Introduction Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and it’s oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. Some call it a hoax but there are climate scientist who research all the changes that Earth;s goes through due to its rapid change in temperature. The main affects of global warming are, rising sea levels, animal extinction, carbon emission, storms, heat waves, droughts, diseases, bad air quality, melting glaciers and food shortage.
Melting Glaciers
Animal Extinction
Storms
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Food Shortage
Rising Sea Levels
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Droughts
Heatwave
Diseases
Air Pollution
Wildfires
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Rising Sea Levels
The major causes of global sea-level rise are caused by warming of oceans and the loss of land-based ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets, due to increased melting. The oceans are absorbing more than ninety percent of the increased atmospheric heat associated with emissions from human activity. Sea levels will likely rise for many centuries at rates higher than that of the current century. In the United States almost forty percent of the population lives in relatively high population coastal areas, where sea levels plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Reducing emissions would help slow the rate of sea levels, but at this point, it’s unlikely that we could stop further rises altogether. Sea levels will keep rising for centuries no matter what we do. We can’t stop it entirely. We can only slow the pace.
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II
Melting Glaciers
When temperatures rise and ice melts, more water flows to the sea from glaciers and ice caps and ocean water warms and expands in volume. This combination has played the major role is raising average global sea level between four and eight inches in the past hundred years. Glaciers around the world have been melting at an unbelievable rate. Several ice caps, glaciers and ice shelves haves melted altogether in this century. Many more are melting so rapidly that they will vanish within a matter of decades.
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Animal Extinction
Animals around the globe are struggling to adapt to new conditions due to the rapid change in the climate. Many animals are being forced to change their behaviors for example, birds are nesting, breeding, and migrating earlier as spring. Unlike past mass extinctions, caused by asteroids, volcanic eruptions, and natural disasters, the current crisis is almost entirely caused by humans. In fact, ninety nine percent of currently threaten species are at risk from humans activities like global warming. The rate of change in our biosphere is increasing , and because every species’ extinction leads to the extinction of others bound to that species in a complex ecological web, numbers of extinctions are likely to snowball in the coming decades ecosystems unravel. Global warming is making the protection of endangered species very challenging. Climate change not only affects our plants and animals directly through changes in the temperature and precipitation, and can worsen the impact on the species of traditional threats, like wildfires and diseases. The National Wildlife Federation are identifying and promoting innovative approaches to help endangered species and other wildlife in the face of a changing climate.
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Two thirds of the world’s polar bears are in danger of disappearing from the Earth by 2050
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IV
Storms
In the past thirty years there has been an increase of temperature for the whole world. The rising temperatures are caused by the increase of heat being trapped in the atmosphere. Global warming increases the ocean evaporation into the atmosphere and the amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold. High levels of water vapor in the atmosphere in turn create conditions more higher precipitation in the form of intense rain and snow storms. As the Earth warms up, the amount of rain or snow falling has increased by twenty percent in the United States, almost three times the rate of increase in total precipitation between 1958 and 2007. This means that the heaviest storms have become even heavier. The Northeast has seen a seventy four percent increase in the amount of rain or snow. If the emissions that cause global warming continues, then the amount of rainfall during the heaviest precipitation around the country to increase more than forty percent by the end of the century. Even if we try to decrease missions, the downpours are still likely to increase by only a little more than twenty percent.
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Food Shortage
The world is facing a future of food shortages as a consequence of widespread water shortage caused by global warming. About 1.6 billion people already live in areas that are classed as having water scarcity and are likely to reach 2.8 billion by 2025. It will continue to rise as the planet keeps warming. This will result in a major refugee crisis as the lack of water for drinking, crops and manufacturing makes huge populated areas uninhabitable and millions of people will be forced to move. If no climate change were to occur the global food availability would actually increase by ten percent by the year 2050, but due to climate change the global food availability would be three percent lower than without climate change. People would eat four percent less fruit and vegetables and point seven percent less meat.
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Droughts
The affects of Evapotranspiration, which is the movement of water into the atmosphere from land and water surfaces and plants due to the evaporation and transportation leads to, increased droughts in dry areas. South Africa, southern Asia, The Mediterranean, and The Southwest of the United States, are getting drier and even areas that remain wet can experience long, dry conditions between extreme precipitation events. The amount of land affected by drought will grow by mid century and water resources in affected areas will decline as much as thirty percent. This is due to the Hadley Cell which is, warm air in the tropics rises, loses moisture to tropical thunderstorms.
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Heat Waves
Around the globe, warming temperatures are increasing the risk of hot weather and decreasing the risk of colder weather. Hot summer days are getting extremely hotter and are becoming more frequent, which leads to multi-day heat waves. When heat occurs in conjunction with a lack of rain could lead to droughts, and can encourage more extreme heat, as the sun’s energy to heat, the air, and land surface. Hot, dry conditions increase the risk of wildfires , like the ones in Colorado that were fueled by record heat and an ongoing drought.
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Diseases
Long warm weather seasons and changing rainfall patterns allow insects that can transmit disease to humans to thrive for longer periods each year and allows them to move into broader areas. Americans need to know about vector based diseases that can be obtain through mosquitoes and other insects. The biggest disease are the West Nile virus and dengue fever. There is no effective vaccine or guaranteed cures for them. Parts of the Untied States that have droughts leave behind puddles of standing water which is the moisture that mosquitoes need to hatch their eggs. Hotter weather is shortening these eggs’ incubation times, increasing the overall mosquito population. Female mosquitoes are the ones that bite, and warmer weather males them more likely to do so. West Nile is spread when infected birds are bitten by bugs that then go on to bite humans. Seventy percent of West Nile infected people do not develop symptoms, the virus occasionally causes fevers accompanied by body aches, disorientation, diarrhea, neck stiffness, headache, joint pain, and tremors and it can spread to the brain. One percent of people with West Nile go on to develop potentially fatal encephalitis or meningitis.
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West Nile Cycles between birds and mosquitoes but both can spread the virus to humans.
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Air Pollution Droughts Carbon dioxide is the main pollutant that is warming the
Earth. It is considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past one hundred and fifty years these activities have pimped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels even higher. Another pollutant is sulfur dioxide which is component of smog. It is known as a cause of acid rain, but they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic eruption can release a massive amount of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Governments are taking measures to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. One way is the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between countries that will cut back on carbon dioxide emissions. Another method is to put taxes on carbon emissions or higher taxes on gasoline, so that people and companies will have greater incentives to conserve energy and pollute less.
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Wildfires
Wildfires are a natural occurrence but with the added carbon dioxide in the air and hotter summers, more frequent wildfires continue to surface each year. With the release of carbon dioxide in the air, put people’s lives in danger but wild life suffer the most. Each time a wildfire burns, the less oxygen there is to combat the dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. Wildfire seasons in the United States are expected to increase in duration, with the southwest’s season of fire potential length to be seven to all year long, making wildfires to be more serve. Some dry grassland areas may be less at risk because people are likely to prevent these grasses from growing at all, leaving these areas so barren that they are likely to lack the fodder for wildfire.
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Conclusion Global warming can cause many different type of damages to all parts of the world and many affects go with each other. A few affects can’t happen without the other. These are the affects of global warming and how much damage they are causing to our planet each year. The real question here, is it too late to stop global warming?
Sources “Are Severe Rain Storms, Snow Storms, Drought, and Tornadoes Linked to Global Warming?” Union of Concerned Scientists. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. By Midcentury, If Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Not Significantly Curtailed, Scientists Expect 20 Record Highs for Every Record Low. The Ratio Could Be 50:1 by the End of the Century. By the 2050s, Many of the Mid-Atlantic States including Urban Parts of M. “Extreme Heat and Climate Change.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Web. 09 Nov. 2016 “Food Scarcity Caused by Climate Change Could Cause 500,000 Deaths by 2050, Study Suggests.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, Web. 09 Nov. 2016. “Global Warming Effects on Drought.” Global Warming Effects on Drought. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. “Is Global Warming Fueling Increased Wildfire Risks?” Union of Concerned Scientists. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. Society, National Geographic. “Air Pollution Facts, Air Pollution Effects, Air Pollution Solutions, Air Pollution Causes - National Geographic.” National Geographic. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. @nrdc. “Climate Change Bites.” NRDC. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. “24 Serious Effects of Global Warming - Conserve Energy Future.” Conserve Energy Future. , 20 June 2015. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
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