Climate change
Climate Change Presentation - Take 2 Conflict * Main points of conflict are between developed and developing countries. * Developed: US, Japan, UK. Developing: China, India, South Africa. * The reason there is conflict is that developed countries are now trying to limit the rest of the world's energy use to help combat global warming. The developing countries argue that it isn't fair considering the developed countries have already done the damage with their energy consumption and that they should be able to get on the same level. Russia vs. The West * European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral riches of the Arctic. * A report from the EU's top two foreign policy officials to the 27 heads of government gathering in Brussels for a summit this week warns that "significant potential conflicts" are likely in the decades ahead as a result of "intensified competition over access to, and control over, energy resources". * The seven-page report, obtained by the Guardian, has been written by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy supremo, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations. It predicts that global warming will precipitate security issues for Europe, ranging from energy wars to mass migration,
Essay on Climate Change
0/2/09 Is the climate changing? The earth's climate is always changing and is causing disturbance and alterations to the earth, such as flooding, hurricanes, drought and the melting of the glaciers. These drastic changes have been noticed over recent years and are mainly a result of human actions and not due to natural causes in the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is also a huge subject when we talk about climate change. It is a natural effect which allows solar radiation to be absorbed to keep the earth at a temperature needed for life. However gases like carbon dioxide and methane can absorb some of the infra-red radiation and then begins to warm the troposphere. These gases are natural in the atmosphere but have been added to by humans which lead to a gradual warming of the atmosphere, which then leads to global warming. So in my essay I am going to answer the question 'Is the climate changing?' and what this is doing to our world. The Keeling curve is a graph that shows the earth's surface temperature from the 1950's and onwards. These recordings show that the earth's surface temperature is increasing massively. It is only 0.9°c above average at the moment, but it is believed that if the temperature continues to rise there will be devastating effects on the earth. There is a link between the keeling curve graph, the carbon dioxide emissions graph and the rising sea
Notes on Managing Climate Change.
Managing Climate Change Adaptive Capacity: the extent to which a system can cope with climate change. In human systems it depends on available human physical and financial resources. Climate vulnerability: the degree to which a natural or human system lack the ability to cope with climate change. Vulnerability is a result of the magnitude of the change, its speed of onset, the sensitivity of the system and its adaptive capacity. Mitigation or adaptation? Mitigation mean reducing the output of greenhouse gases and increasing the size of greenhouse gas sinks. I.e. targets to reduce emissions, switching to renewable energy sources, capturing carbon emissions from power stations and storing them. Adaptation means changing the lifestyles to cope with new environment rather than trying to stop climate change. I.e. managed retreats of coastlines vulnerable to sea level rise, developing drought resistant crops, enlarge conservation areas to allow shifting of habitat zones. > For human systems i.e. the economy, mitigation could involve an upfront cost, to reduce atmospheric pollution to 'safe' levels. Adaptation might mean costs were more gradual and spread over time. > For natural systems like ecosystems, mitigation could limit damage. Some ecosystems may not be able to 'adapt' and could lead to death and my cause extinction. Wealthy countries may have the adequate
Causes of Global Climate Change
Causes of Global Climate Change Long term climate change can be influenced by either external or internal factors. An example of an external factor is solar output. This is energy that comes from the sun. This energy changes over time with measurements made in the 1980s showing that total amount of solar energy reaching earth has decreased by 0.1%. Although this is doesn't seem like much, if it continued over a long period of time, it could influence the global climate. It is predicted that a 1% change in solar output could make temperatures rise or fall by between 0.5 and 1°C. It has also been suggested that the activity of sunspots on the sun's surface affects solar output. There is also evidence to suggest that this was the reason for the little ice age. Another example of an external factor that affects global climate is orbital geometry. Variations in the Earth's orbit and tilt (called the Milankovitch variations) seem to have a link with climatic change. Colder, glacial periods have occurred when the Earth's orbit is circular and warmer periods when it is more elliptical. The tilt of the Earth's axis will also vary over time from 21.5° and 24.5°. The greater the angle of tilt, the hotter the summers are and colder winters are. When the angle of tilt is greater the earth usually experiences warmer periods. Another kind of factor is an internal factor. An
Opportunities and Applied Possibilities for Positive Social Change on Climate Change
Climate Change Climate Change: Opportunities and Applied Possibilities for Positive Social Change on Climate Change There is no doubt that the global warming and climate change is an important social issue affecting human kind today. As identified in our earlier topic, global warming and climate change have resulted in negative impacts on our environment. Over the last three decades, there have been notable changes in temperature levels and weather patterns. Global warming is caused by increased emission of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The current changes in climatic patterns are mainly caused by our social activities and practices. These are not limited to our rapid globalization, urbanization and industrialization of the global society (Adger, Arnell & Tompkins, 2005). Since this issue of climate change is a major problem today, different governments and societies have implemented a number of possibilities and opportunities towards positive social changes in order to deal with the menace. There are several incentives and approaches which have been encouraged and promoted to deal with the problem. It is obvious that climate change results in adverse environmental effects. There are increased efforts and initiatives being promoted by governments and business models to deal with the social challenges towards climate change. To begin with,
Discuss the following: (i) what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its role in shaping the global response to climate change demonstrates about the relationship between science and politics; and (ii) the regulatory challenges that global crises raise for the state.
LW592: Public Law 2 – Special Studies Essay The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is commonly described as a hybrid ‘scientific and political’ institution. The global scientific discourse it has generated has resulted in regulatory decisions being made to appear not as political, but as the only valid alternative to the problem of climate change. Discuss the following: (i) what the IPCC and its role in shaping the global response to climate change demonstrates about the relationship between science and politics; and (ii) the regulatory challenges that global crises raise for the state. Climate change is a natural phenomenon and a global environmental crisis that has gone beyond the confines of environmentalism and science to a level that has far exceeded the boundaries of economic, social and political concern. It can be said by certainty that human activities such as transport, industries etc. play a major role in this. In the words of Tony Blair “Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it”. If something is not done, there will be a continuing rise in temperature and sea levels resulting to severe weather conditions causing serious consequences. In this essay, I will not only be looking at the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and how it shapes global
Potentially Positive Effects of Climate Change
Climate change is the change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. Base on a definition by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 1. Often, climate change is associated with the effects of global warming which causes the rising global temperature. With the continual focus by the media on the serious and potentially disastrous circumstances surrounding climate change, there is another side that rarely gets noticed by the public. There are possibilities and opportunities presented by these same circumstances – the other side of the climate change. The three new opportunities brought by climate change is definitely the opening of artic trade route, boost in the agriculture industry and fewer death rates caused by extreme cold weather. Firstly, climate change often associates with the rise of temperatures which causes the melting of artic icebergs. One new opportunity created by the melting of icebergs is the opening of artic trade routes, enabling a faster route between the west and Asia. Once, the artic icebergs have melted, ships are able to simply through the arctic ocean, above Russia into the Asia, in a much faster route. Currently, Russian and other European shippers
Is Climate Change caused by humans?
Introduction Climate Change is a term used to describe all of the inconsistencies in climate on the Earth. Nowadays, however, the term climate change is generally used when referring to changes in our climate which have been identified since the early part of the 1900's1. The main observations made when looking at climate change are changes in rainfall, wind speeds, sea levels and extreme weather conditions. These are normally affected always affected by temperature changes. Scientist have seen rises in the level of CO2 and in temperature over the last decade and they believe this is what is making climate change. ''Global mean surface temperatures have risen by 0.5-1.0°F since the late 19th century. The 20th century's 10 warmest years all occurred in the last 15 years of the century. Of these, 1998 was the warmest year on record. The snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere and floating ice in the Arctic Ocean have decreased. Globally, sea level has risen 4-8 inches over the past century. Worldwide precipitation over land has increased by about one percent. The frequency of extreme rainfall events has increased throughout much of the United States.2 Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are likely to accelerate the rate of climate change. Scientists expect that the average global surface temperature could rise 1-4.5°F (0.6-2.5°C) in the next fifty years, and
Climate Change: A Case Study
Name of the child : Mohammed Jannatul. Age: 12 years old. Sex: Male Address & family: Jannatul lives in a single room in the slum of khilkhet with his family of three. His father died and he lives with his mother and a brother. He has one sister who works as a domestic help in a family who provide her food and clothes but does not give any salary. Occupation: Janantul is a rickshaw puller. He pulls rickshaw inside Baridhara DOHS area. Impact on Working hour & Income: Jannatul generally works for 12 hours i.e. from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm. at night. He has to give the owner of the rickshaw Tk 80 everyday. He earns about Tk 350 normally if the weather is fine. However, change of weather affects his income as less people are at the street if there is more heat. Then his income faces a slump and his working hour increases. On the other hand, initially continues rain or depression is good for him as he gets a higher fare and tips from the passengers. But again he falls sick for being drenched in rain and thus cannot work for next one or two days. So again the income goes down. Health Hazard & Expenditure: Jannatul feels that in Dhaka city heat is increasing day by day. He suffers from sweating as he pulls rickshaw which is very hard physical task for a twelve-year-old. He bears the direct heat of the sun. He feels week and his entire body aches. "I don't feel like
To ehat extent is climate change a lot of hot air?
To what extent is climate change a lot of hot air? The term climate change describes a significant variation, occurring over centuries and millennia, to the global climate. Global warming refers to the global temperature rise due to the greenhouse effect. This is where CO2 and other greenhouse gases form a blanket in the atmosphere trapping heat from the sun as it is reflected off the earth's surface. It is common for the two terms to be confused as the same thing, this however is not true and it is important to consider this when looking at data. It is a difficult task to say whether or not climate change is a lot of hot air, as it depends on which data you use and how far back the data has been recorded. There is no doubt that the media is to blame for the hype surrounding the issue of global warming, with new horror stories emerging on a nearly daily basis. This can be seen by the fact that many people believe that over the past century global temperatures have risen by 2-3C when in fact it they have only risen by 0.6C. Stories warn us that we will be living in a tropical Britain where Malaria is prevalent and Norfolk will be submerged under the sea. In 2005 research showed that by doubling CO2 levels it would lead to a temperature rise of about 3C. Some other models showed temperatures rises to as much as 11C, when these stories were published the press was
