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Causes of Changing Weather Patterns By Evelyn Global climate change began in the mid 19 th century. However, many people from that century were not aware that the changing weather patterns are due to climate change; they think that it was just a natural phenomenon occurred in a particular area. From the global instrumental report, climate was changing at this time. During the duration from the last decade of the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21 st century it has been the warmest period in history (Noaa, 2007). According to Weather Questions (2010), climate is a typical weather condition that is observed over a period of time in a particular place. Climate change refers to the changes of the weather over a period of time as climates contain a few components, like temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, cloud and seasons. Change in climate may lead to changing in weather patterns that can that can affect natural ecosystems and also human economies as most systems are linked to climate (Department of Ecology, 2007). It is commonly believe that climate change is due to human activities. Activities such as deforestation, burning of fossil fuels and production of electricity causes the increase of greenhouse effect which leads to global warming that indirectly brings the changes in weather patterns. According to World Wide Fund for Nature (n.d.) “deforestation is the process whereby natural forests are cleared through logging and/or burning, either to use the timber or to replace the area for alternative uses.” In other words, deforestation is a process of clearing the trees to make space for industries and household. However, most people are not aware that around 1.6 billion tones or

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Page 1: Causes of Changing Weather Patterns

Causes of Changing Weather PatternsBy Evelyn

Global climate change began in the mid 19th century. However, many people from that century were not aware that the changing weather patterns are due to climate change; they think that it was just a natural phenomenon occurred in a particular area. From the global instrumental report, climate was changing at this time. During the duration from the last decade of the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21st century it has been the warmest period in history (Noaa, 2007). According to Weather Questions (2010), climate is a typical weather condition that is observed over a period of time in a particular place. Climate change refers to the changes of the weather over a period of time as climates contain a few components, like temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, cloud and seasons. Change in climate may lead to changing in weather patterns that can that can affect natural ecosystems and also human economies as most systems are linked to climate (Department of Ecology, 2007). It is commonly believe that climate change is due to human activities. Activities such as deforestation, burning of fossil fuels and production of electricity causes the increase of greenhouse effect which leads to global warming that indirectly brings the changes in weather patterns.

According to World Wide Fund for Nature (n.d.) “deforestation is the process whereby natural forests are cleared through logging and/or burning, either to use the timber or to replace the area for alternative uses.” In other words, deforestation is a process of clearing the trees to make space for industries and household. However, most people are not aware that around 1.6 billion tones or 25 to 30 percent of gases are released into the atmosphere due to deforestation (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations, 2006). At it is widely known, trees play an important in maintain the balance of ecosystem. Too much cutting of trees for alternatives uses such as making furniture, building house and so on can affect the environmental balance as the amount of oxygen is inversely proportional to the amount of carbon dioxide (Oak,n.d.). According to Avril Chew, 2003, trees perform photosynthesis to produce oxygen. The function of leaves in trees is essentially as photosynthetic organs which allow gases exchange from carbon dioxide to oxygen. However, fewer trees cause reduction of oxygen, as the rate of gases exchange is reduced. As the amount of oxygen produce is reduced, the concentration of carbon dioxide increases (Avril Chew, 2003). Thus, the increase of carbon dioxide will cause the increase of greenhouse effect which leads to global warming that indirectly brings the changes in weather patterns.

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According to Wall (2011), “A record-setting 36.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide were added to the atmosphere in 2010.” That is 45 percent of carbon dioxide gases were released by human activities. The burning of fossils fuels also cause changes in the atmosphere and can contribute to changing in weather patterns. When fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gases are burned in order to produce energy used for transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooling and electricity generation, greenhouse gases are produced; and this has caused 80 to 85 percent of carbon dioxide to be added to the atmosphere (Global Change Research Information Office, 2006). Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels have caused the rise of small particles in the atmosphere as half- billion tons of carbon is pumped into the air. These little particles can make changes to the feature of clouds by changing the total energy that the cloud can absorb and reflect. These small particles indirectly increase the concentration of greenhouse gases which leads to global warming(Global Change Research Information Office, 2006).

Electricity production can cause the increase of greenhouse gases as most of the electricity used is generated by burning fossil fuels that are non renewable sources of energy like coal, oil and natural gas which will produce cardion dioxide gas which will absorb heat energy. When the release of carbon dioxide increase, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere also increase and contribute to global warming which indirectly brings changes in weather patterns. While some methods of electricity production produce less carbon dioxide emissions such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear systems. However, there are some power plants fueled by wood, agricultural crop wastes, livestock wastes, and methane collected from municipal landfills release carbon dioxide emissions but contribute just a little to the global climate change as they can prevent even b releases of carbon dioxide and methane. According to powerscorecard.org (n.d.), 57 percent of coal was consumed in order to generate electricity. Besides that, greenhouse gases like, Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) produced by refrigeration and air-conditioner can lead to the thinning of ozone layer as they will have non-stop reaction toward the ozone gas in the atmosphere layer and contributions to climate change and changing of weather patterns are predicted to increase (Gcrio, 1997).

When the release of carbon dioxide due to the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production largely increases, the concentration of greenhouse gases raised. Greenhouse gases are relatively small to solar radiation, and thus allow the sun energy to passes through the atmosphere and to the surface of the earth. As the greenhouse gases molecules were absorbed by the earth surface, they then reemitted in all directions on the earth surface. This cause the Earth surface

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and lower atmosphere getting warmer as most of the heats were trap inside the Earth surface (ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu, n.d.). When the earth heats up as the temperature continue to rise, global warming occurred. Thus, the increase of temperature on the Earth surface and in the oceans is also known as global warming. (library.thinkquest.org,2000)

Global warming occurred when excessive of heat trapped in the Earth atmosphere, which cause the rise of temperature. Extreme weather conditions, changing in agriculture and increase in disease are the effects of global warming. This change many bring harm to the ecosystem as well as human economy as many people, animals or plants are unable to accept the changes on Earth. By some mean, global warming indirectly brings the changes in weather patterns. According to Oak (n.d.), the sea level has rise as ices and glaciers at north and south poles are melting due to global warming and it will increase the sea level which wil caused more disaster and there will be more suffering for mankind to survive. Global warming caused a sudden change in weather patterns and also increased in evaporation rates. Scientist predicted that there will be a growth of drought that will affect other region in a particular country. Human beings will encounter major food supply crisis and water crisis as if the drought is getting longer and drier. Apart from that, global warming can also bring more extreme heat waves. Global warming will also affect the winter weather in northern United States (nwf.org, 2011). For instance, the winter will become shorter and spring will arrives 1 to 2 week earlier; or certain snowing areas are experiencing heavy snowstorms or more serious snowfalls such as storm tracks shift northward or the ice cover on the Great lakes increases.

In conclusion, there are many factors of human activities that can indirectly lead the causes of changing in weather patterns. As the amount of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases in the atmosphere increase, global warming will increase and happened in particular area that causes changing in weather patterns. Deforestation somehow seems important in developing industries and household for human beings, however it can affect the earth atmosphere as oxygen gases exchange are reduced while carbon dioxide increase. Besides that, people should be aware the dangers of burning fossil fuels. Excessive burning of fossil fuels can lead to increase of greenhouse gases which will indirectly contribute to changing in weather patterns. People should also support renewable electric sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear systems in order to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and prevent the changing of weather patterns to be worsened. Government should encourage people to use renewable energy sources and also car pooling in order to reduce the rise of greenhouse gases and global

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warming that will cause changing in weather patterns. As human beings, we should also be responsible to our mother nature. We should reduce the cutting of trees, uses of non renewable fossil fuels and reduce the use of electricity production that needed a large amount of burning fossil fuels. What is the purpose of having a business when there is no tree and no rain but just a bad weather?

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References

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11.Powerscorecard.org (n.d.) Electricity and Climate change. [online] Available at: http://www.powerscorecard.org/issue_detail.cfm?issue_id=1 [Accessed: 23 Sep 2012].

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14.Wwf.panda.org (n.d.) WWF - Deforestation. [online] Available at: http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_forests/deforestation/ [Accessed: 22 Sep 2012].

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