As Socratic has recently launched the environmental science section, we seem to have an influx of questions along the lines of, "Is climate change real," "What proof is there of climate change," "How can we be sure these aren't natural variations," and so forth. Thus, I think it's a good idea to brainstorm how to best tackle these situations.

For starters, many of these questions are essentially duplicates of one another and you can always mark a question as a duplicate.

In extreme cases, you can also mark a question as inappropriate.

That said, I'd like to remind everyone here that the main mission of Socratic is to teach: to make concepts accessible, to make learning easier, to break concepts down into simpler parts so that learning can occur. That said, reading comments/answers/questions in which people are actively spreading false information or posing questions asking how climate change can be true is certainly frustrating. We've all been there. Don't fight fire with fire though, so to speak. Rather than getting angry, respond clearly and don't get personal.

Ask yourself what are the best facts we have that climate change is caused by humans and is happening? Then ask yourself, how can I clearly communicate those facts? I'd advise against listing ten pieces of evidence. I'd also advise against just providing a link to other websites. Instead, pick a few key pieces of evidence and explain them yourself. Use images, videos, graphs, links to other Socratic concepts, and your words to teach. Remember your basics.

Remember, many people just haven't been taught enough about the science behind climate change or they haven't been taught the concepts well. Hopefully you joined Socratic to help others learn, so try and have some patience and explain these concepts in a way that makes climate change science more accessible and less confusing.

In some cases, a person's religious beliefs conflict with climate change, and this is a really hard situation to handle. Be careful and be considerate of other people's beliefs while maintaining the science behind climate change.

The main parts of the Compressor Stations include the following-

Compressor Unit – The compressor unit is the piece of equipment which actually compresses the gas. It can work in any of the following ways-

• Turbines with Centrifugal Compressors –
  This type of compressor is mainly powered by a turbine to turn a centrifugal compressor and that centrifugal compressor is powered by natural gas.

• Electric Motors with Centrifugal Compressors –
  This type of compressor also takes help of the centrifugal compressors to compress the gas.
  The difference is just that they rely on high voltage electric motors.

• Reciprocating Compressor–
  This type of compressor uses a large piston engines to crank reciprocating pistons located within cylindrical cases on the side of the unit. These pistons compress the gas.
  These engines are also fueled by natural gas.

Filters and Scrubbers– These just remove water, and other impurities from the natural gas.

Gas Cooling Systems –
When the natural gas is compressed its temperature rises.
So for this the gas is made to travel through a cooling sector. Which cools down the temperature of the gas so the pipeline is not damaged through which the gas is travelling.

Mufflers –
These are basically the Noise controllers of the Compressor Stations.

In the Stratosphere the ozone layer absorbs harmful UVB and UVC radiation, however allowing UVA (and small amount of UVB), for photosynthesis and vitamin D, which are both essential for life.

Every time an ozone reacts with UV light, it absorbs it. This is due to the process known as the 'Ozone–oxygen cycle':

1. An oxygen molecule undergoes photodissociation by high frequency UV. This creates to oxygen free radicals.

2. #O_2(g) rarr 2O·(g)#

3. #O_2(g) + O·(g) rarr O_3(g)#

4. The ozone molecule absorbs UVB and UVC radiation, dissociates into oxygen and oxygen free radicals.

5. #O_3(g) rarr O·(g) + O_2(g)#

6. Any remaining oxygen free radicals are removed by reacting with remaining ozone. This creates oxygen gas, and thus the cycle can start over.

7. #O_3(g) + O·(g) rarr 2O_2(g)#

If there was no ozone, an increased penetration of UVC and UVB would increase skin cancer and damage plants and animals. High UV penetration can become the catalyst for the formation of photochemical smog, which occurs in the Troposphere.

In living organisms phosphorus is largely observed as a phosphate group, see the picture below.

As can be seen, the phosphate group has a negative charge. This makes this part of a larger molecule hydrophilic (it can form hydrogen bonds and can dissolve in #H_"2"O#, water)

DNA and other information carriers
DNA are large molecules that have a certain sequence, which codes for the make of proteins in the cell. These DNA strands consist out of 4 different bases placed with a certain sequence along a line.

In the picture above a very schematical single DNA strand is showed. The 4 different bases are coloured and connected to the backbone (the black horizontal line) in a certain way. This backbone is build up out of a lot of phosphate groups! This makes DNA negative and hydrophilic on the outside.

Cell membranes
Every cell has a membrane around it. You can see this like a border to enter or leave the cell. This border consists out of many phospholipids. These are showed below.

The hydrophilic head of a phospholipid is made up from the negatively charged phosphate group.

ATP, the energy storage
Certain molecules in the cells are used for the storage of energy. This energy can be used to activate other processes in the cell. An example of an energy storage molecule is ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which consists out of 3 phosphate groups!

Image Source

If you want to learn more about ATP, check out this video!

Near the earth's surface, if inhaled, it causes eye irritation. People with certain genetic characteristics, and people with reduced intake of certain nutrients, such as vitamins C and E, are at greater risk from ozone exposure.

Ozone can:

1. Make it more difficult to breathe deeply and vigorously.
2. Cause shortness of breath, and pain when taking a deep breath.
3. Cause coughing and sore or scratchy throat.
4. Inflame and damage the airways.
5. Aggravate lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.
6. Increase the frequency of asthma attacks.
7. Make the lungs more susceptible to infection.
8. Continue to damage the lungs even when the symptoms have disappeared.
9. Cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

To learn more, you may want to check out these related questions on Socratic:
What are the positive and negative effects of the ozone layer?
What is the concern over stratospheric ozone?
How has a thinning zone layer affected human health?

Eutrophication is the term to describe an excessive amount of nutrients, phosphorous and nitrogen, in a body of water. This excess of nutrients causes an increase in plant and algae growth, which in turn depletes the available oxygen in the body of water. With less oxygen available, aquatic organisms die. These organisms then decompose, which in turn uses up even more of the available oxygen. If this process continues for long enough, the ecosystem can be entirely destroyed.

Eutrophication occurs when nutrients from human activities runoff and enter the environment. A main contributor is agriculture. Human activities have significantly increased the amount of nutrients passing into the environment.

You may want to see this related question on eutrophication and its causes in the Biology section.

You can also learn more here and here.