Effects+of+Climate+Change

Climate change has many **effects** on the world, humans, and weather, ranging from effects on animal life to the environment and man to the economy.

Sea Levels
One of the effects on the Earth due to global climate change is the rise of sea levels. Over the past 100 years sea levels have risen 4.8-8.8 inches. One of the reasons the sea levels are rising so much is due to the increase in temperatures. The increase in temperatures cause the ice caps and mountain glaciers to melt. Eventually the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will melt as well. All this melting is happening at different rates around the globe and some places the levels are actually decreasing but overall and throughout the next century the levels will rise.

Source used: []

Here is a video that talks about sea levels. Specifically, it talks about the past, present, and future of sea levels along with the causes and effects they have on the world. [|Click here for the video]

This [|website] is a map of the world and lets you raise the sea level to see how the rising sea levels could impact the globe.

**Wildlife**
The impact on wildlife due to climate change is becoming clear. Many birds are migrating as much as three weeks later than they usually do, and their late arrival to their winter locations can prove to be troublesome. The food they eat may already be gone in their winter location, as they missed their window of opportunity. Other animals that hibernate are waking from sleep early, and this has the opposite effect: the food they eat is still under the snow, or hasn’t grown yet.

Other animals are also migrating in search of cooler locations, as their natural habitats are growing too warm for them. The pika, a mountain dwelling rodent found in North America and Asia cannot survive in temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperatures have risen, pikas have traveled as much as 1300 feet up the mountains to reach cooler temperatures.

In the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, walrus and grey whales are noted for eating prey that normally wouldn’t be found in their habitat. The prey is traditionally warm water fish. As the Bering Sea warms, the fish that used to inhabit its waters are moving elsewhere to colder climates, while the warm water fish are starting to move in.

Climate change is also changing the environments of other animals for the worst. The polar bear is noted as one of the major species in danger in regard to the warming temperatures. They hunt seals, their main source of food, on the arctic ice. This ice has been melting considerably however, which is making it harder for the polar bears to hunt these seals. They are getting driven father back on land, while others try to swim out in search of more ice and end up drowning. Some polar bears have even resorted to cannibalism due to the lack of food.

Sea turtles as well are losing essential land. The rising sea levels are shrinking the beaches the turtles lay eggs on. The gender of turtles also relies on the climate. The sex of a turtle depends on the temperature of the sand the eggs are incubated in. If the sand is cooler, the turtle will be male, and if it’s warmer, the turtle will be female. If the sand is constantly warm, it can create a disproportionate number of female turtles and end up upsetting the balance of their life.

The warming oceans are also killing coral, which serves as a habitat for multitudes of aquatic species. A loss of 97% staghorn and elkhorn coral in South Florida and the Caribbean have been recorded.

The extinction and endangerment of certain species has also been linked to global warming. While some animals like the New England wood frog can evolve and adapt to the rising temperatures, 70 other species of frog have gone extinct due to the heating planet. Scientists speculate that by 2050, one quarter of the world’s species will either be extinct or in danger of extinction if nothing is done about climate change. (Sources used: [], [], [])

**Future Effects**
[]
 * A future of more severe storms and floods along the world's increasingly crowded coastlines is likely, and will be a bad combination even under the minimum scenarios forecast. Furthermore, extra-tropical storm tracks are projected to move poleward, with consequent changes in wind, precipitation, and temperature patterns, continuing the pattern observed over the last half century.

Humans
The range of extreme weathers that climate change brings--hurricanes, floods, wild fires, and heat waves--has negatively impacted the health on humans. Although it is not proven, and said to be very unlikely that climate change may be the cause or start of new disease, it is certainly fostering the spread of infectious diseases. As temperatures keep rising, this aids the growth process of infectious parasites. Such "vector borne" diseases include; malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis.

A study form the World Health Organization shows that a 1/4 of the world's diseases are caused from contamination of air, water, soil and food. With the increase of smog levels, comes the increase of respiratory health issues. Those with asthma and other chronic lung diseases are far more susceptible to the damage of lung tissue that ground-level ozone may cause. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compound coupled with higher temperatures and sunlight cause by the change in our climate further increase the levels of ground-level ozone.

With the rapid change of our climate, the more extreme weather patterns we will see. Including hurricanes, floods, wild fires and tornadoes. From the stress that these storms bring, or the infectious diseases that breeds, it is obvious what kind of impact these extreme weather events may have on humans.

Climate change not only has an impact on human health, it effects the agricultural prospect of humans. Just a few factors that are considered to have a profound effect are average temperature increase, change in rainfall amount and patterns, rising atmospheric concentrations of CO 2, pollution levels such as tropospheric ozone, change in climatic variability and extreme events. These factors lead to events such as the lengthening of growth seasons, increase the chance of severe droughts, increase soil evaporation rates.

(Sources used: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080124190814.htm, http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/index.html)

**Effects on the Ozone**
Scientists believe that as climate change speeds up, the ozone will be weakened. Greenhouse gases heat the lower stratosphere and when this part of the ozone heats, chemical reactions speed up and ozone depletion occurs. Heat is also generated in the stratosphere when it absorbs UV rays from the sun and when it absorbs infrared radiation from the troposphere.

According to NASA, by the year 2030, "climate change may surpass chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) as the main driver of overall ozone loss." CFCs are organic compounds containing carbon, chlorine, and fluorine and are used to help eliminate toxic and flammable substances in refrigeration units and air conditioners; they are also used in solvents in cleaners, coolants in refrigeration and air conditioning, and propellants in aerosols. To date, man-made CFC emissions have accounted for nearly 80% of ozone depletion. Between now and 2050, climate change may became the leading cause of ozone depletion, pushing forward the recovery date, if there is one, 10 to 20 years. However, some scientists believe that the stratosphere will recover by the year 2050 because most countries are following an agreement to stop the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, such as CFCs.

(Sources used: http://www.globalissues.org/article/184/the-ozone-layer-and-climate-change, http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/chlorofluorocarbons.aspx, http://www.earthscape.org/t1/ari06/yoz4.html, http://www.theozonehole.com/cimate.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020606075647.htm)