REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY
SIBALOM, ANTIQUE
CLIMATE CHANGE
BRIAN MIRASOL
BRIANNA MARGARETTE SAMULDE
ALONICA GRACE BACULO
BSMA 2 A
LYNN ABELLON SIRUELO
Gec 8 – Science Technoloy & Society
Course Instructor
Learning outcomes;
At the end of this lesson you should be able to;
1. Define the climate change
2. Identify the causes of climate change
3. Understand the impact of climate change
Introduction
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IGPC), a United Nations body that evaluates
climate change science, released its report on global climate change. The reports important
conclusions were the following: world's climate has change significantly over past century;
the significant change has human influence, using climate methods and if the trend
continues, the global mean surface temperature will increase between 1-3.5 degree Celsius
by 2100.
Climate Change
is a change in global or regional climate patterns in particular a change apparent from
the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Causes of Climate Change
The causes of climate change could be natural or by human activities.
1. Volcanic eruptions
are one of the natural causes of climate change. When volcanoes erupt, it emits
different natural aerosols like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, salt crystals, volcanic
ashes or dust, and even microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. The volcanic
eruption can cause a cooling effect to the lithosphere because its emitted aerosols can
block a certain percentage of solar radiation that could last for two years.
2. Orbital Changes
Earth's orbit can also cause climate change. This was proposed by the Milankovitch
theory. It is states that as the Earth travel through space around the Sun, cyclical
variation in three elements of Earth. The three elements have cyclic variation are
eccentricity, obliquity, and precession.
Eccentricity
Is the term used to describe the shape of Earth's orbit around the sun. The impact of
the variation is a change in the amount of solar energy from perihelion (around
January) to aphelion (around July).
Obliquity
It is the variation of the tilt of Earth's axis away from the orbital plane. As this tilt
changes, the seasons become more exaggerated.
Precession
is the change in orientation of Earth's rotational axis.
3. Human Influence
- since the start of the Industrial revolution humans have been influencing the
climate. Since then the average world temperature has risen approximately 0.8
degrees Celsius. According to the latest IPCC report, it is more than 90% probability
that most of the global warming in recent decades is attributable to the observed
increased in greenhouse gases.
4. Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
The most well-known and most important greenhouse gas is CO₂. The carbon cycle
causes and exchange of carbon dioxide between biosphere and the ocean on the one
hand and the atmosphere on the other. All living organisms contain carbon, as do
gases such as carbon dioxide and minerals such as diamond, peat, and coal. The
movement of carbon between large natural reservoirs in rock, the ocean, the
atmosphere, plants, soil, and fossil fuels is known as the carbon cycle.
Vast amount of carbon dioxide is also released by burning of fossil fuels. Since
the start of industrial revolution in 1750 human activities such as burning of fossil
fuel, including coal and oil, have dramatically increased the concentration of
greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
5. Aerosols and Greenhouse Gases
Aerosols are less well-known than greenhouse gases. Aerosols are dust particle which,
in addition to carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere in large quantities when
woods and fossil fuels are burn. Some aerosols have a cooling effect and some are
warming effect that are present in refrigerators, air-condition units and heaters. On
the balance they have a cooling rather that warming effect.
In a natural phenomenon, greenhouse gases and aerosols create an imbalance
in the incoming and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere known to be as radiative
forcing. When the Earth heats up, the short-wave radiation from the sun that enters
the atmosphere is greater than the long-wave radiation that exits the atmosphere. The
temperature changes on Earth will not stop until the radiation balance is restored.
Given the immense capacity of the ocean to absorb 85% of the additional heat, it will
take a long time to strike a new balance.
6. Greenhouse Effect: Natural and Enhanced
The greenhouse effect described how certain gases in our atmosphere increase the
temperature on Earth's surface by preventing some of the energy radiating.
The natural greenhouse effect makes life on Earth possible. Without this effect,
the average temperature would be about 18 degrees Celsius. Earth's surface
temperature is determined by the radiative balance, the net difference between the
energy gained from incoming sunlight and the amount lost into space as infrared
radiation.
Earth's atmosphere acts as transparent blanket, letting in light but trapping
some of the heat it generates. Without an atmosphere, all of this energy would be lost
to space. This natural effect relies on greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
Effects of Climate Change
Potential effects of world production and consumption patterns to climate change.
Forest destruction cause by wildfires and human needs.
Water problems such as more flooding and droughts.
Melting of ice in Polar region that cause to rise the sea level.
Wildlife extinction due to deforestation and changes in climate.
Effects that Scientists had Predicted in the Past Would Result from Global Climate
Change are Now Occurring:
Loss of sea ice
Accelerated sea level rise and longer
More intense heat waves
The Future Effects of Climate Change
1. Temperatures will continue to rise. Because human-induced warming is super
imposed on a naturally varying climate, the temperature rise has not been, and will
not be, uniform or smooth across the country or over time.
2. Frost-free season (and growing season) will lengthen. The length of the frost-free
season (and the corresponding growing season) has been increasing nationally since
1980s, with the largest increases occurring in the western United States, affecting
ecosystems and agriculture. In a future in which heat-trapping gas emissions
continue to grow, increases of a month or more in the lengths of the frost-free and
growing seasons are projected across most of the U.S.
Arctic likely to become ice-free. The Arctic Ocean is expected to become essentially ice
free in summer before mid-century.
3. More droughts and heat waves. Droughts in the southwest and heat waves (periods
of abnormally hot weather lasting days to weeks) everywhere are projected to become
more intense, and cold waves less intense everywhere. Summer temperatures are
projected to continue rising, and a reduction of soil moisture, which exacerbates heat
waves. Sea level will rise 1-4 feet by 2100. The global sea level has risen by about 8
inches since reliable record keeping began in 1880. It is projected to rise another 1 to
4 feet by 2100. This is the result of added water from melting land ice and the
expansion of sea water as its war.
Top 10 Ways That College Student Can Do to Stop Climate Change
by David Suzuki
1. Get involved
2. Be energy efficient
3. Choose renewable power
4. Eat wisely
5. Trim your waste
6. Let polluters pay
7. Fly less
8. Be informed
9. Green your commute
10. Support and donate
Steps to Address the Problem on Climate Change
1. Forego fossil fuels
2. Infrastructure upgrades
3. Move closer to work
4. Consume less
5. Be efficient
6. Eat smart, go vegetarian
7. Stop cutting down trees
8. Unplug
9. One child
10. Future fuels
The Evidence of Climate Change
1. Global temperature rise. The planet's average surface temperature has risen about
1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change
driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human- made emissions into the
atmosphere.
2. The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about
2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.
3. Shrinking Ice sheets. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass.
4. Glacial retreat, Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world.
5. Decreased snow cover. Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow
cover in the Northem Hemisphere has decreased.
6. Sea level rise. Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century.
7. Declining Arctic sea ice. Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined
rapidly over the last several decades.
8. Extreme events. The number of record high temperature events has been increasing,
while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing. Many
countries have also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.
