History of Global Climatic Changes

1. Global Climatic Change
Ashok Ghosh
A.N. College,Patna

2. Climate Change - The Moving Train
 Climate change is a slow train
that's been coming for more than
a century, but even slow trains
eventually reach their
destinations.
 With ocean temperature hitting
record highs this summer, Arctic
sea ice dwindling and glaciers
melting faster than ever, that
train now seems to be pulling
into the station.
 The urgency is suddenly hitting
home for people all around the
planet.

3. WE’VE DOUBLED
THE CO2 IN THE
ATMOSPHERE
SINCE 1950 !

4.  According to an estimate of the water resources ministry,
India’s per capita availability of water is around 1,545 m3 a
year in 2011 , which is below the international threshold of
1,700 m3 a year.
 India is home to 17 % of the world’s population but has
only 4 % of fresh water.
 According to the UN-adopted Water Stress Indicator,
national per capita availability indicates water stress
conditions.
 The country currently uses 829 billion m3 of water every
year, which is approximately the size of Lake Erie, the
fourth largest of the five Great Lakes in North America.
 By 2050 the demand for water is expected to cross the 1.4-

5. Our Life Style ???
If everyone on Earth
continue our current
life style, it would take
more than 7 Earths to
support human
population by the end
of this century.

6. THE
ONLY
ONE
WE
KNOW
OF…
…TO
DATE !

7. Portage Glacier, Alaska
Receded Five KM,Revealing a lake
Portage Glacier, 1914 Portage Glacier, 2005

8. Grinnell Glacier
Before -Grinnell Glacier -1940 After - Grinnell Glacier - 2004

9. Shepard Glacier from Pyramid Peak
Before - Shepard Glacier- 1913 Before - Shepard Glacier- 2005

10. Swift current Glacier
Before- Swift current Glacier -1900 After- Swift current Glacier -1998

11. Boulder Glacier
Before - Boulder Glacier -1932 After - Boulder Glacier - 2005

12. Chaney Glacier Terminus
BEFORE: Chaney Glacier - 1911 AFTER: Chaney Glacier - 2005.

13. When did the
problem begin?
The problems began when
human activities created &
released more gases in the
atmosphere than are necessary.

14. 1760 – Industrial Revolution
 Beginning around 1760,the
industrial revolution
started overhauling the
way human society
operates
 Innovation in energy,
manufacturing and
transportation
supercharged the
economic evolution of
many countries
 But some of them like coal
refining and mechanized
labor were mixed blessings
- also putting the planet
on a collision course for a
climate change

15. 1825–Discovery of green house effect
 A physicist Joseph Fourier
(1825) theorized that some
gases in earths atmosphere
act as one way streets,
allowing the solar heat to
enter but not letting it leave –
later on dubbed as Green
House Effect
 A fellow physicist John Tyndal
(1859) identified specific
gases that were carrying out
Fourier's Theory in the sky,
including water vapor, carbon
dioxide and methane – widely
known as green house gases

16. 1870 – Technical revolution
 Also known as Second Industrial
Revolution saw speedy
development of major new
technologies , including
electricity, petroleum, and steel
 It accelerated humanity’s march
towards Climate Calamity
 Internal Combustion Engine,
Automobiles, Airplanes,
Mechanical Refrigeration and
mass production of consumer
goods are hallmarks of this
period

17. 1901 – Texas oil boom begins
 When the first Texas crude
erupted from an oil well at
Spindle Top Salt Dome on Jan
10,1901,America was changed for
ever
 Decades of frenzied drilling
followed uprooting the Texas
economy from the agricultural
origins and rocketing it into
industrial age
 US car culture became more
affordable and the train of
climate change started moving
faster

18. Presently
82 MILLION
BARRELS OF
OIL IS
EXTRACTED
EVERY DAY !
=
10 ½
SWIMMING
POOLS
EVERY
SECOND !

19. 1930 – Dust bowl
 Americans got a harsh lession
in ecological backlash during
the early 1930’s,just when
the great depression was
hitting the high gear
 The dust bowl was the worst
drought in US history,but it
was made even worse by
misguided farmers who had
tilled swaths of great plains
top soil into dust
 The ensuing dust storm
ravaged the mid west ,and
sent giant black dirt clouds as
far as Chicago ,Washington
and New York.

20. 1938 – First sign of climate change
 In 1938 ,steam engineer and
inventor Guy Steward
Callander noticed that
rising level of atmospheric
CO2 were already warming
the globe ,but he perceived
it as a good thing ,delaying
a “return of deadly glaciers
for a while
 For a while Global warming
was known as Callander
Effect ,but the threat was
soon over shadowed by
World War II

21. 1956–Birth of US inter state highway
 In 1920s a group of companies
including General Motors
,Standard Oil,Firestone Tyre,and
Mack Truck began buying US
Cities Trolleys System and
dismantling them
 As suburbs grew and inner cities
dwindled over the next 30 years,
the stage was set when
President Eisenhower's’ 1956
Federal Aid highway act gave
rise to today's cross country
interstate system
 It helped lock Americans into oil
dependence and increasing
emission of GHGs

22. 1969- Birth of Environmentalism
 Modern Environmental
movement came of the age
in the 60s
 Rachel Carson’s 1962 Book
“Silent Spring” was one
catalyst
 But perhaps the biggest was
1969 Cuyahoga River Fire in
Ohio,US when sparks from a
passing train ignited oils and
chemicals floating on water
 The EPA,NOAA and Earth
Day were all created the
next year

23. 1973 – US energy crisis
 After decades of growth
American oil production
peaked in 1973
 It was bad timing because
the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo
quickly put a sqeeze on
supplies ,drove up prices
and created first energy
crisis
 Oil demand dripped only
temporarily and continued
rising on the 1980s

24. 1992–UN Earth Summit,Rio De Janeiro
 World leaders from 71
countries converged on Rio De
Janeiro in June 1992 for the
UN Earth Summit
 It featured the first Global
climate change negotiations,
among talk of biodiversity,
deforestation and other
environmental issues
 The new UN framework
convention on climate change
paved the way for the Kyoto
Protocol in 1997 ,as well as
December 2009 Copenhagen
Conference

25. 1997 – Kyoto Protocol
 The world’s first Global
Warming Treaty was born
among tense negotiation in
1997,which happened to be
earth’s warmest year on
record at the time
 The Kyoto protocol has faced
plenty of criticism since then
– many countries have failed
to meet the target

26. 2003 – European heat wave
 The summer of 2003 was
hottest ever recorded in
Europe
 More than 30,000 people
died as temperature soared
20 to 30 % above the
seasonal averages
 The disaster drew global
attention to the public
attention the public health
dangers posed by rising
temperature

27. 2005 – Atlantic hurricane
 Earth’s eight warmest year on
record have all occurred since
2001, but ‘05 remains the title
holder.
 Its balmy sea surface
temperature fuelled most
active Atlantic hurricane
season in US history
 Katrina was the worst of the
lot flooding entire New
Orleans neighborhood in
August 2005

28. 2006 – Inconvenient Truth
 Heat, hurricane and a major UN
climate summit in Montreal
made 2005 a big year for global
warming awareness
 Al Gore’s documentary – “An
Inconvenient Truth” arguably
made ‘06 even more eye
opening
 Gore won Nobel Prize for this
film and next year another big
UN summit in Bali laid the ground
work for negotiations to replace
the Kyoto treaty after 2009
meeting at Copenhagen

29. EPA Findings 2009
 The U.S. EPA is finally acknowledging that
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
contribute to air pollution which in turn poses a
health threat. This year, the EPA issued a
finding that identified six greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere “endanger the public health
and welfare of current and future generations.”
 The six GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons,
perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

30. The Climate Express Arrives Copenhagen
7th December ,2009

31. Copenhagen Accord [18th Dec 2009]
on Climate Change---
 Climate change is one of the
greatest challenges of our
time
 Immediate, drastic cuts in
global emissions are required
to hold the increase in global
temperature below 20 C.
 There are many challenges of
Adaptation and Mitigation to
the adverse effects of climate
change

32. 2010 the Year of the Volcano
 Pyroclastic flows of hot
ash and gas that swallow
forests and cities in
Indonesia and Iceland.
 Potentially engine-
clogging clouds that
grounded entire fleets of
planes with a single burb
- with volcanoes like
these as neighbors who
needs enemies?

33. 2011- Wave of Destruction-Japan
 A tsunami wave crashes
over a street in Miyako
City, Iwate Prefecture, in
north eastern Japan on
March 11 , 2011.
 An estimated 350,000
people are reportedly
homeless in the wake of
magnitude 9 earthquake.

34. Durban Climate Change Conference–2011
 Global carbon dioxide emissions
from burning fossil fuels have
increased by 49 per cent in the last
two decades, according to
researchers at the Tyndall Centre for
Climate Change Research, University
of East Anglia
 China, USA, India ,Russia, Japan,
Brazil, Germany, Canada, Mexico
and Iran - top ten Nations account
2/3rd of the Carbon-di-oxide
Emissions of the world.
COP 17-Global Carbon
Emissions Reached Record
10 Billion Tons, Threatening
2 Degree Target

35. The Dark Future

36. impacts
2 Degrees C target
Source: Stern Review

37. 10 Effect of Climate Change
 The increased likelihood of more
frequent and intense heat waves
 Heavy downpours & flooding
 More wildfires
 Degraded air quality
 Increased drought
 Greater sea level rise
 More intense storms
 Harm to water resources
 Harm to agriculture
 Harm to wildlife and ecosystems

38. Path Forward
1.6
Projections
1.4
Development and
Number of Earths Used by Humanity
application of
1.2 more sustainable
Target technologies
1.0
Number of Earths
pathway
Number of Earths Available
0.8 Opportunities
for innovation
0.6
0.4
0.2
Today
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

39. Should We Care?

40. YES … we have to care
because survival
of this
civilization is
at risk
THANKS