A Brief Summary of Climate Change
WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?
The term “climate change” is now popularly used to describe the changes to global weather patterns attributed to green house gas emissions associated with human activity. The main component of anthropogenic (human induced) climate change is related to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and their impact on the green house gas effect. The phrases “climate change” and “global warming” are often used interchangeably however, though the global average temperature of the earth is warming there are areas which may actually experience lower temperatures due to climate change. Western Europe for example may have cooler winters as the Gulfstreem, a warm ocean current that originates in Mexico, is disrupted by changes to currents associated with the melt of ice in Greenland and Iceland.
Berkeley Earth - http://berkeleyearth.org
WHEN DID CLIMATE CHANGE BEGIN?
Climate change is a contentious topic in today's society, however over 97% of climate scientists agree that human activity is accelerating the rate of global warming (NASA, 2019). Climate change associated with human activity began at the start of the industrial revolution in Europe in roughly 1750 when our emissions of CO₂ began to accelerate. Please watch the CO₂ time-lapse video to gain a better understanding on how global CO₂ emissions have changed since 1751.
WHAT IS DRIVING CLIMATE CHANGE?
The driver of human induced global warming is the enhanced green house gas effect. The green house gas effect describes the radiation properties of gasses such as carbon, methane, water vapour and others within our atmosphere. Prior to the industrial revolution the volume of these gasses within the atmosphere was relativity constant and they absorbed and radiated solar energy onto the earths surface at a constant rate resulting in a relatively similar amount of solar energy hitting the earths surface each year. As our emissions of these gases most notably CO₂ increased, the volume of these gasses stored within the atmosphere increased resulting in an “enhanced green house gas effect”. This results in an increase in radiation potential and the amount of solar radiation hitting the earths surface. The final result of this is an increase in the global mean temperature, see below for a simplified summary of the greenhouse gas effect and the impact of higher rates of CO₂ in our atmosphere.
Image Credit: Will Elder, NPS
DOES CLIMATE CHANGE LEAD TO SEA LEVEL RISE?
Yes climate change or more specifically global warming is resulting in rising sea levels. There are three main mechanisms by which increasing temperatures are driving sea level rise:
Melting of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets
Melting of land ice
Thermal expansion of our oceans
Head over to our sea level rise information page to get a better understanding on the mechanism behind the sea level rise associated with climate change.