Short and Long term climate change
SHORT AND LONG TERM CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming -- and climate change -- have long-term and short-term impacts on our environment. Caused by air pollutants such as carbon dioxide and methane, global warming is the gradual increase of air temperature across the globe. The rise in air temperatures can lead to higher extinction rates, increased risk of disease and political repurcussions, such as wars over available resources.
Short term climate change:
Variations in ocean currents or atmospheric circulation (e.g. the El Niño phenomenon), can also influence the climate for short periods of time. Earth’s climate undergoes short-term climate change. Although these changes are natural, species can have more difficulty adapting to them. Natural causes of short-term climate change include volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, sunspot activity, and La Niña or El Niño events.
What are El Niño and La Niña? El Niño and La Niña are cyclical events that disrupt the ocean–atmosphere system in the South Pacific Ocean. These patterns can have an effect on Earth’s climate worldwide. During an El Niño year, ocean temperatures in the South Pacific Ocean are warmer than usual. This causes changes in temperatures on land as well. For example, winters in the central and northern parts of the United States will be warmer as a result of El Niño. Temperatures in the southwest will be cooler during an El Niño year. La Niña conditions mean that ocean temperatures in the South Pacific are cooler. The effects of La Niña are the opposite of those of El Niño. You’ll learn more about El Niño and La Niña as well as other causes of short-term climate change as you work through the materials in this concept.
Long term climate change:
the equilibrium climate sensitivity, describes the long-term commitment once the climate system has come into balance with the enhanced level of greenhouse gases.
Using observations from the period 2000 to 2009, a decade when global warming appeared to slow down, Otto and colleagues obtain a “best estimate” for the transient climate response: 1.3ºC. This is smaller than the value of 1.6ºC obtained when they look at observations from the 1990s instead.
Causes of Long-Term Climate Change
Many processes can cause climate to change. These include changes:
In the amount of energy the Sun produces over years.
In the positions of the continents over millions of years.
In the tilt of Earth's axis and orbit over thousands of years.
That are sudden and dramatic because of random catastrophic events, such as a large asteroid impact.
In greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, caused naturally or by human activities.
Seeing this short and long term climate change it definitely a sign to take care of the earth.
A. The climate change in Earth's history
For the past two centuries, climate has been relatively stable. People placed their farms and cities in locations that were in a favorable climate without thinking that the climate could change. But climate has changed throughout Earth history, and a stable climate is not the norm. In recent years, Earth’s climate has begun to change again. Most of this change is warming because of human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The effects of warming are already being seen and will become more extreme as temperature rise.
Climate has changed throughout Earth history. Much of the time Earth’s climate was hotter and more humid than it is today, but climate has also been colder, as when glaciers covered much more of the planet. The most recent ice ages were in the Pleistocene Epoch, between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago. Glaciers advanced and retreated in cycles, known as glacial and interglacial periods. With so much of the world’s water bound into the ice, sea level was about 125 meters (395 feet) lower than it is today. Many scientists think that we are now in a warm, interglacial period that has lasted about 10,000 years.
For the past 2,000 years, climate has been relatively mild and stable when compared with much of Earth’s history. Why has climate stability been beneficial for human civilization? Stability has allowed the expansion of agriculture and the development of towns and cities.
Fairly small temperature changes can have major effects on global climate. The average global temperature during glacial periods was only about 5.5 degrees C (10 degrees F) less than Earth’s current average temperature. Temperatures during the interglacial periods were about 1.1 degrees C (2.0 degrees F) higher than today.
Since the end of the Pleistocene, the global average temperature has risen about 4 degrees C (7 degrees F). Glaciers are retreating and sea level is rising. While climate is getting steadily warmer, there have been a few more extreme warm and cool times in the last 10,000 years. Changes in climate have had effects on human civilization.
The Medieval Warm Period from 900 to 1300 A.D. allowed Vikings to colonize Greenland and Great Britain to grow wine grapes.
The Little Ice Age, from the 14th to 19th centuries, the Vikings were forced out of Greenland and humans had to plant crops further south.
Additional to the climate change in the earth's history, extreme events happen in every country or region. Like The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950.
This is very bad for the earth's future. Who know what will happen in the next centuries If we aren't taking care of the earth? :< Let's prevent the worsening of the climate change--- global warming of the earth!!!
That's all! Thank you!!!!
references:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/geophysical/chapter/climate-change-in-earth-history/
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html
http://theconversation.com/long-term-warming-short-term-variability-why-climate-change-is-still-an-issue-14476
http://www.sameworld.eu/en/discover-the-project/climate-change
http://ms.plattevalley.k12.co.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_5169312/File/Winter/Getting_to_Know__Short_Term_Climate_Change.pdf
https://www.ck12.org/book/CK-12-Earth-Science-Concepts-For-High-School/section/13.35/
http://education.seattlepi.com/long-shortterm-effects-global-warming-5666.html
effects can help humans better prepare for the consequences of global warming.