Responding to Climate Change

  

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions. Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and human-induced alterations of the natural world; these latter effects are currently causing global warming, and "climate change" is often used to describe human-specific impacts.
         On the broadest scale, the rate at which energy is received from the sun and the rate at which it is lost to space determine the equilibrium temperature and climate of Earth. This energy is distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents, and other mechanisms to affect the climates of different regions.
Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or "forcing mechanisms". These include processes such as variations in solar radiation, variations in the Earth's orbit, mountain-building and continental drift and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. There are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing. Some parts of the climate system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond slowly in reaction to climate forcings, while others respond more quickly.
         One of the ways on how we are going to respond to climate change is adaptation. Even if CO₂ emissions were halted now, the effects of climate change would be felt for at least another 40 years. Actions to help the environment and people cope with these effects are essential and urgent. .Unfortunately the ways in which human society adapts to climate change through changes in agriculture, fisheries and forestry, construction of flood and coastal defences, renewable energy development, water conservation measures and recreation activities can also add to the pressures on wildlife.It is important that planning for each of these sectors takes environmental conservation into consideration.