If earth was a different shape would climate change still happen?
The shape of the Earth does influence the Earth’s climate. The curved surface of the Earth creates different climates across the globe.
The Earth has its shape because of gravity. As you might know, the Earth isn’t quite shaped like a perfect ball or sphere – it bulges out a bit around the middle, and the reason for the bulge is because the Earth is spinning.
Because of the Earth’s round shape, the equator is the closest point to the sun. It receives most of the sun’s energy and the polar regions receive less. This creates the warm tropical regions and cold polar regions. The extra heat at the equator also drives the movement of air up and away from the equator which creates the circulation patterns that form weather systems.
Gravity is also the reason why the Earth has an atmosphere – and as I’m sure you know, it’s actually the atmosphere that is responsible for climate change, because it contains greenhouse gases that trap heat.
Given our current laws of physics, no other shaped planet can naturally exist. If in another universe these laws are different, a planet would still need an atmosphere and still be susceptible to climate change.
