Geography essay - global warming/ identify one change that is unlikely to happen but everyone thinks it will!?

Question

help
much appreciated
=]

Answer 1

Some people think we're all going to die because of global warming. Some people will and the World Health Organisation has calculated that already global warming is claiming the lives of 150,000 people each year. The figure is likely to rise to a million a year by the end of the century but it's still less than the number of people who die in automobile accidents.

There's a lot of talk about devastating sea level rises with many people fearing inundation of all low lying land. Again, this is far from reality. The truth is that sea levels are rising faster now than has happened since the end of the last ice age but the rate of rise is 3.1mm a year. It's increasng and by 2050 is expected to be 6mm a year and by 2100 is expected to be 12mm a year. It all adds up to about 750mm rises by the end of the century, enough to cause massive flooding and the loss of low lying islands and coastlines but not remotely like the scenarios that are sometimes playd out.

The plight of polar bears is often mentioned but is again, often taken out of context or exaggerated. There are several populations and sub-populations of polar bear and until fairly recently they were, by and large, doing quite well. There have been many in depth studies of late providing a better understanding of polar bears, their habitats and effects of global warming. We know now that global warming is impacting on several of the populations leading to starvation, drowning, exhaustion and the loss of bears as their dens melt and collapse onto them. However, bad as it is, it's not necessarily the end of the polar bears if we act now and intervene. We know that the Arctic Ice is melting by record amounts each year and will probably be gone completely in 40 years but that doesn't mean the demise of the bears as there's nothing to stop them inhabiting other cold regions such as Alaska, Scandinavia, northern Canada, Siberia etc - we just need to give them a hand and move them there.

Answer 2

DOUGLAS: YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG:


If the ocean level rises because of melting Ice in the northern and Southern Hemispheres, land once inaccessible to farming would be usable.

-> have you ever tried to farm the land over the granit layers from the last ice age? The state of Maine is a good example. Although it is not covered with ice anymore, the soil did not accumulate enough yet since the last ice age to be very fertile.


There would be more vegetation in these areas, and more vegetation removes C02 from the atmosphere.

-> In the first place, the permafrost would release methane which would decay in CO2.

Melting ice in the Arctic would have almost "Zero" effect on the level of the oceans. The water is floating in Ice form and is already displaced.

-> The Greenland ice is on a continental badrock, thus it is not floating.

Melting in Antarctica would expose more land to farming, and more land in the northern hemisphere as well.

-> ????

The average temperature of the Earth changes from time to time from natural occurrences and has NOTHING TO DO with human activity.

-> And we know from the ice age patterns and earth/sun cycle that we are presently NOT in such a normal change.

The most recent ice-age was during the period of the American Revolution... and only lasted a few decades. The earths temperature is not constant... and the temperature at this time "may/may not" be the ideal or Mean temperature for the Earth.

-> This little ice age is limited to a part of the northern hemisphere and is a local pattern more than a global trend.

Global warming alarmists are nothing more than "Chicken Little's" with a political agenda.

-> insults won´t make a scientist out of you.

Answer 3

My guess:

"If the Ocean level increases as is often touted by alarmists, there will be less arable land."

If the ocean level rises because of melting Ice in the northern and Southern Hemispheres, land once inaccessible to farming would be usable.
There would be more vegetation in these areas, and more vegetation removes C02 from the atmosphere.

Melting ice in the Arctic would have almost "Zero" effect on the level of the oceans. The water is floating in Ice form and is already displaced.

Melting in Antarctica would expose more land to farming, and more land in the northern hemisphere as well.

The average temperature of the Earth changes from time to time from natural occurrences and has NOTHING TO DO with human activity.

The most recent ice-age was during the period of the American Revolution... and only lasted a few decades. The earths temperature is not constant... and the temperature at this time "may/may not" be the ideal or Mean temperature for the Earth.

Global warming alarmists are nothing more than "Chicken Little's" with a political agenda.

Warm regards,
Douglas

Answer 4

It will not necessarily get warmer where you live. When talking about temperature rise this applies to the global average.
Many people say it snows more than ever here in X and use that line of argument to deny global warming. Take it from there I'd say..
Don't have direct sources since it's a while since I did this in college but check out wiley educational, elsevier .com etc.

Answer 5

some people think GW means the world will get warmer but there is sufficent proof that infact some of the world will get colder (once enough ice on Greenland has melted the ocean currents will change and likely pludge the Northern Hemisphere into another ice age...)

also people THINK we will solve it before its too late.. personally with all the ignorant people dening there is a problem I think this is unlikely to happen.

Answer 6

Ocean levels will rise and blah, blah, blah, blah.....

Truth is that ocean levels today are lower than they were 160 years ago.

"Generally accepted estimates of sea level rise over the last century has been about 18 centimeters. This number has been arrived at using various direct measurements and proxy data. A new data point, however, threatens to challenge the current estimates. In 1841, the famous Antarctic explorer Captain Sir James Clark Ross, for whom the Ross Sea is named, and Thomas Lampriere, an amateur meteorologist, marked the mean sea level in the rock face of a small island known as the Isle of the Dead (used as a burial ground for dead convicts). The position of the mark was based on three years of sea level observations.

The mark was recently rediscovered and is now thirty centimeters above mean sea level, suggesting a large fall. According to John Daly, who maintains the website Still Waiting for Greenhouse, "when we look at the Ross-Lempriere 1841 bench mark, one thing becomes crystal clear: There has been no sea level rise this century none at all."

Answer 7

the human species will not become extinct because of Global Warming.
But any help to the rest of the species would be much appreciated.

Answer 8

That we'll reduce our carbon emissions.

Answer 9

No o-zone radiation.