Due to the rise in climate change in recent years, and the devastating effects on the global scale, the paper analyzes the causes and consequences that climate change has had on Earth. The study looks at the trends of climate change from the pre-industrial era and the human fingerprint on greenhouse gas; the distinction between global warming and climate change and how global warming affects climate change. The research also provides measures that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Introduction
Climate change is now the defining issue in recent times. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, climate change has impacted the world in scope and unprecedented in scale. Climate change is a global challenge that has no border, and each country needs to take drastic action today, adapting these impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly. There are two concepts often mistaken for synonyms: climate change and global warming. The greenhouse effect causes global warming, a natural process by which the atmosphere retains some of the sun’s heat, allowing the Earth to maintain the necessary conditions to host life. It is global warming that causes climate change; as the temperature rises more than it would naturally, the climate varies. Although certainly, Earth has naturally got colder and warmer in the past eras, such cycles have taken millions of years. They have been much slower, but now within 150 years, will are reaching levels that in the past brought extinctions.
The Human Causes to Climate Change
Greenhouse gases occur naturally and are essentials to the survival of humans and all other living things by holding some of the sun’s warmth from reflecting into space and making Earth livable. But after industrial revolution emissions of greenhouse effect gases entering the atmosphere began to increase. As the population grew whereby in 1750, there were about 800 million people, whereas now we are almost 8 billion people on Earth (Pittock 14). The explosion of resource use, increasing energy demand, and production, mainly from coal, led the planet in what the scientific community term as Anthropocene period, a geological era characterized by human impact on Earth. The main impact was the increase of the planets’ global temperature to 1.1 Celsius since this period. However, it is estimated that by the end of this century, it could rise by 2.7 Celsius even if countries undertake efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The consequences of climate change have led to oceans warming up, the amounts of snow and ice have decreased, and the sea level has risen. According to the Fifth Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), from 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19cm as oceans expanded due to warming and ice melted. The sea ice in the Arctic has reduced since 1979, with 1.07 x 106 km2 of ice loss per decade (Kininmonth 37). Given the current ongoing emission of greenhouse gas, it is likely by the end of this century; the global mean temperature will continue to increase above the pre-industrial level. Oceans will warm, and ice melt will continue. The average sea-level rise is predicted to be 24-30 cm by 2065 and 40-63 cm by 2100 relative to the reference period of 1986-2005 (Pittock 38). There is worrying evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in the global ecosystem and the Earth climate system, may already be reached or passed. Ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest and Congo rainforest maybe approaching dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are dwindling, and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that will affect generations. Climate change also increases the occurrence of more violent weather phenomena, drought, fires, and the death of animal and plant species, flooding from rivers and lakes, destructions of the food chain, and economic resources, more so in third world countries.
Mitigation and Adaption to Climate Change
First, it should be known climate change cannot be avoided, but its effects can be mitigated and its consequences adopted. Mitigation measures are those actions taken to curb and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation measures are based on reducing vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Some of the mitigation measures include; practicing energy efficiency, greater use of renewable energy, electrification of industrial processes, efficient means of transport such as electric public transport, use of bicycles, shared cars (Kininmonth 54). In terms of adaptation measures, several actions can be taken to reduce vulnerability and severity of climate change, landscape restoration, and reforestation, flexible and diverse cultivation to be prepared for natural catastrophes, precautionary measures like evacuation plans.
Conclusion
It’s evident that climate change has risen drastically, and more need to be done by the global governments in ensuring that climate change slows down and more stringent measures enacted to help in reducing global warming in the future. Countries should work on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to the progress of society and respond to the main challenges of sustainable development in the field of infrastructure, ware, and energy, leading the transition to a low greenhouse gas economy. Therefore, it’s upon industries, the public, and other organizations to adopt a green economy.