Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

Learning outcomes:
At the end of this module the students must be able to:
a. Explain environmental awareness and climate change;
b. create an advocacy to address local environmental problems;
c. identify the causes of climate change;
d. assess the various impacts of climate change including economic,
geopolitical, biological; meteorological, etc.;
e. present a case on environmental problem or issue in the community.

Let’s try:
Check what you have by answering the following test without looking on the content or
browsing on the net. It will help you to determine what you have on your own understanding and
will guide you what are the things that you need to know about the Environmental awareness
and climate change.

I. Essay
When we say Climate Change what does it appears to you a positive or
negative? Why?
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II. Enumeration
1-5. What do you think are the causes of climate change?

6-10. What do you think are the effects of climate change?

Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (ICCP), a United

Introduction Nations body that evaluates climate change science, released its
report on global climate change. The reports important
conclusions were the following: world’s climate has change
significantly over past century; the significant change has human influence, using climate
methods and if the trend continues, the global mean surface temperature will increase between
1-3.5 degree Celsius by 2100.

Climate Change- is a change I global or regional

climate patterns in particular a change apparent
from the mid to late 20 th century onwards and
attributed largely to the increased levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of
fossil fuels.

Causes of Climate Change

The causes of climate change could be natural or by human activities.

1. Volcanic eruptions- are one of the natural causes of climate change. When volcanoes erupt,
it emits different natural aerosols like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, salt crystals, volcanic ashes
or dust, and even microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. The volcanic eruption can cause a
cooling effect to the lithosphere because its emitted aerosols can block a certain percentage of
solar radiation that could last for two years.

2. Orbital Changes- Earth’s orbit can also cause climate change. This was proposed by the
Milankovitch theory. It states that as the Earth travels through space around the Sun, cyclical
variation in three elements of Earth. The three elements have cyclic variation are eccentricity,
obliquity, and precession.

Eccentricity- is the term used to describe the shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun. The impact
of the variation is a change in the amount of solar energy from perihelion (around January) to
aphelion ( around July).
Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

Obliquity- it is the variation of the tilt of Earth’s axis away from the orbital plane. As this tilt
changes, the seasons become more exaggerated.
Precession- is the change in orientation of Earth’s rotational axis.

3. Human influence – since the start of the Industrial revolution humans have been influencing
the climate. Since then the average world temperature has risen approximately 0.8 degrees
Celsius. According to the latest IPCC report, it is more than 90 percent probability that most of
the global warming in recent decades is attributable to the observed increased in greenhouse
gases.

4. Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere- the most well-known and most
important greenhouse gas is CO2. The carbon cycle causes and exchange of carbon dioxide
between biosphere and the ocean on the one hand and the atmosphere on the other. All living
organisms contains carbon, as do gases such as carbon dioxide and minerals such as diamond,
peat, and coal. The movement of carbon between large natural reservoirs in rock, the ocean,
the atmosphere, plants, soil, and fossil fuels is known as the carbon cycle.
Vast amount of carbon dioxide is also released by burning of fossil fuels. Since the start of
industrial revolution in 1750 human activities such as burning of fossil fuel, including coal and
oil, have dramatically increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

5. Aerosols and Greenhouse gases- Aerosols are less well-known than greenhouse gases.
Aerosols are dust particle which, in addition to carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere
in large quantities when woods and fossil fuels are burn. Some aerosols have a cooling effect
and some are warming effect that are present in refrigerators, air-condition units and heaters.
On the balance they have a cooling rather that warming effect.
In a natural phenomena, greenhouse gases and aerosols create an imbalance in the incoming
and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere known to be as radiative forcing. When the Earth
heats up, the short-wave radiation from the sun that enters the atmosphere is greater than the
long-wave radiation that exits the atmosphere. The temperature changes on Earth will not stop
until the radiation balance is restored. Given the immense capacity of the ocean to absorb 85%
of the additional heat, it will take a long time to strike a new balance.

6. Greenhouse effect: natural and enhanced- the greenhouse effect described how certain
gases in our atmosphere increase the temperature on Earth’s surface by preventing some of the
energy radiating.
Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

The natural greenhouse effect makes life on Earth possible. Without this effect, the average
temperature would be about 18 degrees Celsius. Earth’s surface temperature is determined by
the radiative balance, the net difference between the energy gained from incoming sunlight and
the amount lost into space as infrared radiation.
Earth’s atmosphere acts as transparent blanket, letting in light but trapping some of the heat it
generates. Without an atmosphere, all of this energy would be lost to space. This natural effect
relies on greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Climate Change Effects

1. Potential effects of World production and consumption patterns to climate change.

2. Forest destruction cause by wildfires and human needs.
3. Water problems such as more flooding and droughts.
4. Melting of ice in Polar region that cause to rise the sea level.
5. Wildlife extinction due to deforestation and changes in climate.

Top 10 ways that college students can do to stop climate change by David Suzuki

1. Get involved 6. Let polluters pay

2. Be energy efficient 7. Fly less
3. Choose renewable power 8. Be informed
4. Eat wisely 9. Green your commute
5. Trim your waste 10. Support and donate

Steps to address the problem climate change

1. Forego Fossil Fuels
2. Infrastructure Upgrade
3. Move closer to work
4. Consume less
5. Be efficient
6. Eat smart, Go vegetarian
7. Stop Cutting down trees
8. Unplug
9. One child
10. Future fuels

Some government project help to address climate change

1 2
Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

3. 4.

5. 6.

7. 8.
Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

Learning Activity time!

Activity.
Using a short size bond paper make a poster and a slogan campaigning about on how
the community help lessen the cause climate change. You can cut out picture and paste.

Let’s check what you got!

1. Is climate change preventable?

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Environmental Awareness and Climate Change MODULE

2. You as a college student what significant contribution can you make in response to climate
change?

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3. What should the government must do to mitigate climate change?

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