Effects of Climate Changes - Essay Example

Effects of climate changes Effects of climate changes Thesis: This paper focuses on the critical examination of: “effects of climate changes.” Outline Introduction Introduction to key terms Environment and Social impact of changes Study and Analysis of its findings Conclusion Work Cited Introduction This paper focuses on the critical examination of: “effects of climate changes.” It starts with the introduction of the terms ocean circulation, ocean-atmospheric interaction, global economic system and goes on to highlight the environmental and social impacts of changes in climate, ocean circulation and ocean-atmospheric interaction. It focuses on terms and concepts of ocean logy. It further focuses on the study related to Ocean and atmospheric interaction. It makes use of two of the figures to carry out a healthy analysis of the terms and situations involve in ocean and atmospheric interaction P.S. Two of the studies have been carried out and findings under such are communicated this is done to give deep insight in to the relationship of ocean and atmosphere and how such interactions affectsin light of the questions given below 1. Does the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over North Atlantic Ocean helps predicting the weather of that of Northern Europe? 2. Whether the ocean or the atmosphere dominates Earths transport of energy from warmer equatorial regions to colder polar latitudes? Introduction to key terms Ocean Circulation Ocean circulation often called oceanography is a system of movement of the surface water between the oceans, caused by the wind, temperature or the salinity. (Science Dictionary) An ocean covers almost more than two thirds of our clear blue planet. The waters move in the global circulation system, driven by a subtle density difference and transporting then huge amounts of heat. The ocean circulation is therefore an active and highly non-linear player in this global climate game. Increasingly there is the clear evidence implicates that ocean circulation in abrupt and the dramatic climate shifts, such as uncertain temperature changes in Greenland on the order of the 5–10 °C and massive surges of the icebergs into North Atlantic Ocean — events that have occurred more often during the last glacial cycle. Ocean-Atmosphere interactions Oceans and our atmosphere constantly interact with one another, especially in transferring the energy; for instance, evaporation from warmer oceans removes the latent heat from atmosphere as it introduces water vapor, and the condensation of this vapor at height releases latent heat. Additionally, the surface winds drive the oceanic currents, moving warmer water pole-wards and cold water equator-wards. Since conditions in atmosphere changes much more rapidly than in oceanic, the atmosphere and oceans change continuously, in response to one another. Ocean-atmosphere oscillations are the ocean-atmosphere interaction responses which switch suddenly from one of the phases to another. Currently, the five major ocean atmosphere oscillations have been recognized: the Pacific Decadal, the El Niño-Southern, the North Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Antarctic Polar Wave. Each of such interactions has profound effects on the weather and climate, and all of these interact with each other. (Answers.com) The interactions of air, land, water, and ice are very complex. With each of the answer there are new questions arising that require more research and fresh insights. The relationship between the ocean and atmosphere is one of the major parts of this global interaction. The Global Climate System Climate is simply an average weather of some area, so one may think of the global climate in terms of an average global temperature. The global climate system then is s set of related, reservoirs and coordinated processes that help determine the energy balance of surface environment, which thereby helps determine the temperature. The global climate system involves flowing of energy as well as the matter through the geo-sphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. All of such parts of the larger system play vital parts in determining how solar energy, in the form of visible and also ultraviolet light, is absorbed, then reflected and transformed to infrared (or heat) energy, how heat is emitted and then absorbed, ultimately how much heat is stored in the climatic system and how that heat therefore sets various parts of the system in motion. Here the incoming solar energy, called the insolution shines down on the Earth equator and is either absorbed or thereby reflected. (Locations of clouds and the continents and nature of land surface are important to climate system. Why is the location important? A land mass at or near the equator reflects more energy in comparison to an identical land mass near the pole). The insolation that is not reflected is then absorbed at the surface, and warms it, which then radiates altogether different kind of energy. (Schmidt, G. A., Shindel, D. T. and Harder, S. 2004). Much of the heat is transported by water; as that evaporates, water takes heat energy from surface, and when condenses up in an atmosphere it forms a cloud or a rain drop and releases that heat. Plants play importance in this process as they absorb water from the soil and release that to the atmosphere. Fortunately, not all of the heat escapes to the outer space. Some of that heat is even absorbed by the gases like carbon dioxide, the water, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in atmosphere and those gases thereby return some of the heat back to the surface also known as the famous greenhouse effect. (Annex II Glossary)If this would not have been the Earth would be intolerably colder. These greenhouse gases can be comprehensively thought of as a global blanket that keeps planet warm. Because the Earth at its surface receives varying intensities of the solar energy, temperature differences might occur and sets winds and the ocean currents in motion. The basic job of such fluids is to transfer heat from equatorial region to that of poles. While the winds are the main driving agents of the surface ocean currents, variations in the temperature and salinity of ocean water produces currents that stir up the deepest parts of the oceans. Polar ice plays here an important role in forming these cold, deep currents, which sweep along ocean floor for greater distances; regions of the oceans with less rainfall leads to water that is high in salinity and even denser than normal ocean water which can also lead to deep currents. These deeper ocean currents appear to be very vital in switching the global climate from the glacial age to the interglacial age (the present). Environment and Social impact of changes Global climate changes have already observable effects on environment. Glaciers have shrunken, ice on the rivers and lakes are breaking up earlier, the plant and animal ranges have shifted and the trees are flowering sooner. Effects that the scientists predicted in past that would result from the global climate change are now occurring: loss of the sea ice accelerated the sea level rise and longer or more intense heat waves results. "Taken these things as a whole, the range of the published evidence indicates that net damage costs of the climate change are likely to be much significant and would increase over time." (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) The scientists have high confidence that the global temperatures will continue rising for decades to come, largely because of the greenhouse gasses produced in human activities. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that includes around 1,300 scientists from the United States and many other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees F over the next century. (Climate change and its effects in Money Brave, 2011) According to IPCC, the extent of the climate change effects on the individual regions will vary over period of time and with an ability of various environmental systems and social systems to mitigate or adapt to change. The IPCC predicts an increase in global mean temperature of around less than 1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit that is (1 to 3 degrees Celsius) above the 1990 levels and will produce harmful impacts in some regions along with beneficial ones in others. Net annual costs of such will increase over the time as the global temperatures increase. There is generally growing evidence that climate change, particularly the increasing temperatures, already having much significant impacts on world’s physical, biological and the human systems, and it is predicted that these impacts will become severe. Warmer temperatures are causing much change in the hydrological cycle at the regional and global scales. These changes alter the incidence along with the severity of drought and floods along with the availability of water, which as a result cause the present challenges for several aspects of human society along with industry (e.g. rural economies, insurance, water security, agriculture, and food security). Sea level rises due to the loss of ice stores and the thermal expansion causes another consequence of the climatic change that would have increasing impact on the human settlements and infrastructure. Increasing the temperatures affects biological systems. There is evidence of shifting in the range of the plant and animal species to the higher latitudes and altitudes, changes in species composition and the abundance, along with changes in the timing of life cycle events such as the flowering and migration. Changes will affect many of managed eco-systems (specifically agriculture and forestry) along with biodiversity. Many of the impacts, especially when they are combining, are likely to cause ever-increasing pressure on resources along with industries, and possibly on social systems and health. Climate change influences on the biological and the physical system from bio-physical perspective that presents the evidence that climate is changing. These include the sea level rise through ocean and atmospheric interaction, changes in the ice mass, changes in ocean circulation and the rainfall patterns, ocean warming and the acidification, the species migration, and the aridity. It seems sort of obvious that any big change in the climate on global scale has impact on local agriculture, and as a result that affects the worlds food supply. Much of the study has gone in to questions of just how the farming might get affected in many of the different regions, and by what amount; and whether the result would be harmful or beneficial, and for whom. Several uncertainties limited the accuracy of the current projections. One relates to degree of temperature increase and geographic distribution. Another relates to the concomitant changes that would occur in the precipitation of patterns determining the water supply to crops, along with the evaporative demand that is imposed on the crops by warmer climate. There is also further uncertainty as per the physiological response of the crops to enrich carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Consequences Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 1995 Ocean currents have even a ripple effect through-out the eco-system that just ends up affecting the whole world. They might seem only affecting the ocean but that is just because most of the people do not know how to see the situation. The study of the oceanic currents and their effects on environment are vital part of the oceanography. Ocean water is generally viewed as belonging to one of the two categories. There is the surface layer of the water and deep waters. The surface is the top most portions that get influenced by air, the tides, and waves of other several environmental elements interacting with such. When one moves about three hundred meters down they could get what oceanographers term as the deeper waters. Friction between the moving airs along with the water provides energy for most currents. Deeper waves are the ones that are density driven. The structure of the land masses on the earth as well as the influence from rays of the sun and the moon all will contribute towards the movement of the ocean. The way in which these ocean waves affect weather is through suffering the imbalance of the unequal solar heating of ocean-atmosphere interaction. Moreover, variations in the oceans circulation can even lead to the variations in heat transport and therefore lead to variations in the weather. Where the balance of the water cycle from the ocean to the cloud to rain and back again is changed in some way, the current of the ocean acts up and changes the so called distribution of suns rays and thus the environment i.e. the weather. (How the oceans currents affect weather) Study and Analysis of its findings Let’s investigate the role of the ocean in setting such mean climate and the variability in the simple theoretical models, observations along with coupled climate models. Here are two of themes that fall under ocean and atmosphere interaction. Oceanic impact on the mid-latitude climate variability Do the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over North Atlantic Ocean helps predicting the weather of that of Northern Europe? Figure 1 given below, suggests, that for the first time using the observations, this is so true. The color plot represents the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the late summer with warmer waters where it’s red and colder waters where it’s blue. The contours indicate the atmospheric pressure anomalies at around 5km height just 4 months later. The changes in this atmospheric pressure which actually lags by a few months with the changes in the oceanic conditions are to be noticed: they represent the so called "North Atlantic Oscillations", the dominant mode of the variability of Jet Stream over Northern Hemisphere. About 20% of variability of North Atlantic Oscillation can be attributed to this oceanic forcing. Figure 1 another study highlighting the importance of these changes: Coupling of the oceanic and the atmospheric heat transport Whether the ocean or the atmosphere dominates Earths transport of energy from warmer equatorial regions to colder polar latitudes? Figure 2 below, however, obtained from the analysis of atmospheric observation and the oceanic general circulation model shows deep insight in to the climate changes. Ocean (green in color) & Atmosphere (blue in color) carry energy across the latitude circle (x-axis) by exporting the high energy fluid pole ward and low energy fluid equator ward. Here the pole ward flowing branch of cells are at a higher-energy level (y-axis) than that of flowing equator ward. Oceanic & the atmospheric cells have almost comparable "thickness" in this figure, which indicates that energy contrast between the pole ward & equator ward branches is similar. The number of contours is but much larger for atmospheric than for oceanic cells. This is reflecting that more of the mass is transported across the latitudes in atmosphere than in ocean (larger north south velocities in the atmospheric storm than in oceanic current, this speed difference, and larger horizontal extent of the storms, makes up more of the density difference between air and water). Therefore, the atmosphere is the primary contributor to planets energy transport in mid-latitudes. Figure 2 Conclusion The study of oceanography and climatological information is a lot interesting because it permits one to learn more about the earth than any other science. It is important to study the climate changes, ocean atmospheric interaction and how such impacts not just on our weather but also on social grounds. Weather changes plays vital role in governing much of what relates to us. After all, the earth is 75 percent water. (All about Water) Work Cited 1. Annex II Glossary "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/annexessglossary-e-i.html. Retrieved 15 October 2010. 2. Climate change and its effects in Money Brave , 2011 3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007-11-12). "Summary for Policymakers". Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Valencia, Spain 4. IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA 5. Ocean circulation in Science dictionary,< http://www.science-dictionary.com/definition/ocean-circulation.html> 6. Ocean-Atmosphere changes in answers.com (2011) 7. Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food Supply in Consequences Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 1995 8. Royce Radcliffe 2007‘How the oceans currents affect weather, 2007< http://www.helium.com/items/282420-how-the-oceans-currents-affect-weather/> 9. Schmidt, G. A., Shindel, D. T. and Harder, S. (2004). "A note of the relationship between ice core methane concentrations and insolation" 10. 20 Interesting and Useful Water Facts in All About Water Read More