Global Action (5)

What is being done by the world to address the issue of global warming?
The simple answer: many things!
Here are a few...

The Paris Climate Agreement


In 2015, all of the nations of the world came together and signed an agreement to limit the global temperature increase to combat global warming. These changes include more regulation on carbon producing businesses, less reliance on fossil fuel energy, and implementing more environmentally friendly policies. This agreement has proven to be a momentous success with many countries already meeting their long-term goals.

Renewable Energy


Renewable Energy is on the rise! If more energy comes from renewable energy than fossil fuels, then the world will be on its way to eradicating carbon emissions. These new energy options are becoming cheaper and cheaper to the point where they will be cheaper to produce than fossil fuels. These renewable energies include solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass/biofuel.

Sustainable Agriculture Practices


With the increase in agricultural technology, producers are now able to make their practices more sustainable than ever with productive but environmentally friendly techniques. It is the hope of producers that they will be able to produce more sustainably in order to limit their input of methane and carbon dioxide into the air.

These are some of the major global action steps that I found most notable. The next post will show an example of how a small island became a world leader in the fight for renewable energy and against climate change.

The Sources of the Problem (4)

Carbon Dioxide is the main enemy of the people. Carbon Dioxide is one of the primary greenhouse gases along with methane, that causes the Greenhouse Effect to wreak havoc upon the Earth's climate.

Now, what are the sources of these greenhouse gases? Let's explore a few.

Industry & Production


Ever since the dawn of the Industrial Age and the Industrial Revolution, the output of carbon dioxide has been increasing greatly. Even though we have since taken strides to eliminate the smoggy cities of industry, our usage of fossil fuels and industry have still allowed for the carbon dioxide input that fuels climate change.

Warfare


Even though relatively small, it is still worth mentioning that warfare produces a ton of carbon dioxide. Warfare has always been a producer of carbon dioxide with the use of artillery in the times before the gun and has since increased tenfold with the use of the gun and more means of destruction. The 2 world wars contributed greatly to the carbon input and the development of new weapons as time went on continued this cycle of carbon production through various wars and conflicts.

Agriculture:


Methane is even more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and one of the largest producers of methane is agriculture, especially in the cattle industry. Even though methane is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases, it brings up an important and ethical question, if we want to remove methane from agriculture, how will we feed the world?

The next segment of our journey takes us to the global action that is occurring to combat climate change.

Warning Signs of Climate Change (3)

Despite what any political figure or energy company states, Global Warming & Climate Change are very real issues that are threatening the entire world. To make the case even stronger, there are many warning signs that symbolize that Climate Change is happening all around the world.

1: Temperature is Increasing



As stated by Hansen and climate researchers, the average temperature is increasing every year. This is not a normal function of the Earth and is extremely threatening to the planet and its inhabitants.

2. The Oceans are Warming




The Oceans have been absorbing the increasing heat which in turn causes the oceans to increase in temperature. This is very threatening to the sea life of the oceans and our most delicate and important ecosystems: the coral reefs. This increase in temperature of the oceans also has the capacity to increase the effectiveness of the Greenhouse Effect.

3. Disappearing Ice and Snow



Ice and snow are disappearing all across the world. The ice caps and ice sheets are melting giving way to higher sea levels. The glaciers are retreating northward, the mountaintops have less snow cover, and the winter snowfalls are starting later and melting earlier each year. All of these changes are effects caused by the increase in temperature brought by global warming.

4. Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters



The effects of Climate Change and Global Warming have on the weather systems and natural disasters are alarming. Droughts are worse than ever and last for longer in the most vulnerable regions of the world. Dry forests and grasslands are prone to the worst wildfires we have seen in decades. Hurricanes are occurring more frequently and are more powerful than ever, with this year's hurricanes being the devastating Florence and Michael.

These are the warning signs that the Earth is throwing at us. The Earth is doing all it can to combat global climate change, so we should too.

The next segment will go into some more detail about the causes of global warming & climate change.

What was Climate Change back in 1988? (2)

Let's take a step back in time to the 1980s when the talk of the future was flying cars, time machines, and hoverboards.

During this time, there was a NASA scientist by the name of James Hansen. Hansen was a climate scientist and had done extensive research on the noted rising temperatures across the world.

     
James Hansen Testifying to Congress                              James Hansen Today

In 1988, Hansen released 3 different theories for the path of Global Warming.

The bolded line represents the observed temperature changes by year up to 1988, and then there are three scenarios of where the global temperatures will lead. Scenario A predicts a rapid increase in temperature by year. Scenario B predicts a more "reasonable" increase temperature which is similar to what was observed before. Finally, Scenario C predicts that the temperature changes will level off and remain steady.

Here are some clearer graphs of the scenarios.

Since the 1980s, climate scientists have been recording the annual temperature changes and have found that the most "plausible and reasonable" scenario was closest to the actual changes. 

These reports were not the only contribution that Mr. Hansen delivered. Also in 1988, Hansen testified before Congress urging them to take precautionary action against the growing threat of climate change while it is still early. 

In his testimony, Hansen describes the climate models of the three scenarios as well as the threat of the greenhouse effect and its impacts on the scenarios. The testimony was used to help the climate scientist to gain more support in developing more sophisticated data models and predictions.

Because of his work, Hansen is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in the science behind climate change. 

Thank you for reading part 2, continue to the next segment where I will be talking about the warning signs of Climate Change.

Global Warming & Climate Change Defined: (1)

Global Warming is one of the major topics currently circulating around the world right now. It is a topic of global importance, however, not everyone is aware of the facts behind this topic.

During the course of this blog series, I will be giving readers a better view of what Climate Change is, a history behind it, actions taken for and against it, and what we can do to help out. This will be similar to my first video but will have feature more details for each of the segments as well as some new segments.

For this first segment, we will be exploring the definitions of climate change and the interpretations behind those definitions.

There are many definitions of Global Warming and Climate Change, the ones that people come across the most are found on Google.

Google defines Global Warming as "a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants."

Google defines Climate Change as "a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels."

Both of these definitions are very similar and cover basically the same areas. Because the definitions are so similar, people oftentimes ask the question "What's the difference between Global Warming and Climate Change? NASA gives us an answer to this question.

From the NASA Global Climate Change Website:

“Global warming” refers to the long-term warming of the planet. Global temperature shows a well-documented rise since the early 20th century and most notably since the late 1970s. Worldwide, since 1880 the average surface temperature has risen about 1 °C (about 2 °F), relative to the mid-20th-century baseline (of 1951-1980). This is on top of about an additional 0.15 °C of warming from between 1750 and 1880.

 “Climate change” encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet. These include rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic, and shifts in flower/plant blooming times. These are all consequences of the warming, which is caused mainly by people burning fossil fuels and putting out heat-trapping gases into the air. The terms “global warming” and “climate change” are sometimes used interchangeably, but strictly they refer to slightly different things.

NASA's interpretation of these definitions shows that although the two definitions apparently can be used interchangeably. they actually refer to different climate phenomenon.

I thought it was interesting how NASA believes that Climate Change refers to the changes that are the consequences of Global Warming and how Global Warming can refer to a period of warming across the planet with the most notable time being right now.

Hopefully, your definition of the two terms has been strengthened by this post, and please continue reading the following 9 posts which further explain the many parts of this issue of Global Warming & Climate Change. The next post will go into how the threat of Climate Change was realized back in the 1980s.