Climate change and its impact on humans and the environment

Climate change and its impact on humans and the environment

Zhadyra Tajimuratova

NIS Karaganda

Introduction

Every year the climate changes constantly and affects to human development. More than thirty years of conferences, in printing editions and through mass media scientists try to find out and explain the reasons of the happening climate change of Earth. Some scientists agree that weather variability will not hamper human development and that the worst of them can be prevented by urgent adoption and implementation of appropriate solutions. However, the majority of scientists assume that with increasing of accidents, development of humanity will decrease. Moreover, they suppose that it will not be possible to avoid. (Hannah, 2014)

In 11th grade, we had learned the theme about global warming, from that lessons I knew how and why it is happening. At that moment I am interested in this theme, it was interesting for me to identify the consequences of climate change. As well as for all people, for me have a decent standard of living plays an important role in life. Therefore it can be said that humanity is one of the most important values for me. That is why I decided to take this theme. I am going to research this theme more deeply because climate change is one of the serious problems not only in Kazakhstan but also in the whole world. From my personal experiences recently I often hear this issue on the news. Additionally, we always use the issue for debates in our lessons. I found this issue interesting and I wanted to know more about this problem, how the climate change affect to the human development, could the influence of climate change to human development be prevented, can climate change positively effect on human development.

Further the outcomes of this research will be used to notify people of 11 grade the impact of climate change on humanity and advise them to learn more about this topic in the 11th grade as it is one of the significant issue. It will help them to understand how this is a problem is more serious than it seems in fact..

In my personal perspective the results of this problem may lead to irreversible consequences. As the climate change is global issue and it was not considered and solved in the beginning, it is already late to prevent it. My personal bias is that climate change affect more negatively than positively. However, despite this, to be more confident about it I will search both sides of effect.

Hypothesis of this research is that majority of students and teachers of Nazarbaev Intellectual School of Karaganda presume that climate changes negatively influences on health and leads to reduction of human development. So how the climate change affect to the human development?

Context

Nowadays weather variability is one of the most important development issues. “Climate change is observed and projected long-term changes in mean climate indicators, as well as climate variability, including such anomalies as droughts, severe storms and flooding.” (Walmsley, 2010, p.5) Earth's climate has fluctuated in the past but in the last 100 years it happens much more often. Every year climate is changing and negatively affecting to humanity. According to the National Human Development report, the average temperature of the Earth’s surface has increased by 0.89 °C from 1901 to 2012. (Medalye, 2007)

Scientists have a lot of predictions about this problem. “Accelerated climate change is anticipated to have wide-ranging effects on the future sustainability of the Earth due to adverse ecological, social and economic impacts. “ (Walmsley, 2010, p.2) For instance, according to the study of Manitoba University drought that has been in Canada in 2001 has cost over $5 billion in agricultural losses which negatively affect to their economy. All above mentioned factors may have a strong influence on people's health, economy and humanity as a whole.

Generally, weather variability is a result of human activity which causes the problems such as global warming. Global warming is the recent increase in the world's temperature that is believed to be caused by the increase of certain gases in the atmosphere. Use of fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas, as well as deforestation has led to a significant increase of the content in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2), and other greenhouse gases. However scientists are properly sure that a 100 million years ago carbon dioxide values were several times higher than now. In very general terms, 500 million years ago atmospheric CO₂ was some 20 times higher than current values. It throw down, then rose again some 200 million years ago to 4-5 times present-day levels-a period of increasing of huge leaf forests-and then begin slowly decrease until modern time. (Gage, 2008) From figure 1 it can be seen that the average concentration of carbon dioxide in 1959 was higher than the previous year. The average for 1960 was higher still.

Figure 1

Some of the negative consequences can be assessed from a financial point of view. For example, the costs after damage from storms and hurricanes in poor countries can be very expensive and they do not have enough money to renew the damaged buildings. “In a less populated area the estimated costs of Hurricane Juan, which passed over Nova Scotia in 2003, amounted to CAD$200 million.” (Lemmen, 2008, p.12) Moreover according to the 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater after hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. In all, Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and affected some 90,000 square miles of the United States. Impacts of climate change to financial point may adversely affect to livelihood of people and decrease general human development.

The majority of scientists agree that with increasing of accidents, development of humanity will decrease. Moreover, they suppose that it will not be possible to avoid. “Under conditions of global warming it is estimated that over 1 billion persons will be at additional risk of flood damage, 22 million will be subject to coastal flooding, and 20 million will starve per annum.” (Medalye, 2012, p.37) Furthermore according to a study by researchers from the University of Exeter Maldives likely to be the first to feel the effects of climate change as sea levels rise. Sea levels are predictable to increase by up to 97cm by 2100. (Rothman, 2006) If this happens then all the islands will be underwater therefore approximately billion people will die.

A similar situation is observed in Kazakhstan. According to the statistics in average the temperature rise by 0.26 0 C/10 years during the period 1936-2008. During this period in winter the temperature rise by 0.44 0 C while in summer by 0.14 0 C.

In addition, the problem of glaciers is crucial for all the eastern neighboring countries of Kazakhstan. Glaciers are melting so fast in parts of Kazakhstan which means that livings of millions of people will be affected. According to Dr Harrison and his colleagues, from the University of Newcastle, UK, von Humboldt University, Germany, and the Kazakh Academy of Sciences, between 1974 and 1990, the glaciers lost 1.28% of their size each year. Also one more serious issue in Kazakhstan is salinization of Balkhash. According to Kazakhstani scientist Krukova, the consequences of these processes can lead to ecological disasters.

From climate change there are a lot of affects namely on ecosystems and society. Also the consequences of this issue can guide to the effects of certain pests and diseases. The combination of global warming, environmental problems and human activities can result in extremely rapid destruction of ecosystems, namely arid zones, which constitute the majority part of the territory of Kazakhstan. It means that as a result of rapid warming, many species may disappear or migrate. (Baigarin et al., 2008) All above mention facts means that climate changes from region to region.

However some scientists argue that with special measures, this problem can be solved. “If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to cut our emissions of greenhouse gases, and keep the average global temperature increase less than 2°C.” (Medalye, 2007) Furthermore scientists of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest to urge world leaders accountable for taking the necessary measures and to control the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere. That is why the forests of the world are vigorous in justifying climate change. Or countries and regions will solve their own unique trials – as the means to decrease emissions.

Furthermore new technology can help to avoid weather variability. According to the human development report new way of solving this problem is applying devices where energy sources can be replaced or swapped. (Medalye, 2007) All above mention things can help to solve this global issue. Nevertheless, the solutions are still moot point.

However there are also positive effects of climate change to human development. Longer rising seasons could signify improved agricultural production in some local areas (Lemmen, 2008) For instance, Arctic that is ice-free in summer would let for new transport roads and open the opportunity of taking out oil and gas. Furthermore the areas such as such as Russia or Canada could amended agricultural production by 10% -15% (Rothman, 2006)

Moreover according to the prediction of Human Development report deaths from infection and other cold-weather ailments might go down which can positively affect to the growth of humanity. According to the scientists in 2010 in Latvia registered 39 cases of influenza A and seven cases of influenza B which were prevented only in winter with the help of climate change. (Gage, et al., 2008)

According to the conclusion of Professor Richard Tol of Sussex University, positive effects likely to stay progressive until about 2080. Further he accomplishes that climate change did indeed increase human and planetary benefit during the 20th century. To prove it, he gave examples such as the rise in average carbon dioxide levels over the past century, from 0.03 per cent to 0.04 per cent of the air, has had a measurable impact on plant growth rates. It is accountable for amazing change in the amount of greenery on the planet. As Dr Ranga Myneni of Boston University has accepted, using three decades of satellite data, 31% of the global vegetated area of the planet has become greener and just 3 per cent has become less green. This interprets into a 14% increase in productivity of ecosystems and has been observed in all flora categories. (Medalye, 2007) It means that nowadays real harm of climate change can produce net benefits for 70 years.

Aims

The aim of this report was to explore people consciousness about climate change. The purpose was to clarify the causes and consequences of weather variability and find out how this problem affects human development.

In this research the main research questions were:

ü How the Climate change affect to the human development?

ü Could the influence of climate change to human development be prevented?

ü Can climate change positively effect on human development?

Further the outcomes of this research will be used to notify people of 11 grade the impact of climate change on humanity and advise them to learn more about this topic in the 11th grade as it is one of the significant issue

Methods

In my research paper I used primary and secondary research. To research and analyze more evidences to support my arguments and reasoning I used the internet to gather a range of cross cultural primary and secondary evidence because it is easy and faster to found information about climate change. I take data from governmental websites because the statistics in such kind of sites are accurate. My alternative research strategy is to increase knowledge about this topic with the help of NIS students and teachers of Karaganda.

I will interview and question the teachers of Nazarbaev Intellectual school of Karaganda because they have more experience and they are more versed in global issues.Also I will interview the students to compare the results. Because of less time I will question only 42 people from our shanyrak and interview only 10 of them. Also I will question 50 teachers from Nazarbaev Intellectual School of Karaganda. One more problem which may happen during survey is that some teachers can refuse to answer questions. However school administration will help to solve this problem. Thesolution is that school administration of Nazarbaev Intellectual School of Karaganda will control all teachers to answer questions.

Results

In secondary research opinions of students and teachers about both effects of climate change to human development was identified. Furthermore the causes and solutions were found, how people could prevent climate change.

Generally, the results represent the informing of students about this issue. 41 students and 20 teachers answered to these questions. Results shown below:

· Some students and teachers are not aware of this problem because 2, 78 % of whole answered people think that climate change is not global issue. However more than half strongly agrees that this is global issue.(see figure 1 below)

Figure 1

· To the open question about causes of climate change people answered differently. Most of the half believe that climate change occurs due to increase of CO2 in the air while the other half thought that it happens because of greenhouse gases and waste of factories. However, most less than half said that climate change is a natural process. Nevertheless, there were people who responded both of them: that climate changes because it is natural process moreover, it happens due to human activities.

Moreover, the 60% of whole respondents who answered that climate change is natural process are students while 55% of whole people, which answered that it is cause of human activities, are teachers. It demonstrates that teachers are more aware of this problem and they have more experiences about this issue than students do.

· 48, 94 % of respondents agree that climate change affect to human development whereas 14, 89 % are neutral about this. (see figure 2) It is important to note that more than 60% of people who agree with this statement are teachers while another less than half are students. Moreover, there were students and teachers that chose the answer “disagree”. They make up 2,13 %of the total responses.

Figure 2

According to the answers of open question about positive effects, more than half of respondents 59% believe that with the help of whether variability the agriculture of some countries can develop which is quite similar with the statement of American scientists. It means that more people can separate the positive effects from negatives. Moreover 30% of people answered that climate change can lead to developing of new technologies while another 8% think that it do not have positive effects. Only 2% do not know about pluses. It shows that more people know about general positive effects to human development.

· The results also demonstrate that 68,09 % people advice to use alternative strategy to prevent climate change while 36,17 % think that only the people themselves can solve this issue. Moreover, 58.1% believe that government and laws can solve this problem. However 23,40 % consider that climate change cannot be prevented. (see figure 3)

Talking about answers of interview, different perspectives and opinions were composed to compare with survey. I interviewed 3 teachers: 1 international and 2 local. During an interview were found the effects of human development as in survey but more in details. Further in some scientist’s opinion and answers of teachers was found similarities. Opinion of teacher A was similar to the perspective of James Medalye. Teacher A mentioned about own experiment that while travelling he notice the changing in climate. Furthermore, teacher A think that climate change can negatively affect to humanity “as it is a huge problem in the whole world and it is already began to affect”.

Teacher B said that the effect of climate change to humanity very big “because even if we do not know what will happen in the future, we know what happened in the past and what is happening now”. Moreover he mentioned that he do not see advantages of climate change:” I even cannot imagine what advantages can climate change have because a lot of people suffer from it, more than half of them lose their families.”

According to teacher C, climate change could have some advantages such as developing of new technologies. “People will try to solve this issue that is why they will make up new technologies which can positively affect to our development. “ However, he think that disadvantages outweigh advantages.

During the interview, I recognized the advantages and disadvantages of climate change to humanity with the help of detailed answers and statements. However, I analyzed that most statements are similar with the answers of survey.

Conclusion

From each research questions there are possible to make some deductions.

* How the Climate change affect to the human development?

Generally, climate change affect to human development positively and negatively. The majority of people in research believe that it affects more negatively rather than positively. However the research was conducted only on half students and teachers in school and therefore this may not be true for all. It is not possible to generalize to the whole population.

* Could the influence of climate change to human development be prevented?

According to the survey and interview of students and teachers, the main forms to prevent climate change include:

* To use alternative energy in order to reduce harmful gases.

* Public help in the meaning of volunteers which can help with ecological problems.

* Government legislation such as establish laws for factories for limiting emissions, and exhaust gases.

* Can climate change positively effect on human development?

Despite that majority of people think that there are lots of negative impacts, less than half suppose that climate change have some positive affects too. They include:

* With the help of climate change agriculture in some places can develop.

* To reduce the effect of climate change people will try to make up new solutions. It leads to the emergence of new technologies.

* Due to some changes such as global warming in some areas tourism can develop.

As a result of this research it is possible to conclude that more needs to educate awareness about the problem about affecting of climate change to human development, particularly about negative impacts. There is evidence that schools are raising awareness among younger people. Due to this people who have the subject Global Perspectives and who teach it know more than people who have not got this subject. Due to the fact that the 11 class began to study this subject only this year, they are less aware about this issue.

Evaluation

The main objectives of this research paper have been achieved. With the help of secondary research, the main and credible information about the climate change and human development was found. More data were taken from governmental sites such as United Nations Human Development Report and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Comparing with secondary research during the primary research there were some problems. Due to the fact that in survey monkey more than 10 questions cannot be included, I did it on survio. I would like to survey 100 teachers but because of their inactivity, I questioned only 20. Because of less number of answered people, it cannot be said that these results generalized with confidence. Moreover there were problem with language. However, with the help of translating I was able to solve this problem.

Talking about interview there was not any problems. People were interviewed during their leisure time while more grades had lessons, so it was comfortable and without any noises. During the interview, I took more detail information than in survey.

Further Research

Due to the fact that some more time and more information are needed, this research should be continued.

First of all, to be more confidence about the results of primary research, target population should be changed. It means that I should questioner not only the teachers and students of NIS school but also other public schools to compare different perspectives. As the results connected exactly with Kazakhstan’s climate change and human development, people from other cities should questioned too.

Moreover, it is important to know about predictions, so some exact questions such as “Will the development of humanity in Kazakhstan be under threat in future?” need to be added. With the help of it, people’s awareness about future can be searched.

After this research work about climate change the perspective of scientist Medalye have influenced my personal perspective on a global issue. Before I thought that as the climate change is global issue and it was not considered and solved in the beginning, it is already late to prevent it. He argues that with special measures, this problem can be solve. “If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to cut our emissions of greenhouse gases, and keep the average global temperature increase less than 2°C.”(Medalye, 2007) Because of his perspective, I has changed my own perspective. Now I think that climate change and weather variability can be solved with appropriate solutions.

References

Adager, W., Huq, S. Brown, K. Conway, D., Hulme, M. (2003), Adaptation to Climate Change in the Developing World

Gage, K.L., et al. (2008), Climate and diseases.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press. New York

Kozhakhmetov P.Z., Baisholanov S.S., Shamen А.М. On vulnerability of sheep husbandry because of climate change

Medalye, J. (2012). Human development and climate change. Retrieved from http://www.eoearth.org/

Richards, M. (2003), Poverty Reduction, Equity and Climate Change: Overseas Development Institute, London

United Nations (2004), Human Development Report

Walmsley, D. (2010). Climate change and its effects on humans. Retrieved from http://www.gulfofmaine.org/

Watson, R. (2001), ‘Human Development and Climate Change’. Retrieved from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/

Appendix

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