Good Essay About Environment Studies

What are the current leading indicators of climate change as well as the leading causes of global climate change?

Indicators of climate change: Rise in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, rise in the global surface temperature, rise in sea surface temperature, increase in the extreme climate events, increase in the sea surface temperature, rise in the mean global sea level are the leading indicators of climate change.
Leading causes of global climate change: Environmental scientists identified both the natural and manmade factors behind the global climate change. The leading causes that induce global climate change are: Changes in greenhouse effect in the earth`s atmosphere, change in the intensity of Sun`s energy reaching the earth, changes in the reflectivity of earth`s atmosphere and surface. (Causes of Climate Change., 2014)
When Sunlight reaches the earth`s surface, some parts of it is reflected back into space and the some parts are absorbed by the earth`s atmosphere to produce heat. Some greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like the carbon dioxide (CO₂), water vapour, methane(CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) block more heat from escaping, and heat up the earth`s atmosphere. Among other greenhouse gases CO₂ is mainly responsible for global warming, and increase in emission of CO₂ mainly due to different human activities like combustion of fossil fuels have substantially contributed to global climate change. Present atmospheric CO₂ level is unusually high and human activities add 70 million metric tons of CO₂ everyday. (Herring, D.,2014)
Changes within the Sun in its natural 11-year cycle, and changes in the shape of earth`s orbit can cause the variation in intensity of the sunlight that reaches the earth`s surface.
When sunlight reaches earth, light coloured objects and surfaces tend to reflect most sunlight, while the dark objects absorb the sunlight. Absorbed sunlight warms the earth`s land, water and atmosphere. Reflectivity is also affected by the small particles or droplets present in the atmosphere due to their tendency to absorb or reflect the sunlight. Some natural phenomenon like volcanic eruptions, melting of sea ice, as well as manmade factors like deforestation, urbanization, desertification increase the concentration of such particles in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.
Global temperatures have only increased by 2 degrees over a long period of time, which does not seem very drastic, so what scientific evidence exists that suggests negative outcomes from climate change, and what are these outcomes?

Evidences of negative outcome:

On the basis of study of the global climatic data scientists assessed the evidences that suggests negative outcome due to the climate change. The sea surface temperature has increased to 0.302°F since 1969, due to the absorption of most of the increased heat. (Climate change: How do we know, 2015) Global sea level rose about 17 cm in the last century.
Greenland`s ice sheet is melting at an accelerating rate, and climatic experiments show that between 2002 to 2006 Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometres of ice. Apart from these evidences, scientists noticed that the acidity of the surface ocean water has increased by about 30% since the beginning of the industrial revolution, numbers of intense rainfall events in U.S. is increasing, there is earlier blooming of plants in spring, pattern of bird`s migration has changed significantly, and fish species are migrating northward towards deeper and cooler waters.

Negative outcomes of climate change:

According to the scientists of Intergovernmental Panel of Climatic Change (IPCC) the impact of climatic change on individual regions will vary, but, due to the warmer atmospheric conditions there will be an increase in overall evaporation and precipitation, and some regions will be increasingly wetter, whereas some regions will be dryer, stronger greenhouse effect will warm the ocean, melt the glaciers, and contribute to further rise in sea level. (A blanket around the Earth, 2015)
As an effect of warmer temperatures, heavy rains, sea level rise, severe droughts some varieties of pathogens will spread around the world. Cholera outbreaks will increase, warmer temperature of water will induce faster growth of mosquito larvae to increase the cases of malaria and dengue, and it has been found that over last decade tick-borne Lyme disease is also increasing. (Lippman, D., 2014) So, although the increase in global temperature does not seem very drastic but, slowly the impact of the outcomes of climate change are likely to affect every individual to the entire global ecology.

Reference:

A blanket around the Earth. (2015, April 2). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/
Causes of Climate Change. (2014, March 19). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html.
Climate change: How do we know? (2015, April 2). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
Herring, D. (2014, January 23). Global Warming Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/global-warming-frequently-asked-questions#hide7.
Lippman, D. (2014, February 18). How the Spreading Symptoms of Climate Change Can be Deadly. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-spreading-symptoms-of-climate-change-can-be-deadly/.