CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change – refers to the statistically significant changes in climate for continuous period of time

Factors that contribute to climate change can be natural internal process, external forces, and persistent anthropogenic
changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. It can also be due to natural occurrences or contributed by
acts of human beings.

Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s
atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases.

The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the Earth’s
temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise be, allowing life on Earth to exist.

Greenhouse effect

Step 1: Solar radiation reaches the Earth's atmosphere - some of this is reflected back into space.

Step 2: The rest of the sun's energy is absorbed by the land and the oceans, heating the Earth.

Step 3: Heat radiates from Earth towards space.

Step 4: Some of this heat is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, keeping the Earth warm enough to sustain
life.

Step 5: Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and land clearing are increasing the amount of
greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Step 6: This is trapping extra heat, and causing the Earth's temperature to rise.

Greenhouse Gases

 Carbon dioxide: Made up of carbon and oxygen, it comes from decaying and living organisms and several other
sources. CO2 is released when burning fossil fuels, coal and oil. It’s the most important contributor to human-
induced global warming.
 Methane: Made of carbon and hydrogen is a normal gas released from wetlands, growing rice, raising cattle,
using natural gas and mining coal. It traps a lot of heat in the atmosphere, scientists consider it the second most
important contributor to human induced global warming of all the greenhouse gases.
 Nitrous oxide: Nitrous Oxide is a natural part of the nitrogen cycle. Nitrous Oxide released by some of the
factories, power plants and fertilizers. This N2 O damages the protective ozone layer.
 Water vapour Water: This is water in gas form, like steam above boiling pot. It forms clouds and rains back on
earth. Water Vapour blocks heat from escaping, so it gets warmer. That makes even more water evaporate
 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): CFCs have no natural source but were entirely synthesized for such diverse uses as
refrigerants, aerosol propellants and cleaning solvents. Their creation was in 1928 and since then concentrations
of CFCs in the atmosphere have been rising.

Causes of Climate Change

The causes of climate change could be natural or by human activities.

Natural Causes

 Volcanic Eruptions
- What happens in violent volcanic eruptions is the release of ash particles in the stratosphere. The volcanic
ashes which have sulphur dioxide combine with water vapour. It then forms to sulphuric acid and
sulphurous aerosols. The sulphurous aerosols then are transported by easterly or westerly winds. Volcanoes
located near the equator are more likely to cause global cooling because of the wind pattern. Volcanoes
located near to north or south poles are less likely to cause cooling because of pole wind pattern, the
sulphurous aerosols are confined in pole area.
  Orbital Changes
- Eccentricity – a term used to describe the shape of earth’s orbit around the sun
- Obliquity – is the variation of the tilt of Earth’s axis away from the orbital plane
- Precession – is the change in orientation of Earth’s rotational axis
 The Carbon Dioxide Theory
The carbon dioxide theory states that, as the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the atmosphere becomes
opaque over a larger frequency interval; the outgoing radiation is trapped more effectively near the Earth’s
surface and the temperature rises. The latest calculations show that if the carbon dioxide content of the
atmosphere should double, the surface temperature would rise 3.6 degrees Celsius and if the amount should be
cut in half, the surface temperature would fall 3.8 degrees.

Human Activities:

 Burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

 Cutting down forests (deforestation). Trees help to regulate the climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.
So when they are cut down, that beneficial effect is lost and the carbon stored in the trees is released into the
atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect.

 Increasing livestock farming. Cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food.

 Fertilisers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide emissions.

 Fluorinated gases produce a very strong warming effect, up to 23 000 times greater than CO2.

Adaptation

Adaptation refers to initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems to actual or
expected effects of climate change. They aim at minimizing potential impacts of climate change, and to reduce, with the
least cost, the adverse effects on health.

In the context of health protection, adaptation encompasses all actions that protect populations from the health
impacts of climate change. For adaptation to be effective, it is necessary to understand the current and projected
climate change impacts and their implications for health, and then to develop and implement a range of responses to
ensure an optimal level of adaptation.

Examples of adaptation measures include:

 using scarce water resources more efficiently

 adapting building codes to future climate conditions and extreme weather events
 building flood defences and raising the levels of dykes
 developing drought-tolerant crops
 choosing tree species and forestry practices less vulnerable to storms and fires
 setting aside land corridors to help species migrate

Mitigation

Mitigation refers to actions that limit the extent and rate of climate change by constraining the emissions of greenhouse
gases or enhancing their sinks.
Mitigation entails several public health benefits, for instance increased physical activity due to the promotion of cycling
and walking, and pollution reduction associated with increased non-motorized transportation.

Efforts to integrate health in mitigation and adaptation policies are best supported by adequate accountability and
monitoring of the effectiveness of the interventions, as well as their costs, benefits and distributional impacts.

Mitigation – reducing climate change – involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or
transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such as the oceans, forests and soil). The
goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with the climate system, and “stabilize greenhouse gas
levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is
not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner”.

Climate-change mitigation encompasses policies and activities intended to reduce the greenhouse gas forcing of the
climate system. Key intervention points include:

 the reduction of greenhouse gas sources, for example by reducing deforestation

 emissions, for instance low carbon energy generation
 enhancing greenhouse gas sinks, for example by changes in land use