Module 13: Climate Change, Impacts and Recommendations

• Weather - short-term (minutes to days) atmospheric conditions at a certain place and time
• Climate - long-term (months to years) average of weather conditions in a particular region
• What are the three variables of climate?

  Temperature, precipitation, and wind.
• Climate change - changes in Earth’s climate patterns such as in temperature, precipitation that last for an extended period (decades or longer)
• Global Warming - long-term increase in Earth’s average surface temperature due to human activities, primarily the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
• Ice Age - long-term lowering of the Earth’s global temperatures leading to significantly expanding ice on polar caps and covering vast areas of land
• What are the five significant ice ages throughout the Earth's history?

  Huronian (Oldest and longest lasting), Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Karoo, Quaternary (most recent)
• What are the six natural causes of climate change?

  Volcanic activity, Solar Variability, Orbital Variations, El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Plate Tectonics and Greenhouse effect
• Volcanic activity - Emission of harmful gasses such as Carbon dioxide and Sulfur dioxide and emission of aerosols can lead to global cooling at lower latitudes
• Sunspots - intense magnetic field weakens flow of gasses suppresses heat -> heat flows to surrounding areas
• More sunspots means more radiation emitted which equates to warmer global climate while less sunspots means less radiation emitted which equates to cooler global climate
• Eccentricity - shape of the earth’ s orbit around the sun (sphere or elliptical)
• Axial tilt - - inclination of the earth’ s axis
• Precession - wobbling of the earth on its axis
• Milankovitch Cycles - the cycles that make up this are from factors of eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession
• Aphelion - the greatest distance between a planet or other body and the Sun.
• Perihelion - The point in the orbit of a planet that is closest to the sun.
• El Nino - A warm water current that affects the climate of the Pacific Ocean.
• La Nina - the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific
• Snowball Earth - silicate weathering resulted in ice-covered globe
• Southeast Asian Monsoon - disappearance of Paratethys
• East African Rift - uplift of plateaus, closing of Paratethys
• Greenhouse effect - The process by which the earth's atmosphere traps heat from the sun.
• What is the main anthropogenic cause of climate change?

  Enhanced Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Deforestation - intentional clearing and thinning of trees and forests either for capital resources or for more vacant land area
• What is the most common CFC that is also considered a very common refrigerant?

  Dichlorodifluoromethane
• What specific type of radiation is blocked by the ozone layer?

  Ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation
• What species are involved primarily with the production of methane gas?

  Ruminants

  Methanogens
• Air Pollution - Contamination of the environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere
• What human activity is the major cause of air pollution?

  Burning of fossil fuels
• What are the six identified pollutants from the Environmental Protection Agency?

  Carbon monoxide

  Lead

  Nitrogen Oxides

  Ground-level ozone

  Particle pollution

  Sulfur Oxides
• Rising Sea Levels - main cause is combination of melted water + expansion of seawater as it warms
• Melting Polar Ice Caps - Caused by rising average temperatures from release of greenhouse gases from human activities
• Damaged Corals - marked by coral bleaching where there is ocean acidification stemming from the rising volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Changing Snow Patterns - accelerated melting of glaciers and reduced snowball equals shortening the winter season globally and melting of snow in spring to occur sooner.
• Permafrost - permanently frozen soil which stores large amounts of carbon and methane
• Thawed permafrost - affects structural integrity of roads, buildings and pipelines
• Inundation - The flooding of land by water from a river or the sea.
• Republic Act 9729 - Established the Climate Change Commission (CCC) that spearheads the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) strategy, created from following the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (NFSCC)
• The Climate Change Commission - Since 2009 and its role as the policy-making body, its mission statement is to take the lead in the development and mainstreaming of evidence-based climate adaptation and mitigation policies through optimum coordination among key stakeholders towards achieving a climate-resilient and climatesmart Philippines with healthy, safe, prosperous, and self-reliant communities”