Climate Change: Is it real? (ASMR for smart people)
ASMR for smart people
Today we will learn why climate change is real and what causes it.
Finally, an ASMR podcast for Smart People! Relax, meditate even. Let the whispered sounds of knowledge seep into your mind.
To understand what climate change is we must first learn the difference between climate and weather. When winter hits, you will usually find someone saying that the world can’t be warming. “Just look,” they say. “It’s snowing outside.”
The thing is, they are confusing climate with weather. In winter, where I live, you get colder days and warmer days. The snow falls, only to melt a week or two later. In the summer some days are hot and others cool. Sometimes the sun shines bright, on other days clouds hide the sun and rain falls.
These variations are simply changes in weather. Climate, on the other hand, doesn’t change so rapidly. Instead, it is the average overall direction of the planet’s changing environment.
The best way to explain the difference between climate and weather is to imagine a man walking his dog, a young pup perhaps, along the shore. While the man is keeping a steady path forward, his dog is running to the left, then running to the right, then back again. The dog is on a long leash so he ultimately is following the man, but his path constantly shifts while the man keeps walking forward.
In that scenario, the man represents the climate, moving in a definite direction. The dog is the weather, moving in what seems to be erratic patterns. Weather changes back and forth all the time, but climate is holding the leash.
Okay then, you might be asking, what’s the difference between Global Warming and Climate Change? Aren’t they the same?
Well, not exactly.
Global Warming is based on a measurement of the rising average temperature of our planet. Climate Change, however, is the combination of Global Warming AND its effects, such as changes in seasonal weather patterns, rainfall, extreme weather events, warming of the oceans, melting of Arctic ice, and more.
Put another way, if Global Warming is the disease, Climate Change is the disease plus all its symptoms.
So, how do we know Global Warming and Climate Change are real?
Have you ever stood inside a greenhouse? If you have, you’ve noticed the temperature inside is higher than the temperature outside. That happens because the glass ceiling and walls allow sunlight in, but keep most of the heat from that light trapped inside.
Several gases in the atmosphere do the same thing.
The most abundant greenhouse gas, believe it or not, is water vapor. But, unlike others, water vapor is called a Feedback Gas because it allows the temperature to adjust. When the atmosphere warms, more water vapor is stored magnifying the warming effect, but then cloud formation blocks some of the sunlight, and the vapor falls as rain, cooling the planet.
Carbon Dioxide, on the other hand, is called a Forcing Gas. It continually forces temperatures higher as the amount of carbon dioxide escalates. Sources of carbon dioxide include volcanoes and even our own breathing. But by far the greatest source is the burning of fossil fuels which has increased dramatically since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.
Methane is potentially a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide but currently, there is much less of it in the atmosphere. It is created by natural processes like decomposition and ancient stores of methane escaping from underground… and certain agricultural activities.
Right now the biggest concern is the amount of carbon in the air. The problem is very real. Those who claim Climate Change isn’t real, are seeing their arguments rapidly lose ground in the face of scientific evidence.
Here’s just a few reasons we know it is real:
By studying core samples of ancient ice and comparing that with more current data, scientists have determined that carbon dioxide levels are higher than they've been in thousands of years.
Also, temperature levels can be followed back thousands of years by studying ice cores, counting tree rings, and using other methods.
Land-based ice sheets are shrinking rapidly. According to NASA, between the years 1993 and 2016, Greenland lost around 286 billion tons of ice each year. And during that same time, Antarctica lost about 127 billion tons per year. The rate of ice lost in Antarctica has tripled in the last decade.
Glaciers are retreating around the world.
Satellite data has shown that the amount of snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past 50 years.
Since 1901 the average sea level has risen by about 16 cm (6 inches) due to the melting of glaciers and land-based ice sheets.
According to the US Global Change Research Program, since 1950, extreme weather events, possibly caused by Global Warming, are happening more often.
So how do we know that Global Warming is caused by humans and not natural causes like volcanos?
Some argue that volcanos are the culprits because they spew tonnes of carbon into the air.
It is possible for very large eruptions to release carbon dioxide in quantities above human-caused emissions, but they only last a few hours. We Earthlings continue to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every day without stopping.
According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, studies show that carbon dioxide emissions caused by human sources are 60 to 90 times greater than volcanic emissions.
And, scientists can now tell the difference between naturally caused carbon vs man-caused. It turns out there is more than one type of carbon.
Okay now, stick with me. We’re almost done.
There are three types, or isotopes, of carbon. Their atoms contain the same amount of protons but have different amounts of neutrons. Scientists call these different isotopes Carbon 12, Carbon 13, and Carbon 14.
Volcanos produce both Carbon 12 and 13 in various ratios, but the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel is so old it has depleted its supply of Carbon 13 and 14. So by measuring isotopes scientists can tell how much carbon in the atmosphere is created by fossil fuels as compared to volcanos.
So, no, volcanoes are not the main cause of Global Warming.
Whew! That was a lot to take in. I know you’ve been trying to meditate through all this, but I’m afraid I may have given you a headache instead. Sorry about that.
I’ll make it easier on you in our next episode: How do sailboats move upwind?
