First week at #exClimate, a summary.
During my first week studying the climate, I have red and learn some interesting things about the so-called greenhouse effect, about what climate is and about how climate works. I have learn that " The Greenhouse Effect" is a commune metaphor, but it is not the best resemblance at all. In fact, a very much more powerful image that we need to talk about is “The Blanket Effect”, since this is what is really happening to our world. When we referred to greenhouse gases, we talk about a natural phenomenon that support life on Earth. Certain gases, like water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide block heat from escaping, and that is vital to us. These kind of gases work as feedback for the climate, but we are going to talk about this later. So, if “Greenhouse Effect” is natural, what is wrong with it? Why do we talk about it as a thread in the first place? Well, “Greenhouse Effect” is indeed natural, but human activities have modified this delicate balance, and by doing so, we are forcing the climate to change, in respond to our activities. Climate, the long-term system that looks at how the weather change in long period, is regulating by a series of feedback mechanisms. If we conceptualized our climate as a system, we can individuate five key components (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere). These components interacts through a series of cycles that links every ‘sphere’ to another, like the famous water cycle. These active links have also feedback mechanisms, closed loops of cause and effect, and they are the key factor about how the climate change. Three in particular are fundamental to understand this topic. Those are the water vapor feedback, the ice albedo feedback and the radiation feedback. The water vapor feedback, which is a positive feedback (in a mathematical way), has three components: temperature, evaporation and water vapor. If we increase temperature, then evaporation increase, because more radiations and more heat triggered the water vapor towards more oscillations. The ice albedo feedback (albedo - a measure of how much light that hits a surface is reflected without being absorbed) , has two relevant factors: the ice have a high albedo, which means the ice reflects a lot of light, on the other hand, the water has a low albedo, which means it tends to absorb more than reflect. When the heat is increased, the ice is melting, transforming into water that will absorb more radiation (because of its low albedo) and that will cause more heat, causing more sea ice to melt. The radiation feedback is a negative feedback, and it works by cooling an object when the temperature is rising, because the warmer an object is the more radiations it gives off. So, all this information can give us a really good example of how much climate is a complex system that involves many factor. All this mechanisms cooperate to a self-regulation of the system itself. It was an enthusiastic first week. I am always happy to find proofs of how our incredible planet can assemble all this amazing pieces to create a much bigger (I dare to say, even bigger than us) picture.
