UNIT-1: Global Climate Change: Evidence, Causes and Consequences

UNIT-1
Global Climate Change:

Evidence, Causes and
Consequences
Climate Change
• Climate is commonly thought of as the expected weather conditions
at a given location over time.
• Climate can be measured at many geographic scales for example,
cities, countries, or the entire globe by such statistics such as average
temperatures, average number of rainy days, and the frequency of
droughts.
• Climate change refers to changes in these statistics over years,
decades, or even centuries.
Evidence on Climate Change
• The overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that human
activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas),
are responsible for most of the climate change.
• In the case of climate change, scientists have understood for more
than a century that emissions from the burning of fossil fuels could
lead to increases in the Earth’s average surface temperature.
Increase in Earth Temperature
Different research groups, including the NASA Goddard Institute for
Space Studies, Britain’s Hadley Centre for Climate Change, the Japan
Meteorological Agency, and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center have
used these raw measurements to produce records of long-term global
surface temperature change.
Analysis shows that Earth’s average surface temperature has increased
by more than 1.4°F (0.8°C) over the past 100 years, with much of this
increase taking place over the past 35 years.
Contd…
Heat waves are becoming more frequent, cold snaps are now shorter
and milder, snow and ice cover are decreasing in the Northern
Hemisphere, glaciers and ice caps around the world are melting, and
many plant and animal species are moving to cooler latitudes or higher
altitudes because it is too warm to stay where they are. The picture
that emerges from all of these data sets is clear and consistent that
Earth is warming.
Increase in the concentration of
greenhouse gases
Humans began digging up long-buried forms of carbon such as coal and
oil and burning them for energy, additional CO2 began to be released
into the atmosphere much more rapidly than in the natural carbon
cycle.
Other human activities, such as cement production and cutting down
and burning of forests (deforestation), also add CO2 to the atmosphere.
Until the 1950s, many scientists thought the oceans would absorb most
of the excess CO2 released by human activities.
To determine how CO2 concentrations varied prior to such modern
measurements, scientists have studied the composition of air bubbles
trapped in ice cores extracted from Greenland and Antarctica.
These data show that, for at least 2,000 years before the Industrial
Revolution, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were steady and then
began to rise sharply beginning in the late 1800s .
Today, atmospheric CO2 concentrations exceed 390 parts per million—
nearly 40% higher than preindustrial levels, and, according to ice core
data, higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years
Causes of Climate Change
• Natural Causes:
1. Volcanic Eruption : A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a
planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic
ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the
surface.
2. Ocean current: It is a seasonal directed movement of sea water
generated by forces acting upon this mean flow, such as wind, the
Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbing, temperature and salinity
differences, while tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the
Sun and Moon.
Contd…
• Earth Orbital Change: As it travels around the sun, Earth's orbit
fluctuates slightly in cycles of tens of thousands to millions of years.
These cycles change the axis and tilt toward the sun, which changes
the sunlight and climate on Earth
HUMAN CAUSES (Anthropogenic or Man-made
causes)
• Greenhouse gases: A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that

absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range.
This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.
• Deforestation: Deforestation, clearance, or clearing is the removal of
a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a
non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of
forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use.
• Coal mining: Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the
ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and, since the 1880s,
has been widely used to generate electricity.
Contd…
• Burning of fossil fuels: A fossil fuel is a fuel formed by natural processes,
such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing
energy originating in ancient photosynthesis. The burning of fossil fuels
produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide
(CO2) per year.
• Industrial processes: Industrial processes are procedures involving
chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the
manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale.
• Agriculture: Agriculture is the cultivation of land and breeding of animals
and plants to provide food, fiber, medicinal plants and other products to
sustain and enhance life.
Effect of Climate change
• Rise in Sea level: Global sea level has risen by about 8 inches since reliable
record keeping began in 1880. It is projected to rise another 1 to 4 feet by
2100. This is the result of added water from melting land ice and the
expansion of seawater as it warms.
In the next several decades, storm surges and high tides could combine with
sea level rise and land subsidence to further increase flooding in many
regions. Sea level rise will continue past 2100 because the oceans take a
very long time to respond to warmer conditions at the Earth’s surface.
Ocean waters will therefore continue to warm and sea level will continue to
rise for many centuries at rates equal to or higher than those of the current
century.
More droughts and heat waves
• Droughts in the Southwest and heat waves (periods of abnormally hot
weather lasting days to weeks) everywhere are projected to become
more intense, and cold waves less intense everywhere.
Summer temperatures are projected to continue rising, and a reduction

of soil moisture, which exacerbates heat waves, is projected for much
of the western and central U.S. in summer. By the end of this century,
what have been once-in-20-year extreme heat days (one-day events)
are projected to occur every two or three years over most of the nation.
Hurricanes will become stronger and more
intense
• The intensity, frequency and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes, as
well as the frequency of the strongest (Category 4 and 5) hurricanes,
have all increased since the early 1980s. The relative contributions of
human and natural causes to these increases are still uncertain.
Hurricane-associated storm intensity and rainfall rates are projected to
increase as the climate continues to warm.
Changes in precipitation patterns
• Average U.S. precipitation has increased since 1900, but some areas
have had increases greater than the national average, and some areas
have had decreases. More winter and spring precipitation is projected
for the northern United States, and less for the Southwest, over this
century.
Projections of future climate over the U.S. suggest that the recent trend
towards increased heavy precipitation events will continue. This trend
is projected to occur even in regions where total precipitation is
expected to decrease, such as the Southwest.
Ozone Layer
• The ozone layer is a natural layer of gas in the upper atmosphere
which protects humans and other living things from the harmful
ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun.
• The stratosphere extends from 10 to 50 kms from the Earth’s surface.
This region is concentrated with slightly pungent smelling, light bluish
ozone gas. The ozone gas is made up of molecules each containing
three atoms of oxygen; its chemical formula is O3. The ozone layer, in
the stratosphere acts as an efficient filter for harmful solar Ultraviolet
B (UV-B) rays
Ozone Production and Destruction process
• Ozone is produced and destroyed naturally in the atmosphere and until recently,
this resulted in a well-balanced equilibrium (see Figure 9.2). Ozone is formed
when oxygen molecules absorb ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths less than
240 nanometres and is destroyed when it absorbs ultraviolet radiation with
wavelengths greater than 290 nanometres.
Ozone Layer Protection
By avoiding products and practices that damage the ozone
layer and by lobbying for more action from government
and industries, you can help to close the hole by the end of
this century. While the vast majority of ODS usage is either
industrial or commercial, individuals can help in the
following ways:
• Buy air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment that do
not use HCFCs as refrigerant.
• Buy aerosol products that do not use HCFCs or CFCs as
propellants.
• Conduct regular inspection and maintenance of air-conditioning and
refrigeration appliances to prevent and minimize refrigerant leakage.
• For existing air-conditioning and refrigeration appliances that operate
on HCFCs or CFCs, the refrigerant should be recovered or recycled
whenever an overhaul of equipment is to be carried out. Replacing or
retrofitting such equipment to operate on non-HCFCs refrigerant
should also be considered.
• When motor vehicle air-conditioners need servicing, make sure that
the refrigerants are properly recovered and recycled instead of being
vented to the atmosphere.
Adaptation to climate change
• In terms of adaptation measures, there are several actions that help reducing
vulnerability to the consequences of climate change:
• More secure facility locations and infrastructures
• Landscape restoration (natural landscape) and reforestation
• Flexible and diverse cultivation to be prepared for natural catastrophes
• Research and development on possible catastrophes, temperature behaviour, etc.
• Preventive and precautionary measures (evacuation plans, health issues, etc.)

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UNIT-1

Global Climate Change:

• Greenhouse gases: A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that

Summer temperatures are projected to continue rising, and a reduction

• More secure facility locations and infrastructures

• Landscape restoration (natural landscape) and reforestation

• Flexible and diverse cultivation to be prepared for natural catastrophes

• Research and development on possible catastrophes, temperature behaviour, etc.

• Preventive and precautionary measures (evacuation plans, health issues, etc.)

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