scientists are all over the world anxious to learn more about how Rising average temperatures around the world are affecting the weather. they say it’s becoming more and more likely that climate change is making weather events more intense, more frequent, or longer.
It is Temperature increase in heat waves and Adding a certain percentage of precipitation to intense storms. It can also cause weather events to occur outside of times or locations where they typically occurred in the past.
But what causes climate change? Why are global temperatures rising? and Global warming is to blame for wild weather events? Here is some important information:
What does climate change mean?
The weather is what you see outside the window. Climate is what occurs in an area over years or decades. Climate change is the difference between long-term trends in air, water and sea temperatures and longer-term weather patterns.
Monitoring stations around the world are contributing to a growing trove of information showing how temperature and precipitation are changing. Some have decades of measurements, while others have more than a century of data. In Japan they have recorded the start the cherry tree is blooming for more than 1,200 years.
Scientists use these historical records to study increases in average global temperatures. For example, records show how In maple trees, the sap rises earlier or when wildfire seasons start earlier. They know that warmer temperatures delay ice formation on the Great Lakes as warmer water temperatures heat up Lake Effect Snow.
DEFINITIONS:Is climate change the same as global warming?
EFFECTS:How climate change disrupts our daily lives and fuels disasters.
What is the main cause of climate change?
the greatest influence on the changing climate of the planet is the release of emissions into the atmosphere from the burning of oil, gas and coal to move people and goods from place to place and to generate energy, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
This is how it works:
- Carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring gases have always existed in the atmosphere and keeps the world warm the way a greenhouse keeps tropical plants alive in winter. Scientists see this “greenhouse effect” in ice cores, sediments and tree rings.
- Modern measurements show that CO2 emissions are increasing. Since 1958, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has increased from 316 parts per million to 417 parts per million.
- Measured in such small amounts, the change may seem tiny. However, as CO2 has increased by more than 30 percent, say NASA and others the changes have an outsized impact on global average temperatures.
- National and international studies show how Excess carbon dioxide captures excess energy and causes the planet to get hotter faster.
If CO2 doubles above the pre-industrial benchmark, the design of the latest national climate footprint said global temperatures could rise by 4.5 to 7.2 degrees, causing deadly heat waves, crop damage and other cascading effects around the world.
What are other causes of climate change?
- Manufacturing, mining and deforestation of forests.
- The release of methane and nitrous oxide also contributes to the greenhouse effect.
- The El Niño Southern Oscillation, a pattern of changing water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, can alter weather patterns.
- Volcanic eruptions can produce carbon dioxide emissions that warm the earth, but also aerosol particles that have a cooling effect.
How to stop climate change
So what can be done to prevent the predicted dire consequences if emissions and temperatures continue to rise?
Scientists from the United Nations and governments around the world say fossil fuel emissions must be cut drastically to avoid “catastrophic consequences” soon. To keep the increase in average global temperatures at 2.7 degrees above what they were at the end of the 19th century, the world needs to achieve “net-zero” CO2 emissions by 2050, according to the latest climate balance.
The world cannot reduce all emissions and achieve net-zero emissions requires the removal of carbon dioxide from the air by natural and mechanical means, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported. This includes actions such as preserving and protecting forests and wetlands, which store carbon, and developing technologies that can effectively remove carbon from the air.
Other methods called for by the UN and others include a less carbon-intensive lifestyle and increased use of renewable energy sources.
Even if the world achieves net-zero emissions, the national climate assessment says it will be impossible to prevent some of the warming already in progress.
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Dinah Voyle’s Pulver covers climate and environmental issues for USA TODAY. She can be reached at dpulver@gannett.com or @dinahvp on Twitter.
