Climate is the weather condition that has been in the area for a long period. Climatechange is a long term shift in these weather conditions; this also includes the changes in variability of normal weather patterns. These shifts can be estimated using parameters such as temperature, wind patterns and precipitation. Climate change can directly or indirectly be attributed to human activity that changes the composition of the atmosphere. Climate change also can be due to natural climate variability that occurs over a long period of time (Hardy, 2003).

Green house gases are the major causes of climate changes. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted on 9^th May 1992 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil was held to stabilize greenhouse gases to a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system (Schlesinger et al., 2012). Green house gases include; water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, nitrous oxide, halocarbons. Water vapor is the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is the most common produced by human activities and halocarbons destroy the ozone layer. Greenhouse gases make a small percentage but they are extremely effective at absorbing heat escaping from earth and keeping it trapped.

Human activities have the greatest influence on climate change. Burning of fossil fuels emits CO₂ and cutting down of tree plantations reduces the rate at which plants convert CO₂ into useful energy, increases level of CO₂. Being a greenhouse gas heat from earth continues to be trapped on earth and it’s estimated that there will be an average temperature rise of 1.0 ⁰C by 2030 and 2.9 ⁰C by 2070 (Trivedi et al., 2014). These human induced climate changes have caught the attention of policy makers, citizens and media around the world. Development of various policies in order to contain the greenhouse gases to certain levels. For example, the Kyoto Protocol (KP) in December 1997 Japan, Canada and 160 other countries committed to reducing the greenhouse gases emission in an international agreement on climate changes ((Schlesinger et al., 2012).

There are natural causes of climate change that has been occurring over the years. Normally, the average global climate is determined by the balance between the inflow of solar radiation into the atmosphere, the trapping of some of this heat due to the natural greenhouse effect (Jepma&Munasighne, 1998). This sets the temperature gradient between the hotter equator and the frozen poles; with the addition of the rotating earth, we can see the tropospheric westerly winds on each hemisphere and dramatic weather events like the cyclones.Changes in the intensity of sunlight reaching the earth causes cycles of warming and cooling that has been common on earth climatic history. Earth has been in the warm interglacial phase in the past 10,000 years. Other natural causes of climate change include: variation of ocean currents, large eruption of volcanoes (Anon, n.d). Continued emission of greenhouse gases from anthropogenic sources enhance the greenhouse effect and increase the risk of global warming. This has been made worse by human involvement especially during the industrial revolution where these gases were released without consideration to their concentrations.

In conclusion, the causes of climate change can be divided in two; natural causes and human involvement. Natural causes include:the solar cycle that has been changing over the years, ocean currents that alters heat distribution and precipitation and volcanic eruption that has increase levels of halocarbons, nitrous oxide, methane and CO₂ that increase the concentration and also damages the ozone layer (a protective layer). The human involvement in climate change is the highest and it can be controlled. Climate change is inevitable but it can be slowed down by changing human activity on how they emit these gases.

References

1. Hardy, J.T. (2003). Climate Change: Causes, Effects and Solutions. New York, NY:John Wiley & Sons.
2. Schlesinger, M.E, Ring, M.J., &Cross, E.F. (2012). A Fair Plan to Safeguard Earth’s Climate. Journal of Environmental Protection, 3, 455-461.
3. Trivedi, N.S., Venkatraman, M.S., Chu, C., IvanS. Cole, I.S. (2014). Effects of climate change on corrosion rates of structures in Australia. Climate change, 123(3), 65-69.
4. Jepma, C.J., Munasinghe, M. (1998). Climate Change Policy: Facts, Issues and Analyses.New York, NY: Cambridge University press.
5. Anonymous (n.d). Facts about climate change. Climate change fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.thegreatwarming.com/pdf/ClimateChangeFactSheet.pdf