LESSON 11

Climate Change
Objectives:
The students will be able to:
• State the meaning of climate change,
global warming and greenhouse effect;
• Identify the causes of climate change;
• Describe the impact of climate change
to the society and environment; and
• State the possible solution to minimize
the implication of climate change.
CLIMATE CHANGE
is a change in the statistical
distribution of weather patterns when
that change lasts for an extended period
of time. And it already had observable
effects on the environment:
• Glaciers have shrunk
• Plant and animal ranges have shifted
• Trees are flowering sooner
• Global temperature rise
• More intense heat waves
• Water acidification
• And Extreme events
GLOBAL WARMING
• One manifestation of climate change.
• Refers to the increase in the average
temperature of the Earth’s near-surface
air and oceans in recent decades and its
projected continuation.
• Refers to recent warming and implies a
human influence.
 Causes of Climate Change
•Mining
 Causes of Climate Change
•Wrong practices in agriculture
(like burning of crop)
 Causes of Climate Change
•Illegal logging
 Causes of Climate Change
•Burning of fossil fuel
 Causes of Climate Change
•Deforestation
 Causes of Climate Change
•Too much car that emits
carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide
 Causes of Climate Change
•And producing industrial waste.
Those are believe to be the sources
of greenhouse gasses that in the
long run cause the climate change.
 The Greenhouse Gases and
Effect
•Small amounts of heat trapping
gases such as water vapor (H2O),
carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3),
methane (CH4), and
chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) play a
key role in determining the Earth’s
average temperature and thus its
climates.
• Together, these gases are known as
greenhouse gases. They allow light,
infrared radiation, and some ultraviolet
radiation from the sun to pass through
the troposphere. The earth’s surfacce
the absorbs much of this solar energy
and degrade it to longer wave infrared
radiation (that is heat), which then rises
into the trophosphere, some of this heat
escapes into space, some is absorbed by
molecules of greenhouse gases, warming
the air. This natural trapping of heat in
the troposphere is called greenhouse
effect.
• The greenhouse effect first proposed by
Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1896,
has been confirmed by numerous laboratory
experiments and atmospheric
measurements.
• Significance: the earth would be a cold and
lifeless planet with an average surface
temperature of -18˚C.
• Measured atmospheric levels of certain
greenhouse gases – CO2, CFCs, methane,
and nitrous oxide – have risen substantially
in recent decades – caused by human
activities: burning fossil fuels, agriculture,
deforestation, and use of CFCs.
• Carbon dioxide concentration- Carbon
dioxide is responsible for 50-60% of the
global warming from greenhouse gases
produced by human activities since pre-
industrial times. The main sources re
fossil fuel burning: coal, oil and natural
gas (75%) and land clearing and burning
(25%). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is
nevertheless the main driver of the
greenhouse effect. Because of this the
layer of greenhouse gas is getting
thicker, which is in turn making the
Earth warmer.
• Chloroflourocarbon- contribute to
global warming in the troposphere and
deplete ozone in the stratosphere. The
main sources are leaking air conditioners
and refrigerators, evaporation of
industrial solvents.
• Methane concentration- Methane is
produced when anaerobic bacteria break
down organic matter in moist places
that lack oxygen. These areas include
swamps and other natural wetlands, rice
paddies and landfills, intestinal tract of
cattle, sheep, and termites.
• Nitrous oxide concentration- Nitrous
oxide can trap heat in the troposphere
and deplete ozone in the stratosphere.
It is released from nylon production,
burning of biomass and nitrogen
fertilizers in soil, livestock wastes.
What is the scientific consensus
about future global warming
and its effects?
• According to IPCC (Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change) the earth’s
mean surface temperature will rise 1-
3.5˚C between 1990 and 2100.
• The northern hemisphere should warm
more and faster than the southern
hemisphere because the latter has more
heat absorbing ocean than the land and
because water cools more slowly than
land.
Some possible effects of a warm
world:
• Changes in food production; reduce
water supplies
• Change in the makeup and location of
many world’s forests.
• Can cause massive wild fires
• Reduction in biodiversity due to loss of
habitat; destroying the coral reefs
• Water in the oceans would expand and
lead to rise in sea level.
• Warming at the poles caused ice sheets
and glaciers to melt, the global sea level
would rise far more; melting of polar ice
caps
• Weather extremes are expected to
increase in number and severity
• Poses threats to human health, affects
the respiratory tract increasing air
pollution in winter months.
• Drought
• Lead to a growing number of
environment refugees. Causing social
disorder and political instability.
 How can we lower down the
possible outcome of global
warming?
• Get involved – cut fossil fuel use in half
• Improve energy efficiency; switch off
light when not in use
• Shift to renewable energy resources
• Reduce deforestation
• Use sustainable agriculture
• Slow population growth
• Remove carbon dioxide from smoke
stack and vehicle emissions
• Plant and tend trees; green your
community
• Trim production of industrial waste;
encourage practices of 3R’s
• Full implementation of laws concerning
conservation of the environment and the
planet Earth.
What has been done to reduce
greenhouse gas emission:
• In 1922 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro,
106 nations approved a Convention on
Climate Change, in which developed
countries committed themselves to
reducing their emission of CO2 and other
greenhouse gases.
• In December 1997 representatives of 160
nations met in Kyoto, Japan to negotiate a
new treaty to help slow global warming.
The resulting treaty would require
developed countries to cut greenhouse
emissions by the average of 0.2% below
1990 levels between 2008-2012; allow
emission trading, in which a country that
beats its target goal for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions can sell its excess
reductions to countries that failed to meet
their reduction goals; allow forested
countries to get a break in their quotas
because trees absorb carbon dioxide; allow
penalties for countries that violate the
treaty, to be determined later.