Climate Change: Nature, Causes, Effects, and Remedies

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Climate Change: Nature, Causes, Effects, and Remedies
The term climate refers to the specific weather pattern that persisted for over 30 years. Though the earth's climatic conditions vary from one region to another concerning altitude, topography, distance from the equator, and other environmental and geographical factors, any alteration in the earth's natural ecosystem directly affects climatic conditions across the globe. However, it is necessary to understand the exact definition and nature of climate change before assessing the phenomenon. According to the most accepted definition, climate change is a pronounced and long-term change in the weather pattern of a region, mainly characterized by a change in atmospheric temperature (Jackson and Jerome 4; Chirico 10.).
Anthropogenic activities, especially unsparing burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities, and deforestation, are the main contributors to global climate change. Additionally, certain natural phenomena, including volcanic eruptions, and water vapor, also cause a perceptible change in the global climate (NASA). The effects of climate change are more pronounced in today's world and include global warming, destruction of natural habitats, rising sea levels, and unexpected rainfall patterns. These harmful changes in the earth's ecosystem are threatening the very existence of life on the earth; therefore, it is imperative to curtail the menace of climate. The following paragraph provides an in-depth analysis of the nature, causes, and effects of climate change and presents potential measures to minimize climate change.
As discussed above, climate change is a global phenomenon, and despite its recent more harmful manifestation, it has been a natural process since the inception of the earth's atmosphere. Natural climate change has been occurring for the last 65000 years and has produced various climatic stages in the world's history that kept alternating between ice ages and other hotter periods (Jackson and Jerome 4.). This natural climate change has altered the course of the earth's history as it is responsible for the extermination of several living things and the origin of newer ones. Natural climate change has caused suitable changes in the earth's atmosphere that paved the way for the evolution of life. For instance, the Green House Effect is a natural phenomenon that keeps the earth's atmosphere warm enough for all living things to live by blocking the sun's radiation from going to outer space. In this regard, gases like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide, in their natural concentration, play a vital role in maintaining the earth's atmospheric temperature (Giving Compass Network). Moreover, natural variation in the solar cycle also causes a natural change in the global climate.
Conversely, however, in recent human history, especially after the Industrial Revolution, there has been a significant rise in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. One of the reasons behind this unexpected and inimical rise of greenhouse gases is the extraction and extensive use of fossil fuels, petrol, natural gas, and coal, in industries and automobiles. Additionally, human activities, more significantly, cutting of forest trees for industrial, agricultural, and housing activities and animal breeding, also contribute to the unnecessary emissions of the greenhouse gases. The high concentration of these gases traps more than required sunlight and causes unwanted temperature rise called global warming (Giving Compass Network). According to one estimate, due to intense industrial and agricultural activities, earth's the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has increased substantially, and this rise is an event unprecedented in the history of at least 800 000 years. In a more exact estimate, scientists have claimed that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 40 times more than its concentration in the era before the Industrial Revolution (Giving Compass Network).
It is, therefore, certain that the current climate change is not the result of natural processes; instead, it is a detrimental outcome of unscrupulous human activities. It is crucial to understand how greenhouse gases induce unwanted temperature rises. A brief understanding of the nature of different greenhouse gases is necessary to understand their role in climate change. Carbon dioxide is considered the main culprit gas that significantly contributes to global warming. Besides industrial activities and automobiles, this gas is also released via respiration and volcanic activities. Its chemical nature makes it very suitable for capturing the sun's infrared radiation. Methane is another greenhouse gas released through a natural process, including composting and livestock feeding activities. This gas is capable of absorbing much more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons are two other greenhouse gases released from the burning of fossil fuels and synthetic compounds, respectively (NASA).
The collective effect of the anthropogenic release of these gases is the presence of much more infrared radiation of sunlight in the earth's atmosphere than required as they absorb the outgoing solar radiation and send it back to earth; consequently, the earth's atmospheric temperature rises well above the required level. This unexpected and unwanted rise in atmospheric temperature is crucial for global climate change. According to one estimate, the earth's global temperature has risen to almost 0.5 degrees Celsius in the two decades of the twenty-first century compared to the average temperature recorded between 1951 and 1980 (Jackson and Jerome 6). So, these estimates clearly indicate that the recent climate change is nothing but a bad outcome of human activities during and after the Industrial Revolution, and it is still an ongoing process.
Unfortunately, with the exponential growth of both population and the latest technology, the threat of anthropogenic climate change is looming with each passing day, and its devastating effects demand immediate and effective measures to prevent it. According to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the probability of human involvement in the current ominous climate change is more than 95 % (NASA). On account of the dangers of climate change, several environmentalists have begun to use "climate crisis" as a term substitute to describe the menace of climate change. This term more accurately explains the immediacy and intensity of the effects of climate change (Jackson and Jerome 5). It is a consensus amongst scientists that the survival of living things on this earth depends on minimizing the effects of climate change; these effects are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Paleoclimatic reconstruction using the latest software and instrumental data by various climatologists has indicated that the role of greenhouse gases in global warming had started with the onset of the Industrial Revolution (Hegerl et al. 4). According to another study conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, industrial activities have caused a shocking increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from 280 ppm to 417ppm within 151 years (NASA). However, an increase in carbon dioxide concentration and the rising level of other greenhouse gases are not the sole factors behind climate change. Several research studies have shown that fluctuation in solar radiation has also played a vital role in shaping climatic conditions even before the Industrial Revolution. Nevertheless, the recent climate change is not an outcome of fluctuation in solar radiation as the data indicates that since 1750, there has been only a slight increase in the influx of solar radiation in the earth's atmosphere (NASA). In view of this fact, it is easy to understand that the current climate change results from the release of greenhouse gases due to human activities.
There are several activities of modern man that are unprecedented in the history of humankind and are the direct source of the release of greenhouse gases. For instance, one of the most significant contributors...