Effect of global warming
Answers
The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.
→ Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.
1. Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.2. Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
3. Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
4. Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
5. Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
→ Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.
1. Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).2. Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
3. Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
4. Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
5. Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier. Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.
Answer:
Predicting the consequences of global warming is one of the most difficult tasks faced by the climate researchers. This is due to the fact that natural processes that cause rain, snowfall, hailstorms, rise in sea levels is reliant on many diverse factors. Moreover, it is very hard to predict the size of emissions of greenhouse gases in the future years as this is determined majorly through technological advancements and political decisions. Global warming produces many negative effects some of which are described here. Firstly, extra water vapour which is present in the atmosphere falls again as rain which leads to floods in various regions of the world. When the weather turns warmer, evaporation process from both land and sea rises. This leads to drought in the regions where increased evaporation process is not compensated by increased precipitation. In some areas of the world, this will result in crop failure and famine particularly in areas where the temperatures are already high. The extra water vapour content in the atmosphere will fall again as extra rain hence causing flood. Towns and villages which are dependent on the melting water from snowy mountains may suffer drought and scarcity of water supply. It is because glaciers all over the world are shrinking at a very rapid rate and melting of ice appears to be faster than previously projected.