Paraphrase Abstract

CHAPTER 12 CLIMATE CHANGE

What is Climate? • The long term weather patterns prevailing over a given area of the planet. • A Greek word “klinein” meaning slope. • Evolved into klima, connoting a zone or region of the Earth as characterized by atmospheric conditions.

• The orb of the sun stood at a high angle in the sky at noontime as ships sailed toward north, • And day time temperature of the air get colder. • Interaction between the sun and the Earth.

What is Climate Change? • It is a change in the pattern of weather, and related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets, that occurs over time scales of decades or longer. • Climate change may be due to natural processes, such as sun’s radiation, volcanoes or internal variability in climate system. • Human influences such as changes in composition of atmosphere or land use. • Weather is the state of atmosphere, its temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall and so on-over hours or week.

EARTH’S MOVEMENT AROUND THE SUN • The orbit remains an ellipse, and its orientation changes over time. • Earth spins around its own axis. • The Earth could then be imagined like a spinning top or trumpo, turning and wobbling in its path around the sun.

EARTH’S MOVEMENT AROUND THE SUN Elements in this interaction between the sun and the Earth are defines as: 1. Aphelion refers to the point in the orbit of the Earth farthest from the sun. 2. Perihelion is the point in the orbit of the Earth closest to the sun. 3. Earth’s axial tilt is the inclination angle of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to a line perpendicular to its orbital plane.

4. Precession is the change of the orientation of the rotational axis of the Earth. 5. Equinox refers to the time the sun at noon is directly over the equator. 6. Solstice happens when sun at noon sits above the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn. 7. Precession of the Equinox refers to the motion of the equinoxes relative to precession of earth’s axis of rotation.

MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS • Is it possible that the 21st century may introduce yet another dramatic changes in climate? • Is there enough information to answer the age-old question of “what will the weather be tomorrow?” (Cilberto, 2015)?

• There is a growing body of data suggesting that the climate is changing all over the world. • Many scientists have asked if the Earth is headed for another Ice Age (Sparks & Hawkesworth, 2004). • It was addressed as early as 1930s by Slovak scientist and meteorologist Milutin Milankovitch. • The distance from the sun to the Earth is constant as shown by the orbital radius of the earth.

MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS • The tilt of the North Pole of the Earth has always relative to the plane of the solar system. • North Pole of the Earth is also relative to stars of the Earth circles the sun over many years. • His contemporary scientists critiqued his work, saying that the effects of the change in the radius of the Earth’s orbit , the change in tilt of the spin, are so small that they could not alter the amount of sunlight to cause a phenomenon like Ice Age.

MILANKOVITCH PARAMETERS • The mathematical expressions of the Law of Nature as first enunciated by Isaac Newton in the 17th century have some subtle features that help to explain the role of the Milankovitch parameters in changing climate. • The equations of the Laws of Nature allow for cumulative or summative effects. • But, French mathematical physicist Henri Poincare showed that mathematically, this simple cumulative process need to be as straightforward as it might seem (Zeh, 2007).

• Using the computer, scientist went back to the mathematical equations that described how the sunEarth relationship causes the climate to change over thousand or millions of years. • Milankovitch parameters over along period of time can have a cumulative effect far greater it appears at first glance. • This discovery is part of what has been called “new” science called Chaos theory (Gleick, 1987).

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: • Global Temperature Rise • Warming oceans • Sea Level Rise • Extreme events • Ocean acidification

GLOBAL WARMING • Scientist agree that the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere has been increasing over 90% in the latter part of 20th century. • Two opposing arguments on the issue whether or not global warming is just “natural”. • One side states that nature, simply acting according to its law with no reference to human beings and their action is the reason.

• The other side maintains that global warming is caused by the actions of human beings. • The oft-cited fact to understand the global warming is the temperature versus the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

GREENHOUSE GASES • Greenhouse effect refers to how certain gases in the atmosphere trap the heat of the sun. • As early as 1859, British engineer John Tyndall wrote: As a dam built across a river causes a local deepening of the stream, so out atmosphere, thrown across the terrestrial rays, produces a local heightening of the temperature at the Earth’s surface (quoted in Weart, 2003, p.4). • Atmosphere contains certain gases that naturally capture the heat from the sun and hold it in.

GREENHOUSE GASES • In 19th century, Tyndall noted that the most prevalent of these greenhouse gases is the water vapour. • Industrialization is the conversion of an agrarian economy into an industrialized one on a large scale. • Machines are primarily used in an industry, production of electricity by burning fossil fuel(coal) increases.

• With the Second World War and changes in geo-political arena, industrialization of nations directly affected the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. • Charles David Keeling , an American scientist, find out if the increased burning of fossil fuel and subsequent release of CO2 in atmosphere changing the global temperature of atmosphere.

GREENHOUSE GASES • He begun to measure the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere far away from industrialized nations. • Extinct volcano on the island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. • The Keeling curve is a graph that plots the continuous measurements of data taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

FUTURE ACTIONS • A computer model is only as good as the data used to do the calculations. • Scientist take the issue by setting “tripping points”, specifying values of meteorological parameters which is irreversible changes will takes place. • This issue has implications on the environment and on the economy • Burning of fossil fuels is one of the major sources of electricity, leads to higher amounts of CO2.

• Science has given humanity a tool for modernization. • It allows for the emergence of technology that spreads and applies knowledge for the attainment of good life.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Why does the average temperature of the atmosphere rise? What might have caused the unprecedented increase in its level? 2. Aside from the rise in mean temperature and CO2 levels, what are some other pieces of evidence for global warming? 3. How does climate change affect biodiversity?

4. What can people and nations do to fix global warming? Give five contributions you can personally achieve and three potential contributions on a national or international scale. 5. If climate change denial persists, what could possibly happen to the Earth and humanity after 20, 50, and 100 years considering the current trend?