1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Climate change is one of the most serious environmental challenges facing the world at present. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (Kinyangi et al., 2009). Global warming shows increasing trend and is expected to bring about long term changes in weather conditions (FAO, 2008).
According to IPCC (2007), the average global surface tem¬perature has warmed up by 0.8°C in the past century and by 0.6°C in the past three decades. Scientific evidence indicates that the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere has been increasing; and changing the earth’s climate. IPCC (2007) in its fourth assessment report, indicated that the signs of climate change, as it was evidenced from observations of raises in global average and ocean temperature, widespread melting of snow and ice and increasing global average sea level. IPCC also highlighted the past, current and predicted future GHGs with its potential negative effect on the socio-economic development of countries (IPCC, 2007).
The IPCC has also pro¬jected that if GHG emissions and the major cause of cli¬mate change continue to rise, average global temperatures will increase by 1.4–5.8°c by the
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A number of countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa already face semi-arid conditions that make agriculture challenging. Thus climate change will be likely to reduce the length of growing season as well as force large regions of marginal agriculture out of production. Projected reductions in yield in some countries could be as much as 50% by 2020 and crop net revenues could fall by as much as 90% by 2100 with small scale farmers being the most affected (IPCC,
Imagine if all of Florida disappeared under the water. Millions of people would need to migrate up to other states, likely causing population issues in some places, and the culprit of the disappearance: Humans. More specifically, climate change caused by humans. Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and that makes the atmosphere trap heat from the sun in our atmosphere. This causes the global temperature to slowly increase.
They agree that another degree increase will cause problems for most people." (BGE) People are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere now than ever. (BGE)This is greatly speeding up the process of global warming. The most important consequence of climate change is the average temperature of the earth increasing because of the Arctic melting, lack of resources, and habitat loss.
Climate change is an irreversible consequence of the damage we do to our Earth. If we do not change our ways, the global temperature will swell, causing an unchangeable series of events, consecrating detriments onto all the existence upon Earth. In only about 140 years, the average global temperature has increased 0.8 degrees celsius, and the ramification is the irreparable destruction of the place where we and millions of other species live. The most important consequence of climate change is the global increase in temperature and how that is affecting various animal species all over the Earth, the health of humans, and the rapid rise of sea level.
Climate change is happening at a really fast pace. One of the affected areas is the Arctic and the Arctic life. Climate change is the change in weather patterns over a long period of time caused by global warming. Global warming is 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 and other pollutants. Ever since the industrial revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased drastically.
Climate change is essentially a significant and long-term change for the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time. Climate change is a change in the regular weather patterns such as more or fewer severe weather events. (Greenfleet, 2011) The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse gases affect identified. In the late 19th century, scientist first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate.
IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON THE ENVIRONMENT SLINDILE.C MAZIBUKO 215011983 UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL WESTVILLE CAMPUS DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA ABSTRACT One of the biggest problems facing the world today is global warming. It is evident that there is climate change around the world. In recent years, we have so many unusual hurricanes, typhoons, floods, droughts and earthquakes. Plants and animals that lived in the cold climates are now disappearing.
Global warming is all about adverse climate change caused by the trapping of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere that affects biodiversity and poses a serious health hazard. Scientists have found strong evidence that human activities have caused most of the warming since the mid-1900 (“global warming”). Humans are responsible for
The impact of climate change is being felt throughout the world; however, the situation is more pronounced in developing countries because many households, social groups and regions have a limited capacity to adapt to climate variability and change (UNFCCC, 2007; IPCC 2007). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007:6) defined climate change as any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. The (UNFCCC 2007) espoused that agricultural production on the African continent relies primarily on rainfall. As such, any interruption in rainfall pattern and intensity will adversely affect the poor, predominantly the smallholder farmers (ibid).
Climate change is the most rising issue of the modern world that is threatening our planet from the last few decades. In the simplest definition, the term climate change refers to the rising of the planet’s temperature, particularly an increase in the average atmospheric temperature. It should be noted that in the last few decades, many scientists and ecologists has discovered the Earth temperature is increasing at an alarming rate and has affected the planet in numerous of way. The constant change in the climate due to various causes is threatening the preservation of the Earth and its human life. It should be noted that the climate change is linked with several of the human activities that are further directed towards the global warming.
Perhaps less obvious but no less ominous a threat to the environment are the general increase in temperatures worldwide and the resulting climate changes. This phenomenon, known as global warming, could have serious negative effects on humans and all other living things on Earth. Global warming is a complex problem, and governments have had great difficulty deciding how to address it. Some people think that it is the work of the world where nothing we do can ether change it or anything we do will prevent it. While others say that the
Throughout history Earth`s climate has changed a lot, and there is a lot of evidence that shows how humans have contributed to this changed and effected the Earth. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advances, the increase in the thickness and area of a glacier. As well as glacial retreats, a condition occurring when backward melting at the front of a glacier takes place at a rate exceeding forward motion. Most climate changes are attributed to very small variations in the earth`s orbit, that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives. The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history.
Climate change is a change in global or provincial climate that changes over a time span of many years. Weather can change in just a few hours, But Climate change takes hundreds or even millions of years to change. Climate change is happening all around us. Whether it is the global temperature rise or the melting of the polar ice caps, it is happening.
One of the greatest issues that we face towards the environment has been an increasingly difficult problem over the last few years. Earths climate is changing at rapid paces and solutions are needed as quickly as possible to replenish natural ecosystems and cultures that depend on the environment. Climate change not only affects the animals in our ecosystem, but us humans as well. With the human population increasing every year, climate change is only getting worse. Many argue that the effects of climate change towards the environment are due to other extraneous factors, however, I myself am a strong believer that the problems such as rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and natural disasters are all due to both natural causes and human activity.
Researches show that the average temperature of the planet has been changed during the last decades, as a result, many problems join with it and climate change is considered as the biggest problem around the world. Climate change is one of the results of global warming and it has so many negative disadvantage impacts on earth, including; increasing the events of natural
What is global warming? Global warming is defined as “ an increase in the earth 's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate, and that may result from the greenhouse effect" (“Global warming”). Natural events and human that causes global warming are believed to be factors to increase in average temperatures. This essay looks into the growing problem of global warming and suggests reasonable solutions to it. It also evaluates the effectiveness of these solutions.