FOSSIL FUELS

Burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, to generate energy has
the greatest impact on the atmosphere than any other single human activity.
Globally, power generation is responsible for about 23 billion tonnes of CO2
emissions per year in excess of 700 tonnes every second. Coal is especially
damaging to our atmosphere, releasing 70% more carbon dioxide than
natural gas for every unit of energy produced.

El Nio
El Nio, which affects wind and rainfall patterns, has been blamed for droughts and floods in countries around the
Pacific Rim. El Nio refers to the irregular warming of surface water in the Pacific. The warmer water pumps energy
and moisture into the atmosphere, altering global wind and rainfall patterns. The phenomenon has caused tornadoes
in Florida, smog in Indonesia, and forest fires in Brazil.

Greenhouse gases

Some gases in the Earth's atmosphere act a bit like the glass in a
greenhouse, trapping the sun's heat and stopping it from leaking back into
space.
Many of these gases occur naturally, but human activity is increasing the
concentrations of some of them in the atmosphere, in particular:
carbon dioxide (CO2)
methane

nitrous oxide

fluorinated gases
CO2 is the greenhouse gas most commonly produced by human activities
and it isresponsible for 64% of man-made global warming. Its
concentration in the atmosphere is currently 40% higher than it was when
industrialisation began.
Other greenhouse gases are emitted in smaller quantities, but they trap
heat far more effectively than CO2, and in some cases are thousands of

times stronger. Methane is responsible for 17% of man-made global

warming, nitrous oxide for 6%.
Rainforests are more than just a carbon store
Deforestation and land use change account for approximately 11 per cent of global
carbon dioxide emissions. But the new research finds that cutting down trees doesnt
only affect the carbon they lock up.
The research, published in Nature Climate Change, reviews academic studies on
deforestation of tropical rainforests in the Amazon basin, central Africa, and southeast
Asia. Many of the studies use climate models to simulate what happens if you remove
these forests completely, and they suggest that deforestation in the tropics can affect the
climate on the other side of the world.
The map below shows how far-reaching some of these potential impacts are. The
triangles show areas where rainfall is expected to decrease because of tropical
deforestation, and the circles show areas of increase. The colours indicate the link to
where the deforestation occurs.
So the models suggest deforestation in the Amazon, for example, can reduce rainfall over
the US Midwest and even in northeast China. Deforestation in central Africa can cause a
drop in rainfall in southern Europe, and loss of trees in southeast Asian can bring wetter
conditions in southern Europe and the Arabian Peninsula.
Climate change can also be caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil
fuels and the conversion of land for forestry and agriculture. Since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution, these human influences on the climate system have increased

substantially. In addition to other environmental impacts, these activities change the

land surface and emit various substances to the atmosphere. These in turn can
influence both the amount of incoming energy and the amount of outgoing energy and
can have both warming and cooling effects on the climate. The dominant product of
fossil fuel combustion is carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The overall effect of human
activities since the Industrial Revolution has been a warming effect, driven primarily by
emissions of carbon dioxide and enhanced by emissions of other greenhouse gases.
The build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to an enhancement of the
natural greenhouse effect. It is this human-induced enhancement of the greenhouse
effect that is of concern because ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases have the
potential to warm the planet to levels that have never been experienced in the history of
human civilization. Such climate change could have far-reaching and/or unpredictable
environmental, social, and economic consequences.
1 global warming , increase in the earths temperature has led to continually
increasing sea levels which can lead to decreases in available land mass and
cause changes in the earths precipitation levels.
Researchers estimate that hot climate extremes appear to be on the rise
which can cause weather abnormalities such heat waves, increasing wind
speeds, extreme storms, stronger rainfall and longer droughts.
These changes in the earths temperature and atmosphere can have
detrimental affects on crop production/healthy crop success rates, habitat
formation and the availability of various food sources.
Other areas may see reduced ice levels and snow accumulation, which is
especially important to the survival of marine mammals, ocean dependent
animals and other oceanic life.
In fact one possible impact of global warming that is frequently seen and
talked about focuses on how increasing temperatures are decreasing various
parts of the polar hemisphere where polar bears, penguins and other ocean
dependent animals are finding it harder to sustain living in their
environment.

2Human activities have increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the

atmosphere
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous
oxide began to rise around two hundred years ago, after changing little since
the end of the last ice age thousands of years earlier. The concentration of
CO2 has increased . 2. Enormous amounts of it are continually exchanged
between the atmosphere, land and oceans, as land and marine plants grow,
die and decay, and as carbon-rich waters circulate in the ocean. For several
thousand years until around 200 years ago, this carbon cycle was
approximately in balance and steady.

Cause Massive Floods in

Louisiana
Climate change increases the intensity of precipitation because warm
weather leads more water to evaporate forming wetter clouds. South
Louisiana received nearly 30 inches of rain between August 10 and 17. 13
people died in the floods, which inundated Baton Rouge and destroyed
60,000 homes. The storm began with the development of a low-pressure
system in the Gulf of Mexico, and unusual warmth in the region helped
cause more water to evaporate, further feeding the storm clouds.