If Global Warming happens how will it affect us?

Answer 1

Long answer coming up, summarised from a report I wrote a couple of months ago...

EFFECTS ON WEATHER
An increase in the amount of precipitation. Although rainfall overall will increase there are some parts of the world that are already receiving less rainfall and this trend is likely to continue.

Hurricanes and storms will become more frequent, widespread and severe, in the last 30 years the proportion of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled. Once exclusively confined to the northern hemisphere there have recently been hurricanes in the southern hemisphere, most notably in Brazil.

DESERTIFICATION
Shifting weather patterns mean some areas receive less rainfall; the ground becomes barren and unable to sustain crops. In many parts of the world the layer of topsoil is both very thin and very poor. The dry, dusty soil is readily blown away and the area becomes desert. African and Asian countries are particularly hard hit.

AGRICULTURAL IMPACT
For the reasons mentioned above there will be a major impact on agriculture. Rising sea levels will result in the loss of large areas of agricultural land, the consequences of which will be population migration, famine and / or the need to import food from elsewhere. Again, it will be the African and Asian countries that are hardest hit with crop production falling by up to a third.

RISING SEA LEVELS
Sea levels are rising faster now than at any time since the melting of the glaciers that marked the end of the last ice age. As the glaciers melted sea levels rose by some 120 metres (400 feet) but for the last few thousand years sea levels have been almost constant rising only 10 centimetres (4 inches) per thousand years.

Since the onset of global warming the seas have risen much faster. A hundred years ago they were rising by 1mm a year, today they are rising by 3mm a year and indications are that they will rise much quicker in the future. Sea levels are rising 30 times faster now than they were before industrialisation and the onset of global warming.

The Sundarman Delta has seen levels rising by more than 30mm a year, millions have already been forced to leave their homes and the Carteret Islands in the Pacific Ocean are currently being evacuated.

In many years to come rising sea levels could swamp cities including London, New York and Miami. Low lying areas such as Bangladesh, much of the European and American coasts and island groups including the Seychelles and Maldives would be submerged.

MELTING OF ICE CAPS
The Arctic ice cap is floating; if it were to melt entirely there would be no change in sea levels. However, Antarctica is a continent, a land mass, it isn’t floating and any melting here adds to the sea level as does melting of ice sheets and glaciers in places such as Greenland.

The edges of the Antarctic Ice Sheet are breaking off and collapsing into the sea. One of the biggest breaks occurred in 2002 when the Larsen B Ice Shelf broke off. This huge mass of ice covered 3250 square kilometres and weighed half a trillion tons.

POPULATION MIGRATION
For the reasons mentioned above, large numbers of people are going to find it increasingly difficult to remain in their present locations and in many cases it will be impossible. In Bangladesh some 13 million people will be forced to move if the sea level rises by just one metre and in the US tens of millions will be affected particularly along the north east coast, Florida, Louisiana and California. Globally it is expected that hundreds of millions of people will need to relocate or emigrate.

MARINE ENVIRONMENT
The world’s oceans absorb carbon dioxide, some of which dissolves to form carbonic acid and this is affecting the alkalinity of the oceans. Many forms of marine life are highly sensitive to the level of alkalinity. The formation of corals is being affected and plankton, which forms the basis of the marine food chain, is also very sensitive. The increasing levels of carbon dioxide make it harder for many species of fish and shellfish to breathe and reproduce. Changes in the ecology and chemistry of the seas and oceans reduce their ability to absorb CO2, which consequently increases the rate of global warming.

ECOSYSTEMS
Parts of Antarctica are now covered in grass and there is a massive migration of animals towards the polar regions, these migrations extend an average of 6.1km further from the equator each decade. Butterflies have extended their territory by some 200km further north in Europe and North America.

In the Arctic the habitat of polar bears and emperor penguins is being threatened. The waters of the Hudson Bay for example, are now ice free for three weeks more each year than they were 30 years ago. Polar bears are starving because they need to venture onto the frozen ice to hunt food. In another 10 or 20 years there may no longer be polar bears in this region and within a hundred years they could be extinct.

The most extensive report into global warming and climate change predicts that up to 40% of animal species could become extinct due to global warming.

HEALTH AND DISEASE
Global warming will be both beneficial and detrimental to people's health. There will be fewer deaths from cold related conditions but more deaths from heat related conditions. Globally there are more heat related deaths than cold related deaths so the net impact will be a loss of life.

Warmer temperatures lead to an increase in air and water pollution thus increasing the risk to humans from infection and respiratory conditions such as asthma. Warmer temperatures are conducive to the breeding and spread of rats, mice, other rodents, ticks, mosquitoes and other vectors for disease. This will lead to an increase in the number of people affected and an expansion into previously unaffected areas.

WATER SCARCITY
Rising sea levels lead to the contamination of groundwater rendering it undrinkable whilst at the same time higher temperatures lead to greater evaporation of fresh water from reservoirs. This will impact on the human population as well as plants, animals and agriculture.

Higher temperatures and changing climate patterns mean that some areas will receive less rainfall, in other areas when the rain does fall it is likely to do so on hard, sun-baked ground which is unable to absorb it. Instead of replenishing groundwater supplies the water will run off causing flash flooding and a lowering of the water table.

MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENTS
Glaciers are melting faster than has been known before - up to 40 metres per day in some places. In the last 100 years 50% of the world’s glaciers outside the polar regions have melted. The effects of glacial melt include flooding, landslides, avalanches and loss of habitat. In some mountainous regions melt water provides a year round water supply and without the glaciers there will be near drought conditions.

ECONOMY
Increased adverse weather in itself could cost 1% of the worldwide GDP and a temperature rise of 2 or 3°C would reduce global economic output by 3%. In percentage terms these aren’t very big numbers but in terms of dollars the cost runs into trillions.

Insurance premiums are rising in line with the increased number of claims. The Association of British Insurers notes a 100% rise in weather related claims in recent years and states that climate change is already seriously impacting on the insurance industry.

THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION
A possible effect of global warming is the failure or slowing of the ocean conveyor belts or meridional overturning circulation. Research is continuing and it's unclear at this time what effect, if any, global warming will have on thermohaline circulation. One theory is that the melting of polar ice could reduce salinity and introduce cold water into the oceans which could trigger a slowing or shutdown of thermohaline circulation. It's thought that the Gulf Stream which conveys warm Caribbean water to the coasts of Ireland, Britain and northern Europe is the most likely to be affected. Should this occur temperatures in these regions would drop be several degrees.

CIVIL ENGINEERING
A rise in sea levels would need to be countered with extensive flood defence schemes. Costly engineering schemes would need to be constructed in order to protect coastal cities. Many countries would not be able to afford such schemes and low lying communities may need to be evacuated.

Temperature fluctuations cause damage to road surfaces, pipelines including oil, gas, water and sewerage pipes, railway lines and airport runways. Greater contraction and expansion resulting from fluctuating temperatures and greater temperature ranges weakens the structure.

DEVELOPING NATIONS
The developing nations are expected to be the worst affected by global warming. Decreasing rainfall, drought, insect infestation and severe weather events will seriously impact on crop production leading to famine and starvation. Economic development is likely to be restricted whilst at the same time poverty increases. The poorer countries of the world are the ones that have the least resources to mitigate the effects of global warming.


========== CHANGES IN THE FUTURE ==========


RISING TEMPERATURES
The most extensive report into climate change and global warming was conducted by the IPCC and concluded that temperature rises of between 1.8°C and 4.0° should be expected by the end of the 21st century.

HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
In 2007 one person is dying every three minutes as a result of global warming, this figure is expected to double by 2020. The World Health Organisation predicts that rising temperatures will result in an additional 300,000 deaths and 10 million illnesses a year by 2030. This is in addition to the tens of millions of additional cases of malaria that the WHO expects to see.

ECOLOGICAL IMPACT
A quarter of the species of animals and plants could be extinct by 2050. More than three million square kilometres of Arctic sea ice has melted threatening the habitat of polar bears, experts predict that their numbers will ‘plummet’; the survival of grizzly bears is also threatened. Other species that are threatened include penguin, turtle, caribou, walrus, plankton, krill, whale, crab and seal.

ADVERSE WEATHER
In recent years there has been an 80% increase in the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes. Along with cyclones, tornados and other storms the frequency looks set to keep increasing. The UK Met Office predicts a nine-fold increase in the extent of flooding within the next 50 years.

In 2003 a heatwave in Europe, one of many in recent years, claimed up to 50,000 lives, predictions are that the annual number of heat related deaths will increase significantly.

DROUGHT AND FAMINE
The heat is likely to greatly increase the number of forest fires, reduce timber production, impact on agricultural land and lead to more insect infestation which in turn impacts on crop production and human health.

Rising temperatures have a huge impact on food production, a 1°C rise equates to a 10% loss in grain production, areas already facing food shortages will be hardest hit. Warmer temperatures create severe drought conditions; billions of people will be affected by contaminated water, a lack of water or both, in China and south east Asia alone hundreds of millions will be affected.

RISING SEA LEVELS
Rising sea levels have already impacted hard on many island and coastal communities including the forced evacuation of their populations. Areas affected include Kenya, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Maldives, Antigua and Bermuda. Sea levels have been rising for some time and predictions indicate further rises of between 200 and 600mm by the end of the century. In the US this would affect many coastal regions especially the coastlines of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, cities affected would include Boston, New York, Charleston, Miami and New Orleans.

OTHER EFFECTS
Some of the other impacts of global warming include: arctic warming, increased power outages, marine food chain disruption, changes to bird migration patterns, more wildfires, erosion, desertification, disappearing beaches, damage to tundra regions, impact on ozone layer, insect infestation, threat to boreal forests, coastal erosion, threat to mountain environments, loss of wetland and marshland habitats, decline in bird population, thawing of permafrost, increased acidity of oceans, release of further greenhouse gases, increased allergens (asthma etc), coral destruction and bleaching, loss of ocean conveyor belts (Gulf Stream) etc, loss of Arctic sea ice, impact on winter sports.

Source(s):

Me - Haven't just written it now, I wrote it about 2 months ago.

Full citations here - http://profend.com/global-warming/pages/... and here http://profend.com/global-warming/pages/...

Answer 2

Well, as you’d expect, we’ve got the usual global warming alarmist (GWA) nonsense in the answers to this question, so let’s go through them, shall we?

1) Global Warming will cause all the ice on the planet to melt.

First of all, let’s point out that, as things stand, this is not going to happen. While the Arctic is melting, the Antarctic (which has 90% of the world’s 160,000 glaciers) *isn’t* melting. Even the IPCC (usually the worst harbingers of doom) admit this (see bottom of page 9 at http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf )

Second, let’s not forget that an “ice age” is defined as a period where there is ice at the poles. Thus we are still technically in the midst of an ice age. The Earth has been without ice at its poles many times before, so why do we think that it would be a bad thing if it happens now? The obvious answer is that it may have an adverse effect on some humans. Thus we get to the truth: climate change is fine as long as it doesn’t effect mankind. That’s not very “green” is it?

2) Global Warming will cause sea levels to rise.

This is, of course, linked to the “melting ice” question. So, as stated above, since the Antarctic (which holds 90% of the world’s ice) is *not* melting, sea levels are not going to rise anywhere near as much as some would like you to believe. Even the IPCC (did I mention that they tend to be the nastiest harbingers of doom?), in their *worst* case scenario, are only predicting around 17 inches of sea level rise by the end of the century. (See the link above – table SPM-3, bottom of page 13)

Sea levels have been rising at a pretty constant 1 inch every 15 years for over a century, with little evidence of any acceleration. So, based on that consistent rate of rise, we should probably expect another 6 or 7 inches by 2100.

We are perfectly capable of adapting to sea level rise. The Netherlands, for example, has reclaimed large areas of land from the sea. If they can do that, I’m sure we can protect ourselves from a little bit of sea level rise. Do you really think that we’ll simply abandon London to the sea, rather than spend a few £billion improving flood defences?

3) Global warming will cause drought and damage to agriculture.

Rising temperature causes water to evaporate into the atmosphere from the sea. This causes the atmosphere to become wetter, therefore *reducing* the probability of drought. Also, a warmer climate will mean a longer growing season, so crop yields will actually increase. Also remember that CO2 is plant food, so the increase in levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will also improve crop yields.

4) Global warming will cause stronger and more frequent storms.

Weather activity is fuelled by the difference in temperature between the equatorial regions and the poles. Global warming will raise the temperature of the poles more than the equator. (This is already happening. The temperature in the Arctic is said to have risen by 1.6°C in the last century, compared to the global average of only 0.6°C). Thus, with less of a difference in polar and equatorial temperatures, weather extremes will reduce.

“But storms *are* getting stronger, just look at hurricane Katrina and New Orleans!”, I hear you shout. But this is simply a myth, perpetrated by the GWAs – they have basically been lying to you. Hurricane Katrina was *not* an unusually strong storm. It was only the third biggest storm of 2005, and was only category 4 when it hit New Orleans (the biggest storms are category 5). It only caused such a disaster because New Orleans’ flood defences were only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane.

Incidentally, New Orleans was devastated by hurricanes 3 times in the 1700s, long before global warming began.

“But storms *are* becoming more frequent, aren’t they?”. Well, no actually, we’re just getting better at spotting them. Remember, before the 1960s we didn’t have satellites to spot storms out at sea, so unless a ship happened to wander passed, we had no idea they were there. So, we only tended to spot the storms that passed close to land. Here is a really good article on the problem http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/20070510/20070510_07.pdf One very interesting statistic it mentions is that between 1900 and 1965 the percentage of hurricanes striking land was 75%. From 1966 to 2006 this figure had dropped to 59%. Do we really believe that global warming is stopping hurricanes heading for the coast? Or could it be because that, with the help of satellites, we are now spotting more hurricanes far out at sea, that never come close to land?

5) Global warming will cause an ice age in northern Europe.

No it won’t. This was just a wild, fringe theory that mainstream science does not accept as likely. See http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/20070518/20070518_02.html

Also remember that it was much warmer than today in the Medieval Warm Period and the Gulf Stream didn’t shut down then, so why should we think it will now?

6) Global Warming will cause mass extinctions.

This simply isn’t true. As far as life is concerned, warmer is generally better. Ask yourself this: where is there more life? The Arctic? Or the Amazon? See http://newsbusters.org/node/12628 Here’s a quote: “To put it succinctly, the warmer a region is, the more diverse are its species. And this can also be clearly inferred from the insights of evolutionary biology. Biodiversity reached its peak at the end of the tertiary age, a few million years ago, when it was much warmer than it is today. The development went in a completely different direction when the ice ages came and temperatures dropped, causing a massive extinction of species, especially in the north.”

The classic example of this extinction myth is the terrible plight of the Polar Bears. Except, of course, they’re doing fine, actually. See http://meteo.lcd.lu/globalwarming/Taylor/last_stand_of_our_wild_polar_bears.html

I think that just about covers all the scare stories.

As ever with global warming - don't believe the hype.

Answer 3

What do you mean 'if' it happens? It's already happening. The polar ice caps are melting, diluting the Atlantic Ocean slowing the rotational currents. This will change the weather seen all round the planet as this is what drives the weather patterns. It is raising the sea levels bit by bit. There are more droughts and thus crop failures, as well as more floods in other areas, thus crop failures. The average temperature is rising and there are record breaking weather phenomenon all round the world every month. How many times have you heard 'It's been the hotest day on record'? And the records continue to be broken. Check out the website, it'll scare you!

Answer 4

The actuality of global warming would create an Ice Age. The exact opposite of what many believe. Why an Ice Age? Because, the ocean actually controls the majority of our temperatures. Initially you'd have to have a pretty fair, consistent rise in water temp to maintain a consistent air temp in order to cyclically melt away the ice caps. The resulting fresh water would set as a layer on top of the heavier saltwater thus preventing deep current upwelling. Since the currents in effect "shut down" you no longer have the ability to maintain air temp and low level winds. So now you have areas cooling off because temp can't be distributed. Weather systems begin to form in the cooler areas and remain while expanding because they are now picking up strength. Temps continue to drop over larger and larger areas and voila...Ice Age.

Answer 5

There is no IF anymore.
everyboy agrees it is happening ,the disputes and arguments are mostly about who is to blame .
It has been happening for some time .

but the future will entail
Rising food prices,shortage of water,both hotter and colder weather,

Ultimately,Famine,Wars and death

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result of heat waves ,as in France 2 years ago

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year
and most of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing

collectively this planet is drying up ,

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation) and the overpumping of carbon and surface aquifers ,and more and more agriculture requires irrigation

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe.because of desertification and if the sea levels rise thousands of hectares on coastal lands will b flooded

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people, are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.
This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.

The farmers have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil.

Over the last half century,
Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million

In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .

potable water is getting at critical levels and people are already fighting over water this will only get worse

Answer 6

in global warming, the temperatures will change drastically, interfering with ecosystems. The name "global warming" is kind of misleading since global warming is not just the warming of our planet. In fact, it's the change of the average temperature globally. Some parts of the world will experience a warming effect, which will melt ice caps causing the submerson of some coastal region. Some regions will experience a cooling effect causing places once warm to freeze over. This is drastic since it will interfere with local ecosystems and destroy countless species. sounds fun :]

Answer 7

Sea levels will rise, but certainly not enough to cover all the land - there isn't that much water on the earth - but some low-lying land will be lost (eg East Anglia). Of more concern will be the loss of large areas of land, which will become barren and uninhabitable. This will lead to drought, starvation, and mass migration. There will be wars as people from these areas fight to occupy other people's land. Areas like the UK will become prime targets for immigration as the weather here will be like the south of Europe is now, and therefore very attractive compared to most ofther places.

Answer 8

It will melt all the Ice Glaciers we have:

-polar Ice will increase sea level by 20 ft
-Land Ice produces fresh water and if its not there, we dont have fresh water at home..

Warmer weather brings in stronger Storms
-Extiction of species
-Floods
-diseases

Sadly, at some point, the population will hit a maximum and then it will go down like an up side down Porabla :(

Answer 9

War, Famine, Plague and Pestilence.

Answer 10

Global warming will cause all of the ice on our planet to melt. Therefore, all of the world will be washed away basically. Everything will be wiped out and it will all be just one big island. Full of water, everything destryoed, even the people. Sounds scary, huh?

Answer 11

its happing and we are losing alot of land, nyc could be under water as well as parts of florida