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what are greenhouse gases
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Page Contents - Causes of Climate Change
The causes of climate change can be divided into two categories, human and natural causes. It is now a global concern that the climatic changes occurring today have been speeded up because of man's activities. The natural variability and the climate fluctuations of the climate system have always been part of the Earth’s history however there have been changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere growing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude. The United Nations, governments and many top scientists around the world believe that we must act now to stabilise and arrest further changes.
What Causes Climate Change
in detail Natural Causes of Climate Change The earth’s climate is influenced and changed through natural causes like volcanic eruptions, ocean current, the earth’s orbital changes and solar variations.
Solar variations - The Sun is the source of energy for the Earth’s climate system. Although the Sun’s energy output appears constant from an everyday point of view, small changes over an extended period of time can lead to climate changes. Some scientists suspect that a portion of the warming in the first half of the 20th century was due to an increase in the output of solar energy. As the sun is the fundamental source of energy that is instrumental in our climate system it would be reasonable to assume that changes in the sun's energy output would cause the climate to change. Scientific studies demonstrate that solar variations have performed a role in past climate changes. For instance a decrease in solar activity was thought to have triggered the Little Ice Age between approximately 1650 and 1850, when Greenland was largely cut off by ice from 1410 to the 1720s and glaciers advanced in the Alps. Current global warming
however cannot be explained by solar variations. Some examples are
evidenced such as since 1750, the average amount of energy coming from
the Sun either remained constant or increased slightly.
Human Causes of Climate Change
The certainty of global warming can be seen through some of the natural phenomenon like the effect on crops and extreme weather conditions around the world. It is especially clear in the dramatic change of the polar caps, i.e. the Arctic ice cap is shrinking and the Antarctica ice shelf is melting.
Main Contributors and Causes of Climate Change According to the UK Government the main
contributors of man made causes of climate change in the UK are:
Want to learn more on the causes of climate change? Then take a look at the video below.
Agriculture as a Contributor to the Causes of Climate Change According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the three main causes of the
increase in greenhouse gases observed over the past 250 years have been
fossil fuels, land use, and agriculture. Another contributing cause of climate change is when agriculture alters the Earth's land cover, which can change its ability to absorb or reflect heat and light. Land use change such as deforestation and desertification, together with use of fossil fuels, are the major anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide. Deforestation as a contributor
to the Causes of Climate change Rainforests every year
help to absorb almost 20% of man made CO2 emissions therefore
deforestation can be classed as a major contributor to the causes of
climate change. Cutting down rainforests faster than they can be
replaced has a devastating effect on the carbon emission cycle producing
an extra 17% of greenhouse gases. Remember trees absorb CO2. More
deforestation means more CO2 build up in the atmosphere. Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman, a
biodiversity specialist, (UNO, Mongla, Bagerhat) says, "that climate
change and forests are interlinked. The increased destruction of the
rainforest forming a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator,
is recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Forests trap
and store carbon dioxide, playing a major role in mitigating climate
change. On the flip side of the coin, forests become the sources of the
greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide when destroyed or over-harvested and
burned. Forests , if not harmed ensure that they are enabling to
continue to produce the benefits; to mitigate the effects of a changing
climate; and to compensate for fossil fuel emissions through carbon
storage; and to enhance ecosystem health, sustainability, and
resilience.
The causes of climate change
continued The most recent assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that the earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.74 degrees in the period from 1906 to 2005, and that the average temperature will continue to rise. The greenhouse effect is
a natural mechanism that retains the heat emitted from the earth’s
surface. The earth’s average temperature is at the moment around 14
degrees celsius (57 degrees fahrenheit). If the natural greenhouse
effect did not exist, the average temperature would be around minus 19
degrees celsius (minus 2 degrees fahrenheit). Shattering some of the Green myths that contribute to the causes of Climate Change Traditional nappies
(diapers) are as bad as disposables, a study by the Environment Agency
found. While throwaway nappies make up 0.1 per cent of landfill waste,
the cloth variety are a waste of energy, clean water and detergent Sources for
Shattering some of the Green myths that contribute to the causes of
Climate Change: Defra; How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, by Chris Goodall;
Absorbent Hygiene Products Manufacturers Association; The Times; BBC The Causes and Effects of Climate Change in Ethiopia A recent report released
by Oxfam International shows that small-scale farmers and pastoralists
in Ethiopia are likely to bear the brunt of the negative impacts of
climate change in the region, which will include increased poverty,
water scarcity, and food insecurity. Farmers, who form the majority of
the Ethiopian population, continue to cry foul over inconsistent
weather. Read More: Media must act on Climate Change
Existing Work and Knowledge regarding climate change indicates that:
Taken from
Background Paper to the 2010 World Development Report, The Royal Society's 2010 Report looks at the science behind the causes of Climate Change The Royal Society acknowledges climate change and the causes continues to be a area of immense scientific research and public debate. The implications of changes in climate are significant to everyone now and for future generations. Humanity depends on the balance of the world's ecosystems. The Royal Society agrees that global warming has occurred over the past 50 years and is largely caused by human activity. What causes climate change is highlighted by human actions such as the the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, including agriculture and deforestation. The Royal Society state there is still some uncertainty on the size of future temperature fluctuations and other aspects of climate change however the risks associated with these changes are substantial. The Royal Society's latest report aims to summarise current scientific evidence on climate change and the causes of climate change. The report sets out where the science is established, where there is a wide consensus but continuing debate. The document does not tackle the impacts of climate change but the causes of climate change are considered. This document draws upon recent evidence and builds on the Fourth Assessment Report of Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2007, which is the most comprehensive source of climate science and its uncertainties.
Click here for the Full Royal Society Report
Nitrous Oxide No Laughing Matter US (United States) scientists have revealed Nitrous Oxide better known to the public as laughing gas is very much overlooked when it comes to greenhouse gases. It is believed to be the third most important gas that contributes to global warming. The major study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science say that climate scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have not paid enough attention to other causes of climate change but have largely focussed on CO2 as the main contributor.
Nitrous Oxide is produced alongside Dinitrogen, a
harmless gas, as a by-product of a microbial process working on nitrogen. As
human activities such as intensive agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels
have hugely increased, therefore so has the concentration of the element in the
environment. Generally, research has surrounded the effects of the process of
agricultural soils which has been published in over 1,000 studies on this
subject. The US study concludes that the occurrence in rivers and streams is
responsible for at least 10 per cent of emissions of nitrous oxide caused by
human activities. This is three times more than estimated by the IPCC. Dr Henry Gholz, programme director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology, believes the results of the research are “startling", and “clearly establishes streams and rivers as important sources of nitrous oxide” . They are important because you have to know where a problem originates before you can tackle it.
Climate Change and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was jointly established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988. Its terms of reference include: 1. To assess available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change and its impacts and on the options for mitigating climate change and adapting to it and 2. To provide, on request, scientific/technical/socio-economic advice to the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). From 1990, the IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical Papers, methodologies and other products that have become standard works of reference, widely used by policymakers, scientists and other experts.
NASA's Earth Observation System monitoring the changing climate NASA plays an important part in monitoring the oceans, land, atmosphere, biosphere and cyrosphere. They have at least 14 satellites in orbit around the earth and plan to launch many more in the next few years. The spend by NASA last year on climate science amounted to $1.3 billion and in 2004 the overall climate science budget exceeded all other federal agencies combined. The scientists of NASA have an international presence in the media wordwide as climate experts. They have been helping to identify the causes of climate change and supply information on solar activity, rises in sea levels around the world including the temperature of the oceans. The agency also focuses on air pollution, rises in atmosphere temperatures, they monitor the ozone layer and changes in ice in the sea and land especially at the the poles. In 2007, over 17 space missions also collected data on the climate. NASA also provides funding through sponsorship for field experiments which assist in providing "ground truth" data which is then used to check space instrument performance. Causes in climate change from natural sources such as volcanoes and dust storms and man made sources such as from burning fossil fuels were first globally recorded by NASA's satellites, Terra and Aqua. Using 30 years of satellite solar and atmospheric temperature data greatly assisted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reach the conclusion in 2007 that "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations." NASA have confirmed that " Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. Studying these climate data collected over many years reveal the signals of a changing climate". Livestock and Climate Change Causes What if the key factors in the causes of climate change were cows, pigs and chickens? In their published report Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang believe that the life cycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been an area greatly underestimated in the production of greenhouse gases. They account for at least half (50%) of human caused greenhouse emissions. They argue if this is true, a better strategy in reversing climate change would be to find better alternatives by replacing livestock with other food sources. This approach would have far more of a rapid effect on greenhouse emissions and their atmospheric concentrations therefore the rate on which the climate is warming and the unnecessary urgency to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. It is widely accepted that Livestock are known to contribute to greenhouse gases.
The Livestock’s Long Shadow, 2006 report by the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 7,516 million
metric tons per With that amount this would easily qualify livestock as an important area for ways to address climate change. Analysis shows that livestock and their by-products actually account or at least 32,564million tons of CO2e per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse emissions. See the full report here Emotional Causes of Climate Change Denial Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and author of The Brain and the Meaning of Life. He explains climate change denial as a result of motivated inference, in which people's beliefs are biased by their goals. He believes it is a good explanation why some politicians and oil company executives ignore the substantial evidence for global warming resulting from human carbon emissions. But a new book provides an alternative explanation that applies very well to denial of climate change problems by ordinary people. Kari Marie Norgaard is an American sociologist who spent a year in a small city in Norway interviewing people about their beliefs and attitudes concerning climate change. Her new book Living in Denial provides a sophisticated account of why a group of people, who are largely well informed and politically progressive, nevertheless tend to deny that climate change is a serious problem. She points to psychological and social processes that are different from Paul's motivated inference explanation. Learn more about causes of climate change denial here. United States Global Research Climate Program - human activities have United States
Global Research Climate Program - "human activities have increased
additional heat-trapping gases" Human activities have
played a significant part in releasing additional heat-trapping gases.
This has intensified the natural greenhouse effect and changed the
Earth’s climate. The most important and key factor causing global warming over the past 50 years is the increased build up and concentration of CO2 otherwise known as carbon dioxide. The build up of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere started during the industrial revolution around the mid 18th century which saw the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas and the clearing of forests. Trees help to reduce carbon dioxide by absorbing it during the night, producing oxygen during the day. Human activities have helped to increase other greenhouse gases, such as methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons 3. These emissions cause thickening of the blanket which trapping gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the surface temperatures to rise. Find out more about human
activities and the causes of climate change in the
USGRCP report.
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