Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category
In the southern hemisphere the climate is milder with less strong winds but during the summer heavy storms can be a hazard to shipping and coastal areas. During the monsoon season cyclones can spring up without warning and threaten the coastal regions of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Being the warmest ocean in the world the Indian Ocean seems also to be the most volatile in terms of weather pattern and climate.
Rain Forests and Tropical Forests
Forests have a huge impact on our climate and the deforestation in some parts of the world has already had an impact on changes in weather patterns.
The high humidity in rainforests, where giant trees soak up carbon dioxide from the air and store it, rises up to form rain clouds which periodically empty themselves back into the forests. Hundreds of thousands of plants and animal life exist in these forests and the trees are often referred to as our planet’s lungs.
In tropical forests the climate is less water logged but nevertheless humidity remains quite high and the temperatures are generally high. Less dense in growth tropical forests are a haven for animals, plants and insects. Both rainforests and tropical forests contribute to lessoning the impact of greenhouse gases and global warming.
Northern Climate
Across parts of Scotland and Scandinavia as well as Northern Germany the climate is damp and cold, with severe winters and short summers. Coastal regions are less severe but prone to strong winds and unstable weather patterns.
Mediterranean Climate
Famous for its warm, temperate climate the Mediterranean experiences far less rain fall than its northern counterpart. Some parts have very little rainfall and are as a result dry and hot but other parts are lush and green in vegetation with long summers and milder winters.
Extremes of Climate Change
One hundred million years ago the Antarctic was covered in rainforests and small dinosaurs roamed the shores, nibbling their way through vegetation. Today a 3 kilometre strong layer of ice buries their trace. Throughout our planet’s history there have been dramatic changes in climate, from the lush green forests of the Antarctic to the frozen icecaps of today’s poles.
Over the past half century, the Antarctic has undergone a warming up process at the rate of 2.8 degrees Celsius, a far greater increase than anywhere else in the world. Could rainforest thrive there once again in the future?
A cooling down of the Gulf Stream on the other hand would see harsher climate gripping Northern Europe, with Britain in particular losing out on the climate front. Harsher, much colder winters would follow shorter wetter summers. Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for our predicament although many people still argue whether this is really our fault or whether this is just part of a climate change cycle which our planet undergoes over thousands of years.
The data locked away in the ice at our poles has already yielded some astonishing insight into our past climate. Growth rates of tiny sea creatures and dendrology tell us about the increase and decrease of growing during either longer or shorter feeding seasons. Explorer Scott and his crew could not have foreseen how important their collection of marine creatures and plant life would one day be to science, when they collated and recorded their finds in the early 1900s.
What the future holds for our established ideas of climate is hard to say. Yet one thing is for certain, and that is the climate is changing rapidly. Not necessarily for the better.
It can be hard to understand the consequences of global warming and climate change. When we look at the wildlife, polar bears and penguins for example, they will soon begin to prey on each other for food. Our future looks as though it could be just as grim, though, if global warming worsens and severe weather continues.
Although we are looking at record amounts of rainfall now, it may not be long until we are seeing quite the opposite. Scientists across the world predict that if global warming continues as it is, we will begin to see less rain. In fact, many parts of the world will face long-standing droughts. These droughts will lead to drastically less crop production.
With about 133 million babies born each year, our worldwide population is constantly growing. World-wide hunger is an issue we already face today. Were we to lose a large portion of our crops, we’d be looking at a global crisis. Simply to stay alive, we’d have to eat more meat. This would put more animals on the break of extinction, if not pushing them over the edge. While this may seem like an extreme example, it is nevertheless an example of what is likely to happen.
It is too easy to think “I am one person, and one person cannot change the world”. But the fact is change starts with one person. But knowing where to begin can prove to be one of the toughest decisions of all. The truth is, however, that there are many ways, both big and small, that you can help the environment. To begin with, there are a multitude of “green” products on the market now that are not only made using planet-friendly methods, but also have safer, degradable chemicals as opposed to the harmful chemicals in many other products. That can be a great place to start. If you feel like taking it a step further, find a location where you can plant a tree. Trees are becoming scarcer and our population grows. The earth would certainly appreciate more oxygen.
A step up from that would be attempts to reduce your driving time. For example, are there times when you could bike, walk, or jog somewhere instead of driving or taking the bus? Not only would that solution help the environment, it would keep you healthy in the process.
There are also plenty of “green” organizations out there who would appreciate your support in their activities. Some have converted heavily polluting companies to greener, safer factories through demonstrations and negotiations.
Damage has been done to our planet. However, this damage is not irreversible, and does not have to get worse than it already is. Simply by taking a few small steps in order to reduce your carbon footprint, you can begin moving the world toward a green future, and secure the fate of future generations. Indeed, it is our responsibility to save the atmosphere from decay.
Scientists have succeeded in building climate models. Climate models are computer imitation of the climate. With the help of climate models scientist have reproduced features of the climate and made certain stipulations with regard to the future of the atmosphere. They have predicted that the concentration of the greenhouses gases will be on the increase in so far as more fossil fuel is burnt by man on daily basis. Consequently, the earth surface temperature will also increase more rapidly owing to the increase in the concentration of the greenhouse gas. It has been postulated that the increase in the average surface temperature of the earth will range from 2 degrees Celsius to 6 degrees Celsius towards the end of this century.
However, the increase in the surface temperature of the earth according to this climate model depends on the rate at which fossil fuel is consumed by man. If the rate at which fossil fuel is burnt increases gradually, then the increase in the average surface temperature by the end of the 21st century will be 2 degrees Celsius. But if the rate at which fossil fuel is burnt increases rapidly, then the average surface temperature of the earth will increase to 6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
The issue of global warming does not end with greenhouse gases. There is also other side of the whole issue. There is what is known as climate feedback. Climate feedback is the secondary change brought about by global warming. As the surface temperature of the earth is increasing, certain other changes are sparked off.
The main feedbacks are related to snow and ice, clouds, carbon cycle and even water vapour. In Northern Hemisphere the snow and sea ice are gradually melting away as result of the global warming or increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface air. This has some consequences too. When the ice gradually melts away, it will lead to the more warming of the sea during summer. This will make the sea to be inhabitable for some marine life that survives under cool temperature.
On the land, when the ice is melted away these areas will definitely become warmed. This is because the shinny surface of ice that reflects the heat from the sun away is no longer there. The surface will absorb more heat than usual. This will make those areas to become warmed than usual.
Another feedback brought about by global warming is water vapour. Water vapour is the chief cause of greenhouse warming when it evaporates in large quantity to the atmosphere. When the earth surface increases in temperature, more water vapour will evaporate and goes up into the atmosphere in large quantity. This will only aggravate the issue. More water vapour in the atmosphere will lead to more warming of the atmosphere.
There are other feedbacks that are not mentioned here. What is important is that we have known that global warming spells doom for mankind. It has to be stopped through a collective effort of every person on earth.
Climate change is likely to change our tropical forests, giving priority to different species of trees and other plants with possible consequences for the storage of carbon and general biodiversity. If global warming continues on the same scale or speeds up, drier conditions around the globe will favour deciduous species with canopies, driving out other species of trees.
US researchers claimed they based their study on changes they sampled in a Costa Rican forest during a 20-year project. Scientists are currently studying exactly how much CO2 tropical forests are storing and they are trying to forecast how much CO2 is going to be stored in this way in the future, if the current trend of greenhouse gasses and global warming continues.
The US researchers believe that their findings show that forests consisting of mainly deciduous, canopy driven trees tend to store far less carbon and they also hold less bio mass. This will have a huge impact on their ability to assist with regulation of global climate change.
Looking to the Past
If we want to discover what impact global climate change can have on our planet, we only need to look at samples collected in the Antarctic, where scientists have found evidence that huge forests once existed one hundred million years ago. During a spell of extreme greenhouse effect, the polar caps melted and in the Antarctic dinosaurs thrived along with trees.
Is this a taste of things to come? Well, perhaps no dinosaurs but forests in places now frozen over with permanent icecaps?
Reports suggest that trees across the USA and Canada are thriving at an unprecedented growth rate as a result of higher CO2 levels and increased temperatures. Indeed, studies across the northern hemisphere suggest that trees could be growing faster today than they were just 200 years ago as a result of global climate change. The growing seasons are longer and there are higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air. Our very future could depend on these forests growing faster to replace the devastated tropical forests depleted by man.
Freak Weather
With global weather patterns changing along with climate change we are experiencing freakish conditions such as the rainfalls in Australia and the severe winter in Britain and Germany. It is likely that our weather will become more extreme with the destruction of rainforests and the cooling of our oceans.
The signs for climate change are all around us, from floods to record snow fall in countries which hadn’t seen snow for nearly 30 years. We all know somebody from the older generation telling us that their childhoods were marked by distinct seasons with hot summers and cold long spells of winter. Our weather since then has become far more unpredictable, suggesting that global climate change will be responsible for draughts at one end of the globe and floods in another, in areas traditionally seeing the reverse.
Scott’s Antarctic expedition revealed a plethora of data on the past – but strangely, the data also gives us a glimpse into our future, with lush green Antarctic and North Pole regions and sunbathing polar bears not so far off.
It is theorized by some scientists that planets such as Mars and Venus were once green and hospitable. However, changing environments and a runaway greenhouse effect left them as barren wastelands, inhospitable by any known forms of life.
You might find yourself wondering if anything can be done to change this grim fate. The truth is that every change, no matter how large or how small, begins with a single person. There are a multitude of options for anyone looking to change the environment for the better. You can get involved with activists groups who make it their goal to make heavily-polluting companies reduce their carbon footprint. You could vow to walk or bike more, instead of driving your vehicle short distances. You could also support companies that are doing the right thing by purchasing their “green” products instead of those that are made with environment damaging methods.
Too often, it is assumed that someone else will pick up the slack, or that the future generations will fix the problem. By then, however, it may be too late. There is no better time than now to take charge, and take responsibility for the planet that has given us so much. The future offered to us if we take the easy road and do nothing is grim indeed.
Spending too much playing video games means that you use a lot of electricity which relies on fossil fuels. It wouldn’t be wise to think of a better tomorrow while today is shattered.
There are other ways that you can help to save the atmosphere and prevent global warming. There are quite a number of biodegradable and reusable products available today. You will be adding more force to the one already exerted by some eco friendly organizations by buying those products. You can also refuse to buy products that are not eco friendly or those products that will add more to the problem.
In your home try to separate normal domestic garbage that can easily decompose from other waste that cannot easily decomposed so that they will be recycled or properly disposed of by experts. There are some people that mix up their refuse, thereby making it difficult for composters to separate them.
Another way you can help in saving our environment from the effect of global warming is by planting trees. Besides providing shelter to us, trees also help to absorbed some of the carbon dioxide which is the major cause of global warming. We all know from the study of elementary biology that trees breathe in carbon dioxide. If there are many trees planted, the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere will decrease. Discourage deforestation. This will save thousands of different animal breeds from becoming extinct.
This year Germany started the year with floods after exceptional snowfall, resulting in a huge melting of ice and snow when the temperatures rose, swept across large parts of the country. Australia was it hardest with weeks of heavy rainfall causing flash floods, which killed people. Global warming owing to greenhouse gas emission increasing instead of decreasing is here to stay if we don’t reduce our emissions of CO2 and methane drastically over the next ten years.
The cooling down of our oceans, another result of air and water pollution, will mean a change to the way in which the currents circulate our globe and the temperature they carry with them when they circulate around the earth. The oceans cover some 70% of our planet’s surface and have a major impact on our climate and weather patterns. Greenhouse gases are responsible for ice caps melting which will increase the water levels, drowning some coastal areas all together.
Killing Marine Life
Water pollution is responsible for deaths in seals and otters; it is also a killer of many waterfowl and fish. Overfishing has already put future fish stock at risk, since generations cannot recover quickly enough. We are destroying our own food source and meanwhile poison ourselves, since we are the last in the food chain. Many people have felt the after effects of eating oysters or mussels which had gone bad. Molluscs store the poison, which we then eat.
Many argue that pollution may be responsible for the unexplained mass dying of whales and dolphins.
Killing Birds, Bats and Insects
Widespread use of pesticides is responsible for killing birds, insects and bat species. The pollutants also contaminate the freshwater around the area where spraying takes place.
Pollution Kills
Ozone pollution can cause respiratory diseases, chest pains, throat inflammation, and even cardiovascular disease. Across the world every day some 14,000 people die because their drinking water is contaminated and unsafe to drink.
Asthma in children and young people has been linked with air pollution and in recent years the exceptionally hot summers killed many people because of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
In the last couple of years the temperatures have plummeted during the winter in countries like Britain, where winters were quite mild for the last thirty years. Global warming is the result of pollution and colder winters as well as hotter, drier summers are going to be responsible for more deaths in the future as climate changes further.
Land Clearing
Large scale land clearing through burning of woodland increases the CO2 emissions released with the smoke. Deforestation means that harmful CO2 gases can no longer be absorbed by trees and plants.
Landfill sites across Britain add methane into the air and pose a further health risk for decades to come, as there are now so many landfill sites in the UK that inevitably one day someone will want to build houses on them. Leaking gases from the soil below could kill or injure a large number of people.