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Global sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion and melting ice, with projections indicating an accelerated rate this century. There is a notable decline in snow and ice, particularly since 1980, contributing to sea level rise, while extreme weather events and precipitation patterns are also changing. Climate variations are region-specific, influenced by factors like solar heating and greenhouse gas emissions, which have differing impacts on atmospheric concentrations over time.

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6-unknown (1)

Global sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion and melting ice, with projections indicating an accelerated rate this century. There is a notable decline in snow and ice, particularly since 1980, contributing to sea level rise, while extreme weather events and precipitation patterns are also changing. Climate variations are region-specific, influenced by factors like solar heating and greenhouse gas emissions, which have differing impacts on atmospheric concentrations over time.

Uploaded by

micoquicobcly
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Is sea level rising?

Yes, there is strong evidence that global sea level gradually rose in the
th
20 century and is currently rising at an increased rate, after a period of little
change between AD 0 and AD 1900. Sea level is projected to rise at an even
greater rate in this century. The two major causes of global sea level rise are
thermal expansion of the oceans (water expands as it warms) and the loss of
land-based ice due to increased melting.

Figure 34. Time series of global mean sea level in the past and as projected for the
future
(Source: IPCC, 2007)

Is the amount of snow and ice on the Earth decreasing?

Yes. Observations show a global-scale decline of snow and ice over


many years, especially since 1980 and increasing during the past decade,
despite growth in some places and little change in others. Most mountain
glaciers are getting smaller. Snow cover is retreating earlier in the spring.
Sea ice in the Arctic is shrinking in all seasons, most dramatically in
summer. Reductions are reported in permafrost, seasonally frozen ground
and river and lake ice. Important coastal regions of the ice sheets on
Greenland and West Antarctica, and the glaciers of the Antarctic
Peninsula, are thinning and contributing to sea level rise. The total
contribution of glacier, ice cap and ice sheet melt to sea level rise is
estimated as 1.2 ± 0.4 mm/yr for the period 1993 to 2003.

Has there been a change in extreme events like heat waves, droughts, floods
and hurricanes?

Since 1950, the number of heat waves has increased and


widespread increases have occurred in the numbers of warm nights. The
extent of regions affected by droughts has also increased as precipitation
over land has marginally decreased while evaporation has increased due to
warmer conditions. Generally, numbers of heavy daily precipitation
events that lead to flooding have increased, but not everywhere.

Tropical storm and hurricane frequencies vary considerably from


year to year, but evidence suggests substantial increases in intensity and
duration since the 1970s. In the extratropics, variations in tracks and
intensity of storms reflect variations in major features of the atmospheric
circulation, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation.

How is precipitation changing?

Observations show that changes are occurring in the amount,


intensity, frequency and type of precipitation. These aspects of
precipitation generally exhibit large natural variability, and El Niño and
changes in atmospheric circulation patterns such as the North Atlantic
Oscillation have a substantial influence.

Pronounced long-term trends from 1900 to 2005 have been


observed in precipitation amount in some places: significantly wetter in
eastern North and South America, northern Europe and northern and
central Asia, but drier in the Sahel, southern Africa, the Mediterranean
and southern Asia. More precipitation now falls as rain rather than snow
in northern regions. Widespread increases in heavy precipitation events
have been observed, even in places where total amounts have decreased.

These changes are associated with increased water vapour in the


atmosphere arising from the warming of the world‘s oceans, especially at lower
latitudes. There are also increases in some regions in the occurrences of both
droughts and floods.

What caused the Ice Ages and other important climate changes before the
industrial era?

Climate on Earth has changed on all time scales, including long


before human activity could have played a role. Great progress has been
made in understanding the causes and mechanisms of these climate
changes. Changes in Earth‘s radiation balance were the principal driver of
past climate changes, but the causes of such changes are varied. For each
case – be it the Ice Ages, the warmth at the time of the dinosaurs or the
fluctuations of the past millennium – the specific causes must be
established individually. In many cases, this can now be done with good
confidence, and many past climate changes can be reproduced with
quantitative models.

Do projected changes in climate vary from region to region?

Climate varies from region to region. This variation is driven by the


uneven distribution of solar heating, the individual responses of the
atmosphere, oceans and land surface, the interactions between these, and
the physical characteristics of the regions. The perturbations of the
atmospheric constituents that lead to global changes affect certain aspects
of these complex interactions.
Some human-induced factors that affect climate (‗forcings‘) are
global in nature, while others differ from one region to another. For
example, carbon dioxide, which causes warming, is distributed evenly
around the globe, regardless of where the emissions originate, whereas
sulphate aerosols (small particles) that offset some of the warming tend to
be regional in their distribution.

Furthermore, the response to forcings is partly governed by


feedback processes that may operate in different regions from those in
which the forcing is greatest. Thus, the projected changes in climate will
also vary from region to region.
(Source: Figure 35 FAQ 11.1 Intergovernmental Panel FAQ 11.1- Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change 4th Assessment Report, Working Group 1, The Physicals Science Basis (2007)

Figure 35. Blue and green areas on the map are by the end of the century
projected to experience increases in precipitation, while areas in yellow and pink are
projected to have decreases. The top panel shows projections for the period covering
December, January and February, while the bottom panel shows projections for the
period covering June, July and August

If emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced, how quickly do their


concentrations in the atmosphere decrease?

The adjustment of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere


to reductions in emissions depends on the chemical and physical processes
that remove each gas from the atmosphere. Concentrations of some
greenhouse gases decrease almost immediately in response to emission
reduction, while others can actually continue to increase for centuries even
with reduced emissions. See Figure 36 below.

Figure 36. (a) Simulated changes in atmospheric CO 2 concentration relative to the


presentday for emissions stabilised at the current level (black), or at 10% (red), 30%
(green), 50% (dark blue) and 100% (light blue) lower than the current level; (b) as in
(a) for a trace gas with a lifetime of 120 years, driven by natural and anthropogenic
fluxes; and (c) as in (a) for a trace gas with a lifetime of 12 years, driven by only
anthropogenic fluxes. (Source IPCC, 2007)

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