How Climate is Changing and its Impact on Earth
“Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now.”
Barack Obama, former president of United States
Climate is the overall weather conditions of a specific area e.g., it includes overall avg. temperature, wind velocity, humidity, precipitation, etc. Climate change is a slow process that occurs and has occurred over a long period of time. It may seem a little inconsequential and futile but in the recent past, it has shown some dramatic changes in the world’s meteorological conditions. It can occur naturally by the change in Earth’s orbit, Solar emissions, volcanic activities but mostly it is human-induced.
A term used to explain climate change is ‘Global warming’, which is the heating of the Earth’s surface that occurs due to human activities by the emission of some specific gases. These harmful gases which include Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, etc. are called Greenhouse gases. Heat gets trapped by these gases in the atmosphere rather than being radiated in outer space resulting in warming and this phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect. Now, there are two interesting facts very important to mention here. The first is that water vapor has, in fact, the biggest proportion of greenhouse gases on Earth. but we can’t control it directly. Secondly, this effect isn’t that bad, in fact, it is a necessary thing to happen and without it, Earth’s avg. temp would be -18 ℃ and it would be very difficult for life to survive. But due to greenhouse gases, it has increased so much that it is badly affecting our climate.
Humans have started to take it seriously in the past few decades but it has been setting its root since the beginning of the industrial era. Industrialization in the 18th century, burning of fossil fuels which, on a greater scale, started after the 1850s when kerosene was first derived from coal. Deforestation, urbanization all have contributed towards more greenhouse gases and more global warming. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide has increased to 416 parts per million from 280 parts per million in the last 150 years.
Effects of the climatic changes:
· The temperature of Earth has risen by 1℃ after industrialization. Currently increasing at a rate of 0.2 ℃ per decade with the last few years being the warmest. IPCC predicts an increase of 2.5–10 ℉ over the next century.
· The ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are melting. Antarctica lost 148 million tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019 while Greenland lost 248 million tons of ice per year[1]. Glaciers are melting, snowcaps covering mountains are also decreasing.
· Due to the melting of these ice sheets and glaciers the sea level is also increasing. It has increased about 20 centimeters in the last century and this rate is slightly increasing every year.
· As the sea level is increasing, it is resulting in some dangerous events which include hurricanes, floods, wildfires, increased precipitations including intense rainfalls, heatwaves, droughts, etc.
· Carbon Dioxide increasing levels are also a threat to marine life as more Carbon Dioxide is dissolved in the ocean.
This variation in climate is a real threat to us causing a lot of damage and will be a bigger threat to our upcoming generations. We cannot decrease industrialization so, the only way to cope with the current situation is to shift towards renewable sources of energy, stop the decreasing number of forests by balancing it with the growth of more trees. The most important is to follow environmental regulations on the emissions of greenhouse gases.
[1] Velicogna, I., Mohajerani, Y., A, G., Landerer, F., Mouginot, J., Noel, B., Rignot, E., Sutterly, T., van den Broeke, M., van Wessem, M., Wiese, D. (2020). Continuity of ice sheet mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica from the GRACE and GRACE Follow‐On missions. Geophysical Research Letters (Volume 47, Issue 8, 28 April 2020, e2020GL087291.
