1)
What is climate change?
The increase in the
Earth's average temperature and rainfall over a long period is referred to as
climate change.
The Earth has undergone
several ice age periods and a warm period alternatively. During the ice age
periods, the majority of the Earth's surface was covered by ice. The Earth
experience a high temperature during the warm periods. In the past, the surface
temperature of the planet has increased steadily by this cooling and warming
effects, and it took a hundred to thousand years to undergo a slight
temperature increase. But recently, the Earth has increased its
surface temperature within a short period.
According to IPCC's 2007
report, the Earth temperature has increased by 0.74˚ C in the past contrary.
The changes in the Earth's average temperature and rainfall over a long period
is defined as climate change. These effects serve in some parts of the
world—the countries in the northern hemisphere experience more warming than
those in the southern hemisphere. The Earth's land area is more susceptible to
warming than the ocean.
Furthermore, cooling and
warming periods of Earth alone cannot explain the rapid increase in the Earth's
temperature during the past few decades. Gas emission from anthropogenic
activities are responsible for the enhanced greenhouse effects.
2)
What is the Earth's natural
greenhouse effect?
A portion of solar
radiation coming towards the Earth is transmitted back into space by the
atmosphere. The remaining part of solar radiation reaches the Earth's surface.
Then, the solar energy absorbed by the Earth's surface emits as infrared
radiation to the atmosphere. The majority of the infrared radiation escape into
space through the atmosphere. In contrast, a small fraction of infrared
radiation is reemitted to Earth by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide(CO₂),
methane(CH₄), water vapors (H₂O), ozone(O₃), Nitrogen oxides(NOᵪ)s in the lower
part of the atmosphere called the troposphere. The vibration of the molecules
of these greenhouse gas is responsible for the trapping emitted infrared
radiation.
3)
Why the Earth's natural greenhouse
effect is essential?
The natural greenhouse
gas effects increase the Earth's temperature and make the planet an ideal place
for the survival of life. Similar to the greenhouse involved in agriculture,
the gases of the troposphere keep the Earth surface warm even during the
night.
Without Earth's
natural greenhouse effect, the Earth's temperature is 33˚ C cooler than the
present scenario. And also, it only allows only for the survival of few species
which can survive under extremely cold conditions.
4)
What is the enhanced greenhouse
effect?
Due to anthropogenic
activities, the concentration of greenhouse gases has increased in the
troposphere. As a result, the majority of infrared radiation coming from the
Earth's surface remit to the Earth. It results in an increase in Earth's
temperature by a few degrees.
5)
What are the causes of enhanced
greenhouse effects?
Fossil fuel burning:
Fossil fuel burning acts as the major driver of the anthropogenic greenhouse
effect. A large amount of carbon dioxide released daily from the massive scale
burning of oil, natural gas, and coal involve in the world's transportation and
logistics, and industrial manufacturing, and energy generation.
Deforestation:
Forest ecosystems serve as the major carbon sink in the world by sequestrating
carbon in their living and non-living biomass. Cutting down forests on a large
scale leads to loss of the carbon storage in living as well as in non-living
pools. Furthermore, it reduces the forest capacity to store carbon in the
future.
Cattle ranching:
ruminant animals, including cattle, are responsible for around 37% of methane
production coming from anthropogenic activities. A gut inhabited microorganism
group called methanogens is accountable for the production of
methane as their waste products in their respiration process.
Intensive agriculture:
As a result of the rapid increase in the world's population, agricultural
production has intensified to fulfill the food requirement. It involves the
excessive use of heavy machinery, resulting in high emission of carbon
emission. The disturbance to the soil in the farmlands causes the loss of
stored carbon in the soil.
Open dumping of
waste: Open dumping of household and other waste leads to aerobic and
anaerobic digestion of biodegradable waste by the microbial activities.
Anaerobic digestion of waste releases a large amount of methane into the
atmosphere, while the aerobic digestion of waste accounts for the emission of
carbon dioxide and water vapors.
Forest fires: Recently,
a man-induced forest fire is becoming more common all around the world. Large
forest fire event is responsible for emitting a large amount of carbon dioxide,
methane (CH₄), water vapors (H₂O), and Nitrogen oxides (NOᵪ) into the
atmosphere.
6)
What are the effects of climate
change?
Prolonged droughts:
Although the world's annual rainfall seems to be unchanged, many countries in
the world suffer from the lack of rainfall in the appropriate seasons of the
year and unexpected floods in some months. It affects the crop production of
farmers and reduces the harvest.
Natural disasters: Climate
change has increased the frequency and intensity of global weather events,
including floods, storms, tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires. Prevalent
disasters cause annual damage to properties with million values and
the death of thousands of people.
Melting glaciers and sea
ice: The global warming resulted from the anthropogenic
greenhouse effects has increased the Earth's temperature. Sea ice and glaciers
are too sensitive to temperature changes and start to meltdown. As a result, a
large amount of freshwater trapped as ice or snow in the polar region start to
add to the global oceans. Consequently, the sea level rises, and the coastal
zone sinks around the world.
Sea level rise:
High temperature resulted from global warming contributes to the sea level rise
in two ways. First, elevated temperature causes the seawater to expand and
increase its volume. Another reason that contributes to sea level rise is the
melting sea ice and glaciers. According to scientists, sea level is increased
by 0.1 inches per year. Sea level rise causes coastal flooding and inundating
the low lying islands.
Biodiversity degradation:
Most of the animal species are specialists. They are highly adapted to their
environment. As a result, they are highly sensitive to even small changes in
environmental conditions. So, a slight change in the temperature makes its
habitat unfavorable for the survival of sensitive species and eventually lead
to the extinction of these species. As an example, animals, including polar
bears, are highly adapted to habitats in the polar region. And also, they
depend highly on the sea ice for their feeding, breeding, and raising younger
ones. So, it is the only habitat that suits for their existence. As a result of
climate change, sea ice and glaciers in the polar region started to melt, and
the winter season has become shorter, which results in the low amount of sea
ice available for the animals. Ultimately, polar face extinction due to less
availability of food resources and breeding grounds. Animals species inhabited
in forest ecosystems are also adversely affected by climate change. The high
temperature and irregular precipitation patterns change the blooming season of
flowering plants. It affects specialized animals feeding on those plants for
nectar and fruits. Another example of an animal species severely affected by
climate change is giant panda bears in China. They are herbivores and depend on
one bamboo species in the wild. The extreme weather conditions cause this
bamboo to disappear from the forest areas. Consequently, panda bears lose their
staple food resource and habitat.
Intensified ocean
acidification: Ocean acts as the world's largest carbon
sink. As a consequence of increasing the Earth's temperature, the ocean started
to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and produce carbonic acid. It
results in a decrease in the ocean's pH and forces a threat for the survival of
calcium carbonate shell bearing animals and coral with calcium skeleton by
making them dissolve or reducing the availability of calcium carbonate.
Furthermore, the ocean acidification affects the fragile stage of fishes like
eggs and juveniles. Thereby, it causes the depletion of commercial fish stocks.
Increase the frequency of
wildfires: Oxygen, heat, and fuel act as the basic requirements
for initiating a forest fire. Elevated air temperature and prolonged drought
results from the Enhanced greenhouse effect increases the frequency and
prevalence of forest fires worldwide.
Increase in the rate of
infestation of insect pests: Generally, insects
have higher reproduction rates, short lifespan, and the ability to make a large
number of generations within a short time period. Elevated temperature resulted
from climate change has accelerated the reproduction rate and shortened the
lifespan and allow them to spread into a wide region. In addition, sudden
rainfall with high intensity makes breeding grounds for insect pests. The
outbreak of infectious diseases like Dengue occurs after receiving high
rainfall. The swamps created by rainfalls made a recent epidemic of locusts in
the African Continent. It damaged thousands of areas of crop fields and caused
millions of people to lose their food in the near future.
Saltwater intrusion:
Lack of adequate rainfall, which results in depletion of surface water
resources and sea-level rise, encourage the saltwater intrusion. It causes
marine animals to invade freshwater ecosystems and threaten the survival of
freshwater animal species.
7)
Mitigation of climate change impacts
Climate change
adaptation is the necessary taking actions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions
into the atmosphere by human activities.
Renewable energy
sources: Combustion of oil and coal contributes to around 41% of the
world's electricity production. Thereby, the energy production sector acts as a
major contributor to climate change by emitting a massive scale of greenhouse
gases. So, it is vital for the world to shift from non-renewable energy sources
like oil and coal into renewable energy sources like biomass, wind energy,
solar energy, tidal energy, and geothermal energy because these renewable
energy sources cause slightly low greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewable energy sources
are often associated with low atmospheric emissions. In addition to equipping
the major gird with renewable energy, entrepreneur and household owners should
be encouraged to use solar energy for their utilities. And also, the excess
from their solar energy generation can be added to the national grid, and it
makes an additional income for them.
Energy-efficient methods
and appliances: The use of energy-efficient appliances
cut down the carbon emission resulting from electricity consumption. Natural
ventilation and natural lighting should be optimized in the design of the new
building to minimize the use of energy. Awareness of saving energy should be
given for the occupants in households and workers in the factories.
Reduction in
fossil fuel burning: Planting trees alone cannot stop the greenhouse
effects because the rate of the emission of carbon into the atmosphere is
higher than that of absorption by plants. Vehicles with zero-emission like
electric cars and vehicles with low carbon emission like hybrids should be
promoted and made them affordable for the majority. Instead of traveling via
personal vehicles, public transports such as trains and buses should be
encouraged for the general public. It should be allowed only the vehicles with
emissions below the prescribed limits of carbon to be operated on roads and the
vehicles that violating the law are subjected to a penalty. In
addition, the following measures should be taken to control carbon and other
emissions of the vehicles in use. People should be encouraged to purchase
fuel-efficient vehicles. It lowers the emissions associated with vehicles and
cut down the greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of fossil fuels, the use of
alternative fuel sources with low emissions like biofuel, natural gas, and LP
gas should be encouraged.
Environmental friendly
farming: Farming methods like organic farming that
involve the use of a limited number of heavy machinery reduces the fossil fuel
burning associated with farming. In addition, minimum disturbance to the soil
in the cropland limits the loss of carbon stored in the soil.
Disposal of waste:
Waste separation into segments like plastics, polythene, glasses, biodegradable
components, metals, and papers should be initiated at the household level.
Biodegradable components of the waste should be sent for compost production or
biogas generation. It generates additional income for the local authorities,
and at the same time, it gives a solution for the growing energy crisis around
the world. Plastic, polythene, and papers with good quality should be sold for
recycling companies. Waste contaminated with organic waste is unqualified to
undergo recycling. So, this waste should be disposed of in a sanitary landfill
and biogas (CH₄) produced in the sanitary landfill under anaerobic
conditions.
8)
Adaptations of climate change impacts
Climate change
adaptation is taking appropriate measures to overcome the problems caused by climate
change.
Reforestation: Forests
serve as the long-term storage of carbon unless there is a disturbance event
like cutting down to them. So, it is important to increase the tree cover
around the world by planting trees in degraded and deforested lands. In the
selection of trees species for planting, priority should be given for the plant
species with high carbon sequestration potentials.
Drought resistant plants:
Crop varieties with fewer water requirements should be introduced to farmers in
the most affected regions. Genetic engineering has modified rice and wheat
species that have the ability to survive during serve drought periods. Thereby,
drought-tolerant plants can stabilize food production through the year and
ensure the income of local farmers.
Rainwater harvesting
systems: The relevant d government departments should
advise People who are suffering from prolonged drought to collect rainwater in
their households during the short rainy season. Required knowledge and funding
for the establishment of a rainwater harvest system should be given by the
government.
Flood control: Flood
control dams should be constructed along the flood-prone rivers to flow the
excess water through the dams during rainy seasons. The drainage system of
cities and suburban areas should be cleared to allow the rainwater to flow into
adjacent water bodies unless blocked trains cause flooding even under light
rain.
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