environmentweb climate change summary
First things first: What is climate change?
This is the first possible point of confusion as there are really two ways in which the term 'climate change' can be used. Strictly speaking climate change is exactly what is says, a change in the earth's long term weather, which could refer to any point in the earth's history, from the present to millions of years ago. However what is now commonly called climate change refers more specifically to the general increase in average global temperatures which has been observed over the last hundred years or so, which is also referred to as global warming.
So are global warming and climate change the same thing?
Again the answer is not clear cut. A quick answer would be yes and no, but mostly no. What is probably closer to the truth is that global warming can be viewed as a part of climate change, but climate change actually refers to a much broader spectrum of change. The term global warming comes from the fact that global temperature records have shown that average temperatures from 1905-2005 above what has been viewed as normal in recent history, which clearly does represent a change in climate. The term climate change is now beginning to replace global warming as scientists and the wider public begin to realise that things aren't that simple. While there may be a general warming trend there are also some areas of the earth that are getting colder. And it's not just temperatures that change - the weather is changing too, and not just to give us more warm, sunny days. A knock on effect of the increase in temperatures is a increase in extreme weather events. This includes hot weather and drought, but also heavy rain and flooding as well as very cold winter weather and snow. When you look at this you start to realise that the term 'global warming' can be a bit misleading. More freezing, snowy days in the winter may seem to contradict the idea of global warming and indicate that everything is fine, but instead it may be a symptom of a wider pattern of climatic change that is linked in to the rise in global temperatures.
Are humans responsible for climate change?
This is the real crunch question, and the one on which all of the debate surrounding climate change hinges on. One thing is for sure, humans aren't responsible for all climate change. Natural variations have always brought about climatic variations, with ice ages being a prime example. The real worry is that people are causing an impact which, when stacked on top of the natural changes in climate that are occurring, could cross an important threshold beyond which things will start to change much more rapidly. This would have potentially very severe consequences for the environment, with plants and animals no longer able to adapt quickly enough to the changes that occur.
The main way in which humans are thought to influence climate change is through the greenhouse effect as a result of the emissions of various greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour. These help to trap heat that would otherwise have escaped in to space, resulting in an over all warming of the earth. Unfortunately, at least from the point of view of determining how much humans influence climate change, it's not quite as simple as that. The problem is that the mechanisms that control the earth's climate are very, very complex with millions of factors involved, many of which are linked and can have feedback effects on each other, or even affect the climate in more than one way. An example of this would be aircraft emissions. While aircraft release a lot of carbon dioxide, which contributes to the greenhouse effect, the vapour trails they leave are highly reflective which actually helps to deflect radiation back in to space and giving rise to a cooling effect. It is because of this complexity that it is very difficult to know for sure exactly what impact humans are having on the climate, making climate change the controversial issue that it is.
This said, the overwhelming majority of scientists involved in climate research are now convinced that we are having a significant effect on climate change and need to start acting now if we're to have any chance of reversing or even limiting its impacts. Which leads on to the next question...
What can we do about climate change?
Clearly this is going to depend a lot on the answer to the last question, are humans responsible to climate change? But given the arguments one obvious conclusion is to go with the old saying - better safe than sorry. This is where we see that there are two parts to answering this question: what can we as individuals do, and what can we as a society do?
I'll start with the second part, what can we as society do? Well, the major cause behind climate change is the fact that our society is so heavily reliant upon fossil fuels, and particularly oil, to provide energy. It's the burning of these that releases most of the emissions that are probably responsible for human induced climate change. But changing something so integral to our society, and in particular our economy, is not going to be easy. It will require substantial investment to build up a new infrastructure that will allow us to be less dependent on fossil fuels as an energy source. This is starting to happen now in many developed countries, but there is still a long way to go and the current economic climate is unlikely to help things. In the developing world it's an even tougher proposition as there is even less money available and other needs, such as health, education and helping to kick off economic development often take priority (quite understandably) over environmental concerns. However in the long run this seems like the only real solution to the problem of climate change.
In the shorter term there are a number of other mitigation effects that are being considered. One which has been looked it is what is known as 'carbon sequestration', which basically just means storing carbon. The idea here is that carbon dioxide can be captured and stored, rather than released in to the atmosphere, thus preventing it from having an impact on the climate. There has been much debate about whether it does offer a good solution, which I'll look at in more detail later in the series.
The second part of the answer, what can we do on a personal level, seems more clear cut. Basically the less energy we use, the less emissions we cause and the less impact we will have on the climate. It all comes down to saving energy, and as practically every way of saving energy will also save us money there seems very little reason for us not to go along with the 'better safe than sorry' attitude.
What do you think?
Just to put in my two pence worth for anyone that's interested! Climate change is a very complex issue and it's hard to know exactly what will happen in the long run. However, I definitely think we need to change our outlook for several reasons. Firstly we will eventually run out of fossil fuels, regardless of whether or not they affect the climate, so it's essential that we find alternative energy sources now before it happens. Secondly, I can see no benefits whatsoever in wasting energy. On an individual level the only real excuse seems to be laziness, which isn't a very good one, and given that we can also save money and help the environment at the same time it's very hard to argue against it.
Whatever people may say about climate change, I've never yet heard anyone preaching the virtues of carbon emissions and increased levels of greenhouse gas. So with that in mind I think that as long as the costs aren't too great, and the potential benefits are there, we can almost set climate change aside and see that even if that wasn't an issue then we're still heading in the right direction. With climate change there as an additional threat I think we should move forward towards a greener society as soon as possible and as individuals straight away - there's not really any excuse not to!
