Showing posts with label Climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Climate change. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON THE RISK OF NATURAL DISASTERS

In recent years, serious decisions are made at the local and international level on climate change and its impact on natural disasters, which are more numerous and more serious over the years. Exploring their mutual influences, scientists worldwide are mostly engaged in the issue of the link between the increase in average temperature of the earth and the frequency (intensity) of natural disasters, with a special emphasis on hydrologic and meteorological disasters. To be able to analyze such influence, it is needed a solid knowledge of climate changes and natural disasters, as it is well known that global warming does not affect equally all kinds of those disasters, taking into account the origin of their occurrence. However, it should be noted that natural disasters have always existed, and that climate changes can only affect the increase in their number, intensity and consequences that they cause to people and their material goods.
             Without going into multiply multidimensional various issues of climate change, it should be noted that climate changes are caused by emissions of different gases that directly or indirectly exacerbate the natural process by which infrared radiation is captured in the atmosphere, which causes heating the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. It is a fact that speaks of the temperature increase of land, sea and air causes the disorder of certain natural processes, thereby contributing to the creation of more frequent floods, hurricanes, landslides and so on. Therefore, global warming that is characterized by increasing average temperatures on earth can be direct/indirect cause of the increase in severity (number and intensity) of natural disasters. In order to examine this possibility, it is important to examine the effects of elevated temperatures of land, sea and air on the processes that contribute to the above-mentioned increase in severity of natural disasters. Besides the increase in the average temperature of the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, which are direct consequences of climate changes, it is important to analyze its indirect effects as well, such as increasing the level of the oceans and seas affected by the rapid melting of large glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. The aforementioned process also affects the natural disasters, but in different ways than the direct effects of climate change.
      A large number of research studies worldwide have identified and demonstrated the interconnectedness of global warming and natural disasters using different statistical models. For example, if we start from the fact that the strength of hurricanes is based on heat of the oceans and seas, which is later transformed in mechanical strength, it is easy to examine the relationship between changes in ocean temperature and hurricane strength over the past few years. Of course, it is necessary to bear in mind that the characteristics of a hurricane do not only depend on the water temperature, but also on other factors that we will not consider in the paper.
            Therefore, this paper will analyze the phenomenological structure of climate changes and natural disasters, for further consideration of the relevant facts about their interrelation. Namely, in order to link those two phenomena it should consider each separately. Therefore, the paper will consider the implications of climate changes on natural disasters with special reference to their impact on specific species, the intensity and the increase in their number.
The climate changes

Across the Earth, climate changes and its serious consequences are discussed on a daily basis. And what exactly are climate changes and what they represent, it is best explained by the process of warming the Earth. Namely, daily solar energy penetrates the atmosphere in the form of light waves. Part of this energy heats the Earth, and part in the form of infrared waves back into space. Normally, part of the infrared radiation usually is captured by the atmosphere allowing the temperature that stays on Earth is within acceptable limits. However, the problem we now face is that the thin layer of air layer became thicker due to the large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the greenhouse effect. Having become thicker, now that layer retains a large amount of infrared radiation that would otherwise have left the atmosphere, causing the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans begin to rise.According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA, climate changes are a significant changes in climatic conditions, such as temperature, precipitation or winds, which last for a decade or longer, and may result from: natural processes within the climate system (changes in ocean circulation), changes in the intensity of solar radiation, or human activities that affect the composition of the atmosphere (through the burning of fossil fuels) and the land surface (deforestation, urbanization, desertification).[1] In addition, unlike climate changes, term the „global warming“ represents the tropospheric temperature increase thus contributing to changes in global weather patterns that emerge due to increased emissions of so-called greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane.[2
Climate changes represent a serious threat to the basic elements of life for people in the world, such as access to drinking water, food production, food and land use. They are multiple (from drought to floods) and multidimensional (local to global) risks that have short, medium and long-term aspects and unknown outcomes. The signatories to the UN Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol 1997 have accepted that climate changes carry many potential hazards, such as sea level rise, increased frequency of storms and floods, the spread of infectious diseases, decline in biodiversity and reducing the availability of food and water. These impacts are a threat to human life and sustainable development.

Za citiranje koristiti: Cvetković, V. (2014). The impacts of climate changes on the risk of natural disasters. Skopje: International yearbook of the Faculty of security (51-60).



[1] Dimitrijević, D.: Trendovi ekološke bezbednosti u XXI veku. Univerzitet u Beogradu: Fakultet bezbednosti, 2010. godine.
[2] Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency: Nanotechnology White Paper, Washington, 2007.