Definition of Climate Change (with a quick survey ✅ )

 So what is actually the climate change?

26/8/2021

          In my last post, I explained about the effects of climate change, and touched upon some of the causes of it. Well, most of us might have heard at least a bit about of the climate change. So I'll try to make this post as succinct, scientific, but engaging as possible. 

        Before we begin, why don't you check out this quick survey (basically one question)? 

        First things first...Climate Change is not simply a change in weather. By that, if you look out your window, and see it's raining, but then weather suddenly changes into bright sunshine with no clouds at all, this is not a Climate Change. The word climate refers to weather in a particular location over 30 years. So, as opposed to climate, weather is actually something that we can witness in daily basis, and therefore can change quickly. Soo..when we say Climate Change, it actually refers to changes in weather patterns over long time. 

Now that we have some idea about the impacts of the Climate Change, we can make a transition into more background story behind of this global phenomenon. 

        The researchers are citing for one single factor behind of the Climate Change: humans. To go further, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) expresses: "Climate change is happening because of us". It might sound like self-blaming on all of us, yet the facts seems to justify that....

Coal power plant by eutrophication&hypoxia /  CC BY

        It might be easier if we just group down the main causes of the climate change. Otherwise, we might get lost with some complicated facts. In a nutshell, five main reasons are behind the climate change:

     ❕Fossil fuel consumption: Burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil produces CO2 which in turn contributes to the climate change, as we will explain. 

     ❕Deforestation: Trees that we see in parks, countryside have actually significant place in the functioning ecosystem. Trees help absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, thereby creates a balance in the atmosphere. 

     ❕ Increasing livestock farming: Did you know that livestock animals such as cows and sheep creates methane after digestion? And methane is actually one of the greenhouse gases. 

     ❕Nitrogen based fertilisers: Recent study found out that nitrogen based emissions are 256 times more "potent" than CO2 related emissions. Some of us might be thinking what is this nitrogen fertilisers even? Basically, as an invention came to being in the early 20th century, it led creating nitrogen fertilisers by chemically synthesising the nitrogen that already exists in the atmosphere. This invention was hailed as one of the "greatest" and "fastest" human revolutions in the contemporary history. For the ones interested in, just search it up: the Haber-Bosch process. 

     ❕Fluorinated gases: For the ones that haven't heard of this, fluorinated gas is another human-induced emission created as a result of industrial activities. For instance; household equipments such as refrigators and air-conditioners are working with fluorinated gases. We should be careful of this one though. Despite that fluorinated gases consitute the least portion of human-induced greenhouse gases (2%), they trap more heat. More than that, their atmospheric lifetime can be thousands of years. Atmospheric lifetime is a term to describe the time that is needed for gas to chemically decomposed into its elements. Until this process ends, gas stays in the atmosphere, and contributes to the climate change.  

Actually, what we call as greenhouse gases function as a heat-trapping gas.  Unfortunately, this heat content has dramatically increased since the 1980's. According to Science Buddies and Svenja Lohner from Scientific American, heat is trapped on a physics principle called "Greenhouse Effect". When light penetrates into materials such as  glass or plastic, it is absorbed by the plants and soil, and later converted into heat. This heat is then emitted by plants and soil as part of infrared radiation. So, it becomes tricky at this point...As the light can't escape from an environment with glass, this will make the internal temperature rise. Now, that's the reason why we can grow vegetables in greenhouse all year which itself is a Roman innovation. 

        At this point, it is important to understand the different types of greenhouse gases. The most common ones could be mentioned as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Although carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere is quite low, its increase is found to be one of the factors behind the increase in the global temperature. In fact, CO2 produced as a result of human activities is the largest contributor to the climate change. So, we shouldn't minimise the impacts of the carbon dioxide. 

        Just a quick note: greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide have only begun to increase with the Industrial Revolution. 2020 data shows the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has dramatically increased by 50% compared to pre-Industrial Revolution era. 

      

        Methane and nitrous oxide, on the other hand, are human-emitted in less quantities. 

        Apart from that, natural events such as volcanic activities or changes in solar radiation does have relatively less impact compared to human-induced emissions. To give you idea, natural causes are only responsibly for the 0,1 °C increase in global temperature for the period between 1890-2010. 

        Check this video prepared by the NASA Space Place. It simplifies the explanation of the climate change. 

What Is the Greenhouse Effect? by the NASA Space Place

        If we look into historical background, the greenhouse effect dates back to the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. 

        Another factor contributes to climate change is water vapor. While human activities do not have much direct influence on water vapor, increasing temperatures as a result of human-induced greenhouse emissions leads to water evaporating more. Now..we actually have water evaporating on regular basis due to water cycle, which itself is a natural phenomenon. As we know water can be found in three different forms: solid (ice), liquid (water) and gas (air). These three forms creates the backbone of the Earth's ecological system by forming clouds, icebergs, oceans, etc. 

        In a nutshell, water evaporates as follows: water in the liquid forms evaporates and forms clouds, which turns back into earth by rain or snow. There are actually other phases within the water cycle, yet this should be sufficient to move forward. 

Diagram of the Water Cycle by Ehud Tal / CC BY

        As a result of greenhouse gas emissions, the ozone amount in the troposphere (which is the lowest layer of the atmosphere) has reduced by 13% in just last 3 decades.  

Atmospheric layers by Ramona Benson / CC BY

       Due to human-induced greenhouse emissions, average temperature is increasing 0,2 °C per decade. To be more specific, combined land and ocean surface temperature has increased by almost 1°C compared to the 20th century average which is 15,8 °C.  If you consider that this July (2021) was the hottest month on the Earth ever recorded, the overall picture is not very optimistic. Every year, we are experiencing yet another record in temperature increase as a result of climate change.  

    In the next post, I will be explaining the five main reasons behind the climate change in more details. 

So let's make a short quiz. What were the five reasons?

1) Fossil fuel consumption

2) Deforestation

3) Increasing livestock farming

4) Nitrogen based fertilisers

5) Fluorinated gases

        

To be continued.....

Sources:

• Australian Academy of Science. (2021). Are human activities causing climate change? Australian Academy of Science.

• Buswell, W. (2016). The next ‘green revolution’ should focus on hunger – not profit. The Conversation. 

• Canadell, P., Tian, H., Patra, P., Thompson, R. (2019). Nitrogen fertilisers are incredibly efficient, but they make climate change a lot worse. CSIROscope. 

• Climate Council. (2019, October 16). What is Climate Change and What Can We Do About It? Climate Council. 

• Denchak, M. (2019). Greenhouse Effect 101. National Resources Defence Council (NRDC).

• Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Climate Change Indicators: Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases. Environmental Protection Agency.

• European Commission (2021). Causes of Climate Change. European Commission

• European Union (EU) (2021). Fluorinated greenhouse gases. EU. 

• Fecht, S. (2021, February 25). How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming? Columbia Climate School. 

• Janick, J., Paris, H.S., Parish, D.C. (2007). The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions. Annals of Botany Company, 100(7). Oxford University Press.

• Science Buddies & Lohner, S. (2017, June 1). Heating with the Greenhouse Effect. Scientific American. 

• The UCAR Center for Science Education. (2021). The Greenhouse Effect. The UCAR Center for Science Education

• US. Department of Commerce - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2019). Water cycle. NOAA. 

• US. Department of Commerce - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2021). It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record. NOAA.