Climate change Health effects Direct Temperature Effects

1
GLOBAL WARMING
2
Global Warming

• an average increase in the temperature of the
  atmosphere near the Earths surface and in the
  troposphere1, which can contribute to changes in
  global climate patterns

3
Causes

• Burning of fossil fuels (Coal/Crude oil)
• Power plants? generate electricity
• Transportation-----fuels for transports (E.g.
  LPG,
• kerosene, fuel oil)
• Industrial processes (E.g. manufacture of
• cement, steel, aluminium)

4
Causes

• Other greenhouse gases emission
• Agriculture
• Forestry
• Other land uses
• Waste management

5
Example Using natural gas to cook CH4 2O2 ?
CO2 2H2O
Besides carbon dioxide, other gases such as
methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrogen oxides and
ozone also contribute to the greenhouse effect.
6

• Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
• ?
• Some infrared radiation is trapped
• ?
• Greenhouse effect

Serious greenhouse effect Global Warming
7
How serious the problem is?...
8
Increase in greenhouse gases

• Concentration of greenhouse gases in the
  atmosphere is highly increasing by human
  activities
• ? Leads to the increasing seriousness of global
  warming

9
(No Transcript)
10
Global surface temperatures

• increased about 0.6C/century since the late19th
  century
• increased to 2C/century over the past 25 years

11
Increase in Global temperatures
12
Temperature difference between different parts of
atmosphere

• troposphere temperatures (the lowest 8 kilometers
  of the Earth's atmosphere) collected since 1979
  also indicate warming
• Cooling effect in higher parts of the atmosphere
  stratospheric temperatures have been decreasing

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
NOT globally uniform warming

• Warming parts
• North America
• Eurasia
• Cooling parts
• parts of the southeastern U.S.

16
(No Transcript)
17
Increasing temperature extremes

• Regions that have temperatures (1-3C) warmer
  than the average
• United States
• Most of the Europe
• Regions that have temperatures (1-3C) cooler
  than the average
• Australia

18
Regional Temperatures
19
Sea level rising

• rising at an average rate of 1 - 2 mm/year over
  the past 100 years

20
Environmental and Human Effects
21
(No Transcript)
22
Direct Temperature Effects

• Increase in average temperature
• More extreme heat waves during the summer Less
  extreme cold spells during the winter
• Harmful to those with heart problems, asthma, the
  elderly, the very young and the homeless

23
Extreme Events

• Extreme Events
• Heat waves Cold waves Storms Floods and
  Droughts
• Global warming
• An increase in the frequency of extreme events
• More event-related deaths, injuries, infectious
  diseases, and stress-related disorders

24
Climate-sensitive diseases

• Increase the risk of some infectious diseases
• particularly that appear in warm areas are
  spread by mosquitoes and other insects
• E.g. Malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever,
  encephalitis
• Algal blooms occur more frequently as
  temperatures warm (particularly in areas with
  polluted waters)
• Diseases (e.g. cholera) accompanying algal blooms
  become more frequent

25
Air Quality

• An increase in the concentration of ground-level
  ozone
• Damage lung tissue
• Harmful for those with asthma and other chronic
  lung diseases

26
Food supply

• Rising temperatures and variable precipitation
• Decrease the production of staple foods in many
  of the poorest regions
• Increasing risks of malnutrition

27
Population displacement

• Rising sea levels
• Increase the risk of coastal flooding
• (Necessitate population displacement)
• More than half of the world's population now
  lives within 60km of the sea.
• Most vulnerable regions Nile delta in Egypt, the
  Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh, many
  small islands, such as the Maldives, the Marshall
  Islands and Tuvalu.

28
UV Exposure (Australia)

• Skin Cancer  
• an abnormal growth of skin tissues.
• Premature aging
• make the skin thick, wrinkled, and leathery  
• Cataracts 
• No longer have transparent lenses in their eyes

29
UV Exposure (Australia)

• Other Eye Damages
• Skin cancer around the eyes
• Degeneration of the yellow spot
• Suppression of Immunity  
• Overexposure to UV radiation ? suppress proper
  functioning of the body's immune system and
  natural defenses of skin
• UV-B radiation weakens the immune system ?
  increases the chance of infection and disease

30
Measures on controlling the problem

• Government
• set some laws to limit the amount of
  pollutants produced by factories
• develop the skills of using renewable fuels,
  e.g. solar energy, wind energy

31
Measures on controlling the problem

• encourage the factories to replace fossil
  fuels by renewable fuels, which would not cause
  environmental pollution
• carry out energy saving scheme ? reduce the
  pollution produced by burning fossil fuels
• build more plants ? reduce the pollutants
  e.g. CO2

32
Measures on controlling the problem

• Citizens
• reduce the use of plastic bags ? as burning
  plastic emit CH4
• recycle the resources, e.g. plastic
• reduce the use of sprays ? as CFCs would be
  emitted out

33
Measures on controlling the problem

• reduce the use of air-conditioner, which will
  emit CFCs
• use public transportation instead of private
  cars ? reduce the pollutants emitted by cars

34
Sources

• http//www.who.int/globalchange/climate/en/
• http//resources.emb.gov.hk/envir-ed/text/globalis
  sue/e_m2_2_6.htm
• http//epa.gov/climatechange/effects/index.html
• http//www.tchps.edu.hk/greenweb/greenMaindGMsg5.h
  tm
• http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.
  html

35
THE END