Welcome curious minds to my second blog! Since this will be my first official post, I will not make it complicated or heavy. As a researcher who studied many different aspects of climate change, I thought I will give a brief introduction on climate change and the many misconceptions that roots from public perception.
Climate change is a subject that can no longer be ignored but it is, however, constantly challenged by leaders, experts from other fields and also the general public on a global scale. Firstly, we have to understand that changing the climate is a natural phenomenon which occurs over a long period of time but the changes we can observe today are not part of a natural phenomenon. The climatic changes which cause erratic seasonal changes, extreme rainfall, droughts, and prolonged heat waves are all occurring more frequently than ever recorded in history. These changes started a few decades ago, but it is clear that after the industrial revolution and all the ill practices that were born from it pushed the atmospheric gas composition towards an abnormal level giving rise to anthropogenic climate change.
We all learnt about the gases that make up the atmosphere, that these gases are vital for the greenhouse effect which enables life on this planet. So what happens if the gases that capture radiation to produce heat keeps increasing? The higher the gas composition, the stronger the warming, which led to the famous term “Global Warming”. It was very easy for many to tear this term apart as it spoke of a world which is supposed to be warming in front of our eyes. People perceived that global warming meant that every part of the world had to experience higher temperatures and unbearable heat, but when that was not observed and experienced as was imagined, it was very easy to dismiss the evidence and the research that was published by climate scientists. This led to a new term “Climate Change”, a term that cannot cause confusion about the warming of the climate but rather encompass a definition which states that it is more than just a change in temperature. It is the long term change in the very climate which decides the seasons, rainfall, snowfall and extreme weather events. For instance, if one region experiences heat waves, another region could experience high snowfall which suggests an increase in extreme weather events.
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| Image courtesy: Financial Tribune (2017) - Coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef |
Why is temperature important to us? Temperature is the key factor which determines most processes in our ecosystems. It decides the species composition, specifically for reptiles where temperature decides the sex of the young and eventually the survival of the species. There is a clear observable, tangible evidence that confirms the decreasing of the Arctic sea ice cover, which will have major effects on wildlife and indirect impacts for us. Increasing temperature has detrimental effects on marine life, reducing their tolerance to other stresses and also altering change in species diversity. There is a strong correlation between increasing greenhouse gases and increasing temperature. For example, in marine ecosystems temperature and ocean acidity occurring at the same time can be two extreme stresses which can have harmful effects on marine life. To elaborate, increasing CO2 concentrations cause a significant increment in ocean acidification and this coupled with high temperatures lead to mass bleaching events of coral reefs and all other marine species that require calcium carbonate structures to survive.
Even with evidence spanning across the natural systems, it is still easy for people to disconnect from environmental issues such as climate change, simply because the climate is not understood. There is a common misconception regarding the accuracy of future climate projections, that if it is difficult to predict the weather for the next few days how are we are basing policy on climate projections. The simple answer to this would be that weather data is more unpredictable because it predicts the near future but climate projections predict weather patterns over a long period of time, the calculations provide scenarios based on models which take into account other variables to provide an accurate projection of climate. The physical science basis report from IPCC in 2007 stated that “when the weather is averaged over space and time, the fact that the globe is warming emerges clearly from the data”. Another common misunderstanding roots from experts who claimed that the changes in climate we experience today is not anthropogenic but rather a part of the natural climate system. They state that dramatic changes in climate have occurred in the last 1000 years and the natural climate system can regulate these changes on its own. However, there is evidence now to prove that the greenhouse gas effects now outweigh the natural variability that is observed in the climate system. Best described by Cowley, et al (2000) “A 21st-century global warming projection far exceeds the natural variability of the past 1000 years and is greater than the best estimate of global temperature change for the last interglacial”.
I will conclude by noting that denialism has governed the issues on climate change for decades which has led this planet to the brink of irreversible ecological damage. Its impacts can be observed on a global scale, it is, however, more evident than it has ever been especially for island nations such as Sri Lanka. Therefore, let's be more aware of our actions, each of us has a role to play in ensuring the survival of Earth. More on the impacts of climate change will be posted in my upcoming blogs, so keep a lookout. Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something new.
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