The Truth about Climate Change

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BY: Nozomu Tokiwa    Form 3a

Date: 16/05/08

Climate Change

I’m sure you’ve heard or read about climate change at least once or twice on TV, Internet or on newspapers. But are you sure that you know everything or at least enough about it? Well let’s see, did you know that climate change is one of the biggest problems we have now in this 21st century? If not, you should continue reading, and if yes, you should still read. Because what I’m going to talk about now, is about climate change, and I’m sure that you don’t know everything about it. This might be your final chance before it’s too late!

What is climate change?

When you simply switch the words round, climate change is simply the change in climate. It is the change in climate, but of course it is not that simple. The IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, comprised of more than 2000 scientists from 100 different countries), defines climate change like this: “A change in the state of the climate that can be identified…that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer…Any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.” This definition is thought to be most widely accepted, but it is quite hard to understand…(at least for me it is) so this is what it means in easier language: climate change is any significant change in the “average weather”, in a given region, over a time period that ranges from decades to centuries. (Just to make sure, climate change is a long-term thing, so it is not something like ‘today is a bit warmer than yesterday so this is climate change’). This change in the “average weather” may include the change in the average temperature, humidity, air pressure, precipitation, and wind patterns.

What evidence is there that it is happening?

Scientists believe that climate change may happen due to these factors:

  • Natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun
  • Natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation)
  • Human activities that change the atmosphere's composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)

And climate changes, like ice age, have happened many times before on Earth, but those were all natural, they occurred because of the first two factors shown above. But it is different now. The vast majority of scientists agree that climate change caused by global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence, the third factor stated above! The evidence that climate change is happening, is overwhelming and undeniable: glaciers are melting, sea level is rising, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. There are many evidences, like I said, and here are just very few of them:

  • The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
  • Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
  • The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
  • At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.

Can the people who say this be trusted?

The IPCC has concluded that most of the warming of the globe observed during the past 50 years is because of the human activities. Its findings have been publicly endorsed by the national academies of science of all G-8 countries, as well as those of China, India and Brazil. The Royal Society of Canada, together with the national academies of fifteen other nations, also issued a joint statement on climate change that stated, in part: "The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the consensus of the international scientific community on climate change science. We recognize IPCC as the world's most reliable source of information on climate change." So, in my opinion, I would think that IPCC is reliable, and that global warming is really happening, and also that it is attributable to human activities.

The climate change “skeptics”

Despite the international scientific community’s agreement on climate change, there is still very small number of critics that continues to deny that climate change exists or that humans are causing it. These people are known as the climate change “skeptics”. In my opinion, the opinions of these skeptics are non-sense and they can’t be trusted, as they are not climate scientists, and they do not debate the science with the climate scientists directly. Instead they only focus on the media, general public, and the policy makers, with the goal of delaying action on climate change.

These skeptics have said a wide range of arguments against taking action on climate change. Some of them even contradicted each other, as you can see here, for some examples which the skeptics have said:

  • Climate change is not occurring
  • The global climate is actually getting colder
  • The global climate is getting warmer, but not because of human activities
  • The global climate is getting warmer, in part because of human activities, but this will create greater benefits than costs
  • The global climate is getting warmer, in part because of human activities, but the impacts are not sufficient to require any policy response
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What is Global Warming?

As the word already says, global warming is the warming of the globe, the earth. Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the surface of the Earth, and the oceans. The United Nation’s IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, defines it like this: “An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system”. Many people think that the terms “global warming” and “climate change” mean the same thing, and many people use these words interchangeably, but there ...

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