Summary: Effects of Global Warming

Summary: Effects of global warming

Agriculture

-  Shifts in food growing areas

-  Changes in crop yields

-  Increased irrigation demands

-  Increased pests, crop diseases and weeds in warmer areas

Biodiversity

-  Extinction of some plant and animal species

-  Loss of habitats

-  Disruption of aquatic life

Forests

-  Changes in forest composition and locations

-  Disappearance of some forests

-  Increased fires from drying

-  Loss of wildlife habitat and species

Sea level and Coastal Areas

-  Rising sea levels

-  Flooding of low lying islands and cities

-  Flooding of coastal estuaries, wetlands and coral reefs

-  Beach erosion

-  Disruption of coastal fisheries

-  Contamination of coastal aquifers with salt water

Weather extremes

-  Prolonged heat waves and droughts

-  Increased flooding from more frequent, intense, and heavy rainfall in some areas

Water resources

-  Changes in water supply

-  Decreased water quality

-  Increased drought

-  Increased flooding

Human population

-  Increased deaths

-  More environmental refugees

-  Increased migration

Human health

-  Increased deaths from heat and disease

-  Disruption of food and water supplies

-  Spread of tropical diseases to temperate areas

-  Increased respiratory diseases and pollen allergies

-  Increased water pollution from coastal flooding

Action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions / Carbon dioxide Reduction
Drive fuel efficient cars, walk, cycle, car pool, and use mass transit / 9 kg / gallon of petrol saved
use energy efficient appliances / Up to 1400kg per year
Insulate walls and ceilings / Up to 900kg per year
Reduce garbage by recycling and reusing / 450kg for 25% less garbage per year
Seal windows and doors / Up to 450 kg per year
Insulate hot water heater
Use compact florescent bulbs / 230kg per year per bulb
Wash laundry in cold water / Up to 230 kg per year for 2 loads per week
Use low flow shower head / Up to 140kg per year

Skeptics

All attempts to link specific recent outbreaks to climate change cannot survive a confrontation with the facts. In all cases, local conditions (such as the banning of the insecticide DDT, land use changes, or foreign contact) account for expansions of disease vectors or increases in infection rates.

Nobody denies that CO2 is increasing. But changes in global temperature are better correlated with changes in solar activity. Solar magnetic flux shows trends similar to that for temperatures from 1880 to the present. Of thirteen populations of polar bears in Canada two are growing, two are in decline, the rest are stable. The growth is in areas where there is warming, the decline where there is cooling.

Only two per cent of ice floats, so if that melts it will have little impact on sea levels. Ice is increasing in size in parts of the Antarctic, balancing out any melt. Melting may be due to the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). The AMO is an ongoing series of long-duration changes in the sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean, with cool and warm phases that may last for twenty to forty years at a time and a difference of about 0.5°C between extremes. These changes are natural and have been occurring for at least the last 1000 years. Since 1976 the world has warmed at a remarkable constant and non-alarming rate of 0.17oC per decade, and this is not a problem.

The fact that greenhouse gas emissions add heat energy to the climate system and are bound to warm the planet to some extent has never been in doubt. The real question is how much the climate will warm, how fast, and with what effects. The Gulf Stream is a wind-driven system that depends on the earth’s spin and lunar tides, not on salt. There have always been patterns of rainfall variability over time in all areas. There have been periods of abnormally high temperatures in the past – such as in the medieval period. There is no change globally in the frequency of cyclones over the past thirty-five years. Some portion of the 0.5oC warming of the sea surface temperature is due to the cyclical Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). This may be a forest management problem. The beetles like thick, old-growth forests. Thinning the forests will solve the problem.