to space); how long the gas remains in the atmosphere. The Global Warming
Potential (GWP) of a gas is a measure of how much energy a gas absorbs over a specific time period
(usually 100 years) when compared to carbon dioxide. Gases with a higher GWP absorb more energy
per pound than gases with a lower GWP, contributing more to global warming. CO2 has a GWP of 1.
Other gases are affected by the gas and the time frame. GWP is used to calculate carbon dioxide
equivalent. The mass of CO2 would warm the earth as much as the mass of any other gas. As a result,
it provides a common scale for assessing the climate effects of various gases. It is calculated as GWP
times the mass of the other gas
Receding Glaciers: A Symptom of Global Climate Change

Glaciers, ice caps, and continental ice sheets cover about 10% of the earth's land surface today, but
they covered roughly three times that amount during the ice ages. The current ice cover accounts for
roughly three-quarters of the world's total freshwater resources. Deglaciation is the gradual melting
of a glacier from the surface of a landmass. Ablation refers to the processes that remove snow, ice,
and moraine from a glacier or ice sheet.

Melting, evaporation, erosion, and calving are all examples of natural processes. The process of
deglaciation, which accelerated in the twentieth century, is rendering our planet ice-free. There were
147 glaciers in Glacier National Park 150 years ago, but only 37 remain today, and scientists predict
that they will melt by 2030.

Similarly, glaciers in the Himalayas and Alps are receding and disappearing year after year. In the Polar
Regions and high mountain environments, there are nearly 160,000 glaciers. As a result, researchers
are increasingly employing satellite remote sensors to survey our planet's glaciers in a fraction of the
time.

Impact of Climate Change

• Higher Temperatures

As greenhouse gas concentrations rise, so does global surface temperature. Almost all land areas are
experiencing more hot days and heat waves.

• Severe Storms

As temperatures rise, more moisture evaporates, exacerbating extreme rainfall and flooding and
resulting in more destructive storms. The warming ocean also affects the frequency and size of tropical
storms. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons feed on warm water at the ocean's surface.

• Increased Drought

Global warming exacerbates water scarcity in already water-stressed areas, increasing the risk of
agricultural droughts affecting crops and ecological droughts increasing ecosystem vulnerability.
Droughts can also cause destructive sand and dust storms, which can transport billions of tonnes of
sand across continents.

• Oceans are Warming and Rising

The ocean absorbs the majority of the heat emitted by global warming. Over the last two decades, the
rate of ocean warming has increased dramatically at all depths. Because water expands as it warms,
the volume of the ocean increases as it warms. Melting ice sheets raise sea levels, endangering coastal
and island communities.

• Changes in the Landscape

Landscape change has contributed to the ongoing shift in land mass positioning, as well as the
movement of flora and fauna towards the polar regions in search of a cooler environment to combat
rising temperatures.

• Rise in the Level of Sea

Glacier melting is caused by global warming, which is caused by an increase in the temperature of the
earth's atmosphere.
All of this water combines with the ocean, causing a significant rise in sea level and increasing the risk
of natural disasters such as floods in coastal areas.

• Ocean Acidification

Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause increased absorption of carbon dioxide by
the ocean, resulting in ocean acidification. As a result, aquatic species like planktons, mollusks, and
corals lose their habitat.

• Imbalance in the Ecosystem

Changes in weather patterns disrupt the local environment, destroying suitable ecological conditions
and the survival of indigenous species. This disrupts the ecosystem and devastates the natural
environment.

• Natural Disasters

Draughts are occurring in various parts of the world as a result of a lack of adequate rainfall and a high
intensity of solar radiation in that geographical area, depleting local species.mAnother effect of climate
change is the rise in sea level, which causes flooding, hurricanes, and storms.

• Species Extinction

Climate change endangers the survival of species on land and in the sea. As the temperature rises, so
do the risks. Climate change is exacerbating the loss of species, which is 1,000 times greater than at
any other time in recorded human history.

• Not Enough Food

Climate change and an increase in extreme weather events are among the causes of a global increase
in hunger and malnutrition. Fisheries, crops, and livestock may be destroyed or depleted. Marine
resources that feed billions of people are under threat as the ocean acidifies.

• More Health Risks

Climate change is causing health problems through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events,
forced displacement, mental health strains, and increased hunger and poor nutrition in places where
people cannot grow or find enough food.

• Poverty and Displacement

Climate change exacerbates the factors that cause and sustain poverty. Floods may wash away urban
slums, destroying homes and livelihoods.