The Effects Of Climate Change And Variability Essay

It is well known that politics and religion are two topics to never to be discussed with someone one does not know well. In today’s society, it feels as if this list of topics that are socially deemed inappropriate to discuss seems to be growing, with climate change now being a conservation to avoid. This aversion to discussing climate change appears to stem from the fact that the issue tends to polarize opinions, in which people fall into one of two groups: climate change skeptics and climate change believers. This paper seeks to address and analyze the ways in which climate skeptics speak about and understand climate change as well as how climate scientists understand climate change phenomena. More specifically, this paper focuses on how climate skeptics comprehend the relationships between grasslands, livestock, methane and nutrient cycling and how these interconnected concepts do not lead to the type of climate change that “green urbanities /green politicians/green activists/green elite” predict. The paper will conclude with an evaluation of the two differing positions between climate skeptics and climate scientists, in which I will determine which argument I find to be the most accurate.

Adams, R. M., B. Hurd, S. Lenhart, and N. Leary, 1998: Effects of global climate change on agriculture: An interpretative review. Climate Research, 11, 19-30. Web. 19 July 2015. The authors explain how climate is utterly important to the agriculture field. However, climate has been changing these past years, and it has obligated farmers to make drastic adjustments. Numerous amount of economic approaches and key biological issues involved with the consequences of climate change are elaborated throughout this article.

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

Our Earth was formed 45 hundred million years ago as a mixture of rocks, and there was creatures under the sea starting to grow 2.5-6 hundred million years ago, since when there have been more and more species being found. Thanks to the plants and solar energy, human beings are able to live on this planet. Meanwhile, the weather on Earth changes all the time, and affects our lives. People rely on animals, plants and water, which are all affected by the climate. Besides, for more purposes, people drive vehicles, take planes, which consume fuel, and harmful gases such as carbon dioxide which is released during the burning of fuel. In a nutshell, climate science is related to daily life of people, and our future. Therefore, climate change has been attracting scientists and citizens attention. It has become a serious and wide topic. There is too much hazard of global warming in many ways, such as destruction to environment, food problems, population and refugees. So climate science aims to researching the climate, get used in human’s life, and changing our behaviors to benefit our nation, other nations, and the nature.

“Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents. It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world” (Richard Branson). This quote is a brief rewording of the issue we have today with global warming. For those who are not aware of what global warming is, it is when too much carbon dioxide is added into the atmosphere. Global warming can cause sever hurricanes, intense weather, and many other natural disasters. For example, the lack of protection to our species and natural resources has led to many conflicts around the world. The lack of conservation of natural resources and need for habitat protection has had a major impact on the environment also.

The most significant event to indicate climate change is the melting of the polar ice caps. The area of sea covered by the Arctic ice at the North Pole has shrunk by 10% in recent decades, and the thickness of the ice above the water has decreased by about 40%. On the other side of the world, the ice sheet above the Antarctic continent has become unstable. Glaciers are retreating all around the world. Since 1979, glaciers in the European Alps have lost about one-fifth of their volume, and the loss rate has clearly accelerated since the 1980s.

The anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses trap heat within the atmosphere, this results in Global Warming, an increase in the planet’s temperature (Vitousek, 1994). Of the potential issues arising due to increased global temperatures, the threat to agriculture is one of the most essential (Cline, 2008). Temperature is crucial to the survivability of plant species, it has been proven to be the key environmental variable in regulation of the dormancy state and germination of seeds (Vleeshouwers, Bouwmeester and Karssen, 1995).

The Earth is the only home of life that humans know of in the universe thus far. Humans have lived on the Earth for an extended period of time now, and yet the human race does not fully understand what occurs on the Earth. A phenomenon which went unnoticed and misunderstood until the past couple of decades was climate change; a phenomenon of vast importance to the human race and all life on Earth. Climate change was previously seen as unimportant (and by some, still is), but as information on the affect which climate change can have on modern society came into fruition, the urgency of discovering information on what causes it also came into fruition. Many scientists believe that the acceleration of climate change may have cataclysmic consequences on humanity including: the melting of the polar ice-caps (and the rise of sea levels and loss of animal habitats due to this), a higher frequency of category 4 and 5 hurricanes forming, and an increase in both droughts and heat waves. In retaliation scientists begun extensive research on climate change; discovering that the main culprit of climate change is the process of the greenhouse effect. From this information it was seen that the discovery of climate change would have the inadvertent effect of scientists attempting to unearth possible actions which can combat the acceleration of climate change. Due to this, it is conspicuously witnessed that the main source of

Humans’ contribution to Climate Change are constant, not ceasing or slowing down. Most anything in the modern society has made a contribution, whether it be the technology being used or the cars being driven. Climate Change is the changing of global weather and temperatures at an abnormal rate --- that many choose to ignore, proceeding with their everyday activity. Meanwhile, on a global scale, the rate of these changes is detrimental to life on earth. NASA explicitly addresses that these fluctuations of climate are natural, but the rate in temperature changes is quicker than ever before. Prior observations show that typically the changes last about a thousand years before the next period of changes, but recently human innovations have backfired with the earth at stake. With the advancement of a more technological society, comes great responsibility.

Higher levels of atmospheric CO2 also induce plants to close the small leaf openings known as stomatas through which CO2 is absorbed and water vapor is released. Thus, under CO2 enrichment crops may use less water even while they produce more carbohydrates. This dual effect will likely improve water-use efficiency. At the same time, associated climatic effects, such as higher temperatures, changes in rainfall and soil moisture, and increased frequencies of extreme meteorological events, could either enhance or negate potentially beneficial effects of enhanced atmospheric CO2 on crops. Meteorological Events such as hurricanes and heavy storms damage trees and hence reduce productivity. Droughts disrupt crop rotation, many plants are not adapted to such environments and are therefore unable to survive hence productivity is reduced.

Can you imagine a world without the state of Florida? Having a giant hole in Australia? Asian Islands vanished under water? While many people have doubts about the underwater city of Atlantis, we are looking at a world where underwater cities will no longer be objects of wonder and fantasy.

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.

With the effects on society of a unique relationship between the environment and social stratification being present it seems improbable that a large population could play victim to exclusively the environment again. Humanity now has the benefit of advanced technology and mitigation methods in order to prevent any unforeseen disaster. That said, with an anthropogenic climate change affecting societies around the world, humans are dictated by their environment once again. Societies that are especially affected by these events are forced to migrate to habitable lands after having theirs face dangerous climatic events. While scholars will use an array of terms like “climate change refugee” and “environmental

With a changing climate it is important to direct investment towards those crop varieties that are able to withstand the increasing stress caused by changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as other changes that climate changes could cause indirectly, such as changes in pest and disease patterns (Vermeulen et al., 2011). Currently, several research organisations are working to develop new or improved crop varieties with greater resilience to the effects of climate change and capable of satisfying future demand for food. Privately funded research centres are becoming more active in this field as well.