Climate change and its effects to society and the environment

Climate change

Climate change has been a controversial topic of discussion, perhaps it is due to the complexity in understanding the subject or the leading cause of controversy of the problem is because no one understands why the climate is changing. Yet, the effect of climate change is devastating (England & McGregor, 12).  Scientists and researchers have conducted studies and research to understand the facts within climate change, the cause of climate change, and how to control. Still, the more the examinations are performed, the more the topic seems complicated because different researchers come with their hypothesis that they have tried and proved, so it is hard to dismiss (Joanna Pardoea, 2018). To be precise, the cause of climate change has developed a controversial argument because most researchers argue that the purpose of climate change is industrialization. Other researchers say that the use of fossil fuel and other the use of the chemical in agriculture and daily lives is the cause. The essay wills try to explain one side of this controversial topic that is the cause of climate change. To do this, the essay will utilize the various argument that has been developed over time by the researchers to understand clearly what is the sole cause of climate change. The article will use statistical figures and diagrams like a chart to establish and support the argument.

Climate change has been one of the significant challenges of our time to both society and the environment. Due to climate change, weather patterns have changed, which have affected food production. Rising of the sea level caused by climate changed and global warming has increased the risk of a catastrophe like flooding and many other effects of climate change on the worldwide scope and an unprecedented scale (Willson & Hudson 12). If the action is not taken against climate change or the cause of this change, the future will be difficult and costly for everyone.  The first step of response to climate change or control to climate change understands the purpose of climate change.

Definition of weather and climate

Weather is defined as the state of the atmosphere at a specific time in a particular place that includes temperature, humidity, cloudiness, precipitation, and wind. In some part of the world the recent event of climate change, they have caused thunderstorm, monsoons, and tornadoes to be part of the weather (ronin, 2011). The climate, on the other hand, is the long-term weather pattern that describes a region. Weather is subject to change with season of the year. Both the environment should not change unless there is a vast phenomenon.

Different explanation to Causes of climate change

https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-change-science/causes-climate-change_.html

Earth climate change has changed over the years, subject to natural causes and human activities. Natural ways in which climate changed was characterized in the development of the climatic region that the human had adopted to live within (Robert, Parry & Nichols 16). However, in recent days, human activities have led to a gradual change in the climate in a rapidly non-conforming way. As the intensity of the sunlight reach, the earth initiates the warming up of the planet that is a character of the planet climatic history.

The cause of climate is either natural or through human activities. The natural events have been existing in the past 400000 years, and the change they have caused is gradual. The evolution of climate due to natural causes may not have brought adverse effects to human existence on earth. This is because they occurred very slow, and they give the occupant of the planet the chance to adapt to the circumstance.

Natural causes of climate change include the solar cycles like the four glacial-interglacial swings of the last 400-millennium and have resulted in rising in the amplitude of 5˚C – 6˚C. The earth has been in the warm interglacial phase of such a cycle for the past ten millennia (Robert, Parry, & Nichols, 2016). During this time, the universe has experienced a short solar period of 11 years of sunspot cycles. This sunspot has been blamed as a significant natural cause of climate change and majorly on the polar region.

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Another logical reason for climate change includes variation in the ocean current. This current ocean variation has affected the distribution of heat and precipitation, mainly in the equatorial region (Zemp, I.Roer, A.Kääb, M.Hoelzle, F.Paul, & Haeberli, 2010). The ocean current has affected the amount of water in the atmosphere and, therefore, the ability of the atmosphere to hold water (ronin, 2011). In turn, the high humidity level in the atmosphere has affected the heating system in the land, and hence, temperature rise in the property.

Significant eruptions of volcanoes have caused an increase in the atmospheric concentration of particles that cause the blocking of more sunlight. These particles also prevent excess heat from the earth to leave the earth’s atmosphere (Zemp, I.Roer, A.Kääb, M.Hoelzle, F.Paul, & Haeberli, 2010). Therefore, the weather is retained, and it heats the earth system causing global warming that contributes to climate change. From the diagram above, the temperature, entering the earth, is not the same from that which leaves the grounds. Temperature is supposed to enter the surface and leave so that there is no heating effect on the planet. However, from the diagram above, the heat entering the earth’s atmosphere is more than that of leaving the surface (Zemp, Roer, Kääb, Hoelzle, Paul, & Haeberli 12). The amount of heat that remains in the climate is the cause of the heating effect of the atmosphere. Due to the weather that does not leave the earth, it has proposed a gradual temperature rise, as seen in the diagram above.

Human activities that are causing climate change

In the fifth assessment report, the international panel on climate change comprising of 1300 independent scientific experts from several countries across the world concluded that a 95% probability of climate change had been caused by human activities in the past five years. According to their study, the social events in the past fifty years have led to the destruction of the climate balance in the world (England & McGregor., 2012). They conducted this survey under the custodian of the united nation, and therefore, their report had the significance of the united kingdom. Under their investigation, human activities have continued to emit substances that affect the balancing of the atmosphere and therefore interfering with the natural system where the earth is supposed to regulate its temperature and climate. They categorized the human activities in the following categories.

From the chart above, the human causes of climate change are categorized into four categories according to the United Nations climate summit report 2018 (Zemp, I.Roer, A.Kääb, M.Hoelzle, F.Paul, & Haeberli, 2010). These general categories cover all social activities that cause climate change. Each is discussed below in detail.

Industrial activities

The modern society depends on processed products for their intake and daily activities. The p[reparation of this product in the factories and industry cause emission of substances in the atmosphere and environment that take part in climate change (Mikkel Fundera, 2019). Either most infantries use fossil fuel directly or indirectly, most industries emit chemicals like sulfur, carbon dioxide, and complex hydrocarbon in the atmosphere as waste gases from processing. Due to industrialization, the atmospheric carbon dioxide level has risen from 280 parts per million to 412 parts per million in the last 150 years of manufacturing. The amount of methane and a related product like nitrous oxide in the earth’s atmosphere has risen in the earth’s atmosphere and has propelled rising of the earth’s temperature.

From the graph above, it is evident that the rates at which the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has a direct impact on climate change. Precisely, through temperature increase in the earth climate. This carbon dioxide majorly causes human activities that the industrial efforts contribute.

Land work

Personal work and activities on their daily routine cause climate change. Humans interact with some actions that cause climate change. This is the most significant contributor to climate change than even industrialization and natural methods (Joanna Pardoea, 2018). These categories comprise several human activities starting from planting and agricultural work, clearing of the forest through logging and forest fires, cooking using fossil fuels flames, use of the chemical in agriculture, and also use of some machines like the refrigerator and some fire extinguishers. All of these activities have something in common the emission of carbon dioxide gas and greenhouse gases, aerosol, and other cloudiness into the atmosphere (Joanna Pardoea, 2018). However, all of these activities humans interrupt the ration of carbon IV oxide in the atmosphere that has a long-term effect on climate change.

When these greenhouse gases and aerosol are produced in the atmosphere, they alter the incoming solar ration and outgoing infrared radiation, also known as thermal radiation, that is meant to balance the earth’s climate (Zemp, Roer, Kääb, Hoelzle, Paul, & Haeberli 20). By changing the balance in the atmospheric properties, these gases cause global warming of the climate system. The climate has been affected by human interaction with substance and material that emits carbon dioxide as its by-product. The modern lifestyle has propelled the use of content that emits carbon dioxide, including cooking using fossil fuel and burning of plastic, among others, has participated in causing global climate change.

In the 2013 fifth assessment report, t6he IPCC stated in their summary for policymakers that it is likely that more than half of the observed global average surface temperature from 1951 till 2015  has been caused directly from local human activities. 95%-100% probability that modern warming is caused by social interaction with the substance that produces a lot of carbon dioxide and humans eliminating green plants, which are meant to clean the air and reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Zemp, Roer, Kääb, Hoelzle, Paul & Haeberli 22). They argue that before the human carbon footprint was witnessed, the earth was undergoing a cooling effect; therefore, global warming and climate change can be blamed entirely too social activities.

The last of human activities that cause climate change is the nuclear reaction station and testing of atomic weapons. The nuclear reaction emits substances that are not only dangerous to humans but also animals and anything that has a living (Mikkel Fundera 20). Within the essence, that nuclear reaction in either reactors or weapon is some gas particles that are released in the atmosphere. These gases are part of the greenhouse gases that cause heating effects on the earth’s climate system, and therefore they cause climate change.

The use of fuel propelled ships, cars, and airplane have contributed to climate change because they emit carbon dioxide, which causes a rise in atmospheric temperature and therefore, global warming. Moving machinery has been blamed for generating a 10% carbon footprint. As the population of the world increase, so does the Moto vehicle planes and ships used by humans in their traveling (Zemp, I.Roer, A.Kääb, M.Hoelzle, F.Paul, & Haeberli, 2010). As they increase, the carbon emitted also grows, and thus the rapid climatic change.

The whole topic on causes on climate change has raised issues in the past, and no researcher has dictated the right terms through which climate change has come to be an effective action to be taken to control it. Through this analysis, there has been a discovery that climate change is caused by either natural issues and phenomena and human activities. It is the recommendation of this analysis that everyone should take part in conserving the climate by indulging in activities that produce less carbon dioxide and plant more trees so that they may reduce the carbon that already exists in our climate system.

References

England, M. H., & McGregor. (2012). Recent intensification of wind-driven circulation in the Pacific and the ongoing warming hiatus. Nature Climate Change, 4(3), 225.

Joanna Pardoea, ⁎. K. (2018). Cause of global climate change a factor of natural phenomenon. Environmental Science, 90(45), 7.

Mikkel Fundera, C. E. (2019). Interface bureaucrats and the everyday remaking of climate interventions: Evidence from climate change adaptation in Zambia. Global Environmental Change, 55, 6.

Robert, Parry, L. E., & Nichols, J. E. (2016). Solar cycles or random processes? Evaluating solar variability in Holocene climate records. Scientific Report, 6(1), 1-15.

ronin, T. N. (2011). Paleoclimates: understanding climate change past and present. New York: Columbia University Press.

Willson, R. C., & Hudson, H. S. (2012). The Sun’s luminosity over a complete solar cycle. Nature, 351(6321), 42–44.

Zemp, M., I.Roer, A.Kääb, M.Hoelzle, F.Paul, & Haeberli, W. (2010). United Nations Environment Programme – Global Glacier Changes: facts and figures. London: UN.