The document discusses climate change and provides evidence that it is occurring. It explains how greenhouse gases cause global warming and discusses factors like deforestation that contribute. It also describes how the Earth's orbit and axis affect the climate through parameters like precession and Milankovitch cycles.
The document discusses climate change and provides evidence that it is occurring. It explains how greenhouse gases cause global warming and discusses factors like deforestation that contribute. It also describes how the Earth's orbit and axis affect the climate through parameters like precession and Milankovitch cycles.
The document discusses climate change and provides evidence that it is occurring. It explains how greenhouse gases cause global warming and discusses factors like deforestation that contribute. It also describes how the Earth's orbit and axis affect the climate through parameters like precession and Milankovitch cycles.
The document discusses climate change and provides evidence that it is occurring. It explains how greenhouse gases cause global warming and discusses factors like deforestation that contribute. It also describes how the Earth's orbit and axis affect the climate through parameters like precession and Milankovitch cycles.
At the end of this chapter, the student will be able to :
1. Explain how climate change happens;
2. Provide pieces of evidence to affirm the presence of climate change; and 3. Discuss the implications of climate change. CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is the range of global phenomena caused by burning fossil fuels that add heat-trapping gases to the Earth’s atmosphere. Global warming, used interchangeably with climate change, specifically refers to Earth’s upward trend of temperature since the 20th century. It is generally defined as the the general warming effect caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation that enters the atmosphere and radiate it to the Earth’s surface as heat, thereby warming the Earth. Some common greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming include naturally occurring gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (NOx), and man made gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), PFCs and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
Global warming keeps the planet warm and prevents warm air from escaping the planet. The global warming potential (GWP) of natural greenhouse gases are small as compared to that of other anthropogenic gases from the burning of fossil fuels, power plants, transportation vehicles, and other industrial processes. Man-made greenhouse gases and the increase in concentration of natural greenhouse cause adverse effects.
Deforestation is also pointed as a culprit to this adverse phenomenon. When forest land is destroyed , CO2, is released into the air , thus increasing the the levels of long-wave radiation and trapped heat. EARTH’s MOVEMENT AROUND THE SUN
While the orbit remains an ellipse, its position or orientation in space changes over time. Due to the tilt of the Earth, the whole are does not receive and equal amount of sunlight. The Earth spins around its axis , an imaginary line from the North pole to the South Pole, which dips and wobbles gradually. The Earth could then be imagined like a spinning top or trump , turning and wobbling in its path about the sun. The elements in this interaction between the sun and the Earth are defined as follows:
1. Aphelion - refers to the point in the orbit of the Earth farthest from the sun. 2. Perihelion - is the point in the orbit of the earth closest to the sun. 3. Earth’s axial tilt - is the inclination angle of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to a line perpendicular to its orbital plane. 4. Precession - is the change of the orientation of the rotational axis of the Earth. 5. Equinox - refers to the time the sun at noon is directly over the equator. It happens twice a year and causes an almost equal length of day and night. 6. Solstice - happens when the sun at noon sits above the tropic of capricorn. The summer solstice has the longest period of daylight in the year and the winter solstice has the shortest period. 7. Precession of the equinoxes - refers to the motion of the equinoxes relative to the precession of the Earth’s axis of rotation. It happens over thousands of years. MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS
There have been eras of climate change in the past. Is it possible that the 21st century may introduce yet another dramatic changes in climate? Is there enough information to answer the age-old question of “what will the weather be tomorrow?. There is a growing body of data suggesting that the climate, not just the local day to day weather, is changing all over the world. In fact, since the end of the 20th century , many scientists have asked if the Earth is headed for another Ice Age.
This concern raises the question as to what causes such dramatic changes in the day to day weather and climate. It was addressed as early as the 1930s by Slovak scientist and meteorologist Milutin Milankovitch. His interest in the daily weather patterns led him to investigate the deeper issues: Do weather and climate come ultimately from the sun so that it is the sun and its relation to the Earth that accounts for the change in the climate? It is possible that as the distance of the sun to the Earth changes, the Earth is affected enough to cause climate to change? He knew that it has long been said by astronomers that the distance from the sun to the Earth is constant as shown by the orbital radius of the earth.
His contemporary scientists critiques his work, saying that the effects of the change in the radius of the Earth’s orbit, the change in the tilt of the spin of the Earth, and the wobble in the spin axis (Now called the Milankovitch parameters), while real , were each so small that they could not alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth enough to cause a phenomenon like the Ice Age. Milankovitch believed he was on to something so much that he wanted to validate his theoretical calculations. The work was time consuming and tedious. Since this was the early 20th century , no modern computing devices were available for him to use. Even the electronic adding machine was not invented yet. With the technology at hand, he could not prove that the mathematics was correct (Gleick, 1987).
Nevertheless, the mathematical expressions of the Laws of Nature as first enunciated by Isaac Newton in the 17th century have some subtle features that might help explain the role of Milankovitch parameters in changing climate.
The equations of the Laws of Nature allow for cumulative or summative effects. If the sun warms a small piece of land, it can warm a larger piece of land in the same way. If a cup if water can be heated by one degree, two cups can be heated in the same way, one cup after another. But what if the two cups are added together? Can the sum be heated with the same amount of energy? No, twice as much heat would then be needed. The laws of science seem quite consistent and reasonable. But french mathematical physicist Henri Poincare showed that mathematically , this simple cumulative or summing process need not be as straightforward as it might seem. GLOBAL WARMING
The Milankovitch parameters seem to be part of the cause of climate change, thought not the only cause. Some other factor seems to be needed. Today, as the world considers climate change and its implications on food security and national development, many nations are taking a deeper look at the science behind the issue.
Most of the scientists who study climate change agree that the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere has been increasing by over 90% in the latter part of the 20th century. There are 2 opposing arguments on the issue of whether or not this global warming is just “natural”. One side states that nature, simply acting according to its laws with no reference to human beings and their actions, is the main reason. For the purveyors of this belief , global warming will happen as naturally as the suns rises and sets. Meanwhile , the other side maintains that global warming is caused or greatly abutted by the actions of human beings. It lays the blame on the actions of humanity , past and present.
