Climate Change and Energy Crisis
Climate Change and Energy Crisis
TOPIC:
Climate Change and Energy Crisis
Climate change is one of the fundamental challenges ever to confront humanity. Its adverse
effects being seen may intensify over time if nothing is done about it.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
DISCUSSION:
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an
extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). Global climate change has already had
observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier,
plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering soon.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near – surface air and oceans
in recent decades and its projected continuation.
TASK 1
Why is the study of climate change important? Make a short essay about this.
CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
NATURAL CAUSES
1. Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanic eruptions are one of the natural causes of climate change. When volcanoes erupt, it emits
different aerosols like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxides, salt crystals, volcanic ashes or dust, and even
microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. The volcanic eruption can cause a cooling effect to the lithosphere
because its emitted aerosol can block a certain percentage of solar radiation. This cooling effect can last for
one to two years
What happens in violent volcanic eruptions is the release of ash particles in the stratosphere. The volcanic
ashes which have sulfur dioxide combine with water vapor. It then forms to sulfuric acid and sulfurous
aerosols. The sulfurous aerosols then ae transported by easterly or westerly winds. Volcanoes located near
the equator are more likely to cause global cooling because of the wind pattern. Volcanoes located near to
north or south pole are less likely to cause cooling because of pole wind pattern, the sulfurous aerosols are
confined in pole area.
There are several recorded major volcanic eruptions that cause climate change. Mount Tambora of
Indonesia erupted in 1816. It was considered as the largest known eruption in human history. The eruption
caused snowfall in the northeastern United States and Canada. It affected their agricultural lands, losing
crops that caused food shortage and increased human mortality. The eruptions of Mount Krakatau of
Indonesia in 1883 and Mount Pinatubo of the Philippines in 1991 contributed, too, to the cold years of
planet Earth.
2. Orbital Changes
Earth’s orbit can also cause climate change. The best way to visualize this relationship is
to look at the orbit of the Earth around the sun. With the sun in the center, the Earth moves in an elliptical
motion.
While the orbit remains an ellipse, its position or orientation in space changes over time.
Due to the tilt of the Earth, the whole area does not receive an equal amount of sunlight. The Earth spins
around its own axis, an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole, which dips and wobbles
gradually. The Earth could then be imagined like a spinning top or trumpo, turning and wobbling in its
path about the sun.
The elements in this interaction between the sun and the Earth are defined as follows:
3. Aphelion refers to the point in the orbit of the Earth farthest from the sun.
4. Perihelion is the point in the orbit of the Earth closest to the sun.
5. Earth’s axial tilt is the inclination angle of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to a line
perpendicular to its orbital plane.
6. Precession is the change of the orientation of the rotational axis of the Earth.
7. Equinox refers to the time the sun at noon is directly over the equator. It happens twice a year ad
causes an almost equal length of day and night.
8. Solstice happens when the sun at noon sits above the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn. The
summer solstice has the shortest period.
9. Precession of equinoxes refers to the motion of the equinoxes relative to the precession of the
Earth’s axis of rotation. It happens over thousands of years.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is added when power and heat are produced by burning coal, oil,
and other fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is transparent to sunshine but not invisible to infrared (heat)
radiation leaving the ground. Carbon dioxide absorbs part of the infrared radiation in the air and returns it
to the ground keeping the air near the surface warmer than it would be if the carbon dioxide did not act
like a blanket. Doubling the carbon dioxide raises the temperature to 2 oC to 3oC.
HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Human activities like mining, wrong practices in agriculture, illegal logging, burning of
fossil fuel, deforestation, too much car that emits carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and producing
industrial waste are believe to be the sources of greenhouse gases that in the long run cause the climate
change.
TASK 2
Identify the scenario that you observed in your surroundings that causes climate change.
What is the scientific consensus about future global warming and its effects?
• According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the earth’s mean surface
temperature will rise 1 – 3.5oC between 1990 and 2100.
• The northern hemisphere should warm more and faster than the southern hemisphere because the
latter has more heat absorbing ocean than the land and because water cools more slowly than land.
• In 1992 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, 106 nations approved a Convention on Climate
Change, in which developed countries committed themselves to reducing the emission
of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
• In December 1997 representatives of 160 nations met in Kyoto, Japan to negotiate a
new treaty to help slow global warming. The resulting treaty would require developed
countries to cut greenhouse emissions by the average of 0.2% below 1990levels
between 2008 – 2012; allow emission trading, in which a country that beats in target
goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions can sell its excess reductions to countries
that failed to meet their reduction goals; allow forested countries to get a break in their
quotas because trees absorb carbon dioxide; allow penalties for countries that violate
the treaty to be determined later.
Carbon dioxide concentration – Carbon dioxide is responsible for 50 – 60% of the global
warming from greenhouse gases produced by human activities since pre – industrial times. The
main sources are fossil fuel burning: coal, oil and natural gas (75%) and land clearing and burning
(25%). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is nevertheless the main driver of the greenhouse effect. Because of
this the layer of greenhouse gas is getting thicker, which is in turn making the Earth warmer.
Chloroflourocarbon – contribute to global warming in the troposphere and deplete the ozone in
the stratosphere. The main sources are leaking air conditioners and refrigerators, evaporation of
industrial solvents.
Methane concentration – Methane is produced when anaerobic bacteria break down organic
matte in moist places that lack oxygen. These areas include swamps and other natural wetlands,
rice paddies, and landfills, intestinal tract of cattle, sheep and termites.
Nitrous oxide concentration – Nitrous oxide can trap heat in the troposphere and deplete ozone
in the stratosphere. It is released from nylon production, burning of biomass and nitrogen fertilizers
in soil, livestock wastes.
ENERGY CRISIS
The energy crisis is the concern that the world's demands on the limited natural resources
that are used to power industrial society are diminishing as the demand rises. These natural
resources are in limited supply. While they do occur naturally, it can take hundreds of thousands
of years to replenish the stores.
All in all, the energy crisis has three main impacts on the economy, such as the increase of
oil prices, financial downturns and it offers the opportunity to develop renewable energies. Oil
reserves are decreasing, which has the effect that the oil prices rise steadily.
In order to prevent an energy crisis, it is also crucial that we consume less energy by
improving and modernizing energy infrastructure such as smart grid solutions, and smart cities. It
is also important that we replace old devices by energy efficient solutions, such as replacing
traditional light bulbs by LEDs.
SUMMARY:
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an
extended period of time.
Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near – surface air and oceans
in recent decades and its projected continuation.
ASSESSMENT:
PART I MULTIPLE CHOICE
2. It is a change in the statistical distribution of weather pattern that lasts for an extended
period of time.
A. Climate change C. System change
B. Body change D. Global warming
3. It refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near – surface air and
oceans in recent decades
A. Climate change C. System change
B. Body change D. Global warming
6. What convention were cutting of greenhouse emission was discussed to help slow
global warming?
A. Montreal C. Rio de Janeiro
B. Kyoto protocol D. ASEAN 2015 Integration
7. What was done by the Philippine’s government to address the problems on climate
change?
A. The Congress enacted a law to monitor action of the government related to climate
change
B. The government assigned an individual to address the problem on climate change
C. The government was not able to put up agency to address the problem
D. The Philippine government asked everybody to plant trees and prevent illegal
logging.
8. Which is not true with global warming?
A. Caused by heat released from the earth’s surface.
B. Caused by the entry of ultraviolet rays from the sun to the earth’s atmosphere
C. Primarily the result of release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
D. Greenhouse effect
A. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 C. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
B. 2, 4, 1, 3, 5 D. 2, 4, 3, 1, 5
PART II
Create an advocacy campaign material by making a poster that tells about how the
community will help mitigate the hazards caused by climate change.
REFERENCES:
Nast, C., 2021. What is climate change?. [online] WIRED UK. Available at:
<https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-climate-change-definition-causes-effects> [Accessed
21 November 2021].)
Conserve Energy Future. 2021. Causes, Effects and Solutions to Global Energy Crisis - Conserve Energy
Future. [online] Available at: <https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-solutions-to-theglobal-
energy-crisis.php> [Accessed 21 November 2021].