Global warming and poisoning of our soils, water and air are crisis
Answers
Answer:
The main potential changes in soil-forming factors (forcing variables) directly resulting from global change would be in organic matter supply from biomass, soil temperature regime and soil hydrology, the latter because of shifts in rainfall zones as well as changes in potential evapotranspiration. Soil changes because of a potential rise in sea level resulting from a net reduction in Antarctic ice cap volume and ocean warming are discussed in Brammer and Brinkman (1990) and are summarized at the end of this paper.
The biggest single change in soils expected as a result of these postulated forcing changes would be a gradual improvement in fertility and physical conditions of soils in humid and subhumid climates. Another major change would be the poleward retreat of the permafrost boundary, discussed by Goryachkin and Targulian (1990). Other widespread changes would be in degree rather than in kind. Certain tropical soils with low physico-chemical activity, such as in the Amazon region, may undergo a radical change from one major soil-forming process to another (Sombroek, 1990), as discussed below under Processes in soils.
Acidifying water
Earth’s oceans absorb about 40% of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans emit into the atmosphere. That CO2 then acidifies the water and is known to harm marine wildlife, especially shellfish, in a well-documented phenomenon known as ocean acidification. Yet according to a new study published in Current Biology, ocean waters are not the only bodies of water that are affected by CO2 emissions.
Researchers showed that, over the course of 35 years, four reservoirs in Germany had both a significant increase in CO2 and a related decrease in pH, with waters dropping by about 0.3. (pH runs on a scale of 1 to 14, with 1 being the most acidic and 14 being the most basic.) They detected these changes from data from the local Ruhr region agency, which monitors drinking water, over the years 1981 to 2015.
AIR:
According to the National Climate Assessment, climate change will affect human health by increasing ground-level ozone and/or particulate matter air pollution in some locations. ... The increase in air pollutants makes the effects of increased allergens associated with climate change even worse.