Climate change

Climate change is defined as the variation in the state of the Earth's climate system, consisting
of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, which lasts for
sufficiently long periods of time (decades or longer) until a new equilibrium is reached. It can
affect both the average meteorological values and their variability and extremes.

Climate changes have existed since the beginning of Earth's history, have been gradual or
abrupt and have been due to various causes, such as those related to changes in orbital
parameters, variations in solar radiation, continental drift, periods of intense volcanism, biotic
processes or meteorite impacts. Current climate change is anthropogenic and is mainly related
to the intensification of the greenhouse effect due to industrial emissions.

Scientists are actively working to understand past and future climate through observations and
theoretical models. To do this, they compile a climate record of the Earth's remote past based
on geological evidence from geotechnical soundings of thermal profiles, ice cores, records of
flora and fauna such as tree-ring and coral growth, glacial and periglacial processes, isotopic
analysis and other analyses of sediment layers and sediment records.

The instrumental record provides more recent data. Good examples are instrumental records
of atmospheric temperature and measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentration. We must
not forget the enormous flow of climatological data from orbiting satellites belonging mainly to
NASA's Earth observation programs5 and ESA6

Causes

Climate is an average of weather on a given time scale that the World Meteorological
Organization has standardized over 30 years.19 The different climates correspond mainly to
geographical latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, orientation of the earth's relief with
respect to insolation (sunny and shady slopes) and the direction of the winds (leeward and
windward slopes) and, Finally, ocean currents. These factors and their variations Over time,
they produce changes in the main constituent elements of climate: atmospheric temperature,
atmospheric pressure, winds, humidity and precipitation.

A change in the emission of solar radiation, in the composition of the atmosphere, in the
arrangement of the continents, in the ocean currents or in the Earth's orbit can modify the
distribution of energy and the thermal balance, thus profoundly altering the climate when it
comes to long-term processes.

Ultimately, for global climate change to occur, some climate forcing must act, that is, any factor
that affects the energy balance of the climate system, modifying the amount of energy that the
system receives from the Sun or the amount of energy that the system loses by emission from
Earth into outer space. Forcings can be variations in the Earth's orbital parameters, in the
Earth's albedo in the concentration of greenhouse gases, in the concentration of aerosols of
both natural origin, such as those from volcanic eruptions, and those of anthropogenic origin
that come from human activities, among others.
External influences

Solar Variations: The Sun is a star approximately 4.6 billion years old that emits
electromagnetic radiation throughout the spectrum from radio waves to X-rays, although 50%
of the energy is emitted in the visible and infrared. The emission is excellently matched to that
of a black body at 5770 K, the characteristic temperature of its visible surface (the
photosphere). At the distance from the Earth (1 AU), the upper part of the atmosphere
receives an irradiance of 1361 W/m²22 which, Due to its low short-term variation, it is
historically known as the solar constant.

Orbital variations

While the sun's luminosity remains virtually constant over millions of years, the Earth's orbit
does not. It oscillates periodically, causing the average amount of radiation received by each
hemisphere to fluctuate over time, and these variations cause glacial pulsations in the form of
long-period summers and winters. These are the so-called glacial and interglacial periods.

There are three factors that contribute to modifying the orbital characteristics, causing the
average insolation in both hemispheres to vary, although the global radiation flux does not vary
slightly. These are the precession of the equinoxes, the orbital eccentricity, and the obliquity of
the orbit or inclination of the Earth's axis. Only eccentricity can change the overall radiation
flux slightly, by less than 0.2%.

Meteorite impacts

. On rare occasions catastrophic events occur that change the face of the Earth forever. These
are large meteorite impacts. The last such globally catastrophic and well-documented event,
the Chicxulub event (in Yucatan, Mexico) known as the K/T impact, occurred 66 million years
ago77 and caused a mass extinction that wiped out many species besides the dinosaurs.7879
The culprit, an asteroid about 10 km in diameter it created a crater of about 200 km and
brought into play an energy of around one billion Mt,8081 equivalent in order of magnitude to
the energy that our planet receives from the Sun for an entire year. There is no doubt that such
phenomena can have a devastating effect on the climate by releasing large amounts of aerosols
(mainly as sulphur oxides that produce sulphuric acid), dust, water vapour and CO2 into the
atmosphere due to the ejection of materials, both from the object itself and from the
atmosphere of the earth's surface, and the fires caused by the impact.

Internal Influences

Continental drift

Continental drift and climate are related processes since the position of the continents is a
determining factor in the shaping of the global climate. The Earth has undergone many
changes since its origin 4.6 billion years ago. 225 million years ago all the continents were
united, forming what is known as Pangaea and there was a universal ocean called Panthalassa.
Plate tectonics has pulled the continents apart and put them in the current situation. The
Atlantic Ocean It has been forming for 200 million years. Continental drift is an extremely slow
process, so the position of the continents determines the behavior of the climate over millions
of years. There are two aspects to consider. On the one hand, the latitudes in which the
continental mass is concentrated: if the continental masses are located at low latitudes, there
will be few continental glaciers and, in general, less extreme average temperaturas

Ocean Currents

Ocean, or marine, currents are climate-regulating factors that act as moderators, softening
temperatures in regions such as Europe and the western coasts of Canada and Alaska.
Climatology has clearly established the thermal limits of the different types of climate that
have been maintained throughout all that time. There is not so much talk about the rainfall
limits of this climate because the traditional Mediterranean crops are helped by the In the case
of rainfed crops, they occur in more or less flat plots (terraced cultivation) in order to make
rainfall more effective by promoting infiltration into the soil. In addition, the typical crops of
the Mediterranean scrub are adapted to much more intense meteorological changes than
those that have been recorded in recent times.

Human Activity

Environmental impact,100 also known as anthropogenic impact or anthropogenic impact, is

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