Paradigm Shifts of Climate Change
Climate change has been a very popular topic lately with all the crazy natural acts of destruction occurring lately. Hurricane Harvey, Irma and now Hurricane Nate. Most experts argue that the recent occurrence of tropical storms has to do with the tremendous amount of global warming within the atmosphere. I for one agree that there is a correlation between climate change and natural disasters. The outcomes of an increase in global temperatures include increased risk of drought and increased intensity of storms and tropical cyclones with higher wind speeds.
Three unique articles were analyzed and assessed for potential information that would be beneficial to include in this report. First off let’s tackle the main vocabularies in these sources. They all seemed to agree with this working definition of climate change. According to NASA, “a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.” Let us also discuss another staple vocabulary term that will be utilized in this research document, “natural disaster.” Natural disaster can be defined as a, “a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life.” Or, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, “a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth;
First, global climate change is a serious problem because it increases natural disasters. If you have ever watched the news in your lifetime, you know that this issue is becoming more frequent and worse over time. “Globally, the number of reported weather-related
As the World Bank and the United Nations (2010) point out, “Climate-related hazards (“extreme events”) have resulted in an average of $59 billion a year in global damages” (p.174). Climate chance forces emergency planers to not only address current increased risk, but it also requires significant long-term plaining as the problem increases in magnitude. As an example, places like Florida will not only need to contend with a longer and stronger hurricane season, but increased sea levels as well. In the short term, the effects of climate change can have secondary effects. Things like droughts create secondary problems like social and economic disruptions (World Bank & United Nations, 2010, p. 182). This is the case in California where droughts are causing economic problems in the states agricultural sector and an increase in forest fires.
Everyone talks about climate change and how the Earth is slowly deteriorating, but no one seems to have specific examples. In Linnea Saukko’s “How to Poison the Earth,” she does use specific examples of what is causing climate change. She uses satire with a hint of sarcasm in her essay. She gives the reader specific examples of how to poison the Earth, but not really wanting to poison the Earth. Gretel Ehrlich writes her essay, “Chronicles of Ice,” a little differently. She uses personal experiences of visiting a glacier and the way that it is falling apart to explain climate change. She uses detailed, sensory description to explain
Climate change is one of the leading global and political problems we face today. Recently, Texas experienced the worst flooding from a major hurricane in their history. Aside from Harvey in the United States, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal also had dangerous monsoons that caused massive loss of life and property. Although there have been fewer hurricanes in the last decade they have become significantly stronger causing more devastation wherever they make landfall. While Harvey gained strength just before landfall it stalled over Houston causing massive flooding before returning to the Gulf again. Climate change remains a divisive political issue, with a significant percentage of Republicans saying they don’t believe the scientific consensus that man-made industrial emissions are accelerating the rise of global warming due to climate
I hope this proposal will assist the reader in understanding our Earth’s critical condition and ways even an individual can attribute to the betterment of our environment.
Devastating natural disasters happen all the time take Hurricane, Katrina for example. An increase in climate change causes the seas to also adjust in temperature and could lead to more tropical storms. “The oceans have absorbed much of the increased heat, with the top 700 meters of ocean showing warming of .302F since 1969” (Shaftel 8). Extreme climate change has been rapidly changing our environment and causes an increase of severe weather. “Most of the Earth warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years” (Shaftel 7). “Global sea level rose about 17 cm in the last century. The rate in the last decade is nearly double that of the last century” (Shaftel 6). “Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers of ice
In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings -- possibly greater even than war. Shifting precipitation patterns and ocean currents could change where and how food crops grow. If icecaps melt and low-lying areas are flooded, as is predicted, entire populations could be forced to move to higher ground. The tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, provided vivid examples of what large-scale climactic catastrophes entail.
According to scientific research, the average temperature of the earth has risen by between ten and twenty degrees Celsius (M.L. Weitzman, 2008). These high temperatures could well be described as a ‘recipe for disaster’, and could produce results that would be catastrophic on a global scale. What is more alarming however, is that there is already a lot of evidence of predicted results of climate change, for instance, in Australia especially, severe draughts have been common in farming areas in the last few decades, there has been an increase of intense and extreme weather events, for example floods, flash floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and tornados, almost all of the natural disasters listed have occurred for ‘unknown’ reasons in the past few years. Rises in sea water level and temperature due to higher acid levels caused by global warming, threaten the existence of species and in some areas, entire eco-systems resulting in the loss of natural biodiversity. ‘Climate change is pushing the world to the verge of environmental and economic collapse, whether global deniers want to believe it or not’ (N. Klein, 2011).
Climate change is difficult to communicate by its very nature. Greenhouse gases are invisible, and their accumulating effects (e.g., global warming, precipitation changes, and extreme weather events) can take years before they are felt. Worldwide warming trends are hard for the average person to detect amidst the variability of everyday weather and the causes are far removed, in both time and space, from the impacts. Climate change is thus an example of “hidden hazards”—risks that, despite potentially serious consequences for society, generally pass unnoticed or unheeded until they reach disaster proportions (Kasperson and Kasperson, 1991).
Global warming has been a widely discussed topic that has sparked up many oppositions on the basis of its effect on our environment. “Hurricanes, Irma, Harvey Restart Debate On Climate Change and Warmer Oceans” is an article written by Stuart Leavenworth stating many oppositions on the effects of global warming and how it's affects our environment by becoming a destructive force that has been intensifying the power and speed of natural forces such as hurricanes. Leavenworth examines a recent study by Peter J. Webster, an atmospheric scientist at the Georgia institute of technology. The research indicated that both hurricane Harvey and Irma intensified
*Today, we as human beings are witnessing problematic issues throughout the world that are effecting mankind. Everything from racism, to world poverty, and even radicalize terrorism just to name a few. But outside of the scientific world, many of us fail to understand the long-term effects that global warming and climate change could have on us throughout the world. After observing the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, I truly did not take into account personally, how important this whole concept is. But after taking this class and researching further and further into the topic, I now understand the severity of it all. There are various reasons that exists that are pertinent towards why this topic is highly important to all of humanity. Two of these evidences lie in the severity of hurricanes, and the potential increase droughts and heat waves.
Climate is inherently variable. Climate changes from place to place and it varies with time. The world now faces one of the complex and important issue it has ever had to deal with: climate change. Climate change today is one of the biggest concerns of human beings on the planet and the effects of climate change are undeniable and it may cause environmental, social, and economic threats to the planet. We already know and easily can highlight several signs of climate change. They are: rising global sea level, widespread melting of snow and ice, rapidly changing ocean and global temperatures, and other signs. So, what are the causes of climate change? Is it natural or do human beings cause it? Well, in both cases we would be right. The climate change can be affected by natural factors, such as solar output, volcanic eruptions, and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Also, climate change can be affected by human activities such as, deforestation, burning fossil fuels, causing ozone hole, and building mass destructive weapons and using them on earth that causes a huge radioactivity on earth. Currently, the threat of global climate change does not threaten some nations to the extent of others. Compare the United States with the rest of African countries. We live in prosperity and in much easier time than the rest African countries. Most African countries cannot grow anything on their lands because of climate change. At the end, climate change might affect everyone on
Two significant patterns which have occurred due to climate change are temperature and precipitation dispersion. These two patterns strongly correlate which each other and help us to explain processes and therefore implications both socially and economically which are caused from climate change. The earth’s temperature due to climate change is rising; however this temperature rise is not evenly distributed throughout the earth. Inland regions of continental lands masses (excluding the Arctic and Antarctic) heat up far more so than coastal regions, this is because radiation from the sun is these places are high and rock is a poor conductor of heat. Meaning the radiation is only absorbed by the surface. Coastal regions suffer far less from this effect because the ocean conducts heat much more effectively, allowing much more even heating of the ocean and therefore a smaller overall heat increase. The higher levels of heat experienced in the equator due to high sun radiation are an example of how the ocean regulates heat. Through ocean currents this heat is dispersed and is eventually ends up flowing all the way to the poles where its heat energy is released. This means the temperature of coastal regions is far less extreme than inland regions in general. However, because of this temperature regulation throughout the oceans the arctic, Greenland and Antarctic are heating up more rapidly than they otherwise would have. Currents which lead heat energy from the equator are a key
The issue is simple and rather obvious; climate change is real and a problem. With a changing climate comes rising sea levels, hotter days, and stronger and wilder storms, and long painful droughts. What most people can’t seem to agree on is whether or not human activity is playing some role in it. From media outlets to internet forums, the debate is being fought on all fronts. Most of these arguments, however, are just personal opinions and poorly-made observations from the comfort of a gas-guzzling SUV. Honestly, it doesn’t take a genius to look up a legitimate scientific paper and see the data for yourself. Human activity is influencing the global climate in a negative way, with plenty of evidence to prove it and very little disagreement in the scientific community.
Climate change could be described as any process that causes adjustment to climate system be it a volcanic eruption to a change in the solar activity. Today, however, the phrase is most often used as climate change caused by humans. Climate change is also used commonly with another phrase – "global warming" – reflecting scientific observations of strong warming trends over the past century or so. Indicators like rising sea levels, retreating snow cover and glaciers, longer growing seasons and shifting wildlife has alarmed scientific community unanimously agreeing that the earth has warmed in the last century. Experts however are of the opinion that climate change is a more accurate phrase than global warming as the latter is just one component affecting the larger climate systems of the earth.