CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE A Continuing Challenge?

1. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE A Continuing Challenge?

2. 1 2 CHECK-IN: Icebergs on the loose 3

3. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATEA Continuing Challenge? In this chapter you will explore three key questions: • Why do different places experience different weather and climate? • What is happening to the Earth’s climate? • Is the weather becoming more extreme?

4. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How does climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

5. a. How has global climate changed? • Global Climate Change: variation in the global climate or climatic patterns in the long term. How has temperatures changed from 1800 until 2000?

6. a. How has global climate changed? • Changes in global climate since 1881. • Earth warmed up by 0.74° C in 100 years. • Greatest increase after 1980s • Some places recorded much higher temperature increases. • Arctic, Asia and Africa (1.2° C to 1.4 ° C)

7. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How does climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

8. b. What are some natural causes of climate change? • Variations in solar output • Volcanic eruptions

9. Variations in solar output • The magnetic activity of the sun has a cycle that lasts about 11 years. • An increase in solar radiation is due to an increase in sun spots. • Areas surrounding the sunspots radiate more energy to make up for the cooler sunspot areas. • With higher solar radiation, earth’s temperatures will increase. Sunspots represented by the dark spots on surface of the sun.

10. Volcanic eruptions • Global dimming: Gradual reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface.Temporarily cools the earth for months or years. • Dust particles from eruption form condensation nuclei, creating more cloud cover. • Dust and ash also reflect away incoming solar radiation. • For example, Mount Pinatubo eruption lowered temperatures by as much as 0.6°C for as long as two years.

11. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How does climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

12. c. What is the greenhouse effect? • Greenhouse effect: Natural process in which the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap longwave radiation emitted from the earth’s surface, warming the atmosphere. • Water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide ozone and halocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are good absorbers of longwave radiation. • They are known as greenhouse gases and are found in the atmosphere.

14. What is the enhanced greenhouse effect? • Enhanced greenhouse effect: Increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to a rise in global temperatures. • Generally due to human activities that release an increased amount of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide.

16. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How has climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

17. d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? • Burning fossil fuels • Deforestation • Changing land use • Agriculture • Industries • Urbanisation

18. Burning fossil fuels • Fossil fuels: formed from decomposition of dead organic matter over millions of years • For example, petroleum, coal and natural gas. • Powers 80% of the world’s energy • Contains high carbon content, releases huge amount of carbon dioxide when burnt • Highest contributor of greenhouse gases.

19. Burning fossil fuels

20. Deforestation • Deforestation: Loss of forests due to the removal or clearance of trees in forested areas. • Causes increase in levels of carbon dioxide in two ways: • Fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide • Carbon oxidation: Carbon in soil reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, aided by higher temperatures when soil is exposed to sunlight.

21. Deforestation Why does deforestation take place? Every minute, forest areas the size of nine football fields are being deforested. Which areas face the greatest deforestation rates in the world?

22. Changing land use Industries Urbanisation Agriculture

23. Agriculture Agriculture: Practice of cultivating land, producing crops and raising livestock.

24. Agriculture • Cattle farming releases millions of tonness of methane into the atmosphere annually, as gases are released from the digestive systems of cattle. Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use

25. Industries • Industries: Production of goods and services within a country. • Major contributor of carbon dioxide through the burning of fossil fuels to create energy needed to run factory processes.

26. Urbanisation • Urbanisation: Process by which an increasing number of people live in urban areas. • Various human activities are concentrated or are necessary in urban places. All of them contribute to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

27. Countries emitting greenhouse gases in proportion to their land size

28. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How has climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

29. e. How does climate change affect people? Four key impacts of climate change we will learn about: • Sea level rise • Frequent extreme weather events • Spread of infectious insect-borne diseases • Lengthening of growing season in certain regions

30. Sea level rise • Sea level rise: Increase in the mean height of the sea’s surface between high and low tide relative to land. • Higher temperatures causes water to expand • Higher temperatures causes glaciers to melt, adding meltwater to the sea

31. 33% of coastal lands are at risk with continued sea level increase!

32. Frequent extreme weather events • Extreme weather events: severe and rare weather phenomenon that results in significant economic losses and the loss of lives • Eg. Heat waves, floods, droughts and tropical cyclones

33. Spread of infectious insect-borne diseases • Link between insect-borne diseases and climate change: • Increased rainfall and temperatures is favourable for mosquitoes to breed (allows spread of malaria and dengue fever) • As temperate countries get warmer, mosquitoes are able to breed further up north of the Equator

35. Lengthening of growing season in certain regions • Higher temperatures have lead to longer growing seasons for some regions. • Advantage (Cold regions are now warmer, more conducive for crop growing) • Increase in types of crops that can be grown in UK. • Increase in fruit, soybeans, potatoes and wheat in Canada. • Disadvantage (Cool regions are now getting hotter, less conducive for crop growing) • Apples and cherries production in Yunnan is reduced as they need cool conditions. • Wheat yield has decreased in Canada.

36. CHAPTER 3 VARIABLE WEATHER AND CHANGING CLIMATE Gateway 2: What is happening to the Earth’s climate? a. How has global climate changed? b. What are some natural causes of climate change? c. What is the greenhouse effect? d. How do human activities lead to enhanced greenhouse effect? e. How has climate change affect people? f. What are the responses to climate change?

37. f. What are the responses to climate change? • International Level • Kyoto Protocol (1997) • Copenhagen Conference (2009) • National Level • Singapore • India

38. Kyoto Protocol • Kyoto Protocol: An international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases emission into the atmosphere. • Drawn up on 11/12/97, came into effect 16/02/05 • Different countries have different targets to hit and progress of carbon emissions will be tracked and reported for review.

39. Kyoto Protocol

40. Kyoto Protocol Successes • Many countries met or exceeded targets set by Kyoto Protocol as there was constant monitoring and reporting by countries for self and peer assessment. • Encouraged sustainable development. • Developed countries are encouraged to work with developing countries in carbon-reducing projects (Clean Development Mechanism — CDM)

41. Kyoto Protocol Limitations • Not all countries are able to meet their goals and not all countries have the same emission targets. • Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom did not achieve their targets • Many countries did not sign the Kyoto Protocol and continue to contribute to global emissions. • A large portion of the increase in global emissions came from China, India and the United States of America

42. Copenhagen Conference • Copenhagen Conference: Held in Denmark, hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference to build upon measures developed in previous conferences for addressing climate change.

43. Copenhagen Conference Successes • Allow countries to discuss measures to deal with climate change effectively, including improvements to CDM. • International agreement to keep increase in global temperature to below 2°C. • Pledges were made and developed countries pledged to: • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. • Provide US$30 billion for developing countries to fight climate change.

44. Copenhagen Conference

45. Copenhagen Conference Limitations • Lack for concrete plans on how to reduce greenhouse gases • Copenhagen Accord (Agreement) was not adopted by all countries. - The Accord was a guideline and no countries will be binded/punished if they do not fulfill their pledges.

46. National response: Singapore • Singapore Green Plan 2012 • Reduce energy consumption and greenhouse emission from burning fossil fuels 2) Green Mark Scheme • Constructing ‘green’ buildings 3) Plant-A-Tree programme • Planting more trees and plants

47. Singapore Green Plan 2012

48. Singapore: Green Mark Scheme

49. Singapore: Plant-A-Tree programme

50. Show two images of Mr Lee Kuan Yew Image 1: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iYjQ-KuZAIE/TrfUWAdg1YI/AAAAAAAAADc/9tIY8AsEgAU/s320/TreePlant1963-1.JPG Image 2: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vl9H2vEMxSo/TrfTZpjcWrI/AAAAAAAAADM/rOJNmtQQEng/s1600/MM+LEE.jpg Mr Lee Kuan Yew planting a tree in 1963 and still doing so in 2012