I am looking for something very simple and understandable to common people on climate change/global warming. Something that has the causes and consequences clearly shown. A picture or GIF or video showing the contributing factors and the visible consequences. Thank you.
Today's human activities are filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide (since this gas is not visible, no one knows the difference), but the analysis has shown that this gas has passed over the unimaginable concentration level of 400 ppm in the air.
This gas has the ability to absorb the heat that reflects from the Earth and is heading towards space, but it can't go out because carbon dioxide absorbs it. Thus, our atmosphere is fast becoming a greenhouse (hothouse). The air gets warmer, but the worst is that the sea gets warmer.
Once the sea gets warmer, it evaporates more often giving rise to more clouds that bring more rain that cause more flooding, landslides, etc. On top of that the change from water vapour (from evaporation) to cloud releases tremendous power into the air making storms more powerful, winds stronger, more powerful and frequent lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes more powerful, more frequent and extend into new areas..
The reason for the increase in carbon dioxide in the burning of fossil fuels by cars, trucks, trains, airplanes and all kinds of engines. Most engines burn fossil fuels and now more people use them than before and they pollute the air with an alarming cocktail of poisonous gases besides carbon dioxide. It was a mistake to use fossil fuels in the first place and the oil industry has kept the bad effects hidden from the public. Now we face an alarming deterioration of the weather worldwide bringing ever more frequent disasters on a daily basis.
Our health gets a beating as well because this evaporation of the oceans has brought a dramatic increase in the humidity worldwide which causes adverse health problems in breathing, colds, viruses and arthritis.
If you have not been affected by this new weather yet, you will. In my part of the world, the summer precipitation has increased so much that the ground gets saturated: Any new rain and flooding starts... Our Sun is rarely visible from here although many years ago they were advertising our location as "the sunniest part of the country".
Sometimes a cartoon is effective for communicating science to the general public. To your question, therefore, I'm attaching a cartoon that I enjoyed recently, explaining climate change... or, more accurately, the very important public policy aspect of it. It is a jpg image file; if you need a different format, I can accommodate.
There is an explanation of the Greenhouse effect here:
https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/faq-1-3.html
BTW, the Prager University video is pseudo science produced by a self confessed climate denier. Millions of people died in the Holocaust, but It will be billions of people who die when temperatures rise and destroy agriculture worldwide. You are already seeing the first effects in Ethiopia,
Thank Alastair, I have seen a lot of changes (DESERTIFICATION) in my life time in consistent and worsening fashion. The one happened in 2015/16 left about 15 million people relying emergency food aid, many children died of starvation and so many were severely malnourished. I agree with your idea and respect those deviating too. Those changes we see on the ground should not just be a random occurrence and i think we may not have the right index(indices) that shows the effect so clearly. May be we are focusing on the big picture [DATA FROM CENTURIES] and missing the small details [THE REAL SITUATION ON THE GROUND]. May be it is a wise decision to be cautious and decrease our activities contributing to this, I see no harm in that. Thank you all!
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