1. DP Environmental systems and
societies
Topic 6 The issue of
global warming

3. Animations and simulations:
Greenhouse Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gas photons to IR
gases and
Global warming
global warming Overview

4. CO2 the largest contributor to greenhouse
gases (not including water vapor)

5. Human sources of greenhouse gases

7. Effects of Global Warming
 Cause biomes to shift their distribution
patterns
(How could this occur with fragmented, isolated habitats
moving across urban areas, agricultural systems, transport
networks? Could it happen at the speeds of temperature
change given?)
 Change the location of crop growing areas
(what would be the geopolitical consequences of this?)
 Change Weather Patterns (Cyclones
increase in frequency and intensity)
 Cause Coastal Flooding (Predicted sea
level rise would swamp low-lying areas)
 Cause a change in the distribution of
diseases limited by temperature (Such as
Malaria)

8. Feedback systems – Negative
Increased
evaporation
Global
in
temperature
temperate
regions
Increased
snowfall in
polar
icecaps

9. Feedback systems – Negative
Global Increased
temperature plant growth
Decreased
CO2 levels

10. Ice Core Data
Clathrates – trapped methane bubbles in
ice

11. Feedback systems – Positive
Global Increased
temperature ice melts
Increased
methane
levels

12. Feedback systems – Positive
Decreased
Global
ocean CO2
temperature
solubility
Increased
atmospheric
CO2 levels

13. Pollution management
strategies
THE KYOTO
PROTOCOL
The Kyoto Protocol emerged from the UN
Conference on Climate Change held in Japan.
Parties to the Protocol agreed to reduce the
emission of gases like carbon dioxide and
methane, which are thought to contribute to global
warming. Initially, industrialised countries were to
aim for a reduction of five per cent below 1990
levels, with further reductions to be agreed in
2012.
Many countries negotiated special circumstances
and in some cases arranged and increase in GHG
emissions (eg Iceland and Australia.

14. Carbon taxes:
• A tax related to how much fossil fuel is
used (very successful in Britain)
Carbon trading:
• A market system where industry non-
polluters can sell carbon permits to
polluters
Carbon offset schemes:
• Companies can invest in carbon
decreasing projects

15. AND SEA LEVEL RISE…
Carry on as usual
Implement Kyoto
(developed
countries reduce
emissions)
Stabilise
emissions at 2000
levels globally
Reduce
emissions
globally 25%
Reduce
emissions
globally 75%

16. KYOTO PROBLEMS
General perception that it would damage
the economy
(The reason given by the president of one
of the richest countries in the world and one
of the biggest polluters)
Difficult to monitor and police. How could
this be done effectively in all countries
signed up to it?
How can it be fair to countries in different
stages of development if the baseline is set
at 1990 levels?

17. THE PRECAUTIONARY
PRINCIPLE
The principle of precaution changes the burden of proof
so that those carrying out the pollution need to prove it
does no harm. This was an argument put forward in the
early days of the global warming debate to promote
precautionary action.
Do you think this is a sound principle?
More recently the principle has been used in the global
war on terror to invade Iraq and lock up suspects in
America.

18. Arguments around global warming
Misconceptions on Global Warming
• Ozone and CFC’s have very little to do
with global warming!
(However CFC’s do cause some warming, they are a
detraction from the main issues and controlled
fairly effectively under the Montreal Protocol.)
• Global warming does not mean
everywhere will get hotter.
• Sea level rise is caused mainly by melting
ice – thermal expansion
• The green house effect is a bad thing.

19. MR. TATTERSALL’S LESSON – 1986
A LEVEL GEOGRAPHY – The Ice Age is Coming

20. The other side:
Global warming
is caused by the
Sun
• Increasing temperature increases CO2
(release from the ocean due to decreased
solubility) and H2O (increased evaporation)
which is the real greenhouse gas
• Increasing solar radiation also directly
warms the globe (hence correlation of data)

21. Global warming caused by the Sun:
Short time period
Source: http://www.global-warming-and-the-climate.com

22. Global warming caused by the Sun:
Long time period
Source: www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/abrupt/data2.html

23. Oceanic source of CO2
CO2 solubility curve

24. Water vapor is by far the biggest greenhouse
gas
Source: www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

25. • Can a gas that consists of less than 0.5%
of the atmosphere (CO2) have any
influence on global warming?
• Could it be possible that the Sun (the
climatic driver of the entire earth) and the
ocean (70% of the face of the entire earth)
be the cause?

26. Important videos
• An inconvenient truth
vs
• The great global warming swindle

27. The Precautionary Principle
• If an action or policy has a
suspected risk of causing harm
to the public or to the
environment, in the absence of
scientific consensus that the
action or policy is harmful, the
burden of proof that it is not
harmful falls on those taking the
action