Practical Sustainability Strategies, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 12Adapting and Building Resilience to Climate Change

The earth's atmosphere contains greenhouse gases (GHGs), and their ability to trap heat within the atmosphere is responsible for the ambient temperatures under which communities and economies have developed the last few thousands of years. Prior to that there was an ice age. And before that there was again a different climate to the one today. The earth's climate has always undergone some level of change throughout the geological ages. Large-scale climatic changes in the past have been caused by various factors including solar activity (radiation), variations in earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, and even meteorites that may have caused the extinction of dinosaurs. However, the observed changes happening in our planet the last few decades have been overwhelmingly due to anthropogenic global warming associated with increased concentration of GHG emissions in the atmosphere after the industrial revolution. GHGs such as carbon dioxide and methane cause extra heat to be trapped and retained on earth (a greenhouse effect) that would have been otherwise deflected back into space. Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0 °C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, and global warming is likely to exceed 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate [1].

Even an apparently small increase of 1.5 °C can affect atmospheric circulation, and small variations in average ...