CONTENTS

WHAT IS CLIMATE?WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

IS CLIMATE CHANGE REAL?

IS EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGING?

CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

GREENHOUSE GASES

Increasing Greenhouse Gases Trap More Heat

HUMAN ACTIVITY INFLUENCE

CARBON CYCLE & CARBON DIOXIDE

PRESENT CARBON CYCLE

WORLDWIDE CARBON EMISSION

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION

WHAT IF NO GREENHOUSE GASES

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING

GLOBAL WARMING LEADS TO:

EARTH’S TEMPERATURE – 1

EARTH’S TEMPERATURE – 2

HOW HOT CAN IT GET?

FLOODS V/S DROUGHTS

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE CHANGE : THE DEBATE

SOLUTIONSINDIVIDUAL ACTIONS

CONTENTS

FACTS ABOUT WATER - 1

FACTS ABOUT WATER – 2

WHAT IS WATER CRISIS?

SAFE DRINKING WATER IS SCARCE

PRECIPITATION PATTEERNS WILL CHANGE

EFFECTS OF FLODDING

EFFECTS OF DROUGHTS

DEMAND & USAGE

4 KILLER FACTS

CASE STUDYWATER SCARCITY IN INDIA WATER

STATES HIT BY WATER SCARCITY(INDIA)

FACTS ABOUT WATER SCARCITY

REFERENCES

WHAT IS CLIMATE?

Climate is the statistics (usually, mean or variability) of

weather, in a given region over a long period of time

(usually 30 years).

temperature

humidity

atmospheric pressure

wind

precipitation

atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables

It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

Climate change is a change in the usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how

much rain a place usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a place's usual temperature for a

month or season.

Climate change is also a change in Earth's climate. This could be a change

in Earth's usual temperature. Or it could be a change in where rain and

snow usually fall on Earth.

Biotic factors

Transpiration

Respiration

PhotosynthesisDigestion

Decomposition

FACTORS

RESPONSIBLE FOR

CLIMATIC CHANGES

Latitude AltitudeOcean

CurrentsTopography

Solar Radiation

EvaporationOrbital

VariationsVolcanic Activity

ABIOTIC

FACTORS

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLIMATIC CHANGES

IS CLIMATE CHANGE REAL?

There is broad-based agreement

within the scientific community

that climate change is real.

Conquer that climate change is indeed

occurring and is almost certainly due to human

activity.

The U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency

the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

IS EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGING?

Earth's climate is always changing.

• There have been times when Earth's climate has been warmer than it is now. There have been times when it has been cooler

• These times can last thousands or millions of years.

• People who study Earth see that Earth's climate is getting warmer. Earth's temperature has gone up about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. This may not seem like much. But small changes in Earth's temperature can have big effects.

•.

Some effects are already happening.

• Warming of Earth's climate has caused some snow and ice to melt.

• The warming also has caused oceans to rise. And it has changed the timing of when certain plants grow

CAUSES OF CLIMATE

CHANGEMost scientists say that humans can change climate too. People drive cars. People heat and cool their houses. People cook food. All those things take energy. One way we get energy is by burning coal, oil and gas. Burning these things puts gases into the air. The gases cause the air to heat up. This can change the climate of a place. It also can change Earth's climate.

Over the past 150 years, the world’s industrialized nations have changed the balance of the carbon cycle by burning huge amounts of fossil fuels which emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—primarily carbon dioxide. (concentrated carbon such as coal, oil and gas)

Other human activities, such as agriculture and deforestation, also contribute to the proliferation of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

the atmospheric concentration of CO2 did not rise above 300 parts per million between the advent of human civilization roughly 10,000 years ago and 1900. Today it is at about 400 ppm, a level not reached in more than 400,000 years.

Many things can cause climate to change all on its own. Earth's distance from the sun can change. The sun can send out more or less energy. Oceans can change. When a volcano erupts, it can change our climate.

Industrialized nations have also breeding vast numbers of methane-producing livestock and cutting down the forests that naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

GREEN HOUSE GASES

Greenhouse gases include carbon-based gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

They’re vital in the Earth’s atmosphere in certain quantities because they help trap and retain some of the sun’s heat (the ‘greenhouse effect’).

This makes life as we know it possible on Earth – without it the world would be mostly frozen. But too much is dangerous, too.

GREENHOUSE GASES

Nitrous oxide

Water

Carbon dioxideMethane

Sulfur hexafluoride

“GREENHOUSE EFFECT” Increasing greenhouse gases trap more

heat

Human activity

influence

•The carbon cycle is the natural process by which carbon gases are emitted and absorbed across the globe.

•This determines the overall levels of carbon gases in the atmosphere.

CARBON CYCLE

•Carbon dioxide is a natural gas.

• It’s essential for all life on Earth.

• It’s absorbed by plants as they grow, and emitted by all life forms when they respire and when they die (or when they’re burned as fuel).

• Other than water vapor, it’s the most common greenhouse gas

CARBON DIOXIDE

PRESENT CARBON CYCLE

SPEED OF EXCHANGE PROCESS

Very fast (less than 1 year)

Fast (1 to 10 years)

Slow (10 to 100 years)

Very slow (more than 100

years)

Storage and flux of carbon(in billions of tones)

Ca

rbo

n (

10

9m

etr

ic t

on

s)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Liquid fuelTotal

Gas fuelSolid fuel

1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

Year

THIS IMAGE SHOWS THE CHANGE IN PH OF THE OCEANS OVER THE PAST 300 YEARS. THE

BRIGHTER THE COLOR, THE MORE THE DECREASE IN PH

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION

With no greenhouse gases at all in its atmosphere,

scientists estimate that Earth’s average atmospheric temperature would be about

-18° C, or about 0°F

WHAT IF NO GREENHOUSE

GASES?

Global Warming refers to average

increase in the earth’s temperature due

to increase in pollution which results in

greenhouse effect which in turn leads to

climate change.

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?

:

GLOBAL WARMING LEADS TO

rise in the sea level

due to melting of glaciers

shrinkage of forests

changes in the rainfall

pattern

wide range of impacts on plants

and humans.

Radiation

Cooling

Solar

Energy

Sun

Radiation

Cooling

Solar

Energy

Sun

HOW HOT CAN IT GET?

RISE OF 2°C

• A rise of just 2°c would mean:

• severe storms and floods in some countries, droughts in many more

• seas become more acidic, coral and krill die, food chains are destroyed

• little or no Arctic sea ice in summer – not just bad news for polar bears, it also means that the global climate warms faster (as there’s less polar ice to deflect sunlight)

BEYOND 2°C

• Scientists predict possible rises of up to 6°C this century if we don’t drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It almost doesn’t bear thinking about what this would mean:

• Rainforests dying.

• Increased melting of the ancient ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.

• Dramatic sea level rises.

• And people and animals suffering along the way.

In the last century, our planet’s

average temperature has increased by

approximately 1°C.

Just 1°C? This seems very small. So

why is global warming such a big problem?

To answer your question, let’s compare the earth to the human body. What will happen if

your body temperature increases by even a few degrees?

I will fall sick.

Exactly! Similarly, if the temperature of the Earth increases by even a few

degrees the result is Climate Change.

FLOODS V/S DROUGHTS

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?

Even small increases in

Earth’s temperature

caused by climate change can have severe

effects.

The earth’s average

temperature has gone up

1.4° F over the past century

and is expected to rise as much as 11.5° F over

the next.

That might not seem like a lot, but the average

temperature during the last

Ice Age was about 4º F lower than it is today.

Scientific research shows that the climate

- that is, the average

temperature of the planet's surface - has

risen by 0.89 °C from 1901 to

2012.

Compared with climate change

patterns throughout

Earth's history, the rate of

temperature rise since the

Industrial Revolution is

extremely high.

RAINFAL

L

There have been observed changes in precipitation, but not all areas have data over long periods.

Rainfall has increased in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century.

There are also changes between seasons in different regions.

For example, the UK's summer rainfall is decreasing on average, while winter rainfall is increasing.

There is also evidence that heavy rainfall events have become more intensive, especially over North America

Rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps (again, caused by climate change) contribute to greater storm damage.

warming ocean temperatures are associated with stronger and more frequent storms.

additional rainfall, particularly during severe weather events leads to flooding and other damage.

an increase in the incidence and severity of wildfires threatens habitats, homes, and lives.

heat waves contribute to human deaths and other consequences.

Since 1900, sea levels have risen by about 10 cm around the UK and about 19 cm globally, on average. The rate of sea-level rise has increased in recent decades.

EFFECTS ON SEA LEVELS

Retreating glaciers

• Glaciers all over the world - in the Alps, Rockies, Andes, Himalayas, Africa and Alaska - are melting and the rate of shrinkage has increased in recent decades.

Sea ice

• Arctic sea-ice has been declining since the late 1970s, reducing by about 4%, or 0.6 million square kilometers (an area about the size of Madagascar) per decade.

• At the same time Antarctic sea-ice has increased, but at a slower rate of about 1.5% per decade.

Ice sheets

• The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which between them store the majority of the world's fresh water, are both shrinking at an accelerating rate.

RETREATING GLACIERS, SEA ICE & ICE SHEETS

CLIMATE CHANGE: THE DEBATE

While consensus among nearly all scientists, scientific organizations, and governments is that climate

change is happening and is caused by human activity, a small minority of voices questions the validity of such assertions and prefers to cast doubt on the preponderance of evidence.

Climate change deniers often claim that recent changes attributed to

human activity can be seen as part of the natural variations in Earth’s

climate and temperature, and that it is difficult or impossible to establish a

direct connection between climate change and any single weather event,

such as a hurricane.

While the latter is generally true, decades of data and analysis support

the reality of climate change—and the human factor in this process.

In any case, economists agree that acting to reduce fossil fuel emissions

would be far less expensive than dealing with the consequences of not

doing so.

SOLUTIONSProduce more fuel-efficient

vehicles

Reduce vehicle useImprove energy-

efficiency in buildings Develop carbon

capture and storage processes

Triple nuclear power

Increase solar power

Decrease deforestation/plant

forests

INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS

Use mass transit, bike, walk, roller

skate

Tune up your

furnaceUnplug

appliances or plug into a

power strip and switch it off

Buy water-saving appliances and

toilets; installing low-flow shower

heads.

Caulk, weatherstrip, insulate, and replace old windows

Buy products with a U.S. EPA

Energy Star label

TO PUT IT ANOTHER

WAY……..

WHAT IS WATER CRISIS?

Simply put, water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or lack

of access to safe water (quality).

It's hard for most of us to imagine that clean, safe water is not

something that can be taken for granted.

But, in the developing world, finding a reliable source of safe water is often time-

consuming and expensive. This is known as economic scarcity. Water can be found...it simply requires more resources to do it.

In other areas, the lack of water is a more profound problem. There simply

isn't enough. That is known as physical scarcity.

The problem of water scarcity is a growing

one.

As more people put ever-increasing demands on limited supplies, the cost

and effort to build or even maintain access to water will increase.

And water's importance to political and social stability will only grow

with the crisis

Clean, safe drinking water

is scarce.

Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing

world don't have access to

it.

Yet, wetake it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic

bottles.

Water is the foundation of life. And still

today, all around the

world, far too many people spend their entire day

searching for it.

In places like sub-Saharan

Africa, time lost gathering water and suffering from water-

borne diseases is limiting

people's true potential,

especially women and

girls.

Education is lost to

sickness. Economic

development is lost while

people merely try to survive. But it doesn't

have to be like this. It's

needless suffering.

SAFE DRINKING WATER IS

SCARCE

THERE MAY BE MORE INTENSE RAINFALL ON RAINY DAYS and more dry days in a year

PRECIPITATION PATTERNS WILL CHANGE

Demand and Usage

Industrial

•Water is both an important input.

Agricultural

•90% of total water resources used.

Domestic

•30% of the rural population lack access to drinking water.

These ecosystems are rich in

biodiversity. The mangroves alone

house marine turtles, freshwater

dolphins and crocodiles.

People too will be affected. More than

a million people depend on the mangroves for

natural resources such as honey, fish

and wood.

People living on the islands will have no home and will have

to take refuge elsewhere.

By 2100, the sea level will have risen

by a meter.

4 KILLER FACTS

To make matters worse, Bangladesh is an extremely densely populated country.

This will reduce the economic activity in Bangladesh and, more importantly, displace people from their homes.

66% of the people of Bangladesh work in farms, however, low-lying farmland can be flooded by an increase in sea levels.

An increase in sea level will make diseases such as malaria (the mosquitoes that spread malaria lay eggs in watery areas) and cholera (which can spread by unclean water and ill-prepared food)

Even by a half meter increase in sea level, 10% of the land in Bangladesh will be lost.

One of the countries worst affected by an increase in sea levels is Bangladesh.

CASE STUDY: HOW WILL AN INCREASE IN SEA LEVELS AFFECT BANGLADESH?

INDIA’S DEMAND FOR

WATER IS GROWING AT

AN ALARMING RATE.

WATER SCARCITY IN INDIA

.

India is facing a

water crisis that

has implications

not only for its

1.1 billion people,

but for the entire

globe.

WATER

1 IN 10 PEOPLE LACK

ACCESS TO SAFE WATER

1 IN 3 PEOPLE LACK

ACCESS TO A TOILET

WOMEN AND CHILDREN SPEND

125 MILLION HOURS EACH DAY

COLLECTING WATER

EVERY 90 SECONDS A CHILD

DIES FROM A WATER-RELATED

DISEASE

EVERY $1 INVESTED IN WATER

AND SANITATION PROVIDES A

$4 ECONOMIC RETURN

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-climate-change-k4.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

http://www.takepart.com/flashcards/what-is-climate-change

http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/tackling_climate_change/climate_change_explained/

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide/climate-change

http://www.germanwatch.org/klak/fb-ms-e.htm

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/cholera/en/

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/132/Mangroves.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0420_040420_earthday.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0323_060323_global_warming.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/forum/climate-change/3364-sea-level-rise-inundation-coastal-india.html

http://garamut.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/rainforest-politics-the-carbon-credit-trade-in-png-an-essential-introduction/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypergurl/514534462/

REFERENCE

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