The Human and Physical Causes of Climate Change

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The Human and Physical causes of Climate Change

There are several different occurrences that cause climate to change, whether they are enforced by humans or the natural environment. These causes can be divided into having a long term or short term effect on the climate.

An example of a long term physical cause is the Milankovitch cycles which can take place within a period of 20,000 to 1 million years, involving the earth altering on its axis or its orbit around the sun. This consists of how much solar power different parts of the earth receive. This corresponds with the number of ice ages throughout the earth’s history and has had effects on seasonality and the distribution of energy over the earth’s surface. Extracting ice cores from either Greenland or Antarctica allows scientists to research further into the Milankovitch theory.

Plate tectonics also play a role in causing climate to change as they move different areas of land into separate climatic regions. The Pangaea theory suggests that when the world first evolved, it was one big land mass and over a period of millions of years, plate tectonics divided it into different continents spread all over the world where climatic conditions vary. As opposed to land moving apart, there is now evidence that continents are moving together but at millimetres per year. The constant change in plate tectonics could result in more land moving to more northern or southern parts of the world, closer to the poles. If this were to happen, then ices sheets would develop blocking off warmer ocean currents, following in a general cooling of the earth. This is also, a long term physical cause of climate change.

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The Ice–Albedo effect happens mainly in the Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland and Iceland. Light from the sun is directed on to the land, which is covered in ice and snow, therefore about 70 to 80 percent of the sun's rays are reflected back into space creating a colder atmosphere. Land that is not covered in ice absorbs the light from the sun making the earth warmer.

Another link between ocean currents and climate change is the El Nino Southern Oscillations (ENSO) that takes place in the South-Pacific, every 2 to 9 years. High sea surface temperatures in the Pacific ...

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