An Outline of Global Climate Change on Earth

An Outline of Global Climate Change on Earth There is no doubt that the accumulating evidence is suggesting that the Earth’s climate is continually changing in direct result because of human activity. The most important of which causes the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from fossil fuels. A report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated the Earth’s average land and sea surface temperature has increased by 0.6  ± 0.2 degrees Celsius since the middle of the 19th century (â€Å"Climate Change 2014†). The largest parts of change have occurred after 1976. The temperature is not the only thing to change on Earth. The models of precipitation have also changed. The drier regions of Earth are becoming drier, meanwhile other areas are becoming wetter. In the regions where precipitation has surged there has been an unequal boost in the prevalence of the heaviest precipitation occurrences. Furthermore, the IPCC has concluded that if no specif ic actions are taken to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth’s temperatures will likely rise between 1.4 and 5.8 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ C from 1990 to 2100 (â€Å"Findings of the IPCC†). These forecasts wind speed and precipitation are not as consistent, but they also suggest significant changes. In general, humans are very accustomed to changing climatic conditions that vary on a daily, seasonal, or annual timescale. Increasing evidence suggests that in addition to this natural climate change, average climatic conditions measured over a period of thirty years or longer are also changing a lot more than the natural variations documented in the time periods of decades or centuries. As time is going on the understanding of these causes are becoming more and more understood. Climatologists have compared climate model simulations of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions to that of the observed climate changes of the past. They have also evaluated the possible natural infl uences to include solar and volcanic activity. Climatologists have concluded that there is new and strong evidence that the majority of the global warming observed over the last fifty years is most likely to be attributable to human activities. Global warming has been documented and observed in all continents with the largest temperature changes happening at the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The miniscule amount of climatic change that has already occurred so far has had unmistakable effects on a large variety of natural ecosystems. Over the period 1948 to 2013, the average annual temperature in Canada has warmed by 1.6  °C (relative to the 1961-1990 average), a higher rate of warming than in most other regions of the world (â€Å"Impacts of Climate Change†). There are climate model simulations that have been used to estimate the effects of the Earth’s past, present, and future greenhouse gas emissions on climate changes. These models are based on the data of the heat confining properties of gases released into the atmosphere from man-made and natural sources. Also the measured climatic effects of other natural phenomena is used. The models used by the IPCC have been certified by testing their ability to explain climate changes that already happened in the Earth’s past. Generally, the models can give decent estimates of past patterns only when man-made emissions of non-greenhouse gas air pollutants are included to go with the natural phenomena. This underscores that the models show a good estimate of the climate system, natural fluctuations are important contributors to climatic changes even if they cannot sufficiently explain past trends on their own, and man-made greenhouse gas emissions are a vital contributor to climate patterns and are certainly likely to remain so going forward.