Let’s talk about Climate Change
where did it come from and what it means for our planet
First, let’s establish; What is Climate Change?
NASA simply describes Climate change as “a change in the usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a place’s usual temperature for a month or season.” (S.May, 2017) ¹
From this definition, we know that Climate Change is the changes the Earth's climate is undergoing. It is debatable whether Climate Change is creating a negative or positive environment for life on earth however as we look deeper into the evidence of the shifts currently underway, the conclusion becomes clear: It’s ugly.
The Root of it all: Humans and Greenhouse Gases
Before we explore the environmental effects caused by Climate Change, we need to establish what is causing it in the first place. It’s difficult to determine an exact cause however there are a few important factors to consider:
Industrialisation and The Greenhouse Effect
In the 1900’s when the Industrial Revolution took place and humans began to mechanise and steam-power society, it caused a slow yet large rise of harmful greenhouse gases, namely Carbon Dioxide, being emitted into the Earths atmosphere. In fact, it is widely argued that the Industrial Revolution kick-started Climate Change² and created a starting-point of what seems to have turned into an unstoppable increase of emissions (See Graph Below).
The European Commission states that “CO² is the greenhouse gas most commonly produced by human activities and it is responsible for 64% of man-made global warming. Its concentration in the atmosphere is currently 40% higher than it was when industrialisation began.³”
These rising levels of Greenhouse gases, such as Methane and CO² trap the Sun’s energy in the Earths atmosphere and cause temperature rises across the Globe. This effect is known as the Greenhouse effect and is known to have a negative impact on the earth environment, of which we will discuss further in this story.
Is Climate Change up for Debate?
Despite the over-whelming evidence of our planet’s drastically changing climate, people still debate the legitimacy of it. An example of this is when the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, tweeted in 2012 that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
These kinds of outlandish conspiracies from people with such immence influence create a dangerous and backwards effect against the education of Climate Change and slows down our progress on making positive changes for our planet.
Even though there is a small group of people who doubt climate change is real, the evidence that suggests it is happening is overwhelming and can be categorised into a few themes:
Effects of Climate Change
Global temperature rise
Due to the recent increase of man-made emissions, “The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, most of which occurred in the recent 35 years, with the five warmest years on record taking place since 2010.” ²
This evidence of such a recent and steady increase in global temperature causes great concern for the future of the Earths climate should we continue to emit harmful gases at this alarming rate.
Shrinking Ice Sheets
Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 281 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost about 119 billion tons during the same time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade.”(NASA/JPL, 2018) ³
Declining Arctic Sea ice, Snow Cover and Glacial retreat
“Both the extent and thickness of Arctic Sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.”(Nsidc.org, 2018)
- According to ‘The National Snow and Ice Data Centre,’ places all around the world are beginning to suffer from retreating Glaciers— including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.⁵ This causes great concern for the human life and wildlife that inhabit these disappearing environments and proves that the Greenhouse effect, that is being fuelled by humans, is changing the Earth as we know it.
These examples of large areas of melting ice causes great concern to the wildlife that permanently reside there, as the loss of their habitat could result in the complete extinction of many species.
Rising Sea Levels
In the last Century, since the dawn of Industrialisation, Global Sea level has been noted to have risen by roughly 8 inches. More alarmingly, however, is that “the rate in the last two decades is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year.¹⁰
Basline
By analysing this evidence of Climate Changes the Earth is undergoing we can establish that human advances such as Industrialisation and the resulting increase in harmful emissions have caused damage to the Earth that no natural force could ever replicate. This leads on to more stories to come where we will discuss what we can do to combat climate change and whether it is already too late to turn back.
References:
¹ May, S. (2017). Climate change evidence: How do we know?. [online] Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
² McGregor, H., Gergis, J. and Abram, N. (2018). The Industrial Revolution kick-started global warming much earlier than we realised. [online] The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/the-industrial-revolution-kick-started-global-warming-much-earlier-than-we-realised-64301 [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
² NASA/JPL. (2018). Ramp-Up in Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Sea Level Rise. [online] Available at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7159 [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
³ Climate Action — European Commission. (2018). Causes of climate change — Climate Action — European Commission. [online] Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/causes_en [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
³ Nsidc.org. (2018). SOTC: Sea Ice | National Snow and Ice Data Center. [online] Available at: https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
⁵ Nsidc.org. (2018). SOTC: Mountain Glaciers | National Snow and Ice Data Center. [online] Available at: https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/glacier_balance.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
