Climate change
According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "Climate Change (CC) refers to change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer."
According to NASA, "CC refers to broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s atmosphere".
Evidence of CC
Since the late 1800s, the planet's average surface temperature has climbed by around 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit (1.18 degrees Celsius), owing mostly to rising carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities.
Shrinking ice sheets
Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice a year between 1993 and 2019, according to NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.
Glacial retreat
Glacial retreat along the major mountain ranges Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.Sea level rise
In the last century, the global sea level risen by around 8 inches (20 centimeters).
Ocean acidification
The acidity of surface ocean waters has grown by around 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In recent decades, the ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).
Causes of CC
In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.
Major gases for causing CC includes:
a. Water vapor
As the Earth's atmosphere warms, water vapor levels rise, but so do the chances of clouds and precipitation, making these two feedback mechanisms crucial to the greenhouse effect.
b. Carbon dioxide
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, humans have boosted CO2 levels in the atmosphere by 47%. The most important long-term "forcing" of climate change is this.
c. Methane
Methane is a lot more active greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide molecule, but it is also far less plentiful in the atmosphere produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock.
d. Nitrous oxide
Soil cultivation activities, particularly the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning, all produce a significant amount of this strong greenhouse gas.
e. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are a type of fluorocarbon that (CFCs). Synthetic substances entirely of industrial origin utilized in a variety of uses, but now mostly restricted in manufacturing and release to the atmosphere due to their ability to contribute to ozone layer damage by international agreement.
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