Climate Factor Changes

Aug 03, 2023, 16:45 IST

Hey Folks! Are you also observing the changes that are occurring nowadays in climate patterns? The earth's temperature is becoming warmer and warmer with each passing day. It's scary how the glaciers have started to melt, greenhouse gases are clouding the world completely, the sea levels are rising and global warming is right upon us planning to gulp everything. If ignored the grass root reasons then conditions could be even worse. These atmospheric conditions are extreme or intense enough may lead to the loss of life and vanish everything in a gust. Let's look at the reasons behind these frightening conditions. In this article, you will get to know about all the factors responsible for climate change in good and bad senses.

Introduction

Climates are conditions of the atmosphere at a particular location over a long period or we can say that it is the long-term summation of the atmospheric elements and their variations. But global or regional change within the patterns of climate is known as Climate change. Scientists have pieced together a record of the earth’s climate by analyzing and observing several indirect measures of climate, such as ice cores, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, changes in the earth’s orbit around the sun, continental drifts and also studied various other natural activity. The whole record shows that the climate varies naturally over a wide range of time, but one thing remains unexplained and that was the variability regarding the warming of climate since the 1950s. But later it indicated human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming and contributing to climate change. Both nature and humans are equal participants in the change of climate patterns.

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Factors affecting climate change

Climate change is the result of human interference in atmospheric factors, or elements that disturb the climate. In the past few decades, human interference has increased resulting in agitations of nature and its phenomena. Some of the factors that are affecting climate are listed below:

1. Natural factors

Topography:

Topography refers to the shape of the land. The temperature fluctuations have the potential to cause climate change on a local level. Temperature fluctuation is caused by a variety of factors like latitude and elevation ranges.

Continental Drift:

The continents today are way different than they used to be 200 million years ago. Millions of years ago, due to plate displacement when the landmass began to drift apart continental drift formed. This movement had a great impact on climate change. The drifting of the landmass continues even today. You would be surprised to know that the Himalayan range is rising approximately 1 millimetre every year as the Indian landmass is moving towards the Asian landmass because of drifting.

Sea level:

A region's climate is impacted by the distance from the sea and other water bodies. The surface temperatures of the sea have a direct impact on the temperatures of the land. Coastal areas are cooler and wetter than the rest of the country because the ocean temperatures take longer to warm up and cool down than the adjacent landmass.

Ocean currents:

The temperature differences of the water influence the climate of the region in a broad way. Ocean current is one of the major components of the climate system and also for climate change. Oceans can transport heat energy affecting the region's temperature from land to water or contrariwise. It is generally driven by horizontal winds causing the movement of the water against the sea surface. The temperature differences of the water influence the climate of the region.

Variation of the Earth’s orbit:

A slight change in the Earth’s orbit can lead to a huge variation in distribution across the world. As we already know, Earth’s orbit has a great impact on the sunlight’s seasonal distribution which causes few changes to the average sunshine. But the geographical and seasonal distribution have a great impact on its variation. There are three types of orbital variations (Variations in Earth’s eccentricity, variations in the tilt angle of the Earth’s axis of rotation, and precession of Earth’s axis). Three of them together cause Milankovitch cycles, which have a huge impact on climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finding showed that the Milankovitch cycles had influenced the behavior of ice formation a lot.

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Winds:

By the direction of the wind, the climate of a region can be influenced as it disperses particle mass present in the air.

Plate tectonics:

The rearrangement of the Earth's Plate occurs due to the change in the temperature in the core of the Earth. The mantle plumes and convection currents forced the Earth’s Plates to adjust by which the global and local patterns of climate and atmosphere gets broadly influenced.

Oceanic geometry:

By the continents’ position, the oceans’ geometry is determined. Therefore, the position of the continents influences the pattern of the ocean to a large extent. A crucial role in controlling the transfer of heat and moisture across the globe and determining the global climate is completely dependent on the location of the sea. We can take the example of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama done by tectonic control on ocean circulation about 5 million years ago. Which leads to the prevention of the direct mixing of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Volcanic Activity:

Volcanic activities influence the climate pattern although they last only for a few days the gases and ashes released by them can last for a long period. When a volcano erupts, sunrays get partially blocked as it emits gases and dust particles. This causes cooling of the weather. Sulfur oxide which is emitted by volcanic activities can combine with water forming tiny droplets of sulphuric acid that can stay in the air for several years because of the size of the droplet.

2. Anthropogenic(Man induced)Factors:

Apart from all the natural processes, human interference has a lot of impact on climate change in a bad way. Deforestation, population growth, pollution generated by the combustion of fossil fuels, and emissions from automobiles and factories all contribute a lot to climate change.

The anthropogenic factors causing climate change are mentioned below:

• Greenhouse Gases: The Global temperature has been observed since the beginning of the 20th century which is mainly caused by the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system. In brief, greenhouse gases absorb heat radiation from the sun which increased rapidly after the initiation of the Industrial Revolution, leading to more absorption and retaining the heat in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases mostly do not absorb solar radiation but they do absorb most of the infrared emitted by the Earth’s surface and result in an increase in Global Temperature.

The main greenhouse gases include water vapor, the Carbon dioxide released due to natural and anthropogenic factors, Chlorofluorocarbons (used for industrial purposes, refrigerants, and air conditioning), and Methane (by decomposition of organic matter).Nitrous oxide (by the agricultural sector).

• Change in the land use pattern:

During the industrial era, Half of the land use changed. Forests were replaced by agricultural cropping and grazing of lands. The increased reflectivity of an object in space (albedo) due to deforestation led to the cooling of the planet’s surface in the snow-covered high-altitude regions. The more of the Sun’s radiation gets absorbed by the planet as the albedo lowers and it leads to the rise in temperatures. The earth will be more reflective if the albedo is higher and hence more of the radiation is returned to space, which leads to the cooling of the planet. Tropical deforestation changes the amount of water vapor put in the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration from trees causing desertification that affects soil moisture characteristics. Solar energy absorption and the amount of moisture evaporated into the atmosphere are seen to be increased by the clearing of forest cover for agriculture and irrigated farming in arid and semi-arid lands as per satellite images.

• Atmospheric aerosols:

Atmospheric aerosols scatter and absorb the solar and infrared radiation, and also change the microphysical and chemical properties of the clouds completely. Solar radiation leads to the cooling of the planet when it is scattered. On the other hand, temperature increases when the aerosols absorb solar radiation. Aerosols affect climate change by absorbing or reflecting solar radiation. Indirect effects by modifying the cloud’s formation and properties can also be produced by them. Through wind and upper-level circulation in the atmosphere, they can even be transported thousands of kilometers away from their source. Aerosols are of two types that are natural aerosols and Anthropogenic aerosols.

• Natural aerosols include volcanic eruptions and biogenic sources like plankton.
• The anthropogenic aerosols include ammonia used for fertilizers, Burning of coal, oil, and biomass, Industrial activities, and Vehicle emissions.

Climate Factor Changes : FAQs

Q1. Where is the concentration of aerosols greater in the Southern or Northern Hemisphere?

Ans. Concentration of aerosols is about three times higher in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere which leads to the Northern Hemisphere’s radiation concentration being 50% higher than that of the Southern Hemisphere.

Q2. What is the main difference between climate and weather?

Ans. A measure of time is the main difference between weather and climate. Conditions of the atmosphere over a short period are known as weather, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods.

Q3. What is climate action?

Ans. Climate actions deal with the efforts piled up by the countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience to climate-induced impacts.

Q4. What are the 7 ways to reduce climate change?

Ans. Seven ways to reduce climate change are

1. Say no to plastic.
2. Renewables to the rescue
3. Less use of private vehicles instead uses public transport or electric vehicles.
4. Promoting the plantation of trees
5. Replenishment of forested areas used for industrial or other purposes.