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ISSUES
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Climate Change
Likely effects of climate change:
UK (Local) warmer and wetter
In the UK some five million people live under the threat of flooding – that’s one in ten houses – and 200,000 are very high risk. This means they have a one in 75 chance of suffering a flood each year. 2007 saw large areas of the UK midlands under water causing in excess of £3billion damage. Wet weather also affected food production, crops unable to be harvested, or cattle grazed.
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EUROPE (Regional) warmer and wetter
Between 22,000–35,000 people died in the heat wave that hit Western Europe in 2003. |
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Longer but drier growing seasons impact on food production, affecting planting and harvesting times, irrigation systems and choice of crops.. |
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WORLD
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Drought / Forest Fires
The amount of drought is increasing. Higher temperatures lead to more evaporation and drought in some areas of the world. Higher temperatures will also increase the demand for water for the purposes of cooling and hydration.
In the Sahel, there has been on average a 25% decrease in annual rainfall over the past 30 years.
1/3 of world to be a desert in less than a 100 years
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Floods / Hurricanes
The number and strength of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other similar events have increased over the last 15–20 years
Heavier rainfall causes flooding in many regions as warmer temperatures speed up the water cycle. There has been a 5-10% increase in precipitation over the past century. In the last ten years, floods have caused almost 300 billion US dollars of damage, that’s three to six times the amount of damage caused by floods in previous decades.
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Biodiversity: Ecosystems are changing. As temperatures increase, species will either migrate to cooler, more suitable habitats or die out.
Phenology, the study of the timing of natural events in relation to climate, (eg first frogspawn of the year) is already revealing staggering trends in the responses of species to temperature change.
Worlds largest tiger reserve threatened.
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Marine ecosystems / Ice melt / Sea levels rise
Arctic sea ice is melting. The summer thickness of sea ice is about half of what it was in 1950. Melting Arctic sea ice may eventually lead to global changes in water circulation and melting ice speeds up warming of the Arctic because water absorbs much more heat than the ice did
Sea-surface temperatures are warming. This has contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world’s coral reefs in the last few decades.
Sea level is rising. During the 20th century, sea level rose 10-20 cm (4-8 inches) due to melting glacier ice and expansion of warmer seawater. Models predict that sea level may rise as much as 85 cm (33 inches) during the 21st century. This is a threat to coastal communities, wetlands and coral reefs.
CO2 is now entering the ocean at a rate of ~1 million tons per hour, 10 times the natural rate, this is changing the acidity of the seas. Geological records indicate that the pH changes occurring since the Industrial Revolution are unique in the last 650,000 years. These changes have the potential todamage corals, eggs and larvae of some fish species, and those animals with skeletons and shells. More
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Food / water / health
Changes in agriculture affect regions of the globe: As regional climates warm, some mid-latitude places, like Europe, receive a longer growing season, while some tropical places are becoming too hot and dry to grow crops.
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| Refugees
There will be increasing numbers of 'environmental refugees' as people move from regions becoming desertified. Tension over water and food security transends national boundaries and may lead to conflict. IISD suggest that by 2050, as many as 200 million people could be displaced. (pdf) More from IISD ' Eating the Dry Season'
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CARBON COUNTER Climate Change 
