7.

Climate Change
and
Society

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Lecture Outcomes
At the end of this video presentation, students should be able to:

1. Describe climate change;

2. Discuss selected modern and paleoclimate data that support the reality of a
changing climate;

3. Comment on the assessment of the IPCC that the climate change of the 21st
century is anthropogenic;

4. Identify global and national initiatives that are aimed to mitigate climate change.
Lecture Outline
I. Climate Change: An Overview
II. Climate Data
A. Modern Data
a) Global Average Temperature
b) Ice Sheet Mass
c) Arctic Sea Ice
B. Paleoclimate Data
a) Loess
b) Ice Cores
III. Scientific Basis of Climate
Change
A. Greenhouse Effect
B. Issues on the Greenhouse Effect
IV. Initiatives to Mitigate Climate Change
A. Kyoto Protocol
B. Paris Agreement
C. Philippine Climate Change
Interventions
 Major References

Lindsey, R. (2020). Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.

Accessed on November 4, 2020 at: https://www.climate.gov/news-
features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
NASA (2020). Climate Change: How Do We Know?. Accessed on November 3, 2020
at:
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
NASA(2020).GlobalTemperature.AccessedonNovember3,2020at:https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-
signs/global-temperature/
https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/science/ice-sheets-and-glaciers/
NASA Jet Propulsion
NASA (2020). Arctic SeaLaboratory (n.d.).
Ice Minimum. Ice Sheets
Accessed and Glaciers.
on November 3, 2020Accessed
at: on November 3, 2020
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-
at:
signs/arctic-sea-ice/
Newbern, E. (2015). Antarctica Is Gaining Ice, So Why Is the Earth Still Warming? Accessed on November 4,
2020 at: https://www.livescience.com/52831-antarctica-gains-ice-but-still-warming.html
Riebeek, H. (2005). Paleoclimatology: Written in the Earth. Accessed on November 3, 2020
at:
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Paleoclimatology_Speleothems
Riebeek, H. (2005). Paleoclimatology: The Ice Core Records.
Accessed on November 3, 2020 at:
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Paleoclimatology_IceCores
 Other Useful References

Jouzel, J., Masson-Delmotte, V., Cattani, O., Dreyfus, G., Falourd, S., Hoffmann, G., . . . Wolff, E. W. (2007). Orbital and Millennial
Antarctic Climate Variability over the Past 800,000 Years. Science, 317(5839), 793- 796.
doi:10.1126/science.1141038 (2011).
Kobashi, T., Kawamura, K., Severinghaus, J. P., Barnola, J.‐M., Nakaegawa, T., Vinther, B. M., Johnsen, S. J., and ice core.
Box, J. E. High variability of Greenland surface temperature over the past 4000 years
estimated
Martin, from A.
C. J., Morley, trapped air J. S. (2017).
L., & Griffiths, in an Geophys.
Introduction Res. Lett., 38,
to engineering L21501,
geology and geomorphology of glaciated and
doi:10.1029/2011GL049444.
periglaciated terrains. Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications, 1-30.
28(1), doi:10.1144/egsp28.1
NASA (2020). The Causes of Climate Change. Accessed on November 4, 2020 at: https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/
NOAA (n.d.) Picture Climate: What Can We Learn from Ice? Accessed on 3, 2020
November
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/picture-climate-what-can-we-learn-ice at:
PAGASA (2020). Daily Rainfall and Temperature Monitoring. Accessed on November 3, 2020
at:
http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/climate/climate-monitoring#daily-rainfall-and-temperature
Stoller-Conrad, J. (2017). Core questions: An Introduction to Ice Cores. on November 3, 2020
Accessed
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2616/core-questions-an-introduction-to-ice-cores/ at:
United Nations Climate Change (n.d.). What Protocol? Accessed on November 4, 2020
is the Kyoto https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol at:
United Nations. (n.d.) Climate Change. Accessed on November 4, 2020
at: https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-
depth/climatechange/#:~:text=Climate%20Change
I. Climate Change: An Overview
What is climate change?

Climate change is the

alteration of weather
patterns in a place
over a long time.
What is weather?

Weather refers to the

atmospheric conditions,
including temperature, humidity,
precipitation, wind pressure, the
appearance of typhoons, etc., in a
place for a
particular time.
 What is weather?

In terms of precipitation, Cagayan Valley had rainy weather last October 2020. Kindly look
at Province of Cagayan Valley (enclosed in yellow box) and compare its color to the
legend.
What is climate?

Climate is the average weather of a

place over a long time, let’s say 30
years or more. Average weather or
climate means the averages of
precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind
velocity, etc. Hence, the climate of a place
is predictable.
 Climate is predictable.

On average, the province of Cagayan Valley has a 201-300 mm amount of rainfall in the month of
October.
 Climate is predictable.

If the precipitation pattern of Cagayan Valley will continue to change in the next
20-
30 years, then it could indicate that its climate is changing.
(Photo Credits: DOST-PAGASA)
I. Climate Change: An Overview

The changing climate of the

Earth is well-supported by
scientific evidence.
II. Climate Data: Modern vs.
Paleoclimate Data
 II. Climate Data: Modern vs. Paleoclimate Data

Modern climate data include climate information in the contemporary times which are collected
directly with the aid of advanced technology. Most of the modern data are collected by satellites from
space. Paleoclimate data include climate information for the past thousands or millions of years.
Paleoclimate data can be collected from various sources, such as ice cores, soil, trees, etc.

B. Ice core, source of paleoclimate

data

A. Satellite from space, source of modern climate

data
 How to be a climate scientist?

Position • Climate
•
Scientist
Gather and analyze data from the atmosphere,
oceans and land;
Job • Create computer models to simulate the effects
Description of changes to climate;
• Study past climates to understand what might
happen in
the future.
• BS or Graduate degree in Atmospheric Science, or allied
Academic fields (Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Engineering, etc.)
and Skill • Must be skilled in technical writing, mathematical
Requirements
and computer modelling, research, etc.

Climate Scientist drilling the Antarctic Ice Are you interested in climate science? Check the best schools
sheets for
II. Climate Data: Modern vs. Paleoclimate Data

Modern Climate Paleoclimate

Data Data
Global
Surface Loess
Temperature Soil
Ice Sheet Ice
Core
Mass
Records
Arctic Sea
Ice
Coverage
a. Global Surface Temperature

Beginning in 1880,
the surface
global
temperature was collected by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), and the
United
Kingdom Meteorological Office.
Currently, the World Meteorological
Organization of the United Nations compile
data from weather stations across the
globe, both on land and oceans.

Image Credits:
DataBasin.org
What is a weather station?

Weather station is an installation that

includes instruments such
thermometer as a to take
readings, a barometer
temperature
to measure the
pressure in the atmosphere, as well as other
instruments to measure rain, wind,
humidity, and more. Weather stations range
from simple analog to digital technology.
a. Global Surface Temperature

There are thousands of weather

stations setup across the globe. The
dots in the world map represents
the location of the weather
stations
Image Credits:
.
DataBasin.org
 What is temperature anomaly?
2019 Anomaly:
0.99°C
2000 Anomaly:
Accepted Normal 0.39°C
Temperature: 14°C

2010 Anomaly:
0.72°C

Temperature anomaly is the difference between the average temperature at any point in time and the normal average
global surface temperature. Currently, the accepted normal average global surface temperature is 14°C, based on the data
collected between 1951 and 1980. Temperature anomaly in 2000 0.39°C higher
is 0.39°C, which means that it is
than 14°C. In 2010 and 2019, the respective global temperatures are 0.72°C and 0.99°C higher than
the normal global surface. With continuously rising global surface temperature, scientists conclude that the earth is getting
hotter, which is an indication of a changing climate.
 a. Global Surface Temperature

You watch a time-lapse video above that shows the change in the global surface temperature from 1884 to 2020
here. (Image Credit: NASA)
 b. Melting of Ice Sheets in
Greenland and Antarctica
What is an ice sheet?

Ice sheets, also known as

continental glaciers, are masses of glacial ice
that occupy an area over 50,000 km2.
Currently, there are only 2 ice sheets that
remain on Earth— the Antarctic Ice
Sheets in the south pole and the Greenland Ice
Sheets in the north pole. The photo on the left
is a satellite image of the
Antarctic ice
sheets.
b. Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet
Covers

Since 2002, climate scientists have

employed remote sensing methods
using orbiting satellites (GRACE and
GRACE Follow-On Satellites) to
detect changes in the mass of these ice
sheets. The photo on the left shows the pre-
launching of the GRACE
Follow-on Satellite in 2018.
How GRACE and GRACE FO work?

GRACE is an acronym
Recover for Gravity AndExperiment
y
GRACE Climate
FO .
is the “follow on”
space mission when GRACE mission
ended in 2016. Both the GRACE and
GRACE FO are made up of twin
satellites follow the same orbit, with
one satellite following the path of the
other. These satellites that
communicate their distances from
each other via microwave signals,
depicted as solid yellow line in the picture
How GRACE and GRACE FO work?

The twin satellites are separatedaround 220

kilometers from each other. However, this
distance
willchange depending the
on
gravitation
field of the earth surface. If the twin satellites
pass
over surfaces on earth with the same
gravitational field (top photo), then they will
maintain their distance. However, when they
pass over surfaces with different gravitation
field (bottom photo), their distance of separation will
change.
Image Credits: NASA.gov
How GRACE and GRACE FO work?

Scientists from the NASA use the change in

the distance of separation between the twin
satellites when they pass on a specific location
to calculate the strength of the gravitational
field of that location. Since gravity is directly
proportional to mass of the objects, they can
estimate the mass of a location using the strength of
its gravitational field.
Following this principle, the red arrow points to
a
weaker gravitational field in Antarctica which
indicates
What is mass balance?

Mass balance is the difference between the mass

gained by the ice sheet due to snow deposition
and the mass loss by melting and calving. A
negative
mass balance indicates that melting
calving rates are occurring
and
faster than
deposition. Since the melting of ice is primarily
snow
due to high temperatures, a negative mass
balance is indicative of a warming and changing
climate.
b. Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet
Covers
From the data collected
between 2002 and 2016, and
from 2018 up to the present,
climate scientists found out that
the ice sheets in Antarctica
and Greenland have
increasing negative
mass balance. As shown in
the left, the
ice sheets in Antarctica
are
changing at the rate of
b. Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet
Covers

Greenland ice sheets

are melting faster than the
Antarctic ice sheets, with the rate of
279 billion metric
tons/year.
b. Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet
Covers

You can also watch the time-lapse videos for the change in the masses of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets on
this
site.

Image Credits: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

c. Arctic Sea Ice

The Arctic sea ice coverageof reaches

its
maximum
arrow everyits
), and February or March
blue
(September
minimum every
(red arrow). High
temperatures melt sea ice; thus, if climate
change is real, then the minimum coverage
of Arctic sea ice must decrease over time.
c. Arctic Sea Ice

Continuous data collection on

Arctic Sea Ice maximum and minimum
started in 1979 when the Nimbus-7
satellite (photo on the left) was sent to
space. When Nimbus-7 retired in 1987,
several satellites were sent to space to
monitor the Arctic sea ice
extent.
c. Arctic Sea Ice

Arctic sea ice minimum, or the

sea ice coverage in September, is in
continuous decline, at the rate of
13.1% per decade. This decline indicates a
warming climate.
c. Arctic Sea Ice

One of the most affected by the decreasing

Arctic sea ice cover is the Polar Bears.

These carnivores rely on the sea ice to hunt

sea lions. This polar bear in the photo may have
not eaten for its
months due to the decline of
ground. hunting

Image Credit: Kerstin

Langenberger
 c. Arctic Sea Ice

There is a visual presentation (time-lapse video) of the area covered by the Arctic sea
ice
from 1979 to 2020. You can find it on this site.
 B. Paleoclimate Data

It takes 30 years to establish the baselineclimate information of a place,

and
another hundreds or perhaps thousands years to detect climate
change. Thus, to prove that climate change is happening, climate data must
be extended
back to several thousands or millions of years.
 B. Paleoclimate Data

Climate scientists have employed various techniques to gather

information on the climate of the planet thousands of years ago. These efforts
allowed climate scientists to extend the climate records of the
Earth thousands of years backwards. Collectively, these extended
climate records are called paleoclimate (paleo, Greek word for old) data.
a. Loess Soil

Loess is a special type of soil that is

produced primarily by the weight
and
movement glaciers.
 How glaciers produce loess soil?

Glaciers are thick and heavy packs of ice sitting on top of a landmass. When
glaciers sit on top of huge rocks, their weight and movement can grind those
rocks into powder, resulting in a special type of soil called the loess. The rocks
on which the glaciers once sat become deformed as well.
Northern ice sheets were extended
beyond Greenland.
By mappingloess soils and
the trails of rock debris left by
glaciers, climate scientists determined
that ice
sheets in the north pole
were once extended beyond
Greenland. Ice sheets can also be
found in the basins of the North
American Great Lakes, in the British
Isles, and Scandinavia. The
disappearance of these northern
ice sheets supports further the reality
of
Photo credits: C. J. Martin, A. L. Morley, and J. S.
What is an ice core?

Ice cores are cylinders of ice

drilled from ice sheets and
glaciers. The photo on the left
shows a scientist retrieving an ice
core from his drill.
 The age of the ice sheet can be determined from the
annual layers of the ice cores.

Summer snow layer in the polar regions has light coloration due to its 24-hour exposure to the sun.
In contrast, winter snow appears dark. Since it takes a year to have summer and winter, a snow layer with
light- to-dark bands therefore represents a year. In the image above, that ice core has 12 summer
layers (light, arrows) and 11 winter layers. Thus, the ice core above is around 11.5 years old.
b. Ice Cores

By digging ice cores down the Antarctic and Greenland

ice sheets, and counting their annual snow
layers, climate scientists can determine the age of the
ice sheets. The longest ice core from Greenland
measures 2 miles, which is estimated to be at least
110,000 years old. Ice core samples from
Antarctic Ice sheets are older, estimated to be at
least 800,000 years old.
Ice sheets can “record” the ambient temperature
during the formation of snow layer.

By lowering an ultra-sensitive thermometer

in the ice core drills in the Antarctic and Greenland ice
sheets, scientists found out that near the surface, the
temperature of the ice sheet is similar to the ambient
temperature. Then, the temperature drops in the layers
that formed between 1450-1850, which correlates to
the existence of the Little Ice Age during this period.
As the thermometer is lowered further, the
temperature gradually rises, indicating the
interglacial after the Little Ice Age, and then drops
again, which indicates the
last ice age.
(see table on the left, credits to Gary Clow, United States Geological
Survey).
Ice core chemistry reveals past temperature.

The chemistry of the ice cores can also tell

the past temperatures of the ice sheets.
The oxygen atom in water can either
be the heavy (O18) or the light (O16)
isotope. Also, one or both atoms of
hydrogen in water can be the
Deuterium (H2) isotope.
Accumulation of H2 and O18 correlates with
high temperature.

The accumulation of heavy oxygen (O18)

and Deuterium isotopes in the polar regions
correlates
with high In principle,
hotter the temperature
temperatures . is, thethe
greater the
concentration of O18 and H2 would be. This
relationship is shown in the table in the left. The
concentration of Deuterium is shown in black,
while
O18
is shown in blue. Notice that when
concentration
the of Deuterium rises, O18 rises, too.

(Data Source: Jouzel et al. 2007)

Ice core chemistry analysis revealed that the Earth has
been to 8 ice ages in the past 800,000 years.
Using concentration
the
Deuterium in the
of ice cores, scientists
were able to calculate
surface of the Antarctic up to
temperature
the
800,000 years ago, which is shown
in the left. These dataset confirmed that
the Earth has been to 8 ice ages,
which is indicated by the major
depressions (red arrows) in the graph.
(Data Source: Jouzel et al. 2007).
Combining modern and paleoclimate data, it
is clear that Earth’s climate system is changing
and warming.
What’s the first thing that you can
associate with climate change?
III. Scientific Basis of Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC) is the
United Nations body for assessing
the science related to climate
change.
In 2013, the IPCC released its 5th
assessment report, where they stated that
there is 95% certainty that
human activities cause the
21st century climate change.
A. Greenhouse Effect

Greenhouse effect is a well-evidenced

theory
that explains climate change. According to this
theory, the earth’s atmosphere is
“blanketed” by greenhouses, like
The heat-absorbingnature these
CO2,
CH
of 4, and
keeps thenitrous
earth’soxides. gases that
temperature at magnitudes
allow life to thrive. Without it, there could be no life
on earth.
 Historic CO2 Records from Ice Cores

By measuring the concentration of CO2 trapped in ice cores, scientists were able to reconstruct
atmospheric data up to 800,000 years ago. CO2 levels in the atmosphere remained almost
constant in the past 800,000 years. Its level in the atmosphere never exceeded 300 parts per million
(ppm) in the past 800,000 years. (See the graph above)
 A. Greenhouse Effect

Since the Industrial Revolution, the rise of atmospheric CO2 levels is dramatic—the last time CO2 levels reached 300 ppm
was around 300,000 years ago. In 1958, the CO2 level was 315 ppm (red arrow)—it took more than 200,000 years to raise
the CO2 levels by just 15 ppm. However, it only took 62 years (1958-2020) to raise the levels of atmospheric CO2 to 100 ppm
(315 ppm- 415 ppm) (yellow arrow). This dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 levels is attributed to the increased emission
of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels starting in the industrial revolution.
 A. Greenhouse Effect

Plotting Co2 levels and global surface temperature yields an almost perfect fit—CO2 levels seem to influence
global surface temperature. As shown in the graph above, as Co2 levels continue to rise (solid gray line),
global surface temperature also rises (red/blue bars).
B. Challenges on the
Expanded Greenhouse
Effect
a. Ice Mass in Some Portions of Antarctica is
Increasing in the Last 15 Years

Though overall Antarctica is losing more ice mass than it

is gaining them, some portions (red arrow) of
the continent has an increasing ice mass in the
last 15 years (Letterly, 2018). If the overall temperature of
the planet is warming and is melting the ice sheets in that
continent, how can a portion of it becomes
exempted? Though NASA has tried to explain this fact,
it remains a controversy to some scientists. You can read
more here.
b. Greenland Temperature Variability is Within the
Natural Variability

Based on a recent reconstruction of the surface temperature

over the past 4,000 years, scientists found out the present
decadal variability in the surface temperature in Greenland is
within
range the
of its variability. In other words,
natural
variation the temperature in Greenland
of surface
is not due to the greenhouse effect. You can read
more here.
 c. CO2 Levels Continue to Rise but Global
Temperature Fluctuates

Since the industrial revolution, CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue rising. Following the greenhouse effect,
global surface temperature must rise with it, too. However, as shown in the graph above, the global surface
temperature dropped (red arrow) during the 1900-1940 period, even though CO2 levels during this period were on
the rise.
IV. Global and National Initiatives on
Climate Change
IV. Global Efforts on Climate Change

The findings of Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), have become the bases of
several UN-initiated
interventions. Currently,
interventions to climate change
are focused on resiliency
programs and the reduction of
CO2 emissions.
A. The Kyoto Protocol

 The Kyoto Protocol is an

international agreement that legally binds
heavilywhich
countries industrialized
are have
and
economies in to limit
greenhouse
transitiongas emissions. their

 Being a signatory to the Protocol means that

a
country to adopt policies
needs
measures and change mitigation and
on climate
to
report these measures periodically.
Image Credits: factsnme.com
B. Paris Climate Agreement

In 2015 during a meeting in Paris, world leaders had

a
landmark agreement that was aimed to
combat climate change and to
accelerate and intensify the actions and
investments needed for a sustainable low carbon
future . Currently, 186
the Philippines . The actor
countries
Leonardo haveas the
DiCaprio served ratified
famous the Paris Agreement,
UN Messenger of
including
Peace
during the ratification of the Paris Agreement.
Watch
his speech here.
C. Philippine Climate Change
Interventions

In 2009, Republic Act 9729 (Climate Change

Act of 2009) signed was into law, which led to the
creation of the Philippine Climate Change
Commission (CCC). CCC serves as sole policy-
making body of the government which shall
coordinate, monitor and evaluate the programs
and action plans of the government relating to
climate change.
C. Philippine Climate Change
Interventions

The Climate Change Commission manages the

Green Climate Fund from the United
Nations, a funding that aims to assist the
Philippines for its climate change adaptation and
mitigation projects. As of March 2020, the CCC
has 129 projects
funded by the GCF, toUSD
amounting
5.6
billion.
C. Philippine Climate Change
Interventions

The CCC also manages People’s

the
Survival Fund (PSF), amounting to Php
1 Billion per year, which is intended for
projects that are aimed for increasing
community resilience on climate change.
One (red box) of the 6 projects
funded by PSF involves a few faculty and staff
of Mindanao State University-
General Santos City.
Visit the website of Philippine Climate Change
Commission here to learn more about its
programs.
 Activity 11. Do You Agree in the Anthropogenic Climate
Change

Based on what you learned from this presentation and your knowledge
on climate change, do you agree that the climate change of the last
century up to the present is due to anthropogenic activities? Why?

Write your 300-500-word answer on an A4 paper. Submit your papers

on May 6. Late papers will not be accepted.
End of
Presentation