Climate Change: FACTS not Opinion!

‘You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts’

United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

FACTS

Let’s talk about the Facts of Climate Change proven by scientific method, and verified by scientist and institutions. This paper is going to be textbook so brace yourself. If you already know the facts skip to the next paper on Climate Solutions.

This paper is mostly references to document what is happening for you from the people and institutions that do it every day. I’m aggregating this to convey the message of what humans are doing and how.

Below would be the accelerated warming trend that’s measured by actual temperatures see figure 1

Figure 1 The planet’s long-term warming trend is seen in this chart of every year’s annual temperature cycle from 1880 to the present, compared to the average temperature from 1980 to 2016. Record warm years are listed in the column on the right Credits: NASA/Joshua Stevens, Earth Observatory

Heat trapped by gases in the atmosphere is referred to as Greenhouse Gases (GhG). One of the major players is Carbon Dioxide. See figure 2

Figure 2. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have corresponded closely with temperature over the past 800,000 years. Although the temperature changes were touched off by variations in Earth’s orbit, the increased global temperatures released CO2 into the atmosphere, which in turn warmed the Earth. Antarctic ice-core data show the long-term correlation until about 1900. (Graphs by Robert Simmon, using data from Lüthi et al., 2008, and Jouzel et al., 2007.)

The levels of Carbon Dioxide have increased as humans have industrialized our world as seen in figure 3.

Figure 3. Emissions of carbon dioxide by humanity (primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, with a contribution from cement production) have been growing steadily since the onset of the industrial revolution. About half of these emissions are removed by the fast carbon cycle each year, the rest remain in the atmosphere. (Graph by Robert Simmon, using data from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center and Global Carbon Project.)

Figure 4. Graphic by Johannes Friedrich based on work by Duncan Clark, Kiln, Mike Bostock and Jason Davies. Thanks also to Jamie Cotta. Data is for GHG emissions excluding land-use change and forestry and excluding bunker fuels. WRI <iframe src=”http://goo.gl/a88rlh" scrolling=”no” style=”width: 940px; height: 920px; border: 0"></iframe>

Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have risen from about 280 parts per million to over 400 parts per million. The highest concentration in two million years.

Methane (another GhG) concentrations have risen from 715 parts per billion in 1750 to 1,774 parts per billion in 2005, the highest concentration in at least 650,000 years.

Human Global Emissions

At the global scale, the key greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are listed below.

Carbon dioxide (CO2): Fossil fuel use is the primary source of CO2. The way in which people use land is also an important source of CO2, especially when it involves deforestation. CO2 can also be emitted from direct human-induced impacts on forestry and other land use, such as through deforestation, land clearing for agriculture, and degradation of soils. Likewise, land can also remove CO2 from the atmosphere through reforestation, improvement of soils, and other activities.

Methane (CH4): Agricultural activities, waste management, energy use, and biomass burning all contribute to CH4 emissions.

Nitrous oxide (N2O): Agricultural activities, such as fertilizer use, are the primary source of N2O emissions. Biomass burning also generates N2O.

luorinated gases (F-gases): Industrial processes, refrigeration, and the use of a variety of consumer products contribute to emissions of F-gases, which include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

The above gases are referenced directly from the EPA. (https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data)

Figure 5 IPCC (2014)

Black carbon (BC) Figure 6. formed during combustion of hydrocarbon-based fuels. The strong absorption of visible light by black carbon is its most important characteristic for climate. In atmospheric aerosols there are no other constituents that absorb light with such strong light absorption per unit mass (Bond et al., 2013).

Black carbon can be identified from other forms of carbon in atmospheric aerosol by a unique combination of the following physical properties (e.g., Quinn et al., 2011; Bond et al., 2013):

I have seen Black Carbon first hand while hiking on the glacier in Iceland.

Figure 6. www.maceb.fi

Warming causes thermal expansion of water which in addition to glacial melt causes the oceans to rise. The rate of change as established by NASA is 3.4 millimeters per year with a margin: ±0.4. Figures 7 and 8 show the rate of rise.

Figure 7. GROUND DATA: 1870–2000 Data source: Coastal tide gauge records. Credit: CSIRO

Figure 8. SATELLITE DATA: 1993-PRESENT Data source: Satellite sea level observations. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

“When carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce seawater pH. These chemical reactions are termed “ocean acidification”. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the pH of surface ocean waters has fallen by 0.1 pH units. Since the pH scale, like the Richter scale, is logarithmic, this change represents approximately a 30 percent increase in acidity.” NOAA

The percent change in acidity. NOAA

90 percent of the world’s fisheries are either fully depleted or are facing collapse, according to the UN.

These are changes in our atmosphere and oceans. These are the consequences of our recent develop as a species. Please go to the below institutions to learn more.

Google Climate Change Universities

The US Federal Government took down the EPA Climate Change Website however there is an archived version here JUST CLICK.

A link to the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change.

NASA Climate Change Evidence.

NOAA

Is it our fate to continue to live and do this to the Earth?

OR can we change?

Check out Climate Solutions on RISE Nation!

P.S. If you are looking for something and can’t find it leave a comment or email me and I’ll find the resource for you!!!