Madison Muzzo

January 19, 2017

Dear Ms. Catherine McKenna,

Hello, my name is Madison Muzzo, and I am a grade 10 student at TMS

School in Richmond Hill, ON. What I would like to bring to your attention is
the inequality of the changing climate across the world. By analyzing
monthly data from 1950 to 2014, this has demonstrated how the
temperature anomalies have greatly increased over the years, and in what
areas of the world climate change is affecting the most; comparing northern
and southern hemispheres on land and in oceans. Due to many technological
advancements in the recent years, carbon dioxide emissions have reached
new highs of 44 billion tonnes (Oskin via LiveScience, 2014). Also, the
imbalance between land and water distribution on the Earth plays a great
role in the occurrence of the anomalies.

Climate change imposes negative effects on the earth, and will negatively
impact the lifestyles of people today, as this problem yearns for major
alteration. Due to climate change, the earth has already undergone changes
that are difficult or even impossible to reverse such as the melting of the
polar ice caps and glaciers; supplying fresh water to people in times of
drought. Climate change makes this issue even more dangerous, as now the
global temperatures are increasing, extreme weather such as droughts are
becoming more frequent. In a drought, the hotter air temperatures will cause
more moisture to evaporate from land and water. The hotter the planet gets
(due to global climate change) the long these droughts will last with only
increasing severity. The increase in temperature has also caused water
droplets in the ocean to expand. While analyzing each individual droplet, its
size only increases by a small amount but, when this expansion is multiplied
over an entire ocean, it causes the sea levels to rise. This is a problem for
cities in low-lying areas, as flooding will become more frequent in these
places.

Aside from environment related issues, there are also health issues people
will face due to climate change. Increased temperatures will allow mosquitos
and ticks that carry diseases to thrive for longer periods of time, by not dying
off in the cold winters. Diseases like malaria are already a large issue in
humid parts of the world, and warmer temperatures would only further
increase the problem. Increasing temperatures could also lead to ecosystems
being altered. Some climates may be too warm for certain species, causing
them to migrate and become invasive species in another ecosystem. As
discussed, climate change will pose many great issues if it continues to
increase and action must be taken to slow its progress.

The graph below displays the temperature anomalies from 1950-2014 by

month.

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January 19, 2017
In this graph, it is clear that the land in the northern hemisphere has the
fastest rate of climate change compared to its counterparts.

Using Excel, the line

equation and averages
of every decade of
data have been plotted
into another graph to
better visualize the
rate of change in each
sector.

Comparing the
northern and southern
hemisphere, it is seen
(by looking at the slope
of the two graphs) that
the southern hemisphere temperature anomalies increase at a rate of 0.0606
less degrees per decade than the northern hemisphere (on average with the
current data). This supports the statement that in warming, the north is
outpacing the south (Freedman via Climate Central, 2013). Assuming
anthropogenic carbon emissions remain the same, projections show that,
largely due to the influence of manmade greenhouse gas emissions, it is
likely to widen its lead in the coming decades. (Freedman, 2013). This large
imbalance could lead the issues discussed earlier for the people in the
northern hemisphere.

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January 19, 2017

Differentiating the
northern and southern
hemisphere oceans, northern hemisphere temperature anomalies increase at
a rate of 0.0132 less degrees per decade than the southern hemisphere (on
average with the current data). This difference is extremely minimal
compared to the difference of the land anomalies in the different
hemispheres, though, in this case it is the opposite hemisphere with the
higher temperature anomalies. The data from these two graphs shows how
temperature anomalies are affecting oceans in both hemispheres relatively
equally, with the southern hemispheres anomalies being only marginally
greater than the normal climate.

The slope of all the individually plotted graphs are the rate of which the
temperature anomaly
increases per decade.
Through all the graphs it
is evident that land
warms faster than the
water, as shown by how
the land in both
hemispheres have
evidently higher rates of
increase in their
temperature anomalies.
In terms of land, the
northern hemisphere
warms at a faster rate
than the southern
hemisphere while in the ocean, the southern hemisphere warms at a
marginally higher rate.

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January 19, 2017
The trend seen in how land warms and cools faster than water is not a
phenomenon and can be proved to be true in most cases. Land absorbs
much more solar radiation than water, due to the fact that, for the most part
it is a darker colour (as light energy is converted into heat energy, darker
colours are able to absorb more wavelengths and convert them into heat).
Also, there is a greater amount of vegetation on land, which aids the
absorption process of heat energy, as plants need this heat energy for
photosynthesis. As there is more land area in the northern hemisphere,
containing 67.3% of the Earths land, this is another reason as to why its rate
of the temperature anomalies increases faster than that of the southern
hemisphere.

In regards to water, it has the highest [specific] heat capacity of all liquids
(Boundless, 2017), meaning the amount of heat a substance must absorb or
lose to change its temperature by one degree Celsius. For water this amount
is one calorie or 4.184 Joules (Boundless, 2017). The water graphs had
lower temperature anomaly increases due to the fact that bodies of water
require more energy from the sun to gain a higher temperature.
(Reference.com, 2017). Also, the heat capacity of water is higher than that of
the earth, thus requiring more heat to increase temperature. (MadSci,
1998). In the southern hemisphere 80% of its area is water, thus as to why
its land temperatures are not facing the same severity in terms of climate
warming as the northern hemisphere. But, it is also the reason as to why the
temperature anomalies for southern hemisphere waters are greater.

Though climate change is a global issue, science has been used in order to
aid the reduction of temperature anomalies, attempting to return
temperatures to what their normal climate once was. A fairly recent scientific
innovation to help limit carbon emission are electric cars. Unlike gasoline
engine cars, electric cars produce zero direct emission, (Energy.gov, 2017)
this aiding the climate change issue by not contributing any greenhouses
gases or carbon into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxides (smog-forming
pollutants) and GHGs (Greenhouse Gases), primarily carbon dioxide, are not
emitted through electric cars. Aside from its direct emission benefits, it also
provides life cycle benefits, as it uses less energy to create, not contributing
to the air pollution created by the factories making conventional cars. The
one downside to this product is that it is extremely expensive to purchase,
making it difficult for people living in developing countries to afford. But,
considering that the northern hemisphere land has much higher temperature
anomalies than the southern hemisphere land, if only people in the northern
hemisphere were to purchase EVs (electric vehicles) it would help to balance
out the unequal climate change rates.

Morally and ethically, EVs would be of great succor in improving the quality
of life of people. Transportation has become a huge part of almost

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January 19, 2017
everyones lives today, mainly through the use of automobiles. Making EVs
more widely available would allow people to feel more confident when
purchasing a car, knowing it would not be depleting the ozone with every
ride. The fuel that is currently being put towards powering gasoline-engine
cars could be salvaged in order to power other utilities such as houses.
Gasoline fuel is a large part of many peoples lives, so by being able to have
greater quantities of it, as it is a limited resource, EVs would be a great
solution. Furthermore, EVs are an eco-friendlier solution that would help in
reducing the temperature anomalies, making them closer to average
climate.

The data available could only present so much information, due to its lack of
diversity. In order to acquire greater information in regard to the trends
discerned within the current data, it must be more specific to certain regions.
For instance, by recording the temperature anomalies within cities and their
surrounding water bodies (if any), this can provide a more detailed scope of
anomalies in rural versus urban areas (high population versus low
population). If data were to be collected from Toronto, ON and Englehart, ON,
this would present extremely different results. The new data could be
interpreted to provide new results that would either support or deny the
original trends found. Also, correlations could be made between cities with
high populations having higher anomalies than cities with lower populations.

To conclude, it is quite evident that at this time, climate change is not equal
throughout the two hemispheres of the earth. There are feasible solutions
that, through gradual change, can make a long-lasting, positive effect in
balancing the impacts of climate change and potentially suppressing them as
well. Global warming and climate change have been on a steady rise for
years now thanks to the increasing carbon dioxide emissions, and major
actions need to be taken in order to make progress in subduing its effects.
Climate change is extremely dangerous, and if action is not taken soon, there
will be serious repercussion in the future. I hope you consider my opinions
and thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Madison Muzzo,
Grade 10 TMS School student

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January 19, 2017

Sources:
A Students guide to Global Climate Change. (2016). Effects on People and
the Environment.
Retrieved January 14, 2017, from
https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/impacts/effects/water.html

Boundless. (2017). Waters High Heat capacity. Retrieved January 17, 2017,
from
https://www.boundless.com/biology/textbooks/boundless-biology-
textbook/the-chemical-foundation-of-life-2/water-51/water-s-high-heat-
capacity-283-11416/

Climate Central. (2013). In Warming, Northern Hemisphere is outpacing the

South. Retrieved
January 9, 2017, from http://www.climatecentral.org/news/in-global-
warming-northern-hemisphere-is-outpacing-the-south-15850

Energy.gov. (2017). EV Everywhere: Reducing Pollution with Electric Vehicles.

Retrieved January
17, 2017, from https://energy.gov/eere/eveverywhere/ev-everywhere-
reducing-pollution-electric-vehicles

Future Tense. (2016). Our Planets Temperature just reached a Terrifying

Milestone. Retrieved
January 11, 2017, from
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/03/01/february_2016_s_
shocking_global_warming_temperature_record.html

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January 19, 2017
Greenpeace. (2016). Negative effects of Climate Change. Retrieved January
17, 2017, from
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-
change/impacts/

LiveScience. (2014). Global carbon emissions reach new record high.

Retrieved January 17, 2017,
from http://www.livescience.com/47929-global-carbon-emissions-2014-
record.html

MadSci Network. (1998). Why does water heat and cool slower than land.
Retrieved January 17,
2017, from http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1998-
05/894289504.Es.r.html

Wikipedia. (2017). Northern Hemisphere. Retrieved January 18, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hemisphere

Reference. (2017). Why does land heat up slower than water. Retrieved
January 17, 2017, from
https://www.reference.com/science/water-heat-up-slower-land-
488494003fc0ba59

The Nature Conservancy. (2017). Climate Change Threats and Solutions.

Retrieved January 11,
2017, from http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-
warming-climate-change/threats-solutions/indextm