International Implications of Global Climate change

International Implications of Global Climate change   It will be difficult for all countries to develop a consensus on dealing with a climate change, partly because global climate change will clearly have greater impacts on some nations than on others. Tensions have increased among nations, especially between the highly developed and developing countries, over their differing self-interests. Highly developed nations have huge amounts of infrastructure at risk; the developing countries have less technical expertise and fewer economic resources, they are going to be least able to respond to the challenges of global climate change.

Ozone Depletion and Acid Deposition 

The Effects of Global Climate Change

The Effects of Global Climate Change

Melting Ice and Rising Sea Levels   the Inter-governmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) assessment reports predict, 18-59 cm, sea level rise by 2100. This rise can be caused in two ways:

·         Rise due to thermal expansion: Water, like other substance expands as it warms. Thermal expansion contributes more than half of the rise in sea level. The current rate is about 3mm per year.

·         Rise due to melting of glacier and thawing of ice at the South Pole:  As the overall temperature of the earth has increased, a major thawing of glaciers and the polar ice caps has occurred. The area of ice-covered ocean in the Arctic has decreased significantly over the  past  several decades. Mountain glaciers around the world are also melting at accelerating rates.

Increasing Ocean Acidification As there is increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere; there is going to be more CO₂ in the oceans. The resulting change in the acid content of the ocean will disrupt the ability of plants and animals in the sea to make shells and selection of calcium carbonate. Marine creatures will have thinner shells or skeleton. This will decline the ocean biodiversity.

Changes in the precipitation

Dealing with Global Climate Change

Dealing with Global  Climate Change

Mitigation of Global Climate Change   The development and use of alternatives to fossil fuels have the potential to eventually halt the warming caused by  CO₂ emission. Alternatives to petroleum and natural gas are likely to become necessary over the coming decades. The energy use and greenhouse gas emissions can be significantly reduced, with little cost to society, by adopting the best technologies and implementing certain policies to encourage their use. For example, use of solar energy wherever possible and increasing the efficiency of automobiles and appliances would reduce the use of fossil fuels and the output of CO₂ emission; California took the lead in 2007, when the U.S Supreme Court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency is required, under the Clean Air Act, to regulate CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions. One way to mitigate global climate change involves removing atmospheric carbon dioxide from the air by planting and maintaining forests.

Adaptation to Global Climate Change As the global climate change is inevitable, we must adapt. For example, the people living in coastal area could more to inland; we also must adapt to shifting agricultural zones. Evaluation the problems and finding and implementing solutions is the only remedy.

International Efforts to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions At least 174 nations have now signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) developed at the 1992 Earth Summit. The international community recognises that the Kyoto Protocol is the only first only first step in addressing climate change.

The Causes of Global Climate Change

The Causes of Global Climate Change

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and certain other trace gases including methane (CH₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), chlorofluorocarbons’ (CFCs) and Ozone (O₃) are accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities. All of these are green house gases which absorbs radiated heat from the sun, thereby increasing the temperature of the atmosphere. Additional, though minor, greenhouse gas include carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform, chlorodifluromethane, sulfurhexafluoride, trifluromethyl sulfur pentafluoride  hexafluoride, trifuluorothane. The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide  has grown from about 288 parts per million (ppm) approximately 200 years ago (before the Industrial  Revolution) to 382 ppm in  2006. Because CO₂ and other gases slow the loss of heat generated by the incoming solar radiation, the natural trapping of heat in the atmosphere is often referred to as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities are thus causing an enhanced greenhouse effect. There are different indications in the atmosphere which indicates climate change, some of these indicators are:

·          More fossil fuel carbon in coral

·         Nights warming faster than day

·         30 billion tones of CO₂ produced per year

·         Less oxygen in the air

·         Troposphere  rising

·         Thermosphere shrinking

·         Less heat escaping to space

·         Stratosphere cooling

·         More fossil fuel carbon in the air

·         Heat returning to earth

Terrestrial biome

Terrestrial biome: Vertical stratification is an important feature of terrestrial biomes. The canopy of the tropical rain forest is the top layer, covering  the low-tree straturn, shrub under-storey, ground layer, litter layer, and a root layer. Stratification of vegetation provides many different habitats for animals. Hurricanes create openings for new species in tropical  and temperate forests. In northern coniferous forest, snowfall may break branches and small trees producing gaps that allow deciduous species to grow. In many  biomes, the dominant  plants depend on periodic disturbance e.g., natural wildfires are an integral component of savannas grasslands, chaparral and many coniferous forests. Human  activities have radically altered the natural patterns of periodic physical disturbances. Fires are controlled for the sake of agriculture  land. Human have altered much of the earth’s surface, replacing original biomes with urban or agricultural ones.  Year 2010, witnessed many weather events due to change in climate. These are as follows:

·         2010 as warmest year on the record

·         Heat waves in parts of Asia, Russia and Europe

·         Pakistan flood

·         EL Nino to Nina transition