Global Climate Change Climate change is a changing problem that with time seems to not be improving no matter what measures we take as a society to make it better. Climate is ever-changing and as time passes it seems to worsen. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, the current warming trend is most likely human brought and has been so for about the past 1,300 years . There is compelling evidence that proves the rapid climate change. The rise in the sea level rose about 17 centimeters in the last century. Sea level rises because of two reasons: the melting ice added to the water and the expansion of sea water as it warms. Because of the burning of fossil fuels and other human and natural activities, the gases …show more content…
Those three are thermal expansion, melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, and ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica. Thermal expansions occur when the water is heated up, it expands. The rise in seal level is mostly due to the warmer oceans. Glaciers and polar ice caps melt a little each summer, but due to the increase in the temperatures caused by global warming it has lead to “greater-than-average summer melting” as well as little to no snowfall. The ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica have melted at an accelerated pace because of the increase heat. There are consequences that happen when there is a rapid rise in sea levels, where even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. When large storms hit, higher sea levels mean bigger, much powerful storms. Hundreds of people live in areas that are vulnerable to flooding and because of the higher sea levels, it would force them to leave their homes and …show more content…
“Most of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean.” As carbon dioxide increases in the ocean, the “ocean’s pH decreases and become more acidic.” Ocean acidification blocks coral reefs from absorbing the calcium carbonate that they need to maintain their “skeletons” and without it, the coral reefs will eventually dissolve. Ocean acidification affects far more than just the coral reefs. “Snails, clams, and urchins make calcium carbonate shells and ocean acidification negatively impacts those organisms.” The acidification makes it hard for organisms to absorb the calcium carbonate that they need to be able to build their shells to protect themselves. Continuing to produce the current carbon dioxide at the rate that we are now, we can expect that the atmospheric carbon dioxide will be high enough to “lower the ocean surface pH to 7.8” . Future productions depend on how many people are on the planet, what energy sources are used, how much we use, and what technologies we create. Being able to know how much output we will have is crucial because we need to be able to lower the carbon dioxide levels that are being released in to the
For years to come there will always be a speculation on whether the climate change has really taken place or not. Many believe that large companies launched this topic in order to benefit from it in profit, as there are also those who are convinced that this are consequences that have emerged from human mistakes in understanding the environment. As humans are struggling to trust one another whether it is just a big conspiracy or not or environment changing itself, we are slowly starting to feel the effects of climate change. Because of the gasses (CO2) that are in the air, atmosphere is getting warmer, thereby triggering the Greenhouse effect. Almost 70% of emitted gasses in air are CO2, which leads us to believe that this is the main cause of Global Warming. Since it is billions and billions of metric tons per year that are being released in air, many scientists conclude that temperature will most likely be more higher in twenty years from now, than it was in near past.
The increase in ocean temperatures are causing the reef to die out; reefs structures don’t have the ability to keep up pace with the ever so changing climate 4. Rigel suggests that coral reefs will eventually die out from the erosion of the warm ocean4. The increase in climate change is leading to ocean acidification. Much of the gases that enter our air from pollution also dissolves into the ocean. With this occurring, corals cannot absorb the calcium they need to maintain their skeletons. The stony skeletons that support coral reefs will dissolve. If nothing is done to stop so much carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere, this will increase and more and more coral reefs will be destroyed and die
Raven, J., Caldeira, K., Elderfield, H., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Liss, P., Riebesell, U., ... & Watson, A. (2005). Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Royal Society
Even though the study of the deterioration of pteropods in high acidity water may seem unimportant in the grand scheme of the ocean, it is crucial to start somewhere. In this case the pteropods happen to be one of the most obvious examples of marine life that will be influenced by the ocean acidification. It is without a doubt clear that ocean acidification is an up and coming problem that will change the chemistry of the ocean and not only the effect the ocean’s ecosystem and creatures, but most likely the rest of the environment as well. Even though there is copious amounts of research available concerning ocean acidification, it is unclear whether model predictions will come to fruition in the future, or if actual results will completely differ from projections. Currently, the only clear path to try to delay the progression of ocean acidification is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions exponentially. The chart below (Fig. 5) gives a concise and detailed account of what is happening, what will happen and what needs to happen if ocean acidification is going to be
Ocean Acidification is the act of CO2 dissolving into seawater, decreasing its alkalinity and increasing it's hydrogen ion concentration; making organisms sensitive to shifts in the water. Anything from temperature change to toxic waste inflicts some sort of change upon the ocean and the creatures it engulfs. As most people are aware, humans are altering the earth’s climate through producing greenhouse gas that is blanketing our atmosph...
The ocean has always absorbed CO2 from the air. An article presented in Nature August 2012 enlightens that about half of all CO2 generated by human is absorbed by the ocean. This chemical reaction is occurring naturally and the rate at which carbon is being absorbed, the concentration of carbonic acid is increasing. This has overwhelming concerns, particularly for shelled creatures. Animals such as corals, crabs, and calms need calcium carbonate to build their shells. Calcium Carbonate is dissolved by carbonic acid and consequently these animals are incapable of maintaining casings of calcium. Bio geosciences in 2010, suggested that carbon confiscation by oceans and land is lessening, which has the potential to further worsen the impact of carbon emissions.
Over the last century, [it is evident that] the current levels are beginning to impact organisms that make their shells out of the minerals aragonite and calcite…” (Bralower) “Coral reef[s] are highly vulnerable to ocean acidific...
The coral reefs of the world are of vast importance because they host 25% of all marine life on the planet. Now that corals have been briefly described, we can see why the effects of climate change damage coral reef systems. Ocean acidification is a result of climate change. Acidification is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in our oceans and leads to a decrease in the pH levels of seawater. This pH decrease reduces the ability of corals to make their hard skeletons.
The earth is warming rapidly and there are changes affecting everyone. The scientists have a large amount of data proving that global warming is very prevalent, and is creating many problems. Many tests have been done to calculate the levels of carbon dioxide and the temperature of the earth from the past years. Global warming is causing many things to rise. The temperature is rising due to the greenhouse gases trapping the light and keeping it in the atmosphere. The levels of carbon dioxide are rising because of different human activities. These different activities consist of the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. There are also natural causes that emit carbon dioxide, but the amount in the atmosphere due to volcanoes and other natural processes is low compared to human activities. Carbon dioxide levels have been tested from years past through bubbles in the ice and show that the CO2 in the atmosphere increased sharply in the past decade. The sea level is also rising. With the temperature increase ice is melting in very large amounts. Different landmasses such as Greenland and Antarctica are mainly composed of ice, and are decreasing in size more rapidly than expected. While there is a rise in different levels there is also a decrease a certain things. The glaciers are retreating and becoming diminutive. This decline is causing a loss of fresh water sources. Many water distributers source for water is from glaciers, and now their source has almost disappeared. The snow on the peaks of mountains through spring and summer has lessened and is almost vanished. Both of these declines are due to the rising global temperature. Larger and stronger storms have occurred. This change is because the waters are warmer, and there is m...
Most of the past century’s warming is due to humans releasing heat-trapping gases, also known as greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere. One of the major emitted greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide (CO2) and it has considerably increased since the industrial revolution began. Greenhouse gases can be released in a variety of ways, such as the burning of fossil fuels, gasoline, or deforestation. Rising carbon dioxide has driven an increase in the ocean’s temperature which can lead to many different factors that place a stress on coral reefs, such as coral bleaching, sea level rise, or ocean acidification. Coral reef ecosystems are one of the most sensitive ecosystems to climate change (“United States Coral Reef Task Force”, 1999). Zooxanthellae is a symbiotic algae that lives in the coral’s tissue and when water temperatures get too hot, the algae begin to photosynthesize at a faster rate. The byproducts from this process put a strain on the corals. Thereby, the corals drive out the algae and begin to turn white because the algae are the reason why corals have color. This is called coral “bleaching” (Shazer, Liz). In addition, warmer waters slow down the process of coral calcification. Once carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs it and produces carbonic acid by combining it with water.
Our world is always changing, so is our climate. Some changes are apparent, others not so much. Climate change is an important issue of concern in the twenty-first century. Environment, if it changes at all, evolves so slowly that the difference cannot be seen in a human lifetime (Wearth, 2014). Mostly all scientists predicted that it would take thousands of years for the planet to warm up due to emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels called greenhouse gases. But in the past 200 years, things began to change. The rate and the amount of warming that is happening on this planet are unprecedented. Wearth says, “People did not grasp the prodigious fact that both population and industrialization were exploding in a pattern of exponential
Climate change is a long-term change in regional or global climate patterns. From the mid twentieth century to now, it has mostly been about a significant increase in average global temperatures. Climate change is a major issue in the world today, and a lot of people feel very differently about the cause of it. The common argument about it is whether climate change is a natural occurrence or if the recent increase in temperatures is because of humans. Climate change is a natural cycle in the Earth’s weather. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, there were still weather cycles on Earth that were as hot or hotter than what it is now. In fact, Earth’s weather now, is on pace with the previous weather patterns in history. Human emitted
patterns, the eventual destruction of ecosystems, and the rapid rising of sea levels, each event
Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon that is being experienced globally in various forms, such as temperature rise. Sea level rise, droughts, floods, hurricanes, landslides, etc. According to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC project, even with immediate implementation of mitigation strategies, global climate change will continue for decades. Climate change is inflicting serious consequences on human wellbeing and will continue to inflict damage in the future. It is estimated that global temperature will rise by 1.8 oC - 4.0 oC by the end of the 21st century (Izaurraade, 2009).
Even if the reason of climate change may be the natural cycles, we humans are the major determinant to it. The huge amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is causing the climate change and this amount is rising day by day, as a result of our actions. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, generally absorb and emit the heat in the atmosphere to keep the Earth’s climate habitable. However, as we continue to burn fossil fuels, this habitable Earth’s temperature will blow up, and as a result, some species will die out due to various problems which are caused by climate change. According to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the most obvious consequence of climate change is the rising sea levels, which will cause some seashore habitats to become unavailable to live to its species.