The social and physical causes of climate change

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Climate change is the change of the temperature of the Earth over a certain period of time. Current climate change over the past century is through the increase of the temperature of the Earth. This has been called 'global warming'.

Two major factors affect climate: The sun and the atmosphere

The sun provides a constant amount of heat to the Earth, therefore cannot be considered a major force in climate change.

The atmosphere has changed and has the strongest effect on climate change. The change has occured with the increase in greenhouse gases that trap heat waves from the Sun and prevents them from leaving the Earth.

Climate can change through natural occurences and through man-made occurences.

CO2 and other greenhouse gases are released in the atmosphere through natural occurences. However, these releases of gases are usually balanced out through other natural occurences of the Earth's ecosystem. For example through plant consumption of CO2.

Volcanoes release CO2 into the atmosphere through eruptions. In an average year, volcanoes put out an estimated 100—130 million tonnes of CO2 globally.

Humans cause the release of about 26,000 million tonnes of CO2 per year through several activities.

Our climate has changed as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases include water vapour, CO2, methane and others. Recent climate change is a result of increased CO2 emissions around the world as a result of technological developments. Vehicles, factories etc. have contributed massively to the thickening of the atmosphere as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Deforstation has also indirectly affected climate change, since it prevents trees from intaking CO2 for photosynthesis. The less trees there are, the less CO2 is consumed by plants, and therefore the more CO2 left in the atmosphere to contribute to global warming.

The result of the current climate change is global warming. If global warming continues at its current rate, there will be worldwide implications.

Agricultural yields are expected to decrease for all major cereal crops in all major regions of production.The availability of water will be affected by melting of glaciers, particularly in areas such as the Indus basin and western China, where much of the river flow comes from melt water.Population increases, combined with changes in river run-off as a result of changes in rainfall patterns and increased temperatures, could mean that by 2080 significantly less water is available to approximately one billion people already living under water stress.For many areas of the world sea-level rise, combined with the effect of storms, will threaten low-lying coastal communities. There are often very dense populations living along coasts, as well as important infrastructure and high-value agricultural land, which makes the impact of coastal flooding particularly severe. The intrusion of salt water on farming land, and the risk to lives of flooding events could affect millions of people worldwide every year.

Increased carbon dioxide levels will increase rates of plant growth and perhaps development (bud burst, flowering and leaf fall)Changes in temperatures are expected to bring an earlier onset of growth in spring and a longer growing seasonMild winters may reduce the yield of fruit trees, because colder temperatures are needed to break the budsIncreased temperatures will aid the growth of more plants from warmer parts of the worldHigher temperatures and decreased summer rainfall will cause stress, especially in plants with extensive, shallow, fibrous root systemsAnnual moisture content of soils is likely to decrease by 10-20% across the UK by the 2080s, with substantial reductions (of 20-50%) in soil moisture possible in the summer by the 2080sFungal diseases will thrive with the wet winter conditions.

In a similar fashion to the impact on human activities, animal habitats worldwide will be destroyed as a result of the rising sea levels. Flooding will occur on the coasts of most continents in the world, therefore destroying natural habitats of many terrestrial species.The melting of the ice caps will result in the destruction of the habitats of the animals living in polar regions (polar bears, penguins, walruses, seals etc.)