What is Climate Change? Causes and Effects
Keywords: Climate Change, environment, global warming, trees, sustainable, greenhouse, carbon
Climate change has become a global concern over the last few decades. These climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These climatic changes are having various impacts on the ecosystem and ecology.
Climate change refers to the changes in Earth’s climate condition. It describes the changes in the atmosphere which have taken place over a period, ranging from decades to millions of years.
Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change
Global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants. Global warming is just one aspect of climate change.
Climate change refers to the long-term changes in the climate that occur over decades, centuries or longer. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Causes of Climate Change
1. Generating Power
Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels causes a large chunk of global emissions. Most electricity is generated by burning coal, oil, or gas, which produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – powerful greenhouse gasses that blanket the Earth and trap the sun’s heat.
2. Manufacturing Goods
Manufacturing industries produce emissions, to produce things like cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes, and other goods. Mining and other industrial processes also release gases, as does the construction industry. Machines used in the manufacturing process often run on coal, oil, or gas; and some materials, like plastics, are made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels.
3. Cutting Down Forests
Cutting down forests to create farms or pastures, or for other reasons, causes emissions, since trees, when they are cut, release the carbon they have been storing.
4. Using Transportation
Most cars, trucks, ships, and planes run on fossil fuels. That makes transportation a major contributor of greenhouse gases, especially carbon-dioxide emissions.
5. Producing Food
Producing food causes emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in various ways, including deforestation and clearing of land for agriculture and grazing, digestion by cows and sheep, the production and use of fertilizers and manure for growing crops, and the use of energy to run farm equipment or fishing boats, usually with fossil fuels.
6. Powering Buildings
Globally, residential and commercial buildings consume over half of all electricity. As they continue to draw on coal, oil, and natural gas for heating and cooling, they emit significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.
7. Consuming too Much
A large chunk of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to private households. Our lifestyles have a profound impact on our planet.
Effects of Climate Change
1. Hotter Temperatures
As greenhouse gas concentrations rise, so does the global surface temperature. Higher temperatures increase heat-related illnesses and make working outdoors difficult. Wildfires start easily and spread rapidly when conditions are hotter.
2. More severe Storms
Destructive storms have become more intense and more frequent in many regions. As temperatures rise, more moisture evaporates, which exacerbates extreme rainfall and flooding, causing more destructive storms. The frequency and extent of tropical storms is also affected by the warming ocean. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons feed on warm waters at the ocean surface. Such storms often destroy homes and communities, causing deaths and huge economic losses.
3. Increased Drought
Climate change is changing water availability, making it scarcer in more regions. It is leading to an increased risk of agricultural droughts affecting crops, and ecological droughts increasing the vulnerability of ecosystems. Deserts are expanding, reducing land for growing food. Many people face the threat of not having enough water on a regular basis.
4. A Warming, Rising Ocean
The ocean soaks up most of the heat. As the ocean warms, its volume increases since water expands as it gets warmer. Melting ice sheets also cause sea levels to rise, threatening coastal and island communities. In addition, the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, keeping it from the atmosphere. But more carbon dioxide makes the ocean more acidic, which endangers marine life and coral reefs.
5. Loss of Species
Climate change poses risks to the survival of species on land and in the ocean. These risks increase as temperatures climb.
6. Not Enough Food
Changes in the climate and increases in extreme weather events are among the reasons behind a global rise in hunger and poor nutrition. Fisheries, crops, and livestock may be destroyed or become less productive.
7. More Health Risks
Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. Changing weather patterns are expanding diseases, and extreme weather events increase deaths and make it difficult for health care systems to keep up.
8. Poverty and Displacement
Climate change increases the factors that put and keep people in poverty. Floods may sweep away urban slums, destroying homes and livelihoods. Heat can make it difficult to work in outdoor jobs. Water scarcity may affect crops.
SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE
1. Keeping Fossil Fuels in the Ground
Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas – and the more that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get.
2. Investing in Renewable Energy
Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power.
3. Switching to Sustainable Transport
Reducing car use, switching to electric vehicles and minimizing plane travel will help to stop climate change.
4. Improving Farming and encourage Vegan Diets
Businesses and food retailers can improve farming practices and provide more plant-based products to help people make the shift.
5. Restoring Nature to absorb more Carbon
The natural world is very good at cleaning up our emissions. This can be done by planting trees in the right places or giving land back to nature through ‘rewilding’ schemes.
6. Protecting Forests
Forests are crucial in the fight against climate change. Cutting down forests on an industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon.
7. Protecting the Oceans
Oceans absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable.
8. Reducing the use of Plastic
Plastic is made from oil, and the process of extracting, refining and turning oil into plastic (or even polyester, for clothing) is carbon-intense. It doesn’t break down quickly in nature so a lot of plastic is burned, which contributes to emissions.
CONCLUSION
We need to follow the path of sustainable development to effectively address the concerns of climate change. If we will not do anything and things continue to go on like right now then a day in future will come when humans will become extinct from the surface of the earth. If every human will start contributing to the environment then we can be sure of our existence in the future.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed”.
Author: Tanishka Ranjan
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