Climate Change

What are the major social and economic consequences of climate change?

-Agriculture: the combined impacts of drought, severe weather, lack of snowmelt, greater number and diversity of pests, lower groundwater tables and a loss of arable land could cause severe crop failures and livestock shortages worldwide. -Carbon dioxide is affecting the quality and growth of plants. -Increase in mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever, as well as a rise in cases of chronic conditions like asthma.

What are the major physical consequences of climate change?

-Increase in average temperatures and temperature extremes. -Extreme weather events. -Ice melt. -Rising sea levels and ocean acidification. -Extinction or migration of many species.

List five pieces of evidence that Australia's climate has changed in recent times.

1. The past three years were progressively the hottest years on earth. The Bureau of Meteorology described 2016 as the fourth hottest at 0.87 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average. 2. Increasing duration, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events: Heatwaves, bushfires, tropical cyclones, cold snaps, extreme rainfall and droughts. 3. Sea surface temperatures in the Australian region have warmed by nearly 1 °C since 1900, with the past three years, 2013-2015, all in the region's five warmest years on record. (Coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef.)

How can the carbon tax reduce the enhanced greenhouse effect?

A carbon tax puts a price on those emissions, encouraging people, businesses, and governments to produce less of them. A carbon tax's burden would fall most heavily on energy-intensive industries and lower-income households. Policymakers could use the resulting revenue to offset those impacts, lower individual and corporate taxes, reduce the budget deficit, invest in clean energy and climate adaptation, or for other uses.

How can carbon sequestration reduce the enhanced greenhouse effect?

Carbon sequestration actively removes and stores greenhouse gas currently in the atmosphere underground. The storage of greenhouse gas underground is a promising solution but there are still capability gaps to be filled before its large-scale implementation can be achieved. Large quantities of greenhouse gas can be stored in the oceans but the cost may be prohibitive and environmental consequences are unknown. Restoring and improving our agricultural soils will permanently sequester carbon and improve soil health and productivity.

How can carbon trading reduce the enhanced greenhouse effect?

Carbon trading attempts to lower the price that certain polluting industries have to pay to comply with their present short-term reduction targets. It enables polluters to meet their reduction targets over the crucial next decade without the structural changes that will be needed for the longer-term reduction targets and the transition to a low carbon economy.

Define climate change.

Climate change is a change in the pattern of weather, and related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets, occurring over time scales of decades or longer.

What are the principal human factors that are contributing to the greenhouse effect?

Combustion of fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases. Clearing of forests for agriculture, which releases carbon dioxide through increased biomass decay. Deforestation, soil tillage and land degradation, which release carbon from the land system and reduce its capacity to absorb and store carbon.

How does climate change differ from global warming?

Global warming refers only to the Earth's rising surface temperature, while climate change includes warming and the "side effects" of warming—like melting glaciers, heavier rainstorms, or more frequent drought. Global warming is one symptom of the much larger problem of human-caused climate change.

What are the major political consequences of climate change?

Loss of food security may, in turn, create havoc in international food markets and could spark famines, food riots, political instability and civil unrest worldwide.

What is the composition of the atmosphere?

Nitrogen - 78%. Oxygen - 21%. Argon - 0.9%. CO2 - 0.037%.

How can renewable sources of energy (solar, hydro, wave, tidal, wind, biomass) reduce the enhanced greenhouse effect?

Renewable energy is used for electric power generation, space heating and cooling, and transportation fuels. All sources of renewable energy are used to generate electric power. In addition to generating electricity, geothermal steam is used directly for heating and cooking. Biomass and solar sources are also used for space and water heating. Ethanol and biodiesel are the renewable transportation fuels with gaseous biomethane also fueling transport to a much lesser extent.Renewable energy sources are considered to be zero (wind, solar, and water), low (geothermal) or neutral (biomass) with regard to greenhouse gas emissions during their operation. A neutral source has emissions that are balanced by the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during the growing process.

What is the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC)?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty, named for the Japanese city in which it was adopted in December 1997, that aimed to reduce the emission of gases that contribute to global warming.

What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?

The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth's surface. When the Sun's energy reaches the Earth's atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases. The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the Earth's temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), agriculture and land clearing - are now increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases. This is the enhanced greenhouse effect, which is contributing to the warming of the Earth.

What are the principle greenhouse gases?

Water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and some artificial chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).