26 August 2021

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:



  • 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. 









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16 August 2021

Brief Introduction into the Climate Change

What is happening with the Mother Earth recently ?  


16/8/2021 


        We all can remember those passionate words from a young girl:

"This is all wrong.I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!"  Greta Thunberg, New York, 23 September 2019.


Well...these ambitious, yet challenging words belong to a Swedish student called Greta Thunberg. Greta, when she was just 15, has brought global attention when she started striking in front of Swedish parliament to convince the Swedish government to meet its emission targets. Her idea was so important to her that she decided to skip school on that day to do strike. How many of us would have done something like that at the age of 15? That is questionable. Yet, it is a bold attempt, isn't it? 


          If we pay attention to what Greta said in the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, I'm sure             her teachers wouldn't be that pissed of her anymore due to her truancy. 





        Well, just recently (Aug. 2021) IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has published a report. In this report, it mentions melting ice sheets and rising global sea levels and  are now "irreversible for centuries to millennia". Another remarkable point made was that we still have time to stop all those changes, if there is a sustained reduction in CO2 emissions, and other greenhouse gases. However, this could take at least several decades to show its impacts. 



    The UN Secretary General Guterres has commented on this report as it is now the "code red for humanity", and that the Climate Change effects are now "irrefutable". Meaning Climate Change is there, and should be denied according to Mr. Guterres' remarks.


Water front home for sail by baldeaglebluff / CC BY

    
    By the way, the above picture is from the USA. The house along with the Holland Island that it was built upon, had been inundated by the rising sea levels. Originally, there used to be more houses on this land, but eventually its residents had to move into mainland. 



    The report has actually given substantial opportunity to many world leaders to make self-reflection; including The US climate envoy John Kerry and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.


    The report came at a point where many nations have been coping with disasters from US, to Turkey, Greece to Russia. 2021 has been the year where the wildfires at huge scale broke out in regions such as Russia's Siberia or Canada. Now, if you look at these two places in the world map, you could see they're located at the "top" of the map, as their proximity to the Northern Pole. 





While countries such as Turkey and Greece have often experienced wildfires owing to hot-dry Mediterranean climate during the summer, this year, wildfires have reach to an unprecedented level in both countries with catastrophic outcomes on nature. It is concern that desertification in the Southern Europe could be the eventual outcome as a result of large scale wildfires. 





Forest Fires in Greece by Lotus R. / CC BY


        Germany has experienced catastrophic level of flood last month (July 2021), due to an extreme rainfall. The flood cost the lives of more than 170 people in Germany, and the neighboring countries that received the heavy rainfall. The floods caused the electricity outage in roughly 200,000 homes in the flood-affected parts of Germany. 



Flood damage in Hagen, Germany by Klaus Bärwinkel /  CC BY 

 

Floods in Belgium by Régine Fabri /  CC BY




        The world is showing us with many signs each year about how devastating the impacts of Climate Change could be, and we all can witness those impacts with more severe consequences each year (eg. droughts, rising sea levels). Countries all around the world have adopted or considering adopting strict measures to minimise those consequences. Although these type of policies has got criticism from masses, it should be interpreted as part of necessary measures to combat the "irreversible" effects of the Climate Change. Such measures are increasing all over the world. In Hungary, more than 30% of the land is under protection, which is larger than any other countries. Thanks to its efforts, Hungarian government is on its track on cutting greenhouse emissions, by improving its renewable energy sources.  


        But, but, but...these efforts are not enough. Without successful collaboration, and genuine willingness to "combat" with the climate change, we might have to experience above-mentioned incidents more often and more severe. 


    The term Climate Change has been there for a long time, yet so many countries has not put any enough effort to implement sustainable measures. With a staggering population and industrial output, China creates the world's highest levels of greenhouse emissions (more than 10 million metric tons), more than doubled the US (5 million tons). If we need to look at climate change, a sustainable policy should include those two countries. In total, they account for roughly 41% of the entire world's greenhouse emissions according to 2019 data. 




EPA (2021) - Global greenhouse gas emissions data




    China, specifically, is a rapidly industrialising country with high level of urbanisation and             increasing life standards, has relatively increased its greenhouse gas emissions at the end of the last millennia until early 2010s. There is a visible change in Beijing's policy regarding green energy, especially in overseas. The country has allocated huge amount of its budget to renewable energy, while continuing to operate coal power plants, as is constructing or planning new ones at the same time. Just to give you idea, Chinese green-energy investments at abroad increased to $44bn in 2017, from $32bn in 2016. Nevertheless, 2017 data shows China as the world's leading power in terms of renewable energy.




Daylight in Tiananmen Square by Michael Davis-Burchat /  CC BY




     The US, on the other hand, had traditionally been the "top polluter" until recently superseded by China. With replacements on its energy resources from coal to natural gas, Washington has been able to stop the increase in its emissions according to the reports. 


    More than that, the top 10 polluters of the world (China, US, EU, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudı Arabia and Canada) account for almost 70% of the world's entire emission. If we consider that there are more than 180 countries on the world, 170 countries are contributing to only 30% of this emission.



        After all, it could be said that human-induced activities are one of the major driving forces behind the Climate Change, and its severe impacts. In the next post, I will be talking more scientifically about the Climate Change, and explain it case-by-case basis. Don't worry! I'll try to make it as creative as possible with some pictures, maps...

Perhaps, it would make sense to understand this global phenomenon by relating it to what we all have been experiencing.  




To be continued.....








Sources


  • Boden, T.A., Marland, G., & Andres, R.J. (2017). National CO2 Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Burning, Cement Manufacture, and Gas Flaring: 1751-2014, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy. 
  • United Nations. (2019). (2019, September 23). Climate Action Summit 2019 - Morning Session [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haewHZ8ubKA&t=2482s&ab_channel=UnitedNations


         


 

 
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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 touche...