Causes of climate change

In the long history of the earth, the climate is always changing, and the reasons can be summarized into two categories: natural climate fluctuation and human factors.

According to scientific research, changes in solar radiation, changes in the Earth's orbit, volcanic activity and changes in the atmosphere and ocean circulation are natural factors that cause global climate change. However, human activities, especially those since the industrial revolution, are the main causes of climate change characterized by global warming, including greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide caused by human production and life, land use and urbanization.

The assessment report published by IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2007 pointed out that the possibility that global temperature rise is caused by human activities exceeds 90%. This report, completed by about 2,500 scientists from more than 30 countries and regions around the world, calculated the impact of human activities on climate in detail and concluded that the net impact of human activities on climate since entering the industrial age is the increase of temperature.

The Impact of Climate Change on Human Society

A large number of studies show that climate change will have an impact on human settlements in the following three aspects. First, after climate change, the market demand for resource production, goods and services has changed, which has affected the economic conditions supporting housing; Second, climate change has some direct impacts on energy transmission systems, buildings, urban facilities, and specific industries such as industry, agriculture, tourism, and construction, which in turn has an impact on human settlements; Thirdly, after climate change, due to the increase of extreme weather events and the impact on human health, the permanent population has migrated.

Floods and landslides are the most common and direct threats to human settlements, especially to residents along rivers and coastal areas. At present, human living environment is facing environmental problems including water and energy shortage, garbage disposal and traffic, and high temperature and rainy weather may aggravate these problems.

The rapid development of urbanization in low-altitude coastal areas is rapidly increasing the population density there, making artificial wealth (cities) threatened by extreme coastal climate events.

In the face of climate change, most of residents' income comes from primary resource industries dominated by climate, such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Residential areas with single economy are more fragile than those with diversified operations.