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Causes, Impacts, Vulnerability, and adaptations of Climate Change
Our environment is undergoing a tremendous change. These changes are deniably affecting the world we live in, both positively and negatively. As the environment changes, it signals the need to take the necessary measures to avoid further negative effects. Current environmental problems make us vulnerable to disasters and tragedies, exposing us to future problems. The paper focuses on the causes, impacts, vulnerability, and adaptations of climate changes.
The need for change is portrayed fully in our daily activities and government manifestations. Due to activities such as voting, sticking to routine and governmental issues, people still hold back from taking action when it comes to protecting the environment. Though it is no physically possible to stop the ozone layer thinning, increasing awareness can contribute to environmental conservation. Environmental problems like acid rain, global warming, water pollution, ozone layer weakening and climate change have significant negative effects on human lives and the planet as a whole. Climate change causes destructive impacts to the environment, such as melting polar ice, seasonal changes, new sickness due to ultraviolet rays and general changes in weather patterns.
The earth sustains living things and provides human beings with the necessary resources to maintain a magnificent way of life. The earth is able to support life, unlike Venus and Mars, which very hot due to their close proximity to the sun. Over the decades, the global climate has been altered severely from ice ages to long periods of warmness. Climate change is the variation of weather patterns such as ocean changes, land surfaces as well as ice sheets that occur over time scales. Climate change is caused by both natural factors such as variations in the sun’s rays on the surface of the earth, volcanic eruptions and Milankovitch cycles. However, human activities are considered to have the most impact on climate change. Changes in the shape of the earth’s orbit, tilting and rotation of the earth's axis affect the number of sun rays that reach the Earth’s surface. A rise in average temperatures on the Earth’s surface causes global warming, which continuously affects global temperature over time.
In the geological history, the Earth’s timescales indicate that the solar energy has an influence on the shaping of the climatic changes in the solar system and will continue to have effects in the coming days. Over the past years, the face of the sun has been known to exhibit dark regions known as sunspots, which varies with unvarying cycles around years. The sunspot cycle indicates its effects on the solar systems as well as Earth's climate. Evidence of such mystery is still controversial despite the many studies. However, the evidence for this apparent correlation is not that strong. On the other side, the Milankovitch effects occur as a result of changes in the Earth’s orbit in relation to the sun’s rotation and its influence. Additionally, volcanic eruptions can also inject large quantities of sulfur dioxide gas and dust into the atmosphere, which exhibits similar effects.
Volcanic pollutions result in extensive reductions in the radiant light and heat from the sun that is reflected back into space. Moreover, human factors like the greenhouse effect, which absorbs the terrestrial energy trapping it near the surface of the Earth significantly contributes to the earth’s rising temperatures. This causes more warming to the Earth’s surface. Land use and the rising fossil fuel burning have continually contributed to climate change. In addition, this increases the emission of large quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (Desonie 4-6). The greenhouse fumes such as methane, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide have continuously increased the greenhouse effect that has resulted in environment changes (Hardy 4). Climatic changes include global warming, precipitation and changes in cloud cover, ice caps and glaciers, less snow cover and high temperatures in the ocean as well as oceanic acidity. In addition, the seawater absorbs carbon dioxide, which causes heating of the troposphere (United States Environmental Protection Agency).
Climatic changes result in widespread effects in the atmosphere. Water shortages and flooding could result due to changes in rainfall patterns. Flooding an...