Climate Change - LeFonch

What is Climate Change?

Due to human activity, the climate has not only become warmer, but it has become far more extreme and unpredictable.
There are far more storms, flooding and other natural disasters.
This occurs due to human carbon emissions and destruction of the natural environment.
Long term climate change has caused various events and extinctions, such as the recent ice age about 10,000 years ago.
Climate has varied greatly throughout prehistory but the changes now are faster than practically any before.
We are currently living through a warm period of an ice age, which is likely to continue as future glaciation is postponed due to global warming.

We have changed the natural carbon cycle by adding more greenhouse gasses into the system.
The use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) add carbon to the atmosphere, increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Additionally we are rapidly cutting down trees and destroying plant life which could absorb carbon (via photosynthesis).
Carbon dioxide levels have increased allowing the atmosphere to absorb more heat than before.
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, preventing it from escaping.
Some greenhouse gases like methane are very potent.
This causes an average increase in temperature.
For example, the average surface temperature of the Earth is approximately 33 °C higher than it would be without greenhouse gases (all greenhouse gases, not human emissions).
The average temperature 1.2 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrialized period (about the 19th century).
This could rise up to 1 to 5 degrees Celsius, probably around 2 to 3 degrees on average.
If we continue our emissions at the rate we are at now, the average temperature will increase around 4 degrees Celsius by 2100.
While this sounds like a small amount on paper, the consequences could be catastrophic. In a worst case scenario, Mad Max could turn from a movie into a documentary.
The Paris Agreement in 2015 agreed to limit the increase of average temperature to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions are:

Energy production (electricity and heat)
Industry (factories, production)
Transport (especially road transport such as trucks and cars)
Waste which produces methane
Land-use changes (deforestation, dams, urbanization)
The most emissions come from rich and developed countries, such as the United States and many European states.
This is due to the excessive and wasteful lifestyle of people in such countries.
China and India also produce a lot of emissions, mainly due to housing huge industries with export abroad and having large populations.
Developed countries use far more energy for all their luxuries.
Comparatively undeveloped and developing countries use far less energy.

Phenomena that are caused by global warming and climate change and escalates climate change as it goes on.
Feedback phenomena generally cause increased greenhouse gases or strengthen the potency of greenhouse gases in one way or another.
Most feedback phenomena cause a positive feedback loop, in which the occurrence of the phenomena increases the cause of phenomena in a self-reinforcing loop.
More climate change -> more solar energy absorbed -> more climate change...

Permafrost melts, releasing methane.
Area of glaciers and snow-covered regions decreases, causing less solar radiation to be reflected away from Earth.
Sea temperatures rise, causing more carbon dioxide to be released from the ocean (warmer oceans absorb less carbon dioxide).
Evaporation increases and the concentration of water vapor (a potent greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere increases.
Decomposition activity increases in ecosystems and more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere at an increased rate.
Forest fires become more common, releasing carbon dioxide and decreasing the amount of trees that can absorb carbon dioxide.
Regional droughts increase and vegetation is reduced and desertification increases.
Although plant photosynthesis is increased due to increased availability of carbon dioxide, this can also upset ecosystems.

Carbon sinks are processes, functions and mechanisms that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The planet’s carbon moves cyclically between different carbon stocks.
It is estimated that about half of the carbon dioxide produced by mankind since the 1700s has remained in the atmosphere, with the other half ending up in the oceans and soil.
Forests are also an important carbon sink.
The destruction of carbon sinks such as forests and permafrost thus releases yet more carbon into the atmosphere.

Climate change affects the habitats and distribution of animals, plants and other organisms.
In addition to changes in temperature, the increase of weather events such as storms and various plant and animal diseases also affect species survival and reproduction.
Changes can cause certain species to proliferate out of control and reduce the survival chances of others.
Species that are unable to spread to more favorable areas and species that are unable to adapt to climate change are threatened by extinction.
Extinctions in our current time are already at an all-time high.
However current climate change, even if we were to stop all our emissions immediately, will still cause plenty more extinctions. This is called extinction debt.
Invasive species can decimate environments, their survival often further boosted by climate change.
They usually leave no chance of competition for local wildlife.
Carbon dioxide acidifies seawater, causing many species of corals, crustaceans, mollusks and plankton to die off.
The amount of calcium carbonate, which these organisms use to form calcareous shells, is reduced as a result of acidification.
When these species decline, other species in the food chain are also affected.
The decline of other species directly affects us, as we often rely on other species for our food supply.

Sources

https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector