Global Climate Change/Global Warming

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Global Climate Change/Global Warming
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Greenhouse Effect

• Increase in Temperature on Earth due to gases in
  the atmosphere that trap energy from the sun.
• What are the Greenhouse gases? Water vapor, CO2,
  nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4).
• These gases are essential for keeping the earths
  temperature in an ideal range i.e. not too hot
  and too cold.

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What is global warming?
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How Global Warming Works
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Example of the Greenhouse Effect
The Suns energy passes through the cars
windshield.
This energy (heat) is trapped inside the car and
cannot pass back through the windshield, causing
the inside of the car to warm up.
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• Whats the difference between global warming
  and climate change?

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Difference

• GLOBAL WARMING
• is the increase of the Earths average surface
  temperature due to a build-up of greenhouse gases
  in the atmosphere.

• CLIMATE CHANGE
• is a broader term that refers to long-term
  changes in climate, including average temperature
  and precipitation.

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Climate Change

• The earths climate has fluctuated over its
  5-billion year history.
• Some of these fluctuations have been very
  different than current temperatures. However
  those changes have occurred slowly over thousands
  of years.

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Climate Change cont

• Average temperatures have increased by
  approximately 1F in the last 100 years.
• The 10 hottest years of the last century all
  occurred in the 1990s and 2000s, 2005 being the
  hottest year on record.
• In 2006 It was the sixth warmest year-to-date
  (NOAA.gov).
• For 2007, the global land and ocean surface
  temperature was the fifth warmest on record.

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Climate Change cont

• Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years
  on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10
  warmest years have all occurred since 1995. The
  global average surface temperature has risen at a
  rate three times faster than the century-scale
  trend since 1976. (NOAA.gov)

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Climate Change cont

• Many of the worlds leading climatologists feel
  that the greenhouse gases humans produce are a
  major cause of global climate change.
• The last 650,000 years the CO2 level has never
  been higher than 300 ppm. It is presently around
  365 ppm and the temperature has correlated
  extremely close over that time period i.e. when
  CO2 goes up so does the temperature.

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Possible causes of Global Climate Change/Global
Warming

• Burning of Fossil fuels produces CO2 and Nitrous
  Oxide (N2O).
• Trash in land fills produce methane (CH4).
• Deforestation reduces consumption of CO2 by
  plants.
• Meat and dairy animals produce methane (CH4).

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Top Ten CO2 Producing Nations
Rank Country CO2 emissions in thousands of metric tons of total emissions of World Population  
1 China 6,200,103 22.1 20.3  
2 USA 5,849,435 20.7 4.5  
3 Russia 1,524,993 5.3 2.1  
4 India 1,342,962 4.6 17  
5 Japan 1,257,963 4.2 1.9  
6 Germany 808,767 2.8 1.2  
7 Canada 639,403 2.1 0.5  
8 United Kingdom 543,633 1.7 0.92  
9 South Korea 465,643 1.4 0.75  
10 Italy 449,948 1.4 0.88  
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Possible consequences

• Melting glaciers could cause sea levels to rise.
• Heat stress on people could cause medical
  problems.
• Ecological disruptions could put many species at
  risk of extinction.
• Droughts could disrupt food supplies.
• Amount of catastrophic weather events could
  increase.

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Warming World Altering Thousands of Natural
Systems Analysis shows effects of climate change
onalmost 30,000 biological and physical
phenomena. EMMA MARRIS / Nature 14may2008

• A comprehensive analysis of trends in tens of
  thousands of biological and physical systems has
  provided more evidence to bolster the
  near-universal view that man-made climate change
  is altering the behavior of plants, animals,
  rivers and more.
• The study, by an international research team
  featuring many members of the Intergovernmental
  Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a statistical
  analysis of observations of natural systems over
  time. The data, which stretch back to 1970,
  capture the behavior of 829 physical phenomena,
  such as the timing of river runoff, and around
  28,800 biological species.
• Researchers led by Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA's
  Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York
  created a map of the planet with a colour-coded
  grid showing how much different regions have
  warmed or cooled between 1970 and 2004.
• They then placed each of the thousands of
  datasets on the map and determined whether they
  were consistent with warming or not consistent
  with warming. Trees, for example, might flower
  earlier in regions where the climate has warmed
  significantly.
• In around 90 of cases where an overall trend was
  observed, it was consistent with the predicted
  effects of climate warming, the researchers
  report in this week's Nature.

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What are scientists unsure about?

• How has the increase in greenhouse gas emissions
  by humans affected the temperature in this last
  century?
• At what rate and amount will warming continue as
  a result of the increases in heat-trapping
  emissions?
• How does the weather change with increases in
  temperature and precipitation?

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What are scientists unsure about?

• How will oceans transport heat?
• How do the catastrophic weather events such as
  hurricanes affect each other?
• How do additional factors such as greenhouse
  gases other than carbon dioxide, possible changes
  of the sun and effects from volcanic activity
  affect climate change?

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Billions of Metric Tons Carbon


Goal Reductions in CO2 Per Year
2007
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Our Goal
Billions of Metric Tons Carbon

Produce electricity efficiently Use electricity
efficiently Vehicle efficiency Solar and Wind
Power Biofuels Carbon capture and storage

Gigaton Carbon
Reductions in CO2 Per Year
2007
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Whats being done now to reduce our emissions?
Solar Power
Wind Power
Fuel-Efficiency
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We can stop global warming!
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What can you do to help solve the problem?
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• Educate yourself.
• Ignorance is not a good basis for dealing with
  risk. W.H. Berger, PhD Professor of
  Oceanography, UCSD Director, California Space
  Institute on Global Warming.

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How you can make a difference

• Purchase products with the Energy Star label on
  it.
• Lead by example, get informed and make changes
• Commit and stay committed
• Use your vote, have a voice
• Reduce the amount of stuff you use.
• Reuse as much as possible before throwing things
  away.
• Recycle everything you can.

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More Simple Things To Do

• Turn off your computer or the TV
• when youre not using it.
• Take shorter showers. Heating water uses energy.
• Keep rooms cool by closing the blinds,
  shades, or
• curtains.
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs.

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Be Bulb SmartUse CFLs
Whats the difference?
Compact Fluorescent
Incandescent

• 1,430 lbs. CO2 pollution avoided
• 30 saved

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HOMEWORK

• Google
• Carbon footprint calculator
• Calculate your Carbon Footprint.
• Print it out and bring it in for two stamps.

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Questions you may have

• Is Global Warming a theory or a fact?
• It is a theory based on an overwhelming amount of
  evidence and it is a fact that the Earths
  temperature is increasing. A majority of
  scientists accept that this evidence is the best
  explanation for this observed phenomenon.
  Remember, gravity, relativity and evolution are
  theories as well.

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• "The risks of global warming have no borders."
• "We and the other nations of the world must get
  serious about substantially reducing greenhouse
  gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand
  off a much-diminished world to our
  grandchildren."
• "It's not just a greenhouse gas issue, it's a
  national security issue."
• John McCain
• Republican presidential candidate, May 12th,
  2008

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Are all of the bad things that Al Gore spoke of
going to happen?

• We dont know? Based on the evidence and
  computer models that experts have looked at,
  these are the worst case scenarios. Just because
  someone famous says its going to happen doesnt
  mean it will. However many scientists say we are
  observing some these changes on earth.

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Is it too late to do anything?

• Absolutely not! Some things may be irreversible,
  but if everyone makes small sacrifices, it could
  have a significant impact and slow down the rate
  at which the temperature is increasing.

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Whats the worst thing that could happen if we do
something and Global Warming isnt quite as bad?

• We would have a cleaner planet and a better
  quality of life for future generations (you, your
  kids and grandkids).
• You would save money.
• The country would be energy independent.
• It would create new jobs and the potential to
  make a fortune on the new technology.
• Increase National Security.
• Less dependent on foreign oil.
• Decrease rates of extinction.
• Possibly decrease catastrophic weather.

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Works cited

• http//earthguide.ucsd.edu/globalchange
• http//www.environmentaldefense.org
• http//www.ucsusa.org
• http//epa.gov/climatechange/kids/greenhouse.html
• http//www.nature.com/news
• /www.ncdc.noaa.gov
• CNN.com
• The Journal Nature, May 2008,
  doi 10.1038/news.2008.823