6.7C Enhanced greenhouse effect

• Climate Change:

  • There is clear evidence that human activity is causing the enhanced greenhouse effectwhich is leading to climate changes
  • Climate change may increase the frequency of drought due as a result of shifting climate belts, which will have an impact of the role of forests as carbon stores
• There are around 30 different climate zones which can be simplified as:

  • Equatorial
  • Tropical
  • Temperate
  • Polar
  • These climate zones are not static and the increasing of earth’s temperatures could lead to 5% of the Earth’s land area shifting to a new climate zone
  • There is already evidence of the expansion of subtropical deserts and poleward movement of stormy wet weather in mid-latitudes.
• The Amazon's Changing Climate

  • The Amazon acts as a global and regional regulator, pumping 20 billion metric tonnes of water into the atmosphere every day
  • Since 1990, a more extreme cycle of drought and flood has developed in Amazonia, which can be linked to shifts in the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
• The Amazons changing climate:

  • Rainfall has noticeably decreased downwind of deforested areas leading to São Paulo suffering a water crisis
  • The Amazon rainforest which is already affected by deforestation is now being hugely impacted by droughts in 2005 and 2010