Impacts of Changing Climate


Scientific evidence paints a clear picture that climate change is happening and caused by human activity which will is really serious and create damaging effect in decades. Greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, cars and other man made sources are the primary causes. These emissions include the carbon dioxide which has reached a concentration level in our atmosphere that the Earth’s surface hasn’t seen for many years.  These greenhouse gases are like a blanket that traps the sun’s warmth near the Earth’s surface that affects the planet’s climate system.

The rising global temperatures threaten human health; it increases the risk of some types of extreme weather and damage ecosystems. As the oceans warm and polar ice caps melt, sea levels are rising that endangers coastal areas. These impacts are already felt today by the groups like the poor, elderly and those living in the delicate areas.


Impacts of climate change includes:


  • Sea-Level Rise. The sea level has risen due to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. The warming of seas and oceans is making coastal storms more dangerous and damaging. Scientists predict that sea levels could rise in 21st century and could even higher if the glaciers from Greenland and Antarctica continues to melt quickly.
  • Heavy Precipitation. Nowadays, heavy downpours are becoming more common in many locations that shows the effect of the climate change in the Earth’s surface.
  • Heat Waves. As the Earth warms, more areas will be at risk for hotter and extreme heat waves. Heat waves are long periods of time having above-normal temperature.
  • Ocean acidification. Much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean that makes it more acidic. It makes difficult for corals and other microorganisms to survive. It also distracts the food supply for other sea animals.
  • Threats to habitats and animals. As the temperature of Earth’s surface warmed, many plants and animals are transferring to higher elevations. Some animals have difficulty in moving or adapting to new habitats.
  • Global warming will rise the risk of drought in some regions. Warmer temperatures also upsurge the water demand and evaporation that stressing the water supplies.
  • This is the common incident that burn vast amount of forests and brushes. If it will not control, wildfires can destroy homes and will be deadly. The number of large wildfires and its length have been recently increasing.


There are two things we need to do save the climate and the Earth’s surface. First is to lessen the greenhouse gas emissions that is responsible of this phenomenon. In picking cleaner ways to power our homes, offices and cars be more efficient and less wasteful, by these we can produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Second is to prepare life in changing climate. We need to ensure the businesses, roads, buildings and all the services that they can endure the climate change which already happening in our surroundings.


Anybody can play a vital role in having a clean energy, that includes government, businesses and you. There are many things you can do to help, like turning off the lights when you leave a room to lessen the electricity use, taking showers in shorter time to reduce the water use, recycling to reduce waste and planting tree to absorb carbon dioxide.



Climate Change: Understanding It’s Effect

Researchers around the world have documented the temperature of the Earth’s surface as well as the atmosphere and oceans. Seas are warming, becoming more acidic, rising and flooding is more frequent. High temperature are increasing, glaciers and snow cover are shrinking, even the sea ice is retreating. Large wildfires occur more frequently in many places and growing seasons are longer. These are the biological events happening in our surroundings that occurs in response to climate change. These trends are all consistent and are expected to continue damaging our nature.

Evidences demonstrates that human activities, especially the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land-use change are the primary responsible for the climate changes observed from the industrial era. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased about 40% over the industrial era. This change has deepened the natural gas effect, driving a rise in global surface temperatures and widespread changes in Earth’s climate that are extraordinary in the history of modern civilization.

Greenhouse gases affect Earth’s energy balance and climate. The sun serves as the primary energy source for Earth’s climate. Some of sunlight is reflected back into space by the bright surfaces such as ice and clouds and some is absorbed by the surface and the atmosphere. Any disturbance with this balance energy will affect the climate. If all the heat energy released from the surface will direct into the space, Earth’s average temperature would be colder than today.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere composed of methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrous oxide, they make the surface much warmer as they absorb and emit heat energy in all directions keeping Earth’s atmosphere warm. Without this greenhouse effect, life will not be the same now as we evolve in our planet. By having more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere makes it more effective in preventing heat from escaping into space.

Melting iceberg

Human activities alter Earth’s energy balance and its climate through emissions of greenhouse gases for a decade and even centuries. Humans affects the climate by changing the nature of the land surfaces. They also affect the amount type of particles in the atmosphere through the emission of pollutants.

Human adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at far greater that it is removed by natural processes, that creates a long-lived reservoir of the gas in the atmosphere and oceans that is driving the climate to a warmer and warmer state. Scientists determined that when all humans and natural factors are considered, Earth’s climate balance has been altered to warming condition with the biggest contributor being upsurges in CO2.

With the increase in CO2 and other gases it makes difficult for the solar radiation to escape which may contribute in raising the overall temperature of the planet’s surface. Because of too much greenhouse effect that intensified by human activity, causes the Earth to overheat. For the next few decades, the climate changes will depend on the amount of greenhouse gases radiated into the atmosphere; how much of those are immersed by the biosphere, the ocean and other sinks; and how delicate Earth’s climate to those distractions.