March 18, 2014 Natural Hazards Suzanne Grow Climate Change Paper What does climate change really

mean? The Webster Dictionary says climate is typical weather in region; the average weather or the regular variations in weather in a region over a period of years. Weather, per Webster again is defined as state of the atmosphere. Finally, change is defined as to pass or make something pass from one state or stage to another. All of these rigid yet ominous definitions sound quite a bit like what is happening to the weather on our planet today. I refer to the climate change issue and the reasons for it that hangs over our planet today. Over the past few years, changes have taken place in our weather that have caused huge catastrophes, beginning with hurricane Katrina. That behemoth hurricane from August of 2005 was probably the first peak our planet took into the Pandoras box that could be considered Climate Change. From there, three more hurricanes hit that broke all records. Then summer heat began to chime in. The summer weather in 2012 broke all records in the United States. The winter of 2014 has left record snow falls recorded across the plains and eastern states, and Londons Bridge is most certainly floating, if not falling, in all the rainfall they have endured this year. London has received more rain this winter than they have ever received since the 1700s, when record in England began. What is responsible for these severe changes? What is this and how do we look at it? Scientist say that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal are augmenting the natural greenhouse effect which in turn is overheating our atmosphere and oceans to levels that natural causes would never reach. Most of those trapped greenhouse gases end up heating up our oceans. Since oceans cover most of the surface of the

earth (2/3) it makes sense the ocean plays a big part in the climate change picture. The oceans are what makes our weather and thats where weve really been seeing the changes.. climate change!! But still, why? What causing this to happen? Part of me wants to say that this is just normal cycles,that the earth will change from time to time and heat up and then cool down again. We have only been keeping track of things for a short while when looking at the big picture of life on planet Earth. However, there are graphs such as the one below this paragraph, that show things went along warming up gradually, then suddenly the temperature started climbing in an upward trend. That trend now shows no sign of coming back down.

There is information out there that reflects that since the early 1900s, the global air and sea surface temperature has increased about 0.8 C (1.4 F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Our last three decades plus, has been successively warmer at the Earths surface than any other time period since the 1850s. The ocean isnt able to keep up with the process of absorbing the added heat. Why? I believe that it could have something to do with technology. By that I mean the huge number of computers everywhere; computers generate a lot of heat with usage and computers are all over. There is the now almost mandatory cell phone usage and the towers and buildings that control that usage. Could the heat or waves associated with cell phones be

leaching into the atmosphere? How about nuclear power plants? There is a huge amount of energy in the form of steam and heat associated with power plants. When accidents happen at these power plants as weve had happen many time before, and radiation leaks out, that can only exacerbate the situation. Never before, since humans have been around, have we had technology to the extent we have today. This has to come into play when looking at climate change. We must also look at the amount of human beings on the planet. In the 1960s this planet held around 3 billion people. Today, this planet holds about 7,148 billion people. The heat from each and every person and their effects on the planet must be looked at in this whole climate change picture. The International Panel on Climate Change has done plenty of research regarding the current meteorological state of our planet. This panel concurs that scientists are more than 90% certain that most of global warming was being caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities. In 2010 these findings were recognized by the national science academies of all major industrialized nations in the world. Further affirming these findings, in 2013 the IPCC stated that the largest contributing force of global warming is carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, from cement production and land use changes like deforestation of our rain forests. Without all of the scientific findings staring me in the face, I only need look at CNN or the local news to see the changes happening in our world. Honey bees are on the decline due to Colony Collapse Disorder. Honey bees are simply leaving the hive one day and not coming back. Why? Moose in Minnesota are dying by huge numbers. In the 1980s, moose numbered about 4,000 in the northwest part of Minnesota. Yet today, there are about 100. Not just there but in New Hampshire and Montana there are declines in the moose population. Why? Seth Moore, a wildlife biologist in Grand Portage, Minnesota believes that recent years of warmer, shorter winters and hotter, longer summers have resulted in a two-fold problem. The changing climate has stressed out the moose to the point of compromising their immune systems.

And warmer temperatures have allowed populations of white-tailed deer, carriers of brain worm, which is fatal to moose, to thrive. Polar bears? We all know about that situation, no need to explain that. My belief is that climate change is happening and it is here because of us; our bodies and what we produce with our bodies and our minds. In our well-meaning endeavor over the years to make a better world for human beings, we have unintentionally, perhaps, made it worse for mother nature. Is there any way to go back? Is there any way to fix the monster we created? I think we can only hold on and do our best to adapt to what is now our current state of affairs on planet Earth. The summers will be hotter and longer. The winters will be colder and wetter and we may see animals we have taken for granted, become a legend we tell our grandchildren about. Climate change is real and its here and our only hope is to go on and do the best we can to learn from the past and try to make a difference in the future. We should try and do as change is defined; passing from one state or stage, to another. If we can, Im sure well do it in style.