Hi readers how you doing? Hope you are enjoying reading the blogs and must be feeling proud that you are now “well informed” on certain common issues. Agreed?
Ok, so let’s began a new series to which you are already familiar but to what extent, you don’t know? You are familiar with the word “climate change” but not with what actually it means? You must also be familiar with the word “environment change”.
People use these two terms quite frequently and often interchangeably without realizing that there is a defined difference between the two. In this series of blog, I will try to explain such subtle difference in easy words so that at the end of the day you made your own decision if climate change is a reality, fiction, fantasy, surreality or a mix of everything? Unless you are clear in your mind, you cannot act upon to mitigate and/or adapt (again two different terms) to the effects exerted upon you, all of us and, our surroundings and belongings. It will hence be a longer series of blogs compared to the previous series. Be prepared for that.
What is Climate Change?
It is a gradual shift of atmospheric conditions over a long period of time which includes temperature, wind, precipitation, and other factors and parameters.
It is a continuous phenomenon which possesses ill-defined or irrelevant boundaries. Presently however, climate change mostly refers to increases in temperatures that have been detected since the mid-20th century. This increase is contributing to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets all over the world and warming of the oceans among other phenomena. Recently, there has also been an increase in extreme weather events which may also be related to climate change.
The major factors contributing to climate change are changes in atmospheric composition, and Milankovitch cycles which refers to changes in the Earth’s movements and corresponding effects on its climate over thousands of and years.
Atmospheric Composition includes greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane which are known for trapping heat in the atmosphere and thus, play an important role in regulating temperature. A natural source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is reported to be volcanism. Presently however, human civilization produces much more carbon dioxide than geological sources thus, humans are being considered to be the primary and the most significant drivers of climate change occurring today.
Milankovitch cycles (role will be explained in detail in next blog)
As earth and other planets orbit the sun, they go through slight changes of motion and orientation. Most significant types of change that determined “seasons” on the earth are Milankovitch cycles which include:
- Eccentricity: The shape of Earth’s orbit,
- Obliquity: The angle, the Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to Earth’s orbital plane, and
- Precession: direction towards which Earth’s axis of rotation is pointed
What is bothering me is that:
“the sun’s atmosphere produces solar flares which have an influence on space weather”. The frequency of these events appears to be connected to a solar sunspot cycle of about 11 years during which the number of sunspots on the sun will grow and shrink regularly”
Dear readers, this 11 years sunspot cycle remined me of 2010 catastrophic floods in Pakistan. World has documented this event pensively (for detail. Please go through the links below). 11 Years have passed. Let’s see what the future holds for us
The link at No. 4 is very interesting in which one “Dr., Rosalie Bertell” confirms that US military scientists are working on weather system as a potential weapon. The method includes enhancing of storms and diverting vapor rivers towards the earth’s atmosphere for producing targeted droughts or floods (The Times, London, 23rd November 2000) http//www.bariumblues.com/bertell_reveals_many_new_weapons.htm
The History Channel has produced 45-minute documentary on
High frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)
http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4515534125267138757#
In this video titled
“Turbo-charged monsoon confounds forecasters”
Tom Clarke, Britain’s Channel 4 science correspondent, states that:
(Remember in 2010, there was intense heat wave in Russia, deadly Earthquake in Haiti, flood in Europe and China, unprecedented heat wave in USA, Catastrophic drought in Africa, winter in South America and floods in Pakistan etc.,).
But what happened over Pakistan was strange. The southern arm of the Jet stream looped down to the extent that it crossed over Himalayas into Northwestern Pakistan (ass per experts at the Meteorological Department this it is very unusual) consequently, fast-moving jets stream winds helped sucking the warm, wet, monsoon air even faster and higher into the atmosphere which caused rains like no-one has remembered. It turbo charged the monsoon like the way that never happened before.
Watch dear readers 11 years have passed
The monsoon is already hitting hard in Pakistan: this time early and depicting horrifying scenes, and a massively destructive earth quick has just landed in Afghanistan
The Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez accused the United States of causing the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010. He asserted that the US was “playing God” by testing devices capable of creating catastrophes.
Is the HAARP: a harmless research tool or a weapon of mass destruction far more lethal than nuclear weapons? We may never know.
http//www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread537877/pg1.
What is Environmental Change?
It refers to change in the natural environment of local, region or planet and is due to i. atmospheric factor, ii. geological factors such as erosion, weathering, and tectonism and iii. biological factors such as the introduction of invasive species.
Atmospheric factors
Earth’s temperature depends on the balance between energy entering and leaving the planet’s system.
- When incoming energy from the sun is absorbed by the Earth system, Earth warms.
- When the sun’s energy is reflected back into space, Earth avoids warming.
- When absorbed energy is released back into space, Earth cools.
Natural and human factors can cause changes in this energy balance which, includes:
- Variations in the sun energy reaching earth
- Changes in the reflectivity of earth’s atmosphere and surface
- Changes in the greenhouse effect which affects the amount of heat retained by Earth’s atmosphere
Geological factors
Plays important role in the environment: the most important factor effecting environment change include volcanism which introduces new minerals into soil as well as gases into the atmosphere, erosion, and weathering.
Biological factors:
Responsible for environment change includes introduction of invasive species such as Crazy ants introduced to Christmas Island that proved hugely destructive to the environment on the island and disruption of local ecosystem.
They have killed tens of millions of Christmas Island’s iconic red crabs. Until now, the only way to stop crazy ants wiping out Christmas Island’s wildlife was to use poison bait.
Another example is introduction of Argentine ants all over the world that has becoming major pests now and are causing serious problems for the native ant populations vital to local ecosystems. Argentine ants feed on honeydew produced by sap-sucking insects comprising mealybugs, scales, and aphids which has increased sap-sucking insect’s population in native habitats affecting the growth of native plants and the risk of disease transmission between plants.
Humans have probably been one of the most influential invasive species shaping the environment and causing environmental change, growing mass extinction, reduction in forests worldwide, and the rapid growth of largest geographic biotic unit formed in response to a shared regional climate.
Climate variability
Refers to the natural fluctuations of the climate system. These fluctuations are generated by internal and external causes.
- Internal causes comprised the climate system itself. For example, the ocean-atmosphere coupling at play during various El Niña (climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean) and La Nina (counterpart of El Nina) which is a warm ocean temperatures in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean.
- External causes usually are natural forces since they are related to the presence of radiatively active gases and aerosols in the atmosphere which perturb the radiative energy budget of the Earth.
Both climate variability and climate change are contributing to the present-day climate. Consequently, climate variability is “superimposed” on the climate change long-term evolution and makes the detection of its impacts over a short time period difficult.
In summary, climate change is the term used by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations responsible for advancing knowledge on human-induced climate change). Climate variability is natural and is undergoing through both external (Sun, planets, and other stellar objects) influence on our planet and its climate; and natural variability induced by the water planet (evaporation, precipitation including clouds) and its atmosphere in motion (rotation).
That all dear readers. Please keep this in mind as it will help you understand the coming up blogs.
See you next week with new blog of this series, Take care,
Bye.
For further reading
