CLIMATE CHANGE

• Climate change


  The range of global phenomena caused by burning fossil fuels that add heat trapping gases to the Earth's Atmosphere
• Natural disasters caused by climate change

  • Hurricanes and Typhoons
  • Heatwaves
  • Wildfires
  • Flooding
  • Droughts
  • Melting glaciers and ice caps
• Warmer ocean temperatures


  Can fuel the intensity of hurricanes and typhoons
• Climate change


  Can lead to more frequent and intense heatwaves
• Higher temperatures, prolonged droughts, and changes in precipitation patterns

  Can contribute to an increased risk of wildfires
• Changes in precipitation patterns


  Can lead to more intense rainfall events and flooding
• Rising sea levels


  Increase the risk of coastal flooding, especially during storms
• Climate change


  Can alter precipitation patterns, leading to more frequent or severe droughts in some regions
• Melting of glaciers and ice caps due to rising temperatures


  Contributes to sea level rise
• Weather


  Atmospheric conditions present in a particular place at a specific time, including temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure
• Climate


  Long-term atmospheric conditions like temperature, precipitation, and wind patterns in a specific region or globally
• Global warming


  The long-term rise in the average surface temperature of the Earth due to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
• Air pollution


  The contamination of the air by harmful gases, dust, and smoke that can harm the health of humans, animals, and plants, as well as damage buildings and the environment
• Driving forces of climate change

  • Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes
  • Natural factors, such as volcanic eruptions and solar radiation
• Greenhouse effect


  A natural process where certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat from the Sun, keeping our planet warm enough to sustain life
• Human activities have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases, leading to enhanced warming and climate change
• Acid rain


  Forms when pollutants containing sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), primarily emitted from burning fossil fuels, react with water vapor, oxygen, and other chemicals in the atmosphere
• Use of fossil fuels


  Greatly contributes to global warming and climate change
• The global economy consumes energy at a tremendous rate, especially with the high demand of energy in both developed and developing countries
• Effects of climate change

  Expected to have a major influence on the world's energy output, with a decline in the amount of power produced by thermoelectric and hydroelectric facilities
• What we can do

  • Save energy
  • Expand access to clean technologies
  • Modernize infrastructure
  • Ensure energy equity
  • Make infrastructure local
• Majority of human activities contribute to global warming, including fossil fuel combustion (49%), agriculture (13%), deforestation (14%), and industrial processes (24%)
• Rise in global temperature

  In the last 35 years, Earth experienced its warmest years, 8 out of 12 months, from January to September with the exception of June, were noted to have the highest temperatures
• Rise in ocean temperature

  With the changes in atmospheric circulations near the equatorial Pacific, warm spell and droughts in nearby countries intensify
• El Niño


  As the average global temperature rises, the ocean temperature also rises, affecting marine and biodiversity
• Melting of ice sheets

  Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have decreased in mass, contributing to sea level rise
• Glacial retreat


  With the increasing temperature, the glaciers in the Himalayas, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa are melting at an alarming rate
• Decreasing snow cover


  Satellite images reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has greatly decreased in the past five decades, endangering the biodiversity in these areas
• Rise in sea level

  The melting of ice sheets, snow covers, and polar caps contributed to the rise of sea level
• Environmental awareness


  An integral part of the movement's success, by spreading awareness that the physical environment is fragile and indispensable, we can begin fixing the issues that threaten it
• The natural environment is on the brink of destruction, and humanity is to blame. People's exploitation of raw materials has caused environmental degradation
• Sustainable development


  Development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
• Concept of sustainable development


  An approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and economic limitations we face as a society
• Effects of environmental degradation

  • Increased poverty
  • Overcrowding
  • Famine
  • Weather extremes
  • Species loss
  • Acute and chronic medical illnesses
  • War and human rights abuses
  • Increasingly unstable global situation that portends Malthusian chaos and disaster