Napassorn Esharoe

Semih Eser

EGEE 101H

February 16th, 2017

Physical Science Behind Climate Change

Rising temperatures, increasing droughts, thawing permafrost and melting glaciers,

changing weather patterns, and storms absolutely going out of control. These are the symptoms

of climate change, a condition our planet has been suffering ever since the industrial revolution.

By definition, climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting

for an extended period of time. In other words, climate change includes major changes in

temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns that occur over several decades or longer.

Nevertheless, climate change can be established as like a disease. With todays on going issue of

the well being of each nation economically and socially, the issue of climate change isnt the

only focus. People are more concerned about everything else other than the issue of global

warming or climate change, where the Earth is slowly dying or even rapidly dying away. The

reason that this topic is often neglected might be the normal perception that global warming is

further away from reality than it is said. Even one of the most influential person, current

President of the United States, agrees that climate change is a hoax invented by China and any

environmental movement is the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world.

However, it is crucial to examine this issue through observations and understanding the cause

and effect relationship about climate change.

 There are many multiple roots to the problem of global warming both natural and human

induced. Atmospheric concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,

and halocarbons have rapidly increased these last few decades in result of human activities. As a

matter of fact, atmospheric concentrations have remained stable for 10,000 years and have

increased in the past 200 years. On top of that, growth rate for concentrations of carbon dioxide

have been 35% above the preindustrial levels. So does the methane levels which is two and a half

times above preindustrial levels. Not only that, nitrous oxide levels rise above the preindustrial

level by 20%. The rise in atmospheric gas concentration depends on the geographical location

and most sources occur primarily over land in the Northern Hemisphere. Moreover, the analysis

of isotopes reveals that the majority of carbon dioxide expansion comes from combustion of

fossil fuels. Another way scientists mark the changes in concentration is through radiative

forcing where it measures change caused in global energy balance of earth in correspondence to

the preindustrial times. Another problem that causes global warming is the aerosol cloud albedo

effect where aerosols interact with clouds in a way that make clouds brighter and reflecting

sunlight back to space. The aerosol effects offset the warming effect of the greenhouse gases

which promotes cooling.

According to the analytical data, the earth has been the warmest since valid records began

around 1850. Although the temperature drop hasnt been significantly visible, the minimal drop

in the temperature does a huge effect on earth ecologically. The ecological system of many

animals who depend on frigid temperature are severely affected. Not only the atmospheric

temperature is affected, but it also affects the condition of the sea level and the ocean itself. First

of all, the generic drop in the overall global temperature has caused snow and glacier thawing,
which increases the sea level. Snow covers in the Northern Hemisphere are also heavily effected

to the point where frost and snow days are becoming less common. Heat waves and warmer days

are dominating and taking over an ideal day. The diminution of ice glaciers increases the

absorption of heat by the ocean and the heat flow between ocean and atmosphere. This effects

the precipitation and cloudiness. Statistically, ocean absorb more than 80% of heat once added to

the climate system. On top of that, heat is a major contributor to sea level rise since water

expands as the temperature rises. The accumulation of melting glaciers and ice sheets and water

expands as a result of warming temperature allow the sea level to significant rise and will

continue to do more in the future. Not only that, the drop in snow covers have caused many

issues on land. Snow covers are very crucial for soil moisture by nature and as well as water

resources. The visible changes in sea rise level can be precisely calculated through satellite

observations, which illustrates an exact rise of 3.1 0.7 millimeters per year. With the continual

rapid rise in industrial activities, the after effect of melting glaciers, and rise in precipitation sea

level will continue to rise. These following up effect as a result of temperature arent the only

effect one should be concerned with. Atmospheric gases such as water vapor is primarily

controlled by temperature.

Overall, climate change acts like a disease where each system is slowly effected one after

another. When one aspect is changed, another is also effected. Therefore, the cause and effect

relationship goes on and on that in the end of would effect the source of global warming, human.

Since the industrial revolution, global temperature and atmospheric gases have rapidly increase

in a short span of time. The rise of global temperature has effected many other environmental

aspect such as the sea level, sea temperature, precipitation frequency, and ecological system of
animal itself etc. Currently, the earth is in an era where human and nature intertwine with each

other so closely that no matter what happens, the future is readily effected by it. Although

climate change has been an embedded issue to todays era that can not be entirely eliminated,

there are still ways to slow down the deterioration process.

Works Cited

"Climate Change Threats and Solutions." Climate Change Threats & Solutions | The Nature

Conservancy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

Collins, William, Robert Colman, James Haywood, Martin R. Manning, and Philip Mote. "The

Physical Science behind Climate Change." Scientific American. N.p., 06 Oct. 2008. Web. 15

Feb. 2017.

Dunbar, Brian. "What Is Climate Change?" NASA. NASA, 13 May 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.