Why Global Warming Topic is Important

First of all, some clarifications need to be made about the definition of climate change; which means the atmosphere’s balance has been tipped of due to internal and external forces. Climate change refers to a change in the mean and /or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period; typically decades and longer. Such external forcing may vary from increased solar radiation or volcanism to atmospheric change due to the release of toxins and dusts caused by human activity like industrial revolution and natural factors like volcanic eruption. Although many aspects of climate influence characteristics and distributions of physical and biological systems, temperature and precipitation are the most important for measuring the impacts of climate change. These two climate parameters are generally chosen because of their practical understanding and for their significant impact on our system.

Climate change implications and predictions

Climate change is causing serious impacts on both social and natural systems. Species distribution and ecosystem function, which refers the processes and interactions within an ecosystem and include processes such as the water cycle and mineral cycle, are both closely linked to climate. For example, changes in species range, species extinction, biome shifts, altered disturbance regimes, and biogeochemical cycling are a few of the challenges facing ecologists resulting from climate change. These alterations will impact the types of plant or crop species able to grow in certain locations as well as the plant productivity. Therefore, crops typically grown in a specific region may begin to decrease in productivity and their resilience to pests and diseases may decline. These declines impact animals dependent on certain plant species because they will have fewer resources. This may lead to potentially serious consequences on agricultural production throughout the country. The greatest challenge in understanding climate change is the number of impacts, such as the result of precipitation changes on vegetation, and feedback loops. An example of a positive feedback loop in the tropics is the impact of rising temperature on tropical forests. As the temperatures increase, tropical forests increase the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere, thereby increasing the rate of climate change and further increasing temperatures. These feedback loops are complex and many of the interactions are understudied or unknown. This complexity makes it difficult to predict regional changes and the impact these changes are going to have on different biophysical aspects.

Temperature and Precipitation

Temperature and precipitation are two of the primary dictators of the quality and quantity of crop grain yield in a given year. Variations in either temperature or precipitation can significantly alter the fate of plant productivity. Climatic variations or local weather patterns occur naturally and differ from climate change. Ocean currents; natural cycles, such as the 35 year cycle for cyclonic activity; air surface temperatures; and the trade winds are all associated with naturally occurring climate variability on a regional scale. There are also microclimates, which cause local variations in weather patterns. This can be caused by distance from large bodies of water, elevation, changes in vegetation cover, or from local land management practices. Climate change is a trend that involves changes in precipitation and temperature.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the most widely recognized climate change institution. It was initiated by the World Meteorological Organization and by the United Nations Environmental Program. The purpose of this organization is to assess the latest scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature on climate change in order to determine the risk of climate change throughout the world and includes an assessment of predicted and observed climatic changes, and methods to adapt to and mitigate these changes. In its most recent document, the IPCC claims that temperature increases throughout the world are expected with the greatest increases in temperature occurring at higher northern latitudes. The warming trend throughout Latin America is expected to be an upward linear trend and precipitation is expected to decrease as a result of climate change. There is a great deal of uncertainty, however, in the precipitation values because of the expected increase in tropical storms. These storms may carry more moisture with them, causing more intense rains.

Unfortunately, climate models cannot yet accurately predict the impact of climate change at the local level, and many argue that the climate is just too complex to be able to make accurate predictions with models. This creates challenges when trying to understand the impacts of climate change on various sectors in order to develop effective climate change adaptation strategies. Despite this, climate observations and past climate data have provided some insight into the potential threats of changing temperature and precipitation on soil, flora, and fauna.

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