CLIMATE CHANGE

These are the learning outcomes in this lesson:

1. Explain correctly the concepts of weather, climate and

climate change.

2. Describe the causes and effects of climate change.

3. Design/participate in PAPS to help mitigate climate

change

4. Develop favorable attitude as good stewards of nature

Definitions/Important Concepts

Weather

➢ Weather is the mix of events that happen each day in our atmosphere. Even though there’s only
one atmosphere on Earth, the weather isn’t the same all around the world. Weather is different
in different parts of the world and changes over minutes, hours, days, and weeks.
 ➢ There are many different factors that can change the atmosphere in a certain area like air
pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and lots of other things. Together,
they determine what the weather is like at a given time and location.
➢ Weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere.

Climate

➢ The average weather at a particular place, incorporating such features as temperature,

precipitation, humidity, and windiness or the mean state and variability of these features over
some extended time period.
➢ Describes what the weather is like over a long period of time in a specific area. Different regions
can have different climates. To describe the climate of a place, the report includes what the
temperatures are like during different seasons, how windy it usually is, or how much rain or
snow typically falls.
➢ The averages of precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind, and other measures of
weather that occur over a long period in a particular place. Three-decade averages of weather
observations are called Climate Normals.
➢ Climate Normals can help describe whether the summers are hot and humid and whether the
winters are cold and snowy at a particular place. They can also tell when to expect the warmest
day of the year or the coldest day of the year at that location.

Figure below visualizes the difference between weather and climate.

Climate Change

➢ Periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere
as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical,
biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system.

Climate
change is
REAL.

➢ These are the compelling evidences of climate change…

Causes of Climate Change

1. Fossil-fuel combustion, deforestation, rice cultivation, livestock ranching,

industrial production, and other human activities have increased since the
development of agriculture and especially since the start of the Industrial
Revolution.
2. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane,
and water vapour, absorb infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and reradiate it back,
thus contributing to the greenhouse effect.
3. Ice sheets, sea ice, terrestrial vegetation, ocean temperatures, weathering rates, ocean
circulation, and GHG concentrations are influenced either directly or indirectly by the
atmosphere; however, they also all feed back into the atmosphere and influence it in important
ways.
4. Periodic changes in Earth's orbit and axial tilt with respect to the Sun (which occur over tens of
thousands to hundreds of thousands of years) affect how solar radiation is distributed on Earth's
surface.
5. Tectonic movements, which change the shape, size, position, and elevation of the continental
masses and the bathymetry of the oceans, have had strong effects on the circulation of both the
atmosphere and the oceans.
6. The brightness of the Sun continues to increase as the star ages and it passes on an increasing
amount of this energy to Earth's atmosphere over time.
Potential Future Effects of Climate Change

Temperatures will
continue to rise

1.

Increased heavy
precipitation events
will continue.

2.

Summer temperatures are

projected to continue rising,
and a reduction of soil
moisture

3.
 Hurricane-associated storm
intensity and rainfall rates are
projected to increase as the
climate continues to warm.

4. Sea level will rise 1 to 4 feet by

2100. This is the result of
added water from melting land
ice and the expansion of
seawater as it warms. In the
next several decades, storm
surges and high tides could
combine with sea level rise and
land subsidence to further
5. increase flooding in many regions.

Climate change is affecting the global economy. It is already shaking up social, health and
geopolitical balances in many parts of the world. The scarcity of resources like food and energy gives
rise to new conflicts.

Mitigation and Adaptation

Climate change is one of the most complex issues today. It involves many dimensions – science,
economics, society, politics and moral and ethical questions – and is a global problem, felt on local
scales and will be around for decades and centuries to come. Carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping
greenhouse gas that has driven recent global warming, lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years,
and the planet (especially the oceans) takes a while to respond to warming. So even if nations stopped
emitting all greenhouse gases today, global warming and climate change will continue to affect future
generations. In this way, humanity is “committed” to some level of climate change.

Because humans are already committed to some level of climate change, responding to climate change
involves a two-pronged approach:

1. Mitigation
➢ Reducing climate change
➢ Reducing emissions of and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere by reducing sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil
fuels for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and
store these gases (such as the oceans, forests and soil).
➢ The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with the climate
system, and “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow
 ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not
threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner”
2. Adaptation
➢ Adapting to the climate change which is already in the pipeline
➢ Adapting to life in a changing climate which involves adjusting to actual or expected
future climate.
➢ The goal of adaptation is to reduce the vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate
change (like sea-level encroachment, more intense extreme weather events or food
insecurity).
➢ It also encompasses making the most of any potential beneficial opportunities
associated with climate change (for example, longer growing seasons or increased yields
in some regions).

While climate change is a global issue, it is felt on a local scale hence, municipalities or LGUs are
at the frontline of adaptation. Some initiatives on solving their own climate problems include
working to build flood defenses, plan for heatwaves and higher temperatures, install water-
permeable pavements to better deal with floods and storm water and improve water storage
and use.
Moreover, climate change is starting to be factored into a variety of development plans of the
governments in various levels - how to manage the increasingly extreme disasters they are
seeing and their associated risks, how to protect coastlines and deal with sea-level
encroachment, how to best manage land and forests, how to deal with and plan for reduced
water availability, how to develop resilient crop varieties and how to protect energy and public
infrastructure, among others.

Many scientists agree that the

damage to the Earth's
atmosphere and climate is past
the point of no return or that the
damage is near the point of no
return…
 …..and we are left with these 3 options:

1. Do nothing and live with the consequences;

2. Adapt to the changing climate (which

includes things like rising sea level and
related flooding); or

3 .Mitigate the impact of climate change by

aggressively enacting policies that actually
reduce the concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere

Task: Develop a 2-stanza binalaybay in Kinaray-a about Climate Change. Let the title be:

“ANO ANG CLIMATE CHANGE?”

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