2. Content
What is Climate Change.
Causes of Climate Change.
Effects of Climate Change.
New studies related to Climate Change.
Solution.
Our efforts.
3. What is Climate Change?
• Climate is the average weather at a given point and time of year, over a long
period (typically 30 years).
• We expect the weather to change a lot from day to day, but we expect the
climate to remain relatively constant.
• If the climate doesn’t remain constant, we call it climate change.
• The key question is what is a significant change – and this depends upon the
underlying level of climate variability.
• Crucial to understand difference between climate change and climate
variability…
4. Causes: Natural
Ocean Currents :-
• An ocean current is a continuous movement of ocean water from one place to another.
• Outside of Earth’s equatorial areas, weather patterns are driven largely by ocean
currents.
• The ocean doesn't just store solar radiation; it also helps to distribute heat around the
globe.
• Ocean currents act much like a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and precipitation
from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics.
5. Illustration of major ocean currents throughout the globe.
(http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/)
6. Causes: Natural
Volcanic Eruption :-
• Volcanic eruptions are responsible for
releasing molten rock, or lava, from deep
within the Earth.
• The gases and dust particles thrown into
the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions
have influences on climate.
• Most of the particles spewed from
volcanoes cool the planet by shading
incoming solar radiation, which last for
years.
• Volcanoes have also caused global
warming over millions of years during
times in Earth’s history, releasing
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Volcanic Eruption
(http://news.mit.edu/)
7. Green House Effect:-
• The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation
from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface
to a temperature above what it would be without its
atmosphere.
• Most of the temperature rise can be attributed to
increases in anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
• Global surface temperatures have risen by about 0.6°C
since 1900s.
• It is likely that this warming is larger than for any
century since 200AD, and that the 1990s were the
warmest decade in the last millennium.
Causes: Man-Made
Absorption of heat by atmosphere.
(www.slideshare.net)
8. Causes: Man-Made
Deforestation:-
1. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which are absorbed by trees for photosynthesis.
2. Water vapor is another greenhouse gas. Studies have shown that deforestation has
contributed to the amount of water vapor in the air and, over just a few years, the
amount of water vapor present has increased by four percent.
3. Trees contribute a great deal to the water cycle, and forests are particularly useful
for regulating the way that rain is recycled back into the atmosphere to be rained
down once again many miles away.
4. Deforestation has also been directly linked to ocean acidification, or the increase in
the average pH of the oceans. Oceans become more acidic when more carbon
dioxide is present.
10. Effects:
• RIVERS AND LAKES :- Extremes of drought and flooding will become more common,
causing displacement and conflict.
• MELTING GLACIERS :- In mountainous regions, melting glaciers are impacting on
freshwater ecosystems.
• OCEANS AND SEAS :- Increased water temperatures and higher carbon dioxide
concentrations than normal make oceans more acidic.
• WILDLIFE :- Many of the world’s threatened species live in areas that will be severely
affected by climate change which is happening too quickly for many species to adapt.
• IMPACTS ON OUR CORAL REEFS :- Sensitive coral and algae that live on it are
starved of oxygen, causing dramatic bleaching and possibly the eventual death of the
coral.
(Source: www.wwf.org.uk)
11. New Studies:
• Many species of aquatic life are known to migrate to the places by using the climate
as navigation system.
With the change in climate, they are diverting from their path unknowingly which
leads them directly to some predators.
• Changing climate is driving a wedge between two organisms corals and the
photosynthetic algae, or zooxanthellae, that have managed to live together for eons
(approx. 200 million years).
• Ocean temperatures have increased to depths of at least 3 km; oceans absorb 80% of
added heat.
• Arctic temperatures have increased at twice the global average rates and permafrost
temperatures have increased by about 3°C.
12. Solutions:
• Energy conservation will show the earliest payback in terms of CO2 reductions - in many
cases an investment in energy conservation made this year will show CO2 reductions this
year, and every year thereafter.
• Renewable energy including energy from wind, solar, wave, biofuels, etc., substitutes
directly for fossil fuels and eliminates CO2 emissions entirely.
• Sequestration, or the long-term trapping of carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere,
is an intermediate step along the way, but is not a solution in and of itself.
• Prevention of emission of green house gases from different sources. These sources include
different economic sectors.
13. Solutions:
• Electricity and Heat Production :The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil
for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas
emissions.
• Industry :Greenhouse gas emissions from industry primarily involve fossil
fuels burned on site at facilities for energy.
• Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use :Greenhouse gas emissions from
this sector come mostly from agriculture (cultivation of crops and livestock)
and deforestation.(E.g.-Biomass)
• Transportation : Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily involve
fossil fuels burned for road, rail, air, and marine transportation.
• Buildings : Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector arise from onsite
energy generation and burning fuels for heat in buildings or cooking in
homes.
• Other Energy : Energy sector which are not directly associated with
electricity or heat production, such as fuel extraction, refining, processing,
and transportation.
14. Our Efforts :
A pact to stave off extreme global warming entered into force on November 4, 2016
after being ratified in record time by the UN Assembly at Paris, France.
But this effort by the Governments of the World alone is not enough.
We must take this responsibility individually as our own. Only then by our collective
efforts, there will be a definite future on Earth.
THANK YOU
