PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Old Nalsian Road, Nalsian, Calasiao, Pangasinan, Philippines 2418

Tel. No. (075)522-8032/Fax No. (075)523-0894/Website: www.philcst.edu.ph
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED, Member: Philippine Association of Colleges and
Universities (PACU), Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions
(PAMI)

Lesson 4: Anthropogenic Impact: Global Warming

Introduction:
Climates have always changed often in cycles and on many different time scales. A sudden
cooling 65 million years ago is thought to have ended the age of dinosaurs, along with 75% of the
species existing at that time. There may have been a dozens of such mass extinction. On a shorter
time scale, several ice ages, each lasting hundreds of thousands of years have come and gone
in the past 2 million years. Even shorter climate shifts which began in the 1300s, and cause crop
failure in Europe. The possibility that human activities might alter world climate is probably true.
What at are these activities? Why must we concern about it?

Lesson Proper
The sun which is the source of life on earth transfer heat energy through radiation. The
earth’s surface in turn emits into the atmosphere much of the energy it absorbed in the form of
infrared rays [IR]. This absorption and emission of energy from the earth is important to keep the
heat balance. Gases in our atmosphere like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water
vapor called greenhouse gases since they cause greenhouse effect, allow the heat to get in but
they do not let all the energy to come out much like the gardener’ greenhouse with its glass roof
and wall hence they are called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases absorb IR and emit energy
and also in infrared form but of longer wavelength. This emitted IR warms the earth. However if
the concentration of these gases in the atmosphere increases, more heat is absorbed resulting
to increase in temperature.

What human activities contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases? What greenhouse
 PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Old Nalsian Road, Nalsian, Calasiao, Pangasinan, Philippines 2418
Tel. No. (075)522-8032/Fax No. (075)523-0894/Website: www.philcst.edu.ph
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED, Member: Philippine Association of Colleges and
Universities (PACU), Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions
(PAMI)

gases are produce by each activity? Refer to the pictures below

What is global warming?

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-
industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning,
which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term is
frequently used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both
human- and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. It is most commonly
measured as the average increase in Earth’s global surface temperature.
Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s
global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a number that
is currently increasing by 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. Most of the
current warming trend is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) the result of human
activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over decades to millennia.

Global Warming Fast Facts:

• Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are 412 ppm in 2020, their highest levels in
650,000 years.
• Average global temperature is up 1.9 degrees F (3.4 degrees C) since 1880.
• The minimum expanse of Arctic summer sea ice has declined 12.85% per decade since
satellite measurements began, in 1979.
• Land ice has declined at the poles by 413 gigatons a year since 2002.
• Global sea level has risen 7 inches (176 millimetres) in the past century.

Natural Causes:
1. Green house effect
2. Slow tilting of the earth’s axis
3. Natural calamities

Anthropogenic Causes:
1. Respiration
2. Mining activities
3. Burning of fossil fuels
 PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Old Nalsian Road, Nalsian, Calasiao, Pangasinan, Philippines 2418
Tel. No. (075)522-8032/Fax No. (075)523-0894/Website: www.philcst.edu.ph
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED, Member: Philippine Association of Colleges and
Universities (PACU), Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions
(PAMI)

Climate Change
Climate is sometimes mistaken for weather. But climate is different from weather because
it is measured over a long period of time, whereas weather can change from day to day, or from
year to year. The climate of an area includes seasonal temperature and rainfall averages, and
wind patterns.

Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in
a place. Climate change could refer to a particular location or the planet as a whole. Climate
change may cause weather patterns to be less predictable. In other words, climate change
includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that
occur over several decades or longer.
 PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Old Nalsian Road, Nalsian, Calasiao, Pangasinan, Philippines 2418
Tel. No. (075)522-8032/Fax No. (075)523-0894/Website: www.philcst.edu.ph
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED, Member: Philippine Association of Colleges and
Universities (PACU), Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions
(PAMI)

Relationship between Climate Change, Global Warming and Greenhouse Effect

Many nations are now implementing a number of measures to reduce the effects of global
warming and climate change. Go to this link to watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok8rMT2KCy0 on what innovations they are now doing.