Hernandez 8Brian HernandezDr. BerlandPHYS 190April 28, 2014Global Climate ChangeIntroductionGlobal climate change is a pressing issue nowadays. It has been the cause of heated debate among politicians, scientists, and ordinary citizens alike. The issue was formerly known as global warming, but climate change was adopted so that the emphasis was on all of the effects of climate change, not just a rise in temperatures. The first concerns regarding climate change surfaced in the late-1950s, when Hans Seusss carbon-14 isotope analysis showed that the CO released from fossil fuels was not being immediately absorbed by the ocean. This lead scientists to look further into the issue, and they came to the conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions could potentially be a problem [1]. Sixty years later, we have come a long way in learning about the climate and the environment, but we still have lots to learn. Plenty of questions posed sixty years ago have been left unanswered. The importance of studying climate change cannot be overstated. Climate change can have an immense effect on the Earth and all its inhabitants, so the importance of studying the causes and effects of climate change is obivous. However, while climate change has an huge effect on us, action taken to prevent and/or reduce the effects of climate change can be equally as damaging despite the good intentions of said policies and/or publications. There are political, economic, and environmental consequences for inadequate action being taken.An example of a dangerous publication with good intentions is Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth. The book is more of a tear-jerker than a scientific book. The book appeals to the pathos of readers by including pictures of polar bears and penguins next to large text about how they are both losing their habitats. It also includes computer simulation models of what major coastal cities around the world will look like with projected sea level rises. The book is also geared toward a child audience, targeting the the next generation of policymakers and decision makers at a young age so that the book is sure to have an impact on them that will carry into their adulthood. An example of a flawed section in Gores book is the section about Mt. Kilimanjaro. The first page of the chapter entitled Cold, Hard Evidence features a picture of Dr. Lonnie Thompson - a climate scientist who claims that the snowcaps of Mt. Kilimanjaro are shrinking, and attributes this to global warming. The next page contains a large picture of the summit of the Tanzanian mountain in 2005 with barely any snow on the top. In an outset on the same page, there is the same picture taken in 1970 with the mountain sporting a beautiful white cap. [2] After a bit of research, it is easy to see that the pictures featured were very carefully selected. I found pictures taken of the same mountain in 1970 with barely any snow; likewise, I found pictures of the mountain in 2005 with a snow-covered peak. The pictures featured in the book could very well have been taken during the winter months of 1970 and summer months of 2005 just to stress the point being made. In fact, the lack of glaciers at the summit at any point in time can be attributed mostly to sublimation (the change of a solid directly to a gas without reaching the liquid phase), and very little to melting. [3]Misinformation can lead people to believe claims that may not necessarily be true. This can be devastating from a political perspective. Misinformation can lead politicians to be convinced to take action on a certain issue even though any action may be unnecessary or maybe even counterproductive. One good political example of this is the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was a legally binding treaty that set greenhouse-gas-emission targets for industrialized countries. The treaty (despite the good intentions) is now regarded as a failure by many. The timetable for emission reductions neither reflected an optimum for cost-benefit analysis nor cost-efficiency analysis, so basically, the treaty went against everything economists would have judged the treaty by. Also, developing countries - who are projected to account for the largest increase in CO emissions - refused to participate. A devastating blow was when the United States (the largest carbon emitter per capita) refused to sign the treaty [4]. George W. Bush believed that Kyoto would have hurt the economy of the US, and so it was not worth it [5]. Another weakness in the treaty was that it would require that countries produce their own report on emission levels each year, leaving room for skewed results in order to avoid penalties [4].The main concern with being overzealous in enacting policy changes and policymakers being misinformed is the economic repercussions. Many economists hold the view that policies to curb CO emissions should take the form of price-based incentives, including taxes on carbon, rather than government action [6]. The market will do the same work as the policies enacted by the government, only more effectively and with less, if any, drawbacks. Many companies are earning lots of money selling green products. The money being earned in this section of the economy is boosting it on a large scale. This may seem strange, considering these consumers are willing to pay a little bit more for these products that tend to be more expensive. An easy explanation for the consumers acting unpredictably is because of the incentive they have to save their planet. An example: Ecobags, Inc., who sells tote bags made of recycled material, reported annual sales in 2009 at $3 million. [7]The flip side to this is of course those companies who are willing to pay scientists to find questionable evidence to support their cause in order to increase business. In this case, the consumers would be fooled into purchasing products that arent actually environmentally-friendly. This has happened quite a few times. In the 1940s and 50s, Dr. Clare Patterson discovered the negative health effects of lead on humans; also discovered that there was a large increase in lead levels in the environment compared against historical lead levels - caused mostly by the presence of lead in gasoline [8]. The Ethyl Corporation (a proponent of lead in gasoline) hired Dr. Robert Kehoe to investigate the levels of lead in the environment and the potential health effects of lead on humans. Dr. Kehoe claimed that the levels of lead that Dr. Patterson found were as normal as snow in December, and that there was no evidence suggesting that lead posed any health risks [9]. It turned out that Dr. Kehoes results were flawed, and that the Ethyl Corporation hired him to cover up the health risks of their product. Believe it or not, there can be environmental consequences to acting to save the environment. If those who are working to eliminate climate change are misinformed, they can actually end up causing more damage to the environment. With global warming, temperatures are rising and snow is melting, causing many ski resorts to go out of business, since they depend on the snowfall and accumulation. The resorts closing down damages the economy of mountain range areas that depend on ski business [10]. The natural tendency for the business owner would be to do anything to save their business. So, if a report is released about snow melting at an alarming rate due to global warming, worried ski resort owners will take action in order to save their business. This action may include chemically altering snow or the mountain in order to keep or make enough snow to stay in business. The effect is that the chemicals added to the snow could be potentially harmful to the environment.

Loss of Glacial MassThe melting of ice caps is a hot topic of discussion in climate change debate. It is a very frequent argument in trying to prove climate change. The argument seems to be common sense: when it gets hot, ice melts. When ice melts, it turns to water. Sea levels rising could be potentially very damaging to a large fraction of the world, ruining entire cities (possibly even states or countries), causing billions of dollars in damage and countless casualties. The effects of the melting ice caps include coastal flooding, a decrease in the worlds freshwater supply, and the reduction of the habitat of polar region animals.A large portion of the worlds population inhabits coastal areas. Coastal areas boast fertile lowlands, abundant marine resources, water transportation, and aesthetic beauty. Coastal economies include commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, and tourism, agriculture and forestry dependent on the coastal climate. [11] Knowing this, it is obvious that coastal flooding would be absolutely devastating on a global scale. A table in the book Saving Kyoto shows the top 20 cities threatened by coastal flooding in todays dollar amounts. Among the top 20 are some of the worlds most important cities, including but not limited to: Miami at a damage estimate of $416 billion, New York at $320 billion, New Orleans at $234 billion, Tokyo at $174 billion, and Amsterdam at $128 billion. [12] According to Al Gore, water levels will rise by twenty feet if both Greenland and Antarctica completely melt over the next century [2]. He faces strong opposition from many; most of the predictions of expected water level rises are around one foot over the next century [13]. This is because when ocean ice sheets melt, they do not cause the water level to rise because the ice sheet as already displaced the volume of the water [13]. It is similar to having a glass of ice water: when the ice melts, the waterline in your cup does not rise. Past and projected sea level increases can be explained by an increase in the volume of the ocean due to the expansion of the ocean [13], and land-borne ice sheets that fall into the water . This is a basic principle in chemistry and physics - when something gets hot, it expands. Sea level records reflect this: since 1700 there has been an increase of about 150 mm (5.9 in) [14]. Over the last half of the 20th century, sea levels rose about 1.8 mm (0.07 in) per year. This equals a 90 mm (3.5 in) rise over the last 50 years, which is 60% of the sea level rise over the last 300 years [14].Drinking water is another pressing concern in the case of large scale glacier and ice cap melting. The Himalayan glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have been among the most affected by global warming. The Himalayas provide more than half of the drinking water for 40 percent of the worlds population If these glaciers disappear, within the next half-century, 2.6 billion of the worlds people may well face a very serious drinking water shortage. [2] The first half of this claim holds true, as glaciers hold about 75% of the Earths freshwater [15]. In Washington state alone, glaciers provide 1.8 trillion liters (470 billion gallons) of water each summer [15]. For the second half, however, the exact opposite is true. Freshwater is obtained from glaciers through meltwater, and the increased rate of melting would help in obtaining more fresh drinking water [16].Loss of habitat is an issue most people seem to get caught up in, particularly those with children. The claims are that the polar ice caps are breaking up and melting, and so polar bears must swim longer distances to reach the next ice floe while hunting, and sometimes drown from exhaustion. Another popular claim is that penguins are also suffering from thinning ice sheets in the Antarctic [2]. Contrary to popular belief, Antarctica is actually gaining ice mass. The increase in temperature causes more precipitation, which would fall in the form of snow in the Antarctic. The accumulation of snow forces down previously fallen snow, compacting it into ice, eventually forming a glacier. This is what has been happening recently, so there is good reason to believe that that there is no need to worry about our well-dressed flightless friends in the South Pole. The same applies to the polar bears, though the process is a bit more difficult due to the fact that the Arctic ice cap is much thinner than the Antarctic.Overall, it can be concluded with confidence that we do not have as big a problem concerning glaciers as we thought. The melting of glaciers only make up a very small fraction of potential sea level rise, and the habitats of animals seem to be intact for the time being.

Surface TemperaturesThe rising of surface temperatures can obviously be correlated to the warming of the Earth - as it gets hotter, so does the water. Water, however, has a very high specific heat and takes much longer to heat up, and needs a much larger increase in heat to increase the temperature of water to the same temperature as the air around it.As mentioned in the previous section, rising sea levels can be mostly attributed to the oceans heating up. As anything heats up, it expands, and water is no different. As the oceans heat up, the volume of the water increases. Since the water has nowhere else to go, it goes up, increasing the depth of the water by raising the water level. Data collected on surface temperatures show that while the oceans have warmed since 1910 [17], surface temperatures have risen by only 0.8C (1.4F) since 1880 [18]. The slight rise in surface temperatures is consistent with the data presented earlier showing that sea levels have risen slightly.Severe weather occurrences are a concerning effect of warming surface temperatures. The severe weather has similar consequences that coastal flooding does, except with severe weather there is the possibility of damage by wind, or electrical damage as well as flooding. Also, severe weather can affect the inland, whereas coastal flooding obviously only affects the coast. A hurricane is a synoptic-scale, non-frontal, low-pressure system in the subtropics or tropics, with maximum sustained wind speeds greater than 33 m/s [74 mph] Sea-surface temperature must exceed 27C [80F], [19], and needs warm, moist air at sea level [20]. Consistent with the marginal rise in surface temperatures, there has been a very slight - if any - increase in the number of systems per year since 1850 [21]. Another piece of good news comes from a study done by NOAA in which it is concluded that, It is premature to conclude that human activities--and particularly greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming--have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane activity. That said, human activities may have already caused changes that are not yet detectable due to the small magnitude of the changes or observational limitations, or are not yet properly modeled (e.g., aerosol effects), [22].Thunderstorms are another kind of severe weather system that would be affected by rising surface temperatures. A thunderstorm is defined as: A localized storm with heavy precipitation, lightning, and the associated thunder, [19], and it needs warm, moist air in the lower atmosphere [20]. While the warm, moist air in the lower can come from the ground, the ocean has a great impact on the birth of thunderstorms. This is why the most humid areas in the United States (the coastal region) experiences the most lightning flashes in the country annually. [23]The effect of rising surface temperatures on sea levels and severe weather systems is undeniable. Hurricanes, thunderstorms, and other severe weather systems depends and feed on warm, moist air that is most abundant in warm waters. With increasing surface temperatures, the severity of these storms will increase, causing more damage, more casualties, and more catastrophe.

Taking ActionWhile climate change can be a very serious issue with many severe effects, there are ways to prevent, stop, and maybe - someday in the future perhaps? - reverse its effects. With an educated plan of attack and a little bit of hard work, humanity can save the planet for real this time.A wide scientific consensus leans toward the conclusion that a significant factor in the cause of global warming can be attributed to carbon emissions. Therefore, the best and most effective way to reduce the effect of global climate change is to live as carbon-free as possible.If one was to live by How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, one would be able make a huge impact on the environment by himself just in the emissions he and his family and friends (assuming they adopt his technique) limits. Of course, not everybody can adhere to every single suggestion in the book, but if one is disciplined enough to follow most of the advice, they would take an enormous step towards saving the planet.Some of these action steps include lowering the thermostat during the winter months and vice versa for the summer months, having better insulation so that the thermostat doesnt have to work as hard to heat the house, cooking with gas, replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs, replacing old TVs with with LCD displays, using public transportation more frequently, planting trees, and switching off appliances when not in use [24].Most of these may sound they have no real impact since they are on such a small scale, but if you consider enacting at least half of these recommended steps, over a years time, your annual carbon-emission total will have dropped dramatically since a good number of these small actions taken will compound over time and eventually end up making a pretty significant difference. Now just think if we can get the upper and middle class (those who are in the best position to carry out most of these procedures) to adhere to this living regimen.Another way of taking action without having to change the way you live would be being informed. John Stuart Mill, a very famous and influential philosopher, once said that major sources of unhappiness stem from unselfishness and lack of mental cultivation, implying that with the proper education, one could achieve happiness. This also implies that evils in the world that cause unhappiness can be alleviated by an educated society devoted to the campaign [25]. A driven, educated society can do anything, and saving the world is no exception. By just being educated, one becomes aware of all the harm they do on an individual scale on a daily basis, and will subconsciously act to reduce their negative impact as much as possible. Another reason that it is important to be educated is so that society can vote for the right politician that is going to enact the right policies to have the greatest positive impact on the environment. By being educated, one will be able to distinguish between those who have a legitimate aim to help and those who are just using the platform to get elected or re-elected.

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