To understand Climate Change, you must know what influences climate. Learn about Natural Climate Influencers. Subscribe for weekly videos: https://goo.gl/COrUU6 Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mrweathersworld Follow on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mrweathersworld Mr. Weather’s World is a weekly video series bringing you interesting and reliable information about the Earth Sciences, Space Weather, and Climate Change. Tune in each week for exciting new content with host and meteorologist Curt Silverwood (Millersville University Alum). Recorded with a Blue Yeti USB Mic - https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/yeti/ Edited with: Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Character Animator, and Audition. Music from YouTube Music Library. Images or video from mixed sources. ******************* Climate Change is the long term change in Earth’s average weather patterns impacting regional, local, and global climates. To understand climate change, you have to understand what influences these long term variations. There are many natural and human influencers when it comes to climate change. Just like human climate influencers, natural climate influencers can operate over short or very long periods of time. Catastrophic events such as meteorite collisions and large volcanic eruptions can affect climate over short periods of time. Perhaps a year or more. For example, volcanic eruptions cause short-term cooling. As a volcano erupts, clouds of dust and ash, which block out some sunlight go into the atmosphere. The clouds and smoke formed from the volcano helps reflect solar energy back towards space resulting in cooling. Ocean currents are a major component to the climate system. They distribute heat energy, regulate weather and climate, and cycle vital nutrients and gases by the movement of the Great Ocean Conveyor. Earth’s orbit can sometimes shift or wobble. This is a very long-term change since these shifts are gradual. Orbital changes affect climate over thousands of years. If the planet tilts more or less, seasons can be warmer or colder. As you can imagine, the Sun also influences climate since it is the source of energy for the Earth’s climate system. If the output of energy from the sun changed just a little bit over an extended period of time, it can lead to climate changes. Research suggests that some warming in the beginning first half of the 20th century was due to an increase in solar energy. A decrease in solar activity is thought to have triggered the Little Ice Age between 1650 and 1850. Current global warming cannot be explained by solar variations. The Sun’s energy output has remained the same or increased very slightly since 1750. Scientists would expect warming in all layers of the atmosphere if warming was due to a more active sun. Sunspots can indicate whether there is a more active sun or not. The reason why Space Weather Forecasters pay close attention to sunspot activity. Fewer sunspots, means a less active sun. Besides, natural catastrophic events, ocean currents, orbital changes, and solar variations, internal variability also impacts climate. Internal variability, refers to the changes caused by interactions within the climate system itself often involving positive feedback. Positive feedback amplifies the effects of climate forcings. For example, El Nino typically results in an increase in global temperatures, and La Nina decreases them. Although these changes are short-term, lasting a few years. All of these natural climate influencers are involved in climate change. Scientists say the warming seen since 1970 is due to human influence. We’ll explore Human Climate Influencers soon. Next time, catch the Monthly What’s What. Thank you for watching! Please subscribe to Mr. Weather’s World on YouTube for new videos every #MrWeatherWednesday! ******************* Thanks for watching!