1. Climate Change: Causes and
Consequences
“The atmosphere is the key symbol of global
interdependence. If we can’t solve some of our
problems in the face of threats to this global
commons, then I can’t be very optimistic about
the future of the world. “ Margaret Mead

2. What is the Greenhouse
Effect?
• Some key terms:
• Troposphere
• Greenhouse gases
• CO2, CH4, CFC’s, H2O, N2O

3. The Greenhouse Effect

4. When did this topic gather
momentum?
• 1980’s and 1990’s
• Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines (1991)
• James Hansen, NASA
• 1988 creation of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change)

5. What are The Causes?
• Burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution:
coal, oil, natural gas
• Electricity, industry, transportation
• Agriculture
• CH4, CO2, N2O
• Deforestation
• Manufacture of cement
• Melting of permafrost

6. Fossil Fuels, CO2, and
Global Warming
Traffic jam in Taiwan
Coal-fired power plant
in Germany

7. Global Food Production
contributes to climate change
Livestock and crops =
CH4 and N2O

8. Cement Production
and Urban Sprawl
Cement
production in
China
• CaCO3 CaO + CO2
• A leading contributor of
Toronto global CO2

9. Understanding the
Impacts...
• Positive feedback loops lead to negative
consequences:
• Increased temperatures cause more
water vapor to be formed
• Increased water vapor=more global
warming

10. Other negative effects of the
positive feedback loops
• Increased global
temperature:
• Increased incidence of
forest fires
• Decreased forest=
decreased CO2
sequestration

11. What is the evidence?
• 2006 IPCC Report
• Earth is hottest it’s been in 400 years
• Most of temperature increase has been since
1980
• Arctic temperatures have risen 2X as fast as the
rest of the world
• During 20th Century sea level rose by 4-8
inches

12. Keeling Curve
Developed by
Charles Keeling

13. Impacts of Global Warming on
The Oceans
Thermohaline Circulation Pattern
• Melting polar
ice and glaciers
• Alteration of
climate in
countries
• Colder
temperatures
in some areas
• Warmer
temperatures
in other

14. The Ocean as a
CO2 Sink
• CO2 dissolves in the
ocean
• CO2 causes pH to drop
• Slight changes in pH
have impacts on food
chains
• Phytoplankton are
Ocean Acidification
sensitive to pH

15. Other Impacts of
Warming in the Arctic
• Melting of
permafrost
• release of
CO2 and
CH4
Penn State Scientists in the Arctic

16. Melting Glaciers in Peru
• Snow-melt is 1978
the source of
their drinking
water
• Qori Kalis Today
Glacier in Peru

17. Polar Regions
and Sea Level
Rise
A moulin on the
Greenland Ice Sheet