ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING-I

Assignment No:
“01”
Assignment Title:
“Report on Climate Change”

Submitted to: Sir Haris Riaz

Date: 09 June 2021
Submitted By:
NAME OF STUDENT. REGISTRATION NO.
1: IRFAN ALI FA18-BCV-047
2: MUHAMMAD AHMED FA18-BCV-048
3: ADNAN ALI FA18-BCV-084
4:HAMEEDULLAH FA18-BCV-OOO
 What is Climate Change?
• Climate change refers to significant, long-term changes in the global climate.
• The global climate is the connected system of sun, earth and oceans, wind, rain
and snow, forests, deserts and savannas, and everything people do, too. The
climate of a place, say New York, can be described as its rainfall, changing
temperatures during the year and so on.
• But the global climate is more than the “average” of the climates of specific place
• A description of the global climate includes how, for example, the rising temperature
of the Pacific feeds typhoons which blow harder, drop more rain and cause more
damage, but also shifts global ocean currents that melt Antarctica ice which slowly
makes sea level rise until New York will be under water.
• It is this systemic connectedness that makes global climate change so important
and so complicated.
 CLIMATE CHANGE SYSTEM:
 THE FACTOR/REASON FOR CLIMATE CHANGE:

 When we talk about climate change, we are often talking about the increase in temperatures
linked to industrial activities and in particular the greenhouse effect.  Therefore we sometimes
speak of global warming, which is said to be“of anthropogenic origin”. Ultimately, the causes of
global warming (at least at its current rate) are not natural but driven by the human economy
and industries.
 Many scientists are studying this phenomenon and trying to understand how activities of
human societies are responsible for this heating. These scientists are grouped together in
the IPCC (International Group of Experts on Climate), and they regularly publish reports
studying the evolution of climate change, such as the one published in late 2018.

 First Discoveries Of The Greenhouse Effect And Definition Of Global Warming

 The first assumptions about the greenhouse effect were made by scientist Jacques Fourier in
1824, whose work was followed by several scientists who tried to quantify this phenomenon,
like Claude Pouillet, John Tyndall and Svante Arrhenius. In fact, Arrhenius was the one who
conducted the first experiment that accurately validated and quantified the greenhouse effect,
at the end of the 19th century. He discovered that an air rich in carbon dioxide retains more
heat from solar radiation leading to an increase in air temperature.
  THE FACTOR/REASON FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

 In the end, he concluded that if large quantities of carbon are released into the atmosphere
(because of industrial activities that burn coal), the air will be charged with CO2 and more heat will
be retained. By that time, the first estimates of temperature increases made by Arrhenius and other
scientists were that if the greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere doubled, the average
temperature of Earth would increase by 5º Celsius. In 1901, Gustaf Ekholm used for the first time
the term “greenhouse effect” to describe this phenomenon.

 For decades, these discoveries were not taken seriously in the scientific community. At that time,
many experts believed that nature could self-regulate and that the impact of man was
minimal. Notably, many scientists thought the excess CO2 would be absorbed by the ocean
anyway, which is true within specific CO2 limits. Nevertheless, the thesis that global warming was
linked with the greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide) was proven to be true and validated in
the 1940s by Gilbert Plass. Nowadays, with modern technologies, there is solid evidence that the
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere affects the ability of the air to retain infrared
radiation and heat.
  Growing Awareness About Global Warming

 In the 60s, several scientists showed the assumptions on the greenhouse effect were
actually real. For what matters, Charles David Keeling proved, for instance, that the
concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was gradually increasing thanks to its
measurements near Hawaii.

 By its turn, Roger Revelle also proved that the carbon gases released by burning fossil
fuels were not immediately absorbed by the ocean, as was previously thought. This
discovery accelerated scientists’ worries about climate change and as a result, society and
politicians slowly began thinking about these issues as a possible problem in the future.

 A decade later, in 1971, during the first Earth Summit, the definition of global warming and
its consequences were broadly discussed and a year later, in 1972, John Sawyer
published a scientific report highlighting even more clearly the links between global
warming and the greenhouse effect.
  Growing Awareness About Global Warming
 For over a decade, evidence of climate change has been accumulated in the scientific
community until in the mid-1980s, the world’s 7 largest economic powers (the G7) called on
the UN to create a group of experts to study this issue. This was the first time there was a
real consideration and a true definition of climate change as a public problem by international
institutions
  The First IPCC Reports On Climate Change

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988 with the purpose of
studying the evolution of the phenomenon of climate change and its consequences. It brought (and
stills brings) together hundreds of scientists, climatologists, geologists, oceanographers, and
biologists, but also economists, sociologists, engineers and other specialists in various fields – with
the goal of having a global vision of this phenomenon. The IPCC is structured in three working
groups:
• The first group studies climate change as a phenomenon: they focus on the process and its
magnitude;
• The second group is specialized in the consequences of climate change: they’re interested in the
vulnerability of ecosystems and societies, as well as how the planet reacts and adapts to climate
change;
• The third and last group is responsible for studying the ways of fighting against climate change.
• The IPCC made its first report in 1990 and they kept making new ones periodically until they
published their last report in October 2018 that focuses on the impacts of a temperature
increase of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, its GHG emission pathways and was built in an
attempt to address policy makers more directly.
• Overall, in these reports, the IPCC scientific community analyzes the causes of climate change
and its impacts on the ecosystems and on society by developing predictive models. These models
and forecasts are then used by governments and businesses, helping them to put in place
strategies to combat climate change or adapt to it.
 IPCC REPORT GRAPH:
The impact Of Climate Change on the Earth’s Environment
  The impact Of Climate Change on the Earth’s Environment

• Thanks to the work of the IPCC and other groups of scientists

working on the definition of climate change, we now better
understand the impacts of this phenomenon in our lives. In the
minds of many, climate change is a relatively distant problem
that simply implies that it will get hotter. Nevertheless, the
impacts are much deeper and should be taken more seriously.
 The impacts Of Climate Change On Society And On The Economy

• An increase in temperature due to global warming it’s not only about a heat increase that can be
felt by humans or glacial ice melting – it has the potential to affect the planet’s entire ecosystem.
As we have been watching in many different countries, from the US (California) to India or South
Africa, the weather is getting disruptive. Extreme weather events are more regular and their
patterns are changing  – they’re more intensive, aggressive, and with more energy. This means
more storms, floods, cyclones, and droughts will take place over the next years.
• At the same time, the regulating capacity of oceans is also being affected by an increase in
temperatures. If global temperatures increase dramatically, ocean levels will not only increase –
they will also be facing the ecological challenges of oceanic acidification and deoxygenation. At
the same time, forest areas (e.g. Amazon rainforest), fragile ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs)
and biodiversity (e.g. corals, insects and mammals) are also under threat.
 The impacts Of Climate Change On Society And On The Economy

 Furthermore, climate change is already challenging and can further challenge our societies.
With the increase in temperatures in some countries, especially in Equatorial regions, the
flow of climate refugees is changing and increasing, putting pressure in other countries to
host them, help them strive and overcome political barriers.
 The reasons for this move have to do with natural resources, such as drinking water, that
are getting more limited and many crops and livestock that are unlikely to survive (affecting
locals but also the global economy of the several industries that rely on raw materials) in
specific locations because of the temperature being too hot or too dry, too cold or too wet.
And as it turns out, studies say that the wealthiest countries of the world will be the ones
experiencing fewer changes in their local climate compared to the poorest regions if the
global average surface temperatures reach the between 1.5º and 2º Celsius.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMICS IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
  The impact Of Climate Change On Businesses

• Finally, businesses are also likely to be affected by climate

change. Indeed, in a context where the climate is changing,
companies need to be aware of the risks that they may face
and be prepared to deal with them by developing CSR
strategies that evaluate the impacts they may suffer. Events
such as damaged crops, the loss of infrastructures,
unexpected changes in market stocks, investors that ask
for sustainability reports and the growing expectations of
society for business to be transparent are variables to keep an
eye on.
 CLIMATE CHANGE HAS DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACTS ON BUSINESS
 What can we do to minimize/reverse the adverse effect of climate change:

 To minimize the climate change, we must first reduce our greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. To accomplish this, the
first step is to embrace renewable energies that are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind,
rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat, and avoid creating energy by the burning of fossil fuels. As well, besides
swooping the types of energy we produce, we must also make everything more efficient, because even if the energy
comes from a renewable source, it still won’t be carbon neutral and will still contribute to the ozone depletion.
 We need to adapt our lifestyles to overcome these growing challenges that climate change is bringing. For this to happen,
we should start to create a worldwide culture of sustainable development, where the energy is wised wisely and efficiently,
where a circular economy is a strong bet, as well as durable and eco-friendly products. One thing is for sure, we need
to choose responsibly the products we buy because our demand as consumers influences what we are supplied with.
Other actions you can take to minimize climate change:
5 Steps You Can Take To Help Stop Deforestation 
If Using A Car, Taking At Least 3 People With You
Choose An Ecological Diet That’s Not Meat-Based
Choose Clothes Carefully And Supporting The Slow Fashion Movement
Use Photovoltaic Panels If You Can
Turn Your Office Paperless
Learn About Regenerative Agricultural Practices
THE END