Geography B Exploring Planet - Climate Change

Topic 2: Climate and Change

Natural Causes of Climate Change

Orbital Change: Changes in how the Earth moves around the sun are believed to cause ice age. According to Milank Obiton ( a Serbian physicist) every 100,000 years or so the Earth’s orbit changes from a circular to elliptical (egg shaped) pattern. This changes how much sunlight we receive. He also identified that the earth’s axis move and wobbles about changing over 41,000 and 21,000 year cycle. This also effects how much sunlight received. Put all together and the history of ice ages can be explained.

 Solar Output:  the suns output is not constant. Cycles have been detected that reduce or increase the amount of solar energy. The most well known phenomenon is sunspot activity, when uneven temperatures develop on the suns surface. These can be seen as tiny black spots on photography on the sun taken by experts. Sun spots seem to come and go following on irregular cycle that last about 11 years. Interestingly temperatures are greatest when there are plenty of sports- because it means other areas of the sun are working even harder

Volcanic Activity: Major volcanic eruptions lead to a brief period of global cooling due to ash and dust particles being ejected high into the atmosphere blanketing the earth. The 1883 explosion of Krakotoa is believed to have reduced world temperatures by 1.2 C  for at least one year afterwards.

Effects of Global Warming

Ø  1. Spread of disease
As northern countries warm, disease…