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Here is a compilation of term papers on ‘Climate Change’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Climate Change’ especially written for school and college students.
Term Paper on Climate Change
Term Paper Contents:
- Term Paper on the Introduction of Climate Change
- Term Paper on the Economics of Climate Change
- Term Paper on the EL Nino and Climate Change
- Term Paper on the Climate Change and Diseases
- Term Paper on the Climate Change and Soil Biota
- Term Paper on the Adaptation Strategies against Climate Change
- Term Paper on the Mitigation of Climate Change
Term Paper # 1. Introduction of Climate Change:
In the past few decades, scientists have assembled a growing body of evidence showing the extent of change of the earth’s climate and the role of human activities behind it United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.”
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Without urgent and concerted action, it will damage fragile ecosystems, impede development efforts, increase risks to public health, frustrate poverty alleviation programs, and force large- scale migration from water or food-scarce regions.
On the other hand, global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century, and its projected continuation. The observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone.
Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic; those absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the earth surface, the atmosphere and clouds. Most of the short wave radiation of the sun received by the earth is absorbed by the land and oceans and some by the atmosphere. The rest is reflected back to the space.
After receiving the radiation the earth surface becomes warm and emits long wave radiation. Greenhouse gases trap this long wave radiation and re-emit some part of it which increases the atmospheric temperature. Concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been rising since the industrial revolution in the 18th century. Measurements over the past 130 years show that atmospheric temperatures have already risen considerably and have been the highest in the last few years.
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Global average surface temperature of the earth has increased by about 0.7°C over the 20th century. The 1980s and 1990s were the warmest decades since accurate records began in the mid of late 1800s. The latest warning from a group of scientists from NASA is “2005 was the warmest year on record since the end of last major ice age nearly 12000 years ago”.
‘Global warming’ is quite different from ‘climate change’, which is a more complex phenomenon. Climate change can occur in different ways such as changes in regional and global temperature, changes in rainfall patterns, expansion and contraction of ice-sheets, sea level variation, plate tectonics, volcanism, ocean variability etc.; temperature is not the only changing factor in case of climate change.
Term Paper # 2. Economics of Climate Change:
The valuation of costs and benefits of climate change is difficult because some climate change impacts are difficult for analysis, e.g., ecosystems and human health. It is also impossible to know the preferences of future generations, which affects the valuation of costs and benefits. Economic estimates of the impact of climate change are typically based on “damage functions” that relate GDP losses in response to temperature increase.
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The estimates of GDP costs in response to the impacts of climate change usually grouped as market impacts and non-market impacts. Market impacts include effects on climate-sensitive sectors (such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism), damage to coastal areas from sea-level rise, changes in energy consumption and changes in water resources.
Non-market impacts cover effects on health, leisure activities (sports, recreation, and outdoor activities), ecosystems and human settlements. There will be shifts in international trade, in capital and migration flows, and in the prices of commodities, other goods and services, and assets in response to climate change.
Tourism is a major economic sector in many small islands. The impacts of climate change on tourism resources in small islands will have significant effects, both direct and indirect. For example, the sustainability of island tourism resorts in Malaysia is expected to be compromised by rising sea level, beach erosion and saline contamination of coastal wells a major source of water supply for island resorts.
A cross-sectional analysis of per capita income and temperature suggests that people are poor because of the climate. So, global warming could cause economies to shrink or grow slower. As poverty implies higher impacts, this would drag the economy down further. The Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research has reported that, according to IPCC report, climate-related factors could decrease India’s GDP by up to 9 per cent.
Climate can be a factor in an area’s comparative advantage for economic production and growth. Not only can climate affect an area’s own economic patterns, it can also affect the competitive position of its markets and competitors, and thus affect prospects for local employment and individual livelihoods. For example, in 2003 heat wave in Western Europe affected settlements and economic services in a variety of ways.
Economically, it created stress on health, water supplies, and food storage and energy systems. The IPCC provides evidence that global insured and uninsured property losses currently amount to over $40 billion per annum compared to just $4 billion per annum (all in real terms) some 50 years ago. Infrastructures such as bridges, roads, pipelines or transmission networks, industry can experience substantial economic losses.
Where the climate warms due to climate change, less temperature will be needed for industrial, commercial and residential buildings, and cooling demands will increase, which in turn, will increase the energy demands. According to assessment reports, the value of damages caused by climate change would cost about 4.8 trillion US$, about half the GDP of the whole European Union. If we try to prevent the global temperature increase above 1.5°C, it would cost around 37 trillion US$ (IPCC, 2007).
Nicholas Stern (2006) released a 700-page report for the British government, which discusses the effect of global warming on the world economy. It proposed that one per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) per annum will require avoiding the worst effects of climate change, otherwise there will be up to 20 per cent decrease in GDP in response to the adverse changes.
Sustainable development has become part of all climate change policy discussions at the global level. It is ‘the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Sustainable development is a multidimensional concept including economic, social and environmental issues.
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Environmental conservation for sustainability of natural resources is not a luxury but a necessity when considering long-term economic growth and development, particularly in the least developed countries. Linking the concept of sustainable development to climate change provides an opportunity to explore long-term societal responses to global environmental change.
If the mean summer temperature rises by 1°C in Japan, consumption of summer products such as air-conditioners, beer, soft drinks, clothing and electricity are projected to increase about 5 per cent, which have indirect negative effects on human health and economy of the country.
In Asia, the pressure on land in the 21st century will increase, due to the increasing food grain demand, the growing economic development, as well as climate change. Encroachment into forest zones for cultivation, grazing, fuel wood and other purposes will change the ecology of the forest zones. This, in turn, can affect the process of carbon sequestration, as forests generally act as carbon sink.
Future climate change is expected to have considerable impacts on natural resource systems, which, in turn, can lead to instability and conflict, often followed by displacement of people and changes in occupancy and migration patterns. The production losses due to climate change may drastically increase the problem of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition in several developing countries in Asia.
Term Paper # 3. EL Nino and Climate Change:
El Nino, the periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects the weather worldwide, started about 6,000 years ago. C. Fred T. Andrus of the University of Georgia studied the ancient fish bones from refuse left about 6000 years ago by ancient peoples in Peru and found that ocean catfish lived in water that averaged 6° to 7° warmer than now and that there was little variation in temperature. He concluded that if El Nino was occurring at the modern rate, once every two to seven years, then the bones from the fish would have reflected the temperature variation.
El Ninos were originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean, occurring near the beginning of the year. El Nino means The Little One or Christ Child in Spanish. This name was used for the tendency of the phenomenon to arrive around Christmas.
The Pacific temperature observations indicate that the evolution towards a warm episode in the tropical Pacific continued during February 2002. Warmer-than-normal sea surface and subsurface temperatures developed throughout the equatorial Pacific during the month. The warming of surface and subsurface waters along the South American coast was due to the arrival of the oceanic Kelvin wave that has been propagating eastward from the central equatorial Pacific since mid-December. These conditions are often observed in the early stages of El Nino.
Several of the atmospheric indices indicate that El Nino conditions have not developed yet to the point that guarantees sustained growth of the event. In contrast, enhanced rainfall has been observed over the tropical west-central Pacific, from Papua New Guinea eastward to the date line (180° W) since the beginning of 2002.
Enhanced rainfall also observed in late February over the warmer-than-usual waters between west coast of South America and the Galapagos Islands. These features reflect the warming in the sea surface temperatures, and are possibly the first atmospheric effects of a developing El Nino. The recent evolution in oceanic conditions supports the forecast of a continued evolution towards El Nino.
El Nino results from interaction between the surface layers of the ocean and the overlying atmosphere in tropical Pacific. It is the internal dynamics of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system that determine the onset and termination of El Nino events. The physical processes are complicated, but they involve unstable air-sea interaction and planetary scale oceanic waves. The system oscillates between warm (El Nino) to neutral conditions with a natural periodicity of roughly 3-4 years. External forcing from volcanic eruptions has no connection with El Ninos.
Every El Nino is somewhat different in magnitude and in duration. Magnitude can be determined in different ways, such as variations in the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). The great width of the Pacific Ocean is the main reason we see El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in that ocean as compared to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Most current theories of ENSO involve planetary scale equatorial waves. The time it takes these waves to cross the Pacific is one of the factors that sets the time scale and amplitude of ENSO climate anomalies.
The narrower width of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans means the waves can cross those basins in less time, so that ocean adjusts more quickly to wind variations. Conversely, wind variations in the Pacific Ocean excites waves that take a long time to cross the basin, so that the Pacific adjusts to wind variations more slowly.
This slower adjustment time allows the ocean-atmosphere system to drift further from equilibrium than in the narrower Atlantic or Indian Ocean, with the result that inter-annual climate anomalies are larger in the Pacific.
There is another way also in which the width of the Pacific allows ENSO to develop there as compared to the other basins. In the narrower Atlantic and Indian Oceans, bordering land masses influence seasonal climate more significantly than in the broader Pacific. The Indian Ocean in particular is governed by monsoon variations, under the strong influence of the Asian land mass.
In general, warm ENSO episodes are characterized by an increased number of tropical storms and hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and a decrease in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It’s believed that El Nino conditions suppress the development of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic. El Nino tends to increase the numbers of tropical storms in the Pacific Ocean.
El Nino is a disruption of the ocean- atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. Among these consequences are increased rainfalls across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating bush fires in Australia.
Many scientists believe that a warmer atmosphere is likely to produce stronger or more frequent El Ninos, since both phenomena involve large changes in the earth’s heat balance.
However, inadequate representation of many key physical processes, such as effects of clouds and the role of the ocean hamper computer climate models, one of the primary research tools for studies of global warming. Some scientists have speculated that a warmer atmosphere is likely to produce stronger or more frequent El Ninos, while others predict that El Ninos may actually be weaker in a warmer climate.
The scientific community has known about El Nino and its impact on global weather, Pacific marine ecosystems and fisheries about 35 years, but it never made the headlines. But, during 1997-98 it became the much published climatic event.
Actually the 1997-98 El Nino was the strongest on record, and it developed more rapidly than any El Nino of the past 40 years. As a result, its impact was quick and spectacular. Early effects in August-October, 1997 included record flooding in Chile, hurricanes in several places in the USA, the extensive smog cloud over Indonesia, and a quiet Atlantic hurricane season.
In the past 15 years, scientists developed new observational tools that allowed us to track the development of El Nino in greater detail than ever before. The new observations from satellites and from sensors in the ocean itself provided a day by day account of events as they unfolded in the tropical Pacific.
These technological advances, providing high definition information on the Tropical Ocean and atmosphere system like never before, fueled a lot of interest about El Nino and how it effects people’s lives.
Term Paper # 4. Climate Change and Diseases:
Environment is always intimately related to the diseases that are transmitted by arthropods. The spread of vector borne diseases depends on density of the vectors. When environment becomes favourable for breeding of the vector above its threshold level, there will be effective transmission of the disease, but when, environment is not suitable for efficient breeding of the vector and optimum density of the vector is not reached, the disease will not be transmitted, even if the vector is present.
When Aedes index (number of premises on which it is breeding) is below 5 per cent, epidemic of yellow fever subsides. Through source reduction only, yellow fever has been eliminated from Panama region. Singapore has previously succeeded in controlling DF/DHF following this procedure.
In India, important vector borne diseases, such as malaria, filaria, Japanese encephalitis, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), chikungunya, kala- azar and other cutaneuous leishmaniases, Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), etc. are major public health problems, even after sixty-three years of achieving independence. The problems have become complicated mainly due to the changing environment that favours for unabated growth of vector populations.
Pollution of environment favouring growth of vector population may occur mainly due to:
1. Unplanned Urbanization:
Unplanned urbanization, which is rapid and alarming in India. One of the reasons of spread of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, transmitter of brugian filariasis, is related to this haphazard urbanization. This is also true for malaria, dengue, DHF and chikungunya.
2. Faulty Irregular Interrupted Water Supply:
It is another important aspect for polluting environment inviting insect breeding. Storage of water or collection of water in several types of small containers helps prolific breeding of Anopheles stephensi (important vector of urban malaria in India) and Aedes aegypti (vector of dengue), specially in the monsoon and post monsoon seasons, tallying with transmission seasons of malaria and dengue.
3. Rapid Industrialisation:
It also poses problem, specially in our country, where standard of living of industrial workers and labourers is for below normal. Moreover, aggregation of people from different areas surrounding an industry is often responsible for initiating or spreading insect borne diseases.
4. Migration:
Migration of infected person(s) in a new virgin area, when effective vector exists, can help to introduce the disease. This is a normal mode of transmission so far as kala-azar is concerned. From Bihar, kala-azar entered Malda and from Malda to about 10-13 other districts of West Bengal, migration is responsible for opening up new foci of kala-azar.
5. False Reliance:
False reliance on some so-called insect-abating appliances that pollute environment, examples are mats, coils, vehicle mounted or hand operated fogging instruments etc. These appliances mostly help the insect populations directly and indirectly to be more environment friendly, so to say.
On the one hand, they are becoming resistant to those poisonous chemicals and on the other hand, their spread is also becoming facilitated as from one place they are forcefully driven to the other place A study in central Kolkata reveals that of700 persons, using mats, coils, etc. 80 per cent suffered from malaria and of 300 persons using mosquito nets 3.29 per cent only suffered from malaria.
6. Agriculture:
It sometimes adversely affects environment to spread insect borne diseases. The classical example is Japanese encephalitis. The vector mosquitoes belonging to Culex vishnui group are rice field breeders. In this regard, it may be said that due to indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemical manure natural enemies of mosquitoes such as frogs, larvivorous fishes, bugs, odonates, etc. have almost disappeared.
7. Deforestation:
It is severely destabilizing environment. Change in the ecology is taking place rapidly. Some forest mosquitoes for example, Anopheles dirus have become very fond of taking human blood and transmitting P. falciparum parasites. People residing near the forest are facing this danger. As the ecology will be grossly changed, the foci of campestral plague may be shifted more towards human habitations. Kyasanur forest disease may become sylvatic or campestral.
8. Zoonosis:
Zoonotic diseases may suddenly appear due to environmental lapses. Japanese encephalitis was not present in India in epidemic form before 1973, in which year it devastatingly spread throughout West Bengal. Plague has disappeared from India, though a hue and cry was raised in 1994 throughout the country about invasion of plague, which has not been adequately substantiated. However, as stated earlier, it is not impossible that plague may appear in certain niche as a result of a link between campestral and urban situation, where interaction between agent, host and vector can take place.
9. Construction Works:
In the cities often continue for indefinite period. This can invite mosquito breeding. Example is construction work in Delhi in 2010, prior to Commonwealth Games and spread of dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever.
10. Global Warming:
Last but not the least comes the question of global warming. Most of those points discussed above are directly or indirectly related to this burning issue. For example, indiscriminate urbanization, industry, insect abating appliances, deforestation are directly adding fuel to global warming. Water supply, migration, agricultural and zoonotic affairs have indirect relationship with global warming, so to say.
Climate Change and Vector-Borne Diseases:
No prophecy can definitely be made regarding the future effect(s) of global warming, but the future is definitely blake. We may or may not understate cause and effect of global warming, willingly or unwillingly, knowingly and unknowingly but something is happening and something is going to happen probably in very near future. What would be possibilities related to arthropods and arthropod borne diseases? Will any arthropod species be extinct due to this global warming? The possibility is very rare.
These arthropods have occupied this earth long before human beings. They may be very tiny, but very hard and much more adaptive than human beings. In contrast, there is every possibility that a zoophilic species may be converted into an anthropophilic species as a result of metamorphic changes in ecology. Example of A. subpictus may be cited. In this primarily zoophilic mosquito species in a recent study anthropophilic index of an indoor resting population is found to be as high as 41.0 per cent in a village in West Bengal, indicating a considerable extent of man-vector contact.
As a consequence, it is possible that a non-vector or a secondary vector species may become the primary vector. Armigeres subalbatus is a non-vector species in India. There is every possibility that it may act as a vector of dengue and/or chikungunya, as a result of its prolific presence and human contact, which may enhance due to global warming.
It is possible that P. falciparum parasite would be resistant to all antimalarials available and P. vivax the benign tertian malaria may follow this path. Complicated vivax malaria with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) has already been reported.
A peculiar situation has been observed in some viral diseases, such as DHF, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, etc. The disease appears in epidemic form, then it disappears for several years to reappear with more severity. As vector breeding would be unabated due to global warming, such condition will gradually disappear and epidemics would be prolonged and devastating.
Many a disease have particular transmission season. In Kolkata, for example, transmission season of dengue/DHF/chikungunya extends from monsoon to post monsoon season. This is also true for falciparum malaria, in which peak is obtained in November. No such transmission season will probably exist in those future days. Intense transmission may continue throughout the year as abundant vectors would reign perennially.
Invasion of the vector may occur in new areas. Aedes aegypti would possibly invade rural areas while Aedes albopictus in urban area posing danger. Some such evidences have recently been documented, which point out that Aedes aegypti is now constituting 10 per cent of all Aedes mosquitoes in rural areas, whereas in urban areas, like Kolkata, Aedes albopictus constitutes 10 per cent of all Aedes mosquitoes.
The result of A226V mutation in the genome of additional vector, Aedes albopictus increases severity of the disease and more infectivity for vectors. Virus would get ample chance of such mutation in the changed condition.
Term Paper # 5. Climate Change and Soil Biota:
Global climate change which occurred recently or changes that are expected in near future are the major topic of discussion by the present day environmentalists. The climate change may be natural or it may be brought by human interference. But man made changes have been found to be more intense. The changes that are happening rather appears to be rapid which include rise in average global temperature, melting of polar ice and rise in sea level, prevalence of heat waves, flash floods, etc.
Overall effects are more horrifying, storms, cyclones, gales, hurricanes and typhoon will become more frequent and stronger as oceans heat up causing more water to evaporate. Kamboj and Khare (2009) while analyzing the impact of climate change suggested three primary causes for recent climate change; they are industrialization, deforestation and population explosion.
Soil biologists believe that some of the changes experienced by earth have either been reflected in the soil or its biotic components or going to be evident in near future.
The impact of changes already visualized or expected may be as follows:
1. Extensive cultivation practices followed to meet up the food requirements of increased population will involve the use of huge amount of pesticides, fungicides and other agrochemicals which on reaching the soil with runoff water may destroy the non-target soil biota.
2. Prevalence of an extreme drought situation for a longer period will either stop or slow down the decomposition process by soil biota and the release of nutrients will be hampered.
3. Heavy rainfall may destroy the soil aggregates or erode the surface layers to a considerable extent. The surface horizons being the site of maximum biological activity, the activity of fauna and flora will be significantly disturbed. In addition, heavy rainfall may lead to intense leaching and percolation resulting in the movement of nutrients from surface to deeper horizon.
4. Due to frequent floods, the surface horizons of arable lands are either washed away along with biota and nutrients or remain under the deposits of unwanted sand, silt or mud carried by floodwater. In addition, water logged situation may be created by floodwater in areas with heavy clay soil (with little percolation). Such situations are neither good for soil health nor conducive for the presence of numerically high soil biota.
5. Release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning increases earth’s temperature (global warming). The increased temperature may enhance the temperature of surface soils (particularly the sandy soils without proper vegetation cover) that induces the soil fauna to move downwards.
6. Rise in sea level due to melting of polar ice as a result of global warming, may inundate the coasts and adjoining areas affecting the soil biota. Intrusion of saline sea water in the riverine system of land masses may occur which makes the river saline, soil fauna and micro flora in the adjoining areas of such rivers may be exposed to some stress due to flooding of saline water. If the salinity is beyond the tolerance range of soil biota their survival chance will be diminished.
Term Paper # 6. Adaptation Strategies against Climate Change:
In the context of climate change, mitigation is defined as “implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sinks”, while adaptation to climate change is defined as, “[an] adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities”(IPCC, 2007). The capacity of adaptation varies considerably among regions, countries, and socioeconomic groups and will vary over time.
Countries with limited economic resources, low levels of technology, poor information and skills, poor infrastructure, unstable or weak institutions, and inequitable empowerment and access to resources have little capacity to adapt and are highly vulnerable. Enhancement of adaptive capacity represents a practical means of coping with changes and uncertainties in climate.
In this way, enhancement of adaptive capacity reduces vulnerabilities and promotes sustainable development The adaptive capacity of a nation is likely to be greater when the nation has a stable and prosperous economy, technological strength and a good resource base. Climate change adaptation will be needed in a variety of ecosystems, including agro-ecosystems (crops, livestock and grasslands), forests and woodlands, inland waters and coastal and marine ecosystems.
Adaptation practices require extensive high quality data and information on climate, and on agricultural, environmental and social systems affected by climate, with a view to carrying out realistic vulnerability assessments and looking towards the near future.
Some of the adaptation strategies against climate change are discussed below:
1. Crops and vegetables that can tolerate abiotic stresses should be used. The selection of appropriate rice varieties that have different abilities to tolerate high temperature, salinity, drought and floods deserves consideration for adaptation to climate change.
2. Land cover assessment and monitoring of its dynamics are essential for sustainable management of natural resources, assessing the vulnerability of ecosystems and food security planning. Crop rotations, agro-forestry, crop-livestock associations, crop-fish systems and the use of hedges, vegetative buffer strips, controlling insect outbreaks and other farm landscaping practices can be beneficial in this matter.
3. Trees and shrubs in farming systems can play a significant role in mitigating the impacts of climate change and the resulting threats to food security. In addition to benefits such as the provision of wood and non-wood forest products, soil fertility maintenance and the conservation of biological diversity, trees and forests can improve the microclimate by buffering winds, regulating the water table, providing shade to crops and animals, and stabilizing coastal areas (e.g. through mangrove rehabilitation and reforestation). They thus contribute to sustainable agricultural production and food security.
4. In coastal areas, impacts of climate change can be minimized by:
i. Developing county-scale maps depicting which areas will require shore protection and which areas will be allowed to adapt naturally.
ii. Analyzing the environmental consequences of shore protection and promoting sustainable shore protection techniques.
iii. Improving early warning systems and flood hazard mapping for storms and protecting water supplies from saltwater intrusion.
iv. Improving water use efficiency, planning for alternative water sources (such as treated wastewater or desalinated seawater) and making changes to water allocation.
v. Water availability, cost and competition from other sectors must be considered.
5. Grain storage, emergency feeding stations, adjusting clothing and activity levels and increase in fluid intake can directly or indirectly help to combat with climate change. The most important and cost-effective adaptation measure is to rebuild public health infrastructure properly.
6. For protecting biodiversity, high genetic diversity and population size should be maintained and heterogeneity and redundancy of populations should be increased. Controlled burning should be applied to reduce fuel load and potential for catastrophic wildfires. Migration corridors should be protected and enhanced to allow species to migrate properly as the climate changes.
7. Risk assessment systems should include a detail historical climate data archive, advanced climate data analysis procedure and monitoring tools using systematic meteorological observations.
8. Environment monitoring programme, climate prediction and weather forecasting, market signals related to climate variability and change, response capacity, information dissemination and public awareness – all these areas should be revised, re-examined and improved to ensure better protection.
Term Paper # 7. Mitigation of Climate Change:
The scientific debate of the last two or three decades on global warming has brought climate forcefully to the attention of governments and included the topic in international political debates. But, in a heterogeneous world, an understanding of different regional conditions and priorities are essential for implementing climate change mitigation policies.
Some of the mitigation and adaptation strategies of climate change are discussed below:
i. Energy supply and distribution efficiency should be increased to control climate change. Renewable sources of energy like hydropower, solar energy, wind energy, biogas and geothermal energy should be used to minimize pollution as these sources reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. They are currently small overall contributors to global heat and electricity supply, but are increasing most rapidly.
ii. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a process consisting of the separation of CO2 from industrial and energy related sources, transport to a storage location and long-term isolation from the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration is a geo-engineering technique for long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate global warming. Conservation and sequestration result in higher carbon stocks, but can lead to higher future carbon emissions if these ecosystems are severely disturbed by either natural or direct/indirect human-induced disturbances.
iii. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the cutting down of forests is now contributing close to 20 per cent of the overall greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. The UK government’s Stern Review on the economics of climate change argued that curbing deforestation was a “highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions”. Afforestation and reforestation, like forest protection, may also have beneficial hydrological effects. The use of forestry products for bio-energy can replace fossil fuel use (IPCC, 2007).
iv. Smit et al (2001) reported that activities which can help to deal with the problem of climate change are equivalent to the sustainable development policies like improving access to natural resources, poverty reduction, equal distribution of resources, improvement of education and information, improvement of infrastructures, institutional capacity and efficiency.
v. In agricultural sectors, following measures should be taken:
1. Improved crop and grazing land management to increase soil carbon storage.
2. Restoration of cultivated peaty soils and degraded lands.
3. Improved rice cultivation techniques and livestock and manure management to reduce CH4 emissions.
4. Improved nitrogen fertilizer application techniques to reduce N2O emissions.
5. Production of bio-energy crops may reduce nutrient leaching and soil erosion and generate additional environmental services such as soil carbon accumulation, improved soil fertility, and the removal of cadmium and other heavy metals from soils or wastes.
6. In water-scarce regions, water supply may take place (partly) by desalinization of saline water.
7. Methane and nitrous oxide emissions can be reduced, such as those from livestock enteric fermentation, rice paddies, nitrogen fertilizer use and animal wastes.
vi. In transport sectors, modern energy efficient technologies, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and development of new technologies, such as hydrogen cars, may reduce the consumption of petroleum and emissions of carbon dioxide.