Global Warming Effects
The global warming effects are evident and undeniable. We're already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitats, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences. Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years-to 300,000 people a year. Just remember the 30,000 people that died in Europe during the record hot summer of 2005. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. The 10 hottest years ever measured occurred in the last 13, with the hottest one being 2005. Temperature increases occur all over the world, including the oceans. As the oceans get warmer, that causes stronger storms. Japan and US set all time records of typhoons. Hurricanes will get stronger, the question is how will we react. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Over the course of the 20th century, evaporation rates have reduced worldwide. This is thought by many to be explained by global dimming. As the climate grows warmer and the causes of global dimming are reduced, evaporation will increase due to warmer oceans. Because the world is a closed system this will cause heavier rainfall and more erosion, and in more vulnerable tropical areas (especially in Africa), desertification due to deforestation. That's why more extreme weather is expected.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. With increasing average global temperature, the water in the oceans expands in volume, and additional water enters them which had previously been locked up on land in glaciers, for example, the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets. An increase of 1.5 to 4.5 °C is estimated to lead to an increase of 15 to 95 cm (IPCC 2001). The sea level has risen more than 120 meters since the peak of the last ice age about 18,000 years ago. The bulk of that occurred before 6000 years ago. From 3000 years ago to the start of the 19th century, sea level was almost constant, rising at 0.1 to 0.2 mm/yr; since 1900, the level has risen at 1-2 mm/yr; since 1992, satellite altimetry from TOPEX/Poseidon indicates a rate of about 3 mm/yr. The Independent reported in December 2006 that the first island claimed by rising sea levels caused by global warming was Lohachara Island in the Sundarbans in Bay of Bengal. Lohachara was home to 10,000. Earlier reports suggested that it was permanently flooded in the 1980s due to a variety of causes, that other islands were also affected and that the population in the Sundarbans had more than tripled to over 4 million. |