CLIMATE CHANGE & GLOBAL WARMING

                                        CLIMATE CHANGE

Our world is always changing, so is our climate. Some changes are apparent, others not so much. Climate change is an important issue of concern in the twenty first century. Climate, if it changes at all, evolves so slowly that the difference cannot be seen in a human lifetime (Wearth, 2014). Mostly all scientists predicted that it would take thousands of years for the planet to warm up due to emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels called greenhouse gases. But in the past 200 years, things began to change. The rate and the amount of warming that is happening on this planet is unprecedented. Wearth says, “People did not grasp the prodigious fact that both population and industrialization were exploding in a pattern of exponential 

Global warming is a measure of climate change, and is a rise in the average global temperatures.” Climate change is caused by natural factors such as solar variability and human factors such as greenhouse gases and ozone depletion. Evidence of climate change is growing but we are so dependent on the use of fossil fuels in our everyday life such that it is only making the issue worse. The heavy dependence of fossil fuels will continue to increase the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in a few decades. As the planet warms, there will be consequences. This research paper will address the issue that climate change is occurring and its impact on temperature, oceans, ecosystems, fresh water and the human population.
As a human being on this planet the issue of climate change bothers me because the rapid warming in the last few years is mostly due to human-induced activities and we continue to warm the planet at this instant in time. The planet has warmed in the last hundred years and it is also predicted that it will warm further in the next hundred years. Although the increase in temperature may be small but they can lead to large and potentially dangerous shifts in climate. Everyone’s life is connected to climate change. If the climate changes, the human society has to adapt to it by changing its designs, rules and infrastructure. Attention has begun to shift from local, short-term seasonal patterns of temperature, rainfall, other elements of the weather, toward longer-term trends that can affect the entire Earth, se long-term (typically 30-year) weather trends are called "climate." It is therefore important understand the difference, as well as the relation, between "weather" and "climate."

An example of the relationship between weather and climate is El Nino, which is weather with local, short-term consequences as well as with global, long-term importance. In the ort-term. El Nino can bring a dry summer for some regions and a wet winter for others; however, over the course of many years, the number of times El Nino conditions occur may decade changes in the 

Global climate has been changing and still continue to change. Over a long period of time, climatic fluctuations may be such that, a shift in type of climate prevailing over a given area, takes place. In that case, we talk of a change in climate or climatic change. Various terms used to describe variations in climate, namely, climate variability.

Climatic fluctuations, climatic trends, climatic cycles and climatic change, refer to some appropriate time scales and can only be validly used within such time scales. The evidence of past climatic change is many and varied, such biological, lithogenic and morphological.

Prior to the 1990s, scientists largely believed that the shifts in climate between ice ages and warmer periods occurred over centuries and millennia due to the large amount of time

necessary to build up or melt an ice sheet over a kilometer in thickness. Geologic evidence from the last decades, however, shows that there have also been rather abrupt periods of climate change spanning anywhere from years to decades.

Abrupt climate changes can occur when variable that change gradually push the Earth's system across some limit of instability. One of the known examples of this rapid change is the Younger Drays, which was a sudden interruption gradual global warming that began 12,800 years ago after the end of the last glaciations.

CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high. In May 2013, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million. This is “approaching the halfway mark between preindustrial amounts and a doubling of those levels” (Washington Post J). This is a very large increase in the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere over a short period of time. One might ask what consequence could come of having such a large volume of CO2 floating around our atmosphere. The Union of Concerned Scientists says that CO2 is considered a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gasses are gasses that trap radiant energy in the lower atmosphere. Energy travels from the sun to Earth, which is then either absorbed by the atmosphere and ground. The energy 

In 2013, the average global temperature was 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.1 F warmer than the average during the mid-20th century. The average global temperature has risen about 1.4 degrees F since 1880. (H) This increase in temperature may seem small in comparison to the average day-to-day fluctuations of temperatures, but this represents all temperature variations averaged together. As the average increases, so do its extremes. Recording breaking high temperatures are becoming much more frequent and it is expected to impact humanity on a global scale. Whether or not the increase in temperatures will negatively affect humanity can only be answered by examining the after effects of our changing climate.
The ocean temperatures have been recently increasing, causing the polar ice caps to melt, thus raising the seas level. Sea ice is frozen ocean water that melts each summer and freezes in the winter .
Since the beginning of observations in 1979, the records for lowest amount of sea ice present during the summer have all occurred within the past seven years.
Rising sea levels will force major cities near sea level to migrate farther inland. Entire cities would end up underwater if this rising sea level continues at this rate.

                                 GLOBAL WARMING 

Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s temperature, especially a sustained change sufficient to cause climate change. The average facade temperature of the globe has increased more than degree since 1900 and the speed of warming has been almost three folds the century long average since 1970.

This increase in earth’s average temperature is called Global warming. More or less all specialists studying the climate record of the earth have the same opinion now that human actions, mainly the discharge of green house gases from smokestacks, vehicles, and burning forests, are perhaps the leading power driving the fashion.

The gases append to the planet’s normal greenhouse effect, permitting sunlight in, but stopping some of the ensuing heat from burning back to space.

Based on the study on past climate shifts, notes of current situations, and computer simulations, many climate scientists say that lacking of big curbs in greenhouse gas discharges, the 21st century might see temperatures rise of about 3 to 8 degrees, climate patterns piercingly shift, ice sheets contract and seas rise several feet.

With the probable exemption of one more world war, a huge asteroid, a fatal plague, or global warming may be the only worst dangers to our planet earth.

Global Warming Causes

The major cause of global warming is the release of green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc. into the atmosphere. The major source of carbon dioxide is the power plants. These power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation.

About twenty percent of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere comes from burning of gasoline in the engines of the vehicles. Buildings, both commercial and residential represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks.

Building of these structures require a lot of fuel to be burnt which emits a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as effectual as C0₂ at entrapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is obtained from resources such as rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel manufacture. The main sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, cars with catalytic converters, and the use of fertilisers in agriculture and the burning of organic matter.

Another cause of global warming is deforestation that is caused by cutting and burning of forests for the purpose of residence and industrialisation.

Scientists all over the world are making predictions about the ill effects of Global warming and connecting some of the events that have taken place in the past few decades as an alarm of global warming. The effect of global warming is increasing the average temperature of the earth.

A rise in earth’s temperatures can in turn cause to other alterations in the ecology, including an increasing sea level and modifying the quantity and pattern of rainfall. These modifications may boost the occurrence and concentration of severe climate events, such as floods, famines, heat waves, tornados, and twisters.Other consequences may comprise of higher or lower agricultural outputs, glacier melting, lesser summer stream flows, genus extinctions and rise in the ranges of disease vectors. As an effect of global warming, many species of birds and animals have already become extinct. As an effect of global warming various new diseases have emerged lately.It is expected that many species will die off or become extinct due to the increase in the temperatures of the water, whereas various other species, which prefer warmer waters, will increase tremendously Perhaps the most disturbing changes are expected in the coral reefs that are expected to die off as an effect of global warming.

The global warming is expected to cause irreversible changes in the ecosystem and the behaviour of animals. Birds are a species that will be affected by a change in the climate. Global warming might result in birds finding a more permanent home in northern areas in the Northern Hemisphere.

The scientists tell us that the tundra is in danger of melting due to an amount of extra global warming pollution that is equivalent to the net amount that is previously in the earth’s/ atmosphere. Likewise, earlier one more team of scientists reported that in a single year Greenland witnessed 32 glacial earthquakes between 4.6 and 5.1 on the Richter scale.This is a disturbing sign and points that a huge destabilisation that may now be in progress deep within the second biggest growth of ice on the planet. This ice would be enough to raise sea level 20 feet worldwide if it broke up and slipped into the sea.Each day passing brings yet new proof that we are now in front of a global emergency, a climate emergency that needs instant action to shrilly decrease carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in order to turn down the earth’s rising temperatures and avoid any calamity.It is not easy to attach any particular event to global warming, but studies prove the fact that human activities are increasing the earth’s temperature

Even though most predictions focus on the epoch up to 2100, even if no further greenhouse gases were discharged after this date, global warming and sea level would be likely to go on to rise for more than a millennium, since carbon dioxide has a long average atmospheric life span.

Many efforts are being made by various nations to cut down the rate of global warming. One such effort is the Kyoto agreement that has been made between various nations to reduce the emissions of various green house gases. Also, many non profit organisations are working for the cause.

A1 Gore was one of the foremost U.S. politicians to heave an alarm about the hazards of global warming. He has produced a significantly acclaimed documentary movie called “An Inconvenient Truth” and has written a book that archives his advice that Earth is dashing toward an immensely warmer future.A1 Gore, has given various speeches to raise an awareness of global warming. He has warned people about the ill effects of Global warming and its remedies.The future of emissions damage depends on several factors, demographics, economics, technology, policies and institutional developments. Future predictions do not look good for this planet if nothing is done soon.