What is Climate Change?

Cause of Climate Change?

Effect of Climate Change?
How to Prevent Climate Change?
What is Global Warming?
Cause of Global Warming?
Effect of Global Warming?
How to Prevent Global Warming?

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s
local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are
synonymous with the term.
Changes observed in Earth's climate since the early 20th century are primarily driven by human activities,
particularly fossil fuel burning. Natural processes can also contribute to climate change, including internal
variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and
external forcing. Changes in volcanic activity, changes in the Sun's energy output and variations of
Earth's orbit are important factors.
Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean
temperature increases. Extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and
precipitation are also monitored. Scientists use observations from the ground, air and space to study past,
present and future climate change.

Cause of Climate Change?

Generating power
Most electricity is still generated by burning coal, oil, or gas, which produces carbon dioxide and nitrous
oxide – powerful greenhouse gases. Globally, more than a quarter of electricity comes from wind, solar
and other renewable sources. These sources emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air.

Manufacturing goods
Manufacturing and industry produce emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels to produce energy for
making things like cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes, and other goods. Machines used in
the manufacturing process often run on coal, oil, or gas. The manufacturing industry is one of the largest
contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Cutting down forests
Each year approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed. Deforestation, together with
agriculture and other land use changes, is responsible for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas
emissions. Since forests absorb carbon dioxide, destroying them also limits nature's ability to keep
emissions out of the atmosphere.

Effects of Climate Change?

Hotter temperatures
As greenhouse gas concentrations rise, so does the global surface temperature. The last decade, 2011-
2020, is the warmest on record. Temperatures in the Arctic have warmed at least twice as fast as the
global average. Higher temperatures increase heat-related illnesses and make working outdoors more
difficult.
More severe storms
As temperatures rise, more moisture evaporates, which exacerbates extreme rainfall and flooding, causing
more destructive storms. The frequency and extent of tropical storms is also affected by the warming
ocean. Such storms often destroy homes and communities, causing deaths and huge economic losses.
More health risks
Every year, environmental factors take the lives of around 13 million people. Changing weather patterns
are expanding diseases, and extreme weather events increase deaths. Climate impacts are already harming
health, through air pollution, disease and increased hunger and poor nutrition in places where people
cannot grow or find sufficient food.
Poverty and displacement
Over the past decade, weather-related events displaced an estimated 23.1 million people on average each
year. Most refugees come from countries that are most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to the impacts
of climate change. Climate change increases the factors that put and keep people in poverty.

How to Prevent Climate Change?

1. Make Your Commute Green
Millions of people drive to work every day. Car emissions are one of the top causes of climate change.
There are other options that you can use to make your commute eco-friendlier, such as riding a bike or
taking public transportation instead of driving.
2. Be More Conservative with Energy Usage
Becoming more energy efficient is a great way to prevent pollution. Make sure to turn off lights and
unplug devices that you are not using anymore when you are done with them. Replace your light bulbs
with energy-efficient light bulbs to help you save electricity too.
3. Get Active and Vote
Polling the right people into office will help pass legislation to protect against climate change. Many
corporations have politicians on their payroll and use them to lobby against legislation that would require
more regulations against them. This means voting for politicians that aid against the detrimental effects of
climate change is crucial.
4. Recycle
Manufacturing plants emit a large number of greenhouse gasses per year. Recycling is an eco-friendly
and cost-effective way to dispose of your discarded goods in a manner that eliminates waste and doesn't
emit greenhouse gasses back into the environment.
5. Educate Yourself and Others
There are many ways we can help protect the planet by educating others about the dangers of climate
change and how to act against it. Use social media to spread the word about what climate change is doing
to our planet.
6. Encourage the use of renewable energies
Focusing your efforts to spread awareness about renewable energy is the best way to create a positive
impact in your community. By informing others about how renewable energy is better than utilizing
fossil fuels, you will sway others into investing in the idea.

What is Global Warming?

This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average
temperatures, with the year 2020 tying with 2016 for warmest on record (Source: NASA's Goddard
Institute for Space Studies). Learn more about global surface temperature here. Credit: NASA/JPL-
Caltech
Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's climate system observed since 1850. It is most
commonly measured as the average increase in Earth's global surface temperature. The term is frequently
used interchangeably with climate change, though latter refers to both human- and naturally produced
warming.
It concludes that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Since the pre-industrial
period, human activities have increased Earth's global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8
degrees Fahrenheit).

Cause of Global Warming?

The average global temperature has been rising since the end of the Pleistocene. With some ups and
downs, of course. Rising temperatures are natural for this time period. But natural causes cannot explain
all the warming that's been happening. There is some other factor at work.
Recent global warming is due mainly to human actions. These actions involve releasing greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases keep the atmosphere warm, and carbon dioxide is a greenhouse
gas. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the better the atmosphere can trap heat. Increase in
carbon dioxide leads to increased global warming.

Burning forests also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Other human activities release
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For example, growing rice and raising livestock both produce
methane.

Effects of Global Warming?

There are already many effects of global warming being seen. As Earth has gotten warmer, sea ice has
melted. This has raised the level of water in the oceans about 3 mm per year. The rate of sea level rise is
now accelerating and might be more than 10 mm per year in 2100. Although this doesn’t sound like
much, added together over the years it can be a lot. The greatest danger from flooding will be
when storm surge is added to the top of higher sea levels.

The overall trend in sea level from 1993 to 2016; it rose about 60 millimeters in that time span.
The extent of Arctic sea ice in summer has been decreasing rapidly. The ice pictured below is the sea ice
minimum in 2016 (Figure below). The yellow line is the median minimum ice extent for 1981–2010.
The sea ice minimum for 2016 (pictured) was the third lowest on record, with 2012 as the lowest. 2017
was slightly higher, although records have not been updated.
Other effects of global warming include more extreme weather. Coral reefs are struggling to survive and
species are moving uphill where temperatures are cooler, while those at the top of the mountain are being
run off. More extreme weather is causing more severe storms, floods, heat waves and droughts.

How to Prevent Global Warming?

Change a light
Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon
dioxide a year. 
Drive less 
Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often. You'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every
mile you don't drive!
Recycle more
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by taking shorter and cooler showers and washing
your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water (more than 500 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per
year).
Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you reduce your garbage by 10 percent.
Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
Turn off electronic devices
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer, when you're not using them, will
save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Source(s):
https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causes-effects-climate-change
https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/6-things-you-can-do-to-prevent-climate-change/?
_adin=02021864894
https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-middle-school-earth-science-flexbook-2.0/section/12.16/
primary/lesson/causes-and-effects-of-global-warming-ms-es/
https://www.northwestern.edu/fm/fm-staff/10-ways-to-stop-global-warming.html