How the earth climate has changed recently

How the earth climate has changed recently

I’m going to give a talk about weather and seasons.

I’m a schoolboy/schoolgirl now and of course I prefer summers as we have a chance for longer holidays. Also I feel much better if the weather is sunny and warm and you can swim and sunbathe. I’ve got my birthday in July and this is one more reason to love summers.

It should be mentioned that Earth’s climate has changed recently. We all know about the global warming and the problems which it causes such as hurricanes, droughts and so on. In my country there were cases of the snow in the middle of the summer and green grass in the middle of the winter.

I do not believe in the weather forecasts for the next day, week or month because they are very often wrong. I usually check the current temperature outside in the Internet before going out just to choose the right clothes. To be honest I’m not sure if it’s also a weather forecast or not.

Usually the weather in the region where I live is not so bad. So my attitude to it is neutral.

That’s all that I wanted to tell you about weather and seasons.

В — простой

I’m going to give a talk about weather and seasons.

My favourite season is summer of course as we have a chance for longer holidays. Also I like when the weather is sunny and warm and we can swim and sunbathe. I’ve got my birthday in July and this is one more reason to love summers.

Earth’s climate has changed recently. We all know about the global warming. It causes a lot of problems – hurricanes, for example. In my country there were cases of the snow in the middle of the summer and green grass in the middle of the winter.

I do not believe in the weather forecasts because they are very often wrong. I usually check the temperature outside in the Internet before going out. I’m sometimes interested in the forecast for the weekend if we plan a picnic or a camping trip.

The weather in the city where I live is not usually bad. So my attitude to it is neutral.

That’s all that I wanted to tell you about weather and seasons.

Данная тема является частью онлайн-курса «Идеальный монолог ОГЭ»

Готовый вариант ответа на монолог ОГЭ по теме «Погода и времена года» + упражнения на закрепление

I’d like to talk about weather and seasons. It’s truly amazing how nature changes from season to season, demonstrating its bright colours and spectacular views.

which of the four seasons you like most, and why

In my opinion, the best season is spring, because firstly, it’s very comfortable outside – not very hot and not very cold; secondly, you can wear light clothes, and thirdly, it’s very beautiful when nature awakens from its long winter sleep.

how the Earth’s climate has changed recently

In fact, the Earth’s climate has changed recently, most people say it’s because of the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming. Thus, people’s activities can lead to irreversible consequences.

whether you trust the weather forecast, and why

As for me, I trust the weather forecast mostly, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, because, actually, nature cannot be accurately predicted.

what season is the best time in the region where you live

I think the best season in my region is spring, because firstly, it’s very comfortable outside – not very hot and not very cold; secondly, you can wear light clothes, and thirdly, it’s very beautiful when nature awakens from its long winter sleep.

whether you agree with the proverb «There is no bad weather, there are only bad clothes»

I fully agree with the proverb «There’s no bad weather, there’s only bad clothes», because nature is beautiful whatever season it is, you should just try to see it beauty even when it’s dark and cold.

what you usually do when it is nasty and cold

As far as I’m concerned, when the weather is unpleasant, I usually stay at home and do my housework, or sometimes I like watching rain pouring outside.

To sum it all up, I’d like to say, that all the seasons are lovely, and people should be environmentally friendly, and enjoy every sun ray and every rain drop because nature is beautiful in any state.

1. Translate the following words from English into Russian

To be truly amazing –

To change from season to season –

To demonstrate bright colours and spectacular view –

To wear light clothes –

To awaken from long winter sleep –

The greenhouse effect –

To cause global warming –

To lead to irreversible consequences –

To be accurately predicted –

To do one’s housework –

2. Match the phrases with their translation

1) I’d like to talk about weather and seasons. It’s truly amazing how nature changes from season to season, demonstrating its bright colours and spectacular views.

2) In my opinion, the best season is spring, because firstly, it’s very comfortable outside – not very hot and not very cold; secondly, you can wear light clothes, and thirdly, it’s very beautiful when nature awakens from its long winter sleep.

b ) Что касается меня, я по большей части доверяю прогнозу погоды, но, к сожалению, он не всегда работает, потому что на самом деле природу нельзя спрогнозировать с точностью.

3) In fact, the Earth’s climate has changed recently, most people say it’s because of the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming. Thus, people’s activities can lead to irreversible consequences.

c ) Я полностью согласна с пословицей «У погоды нет плохой погоды», поскольку природа красива в любое время года, надо лишь постараться увидеть эту красоту, даже когда темно и холодно.

4) As for me, I trust the weather forecast mostly, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, because, actually, nature cannot be accurately predicted.

d ) Что касается меня, когда погода неприятная, я обычно остаюсь дома и делаю домашние дела или иногда мне нравится наблюдать за дождем за окном.

5) I fully agree with the proverb «There’s no bad weather, there’s only bad clothes», because nature is beautiful whatever season it is, you should just try to see it beauty even when it’s dark and cold.

e ) Я думаю, что лучшее время года – весна, потому что, во-первых, на улице очень комфортно – не жарко и не холодно; во-вторых, можно носить легкую одежду. В-третьих, очень красиво, когда природа просыпается от своего долгого зимнего сна.

6) As far as I’m concerned, when the weather is unpleasant, I usually stay at home and do my housework, or sometimes I like watching rain pouring outside.

f ) В заключение, хотелось бы сказать, что все времена года хороши, и люди должны быть в гармонии с природой и наслаждаться каждым лучиком солнца и каждой каплей дождя, потому что природа красива в любое время.

7) To sum it all up, I’d like to say, that all the seasons are lovely, and people should be environmentally friendly, and enjoy every sun ray and every rain drop because nature is beautiful in any state.

g ) Я хотела бы поговорить о погоде и временах года. И вправду удивительно, как природа меняется от сезона к сезону, демонстрируя свои яркие цвета и потрясающие виды.

3. Translate the sentences from English into Russian

1) I’d like to talk about weather and seasons. It’s truly amazing how nature changes from season to season, demonstrating its bright colours and spectacular views.

2) In my opinion, the best season is spring, because firstly, it’s very comfortable outside – not very hot and not very cold; secondly, you can wear light clothes, and thirdly, it’s very beautiful when nature awakens from its long winter sleep.

3) In fact, the Earth’s climate has changed recently, most people say it’s because of the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming. Thus, people’s activities can lead to irreversible consequences.

4) As for me, I trust the weather forecast mostly, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, because, actually, nature cannot be accurately predicted.

5) I fully agree with the proverb «There’s no bad weather, there’s only bad clothes», because nature is beautiful whatever season it is, you should just try to see it beauty even when it’s dark and cold.

6) As far as I’m concerned, when the weather is unpleasant, I usually stay at home and do my housework, or sometimes I like watching rain pouring outside.

7) To sum it all up, I’d like to say, that all the seasons are lovely, and people should be environmentally friendly, and enjoy every sun ray and every rain drop because nature is beautiful in any state.

4. Translate the sentences from Russian into English

1) Я хотела бы поговорить о погоде и временах года. И вправду удивительно, как природа меняется от сезона к сезону, демонстрируя свои яркие цвета и потрясающие виды.

2) Я думаю, что лучшее время года – весна, потому что, во-первых, на улице очень комфортно – не жарко и не холодно; во-вторых, можно носить легкую одежду. В-третьих, очень красиво, когда природа просыпается от своего долгого зимнего сна.

3) Фактически, климат на Земле изменился с недавних пор, большинство говорят, что это из-за парникового эффекта, который вызывает глобальное потепление. Таким образом, деятельность людей может привести к необратимым последствиям.

4) Что касается меня, я по большей части доверяю прогнозу погоды, но, к сожалению, он не всегда работает, потому что на самом деле природу нельзя спрогнозировать с точностью.

5) Я полностью согласна с пословицей «У погоды нет плохой погоды», поскольку природа красива в любое время года, надо лишь постараться увидеть эту красоту, даже когда темно и холодно.

6) Что касается меня, когда погода неприятная, я обычно остаюсь дома и делаю домашние дела или иногда мне нравится наблюдать за дождем за окном.

7) В заключение, хотелось бы сказать, что все времена года хороши, и люди должны быть в гармонии с природой и наслаждаться каждым лучиком солнца и каждой каплей дождя, потому что природа красива в любое время.

5. What is it like outside when it’s spring? Describe the weather. Why is it your favourite season? Try to use your active vocabulary.

How the earth climate has changed recently

The weather changes all the time. It can change in a matter of minutes. Changes in climate occur more slowly, and the changes tend to be small. But even small changes in climate can make a big difference for Earth and its living things.

How Earth’s Climate Has Changed

Earth’s climate has changed many times through Earth’s history. It’s been both hotter and colder than it is today.

The Big Picture

Over much of Earth’s past, the climate was warmer than it is today. Picture in your mind dinosaurs roaming the land. They’re probably doing it in a pretty warm climate! But ice ages also occurred many times in the past. An ice age is a period when temperatures are cooler than normal. This causes glaciers to spread to lower latitudes. Scientists think that ice ages occurred at least six times over the last billion years alone. How do scientists learn about Earth’s past climates?

Pleistocene Ice Age

The last major ice age took place in the Pleistocene. This epoch lasted from 2 million to 14,000 years ago. Earth’s temperature was only 5° C (9° F) cooler than it is today. But glaciers covered much of the Northern Hemisphere. In Figure below, you can see how far south they went. Clearly, a small change in temperature can have a big impact on the planet. Humans lived during this ice age.

Pleistocene glaciers covered an enormous land area. Chicago is just one city that couldn’t have existed during the Pleistocene.

Earth’s Recent Temperature

Since the Pleistocene, Earth’s temperature has risen. Figure below shows how it changed over just the last 2000 years. There were minor ups and downs. But each time, the anomaly (the difference from average temperature) was less than 1° C (1.8° F).

Since the mid 1800s, Earth has warmed up quickly. Look at Figure below. The 14 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1900. Eight of them have occurred since 1998! This is what is usually meant by global warming.

Explaining Long-Term Climate Change

Natural processes caused earlier climate changes. Human beings are the main cause of recent global warming.

Causes of Climate Change in Earth History

Several natural processes may affect Earth’s temperature. They range from sunspots to Earth’s wobble.

Causes of Global Warming

Recent global warming is due mainly to human actions. Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It’s one of several that human activities add to the atmosphere. An increase in greenhouse gases leads to greater greenhouse effect. The result is increased global warming. Figure below shows the increase in carbon dioxide since 1960.

How much more carbon dioxide was in the air in 2005 than in 1960?

Effects of Global Warming

As Earth has gotten warmer, sea ice has melted. This has raised the level of water in the oceans. Figure below shows how much sea level has risen since 1880.

How much did sea level rise between 1880 and 2000?

Other effects of global warming include more extreme weather. Earth now has more severe storms, floods, heat waves, and droughts than it did just a few decades ago. Many living things cannot adjust to the changing climate. For example, coral reefs are dying out in all the world’s oceans.

How Will Climate Change in the Future?

Earth’s temperature will keep rising unless greenhouse gases are curbed. Look at the projections in Figure below. The temperature in 2100 may be as much as 5° C (9° F) higher than it was in 2000. Since the glacial periods of the Pleistocene, average temperature has risen about 4° C. That’s just 4° C from abundant ice to the moderate climate we have today. How might a 5° C increase in temperature affect Earth in the future?

Projections of several different models are shown here. They all predict a warmer future.

Warming will affect the entire globe by the end of this century. The map in Figure below shows the average temperature in 2070 to 2100. This is compared with the average temperature in 1960 to 1990. In what two places is the temperature increase the greatest? Where in the United States is the temperature increase the highest?

The Arctic and the Amazon basin will experience the greatest temperature changes.

As temperature rises, more sea ice will melt. Figure below shows how much less sea ice there may be in 2050 if temperatures keep going up. This would cause sea level to rise even higher. Some coastal cities could be under water. Millions of people would have to move inland. How might other living things be affected?

In the 2050s, there may be only half as much sea ice as there was in the 1950s.

Short-Term Climate Change

You’ve probably heard of El Niño and La Niña. These terms refer to certain short-term changes in climate. The changes are natural and occur in cycles. To understand the changes, you first need to know what happens in normal years. This is shown in Figure below.

This diagram represents the Pacific Ocean in a normal year. North and South America are the brown shapes on the right.

El Niño

During an El Niño, the western Pacific Ocean is warmer than usual. This causes the trade winds to change direction. The winds blow from west to east instead of east to west. This is shown in Figure below. The warm water travels east across the equator, too. Warm water piles up along the western coast of South America. This prevents upwelling. Why do you think this is true?

These changes in water temperature, winds, and currents affect climates worldwide. The changes usually last a year or two. Some places get more rain than normal. Other places get less. In many locations, the weather is more severe.

How do you think El Ni

La Niña

La Niña generally follows El Niño. It occurs when the Pacific Ocean is cooler than normal. Figure below shows what happens. The trade winds are like they are in a normal year. They blow from east to west. But in a La Niña the winds are stronger than usual. More cool water builds up in the western Pacific. These changes can also affect climates worldwide.

How do you think La Ni

Global Warming and Short-Term Climate Change

Some scientists think that global warming is affecting the cycle of El Niño and La Niña. These short-term changes seem to be cycling faster now than in the past. They are also more extreme.

Lesson Summary

Lesson Review Questions

Recall

1. What is an ice age?

2. Describe the Pleistocene ice age.

3. Outline recent changes in Earth’s temperature.

4. What does global warming usually refer to?

5. Identify three natural causes of climate change.

6. List two effects of global warming.

Apply Concepts

7. Create a public service announcement about global warming. Explain how global warming is related to human actions and what people can do to reduce it. (Hint: How can people produce less carbon dioxide?)

Think Critically

8. Compare and contrast El Niño and La Niña.

9. Nearly all scientists are united in saying that human activities are causing much of the warming we see. Why do you think politicians are reluctant to believe them? Why is the public reluctant to believe them?

Points to Consider

A place’s climate determines what kinds of plants and animals can live there.

How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)

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How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)

By Howard Lee

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Orbital wobbles, plate tectonics, evolutionary changes and other factors have sent the planet in and out of ice ages.

Howard Lee

Earth has been a snowball and a hothouse at different times in its past. So if the climate changed before humans, how can we be sure we’re responsible for the dramatic warming that’s happening today?

In part it’s because we can clearly show the causal link between carbon dioxide emissions from human activity and the 1.28 degree Celsius (and rising) global temperature increase since preindustrial times. Carbon dioxide molecules absorb infrared radiation, so with more of them in the atmosphere, they trap more of the heat radiating off the planet’s surface below.

But paleoclimatologists have also made great strides in understanding the processes that drove climate change in Earth’s past. Here’s a primer on 10 ways climate varies naturally, and how each compares with what’s happening now.

Solar Cycles

Magnitude: 0.1 to 0.3 degrees Celsius of cooling

Time frame: 30- to 160-year downturns in solar activity separated by centuries

Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic field flips, driving an 11-year cycle of solar brightening and dimming. But the variation is small and has a negligible impact on Earth’s climate.

More significant are “grand solar minima,” decades-long periods of reduced solar activity that have occurred 25 times in the last 11,000 years. A recent example, the Maunder minimum, which occurred between 1645 and 1715, saw solar energy drop by 0.04% to 0.08% below the modern average. Scientists long thought the Maunder minimum might have caused the “Little Ice Age,” a cool period from the 15th to the 19th century; they’ve since shown it was too small and occurred at the wrong time to explain the cooling, which probably had more to do with volcanic activity.

The sun has been dimming slightly for the last half-century while the Earth heats up, so global warming cannot be blamed on the sun.

Volcanic Sulfur

Magnitude: Approximately 0.6 to 2 degrees Celsius of cooling

Time frame: 1 to 20 years

In the year 539 or 540 A.D., the Ilopango volcano in El Salvador exploded so violently that its eruption plume reached high into the stratosphere. Cold summers, drought, famine and plague devastated societies around the world.

Eruptions like Ilopango’s inject the stratosphere with reflective droplets of sulfuric acid that screen sunlight, cooling the climate. Sea ice can increase as a result, reflecting more sunlight back to space and thereby amplifying and prolonging the global cooling.

Ilopango triggered a roughly 2 degree Celsius drop that lasted 20 years. More recently, the eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 cooled the global climate by 0.6 degrees Celsius for 15 months.

Volcanic sulfur in the stratosphere can be disruptive, but in the grand scale of Earth’s history it’s tiny and temporary.

Short-Term Climate Fluctuations

Magnitude: Up to 0.15 degrees Celsius

Time frame: 2 to 7 years

On top of seasonal weather patterns, there are other short-term cycles that affect rainfall and temperature. The most significant, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, involves circulation changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean on a time frame of two to seven years that strongly influence rainfall in North America. The North Atlantic Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole also produce strong regional effects. Both of these interact with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.

The interconnections between these cycles used to make it hard to show that human-caused climate change was statistically significant and not just another lurch of natural variability. But anthropogenic climate change has since gone well beyond natural variability in weather and seasonal temperatures. The U.S. National Climate Assessment in 2017 concluded that there’s “no convincing evidence for natural cycles in the observational record that could explain the observed changes in climate.”

Orbital Wobbles

Magnitude: Approximately 6 degrees Celsius in the last 100,000-year cycle; varies through geological time

Time frame: Regular, overlapping cycles of 23,000, 41,000, 100,000, 405,000 and 2,400,000 years

Earth’s orbit wobbles as the sun, the moon and other planets change their relative positions. These cyclical wobbles, called Milankovitch cycles, cause the amount of sunlight to vary at middle latitudes by up to 25% and cause the climate to oscillate. These cycles have operated throughout time, yielding the alternating layers of sediment you see in cliffs and road cuts.

During the Pleistocene epoch, which ended about 11,700 years ago, Milankovitch cycles sent the planet in and out of ice ages. When Earth’s orbit made northern summers warmer than average, vast ice sheets across North America, Europe and Asia melted; when the orbit cooled northern summers, those ice sheets grew again. Since warmer oceans dissolve less carbon dioxide, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose and fell in concert with these orbital wobbles, amplifying their effects.

Today Earth is approaching another minimum of northern sunlight, so without human carbon dioxide emissions we would be heading into another ice age within the next 1,500 years or so.

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Volcanoes, metamorphic rocks and the oxidization of carbon in eroded sediments all emit carbon dioxide into the sky, while chemical reactions with silicate minerals remove carbon dioxide and bury it as limestone. The balance between these processes works as a thermostat, because when the climate warms, chemical reactions become more efficient at removing carbon dioxide, putting a brake on the warming. When the climate cools, reactions become less efficient, easing the cooling. Consequently, over the very long term, Earth’s climate has remained relatively stable, providing a habitable environment. In particular, average carbon dioxide levels have declined steadily in response to solar brightening.

However, the weathering thermostat takes hundreds of thousands of years to react to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Earth’s oceans can act somewhat faster to absorb and remove excess carbon, but even that takes millennia and can be overwhelmed, leading to ocean acidification. Each year, the burning of fossil fuels emits about 100 times more carbon dioxide than volcanoes emit — too much too fast for oceans and weathering to neutralize it, which is why our climate is warming and our oceans are acidifying.

Plate Tectonics

Magnitude: Roughly 30 degrees Celsius over the past 500 million years

Time frame: Millions of years

The rearrangement of land masses on Earth’s crust can slowly shift the weathering thermostat to a new setting.

The planet has generally been cooling for the last 50 million years or so, as plate tectonic collisions thrust up chemically reactive rock like basalt and volcanic ash in the warm, wet tropics, increasing the rate of reactions that draw carbon dioxide from the sky. Additionally, over the last 20 million years, the building of the Himalayas, Andes, Alps and other mountains has more than doubled erosion rates, boosting weathering. Another contributor to the cooling trend was the drifting apart of South America and Tasmania from Antarctica 35.7 million years ago, which initiated a new ocean current around Antarctica. This invigorated ocean circulation and carbon dioxide–consuming plankton; Antarctica’s ice sheets subsequently grew substantially.

Earlier, in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, dinosaurs roamed Antarctica because enhanced volcanic activity, in the absence of those mountain chains, sustained carbon dioxide levels around 1,000 parts per million, compared to 415 ppm today. The average temperature of this ice-free world was 5 to 9 degrees Celsius warmer than now, and sea levels were around 250 feet higher.

Asteroid Impacts

Magnitude: Approximately 20 degrees Celsius of cooling followed by 5 degrees Celsius of warming (Chicxulub)

Time frame: Centuries of cooling, 100,000 years of warming (Chicxulub)

The Earth Impact Database recognizes 190 craters with confirmed impact on Earth so far. None had any discernable effect on Earth’s climate except for the Chicxulub impact, which vaporized part of Mexico 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs. Computer modeling suggests that Chicxulub blasted enough dust and sulfur into the upper atmosphere to dim sunlight and cool Earth by more than 20 degrees Celsius, while also acidifying the oceans. The planet took centuries to return to its pre-impact temperature, only to warm by a further 5 degrees Celsius, due to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from vaporized Mexican limestone.

How or whether volcanic activity in India around the same time as the impact exacerbated the climate change and mass extinction remains controversial.

Evolutionary Changes

Magnitude: Depends on event; about 5 degrees Celsius cooling in late Ordovician (445 million years ago)

Time frame: Millions of years

Occasionally, the evolution of new kinds of life has reset Earth’s thermostat. Photosynthetic cyanobacteria that arose some 3 billion years ago, for instance, began terraforming the planet by emitting oxygen. As they proliferated, oxygen eventually rose in the atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago, while methane and carbon dioxide levels plummeted. This plunged Earth into a series of “snowball” climates for 200 million years. The evolution of ocean life larger than microbes initiated another series of snowball climates 717 million years ago — in this case, it was because the organisms began raining detritus into the deep ocean, exporting carbon from the atmosphere into the abyss and ultimately burying it.

When the earliest land plants evolved about 230 million years later in the Ordovician period, they began forming the terrestrial biosphere, burying carbon on continents and extracting land nutrients that washed into the oceans, boosting life there, too. These changes probably triggered the ice age that began about 445 million years ago. Later, in the Devonian period, the evolution of trees further reduced carbon dioxide and temperatures, conspiring with mountain building to usher in the Paleozoic ice age.

Large Igneous Provinces

Magnitude: Around 3 to 9 degrees Celsius of warming

Time frame: Hundreds of thousands of years

Continent-scale floods of lava and underground magma called large igneous provinces have ushered in many of Earth’s mass extinctions. These igneous events unleashed an arsenal of killers (including acid rain, acid fog, mercury poisoning and destruction of the ozone layer), while also warming the planet by dumping huge quantities of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere more quickly than the weathering thermostat could handle.

In the end-Permian event 252 million years ago, which wiped out 81% of marine species, underground magma ignited Siberian coal, drove up atmospheric carbon dioxide to 8,000 parts per million and raised the temperature by between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius. The more minor Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum event 56 million years ago cooked methane in North Atlantic oil deposits and funneled it into the sky, warming the planet by 5 degrees Celsius and acidifying the ocean; alligators and palms subsequently thrived on Arctic shores. Similar releases of fossil carbon deposits happened in the end-Triassic and the early Jurassic; global warming, ocean dead zones and ocean acidification resulted.

If any of that sounds familiar, it’s because human activity is causing the same effects today.

As a team of researchers studying the end-Triassic event wrote in April in Nature Communications, “Our estimates suggest that the amount of CO₂ that each … magmatic pulse injected into the end-Triassic atmosphere is comparable to the amount of anthropogenic emissions projected for the 21st century.”

Update: July 24, 2020
An earlier version of this article included a chart of carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations through deep time. That chart was based on a single data source and does not reflect the best available modern evidence. It has been removed it from the article.

Climate Change | Definition, Causes, Effects and Solutions

Climate change is a topic that has sparked discussions worldwide with humans facing extinction if actions are not taken. In this article, we look at Climate change as a whole, its causes, effects, and solutions.

The climate which is the average weather condition of a particular area has been known to change. Climate can also be said to be the atmospheric temperature condition of a given area over a long time, of about 30 years.

Table of Contents

Climate Change | Definition, Causes, Effects and Solutions

What is Climate Change?

The issue of climate change has been of ever-growing concern with rallies and protest going on all over the world to bring sustainability to the notice of the world rulers because sustainability is very much connected to climate change.

To discuss the term “climate change”, let it be known that the climate of the earth changes with time naturally but the issue of climate change has been of global notice because of the accelerated and rapid change in the Earth’s climate.

Climate change was coined by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896 and was popularised in the 1950s as “a long-term rise in Earth’s average atmospheric temperature.”

Owning to the fact that they have been noticeable changes in the atmospheric temperature of the earth primarily as a result of human impact. And from the mid-20th century to the present, climate change is usually referred to as a ride in the Earth’s atmospheric temperature.

Climate change is the change in the atmospheric temperature of the earth. This process is usually gradual and has been occurring for millions of years of which scientists have used to separate the different ages of man. This is a natural process.

But climate change as we know it today is the rapid change in the atmospheric conditions of the earth and this is a result of anthropogenic activities as earlier started.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Climate change is a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns.

The Earth was satisfied and could cope with the gradual process of climate change as was in old times induced through some natural process like a volcanic eruption, variations in the solar cycle, and change in the Earth’s movement balancing itself out.

But, adding both the gradual process of climate change and the rapid process of climate change has constituted huge stress to the Earth’s atmospheric conditions which have caused it to react to the detriment of humans in a quest to balance itself.

Climate change is an issue that’s to be taken very seriously by everyone. According to scientific prediction, the added stress of climate change has reduced the life span of the Earth drastically which could lead to the extinction of the human race.

Climate change according to NASA,

“Climate change is a broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s atmosphere.

These phenomena include the increased temperature trends described by global warming, but also encompass changes such as sea-level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flower/plant blooming; and extreme weather events.”

Climate change according to US Geological Survey,

“Climate change refers to the increasing changes in the measures of climate over a long period of time – including precipitation, temperature, and wind patterns.”

After understanding what is climate change, let’s look at what could cause climate change.

Causes of Climate Change

The following are factors that have contributed to climate change and they are as divided into two main causes;

1. Natural Causes

According to NASA,

“These natural causes are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades rather, it is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the main cause of climate change.”

The natural causes of climate change are as follows:

1. Solar Radiation

There is variation in the amount of energy released by solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface and this influences the Earth’s climatic patterns causing climate change.

Any increase in solar energy would make the entire atmosphere of Earth warm, but we can only see warming in the bottom layer.

2. Milankovitch Cycles

According to Milankovitch’s theory, three cycles affect the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface and this affects the Earth’s climatic patterns. These cycles cause climate change after a long time.

The Milankovitch cycles consist of the three changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

The shape of Earth’s orbit, known as eccentricity;

The angle Earth’s axis is tilted to Earth’s orbital plane, known as obliquity; and

The direction Earth’s axis of rotation is pointed, known as precession.

For precession and axial tilt, it’s tens of thousands of years while for eccentricity, it’s hundreds of thousands of years.

Eccentricity

This is the measure of the shape’s deviation of the earth’s orbit from being a circle. The orbit of the earth around the sun is in an ellipse form but it’s not always in ellipse form, the shape of the earth’s orbit changes with time to become almost like a circle.

This variation in the shape of the earth’s orbit around the sun affects the Earth’s closeness to the sun at a particular time thereby affecting the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface consequently causing climate change.

The closer the earth is to the sun, the warmer our climate will be and the farther the earth is to the sun, the cooler our climate will be. This also affects the length of seasons.

The Earth’s Axial Tilt

The tilt in the axis of the Earth is called its ‘obliquity’. This angle changes with time, and over about 41 000 years it moves from 22.1° to 24.5° and back again. When the angle increases the summers become warmer and the winters become colder.

The Earth’s Precession

Precession is the wobbling of the Earth on its axis. This is caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun upon the Earth making the North pole change where it points to the sky. It impacts the seasonal contrasts between hemispheres and the timing of the seasons hence climate change.

3. Plate Tectonics and Volcanic Eruptions

Plate tectonics is the movement of flat large rocks under the earth’s surface by molten rocks. Plate tectonics has been the reason for the creation and the gradual movement of continents.

Plate tectonics is the reason for volcanic eruptions and also the forming of mountains. These processes contribute to climate change. Mountain chains influence the circulation of air around the globe hence causing climate change.

Volcanic eruptions are responsible for the creations of new lands but also cause climate change. Volcanic eruptions release gases and particles into the atmosphere and these particles or gases go on to either reduce the atmospheric temperature or increase it.

This is dependent on the materials and also how sunlight interacts with the volcanic materials. Volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) can cause global cooling, but CO2 has the potential to cause global warming.

The particles can obstruct sunlight from hitting the earth’s surface and can be there for months or some years causing a reduction in temperature hence a temporal climate change.

These gases or particulates can also react with other gases in the stratosphere destroying the Ozone layer and letting more solar radiation into the earth causing climate change.

In the present day, the contribution of volcanic emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere is very small.

4. Changes in Ocean Currents

Ocean currents are responsible for the distribution of heat around the globe. When the ocean is heated by solar radiation, the water particles become lighter and are easily transported by wind (ocean currents) to cooler waters or vice versa. This helps in the moderation of the temperature of the earth.

As oceans store a large amount of heat, even small changes in ocean currents can have a large effect on the global climate. In particular, increases in sea surface temperature can increase the amount of atmospheric water vapor over the oceans, increasing the quantity of greenhouse gas.

If the oceans are warmer they can’t absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which then leads to warmer temperatures and climate change.

5. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

ENSO is a pattern of changing water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. In an ‘El Niño’ year, the global temperature warms up, and in a ‘La Niña’ year, it cools down. These patterns can cause climate change for a short amount of time (months or years).

6. Meteorite Impacts

Though very little material from meteorites and cosmic dust is added to the earth on a few occasions, these meteorite impacts have contributed to climate change in the past.

Meteorite impact behaves in the same way volcanic eruptions do by releasing dust and aerosols high up in the atmosphere preventing solar radiation from reaching the earth’s surface which causes global temperatures to do. This effect can last for a few years.

Meteorit contains CO2, CH4, and water vapor which are major greenhouse gases and these gases stay in the atmosphere after being released causing global temperatures to increase. This type of climate change can last for decades.

2. Anthropogenic Causes

These are the main causes of climate change as they are the causes that have drawn the attention of the public towards climate change. These causes have caused global warming which then leads to climate change. They include:

1. Increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse gases are gases that reduce the amount of heat that is being transported back to space thereby conditioning the earth.

These gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) nitrous oxide (NOx), fluorinated gases, and water vapor. Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, but it stays in the atmosphere for just a few days while CO2 stays in the atmosphere much longer, contributing to longer periods of warming.

When these gases are too much, they constitute a problem increasing the atmospheric temperature which consequently causes climate change.

CO2 is the largest contributor to global warming majorly because it stays longer in the atmosphere even for centuries.

Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 but has a shorter atmospheric lifetime. Nitrous oxide, like CO2, is a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere over decades to centuries.

These greenhouse gases have been increased or accelerated by human activities like the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, etc.

2. Deforestation

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees. Deforestation occurs as a result of urbanization. But this causes climate change as trees take in carbon dioxide which is a major agent in warming the earth and use them for their survival reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Trees also regulate the microclimate of that area by providing shade reducing the amount of sunlight on the earth’s surface but when they are cut down.

The earth’s surface is laid bare increasing atmospheric temperature to more than normal and also, there will be excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere encouraging more global warming and hence climate change.

3. Agriculture

Though agriculture has been very beneficial to man providing food for our survival, agricultural practices cause global warming which results in climate change.

Livestock production which is a form of agriculture p produces methane which is 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the earth.

Most fertilizers that are applied in plants for better growth contain nitrous oxide which is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in causing global warming which leads to climate change.

4. Urbanisation

This is the migration of rural communities into urban cities of we can transform rural communities into urban cities.

There is a rapid increase in urbanization in our time and this has not been sustainable as leads to deforestation and increases the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as people use products and appliances that emit greenhouse gases leading to global warming hence climate change.

Urbanization also causes climate change through the vehicles which are emitters of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere leading to global warming which causes climate change.

5. Industrialisation

Though we may say we have part of the age of industrialization, industries are still here with us. Many of which emit dangerous gases which are not just harmful to man but also our climate.

Through the emission of greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, fluorinated gases. Some even produce products that emit these gases that cause climate change.

Cement production which is under the industry produces about 2% of our entire carbon dioxide production.

Effects of Climate Change

The following are effects of climate change:

1. Melting Ice and Rising Seas

Climate change leads to the melting of ice caps and the rising of sea levels. The climate becomes warmer as a result of climate change and this leads to the melting of ice caps which consequently increases the height of sea levels. Rising sea levels are also caused by the warming of sea waters.

This also leads to an increase in more intense hurricanes.

2. Coastal Region Displacement

As a result of climate change causing rising sea levels, coastal regions are flooded which displaces coastal inhabitants. This would be of a very high impact since much of the world’s population live in coastal regions. It also leads to the migration of people to these coastal regions.

3. Extreme Weather and Shifting Rainfall Patterns

When climate change occurs, we know that the seasons and rainfall patterns would be distorted making it extremely for our survival.

These extreme weather conditions include longer heat periods, more heatwaves, changes in the normal planting and harvesting seasons, heavier rainfall which leads to flooding and decrease in water quality, and also water availability in some regions. This also leads to more droughts heart waves.

4. Increase in Ocean Temperatures

When the climate changes, temperatures become extreme and this impacts the oceans increasing their temperatures. This impacts the fishes and other inhabitants of the oceans causing death or migration of the aquatic animals.

5. Risks for Human Health

The big effect of climate change is increasing in temperature but this increase also causes an increase in disease vectors which harm human health. Communities without a basic health system are the ones most at risk.

Also, rising sea levels result in diseases being transmitted through flooding thereby causing an outbreak of communicable diseases.

6. Increase in Hunger

Climate change causes flooding which is a result of increasing sea levels and precipitations which consequently destroys farmlands and causes a spike in hunger.

Climates change also leads to loss of biodiversity due to limited adaptability and adaptability speed of flora and fauna to the harsh climate.

The ocean would be acidified due to increased HCO3 concentrations in the water as a consequence of increased CO₂ concentrations

7. Economic Impacts

There would be economic implications of dealing with damages related to climate change. Some of them include damage to property and infrastructure and human health imposes heavy costs on society and the economy.

Sectors that rely strongly on certain temperatures and precipitation levels such as agriculture, forestry, energy, and tourism are particularly affected.

8. Adverse Impact on Wildlife

Climate change is happening so fast that many plants and animal species are struggling to cope. Many of them run the risk of going on the extinction of which some have gone extinct.

Many of these terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species have already migrated to other locations. If global average temperatures continue to rise leading to climate change.

Examples of Climate Change

The most obvious example of climate change is global warming which is the increase in the earth’s surface temperature.

It also encompasses changes such as sea-level rise; ice mass loss through melting in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic, and mountain glaciers worldwide shifts in flower/plant blooming periods, change in weather seasons, and extreme weather events.

Facts that Prove Climate Change

These facts are based on the publication of the sixth IPCC climate change report underlining the adverse humans have made the climate:

More carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than at any time in human history

According to reports from the World Metrological Organisation (WMO), There’s more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than at any time in human history with the earth warmer than it has been in 125,000 years.

Regardless of the lockdown in 2020, the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record of 413.2 parts per million. Methane gas has gone up to 262 percent than it was in 1750.

In February and March 2021, sensors at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii – which has tracked Earth’s atmospheric concentration of CO2 since the late 1950s – detected CO2 concentrations of more than 417 parts per million (ppm). Pre-industrial levels were 149 ppm.

Increase in atmospheric temperature

We’re on the path to exceeding 1.5C of warming. By this, the world is on track for an atmospheric temperature rise of 2.7C by the end of the century.

“The State of the Global Climate 2020 finds the year was one of the three warmest on record, despite a cooling La Niña event.

The global average temperature was about 1.2° Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level. The six years since 2015 have been the warmest on record, with 2011-2020 the warmest decade on record.”

By this, the world is on track for a global temperature rise of 2.7C by the end of the century.

The report documents indicators of the climate system, including greenhouse gas concentrations, increasing land and ocean temperatures, sea-level rise, melting ice and glacier retreats, and extreme weather.

It also includes impacts on socio-economic development, migration and displacement, food security, and land and marine ecosystems.

In 2015, the nations behind the Paris Agreement set a target to keep global warming below 1.5C.

The latest IPCC report has made it known that if emission rates are not cut down shortly, reaching the 1.5C limit will just be a matter of time.

Additional deaths per year

According to World Health Organisation, Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.

The direct damage costs to health (i.e. excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation) are estimated to be between USD 2-4 billion/year by 2030.

Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.”

Extreme weather events

Two-thirds of extreme weather events in the last 20 years were influenced by humans

With extreme weather events being caused by several factors, climate scientists are increasingly exploring the human fingerprints on floods, heatwaves, droughts, and storms.

Carbon Brief, after gathering data from 230 studies into “extreme event attribution” in the last 20 years found that 68 percent of all extreme weather events studied were accelerated by anthropogenic factors. Heatwaves account for 43 percent of such events, droughts make up 17 percent and heavy rainfall or floods account for 16 percent.

Drop-in average Wildlife Population

Average wildlife populations have dropped by 60 percent in just over 40 years

According to the Living Planet Report published by the Zoological Society of London and the WWF,

“The average size of vertebrate (mammals, fish, birds and reptiles) populations declined by 60 per cent between 1970 and 2014. That doesn’t mean that total animal populations have declined by 60 per cent, but the report compares the relative decline of different animal populations.”

An international panel of scientists, backed by the UN, argues that climate change is playing an increasing role in driving species to extinction.

Frequently asked questions on Climate Change

Why is Climate Change so Important?

Climate change has been the topic of many discussions of recent by both the world population and its leaders, and this is because climate change relates to humans.

Everything on earth is made for humans and climate change affects virtually everything from air to land and sea. Humans could go on the extinction if we fail to place importance on climate change.

Climate change was not given any thought until the industrial revolution when it became evident that our actions were causing the rise in the earth’s surface temperature, there were more heatwaves noticed, and as we draw into the present,

We can see other examples of this climate change along with its effects like the rise in sea temperatures, flooding, the melting of ice caps, bleaching of coral reefs, more horrible hurricanes, increase in the spread of disease vectors, etc.

This has led to the loss of biodiversity, the spread of diseases as these little things affects us because we depend on them for our survival.

With the rise in sea temperatures and the bleaching of corals reefs, liquid oxygen is being limited in the oceans leading to the death of aquatic organisms and also a reduction in surface oxygen.

Climate change is important because it’s necessary that we leave for the future generations better earth and not one that is on the brink of collapse.

What are the Main Natural Causes of Climate Change?

The following are the main natural causes of climate change

1. Plate Tectonics and Volcanic Eruption

Volcanic eruption releases gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) which can cause global cooling and CO2 which has the potential to cause global warming.

Volcanic particles can obstruct sunlight from hitting the earth’s surface and can be there for months or some years causing a reduction in temperature hence a temporal climate change. These gases or particulates can also react with other gases in the stratosphere destroying the Ozone layer and letting more solar radiation into the earth causing climate change.

2. Milankovitch Cycles

According to Milankovitch’s theory, three cycles affect the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface and this affects the Earth’s climatic patterns. These cycles cause climate change after a long period.

The Milankovitch cycles consist of the three changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

The shape of Earth’s orbit, known as eccentricity;

The angle Earth’s axis is tilted to Earth’s orbital plane, known as obliquity; and

The direction Earth’s axis of rotation is pointed, known as precession.

For precession and axial tilt, it’s tens of thousands of years while for eccentricity, it’s hundreds of thousands of years.

3. Changes in Ocean Current

As oceans store a large amount of heat, even small changes in ocean currents can have a large effect on the global climate. In particular, increases in sea surface temperature can increase the amount of atmospheric water vapor over the oceans, increasing the quantity of greenhouse gas.

If the oceans are warmer they can’t absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which then leads to warmer temperatures and climate change.

4. How does Climate Change Affect our Life?

There are three major ways climate change affects our Life.

Climate change causes extreme conditions like floods and droughts to destroy farm produce by water and heat respectively. The funny thing here is that floods and drought can happen to a particular region in a year or a short period.

And when these farmlands are destroyed by climate change, it results in the food not getting to some population, it also leads to famine.

Health

No matter how rich a person is, if your health is gone, there is more hope to a poor person than you. With that being said, it is important to note that health is of prone importance to us.

Climate change also affects our health through the spread of disease and disease vectors. People can also be affected by the spread of diseases by flooding.

As a result of climate change, the quality of our air has dropped and this poses a serious threat to our health with about 7 million people dying every year due to poor air quality.

Migration

Climate change causes the rising of sea levels due to the melting of ice caps and the warming of oceans. This not only causes the flooding but also causes the land in the coastal region to be encroached displacing people that live in coastal areas and causing them to migrate.

When did Climate Change start becoming an issue?

Climate change started becoming an issue when there were worries during the wake of the industrial era as to what happens with these dangerous gases that enter into the atmosphere emitted by factories.

Climate change started becoming an issue when people started noticing warmer weather conditions and scientists started making discoveries as to what is happening to our climate.

Climates change started as a small concern but has resulted in a global march towards reducing human impact on the climate.

Findings have been made by scientists since the 1800s as to the operations going on in our atmosphere. Fourier help develop findings of greenhouse effects.

Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius (1896) published an idea that as humanity burned fossil fuels such as coal, which added carbon dioxide gas to the Earth’s atmosphere, we would raise the planet’s average temperature.

According to his findings, if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is halved, the atmospheric temperature would decrease by 5 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit).

How can I impact climate change in a positive way?

Here are some of the ways we can impact climate change in a positive way:

1. Use of Renewable Energies

The first way we can impact climate change is to move away from fossil fuels. Renewable energies like solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal are better alternatives that help reduce global warming.

2. Energy & Water Efficiency

Producing clean energy is essential, but reducing our consumption of energy and water by using more efficient devices (e.g. LED light bulbs, innovative shower systems) is less costly and equally important.

3. Sustainable Transportation

Reducing air travel, promoting public transportation, carpooling, but also electric and hydrogen mobility can definitely help reduce CO2 emissions and thus fight global warming. Also, using efficient engines can help reduce CO2 emissions.

4. Sustainable Infrastructure

To reduce the CO2 emissions from buildings – caused by heating, air conditioning, hot water, or lighting – it is necessary both to build new low-energy buildings and to renovate the existing constructions.

5. Sustainable Agriculture

Encouraging better use of natural resources, stopping massive deforestation as well as making agriculture greener and more efficient should also be a priority.

6. Responsible Consumption

Adopting responsible consumption habits is crucial, be it regarding food (particularly meat), clothing, cosmetics, or cleaning products. Last but not least,

7. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Another way in which we can impact climate change is to reduce the usage of unsustainable products, we can also reuse products we have used before either for the same purpose or another purpose while we can recycle products to be used for something different altogether. Recycling is an absolute necessity for dealing with waste.

8. Reduce Plastic Usage

It’s evident that the use of plastics consequently causes climate change. The problem is that most of the products we use daily are made of plastics. Cutting down plastic usage would go a long way in impacting climate change.

9. Advocate for Climate Change

Another way we can impact climate change is by advocating for climate change. This is majorly seen all over the world. We can join other advocates worldwide to advocate for Climate change so actions can be taken to reduce climate change.

10. Reforestation and Afforestation

Reforestation is the planting of trees as a substitute for the ones that have been uprooted while Afforestation is the planting of new trees. These actions would help impact positively on climate change.

Which Countries are the Most Affected by Climate Change?

The countries that are most affected by climate change are classified according to their climate risk index.

Climate risk is used to check countries’ vulnerability to the direct consequences (deaths and economic losses)— of extreme weather events and is measured annually by the Germanwatch observatory via the Global Climate Risk Index.

The countries most affected by climate change are:

How will climate change affect the Economy?

According to Swiss Re Group,

World economy set to lose up to 18% GDP from climate change if no action taken, reveals Swiss Re Institute’s stress-test analysis

New Climate Economics Index stress-tests how climate change will impact 48 countries, representing 90% of the world economy, and ranks their overall climate resilience.

Expected global GDP impact by 2050 under different scenarios compared to a world without climate change:

Economies in Asia would be hardest hit, with China at risk of losing nearly 24% of its GDP in a severe scenario, while the world’s biggest economy, the US, stands to lose close to 10%, and Europe almost 11%

There will be an increase in hunger as there will be adverse effects of climate change on agriculture which will mostly third world countries.

The economy will also be affected by disease spread as a result of climate change.

What happens after climate change?

There is a widely known notion that the earth always replenishes itself.

This notion is true but has its drawbacks as the earth replenishment is very slow could cause some catastrophe as already seen before is get back to normal and so, except we do our best in speeding up the earth’s recovery, replenishment might not come in our time.

Meanwhile, there are some events we would see after climate change and they include: