Climate Change and Water Security Challenges

Climate Change and Water Security Challenges

Climate Change and Water Security Challenges

Shreya Joshi

Climate Change and Water Security Challenges

Shreya Joshi

ISBN - 9789361524899

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Preface

Water security is fundamental to the principle that there is enough clean water to accommodate existing and potential demand for human well-being and social and economic development while at the same time maintaining environmental safety and reducing the risk of pollution and water-based diseases. Water scarcity is the most common threat to water security. There may be several causes of water scarcity, including low rainfall, climate change, high population density, and water over-allocation. Rising temperatures can impact water security by increasing evaporation, changing rainfall patterns, and snow falling to fall more and more like rain. Warming can also affect water supplies by causing the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. In Asia alone, 800 million people depend on freshwater glaciers. Water and weather, the tricky balance between evaporation and precipitation, is the primary cycle through which climate change is experienced. As our climate changes, droughts, floods, melting glaciers, sea-level rise and storms intensify or alter, often with severe consequences. Climate change has several effects on these proportions on a global scale. The key one is that global warming allows polar ice to melt into the sea, which transforms freshwater into seawater, although this has no direct impact on water supplies. Another effect of global warming is to increase the amount of water that the atmosphere can retain, which, in turn, can lead to far more heavy rainfall when the air cools. While more precipitation will contribute to freshwater supplies, and heavy rainfall contributes to a more rapid flow of water from the atmosphere back to the oceans, limiting our ability to store and use it. Merely 3% of the planet’s water is freshwater, and two-thirds of it is trapped in glaciers and polar ice.

In the current climate forecast, protecting the water, we have in the supply that we need for a global population that is set to exceed 10 billion by 2050 would be a daunting challenge. Freshwater is vital to human civilization – not just for drinking but also for farming, washing and many other things. It is expected to be highly scarce in the future, partially due to climate change. Understanding the issue of freshwater shortage starts with understanding the distribution of water on the earth.

This book, Climate Change and Water Security, explores the impact of climate change on the water as well as on health. The book serves as a key guide to water security, looking at what it is, why it is essential, and its theory and practices. The book also discusses why adaptation to climate change is perceived to be one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change. It will explore adaptation in theory and in practice, with a focus on water protection that is critical to climate-resilient growth. The predicted impacts of climate change on the water cycle have led to serious concerns about water safety. Key theories on the impacts of climate change on global water supplies are also presented and the ecological implications and approaches used to examine these impacts on water resources are also explored.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Climate Change 1

1.1 The Earth System 2

1.2 Evidence for Climate Change 5

1.3 Cause and Effect of Climate Change 7

1.3.1 Natural Causes 7

1.3.2 Human Causes 11

1.3.3 Earth’s Temperature Is a Balancing Act 14

1.3.4 The Greenhouse Effect Causes the Atmosphere to

Retain Heat 16

1.3.5 Effects of Climate Change 19

1.3.6 Changes in the Sun’s Energy Affect How Much Energy Reaches Earth’s System 21

1.4 Human Activities Contribute to Climate Change 22

1.4.1 Causes of Greenhouse Gases Activity in Climate Change 23

1.4.2 Radiative Forcing of Factors Affected by Human Activities 25

1.4.3 A Blanket around the Earth 28

1.5 Global Warming Effect 31

1.5.1 Causes of Global Warming 33

1.5.2 Bases of Global Warming 34

1.5.3 Current Global Warming Problem 36

1.5.4 Global Warming Awareness 39

1.6 Anthropogenic Climate Change 41

1.6.1 The Observed Climatic Warming 42

1.6.2 Anthropogenic Climate Influences 46

1.6.3 The Elements of Detection and Attribution 48

1.7 Exercise 56

2 Global Climate Change and Health 57

2.1 Global Climate Change 60

2.1.1 Health Impacts of Climate Change 61

2.2 Climate Impacts on Human Health 63

2.2.1 Impacts from Extreme Weather Events 67

2.2.2 Vectorborne Diseases 68

2.2.3 Water-Related Illnesses 69

2.2.4 Food Safety and Nutrition 70

2.2.5 Mental Health 71

2.2.6 Populations of Concern 71

2.2.7 Other Health Impacts 73

2.2.8 Recognizing the Complexity of Systems upon Which Life Depends: An Ecological Perspective 74

2.3 Climate Change: Overview of Recent Scientific Assessments 76

2.3.1 Potential Health Impacts of Climate Change 79

2.3.2 Population Vulnerability and Adaptive Responses 85

2.3.3 Mechanisms of Climatic Change 87

2.4 Climate System and Greenhouse Gases 95

2.4.1 Weather, Climate and Climate Variability 102

2.4.2 Difference between Weather and Climate 104

2.4.3 Small Increase in Average Temperature Leads to

Big Changes in Extreme Weather 106

2.5 Exercise 107

3 Land Degradation and Climate Change 108

3.1 Land Degradation 109

3.1.1 Soil Types 113

3.1.2 Causes of Land Degradation 116

3.1.3 Farmers’ Concerns 118

3.1.4 Sensitivity and Resilience 119

3.1.5 Scientific Interpretation of Degradation Compared to

Land Users’ Perceptions 121

3.1.6 Scales of Field Assessment 122

3.1.7 Levels of Analysis of Degradation 124

3.2 Soil Conservation 126

3.2.1 Methods and Techniques of Soil Conservation 127

3.2.2 Soil Carbon Sequestration 131

3.2.3 Soil Balance 135

3.3 Climate Change and its Impact on Land Degradation 147

3.3.1 Impact by Wind and Water Erosion 149

3.3.2 Impact of Climate Change on Organic Matter Levels 149

3.3.3 Acidification 150

3.3.4 Impact on Nutrient Levels 150

3.3.5 Acid Sulfate Soils 151

3.3.6 Impact on Soil Structure 152

3.4 Integrated Nutrient Management 152

3.4.1 Integrated Plant Nutrient Management at Farm Level 155

3.4.2 Good Agricultural Practices for Nutrient Management 156

3.4.3 Nutrient Management in Crop-Livestock Systems 157

3.5 Exercise 159

4 Climate Change Litigation 160

4.1 Why Climate Litigation Matters as Part of Climate Governance 162

4.1.1 Litigation as an Element of Multidimensional

Climate Governance 162

4.1.2 Role of Court Decisions in Shaping Smaller-Scale

Decision Making 164

4.2 Litigation as a Regulatory Tool 164

4.2.1 Regulatory Impact 165

4.3 Regulatory Pathways for Climate Change Litigation 166

4.4 Corporate Responses to Litigation 168

4.4.1 Drivers of Corporate Climate Action 170

4.4.2 Litigation Risk As A Component Of Corporate Climate

Risk Management 172

4.5 Sectoral Responses to Climate Litigation Risk 173

4.5.1 Energy 174

4.5.2 Land Use 174

4.5.3 Insurance 175

4.5.4 Finance and Investment 176

4.5.5 Law Firms and Other Professional Advisors 177

4.6 Litigation and Public Perceptions of Climate Change 178

4.6.1 Partisan Politics and Regulatory Responses to

Climate Change Litigation 179

4.6.2 Courts as Sites for Public Debates over Science

and Regulatory Scale 182

4.7 Exercise 182

5 The Concept of Water Security 183

5.1 Water Security 184

5.1.1 Smart Water Security 187

5.1.2 How does Smart Water Security Work? 188

5.1.3 Why is Water Security Important? 188

5.1.4 Security from Water as a Threat 189

5.1.5 Security from Inadequate Water Supply 191

5.1.6 Water Security: Principles, Perspectives and Practices 193

5.1.7 Food and Water Security Solutions 195

5.2 Water Security – Challenges and Needs 195

5.2.1 Water-related Hazards 196

5.2.2 Groundwater Systems 196

5.2.3 Water Scarcity and Quality 197

5.2.4 Urban Water Management 198

5.2.5 Ecohydrology 200

5.2.6 Responses to Water Scarcity 200

5.2.7 Water Education for Water Security 201

5.2.8 Water Cooperation 202

5.3 Exercise 202

6 Water Treatment 203

6.1 Water Treatment and Water Use 203

6.1.1 Municipal Water Treatment 204

6.1.2 Treatment of Water for Industrial Use 205

6.2 Sewage Treatment 206

6.2.1 Primary Waste Treatment 207

6.2.2 Secondary Waste Treatment by Biological Processes 208

6.2.3 Tertiary Waste Treatment 212

6.2.4 Physical-Chemical Treatment of Municipal Wastewater 213

6.3 Industrial Wastewater Treatment 215

6.3.1 Removal of Solids 216

6.3.2 Removal of Calcium and other Metals 218

6.3.3 Removal of Dissolved Organics 226

6.3.4 Removal of Dissolved Inorganics 228

6.3.5 Sludge 235

6.4 Water Disinfection 238

6.4.1 Chlorine Dioxide 240

6.4.2 Ozone 241

6.5 Natural Water Purification Processes 242

6.5.1 Industrial Wastewater Treatment by Soil 243

6.6 Water Reuse and Recycling 244

6.7 Exercise 245

7 Water Resources in the Future: Problems and Solutions 246

7.1 Water Resources and Energy 247

7.1.1 Water resources in Brazil: Priorities for Governance, Conservation and Recuperation 247

7.2 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis 249

7.2.1 Educate to Change Consumption and Lifestyles 250

7.2.2 Invent new Water Conservation Technologies 251

7.2.3 Recycle Wastewater 251

7.2.4 Improve Irrigation and Agricultural Practices 252

7.2.5 Appropriately Price Water 252

7.2.6 Develop Energy-Efficient Desalination Plants 253

7.2.7 Improve Water Catchment and Harvesting 253

7.2.8 Look to Community-based Governance and

Partnerships 253

7.2.9 Develop and Enact better Policies and Regulations 254

7.2.10 Holistically Manage Ecosystems 254

7.2.11 Improve Distribution Infrastructure 254

7.2.12 Shrink Corporate water Footprints 254

7.2.13 Build International Frameworks and Institutional Cooperation 255

7.2.14 Address pollution 255

7.2.15 Public Common Resources / Equitable Access 255

7.2.16 R&D / Innovation 255

7.2.17 Water projects in Developing Countries/transfer of Technology 256

7.2.18 Climate Change Mitigation 256

7.2.19 Population Growth Control 256

7.3 The Main Causes of the Water Crisis. 257

7.3.1 Methodologies and Proposals for Solutions and

Priorities 259

7.3.2 Water in Agriculture 260

7.3.3 Water and Regional and National Economies 261

7.3.4 Water and Climate Change 261

7.3.5 Water Resources and International Cooperation 263

7.4 Sustainable Solutions to Water Scarcity 264

7.5 Exercise 267

Glossary 268

References 271

Index 288

Chapter 1. Introduction to Climate Change

Climate change occurs when the Earth’s average temperature changes dramatically over time. As little as one or two degrees can be considered dramatic change because the Earth’s ecosystem depends on a very delicate balance, and even small shifts can have a far-reaching impact. A drop in average temperature can also be considered climate change, but in modern times people using the term are usually talking about global warming.

One reason that climate change has become a popular and, at times, the controversial topic is that many people believe it is mostly the result of human activity. Burning fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, produces byproducts such as carbon dioxide gas. Since there are not enough plants on Earth to quickly transform all this emitted carbon dioxide into oxygen, the gas remains in the atmosphere. Through a process known as the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide traps solar heat, which leads to the warming of the planet.

Other causes of climate change that can be traced back to humans include deforestation, or the widespread cutting of trees, and methane gas production. Methane is typically produced in large amounts by mining, large scale livestock farms, rice paddies and landfills. The commercial use of fertilizers that give off nitrous oxide also contributes to pollutant levels.

Many people believe the effects of climate change can already be seen in the melting of permafrost near the North Pole and the rise of sea levels. Rising ocean levels cause concern about shrinking coastlines and island landmasses. A warmer climate can also cause more severe weather to occur because weather phenomena, such as hurricanes, gain strength from hot, moist air.

Some say evidence of global warming can also be found in reduced wildlife populations. Some animal species, such as the polar bear, are slowly losing their icy habitats and have shown smaller populations over recent years. For this reason, many wildlife groups want the polar bear to be added to endangered species lists.

The concept of climate change is not a new one. The ice age of long ago is well documented and was another form of climate shift, one not brought on by humans. Modern climate shifts that are the result of human behavior may be positively affected by altering personal lifestyles. While some people consider global warming to be only a theory, it is becoming more widely accepted that the planet’s climate is shifting and that people are not blameless.

Many simple lifestyle changes that people can make to help combat climate change center on conserving energy resources. Actions such as turning off unnecessary lights, buying used items rather than new ones and using public transportation or a bicycle instead of driving cars can make a difference. Recycling as many goods and materials as possible is another helpful way to conserve. If humans ignore climate change, it may continue to accelerate and drastically change the planet in both predicted and unforeseen ways.

1.1 THE EARTH SYSTEM

The atmosphere is influenced by and linked to other features of Earth, including oceans, ice masses (glaciers and sea ice), land surfaces, and vegetation. Together, they make up an integrated Earth system, in which all components interact with and influence one another in often complex ways. For instance, climate influences the distribution of vegetation on Earth’s surface (e.g., deserts exist in arid regions, forests in humid regions), but vegetation, in turn, influences climate by reflecting radiant energy back into the atmosphere, transferring water (and latent heat) from soil to the atmosphere, and influencing the horizontal movement of air across the land surface.

Earth scientists and atmospheric scientists are still seeking a full understanding of the complex feedbacks and interactions among the various components of the Earth system. This effort is being facilitated by the development of an interdisciplinary science called Earth system science. Earth system science is composed of a wide range of disciplines, including climatology (the study of the atmosphere), geology (the study of Earth’s surface and underground processes), ecology (the study of how Earth’s organisms relate to one another and their environment), oceanography (the study of Earth’s oceans), glaciology (the study of Earth’s ice masses), and even the social sciences (the study of human behavior in its social and cultural aspects).

A full understanding of the Earth system requires knowledge of how the system and its components have changed through time. The pursuit of this understanding has led to the development of Earth system history, interdisciplinary science that includes not only the contributions of Earth system scientists but also paleontologists (who study the life of past geologic periods), paleoclimatologists (who study past climates), paleoecologists (who study past environments and ecosystems), paleoceanographers (who study the history of the oceans), and other scientists concerned with Earth history. Because different components of the Earth system change at different rates and are relevant at different timescales, Earth system history is a diverse and complex science. Students of Earth system history are not just concerned with documenting what has happened; they also view the past as a series of experiments in which solar radiation, ocean currents, continental configurations, atmospheric chemistry, and other important features have varied. These experiments provide opportunities to learn the relative influences of and interactions between various components of the Earth system. Studies of Earth system history also specify the full array of states the system has experienced in the past and those the system is capable of experiencing in the future.

Undoubtedly, people have always been aware of climatic variation at the relatively short timescales of seasons, years, and decades. Biblical scripture and other early documents refer to droughts, floods, periods of severe cold, and other climatic events. Nevertheless, a full appreciation of the nature and magnitude of climatic change did not come about until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when the widespread recognition of the deep antiquity of Earth occurred. Naturalists of this time, including Scottish geologist Charles Lyell, Swiss-born naturalist and geologist Louis Agassiz, English naturalist Charles Darwin, American botanist Asa Gray, and Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, came to recognize geologic and biogeographic evidence that made sense only in the light of past climates radically different from those prevailing today.

Geologists and paleontologists in the 19th and early 20th century has uncovered evidence of massive climatic changes taking place before the Pleistocene—that is, before some 2.6 million years ago. For example, red beds indicated aridity in regions that are now humid (e.g., England and New England), whereas fossils of coal-swamp plants and reef corals indicated that tropical climates once occurred at present-day high latitudes in both Europe and North America. Since the late 20th century, the development of advanced technologies for dating rocks, together with geochemical techniques and other analytical tools, have revolutionized the understanding of early Earth system history.

The occurrence of multiple epochs in recent Earth history during which continental glaciers, developed at high latitudes, penetrated into northern Europe and eastern North America was recognized by scientists by the late 19th century. Scottish geologist James Croll proposed that recurring variations in orbital eccentricity (the deviation of Earth’s orbit from a perfectly circular path) were responsible for alternating glacial and interglacial periods. Croll’s controversial idea was taken up by Serbian mathematician and astronomer Milutin Milankovitch in the early 20th century. Milankovitch proposed that the mechanism that brought about periods of glaciation was driven by cyclic changes in eccentricity as well as two other orbital parameters: precession (a change in the directional focus of Earth’s axis of rotation) and axial tilt (a change in the inclination of Earth’s axis with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun). Orbital variation is now recognized as an important driver of climatic variation throughout Earth’s history.

1.2 EVIDENCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

All historical sciences share a problem: As they probe farther back in time, they become more reliant on fragmentary and indirect evidence. Earth system history is no exception. High-quality instrumental records spanning the past century exist for most parts of the world, but the records became sparse in the 19th century, and few records predate the late 18th century. Other historical documents, including ship’s logs, diaries, court and church records, and tax rolls, can sometimes be used. Within strict geographic contexts, these sources can provide information on frosts, droughts, floods, sea ice, the dates of monsoons, and other climatic features—in some cases, up to several hundred years ago.

Fortunately, climatic change also leaves a variety of signatures in the natural world. Climate influences the growth of trees and corals, the abundance and geographic distribution of plant and animal species, the chemistry of oceans and lakes, the accumulation of ice in cold regions, and the erosion and deposition of materials on Earth’s surface. Paleoclimatologists study the traces of these effects, devising clever and subtle ways to obtain information about past climates. Most of the evidence of past climatic change is circumstantial, so paleoclimatology involves a great deal of investigative work. Wherever possible, paleoclimatologists try to use multiple lines of evidence to cross-check their conclusions. They are frequently confronted with conflicting evidence, but this, as in other sciences, usually leads to an enhanced understanding of the Earth system and its complex history. New sources of data, analytical tools, and instruments are becoming available, and the field is moving quickly. Revolutionary changes in the understanding of Earth’s climate history have occurred since the 1990s, and coming decades will bring many new insights and interpretations.

Ongoing climatic changes are being monitored by networks of sensors in space, on the land surface, and both on and below the surface of the world’s oceans. Climatic changes of the past 200–300 years, especially since the early 1900s, are documented by instrumental records and other archives. These written documents and records provide information about climate change in some locations for the past few hundred years. Some very rare records date back over 1,000 years. Researchers studying climatic changes predating the instrumental record rely increasingly on natural archives, which are biological or geologic processes that record some aspect of past climate. These natural archives, often referred to as proxy evidence, are extraordinarily diverse; they include but are not limited to fossil records of past plant and animal distributions, sedimentary and geochemical indicators of former conditions of oceans and continents, and land surface features characteristic of past climates. Paleoclimatologists study these natural archives by collecting cores, or cylindrical samples, of sediments from lakes, bogs, and oceans; by studying surface features and geological strata; by examining tree ring patterns from cores or sections of living and dead trees; by drilling into marine corals and cave stalagmites; by drilling into the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland and the high-elevation glaciers of the Plateau of Tibet, the Andes, and other montane regions; and by a wide variety of other means. Techniques for extracting paleoclimatic information are continually being developed and refined, and new kinds of natural archives are being recognized and exploited.

1.3 CAUSE AND EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The earth’s climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle. What the world is more worried about is that the changes that are occurring today have been speeded up because of man’s activities. These changes are being studied by scientists all over the world who are finding evidence from tree rings, pollen samples, ice cores, and sea sediments. The causes of climate change can be divided into two categories - those that are due to natural causes and those that are created by man.

1.3.1 Natural Causes

There are a number of natural factors responsible for climate change. Some of the more prominent ones are continental drift, volcanoes, ocean currents, the earth’s tilt, and comets and meteorites. Let us look at them in a little detail.

Continental Drift

You may have noticed something peculiar about South America and Africa on a map of the world - don’t they seem to fit into each other like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle?

About 200 million years ago, they were joined together! Scientists believe that back then, the earth was not as we see it today, but the continents were all part of one large landmass. Proof of this comes from the similarity between plant and animal fossils and broad belts of rocks found on the eastern coastline of South America and the western coastline of Africa, which are now widely separated by the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of fossils of tropical plants (in the form of coal deposits) in Antarctica has led to the conclusion that this frozen land at some time in the past must have been situated closer to the equator, where the climate was tropical, with swamps and plenty of lush vegetation.

The continents that we are familiar with today were formed when the landmass began gradually drifting apart, millions of years back. This drift also had an impact on the climate because it changed the physical features of the landmass, their position and the position of water bodies. The separation of the landmasses changed the flow of ocean currents and winds, which affected the climate. This drift of the continents continues even today; the Himalayan range is rising by about 1 mm (millimeter) every year because the landmass is moving towards the Asian landmass, slowly but steadily.

Volcanoes

When a volcano erupts, it throws out large volumes of sulfur dioxide (SO2), water vapor, dust, and ash into the atmosphere. Although the volcanic activity may last only a few days, yet the large volumes of gases and ash can influence climatic patterns for years. Millions of tons of sulfur dioxide gas can reach the upper levels of the atmosphere (called the stratosphere) from a major eruption. The gases and dust particles partially block the incoming rays of the sun, leading to cooling. Sulfur dioxide combines with water to form tiny droplets of sulphuric acid. These droplets are so small that many of them can stay aloft for several years. They are efficient reflectors of sunlight and screen the ground from some of the energy that it would ordinarily