What is the worst thing that could happen in the near future due to Global Warming?

Answer 1

I think the worst thing is the spread of disease. The subtropical regions of the world have the highest numbers of organisms inimical to human health. This includes environmental diseases (leprosy, fungal infections), insect borne diseases (i.e. malaria, leishmaniasis, yellow fever), parasites (i.e. worms, filiarisis, onchocerciasis), dangerous animals (i.e.africanized bees) etc. Assuming that the rise in ocean levels is slow enough to allow people to move inland, loss of arable land may cause the starvation death of millions of people. Even if this does not happen, the survivors will then have to deal with the spread of tropical diseases over much more of the world, with a resulting death toll possibly greater over time than the initial effects.

Look at the list of (for now) tropical diseases and imagine if you faced all of them every day.

Answer 2

Ocean Waters will rise upto 50 feet due to melting glasiers and icebergs. All of FL will be part of the Atlantic Ocean, while N.O, LA Will be destroyedd also Hawaii, NC Outta Bands, NJ Coast, etc killing 10s of Millions.

Answer 3

increase in temperature due to global warming will result in melting of ice caps in polar region, this will result in major floods. Lives will be lost.

Answer 4

Followed by and Ice age. But I still waiting for the Ice age they said we where in the 70's

Answer 5

Melting of the Polar ice caps...major flooding all across the world.

Hope you can swim.

Answer 6

That depends on how far distant you still consider "near" -- and it depends on your perspective regarding what you mean by "the worst thing that could happen"

In the USA, the most likely scenario involves an economic meltdown, as senior administrative personnel fleece their workers in order to insulate themselves against the impending chaos.

Disasters probably much smaller in scale than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, will come in relatively rapid (separated by anywhere from a few months to a couple of years) succession. The individual disasters probably won't seem all that bad, but their cumulative effect will be devastating: recovery won't be completed between disasters.

The GOP has effectively shielded insurance companies from any meaningful liability -- which means they can issue policies and collect premiums all day long, but they don't have to pay out anything even close to what they promised to policyholders (who find themselves converted, on account of the disaster they've suffered, into "claimants").

Since there is neither any "maximum compensation" law (which would be ALMOST as bad as the current "minimum wage" law) nor any law tying with some small multiple (less than, say, 10) the maximum compensation (combined value of all wages, bonuses, benefits) to the least compensation within an organization -- the disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" will GREATLY increase.

As the cost of living goes up, wages will go down -- middle class families will find themselves living in Third World filth and squalor while contractors and other businesspeople reduce their costs through the use of "undocumented immigrant" (aka: illegal alien) workers -- who will be portrayed as the saviors of the People, because they're "doing the jobs that US Citizens won't do."

When the GOP "reformed" the bankruptcy code, it did not touch Chapter 11 (which applies to large corporations); rather, it virtually eliminated the historic and ethical protections previously codified in Chapters 7 and 13. While eliminating the protections historically granted to people that were willing but unable to repay a debt, Congress and the President ensured that there would be no penalty to the party issuing an improvident extension of credit.

In other words, agents of lenders used to have a fiduciary responsibility to their respective employers (or themselves, if the agent and the lender were the same person), which meant they had to first diligently inquire into the character and resources of the borrower to determine whether the loan was likely to be repaid. Failure to make such inquiry was regarded as a breach of professional ethics and was in many instances shown to be an example of bad faith on the part of the LENDER -- who, on account of surplus riches, was able to prey upon those whose resources were exceeding limited. GW Bush thought those restrictions should be lifted, and Congress agreed -- so they were.

Today, lenders are able to issue loans to pretty much anyone that asks for one. There are procedural steps that still apply, but there is no incentive in the law for the paperwork to be given more than a cursory glance. So we have loans being issued to people that lenders knew were unlikely ever to be able to repay, and with the bankruptcy protections stripped from the borrowers, the lenders make out like bandits every time a loan goes into default.

With the economy in the crapper, and prices soaring (remember supply and demand), lenders will have to seek (and will be granted) higher interest rates on loans and credit. All of this will be happening while many thousands of people have no electrical service and/or no clean water and/or no waste removal service. (remember the disasters?)

Widespread riots are unlikely in the next couple of years, but within a dozen years, we could see isolated events become larger and more frequent as the economy collapses from the bottom (remember, that's where the foundation is). The government will try to quell the violence through force, but will quickly learn that produces an effect opposite what is desired; it will then attempt to appease the People, but will ultimately fail because of the socio-economic disconnect between the political leadership and the ordinary people suffering at the bottom.

And that's when things get really ugly: it won't be a "civil war" nearly so much as it will be anarchy. People killing each other over a cup of water or a bag of ice will be common, as will be thefts and robberies of every sort, followed by rapes and murders and all other manner of mayhem.

Climatological change precipitated by global warming is but one of the factors driving that scenario, but it is an important one -- not so much on account of the short-term (10 years) damage it does, but mainly on account of the respective characters of the people at the top of the socio-economic ladder:

For thugs, disasters are excuses (witness 9-11, for instance). Global warming provides them with all the excuses they could ask for, to get the People to agree to anything the thugs want. And history hath shown that eventually the People do wake up and smell the proverbial coffee, and demand that things be set right -- but they're so slow in getting there, that when they do, rectification and redress of grievances is a long and bloody process.

US domestic oil production is projected to peak in 2010 and again in 2016, and to decline sharply beginning about 2016 (10 years) -- and that's INCLUDING all the pro-oil stuff done by the GOP & the Bush administration.

In 2030, US domestic oil production will be DOWN by 38.115 percent from where it was in 1990 (16.893 percent lower than in 2006). Already, US foreign oil consumption is decreasing and is expected to continue to slowly decrease. That isn't because we're snubbing Arabs: it's a matter of supply & demand -- and though the present generation of oil barons can be hated for their selfishness, they're just socking away their fortunes because they can see the bottom of the proverbial glass.

OBTW, US domestic oil production (dop) in 2030 will be 29.595 percent LESS than it was in 1996, and 21.799 percent LESS than it was in 2000 -- and barely more than 15.442 LESS than it was in 2004. Interesting numbers, huh? US dop was MUCH higher under Clinton than under GW -- but the oil barons say we can't afford domestic crude, and as long as they control the price, they're right.

Answer 7

All of us die due to brushfires on all forests. If you survive, you will die too due there are no more trees to bear fruits, and no more water to drink...

Answer 8

we could all die.

Answer 9

we all die...