Simply put, climate change is a change in our typical weather conditions over a period of time, for longer than normal. Through advancements in science and technology, we have been able to determine the Earth's change in climate is in fact, typical, and cyclical. However, the issue we are currently facing is that the current period of increasing warm weather is now occurring more rapidly than in the past. There are natural causes of climate change and this is why it is a normal part of Earth's history. Through the use of the greenhouse effect, our planet has maintained itself for millions of years. Although, humans have now begun to amplify and exacerbate these conditions.
While there are arguments on both sides of the Climate change issue, there is undeniable evidence that supports these changes. Glaciers cover ∼10% of the Earth's land surface (Milner et. al 2017), but due to the increasing temperature and climate change we are experiencing, these glaciers are shrinking across the entirety of the world. This may seem like a non-issue but, the impacts of glacier shrinkage are being seen downstream. Glaciers are important resources in areas like river flow when other water sources are not contributing. This can be seen in various alpine regions. "Changes in river hydrology and morphology caused by climate-induced glacier loss are projected to be the greatest of any hydrological system, with major implications for riverine and near-shore marine environments." (Milner et. al 2017) With the current and future technological advances, we have not only been able to determine that the rate of glacial shrinkage is not "normal" but also the impacts it will have on many areas such as sediment transport. We also spoke in class about how "one sixth of the worlds pop lives in regions that depend on meltwater" and that as a result of these shrinking glaciers, summertime water supplies in these regions will decrease dramatically.
It is being argued by many that climate change is not as serious as it seems, as the Earth "naturally heats and cools" When it come to the topic of glacier melting, some have even argued that glacier melting is natural, pointing out that "these trends were most pronounced along the warmer western South Pacific coast, whereas glaciers along the cooler Ross Sea coast experienced no significant changes." (Miles, Stokes 2013) Even arguing that "parts of the world's largest ice sheet may [just] be more vulnerable to external forcing". This thinking is understandable, however, even so we must recognize that there are consequences that are coming with glacier melting (naturally caused or not). On a positive note, climate change is getting a lot of attention in the media, and as a result more and more people are seeking information and answers on the topic. Because of this spike in interest, there have been greater efforts to understand the massive amounts of glacier abatement. With the use of satellite remote sensing instrumentation, we have now seen direct measurements of volume and mass change in glaciers. (Milner et. al 2017) "The most recent estimate of global glacier change indicates a mass loss rate of 259 ± 28 Gt y−1 between 2003 and 2009, with global runoff from glaciers exceeding 1,350 km3 y−1. (Milner et. al 2017) Now that we are beginning to further our understanding of exactly how much of the earths glacier fields are melting, we equally need to understand what that means for the rest of the planet.
"In alpine regions worldwide, climate change is dramatically altering ecosystems and affecting biodiversity in many ways. For streams, receding alpine glaciers and snowfields, paired with altered precipitation regimes, are driving shifts in hydrology, species distributions, basal resources, and threatening the very existence of some habitats and biota" (Hotaling et. al 2017.) In other words, the alpine is very sensitive and even the slightest change in hydraulic sourcing can affect the purity of the water. With the rapid succession of glaciers, they have less influence come summer and are effecting these regions. It is even "expected to ultimately result in environmental homogenization of alpine streams" (Hotaling et. al 2017). These effects that Hotaling describes can be seen in areas like the Altai Mountains. "Like most mountain glaciers, those in the Altai Mountains have generally retreated during the past few decades with notably accelerated mass loss in recent years" (Suraza- kov et al. 2007; Shahgedanova et al. 2010; Kadota et al. 2011; Narozhniy and Zemtsov 2011; Yao et al. 2012; Wei et al. 2015) Basically stating that not only have these glaciers seen continual loss in mass, however this loss has accelerated in recent years. "In total, the glacier area of the region will decrease by 26 ± 10 % for RCP4.5 and by 60 ± 15 % for RCP8.5 by 2100" (Suraza- kov et al. 2007; Shahgedanova et al. 2010; Kadota et al. 2011; Narozhniy and Zemtsov 2011; Yao et al. 2012; Wei et al. 2015)
In class, we spoke about four main types of climate change mitigation, all of which can play a significant role in protecting ourselves from, and bringing an end to these issues were facing. Reducing emissions is in my opinion a major key to stopping or at least, slowing the increasing effects of climate change that were experiencing. More people need to make an effort to be energy efficient, and find ways to use renewable power over gasoline and coal. Garbage that we leave in landfills is also a major issue as it produces methane. If more people trimmed their daily waste we could significantly decrease the amount of extra greenhouse gasses being put into our atmosphere. On the flip side of this, we must prepare ahead of time to live with the consequences of our actions. Instead of pretending like the effects of climate change are never going to come, we need to protect ourselves from specific impact that we might face. We should make attempts to build up shorelines to prevent flooding with the inevitable sea level rise. We should also raise the structures that we live in so that we can handle flooding if it does happen. I think that the idea of adaptation is one that is avoidable if more people would commit to green lifestyles and take care of our planet, however, I don't think it is one that should be ignored in hopes that climate change just deals with itself. Most importantly I think we must continue to spread awareness. The more people that know what's going on, the more money that can go into solving the issue, the more attention that is brought to what we're doing wrong, and the more likely that we find a good way to fix these problems.