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  • 3.11 Discussion – Impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems

    Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) bloom off the coast of Estonia (Mapbox 2014). Eutrophication is exacerbated by climate change due to altered and intensified weather patterns coiniciding with warmer water temperatures, inhibiting oxygination of water and consequently depriving marine organisms of oxygen. Eutrophication also acts as a feedback loop, exacerbated by but also contributing to climate change by releasing methane and nitrious oxide (Meerhoff et al. 2021)

    3.11 Discussion – Impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems

    By: 

    Chris Hammond

    “Building on the readings in 3.10, and complemented with an online search, review sources that examine the links between marine ecosystems and climate change.”

    Based on the reading by Hillebrand et al. (2017), marine species have heterogeneous capacity to adapt to climate change, and this is modulated by a complex interplay of species-specific physiological traits, trophic roles, and also environmental drivers. Hillebrand et al. (2017) discusses species phenotypic plasticity as an important mechanism allowing organisms to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions (Hillebrand et al. 2017, p. 8). The ocean’s increasing ambient temperature induced by anthropogenic climate warming will have a greater risk to stenothermal organisms, which lack the capacity to adapt due to less plasticity (Hillebrand et al. 2017, p. 8). These creatures have a narrower capacity due to habitat-specific adaptations that have evolved to respond to ecosystems that are generally more stable (Hillebrand et al. 2017, pp. 8-9). Comparatively, eurythermal organisms have greater flexibility, a result of living in ecosystems that experience greater natural variation (i.e. near shorelines, where temperature variance is greater). In addition, species with longer life cycles are also likely to struggle to adapt, and as Hillebrand et al. (2017) iterate over, marine organisms may develop and encode environmental cues from early life; however, those with longer life cycles will experience greater variation in environmental changes between generations, negatively affecting the adaptation.

    Complimenting Hillebrand et al., this argument is also stated within Chapter 3 of the IPCC AR6, where sections 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 iterate over single and multiple driver actions. This section underscores, with high confidence, that increasing water temperatures affect sea organisms’ biochemical/metabolic function level has a significant negative impact – for example, heat tolerances and enzymatic activation may be subdued or reduced due to increasing temperature values inhibiting metabolic processes (Cooley et al. 2022, p. 400). Importantly, this section of the report frames climate-induced drivers as both singularly important, but also interlinks the synergistic effects of multiple drivers acting upon one another (Cooley et al. 2022, p. 401), underscoring the cascading effects of climate warming on marine organisms.

    One of the most consequential stessors aquatic species face is deoxygenation, with more than two per cent drop in ocean oxygen levels since the 1960s due to anthropogenic climate change and environmental pollution (Schmidtko et al. 2017). Importantly, deoxygenation is historically associated with mass extinction events (Penn et al. 2018), and present Anthropocene loss of oxygen has already contributed to marine species extirpation (Deutsch et al. 2023). Approximately ninety per cent of marine life lives within coastal regions, yet coastal eutrophication risks loss of hypoxia-sensitive aquatic organisms as oxygen supply dwindles below the threshold required to sustain metabolic function (Deutsch et al. 2023). At the same time, warming waters also reduce aquatic oxygen levels, resulting in aquatic ecosystems becoming increasingly stressed, with warming waters, oxygen loss, and nutrient pollution individually and concurrently reshaping marine species ranges and shifts in habitable spaces (Deutsch et al. 2023).

    Reference list

    Cooley, S., Schoeman, D., Bopp, P., Boyd, P., Donner, S., Ghebrehiwet, D.Y., Ito, S.-I. ., Kiessling, W., Martinetto, P., Ojea, E., Racault, M.-F. ., Rost, B. and Skern-Mauritzen, M. (2022). Oceans and Coastal Ecosystems and Their Services. Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. [online] doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.005.

    Deutsch, C., Penn, J.L. and Lucey, N. (2023). Climate, Oxygen, and the Future of Marine Biodiversity. Annual Review of Marine Science, 16(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-040323-095231.

    Hillebrand, H., Brey, T., Gutt, J., Hagen, W., Metfies, K., Meyer, B. and Lewandowska, A. (2017). Climate Change: Warming Impacts on Marine Biodiversity. Handbook on Marine Environment Protection, pp.353–373. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60156-4_18.

    Mapbox (2014) Algae Bloom off the Coast of Estonia on July 16th, 2002, photo, uploaded to Flickr 23 Jan. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mapbox/12108111176

    Meerhoff, M., Audet, J., Davidson, T.A., Luc De Meester, Hilt, S., Kosten, S., Liu, Z., Mazzeo, N., Paerl, H.W., Scheffer, M. and Jeppesen, E. (2022). Feedback between climate change and eutrophication: revisiting the allied attack concept and how to strike back. Inland Waters, 12(2), pp.187–204. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20442041.2022.2029317.

    Penn, J.L., Deutsch, C., Payne, J.L. and Sperling, E.A. (2018). Temperature-dependent hypoxia explains biogeography and severity of end-Permian marine mass extinction. Science, [online] 362(6419), p.eaat1327. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1327.

    Schmidtko, S., Stramma, L. and Visbeck, M. (2017). Decline in global oceanic oxygen content during the past five decades. Nature, 542(7641), pp.335–339.

  • 2.18 Assignment – Community-Led Climate Resilience in Rojava

    Tree planting in Jinwar Women’s Village, Rojava – Photo Credit: Kurdistan Solidarity Network

    2.18 Assignment – Community-Led Climate Resilience in Rojava

    By: 

    Chris Hammond

    Assignment: Prepare and share a one-page article outlining the ways in which communities are surviving and thriving in a changing climate.  

    I wanted to approach this question in a way that is inclusive of the varying contexts in which climate adaptation, surviving, and thriving may be experienced. In my opinion, terms like thriving can sometimes read as hollow and denote a type of extravagance or collection of material items and wealth; however, definitions are contextual and change depending on numerous factors and interpretation.

    In Bullock et al.’s (2015) text about surviving and thriving in a changing climate, the final chapter written by Haddow iterates over adaptation and mitigation strategies that appear grounded in a positivist epistemology. On this list, he recommends solutions like local planning, local leadership, resource mobilisation, and cross-sector collaboration as critical methods for climate mitigation (Bullock et al., 2015, pp. 366-371). With that said, critically, this summary of recommendations appears to operate within regional Western context and doesn’t necessarily account for contextual vulnerabilities. Conversely, Ford et al. (2020), following the themes of O’Brien et al. (2007) as discussed in the reading for section 2.5 (i.e. constructivism and contextual vulnerability), share a matrix of characteristics that affect vulnerability and resiliency. These characteristics include place-attachment, agency, indigenous knowledge transmission, ongoing and adaptive learning, and collective action (Ford et al., 2020, pp. 533-537), and frame resilience as a relational process (Ford et al., 2020, p. 539). Through this, they establish that resiliency, or ‘surviving and thriving’, is interlinked to issues of sovereignty, power, social justice, development, and history (Ford et al., 2020, p. 540).

    With that in mind, drawing on my own experience having lived in Kurdistan, the relational approach to resilience discussed by Ford et al. (2020) can be demonstrated with a brief case study where the indigenous people of Rojava (pronounced Ro-zha-va), meaning West in Kurdish, demonstrate resilience through strong place-based cultural identities, collective governance, and transformative gender politics, while concurrently facing significant vulnerabilities linked to geopolitical instability.

    Here, the Kurdish liberation movement provides space for climate adaptation by way of shared ideological values shaped by decades of conflict, brutal war, and environmental degradation (induced both by conflict and climate change), among other realities tied to colonialist expansion projects. As Kurdish author and researcher Dilar Dirik describes, care for the environment refuses to be depoliticised from a broader narrative involving consumer culture and anti-capitalist and anti-colonial perspectives, which call for degrowth and social justice (Dirik 2021a, p. 149). Within Rojava, resilience is manifested through emphasis in ideological values supporting ecology, liberation, and a local indigenous form of feminism called Jineology. These are entwined in a way that responds to a long history of subjugation and brutal control, and serves as a tool for anti-colonial resistance among all oppressed peoples (Dirik 2021b, pp. 32-33).

    Within this value system, climate change, extractive economies, land dispossession, war, and control of female bodies, among other modes of subjugation and power, are all linked to an underlying structure of patriarchal domination, believed to always reproduce the same hierarchical structures of subjugation and destruction (Dirik 2021, p. 151). As Dirik writes, at its root, patriarchy dominates and controls all those deemed unproductive and exploitable (Dirik 2021a, p. 151). While patriarchal systems may limit adaptive capacity and constrain institutions, indigenous knowledge, and culture (Ford et al., 2020, p. 535), Jineology then provides a mode to shift away from this limitation.

    Further, Ford et al. (2020) explains, resiliency and vulnerability are not mutually exclusive binary conditions opposite of one another (Ford et al., 2020, p. 533), and indigenous communities may possess strong adaptive capacity while also facing vulnerability. Rojava has developed into a nexus of political struggle coinciding with a collective and shared understanding of responsibility for the ecology in the region (Skupiński 2025, pp. 95-96). As a result, although presently small in scale with great fragility, enviropolitical initiatives have successfully thrived and created spaces for resistance against numerous forms of oppression; for example, tree planting projects, led by women, are linked to combating environmental degradation while concurrently serving as a means of land reclamation from patriarchal and militarised control and protecting the environment from destruction (Skupiński 2025, p. 89). Within Rojava, democratic councils, which require an equal number of female and male leaders, also lead initiatives connecting agriculture and sustainable living practices, led by women’s committees and cooperatives. Through this, gender roles are challenged and agency is reclaimed, and in doing so, oppressive patriarchal structures that are common in colonised regions are challenged (Dirik 2021a, pp. 149-150).

    Reference list

    Bullock, J.A., Haddow, G.D., Haddow, K.S. and Coppola, D.P. (2015). Living with Climate Change: How Communities Are Surviving and Thriving in a Changing Climate. Auerbach Publishers, pp.365–379.

    Dirik, D. (2021a). The Kurdish women’s movement : history, theory, practice. London: Pluto Press.

    Dirik, D. (2021b). Stateless citizenship: ‘radical democracy as consciousness-raising’ in the Rojava revolution. Identities, 29(1), pp.1–18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289x.2021.1970978.

    Ford, J.D., King, N., Galappaththi, E.K., Pearce, T., McDowell, G. and Harper, S.L. (2020). The Resilience of Indigenous Peoples to Environmental Change. One Earth, [online] 2(6), pp.532–543. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.05.014.

    O’Brien, K., Eriksen, S., Nygaard, L.P. and Schjolden, A. (2007). Why different interpretations of vulnerability matter in climate change discourses. Climate Policy, 7(1), pp.73–88. doi:https://doi.org/10.3763/cpol.2007.0706.

    Skupiński, M. (2025). Women, Environmental Activism, and Stateless Citizenship in Post-state North-East Syria. Springer Nature Link, pp.71–101. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83537-7_3.

  • 1.9 Activity: Investigate climate change in the news and on social media

    From my time in Kurdistan, I witnessed how climate change is affecting local agriculture. Farmers are facing hotter summers coinciding with water scarcity and drying of local rivers, inhibiting their capacity to grow crops. Photo credit: Chris Hammond, Erbil-Duhok Road, 2021 – All Rights Reserved.

    1.9 Activity: Investigate climate change in the news and on social media

    By: 

    Chris Hammond

    The world is heading to add 57 superhot days a year, but study indicates it could have been worse – Associated Press

    Published Oct 16th, 2025 – https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/the-world-is-heading-to-add-57-superhot-days-a-year-but-study-indicates-it-could-have-been-worse/

    Article Summary: This AP article reviews and summarizes the findings of a recent report by Climate Central and World Weather Attribution regarding current climate and extreme heat projections updated since the Paris Agreement ten years ago. The article begins with pertinent information: based on our current climate trajectory, by the end of the century the Earth may experience a global average of 57 “superhot” and dangerous days each year, with smaller (Global South) nations most affected. Conversely, the largest carbon-polluting countries will be least affected. AP organizes the article with a framing that, at first, focuses on the effectiveness of efforts to curb emissions in the past ten years, explaining that efforts have brought total superhot day projections down from the estimated 117 days previously.

    Through the article, various statistics are shared, including an estimated projection of 2.6 °C global average temperature by the end of the century above preindustrial times, which is 1.4 °C lower than the trajectory to 4 °C estimated before the 2015 Paris agreement and global efforts to reduce emissions.

    The article outlines the dangers of superhot days, briefly indicating the potential risks to health and life, and that we can expect this to become ever worse. In the latter half, it outlines serious inequality, where 149 ‘extra super hot days’ may be experienced by smaller countries in the Global South, while the top polluters like the US, China, and India may only experience a mere 23 to 30 extra superhot days. It states that this inequality will further geopolitical instability, and that despite no longer being on a trajectory to the pre-Paris outcome, the current trajectory will be disastrous for billions of people.

    Reflection: Reading this article, I couldn’t help but think of a scene from season 3 of the HBO series Newsroom when anchor Will McAvoy sits down to interview a U.S EPA climate scientist. The scientist, revealing the precarious situation we face with climate change, bluntly states the gravity of what’s to come. Perceived as fearmongering, McAvoy pushes back, “let’s see if we can’t find a better spin, people are starting their weekends […] we want to inform people but we don’t want to alarm them, can you give us a reason to be optimistic?”

    This exchange captures the attitudes within the press and media as it attempts to soften the uncomfortable truth of climate change. While this AP article does iterate over important details of the projected number of superhot days anticipated in the future, including mention of the global south, a brief mention of inequality and the contradiction that the biggest polluters will be least affected, at the same time, the organization of these facts tells a story in and of itself. AP begins by framing the report in a way that undermines how devastating a 2.6 °C increase in global average temperature would be. Yet, it does mention that this would be catastrophic for billions of people, but rather than making this the headline, it is buried at the end of the article. The framing then is softened while lending itself to ‘journalistic integrity’ so that AP can claim it presented all appropriate details, yet it undermines what should be a serious warning, that we’re not on target and the consequences will be severe. But like McAvoy tries to force out of the U.S. EPA scientist in his newsroom, the article looks for a safer and more palatable spin, even when the facts indicate that large numbers of people are likely to die under a growing number of superhot days that were preventable had appropriate urgency and action been taken.

    International deal to cut shipping emissions falters under U.S. pressure – Associated Press

    Published Oct 17th, 2025 – https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/imo-shipping-emissions-9.6942459

    Article Summary: This article reviews recent actions by the United States and Saudi Arabia, among several other nations, that successfully impeded international efforts to reduce emissions from container ships, which predominantly use heavy oil as a fuel, notorious for its exceptionally high sulphur content. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), based on guidance from some of the world’s largest maritime nations, proposed regulations and economic incentives that would shift the industry away from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy. Nonetheless, the US, operating under the Trump administration, labelled the plan a “global green new scam tax on shipping,” alluding to the potential of a global fee imposed on greenhouse gas emissions on cargo ships, and urged nations voting at the IMO in London to vote no. In response, climate ministers from varying nations scoffed at the decision, given the gravity and urgency of climate change. The article states that shipping emissions continue to rise as global trade increases, with three percent of global fossil fuel emissions directly coming from ship transit.

    Reflection: The US, being a global hegemon, has historically used its power to coerce and pressure other countries into voting in favour of the administration’s interests. In this case, the administration is plagued with anti-scientific rhetoric, it is dismissive of international climate cooperation, and entrenched in climate denialism. Outside of this, the article should frame the news more appropriately in terms of climate justice, which would have included contextualizing the potential risks and outlining the contradictions that the nations with the least to lose have blocked this at the cost of nations who are likely to suffer greatest.

    The economic opportunity of climate action is a focus as Toronto Climate Week launches – CP24 in Toronto, Canada

    Published Oct 1st, 2025 – https://www.cp24.com/news/2025/10/01/toronto-climate-week-launches-in-effort-to-grow-canadian-clean-tech-hub/

    Article Summary: The article tries to position itself, stating the United States is removing itself from a leadership role on climate action on the global stage; therefore, some Canadians are urging varying levels of government and industry to step up to the plate and fill the void. It iterates over how climate-induced damages are already costing the economy $25 billion this year, and growing. Comments by Canadian federal environmental minister Julie Dabrusin are provided, who states there is both a moral and economic imperative to ensure the Canadian government has a robust and responsive climate competitiveness strategy, underscoring the necessity of Canadian investment.

    The article discusses how, despite the US sliding back on its climate commitments, many other countries are still focused on climate targets, thus urging Canada to continue its push for clean industry, which may also be a catalyst for economic development and prosperity, particularly through development of clean technology that can be commodified and sold, giving Canadian companies the potential to become leaders in clean industry.

    Reflection: This is a common theme among many climate articles, regardless of publication; often, the focus is on economies, economic output, and framed from the perspective of global capital. It doesn’t problematize the underlying systems and ideologies that contribute to climate change. Further, the article doesn’t necessarily provide appropriate urgency in framing climate change as an existential threat and overlooks Canadian industries’ significant carbon output, where, per capita, Canada rests among the worst polluters in the world.

  • 1.6 Reading: How does carbon relate to climate

    Driving across the countryside of Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq, an abundance of oil production facilities and gas flaring sites are observed releasing carbon in the form of methane, carbon dioxide, and many times, black carbon soot into the atmosphere due to incomplete combustion. Captured 2021, All Rights Reserved – Chris Hammond.

    1.6 Reading: How does carbon relate to climate

    By: 

    Chris Hammond

    Carbon, in its many forms, is a fundamental component of organic matter (Thorme, 2024). Its presence is ubiquitous; it is a building block for organic molecules, and provides a “backbone” allowing for bonding other elements to form complex structures of life (NOAA, 2019). It can be found almost everywhere, for example, within the air we exhale as carbon dioxide (CO2), in fossil fuels, within in the Earth’s biosphere, oceans, soils, rocks, and sediments. In the context of climate, carbon in the atmosphere also affects Earth’s ability to release heat (Thorme). In fact, the two strongest greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide and methane (CH4) (both carbon-based), contribute to the warming of the planet.

    Anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane are emitted through processes such as burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural practices, and industrial activities like cement production, releasing carbon at a pace that exceeds the rate at which natural sinks can absorb it within the existing natural carbon lifecycle (EPA, 2025). Because greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation in the atmosphere, their thermal effect also increases in relation to their concentration in the atmosphere, thereby accelerating planetary warming. With increased planetary warming, as was discussed in section 1.5, Earth’s climate and weather patterns are altered, affecting and intensifying extreme weather events and their related, often cascading, socioeconomic consequences.

    Problematically, carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for years to centuries or longer (MIT Climate Portal, 2023) and can be described as having a long tail due to the slow process of removal from the atmosphere (Lord et al., 2016). Conversely, although methane’s atmospheric lifetime is not as long, it is no less of a problem, as it is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere (EPA 2023), thereby significantly contributing to planetary warming.

    Considering this, briefly then, how is carbon removed from the atmosphere? And what can we do about it? In the natural carbon lifecycle, methane is primarily removed by chemical oxidation, while carbon dioxide is removed by way of carbon sinks (Moseman, 2022). While significant volume of CO2 is absorbed on a scale of ~350 billion tons per year, anthropogenic emissions have tipped the balance and contribute more than can naturally be absorbed (Moseman). Biological uptake assists in removal, where plants (i.e. trees) and algae may absorb it during photosynthesis, storing it as biomass (Riebeek, 2011); oceans, which act as sinks, dissolve CO2 into seawater, but problematically, as the ocean absorbs greater volumes, it also contributes to acidification due to the pH difference, affecting sea life and aquatic habitats (Riebeek). Further, as waters warm and acidify, they reduce its capacity to absorb CO2 while concurrently disrupting oceanic ecosystems. With that said, technological methods of dealing with CO2 in the atmosphere exist and are being advanced, including carbon capture and sequestration, as well as carbon dioxide removal (NOAA Science Council, 2024).

    Below, I’ve put together a quick comparative table of the two top greenhouse gas properties in relation to the atmosphere and climate change. The data clearly indicate that the atmospheric concentration of these two gases are increasing at rates unprecedented in history.

     Carbon Dioxide (CO2)Methane (CH4)
    Sources• Burning of fossil fuels
    • Solid waste
    • Deforestation
    • Energy production
    • Cement production
    (EPA, 2025)    		• Production/transport of coal
    • Natural gas, oil and fossil fuel extraction
    • Agriculture (ex, livestock enteric methane)
    • Landfill decomposition
    (EPA, 2025; NASA, n.d.)
    Atmospheric concentration• Oct 18th, 2025: 425.10ppm
    For context (1 month avg)
    • Oct 2024: 424.03ppm
    • Oct 2000: 369.44ppm
    • Oct 1960: 316.84 ppm   (Lindsey, 2025)    		• May 2025: 1933.54ppb (latest data from NOAA)
    • Oct 2024: 1941.02 ppb
    • Oct 2000: 1777.08 ppb
    • Oct 1983: 1644.79 ppb
    (Lan et al., 2025)
    Warming PotentialBaseline28 x more than CO2
    (EPA, 2025)
    Atmospheric lifetimeDecades to centuries, in some estimates, 10,000+ year long tail (Moseman, 2022)Approximately 12 years (Mitloehner, 2020)

    Reference List

    EPA – Environmental Protection Agency. “Importance of Methane.” US EPA, 1 Nov. 2023, www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    EPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Overview of Greenhouse Gases.” US EPA, 16 Jan. 2025, www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    Lan, X, et al. “Trends in Globally-Averaged CH4, N2O, and SF6 Determined from NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory Measurements.” Gml.noaa.gov, Sept. 2025, doi.org/10.15138/P8XG-AA10. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    Lindsey, Rebecca. “Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” Climate.gov, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 21 May 2025, www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide.

    Lord, N. S., et al. “An Impulse Response Function for the “Long Tail” of Excess Atmospheric CO2 in an Earth System Model.” Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol. 30, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 2–17, agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GB005074, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014gb005074. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    MIT Climate Portal. “How Do We Know How Long Carbon Dioxide Remains in the Atmosphere? | MIT Climate Portal.” Climate.mit.edu, 17 Jan. 2023, climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-do-we-know-how-long-carbon-dioxide-remains-atmosphere. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    Mitloehner, Frank. “Why Methane from Cattle Warms the Climate Differently than CO2 from Fossil Fuels.” CLEAR Center, 7 July 2020, clear.ucdavis.edu/explainers/why-methane-cattle-warms-climate-differently-co2-fossil-fuels. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    Moseman, Andrew. “How Much Carbon Dioxide Does the Earth Naturally Absorb?” MIT Climate Portal, 4 Jan. 2022, climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-carbon-dioxide-does-earth-naturally-absorb. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    NASA. “Which Is a Bigger Methane Source: Cow Belching or Cow Flatulence?” Science.nasa.gov, science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/which-is-a-bigger-methane-source-cow-belching-or-cow-flatulence/. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Carbon Cycle.” Carbon Cycle, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1 Feb. 2019, www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/climate/carbon-cycle. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    NOAA Science Council. “Carbon Dioxide Removal: NOAA State of the Science Factsheet.” NOAA Climate.gov, 19 Sept. 2024, www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/carbon-dioxide-removal-noaa-state-science-factsheet. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

    Riebeek, Holli. “The Carbon Cycle.” NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Earth Observatory, 16 June 2011, earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle.

    Thome, Kurtis. “Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems | Terra.” Terra.nasa.gov, 2024, terra.nasa.gov/science/carbon-cycle-and-ecosystems. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

  • 1.5 Reading – Climate change and the greenhouse effect

    In March 2025 Ontario experienced a severe ice-storm, knocking electricity out for days due to excessive freezing rain weighing down trees and hydro poles. Photo Credit: Chris Hammond, 2025

    1.5 Reading – Climate change and the greenhouse effect

    By: 

    Chris Hammond

    Below, I reflect on the text and have expanded further by reading more widely, answering the questions posted for section 1.5 reading.

    What major climate anomalies and episodic events occurred in 1998?  

    Throughout 1998, the world experienced a record-breaking rise in global average temperature across the planet, triggering cascading extreme and devastating weather events. Such an increase in temperature was driven by a cyclical climate oscillation known as El Niño, belonging to a periodic warming of the central and eastern sections of the Pacific Ocean (NOAA, 2015). However, emerging research indicates climate change may exacerbate the severity and intensity of the effects of El Niño (Wang, 2019). As a result, devastating floods, droughts, and heatwaves wreaked havoc across the planet during the 98 El Niño event, and have become serious cause for concern for the future.

    The magnitude of the human cost was catastrophic; over 23,000 people are estimated to have died from natural disasters influenced by 1998’s El Niño (Van Trotsenburg, 2015). Even more, tens of millions were impacted as a result of displacement, drought, failure of food systems, and economic loss, with the Global South most acutely affected. Placing the cost of this event in monetary terms, estimates vary by study, with one study published in Science estimating upwards of $5.9 trillion USD in global income losses (Callahan & Mankin, 2023).

    What environmental hazards are associated with climate change, and who is most affected? 

    Answering the first part of the question, environmental hazards associated with climate change are numerous, including floods, monsoons, hurricanes, and extreme weather related to intense precipitation, which are influenced by a greater volume of atmospheric moisture due to warming, occurring at a rate of 7% for every 1 °C increase (Bao et al., 2017; Panthou et al., 2014). Conversely, while greater atmospheric moisture capacity fuels extreme precipitation, it also causes greater evaporation of moisture from soil, resulting in droughts, destruction of soil and croplands, loss of vegetation, and then cascading into destabilization and potential collapse of food systems with far-reaching socioeconomic consequences. Even more, with rising climate and increasing intensity of monsoons and hurricanes, storm surges coinciding with heat induced expansion of warming waters both contribute to coastal erosion, placing in jeopardy all inhabitants within low-lying coastal regions.

    Throughout chapter 1, examples of far-reaching devastation due to environmental hazards were reviewed. One which stood out to me was the example of Bangladesh, epitomizing how vulnerable certain regions are, with the 1970s storm surge disaster causing upwards of 250,000 people to drown (Houghton, 2015, pp. 3-4). And this brings me to the latter part of the question – these hazards are most likely to affect the Global South, which often do not have the economic or technological means to mitigate the effects of climate change, but are more likely to suffer from its effects. By contrast, the Global North, or the so-called “developed nations,” are most responsible for anthropogenic climate change and historically also responsible for the extractive and destructive colonial systems that have inhibited the development of much of the Global South.

    How do volcanic eruptions affect temperature extremes?  

    Volcanic eruptions, in proportion to the magnitude of the eruption and gas and ash released, affect temperature extremes by causing short-term cooling due to the injection of aerosols like sulphur dioxide and fine particulate matter into the stratosphere, causing reflection of solar radiation back into space (USGS, 2015). This can affect regional and global temperature, with varying extremes which tend to push more towards cooler temperatures in the short-term (USGS). While this may cause a temporary reduction in temperature, it is transient, in that it masks the effects of anthropogenic emissions, which continue even during a period of cooling (IPCC, 2023, Ch 6). As volcanic aerosolized fine particulate eventually falls back to the surface, warming resumes to the underlying trendline in relation to emissions released into the atmosphere, which continues upward during the period of cooling.

    What are adaptation and mitigation?  

    Responding to climate change involves strategies revolving around both adaptation and mitigation. Briefly summarized, adaptation can be defined as methods of adjusting to the changes expected in the future due to climate change (NASA, 2024) Mitigation involves methods, strategies, and actions to reduce the anthropogenic causes of climate change, whether it’s lowering emissions, utilizing carbon sinks, among other methods (NASA, 2024).

    Adding my perspective, I can’t help but think about how the parasitic capitalist class, largely responsible for climate change, is adapting by finding new ways of exploitation. In Canada, warming of the Arctic has opened up new frontiers for resource exploitation (Hanaček, 2021); instead of easing the causes of climate change, exploitative industries will further contribute to environmental degradation and destruction.

    What is the greenhouse effect?  

    They say the best way to determine comprehension of a topic is to be able to explain it back to a layperson in simple, intelligible, and comprehensible terms. With that in mind, the greenhouse effect can be explained as the way in which solar radiation from the sun interacts with the atmosphere and surface of the planet. Naturally, when solar radiation lands upon the earth’s surface, it is absorbed, converted into heat, and emitted back into the atmosphere. Nonetheless, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, largely carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapour, among other gases, act as a thermal blanket absorbing infrared radiation, radiating some of it back towards the surface of the earth. As greater concentration of greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere, the rate of heat retention increases, thus resulting in a rise in global average temperatures.

    What is the ‘runaway’ greenhouse effect?  

    The runaway greenhouse effect is a process that occurs by way of a feedback loop; in summary, upon passing a temperature threshold a chain reaction of events unfolds where increasing temperatures cause an exponential level of evaporation of water bodies and oceans; this evaporation contributes to rising temperatures, which in turn causes further evaporation. These two processes feed into each other, causing a runaway effect where the planet essentially boils. The text uses Venus as an example of the runaway greenhouse effect, where its atmospheric composition in relation to its proximity to the sun has allowed for the conditions of exponential evaporation and heating.

    While the author states this cannot happen on Earth, I would argue that it is likely to occur, but in the extremely distant future. Drawing on my experience from an introductory Astronomy class during my undergraduate years, I remember learning that the sun’s luminosity is gradually increasing at a rate of 8% every billion years as our star converts hydrogen to helium by way of nuclear fusion (Earle, 2021, pp. 61–62). While the timescale is significant, in approximately 1.1 billion years, the sun’s increasing luminosity will raise the Earth’s average temperature substantially, moving us beyond a threshold that may be the beginning of a runaway greenhouse effect.

    Reference list

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    Callahan, C.W. and Mankin, J.S. (2023). Persistent effect of El Niño on global economic growth. Science, 380(6649), pp.1064–1069. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adf2983.

    Earle, S. (2021). Changes in Solar Output and in the Earth’s Atmosphere. In: Environmental Geology. [online] Thompson Rivers University. Available at: https://environmental-geol.pressbooks.tru.ca/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2025].

    Hanaček, K., Kröger, M., Scheidel, A., Rojas, F. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2022). On thin ice – The Arctic commodity extraction frontier and environmental conflicts. Ecological Economics, 191, p.107247. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107247.

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    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2023) ‘Short-lived Climate Forcers’, in Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 817–922.

    NASA (2024). Mitigation and Adaptation. [online] NASA. Available at: https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/adaptation-mitigation/.

    NOAA (2015). El Niño | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [online] www.noaa.gov. Available at: https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/weather-atmosphere/el-nino.

    Panthou, G., Mailhot, A., Laurence, E. and Talbot, G. (2014). Relationship between Surface Temperature and Extreme Rainfalls: A Multi-Time-Scale and Event-Based Analysis. Journal of Hydrometeorology, [online] 15(5), pp.1999–2011. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/24914558.

    Van Trotsenburg, A. (2015). We must prepare now for another major El Niño. [online] World Bank Blogs. Available at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/eastasiapacific/we-must-prepare-now-another-major-el-nino?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 18 Oct. 2025].

    Wang, B., Luo, X., Yang, Y.-M., Sun, W., Cane, M.A., Cai, W., Yeh, S.-W. and Liu, J. (2019). Historical change of El Niño properties sheds light on future changes of extreme El Niño. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online] 116(45), pp.22512–22517. doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1911130116.