Climate change is a great challenge to humans that is causing hundreds of deaths every year. There is no single threat from climate change as it is causing storms, drought, deadly heat, and devastating floods every year around the world. It is essential to be aware of climate change so that we can control the calamities in the future.
What is climate change?
Climate is the general weather conditions of a place over the years which differ based on the regions. While the regions closer to the north pole have a cold climate with heavy snowfall, the tropical regions have more humidity and heat. Climate change is the variations in weather conditions every year that is caused by both natural and human involvement. The current major cause of climate change is the increasing temperatures that is causing global warming to occur. The temperatures are predicted to grow 4-degree Celcius by the end of the 21st century.
How do we measure climate change?
The present weather conditions are monitored every day with the help of artificial satellites, meteorological stations, and ocean buoys. The palaeoclimatology data from ice cores, tree rings, ocean and lake sediments, and corals are crucial to study climate change as it can give the records of millions of years to the scientists. These records provide information about the long term changes in the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface. The scientists use these long term climate models that predict future climate trends, and they can do it with impressive accuracy.
Causes of climate change
There are a variety of natural and human articulated factors that can influence the climate system and can cause several climate conditions which can go either way.
The earth has seen climate changes from warm to cold and cold to warm throughout its life, whether or not humans were involved. Natural factors like sun’s intensity, greenhouse gas concentration, volcanic eruptions, etc. contribute to climate change. But these causes have a very low influence on the climate as they occur at a slower rate as compared to what we are experiencing today.
Humans are more involved and responsible for the constantly growing climate change. Greenhouse gas emission is the leading cause of climate change. It is the amount of these gases that have caused such a rapid change in the climate. The concentrations of carbon diode, nitrous oxide, and methane have increased at significant levels due to the emissions from the industries.
These changes in climate change create a lot of problems which are not suitable for humans in the coming future. The storms, drought, wildfire, acidic oceans, and rising sea levels are becoming more and more intense with time. Natural disasters are devastating results of climate change that is causing loss of lives, property, and resources. The pollution is also increasing with greenhouse emissions, making the air and water difficult to consume. It is creating several health risks as the body is incapable of dealing with such extreme effects of climate change.