Jimmy+P

===TOPIC 6: Describe how climate change affects natural systems (eg. Shrinking of the permafrost region, melting of ice shelves/caps/glaciers) ===

=__Factors of Climate Change: __=  There are many different factors that contribute to climate change. When the climate changes, the whole world changes. The most obvious change is that the weather is becoming warmer and warmer. Climate change can cause dramatic changes such as the melting of glaciers and ice. Many of the factors of climate are because of global warming. Some factors that are not related to global warming is: plate tectonics; solar outputs; Earth's orbital variations; volcanism, and changes in the oceans.  The plates of Earth are large chunks of crust that contain continents and the oceans. The motion of plate tectonics causes the plates to bump into; come apart; and slide past each other, causing the land forms and oceans to change. When the plates move, the ocean currents may change. Since the currents are very important in the regulation of temperature, places could become hotter and colder than its usual climate of long ago.

The sun is the reason why we are alive and how the Earth is alive. The sun is the source of our heat, without it nothing would be able to live. The sun has always been changing. Many millions of years ago, the sun was only emitting about 70% as much energy as it is today. When the sun grows older, it would eventually release more and more energy. Eventually it would become a red giant and release so much energy, Earth could possibly become completely dry.

At this moment Earth is twirling around itself as it orbits around the sun. This causes night and day at different times around the world. North America could be experiencing daytime while Europe and Asia is experiencing the night. Earth is currently spinning around its axis at an angle kind of like a top. When you spin a top, it will lose its power and change the wobble. Earth is the same. But because Earth is so huge, it may take a very long time for it to change its wobble. But when it does, the areas that receive the most sun may receive the least; the arctic and south could become hot and India could become the coldest.

Volcanoes, geysers and hot springs release gases or particles in the atmosphere. Sometimes these eruptions could be so huge that the whole Earth is affected. These enormous eruptions happen several times per century and can affect the climate. The gases and particles in the atmosphere can block the sun's radiation resulting in a drop of temperature world wide. These natural phenomenons can also completely change the face of the Earth. The meteor that causes the dinosaurs to become extinct is kind of the same thing. A huge volacano eruption could happen that could completely resurface Earth, change the way animals and humans live and cause abnormal climate.

Changes in the oceans greatly affects the climate as well. Short term changes includes oscillations such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Pacific decadal oscillation, the North Atlantic oscillation, and the Arctic oscillation. The oscillations effect the winds and the ocean currents, causing the climate to change accordingly. Some places begin to get warmer and others become colder. Longer term changes are due to Thermohaline circulation, which are very deep water currents. Changes in these currents effects the Earth's solar budget and can cause Earth to release more or less heat resulting in colder or warmer climates.

Last but not least, climate is affected by us. Global warming has a very huge impact on climate change. Our everyday technologies let out huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, making our atmosphere to be filled with greenhouse gases, which traps in heat and makes our Earth warmer. Emissions from cars using fossil fuels contributes in keeping the suns rays in our atmosphere, warming the Earth up. In some areas of the world, the atmosphere actually is missing. In the Arctic, the ozone is depleting because of us as well. Aerosols as well as Chlorofluorocarbons from air condition units are the reasons why the ozone is depleting. In some places, the atmosphere is becoming thick, resulting in a warmer climate. Other places where the atmosphere is getting thinner, the climate is becoming more cold. Our roles, along with the other climate change factors greatly influences the climate.

=__Effects of climate change in Arctic and Antarctica: __= = =

 Glaciers had always been known to be big and mighty, but that is rapidly changing. The Earth is becoming much warmer because of climate change and that affects the North and South Poles = =  the most. The glaciers that had been there as water sources are rapidly melting. And because the winters and becoming warmer and precipitation becomes less abundant, the glaciers are not able to freeze and become bigger and make up for that lost. Glaciers had always been melting; that is how many places in the world get their fresh water. But if there isn't enough snow to replace the melting glaciers, they will eventually disappear. To make matters worse, glaciers played a vital role in our Earth's radiation budget. Glaciers have a high albedo, reflecting about 80% of the Sun's energy back. But when glaciers melt, they expose land, which have a low albedo, the land then absorbs the Sun's energy much more. This makes it virtually impossible to stop the glaciers from melting if this happens. Once glaciers have completely melted, fresh water sources will be gone. The people who depend glaciers for fresh water, as well as animals, will be affected. Rivers will flow no more and lands will become dry. Melting in the Glacier also increase sea level, making it dangerous around the world. An increase in sea level, increases the chances of a flooding and impacts the climate everywhere.

<span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> If glaciers are melting, then the ice caps and ice sheets are also melting. Ice caps and sheets also have the same effect on the sea level, when they melt the sea level will rise. The ice caps and ice sheets are homes to many animals in the Arctic and Antarctica, but if they melt they animals and environment there will change. The plants and vegetation there will die and the animals will be at risk. People who live in this permafrost regions will also be affected. Greenland has a population of about 60,000 people, when it melts that 60,000 people would be affect, their lifestyle be become completely different. The animals that live on these ice caps and ice sheets will be on the verge of extinction and will have to be relocated.When ah the ice caps/sheets and glaciers melt, the Earth would be completely different; climates will become warmer; animals will change; humans will change; everything thing will be affected. We must do all we can right now in order to help stop this from happening.

__Bibliography:__ <span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change <span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">http://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-are-glaciers-melting.html <span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_sheet <span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">http://www.ceasefire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/climate-change11.jpg <span style="color: #9b9292; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20071129/0013729e4a9d08b842fa1c.jpg