Direct effects: With winters becoming milder, there are likely to be up to 20,000 fewer cold-related deaths. However, there is a danger that bacteria would no longer die-off seasonally during the prolonged cold spell meaning that diseases may spread more widely. More heat waves will increase the number of hot-weather related deaths by up to 2,800. Exposure to higher levels of UV light could cause an extra 5,000 deaths a year from skin cancer and may cause an increase of up to 2,000 cases of cataracts. Warmer summers may cause up to 10,000 extra cases of food poisoning each year.3
We should be worried about Climate change but everyone has there own view. In my opinion I think that we should carry on with our live but always keep the thought of climate change in the back of our minds. Also it depends on how lucky you may feel….
Something that could protect us from Climate Change is volcanoes. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, it threw masses of sulphate particles and dust into the stratosphere that partially shielded the Earth from solar energy. Computer models successfully predicted that the debris would temporarily cool the Earth's atmosphere. The models also predicted that as the volcanic debris cleared in 1992 and 1993, average temperatures would swiftly return first to the level of the 1980s, and then, by the mid-1990s, to the higher levels expected with the ongoing build-up of greenhouse gases.4
It is very important that we find out whether or not man is responsible for climate change so we know whether or not we can do anything to stop it and if so, we should plan for the future generations. If we find this out, it will become easier to do things to stop it.
But out of all this I would like to know ‘ Is man Responsible for climate change?’
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Arguments to suggest Man is responsible for climate change –
Mankind is changing the climate
Professor Sir David King,
UK chief scientific adviser
Deforestation
The mass destruction of forests and jungles is one of the main reasons thought to be for climate change. Trees play a major role in the global carbon cycle. They are the largest land based natural mechanism that absorbs carbon dioxide and remove it from the air. A large amount of CO2 can be stored in trees. An acre of trees will remove up to 10 times of C02 than the equivalent of a patch of Greenland or Crop Land. A tree will absorb around 13 pounds of carbon dioxide and an acre of forest will be able to remove about 2.8 tons of the gas.5
But when trees are burnt the CO2 stored in their structure is released and goes back into the air. Today, the world’s forests are no longer able to absorb all the CO2 that man creates when we burn fossil fuels. Everyday over 5500 acres of rain forest are destroyed, and over 50 million acres are destroyed every year. Global CO2 levels rise approximately 0.4 percent each year, to levels not experienced on this planet for millions of years. Planting more trees and reducing timber cuts world-wide will help restore the imbalance, and perhaps buy time as ways are found to reduce world greenhouse gas emissions.5 Deforestation is definitely mans doing, and it is almost certain that the more deforesting that we do then the more CO2 there will be in the air.
Population Growth
The worlds Population is constantly increasing. The increase in people is also affecting climate change. As the population grows the need for services such as electricity and cars grows aswell. This boosts up the use of oil and fuel gases and therefore increases the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. As the concentration carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect becomes stronger as the reflected heat cannot escape the earths atmosphere as gases such as CO2 trap it.
Greenhouse effect & Global Warming – The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences due to certain gases in the Earths atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases have been called greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.1 This extra warming is actually happening. Due to increases in greenhouse gases the Earth actually is warming up.
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Arguments to suggest Man is NOT responsible for climate change
Now I will be telling you the other part of the story. Apart from all the other effects that are ‘man-made’ there are many other reasons to contradict the fact that man is responsible for climate change that turn it upside down, to say that man is not responsible at all.
Volcanoes
We should not forget that climate change even includes the cooling of the Earth, as well as the warming up of it. Volcanoes do the cooling part. When a volcano erupts tones of ash, Sulphur dioxide, water vapour and dust is thrown up into the atmosphere and it temporarily blocks heat energy from coming down onto the Earth, shown in the diagram below.
Although volcanic activity may last for only a few days, the large amounts of gases and ash can affect the world for many years. For example, when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991 it emitted thousands of tonnes of gases and ash, which in turn reduced the temperature of the Earth by 1of.9
Another striking example was in the year 1816, often referred to as "the year without a summer." Significant weather-related disruptions occurred in New England and in Western Europe with killing summer frosts in the United States and Canada. These strange phenomena were attributed to a major eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia, in 1815.10
Ocean Currents
The oceans are a major component of the climate system. They cover about 71% of the Earth and absorb about twice as much of the sun's radiation as the atmosphere or the land surface. Ocean currents move vast amounts of heat across the planet - roughly the same amount as the atmosphere does. But the oceans are surrounded by land masses, so heat transport through the water is through channels.
Winds push horizontally against the sea surface and drive ocean current patterns.
Certain parts of the world are influenced by ocean currents more than others. The coast of Peru and other adjoining regions are directly influenced by the Humboldt current that flows along the coastline of Peru. The El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean can affect climatic conditions all over the world.
Another region that is strongly influenced by ocean currents is the North Atlantic. If we compare places at the same latitude in Europe and North America the effect is immediately obvious. Take a closer look at this example - some parts of coastal Norway have an average temperature of -2°C in January and 14°C in July; while places at the same latitude on the Pacific coast of Alaska are far colder: -15°C in January and only 10°C in July. The warm current along the Norwegian coast keeps much of the Greenland-Norwegian Sea free of ice even in winter. The rest of the Arctic Ocean, even though it is much further south, remains frozen.
Ocean currents have been known to change direction or slow down. Much of the heat that escapes from the oceans is in the form of water vapour, the most abundant greenhouse gas on Earth. Yet, water vapor also contributes to the formation of clouds, which shade the surface and have a net cooling effect.
Any or all of these phenomena can have an impact on the climate, as is believed to have happened at the end of the last Ice Age, about 14,000 years ago.10
Changes in Solar Output
The amount of energy that is radiated by the sun is not always constant. Even though it may seem constant to our everyday point of view, small changes can lead to climate change.
There is evidence of an 11-year solar cycle (variation in energy output) in the temperature record of the Earth. Longer period changes may occur as well. 11
It is thought that the portion of the warming in the first half of the 20th century was due to an increase in the output of solar energy.
All of these pieces of evidence are natural. So man cannot really do anything to stop these from happening. The only thing they could do is to prepare for things to come and to inform people of changes
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